The Idiot Board Readers Corner - General Discussion

Re: The Idiot Board Book Club

This is one of my top five favorite books. I've had almost all my literate friends read it and they've all loved it as well. One of the many lines from the book that resonated with me I think applies to all of us here:

The prequel, The Angel's Game, I didn't enjoy as much, but I think I need to read it again to better understand what happens before I can pass a judgement. It's similar to The Shadow of the Wind in that the main character, a writer, is haunted by books.

 

Re: The Idiot Board Book Club

Just finished "Infinite Jest" by David Foster Wallace and it is probably the best written book I have ever read. It was a joy to read and DFW's talent is on display page after page. People complain about the ending but there wasn't any way he could have answered all the questions in the pages allowed - it would have been another book.

I am now reading "Gravity's Rainbow" by Thomas Pynchon and I am very confused by it. If anyone has read it and could explain a few things, I would appreciate it.

 

Re: The Idiot Board Book Club

Over the past 8 months, I have read more books than I can remember to post. Some of the greatest hits:

Series:
Harry Potter-all of them are fun to read, and I like how they get progressively more complex or adult, as if the characters (and writer) mature with the readers. As each movie comes out, I seem to recruit more people to read this series for the first time.

A Song of Fire and Ice(currently on book three): Addictive medieval soap opera, made for adults. You´re not learning a lot from this, but a fun way to waste a few hours. Dragons and knights and shit are normally not my thing, but I got hooked on the first one, and now have to see how it ends.

The Lord of the Rings: I fucked up, didn´t read this in middle school, and saw the movies first. I realize it was a pioneer of the genre, but I didn´t like reading it. If you´ve seen the movies, admire the scenery, laugh at the silliest villain ever (Sauron) and move on about your business.

For those of you too cool to read the graphic novel thread: Preacher is insanely good fun, Watchmen and Dark Knight Returns will give you goosebumps, and Y the Last Man is worth reading. I sincerely hope Preacher is developed faithfully into a tv show or series of movies, it´s so so good.

Other stuff I´ve finished recently:
Gone with the Wind: aside from the jaw-dropping racism (simply absurd) it´s a beautifully written epic. I´m from the south and you can hear the drawl dripping from the dialogue. I went from reading cold, hard nonfiction to this and was blown away.

Darkly Dreaming Dexter, by Jeff Lindsay: The book that inspired the tv show was quick, fun, and I enjoyed the character of Dexter immensely. Nothing groundbreaking, but kind of an airport read, not a lot of thinking involved.

American Psycho, by Bret Easton Ellis: This is a romp, that gives you a glimpse into insanity, douchebaggery, and the 80s. The movie did the book justice, but the book is WAY more fucked up. The attention to the clothes and food gets a little boring, but it jumps from a description of sport coats and ties to brutal rape and murder. Hell of a trip.

Zen and the Art of Motorcycle Maintenance, by Robert M. Pirsig: Three stories woven together, each entertaining and thought-provoking in different ways (a man and his son on a motorcycle trip, a man dealing with an alternate personality and a philosophical inquiry into the nature of quality). This book offers something for everyone, so it can be all over the place, but it´s well worth the time.

The Guns of August, by Barbara Tuchman: WW1 history lesson, focused on the first month of the war, told from several different perspectives. I´m no WW1 buff, but it seemed well researched and explained how several events combined to force history to happen the way it did. I wish I had read at least a Wikipedia page about the war and a few events beforehand, because at a few points I got lost, because of a lack of background knowledge.

Killer Angels, by Michael Shaara: Civil War historical fiction. Again, not a war buff, but this novel did for the Civil War what Heat did for the cops and robbers genre: made it more about the personal relationships, egos of the men and their relationships as human beings. I couldn´t guess as to how accurate this book is, but it is damned fun to read. I recommend scrolling a Wiki page about people like Jackson, Chamberlain, Lee, Sherman, etc. so you get a feel for what the author is talking about and what these men actually did. I read this, then a few generic biographies of Lee and Jackson and it was a perfect companion.

A quick list of stuff that I would recommend: Middlesex, Lies My Teacher Told Me, The Road, Naked-David Sedaris, A Peoples History of the United States, Guns Germs and Steel, Black Hawk Down, Starship Troopers, The Moral Animal, and a collection of The Onion that makes for hysterical bathroom reading.

Finally, I will admit to it: Twilight-I read one of these a day for four days. Don´t. I could try and explain to you why this is utter shit (it makes Dan Brown read like fucking Shakespeare), but I would rather conserve the brain cells. I will say this: if you read the first one, you will have to finish the series. They are disgustingly addictive.

 

Re: The Idiot Board Book Club

One of my favorite authors is Peter David, who I discovered when I was in my Star Trek book phase. He's done Star Trek books, including a series featuring characters created by him (as well as some from the shows) called New Frontier. His most famous Star Trek book is Imzadi, which explored the backstory of Riker and Troi. I've had Peter and Marina Sirtis sign my copy of the book, I'd love to get Frakes on there someday.

