Author Topic: Book Thread  (Read 50064 times)

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Online blue911

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Re: Buk Reedin' Thred (Book Thread)
« Reply #400: December 11, 2012, 02:45:53 PM »
Oh agreed so hard.

Mark Twain is still hilarious. I'm convinced 200 years from now he'll be just as hilarious.

His essay on the decay of lying is also a gem

Online HalfSmokes

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Re: Buk Reedin' Thred (Book Thread)
« Reply #401: December 11, 2012, 02:47:10 PM »
Once people bother reading the rest of his autobiography,  he'll be banned again. 

Online JCA-CrystalCity

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Re: Buk Reedin' Thred (Book Thread)
« Reply #402: December 11, 2012, 02:49:30 PM »
Grapes of wrath is an easy read,  but Steinbeck isn't exactly subtle about his politics,  that makes it almost unreadable to me

i'll skip yet another post of Ghost of Tom Joad w/ Tom Morello

Offline tomterp

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Re: Buk Reedin' Thred (Book Thread)
« Reply #403: December 11, 2012, 03:35:34 PM »
His essay on the decay of lying is also a gem

Sounds like HL Mencken a bit.

Quote
Democracy is the theory that the common people know what they want, and deserve to get it good and hard.

 

Many more here:  http://www.brainyquote.com/quotes/authors/h/h_l_mencken.html
 :lol:

Offline mitlen

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Re: Buk Reedin' Thred (Book Thread)
« Reply #404: December 11, 2012, 03:39:59 PM »
Sounds like HL Mencken a bit.
 :lol:

...  or vice versa.

Offline DPMOmaha

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Re: Buk Reedin' Thred (Book Thread)
« Reply #405: December 11, 2012, 03:49:11 PM »
Finally finished The Hobbit.  Just in time.

Offline PebbleBall

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Re: Buk Reedin' Thred (Book Thread)
« Reply #406: December 11, 2012, 03:53:52 PM »
As a person with a BA in English and a Master's in a dual English-history research program, allow me to explain:

- James Joyce sucks.


Opinion of The Dead, please?

Offline Kevrock

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Re: Buk Reedin' Thred (Book Thread)
« Reply #407: December 11, 2012, 03:59:14 PM »
Finally finished The Hobbit.  Just in time.

Great book.

Offline houston-nat

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Re: Buk Reedin' Thred (Book Thread)
« Reply #408: December 11, 2012, 04:05:17 PM »
Opinion of The Dead, please?
Is that that short story where all the sad people go to a dinner party? I blocked that from my memory, but at least it was readable.

Offline DPMOmaha

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Re: Buk Reedin' Thred (Book Thread)
« Reply #409: December 11, 2012, 04:14:15 PM »
Great book.
It really was.  I think I was hurt by the fact that it took me so long to read it.  I'm sure there were a lot of details I missed. But I really enjoyed it.

Offline Terpfan76

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Re: Buk Reedin' Thred (Book Thread)
« Reply #410: December 11, 2012, 06:59:56 PM »
Oh agreed so hard.

Mark Twain is still hilarious. I'm convinced 200 years from now he'll be just as hilarious.

Amen! I'm also totally against the suggested censoring of his work. Sometimes people have to realize that things written well over 100 years ago won't have the delicate sensibilities that we're all used to today... :lol: Seriously though, this is one of many areas where political correctness needs to go the hell away.

Online HalfSmokes

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Re: Buk Reedin' Thred (Book Thread)
« Reply #411: December 11, 2012, 07:25:34 PM »
Seriously though, this is one of many areas where political correctness needs to go the hell away.

Hooray for Books in old town has a banned books table, but most of the stuff on there isn't because of PC censoring, but because of religious objections. Apparently


is too much for certain school districts and public libraries

Offline Terpfan76

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Re: Buk Reedin' Thred (Book Thread)
« Reply #412: December 11, 2012, 07:49:32 PM »
Hooray for Books in old town has a banned books table, but most of the stuff on there isn't because of PC censoring, but because of religious objections. Apparently

(Image removed from quote.)
is too much for certain school districts and public libraries


Book censoring is wrong, period. I'm all for people being made aware of what they may or may not wish to buy, but just because I might find something offensive, or you might find something offensive doesn't mean it should be banned. This coming from a Souther Baptist Conservative.

