Author Topic: Fave Books / Currently Reading  (Read 945966 times)

JonFromMaplewood

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Re: Fave Books / Currently Reading
« Reply #435 on: July 01, 2008, 01:13:29 PM »
I am working my way chronologically through Cor Double-Mac (thank you JJ Jackson!). Suttree is next. The first three were horrific. My therapist (don't judge) actually asked me to stop reading them. I'm sorry, I meant my "friend that I pay".

I judge you awesome.  Cognitive behavioral?  Freudian?  I found cognitive behavioral to be most effective for me.

I will email him right this moment and ask.

Hey, he got back to me and said "Very close to traditional cognitive behavioral, with a dollop of voodoo."

You found a good therapist.

As for me, I have been reading the same book for four months due to work and family requirements.  But I had too many surrenders in the past year. I refuse to give up!
"I'm riding the silence like John Cage up in this piece." -Tom Scharpling

iAmBaronVonTito

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Re: Fave Books / Currently Reading
« Reply #436 on: July 01, 2008, 02:33:08 PM »
i didnt jump on the chuck klosterman boat originally, but i just finished SEX, DRUGS, AND COCOA PUFFS.  im only halfway impressed.

i would recommend it to friends, but i dont talk it up.  i'd rather let me them figure it out on their own.  it was worth the second-hand $7.

dave from knoxville

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Re: Fave Books / Currently Reading
« Reply #437 on: July 01, 2008, 06:31:25 PM »
I just ordered 7 of the dozen or so "Virgin Encyopedia" series devoted to music, specifically the ones for the 50's, 60's, 70's, 80's, Rock, Heavy Rock, Indie and New Wave, and Blues.

I collect music reference books.

Steeley Chris

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Re: Fave Books / Currently Reading
« Reply #438 on: July 01, 2008, 08:10:57 PM »
I collect music reference books.

My friend has this book that I think was titled The History of Rock & Roll. I do clearly remember a picture in it of Joey Ramone that was titled "Patti Smith".
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Shaggy 2 Grote

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Re: Fave Books / Currently Reading
« Reply #439 on: July 02, 2008, 12:27:45 AM »
I collect music reference books.

My friend has this book that I think was titled The History of Rock & Roll. I do clearly remember a picture in it of Joey Ramone that was titled "Patti Smith".

Oh how I would love a scan of this.  It's possibly the only thing that would make me replace my Neil Numberman original.
Oh, good heavens. I didn’t realize. I send my condolences out to the rest of the O’Connor family.

Steeley Chris

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Re: Fave Books / Currently Reading
« Reply #440 on: July 02, 2008, 11:45:02 AM »
I collect music reference books.

My friend has this book that I think was titled The History of Rock & Roll. I do clearly remember a picture in it of Joey Ramone that was titled "Patti Smith".

Oh how I would love a scan of this.  It's possibly the only thing that would make me replace my Neil Numberman original.
I'll see what i can do. I'll be seeing said friend in a couple of weeks.
"Dad gets mad."

Bryan

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Re: Fave Books / Currently Reading
« Reply #441 on: July 13, 2008, 11:13:26 AM »
I've just about finished Myra Breckenridge by Gore Vidal. I'd never read anything by him before, and had him pigeonholed as a John Cheever-ish observer of upper-middle class life. (I like Cheever, btw.)

Holy cow, was I wrong! It's a crazy book. It seems like a natural for an FOT reading list - weird sex, drugs, celebrity obsessions and psychoanalysis. And it's hilarious.

Did anyone see the interview with Gore Vidal in the NY Times a few weeks ago? For an 82-year-old, he's still spunky as hell.

cutout

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Re: Fave Books / Currently Reading
« Reply #442 on: July 13, 2008, 12:04:42 PM »
I'm reading The World is Flat by Thomas Friedman. His "omg the internet!01" tone sounds too much like my dad and he's beating the "flattening of the world" metaphor to death. Not sure if I'll be able to finish. Anyone make it all the way through? So far Friedman is only telling the success stories of business-owners in the era of globalization -- not much perspective from people on the ground, so to speak.

Bryan

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Re: Fave Books / Currently Reading
« Reply #443 on: July 13, 2008, 12:37:30 PM »
I haven't read it. I don't like that guy. I'm sick enough of his use of "flat world" in his columns. I can't imagine a whole book of it.

