Summer reading

Per said:
Supplement Heinlein with some Bradbury, perhaps - Fahrenheit 451 and The Martian Chronicles are good reads.
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I'd recommend Something Wicked this Way Comes as well.

Just finished Operation Citadel: Battle of Kursk - not very impressive considering the subject matter.

While flying home from Narita yesterday I read through From Russia with Love. Not the heaviest fare but lots of fun (in one bizare part I was on the plane reading about a guy on a plane reading - how exciting :roll: )
 
Specialist's handy hint: To learn all the themes and stuff thats important in any given famous/classic book, without actually wanting to waste the time reading it, just visit wikipedia for all the indepth analysis you need.

Since Summer is 6 months away, I'll figure it out then but for the moment I'll be reading anything that catches my eye or is highly recommended by someone who shares my tastes. I don't need fancy authors or so called "literary masterpieces" to make me feel intelligent.

But I'll almost definately read Company and Jennifer Government by Max Barry again just because they're a fun read and I haven't read them in a while. Maybe I'll even hit a bit of Starship Troopers aswell.
 
Responding to a couple things in here...

Fallen Angels by Walter Dean Myers is a great book... had to read that for school one summer and loved it. It's probably the only book my younger brother has read from beginning to end. It's a nice easy read too.

Something Wicked This Way Comes - For some reason I'm just not feeling that book. I'm reading it now and am about 60 pages in? It's just a real slow read and I don't like Bradbury's writing style. Nevertheless, it does seem to be getting a little more interesting.

Catch-22 isn't bad. It's incredibly funny but it doesn't really pull you along. It's more like a collection of short comical pieces than an actual story from beginning to end. While reading it, I didn't like it, but there are a lot of scenes in there that I still chuckle about.

If you like Catcher in the Rye, a book with a very similar message/style is The Moviegoer by Walker Percy. I found it to be a little harder of a read but it's very much in the same direction and an interesting read nonetheless.

I agree with the recommendation on 1984 and then Animal Farm. Though really, a book on the Russian Revolution and then Animal Farm is a great approach too as it's fun to pick up all the symbols and guess who each character represents. In addition, Animal Farm is an easy read and can be consumed in a few hours. 1984 has a great setting and really they're both well worth reading.

I agree with Kotario on Alfred Bester. Those two books were great reads but I recommend staying away from his Psychoshop. I read that as it was by both Alfred Bester and Roger Zelazny (two authors I enjoy) and it was a major let down.

Also in the sci fi vein, Foundation is a great read. I had always avoided it, not being a fan of much sci fi but damn, it makes me wish i bought the sequels too. However, the best sci fi book in my opinion is Replay by Ken Grimwood, an outstanding kind of expansion on the movie groundhog's day.

Hrmm... my summer reading has been limited by my living out of a suitcase without a car, so I've only read a couple books but the ones I'd recommend from it are: Fifth Business by Robertson Davies, a great fictional memoir and Henderson the Rain King by Saul Bellow, an interesting look at life in general.
 
The_Vault_Dweller said:
I've been asking people to buy me something from Lovecraft ever since a friend told me of his work over 4 years ago, but no one ever has bought me any and I guessed the books were old and hard to find.
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Not at all. Penguin issued 3 books with various shorts from Lovecraft. They're all edited by S. T. Joshi and has some really good footnotes and introductions. I recommend them wholeheartedly. Plus, they're very cheap as they're paperback. The titles are as follows:

The Call of Cthulhu and Other Weird Stories
The Thing on the Doorstep and Other Weird Stories
The Dreams in the Witch House and Other Weird Stories

Bradylama: Excellent recommendation of I, Robot! It has some excellent stories with a superb sense of logic. The robot series, on the other hand, are not nearly as good. They get progressively worse for each book. The Robots of Dawn is a bad way to end the trilogy, IMHO. They're still readable, but the earlier books are much better.
 
SimpleMinded said:
Something Wicked This Way Comes - For some reason I'm just not feeling that book. I'm reading it now and am about 60 pages in? It's just a real slow read and I don't like Bradbury's writing style. Nevertheless, it does seem to be getting a little more interesting.
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I felt the same until about half-way through, then it all of a sudden gets real profound.
 
OnTheBounce said:
Army literature really is the cure for insomnia...
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It had some pretty pictures, though. And the Hobo Stove made me laugh for days.