Online HalfSmokes

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Re: Buk Reedin' Thred (Book Thread)
« Reply #413: December 11, 2012, 07:57:52 PM »
I totally agree,  and it doesn't even work- marginal books that would go unnoticed get banned by a library system and become best sellers

Offline mitlen

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Re: Buk Reedin' Thred (Book Thread)
« Reply #414: December 11, 2012, 09:47:17 PM »
Book censoring is wrong, period. I'm all for people being made aware of what they may or may not wish to buy, but just because I might find something offensive, or you might find something offensive doesn't mean it should be banned. This coming from a Souther Baptist Conservative.

I totally agree,  and it doesn't even work- marginal books that would go unnoticed get banned by a library system and become best sellers

+1

Offline houston-nat

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Re: Buk Reedin' Thred (Book Thread)
« Reply #415: December 11, 2012, 10:39:42 PM »
I totally agree,  and it doesn't even work- marginal books that would go unnoticed get banned by a library system and become best sellers
Mark Twain to his editor on the Concord Public Library banning The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn in 1885:

“Apparently, the Concord library has condemned Huck as ‘trash and only suitable for the slums.’ This will sell us another twenty-five thousand copies for sure!”

Offline Nathan

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Re: Buk Reedin' Thred (Book Thread)
« Reply #416: December 11, 2012, 10:47:23 PM »
I hate reading stuff where I'm expected to figure out things like "oh, the blue curtains symbolize the character's deep feeling of loneliness and sadness" and other such crap.  They were blue because that's the color they were dyed god dammit!  I just want to read a good story!

Online blue911

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Re: Buk Reedin' Thred (Book Thread)
« Reply #417: December 11, 2012, 10:59:07 PM »
I hate reading stuff where I'm expected to figure out things like "oh, the blue curtains symbolize the character's deep feeling of loneliness and sadness" and other such crap.  They were blue because that's the color they were dyed god dammit!  I just want to read a good story!

I hate having to stay inside the lines

Offline houston-nat

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Re: Buk Reedin' Thred (Book Thread)
« Reply #418: December 11, 2012, 11:13:20 PM »
I hate reading stuff where I'm expected to figure out things like "oh, the blue curtains symbolize the character's deep feeling of loneliness and sadness" and other such crap.  They were blue because that's the color they were dyed god dammit!  I just want to read a good story!
As an English major who spent all of college getting that stuff rammed down my throat, but also as a person who's written some fiction himself... most of the time the curtains are blue cuz the writer just liked them that way. 90% of that symbolism bullcrap is bullcrap.

Offline Tyler Durden

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Re: Buk Reedin' Thred (Book Thread)
« Reply #419: December 26, 2012, 10:48:55 AM »
Got the book Antifragile for Christmas.  It's by the same guy that wrote Black Swan (which I think everyone should read) and Fooled by Randomness.

His writing style is still brash and to me, at least, abrasive but his ideas are still pretty damn insightful.

I'm about halfway through the book already.  Highly recommend it, especially if you read and liked either of his previous two books.

Online HalfSmokes

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Re: Buk Reedin' Thred (Book Thread)
« Reply #420: December 26, 2012, 10:55:46 AM »
I'm reading the same book now, very good book. I think Black Swan was the more insightful book, but this is still a really good read

Offline houston-nat

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Re: Buk Reedin' Thred (Book Thread)
« Reply #421: December 26, 2012, 10:56:35 AM »
Got a Kindle Paperwhite for Christmas. I'm going old school and reading Charles Dickens' Bleak House cuz it's good and it's free. But I have a to-read list a mile long.

Offline captkirk42

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Re: Buk Reedin' Thred (Book Thread)
« Reply #422: December 26, 2012, 11:00:17 AM »
Not sure if I've comented in this thread before or not. Right now I'm in the middle (about exactly in the middle) of a book I've been reading off and on for the last couple of months (sort of lost interest and other things kept me from doing any reading). The book really is more of a reference guide than a real "read" cause it's a Cliffs Notes Summary book - "Mythology".
http://www.goodreads.com/book/show/780389.Mythology

Offline PANatsFan

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Re: Buk Reedin' Thred (Book Thread)
« Reply #423: December 26, 2012, 11:01:15 AM »
I'm finishing up Cloud Atlas. Damn some of that is slow going.

Offline Tyler Durden

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Re: Buk Reedin' Thred (Book Thread)
« Reply #424: December 26, 2012, 01:50:25 PM »
Malcolm Gladwell is putting out a book soon on underdogs.  He wrote an article a few years ago about a girls youth basketball team that was terrible at basketball but kept winning games because it refused to play the normal way teams play basketball (in other words, they refused to play by Goliath's rules).  The less talented team won because they put in extra effort - a full court press - for the whole game. 

Anyway, I don't think it's out yet, but I'm sure that will be a good read.  Plus, the Wizards need to hire the coach of that girls basketball team.