I received Mitch Albom's "The Five People You Meet in Heaven" as a gift for Christmas and read that. Wasn't all that impressed. Now I'm on to Hemingway's "The Sun Also Rises." I've read just about everything else by the man and somehow missed this one. I'm finding it to be his most enjoyable novel.

What are you all reading? Any reccomendations?

i left my copy of "The Corrections" in LA when i was visiting, but i got "Lies, and the Lying Liars Who Tell Them" for Christmas. next up, the new Steve King.

second of the aubrey-maturin series. I'm loving it.

_
http://youtube.com/watch?v=4TztqYaemt0
http://preptimeposse.blogspot.com/

Da Vinci Code is straight dopeness...
Parable of the Sower was pretty good too.. Olivia Butler.
and some good old Vonnegu, Deadeye Dick.

>Da Vinci Code is straight dopeness...
cosign* I read that one at the close of 03, now i'm reading

Ready for Revolution: the autobiography of Stokely Carmichael
by far one of my favorites of all times, a must read.
*****-*-***** - *****-*****

Why did you run off secretly and deceive me? Why didn't you tell me, so I could send you away with joy and singing to the music?

The fool says in his heart,
"There is no God."

The revolution will not be televised/it will be waged and revised/by the principalities/to remove all falicies/so the truth can and will be known/have you now been shown? - the5philosopher

When you hear of wars and revolutions, do not be frightened. These things must happen first, but the end will not come right away.

Come, I'll tear up all my poems
for just a little piece
of you...

Lady Brett!

Anyways, I'm reading "The Holy Barbarians" by Lawrence Lipton. Hard to find, but check it out. (Amazon Z-books has it)

After this book, maybe The Crying of Lot 49 by Pynchon or The Great Unravelling by Paul Krugman.

Yeah I agree. Now that I'm reading it Sun Also Rises does seem like the logical jumping off point for getting into Hemingway. Not quite sure why I picked up others like Farewell to Arms and For Whom the Bells Tolls first, regardless I think I'm appreciating this one even more because of it.

Have you read any of Pynchon's other works? I've tried to read Gravity's Rainbow on more than one occassion and haven't been able to get into it.

it will be my first attempt

and my other next pick: The Great Unraveling...

because I think I can breeze through Galapagos by Vonnegut, then tackle something more wordy. I got quite a few books for xmas.

>I have skipped Pynchon

might be a good move. . . . . .

I think it may be about time I give Gravity's Rainbow another shot though. . . .

yeah yea yeah... but a sistah gotta have some comfort. but actually i'm tackling three books at once:

the four agreements by don miquel ruiz
oh. yeah. if we all did this, we'd pretty much be done with this world. i like it... though i got a long way to agreement number two.

the secret of shambala by james redfield
it's the third book in the 'celestine prophecy' series - for those of us who don't believe in coincidences. i have to say this third one is probably my favorite... i finally feel smarter than the main character

oh and as for sexual healing? sistahs check it out. brothers, uh.. i know some women who are soooo serious about renting you out. jill nelson (author) is actually a serious politico and former wash post writer, so i was initially like what the? but that's why i'm picking it up... an interesting way to get her perspective across to say the least....




JaHipster (ja*hip*stur): God made me who I am; These Hips will make me famous.

JaHipster (ja*hip*stur): God made me who I am; These Hips will make me famous.

Because I'm going to say "A Movable Feast" is a perfect Hemingway starting point.

Or ending point, depending on your point of view. It's a book about his life in 1920's Paris.

--Mo

-----
Goodness Gracious

__________________________________________________________________________________________

"It was only four tracks on the machine. But I was picking up 20 from the extra-terrestrial sqaud."

Lee 'Scratch' Perry on his Black Ark recording studio


"Hitchcock is the worst director ever. Did you see Rear Window? The characters were completely black and white, there were no adult situations."

Space Ghost

One the best books I ever read in school. 'twas in my junior year of high school, the year that really turned me on to reading as a hobby rather than as an assignemtn. That age was the perfect time to read it if you ask me. I don't think Vonnegut's work gets enough attention as far as its importance in the scope of American literature.

How you enjoying it?

but haven't really had the time to get very far into it.

I love what Vonnegut I have read.

I remember in my junior year of high school my english teacher gave us a paper with a list of quotes from grammar books and famous authors describing how to write well. Vonnegut's quote was "Keep it simple." Those three little words just stood out on the paper and ever since then Vonnegut was a name I looked for.
__________________________________________________________________________________________

"It was only four tracks on the machine. But I was picking up 20 from the extra-terrestrial sqaud."

Lee 'Scratch' Perry on his Black Ark recording studio


"Hitchcock is the worst director ever. Did you see Rear Window? The characters were completely black and white, there were no adult situations."

