book recommendations (stuff i can find in my local library rather than the bookstore)

[Verthanthi]

Dear Conc and Rog:

About two years ago I read the first 100 pages of V. before deciding I was never going to get into it and that Pynchon was overrated. But I just picked up Gravity's Rainbow and am absolutely loving it. Thanks.

xoxo,
me

[bloodzombie]

You're a better man than I.

[bloodzombie]

a less read Classic J.D. Salinger's "A Catcher in the Rye."

and btw, f u Jeem. Classics become classics for a reason, because they're well written. Plus no one claimed to be an intellectual. How about u stop being a douche bag and judging ppl because they like popular books.

A lot of books become "classics" because they were important in their time, not necessarily because they were well written. People might take Jeem's view because there's a billion good books out there, when someone's asking for suggestions, they're generally not looking for something that was assigned in most high schools.

[Xu.]

bloody hell, intelligent and thought-out responses on the TW fprums, never thought i'd bookmark a thread here but this is the one

[ConcreteSchlyrd]

Dear Conc and Rog:

About two years ago I read the first 100 pages of V. before deciding I was never going to get into it and that Pynchon was overrated. But I just picked up Gravity's Rainbow and am absolutely loving it. Thanks.

xoxo,
me

I read V after Gravity's Rainbow, and I agree with you. V kind of just plodded for me.

And yes, beez, you are a shitty person for not liking Pynchon. What's your fucking problem, anyway? I bet you'd sucker-punch Girl Scouts who were trying to give you free Samoas.

[Volcs]

I liked Tuesdays with Morrie.. but I'm sure people will disagree. I loved the Davinci code, yet I can't remember any of the plot aside from the religious points (which fascinated me. I always intended to go through the book again and find some things to look up on, never got around to it though.)

Another of my favorite books is American Gods (Erathia suggested I read it a few years ago), kind of hard to follow at points, and extremely weird to the point where you just kind of go "what the fuck? where is he going with this..". But it all makes sense in the end (after you've read it atleast twice..) :P

[Verthanthi]

I read V after Gravity's Rainbow, and I agree with you. V kind of just plodded for me.

I like the language a lot better in Gravity's Rainbow, too.

P.S. Is it safe to assume that this is where Roger Mexico comes from?

[HellzNo!]

ALthought not many people have read them, thinking they'd be somewhat of a fall-off compared to The Davinci Code and Angels & Demons, Dan browns other two books, Digital Fortress and Deception Point, are both excellent reads. The main characters in both books contain alot of the same features and characteristics as Robert Langdon and both vittoria vetra and sophie neveu(sp?).

[Broly]

Learn to Jav, for idiots - Underground :bigups:

[Cylor]

Days of War, Nights of Love by the CrimethInc. Collective

Probably the best book I've ever read, covers all topics from anarchism to sex. I'm almost certain I've posted this on the forums before, but if you didn't catch it the first time, here it is:

The Contents of Your Daily Life

How many hours a day do you spend in front of a television screen? A computer screen? Behind an automobile windscreen? All three screens combined? What are you being screened from? How much of your life comes at you through a screen, vicariously?

Is watching things as exciting as doing things? Do you have enough time to do all the things that you want to? Do you have enough energy to? Why? And how many hours a day do you sleep? How are you affected by standardized time, designed solely to synchronize your movements with those of millions of other people? How long do you ever go without knowing what time it is? Who or what controls your minutes and hours? The minutes and hours that add up to your life? Are you saving time? Saving it up for what?

Can you put a value on a beautiful day, when the birds are singing and people are walking around together? How many dollars an hour does it take to pay you to stay inside and sell things or file papers? What can you get later that will make up for this day of your life?

How are you affected by being in crowds, by being surrounded by anonymous masses? Do you find yourself blocking your emotional responses to other human beings? And who prepares your meals? Do you ever eat by yourself? Do you ever eat standing up? How much do you know about what you eat and where it comes from? How much do you trust it?

What are we deprived of by labor-saving devices? By thought-saving devices? How are you affected by the requirements of efficiency, which place value on the product rather than the process, on the future rather than the present, the present moment that is getting shorter and shorter as we speed faster and faster into the future? What are we speeding towards? Are we saving time? Saving it up for what?

How are you affected by being moved around in prescribed paths, in elevators, buses, subways, escalators, on highways and sidewalks? By moving, working, and living in two- and three-dimensional grids? How are you affected by being organized, immobilized, and scheduled rather than wandering, roaming freely and spontaneously? Scavenging? (Shoplifting?) How much freedom of movement do you have--freedom to move through space, to move as far as you want, in new and unexplored directions?

And how are you affected by waiting? Waiting in line, waiting in traffic, waiting to eat, waiting for the bus, waiting to urinate--learning to punish and ignore your spontaneous urges? How are you affected by holding back your desires? By sexual repression, by the delay or denial of pleasure, starting in childhood, along with the suppression of everything in you that is spontaneous, everything that evidences your wild nature, your membership in the animal kingdom? Is pleasure dangerous?

Could danger be joyous? Do you ever need to see the sky? (Can you see many stars in it any more?) Do you ever need to see water, leaves, foliage, animals? Glinting, glimmering, moving? Is that why you have a pet, an aquarium, houseplants? Or are television and video your glinting, glimmering, moving? How much of your life comes at you through a screen, vicariously? If your life was made into a movie, would you watch it? How do you feel in situations of enforced passivity?

How are you affected by a non-stop assault of symbolic communication--audio, visual, print, billboard, video, radio, robotic voices--as you wander through a forest of signs? What are they urging upon you? Do you ever need solitude, quiet, contemplation? Do you remember it? Thinking on your own, rather than reacting to stimuli? Is it hard to look away?

Is looking away the very thing that is not permitted? Where can you go to find silence and solitude? Not white noise, but pure silence? Not loneliness, but gentle solitude? How often have you stopped to ask yourself questions like these? Do you find yourself committing acts of symbolic violence? Do you ever feel lonely in a way that words cannot even express? Do you sometimes feel yourself ready to LOSE CONTROL?

And that's only the preface.

[Jason]

Damn Cy, I'm sold.

I just finished Angels & Demons about an hour ago. It left me with a gnawing urge to research secret societies and conspiracy theories, much like Da Vinci Code did.

From here... man oh man, so many options! It's a toss up between Pynchon and Eggers. I'll probably let my librarian decide.

[T3l Ca7]

Sometimes I can't figure out whether it is a love/hate relationship between some pallies members, or they stick together because they are similar in a lot of ways but deep inside they feel competitive against each other and there are a lot of jealousy going on.

Back to the topic, I have started reading a lot of books, but finished very few. I would recommend the following two, but it would really depend on your taste.

The thorn birds
Silence of the lamb

[ZeUs!!]

These are the mainstream and trivial opinions of someone who's not really into books

[ZeUs!!]

[Ilya]

what the fuck, zeus