The Book Thread - What You're Reading & Everything Book Related

[Dr Dog]

I have just started getting back into reading again, I used to easily read a book a week, but stopped as having many more distractions I forgot how enjoyable it is to get lost in the pages.

I just finished a very entertaining book, called 2012 by Whitley Strieber, the same dude that wrote the book, " The upcoming superstorm" which spawned the movie " The day after tomorrow". His website is here http://www.unknowncountry.com/ very interesting dude.

I am currently reading, " category 7" another disaster book, ( my fav topic for books) by Bill Evans of ( good morning america fame) about a category 7 Hurricane hitting NY.

 

[geminibud]

Wherever you go,there you are.

 

[Kirby]

The Count of Monte Cristo (1844, 2003 Translation) By Alexander Dumas - Sweet Jesus is this a long book; even after setting a goal of 100 pages a day, it still took me two weeks to read. But I can now say (with a permissable amount of lying) that I've read this book twice, even though the first time around was with a stodgy, mid-19th Century English translation which I later found out was abridged (don't ever trust the words "enhanced classic"). So why did I decide to read this behemoth twice? Because it's just so damned awesome. And, after finding out about a recent re-translation with all of the juicy bits intact, there was no other sane option.

The story of Monte Cristo is simple: dude gets wrongly accused and put into jail, then breaks out and executes elaborate revenge plots on all those who've wronged him. What makes the story great is the insane amount of fleshing out Dumas does to this relatively simple premise; there are so many different stories intertwining that you could probably make 7 or 8 separate novels if you assembled the individual threads into their own separate narratives. And everything works, even if the payoff is a little lacking in comparison to the extremely protracted build-up; after all, the story is so epic because it was being published serially and Dumas, like any sane man, wanted lots of money. But aside from a few tolerable jaunts into relatively unrelated territory--Dumas sometimes likes to explore the complete backgrounds of characters we barely see--everything feels like it fits into the grand scheme that is this novel and the Count's own revenge.

Reading The Count of Monte Cristo is a huge investment, but it may give you the greatest satisfaction you'll ever get from finishing a book--and not because you won't have to hold the damned thing up anymore. Whatever you do, make sure you grab the Penguin Classics version, which has a great translation and includes concepts once excised for the benefit of wimpy Victorian England audiences, like lesbians and drug trips.

 

[Sleepy]

Paul of Dune by Brian Herbert & Kevin Anderson...

"Frank Herbert's Dune ended with Paul Muad’Dib in control of the planet Dune. Herbert’s next Dune book, Dune Messiah, picked up the story several years later after Paul’s armies had conquered the galaxy. But what happened between Dune and Dune Messiah? How did Paul create his empire and become the Messiah? Following in the footsteps of Frank Herbert, New York Times bestselling authors Brian Herbert and Kevin J. Anderson are answering these questions in Paul of Dune."

 

[Kirby]

I started reading Amusing Ourselves to Death: Public Discourse in the Age of Show Business by Neil Postman last night and all I can say is: thought-provoking, spot on, and one the most relevant books of the last 30 years. From the backside:

Television has habituated us to visual entertainment measured out in spoonfuls of time. But what happens when we come to expect the same things from our politics and public discourse? What happens to journalism, education, and religion when they too become forms of show business? Twenty years ago, Neil Postman's lively polemic was the first book to consider the way that electronic media were reshaping our culture. Now, with the joined by the Internet, cell phones, cable, and DVDs, Amusing Ourselves to Death carries even greater significance. Elegant, incisive, and terrifically readable, it's a compelling take on our addiction to entertainment.

That's the best summary. It is, in short, about the dangers television and the role TV plays in modern-society. I've just got into the book so I can't really give you my own summary, but all I can say is that if you want a thought-provoking book, buy this or at least look up on Amazon. For your consideration, here is the 1st page of the book:

At different times in our history, different cities have been the focal point of a radiating American spirit. In the late 18th century for example, Boston was the center of a political radicalism that ignited a shot heard around the world--a shot that could have not been fired any other place but the suburbs of Boston. At its report, all Americans, including Virginians, became Bostonians at heart. In the mid-19th century, New York became the symbol of the idea of a melting-pot American--or at least a non-English one--as the wretched refuse from all over the world disembarked at Ellis Island and spread over the land their strange languages and ever strange ways. in early 20th century Chicago, the city of big shoulders and heavy winds, came to symbolize the industrial energy and dynamism of America. If there is a statue of a hog butcher somewhere in Chicago, then it stands as a reminder of the time when American was railroads, cattle, steel mills, and entrepreneurial adventures. If there is no such statue, there ought to be, just as there is a statue of a Minute Man to recall the Age of Boston, as the Statue of Liberty recalls the Age of New York.

