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Theme Changer

 Topic: What book are you reading?

 (Read 165466 times)
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  • Re: What book are you reading?
     Reply #90 - November 08, 2010, 01:10 PM
    Quote from: z10 on November 08, 2010, 12:29 PM
    I think I was also 13 when I first read LOTR, I think I finished the book in a week the first time and then took longer the second time through to get all the details I missed on the first go.  Smiley
    It changed everything I thought about fiction at the time, perhaps I might have to read it again aswell.

    Perhaps you missed the post above but I was wondering what you make of the WoT book so far?


    I'm only into the first chapter, I was not impressed by the prologue, the prose was horrible.

    But the first chapter picks up and it becomes interesting, the only problem is that he throws a lot of new names (of characters and locations) at you. None of which you can relate to. He also spends a lot of words describing the surroundings, which is fine, but it means a slower start and I have noticed my interesting waning more than once. I’m still at the first chapter and I started at least a week ago Grin

    I will read it though; I have wanted to for a very long time, same goes for A Song of Ice and Fire. 
  • Re: What book are you reading?
     Reply #91 - November 08, 2010, 05:20 PM
    Need to pick up The Extended Phenotype...

    BTW if you haven't read The Selfish Gene yet and have an interest in evolution - go read it!
  • Re: What book are you reading?
     Reply #92 - November 08, 2010, 11:16 PM
    Yes, the Selfish Gene is quite easy to understand for anyone, I liked the chapter on game theory, with the Prisoner's dilemma.
    Left the forum: http://www.councilofexmuslims.com/index.php?topic=22997
  • Re: What book are you reading?
     Reply #93 - November 09, 2010, 01:36 AM
    Quote from: BlackDog on November 08, 2010, 12:01 PM
    Well creating is a big word. Tolkien didn't create it all, the mythology was partly there from before and I think he was inspired by folk-lore.



    "Good artists borrow, great artists steal."
    ~ Pablo Picasso

    "Nothing is original. Steal from anywhere that resonates with inspiration or fuels your imagination. Devour old films, new films, music, books, paintings, photographs, poems, dreams, random conversations, architecture, bridges, street signs, trees, clouds, bodies of water, light and shadows. Select only things to steal from that speak directly to your soul. If you do this, your work (and theft) will be authentic. Authenticity is invaluable; originality is nonexistent. And don’t bother concealing your thievery - celebrate it if you feel like it. In any case, always remember what Jean-Luc Godard said: It’s not where you take things from - it’s where you take them to."
    ~ Jim Jarmusch, The Golden Rules of Filming
    Too fucking busy, and vice versa.
  • Re: What book are you reading?
     Reply #94 - November 09, 2010, 01:46 AM
    Currently burning through two books, Paul Griffiths's Concise History of Modern Music (which focuses on modern classical music), and Stephen Hawking's The Grand Design.
    Against the ruin of the world, there
    is only one defense: the creative act.

    -- Kenneth Rexroth
  • Re: What book are you reading?
     Reply #95 - November 09, 2010, 02:19 AM
    Do audio books count? I don’t tend to read actual books lately (though I have read this one twice before).

    ~ The Teachings of Don Juan - A Yaqui Way of Knowledge, by Carlos Castaneda.

    In 1960, Anthropologist Carlos Castaneda first met don Juan, a Yaqui Indian feared and shunned by the ordinary folk of the American Southwest because of his extraordinary powers. During the next five years, don Juan’s arcane knowledge led him into a world of beauty and terror, ruled by concepts far beyond those familiar to western civilisation. He became an apprentice brujo, sorcerer, or 'Man of Knowledge'.

    Using psychedelic drugs - peyote, jimson weed and a mushroom called humito - Castaneda lived through encounters with disembodied spirits, shamans in the form of huge wolves, and death in the shape of silver crows. Three times he met Mescalito, the god of the peyote. Finally, after a night of utter terror in which he knew his life was threatened by forces which he still cannot fully explain, he gave up his struggle to become a Man of Knowledge. After several months of indecision, he wrote this extraordinary book.

