...others to be swallowed; and some few to be chewed and digested."

Books have always played a very important role in my life, and I'm sure it's the same for many (if not all) of the people here on the Undertow. Also, I've always considered a great pleasure sharing my favourite readings with friends and relatives. Truth must be said, I think books are among the best presents anyone could ever receive. 

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“The mediocre teacher tells. The good teacher explains. The superior teacher demonstrates. The great teacher inspires.” – William Arthur Ward

Great question Gianluca!

 Right now I'm reading Neil Gaiman's "Stardust" and Woody Allen's "Getting Even". 

However, some of my all time favorite books are Paul Auster's "The Book of Illusions", everything written by J.D Salinger, Marquez's "One Hundred years of Solitude" Jeffrey Eugenides's "Middlesex". I also have to admit that I'm a huge Agatha Christie fan :)

 best;

Zeynep   

I'm reading The Lord of The Rings now. It's fantastic to see the way Tolkien weaves his world. I tried reading it when I was younger, but I wasn't old enough to appreciate it.

A recent read was What A Carve Up! by Jonathan Coe. It was interesting right up until the end, which was highly disappointing. Coe's characters are gripping and realistic, making the book enjoyable, but I felt like I was reading something completely different in the final chapters.

Dear Gianluca,

 I see you've begun your old thread (did it disappear?) with a wonderful new title!

 Not much time for anything these days, but like you—reading has always been part of my core. Picked up a lovely little book of 50 pages by Sir Winston S. Churchill.  First published in 1932, Painting As A Pastime is a small gem, which speaks not only of his art (begun at 40), but of life, connection to oneself, and how the human spirit is fed. 

 It's one of those books you'll read time and again, only to find more and more.  Thanks for resurrecting this great thread—we all benefit.

 Much Love,
Catherine
 

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"If we don't change the direction we are headed,
we will end up where we are going."

—Chinese Proverb

Hello all,

I'm reading a book called "The Rebel Sell" by Joseph Heath and Andrew Potter. It's about how culture can't be jammed because, from what I understand from what I've read so far, there is no overarching culture to jam. I am less than a third of the way through and am very interested in seeing where their argument goes, especially after just finishing "Culture Jam" by Kalle Lasn, the man who started Adbusters.

What I like about this book is that the author's are both professors and so the writing is very academic. I love cultural studies books, but often find the writing quite weak, which becomes distracting despite valid arguments made by the writer.

Great thread! Well, besides the bible which is my daily bread, I'm midway through "Architects of Death" by Donald De Marco and Benjamin D. Wiker and almost to the end of "The Seven Mountains of Thomas Merton" by Michael Mott. The latter is a detailed, almost scholarly biography (with lots of footnotes!) of the famous Trappist monk - some call him a modern mystic. It's well written but overly long and I'm struggling to finish it. It does give a greater insight to Merton though whose own autobiography The Seven Story Mountain is a much better read though obviously not so balanced. My recommendation is to read Merton's own works if anyone is interested in spirituality or contemplative prayer. The former book, AOD, provides biographical vignettes of what the authors term the architects of death - big thinkers like Nietzche, Darwin, Marx, Sartre, Freud, Margaret Mead, Kinsey, Peter Singer whom they claim to be the designers of the moral decadence of the present world. Some of these philosophers/thinkers are familiar to me, others are not so the book is a great introduction to these intellectual heavyweights and their schools of thought. However because each person is only covered in 20 pages or so, it leaves the impression that one is only skimming the surface. It is sad to realise though that many of these great thinkers could not embrace the notion of a loving God or the compassion of a human heart because they were deprived of love from an early age. I'm not fully embracing the authors' standpoint though because I always believe we have to sift through the good and bad of all ideologies, philosophies, religions, nations, individuals.

Lest this post suggests that I only read heavy stuff, I enjoy light reading in between and just finished two novels last month - "The Mermaid Chair" by Sue Monk Kidd and "The Jane Austen's Book Club" - both of which inspired me to start writing short reviews which can be found here: http://saltandpepper.blog.com/Books/ (admittedly a neglected blog)

Between the pen and the paperwork there must be passion in the language! 

