Best Ever Albums

Re: What's your favorite book?

alelsupreme — Fri, 27 Jun 2014 18:25:32 GMT

Author: alelsupreme

Posted: 06/27/2014 22:25

benpaco wrote:

My history teacher recommended Yeah Yeah Yeah but I didn't ever check it out, is it really that good?

It's fairly astounding, gives a pretty decent overview of all the main genres and trends in pop music from the 50's to the 90's I feel.

Re: What's your favorite book?

benpaco — Fri, 27 Jun 2014 18:18:05 GMT

Author: benpaco

Posted: 06/27/2014 22:18

alelsupreme wrote:

tbh most the stuff i read is history related. fav non fiction book would be a tie between Bob Stanley's Yeah Yeah Yeah: A History Of Pop and Martin Meredith's A State Of Africa.

My history teacher recommended Yeah Yeah Yeah but I didn't ever check it out, is it really that good?

Re: What's your favorite book?

alelsupreme — Fri, 27 Jun 2014 18:14:23 GMT

Author: alelsupreme

Posted: 06/27/2014 22:14

benpaco wrote:

Favorite bio? Favorite true story? Favorite "piecing it together" story (ie Gavin Menzies' books)? Favorite story of book (ie Four Fish or Kurlansky's books)?

tbh most the stuff i read is history related. fav non fiction book would be a tie between Bob Stanley's Yeah Yeah Yeah: A History Of Pop and Martin Meredith's A State Of Africa.

Re: What's your favorite book?

benpaco — Fri, 27 Jun 2014 17:59:43 GMT

Author: benpaco

Posted: 06/27/2014 21:59

alelsupreme wrote:

Assuming this is about fiction books, my fav is probably Fatherland by Robert Harris. I don't read many fiction books, really.

Favorite bio? Favorite true story? Favorite "piecing it together" story (ie Gavin Menzies' books)? Favorite story of book (ie Four Fish or Kurlansky's books)?

Re: What's your favorite book?

alelsupreme — Fri, 27 Jun 2014 13:35:14 GMT

Author: alelsupreme

Posted: 06/27/2014 17:35

Assuming this is about fiction books, my fav is probably Fatherland by Robert Harris. I don't read many fiction books, really.

Re: What's your favorite book?

Anonymous — Fri, 27 Jun 2014 07:42:45 GMT

Author: Anonymous

Posted: 06/27/2014 11:42

it's these kinds of threads that prove how much I have a love/hate relationship with forums involving artistic criticism.

Anyways my favorite book is Sentimental Education

Re: What's your favorite book?

Jackwc — Thu, 26 Jun 2014 03:06:14 GMT

Author: Jackwc

Posted: 06/26/2014 07:06

satiemaniac wrote:

I thought that was kinda bullshit - how is Dubliners a work that "only informs the Irish"? It's about life, death, love, parenthood, religion - and yet you'd like to suggest that the lifeless, antiquated collection of political satire that is The Divine Comedy is more humane and relatable? How droll, I laugh at you, sir.

Re: What's your favorite book?

Anonymous — Thu, 26 Jun 2014 02:54:45 GMT

Author: Anonymous

Posted: 06/26/2014 06:54

BurningBright wrote:

I LOVE epic poems. I've already read, besides Homer's epics, The Epic of Gilgamesh and The Divine Comedy (including Purgatorio and Paradiso). I am still a learner, but I feel like they deal with more humane topics instead of issues that pertain to a certain group of people (obvious example: Dubliners by James Joyce only informs the Irish).

ok ok ok i know it's old but really? no one else thinks it's a little bullshit that the Big Western Canon (+ honorary token Gilgamesh) is the Human Condition and the identity-wielding (if not downright diasporic) works of Joyce are "niche?" i know Joyce is frequently lumped in with the former since he's white but like come on guys.

as for me, i'm not a big novel/play/poem reader, but i like Faulkner, Eliot, Joyce, you know typical modernist arc 'cause I'm incredibly under-read.

as far as philosophy/theory, i'm a lot more well-versed and the best book i've read bar none is Anti-Oedipus by Deleuze and Guattari

Re: What's your favorite book?