    Whether you believe this book is based on truth, or if you believe its all mystical mumbo jumbo, this book is nonetheless absolutely fascinating, scary and moving, and sometimes funny. The chemistry between these two men is so charming. The book is also nonetheless based on timeless Yaqui traditions and ritual, and very alien philosophy, still practiced to this day. And as someone who has first hand experience of psilocybin mushrooms, I can relate completely to some of the experiences described in this book. There is nothing like a mind altering hallucinogen to plough out the facades of your personality and destroy all your hang-ups and bullshit fears, and just open your eyes wide, no not your eyes, your mind wide, to see the universe in a whole different spectrum of sense and awareness, to see beyond the surface realities of life.

    The sequel to it is perhaps even better ~ A Separate Reality. This is where he went back three years later to resume his apprenticeship with don Juan. I can’t wait to read it again after I’ve finished the first part once more.

    001_wub
    Too fucking busy, and vice versa.
  • Re: What book are you reading?
     Reply #96 - November 09, 2010, 06:59 AM
    I read those years ago (back when I used to do mushrooms). grin12
    Devious, treacherous, murderous, neanderthal, sub-human of the West. bunny
  • Re: What book are you reading?
     Reply #97 - November 09, 2010, 07:22 AM
    Quote from: Ishina on November 09, 2010, 01:36 AM

    "Good artists borrow, great artists steal."
    ~ Pablo Picasso

    "Nothing is original. Steal from anywhere that resonates with inspiration or fuels your imagination. Devour old films, new films, music, books, paintings, photographs, poems, dreams, random conversations, architecture, bridges, street signs, trees, clouds, bodies of water, light and shadows. Select only things to steal from that speak directly to your soul. If you do this, your work (and theft) will be authentic. Authenticity is invaluable; originality is nonexistent. And don’t bother concealing your thievery - celebrate it if you feel like it. In any case, always remember what Jean-Luc Godard said: It’s not where you take things from - it’s where you take them to."
    ~ Jim Jarmusch, The Golden Rules of Filming


    Thanks Ishina. I still feel uneasy about stealing though Grin

    I grew up listening to rap where being a biter is very negative.

    "I'm not a biter I'm a writer" - Jay-Z

    This was looped and used against Jigga (don't remember what track, probably Nas). The irony being that Jay-Z is one of the foremost lyricists in the business even without borrowing Biggies rhymes.

    There is nothing wrong with being inspired or giving props or even borrowing rhymes that are obviously somebody else’s, as long as its clear it’s homage. Overdoing it though will have people calling you out.

    Take for example one of my favourite directors, Quentin Tarantino. This man might steal the dialogue, the music, wardrobe, shoots, plot, characters, set design; yay indeed everything and anything. But in the end, the end-product is a work of art, a cultural masterpiece that I’m sure audiences will enjoy several generations into the future. 

    If I steal will it not become a crutch? Will I not become lazy? By trying to stay somewhat original and innovative you force your mind to work harder, to find patterns not sought before.

    But I’ll think about it…
  • Re: What book are you reading?
     Reply #98 - November 09, 2010, 08:40 AM
    Quote from: Ishina on November 09, 2010, 01:36 AM

    "Good artists borrow, great artists steal."
    ~ Pablo Picasso



  • Re: What book are you reading?
     Reply #99 - November 09, 2010, 08:50 AM
    001_wub
    Too fucking busy, and vice versa.
  • Re: What book are you reading?
     Reply #100 - November 09, 2010, 12:55 PM
    Quote from: Ishina on November 09, 2010, 02:19 AM
    Do audio books count?


    Yep. But I can never concentrate properly with audio books. My mind wanders too much! The last audio book I tried to listen was Fyodor Dostoyevsky's Notes From Underground - and I couldn't finish it, even though it was such a short book! Cheesy Gotta pick up its hard copy then, lol.

    Quote from: Ishina on November 09, 2010, 02:19 AM
    ~ The Teachings of Don Juan - A Yaqui Way of Knowledge, by Carlos Castaneda.


