Darktremor's Current Reading
Submitted by darktremor on Tue, 06/21/2005 - 12:43
Tags:
- Recently finished or stopped reading:
- Life of Pi - Yann Martel [*****]
- As good as everything I'd heard about it, and more - I now count this among my all-time favorite books. The beginning is relaxing and intriguing, the middle exciting and breakneck paced, and the end so fascinating that it reframed everything I read before into a completely new light. This was one of the only books I've ever read that I immediately wanted to start reading again the second I finished it. This book is truly a wonderful experience, and I think it should be required reading for the entire human race.
- The God Delusion - Richard Dawkins [*** 1/2]
- A highly entertaining read, but since I'm a pretty enthusiastic atheist already, it didn't tell me much that I didn't already know. Still, I was quite excited to start lending it out to fence-sitting friends and family members, and it's already having quite an impact on my previously agnostic mom.
- And I don't lend it out because I think everyone should think exactly the same way, it's just that I see a lot of people holding pointless medieval grudges against completely innocent minority groups (gays especially), frittering away endless hours on useless rituals, and living their lives under stifling piles of meaningless guilt about things that are essentially bodily functions over which they have little control (read: sex) - among other very silly things. It all seems to me like such a waste of life - both theirs, the people around them, and those they force these ideas upon - especially their children. Still worse, since I live in a democratic country (which I am thankful for), if there are a lot of religious people around, government decisions will be made on the basis of these beliefs. I don't want to live in a country where, for example, useful scientific research (such as studies on stem cells) is stifled because a deeply misled majority feel it goes against the word of a repeatedly mistranslated historical relic of some ancient death cult. Besides, I get woken up early at least one Sunday a month by people knocking on my door to tell me I'm going to burn in a fiery pit of suffering because I don't base my entire life around their obscure misreading of some random book, so I have the right to lend The God Delusion to religious fence-sitters.
- Authentic Happiness - Martin Seligman [*** 1/2]
- This is essentially Seligman's primer for applying research in the field of positive psychology to daily life. While this may sound a bit like self-help nonsense, let me assure you, it isn't. Positive psychology is a new branch of cognitive science - of which Seligman himself was a fundamental founding member (not to mention head of the APA and inventor of the theory of learned helplessness - based around raising people beyond being "just healthy." Starting in the mid-1900's, clinical psychology became highly intertwined with psychiatry, and thus turned very pessimistic, basing itself almost entirely around healing mental illness. Seligman's approach is an application of the older field of humanistic psychology - the last to concern itself with being more than just being healthy - to newer research. The results are fairly good, and work well as a very practical layman's introduction to the field. Now, despite the easy language, I'm not sure how interesting it would be to a non-psychologist, but I found it fascinating.
- The Zoo Story - Edward Albee
- A classic absurdist play by one the world's all-time best playwrights. His first play, as a matter of fact, but up to par with any of his highly influential later work. What more is there to say? I can actually say I enjoyed this non-stop from beginning to end: touching, hilarious, and seemingly non-sensical, but providing great insight into the human condition, class differences, the dangers of inaction, and loneliness while remaining thouroughly entertaining. Plot summary: An apparently crazy man sits down next to an apparently sane one, and attempts to start a conversation. Nothing happens but bizarre, often humourous convseration(like all absurdist theatre), until the violent ending. A parable about our inability to communicate with one another, and an effective one at that.
- Wizard's First Rule - Terry Goodkind
- A particularly good epic fantasy. Unlike Goodkind's contemporaries, he does not fall victim to most of the usual cliches, and manages to write without excessive Tolkien influence. Entirely original from beginning to end, which is quite a rarity in such a (currently) watered-down genre. However, it was the characters that really made this novel what it is (fantastic). Unlike other epic fantasy writers, who construct cardboard cutouts to carry their plot along, Goodkind anchors his characters into the story: they are complex to the point of being a part of the plot. As a matter of fact, without this complexity, the plot would not even exist. They are developed meticulously, and continue to develop throughout the series. An fantastic, and unbelievably engaging read.
- Stone of Tears - Terry Goodkind
- A continuation of Wizard's First Rule, and every bit as good as the first novel. It's barely a seperate story (although it's well-written enough to stand on it's own): it seems as though Goodkind wrote the entire series at once, as one large book, and is now releasing it one part at a time.
- The Five People you Meet in Heaven - Mitch Albom
- Infuriating new age garbage.
- Angels and Demons - Dan Brown
- More Dan Brown pseudo-intellectualism (meaning he again made up all the facts and passed it off as cutting-edge academia). I stopped reading it halfway through.
