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Well, I presume that I'm not the only one who is enjoying to take a rest from books, the scientific ones, and read something classical instead.
As the evenings can be profoundly prolix those days, that books to do you read? You can name some of your favourite books by author, title, language, country, time etc.
I often read novels in English from the Augustic and further on, almost never in Swedish and sometimes in Russian (I can't in Japanese yet..), some authors are:
Adeline Virginia Stephen Woolf (I have read most of her works) -- 'Imagine an ordinary mind at an ordinary day.'
The Bronte sisters
William Golding
George Eliot
Thomas Hardy
Some of the Russian authors I like are:
Maxim Gorkiy (a pessimisstic humanist)
Ivan Turgenev ('the founder of modern [1800] nihilism')
Fjodor Dostoyevskiy
Alexander Purskin (not the lyric, though)
... that was about it, can you recommend some authors? Or perhaps something very simple in Japanese?
I liked that book by that guy. He was russian. "A day in the life of [insert name here]ovich"
Well, right now I'm reading Musashi by Eiji Yoshikawa translated by Charles Terry. Great book if you're interested in stuff like that. Once I finish that I'm going straight into Dale Carnegie's How to Win Friends and Influence People. I also read a few martial arts books. Selected Chicken Soup for the Soul books.
It's summer now and I got plenty of time to read.
It's summer now and I got plenty of time to read.
WOW! I didn't know summer in South Carolina was at a different time of year than for the rest of us in the northern hemisphere!! :eek: That's COOL!! :biggrin: :wink:
James Michner is one of my favorite authors. 'The Source' was especially interesting, I thought.
I also like whodunnit's. Dan Brown is very good. I'm hangin' out with him in Geneva right now. :biggrin:
Imparcticle
May8-04, 01:21 AM
Here are really good books I've read:
"Great Expectations" by Charles Dickens
"For Whom the Bell Tolls" By Ernest Hemmingway
"Kidnapped" By Robert Louis Stevensen
"Robin Hood" By Howard Pyle (this book is entirely in Pre-elizibethan English, but has excellent drawings from the time period; Howard Pyle is a good author for midieval books)
"Where the Red Fern Grows" I don't remember the author, but it is certainly one of the best books I've ever read (and I read A LOT).
"The White Mountains", "The City of Gold and Lead", "The Pool Of Fire" are brilliantly composed scifi books (that are not typical scifi books at all; takes place in old times)
Those are a few good books.
WOW! I didn't know summer in South Carolina was at a different time of year than for the rest of us in the northern hemisphere!! :eek: That's COOL!!
Well, that's that college calendar for you. We get out earlier and start later than pretty much everybody else.
I can't believe I forgot to mention this earlier, but I think this thread needs to mention this at least once. Lord of the Rings should probably be on everybody's favorite list. It certainly is on mine.
Lord of the Rings actually spoiled the fantasy genre for me. After it, everything else just seemed so bland.
Ebolamonk3y
May8-04, 12:36 PM
Pushkin is awesome, especially his Eugene Onegin, which, is my favorite. Also read the play Faust and Divinie Comedy. :) And the Manifesto if you are bored.
actually.... i was looking for someone to fill in the blanks cos it's a REALLY good book.
I used to read a lot of books of the series Dragonlance, by M.Weis and T.Hickman
That was when I read literature (I don't read literature anymore)
Tolkien is also great; I've read the 3 books of TLOTR and also The Hobbit and the Silmarillion, though this last is a bit deceiving IMHO
The novels of Agatha Christie featuring Hercules Poirot are also a worth reading
OOH I like the Dragonlance books too, they are class!!!
OOH I like the Dragonlance books too, they are class!!!
"Dragons of autumn twilight" is the best, I think. I really enjoyed the characters of Flint and Tasslehoff. I also played the videogame that appeared for PC
Edited to translate correctly the title
That was a good book. I like the new series though, really well written. I liked Tasslehoff but i got a little pissed of with how they described Flint talking...it was either "Flint roared" or "Flint exploded". I thought Raistlin was the coolest.
Has anyone read Cryptonomicon by Neal Stephenson? It's a novel but with a lot of math in it.
