About to read this, so I clocked it into goodreads and saw this quote compilation in a review and I'm excited. (:
About to read this, so I clocked it into goodreads and saw this quote compilation in a review and I'm excited. (:
@ashlesha what's your goodreads? I just made one and have no friends on there
I read "The Dunwich Horror" , which I really liked due to the imagery it evoked. I should read more classics, the 'dry' style is pretty well suited for me. I also read "The Pisces" by Melissa Broder, which did not disgust me as it did some people, but I found it very tasteless and crude. Its message gets lost because it sounds exactly like my sleep deprived 4am crazed journaling. So I wouldn't recommend it.
I've just started reading "The Secret History" by Donna Tartt. It's intriguing and also 'dry' in that way I like. It's not really dry, because the words used are beautiful, but not exactly flowery. Succinct and to the point, and they serve their exact purpose. I dislike soft, mushy, excessively flowery language. It makes me feel icky, like we're wasting time, like you could be telling me more things in the time it took you to tell me that the apples were red or something.
@voider www.goodreads.com/acacia-lungs
I don't write reviews or do anything interesting with it, though. It's just recordkeeping, really.
Ive had it in mind to read Donna tartt for awhile!
Jesus Calling.
My son got me this for Christmas. I wondered if I would have time to add a daily devotional to my busy life right now, but I gave it a try and was immediately surprised to see so much richness in it. I recognize the voice of my Shepherd. The entries are short and they speak to my heart. Then I remembered that when Infiltration came out it these two were in competition for Amazon Bestseller in Christian books, and I was curious what it was about since Infiltration is such an important book to explain the state of affairs in the Catholic Church. I read the reviews at the time and decided it was a worth competitor since there more people in general need Jesus or more of Jesus in these times than there are Catholics who need to understand what has been going on in our Church. It's important, but, it all starts with Jesus.
As to Infiltration, I think it is also happening in all Christian churches and society in general. To wipe out Christianity (but we know that will be a fail) and to take freedom away from the people, and pave the way for dictatorship and a thriving, more powerful elite.
@applejacks and @Abbie the Child, I think you will love this devotional.
Last edited by Eliza Thomason; 01-20-2020 at 09:47 PM.
"A man with a definite belief always appears bizarre, because he does not change with the world; he has climbed into a fixed star, and the earth whizzes below him like a zoetrope."
........ G. ........... K. ............... C ........ H ........ E ...... S ........ T ...... E ........ R ........ T ........ O ........ N ........
"Having a clear faith, based on the creed of the Church, is often labeled today as fundamentalism... Whereas relativism, which is letting oneself be tossed and swept along
by every wind of teaching, looks like the only
attitude acceptable to today's standards." - Pope Benedict the XVI, "The Dictatorship of Relativism"
.
.
.
Started Gone Girl on audiobook today. Saw it was really popular a while back and got some good reviews. Pretty sure there is a movie(?) that I’ve been avoiding watching because I thought I should read the book first. It didn’t sound like something I’d really like which is why I haven’t picked it up. An hour or so into I’m not liking it much. Guess I don’t feel any connection to the story or the characters? Since it’s a thriller, I’m hoping it picks up. I mean I am a bit intrigued by what happened to his wife...!!
@aster, I read Gone Girl last year for the reasons you cited. It came highly recommended, and I kept thinking, hoping, that it would get better.
The author is a fairly good writer in the sense that he? she? can carry you along on a narrative and make you want to find out what happens. The down side of the book is that the main characters are completely unpleasant people whom you wouldn't want to spend five minutes with in real life, much less an entire book. And the more you find out about them, the less likeable they become. Between the two of them, they are exemplars of thoroughly unpleasant human beings.
Furthermore, the book did not get better. It got worse. Much, much worse. Not only did it become just more boring and less satisfying, but it became implausible. The events became unbelievable, as if the author was trying to see how much pain and BS he? she? could inflict on the reader and still have them keep reading. Gone Girl is the book that I most regret giving any of my time to in the past ten years. If you don't like the book now, just realize that it only gets worse.
It is perfectly OK to walk away from this steaming pile of shit, before you start smelling like it, too, just from sheer exposure.
I completely believe that when you read a book, you are spending time inside the head of the author. After finishing the book, I regret not being able to leave behind a slow brain cancer. Tit for tat. I came away from reading the book with the feeling that the author hates and disrespects his readers, and making you read it is his revenge against you.
Last edited by Adam Strange; 03-31-2020 at 03:31 AM.
lol, Adam. I think I am going to stop reading it!! I’m sorry you read it, but I’m glad you are passing on how terrible it is. I can kind of see what you mean already. I’m not a big fan of the characters. Did you watch the movie? I’m guessing not, lol. Just curious.
once I started with a book, I used to carry on until the end no matter how terrible, but I just don’t have the time/energy now to read something awful
I did not see the movie.
