JACkory
Struggling Artist
Posts: 167
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Post by JACkory on Jun 14, 2004 10:47:29 GMT -5
I'm still reading War And Peace...almost halfway through and it has definately been worth the time. I especially liked the part where Pierre Bezukhov has his first encounter with Freemason Iosif Alekseyevich Bazdeyev and their conversation about God changes the course of his life. "(God) is not apprehended by reason, but by life", states Bezdeyev (as translated by Ann Dunnigan in the Signet edition I have). Indeed, I must concur. When Bezukhov tells the Freemason that he does not believe in God, Bezdeyev replies, "He exists, but to understand Him is hard. If it were a man whose existance thou didst doubt, I could bring him to thee, could take him by the hand and show him to thee. But how can I, an insignificant mortal, show His omnipotence, all His mercy, to one who is blind, or to one who shuts his eyes that he may not see, may not understand Him, and may not see and understand his own vileness and depravity? Who art thou? What art thou? Thou dreamest that thou art wise because thou could utter those blasphemous words whilst thou are more obtuse and absurd than a little babe who, playing with the parts of a cunningly contrived watch, dares to say that, as he does not understand it's use, he does not believe in the master who made it."
This section really grabbed me, so much so that I felt compelled to underline it in my copy.
I've purposefully kept myself from picking up any other books until I've finished War And Peace, though I do still read the Bible daily, and am currently wrapping up the Minor Prophets (and the Old Testament) with the book of Zephaniah.
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ueb
Struggling Artist
I'm strong as I'm mellow baby strong as I'm mellow I sure am happy for that --- Curve
Posts: 136
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Post by ueb on Jun 19, 2004 15:51:27 GMT -5
Oh, what a cool board - discussion about grad school and books. Rock on.
Since I returned to Charlotte, I've been reading about a book a day. When I was home, I started reading this series by Laurell K. Hamilton. Honest to god, I haven't been that engrossed in a series in a very long time. I wish I could explain what the books are about but it's rather difficult. There's horror, violence, vampires, wereanimals, sex, necromancy, and a totally kick ass heroine. The first one is Guilty Pleasures which was good, but the series doesn't really take off until about the fourth book or so. Anyway, interesting stuff.
At the moment, I am trying to decide whether I should continue with my light reading or delve back into reading Literature. We'll see.
NP: Siouxsie and the Banshees - The Seven Year Itch Live (Night Shift)
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Post by Thorngrub on Jun 25, 2004 16:01:15 GMT -5
Fuck DIARY. I can't finish it . . . it's depressing subject matter is not only relentless . . . I just . . . can't . . . finish it. *thoRny Tosses the novel while @ the 3/4ths mark*[Sorry, Chuck] *thoRny picks up the eagerly anticipated Attanasio Crow-related novel HELLBOUND*After 20 pages or so, thoRny becomes so engrossed in it that the RS.castaways world dissolves into the background & eventually fades away... 'till Monday  |
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Post by samplestiltskin on Jun 26, 2004 15:37:27 GMT -5
I read Palahniuk's "Choke" about a month ago. Very fucked up. All about sex addiction.
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Post by Meursault on Jul 11, 2004 16:23:12 GMT -5
Bought Irving Layton - The Selected Poems A Wild Peculiar Joy
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Post by Thorngrub on Jul 13, 2004 14:49:06 GMT -5
Am now reading the obscure futurist-classic STAR OF THE UNBORN by the Czech-borne Franz Werfel, who penned his rather startlingly original "ghost story" at the beginning of the 20th century....(around 1911, I believe). Man, this book is intense....not to mention charming, incisive, and generously sprinkled with humorous observations on the human condition. Our protagonist, identified only by the initials "F.W.", wakes up to a time over 100,000 years in the future, only to discover his best friend, "B.H." is there, talking to him. He becomes startled by the revelation that B.H. has for him: F.W. is dead, and has been summoned as a spirit to a Wedding Feast in this far-flung future age, where humanity has eradicated all the negativity we floundered about in during our primitive, early stages of our evolution. There are no longer any wars, no crime, no poverty, and in order to travel....human beings have mastered the art of bringing places to them, rather than the old-fashioned way of having to get from place A to place B. B.H. (who had visited Tibet during F.W.'s early, primitive days while still alive) has reincarnated over the ages countless times, and is the very man responsible for "gifting" the Newlyweds of this future era with a bonafide "ghost" summoned from the distant past. Hence it is, quite literally, a "ghost story" in the true sense of the word: F.W. tells his tale, and spares us no detail as to the goings-on of this evolved portion of humanity. A read that someone like you, Shane Simpson, would sink your teeth into deeply. I'm only on page 70 or so....but it has its hooks in me pretty good. www.pywrit.com/ebooks/sfw/FranzWerfel/bi/staroftheunborn.htm |
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JACkory
Struggling Artist
Posts: 167
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Post by JACkory on Jul 13, 2004 15:55:33 GMT -5
Well, I finished War and Peace a few days ago...Hooray for me! Was it worth the time and effort? By all means. I still think Dostoevski's The Brothers Karamazov is the greatest novel ever written, but I have to give Tolstoy his due for conceiving this masterwork...
