Here it is... the book thread!

Started by scatcat, November 30, 2007, 03:55:17

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japanesebaby

i always end up re-reading old favorites of mine on holidays - maybe because i don't get new books as i don't get any presents anymore (poor me - haha). or maybe because i've grown lazy and don't want to take unnecessary risks on my spare time. ;)
anyway, currently:


Stanislaw Lem: Eden


it's a bit robinson crusoe kind of story at first, in a way: a spaceship crashes on an unexplored planet. but then, nothing much really happens there, other than that the crew tries to explore the planet while repairing their poor wretched ship - and they realize that they don't understand ANYTHING about this planet, it's beings, it's society.
in a way i could recommend it to anyone who's not even the slightest bit interested in sci-fi genre, because it's a strange sort of 'tour de force' of imagination: page after page after page lem is describing various things/views/creatures onfthis strange world, he describes everything in vivid details but the reader finds he's facing the exact same problem as the members of the crew: not understanding anything at all of what it's all about, what going on, what means what, what is the cause and what is the consequence in this or that. you're just left baffled all the time, with a "wtf was... that!?" kind of feeling.

i've read this book several times over the years. i must have read it for the first time some 15 years ago or so, i've read it regularly ever since. i think it's mostly because of the nature of the book: because there's always so much that you couldn't even properly picture in your mind (let alone really "get it"), i've noticed that this book always manages to preserve it's magic.
i also like the slightly laconic/sarcastically tinged dialogue that lem writes to his characters, in between describing all the lush (and to be honest, mostly undescribable) wonders.



(by the way, it's also a good excercise: try to picture something that just completely alien to you, that doesn't remind anything you've ever seen or anything you know anything about. or something that reminds something you know but in a completely wrong kind of way, so that you only get totally confused because you start interpreting things all wrong if you let the resemblance get into your brain. and then, try to write down a description of this thing to someonw else - now that's a real feat for the imagination: how to use common, regular, all-too-familair (even a bit too worn-out) words to describe something completely NEW!
just try it, it's fun! and also good for your brain, i'm sure! :D)



ps. if i should be asked to nominate a book to a list of books called "let's hope no-one never ever EVER gets an urge to try and make a movie out of THIS", then this is surely one!
Ay, in the very temple of Delight
Veil'd Melancholy has her sovran shrine

robiola

Quote from: japanesebaby on December 29, 2007, 19:08:41
(by the way, it's also a good excercise: try to picture something that just completely alien to you, that doesn't remind anything you've ever seen or anything you know anything about...
That could be the hardest part of the whole excercise! If you manage that, you may be halfway there.
Another difficult thing is the exact opposite -- describing familiar things with new words. It just gives me a little thrill when a writer describes something that's been written about a million times and manages to do it from a different perspective, using words or concepts I wouldn't have thought of, giving me a sense of discovery and recognition at the same time.

The book sounds fascinating, I always love a good book rec. :smth001

japanesebaby

Quote from: robiola on December 29, 2007, 20:57:10
Quote from: japanesebaby on December 29, 2007, 19:08:41
(by the way, it's also a good excercise: try to picture something that just completely alien to you, that doesn't remind anything you've ever seen or anything you know anything about...
Another difficult thing is the exact opposite -- describing familiar things with new words. It just gives me a little thrill when a writer describes something that's been written about a million times and manages to do it from a different perspective, using words or concepts I wouldn't have thought of, giving me a sense of discovery and recognition at the same time.

the exact opposite - you're right!
i really love these aspects on language - too often language is perceived as "just words", a means of communication.
but there are so many different languages within one language... so much potential that remains unused in everday situations.
Ay, in the very temple of Delight
Veil'd Melancholy has her sovran shrine

scatcat

One of my favourite books, written with words like poetry, is :
A Memoir: Colours of the Mountain, by Da Chen.

A memoir of Da Chen, growing up during the Cultural Revolution in rural China, and the aftermath of Mao's death.. a journey to escape poverty, hunger and ignorance: it is a book about friendships, prejudice, familial love and academic striving. he has such great determination and extraordinary faith, against the most impossible odds.

It is a great read, not as long as say, Wlid Swans, but very enjoyable.
Da Chen is a wonderful writer. Highly recommended!
Seventeen seconds
A measure of life

robiola

@meddy
Guess what I'm reading... I picked up Terry Goodking's "Wizard's First Rule" on a whim because I remembered your recommendation... I'll let you know how it goes!

scatcat

Quote from: kissingcrimson on December 16, 2007, 04:18:03
"The war of Don Emanuel's nether parts", Louis De Bernieres

cochadebago de los gatos!


I really meant to ask kissing... is this what I think the nether parts are??  :shock: ... and why are they at war??   ;)
Seventeen seconds
A measure of life

Hero

The Melancholy Death of Oyster Boy: And Other Stories by TIM BURTON!!! :shock:

I didn't know he wrote a book, when i saw it i very nearly died! Its just a little book of short stories/poems but wonderful, just as good as his movies!

Poe

Mmmm, a book thread, yum yum. Lots of recommendations to devour. Good of you to like Bukowski, the dirty old loveable slob, hehe. I've read Ham on Rye, but Run with the hunted is the only Bukowski book I own. I suppose you've seen Born Into This?
By the way, I've spotted The Melancholy Death of Oyster Boy by Tim Burton a couple of times in book shops, must fetch...

