Random thoughts about Books

Discussion in 'Books' started by riverplate, Dec 23, 2008.

  1. chaski

    chaski Moderator
    Staff Member

    Mar 20, 2000
    redacted
    Club:
    Lisburn Distillery FC
    Nat'l Team:
    Turks and Caicos Islands
    He is confusing it with Tender is the Night.
     
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  2. BalanceUT

    BalanceUT RSL and THFC!

    Oct 8, 2006
    Appalachia
    Club:
    Real Salt Lake
    Nat'l Team:
    United States
  3. riverplate

    riverplate Member+

    Jan 1, 2003
    Corona, Queens
    Club:
    CA River Plate
    A Not-So-Quixotic Search for Cervantes - N.Y. Times
    http://www.nytimes.com/2014/03/11/w...t&contentCollection=world&t=qry449#/cervantes
     
  4. Dr. Wankler

    Dr. Wankler Member+

    May 2, 2001
    The Electric City
    Club:
    Chicago Fire
    I'll admit to judging this book by its cover, but you have to grant that it is a pretty good one. And before I bought it, I also read several passages and compared it to other translations that the bookstore carried... and it did really well.




    [​IMG]



    Older readers will be able to almost hear Howard Cosell: "Down goes Akhilleus! Down goes Akhilleus!"*





    I know, I know: that's Cassius Clay and Sonny Liston, not George Foreman and Joe Frazier. Couldn't resist.
     
  5. chaski

    chaski Moderator
    Staff Member

    Mar 20, 2000
    redacted
    Club:
    Lisburn Distillery FC
    Nat'l Team:
    Turks and Caicos Islands
    Serious reading takes a hit from online scanning and skimming, researchers say
    http://www.washingtonpost.com/local...8028d2-b5d2-11e3-b899-20667de76985_story.html

    So should we close this thread?
     
  6. Dr. Wankler

    Dr. Wankler Member+

    May 2, 2001
    The Electric City
    Club:
    Chicago Fire
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  7. riverplate

    riverplate Member+

    Jan 1, 2003
    Corona, Queens
    Club:
    CA River Plate
    #157 riverplate, Apr 14, 2014
    Last edited: Apr 14, 2014
    2014 Pulitzer Prize winners:

    FICTION - "The Goldfinch" by Donna Tartt (Little, Brown)

    DRAMA - "The Flick" by Annie Baker

    HISTORY - "The Internal Enemy: Slavery and War in Virginia, 1772-1832" by Alan Taylor (W.W. Norton)

    BIOGRAPHY - "Margaret Fuller: A New American Life" by Megan Marshall (Houghton Mifflin Harcourt)

    POETRY - "3 Sections" by Vijay Seshadri (Graywolf Press)

    GENERAL NONFICTION - "Toms River: A Story of Science and Salvation" by Dan Fagin (Bantam Books)

    MUSIC - "Become Ocean" by John Luther Adams (Taiga Press/Theodore Front Musical Literature)
    __________

    Other FINALISTS in these categories:
    Fiction
    -"The Son" by Philipp Meyer (Ecco)
    -"The Woman Who Lost Her Soul" by Bob Shacochis (Atlantic Monthly Press)

    Drama
    -
    "The (curious case of the) Watson Intelligence" by Madeleine George
    -"Fun Home" by Lisa Kron and Jeanine Tesori

    History
    -
    "A Dreadful Deceit: The Myth of Race from the Colonial Era to Obama's America" by Jacqueline Jones (Basic Books)
    -"Command and Control: Nuclear Weapons, the Damascus Accident and the Illusion of Safety" by Eric Schlosser (The Penguin Press)

    Biography or Autobiography
    -
    "Jonathan Swift: His Life and His World" by Leo Damrosch (Yale University Press)
    -"Karl Marx: A Nineteenth-Century Life" by Jonathan Sperber (Liveright)

    Poetry
    -
    "The Sleep of Reason" by Morri Creech (The Waywiser Press)
    -"The Big Smoke" by Adrian Matejka (Penguin)

    General Nonfiction
    -
    "The Blood Telegram: Nixon, Kissinger and a Forgotten Genocide" by Gary J. Bass (Alfred A. Knopf)
    -"The Insurgents: David Petraeus and the Plot to Change the American Way of War" by Fred Kaplan (Simon & Schuster)

    Music
    -
    "The Gospel According to the Other Mary" by John Adams (Boosey & Hawkes)
    -"Invisible Cities" by Christopher Cerrone (Outburst-Inburst Musics)
     
  8. Val1

    Val1 Member+

    Arsenal
    Mar 12, 2004
    MD's Eastern Shore
    Club:
    Arsenal FC
    Since this is the place for readers...