Space Ghost

Hong long meng or A Dream of Red Mansions. China's greatest novel. Pretty interesting so far see if i can make the last 1000 pages.

"Island" by Aldous Huxley......I haven't read any of his other works yet, don't know if this is the best one to start with but its being done......

"time is a thief that leaves nothing behind"

__________________________

is it just me or is this a slow read? i feel like im forcing myself to read this book.
i didnt get that with survivor, fight club or choke.
im not sure how much i like this book.

and is your okp handle based off the incubus song magic medicine?

>is it just me or is this a slow read? i feel like im
>forcing myself to read this book.
>i didnt get that with survivor, fight club or choke.
>im not sure how much i like this book.

its not too slow for me. it seems a little predictable, but i should wait until i finish the book to make any judgements. im on page 200 i think.

>and is your okp handle based off the incubus song magic
>medicine?

yes

__________________________

yesterday as a matter of fact. i thought it was interesting. it seems predictable, but since you're only on page 200, ill say youre in for a surprise. at least one surprise.
i need to read fight club cuz the movie was a disappointment.

i enjoyed it. i was surprised with the rest of the book.

by the way, i though fight club (the movie) was great. it was my main motivation for picking up this book

__________________________

I'm into comics and this book is about making comics and it won a pulitzer. It's good, it keeps moving, but I'm 150 pages into it and I'm not excited. But, it's a 600 page book so I'll see.

Mech

though if you're not excited by pg. 150 you might have trouble...

-------
so I'm in a band now:
album ---> http://greenwoodburns.bandcamp.com/releases
Soundcloud ---> http://soundcloud.com/greenwood-burns

my own stuff -->http://soundcloud.com/lonesomedstringband

avy by buckshot_defunct

the style doesn't change that much as it goes along. Man, I love that book.

Awesome as usual.

www.rapnews.co.uk

truly a great writer, though i can see how some do not like his style. next i'll be reading some steinbeck, just cos it's been a while

------------------------------
For the record, my teams:
MLB: Mets / Soccer: PSG
NCAA BB: Arizona / NCAA FB: Michigan
NBA: Spurs / NFL: Jets

yeah I did enjoy his writing style.....the book stayed with me. I've heard a lot of mixed feelings about it......some say they just didn't like the characters at all and therefore had no vested interest in them.

I haven't read his bio "a staggering work of heartbreaking genius" which is supposed to be great. Have you?

"time is a thief that leaves nothing behind"

>yeah I did enjoy his writing style.....the book stayed with
>me. I've heard a lot of mixed feelings about it......some
>say they just didn't like the characters at all and
>therefore had no vested interest in them.
>
>I haven't read his bio "a staggering work of heartbreaking
>genius" which is supposed to be great. Have you?

yes yes yes yes. it's how i got into this dude's writing. it's inventive without being snotty. I like how he talks about little stuff we all think about without coming as self-centered or neurotic (well, just a lil). do check it out

------------------------------
For the record, my teams:
MLB: Mets / Soccer: PSG
NCAA BB: Arizona / NCAA FB: Michigan
NBA: Spurs / NFL: Jets

family matters by rohinton minstry, im diggin it.

Fat people are a joy to me. They give me great meal ideals and have taught me to do fat people things like combining foods that I would have never have thought to combine. <--okp fresh rain4u on fat people and the troubles of fasting.

just re-read the temple of my familiar

i'm debating whether or not to

a. re-read dune
b. finish when god was a woman
c. read of water and spirit

today i'm leaning toward of water and spirit
**************************************
"...really if you are at all alive as an artist, you are somewhere else, other than where you where, almost constantly."

Arveyda

"the animals can remember; for like sight, memory is renewed at every birth. But our language they will never speak; not from lack of intelligence, but from the different construction of their speaking apparatus. In the world of man, someone must speak for them. And that is why, in a nutshell,...goddesses and witches exist."

Miss Lissie

**************************************
http://osunyoyin.wordpress.com

http://pinterest.com/osunyoyin/

next up on my list are:

Faulkner - Go Down, Moses & Hawthorne - The Marble Faun

What's the fascination with Faulkner? I read As I Lay Dying for a course when I was in college and I recently read Sound and Fury on my own time. I didn't really enjoy either of them a great deal. I guess I just wasn't into his style or his repetitive themes. So why do you dig him so much? I realize he's considered one of America's great novelists, I guess I'm just missing something.

Also, if you've had time to get around to all the classics you must be about 137 years of age or you're simply an exceptionally fast reader. Either way I commend you!

