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Author Topic: Rate the last book you read.  (Read 194285 times)

FifthCityMuse

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Re: Rate the last book you read.
« Reply #420 on: April 14, 2010, 11:02:04 PM »
The Death of Methuselah and Other Stories - Isaac Bashevis Singer, 1988
I heard a recording of someone reading Singer's story Disguised contained herein, and found it terribly beautiful. Which is why reading this was such a let down. I wonder if I would pay more attention to the ideas and themes if I was listening instead of reading. As it was, while I enjoyed it, I didn't love it by any means.

FLYmeatwad

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Re: Rate the last book you read.
« Reply #421 on: April 16, 2010, 06:32:50 PM »
Scott Pilgrim vs. The World Volume 1 - Pretty good

Scott Pilgrim vs. The World Volume 2 - Pretty great

Junior

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Re: Rate the last book you read.
« Reply #422 on: April 16, 2010, 07:49:59 PM »
The Commitments - Roddy Doyle.

The rise and fall of a soul band chronicled in one short (139 pages) book. You got the lead singer who's an attention hog, the pianist that is studying to be a doctor, the veteran of the music business/trumpeter, the back up trio, the guitarist who doesn't know how to play guitar, the bassist (same) and the saxophonist who gets too intellectual for the soul genre and wants to play jazz. Also, they're all Irish and live in the working class northern area of Dublin.

Like I said above, it's short and the characters and story are there. It's not that unusual of a thing, but it is executed perfectly. The majority of the book is dialogue (set off using dashes like Joyce instead of quotation marks) and Doyle does a superb job of giving each of this large cast a unique and interesting voice. Joey The Lips Fagan is the older trumpeter (who played with James Brown among others) and his mix of soul and religion is freaking perfect. Check it!
Quote from: The Commitments
-Brothers, Sisters, said Joey The Lips. -We know that soul is sex. And soul is revolution, yes? So now soul is --- Dignity

-I don't understand tha', said Dean.

-Soul is lifting yourself up, soul is dusting yourself off, soul is ---

-What's he CINECAST!in' on abou'?

-Just this, Brother. ---Soul is diginity. ---Diginity, soul. Dignity is respect. ---Self respect. ---Dignity is pride. Dignity, confidence. Dignity, assertion. (Joey The Lips' upstretched index finger moved in time to his argument. They were glued to it.) -Dignity, integrity. Dignity, elegance. --- Dignity, style.

The finger stopped

-Brothers and Sisters. -----Dignity, dress. ---Dress, suits.

-Dignity CINECAST! dignity off dignity Joey.

So this was awesome, a cracking fun read. Laughs and shoe tapping aplenty (I recommend you read while listening to the people mentioned in the book like Sam Cooke and Wilson Pickett). And the way Doyle writes the songs (lyrics and sounds in CAPS) gets the feeling of the music across wonderfully. Seriously, it's a great little book.

A.
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oneaprilday

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Re: Rate the last book you read.
« Reply #423 on: April 19, 2010, 12:44:11 PM »
The Commitments - Roddy Doyle.

 Seriously, it's a great little book.

A.
I should really read this one. I love the film. Have you seen it, J? I can't remember.

Junior

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Re: Rate the last book you read.
« Reply #424 on: April 19, 2010, 01:03:26 PM »
I'm in the middle of it. I need to watch the rest of it tonight and write a little one pager about it. They're very close so far (the film actually expands on some characters).
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oldkid

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Re: Rate the last book you read.
« Reply #425 on: April 28, 2010, 07:35:58 PM »
God is Not Great by Christopher Hitchens

In sum, Mr. (or Professor?) Hitchens thinks that religion is, and always has been, bad for humanity.  He is not speaking as a former religionist, which assists in the tone, but is looking at the outcome of belief in God as the consummate outsider.  As that, not only does he see it as silly, but more often dangerous than not.

Of course, he has a lot of fodder to his case.  The far majority of people in the history of humanity have been religious, and there have been a lot of people using religion as their excuse to do awful things.  People have killed, abused children, committed genocide, tortured and done any number of other things in the name of one god or another.  His book, if anything, is too short.  Probably an indication that he isn't really trying.  ;)

However, I don't think he really made the case that it is specifically religion that is the problem and not humanity at large.  The very atrocities that he points out have also been done, in equal proportions, by secularists.  This, by itself, isn't a recommendation to religion, but neither it is a drawback.

I think that he could make the case, from his evidence, that most religionists are hypocrites.  Not only is that so well known as to be trite, it unfortunately can be leveled at secularists as well.  In the end, most humans don't know what it is that they believe (or don't believe) and they just do what comes naturally to them.  That either means that God created us a certain way or that God DIDN'T create us a certain way. 

In the end, the discussion is interesting, but as an argument, it doesn't do much for either side.  Good to know a particular opinion in opposition to my own, though.
"It's not art unless it has the potential to be a disaster." Bansky

oneaprilday

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Re: Rate the last book you read.
« Reply #426 on: April 29, 2010, 01:18:41 PM »
Nice review, steve.

roujin

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Re: Rate the last book you read.
« Reply #427 on: April 29, 2010, 02:33:47 PM »
Nana Emile Zola

Sexy time corrupts society.

roujin

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Re: Rate the last book you read.
« Reply #428 on: April 30, 2010, 08:42:39 AM »
The Crying of Lot 49* Thomas Pynchon

Never before have the textual problems of Jacobean revenge dramas been so fascinating!

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Re: Rate the last book you read.
« Reply #429 on: April 30, 2010, 12:14:26 PM »


Breezy fun. Not a long read either (I was done in about 1 1/2 hours). Great artwork. I didn't like the amount of foul language however, that felt like a writer's crutch.


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