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OT: Watcha Readin?

Alfamale

Alfamale

Banned
me, i'm currently reading "The Wolf Of Wall Street". Martin Scorcese is in the process of adapting it into a movie for release in 2010.

it's the true life story of a wall streeter that made his forture in the stock market in his early 20's. he was in jail by his 30th birthday. i'm only about half way through it, but it's a pretty good read... once i was able to put aside my annoyance of his constant references to his lavish lifestyle.

guy is a total homo at heart.

also, i just finished "Confessions Of An Economic Hitman", which was fantastic. although i was slightly annoyed in padding to pockets of a man who has caused unfathomable amounts of suffering, worldwide.
 
Re: OT - Watcha Readin?

In seriousness, I'm going through Bret Hart's autobiography....interesting stuff.
 
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i just finished i am charlotte simmons by tom wolfe. i was a little disappointed. i enjoyed his thoroughness (descriptively) and thought some of the characters were excellent and very compelling. but i also thought that one of the main characters could easily have been written out (he was just an irritating, boring character), at times he tried to force dialogues and certain contemporary 'lingo', the main character was too naive and the ending was a bit weak.

but i like his style, and enjoy his prose so it was still worth reading.

i've also been chipping away at war and peace over the past few weeks, just because i own it and might as well read it. i'm going to take my time with it. the language is much too dense for me to read as quickly as i would any other book.

last night i read the first few stories in werewolves of their youths, a collection of short stories by chabon. he is a very, very good writer, although i think i enjoy his novels more than his shorts.

also working my way through a trading nation by michael hart and bill dymond.
 
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I just picked up this book that they're making a new TV series out of... FlashForward by Robert Sawyer. Haven't started yet though.
 
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I have about a dozen books on the spanish language that I'm digging into to improve for another jaunt down to Mehico in November.

As for real literature, I just got "Democracy in America" by De Tocqueville that I'll be getting into next week.
 
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The Plantation by Chris Kuzneski about a bunch of black guys trying to obtain justice for slavery by enslaving whites.
 
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I'm just finishing up McLuhan's Understanding Media: The Extensions of Man. Pretty mind blowing stuff, though I can't help but feel that the book assumes quite a bit of prior knowledge which I don't yet have. Even still, I really liked it and was able to grasp most of it (I think) and plan on going back to it sometime. WE ARE WHAT WE BEHOLD!

I've also got a bunch of others on the go: Camus' The Plague, Sartre's Nausea, Gladwell's Tipping Point, and Jung's Man and His Symbols (I have ADD, and you gotta balance out the existentialist stuff with something a little less gloomy).

Although I'm only 100 pages in, I'm really digging Man and His Symbols. His ideas just ring a whole lot truer than his mentor Freud's.

Oh, and a few months ago, after about a year of reading it on and off, I finally finished the batshit House of Leaves. I'm not really positive what it was all about, but the good news is nobody else does either. I've got my own ideas about, but I think it's meant to be like rorshach test of sorts. Very creepy.
 
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Just finished War and Peace in what must be a record 4 days. Very good read, though it isn't as good as Anna Karenina.
 
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did you really just call W&P a good read?

I love to read, and that thing was pure torture. One of the only books ever that I've given up on without finishing.
 
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zeke said:
did you really just call W&P a good read?

I love to read, and that thing was pure torture. One of the only books ever that I've given up on without finishing.
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Yeah I thought it was great. Tolstoy is the perfect writer to my tastes. Dry, observant prose style. Hardly a single metaphor or simile in it. That's how I like it. I'm the kind of guy who will read Anna Karenina 4 times in a year, so there's that.

I'm trying to read Moby Dick and its flowery prose is just annoying.
 
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4 days to get through War and Peace? Holy crap.

I'm afraid even to start it.

You should read Name of the Rose.
 
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I finished The House of the Dead by Dostoyevsky about two months ago. Easily one of the most difficult but rewarding reads that I have ever had.
 
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TheCountofMonteCristo said:
4 days to get through War and Peace? Holy crap.

I'm afraid even to start it.

You should read Name of the Rose.
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It was a breeze really. I didn't find it a difficult text at all. It's paced fairly quick, as opposed to something like Camus' The Plague, which I just can't get through. Horses for courses.

I've read Focault's Pendulum, and I found that tough going.
 
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The Plague is definitely a little on the slow-going side, which is probably why I dropped it a while ago. And the entire thing is one giant metaphor, which I'm sure you loved.
 
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Just read Larry King's bio, My Remarkable Journey. It's worth a read, guy's had a pretty interesting life, some good stories in there. Have also been reading a book called Fletch Forever, which includes the first 3 Fletch books. They're all pretty entertaining reads, especially the second one (Confess, Fletch).
 
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blaghaus said:
Yeah I thought it was great. Tolstoy is the perfect writer to my tastes. Dry, observant prose style. Hardly a single metaphor or simile in it. That's how I like it. I'm the kind of guy who will read Anna Karenina 4 times in a year, so there's that.

I'm trying to read Moby Dick and its flowery prose is just annoying.
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Loved 'Anna Karenina'........long read, but well worth it, one of my favorites.

Read it back-to-back with 'Don Quixote' which also ended up being a personal favorite.


I've read Focault's Pendulum, and I found that tough going.
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I bought 'Foucault's Pendulum' but just haven't been able to pick it up and start it yet, knowing the tough journey it's going to be to make it through that. Something I want to knock off my list though, before too too long.
 
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Montana said:
Loved 'Anna Karenina'........long read, but well worth it, one of my favorites.

Read it back-to-back with 'Don Quixote' which also ended up being a personal favorite.




I bought 'Foucault's Pendulum' but just haven't been able to pick it up and start it yet, knowing the tough journey it's going to be to make it through that. Something I want to knock off my list though, before too too long.
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Reading Foucault's Pendulum reminds of having nothing to do in North York. One of my abiding Toronto memories.

Karenina is the greatest novel ever. I don't even care about subjectivity, it just is. I'm giving myself a couple of months before I read it again. Which will be the fifth time in the last 15 months.
 
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blaghaus said:
Reading Foucault's Pendulum reminds of having nothing to do in North York. One of my abiding Toronto memories.
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It's the only book I've owned, that I've ever been scared to start....:lol



Karenina is the greatest novel ever. I don't even care about subjectivity, it just is. I'm giving myself a couple of months before I read it again. Which will be the fifth time in the last 15 months.
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Although it's highly regarded (obviously).........I agree that it doesn't get the credit it deserves.

Might have to take it off the shelf, and read it again actually......it's been a few years now since the last time I read it.
 
Re: OT - Watcha Readin?

Montana said:
It's the only book I've owned, that I've ever been scared to start....:lol

Although it's highly regarded (obviously).........I agree that it doesn't get the credit it deserves.

Might have to take it off the shelf, and read it again actually......it's been a few years now since the last time I read it.
Click to expand...


Dostoevsky next for me, The Brothers Karamazov.
 
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