    I didn't know where to post this, but apparently the New Yorker Magazine is putting all of it's articles since 2007 online for free for the next three months. And here's Slate's list of some of the best writing. Suffice it to say, I have not gotten anything accomplished the past two hours...

    http://www.slate.com/blogs/browbeat...ee_for_three_months_what_should_you_read.html
     
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  9. riverplate

    riverplate Member+

    Jan 1, 2003
    Corona, Queens
    Club:
    CA River Plate
    #159 riverplate, Aug 26, 2014
    Last edited: Aug 26, 2014
    [​IMG]

    More Than a Century Later, Sophia Tolstoy Has Her Say - N.Y. Times
    http://www.nytimes.com/2014/08/20/b...ations-has-a-scorned-wifes-rebuttal.html?_r=0
     
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  10. The Potter

    The Potter Member+

    Aug 26, 2004
    England
    Club:
    Stoke City FC
    Nat'l Team:
    England
    I wish less socially orientated science books were given more representation. In the past books like GEB and The Ants have won the Pulitzer, I think those days are over.
     
  11. Dr. Wankler

    Dr. Wankler Member+

    May 2, 2001
    The Electric City
    Club:
    Chicago Fire
    A pretty good book on cancer won a few years ago, if I'm keeping my awards straight.

    I think The Ants refers to the book by E. O. Wilson and a dutch or german guy whose name I can't recall. What is GEB?
     
  12. Dr. Wankler

    Dr. Wankler Member+

    May 2, 2001
    The Electric City
    Club:
    Chicago Fire
    Ah: Godel, Escher, Bach. Just figured it out when I looked up from my desk and saw my old copy on a shelf. Nevermind.
     
  13. Dr. Wankler

    Dr. Wankler Member+

    May 2, 2001
    The Electric City
    Club:
    Chicago Fire
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  14. riverplate

    riverplate Member+

    Jan 1, 2003
    Corona, Queens
    Club:
    CA River Plate
    [​IMG]

    Lost Stories By Truman Capote Are Published - N.Y. Times
    http://www.nytimes.com/2014/10/09/books/lost-stories-by-capote-are-published.html?module=Search&mabReward=relbias:s,{"2":"RI:13"}&_r=0

    BERLIN — A Swiss publisher was searching for chapters of Truman Capote’s unfinished final novel last summer when he stumbled upon a different find. While poring over Capote’s writings and papers at the New York Public Library, the publisher, Peter Haag, discovered a collection of previously unpublished short stories and poems from Capote’s youth.

    Four of the stories, believed to have been written from 1935 to 1943, appear in German translations in Thursday’s edition of the German publication ZEITmagazin. Those stories will be seen in German more than a year ahead of the scheduled release of the full collection, a dozen poems and roughly 20 stories, by Random House in English and by Kein & Aber in German...

    Capote, who died in 1984, at 59, is believed to have written these works between the time he was 11 and 19, although not all are dated...

    When he realized they were not publicly available, Mr. Haag urged Alan Schwartz, the trustee of the Truman Capote Literary Trust, to read them. Mr. Schwartz, in turn, spoke with Mr. Ebershoff, who said they all agreed that the works “were much more than juvenilia and worthy of publication.”
     
  15. Val1

    Val1 Member+

    Arsenal
    Mar 12, 2004
    MD's Eastern Shore
    Club:
    Arsenal FC
    David Broder has passed away.

    Gary Trudeau is on sabbatical, and I don't think he's coming back.

    George Will is a carcass of the great writer he once was.

    So, in the pantheon of the "newsmen" I have read for up to 30 years now, there was only Judith Martin, AKA Miss Manners, and Jonathan Yardley, book critic for the Washington Post. And now he's retiring. And my newspaper dies a little more...

    http://www.washingtonpost.com/opini...6eeac6-73eb-11e4-a589-1b102c2f81d0_story.html
     
  16. Dr. Wankler

    Dr. Wankler Member+

    May 2, 2001
    The Electric City
    Club:
    Chicago Fire
    Like I need a series of classic books to start collecting (though if theybstarted this when I was in college...

    http://www.nytimes.com/2015/01/03/b...ary-catalogs-indian-literature.html?ref=books

    Virginia Woolf praised the series, {Loeb's Classical Library} which featured reader-friendly English translations and the original text on facing pages, as “a gift of freedom.” Over time, the pocket-size books, now totaling 522 volumes and counting, became both scholarly mainstays and design-geek fetish objects, their elegant green (Greek) and red (Latin) covers spotted everywhere from the pages of Martha Stewart Living to Mr. Burns’s study on “The Simpsons.”