Currently reading:
Oliver Twist by Charles Dickens
Bush at War by Bob Woodward
Just As I Am: The Autobiography of Billy Graham by Billy Graham
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Post by PC on Aug 10, 2004 14:11:12 GMT -5
Today I bought my books for the Fall semester. Here's a list of the books I got for my various classes:
Musicking: The Meanings of Performing and Listening by Christopher Small
Hip Hop America by Nelson George
Popular Music in Theory: An Introduction by Keith Negus
In Dubious Battle by John Steinbeck
If Beale Street Could Talk by James Baldwin
Media Ethics: Issues and Cases by Philip Patterson and Lee Wilkins
We The People: An Introduction to American Politics by Benjamin Ginsberg, Theodore J. Lowi, and Margaret Weir
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Post by RocDoc on Aug 10, 2004 17:01:37 GMT -5
PC, are you majoring or minoring in music?
Seeing that list of music intensive texts...
I'd JUST written something on one of the boards where someone complained of being bored with 'alternative' music taht there ARE alternatives...and some college level music classes would be a great way to open themselves up to something beyond alternative.
Stuff that MAY very possibly knock them on their ass in ways that they'd never expect
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JACkory
Struggling Artist
Posts: 167
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Post by JACkory on Aug 11, 2004 11:02:13 GMT -5
Currently reading:
Martin Chuzzlewit by Charles Dickens
A Jonathan Edwards Reader by Jonathan Edwards, edited by John E. Smith, Harry S. Stout and Kenneth P. Minkema
Why I Am a Baptist edited by Tom J. Nettles and Russell D. Moore
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Post by PC on Aug 11, 2004 13:15:05 GMT -5
RocDoc, I'm a Communications major and a Music minor.  |
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Post by Rit on Aug 11, 2004 16:14:57 GMT -5
i've started reading Nick Tosches' 2002 novel, "In The Hand Of Dante".
pretty engrossing so far, 40 pages in. Its press blurb describes it as "part hard-boiled crime story, part medieval tale of transcendence". you can only imagine my jizzmic joy when i read that at the store.
plus, Tosches is a former music critic extraordinaire. Think lester bangs or a nick kent.
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Post by RocDoc on Aug 11, 2004 16:32:37 GMT -5
Tosches was part of Creem's 'golden age' along with Bangs and R Meltzer...
Nice to hear he's found 'honest' work....
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Post by Rit on Aug 11, 2004 16:35:11 GMT -5
hip hip. right you are. except, cancel Meltzer out from that list of Creem talent. I absolutely hate his writing. what a feckin' guy.
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JACkory
Struggling Artist
Posts: 167
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Post by JACkory on Aug 12, 2004 8:27:32 GMT -5
plus, Tosches is a former music critic extraordinaire. Think lester bangs or a nick kent. Ahhh...nice to stumble upon a Creem discussion. I always admired Nick Toshes writing for Creem, but as far as I'm concerned he never ascended to the level of greatness that Lester Bangs had already reached by that time. That said, I haven't read anything by him in a long while, and I have always heard glowing reports of the quality of his fiction. I'll have to check something of his out one o' these days... As for Richard Meltzer...Ya know, I have memories of very much enjoying his writing in Creem, but when I checked out the anthology of his rock-critic stuff several months ago I found it contrived, tedious, downright confusing. No doubt he aimed for the "confusing" aspect, but I thought it sucked pretty hard and there was no way I could get past a couple hundred pages of that longish collection. I found myself wondering what it was I saw in the guy way back when I read Creem cover-to-cover and liked his contributions. I discounted the possibility that it was because I was so relatively young (since I definately DID recognize the genius of Bangs even then, and also remember appreciating the writing in Robert Christgau's monthly "Consumer Guide", among others). I think it had everything to do with the context Meltzer's writing was placed in (plus maybe the fact that most of his stuff that Creem printed was never too awfully lengthy) as part of the crazy, chaotic editorial mess that the magazine was. I mean, folks who have only heard about Creem as one of the greatest rock and roll magazines of all time but have never read a few issues probably are unaware that it was also the funniest rag this side of the National Lampoon. It never took itself seriously and certainly never took it's subject too seriously. And Meltzer's wacked-out style actually kinda fit in with the tone of the magazine... So maybe it had something to do with reading Meltzer in between the other, more gifted writers that helped me cut the guy slack. I do know this: there's no way I'll ever attempt to tackle that anthology again (and I'm sorry but I can't remember the name...I THINK it's called Just A Whore Like All The Rest, but I'm not sure...). |
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