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Post by Rit on Jan 18, 2006 21:20:11 GMT -5
i'm in the midst of reading this: John Ralston Saul - "The Collapse of Globalism, and the reinvention of the world"  |
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Post by Rit on Jan 18, 2006 21:25:13 GMT -5
his central thesis seems to be that we live in an era of "managers" and management theories (which are dirty words to Saul)... and real leadership is no where to be found.
Among his criticisms are that the movement of money in international capital markets shows trade highs, but doesn't create wealth. and the GDP stats are poor indicators of standard of living in real terms, even as free market supporters cheer about the rise in GDP.
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Post by luke on Jan 19, 2006 12:17:03 GMT -5
About to start reading Tender is the Night. Probably gonna read at least this and Beautiful and the Damned before I get out of my Fitz kick.
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Post by poseidon on Jan 19, 2006 19:51:27 GMT -5
Am looking forward to King's latest. It's on back-order at my bookclub pending its debut on 1-26 I believe:  |
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Post by rockkid on Jan 21, 2006 22:58:31 GMT -5
Hmmmmmmmmmmm looks tempting
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Post by Mary on Jan 22, 2006 13:43:21 GMT -5
About to start reading Tender is the Night. Probably gonna read at least this and Beautiful and the Damned before I get out of my Fitz kick. oh my god. Tender is the Night is just about my favorite book on earth. I've always preferred it to The Great Gatsby. It's one of the most beautifully tragic pieces of writing in the history of literature, and the personal story behind it (fitzgerald's own relationship to zelda) just adds to the poignancy. I read this book a few summers ago when I was travelling in Spain and France - so I associate it with long overnight train rides through Europe, watching the countryside roll by at dusk as the tragedy on the pages unfolds. It was a perfect experience. I'm about halfway through this ridiculously famous book:  Probably the single most famous book ever written about urban planning. It's a bit dated since it's from 1961, but it's an absolutely stinging rebuke of foolish Garden City idealism which tries to turn cities into suburbs, and a wonderful celebration of what makes true cities so great to begin with - sidewalks and vibrant street life and pedestrians and public transportation and cultural diversity and mixed use neighborhoods full of bars and restaurants and cafes and apartments and corner stores and businesses and street vendors, etc etc. On some level it's pretty much just a love letter to New York City, and especially to Greenwich Village in the late 50s/early 60s. A lot of the book's insights seem kind of obvious now, but at the time, they were revolutionary. Cheers, M |
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Post by luke on Jan 22, 2006 19:07:25 GMT -5
I haven't read Tender is the Night since high school, I think. Read it twice back then. Once you get past the name "Dick Diver", it's smooth sailing from there. Although I certainly don't have romantic train voyages through Europe to associate it with...mostly just laying in bed making sure my pugs don't step on my balls...but it's still a favorite, nonetheless.
May not get to Beautiful and the Damned this time around, though, as I've been told I need to drop what I'm doing and get to Vonnegut's Slaughterhouse-Five.
I'm really trying to cut back on the TV and do a lot more reading, particularly older books and classics. So far, so good. My courses are all pretty much computer skills now, so I don't have much homework and I leave my job at the office, for the most part, so I'm finally, FINALLY able to enjoy books for the sake of enjoying books again. Such a weight off the shoulders, being able to dig into the classics withough worrying about whether or not you trail off for a page or two or forget a character's name or miss some symbolic something or other.
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Post by poseidon on Jan 23, 2006 22:33:45 GMT -5
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Post by Mary on Jan 24, 2006 2:05:10 GMT -5
I haven't read Tender is the Night since high school, I think. Read it twice back then. Once you get past the name "Dick Diver", it's smooth sailing from there. Although I certainly don't have romantic train voyages through Europe to associate it with...mostly just laying in bed making sure my pugs don't step on my balls...but it's still a favorite, nonetheless. May not get to Beautiful and the Damned this time around, though, as I've been told I need to drop what I'm doing and get to Vonnegut's Slaughterhouse-Five. Have you read The Beautiful and the Damned before? I never did read that one - just Gatsby & Tender is the Night. If only I had some bloody time for pleasure reading these days... well - maybe this summer. Maybe. I did my senior year in high school year-long English project on Vonnegut - had to read 5 books by one author over the course of the year and then write a 15 page paper on whoever it was. That was a huuuuuge assignment for high school - freaked me out. Thing I remember about Vonnegut was that I really loved this fairly random book of his that isn't considered one of his best, Galapagos. Thought it was severely underappreciated. Cheers, M |
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Post by kmc on Jan 24, 2006 8:08:53 GMT -5
Tender is the Night is THE Fitzgerald book to read. As autobographical as a fictional account can get, if you don't count things like A Million Little Pieces. Look forward to reading some thoughts on it. Currently reading: 
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Post by luke on Jan 24, 2006 8:57:57 GMT -5
I can't imagine an English project like that in a public school anywhere around here. That's huge. An excellent idea, though.
The Beautiful and the Damned is excellent, but not really essential in the face of Tender is the Night, which tackles the same themes and does it so much better. Gatsby will always be my favorite, though, if for no other reason than that dickhead Tom and it being the first book I was ever forced to read in school that I actually enjoyed. In the tenth grade, it was a matter of, "Booze, check, hot chicks, check, crazy parties, check, this book rocks." I think his prose in Gatsby is trumps his other work, too. There's at least a line on every page of that book that absolutely blows your mind. I'll read the same paragraph over and over in awe.
I like Tender is the Night for being the fuller book, and the graceful character transition is great. Great character study. I'll probably get time to finish it up in the next couple days.
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Post by poseidon on Jan 24, 2006 21:11:11 GMT -5
I went ahead and read the first chapter of King's newest novel. Looks like its gonna be a good one!
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Post by luke on Jan 25, 2006 9:54:46 GMT -5
The plot looks pretty cool. I may check it out, although I told myself I'd stay away from anything new he did.
I think he's gotten to the point where he totally disregards the language in favor of the story. Which is fine; your novel should be driven by story. But he goes out of his way to suck any life out of the language, and it hurts the characters and makes his newer writing blend into one big dull blob.
At least, that was my impression after seeing what he did to the original Gunslinger. Ouch.
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Post by Thorngrub on Jan 26, 2006 13:19:53 GMT -5
I'm all over CELL . . . lookin forward to reading that one
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Post by poseidon on Jan 27, 2006 13:35:53 GMT -5
Anyone besides myself following the James Frey/Oprah Winfrey story? Is there a thread on it yet? For some reason I think its a real hoot. All the controversy surrounding "A Million Little Pieces." It's hard to believe Oprah was bamboozled into believing what was written by this apparent conman. She's always struck me as a very intelligent woman. I've yet to read the book and with these newest revelations most likely won't. It's really tragic in a way. Real people with real stories will have their respective stories questioned as a result of this persons embellishments and flat out lies. Not that I don't doubt after watching Mr. Frey's performance (what is being aired on-line) that he is some kind of sick drug addict who has never found an iota, a shred of real recovery. Sad but true. Maybe he'll invest some of the money he made from his book of fiction for some much needed speech therapy...that lithp was jutht too much. The wascally wabbit.  |
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