Summer reading

[Montez]

Just starting "The Good Soldier Svejk And His Fortunes In The World War". Only read a few pages so far, but seems like it's going to live up to the good recommendations. Hopefully I'll finally get around to "Death On The Installment Plan" as well, I've been meaning to read it for years now.

 

[John Uskglass]

Currently Reading: Children of Dune.

Next: New Umberto Eco.

Far future? God Emporer of Dune, Anna Karenina, maybe something by Orhan Pamuk that I have not finished.

Just finished Vonnegut's Hocus-Pocus.

Great book.

That's the one where Japan and Germany buy out the United States right? Har har. So funny in retrospect. I'd say it's his least.

 

[BIshop]

Rainbow Six and some Law of Tort text!

 

[Lukus]

The most recent book I finished was 'Löpgravsvägen' (the name of a road, in Swedish at any rate, I don't know the original title), by Kari Hotakinen, a Finnish author, that was... special.

I'm currently in the middle of 'Cloud of Sparrows' by Takashi Matsuoka. So far it's been great, so unless I change my opinion of it I guess I'll be picking up his second novel 'Autumn Bridge' next.

 

[Lazarus Plus]

Currently Reading: Children of Dune.

Next: New Umberto Eco.

Far future? God Emporer of Dune,

Try to keep an open mind. After Children the Dune series starts to get... weird. Very much worth reading, but nevertheless.

 

[SuAside]

Yes, it's summer once again & time for another summer reading thread, i say.

Now the real problem for me isn't 'not knowing' what to read, but 'having too many options'. So, my fellow NMA'ers, I call to you for help!

The list I made is the following, but feel free to add anything you feel is more enjoyable/more interesting:

- CATCH-22 by Joseph Heller (my kind o' read)
- Starship troopers by Robert Heinlein (always been curious about thisone)
- War & peace by Tolstoy (general education of the mind?)
- Brave New World by Aldous Huxley (never got around to actually reading thisone)
- Candide by Voltaire (general education of the mind?)
- The Idiot or The Brothers Karamazov by Dostoevsky (general education of the mind?)
- Metamorphosis or The Trials by Kafka (general education of the mind?)
- Nineteen Eighty-Four by George Orwell (never got around to actually reading thisone)
- Slapstick or Lonesome No More by Kurt Vonnegut (alec's influence, i suppose)
- Un homme qui dort by George Perec (alec's influence once again)
- The Catcher in the Rye by J.D. Salinger (influencial i'm told, to both writers & political murderers appearantly )

Or maybe some Lovecraft?

 

[DirtyDreamDesigner]

Skip: War & Peace

Definitely read: Candide, Starship Troopers, 1984, Kafka stuff

 

[SuAside]

Skip: War & Peace

care to explain why? Tolstoy is pretty much a classic.

 

[DirtyDreamDesigner]

It's too long winded and you don't actually get anything out of it except pride because you finished the damn thing; it's not very interesting nor is it that intellectually fulfilling.

There's no doubt it's a classic, but it's not something you read unless you have to.


IMHO, of course.

EDIT: Shit, I think I hear Kharn coming...

*runs away

 

[KQX]

Dude, you really missed out on a lot of important reading. Get to it!!!1

I also say hold off on the War & Peace and others for after you get done with the basics.

So that means: Catcher in the Rye, 1984, Brave New World.

They shouldn't take you that long but you'll enjoy every page.

 

[OnTheBounce]

...Candide, Starship Troopers...

I'm with DDD on this one. Candide is an awesome book. It's only an evening's read so you don't have to slog through anything to knock it out a classic, and it'll have you in stitches, especially if you've a good grasp of the history of the period. ("...and Candide was flogged in time with the anthem.")

Starship Troopers is excellent. I make a point of reading it once a year, which I've done since '94. You'll spend some time wondering where exactly Heinlein was coming from, and you may not agree with what you believe him to be saying, but it's thought provoking and will likely get you thinking in some new and interesting directions.

Hopefully you'll get through your list. Everything on it is worth reading for one reason or another.

OTB

 

[Member of Khans]

Or maybe [read] some Lovecraft?

If doing so, stick to short stories. The longer the text, the more awful his style.
But then again, this maybe just appears to me because of the horrible German translation.