My personal opinion of the book is so bad that it colors my opinions of the people who liked it. I mean, they are either stupid or they have incredibly low standards. And if a person spent the time and effort to make a movie from the book, then they are no better.
Today I listened to Silence of the Lambs on audiobook. I’ve been wanting to read it for a long time. I wasn’t excepting it to be almost exactly the same as the movie.
Listened to this one on audiobook today:
Spark Joy
https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/25614984-spark-joy
It was very inspiring... I actually recommend it if you want to declutter your life! I liked it a lot!
(my new thing is to listen to audiobooks instead of music during the day lol)
Oh, Here’s my goodreads if anyone wants to add me. Might as well
https://www.goodreads.com/user/show/24154372-sarah
I started The Goldfinch today. It’s like...32 hours long. So might be with this one for a while. So far I really like it!
Dug up Arthur C. Clarke : Profiles of the Future for a re-read. Still relevant and good reminder of perspective despite being written back in 1962 originally. My vintage copy ("Newly revised for the eighties"!) is updated 1982, just a year after my birth.
A lot of Clarke's stories are available on-line as free audiobooks. He's a better writer than Asimov, IMO.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=veT6pomDr1g
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EPmyOYyXkk8 <"The Sentinel" Inspiration for the movie 2001: A Space Odyssey.
Other authors: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jAZ5N6tg46c
Poul Anderson (ESI) https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LaQ1fqiH_6M <"Call Me Joe". A classic.
@Northstar, If you are SLE, you might like Harry Harrison: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ur-lqAWygAw
Last edited by Adam Strange; 04-27-2020 at 10:30 PM.
I am reading a splendid little tome by Agatha Christie called Poirot Investigates. It's pretty standard fare for the mystery genre, but I think she does in this book manage to earn her reputation for being the Queen of Mystery. I certainly enjoy it more than I did the Sherlock books, the mysteries of which are more mechanistic than psychological and whose main character I can barely stomach.
Type me here: http://www.the16types.info/vbulletin...nnaire-(Nunki)
I will be so pretentious as to announce that I'm reading a philosophical text by Emmanuel Levinas called Totality and Infinity. I will not be so pretentious as to claim that I understand more than half of it, but to the extent that I do understand it, I'm not altogether in agreement with it. Its main premise seems to be that the Other (that is, another person) occupies a position in reality that inherently defies systematization. In spite of this flawed position (flawed because everything that exists lies within a system), the author attempts throughout to analyze the encounter with the Other and place it in his system. One can't help but recall Kant and his self-refuting notion of the noumenon. Both authors set forth an incoherent position which they then go on to undermine.
Type me here: http://www.the16types.info/vbulletin...nnaire-(Nunki)
Just finished Atomic Habits by James Clear. Gave it 5 stars...really great book
I'm reading Egil Skallagrimssons saga. Any people here who read Icelandic/ Nordic sagas? It really feels like being catapulted back to the viking age.
It takes a while to get used to the style. Lots of emphasis on family relations and the style can be a bit monotonic and schematic.
There's something really fascinating about these sagas. I recommend trying it.
The decisive thing is not the reality of the object, but the reality of the subjective factor, i.e. the primordial images, which in their totality represent a psychic mirror-world. It is a mirror, however, with the peculiar capacity of representing the present contents of consciousness not in their known and customary form but in a certain sense sub specie aeternitatis, somewhat as a million-year old consciousness might see them.
(Jung on Si)
@Tallmo, what do you think of this short story?
http://vvikipedia.co/images/c/c7/Pou...Came_Early.pdf
The decisive thing is not the reality of the object, but the reality of the subjective factor, i.e. the primordial images, which in their totality represent a psychic mirror-world. It is a mirror, however, with the peculiar capacity of representing the present contents of consciousness not in their known and customary form but in a certain sense sub specie aeternitatis, somewhat as a million-year old consciousness might see them.
(Jung on Si)
The decisive thing is not the reality of the object, but the reality of the subjective factor, i.e. the primordial images, which in their totality represent a psychic mirror-world. It is a mirror, however, with the peculiar capacity of representing the present contents of consciousness not in their known and customary form but in a certain sense sub specie aeternitatis, somewhat as a million-year old consciousness might see them.
(Jung on Si)
And for me, the pacing of that story was almost perfect. Lol.
Anderson wrote a lot of stuff and I've read a fraction of it, but like most authors, there are a few pieces he wrote that are more notable than others. For example, Roger Zelazny wrote the very popular "Amber" books (among others), and I had a hard time getting into them. I think he is EIE, and so is similar to me in some ways and dissimilar in others, but he wrote one of the best stories I have ever read, Itself Surprised (https://www.e-reading-lib.com/chapte...rker-base.html ). It was basically the story of me, going into my marriage. Zelazny was channeling my mind and my attitudes in his protagonist.