I have slightly strange reading habits I suppose, having regular fits at the library when I borrow tons of books that I skip between and re-borrow again and again and again...until the authorities come a-knockin'. :smth039

The latest book I finally finished was Girl with a pearl earring. Nah. Pff. That's pretty much my review. I have such respect for books it's hard to just leave them when nothing interesting has happened for a couple of hundred pages or so...

The books I've almost finished are, at present: Neverwhere - Neil Gaiman, To Kill a Mockingbird - Harper Lee, Gothic - Fred Botting (about the literary genre, interesting), Smashed - Koren Zailckas (autobiographical about a teenage alcoholic), The man who mistook his wife for a hat - Oliver Sacks (mm, brains...), and The New York Trilogy - Paul Auster. Then there may be another ten books I've just started on, like the afore mentioned Brave New World...

One of the books I've been trying to find is CHARLOTTE SOMETIMES - Penelope Farmer. You know, the book that our beloved Cure song was based on? Is it available on the net somewhere? Perhaps even...for free? Here's hopin'...

By the way, anyone who likes books on neuroscience, cognitive science, psychology, or any other brain related literature? Love it. I've been looking for "The brain that changes itself" by Norman Doidge for a couple of months now...
[i]Betty said she prayed today
For the sky to blow away...[/i]

Meddy

Charlotte Sometimes had been out of print there for awhile, but I did notice while browsing online at Barnes N Noble, that they are re-printing it (starting in 2007) and that its available in hardcover for around $20.  It is a very good book and my copy is in quite rough shape as to the fact that I had found it in an antique shop in the middle of North Dakota about 13 years ago.
"I want to live deeply, and suck the marrow from life." HDT

Poe

Quote from: Meddy on March 29, 2008, 17:36:08
Charlotte Sometimes had been out of print there for awhile, but I did notice while browsing online at Barnes N Noble, that they are re-printing it (starting in 2007) and that its available in hardcover for around $20.  It is a very good book and my copy is in quite rough shape as to the fact that I had found it in an antique shop in the middle of North Dakota about 13 years ago.

Ooo, thanks for the info. I rarely buy books I haven't read already, but perhaps I'll make an exception...I hear the Cure song captures the book quite well.

[i]Betty said she prayed today
For the sky to blow away...[/i]

robiola

Quote from: Poe on March 29, 2008, 14:03:31
The man who mistook his wife for a hat - Oliver Sacks (mm, brains...)
Isn't that brilliant? I picked up An Anthropologist on Mars by him last summer and I finished it in two days. Fascinating!

Those are the only two I've read. I've never heard of Norman Doidge -- similar stuff?

Poe

Quote from: robiola on March 30, 2008, 01:05:13
Isn't that brilliant?

Yes, love case studies. Thanks for the tip on An Anthropologist on Mars, sounds delectable.

Quote from: robiola on March 30, 2008, 01:05:13I've never heard of Norman Doidge -- similar stuff?

I don't know that much about his book "The brain that changes itself", really, just that it got a good review in the magazine Scientific American Mind a while back, and that it's supposed to be an update on the research about the plasticity of the brain, which is quite fascinating...Don't know if he's written anything else.
[i]Betty said she prayed today
For the sky to blow away...[/i]

robiola


Poe

Mmmm, good reviews for Normie, albeit few...

I came to think about this book by the way, another one by Oliver Sacks: Musicophilia. I haven't read it, and it seems to have been given mixed reviews, but I figured it would be nice for Cure fans to hear about it, so they can have confirmed what they already now about the power of music... :-D

On the US amazon page, you can also watch a couple of short monologues with Oliver about the book (they're somewhere at the top of the page):

http://www.amazon.com/Musicophilia-Tales-Music-Oliver-Sacks/dp/1400040817/ref=pd_bbs_sr_1?ie=UTF8&s=books&qid=1206838375&sr=8-1
[i]Betty said she prayed today
For the sky to blow away...[/i]

japanesebaby



eric g. wilson: against happiness. in praise of melancholy.

http://us.macmillan.com/againsthappiness


Americans are addicted to happiness. When we're not popping pills, we leaf through scientific studies that take for granted our quest for happiness, or read self-help books by everyone from armchair philosophers and clinical psychologists to the Dalai Lama on how to achieve a trouble-free life:Stumbling on Happiness; Authentic Happiness: Using the New Positive Psychology to Realize Your Potential for Lasting Fulfillment; The Art of Happiness: A Handbook for Living. The titles themselves draw a stark portrait of the war on melancholy.

More than any other generation, Americans of today believe in the transformative power of positive thinking. But who says we're supposed to be happy? Where does it say that in the Bible, or in the Constitution? In Against Happiness, the scholar Eric G. Wilson argues that melancholia is necessary to any thriving culture, that it is the muse of great literature, painting, music, and innovation—and that it is the force underlying original insights. Francisco Goya, Emily Dickinson, Marcel Proust, and Abraham Lincoln were all confirmed melancholics. So enough Prozac-ing of our brains. Let's embrace our depressive sides as the wellspring of creativity. What most people take for contentment, Wilson argues, is living death, and what the majority takes for depression is a vital force. In Against Happiness: In Praise of Melancholy, Wilson suggests it would be better to relish the blues that make humans people.



Ay, in the very temple of Delight
Veil'd Melancholy has her sovran shrine