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If you want peace, work for justice.

Today the literary world lost one of its best, Kurt Vonnegut. What an incredible mind. We should all do a bit of boko-maru tonight, in honor of his legacy.

quite sad news indeed!

Zoli

 

Not too long ago I was reading 'Don't Think of an Elephant" by George Lakoff which which is about the use of 'framing' in conservative politics.  I highly recommend this book to anybody that has an interest in language and politics, especially if you are left of centre, but even if you're not.  Google it if you haven't heard of it.

More recently I've been reading books from the more escapist end of science fiction.  I've just finished "Consider Phlebas" by Iain M Banks, and I'm about to start 'Use of Weapons" by the same author.  "Use of Weapons", I'm told, is a very depressing book, so I'm not sure that I really want to read it.  I picked it because the cover artwork is intriguingly 20th century earth looking - a warship, a wooden chair (for interrogation?) and a pistol, and because it is widely thought to be the best of his 'Culture' novels.  The Culture being a kind of utopic (to people that live in The Culture) civilisation around whose edges the stories are based.  Iain M Banks is Scottish science fiction author who is considered more literary then some.  He also writes non science fiction, as Iain Banks.  Worth googling if you can read 'space opera' science fiction, with lots of action.  Though if Consider Phlebas is a good example, his books are not cheerful.

There is a description of The Culture, by the author, at http://www.vavatch.co.uk/books/banks/cultnote.htm 

 Here's a quote from 'Use of Weapons', which I saw, and which was also a factor in me buying it -

"In all the human societies we have ever reviewed, in every age and in every state, there has seldom if ever been a shortage of eager young males prepared to kill and die to preserve the security, comfort and prejudices of their elders, and what you call heroism is just an expression of this fact; there is never a scarcity of idiots."

Before this I was reading Century Rain, by Alastair Reynolds - also science fiction.  I quite liked the early half of the book, which is set in what seems to be an alternate 1950s Paris where WWII never happened - and without the technology or cultural and political changes that resulted from the war.

I was just recommending some science fiction to somebody who says she doesn't like science fiction, so I might as well I'll offer my suggestions here too -

* Ender's Game by Orson Scott Card.  [SPOILER WARNING] This is about children, and especially one child ('Ender') being used to fight a war.  Except they don't know it.  They think they are playing games.  But computer simulations they aren't - they are remotely commanding actual warships, and the story ends with them winning the game, resulting in the genocide of their opponents.

* Flowers For Algernon by Daniel Keyes -  A quote from Wikipedia, which I don't think contains any spoilers -

"The novel touches upon aspects of the human condition such as ambition, innocence, jealousy, pettiness, and emotional development. It uses the trappings of a science fiction premise to relate various notions of consciousness and awareness, and how one's awareness of others changes along with intelligence."

Neil

By the way the great writer Kurt Vonnegut died yesterday at the age of 84 :(

may he rest in peace.

 

A book i've finished 2 months ago and i recommend to everyone: Jon Haliday - Mao:The Unknown Story.

The book i've already pre-ordered: The Children of Hurin (ed. C. Tolkien)

I've already read the Simarillion, so i'm very enthusiasmed with the details and development of this "new" book.

The most exciting book of the past 6 months was Autobiography of a Gueisha, by Sayo Masuda. Whoever doesn't like it, i'll give the money back. (don't take the offer serious, nobody does)

In brief, i'm not reading anything literary right now, and just waiting for the lastest in the Tolkien collection.

Paulo

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- Are you serious?
- Yes, i am. I'm your guardian angel.
- Amazing!I've never believed in that.Am i dead?
- No. You're just hallucinating.

A Heartbreaking Work Of Staggering Genius by Dave Eggers

title says it all.

For my birthday, which was a couple weeks ago, a friend bought me Bitchfest. So far, so good. It's a collection of the best articles from 10 years of *** magazine, which I always loved to read. A good choice for those interested in feminism in general and a feminist reading of popular culture, although I think those who haven't read much feminist theory lit would like it too as the articles are very well written, engaging and thoughtful. It also has a great forward by Margaret Cho.