The Books thread.

[johnnygothisgun]

sounds pretty bueno

[atoga]

i'm reading john brunner's "the shockwave rider" right now (after spending a good three months tracking down a copy). any of you other fellas read his books? he's completely on internet privacy issues (in a very contemporaneously relevant & technical sense) and it's a 30 year old book, plus there's the usual cyberpunk action and dehumanization and identity switching stuff. and to think william gibson gets credit for coming up with the genre.

[Nicolai]

I read Stand on Zanzibar at some point, but the only thing I can remember about it is the fact that it fell apart (understandable; it was a cheap paperback from the seventies I picked up at a flea market) when I was ~halfway through the book. Wouldn't have been so bad if I hadn't been reading it in the tub.

Anyway, can anyone recommend a good book on Napoleon's ill-fated 1812 invasion of Russia? I've been hearing some good things about Adam Zamoyski's Fatal March.

[Nicolai]

notes from underground, in my opinion, doesn't get interesting until the narrator begins describing in detail his own experiences. the first half or so of the story is just filled to bursting with mindless psychobabble

I thought that the first part was the most interesting one.

[Redeye]

...
Anyway, can anyone recommend a good book on Napoleon's ill-fated 1812 invasion of Russia? I've been hearing some good things about Adam Zamoyski's Fatal March.

[Nicolai]

Yeah, Charles Joseph Minard's Carte figurative des pertes successives en hommes de l'Armée Française dans la campagne de Russie 1812-1813 is quite famous

[Goretheradiatingone]

you know... for such a well read lot such as us
shouldn't there be at least ONE good person,
by good i mean socially and mentally good,
, if there is one among us foul and sickly twisted beings i havent seen him/her.

[AnneGwish]

I don't know what you're talking about, Gore. I'm a perfectly well adjusted being

[Nameless_One]

Now...ok, i`m socially and mentally good as you mentioned like just above; plus i really like reading but i have some problems with books.

[Goretheradiatingone]

im sure you two are ..... but the
simple fact is, you joined DAC , that in its self suggests your not all there.....

[Nameless_One]

im sure you two are ..... but the
simple fact is, you joined DAC , that in its self suggests your not all there.....

If i get myself banned with my own will from D.a.C. then will i prove myself to you?

[Goretheradiatingone]

yes

[Nameless_One]

consider it

[S4ur0n27]

reading some philippe jaenada, :bueno:

[Cthulhugoat]

For whom the bell tolls. Forty years old, pages falling off. I'm a true warrior.

[Nameless_One]

For whom the bell tolls. Forty years old, pages falling off. I'm a true warrior.

>You`re a true poet!!!... ...(maybe,sometimes)

[S4ur0n27]

I've gotten myself into a reading habit as of late, having just finished Michael Crichton's Timeline and various Terry Pratchett Discworld novels. Bought a few more Terry Pratchett books and got myself some China Mieville (His books have a dark Steampunk setting, with politics! Very well written)

How about you guys?

[johnnygothisgun]

peter green's alexander of macedon, 356-353 BC: a historical biography

[Thor Kaufman]

I totally want to read the classics, i.e. the greeks first and foremost, the romans later, any suggestions on where to start? johnny, you are the expert on that matter, rite? Hint me to the really interesting stuff to pique my interest.

Maybe I'll try to read the latin original, just for extra hardcoreness.

[johnnygothisgun]

as cliche as it may sound to pseudo intellectual collegeboys the best place to start is homer, with the iliad and the odyssey (does one italicize or underline poetry?) . my favorite is virgil's aeneid, though, and i really recommend that. the original latin isnt terribly difficult if youve got some latin under your belt. robert fitzgerald has a great english translation, though if you want a german one im not sure who to recommend. the closing lines, among the most famous in classical literature, run:

"he drove his blade in fury in turnus chest
and all the body slackened in deaths chill
and with a groan for that indignity
his spirit fled into the gloom below"

i dare you to find me a nigga with a more stupidly fluid flow

if youre more interested in ancient writers of history, memoirs, biographies, etc. as opposed to epics let me know and ill recommend some hot stuff. theres plenty of topics to explore, from the personal memoirs of julius caesar to lucian's absurdist second century story about visiting the moon

edit: you know what you might like? xenophon's anabasis. xenophon was a greek mercenary who was hired along with 10,000 other greeks, by a persian prince who wanted to battle it out with his brother, the king, for the throne. the persian prince was killed in battle and the rest of his army routed, leaving the greeks alone and without a paymaster, far from home and surrounded by enemies. xenophon rose to become one of their leaders and helped to led them out of the depths of mesopotamia and back west, towards the greek world and home. the anabasis is his personal account of their journey, which is popularly styled as "the march of the 10,000". it can also be found under other titles, like the expedition of cyrus, the persian expedition, or anabsis kyrou