However, it is the one book that I would want with me more than any other if I was stranded on some island somewhere like in Cast Away or something of the sort.

The Overseer said:
As has been said, I don't read books, I wait for the movie to come out.

Durrrrr.
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Was there a point to that post? I mean, that's like going to the soccer thread and saying soccer sucks. Plus, if what you said is true, you're pretty boring.
 
Something Wicked This Way Comes
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for the title alone i'd want to read it :)

there is also a reference to it in V:tM-B that i've always wondered about. i thought it was a quote from macbeth, but appearantly it's also a book.

any idea to which V:tM-B refers?
 
SuAside said:
Something Wicked This Way Comes
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for the title alone i'd want to read it :)

there is also a reference to it in V:tM-B that i've always wondered about. i thought it was a quote from macbeth, but appearantly it's also a book.

any idea to which V:tM-B refers?
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It's also an awesome Iced Earth album. My favourite, apart from the Horror Show album.

THis reminds me of a shitload of books I should read. Anyway, go read The Idiot, which is an excellent book. I personally prefer it over Dostoevsky's Crime and Punishment.
Also, many of Checkov's stories are quick and really good reads.
 
Kotario said:
On the topic of Lovecraft...
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Is it my imagination or has the release of the Cthulu game sparked a lot of renewed interest in his works?

Cimmerian Nights said:
Just finished Operation Citadel: Battle of Kursk - not very impressive considering the subject matter.
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Most books on Kursk really aren't. For one thing they tend to either very tepid re-tellings of the same, tired, old narrative, or they are so damned polemic trying to prove that the Germans could have made it but for one reason or another, or extolling the tenacity of the Soviets, or proving that it was/wasn't the turning point of WWII. With a couple of exceptions there really aren't many books on the subject worth reading.

Speaking of Kursk...yesterday (7/4/06 or 4/7/06 if you prefer) was the 63rd anniversary of the beginning of the battle.

OTB
 
prepare for shameless bumpage!

since this thread was last active, i've read the following books.

- CATCH-22 by Joseph Heller: Simply brilliant. Not much to say: I loved it to death.

- Starship troopers by Robert Heinlein: Pretty interesting and a decent book, even though it is true he's no action writer. I was a bit disappointed that there wasn't more information on the political side of things. People told me the book was politically volatile, but to me it wasn't so special. Sure it had some weird ideas, but at least it didn't try to force any logic or judgement upon you.

- The Forever War by Haldeman: Slightly better written than Starship troopers, but also less novelty I'd say. Still, a formidable work if you know it was written so long ago. The story itself isn't especially captivating, but it remains interesting throughout the book. The ending is pretty dang predictable though (I thought of that solution for the time problem & explanation for the war ages ago, while reading). Still, I enjoyed reading it.

- A Brave New World by Aldous Huxley: Good book, although I kinda disliked the 'savage' quoting Shakespear & such... It's interesting from a intellectual point of view, rather than overall entertainment.

- Nineteen Eighty-Four by George Orwell: Same as above, but way better in my opinion (a lot more entertaining as well). I quite liked it, even though it often resorts to clichés and corny stuff.

- The Man Who Was Thursday by Chesterton: Wonderfully entertaining. I suspect a lot of people are let down by the last few chapters, but only if they failed to read the book's subtitle...

- A Canticle for Leibowitz by Miller: Interesting, but not really special.

- the Name of the Rose by Umberto Eco: Simply had to reread it after seeing the movie again. A simply entertaining, but intelligent book.



to be read soon (resting on my bookshelf):

- Shake hands with the devil by Lt. Gen. Roméo Dallaire

- Slapstick or Lonesome No More by Vonnegut

- Un homme qui dort by Georges Perec
 
Read The Dice Man by Luke Rhinehart if you haven't. Brilliant book.

Any of the Nobel Prize winners, just to know what the fuzz is all about.

Fermat's Last Theorem by Simon Singh.

Quentins Tarantinos bio.

Old encyclopedias! Good for a laugh.
 