Today, we must look to the city of Las Vegas, Nevada, as a metaphor of our national character and aspiration, its symbol a thirty-foot-high cardboard picture of a slot machine and a chorus girl. For Las Vegas is a city entirely devoted to the idea of entertainment, and as such proclaims the spirit of a culture in which all public discourse increasingly takes the form of entertainment. Our politics, religion, news, athletics, education and commerce have been transformed into congenial adjuncts of show business, largely without protest or even much popular notice. The result is that we are a people on the verge of amusing ourselves to death.

 

[Mt Toaker]

Just bought 2 new books, started reading How to Build a Robot Army:Tips on defending planet earth against alien invaders, ninjas, and zombies
This book is hilarious with chapters on How to perform recon with an arial drone, and How to keep a sexy fembot fit for battle it makes for an easy read that I catch myself laughing at often.

I also just purchased Its Not News It's FARK: How mass media tries to pass off CRAP as news.

If you frequent Fark its a really good read. Written by the guy who started it, Drew Curtis, the bits that I have read are great and I can't wait to start it. If you are interested in media or watch the news a lot like myself you would probably like the book.

 

[spaceghost22]

The ICMag Book Club!

The ICMag Book Club!

Hey everyone, spaceghost22 here again with another literature installment. It's my wish that we reading stoners have a place where we can come together and read and recommend books to/with one another. I started a writers circle and tried to get a book club-like atmosphere going over there but the members wouldn't take. We should have a book club, so here I am and here we are!

This is not a place for the feint of heart. Books are often long, scary and dangerous , in addition it takes a bit of time to read them, but in their defense I'll say that reading is one of the more rewarding pastimes (in my opinion, aside from cultivation in general) that one could have the pleasure of practicing. It builds on personal qualities ranging from knowledge-building, self-motivation and discipline to the budgeting of time and self. There are way more benefits to this than initially will meet the eye and there are more which I will not go into but are there nonetheless.

The general idea behind what I'm trying to do here is to bring us together, briefly discuss a couple books which we would like to read, read those books and then hold a discussion after the reading. The details will be worked out as we forge ahead.

Let me go on to say while many of us are biased either for or against whole genres in general I would like to think that this is certainly not the way to go about enjoying literature and I do not recommend blindly casting ANYTHING aside without a logical and plausible reason for first doing so, and then only after considerable thought and time on the choice. I have been shocked many, many times by an outstanding book in a genre which I had previously not cared much for. In light of these rare books I have decided to cast aside my preferential bias and would like to open my mind to outstanding books which I would otherwise never have an opportunity to enjoy. This is where you all come in.

I ask that anyone who will be joining us can handle a book a month or at most a book every two weeks. The duration and details will be set by the participating members as a democratic whole.

So I ask all of those who would imagine they may have time and an interest in participating to come as you are with open minds and hopefully without much bias. Let's open our horizons and have a good read at the same time, shall we?

 

[BadTicket]

I just started up Sven Hassels Legion of the damned.

Legion of the Damned (original Danish title: Fordømtes Legion) is the first of 14 World War II novels written by author Sven Hassel. The book covers a chronological period of a number of years, starting with the author's arrest and time in Nazi death camps, and ending with his being an officer and company commander on the Russian front. All of Sven Hassel's subsequent war stories, from a chronological point of view, fill in details omitted by this book.

Published in 1953, the book provides a moving account of life as a soldier in European Russia during the Second World War. The descriptions of violence contain graphic detail that caused a stir at the time.[1]

It is more solemn and more serious than all of its successors, save perhaps Wheels of Terror. In some respects it seems to be modelled on Erich Maria Remarque's All Quiet on the Western Front, in particular the parallels between Willi Beier and Kat. Some sources describe Legion of the Damned as a grislier, more fast-paced, version of Remarque's famous book.[2]

The book opens with the author being tried and convicted as a deserter, and as a result being sent to concentration camp. He spends a number of months in camps, particularly Gross Rosen and Lengries, where he is involved in bomb disposal and also witnesses a number of atrocities committed by the SS guards, before abruptly being "pardoned" and dispatched to a penal regiment, the 27th Panzers.

Legion of the Damned won critical acclaim across Europe and the United States and was translated into 15 languages. It has been also optioned for a film.

So far so good. Lots of blood, guts and killing. I'm sure a lot of ppl prefer more peaceful books, but i'ma war buff so what can i say.

