What are you reading?

Post by **dipsi** » Mon May 16, 2005 5:18 pm

I guess I'm the gun girl; mostly it's just a teasing thing. I like revovlers and shotguns. Love to go to turkey shoots and study the back woods characters who frequent these activities.

I also have an S&W 357 and shoot 38s. Sweet.

Come on, Diggum, we'll go!

Back to books!

Post by **cassio598** » Mon May 16, 2005 6:52 pm

Zspider wrote:the Faulkner that I'm familiar with

Big fan of post-WWI American novelists, eh Zspider? Me too; I absolutely love Hemingway's sparse style. For Whom the Bell Tolls is my favorite as well. It taught me how to swear properly in Spanish.

The only Faulkner I'm familiar with is The Sound and the Fury. I like stream of consciousness, but he jumps between narrators and backward and forward in time so often it takes half the book just to figure out what's going on. It's a good book, and definitely worth reading, if only so you can breathe a huge sigh of relief when you put it down.

Post by **Zspider** » Mon May 16, 2005 8:16 pm

cassio598 wrote:
The only Faulkner I'm familiar with is The Sound and the Fury. I like stream of consciousness, but he jumps between narrators and backward and forward in time so often it takes half the book just to figure out what's going on. It's a good book, and definitely worth reading, if only so you can breathe a huge sigh of relief when you put it down.

Haha! When I first read SANCTUARY I thought I was dumb, cuz I couldn't understand sometimes what was going on. Later I figured out that being obscure is part of his style. I'm not really in love with that, but at least he makes it all clear before the ending. I've heard THE SOUND AND THE FURY recommended, and also LIGHT IN AUGUST.

Right now I'm swapping back and forth between McCullers' THE HEART IS A LONELY HUNTER and Greene's THE POWER AND THE GLORY.

ZSpider

Post by **charlie** » Mon May 16, 2005 8:59 pm

Faulkner is without a doubt my favorite author.

Sound and the Fury is not a good intro, too experimental too get a good taste of Faulkner.

Light in August is a decently traditional novel, excellent example of prime Faulkner but a bit long so it would wear on you if it's not your thing.
Absalom, Absalom and As I Lay Dying I would think of as good intros to see if you can dig his style.

Also, check out his short stories. Pick up a selection of these and start digging in. You'll be amazed when 3 weeks later something just occurs to you that you missed when you read them. He was truly a literary genius unmatched in the American Literature of his time.

I wanna live in Yoknapatawpha county.

Post by **Wes** » Tue May 17, 2005 3:54 am

Picked up Freakonomics tonight. About half way through, and it is killer. Very enlightining. And very non-PC. Worth reading for sure. Or at least the first half has been...

Post by **marathonmedic** » Tue May 17, 2005 4:44 am

Care to give us a quick rundown on that one?

Post by **Wes** » Tue May 17, 2005 5:32 am

Just about finished. Pretty good read - makes you question things like what are things to really fear v. what we actually fear. Or what do we assume to be true v. what is actually true. I don't doubt that there are many people out there who will disagree with many of the things in the book, but it is something worth reading, if only to get a new prespective on some things.

http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/tg/de ... s&n=507846

Economics is not widely considered to be one of the sexier sciences. The annual Nobel Prize winner in that field never receives as much publicity as his or her compatriots in peace, literature, or physics. But if such slights are based on the notion that economics is dull, or that economists are concerned only with finance itself, Steven D. Levitt will change some minds. In Freakonomics (written with Stephen J. Dubner), Levitt argues that many apparent mysteries of everyday life don't need to be so mysterious: they could be illuminated and made even more fascinating by asking the right questions and drawing connections. For example, Levitt traces the drop in violent crime rates to a drop in violent criminals and, digging further, to the Roe v. Wade decision that preempted the existence of some people who would be born to poverty and hardship. Elsewhere, by analyzing data gathered from inner-city Chicago drug-dealing gangs, Levitt outlines a corporate structure much like McDonald's, where the top bosses make great money while scores of underlings make something below minimum wage. And in a section that may alarm or relieve worried parents, Levitt argues that parenting methods don't really matter much and that a backyard swimming pool is much more dangerous than a gun. These enlightening chapters are separated by effusive passages from Dubner's 2003 profile of Levitt in The New York Times Magazine, which led to the book being written. In a book filled with bold logic, such back-patting veers Freakonomics, however briefly, away from what Levitt actually has to say. Although maybe there's a good economic reason for that too, and we're just not getting it yet. --John Moe

Post by **marathonmedic** » Tue May 17, 2005 5:37 am

There are 16 holds on the next copy returned at the library here in town.

Post by **Wes** » Tue May 17, 2005 5:55 am

Just finished mine. 20% off at the bookstore...

Post by **cassio598** » Tue May 17, 2005 9:02 pm

If you'd like to scare your own pants off (or someone else's?) you should check out the following article

http://www.rollingstone.com/news/story/ ... ayer=false

I mean, I know it's extremist and you have to assume there's a middle way to be had, but still.

If, on the other hand, you'd rather spend your time with a giggle-fest, I highly recomend T.H. White's The Once and Future King, a rather brilliant retelling of the Arthurian legend.

Well, the first part of the book is hillarious if you like witty, British dialogue, and it has the added bonus of being the inspiration for the Disney classic The Sword in the Stone. After that you get into the Arthurian legend proper, what with the incest, adultery, betrayal, and the inevitable demise of Camelot. But it's a great story nonetheless.