What are you reading? - Page 2

Mephisto · 05-19-2004, 06:04 AM

The Inferno by Dante.

I should be concentrating on class material William Blake's Songs of Innocence & Experience. Unfortunately Dante?s piece is becoming far more fascinating and has superior art presentation.

SM · 05-24-2004, 05:50 AM

Mr Midshipman Hornblower by C.S Forrester.

Really needed it to do some research for a script I'm trying to write, to get the nautical lingo, and speech patterns of the period. Quite enjoying it. Will shortly track down Lieutenant Hornblower and with any luck the TV series.

AnnDee · 05-24-2004, 10:37 AM

I am reading Kensomniac's short stories...

And a book about JAVA.

J A Eyers · 06-01-2004, 07:48 AM

I'm now reading a German book called "Ende" by Anton-Andreas Guha. It was written in the early 1980s and is a fictionalised diary of how a nuclear Third World War would pan out. It blows out of the water the theory that nuclear weapons need be kept as a deterrent, and is extremely anti-American. There's also some touches of satire in there, as well, but it's all too realistic. People just seem to lie down and accept what's going on quietly because they don't want to rock the boat... despite it being the end of the world.

Cybro · 06-01-2004, 08:25 AM

Dude, where's my country? By ever-so loveable guy, Michael Moore.

It's not very good actually. Not particularly funny, and a bit on the "I'm a big liberal, look at me" side for my liking.

But the facts are scary.

J A Eyers · 06-01-2004, 07:05 PM

Like watching Bowling For Columbine, that book's best read with half your attention elsewhere. Moore has a very specific agenda with everything he does. Fair do's, and all that, but beneath it all he does manage to root out some very interesting things, often by accident, as you seem to have noted.

Sharp_Shooter · 06-01-2004, 07:53 PM

Hemp and the Marijuana Conspiracy: Emperor Wears No Clothes

Every page of this book is unbelivable and should be known by everyone. Certain facts such as the 1000's of uses of Hemp and how it was criminalized as it was about to replace plastics which large American companies had a lot of money invested in.

Also an intresting chapter on what lies they used to get it criminalized. At first it was said to be a the worlds most violent drug and was used by Negros to lure White women into Jaz bars to be raped but then as people began to realize this was rubbish they changed that and said it made people pacifist and as at this time fear of the communists was at its highest it was said that the communists would use the marijuna on the American troops so they could conquer America.

Its a book full of facts that everyone should know but very few do.,

Kimarhi Ronso · 06-02-2004, 11:22 AM

I read that (or a book like it) a long time ago. I went to the library and checked a hemp book out because the university of murray was growing it (not to smoke to study) because it can make alot of stuff. They were seeing how many things they could make out of it, it is the multiweed. I believe the only thing they knew how to make was rope though........

Sharp_Shooter · 06-03-2004, 09:31 AM

I'll give you some examples of its possible uses:

Textiles and Fabrics
Fiber and Pulp Paper
Rope, Twine and Cordage
Art Canvas
Paints and Varnishes - using the hemp seed oil
Lighting Oil
Biomass energy
Medicine
Food Oil and Protein - Hemp seeds contain highly nutritious vegetable oil
Building and Housing materials

But odviously its best to go without all this as long as it stops a few people getting high

Gwyinivere · 06-04-2004, 12:18 AM

Right now I'm reading Brick Lane by Monica Ali.

The begining is very slow, but once you get about halfway in you're hooked.

Her style is very unique, and really refreshing (after all the crap I had to read this year in my three very tedious English classes).

I'd certainly reccomend it.

were-rat · 06-04-2004, 05:30 PM

I'm reading Dracula by Bram Stoker. It's very... British. Room with a view and a staircase and a pond. Lots and lots of talking. But it's brought me to hate the movie Van Helsing.

Vincent_Vodevil · 06-06-2004, 07:37 PM

Quote:

Originally posted by were-rat
I'm reading Dracula by Bram Stoker. It's very... British. Room with a view and a staircase and a pond. Lots and lots of talking. But it's brought me to hate the movie Van Helsing.

Why is that? Not that I don't share your animosity...

