What Book Are You Reading? Issue.8

[Fifty]

I enjoyed The Blank Slate very much, even if it largely reiterated what I already suspected/knew. Pinker is a talented writer.

I think I'm going to start reading this large tome of sci fi short stories and see if I like any of them. I'm not a big sci-fi person, but I figure if there is any literary form that could produce great sci-fi, it would be the short story.

 

[holy king]

White Noise - Don DeLillo

I really, really hate this book.

why? 100000

 

[Fifty]

Reading Anarchy, State, and Utopia by Robert Nozick. Its a far better attempted justification of libertarianism (in the US sense of the word) than the feeble trash attempts of folks like Ayn Rand and Milton Friedman, but I still think its rather wrongheaded, or if it is right, it has little application to matters of real world concern with regard to distributive justice.

 

[Love]

Just finished 1984

 

[D0NIMATRIX]

Just finished 1984

That is an excellent piece of literature.

 

[GoodGame]

Getting Things Done: The art of stress-free productivity by David Allen.

 

[Red Door]

why? 100000

Because it's overdone, has no coherent point, and is basically a 300 page rant against consumerism.

 

[Shylock]

Gravity's Rainbow by Thomas Pynchon. Recommended to me by the librarian at college.

Once I finish with that doorstop (June sounds about right) I might go for Sometimes a Great Notion by Ken Kesey.

 

[Shekwan]

The Audacity Of Hope Barack Obama

I'm not an ''Obamaniac'', but I appreciate his importance right now so I figured I'd give it a look. He writes really well.

 

[LightFang]

Working my way through The New Chinese Empire by Ross Terrill. Pretty critical of China.

 

[Cheezy the Wiz]

The Audacity Of Hope Barack Obama

I'm not an ''Obamaniac'', but I appreciate his importance right now so I figured I'd give it a look. He writes really well.

If you approve of Obama you are not only an Obamamanic, you must also have a secret shrine to him in your basement that replaces Christ with him on the cross.

 

[Moss]

Recently read Brave New World.

Quite good...wasn't necessarily a fan of the ending though, but I understand why it ended that way.

 

[Babbler]

I finished A War of Frontier and Empire, a short book about the Philippine-American War of 1899-1902 and The Library: An Unquiet History, a history of the library (oddly, the best parts were where book burning was discussed). Both very interesting.

 

[flyingchicken]

I finished A War of Frontier and Empire, a short book about the Philippine-American War of 1899-1902 [...] very interesting.

Do tell more. I might go book-hunting again.

 

[kuukkeli]

Låt den rätte komma in by John Ajvide Lindqvist: The movie was brilliant and the book is just about as good. I still have a bit over 100 pages to read but I'm going to do the post already.

This is the writer's debut novel and while it has no major flaws I do believe that his movie script is a bit more tight. The book does explain some things with more detail but some of the subplots that weren't in the film seem unnecessary.

Spoiler :

The fact that Eli (or Elias) is actually a boy is not subtle in the book like it was in the film. His castration is described in a flashback vision and the point is made 100% clear to both Oskar and the reader. I still would have prefered Eli being a girl but it's just a minor nuisance.

All in all the book is almost as good as the film (being one of the few cases where film is actualy better). Definately worth reading. 9/10

P.S. Any Swedes here who have read the book in its original Swedish language? I'd like to ask about couple of things that seem odd in Finnish translation.

 

[King of Town]

Gravity's Rainbow by Thomas Pynchon. Recommended to me by the librarian at college.

Once I finish with that doorstop (June sounds about right) I might go for Sometimes a Great Notion by Ken Kesey.

Gravities Rainbow, that quite an undertaking! I don't like Ken Kesey books, he writes in a way I can't stand.

 

[SG-17]

The Island of Doctor Moreau.
Part of a 7 novella anthology of H.G. Well's.
After wards I will read The Invisible Man. The First Men in the Moon, The Food of the Gods, and In The Days of the Comet.

 

[Love]

Låt den rätte komma in by John Ajvide Lindqvist: The movie was brilliant and the book is just about as good. I still have a bit over 100 pages to read but I'm going to do the post already.

This is the writer's debut novel and while it has no major flaws I do believe that his movie script is a bit more tight. The book does explain some things with more detail but some of the subplots that weren't in the film seem unnecessary.

Spoiler :

The fact that Eli (or Elias) is actually a boy is not subtle in the book like it was in the film. His castration is described in a flashback vision and the point is made 100% clear to both Oskar and the reader. I still would have prefered Eli being a girl but it's just a minor nuisance.

All in all the book is almost as good as the film (being one of the few cases where film is actualy better). Definately worth reading. 9/10

P.S. Any Swedes here who have read the book in its original Swedish language? I'd like to ask about couple of things that seem odd in Finnish translation.

The book is awesome. I read it in swedish, ask on

 

[kuukkeli]

The book is awesome.

It was good but it surely had more flaws than the film. It rushed through some of (IMO) important stuff while introducing some subplots that offered very little. The movie script managed to squeeze everything essential into itself thus making the film more focused.

I read it in swedish, ask on

Great I'll put the questions in spoilers so that I can pinpoint the text locations better. I received a reply through PM so I've edited the spoiler section to include answers as well. All answers are based on a PMs by user Love - tack så mycket!

Spoiler :

To help you find correct place I'll put the page on Finnish translation after the question (page/total number of pages).

Q1: Nitpicking first. Does the third part of the book start on Tuesday the 3rd or Thursday the 5th? Finnisn translation says Thursday the 3rd which can't be correct. (241/607)

A1: Thursday the 5th of November is the correct date.

Q2: On Friday the 30th after Eli has entered Oskar's room through window they talk in bed. Eli asks if they could be just friends like they've been this far and Oskar replies just "...yeah". What does Eli reply to that in Swedish (a dialogue line where she says that they can kiss if Oskar wants) and how would you translate the part before kissing proposal? (220/607)

A2: Eli's reply in Swedish is "Är du ledsen? Vi kan pussas, om du vill." The proper translation for "Är du ledsen?" would have been "Are you sad?" -- not "Are you sorry?" as it's translated in Finnish version.

Q3: After leaving his father's house Oskar goes to Eli's home. There he asks Eli if she's dead to which she replies no. After that Oskar rephrases (I presume) the question. What does he ask Eli in Swedish and how would you translate it? (349/607)

A3: Oskar asks "Nämen, du vet... Har du dött någon gång?" which would translate roughly to "Have you died sometime?" -- the Finnish translator has been totally lost here as in our version the question is roughly "Have you killed anyone?"

Q4: When discussing about Virginia's death Larry and Morgan offer an alternative explanation to Lacke's vampire story. I presume they mean spontaneous self-combustion but the Finnish translation includes the term suicide that doesn't seem to make any sense. (547/607)

A4: Spontaneous self-combustion is correct. There are no references to suicide at all.

Thank you for your trouble

 

[D0NIMATRIX]

Guns, Germs, and Steel. I think he's right about it.