Norman Bates — Thu, 26 Jun 2014 02:41:54 GMT

Author: Norman Bates

Posted: 06/26/2014 06:41

Jackwc wrote:

Congrats, you are a 70 year old woman from a bridge club.

Beware of the 70 years-old women from the bridge clubs. Our name is Legion.

Re: What's your favorite book?

Anonymous — Thu, 26 Jun 2014 02:01:48 GMT

Author: Anonymous

Posted: 06/26/2014 06:01

My favorites are pretty limited to a few authors, Melville and Faulkner being well above the rest in my mind. Blood Meridian is likely my absolute favorite though.

Herman Melville: The Confidence Man; Pierre; Billy Budd, Sailor; "Bartleby the Scrivener:" Moby Dick; "Benito Cereno;" White-Jacket
William Faulkner: The Sound and the Fury; Light in August; Absalom! Absalom!; As I Lay Dying; Sanctuary
Cormac McCarthy: Blood Meridian; Suttree; All the Pretty Horses; Outer Dark; Child of God
Franz Kafka: The Castle; The Trial; Selected Fragments
Seneca's Tragedies
Vladimir Nabakov: Lolita; Pale Fire
Fyodor Dostoyevsky: Demons; The Idiot; The Brothers Karamazov
Virginia Woolf: To the Lighthouse; The Waves; Mrs. Dalloway
Brontes: Jane Eyre; Wuthering Heights
Nathaniel Hawthorne: The House of the Seven Gables
The Odyssey
Euripides' Bacchae
William Gaddis: The Recognitions (still working on this)
Gertrude Stein: The Autobiography of Alice B. Toklas; Tender Buttons

Re: What's your favorite book?

Jackwc — Thu, 26 Jun 2014 01:03:45 GMT

Author: Jackwc

Posted: 06/26/2014 05:03

benpaco wrote:

I suppose. We spent a while in english looking at the similarities in their writing styles this year and as someone who doesn't know the Brontes terribly well, it seemed like they were similar. Could just be specific passages, though, for certain, as I've only read a few Hemingways through and through and never a Bronte.

Ain't no thang. Whoever your teacher was was an absolute dipshit tho who shouldn't be teaching English; there really is zero crossover between the authors - remember that we're talking about a trio of sophisticated English sisters from the pre-Victorian era who were really into true love and a war-scarred reckless alcoholic from the early 20th century who was really into camping. Not really a match made in heaven, and their VASTLY different backgrounds really come out in their writing.

...that being said, Bronte x Hemingway is my now my new tsun-dere OTP. I hope Hemingway-senpai noticed me, kyaaaa~

Re: What's your favorite book?

benpaco — Thu, 26 Jun 2014 00:08:55 GMT

Author: benpaco

Posted: 06/26/2014 04:08

Jackwc wrote:

^ this. I don't consider Hemingway's writing to be very "flowery"; it's brisk, very "masculine", if anything - sure, he spends a lot of time reflecting on nature, but its in a very different fashion.

Re: What's your favorite book?

Jackwc — Wed, 25 Jun 2014 21:20:55 GMT

Author: Jackwc

Posted: 06/26/2014 01:20

SilverWalrus wrote:

What a coincidence, I did too. Gonna get started on it soon, expecting good things.

I read the first five pages. #WellRead

Re: What's your favorite book?