SePhO_zO · 06-07-2004, 12:29 PM

Yesterday, I read the last 200 pages of the Drawing of the Three, the second book in Stephen King's Darktower series, so that's what I've been reading. I hope to bring it back and pick up the third book today. It's pretty good so far. Not great, but good.

were-rat · 06-07-2004, 07:23 PM

Quote:

Originally posted by Vincent_Vodevil
Why is that? Not that I don't share your animosity...

Why would they name an action hero after an old doctor? Honestly... And werewolves, vampires, and frankenstein in one movie? No. I don't think so!

jedigirl78 · 06-17-2004, 11:39 PM

I just finished Michael Chrichton's Prey. Ive been reading alot of Danielle Steel, Judy Blume, and VC Andrews books lately.

Kimarhi Ronso · 06-24-2004, 12:22 AM

Danielle Steel lives where I live.

Just so you know.....

Seifer · 06-24-2004, 11:05 AM

Quote:

Originally posted by SePhO_zO
Yesterday, I read the last 200 pages of the Drawing of the Three, the second book in Stephen King's Darktower series, so that's what I've been reading. I hope to bring it back and pick up the third book today. It's pretty good so far. Not great, but good.

Finally, someone else who reads the DT series.

I've just finished the latest, Song of Susannah. It definitely sets the tone for the last book in the series.

I'm currently reading the novelization of Fight Club.

J A Eyers · 06-24-2004, 07:20 PM

Erm, the book came first. It's only a novelisation if it's written to cash-in on the movie.

Seifer · 06-24-2004, 10:07 PM

Quote:

Originally posted by J A Eyers
Erm, the book came first. It's only a novelisation if it's written to cash-in on the movie.

Right, that's what I meant originally. Sorry, I've been stuck in neutral for a couple days. (Been overworked.)

Innominata · 07-01-2004, 02:28 AM

"Choke" by Chuck Palahniuk (author of "Fight Club" and "Survivor"). It's highly X-rated but insanely funny in a satirical way. After I finish this I'll start "Diary", also by Palahniuk. He's quickly becoming my favorite author.

Merkaal · 07-03-2004, 01:45 AM

Just finished doing "The Crucible" play/book in class. Pretty simple play too, but hard to work with sometimes as you can do too much, or too little work on it. I can never find the middleground of "just right" when writing analysis.

Cybro · 07-04-2004, 05:56 PM

Just started reading the Tin Drum. I have to say the opening few pages are shit.

Apparently it get's a lot more interesting the more you read though, so I'll stick with it for a bit. Anyone else read it?

J A Eyers · 07-04-2004, 06:15 PM

Yes, I have. It's a really warped, whacked out, mindfuck of a book. I wouldn't say it thrilled me to read it. I could only manage it in ten page sittings at a time. But I had to read it. I found it rewarding though. It's like the German Ulysses. And it's not often you get to see Germans as victims in World War Two. My favourite bit is where they go fishing using a horse head full of maggots as bait.

Cybro · 07-04-2004, 06:26 PM

Yeah, I can understand that. Actually, what I really can't work out, is why Gunther Grass writes the book in the form of an autobiography of an idiotic dwarf?

And I can see that it helps keep with the almost surrealist nature of the book, but surely it would have been better to use a character of more...depth?

J A Eyers · 07-04-2004, 06:43 PM

Well, once you get further in the book, you'll see Oskar doing some really crazy stuff, but remembering it's his autobiography (and that the first line is "Granted: I am in a lunatic asylum" or something), you're meant to ask is he crazy, or is the rest of the world? Or is it all crazy, and just a matter of which is crazier?

If you're interested enough, you can read an essay I wrote about Oskar here: http://jeyers.phlipped.co.uk/postwar.php

Cybro · 07-04-2004, 06:52 PM

I'll have a read of that tommorow. My own inclination was something like that- seing almost "insane" evils through the eyes of someone who is supposedly "insane."

It just didn't really appeal to me, I guess. I better read the whole book first though.

J A Eyers · 07-04-2004, 07:09 PM

Why are you reading it, if I may ask? I had to read it for a unit I did on Postwar Fiction, and whilst it's certainly a rewarding book to read from an academic viewpoint, it's not really something I would have chosen to read.

