Written by AiwiAstwihad on 13.05.2009 at 23:19


Yeah, the novel is awesome, although i'm not a fan of magical realistic stuff.
IF I'M NOT MISTAKEN, Marquez himself stated that it was primary written for money when he was in a terrible economical situation. This reminded me of another masterpiece written for money :

The Sound and the Fury - William Faulkner
I searched the topic for it and to my great fucking surprise, found nothing!

Book's title is taken from William Shakespeare's Macbeth:

"Life's but a walking shadow, a poor player
That struts and frets his hour upon the stage
And then is heard no more: it is a tale
Told by an idiot, full of sound and fury ,
Signifying nothing."

A real Masterpiece and An absolute must for all.

Wow. I did not know that García Márquez wrote that book for economic struggles. Thanks for the info.

I did know that the "sound and the fury" came from Macbeth, cos I am quite a fan of Shakespeare tragedies.

I will read something else about Faulkner. I have just read a non famous book that I did not like very much, but I will try "The sound..." and "A la recherche de temps perdu"

Bye.

The Judge and His Hangman (original title: Der Richter und sein Henker) by Friedrich Dürrenmatt.

A nice detective story, a really short book (just about 100 pages to read in about two hours).
Really catchy, you can never know who is the killer till the very last pages.

Written by Elio on 23.05.2009 at 17:21

Really catchy, you can never know who is the killer till the very last pages.

Yeah, that's what I like about detective stories, especially Agatha Christie.

"The Sot-Weed Factor" by John Barth is perhaps the funniest piece of historical fiction ever written, if not the funniest book I have ever read. Read it now.

I finished the turkish version of "Dorian Gray's Portrait", I enjoyed it man, great book and I recommend it to all fo you. I didnt think that I would like it but it was a nice novel and had a masterpeice ending which is very important to me. btw this was my first Turkish book, didnt dissapointed fortunately.

In the end I finished the first book of "In Search of Lost Time" (Remembrance of Things Past) called "Swann's Way" or "The Way by Swann's". just a heavy book and a masterpiece in the literature history by "Marcel Proust". I cant say what is this book is about, its really complicated and heavy. its about art and about illness and it hasnt a normal timline. I cant recommend it to annyone over here (maybe just Elio) cause I dont know how many of you will enjoy it. a book which have a lot of signs, talks about a lot of historical myths, books, structures and Paintings. plus humans psychological though about time and situation. a book about nature ... and all of these are just a novel, but to be honest one of the most un normal novels ever. you can even find alot of reviews about music and paintings and old churches and structures in the lines.

the other 6 books are these:

2-Within a Budding Grove or In the Shadow of Young Girls in Flower (I started to read)

3-The Guermantes Way

4-Cities of the Plain or Sodom and Gomorrah

5-The Captive or The Prisoner

6-The Fugitive or The Sweet Cheat Gone or Albertine Gone

7-The Past Recaptured or Time Regained or Finding Time Again


but the translator (Persian translator who compared the english and itallian version with the original french one) say and the reviewers say that you can read this book from any part and any line and enjoy about it. cause all parts have meanings and enjoyable. you can try some lines about it dont worry about the big books.

the other book Ive started after Dorian Gray's Portrait is "Ulysses" (Turkish version) by "James Joyce" which is very famous it seems that its so sexy and fearless!

Ok so i just finished reading a book that I didnt LOVE but it was entertaining, a total urban fantasy, It's called City of Bones by Cassandra Clare. And I suck at explaining books so ill just write a bit of the back cover...

When Clary Fray heads out tPandemonium Club in New York City, she hardly expects to witness a murder. Much less a murder commited by three teenagers covered with odd markings. This is clary's first meeting with the Shadowhunters, warriors dedicated to ridding the earth of demons..

I'm straight fantasy... so sorry

The First Law Trilogy:
-The Blade Itself
-Before They Are Hanged
-The Last Argument of Kings

This is a gritty and humorous noir fantasy series written by Joe Abercrombie.

