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Just finished reading Choke. I'll have a review up soon.
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Don't be a choke tease now, Rex.
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The review of choke is up now.
Last edited by rex; 2005-01-16 5:25 AM.
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I'm now reading "We The Living" by Ayn Rand.
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A book called "how to pick up women while you're married."......pretty good read so far
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Terry Pratchett's Once More *(With Footnotes) . A collection of short pieces and nonfiction that no Discworld fan should miss. 
Bringing a little order to message boards everywhere!
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One of the reasons why I spent the latter part of last week knocking slices of buttered toast off tables of different heights, or spent a half hour walking around the house blindfolded in order to test my echolocation abilities, is a book called The Velocity of Honey by Jay Ingram, which devles into the science behind everyday events.
Although the phenomena that Jay explores may seem trivial - why sweet wrappers make so much noise in the cinema, for instance - the explanations are fascinating and reveal the beauty, elegance and sheer complexity that underlies the boring and the mundane.
Today I bought Al Jazeera - How Arab TV News Challenged the World by Hugh Miles. Al Jazeera has completely altered the landscape of world news media because it promotes an Arab agenda in the same way that Fox and CNN promote an American or western agenda. I've read a couple of articles that breeze through its history but I'm looking forward to reading a more comprehensive account.
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Fly Fishing, by J R Hartley.
took me ages to track it down.
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I just finished, Decipher. It was pretty good with the science/math/physics aspect, the ending just sucked. The characters weren't that developed and I didn't like how the whole book seemed to summarize, "there is no God, no correct religion. Religion is just used to symbolize past events to help us with future ones."
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I'm reading America: The Book.
Very funny. If you like the Daily Show, you will really love this book.
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A New Kind of Christian by Brian McLaren. Lifechanging stuff. A great read.
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About A Boy by Nick Hornby.
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- Truth is Stranger That It Used to Be by J. Richard Middleton and Brian J. Walsh.
- On the Genealogy of Morals by Friedrich Nietzsche
- The Old Religion in a New World by Mark A. Noll
- About three other books plus articles for my independent study
...just six more weeks 'til graduation...
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The first version of Lady Chatterley's Lover. I'm on the second one now. Although, frankly, I think it will be 'hard' to beat the ending of the first version: Quote:
Till she had loved Parkin -- her Op. Yes, she loved him. He was a man, if he wasn't a gentleman. Anyhow there came a breath of fresh air with him, a breath of fresh life. My Lady's fucker, as he called himself so savagely! How he had hated her for not taking him fully seriously, in his manly fucking! Ah well! The future was still to hand!
"You're either lying or stupid."
"I'm stupid! I'm stupid!"
Megatron and Starscream
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You read some perverted stuff.
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Quote:
rex said:
I'm reading America: The Book.
Very funny. If you like the Daily Show, you will really love this book.
I had to return this today, but I will buy it eventually.
The only problem I had with it was that is was set up like an actual school book. I hate how those are set up.
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Labyrinth of Evil......the prequel to Episode III.
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I'm only 10 pages into it......every time I lie down I fall asleep because of my pain medicine.......but I am starting to feel much better so I should make more progress tomorrow.
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Quote:
rex said:
You read some perverted stuff.
The thing is, the book actually is a great story about class warfare in England between the two World Wars. It takes a look at what war does to indivuduals (Lady Chatterly's husband is a prime example) as well at the views between the upper classes and the lower classes (again, her husband is a prime example -- he cannot comprehend 'they' have feelings). Normally, I don't like books dealing with wealth and poverty, but this book doesn't automatically paint all rich people as evil and all poor people as good, so it didn't bother me. Lady Chatterly simply ignores class distintion. Perhaps because this takes place in Britian eighty or so years ago, the nature of the book doesn't bother me.
The basic storyline is this -- Lord and Lady Chatterly marry are married about a month before WWI. He leaves for the war and is injured, so that he's paralzyed from the waist down. Naturally, this means that Lady Chatterly becomes 'a married nun', which she does for several years, closing herself up. Eventually, Lord Chatterly jokes about how his disability shouldn't stop her from having fun, so Lady Chatterly takes up a lower -- the gamekeeper Parkin. She slowly realizes that while Lord Chatterly is never physically abusive, he does have a mental hold around her.
Lawrence is one of the few male writers that understand the female mind -- which is probably why I found this book so impressive. It manages to have an elegant style and beautiful descriptions of the countryside without ever bogging down in details (amazing for a British writer).
Just an example of the book's beautiful imagery. The novel takes a look at view that the soul is driven by two horses -- the savage black horse, and the delicate white horse. both Lady Chatterly and her husband think their black horses are dead. In reality, Lord Chatterly's lustful black horse has turned to viciousness (he takes pleasure in shooting the rabbits and birds more than he did before the war).
Quote:
"You would say the black horse has the right to all his desires?" he asked.
"Well, wouldn't you? Only at the right time, and in the right order. Don't you think, instead of the white horse and the driver both struggling to thwart the black one, they should say to him: Gently! Gently! Go gently, abd we'll go with you! Go quietly, without overturning the chariot, and we'll drive right in to the place you want...Either the black horse has a perfect right to his own existance and his own desire or gratification, or he shouldn't exist. And you say yourself, you feel you can't get through with a one-horse team. You are terrified if you think your black horse is dead. Yet you only want him to live, so that you can thwart him."