Back in school, I really hated Shakespeare, Schiller, Molière & Brecht. Today, I really love "The Tempest", "The Robbers" and "The Resistable Rise Of Arturo Ui" (Correct me if the titles are wrong... I'm German and I do not really know the English titles of "Die Räuber" and "Der aufhaltsame Aufstieg des Arturo UI")

The same goes with Faulkner... We read "The Bear" at school and I really hated it. It was not until recently that I found out that Faulkner didn't want the reader to read "The Bear" as a single text but only within the scope and context of the other short stories in "Go Down, Moses"... Maybe things turn out differently this time... I'm looking forward to immerse myself in this novel..

See, to some degree, school killed my passion for reading and dreaming. Now it's time to resurrect this passion. To me, literature has become an essential part of my life.

But to actually answer you question: It's his use of language (just like Dostoyevsky he's a polyphonic writer, interior monologues en masse, etc.), the way he treats time, this world/land called Yoknapatawpha County, the vast amount of images he generates in the reader's mind, his portrayal of human (American?) psyche...

Btw... since you've read "As I lay Dying"... do you remember this quote from Addie Bundren?

"I could just remember how my father used to say that the reason for living was to get ready to stay dead a long time."

That's the essence of existentialism!!! And now look out at Addie's life...

IMO there's so much to discover in his novels, novellas and short stories... he's just one of my favs... that's all.

I think I should stop now

much easier on the eyes than Faulkner's ugly mug. . . . . . . .

>Also, if you've had time to get around to all the classics
>you must be about 137 years of age or you're simply an
>exceptionally fast reader. Either way I commend you!

I'm 26 and a student of psychology, french theory & american literature in Berlin, Germany... in 2003, I read about 70 books... depending on the book i needed one night, a day or a couple of weeks...

Sometimes I'm almost gorgin a book, sometimes it's a really exhausting experience and I need a couple of days/weeks to recover from it.

I might try to read John Dos Passos's U.S.A. trilogy, but first I want some detective novels to give me some enjoyment.

manhattan transfer rulz.

Me and Chomsky have always had this love/hate thing. I stopped reading political stuff, and in fact stopped studying politics heavily about 3 years ago. This is his first work that I've read since then and as always he brought me back into the fold. Hes not infallible, so you right-wingers dont even need to bother pointing that out, but he does give a nice concise slanted perspective of international relations.

I have yet to read his 9/11 book. Any Comments?

since Mad Cow it is all over the news. This cat Lyman predicted this ish years ago, and oprah got sued cause of him.

Also, I'm reading "How To Read a Film" - but its a fucking textbook, so I'm kinda intimidated.

Boston Red Sox - The worst is over. Let's do this.

edited by richard delgado and jean stefancic.

i also just started reading this too.

but im gonna take my time with this. its a textbook/collection of essays.

__________________________

and Beloved- Toni Morrison.

I just finished reading Dude, Where's My Country? by Mike Moore.

How was it? I gave it for a my brother hoping it would give him a kick in the pants and get him to try and be a little more politically minded. (The kid lives in LA and thinks it's a great big joke that Arnold is now his governer. While it's clealry a joke on many levels I was frustarted with the attitude). Not sure he'll ever read it but I'm hoping. Is this the type of book that could get an apathetic, Hollywood bum to start using his head a little more?

>How was it? I gave it for a my brother hoping it would give
>him a kick in the pants and get him to try and be a little
>more politically minded. (The kid lives in LA and thinks
>it's a great big joke that Arnold is now his governer.
>While it's clealry a joke on many levels I was frustarted
>with the attitude). Not sure he'll ever read it but I'm
>hoping. Is this the type of book that could get an
>apathetic, Hollywood bum to start using his head a little
>more?

That was a good choice to give him. While I don't think it's quite as good as Stupid White Men, it's entertaining as hell and easy to read. If he doesn't like it, there's not much you can really do to educate him on politics at all.

Although I may be on the same page as Michael Moore on many occasions, I did not like this book very much at all. I find his writing skills sloppy...and his agenda always seems more important than being truthful, which is something he's always criticizing the right for. I don't know, maybe its just me, but I was annoyed many times while reading this book at Moore's writing style, journalism tactics, and boorish arrogance. Liberal cockiness and arrogance isn't any less deserving of criticism to me. Not a fan.

GREAT book!

or lining a birdcage.

a good insight into compassion for self and others and managing anger.

<--- Me when my head hits the pillow

I think he gives anger a really bad rap in this book. I don't actually recommend it.

A problem that many American Buddhist practitioners have is that they feel guilty for having emotions that they don't like. Having anger isn't the problem. Feeling anger very deeply isn't the problem. The problem is acting on it in an unskillful way, including denying it or pushing it away or pretending like it's not there.

