Books, Movies, Music & Entertainment - What Books are you reading?

Just a slight spin on the traditional question. Feel free to add a bit about your impression so far, as well.

For me: The Great Gatsby (F. Scott Fitzgerald). Very interesting, but I can't say I connect with the characters. Not to say they aren't believable, but they are different from people I'm used to.

Next up: David Copperfield. I love Dickens and I'm really not sure why.

I don't read as much as I used to, but a week ago I began a book called "Two wheels North" that tells the story to two young men riding from California to Washington state in 1909.

I am currently re-reading John Adams by David McCullough. It is a very interesting read and certainly made me shift my impressions of Adams to be much more favorable than those I held previously.

I seem to read in phases. I'll read a bunch of books over a short time period, then not read for a long time.

The Templar Revelation

Orwell's 1894... how timely :) and OCS's Maps in a Mirror

Orwell's 1894... how timely :) and OCS's Maps in a Mirror

1984 always seems timely in the modern world.

Just started my summer reading project: War and Peace

Also been reading short stories by: Sherman Alexie, Richard Yates and will be including some of the new David Sedaris to lighten the load of the Tolstoy.

Just finished "All Quiet On The Western Front" It was a really intersting read and really opens your eyes about the war. But it was too short.

Royal Highness -- Thomas Mann -- A bit tiresome, but it did the job: I'm quitting smoking and need many novels!

Royal Highness -- Thomas Mann -- A bit tiresome, but it did the job: I'm quitting smoking and need many novels!

Never heard of that title. But you need a loooong one, by him, have your tried Magic Mountain or Buddenbrooks?

Just finished The Race by Dave Sheilds. It's a GREAT book and well worth the money. Amazon has it on sale. If you like bike racing and you're already getting psyched for the Tour de France...you won't be able to put this one down.
Steve

I am constantly lost in Bukowski or Murakami...constantly. Even when not reading

I was going to type out the full list, but it's easier for all parties involved to just follow the link (http://www.davidrmunson.com/bloodinthesnow/archives/books.html).

Yes, I am a total geek and information addict.

I was going to type out the full list, but it's easier for all parties involved to just follow the link (http://www.davidrmunson.com/bloodinthesnow/archives/books.html).

Yes, I am a total geek and information addict.

#19, The Critique of Pure Reason... There's a light read. :p Might try the Prolegomena... It's much shorter, puts the first Critique in a nutshell, and won't take most of your life to comprehend.

I am also slowly working my way through Zen Mind, Beginners Mind by Suzuki. Read that one?

Yeah. I have to read it again, though. Something tells me I missed something along the way. Either that or I know more than I thought I did and all the reviews of it I've seen were off the mark, which I find unlikely.

Not deep philosophy, nor classic literature, but I'm in the middle of and thoroughly enjoying Pattern Recognition by William Gibson.

Can't go wrong with Gibson. Heck, I've read Neuromancer 5 times in the last 2 years...

Never heard of that title. But you need a loooong one, by him, have your tried Magic Mountain or Buddenbrooks?

I have enjoyed buddenbrooks, but I am waiting to get a hold of the new(er) translation of the Magic Mountain...which is a good idea to ward off the puff-puff.

Also just fibnished the penultimate Truth -- Philip K Dick

I'm going to put Gibson on the list.

Junk food: The da Vinci Code, I just started and don't know the author...

Can't go wrong with Gibson. Heck, I've read Neuromancer 5 times in the last 2 years...

I am in the middle of that one right now. Up until now I had avoided it just because the premise has been just done to death and the cyberpunk/digital cowboy type of protagonist is so often badly done that it has become a cliche.

Since it was Gibson who pretty much invented this type of character, I thought I would give him the benefit of the doubt. So far I am impressed.

Dan

While some people will cite Dick, I see Neuromancer as the book that established cyberpunk as its own genre. It put cyberpunk on the map and in a pretty significant way.

Doesn't anyone remember Shockwave Rider by John Brunner. I thought it was the first cyberpunk novel.

No matter, Pattern Recognition is not sci-fi. Though it is plenty techy, it is sent in the present.

Also just fibnished the penultimate Truth -- Philip K Dick



Any recommendations for that guy?

Do you know if in fact he did write the story that became the film Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind?

Damn it people, read something! And let's keep this thread going!

Just got a new book today on set lighting. Should help me with my rigging skills.

OK. In the past couple of months:
Neal Stephenson's Quicksilver
Margaret Atwood's Oryx and Crake
Stephen Dobyns's The Church of Dead Girls

The two books I am currently reading:
Stephenson's The Confusion--Book two of the three-book Baroque Cycle that begins with Quicksilver
Douglas Adams's The Long, Dark Tea-Time of the Soul

I'm reading Snow Crash - Neal Stephenson. Got it in HC for a buck in a local thrift store, it's something like Virtual Light by William Gibson. A good read for a sunny day under a tree with your bike.....

Any recommendations for that guy? (Philip K Dick)



Do you know if in fact he did write the story that became the film Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind?


According to my sources, Charlie Kaufman wrote this. He's the director and also wrote Being John Malkovich.

I think Dr. Bloodmoney is my favorite of Dick's, as wll as, of course, Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep?

I picked up a bunch of books from Half Price Books, so will update this soon.

Recently I enjoyed Black Eagle Child by Ray Young Bear as well as The Wolf Pit, by Marly Youmans.

I was unable to fully enjoy or comprehend The Cattle Killing by Jogn Edgar Wideman.

When I think cyberpunk, I think of that gibson stuff, definitely 'shockwave rider' and 'stand on zanzibar' by brunner, a few books by walter jon williams, and maybe a little jack womack for a bit of hopelessness.