I dig H.P Lovecraft
And for silly fantasy novels: the Shannara series by Terry Brooks, and The Belgariad by David Eddings are my two favorites followed close behind by Tolkien
cragwolf
May9-04, 12:01 AM
Lots of physics/astronomy students (using "students" in the broadest sense) seem to like fantasy and sci-fi books. Less like crime and detective fiction (not sure why it's less, you'd think this would be the most popular genre for amateur and professional scientists, who can be thought of as detectives of nature and reality). And even fewer prefer to read non-mainstream, non-genre fiction. Here's a subset of novels I've read over the years:
Lanark by Alisdair Gray
The Name of the Rose and Foucault's Pendulum by Umberto Eco
The Magic Mountain by Thomas Mann
The Brothers Karamazov by Fyodor Dostoevsky
The Recognitions by William Gaddis
1984 by George Orwell
Absalom, Absalom! and As I Lay Dying by William Faulkner
Gravity's Rainbow by Thomas Pynchon
Amerika, The Trial and The Castle by Franz Kafka
I've also read every piece of (English translated) fiction by my favourite author Jorge Luis Borges.
If you're looking for a Japanese author to take you off the beaten track, try Kobo Abé (http://www.themodernword.com/scriptorium/abe.html).
That was a good book. I like the new series though, really well written. I liked Tasslehoff but i got a little pissed of with how they described Flint talking...it was either "Flint roared" or "Flint exploded". I thought Raistlin was the coolest.I LOVE the Dragonlance books by Weis & Hickman!!! They are the best in the Dragonlance series!!! Raistlin is very cool.
Have you read the "Wheel of Time" series by Robert Jordan? If not, RUN do not walk, to your nearest booskstore. You won't regret it.
Enigma, I have also read the Shannara series by Terry Brooks and The Belgariad.
Have any of you read the works of Raymond Feist? If not start with "Magician Apprentice". The "Riftwar Saga" is excellent.
Terry Goodkind is a different take on fantasy, more substance. Start with "Wizard's First Rule". They are a bit more "heavy" than most fantasy though.
Also "Daughter of the Empire" by Feist & Janny Wurts. & the others in the series. All good reading.
I thought Raistlin was the coolest
Raistlin is very cool
What kind of people are you????
zoobyshoe
May9-04, 05:38 AM
For English Literature my favorite is Moby Dick. I also enjoyed all the other Melville I read, although is other novels aren't considered on a par with Moby Dick. I liked Typee and White Jacket. These are believed to be almost autobiographical, whereas Moby Dick isn't. His short story Billy Budd was made into an excellent film with Terrence Stamp, Peter Ustinov, and Sterling Hayden and I actually prefer the film to the original story. The same is not true of the films I've seen of Moby Dick. I prefer the book.
Any science fiction buy Issac Asmiov is absolutly brillant. :cool: The Foundation series was amazing, and the Robot seriers was to. If your going to read them, I would suggest reading the Robot series first, they are tied together.
Last book I read was "Crabwalk" by Günter Grass. The subject is a ship catastrophy in Germany at the end of the war, and the actual subject is present neo-nazism. Good book.
What I can recommend from the science point of view are the plays "Life of Galilei" by Bert Brecht and "The Phycicists" by Friedrich Dürrenmatt.
Have you read the "Wheel of Time" series by Robert Jordan? If not, RUN do not walk, to your nearest booskstore. You won't regret it.
I've wanted to read this series for a long time. However, all the bookstores here sell only Books 2 to 10, and not Book 1 for obvious reasons. Is there a free e-book of the first Wheel of Time online?
Ebolamonk3y
May9-04, 09:42 AM
Mein Kampf, for those twisted people. :)
Oh, yeah! Anything by Kurt Vonnegut! :biggrin:
(HEY! WE GOT MORE SMILIES!!! THE DEVIL IS BACK! AND CYRING!! OH BOY!!!!!!! Oo. Oo. I think I really love this one, too! -> :uhh:)
YEEEHAAAAAA!!!