He's also done some fantasy stuff, and one that I've read most of is called Sir Apropos of Nothing. It is a satirical look at knights and the medieval fantasy realm. He also did one based on King Arthur called Knight Life, in which he appears in modern day NYC. I bought the first book and haven't had a chance to read it yet.

He has also done many comic books and written the novilizations to a few of the comic book movies.

here's his wikipedia page: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Peter_David
and his blog: http://www.peterdavid.net/

Okay, I'll stop fangurling now.

 

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I'm currently reading Freakonomics (Levitt and Dubner) and I'm finding it fascinating. I know its already been replaced by SuperFreakonomics so I'm a bit behind on this one, but I'm finding it quite enjoyable. It doesnt speak in heavy economic language, which is lucky cause I study humanities at uni. But I find it quite acccessible and it really helps you view things from different perspectives.

 

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I'm a little past halfway through Downtown Owl by Chuck Klosterman. If you're from a small town, you should read this book. It's a quick read so far, and a really good fiction story by a non-fiction author.

Speaking of Klosterman, if you're into rock music at all, check out his non-fiction stuff like Killing Yourself to Live and Sex, Drugs, and Cocoa Puffs.

 

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One of my favorite sports-themed books is The Miracle of St Anthony. It is very much like Friday Night Lights in that it is an inside look at high school team, but this time, instead of Texas football, it follows the St. Anthony HS basketball team, located in Jersey City, NJ during the 2003-04 season. The coach is the legendary Bob Hurley, and it shows the struggles and triumphs of both the team, and the poor Catholic school for which they play for. It is an excellent read, and gives insights into players, coaches, and teachers that make up the school. It also gives an intimate look into the Hurley family -- Coach Bob, son Bobby of Duke-lore, and Danny who also played at Seton Hall. It is a tremendous read not only for sports enthusiasts, but anyone who loves a good drama. I highly recommend it.

 

Re: The Idiot Board Book Club

Here's what I've been reading lately:

I started High Fidelity and got 100 pages in before putting it down. It was mildly funny and fairly well-written, but nothing about it resonated with me. The main character, Rob, sucked. I've had a growing problem with reading fiction and feeling unengaged because I couldn't relate to the story or the characters, and this sort of solidified it.

I went on a bit of a basketball binge and tore through Bill Simmons's Book of Basketball and Paul Shirley's Can I Keep My Jersey? TBoB was really fun to read, and will go down as one of the best bathroom books of all-time. Simmons really put his all into it and did a shit ton of research. Yeah there's classic Celtics homer-ism, but you should know that going in (I'm a Lakers fan, and it didn't bother me that much).

I wasn't sure what I thought about Can I Keep My Jersey. I definitely liked it -- as I read it in a couple days -- but the book doesn't necessarily go anywhere. Paul Shirley starts out the book bearing a mild dislike and lack of enthusiasm for his career and ends the book in pretty much the same spot. He's pretty funny, though, although his constant self-deprecation can be a bit grating. At the very least, it's a a pretty good insight into the life of a professional basketball player.

I'm about to finish a book called The Drunkard's Walk: How Randomness Rules Our Lives by Leonard Mlodinow. It's fucking awesome. I'm a math major, so I've seen a lot of the stuff in there from dry math lectures, but I wish I'd learned them from him initially. Very clearly written and a really good introduction to statistics if you're not mathematically inclined. Also has a lot of really cool history in it. I can finally put names like Laplace, Gauss, Pascal, and Fermat to actual faces.

Moneyball and A Lesson Before Dying are next up.

EDIT: Forgot the original reason I came here. My mom's birthday is coming up, and I'm trying to buy her a book. I want to get her a McCarthy book, but I've read none of them myself. Any suggestions? If it gets too violent or bleak, she probably won't make it through (yes, I realize that those are central themes in his work).

 

Re: The Idiot Board Book Club

I had to read this for an American History class and it's highly accurate. All the major characters (not just the generals) are real people and accomplished the feats and heroism acclaimed to them in the novel. The dialogue is made up by Shaara because there's simply no way to know the exact conversations people had at the time. It does, however, relate to the strategic decisions that needed to be made and does a good job elaborating on the conflicts of the period. It's a great read for understanding war strategy, and like downndirty is saying, it's a touching story about people who died for a cause they believed in. One of my favorite things about the book is that it goes into detail about the shortcomings and strategic errors of Robert E. Lee (the most overrated general in American history). The book never takes that stance exactly, it's very objective, but it's clear he made several mistakes that lead to the south losing the war.