- Mindscan - Robert J. Sawyer
- The Terminal Experiment - Robert J. Sawyer
- Desperation - Stephen King
- Fifth Business - Robertson Davies
- Much Ado About Nothing - William Shakespeare
- Hybrids - Robert J. Sawyer
- The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy - Douglas Adams (re-read)
- Weiner Dog Art - Gary Larson
- Catch-22 - Joseph Heller
- Chindi - Jack McDevitt
- Blink - Malcolm Gladwell
- Waiting for Godot - Samuel Beckett
- Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince - J.K. Rowling
- 101 Things to Do Before You Die - Richard Horne
- Blood of the Fold - Terry Goodkind
- Omega - Jack McDevitt
- Harry Potter and The Deathly Hallows - J.K. Rowling
- The Brain that Changes Itself - Norman Doidge
- JPod - Douglas Coupland
- Survivor - Chuck Palahnuik
- The Colour of Magic - Terry Prachett
- [all I can remember for now...]
- Currently Reading:
- This is Your Brain on Music: The Science of a Human Obsession - Daniel J. Levitin
- Foundation - Isaac Asimov
- 100 Years of Solitude - Gabriel Garcia Marquez
- The Shipping News - E. Annie Proulx [great so far, BTW]
Ah, waiting for godot...good choice.
Definitely! Favorite play of all time. Actually performed in it too, as Vladimir. Tres fun :)
try "the seawolf" by jack london
my favourite book of all time
Writer of "Call of the Wild"?
I loved that book, I'll definitely have to try "The Seawolf." :)
Thanks! :)
Anthem - Ayn Rand
I've wanted to check Ayn Rand out for a while now, actually...
Isn't Fountainhead a stronger start to her writing, though? Or would you recommend Anthem?
Anthem is the beginning of her strongest writing. The ideas that she eventualy develops begin to find their form in Anthem. She follows it with Fountainhead, and concludes it all with Atlas Shrugged, which is he masterpiece. That is probably the best order to read her works in, and then follow them with the rest of her stuff, if there is still any interest in it.
P.S. let me know about the track times for the music if you ever get a chance.
Perfect! Thanks!
Second Foundation - Isaac Asimov
Best Sci-fi book I've ever read....and to be honest the only one I've actually liked. Though it is a series, I was too lazy to start from the beginning, but the ending blew my mind away. Very well written.
Also....my uncle (the kind of guy that picks up 12 books and finishes them in a week) has told me an extremely unique sci-fi book is The Foreigner by C.J. Cherryh. I'd like to point out I do not recommend books I haven't read, but this book is on my uncle's top ten list, and that is...almost as impossible as making a good Mission Impossible movie.
Other than that, many of the books you have mentioned are amazing (Sword of Truth series got me hooked, and I couldn't put them down for a month, though I still have to read the last one), except for the J.K Rowling novel. Any author that gets that mainstream after one book I tend to put down (though I tried give her credit, I went for 5 books, until I became disgusted with the 5th one).
Besides my rambling: (I apologize)
Although I've never met you personally, nor do I plan to, I have a lot of respect for your taste in both music and reading, and I plan to invest some time in your...online material.
Thank you, I'm glad you enjoy the lists. I'll check out The Foreigner if I can find it at a local library or bookstore.
why dont you create a "your favourite novels of all time" thread?
I should, although I'd really have trouble choosing. By the way, this list is ridiculously out of date.
Have you gotten to Confessor: Terry Goodkind yet? That's the last book, and I finally got to it just today actually. The series got a little tiresome after the 7th book, but once I start something I just can't stop it =/. Anyway, Blood of the Fold is a great book (the first three are the best). Keep up the reading, it's pretty difficult to do so in todays busy world. And Foundation is an AMAZING series. I am not a Asimov kinda guy, but that is worth reading.
Yes, I'm enjoying Asimov so far.
I'm only at the end of Blood of the Fold (which was pretty good), and I'm already finding the series somewhat tiresome (although I've read 4 books, since I read The Pillars of Creation first, which actually works extremely well, since you're not yet attached to Richard and Kahlan and it comes as a surprise when they're the "good guys"), so I don't think I'm going to keep reading it: I don't have the time for such huge books if they're not going to be immensely rewarding.
So I just finished reading Confessor and I have to say, it was a great ending novel. I think he could have had a little more on Gratch, but besides that...there's nothing really more he could have added. The ending speech Richard gives is very well done, and the last sentence of the novel really is true. Overall, the series gets an 8.5/10
On a few of the books it felt like he was just trying to...make a book out of something that could have been covered in about 30 minutes worth of reading, but I only felt that way about 2 of them. It was worth the time I spent on it. I think my favorite book was Faith of the Fallen/...but it's pretty hard to compete with the first three novels. Overall, for the length of the series, it was phenomenally well done.
Wow...I just noticed I read that book in a day...
I'm sure it's pretty good, but my attention span isn't big enough for a series of that length. It was only the first 3 I read, and I didn't have much desire to go and read the 4th novel.
So how are you liking the book This is Your Brain On Music..., I must admit the title is really grabbing my interest, and if it is any good where did you find it? Hope life is treatin' ya well!
Pretty good, although a reading it is a bit on hiatus with all the work school is dishing out...otherwise, life's not too bad, you?