The Books thread.

johnnygothisgun · Post by **johnnygothisgun** » Sun Jul 22, 2007 5:54 am

nigga thats my style, i read tacitus for breakfast and snack on suetonius around midnight. such is the life of an archaeology student

i just finished reading transcripts of william james' 1901 lectures on 'the varieties of religious experience' and dont think i can take another piece of insufferable, unjustifiable loquaciousness. so how is m. aurelius' writing style? ive heard good things, but ive been waiting to get into him

Mechanurgist · Post by **Mechanurgist** » Sun Jul 22, 2007 6:33 am

Brother, I dig your style, but I'm west coast, ya know? And I'm all into that Cicero, Herodotus and Strabo shit. Nigga can't walk two paces without hitting one of 'em panegyrics or phillipics. I just ordered Apollodorus' Library and the Fabulae; ever try that crack? That's how we roll on the west coast.

Aurelius is good in small, bite-sized chunks. A straight read-through gets pretty repetitive ("we are dust, and to dust we return, yada-yada"). It is good for contemplation and as an introduction to Stoicism, but a little contradictory and disjointed in places. Many similarities between it and Buddhism, and the translation I have is very lyrical (which I like).

Remember, a hundred years ago writers were paid by the word. Otherwise Dickens' novels would have been half their length.

Post by **Dogmeatlives** » Wed Jul 25, 2007 6:19 am

Alright, niggas. Recommend me some great science fiction. Here are my criteria:

- No outer space shit
- No wizards or knightly shit
- Preferably Twilight Zone-esque
- Something like I Am Legend perhaps
- Provide a link to a torrent of the audiobook and I'll PM you a picture of my dick dressed up like Harry Potter... win-win situation.

I want really classic stuff that you consider must reads. I don't hang out with many readers so there is a 99% chance I have not read or even heard of any suggestions. i.e. I am illiterate.

johnnygothisgun · Post by **johnnygothisgun** » Wed Jul 25, 2007 6:45 am

mechanurgist youve got heart, i admire that. cicero is pretty much my bread and butter i watch him as i go to sleep and he watches me. he smiles every once and a while and i get to half mast. read herodotus before i learned to walk, which was sometime two summers ago

ill just have to check out some aurelius chit, it sounds pretty hardcore mang

have you ever read quintus of smyrna's fall of troy? i just bought my pasty ass a copy but dont know anyone whose checked it out. im pretty enchanted with the cycle of myths surrounding the trojan war, most notably those which follow aeneas.

i could spend hours recommending some funky funky shit for your most real nuck to blast through, but you need a pretty heavy understanding of latin to get the beauty from most original works in verse, so ill hold off on that for now. if youre aching for some works of fact that dance with the excitement of fiction, check out xenophons anabasis, that niggas flow will blow your mind to kingdom fuck

edhead · Post by **edhead** » Wed Jul 25, 2007 10:12 am

Dogmeatlives wrote:Recommend me some great science fiction.

Philip K. Dick - everything
Bulgakov - Master and Margarita
Cormac McCarthy - The Road

atoga · Post by **atoga** » Wed Jul 25, 2007 11:04 pm

re:dogmeatlives

isaac asimov - foundation series
maybe some arthur c. clarke too (outer space shit, but well written outer space shit)
maybe nico should recommend some scifi comics

Post by **Dogmeatlives** » Thu Jul 26, 2007 5:54 am

Thanks guys. I'm about half way through The Road. It's really awesome. I love the hopelessness of the whole thing. Currently downloading some Phil Dick. I'll try Arthur Clarke. Any more great post apocalyptic stuff like The Road?

Cthulhugoat · Post by **Cthulhugoat** » Sat Jul 28, 2007 12:48 am

Dogmeatlives wrote:niggas.

William Gibson's shit. I also found out about Riddley Walker, a post-apoc weirdo book that Burgess apparently loved. Good or not?

Reading Heinlein's The Moon Is A Harsh Mistress by now.