 

[Pajari]

Good list. I'd read Crime and Punishment if you're going to read Dostoevsky, and I'd also add a couple of smaller books that I've read so far this summer that I enjoyed:

- Heart of Darkness by Joseph Conrad
- Something by Camus (I've only read The Stranger)
- And you might as well make it a hat trick with the futurist fantasy novels and pick up Yevgeny Zamyatin's We, which was written a few decades before 1984 and Brave New World and is, as far as I'm concerned, the best of the three.

All three of those are short and, if they aren't nessecarily entertaining, they're things you need to read to be a snobbish intellectual (Heart of Darkness lol).

EDIT: The Catcher in the Rye is a really fun book, with the added bonus of being on the 'well read' list.

 

[SuAside]

Dude, you really missed out on a lot of important reading. Get to it!!!1

i'm working on it... quite honnestly, i've read a lot more than any of my friends, so i'm not doing all that badly

It's too long winded and you don't actually get anything out of it except pride because you finished the damn thing; it's not very interesting nor is it that intellectually fulfilling.

alrighty, that saves me a book :p

Starship Troopers is excellent.

i've been putting thatone off because i'm told he doesnt write action too well, but i'm interested in the governement form & such.

Hopefully you'll get through your list. Everything on it is worth reading for one reason or another.

i will, in time. obviously not all this summer of course.

a lil' Q about your name though? is it related to starship troopers? in the squadbased RTS game they made it's what the power armor troops yell when you give them the order to use their jumpjets.

("...and Candide was flogged in time with the anthem.")

gonna be good to brush up on my french as well

Good list. I'd read Crime and Punishment if you're going to read Dostoevsky

havent read any of em, so it's hard to make a choice

- Heart of Darkness by Joseph Conrad

yes, conrad should be on the list.

- Something by Camus (I've only read The Stranger)

i dunno. i dont really like the pied-noir setting. thats a bad reason not to read it, i know. but it means other stuff gets priority.

- And you might as well make it a hat trick with the futurist fantasy novels and pick up Yevgeny Zamyatin's We, which was written a few decades before 1984 and Brave New World and is, as far as I'm concerned, the best of the three.

never heard of em

 

[OnTheBounce]

i've been putting [Starship Troopers] off because i'm told he doesnt write action too well, but i'm interested in the governement form & such.

I'd concur with that evaluation. Reading Heinlein -- for all he did for Sci-Fi -- is more about reading dissertations on the soft sciences, cloaked in a thin veneer of fiction. He did have a novel approach to Sci-Fi in that he didn't give you a lecture on the mechanics of a sliding door, but rather simply said, "the door slid open," concentrating more on what it woud be like to live in the future than the hard science making it possible.

Personally, I'd say that if you're looking for well-written action you're better off w/Space Operas or Science Fantasy. Of course, finding well-written examples in that genre is probably worthy of a grad student's research project...

a lil' Q about your name though? is it related to starship troopers? in the squadbased RTS game they made it's what the power armor troops yell when you give them the order to use their jumpjets.

My name is indeed taken from the novel. Doing something "on the bounce" is doing it quickly/well. An "on the bounce" individual is a quick/sharp/skilled one.

I first read this novel when I was in the Army the first time. A felllow NCO turned me on to it, and he turned it into my nickname within a couple of weeks.

Coming back into the Army I made the term "on the bounce!" a part of my NCO persona. (All good non-commissioned officers are oscar caliber actors, in case no one ever told you. ) I find it amusing to run around yelling at troops to do things, "on the bounce, you apes!"

gonna be good to brush up on my french as well

Reading it in the original, eh? You're one up on me there.

BTW, Catch-22 is another excellent choice. It's a really odd novel in that the chronology is jumbled and the last 1/4 gets a bit surreal, but the satire is undeniability hilarious. Of course it's even better if you've some military experience, but even if you don't it'll be worth your while.

If I may be so bold as to make a recommendation, I would suggest picking up a copy of Roth's Portnoy's Complaint. It's about a Jewish lawyer undergoing psychoanalysis. You'll never look at liver quite the same way...

OTB

 

[Nova]

You could read Dostoyevsky's The House of the Dead. It's not that long as it's quite a fascinating story about his time in a Siberian prison camp.

