"Zen and the Art of Motorcycle Maintenance: An Inquiry into Values" by Robert M. Pirsig

Been meaning to get to this one for awhile...

Just got done with "The Tipping Point" by Malcolm Gladwell - highly recommended!

Currently, I should be drudging through Milton's Paradise Lost , but reading bikeforums.net is far more interesting. Satan is a very compelling character and many of the speeches are very interesting, but so much of the epic is just terribley painful to read. I'm also in the process of replacing the Professor in Animal House's face with one of John Milton himself as every time John Milton's name is mentioned in class I immediately picture the Professor in Animal House.

I'm looking forward to reading either "The Sound and the Fury" or "Go Down Moses", both by William Faulkner, for my term paper. I loved "As I Lay Dying" and am looking forward to reading one of these two. Once I get into that I'll report back.

"As I Lay Dying" is a wonderful book. I'd recommend "The Sound and the Fury" over "Go Down Moses" though I enjoyed both. Yay Faulkner.

The Last Season ~ Phil Jackson

"Zen and the Art of Motorcycle Maintenance: An Inquiry into Values" by Robert M. Pirsig

If you like this, consider reading Lila when you are done. ZAMM was, I thought, a better novel than Lila in the sense of plot, etc, but Lila was a more advanced and concise explanation of the Metaphysics of Quality.

"As I Lay Dying" is a wonderful book. I'd recommend "The Sound and the Fury" over "Go Down Moses" though I enjoyed both. Yay Faulkner.

Hooray, I love Faulkner. His stream of concious narrative can be tough to keep up with at times, but I really enjoy reading it. "As I Lay Dying" was great and I just picked "the Sound and The Fury" up the other night. I was torn between that and "Go Down Moses", but I'm confident I made the right choice. I'll probably try to read "GDM" on my own sometime. I'm just about to start "The Sound and the Fury" now and I'm pretty excited about it.

Another author I really liked reading was J.D. Salinger. "Catcher in the Rye" was spectacular and I also really enjoyed "Nine Stories". I hope to read "Franny and Zooey" sometime as a nuber of people have told me it's great.

ISAAC ASIMOV ISAAC ASIMOC BEST AUTHOR EVER. Foundation and RObot and Empire.

I am workin gon re-writing foundation and earth with my freind Danny.

I just finished Stephen Hawking's Universe. It's a biography done in 1985. Since his life has consisted of work in relativity and a deep study of the beginning of the universe, it was really a collection of insights on the progress and theories as of 1985. I found it fascinating, but I've had relativity on the brain ever since I started it.

Next, I don't know. I had in mind a biography of St. Maximillum Kolbe (a priest killed by the Nazis in Auschwitz), but the semester just started and it's thick. For my theology elective I will be reading:

C.S. Lewis - A Grief Observed
Jean Donovan - The Mystery of Death
Stud Terkel - Will the Circle be Unbroken?

I'm pretty excited about the Lewis book. I absolutely loved his Space trilogy, and I'm sure a lot of us enjoyed The Chronicles of Narnia.

Perry Anderson Lineages of the Absolutist State

Anybody get through Jarden Diamond's latest?

has anyone ever noted that as a whole we are a pretty well
read bunch of individuals?
I mean seriously look at the books we are discussing (or not, I don't care).
Very few clancy (although I just bought teeth of tiger for $3.00 hardback),
or king or any of the other popular novelists (with the exception of SciFi ).
Faulkner, Melville, Milton, some pretty significant authors, no?

Stephan Fuchs Against Essentialism
Anthony Giddens Consequences of Modernity

Soseki Natsume-I Am a Cat

Soseki Natsume-I Am a Cat


Everybody is reading that f-ing book!

Tim Moore: French Revolutions

A British journalist rides the TdF course a couple of weeks ahead of the race. The slangy britspeak was difficult for this Yank at first, but once accustomed I've enjoyed it.

Everybody is reading that f-ing book!

I can stop if you wish.... it has been in the queue for a while now.

I can stop if you wish.... it has been in the queue for a while now.


No, I prefer when other think for themselves, however you may do that.

Finishing One Arrow, One Life by Kenneth Kushner tonight. I need to finish off all these half-read little books I have around my room so I can move on to other stuff. I really want to start the copy of The Un-TV and the 10mph Car that I finally got my hands on.

right now im reading angels and demons by dan brown. Its a good book, im 3/4 done with it and i like it more than the da vinci code because it has death and bomb ;) :D

Karl Marx The Communist Manifesto

This is kind of a book/music/movie thing but I'll post it here. Finished Touching From a Distance, the biography of Joy Division's Ian Curtis written by his former wife Deborah. Hollywood is making not one, but two, movies about Ian right now and it's always fun to see how much the eff up books. One movie is based on this book and directed by Anton Corbijn, and co-produced by Deborah and Factory Records honcho Tony Curtis (more info (http://www.gigwise.com/contents.asp?contentid=3973)).