Currently on The War of the Worlds by H. G. Wells

On the long list and not in any particular order;

The Histories by Herodotus
The Iliad and The Odyssey by Homer
Marine! The Life of Chesty Puller by Burke Davis
Jarhead by Anthony Swofford
A History of the Civil War by Harry Hansen
The Guns of August by Barbara W. Tuchman
Count Leo Tolstoy's War and Peace
Peter Pan by J. M. Barrie
Dracula by Bram Stoker
Behind Hitler's Lines by Thomas H. Taylor

I'm also reading a select number of different books simultaneously which are;

The Federalist Papers
Common Sense and Rights of Man by Thomas Paine
The Art of War by Sun Tzu
The Zombie Survival Guide by Max Brooks
The Pocket Book of Patriotism by Jonathan Foreman
The Witch Hunter's Handbook by Darius Hinks (A Black Library Publication)

Speaking of H. G. Wells-as good as WotW is, I have to say that I was more drawn in into the story in The Time Machine. I mean, WotW is a better story, but The Time Machine was somehow more interesting.
 
Never finished "At the Mountains of Madness," but that's because it was long and I had it downloaded; I can't read something that long on the computer.

Currently reading Tad Williams's Memory, Sorrow, and Thorn trilogy, on To Green Angel Tower, Part 1. Have to finish the Iliad and hit up War and Peace and some other essentials before the semester's over, just for having them in my palate.
 
While I don't remember everything I read, the two that stick out in my mind are Watership Down and Tales From Watership Down. The former was an entertaining, interesting read. The second was crap on a stick.

Ah, I also read a really good book about twin girls, one of whom grew up with schizophrenia, the other without. Unfortunately, I can't recall what the book was called.

Right now I'm reading Native Son which is great, but is going slow because I'm really busy.

As for Crichton's work, it reminds me a lot of Jeffrey Archer in that every book, while different, is pretty much exactly the same. Not that that's a bad thing though, I still read em all.
 
The Dice Man is one of the scariest and potentially life changing books I have read. At the time I was into the whole "mylifekindofsucks" "ismygirlfriendcheatingonme?" "shallijustgiveupanddosomethingrandom?" kind of point. I dabbled with the dice for a while but the further into the book I got the less I wanted to finish it as I was slightly afraid of what Luke had become.
Something I was never sure of - is this true or just a fiction?


The most wonderful book I've read is Day of the Triffids. It ticks all of the right boxes and unlike most other books it requires a bit of thinking to realise the horrific truth about what actually happened. Very depressing insight into the selfish and post apocalyptic hypothetical situation of a world where our biggest advantage is lost.

With a twist :P
 
Mr. China by Tim Clissold. Highly recommend it. If you want to know anything "REAL" about living and working in China from an expat's pov, read this book.

Andy Orrock (San Francisco, CA)

Tim Clissold became smiiten with the potential of China and - unlike many of us - acted upon those feelings by plunging into a two-year dedicated study of Mandarin. Through luck and hard effort, he then got himself paired up with a larger-than-life Wall Street investment banker looking to make his mark as 'Mr. China.'

After rigorously looking at hundreds and hundreds of potential investments, the two of them raise over $400 million and begin to put the cash to work in a series of JVs. In what should be a cautionary tale to anyone looking to invest or do business in China, Clissold describes - in rather remarkable detail - the unique 'challenges' they encounter in making a return on their investment. Clissold wisely focuses on three episodes - each involving plant managers or owners - where the Western and Chinese views of banking and contract law begin to diverge...then unravel. Can Tim and team keep it together? It'll require superhuman effort. I was exhausted simply reading some of these chapters. I can only imagine the stress and strain of actually living it. Indeed, at one point Clissold's body seems to simply give out. This, however, is not a man easily defeated.

Despite the travails Clissold faces in the book, the book is all about the potential of China. He brings life to the sheer numbers and masses of people - his description of Chongqing for example (how many people know that this is China's largest city?)..."The density of people was staggering: millions and millions swirling in the roadways, all in faded blue overalls and with piles of baggage, blocking the gates at the station, crammed into buses, milling about on the pavements."

Wonderful writing, made all the better by the pithy little proverbs that Clissold has chosen to begin each chapter. I stared at each of these for a minute or more, admiring their brevity, significance and - upon finishing the chapter - realizing how apt Clissold's choices were. Well done, Tim.
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S. Park (Palo Alto, CA USA) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)
The book is a moving firsthand account of a foreign investor set out to invest in mainland China during the 1990s, when China first started opening up its markets. Apparently the author Tim Clissold worked for Arthur Andersen Hong Kong, alongside an ex-Wall Street M&A professional identified only as Pat in the book, to invest in China roughly $400 million of private equity funds in the form of joint ventures.