Redeye · Post by **Redeye** » Sat Jul 28, 2007 3:06 am

atoga wrote:re:dogmeatlives

isaac asimov - foundation series
maybe some arthur c. clarke too (outer space shit, but well written outer space shit)
maybe nico should recommend some scifi comics

I cannot stand Asimov's SF.

It's ludicrously formulaic, and he's so ghey about robot morality.
(Not so much in the foundation series, which is basically the sneaky psychic foundation outwitting the space empire foundation and so on.)

fallout ranger · Post by **fallout ranger** » Sat Jul 28, 2007 11:55 pm

I like the robot visions/dreams compilations.

The bolo series by kieth laumer is fantastic, specifically night of the trolls and relic of war.

Khan Noonien Singh · Post by **Khan Noonien Singh** » Sun Jul 29, 2007 6:23 am

Recent reads:

- House of Leaves
- Gravity's Rainbow

^^^Two of the most insanely psychadelic novels I've ever read. And I'm not speaking of that hippy nonsense.

Right now I'm working on Confessions of an Economic Hitman, by John Perkins. It's a memoir on one guy's job tricking third-world countries into horrible aid packages. Reads like a spy novel.

S4ur0n27 · Post by **S4ur0n27** » Mon Jul 30, 2007 12:51 pm

Seems like he spawned tons of imitators.

Mechanurgist · Post by **Mechanurgist** » Thu Aug 02, 2007 5:00 am

johnnygothisgun wrote:have you ever read quintus of smyrna's fall of troy? i just bought my pasty ass a copy but dont know anyone whose checked it out. im pretty enchanted with the cycle of myths surrounding the trojan war, most notably those which follow aeneas.

i could spend hours recommending some funky funky shit for your most real nuck to blast through, but you need a pretty heavy understanding of latin to get the beauty from most original works in verse, so ill hold off on that for now. if youre aching for some works of fact that dance with the excitement of fiction, check out xenophons anabasis, that niggas flow will blow your mind to kingdom fuck

Woof. That is solid, bro, solid. I ain't got the chops for Latin, tried it, flunked it, so I'm missing out, but an old translation (before the po-mo crowd sank their hooks into the Classics) is good enough for me. Heard of Anabasis but never of Fall of Troy; will have to check 'em out on your recommendo.

Pactum serva!

Mechanurgist · Post by **Mechanurgist** » Thu Aug 02, 2007 5:03 am

Cthulhu wrote:I also found out about Riddley Walker, a post-apoc weirdo book that Burgess apparently loved. Good or not?

Decent but not exceptional. Extremely pessimistic, mystical and esoteric. Also pompous, but has some clever language work.

Reading Heinlein's The Moon Is A Harsh Mistress by now.

Brilliant. One of my favorites. Exceptional character studies and some of the best exploration of freedom, libertarianism and TANSTAAFL ever written.

Gravity's Rainbow

Turgid, but indeed quite a trip.

johnnygothisgun · Post by **johnnygothisgun** » Thu Aug 02, 2007 5:18 am

i just started reading a collection of wilfred owens poetry, its pretty

S4ur0n27 · Post by **S4ur0n27** » Thu Aug 02, 2007 1:12 pm

Reading the seventh Harry Potter

Thor Kaufman · Post by **Thor Kaufman** » Thu Aug 02, 2007 1:30 pm

Dumbledore kills Snape

S4ur0n27 · Post by **S4ur0n27** » Thu Aug 02, 2007 5:19 pm

I know

And Harry ends up with Hermione.

Post by **Dogmeatlives** » Sat Aug 04, 2007 4:33 am

Just started Snow Crash and am really really enjoying it. I love hopeless futures.

johnnygothisgun · Post by **johnnygothisgun** » Sat Aug 04, 2007 6:58 am

i heartily recommend you art fags pick up the collected poems of wilfred owens, its magnificent. even better, however, is robert graves 'fairies and fusiliers', its literary magic, its poetical bliss, its earthly incredibility, its beautiful