And isn't that why we read stories? To see the world explained by someone we can understand?
Last edited by Adam Strange; 05-15-2020 at 08:17 PM.
The decisive thing is not the reality of the object, but the reality of the subjective factor, i.e. the primordial images, which in their totality represent a psychic mirror-world. It is a mirror, however, with the peculiar capacity of representing the present contents of consciousness not in their known and customary form but in a certain sense sub specie aeternitatis, somewhat as a million-year old consciousness might see them.
(Jung on Si)
That's gonna be my next read. I thought the style of the sagas was really boring at first (and in a way it is), but then after awhile it has a suggestive power. It's kindof like duality, you don't notice anything special at first, but suddenly you are hooked. The sagas give a lot of space to the reader's own mind. And also the harsh, matter-of-fact, no-nonsense masculinity is refreshing.
The decisive thing is not the reality of the object, but the reality of the subjective factor, i.e. the primordial images, which in their totality represent a psychic mirror-world. It is a mirror, however, with the peculiar capacity of representing the present contents of consciousness not in their known and customary form but in a certain sense sub specie aeternitatis, somewhat as a million-year old consciousness might see them.
(Jung on Si)
I'm nearly finished this book and I due to the blurb, I did expect some events in this story however a lot that's happened has taken me by surprise; in a good way! The story is not panning out like I'd thought, but the plot twists are really intriguing and keeping me hooked. Definitely a book that will leave an impression on me for a very long time.
"Imagine you could erase your grief. Imagine you could forget your pain. Imagine you could hide a secret. Forever.
Emmett Farmer is working in the fields when a letter arrives summoning him to begin an apprenticeship. He will work for a Bookbinder, a vocation that arouses fear, superstition and prejudice – but one neither he nor his parents can afford to refuse.
He will learn to hand-craft beautiful volumes, and within each he will capture something unique and extraordinary: a memory. If there’s something you want to forget, he can help. If there’s something you need to erase, he can assist. Your past will be stored safely in a book and you will never remember your secret, however terrible.
In a vault under his mentor’s workshop, row upon row of books – and memories – are meticulously stored and recorded.
Then one day Emmett makes an astonishing discovery: one of them has his name on it."
Last edited by jumpintoillusions; 05-18-2020 at 01:40 PM. Reason: better image of book cover
Another book I read lately was The book of Joy by the Dalai Lama and Desmond Tutu. Absolutely loved it. Recommend it to anyone
And Unfu*k Yourself: Get Out of Your Head and Into Your Life by Gary John Bishop... really loved it. Listened to it on audiobook. Considering buying it. It’s not very long and having some Scottish guy yelling at me is really motivational lol
@aster it's really good! I was a bit hesitant to start it because I'd finished a book called The Tidelands by Phillipa Gregory beforehand and I was still emotionally attached to that world and characters. But I've immersed fully in The Binding. I'd definitely recommend
I read books 1-7 of a Wheel of Time in the span of 2 years in college. It took me 9 years to get through books 8-10. God awful. Book 9 had a very major event, but besides that easily the worst in the series. I barely read book 10.
I am halfway through Knife of Dreams (book 11) now and I'm not seeing the improvement people have pointed out, calling this one of the best in the series.
I'm hoping book 12-14 will make the slog worth it, since they were written by Brandon Sanderson instead of an author who was clearly milking his books for cash.
You know, Ouro, you are allowed to stop. You are allowed. To. Just. Stop.
An acquaintance of mine handed me the first Wheel of Time book and declared that it was the greatest story ever written. I think I got three pages in before I reached the limits of my endurance. Garbage, pure garbage. The exact same thing happened to me with the Harry Potter book. Who reads this crap?
You can still get your life back, @ouronis. It's not too late. You don't have to jump over every crack to avoid breaking your mother's back.
They gave the main character like 12% of the book in later books. Who does that? What kind of stupid motherfucker takes his godlike main character and says "we'll just put you behind the curtain for 5 books." If it was just Rand, Mat, and Perrin it would stand head and shoulders above everything else.
Ouro, let it go. Put the book down. Step away from the car. You can relax. Breath. In. Out. Your long, terrible nightmare can be over right now. You can do it.
You thought they were trying to help you, that they were on your side, but instead they were just using you to get your money. They aren't worth it. Let it go.
I'm meaning to start 'The Body Keeps the Score' by Bessel van der Kolk next.
https://www.goodreads.com/work/quote...ling-of-trauma
Last edited by Moonbeaux Rainfox; 05-20-2020 at 10:37 AM.