 

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I just finished Philalawyer's book, and it was much better than I expected. I have been a huge fan of his over the last year or two, but I heard from several people that it was weird reading the stories again, but arranged in a narrative. I thought it flowed very well, and it was definitely a good idea to not just slap all the stories in randomly. A lot of his best writing is on the blog, simply because what he writes about a good deal of the time would not fit well into a book, but definitely check out both the book and blog.

 

Re: The Idiot Board Book Club

Just finished The Modern Drunkard by Frank Kelly Rich. All of you on this board should read it. Extremely entertaining, with chapters such as "The 86 Rules of Boozing", "How to Ace an Intervention", "The Zen of Drinking Alone", and "When Drunkards Ruled the Earth", this book will make you proud to be a drunk. Philalawyer reviews it here.

 

Re: The Idiot Board Book Club

The Practical Guide to Rascism by "C.H. Dalton" (probable pen name) is outlandish, hysterical and brilliant. Many idiots will read this book on first view and be outraged, because literally (no pun intended) it's the most offensive book ever written. Dalton (head writer of The Daily Show) leaves no stone unturned, brandishing every hateful, spiteful or stupid stereotype ever thought upon for every race (including some mythological races to boot). It's a book you just turn the page shaking your head, daring yourself to read the next sentence.

The trick to enjoying this book is to remember one retardedly simple thing: IT'S SATIRE. Just like Dick Masterson's Men Are Better Than Women, there is a reason this book is found in the humour department of the book store. It's scathingly brave, shocking and non-stop hilarious, even if that laughter comes from pure guilty pleasure.

No humour fan should be without this book, and if you are offended by it all I have to say is fuck you.

 

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I am going overseas soon and seeing as it takes like, 20 hours to get anywhere from Australia I have stocked up on books to take with me. But I already started reading some. I never realized how hard it was to read more than two books simultaneously.

Max Weber: A Biography by Joachim Radkau- its a biography (duh) of an incredible thinker of the 20th Century. Max Weber (pronounced Vay-ber) was the man who helped create the field of sociology into a seperate discipline from anthropology and philosophy. I think the guy is a genius, but for people not familiar or interested with sociology it still makes for a very good read- Weber was a very interesting person with quite an irregular life. Radkau has written it quite differently from the regular biography.Though its 560 pages long (plus another 100 for the references) so its not for the faint hearted.

Discipline and Punish by Michel Foucault- This is a study on the changing aspect of authority and punishment over the last 200 years. It was written c.1975 so it's a bit outdated but it was probably Foucault's magnum opus. It's an interesting take on power and authority and where it lies and how it is applied, not just to prisoners but to general society as well.

Choke by Chuck Palahniuk- Just what I would expect from Palahniuk- lots of swearing. It's glorious

Freakonomics by Stephen Dubner and Steven Levitt- This book is awesome, though i think I've posted that before

I am also working my way through the Deathnote series (I brought the box set online nice and cheap-o, though shipping wasnt >:S), albeit very slowly. The books I have waiting to start (once I finish the above) are Craig Ferguson's biography American on Purpose, Foucault's Madness and Civilisation (please forgive the Aus. spelling) and The Man Who Thought His Wife was a Hat by Oliver Sacks.

I think I'm gonna be reading for a while.

 

Re: The Idiot Board Book Club

http://www.themandus.org/index.html

Just ordered a copy of Them + Us (see above) I have high hopes. For some reason I'm finding the whole concept facinating.

 

Re: The Idiot Board Book Club

Read Kurt Vonnegut's Cat's Cradle recently and really liked it. Before that I'd only read two books of his, Breakfast of Champions and Slaugherhouse Five, but he could be one of my favorite authors. Cat's Cradle is "Vonnegut's satirical commentary on modern man and his madness." The first page of the book says "Nothing in this book is true," a disclaimer that allows him to create new religion based on lies, a substance with the power to destroy mankind, and a fictional co-creator of the atom bomb. I found it to be very entertaining, and like his other books, full of Vonnegut's wisdom and zaniness.

 

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What is the what is a story about the lost boys of sudan, and their survival of a genocide. Eventually getting to America, and having to deal with the problems of modern life... It was pretty damn good, not the biggest page turner at points, but I think its perspective was amazing.

And for anyone who didn't have a childhood Ender's Game. I reread this a few months back and loved every second of it, I haven't gotten into the long series of them. If you haven't read this, and you want a really good quick read, pick it up.

 

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I would skip the rest of the series personally. It takes a very different track going into Speaker for the Dead and Xenocide. It kind of loses the commentary that Ender's Game has.

 

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I could only get into Enders Game, and loved it. I've been meaning to check out the Ender's Shadow series.

 

Re: The Idiot Board Book Club

Completely agree with what the two people above wrote; "Ender's Game" was one of my favorite books after reading it as a 12 year old. A few years later, I read the sequels, and could barely even finish the damn things. They're not even close in terms of quality, interest, or overall style.