The other werid thing about this book is Lawrence wrote about three or four versions (due to some editing, maybe the publishers thought the first draft to dangerous to publish or something). So this is all in the first draft. The second one is a lot more detailed, which I like, but it's lacking in the atmosphere of the first version.
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Damn. That was longer then most of my book reviews.
It does seem somewhat interesting, but not for me.
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Quote:
Cowgirl Jack said:
Lawrence is one of the few male writers that understand the female mind
I find that unbelievable. I don't think any man could really understand the female mind.
I'm being insulting, I just don't think its possible.
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From As Good As It Gets: Zoe: I can't resist. You usually move through here so quickly and I have so many questions I want to ask you. You have no idea what your work means to me. Melvin: What's it mean? Zoe: That somebody out there knows what it's like to be... (taps her head and heart) in here. Melvin: Oh, God, this is like a nightmare. Zoe: Aw come on, just a couple of questions -- how hard is that? How do you write women so well? Melvin: I think of a man and take away reason and accountability.
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heh.
Thats the best line from that movie.
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Quote:
rex said:
Damn. That was longer then most of my book reviews.
It does seem somewhat interesting, but not for me.
Actually, I'm planning on reading all the versions, so after I'm done reading them, maybe I'll post a review.
There is a movie version as well (which apparently had a tough time getting on the BBC due to the sex scenes). The movie is a blending of all the versions -- which to some people made it better than any single of the books.
As far as the 'male writers understanding women' comment, perhaps I should explain myself better. I am of the opinion that females cannot write men and males cannot write women. Dan Brown is a clear example of how NOT to write leading ladies. His women are all like Dr. Christmas Jones. I swear his next book will feature a Switz Oylmypic skiing champion that has a PhD in Literature and Theology and knows judo. And just about EVERY 'Romance novel' written by a women creates an equally unbelieveable male protagonist (aka SNL's 'The Lusty Woodsman').
All of Lawrence's characters (although slightly typecast) feel real. You can tell Lady Chatterley wants to find a balance between her lustful side (aka Parkin, who's name changes to something else in the later revisions and the movie) and her cultured side (Lord Chatterley enjoys reading to her in the evenings, which is a crappy substitute for sex). Lord Chatterley's nurse really does miss her departed husband and really hates her asshole of a boss.
While I do recommend the book, I can understand why some people wouldn't enjoy it. It was written in the 1920s-1930s, around the same time as books like The Great Gastby. However, the style of the book is almost completely Victoria (about 30-40 years before Gastby). In fact, Lawrence enjoys poking fun at the modern artists. Considering I only partially liked Gastby, I have no objection to that.
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Quote:
Cowgirl Jack said:
Actually, I'm planning on reading all the versions, so after I'm done reading them, maybe I'll post a review.
yes. I'd like to see more books reviews here. Also if you or anyone else wants to review a book I already reviewed you can add it onto the thread or you can PM me and I'll put it after my review.
Quote:
And just about EVERY 'Romance novel' written by a women creates an equally unbelieveable male protagonist (aka SNL's 'The Lusty Woodsman').
Romance novels are all crap. Their the equivalent of romance movies, which are pure evil.
But I agree with the writing the opposite sexes part. Most books I've read by male writers write their women as victims. In almost all of Dan Browns books the women are always on the verge of being raped or killed. Thats one of the things I didn't like about his books.
Quote:
While I do recommend the book, I can understand why some people wouldn't enjoy it. It was written in the 1920s-1930s, around the same time as books like The Great Gastby. However, the style of the book is almost completely Victoria (about 30-40 years before Gastby). In fact, Lawrence enjoys poking fun at the modern artists. Considering I only partially liked Gastby, I have no objection to that.
The Great Gatsby is one of the most overrated books of all time. I was forced to read it my junior year and I hated it. I tried to read it a couple weeks ago and couldn't get past the first couple chapters. A lot of it has to do with the way its written.
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Gatsby was the only book I read my junior year of high school that I actually enjoyed...
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If I were a teacher I would replace Gatsby with something that will actually help kids, like Atlas Shrugged or some other book with depth.
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Quote:
rex said:
If I were a teacher I would replace Gatsby with something that will actually help kids, like Atlas Shrugged or some other book with depth.
I loved Gatsby......maybe you're just too smart for the rest of us.
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My guess is he's not smart enough to appreciate what has been heralded as "The Great American Novel"...
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Quote:
Chewy Walrus said:
My guess is he's not smart enough to appreciate what has been heralded as "The Great American Novel"...
have you ever seen the A&E Biography on Fitzgerald......just a really great complex story.
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Sorry I didn't buy into the hype. 
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Quote:
PJP said:
Quote:
Chewy Walrus said:
My guess is he's not smart enough to appreciate what has been heralded as "The Great American Novel"...
have you ever seen the A&E Biography on Fitzgerald......just a really great complex story.
I did... and I completely agree. Such a tortured life.
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Quote:
rex said:
Sorry I didn't buy into the hype.
That is why you fail...
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Quote:
rex said:
About A Boy by Nick Hornby.
I've given up on this book.
I got about a third of the way through and lost all interest. All the characters were shallow and uninteresting. Probably one of the worst books I've attempted to read in a long time.
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Quote:
rex said:
All the characters were shallow and uninteresting.
Well, I suppose that explains why Hugh Grant was in the movie...
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heh
I really need to find an author I really enjoy. I've been wanting to start reading Tom Clancy's books. Now seems like a good time to start.
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I've heard Gaiman's novels are pretty good. I definitely enjoyed American Gods.
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Yeah, but I have most of Clancy's books at my house.
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