Which book are you reading now? Volume XI
- Thread starter NedimNapoleon
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The Diary of a Young Girl - Anne Frank
Barbarian Days: A Surfing Life - William Finnegan
warpus
Sommerswerd asked me to change this
Influence: The Psychology of Persuasion by Robert B., PhD Cialdini
Needed things on a secret santa list and there's nothing I need. So I started looking up books I might find interesting that people said were good. This one got rave reviews and everyone says it's useful so here I am reading it
Needed things on a secret santa list and there's nothing I need. So I started looking up books I might find interesting that people said were good. This one got rave reviews and everyone says it's useful so here I am reading it
FriendlyFire
Codex WMDicanious
Methland
JohannaK
Heroically Clueless
That's the collection. It's awful. Awful awful awful. I think it's a curated edition of a non-profit publisher that aims to preserve the American classics. Includes Hawthorne and Waldo Emerson, but also Philip K. Dick for example.
EgonSpengler
Deity
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A pair of Neals, purely coincidentally:
Seveneves by Neal Stephenson. I like the story, but I'm finding the reams of technical descriptions make my eyes glaze over. I don't know whether I'll make it to the end.
Also The Winter Fortress by Neal Bascomb. It's about the SOE & Norwegian effort to destroy the heavy-water plant at Vemork in 1942. The Norsk Hydro facility was the only one of its kind in Europe, and the Germans had captured it for their atomic weapons program.
I recently finished Metropolitan by Walter Jon Williams. A kind of "modern fantasy", set in a non-Earth, fantasy world with magic that is in an era comparable to the early 20th-Century. I've read a bunch of Williams' cyberpunk stuff, and this is pretty good too.
Seveneves by Neal Stephenson. I like the story, but I'm finding the reams of technical descriptions make my eyes glaze over. I don't know whether I'll make it to the end.
Also The Winter Fortress by Neal Bascomb. It's about the SOE & Norwegian effort to destroy the heavy-water plant at Vemork in 1942. The Norsk Hydro facility was the only one of its kind in Europe, and the Germans had captured it for their atomic weapons program.
I recently finished Metropolitan by Walter Jon Williams. A kind of "modern fantasy", set in a non-Earth, fantasy world with magic that is in an era comparable to the early 20th-Century. I've read a bunch of Williams' cyberpunk stuff, and this is pretty good too.
Ferocitus
Deity
Seveneves was very disappointing, especially compared to Cryptonomicon.
Neal Stephenson - The Baroque Cycle.
Listening to the audio book now, after reading it a few years ago.
^Even the cover looks dangerously boring
Three tales in and it is already a tough slog. It is going to be a long 1,400+ pages.
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Livy's history of Rome, book 6. You might think it's nice to read the history of the first half of the 300s B.C., and a nice way to get away from the problems of the present day. But on the domestic front, the problems of early Republican Rome had more than a fair amount of similarities to today. Very large income inequality fueling civil unrest? Check. The government offices being dominated by the most well-to-do citizens? Check. Power-hungry aristocrats seeking the most powerful offices in the land via stroking the commoners' anxieties to propel them to power? Check again.
However, it's reassuring to note that Republican Rome would survive several more centuries until the civil wars of the 80s B.C. really tore it apart internally.
However, it's reassuring to note that Republican Rome would survive several more centuries until the civil wars of the 80s B.C. really tore it apart internally.
Ferocitus
Deity
Fake news? Pliny the Elder. Check.
FriendlyFire
Codex WMDicanious
What the F is wrong with Republicans ?
The solution to solving this Meth epidemic was nearly 20 years ago when they developed new pain medicine which could not be cooked into Meth. Instead of pushing for pharama to replace suodophiran (sp ?) replacement with a safe alternative. Stupid Republicans just attack the messengers who trying to raise the alarm bells about a long standing Rual meth drug culture. /facepalm what the hell ?
The solution to solving this Meth epidemic was nearly 20 years ago when they developed new pain medicine which could not be cooked into Meth. Instead of pushing for pharama to replace suodophiran (sp ?) replacement with a safe alternative. Stupid Republicans just attack the messengers who trying to raise the alarm bells about a long standing Rual meth drug culture. /facepalm what the hell ?
Methland
Ferocitus
Deity
You are confusing opiates with amphetamines and their precursors. Pseudoephedrine is not a "pain medication".
yung.carl.jung
Hey Bird! I'm Morose & Lugubrious
^Even the cover looks dangerously boring
To be fair, I enjoyed "My Kinsman, Major Molyneux"
Recently finished The Trial (re-read), about to finish the Castle (re-read) and then I'll finish Pynchons's "V" (sort of a re-read. never finished it because I lost my hardcover).
Ferocitus
Deity
Sounds like you might like Robert Musil's "The Man Without Qualities".
yung.carl.jung
Hey Bird! I'm Morose & Lugubrious
Hey! That's what I named my autobriography!
Lohrenswald
世界的 bottom ranked physicist
ey what'ya think about it
yung.carl.jung
Hey Bird! I'm Morose & Lugubrious
At first, overall confusion. The process of his trial, how it evolves up to the very (abrupt) end was masterfully done imo. I talked to Kyriakos about it and he sold me his view, I combined it with mine, and here is pretty much what I got out of it:
The two main themes that are represented throughout not only the book, but also Kafkas body of work, are authority and bureaucracy. The protagonist starts out very aloof, slightly upset, but seems not at all threatened by his trial. As time goes on however it creeps into every corner of his private life: His romantic affairs, his work, his relationship with his houskeeper and so forth. K. becomes more paranoid, mentally and physically weaker, until the ned where he basically willingly subjugates.
Authority is portrayed as something that is not really acquired through achievement, intellect, hard work, but rather more or less arbitrarily divided under an elite-group of ruling men, hence them often being portrayed is completely incapable. It is a destructive power, only available to few, who almost live in a parallel society, remember for example the way the courtrooms were set up: Almost impossible to reach, in remote areas, hidden, full of thick smoke, make people feel physically uneasy and so forth.
Bureaucracy is in this case the essential tool of the person in power, it makes them almost untouchable. The painter tells K. that there are realistically only 3 ways for him to tackle his case: The real absolution (nigh impossible), the seeming absolution (not satisfactory) and dragging the process on for as long as possible. As we get to see later on, K. defies all these three bureaucratic ways and picks the easiest option, which is death. Bureaucracy is also a tool for dehumanization, allowing each person to be treated as a case.
Since I read it in German, I can say that the prose is very nice, although even as a Kafka fanboy I will admit that he is too lengthy at times. Sometimes these lengthy parts convey absolutely essential information, but sometimes they don't. I like his thick, descriptive, exact prose, he makes great use of the German language. I like the way he develops characters and how dynamic his books feel. What are your thoughts on this book? I can't think right now, got a lot of stuff going on, so sorry for my confused answer.
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