That "world is flat" thing he's always talking about does provide an obvious analogy for the quality of his analysis of world affairs.

yesno

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Re: Fave Books / Currently Reading
« Reply #444 on: July 13, 2008, 12:39:48 PM »
I hate "business" books that take an essay's worth of idea and stretch it into 900 pages.  That's what Friedman does.  You get as much out of reading a good review of one of those books, as from reading the book itself.

They end up just being a string of anecdotes, which Malcolm Gladwell can do entertainingly, but just about no one else can.

Fido

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Re: Fave Books / Currently Reading
« Reply #445 on: July 13, 2008, 09:38:15 PM »
I hate "business" books that take an essay's worth of idea and stretch it into 900 pages.  That's what Friedman does.  You get as much out of reading a good review of one of those books, as from reading the book itself.

They end up just being a string of anecdotes, which Malcolm Gladwell can do entertainingly, but just about no one else can.

I guess that was my reaction, in a nutshell, to Freakonomics. I don't think I was ever freaked, and in fact, expected a lot more. It's not a book I could have written, but I feel like I could have come pretty close, and I don't like feeling that way after reading nonfiction.

Just started reading Bowling Alone, a book that I purchased about 5 years ago or so and intended to read long ago. I'm afraid it could be the same kind of thing, but it looks much more engaging so far.

Susannah

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Re: Fave Books / Currently Reading
« Reply #446 on: July 13, 2008, 09:39:23 PM »
I am currently slogging my way through the awful "The Secret Life of Bees" by Sue Monk Kidd, which my colleague, in all of her English teaching-seniority, insisted be one of the 9th grade summer reading books this year.  Yeeeeuch.  The story is part of "To Kill A Mockingbird," part "The Divine Secrets of the Ya-Ya Sisterhood," with too much of the latter and not enough of the former.  I also found out that it's being made into a film starring Dakota Fanning, Queen Latifah and Jennifer Hudson, so get ready for the feel-good chick flick of the fall.  It's times like these that I am thankful I get to make my students suffer through "The Odyssey" later in the year--the alternatives are terrible.

iAmBaronVonTito

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Re: Fave Books / Currently Reading
« Reply #447 on: July 14, 2008, 01:57:01 AM »
I've just about finished Myra Breckenridge by Gore Vidal. I'd never read anything by him before, and had him pigeonholed as a John Cheever-ish observer of upper-middle class life. (I like Cheever, btw.)

Holy cow, was I wrong! It's a crazy book. It seems like a natural for an FOT reading list - weird sex, drugs, celebrity obsessions and psychoanalysis. And it's hilarious.

Did anyone see the interview with Gore Vidal in the NY Times a few weeks ago? For an 82-year-old, he's still spunky as hell.

thanks for posting the link to the interview.  i laughed out loud more than once. 

Pat K

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Re: Fave Books / Currently Reading
« Reply #448 on: July 14, 2008, 11:20:44 AM »
As for me, I have been reading the same book for four months due to work and family requirements.  But I had too many surrenders in the past year. I refuse to give up!

I'm in exactly the same boat. It's taken me far, far too long to plow through what I'm currently plowing through, but I"m sticking with it. It's getting frustrating, because there's so many other books I want to get to, but I've still got a long slog ahead of me.

I hate "business" books that take an essay's worth of idea and stretch it into 900 pages.  That's what Friedman does.  You get as much out of reading a good review of one of those books, as from reading the book itself.

TRUE DAT.
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Bryan

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Re: Fave Books / Currently Reading
« Reply #449 on: July 14, 2008, 02:18:43 PM »
I hate "business" books that take an essay's worth of idea and stretch it into 900 pages.  That's what Friedman does.  You get as much out of reading a good review of one of those books, as from reading the book itself.

In that case, here is a hilarious review of The World is Flat by Matt Taibbi:

http://www.nypress.com/18/16/news&columns/taibbi.cfm

Quote
But when I heard the book was actually coming out, I started to worry. Among other things, I knew I would be asked to write the review. The usual ratio of Friedman criticism is 2:1, i.e., two human words to make sense of each single word of Friedmanese. Friedman is such a genius of literary incompetence that even his most innocent passages invite feature-length essays.