    Sounds interesting.
    "He hoped and prayed that there wasn't an afterlife. Then he realized there was a contradiction involved here and merely hoped that there wasn't an afterlife."
    ~ Douglas Adams
  • Re: What book are you reading?
     Reply #101 - November 09, 2010, 04:57 PM
    Quote from: King Tut on November 08, 2010, 11:16 PM
    Yes, the Selfish Gene is quite easy to understand for anyone, I liked the chapter on game theory, with the Prisoner's dilemma.


    Yeah I liked that chapter too... well I loved the whole book. Dawkins has surprised me, I learnt barely anything from God Delusion, but I learned quite a bit from this, even though I was already pretty familiar with the concepts involved.
  • Re: What book are you reading?
     Reply #102 - November 09, 2010, 05:38 PM
    If anyone wants to read it, let me know as I might be able to email you a copy (latest 30th anniversary edition version)
    My Book     news002       
    My Blog  pccoffee
  • Re: What book are you reading?
     Reply #103 - November 10, 2010, 08:10 AM
    Mad, Bad and Sad: A History of Women and the Mind Doctors

    by Lisa Appignanesi



    Quod est inferius est sicut quod est superius,
    et quod est superius est sicut quod est inferius,
    ad perpetranda miracula rei unius.
  • Re: What book are you reading?
     Reply #104 - November 10, 2010, 08:12 AM
    also reading Tess of the D'Ubervilles by Thomas Hardy


    Quod est inferius est sicut quod est superius,
    et quod est superius est sicut quod est inferius,
    ad perpetranda miracula rei unius.
  • Re: What book are you reading?
     Reply #105 - November 10, 2010, 11:51 AM
    Just started "Philosophy: The Basics" by Nigel Warburton.

    Yes, Warburton.
  • Re: What book are you reading?
     Reply #106 - November 10, 2010, 01:33 PM
    A million little pieces
    it's a good book about a drug addict and his story about his time in a clinic for alcoholics and drug addicts
    I'm open for debate (of why we should re-/embrace Islam), but I will no longer participate in this forum. Message me if you need anything. Good luck and may you all find your way... again...
  • Re: What book are you reading?
     Reply #107 - November 10, 2010, 01:34 PM
    A Million Little Lies
    Exposing James Frey's Fiction Addiction

    http://www.thesmokinggun.com/documents/celebrity/million-little-lies


    A Thousand Little Refunds
    Payback time for lawyers, rooked readers of James Frey's bogus memoir

    http://www.thesmokinggun.com/documents/crime/thousand-little-refunds
  • Re: What book are you reading?
     Reply #108 - November 10, 2010, 02:09 PM
    Quote from: IsLame on November 09, 2010, 05:38 PM
    If anyone wants to read it, let me know as I might be able to email you a copy (latest 30th anniversary edition version)

    Thanks Prince,  you've motivated me to finally read it.  Particularly like this bit which sounds a bit like something Sagan would write..

    Quote
    Ways of increasing stability and of decreasing rivals' stability became more elaborate and more efficient. Some of them may even have 'discovered' how to break up molecules of rival varieties chemically, and to use the building blocks so released for making their own copies. These proto-carnivores simultaneously obtained food and removed competing rivals. Other replicators perhaps discovered how to protect themselves, either chemically, or by building a physical wall of protein around themselves. This may have been how the first living cells appeared.

    Replicators began not merely to exist, but to construct for themselves containers, vehicles for their continued existence. The replicators that survived were the ones that built survival machines for themselves to live in. The first survival machines probably consisted of nothing more than a protective coat. But making a living got steadily harder as new rivals arose with better and more effective survival machines. Survival machines got bigger and more elaborate, and the process was cumulative and progressive.

    Was there to be any end to the gradual improvement in the techniques and artifices used by the replicators to ensure their own continuation in the world? There would be plenty of time for improvement. What weird engines of self-preservation would the millennia bring forth? Four thousand million years on, what was to be the fate of the ancient replicators? They did not die out, for they are past masters of the survival arts.