As for that essay, best leave it until after you read it, or it won't make much sense. You might decide to give up on the book after another few pages of hiding under women's skirts and making them pregnant. It's one of the best essays I wrote, if only by virtue of the fact that, reading it now, I don't understand half the stuff I was saying back then...

Cybro · 07-04-2004, 08:29 PM

A friend recommended it to me, and at first glance, it seemed like the type of read I quite fancied at the moment. To be honest, I've just really gone off the idea of reading a huge and rather intimidating novel for now.
I also think it was an almost sub-concious way for me to put off reading through a 'GCSE Anthology' for school. The more activities I'm doing at the moment, the more excuses I'll have to use on myself.

Ah well, I think I'm just gonna read it in 'small bursts' from now on.

SePhO_zO · 07-05-2004, 01:12 AM

Quote:

Originally posted by Seifer
I've just finished the latest, Song of Susannah. It definitely sets the tone for the last book in the series.

I'm half-way through the fourth book now, Wizard and Glass, and only because I had to wait for it to get in. I finished the third book in no time and finally got the fourth two days ago, been reading atleast 100 pages a day since the start of the third (often over 200 a day). I can't stop reading. I read when I wake up all the way until I go to work. I read during my break at work. I read when I get off work until I go to bed. My opinion of the tale overall is getting better with each page.

J A Eyers · 07-05-2004, 07:37 AM

Today I started reading "Meg" by Steve Alten. It's the one about the giant prehistoric sharks that are found to have survived deep in the Mariana Trench. I bought it for 40p years ago after a poster named Kodiak1 raved about it around here, but have only just got round to reading it. So far, so good. 50 pages in one sitting, which is quite rare for me.

05-19-2004, 06:04 AM	#31 (permalink)
Mephisto GERONIMO!!! Grizzled Veteran Join Date: Jul 2001 Posts: 1,337	The Inferno by Dante. I should be concentrating on class material William Blake's Songs of Innocence & Experience. Unfortunately Dante?s piece is becoming far more fascinating and has superior art presentation.

05-24-2004, 05:50 AM	#32 (permalink)
SM Network Interface 2037 Epic Poster Join Date: Nov 2000 Location: Network Interface 2037, WY Melbourne Posts: 15,284	Mr Midshipman Hornblower by C.S Forrester. Really needed it to do some research for a script I'm trying to write, to get the nautical lingo, and speech patterns of the period. Quite enjoying it. Will shortly track down Lieutenant Hornblower and with any luck the TV series.

05-24-2004, 10:37 AM	#33 (permalink)
AnnDee Registered User Grizzled Veteran Join Date: Jul 2002 Location: South-Germany Posts: 1,758	I am reading Kensomniac's short stories... And a book about JAVA.

06-01-2004, 07:48 AM	#34 (permalink)
J A Eyers Better ban'd than bland Godlike Poster Join Date: Nov 2000 Location: Southend, England Posts: 24,315	I'm now reading a German book called "Ende" by Anton-Andreas Guha. It was written in the early 1980s and is a fictionalised diary of how a nuclear Third World War would pan out. It blows out of the water the theory that nuclear weapons need be kept as a deterrent, and is extremely anti-American. There's also some touches of satire in there, as well, but it's all too realistic. People just seem to lie down and accept what's going on quietly because they don't want to rock the boat... despite it being the end of the world.

06-01-2004, 08:25 AM	#35 (permalink)
Cybro Registered User Grizzled Veteran Join Date: Jun 2003 Posts: 1,706	Dude, where's my country? By ever-so loveable guy, Michael Moore. It's not very good actually. Not particularly funny, and a bit on the "I'm a big liberal, look at me" side for my liking. But the facts are scary.

06-01-2004, 07:05 PM	#36 (permalink)
J A Eyers Better ban'd than bland Godlike Poster Join Date: Nov 2000 Location: Southend, England Posts: 24,315	Like watching Bowling For Columbine, that book's best read with half your attention elsewhere. Moore has a very specific agenda with everything he does. Fair do's, and all that, but beneath it all he does manage to root out some very interesting things, often by accident, as you seem to have noted.