 

[spaceghost22]

I just started up Sven Hassels Legion of the damned.



So far so good. Lots of blood, guts and killing. I'm sure a lot of ppl prefer more peaceful books, but i'ma war buff so what can i say.

Sven Hassel, now where have I heard that name before? Oh, well. Yeah, many people would be put off by the guts and gore of combat orientation but there is a lot on the human nature in books like that. Indeed, for all of the flash there is a lot to be learned.

Thanks for your interest in the book club! If you it's your wish to join know that we will be a little bit before we really get going as first we must build a user base before any real decision making can begin. It is not my wish to dictate, but to facilitate.

Know that I'll look more into that book for myself, it sounds good. Have you ever heard of a book titled, "To the White Sea"? I can't find the book at the moment so I can't quote the authors name, a simple google query should provide results though. It's about WWII through the eyes of a man who is aboard a bomber over Japan when it is shot down. Most of the story is about how he maneuvers solo through a hostile country, killing all the way. It assumes a very rare and crisp perspective and is written in wonderful prose! The author was very skilled. 9 out of 10 stars from me and I haven't even finished it yet! That's me though, I'll start 1000 books at the same time! That is part of the reason why I wanted to do this club, to keep myself tethered to one book at a time!

(Note: the author of that book was a WWII vet himself and did end up in a very similar situation to the one he describes in his book. He was also a well know poet in some circles.)

Please, stick around! Join us!

 

[BadTicket]

U must mean James Dickey? Have heard that the book is good too. But it's not available @ my local library and i haven't found it online with a decent price tag.. So haven't read it yet, but most likely will.. Soon..

Also i heard that the Coen brothers (of Big Lebowski fame) were making "To the White sea" in to a movie, starring Brad Pitt. Don't know how well that would work.. The book doesn't even have that much dialogue with a lone airman behind the lines in WW2 Japan.. This was in the early 2000 tho, so they must have scrapped it. I think u can find the screenplay online.

Anyways, i'm up for the reading club. Been reading more lately than usual. Cold ass winter is a good time to sit back with a nice cup o tea, some ganja and a good book :smile:

You must spread some Reputation around before giving it to spaceghost22 again.

 

[Regginata]

sounds good I'm in.

 

[NOKUY]

just ordered this one:
"Time Bandit: Two Brothers, the Bering Sea, and One of the World's Deadliest Jobs"

“Many brave hearts are asleep in the deep, so beware, beware,” goes the chorus of an old sailors’ sing-along that celebrates the allure and danger of the seafaring life. But make no mistake–there truly is much to beware for those who are drawn to risk their lives and seek their fortunes upon the waves. And perhaps none take more chances than the men and women who brave the tempestuous, bountiful waters of the Bering Sea. Season after season, they bond and battle with its icy depths, determined to reap yet one more rewarding harvest while eluding the ever-present threat of sudden, certain death. And among the rapidly diminishing ranks of these die-hard salts, brothers Andy and Johnathan Hillstrand have forged a reputation as fierce masters of their treacherous, enthralling trade. If you’ve watched their exploits on TV’s Deadliest Catch, you’ve only scratched the surface. To read Time Bandit is to step into their skins, smell the sea air, feel the frigid wind, and know with all your senses the exhilarating, and terrifying life on the edge.

Natives of tiny, fishing hamlet, Homer, Alaska; sons of a hard-bitten, highly successful fisherman; and born with brine in their blood, the Hillstrand boys couldn’t imagine a life without a swaying deck underfoot and a harvest of mighty Alaskan king crabs waiting to be pulled from the ocean floor. In pursuit of their daily catch, the brothers brave ice floes and heaving waves 60 feet high, the perils of 1000-lb steel traps thrown about by the punishing wind, and the constant menace of the open, hungry water.

Even the brothers’ downtime on land–where the deadly realities of the unforgiving sea are never far from their minds–is lived as if borrowed: fast and hard, haunted by the knowledge that the next season at sea could end asleep in the deep.

Here is the Hillstrands’ own heartfelt hymn to the brutally hard, gloriously independent, and mysteriously soul-satisfying life that has earned them their daily bread and defined their existence. By turns raucous and reflective, exhilarating and anguished, enthralling, suspenseful, and wise, Time Bandit chronicles a larger-than-life love affair as old as civilization itself–a love affair between striving, willful man and inscrutable, enduring nature.

