Posted on 02/03/2014 2:13:32 PM PST by jocon307
Have you ever lied about reading a book? Maybe you didn’t want to seem stupid in front of someone you respected. Maybe you rationalized it by reasoning that you had a familiarity with the book, or knew who the author was, or what the story was about, or had glanced at its Wikipedia page. Or maybe you had tried to read the book, even bought it and set it by your bed for months unopened, hoping that it would impart what was in it merely via proximity (if that worked, please email me).
(Excerpt) Read more at thefederalist.com ...
Yup. Tom was the true hero of the book, and an admirable character in every way. Little too good to be true, in fact.
But I could never fight my way through Ulysses.
Utter claptrap as far as I'm concerned. Dickens' grocery list would be more interesting.
Ulysses is the only one I didn’t read. Just can’t get past the first 50 pages.
Decades ago, took freshman English short story course which included Joyce’s “The Dubliners”. After that, I kept my personal promise never to read Joyce again.
I’ve read 2,3,8,7b, and 10. With 10, the last 65 pages are impenetrable. The sex is pretty hot - Rand was into being taken by men, period. It was nearly rape fantasy.
Tale of Two Cities and Great Expectations are actually good reads if you read it like it was written - they were serials. You read a chapter, then do it again the next night. Dickens essentially created the soap opera.
Art of War flies by, and so does the Prince. Amazing that someone actually captured it.
Shocked that War and Peace wasn’t there. Not sure I’d attempt it. Federalist is almost a reference. Haven’t tried Tocqueville yet, or Moby Dick.
Audio books are great, perfect for driving when your eyes are occupied; I tried one on a train trip once and I was like: what do I do with my eyes?!?!?!
Hubby and I listened to a bunch of them while we had a hour commute (each way) for a few years.
By far the best one (and I’ve recommended this many times here, so forgive me for repeating myself) is World War Z by Max Brooks.
It’s abridged, but they’ve got multiple people reading the parts so it’s like a play almost. Mark Hammill reads/plays the hero and he is EXCELLENT.
Not high-end lit, but a really, really fun listen.
The American Language is basically an annotated dictionary. While Mencken is well known for it, his other stuff is so much better.
He did something of a trilogy, of Happy Days, 1880–1892 (1940); Newspaper Days, 1899–1906 (1941); and Heathen Days, 1890–1936 (1943). The first were his reminiscences of childhood in Baltimore, and he includes a lot of color, both good and bad. The second volume was when he was a newspaperman, and he goes into detail about the perfidy of those times, how newspapermen are scoundrels, and life covering the crime beat.
I’ve read these. No lie. All worth reading.
7. 1984, George Orwell:
6. Democracy in America, Alexis De Tocqueville
4. Moby Dick, Herman Melville
3. The Art of War, Sun Tzu
2. The Prince, Niccolo Machiavelli.
The ambiguity is part of the atmosphere.
Exactly the same two I read. 1984 was in high school for English, I think. I have read or listened to a Atlas Shrugged about 5 or 6 times.....
I think just about everyone has read “Great Expectations”. I had to read it in 10th grade. Actually thought it was really good. My Daughter had to read it and absolutely loved it.
Now I bet my grand children will have to read it in a couple of years.
As for Atlas Shrugged, though, the thing is daunting, monolithic, frustrating, complicated, and well worth the effort. There is guidance, however - there is this: Who Is John Galt?, by a couple of FReepers. It is possibly the most brilliant thing written in the English language since Milton.
Or possibly not.
Probably not.
It's Publius's fault.
(paraphrased from a lawyer friend of mine)
Another Awful Warning is Marion Zimmer Bradley the scifi/fantasy writer. She could tell a good story if she would cut out all the feminist/lesbian/radical garbage, but seems like every 50 pages or so it's "Drop the story, let's spend 25 pages expounding my brilliant philosophy." Ugh. Only read some of her stuff because a friend was a big fan. Didn't help.
Sherri Tepper preaches too much too, but she works it into the story better (and she writes better dialogue than Bradley).
“and paid attention to the speeches given by a certain Premier Kruschchev, when he endangered me and my fellow Americans.”
Did you read “JFK & The Unspeakable” yet? If yes, I’d like your opinion on what the author says about JFK and Nikita. If not, and you read the book someday, since you lived through it, I’d still be interested in your opinion.
Ugh! I am reading that one now - up to page 500! I love Russian lit but this one is painful. But I hate quitting books in the middle (and ok, I'm a little bit curious about if Mitya is guilty). If Russians are really such drama queens it's a wonder they had time for a Revolution!
I got 40% through Ulysses and then wondered what the point of reading it would be. Atlas Shrugged, The Prince, and The Art Of War are books every Freeper should read. I couldn’t put Atlas Shrugged down. If you are really interested in nineteenth century whaling read Moby Dick. If you can read old English, Don Quixote will make you Laugh and if someone tells you they read it by talking about fighting windmills, they only read the first chapter.
That and "A Christmas Carol" I actually like. Although part of that is the excellent film with Alasdair Sim - they basically quote scads from the book.
I read Radical Chic and Mau Mauing the Flack Catchers back in the day. The descriptions in the latter had me doubled over laughing, especially when all the minorities go to the government office to get some of the government money to be spent on “youth programs” in the ghetto that are supposed to prevent race riots. The more intimidating they are to the social worker (the flack catcher), the more “real” they are, and the more money they get, so the goal is “mau mau” them. Hilarious!
If certain parties had paid attention and had refused to be intimidated, we wouldn't be in the fix we are in today.
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