Fugazi Dave - the set lighting book includes rigging information? What sort of rigging?

I'm reading Snow Crash - Neal Stephenson. Got it in HC for a buck in a local thrift store, it's something like Virtual Light by William Gibson. A good read for a sunny day under a tree with your bike.....

Thoroughly awesome book.

As for the set lighting book, this book actually seems to cover a fairly wide range of stuff. Some rigging, but not as much as I had initially thought. Lots of good electrical stuff, though, and other info I might not come across elsewhere.

Thoroughly awesome book.

As for the set lighting book, this book actually seems to cover a fairly wide range of stuff. Some rigging, but not as much as I had initially thought. Lots of good electrical stuff, though, and other info I might not come across elsewhere.

Are you looking at doing that sort of thing professionally?

Well, right now I'm working as a freelance photographer's assistant in Chicago. Work is scarce at the moment, but I'll live. In the long run I definitely want to get into film, initially doing grip n' gaff stuff, eventually working my way up to DP. Doesn't seem to be too much opportunity for that sort of thing here, though (though if I'm wrong somebody correct me PLEASE), so I may relocate out towards LA in the next couple of years.

Well, right now I'm working as a freelance photographer's assistant in Chicago. Work is scarce at the moment, but I'll live. In the long run I definitely want to get into film, initially doing grip n' gaff stuff, eventually working my way up to DP. Doesn't seem to be too much opportunity for that sort of thing here, though (though if I'm wrong somebody correct me PLEASE), so I may relocate out towards LA in the next couple of years.

A lot of film work has moved up to vancouver and places like that. LA's an odd town to work in - there's six or seven different iatse locals, all covering different aspects of the work, and they seem pretty powerless. Most of the guys I know down there are union cardholders, but still make most of their cash doing non-union work. Strange town.

Me, I sold my soul years ago and do corporate lighting stuff.

Just finished Angels and Demons by Dan Brown. Interesting enough story with a quick pace. I recommend.

Recently:

Neal Cassidy's The First Third

and Jack Kerouac's autobiography Lonesome Traveler

Recently:

Neal Cassidy's The First Third

and Jack Kerouac's autobiography Lonesome Traveler

How do you get through that beat stuff?

I can't do it.

What's the appeal?

currently:
1462 The Year China Discovered America - Gavin Menzies
Without Remorse - Tom Clancy

recently:
The DaVinci Code - Dan Brown
Angels and Demons - Dan Brown
Digital Fortress - Dan Brown
The Name of the Rose - Umberto Eco
Kant and the Platypus - Umberto Eco
The Company - Robert Littell

A buncha Updike.

How do you get through that beat stuff?

I can't do it.

What's the appeal?

I dig the unapologetic stream of consciousness style and the get down to the raw essence of then and there and heavy loads of chain gang vibrations clawing their way into the knock down shadow of time falling down slippery san francisco streets and the edge of the world hanging by a thread from the needle that wove it all.

I dig the unapologetic stream of consciousness style and the get down to the raw essence of then and there and heavy loads of chain gang vibrations clawing their way into the knock down shadow of time falling down slippery san francisco streets and the edge of the world hanging by a thread from the needle that wove it all.

So I can tell from your writing style.

I thoroughly enjoyed the book "Wild at Heart" by John Eldridge. One of the few books that I will go back and read again.

Reading three books together to bone up on some technical work-related stuff:
Detection of Light (Reike), States of Matter (Goodstein) and Solid State and Semiconductor Physics (McKelvey)
Physics is much more interesting when it doesn't involve an hour of scribbled overheads at 9AM and you aren't getting tested on it!

bkr

I'm just reading Vampire Armand by Anne Rice

Any recommendations for that guy?

Do you know if in fact he did write the story that became the film Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind?

I don't think Phillip Dick wrote Eternal Sunshine - the Internet Movie Database says it was written by Charlie Kaufman, who also wrote Being John Malkovitch

see: http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0338013/

Phillip Dick did write the stories that later became the movies Blade Runner, Total Recall and Minority Report.

Look for his older Sci-Fi stuff, like The Three Stigmata of Palmer Eldridge. I'd give you more titles but my web server at work is blocking me from searching on the word 'Dick' :rolleyes:

Sean Murphy - The Hope Valley Hubcap King

Still working on War and Peace which I will finish (hopefully) by the first week of August. It's very detailed and not a whole lot happens but there are pounds and pounds of character description and there are some cool characters, like a dragon lady and a bad boy or three and manipulating courtesians. He takes a whole lot of time to cover a mass movement, i.e. major historical wars, but manages to include it's effects on the lives of individuals. Good stuff.

I can't go on, I'll go on.

Waitresses?

A sad but entertaining read: Lives of the Monster Dogs, by Kirsten Bakis

A postmodern Mary Shelley, taking the parable of Frankenstein's monster several giant steps farther, might have written this fable of a novel about a tragic race of monster dogs--in this case, genetically and biomechanically engineered dogs (of several major breeds). Created by a German mad scientist in the 19th century, the monster dogs possess human intelligence, speak human language, have prosthetic humanlike hands and walk upright on hind legs. The dogs' descendants arrive in New York City in the year 2008, still acting like Victorian-era aristocrats. Most important, the monster dogs suffer humanlike frailties and, ultimately, real suffering more serious and affecting than the subject matter might at first glance suggest.

I can't go on, I'll go on.



Waitresses?

Beckett.

The Unnamable. I'm familiar with Beckett's plays, but not his novels. Another book to put in the cue. The Waitresses' song Go On includes an allusion to this novel.

Lyrics here (http://www.hardcafe.co.uk/waitresses/wasnt_lyrics.htm)

His novels are every bit as cheerful as his plays. Exciting, too.