This series is about a group of anti-heroes including, but not limited to, a thinking man's barbarian with terrible luck, a narcissistic young nobleman, a crippled inquisitor, a girl with a potty mouth who feels no pain, and the fat bald magus who brings them together. War, political intrigue, and dangerous journeys abound for our rag tag group as they begin to learn just how big of a part they have to play in the fate of their world.

Joe Abercrombie has been likened to both Scorsese and Tarantino, if they were to have worked on a sword and sorcery title. It's bloody, it's funny, and it's hard to put down. In particular, I love the character of Inquisitor Glokta; the books are worth reading for his inner dialogue alone. I highly recommend giving this series a shot whether you're a fantasy fan or not.

Ive started to read Delusion of God which recommended by my good friend [member]Hamird[/member]. I really liked it, its very simple and understandable not so philosophical and complicated. liked words which are about Einstein's concept about god. I really didnt know that he is a Pantheist or something like it. read it if you want to be enlighten about taboo things about God or concept of it.

When people ask me about what book to read I always go for thes one:

The Lucifer Principle:a scientific expedition into the forces of hiostory written by Howard Bloom

It is the best book i've red so far.It is the results of countless observations proving basically that evil is a by-product of nature and that it is part of our genetic background.Its well written, easy to read and filled with a shitload of refferences.Plus it's not boring like most scientific books.

The beautiful, aggressive and thought-provoking lyrics & music of Metallica now gets a thoughtful book

"Metallica and Philosophy: A Crash Course in Brain Surgery" by William Irwin.
Genre lol? Pop philosophy maybe.


A cool overview of some philosophical themes of Metallica's music.
How about "Metal Militia" as a rejection of Christian virtues?
"Master of Puppets" with irrational alcoholism?

I would give it a 3.5 maybe, since sometimes you get the feeling some of the philosophy is patched to the lyrics,
tho it's a 4.5 book for serious Metallica fans.

Written by Candlemass on 27.07.2010 at 19:37

The beautiful, aggressive and thought-provoking lyrics & music of Metallica now gets a thoughtful book

"Metallica and Philosophy: A Crash Course in Brain Surgery" by William Irwin.
Genre lol? Pop philosophy maybe.


A cool overview of some philosophical themes of Metallica's music.
How about "Metal Militia" as a rejection of Christian virtues?
"Master of Puppets" with irrational alcoholism?

I would give it a 3.5 maybe, since sometimes you get the feeling some of the philosophy is patched to the lyrics,
tho it's a 4.5 book for serious Metallica fans.

The comparisons are ridiculous. MoP's about drug addiction, as far as I know ("chop your breakfast on a mirror" = cocaine preparation). Lyrics can be interpreted and stretched out into various ridiculous meanings (although such things work better for more vague lyrics). The actual meaning the artist meant is usually revealed later, if ever.

Written by vezzy on 28.07.2010 at 15:15

Written by Candlemass on 27.07.2010 at 19:37

The beautiful, aggressive and thought-provoking lyrics & music of Metallica now gets a thoughtful book

"Metallica and Philosophy: A Crash Course in Brain Surgery" by William Irwin.
Genre lol? Pop philosophy maybe.


A cool overview of some philosophical themes of Metallica's music.
How about "Metal Militia" as a rejection of Christian virtues?
"Master of Puppets" with irrational alcoholism?

I would give it a 3.5 maybe, since sometimes you get the feeling some of the philosophy is patched to the lyrics,
tho it's a 4.5 book for serious Metallica fans.

The comparisons are ridiculous. MoP's about drug addiction, as far as I know ("chop your breakfast on a mirror" = cocaine preparation). Lyrics can be interpreted and stretched out into various ridiculous meanings (although such things work better for more vague lyrics). The actual meaning the artist meant is usually revealed later, if ever.

I think the general theme is addiction.
I know Mustaine had a drug problem, I don't recall any other member having a drug problem.
Tho I do know James had serious problems with alcohol.
I've read the lyrics, seems more plausible it's drugs way more.