 

[The Bling]

Blings list of amazing books
Re inventing the sacred by stuart a kauffman
dramas fields and metaphores by victor turner
1984 by Orson wells
stranger in a strange land robert a heinland
parable series by octavia butler
Steal this book by Abbie hoffman
Black elk speaks by john neidhardt

 

[spaceghost22]

U must mean James Dickey? Have heard that the book is good too. But it's not available @ my local library and i haven't found it online with a decent price tag.. So haven't read it yet, but most likely will.. Soon..

Also i heard that the Coen brothers (of Big Lebowski fame) were making "To the White sea" in to a movie, starring Brad Pitt. Don't know how well that would work.. The book doesn't even have that much dialogue with a lone airman behind the lines in WW2 Japan.. This was in the early 2000 tho, so they must have scrapped it. I think u can find the screenplay online.

Anyways, i'm up for the reading club. Been reading more lately than usual. Cold ass winter is a good time to sit back with a nice cup o tea, some ganja and a good book :smile:

You must spread some Reputation around before giving it to spaceghost22 again.

Yes BadTicket, James Dickey was the man I was referring to. It's sad to think that some in the world would be deprived of this story. Abandoning this for want of dialogue sounds like cowardice or greed if you ask me. If it was scrapped they were not giving it a lot of though like the story deserved anyway. I'm glad then that it was abandoned. Perhaps someone with more artistic freedoms than those loaned by the cloistered stricture of Hollywood will pick up the ball and win the game. I bet they went with the "safe" alternative. That isn't how masterpieces are wrought. Geez! That was A DAMN FINE BOOK.

sounds good I'm in.

Regginata, welcome aboard!

just ordered this one:
"Time Bandit: Two Brothers, the Bering Sea, and One of the World's Deadliest Jobs"

Thanks for stopping in NOKUY, it's a pleasure to have you around! A couple of years ago I had the opportunity to meet a man who worked aboard one of those ships. He wrote a book and lives in Wi. I forget his name. The book was composed mostly of his poems. We used to party together. He would leave town for 4-6 months and then return home to have the rest of the year off with a whole year or mores' pay. It's hard work, but so too is the play!

Blings list of amazing books
Re inventing the sacred by stuart a kauffman
dramas fields and metaphores by victor turner
1984 by Orson wells
stranger in a strange land robert a heinland
parable series by octavia butler
Steal this book by Abbie hoffman
Black elk speaks by john neidhardt

And finally, thanks to you as well Bling both for stopping in and that fine list of books. I've read Parable of the Sower by Octavia and it was most wonderful! It's a little Sci-Fi but truely is a book for the humanities! I really would like to read 1984. I was sick the week we were reading it in high school. Excellent list as a whole.

It seems that the club is picking up speed and word is getting around, good. Soon we'll have a new book to read. I should make it known that I am currently abstaining from reading as I am waiting for a book to be read by the club as a whole.

Thanks everyone for your interest!

 

[spaceghost22]

You must spread some Reputation around before giving it to BadTicket again.

 

[spaceghost22]

On a more sombre note...

It is with much regret that I must inform the reading audience that I must stop posting here for an indeterminate amount of time. I recently began my most up-to-date bout with depression and it is strengthening at a quickening rate. I am begging to act out a mania that I'm so well know for locally. It was in this state of mind that I recently posted my feelings on the Israel vs. Gaza fighting from a critical, humanitarian stance and received quite a bit of flack for this. While this really isn't so bad, my feelings are uncontrollable and for fear that I may do harm to myself of to others I must remit, I cannot bare any negativity in my life right now, I may collapse.

Never did I think I would be ostracized at this place, but as fate would have it I was. I'm sorry if this comes at an inconvenient time for any of you, it was not my wish to cause any ripples in your lives, my problems should never translate unnecessarily into others. It is under these pretense that I will slide away for a bit... Please understand, can you?



May Gaia welcome you all into her innermost gardens for lunch.

 

[GOONie]

Im currently reading The Cannabible 1, 2 and 3. I guess you could call me a multitasker

I could be down depending on what the books are, might kinda come and go depending on the books but this is actually great. I dont really have the time for a book club, or even know people my age that like to read alot. Ill def subscribe to this one!

 

[Stoner4Life]

Swan Song by
Robert R. McCammon


The Talisman by
Stephen King & Peter Straub


supernatural thrillers that've been on my
'stoners best seller' list for decades........

 

[TrichyTrichy]

Mentor, Tom Pace

 

[StoneByName]

Got bought Rum Diary by Hunter S Thompson for xmas, read it one day lol, good read, reminded me of the The Great Gatsby, also got bought Our Man in Havana by Graham Greene, haven't read much of it yet, both make me want to be living in hotter climates though, 4 degrees c aint that cold (England) but I'd rather be in the caribbean.......

peace