To fast-forward to the end of the memoir, 10 years after the author's team made investments in China, no one does joint ventures anymore. With the wrecks of failed joint ventures littered across China, Pat describes China as "the Vietnam War of American business." The author claims that, "all but the most innocent of newcomers had concluded that joint ventures were just too hard to be worth it."

Speaking of hardship, the book in its essence is really a telling of the hardships the author encountered in fighting to salvage three particular joint ventures. In those three "war stories" the Chinese partners invariably cheat by siphoning out money to build factories for direct competition to the joint ventures. The tactics the partners employ are intrinsically Chinese, and ironically through these battles Clissold gains deep insight into Chinese culture.

What is amazing about the author is the fact that he always manages to transcend the fights no matter how bitter they were fought. During the fights he holds his worthy opponents in reverence, as ancient Chinese generals must have done; after the battles he makes friends with them whenever possible.

In the end Clissold conjectures that the Chinese will always remain Chinese regardless the pressure to conform to international conventions. In his own words: "I had been forced to dismantle entirely my assumptions about China and relearn all the basics, but many investors still appeared supremely confident that China would eventually view the world their way, that it would eventually 'see reason' and begin to conform to the familiar business school model. But as China continues to press ahead with opening up to the world at a speed that can be astounding, my hunch is that it will always retain an intense sense of its own place in world history. It remains more complex, more aware of its unique 'Chineseness' and in tune with its own past, and mush less conformist than can be imagined by visitors like Charlene Barshevsky, the US trade representative who described the World Telecoms Agreement as 'a triumph for the American way.' We'll see."
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The memoir is touted as a business book. Personally I think there is more to take from it when viewed as a cultural voyage to a country during treacherous times.


Paper Fan: The Hunt for Triad Gangster Steven Wong
by Terry Gould

1 question, how in the sam hill johnny over the mill is he still alive after going public with this sh*t?

From Publishers Weekly
Gould, a much awarded Canadian investigative journalist, recounts his 14-year odyssey in pursuit of a major Asian organized crime figure. Intriguing if overlong, Gould's story helps illuminate the little-known world of the Triads, a byzantine, diasporic Asian mafia. Led to Wong through young Asians in Vancouver who were systematically terrorized and recruited by local thugs, Gould undertakes a risky encounter with the young but powerful gang leader. Gould boldly and secretly records an interview with Wong in the criminal's home; the tape becomes the basis for a Canadian Broadcasting Corporation documentary that provides law enforcement with valuable insight leading to the elusive Wong's arrest and indictment for large-scale heroin trafficking. But Wong gets permission to leave Canada for a family trip, and is then conveniently reported dead in an accident. That leads Gould to Macau, the Philippines and elsewhere on a decade-long chase for proof that Wong is alive. The narrative suffers from the colorful Wong's disappearance from view early on and from occasional lapses into purple prose ("terror sat naked on my shoulder like a clawed and drooling gargoyle"), but U.S. audiences who enjoy the chase will also learn about the brutal power and scope of the Triads.
Copyright © Reed Business Information, a division of Reed Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.

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Reviewer: Tom Span (Vancouver, British Columbia) - See all my reviews
While Steven Wong the Triad Gangster rose through the ranks in Vancouver's Gangland, I was a Vancouver cop who had many dealings with him. I probably knew Wong, and of his activities, more so than anyone in the Vancouver Police Department, other than a handfull of other cops who might be inclined to say the same thing. I was a cop who used Wong to my own end, while Wong used me to his. I still don't know who, if anyone, came out on top.
Due to my personal knowledge of Wong and his Red Eagles, his rivals the Viet Ching, Jung Ching and Lotus Gangs, plus their victims etc., I feel competant to say, "In writing Paper Fan, Terry Gould did an excellent job describing Wong and the events of the day." Terry knows his stuff, and he tells his story extremely well. It is not often one can learn such an immense amount of true information while at the same time be entertained. The book reads like a novel.
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Other stuff - Snake in Suits. An User's guide to the Brain. And I might dig around to find some copies of 4 great Chinese novels in traditional characters.

PS: btw, Art of War? In Chinese? I didn't know you read Chinese. Then again, I have found most of the translations to be difficult to trudge through if one can actually read the Chinese since there are a lot of speculation or pseudo assumptions on the part of the translators.
 
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