Deborah Curtis does an excellent job writing about their lives together, the rise of Joy Division, and portraying how really mentally tortured Ian was, even though he hid much of it from his family and band: grand mal epileptic seizures, verbally abusive, schizo, manic depression, previous suicide attempts, torn between 2 women, etc. They were both only 23 when he died; I can't imagine going through all that at such a young age and with their little girl to watch over. It's interesting to revisit his songs with this perspective into his life.

On to something a little more lighthearted - Untangling My Chopstics, about a woman who moves to Kyoto to become a chef and find herself.

This is kind of a book/music/movie thing but I'll post it here. Finished Touching From a Distance, the biography of Joy Division's Ian Curtis written by his former wife Deborah. Hollywood is making not one, but two, movies about Ian right now and it's always fun to see how much the eff up books. One movie is based on this book and directed by Anton Corbijn, and co-produced by Deborah and Factory Records honcho Tony Curtis (more info (http://www.gigwise.com/contents.asp?contentid=3973)).

Deborah Curtis does an excellent job writing about their lives together, the rise of Joy Division, and portraying how really mentally tortured Ian was, even though he hid much of it from his family and band: grand mal epileptic seizures, verbally abusive, schizo, manic depression, previous suicide attempts, torn between 2 women, etc. They were both only 23 when he died; I can't imagine going through all that at such a young age and with their little girl to watch over. It's interesting to revisit his songs with this perspective into his life.

On to something a little more lighthearted - Untangling My Chopstics, about a woman who moves to Kyoto to become a chef and find herself.


Whoa! I'm glad I am reading something lighter.

When a new Murakami book comes out, I drop all other books and dive in. Now is one of those times: Haruki Murakami Kafka On the Shore.

Also been enjoying bits and pieces of Dylan's memoir.

Haruki Murakami Kafka On the Shore
SOON!
C'mon you translators! MUSH! MUSH!

']SOON!
C'mon you translators! MUSH! MUSH!

Dude, it's out in English.

wow...the real world has so many good thigs in it.
Grad School + 45-50hrs a week = minimal concept of reality

']
Grad School + 45-50hrs a week = minimal concept of reality

Good for you.

']wow...the real world has so many good thigs in it.
Grad School + 45-50hrs a week = minimal concept of reality


Indeed, it does!

Just finished The Fortress of Solitude by Jonathan Letham. This is the most musical novel I have ever read...? He literally writes in a sound track. If you spent the majority of your childhood in the 70's you'll most likely connect with something. Great story and really well written.

Recently:
Clive Barker - Weaveworld (not a hellraiser type gig)
Brett Easton Ellis - American Psycho
John Krakauer - Into the Wild

Just finished The Fortress of Solitude by Jonathan Letham. This is the most musical novel I have ever read...? He literally writes in a sound track. If you spent the majority of your childhood in the 70's you'll most likely connect with something. Great story and really well written.




I really enjoyed it, too. I think it resonates well and I have thought about it a great deal since I finished it. I don't know if it will be read in 100 years, but until we have forgotten that music and advanced over our racial differences (if we ever do) and realized that decadence ain't all what it's cracked up to be, then we will continue to be haunted by this book. And for good reason, too. It's a very sadly haunting book. Both grim and beautiful.

ISAAC ASIMOV ISAAC ASIMOC BEST AUTHOR EVER. Foundation and RObot and Empire.

I am workin gon re-writing foundation and earth with my freind Danny.
What do you mean?
A screenplay?
I was crazy about the Foundation series when I read them.
I'm very curious about what you intend to do.

Currently reading any Sherlock Holmes canon I may have missed.
The Future of Life by Edward O. Wilson, I really enjoyed Naturalist and this book is not failing to exceed my expectations. Some intense things to think about.
The Mother Tongue, thanks to this forum. Another joy for those who love new things.

Under the Banner of Heaven, Jon Krakauer

Good read. Krakauer handles sensational subjects well. I can see why the LDS church didn't like it.

I read "The Stupidest Angel" by Christopher Moore tonight. Good book. Zombie christmas and all.

The Good Soldier Svejk--Jaroslav Hasek

I've read it before and I'll read it again... and again... and again. My favorite:)

The Future of Life by Edward O. Wilson, I really enjoyed Naturalist and this book is not failing to exceed my expectations. Some intense things to think about.


I'm glad you can read past the politics that surrounds him. Probably one of the most hated scientists ever.

Harry Potter book 4
The Bible
Airframe

Harry Potter book 4
The Bible


Whoa, watch out! Some might say that there's the devil in Harry Potter!

