Books I'm reading etc.

[Imrahil]

The Count of Monte Cristo by Alexandre Dumas

[Paluka]

I could not get into The Known World and gave up pretty early on it.
I'm currently reading Jonathan Strange and Mr Norrell and I think it is fantastic. I haven't read Harry Potter, but I would think this book kicks Harry Potter's ass.

[gumpzilla]

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I'm currently reading Jonathan Strange and Mr Norrell and I think it is fantastic. I haven't read Harry Potter, but I would think this book kicks Harry Potter's ass.

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It is an excellent book, and certainly more literary than Harry Potter. The one advantage of Harry Potter is that what it lacks in sophistication it makes up for in scope; there's just a lot more story to tell. I think there's a pretty high degree of correlation between liking both works.

[JaBlue]

re-read some Castaneda, still very interesting and fun. Girlfriend read Eat, Pray, Love and I really liked the passages she read me.

Just bought a bunch of books that I look forward to reading. Any comments/suggestions on order?

Suttree (read intro. excited.) - McCarthy
Lolita - Nabokov
Naked Lunch (few pages in. WOW.) - Burroughs
The Essential Swimmer
The Beat Book (collection of Beat poetry)
The Old Man and the Sea
Arrow of God - Chinua Achebe [liked Things Fall Apart, this was $2.00]

[oe39]

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The Count of Monte Cristo by Alexandre Dumas

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did you like it? i thought parts of it were quite strange...

[turnipmonster]

I need to read some fiction. recently read/reading:

1) the botany of desire, michael pollan. I got this because I liked "the omnivore's dilemma" a lot, this book is not nearly as good. he looks at the history of 4 plants: apple, tulip, potato, cannabis. some interesting facts but nothing groundbreaking.

2) fast food nation - a decent book, but the author has kind of a political agenda wrt unions and republicans. other than that, interesting but I felt it was perhaps dated.

3) the black swan, nassim taleb - I was put off by his tone at first but all in all a quality read, although the way he makes up characters to illustrate his examples is a little weird.

[Tron]

I just finished The Assault on Reason and with every page I hoped more and more that Al Gore will run for President.

[7ontheline]

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I'm currently reading Jonathan Strange and Mr Norrell and I think it is fantastic. I haven't read Harry Potter, but I would think this book kicks Harry Potter's ass.

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Jonathan Strange and Mr. Norrell is an excellent book. I agree that it's better than Harry Potter. I've never quite understood the Harry Potter phenomenon - I think they're good books but I don't think they're anything super-special for adults. I see why kids/teens would like them.

[El Diablo]

All,

Just purchased:

IV by Chuck Klosterman. Collection of essays, generally pop culture themed, and general musings on life, and some stories.

The Reach of a Chef by Michael Ruhlman. About celebrity chefs. He wrote my favorite cooking/restaurant book, The Soul of a Chef.

These purchases will allow me to continue deferring my more serious books.

[invisibleleadsoup]

i'm really enjoying the black swan,haven't quite finished it yet but its given me a lot to think about.

i can certainly see why his style would rub some people up the wrong way,but i think he gets away with it since his subject matter is very interesting and a lot of his examples and references are fascinating. almost every page has something that made me stop and think,and i keep coming across points that i wish myself and my friends had read since they would have been relevant to conversations and arguments we've had in the past.

this is the first book i've read on this sort of thing so maybe other people who are better versed in maths and philosophy would be less impressed,but i think regardless of your background there is a huge amount of stuff in the book that is well worth thinking about.