What are you currently reading?

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

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Florestan

Quote from: BWV 1080 on April 12, 2021, 06:43:25 PM
Dos Passos > Hemingway and now cant abide Earnest after learning about this:

https://origins.osu.edu/review/breaking-point-hemingway-dos-passos-and-murder-jose-robles

A great artist who was also a bastard? My, my, my, who'd have believed that? That's shocking news, shocking I tell you.  :laugh:
Every kind of music is good, except the boring kind. — Rossini

vandermolen

Just finished reading this thought-provoking and interesting book:
"Courage is going from failure to failure without losing enthusiasm" (Churchill).

'The test of a work of art is, in the end, our affection for it, not our ability to explain why it is good' (Stanley Kubrick).

vers la flamme

Quote from: BWV 1080 on April 12, 2021, 06:43:25 PM
Dos Passos > Hemingway and now cant abide Earnest after learning about this:

https://origins.osu.edu/review/breaking-point-hemingway-dos-passos-and-murder-jose-robles

I'd love to read some Dos Passos. Is there a book you recommend to start with?

BWV 1080

Quote from: vers la flamme on April 13, 2021, 01:32:49 AM
I'd love to read some Dos Passos. Is there a book you recommend to start with?
42nd Parallel - the first book in the USA Trilogy

Florestan

Quote from: BWV 1080 on April 13, 2021, 03:26:55 AM
42nd Parallel - the first book in the USA Trilogy

Many moons ago I started Manhattan Transfer but I don't think I made it past the first 50 pages before abandoning it. Time for a second try, maybe?
Every kind of music is good, except the boring kind. — Rossini

Florestan

As for Hemingway, I can't remember where I read that he was jokingly asked during a party (meaning he was dead drunk) to write the shortest novel in the world, six words only. He obliged: For sale: baby shoes, never worn. In my book this is the very definition of a literary genius, scoundrel or no scoundrel in his private or public life.

Also, For Wom the Bell Tolls is one of the best novels about the Spanish Civil War, and quite non-partisan when it ccomes to describing the atrocities committed by both sides. Malraux's Man's Hope is also good but has a stronger bias towards the Republican side.
Every kind of music is good, except the boring kind. — Rossini

vers la flamme

Anthony Bourdain's Kitchen Confidential



This book is hilarious, full of an infectious lust for life. An enjoyable read so far. I found this at Half Price Books yesterday; they somehow had absolutely no Hemingway (which is what I came for) but I did find this and a pristine copy of Mishima's Frolic of the Beasts, so I came out okay in the end.

Dry Brett Kavanaugh

#10727
Quote from: vers la flamme on April 13, 2021, 04:02:35 PM
Anthony Bourdain's Kitchen Confidential



This book is hilarious, full of an infectious lust for life. An enjoyable read so far. I found this at Half Price Books yesterday; they somehow had absolutely no Hemingway (which is what I came for) but I did find this and a pristine copy of Mishima's Frolic of the Beasts, so I came out okay in the end.

I have the book in my house, but haven't started reading it yet.
Tokyo was Bourdain's favorite city.  I don't know how old he was. But in terms of education and culture, he was like an avant-garde of millenial generation.

https://www.businessinsider.com/anthony-bourdain-japan-favorite-destination-2016-10

vers la flamme

Quote from: Dry Brett Kavanaugh on April 13, 2021, 04:26:41 PM
I have the book in my house, but haven't started reading it yet.
Tokyo was Bourdain's favorite city.  I don't know how old he was. But in terms of education and culture, he was like an avant-garde of millenial generation.

https://www.businessinsider.com/anthony-bourdain-japan-favorite-destination-2016-10

He's a boomer; he was 61 when he died. That's cool about Tokyo. I will have to see the episode of his show where he goes there.

aligreto

Conan Doyle Adventures of Gerard





The high adventures of a French cavalry officer during the Napoleonic wars. Nothing but light reading and yarns of high adventure but an entertaining read nonetheless.

aligreto

Quote from: Dry Brett Kavanaugh on April 13, 2021, 04:26:41 PM

Tokyo was Bourdain's favorite city.  I don't know how old he was. But in terms of education and culture, he was like an avant-garde of millenial generation.

https://www.businessinsider.com/anthony-bourdain-japan-favorite-destination-2016-10

My millennial daughter and her millennial husband still are big fans. In pre Covid times when they travelled they would always follow recommendations by him. 