    Now, Harvard University Press, the publisher of the Loebs, wants to do the same for the far more vast and dizzyingly diverse classical literature of India, in what some are calling one of the most complex scholarly publishing projects ever undertaken.

    The Murty Classical Library of India, whose first five dual-language volumes will be released next week, will include not only Sanskrit texts but also works in Bangla, Hindi, Kannada, Marathi, Persian, Prakrit, Tamil, Telugu, Urdu and other languages. Projected to reach some 500 books over the next century, the series is to encompass poetry and prose, history and philosophy, Buddhist and Muslim texts as well as Hindu ones, and familiar works alongside those that have been all but unavailable to nonspecialists.

    The Murty will offer “something the world had never seen before, and something that India had never seen before: a series of reliable, accessible, accurate and beautiful books that really open up India’s precolonial past,” said Sheldon Pollock, a professor of South Asian studies at Columbia University and the library’s general editor...​


    I haven't read widely in classical Indian scripture/literature, but a lot of what I did read was pretty badly translated (inflated pseudo-poetic diction, sexy stuff expunged, etc.). Alas, never had the chance (or probably the ability) to learn Sanskrit...
     
  17. nicodemus

    nicodemus Member+

    Sep 3, 2001
    Cidade Mágica
    Club:
    PAOK Saloniki
    Nat'l Team:
    United States
    That's pretty rad. Could keep you busy for a while.
     
  18. General Disarray

    General Disarray Legendary

    Jul 7, 2005
    Columbus
    Club:
    Columbus Crew
    Nat'l Team:
    United States
    needing some advice, I've never read any of the Star Wars books, and would really love to check them out. tried to do an internet search but there are soo many not exactly sure where to start....can anyone give me some direction on where to start?
     
  19. Dr. Wankler

    Dr. Wankler Member+

    May 2, 2001
    The Electric City
    Club:
    Chicago Fire
    I just heard of the "Wookiepedia" last week from a student: they have a list of all of them in chronological order NOT by date of release, but by when they occur in the Star War universe. holy crap, it's immense.

    http://starwars.wikia.com/wiki/List_of_books


    But the publishing house Tor (publisher of occasional BigSoccer poster Alex Irvine) has a more convenient list of entry points...


    http://www.tor.com/blogs/2013/01/where-to-begin-with-star-wars-books

    The main essay combined with the nerd skirmishes in the comments should help.
     
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  20. Bluto11

    Bluto11 The sky is falling!

    May 16, 2003
    Chicago, IL
    I read a lot of SW books over the summer while lifeguarding. I liked the Jedi Academy Trilogy, the Zahn books, and the X-Wing Rogue Squadron ones.
     
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  21. Val1

    Val1 Member+

    Arsenal
    Mar 12, 2004
    MD's Eastern Shore
    Club:
    Arsenal FC
  22. Dr. Wankler

    Dr. Wankler Member+

    May 2, 2001
    The Electric City
    Club:
    Chicago Fire
  23. Val1

    Val1 Member+

    Arsenal
    Mar 12, 2004
    MD's Eastern Shore
    Club:
    Arsenal FC
    Oh, I knew you did. I admit I had to rush to post that before you or riverplate did.;)

    And that is a great title...
     
  24. BalanceUT

    BalanceUT RSL and THFC!

    Oct 8, 2006
    Appalachia
    Club:
    Real Salt Lake
    Nat'l Team:
    United States
    There is some question as to whether Lee actually agreed to the publication of this novel. It was written prior to To Kill a Mockingbird and has not been given the scrutiny of working with an editor. She lives in an assisted living facility now and no person unaffiliated with the publication of the book has access to her to ask her wishes (presumably, those in the care facility are obligated by privacy restrictions).
    http://www.al.com/entertainment/index.ssf/2015/02/harper_lees_new_book_the_autho.html
     
  25. Val1

    Val1 Member+

    Arsenal
    Mar 12, 2004
    MD's Eastern Shore
    Club:
    Arsenal FC
    Well, when you write one of the singular books of an entire generation, and then never write again, you generate a whole lot of interest.

    http://www.slate.com/blogs/browbeat...he_to_kill_a_mockingbird_sequel_which_he.html

    This is an interesting interview with the editor of the book. I say editor with caution, because he has not apparently read the book:

     

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