Just finished "The Master and Margarita" by "Mikhail Bulgakov" right now. I dont remember any book that Ive finished it this fast recently. Satan, Azazel, Behemoth, Wizards, Christ and ... etc. I really loved this book, its all like a nightmare, satanic lol. I have to add that the critics say that its almost a classic book even if its not old, I didnt read Faust yet but it seems that there are a lot of similarities btw this book and Faust. There are some parts which the writer talks points at Faust too.

Trainspotting by Irvine Welsh. I read it before seeing the movie but as soon as I ended the book I watched it and was a bit disappointed. Yeah the film is good but the book is fucking awesome. I guess most of you already know what it is about, wild youth in Edinburgh in the 80s: alcohol, drugs, jail and shit. It made me feel like wanting to try heroin indeed.

Okay! I finished The Red And The Black by Stendhal last night (6 in the morning lol), I think you need to read this book to know about how bad were things when churches were the bosses! cool book I recommend it to all of my friends to read this very great book.

Why 76 posts of this thread is ignored? I was searching for some normal posts which are invisible right now!

Just finished The First Law trilogy by Joe Abercrombie yesterday...

A really damn good series if you get the change to read it. The characters are diverse and not your typical fantasy stereotypes. Alot, and I do mean alot of bloody violence. But the way Abercrombie attacks these situations is incredible. I highly suggest these 3 books.


Going to start Brandon Sanderson's new book, The Way of Kings, tonight. Cant wait to read this massive tome of a book.

Just finished The Thin Drum by Günter Grass, first of all I have to say that its not an easy book to read. Its a story about a cripple dwarf who has mental problems too. Then in the third book he will got hump too. I dont suggest it to anyone to read it, Its boring but its a good literature. There are some historical facts in this book about Danzig (Gdansk) and WWII which are useful for sure.

After almost 1 year and a half I finished my Chehov's first book of "Short Stories" series. In my translated version, the short stories are sorted by the year which they has been written. So Ive finished the stories btw 1880 and 1884(included). I have to say that its very nice to read short stories when you dont have time and you are bored of reading and when its Chehov its delicious yep!. So simple and so deep, so comic and so tragic. In one word its so cool.

Yesterday I finished another book which I was started to read almost 6 months ago. I really cant read philosophic or scientific books so fast because I have to understand each word (especially this one which was in English, I preferred to read it in the original language) so it will be boring to just read a book in 3 months or whatever it takes thats why I read literatures and short stories and important books in the same time. You have to be in the right mood to read such books so you have a lot of empty hours or days to read literature .

Yep I finished Richard Dawkins's "Delusion of God" and I really really enjoyed it. It is really a simple book of science and maybe philosophy which shows the possibility of God's existence. You cant find anything out of mathematics and physics (simple ones) for the proof of his words. He is a Biologist who is a Professor of Oxford University. He is a Darwinist and he talks about Revolution so much so you can consider this book as a Revolutionist proofs about Bing Bang and ...

I really liked this especial part of the book:

"We took the Ten Commandments seriously, we would rank the worship of the wrong gods, and the making of graven images, as first and second among sins. Rather than condemn the unspeakable vandalism of the Taliban, who dynamited the 150-foot-high Bamiyan Buddhas in the mountains of Afghanistan, we would praise them for their righteous piety."

and I shocked when I heard these words over and over again about Americans:

"In the United States of recent years the phrase 'American Taliban' was begging to be coined, and a swift Google search nets more than a dozen websites that have done so."

"The attitude of the 'American Taliban' towards homosexuality epitomizes their religious absolutism. Listen to the Reverend Jerry Falwell, founder of Liberty University: 'AIDS is not just God's punishment for homosexuals; it is God's punishment for the society that tolerates homosexuals.'"

