Rate The Dude's Fiction Bookshelf (+diablo and others too!)

[SharkTank43]

I also find Dostoevsky very boring, and I read almost exclusively fiction.

[Scotch78]

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I migth actually go re-read them now that you've reminded me.

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This is why you are The El Diablo. Ever 2p2er should aspire to emulate such upstanding behavior.

Scott

PS Just to be clear, this post is not meant to be sarcastic at all.

[Zeno]

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I really hate Confucius. I agree that it's foundational, but so boring and moralistic and naive. Unless you really want to study Chinese philosophy, I don't think it's worth your time. Chuang-Tzu is your best bet if you're looking for good writing or intriguing philosophy. Lieh-tzu is good too. Don't bother to read the Tao-te-ching or Mencius either.

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This advice seems strange to me as the taoist thread runs through all the mentioned books and the Tao Te Ching, through obscure, is a basic classic. The Author, Lao Tzu, is probably mythical and so to Lieh Tzu, link:Lieh Tzu .

Though there are conflicts among the mentioned classics and masters this adds more than detracts from a reading of them. Just as much of Western Culture is easier to grasp and understand if you read/study the Bible and Plato, so to with reading Mencius and Confucius and the Taoist Classics. To pick and choose is to do a disservice to what is possible to know and understand. That is my opinion anyway.

-Zeno

[bobman0330]

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I really hate Confucius. I agree that it's foundational, but so boring and moralistic and naive. Unless you really want to study Chinese philosophy, I don't think it's worth your time. Chuang-Tzu is your best bet if you're looking for good writing or intriguing philosophy. Lieh-tzu is good too. Don't bother to read the Tao-te-ching or Mencius either.

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This advice seems strange to me as the taoist thread runs through all the mentioned books and the Tao Te Ching, through obscure, is a basic classic. The Author, Lao Tzu, is probably mythical and so to Lieh Tzu, link:Lieh Tzu .

Though there are conflicts among the mentioned classics and masters this adds more than detracts from a reading of them. Just as much of Western Culture is easier to grasp and understand if you read/study the Bible and Plato, so to with reading Mencius and Confucius and the Taoist Classics. To pick and choose is to do a disservice to what is possible to know and understand. That is my opinion anyway.

-Zeno

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My advice may have been slightly extreme, but I'll stand by it. If you want to study Chinese philosophy in itself, then absolutely start with Confucius and work through all the classics. But so much of the conversation that's going on is so archaic that it's completely irrelevant to a modern reader. I mean, who could possible care what Mencius thinks about the well-and-field system? And contrariwise, there's so much that speaks deeply to the modern reader that can be learned by reading a well-annotated edition of Chuang Tzu.

[El Diablo]

All,

Here are some of my books. Comment away. Note that many of my books are "loaned" out, so this does not include a number of my favorites.

[gumpzilla]

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Pale Fire is well written and a great experiment in fiction, but I felt it really petered out towards the end. I got within 40 pages I think but never finished it.

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Yeah, I thought it was very interesting, and the writing was obviously pretty sharp, with memorable bits along the way, but as a whole I don't feel a lot of love for it.

[RunDownHouse]

El D,

Swap "Fever Pitch" for "How to Be Good." Do you have some classics stashed away elsewhere?

[El Diablo]

RDH,

I have all of Hornby's books. Not sure who is currently "borrowing" them. I like Fever Pitch a lot.

I have some classics, but not many. I have a good amount of older American books - Hemingway, Heller, Capote, Kerouac, etc. I have very little "classic literature" as described in this thread (Shakespeare, Dostoevsky, Dickens, etc. - almost none of this type of stuff).

[tsearcher]

Considering the forum we are in, I'm surprised no one has recommended Fyodor Dostoyevsky's "The Gambler". It has some great descriptions of tilt. It really gets into the mind of a compulsive gambler.

[tsearcher]

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Pale Fire is well written and a great experiment in fiction, but I felt it really petered out towards the end. I got within 40 pages I think but never finished it.

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Yeah, I thought it was very interesting, and the writing was obviously pretty sharp, with memorable bits along the way, but as a whole I don't feel a lot of love for it.

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It's been a while, but I remember enjoying the book. If you want a more straight forward read, try "King, Queen, Knave". Originally written in Russian, but translated by the author 40 years later. It's amazing how Nabokov could write so well in English. IMO no one writes better about America except for Mark Twain.