Brian

#10731
Quote from: vers la flamme on April 13, 2021, 04:02:35 PM
Anthony Bourdain's Kitchen Confidential



This book is hilarious, full of an infectious lust for life. An enjoyable read so far. I found this at Half Price Books yesterday; they somehow had absolutely no Hemingway (which is what I came for) but I did find this and a pristine copy of Mishima's Frolic of the Beasts, so I came out okay in the end.
As a millennial and a professional food writer, I can say this book changed our industry forever. It changed food writing in a huge way, from a stuffy old thing for gourmets to compare notes into a visceral, blood-and-guts thing that could be cool rather than elite. It changed the restaurant business in many specific ways - for example, because of Bourdain's comments on when to order fish, restaurants have changed what days they order their fish.

There is also a somewhat strong backlash in the industry against the type of angry, drug/alcohol-fueled, unprofessional kitchen work environments which are depicted in the book. Bourdain was criticized by some as the poster boy (along with Gordon Ramsay and his cursing), but he clearly does not glamorize or glorify it...or at least in his later years, on the TV show, he stopped doing that. Oh, an interesting note for you - the character "Jimmy Sears" in the book is in real life a chef named John Tesar, who lives here in Dallas and whom I've interviewed, met, and reviewed. Tesar is 63 now and hasn't changed very much since Jimmy Sears in the book; he's still a gloriously good chef, a grade-A schmoozer, and a guy who can't stay in the kitchen because he's busy chasing women. (Tomorrow he has a hearing in a custody battle over the kid he had in his late 50s with a 20-something waitress at his own restaurant...if that gives you an idea...  ;D )

I got the Globe 8" chef knife Bourdain recommends in the book and I love it. Have been using it daily for 8 years or so now.

Florestan

Actually, what is a millennial?

Related: I was born in 1972. What am I?
Every kind of music is good, except the boring kind. — Rossini

aligreto


Florestan

Every kind of music is good, except the boring kind. — Rossini

Brian

Quote from: Florestan on April 15, 2021, 12:28:58 PM
Actually, what is a millennial?

Related: I was born in 1972. What am I?
I think they consider millennials to be roughly early 1980s to mid 1990s. 1970ish is "Generation X". But it's all silly stereotypes anyway. :)

Florestan

Quote from: Brian on April 15, 2021, 12:51:48 PM
I think they consider millennials to be roughly early 1980s to mid 1990s. 1970ish is "Generation X". But it's all silly stereotypes anyway. :)

Generation X, hmmm... Count me out, I'm definitely a romantic.   :laugh:  :P
Every kind of music is good, except the boring kind. — Rossini

DavidW

Quote from: Florestan on April 15, 2021, 12:58:07 PM
Generation X, hmmm... Count me out, I'm definitely a romantic.   :laugh:  :P

We're the lucky generation... because we are the ones ignored in the culture war.  There is boomers vs millenials, boomers vs GenZ, GenZ vs millenials (basically everyone hates millenials) and in all that gen x never comes up.


Florestan

Quote from: DavidW on April 15, 2021, 01:08:23 PM
We're the lucky generation... because we are the ones ignored in the culture war.  There is boomers vs millenials, boomers vs GenZ, GenZ vs millenials (basically everyone hates millenials) and in all that gen x never comes up.

You lost me. Boomers? Gen Z? Wtf?  :laugh:

Hey, I don't hate millennials because I have no idea who they are.  ???
Every kind of music is good, except the boring kind. — Rossini