It's funny that we're so judgmental about certain emotions and not about others. But if emotions are a problem, then ALL emotions are a problem, not just the ones we think aren't pretty.

~ ~ ~
All meetings end in separation
All acquisition ends in dispersion
All life ends in death
- The Buddha

|\_/|
='_'=

Every hundred years, all new people

Still trying to get through her whole catalog...2003 was: Parable of the Sower & talents, Kindred, Wild Seed, Lilith's Brood (the whole thing!) - up next is her book of short stories. i think she is ultimately what tananarive due could develop into.

Yesterday I was thinking about the whole idea of genius and creative people, and the notion that if you create some magical art, somehow that exempts you from having to pay attention to the small things.
– bell hooks

my uncle and cousin said it was absolutely compelling.

peace, dgonsh
*****************************************************
i'm gay
yaaaaaaaaaay!
i'm gay
yaaaaaaaaaay!---qoolquest




AUGUST 12/2003---THE DAY THE JU JU JU JU GENERAL DISCUSSION BOARD WENT BLANK.


"anytime i state an opinion i state it's my opinion, and i back up why i stated the statement (time willing). so please folks you got to understand that it's not a good feeling to read a i'm not on his nuts comment. if i need some attention for my nuts i'll call a jawn." -Quest

********************************************************************




"I *always* quote myself. I'm the only reliable source on *most* subjects" - OKP's First Lady of Knowledge, Janey

white boy shuffle by paul beatty--great book
invisible monsters by chuck (cant spell last name)-- they should make a movie of this one..read it yesterday
currently reading tuff by paul beatty

Both of his novels are top shelf...I am hoping he has something else in the works but I haven't heard anything.

------------------
One Hundred.

i think domino or 49th parallel told me to pick that joint up. definitely a good book, i read that joint in a day and a half. i need to add that too my collection, along with tuff and white teeth by zadie smith (another good one).

"I maintain with clemency and munificence" -- J-Live

"I maintain with clemency and munificence" -- J-Live

I take full credit. I love putting people on to Paul Beatty (and White Teeth, as well).

if u did put me on to that joint

I love both of those books

Decided to pick up "Memoirs of Geisha" for the second time.

Both of those books are great. In the jacket for one of them, somebody said he released a Gunnar Kaufman-esque compilation of Essays, Poetry and Short Stories. Anybody know anything about this?

---------------------------------------------
That's all that matters to me

white boy shuffle was great
but i couldnt get through tuff

i gave it another try a few months ago, but i got bored pretty quick

¹ZE·RO

n/m

i'm not really feeling it.

fuck you.

i finished pat barker's the ghost road a few days ago and am soon to finish barry unsworth's sacred hunger. i recommend both highly. next on the list is neal stephenson's cryptonomicon (janey's recommendation) and richard powers' the time of our singing (also janey's recommendation, but i was gonna read this one anyway).

"I maintain with clemency and munificence" -- J-Live

"I maintain with clemency and munificence" -- J-Live

I tried Galatea 2.2 and it was just too damn needlessly wordy for me. I read 40-50 pages, and couldn't quite get into it.

looks like our tastes in novels isn't as similar as i thought. i can't let a comment like "needlessly wordy" applied to one of my favorite authors go unchallenged. powers crafts his sentences. he is absolutely a master of language. and his novels explore ideas (beauty, the nature of language, the paradox of existence, etc.), rather than tell a tale. plot, therefore, is secondary, whereas the descriptive "wordiness" is vital.

but i know he's not for everyone. sorry to lead you to an author you couldn't get into. but i do think you'd like pat barker's the ghost road. it's a WW1 tale that parallels the madness (literally and figuratively) of war in europe to the perceived madness (from the anthropologist's perspective) of the cultural patterns in melanesia.

oh, and you'd better hope janey doesn't read your "needlessly wordy" comment.

"I maintain with clemency and munificence" -- J-Live

"I maintain with clemency and munificence" -- J-Live

I like descriptive authors too, but at the moment I'm more into stuff that is plot-driven, and written with more accessible language. Maybe I'll come back and try "The Time of Our Singing" at some point. And I'll check out "The Ghost Road", that does sound interesting, and I'm not so well-versed in the time around WWI.

As for Janey, though I'm a big fan of hers in general, I don't always see eye-to-eye with her on novels or movies.

This is kinda unrelated, but if you've ever spent time in New York, "The Colussus of New York" by Colson Whitehead is really great, and only takes a couple hours to read. Even if you haven't, it's still pretty good, it's just hundreds of little character sketches put together, but it really does a good job of describing New York (or parts of it, anyway). I liked it much better than "The Intuitionist". I hope he keeps going with this minimalist style, but expanded into a novel about just a few characters, instead of so many different sketches.