Anonymous — Wed, 25 Jun 2014 21:14:49 GMT

Author: Anonymous

Posted: 06/26/2014 01:14

^^^ HHMmmm.. This makes me remember that I was 3 quarters into Infinite Jest and left it back in Malaysia. I'm usually reading 2 - 3 books at a time & Infinite Jest is far too big for a carry-on (Baggage Claim can go fuck itself.) Now that it looks like I'm not heading back there (Yeah!!!), I'm wondering if I should buy a cheap used copy on Amazon. It's a decent coming of age story with a dozen or so other narrative threads that touch on druggie culture and (considering when it was written) a rather prescient take on the addictive nature of entertainment. So yeah, it's centrally about addiction. But like a lot of postmodern literature, it's not a very addictive read. LOL.

Right now I'm reading Midnight's Children by Salman Rushdie and a super fun detective novel entitled Talking to the Dead. Midnight's Children is incredibly overrated, and the biggest insight I've gotten so far is that Salman Rushdie loves himself (good for you, mate). The Satanic Verses blows it the fuck away.

Re: What's your favorite book?

Anonymous — Wed, 25 Jun 2014 20:27:19 GMT

Author: Anonymous

Posted: 06/26/2014 00:27

Borve wrote:

(I've also bought a copy of Infinite Jest in English so yeah fuck me)

What a coincidence, I did too. Gonna get started on it soon, expecting good things.

Anyways, I think I've said before I like Kafka on here right? Also Franny And Zooey is great, and Confederacy Of Dunces is a really good book. There are some others too, but I need to get back into reading, most of my favorites are pretty generic when it comes to literature.

Edit: Oh yeah I had a post on here saying basically the same thing as this one. Okay, well, at least I conveyed the Infinite Jest thing.

Re: What's your favorite book?

Jackwc — Wed, 25 Jun 2014 19:59:50 GMT

Author: Jackwc

Posted: 06/25/2014 23:59

RepoMan wrote:

Still eating more pussy than you. XP

RepoMan wrote:

Hemingway's style is radically different than the Bronte's.

^ this. I don't consider Hemingway's writing to be very "flowery"; it's brisk, very "masculine", if anything - sure, he spends a lot of time reflecting on nature, but its in a very different fashion.

Re: What's your favorite book?

Hayden — Wed, 25 Jun 2014 19:30:59 GMT

Author: Hayden

Posted: 06/25/2014 23:30

RepoMan wrote:

Hemingway's style is radically different than the Bronte's.

Yeah, sorry Ben, I don't really see that comparison either.

Re: What's your favorite book?

Anonymous — Wed, 25 Jun 2014 19:21:00 GMT

Author: Anonymous

Posted: 06/25/2014 23:21

benpaco wrote:

Christ this. I know there's a fair number of people that don't like Hemingway's awkward style, but if you take everything interesting, sassy, and blunt out, and just leave the awkward flowery and huge sections, that's the bronte I've read. Doubt it'd translate that well either, tbh, it's just dull and flowery and dull and ughhhh

Hemingway's style is radically different than the Bronte's. I can see people not loving the Bronte sisters. But, I would have thought that The Sun Also Rises would be a favorite among BEAers.

Re: What's your favorite book?

benpaco — Wed, 25 Jun 2014 19:15:53 GMT

Author: benpaco

Posted: 06/25/2014 23:15

Jackwc wrote:

Congrats, you are a 70 year old woman from a bridge club.

Re: What's your favorite book?

Skinny — Wed, 25 Jun 2014 19:11:33 GMT

Author: Skinny

Posted: 06/25/2014 23:11

Anonymous wrote:

It's Death of a Naturalist by Seamus Heaney, but if we're talking about novels and storybooks then I fuck with The Third Policeman by Flann O'Brien, The New York Trilogy by Paul Auster, The Wasp Factory by Iain Banks, The Fall by Camus, The Road by McCarthy, One Day in the Life of Ivan Denisovich by Solzhenitsyn, The Ragged-Trousered Philanthropists by Robert Tressell, and The Giver by Lois Lowry. There are loads more, but those are books that will always stay with me.

Still this shit. Plus most of what Roald Dahl wrote, a couple of Simon Reynolds' books, and some of Saul Bellow's short stories.