"Returning to the American Taliban, listen to Randall Terry, founder of Operation Rescue, an organization for intimidating abortion providers. 'When I, or people like me, are running the country, you'd better flee, because we will find you, we will try you, and we'll execute you. I mean every word of it. I will make it part of my mission to see to it that they are tried and executed.' Terry
was here referring to doctors who provide abortions, and his Christian inspiration is clearly shown by other statements:

'I want you to just let a wave of intolerance wash over
you. I want you to let a wave of hatred wash over you. Yes,
hate is good . . . Our goal is a Christian nation. We have a
Biblical duty, we are called by God, to conquer this country.
We don't want equal time. We don't want pluralism.
Our goal must be simple. We must have a Christian
nation built on God's law, on the Ten Commandments.
No apologies.'

This ambition to achieve what can only be called a Christian fascist state is entirely typical of the American Taliban."

Im just confused, I really didnt know that there are such ppl in modern world and the worst thing is that it seems they are majority of US. My last words is that read this book even you are a Deist or whatever. Its really helpful.

American Christian extremist
Lol, I will watch these people out when in US. Actually I been in US and once I said to some people Im atheist, they were very surprised like "oh my god" but then they say like "believe in everything you want". But yay, those US Taliban people are very Christendom extremistic...

Written by Elio on 26.08.2010 at 15:00

Trainspotting by Irvine Welsh. I read it before seeing the movie but as soon as I ended the book I watched it and was a bit disappointed. Yeah the film is good but the book is fucking awesome. I guess most of you already know what it is about, wild youth in Edinburgh in the 80s: alcohol, drugs, jail and shit. It made me feel like wanting to try heroin indeed.

Ah yeah same for me, hahaha. But knowing me it'd end in total disaster lol.

I've watched the movie about, hmm... 30 times. I've read the book twice (after I'd seen the movie). I like the movie better, but probably only because I saw it first.

Written by Lucas on 28.09.2010 at 23:34

Written by Elio on 26.08.2010 at 15:00

Trainspotting by Irvine Welsh. I read it before seeing the movie but as soon as I ended the book I watched it and was a bit disappointed. Yeah the film is good but the book is fucking awesome. I guess most of you already know what it is about, wild youth in Edinburgh in the 80s: alcohol, drugs, jail and shit. It made me feel like wanting to try heroin indeed.

Ah yeah same for me, hahaha. But knowing me it'd end in total disaster lol.

I've watched the movie about, hmm... 30 times. I've read the book twice (after I'd seen the movie). I like the movie better, but probably only because I saw it first.

One of the main reasons I like the book the most is that my favourite character, Spud, is totally meaningless in the movie. Too much Renton innit

First, i'd like to second the dude who recommended Marquez - One Hundred Years of Solitude is one of my favourite books. Just bought Chronicle of a Death Foretold, though i've already read it. Extra kudos for reading Dracula and Frankenstein (Stoker and Shelley respectively), I recently polished those off myself, as part of an english paper I'm taking. Mandatory reading thus far has also been Wells' The Island of Doctor Moreau, which is good but gruesome. Next book on the list is Dr Jekyll and Mr Hyde (Robert Louis Stevenson). I love the BA.

I'd like to recommend Justin Cronin's The Passage. Its a rather fascinating book about a zombie apocalypse. I haven't been this frightened by a book in ages. Please note that by book in this case I mean doorstop - 700 odd pages. Its an easy read though. Apparently its quite similar to a Stephen King book, though not one I've read.

Currently reading Ursula Le Guin's The Left hand of Darkness, and i'd also recommend that.

Nonfiction:

Can't recommend Letters to a Young Contrarian by Christopher Hitchens enough. It's pretty much a condensed package of Hitchensisms. Shouldn't be missed. He's probably the funniest, most persuasive polemicist alive.

I'd also recommend, if the universe interests you at all (and why the fuck wouldn't it?), Brian Green's books. He makes some of the most complex physics topics digestible for those, like me, who don't even remember multiplication tables.

Fiction: I've only been reading the works of a handful of authors lately (mostly Brits for an unknown reason). Anything by Martin Amis (Christopher Hitchens' "only" friend) and David Mitchell gets my recommendation. Both are funny and fun to read, and both have a sense of what makes interesting prose interesting. So, get on that.

A suggestion: Light Boxes by Shane Jones. It's the In Watermelon Sugar of our day.