06-01-2004, 07:53 PM	#37 (permalink)
Sharp_Shooter Registered User Grizzled Veteran Join Date: Jul 2002 Location: U.K Posts: 1,244	Hemp and the Marijuana Conspiracy: Emperor Wears No Clothes Every page of this book is unbelivable and should be known by everyone. Certain facts such as the 1000's of uses of Hemp and how it was criminalized as it was about to replace plastics which large American companies had a lot of money invested in. Also an intresting chapter on what lies they used to get it criminalized. At first it was said to be a the worlds most violent drug and was used by Negros to lure White women into Jaz bars to be raped but then as people began to realize this was rubbish they changed that and said it made people pacifist and as at this time fear of the communists was at its highest it was said that the communists would use the marijuna on the American troops so they could conquer America. Its a book full of facts that everyone should know but very few do.,

06-02-2004, 11:22 AM	#38 (permalink)
Kimarhi Ronso I thought what I'd do was.... Epic Poster Join Date: Mar 2003 Location: Hooterville, KY, USA Posts: 16,263	I read that (or a book like it) a long time ago. I went to the library and checked a hemp book out because the university of murray was growing it (not to smoke to study) because it can make alot of stuff. They were seeing how many things they could make out of it, it is the multiweed. I believe the only thing they knew how to make was rope though........

06-03-2004, 09:31 AM	#39 (permalink)
Sharp_Shooter Registered User Grizzled Veteran Join Date: Jul 2002 Location: U.K Posts: 1,244	I'll give you some examples of its possible uses: Textiles and Fabrics Fiber and Pulp Paper Rope, Twine and Cordage Art Canvas Paints and Varnishes - using the hemp seed oil Lighting Oil Biomass energy Medicine Food Oil and Protein - Hemp seeds contain highly nutritious vegetable oil Building and Housing materials But odviously its best to go without all this as long as it stops a few people getting high

06-04-2004, 12:18 AM	#40 (permalink)
Gwyinivere Registered User Forum Fledgling Join Date: Apr 2004 Location: Michigan, USA Posts: 100	Right now I'm reading Brick Lane by Monica Ali. The begining is very slow, but once you get about halfway in you're hooked. Her style is very unique, and really refreshing (after all the crap I had to read this year in my three very tedious English classes). I'd certainly reccomend it.

06-04-2004, 05:30 PM	#41 (permalink)
were-rat Registered User Forum Fanatic Join Date: Jan 2004 Location: The Sewers of Manhattan Posts: 425	I'm reading Dracula by Bram Stoker. It's very... British. Room with a view and a staircase and a pond. Lots and lots of talking. But it's brought me to hate the movie Van Helsing.

06-07-2004, 12:29 PM	#43 (permalink)
SePhO_zO Ain't no party like my nana's tea party Grizzled Veteran Join Date: Nov 2001 Location: Earth, arguably Posts: 2,819	Yesterday, I read the last 200 pages of the Drawing of the Three, the second book in Stephen King's Darktower series, so that's what I've been reading. I hope to bring it back and pick up the third book today. It's pretty good so far. Not great, but good.

06-17-2004, 11:39 PM	#45 (permalink)
jedigirl78 Registered User Forum Fledgling Join Date: Oct 2000 Location: Detroit, Michigan Posts: 136	I just finished Michael Chrichton's Prey. Ive been reading alot of Danielle Steel, Judy Blume, and VC Andrews books lately.

06-24-2004, 12:22 AM	#46 (permalink)
Kimarhi Ronso I thought what I'd do was.... Epic Poster Join Date: Mar 2003 Location: Hooterville, KY, USA Posts: 16,263	Danielle Steel lives where I live. Just so you know.....

06-24-2004, 07:20 PM	#48 (permalink)
J A Eyers Better ban'd than bland Godlike Poster Join Date: Nov 2000 Location: Southend, England Posts: 24,315	Erm, the book came first. It's only a novelisation if it's written to cash-in on the movie.

07-01-2004, 02:28 AM	#50 (permalink)
Innominata Registered User Veteran Join Date: Nov 2003 Location: Not with you. Posts: 890	"Choke" by Chuck Palahniuk (author of "Fight Club" and "Survivor"). It's highly X-rated but insanely funny in a satirical way. After I finish this I'll start "Diary", also by Palahniuk. He's quickly becoming my favorite author.