    But do not look for them floating loose in the sea; they gave up that cavalier freedom long ago. Now they swarm in huge colonies, safe inside gigantic lumbering robots, sealed off from the outside world, communicating with it by tortuous indirect routes, manipulating it by remote control. They are in you and in me; they created us, body and mind; and their preservation is the ultimate rationale for our existence. They have come a long way, those replicators. Now they go by the name of genes, and we are their survival machines.

    My Book     news002       
    My Blog  pccoffee
  • Re: What book are you reading?
     Reply #109 - November 10, 2010, 03:03 PM
    So I finished The Scarlet Letter and I disliked it.

    Started Jean Racine's play Bérénice, this morning. I'm a sucker for classic tragedies, even though, in Racine's case, they get redundant. But it's a break from reading books in English Smiley
    He's no friend to the friendless
    And he's the mother of grief
    There's only sorrow for tomorrow
    Surely life is too brief
  • Re: What book are you reading?
     Reply #110 - November 10, 2010, 06:08 PM
    Quote from: IsLame on November 10, 2010, 02:09 PM
    Thanks Prince,  you've motivated me to finally read it.  Particularly like this bit which sounds a bit like something Sagan would write..



     dance It's well worth it. Started The Extended Phenotype yesterday, which is sort of a sequel. It's a different kind of book (as it doesn't really advocate a hypothesis, but rather a different view point), but it looks just as well reasoned as The Selfish Gene.
  • Re: What book are you reading?
     Reply #111 - November 11, 2010, 07:13 PM
    Just bought 'How to think like a Mathematician' by Kevin Houston. This'll be fun.
  • Re: What book are you reading?
     Reply #112 - November 11, 2010, 07:18 PM
    "complete guide of mutual funds"
    "modern portfolio theory and investment analysis"
    "ups and downs of mutual funds"

     bedtime2
  • Re: What book are you reading?
     Reply #113 - November 11, 2010, 07:33 PM
    Quote from: serrated_colon on November 06, 2010, 12:40 AM
    currently working through Fundamentals of Abstract Analysis by Andrew Gleason. woooo


    How was this?
  • Re: What book are you reading?
     Reply #114 - November 11, 2010, 07:36 PM
    i'm still working though it. it's a pretty good book but it's not a pop. math book, it's something for undergrads or obsessive dicks like me who want to prepare for the rigorous level of abstraction to come.

    i'm currently finishing up the chapter on logic then it's off to binary relations in set theory! the book i just bought was to lighten the mood, as andrew gleason is way too dense to handle in one sitting.
  • Re: What book are you reading?
     Reply #115 - November 11, 2010, 07:43 PM
    Sounds fun. Lemme know if you find anything useful... my abstraction skills need polishing...
  • Re: What book are you reading?
     Reply #116 - November 11, 2010, 07:51 PM
    finish a-level maths first l0l
  • Re: What book are you reading?
     Reply #117 - November 11, 2010, 07:53 PM
    It's boring me already.  Cry

    Oh well, maybe it'll get better...
  • Re: What book are you reading?
     Reply #118 - November 11, 2010, 08:53 PM
    Quote from: belladonnasix on November 10, 2010, 08:12 AM
    also reading Tess of the D'Ubervilles by Thomas Hardy

    A bloody brilliant period read. I love it. Angel is a good example of how Religion and goodness are mutually incompatible.  My great Grand parents had very similar lifestyles to the agricultural workers portrayed and suffered abominable poverty.  The Hardy's books must have struck some tender running sores at the time they were published.
    Religion is ignorance giftwrapped in lyricism.
  • Re: What book are you reading?
     Reply #119 - November 11, 2010, 09:38 PM
    Quote from: sojournerlumus on November 11, 2010, 08:53 PM
    A bloody brilliant period read. I love it. Angel is a good example of how Religion and goodness are mutually incompatible.  My great Grand parents had very similar lifestyles to the agricultural workers portrayed and suffered abominable poverty.  The Hardy's books must have struck some tender running sores at the time they were published.


    Agreed. Its quite the heartbreaking story.. I'm about halfway through and I can already see how it must have impacted people at the time.


    Quod est inferius est sicut quod est superius,
    et quod est superius est sicut quod est inferius,
    ad perpetranda miracula rei unius.
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