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Books - check them out

Started by reeper, June 26, 2008, 02:16:40 PM

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Samus Aran

I've started reading Malcolm Lowry's Under the Volcano. Despite having, from what i can tell so far, a very simple story at its core, Lowry's writing style sure is dense. It's incredibly informative about the setting, which is great not only because it brings the story to life on a much more intimate level, but also because I feel like I'm learning a lot while reading it. Considering its perspective from a man who is persistently drunk, this slow, very intimate look into this ex-consul's day is quite fitting. I've heard it's off-putting for some, but I dunno. I like it quite a bit so far.

Hiro

I just bought House of Leaves, it looks pretty interesting.

Commander Fuckass

checked out Catch-22 and Slaughterhouse Five at my school's Library  hocuspocus;

Im going out to buy Nerd Do Well later when I get out of class since my library didn't have it cry;
http://psnprofiles.com/TheMaysian][/URL]3DS Friend Code: 5086-5790-7151

the shortest route to the sea

Got Toni Morrison's The Bluest Eye, haven't started it yet.
Currently shuffling back and forth between short story collections and Euphemania, a coffee-table kind of book that still makes some powerful (yet unlinked) observations about the role of euphemisms in our, and other, societies. Strangely useful for studies in linguistic anarchism.

I hope to start some Michael Cunningham books soon, read about witchcraft.

Quote from: Socks on January 03, 2011, 09:56:24 PM
pompous talk for my eyes water and quiver with a twitch like a little bitch

snoorkel

Quote from: the shortest route to the sea on August 29, 2011, 10:35:43 AM
Got Toni Morrison's The Bluest Eye, haven't started it yet.
Currently shuffling back and forth between short story collections and Euphemania, a coffee-table kind of book that still makes some powerful (yet unlinked) observations about the role of euphemisms in our, and other, societies. Strangely useful for studies in linguistic anarchism.

I hope to start some Michael Cunningham books soon, read about witchcraft.


Toni Morrison is... yeah, ugh, I can't stand her, sorry  (I read Song of Solomon, which is highly regarded, but though it was meh)  >.<

Quote from: Clucky on August 16, 2011, 01:57:57 PM
jung is so heavy for me to digest
i've been reading his psychology&religion for about a year now, despite it being about 100 something pages long
it's sprinkled with obscure references and it's so goddamn heavy for me to digest well enough that i completely 'understand' it

but the complains against jung is just that
they say even jung probably didn't completely understand his ideas
and that just makes me even more fond of him

i still have to finish his man and his symbols and a cambridge introductory text to the works of jung
read dreams, memories and reflections
i think it's a very good introduction to jung because it isn't as "heavy" as the rest of his academic texts

right now i'm reading four books
a book on hypnotism and suggestibility (i'm drawn to milton erickson , founder of brief therapy and his marvelous use of using confusion to slip through consciousness--i've found strong similarities between that and rituals often found in magic which stirred my curiosities so much that i decided to study mentalism and magic for a while)

The Songs of Maldoror
2666
aaaaand an ordinary coffee table book with giant pictures (a gift from a friend)
yes, well, they're 'pictures', but i tend to want to analyze and let myself drown in the photos with ambient playing in the background


Jung is one of my favorite authors because I actually GET what he's saying... they say a psychoanalyst is only ever describing his own mind (hence, freud was a cock), but Jung is describing mine too I think (we're both INFJ  lubdoods; )

I've read Symbols of Transformation and Archetypes/Collective Unconscious and decorated each with about 100 flags, they are both brilliant. I'm delving into his deeper and less generic stuff now, like Psychology & Alchemy (VERY excited for this), doing a little comparative study with other psychology/alchemy/history scholars like Marie-Louise Von Franz, Mircea Eliade (who were both good friends of Jung, lol).


piano moths

I'm reading The Wellsprings of Life by Issac Asimov currently. After that I plan to read The Invisible Landscape by Terrance Mckenna. Once I'm done with that I'm going to look into this Jung business.
kill them w kindness

snoorkel

Quote from: eeeeeee on August 29, 2011, 02:35:32 PM
I'm reading The Wellsprings of Life by Issac Asimov currently. After that I plan to read The Invisible Landscape by Terrance Mckenna. Once I'm done with that I'm going to look into this Jung business.


no no no no no please skip mckenna :'(

authors you should just avoid completely, and don't read anything that references them either: graham hancock, terrance mckenna, joseph p. farrell, david hatcher childress, robert bauval, zecharia sitchin

in fairness, McKenna is a cut above those others, and his adherents are in slightly different circles. But his research is still shoddy and his conclusions very watery... he's a cool guy, but in my opinion time is better spent reading other books, when it comes to books.

piano moths

I read True Hallucinations and enjoyed it. I could understand his conclusions being watery. Sometimes things can seem farfetched or misunderstood. But I'm inexperienced with ayahuasca so reading about it was pretty interesting. The whole timewave zero thing, based off the I Ching and other stuff, has always been hard for me to get... I'm not so sure.
I feel like I trust your opinion. I ordered the book though so I think ill commit to reading it
kill them w kindness

the shortest route to the sea

I see Haruki Murakami and Toni Morrison as pretty similar writers. Both sparsely manipulate sentences to create a distinct tone, and their stories have a wandering plot with lively and memorable characters. Wind-Up Bird is probably my favorite Murakami, mainly because he allows himself to wrap even more seemingly disparate things together into a package (Manchuria Campaign + my cat is lost noooo!!); in Solomon, Morrison manages to trace back this complex geneology of an imaginary family and have it be both central and not a burden. And they both feature sexual obsessions in their writing, with Haruki's average-Joe getting laid by beautiful weirdos and Toni's sexualization of breastmilk, and aren't afraid to touch on mental issues or the problems inherent in their communities.

Just picked up "A Place At the Table," a memoir about being a foster mother. I was skeptical at first of the white-woman-tries-to-save-poor-babies narrative; she does a decent enough job of calling herself out on her shit, and has such compelling portraits of the kids that she's had, that it doesn't really matter.

Quote from: Socks on January 03, 2011, 09:56:24 PM
pompous talk for my eyes water and quiver with a twitch like a little bitch

silvertone

I finished The Temple of the Golden Pavilion by Yukio Mishima.
Reading Norwegian Wood by Haruki Murakami.
Just ordered: The Idiot by Fyodor Dostoyevsky
The Mother by Maxim Gorky
and
Point Counter Point by Aldous Huxley

silvertone

the fall by albert camus...kinda wierd that an acomplisehd author would write a bout a rock nroll band...but it is the fall

Socks

November 01, 2011, 04:24:22 PM #551 Last Edit: November 01, 2011, 04:39:54 PM by Socks
I re-read Amerika, by Franz Kafka, and although I could not possibly explain what you yourself can read. I will say that it made a deep impression upon me, and indeed said many things. I could not believe that here I held a book, and a long time ago the author died a poor man, and sad. It was a tragedy. The hope that his stories hold is manifold but chiefly this; that he was a good man first and above all, which is the greatest accomplishment that we can achieve. That the world is strange and confused, but only when viewed with the elegance and humility with which he lived and endures. He was misunderstood, scorned worst of all by his father, that will never know, how much of a fool he was.

The Hand That Fisted Everyone

I just picked up John Hodgeman's third volume of complete world knowledge.

piano moths

starting reading The Journey of Awakening by Ram Dass haha I like it.
kill them w kindness

Samus Aran

i can't get through Under the Volcano

i guess everyone has at least a few of those "classics" that they just can't get into. and this is one of mine.

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