Written by BloodTears on 30.07.2008 at 22:57

Written by [user id=25572] on 30.07.2008 at 16:09

Written by BloodTears on 29.07.2008 at 11:25

Written by [user id=25572] on 22.07.2008 at 16:19

I'm surprised no one has recommended it yet (or maybe you all read it). I think it was a amazing book on communism. Read it if you like philosophical stuff

Animal Farm- By George Orwell

A farm is taken over by the animals when the farmer mistreats them. It is exactly like the Russian Revolution, and a sort of fairy tale for adults.

Everyone says this is such a good book but no-one really gave me a reason to read it. Why should I? Because it is Orwell?

Its really good satire, and exposes how stupid communism is.

Sounds like the kind of book I wouldnt find very interesting but thanks for telling me.

Old post but I suppose you haven't checked out the books yet so I post anyway: I haven't read ANimal Farm either but I read 1984 and I have to say that's one of the most amazing books I read. Very brutal tbh, the atmosphere is so... intense, cold and without any mercy at all. When I was done with the book I discovered that there are SO MANY references to the book all around you. Even the now popular concepts of Big Brother, memory holes, newspeak... etc. A really influential book with a very strong story.
Just to show how intense this book is I want to quote my favorite line:
"If you want a picture of the future, imagine a boot stamping on a human face - FOREVER"

Seriously, best story about a dystopia I've ever read. That places makes the world of "V for Vendetta" sound like a nice and lovely vacation.

Written by X-Ray Rod on 29.04.2011 at 11:45

Written by BloodTears on 30.07.2008 at 22:57

Written by [user id=25572] on 30.07.2008 at 16:09

Written by BloodTears on 29.07.2008 at 11:25

Written by [user id=25572] on 22.07.2008 at 16:19

I'm surprised no one has recommended it yet (or maybe you all read it). I think it was a amazing book on communism. Read it if you like philosophical stuff

Animal Farm- By George Orwell

A farm is taken over by the animals when the farmer mistreats them. It is exactly like the Russian Revolution, and a sort of fairy tale for adults.

Everyone says this is such a good book but no-one really gave me a reason to read it. Why should I? Because it is Orwell?

Its really good satire, and exposes how stupid communism is.

Sounds like the kind of book I wouldnt find very interesting but thanks for telling me.

Old post but I suppose you haven't checked out the books yet so I post anyway: I haven't read ANimal Farm either but I read 1984 and I have to say that's one of the most amazing books I read. Very brutal tbh, the atmosphere is so... intense, cold and without any mercy at all. When I was done with the book I discovered that there are SO MANY references to the book all around you. Even the now popular concepts of Big Brother, memory holes, newspeak... etc. A really influential book with a very strong story.
Just to show how intense this book is I want to quote my favorite line:
"If you want a picture of the future, imagine a boot stamping on a human face - FOREVER"

Seriously, best story about a dystopia I've ever read. That places makes the world of "V for Vendetta" sound like a nice and lovely vacation.

I'm so glad you read 1984. I had a seminar in university where all we read the whole semester were utopias and dystopias. So, I had my share of all of those, from different authors. It was a very interesting time for me, in terms of books.

I'm reading Portuguese literature now, so not much I can recommend at this point. I do have Robert Olen Butler's "Severance" on my to read list next. If you haven't heard about it, it's about the last words people would say before being decapitated, historical figures and regular folks. All imagined by the author, with some historical hints here and there and all the texts have exactly 240 words. 240 words because the author thinks that's the amount of words that could be spoken when you're decapitated before you run out of oxygen. Sounds like a good premise. I might have talked about this book here before, I don't remember.

But I recommend that one to you

Written by BloodTears on 29.04.2011 at 12:12

I'm so glad you read 1984. I had a seminar in university where all we read the whole semester were utopias and dystopias. So, I had my share of all of those, from different authors. It was a very interesting time for me, in terms of books.

You got my confused there... So you read 1984, right?

--- Thanks for the recommendation btw, gonna check it out