I'm glad you can read past the politics that surrounds him. Probably one of the most hated scientists ever.
Really, I had no idea. Where can I find criticism of the books I have mentioned? If his larger ideas prove true, aren't we the ones who should be hated? I hope I understand what I'm reading. LOL

I read "The Stupidest Angel" by Christopher Moore tonight. Good book. Zombie christmas and all.

Very funny book, have you read any other books by Christopher Moore, I really liked "Lust Lizard of Melancoly Cove" has most of the same characters.

I also strongly recommend "French Revolutions" by Tom Moore. Very funny tale about riding the Tour de France course. Five star funny!

Really, I had no idea. Where can I find criticism of the books I have mentioned? If his larger ideas prove true, aren't we the ones who should be hated? I hope I understand what I'm reading. LOL

Well, he is a Darwinist, and that is taboo for many nowadays, due to the legacy of social darwinism (a racist ideology). There is some work that puts his claims side-by-side Nazi propaganda to show the parallel. I can scrounge around for the source if you really want it. But it is nonsense. Darwin was explicitly not a social darwinist. And sociobiologists are not social darwinists.

If you like E. O. Wilson, you should check out Frank Sulloway's Born to Rebel (Darwinian theory that predicts why later-born children are more likely to participate in revolutions, anything by Richard Dawkins (altruistic behavior is a result of our genes attempting to reproduce themselves), and anything by Jared Diamond.

His Dark Materials trilogy by Philip Pullman

book 1 : Golden Compass
book 2 : Subtle Knife
book 3 : Amber Spyglass

Good stuff. It's listed as "young fiction" in my library, but frankly, the controversial subject matter is anything but for the young, tho they certainly can read it too without worrying about said controversy.

movie's coming out sometime in 2006.

Paul Kingston The Classless Society

Besides lots of text books for my special education classes I have just read finished reading Mat Hoffman's The Ride of My Life. Good book, that guy is nuts, I'd reccomend it even if you aren't into bmx, its just a guy who loves riding and life.

Oscar Wilde The picture of Dorian Gray

But it is nonsense. Darwin was explicitly not a social darwinist. And sociobiologists are not social darwinists.

I am glad that you clarified this. Many people have propagated the idea that Darwin's thought IS socially constructed. Many people don't even know what he really said. The whole idea of survival of the fittest so often gets used but always gets misunderstood.

Anyone else read Cruddy by Lynda Barry? Know of Trini and Little Debbie?

Has anyone picked up the new Murakami yet? I really want to, but I refuse to shell out $25 for a hardcover copy.

The Catcher in the Rye
Autobiography of a Yogi
The Bible

Well, he is a Darwinist, and that is taboo for many nowadays, due to the legacy of social darwinism (a racist ideology). There is some work that puts his claims side-by-side Nazi propaganda to show the parallel. I can scrounge around for the source if you really want it. But it is nonsense. Darwin was explicitly not a social darwinist. And sociobiologists are not social darwinists.

If you like E. O. Wilson, you should check out Frank Sulloway's Born to Rebel (Darwinian theory that predicts why later-born children are more likely to participate in revolutions, anything by Richard Dawkins (altruistic behavior is a result of our genes attempting to reproduce themselves), and anything by Jared Diamond.
Thank You for that. I guess as long as people drop names I can do my own research. Somethings just seem a certain way to the reader and anyone who can look at nature as it is, well, it IS obvious that nature works one way, and we don't have to work that way idealogically or uh, philosophically. It's a matter of choice for thinking creatures. In much the same way that we "choose" meaning, we choose to view our data. Nature is beyond us. Our thoughts do not dictate how the Earth functions. Sometimes I worry that my pc is burning up the future of humanity. According to Wilson Americans use something like 20 % more energy per person than most of the rest of the world. As an Electrician, I try to steer people into energy saving methods. Its funny how much better we live today than the Kings of yesterday.
Enough unfocused rambleing.
Thanks again.

His Dark Materials trilogy by Philip Pullman

book 1 : Golden Compass
book 2 : Subtle Knife
book 3 : Amber Spyglass

Good stuff. It's listed as "young fiction" in my library, but frankly, the controversial subject matter is anything but for the young, tho they certainly can read it too without worrying about said controversy.

movie's coming out sometime in 2006.
Oh, that stuff was great! I had a lot of trouble reading the end. I was so invested in the characters and the story, it was almost offensive that it had an end!

Has anyone picked up the new Murakami yet? I really want to, but I refuse to shell out $25 for a hardcover copy.


Yup. It's weird as usual. So far, I like it quite a bit. It got poor reader reviews at Amazon.com, but I"m ignoring them and judging for myself. I'm about 200 pages in and enjoying it.