07-03-2004, 01:45 AM	#51 (permalink)
Merkaal heh Grizzled Veteran Join Date: Mar 2002 Location: Earth Posts: 3,144	Just finished doing "The Crucible" play/book in class. Pretty simple play too, but hard to work with sometimes as you can do too much, or too little work on it. I can never find the middleground of "just right" when writing analysis.

07-04-2004, 05:56 PM	#52 (permalink)
Cybro Registered User Grizzled Veteran Join Date: Jun 2003 Posts: 1,706	Just started reading the Tin Drum. I have to say the opening few pages are shit. Apparently it get's a lot more interesting the more you read though, so I'll stick with it for a bit. Anyone else read it?

07-04-2004, 06:15 PM	#53 (permalink)
J A Eyers Better ban'd than bland Godlike Poster Join Date: Nov 2000 Location: Southend, England Posts: 24,315	Yes, I have. It's a really warped, whacked out, mindfuck of a book. I wouldn't say it thrilled me to read it. I could only manage it in ten page sittings at a time. But I had to read it. I found it rewarding though. It's like the German Ulysses. And it's not often you get to see Germans as victims in World War Two. My favourite bit is where they go fishing using a horse head full of maggots as bait.

07-04-2004, 06:26 PM	#54 (permalink)
Cybro Registered User Grizzled Veteran Join Date: Jun 2003 Posts: 1,706	Yeah, I can understand that. Actually, what I really can't work out, is why Gunther Grass writes the book in the form of an autobiography of an idiotic dwarf? And I can see that it helps keep with the almost surrealist nature of the book, but surely it would have been better to use a character of more...depth?

07-04-2004, 06:43 PM	#55 (permalink)
J A Eyers Better ban'd than bland Godlike Poster Join Date: Nov 2000 Location: Southend, England Posts: 24,315	Well, once you get further in the book, you'll see Oskar doing some really crazy stuff, but remembering it's his autobiography (and that the first line is "Granted: I am in a lunatic asylum" or something), you're meant to ask is he crazy, or is the rest of the world? Or is it all crazy, and just a matter of which is crazier? If you're interested enough, you can read an essay I wrote about Oskar here: http://jeyers.phlipped.co.uk/postwar.php

07-04-2004, 06:52 PM	#56 (permalink)
Cybro Registered User Grizzled Veteran Join Date: Jun 2003 Posts: 1,706	I'll have a read of that tommorow. My own inclination was something like that- seing almost "insane" evils through the eyes of someone who is supposedly "insane." It just didn't really appeal to me, I guess. I better read the whole book first though.

07-04-2004, 07:09 PM	#57 (permalink)
J A Eyers Better ban'd than bland Godlike Poster Join Date: Nov 2000 Location: Southend, England Posts: 24,315	Why are you reading it, if I may ask? I had to read it for a unit I did on Postwar Fiction, and whilst it's certainly a rewarding book to read from an academic viewpoint, it's not really something I would have chosen to read. As for that essay, best leave it until after you read it, or it won't make much sense. You might decide to give up on the book after another few pages of hiding under women's skirts and making them pregnant. It's one of the best essays I wrote, if only by virtue of the fact that, reading it now, I don't understand half the stuff I was saying back then...

07-04-2004, 08:29 PM	#58 (permalink)
Cybro Registered User Grizzled Veteran Join Date: Jun 2003 Posts: 1,706	A friend recommended it to me, and at first glance, it seemed like the type of read I quite fancied at the moment. To be honest, I've just really gone off the idea of reading a huge and rather intimidating novel for now. I also think it was an almost sub-concious way for me to put off reading through a 'GCSE Anthology' for school. The more activities I'm doing at the moment, the more excuses I'll have to use on myself. Ah well, I think I'm just gonna read it in 'small bursts' from now on.

07-05-2004, 07:37 AM	#60 (permalink)
J A Eyers Better ban'd than bland Godlike Poster Join Date: Nov 2000 Location: Southend, England Posts: 24,315	Today I started reading "Meg" by Steve Alten. It's the one about the giant prehistoric sharks that are found to have survived deep in the Mariana Trench. I bought it for 40p years ago after a poster named Kodiak1 raved about it around here, but have only just got round to reading it. So far, so good. 50 pages in one sitting, which is quite rare for me.