What are you currently reading?

Started by facehugger, April 07, 2007, 12:36:10 AM

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Kullervo


Peregrine

Foucault



First chapter was a bit of a head-fuck, but getting a little easier to assimilate the argument now...
Yes, we have no bananas

Solitary Wanderer

Quote from: Bogey on August 11, 2007, 09:52:02 AM


Chris,
The forward by Sinatra is only a few pages, but well worth your read.

Mine is an older edition, but I am sure that it will do just fine for my purposes.
http://www.amazon.com/Big-Bands-George-Thomas-Simon/dp/0028724305

Thanks for bringing that to my attention Bill.

I'm aware of the book but haven't read it yet  :)
'I lingered round them, under that benign sky: watched the moths fluttering among the heath and harebells, listened to the soft wind breathing through the grass, and wondered how any one could ever imagine unquiet slumbers for the sleepers in that quiet earth.' ~ Emily Bronte

Kullervo

Quote from: Peregrine on August 12, 2007, 12:52:45 PM
Foucault



First chapter was a bit of a head-fuck, but getting a little easier to assimilate the argument now...

I once attempted his Power. Perhaps that was the wrong one to start with but I'm not really sure I care enough to try another.

Novi

Quote from: Kullervo on August 12, 2007, 09:13:06 PM
I once attempted his Power. Perhaps that was the wrong one to start with but I'm not really sure I care enough to try another.

Foucault's great fun. He can be wacky and you might not always agree with him, but he's never boring :).

Try History of Sexuality, the first volume. It's short and more accessible than his other more overtly 'philosophical' works. Discipline and Punish is cool too, but longer. 
Durch alle Töne tönet
Im bunten Erdentraum
Ein leiser Ton gezogen
Für den der heimlich lauschet.

SonicMan46

Louis Armstrong's New Orleans (2006) by Thomas Brothers- just starting this one today - looks like more of a 'musical history' of early 20th century New Orleans; some great synopsis reviews on the back cover - in paperback - looking forward to the read -  :)


Maciek

Quote from: Novitiate on August 13, 2007, 04:21:58 AM
Foucault's great fun. He can be wacky and you might not always agree with him, but he's never boring :).

The only problem is that he very often makes up the historical "data" he uses. Or even worse - makes up new stuff, simultaneously disregarding what is actually available. But he is sometimes very enjoyable, perhaps even more so if you treat his books as fiction. ;)

Novi

Quote from: Maciek on August 13, 2007, 01:50:09 PM
The only problem is that he very often makes up the historical "data" he uses. Or even worse - makes up new stuff, simultaneously disregarding what is actually available. But he is sometimes very enjoyable, perhaps even more so if you treat his books as fiction. ;)

Lol, I'm not a historian so it doesn't bother me :P. His 'histories' are a rollicking good read so who cares about methodology? Roll on a new historiographical paradigm!

(just joking, historians :)).
Durch alle Töne tönet
Im bunten Erdentraum
Ein leiser Ton gezogen
Für den der heimlich lauschet.

quintett op.57


mahlertitan

This interesting article on Jstor:

"Anton Bruckner in the Third Reich and after: An Essay on Ideology and Bruckner
Reception"

if you wish to read it, download it here

Choo Choo

#490
At present I am about halfway through this (and very much enjoying it) :



It's the sequel to Brightness Falls - one of my favourite modern novels - which seemed to me so nearly perfect that I used to buy copies of it to give to people whether they wanted them or not.

The Good Life catches up with the same group of characters 10 years later - which is 10 years on from the market-driven hedonism that formed the background to the earlier book - and to be precise, it catches up with them in downtown NYC on the evening of the 10th September 2001.  One of them has an appointment for a breakfast meeting the following morning in the Windows On The World restaurant in the WTC.

What I love about McInerney's writing is the intelligence behind the apparent simplicity.  Like all his work, it's very easy to read, yet precise and sensitive, without tipping over into sentimentality.  The author's voice remains neutral, even in the ruthlessness with which some frankly disagreeable characters are depicted.  He focusses power through accuracy of expression rather than dissipating it through overwriting.

Here's a short excerpt, which just happens to be a bit that I was reading last night.  It's two weeks later - during which time one of the characters has been helping at a volunteer station near Ground Zero - late in the night before the markets and businesses are to open again for the first time the following morning:

Quote     They sat in silence as the darkness began to seep away, watching as the silhouettes of office buildings emerged against the dingy backdrop of the predawn sky.  Corinne registered a moment of perfect stillness, a silent pause marking the transition from night to day, which was punctuated by the distant, rising growl of diesel engines and the percussion of steel on steel, the relentless work resuming.
      This morning would carry a different sound, a distant rumbling undergound from the subway tunnels on either side of the park, followed by the faint, swelling tattoo of leather soles and heels on concrete stairs as the first wave of office workers surged up and spilled out on Broadway.  Men and women with briefcases, backpacks, and portfolios, early risers come to restart the great wounded machine of Wall Street.  Receptionists and hedge-fund managers, retail brokers and risk and liability managers, systems analysts and janitors.  And suddenly the spell would be broken, the sense that nothing existed outside this sacred, ravaged place.
      "I can't imagine going into the office today," Luke said, "or tomorrow or the next day.  But then again, I can't imagine what I should be doing.  What are we supposed to do now?"

dtwilbanks

I picked this up last night.

And a Tony Hillerman mystery.

George

Quote from: dtwilbanks on August 18, 2007, 07:17:34 AM
I picked this up last night.



Looks very cool, Dave!

Love that first slide show of NYC.   

Sergeant Rock



This is the story of the last major American offensive operation of the war, Dewey Canyon II, which supported a spoiling attack into Laos by several divisions of the Army of the Republic of Vietnam (ARVN). It was both fascinating and deeply disturbing to read about battles I was part of. It brought back bad memories of the draftee army and all the problems we had with race relations and drugs, low morale, the incomprehension and hatred between the draftees and the "lifers" (the career NCOs and officers). It also reminded me that once we left our bases and were committed to battle, most of those problems evaporated and we got the job done.

Our mission was to reopen the road to Khe Sahn and beyond to the Laotian border, and keep it open while the ARVN attacked and destroyed the major supply depots in "neutral" Laos. At the time the press claimed we'd been defeated. Well, we grunts knew differently although most of us believed our allies had had their asses kicked in Laos. The book shows that was a false perception. In fact, the operation did exactly what it was intended to do: we kept the road open despite being surrounded and attacked incessantly, and ARVN destroyed the depots. The North Vietnamese lost half the forces they had in Laos, nearly 20,000 killed (as opposed to 2100 ARVN and some 250 Americans). The operation prevented North Vietnam from invading that year.

The ARVN troops had, by and large, fought extremely well even though some of their generals were incompetent. They were confident enough to repulse the invasion when it did come the following year (after most of the American troops were gone) and fought on bravely and successfully, and alone, for the next two years.

Sarge
the phone rings and somebody says,
"hey, they made a movie about
Mahler, you ought to go see it.
he was as f*cked-up as you are."
                               --Charles Bukowski, "Mahler"

dtwilbanks

Quote from: George on August 18, 2007, 07:29:13 AM
Looks very cool, Dave!

Love that first slide show of NYC.   

I can't imagine a world without us, George, but I guess anything's possible.



Novi

Durch alle Töne tönet
Im bunten Erdentraum
Ein leiser Ton gezogen
Für den der heimlich lauschet.

Maciek

Sarge, nice to see you back! :D And thanks for the review - very interesting read.