:wink: :eek: :rofl: :frown: :cry: :mad: :uhh: :redface: :devil: :rolleyes: :biggrin: :smile: :confused: :tongue: :cool:
Ahhhhh. That felt great. Thanks, Greg!!! :wink:
(HEY! WE GOT MORE SMILIES!!! THE DEVIL IS BACK! AND CYRING!! OH BOY!!!!!!! Oo. Oo. I think I really love this one, too! -> :uhh:)
YEEEHAAAAAA!!!
:wink: :eek: :rofl: :frown: :cry: :mad: :uhh: :redface: :devil: :rolleyes: :biggrin: :smile: :confused: :tongue: :cool:
Ahhhhh. That felt great. Thanks, Greg!!! :wink:It was chroot, not Greg. chroot said if we can find the other missing smilies, he'll add them back too. We need sarcastic smilie!!
What kind of people are you????I liked Raistlin, even though he was evil & twisted he had a few nice moments.
Did you read the book about Raistlin & Caramon when they were growing up? It will make you see Raistlin in a different light & understand him better.
Cragwolf, have you read The Metamorphosis or In the Penal Colony by Kafka? They're a couple of short stories.
We need sarcastic smilie!!
Oh yeah, we definitely need that. :sarcastic smilie:
:wink:
It was chroot, not Greg. chroot said if we can find the other missing smilies, he'll add them back too. We need sarcastic smilie!!
Yeah, I just saw that in another thread. I thanked him there. :wink: You know... I have a bunch of those smiles copied into a Word doc. I can't remember the 'sarcastic' smilie but I may have it. I'll email the doc to you - look to see if it's on there. If yeah, I'll get it to chroot. OK?
Here's what I wrote to Greg in the other thread. I just changed the name to properly address the true recipient of my appreciation. :wink: :biggrin:
(HEY! WE GOT MORE SMILIES!!! THE DEVIL IS BACK! AND CYRING!! OH BOY!!!!!!! Oo. Oo. I think I really love this one, too! -> :uhh:)
YEEEHAAAAAA!!!
:wink: :eek: :rofl: :frown: :cry: :mad: :uhh: :redface: :devil: :rolleyes: :biggrin: :smile: :confused: :tongue: :cool:
Ahhhhh. That felt great. Thanks, chroot!!! :wink:
p.s.
and no duct tape was necessary! :smile:
You have the smilies!! I just sent the ones we need back to you.
Tsunami, we will all have you to thank if chroot can add them. :biggrin:
You have the smilies!! I just sent the ones we need back to you.
Tsunami, we will all have you to thank if chroot can add them. :biggrin:
:cool: I emailed ya back. :cool: I liked the old 'cool' smilie, too. Not that I don't like this one... They just have kind of different looks to go with their coolosity. (coolosity? :uhh:) :rofl: :biggrin:
cragwolf
May9-04, 05:49 PM
Cragwolf, have you read The Metamorphosis or In the Penal Colony by Kafka? They're a couple of short stories.
I've read The Metamorphosis, not sure about the other one. It's been a while since I've read fiction, and much of my fiction is still at my parent's place, what, 10 years since I moved out? :smile:
I liked Raistlin, even though he was evil & twisted he had a few nice moments.
You ARE my mom!!! He was the only one that actually did ANYTHING in the series. And they relied on him for everything.
I've read The Metamorphosis, not sure about the other one. It's been a while since I've read fiction, and much of my fiction is still at my parent's place, what, 10 years since I moved out? :smile:Well, unless you are a real die hard Kafka fan, you may not enjoy In the Penal Colony. It's a bit much, but very good.
Amazon.com reviews "Perhaps the best of these is "In the Penal Colony." It reads like Michel Foucault's "Discipline And Punish" on acid. It is almost like a satire on what Hegel liked to refer to as the "slaughterhouse of history." The story is at once terrifying and grotesquely comical."
I actually saw the movie version of "The Castle" before reading it. I was so angry. Just when I thought I would finally get some answers as to what was going on, when the land surveyor is chasing after the sled that is going to the Castle... :mad:
Math Is Hard
May10-04, 01:10 AM
I adore Tom Robbins. What an imagination! Who else could come up with a description like:
"Her hair was as straight and red as ironed ketchup."
:biggrin:
Still Life with Woodpecker is definitely the best of his novels.
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