Definitly read 1984, but if you feel you have the time, supplement it with Animal Farm, which is a bit like 1984. I'd recommend reading Animal Farm after 1984 though. Also Animal Farm is also very short, easily readable over 1 or 2 days.

Moving on to some newer stuff, you should really check out Chuck Palahniuk's Fight Club on which the film is based. It's so much better than the film and is really an eye opener in terms of the lifestyle of generation X. Excellent written and one of my favorite books, in fact.

If you want to read Lovecraft, then stick to his later works, as they are much more refined. There are however also some good ones from his earlier period. I don't agree that the longer ones are more boring, in fact I'd say they are much more interesting and horrific in scope. I'd recommend At the Mountains of Madness (His longest, IIRC), Call of Cthulhu, The Case of Charles Dexter Ward, Pickman's Models, The Music of Erich Zann, The Temple and The Shadow Over Innsmouth. There are numerous other, equally fascinating shorts, but these are the ones that come to mind.

Lastly, I'd recommend Neuromancer, by William Gibson, the grandfather of The Matrix (Once you've read this book, you'll find it amazing how much the Wachowski brothers ripped off from this book). It's a really good book, a bit psychadelic, but really good.

Hope I helped

 

[SuAside]

My name is indeed taken from the novel. Doing something "on the bounce" is doing it quickly/well. An "on the bounce" individual is a quick/sharp/skilled one.

well well well, thats a pretty bloated impression of ones self :p

(and yeah i know what it means ^^)

I first read this novel when I was in the Army the first time. A felllow NCO turned me on to it, and he turned it into my nickname within a couple of weeks.

Coming back into the Army I made the term "on the bounce!" a part of my NCO persona. (All good non-commissioned officers are oscar caliber actors, in case no one ever told you. ) I find it amusing to run around yelling at troops to do things, "on the bounce, you apes!"

saying that the drill sergeant in FMJ is an actual retired marine is convincing enough for me.

Reading it in the original, eh? You're one up on me there.

if i know the language i always read it in the original form.

BTW, Catch-22 is another excellent choice. It's a really odd novel in that the chronology is jumbled and the last 1/4 gets a bit surreal, but the satire is undeniability hilarious. Of course it's even better if you've some military experience, but even if you don't it'll be worth your while.

no military experience i'm afraid, but i got some friends in the army & i'm a war-movie fan (and game fan ofc)

If I may be so bold as to make a recommendation, I would suggest picking up a copy of Roth's Portnoy's Complaint. It's about a Jewish lawyer undergoing psychoanalysis. You'll never look at liver quite the same way...

i'll keep it in mind, but it's at the bottom of the pile for now

I'd recommend reading Animal Farm after 1984 though. Also Animal Farm is also very short, easily readable over 1 or 2 days.

i've already read Animal Farm in high school.

If you want to read Lovecraft, then stick to his later works, as they are much more refined. There are however also some good ones from his earlier period. I don't agree that the longer ones are more boring, in fact I'd say they are much more interesting and horrific in scope. I'd recommend At the Mountains of Madness (His longest, IIRC), Call of Cthulhu, The Case of Charles Dexter Ward, Pickman's Models, The Music of Erich Zann, The Temple and The Shadow Over Innsmouth. There are numerous other, equally fascinating shorts, but these are the ones that come to mind.

i've read quite a few already & he still keeps me interested. i like Lovecraft

Hope I helped

i'll keep em in mind

 

[Pajari]

Also, make sure to save yourself money and try out Dover Publications for some of these books. I picked up Heart of Darkness for about $1.50 and most of the other classic books people reccommended can be found there astoundingly cheap.

For example:

Kafka's Matamorphosis for pocket change, Crime and Punishment for less than a Bacon Bacon cheeseburger, Candide for the cost of a couple of sodas, etc. I love Dover as much as it's possible to love a book publishing company.

 

[SuAside]

US only bud

a standard paperback goes for about 9.95 euros in eurotrashcountry.

(usually i just grab books from the library though, but real classics i'm going to keep, i buy)

 

[Muhol]

You should read "the discworld novel " if u didnt and if u like fantasy .. But the books are kinda short and expen$ive !! but very good reading :>