The Official Book Thread (AWESOMY BOOK CLUB ALERT)

[Kingpun]

im still pissed off about losing my hardcover Night Watch

[BaconFat]

I forgot about these... I'm downloading the lot and I'll put them on my kindle.

[Buttercup]

[pwb]

some classics are great some classics are really stiff and boring but you never know what you're gonna like until you give it a shot :flower:

[Smasha]

Gulliver's Travels is easily one of the very best novels I have ever read. Highly highly recommended.

Make sure you read it annotated, and preferably after reading some articles on the culture and politics of the time. Get a map of London at the time. I'm serious. Otherwise, you won't get the jokes, or appreciate his brilliance.

Then read Swift's shorter satires. And then read his two bedroom poems: "The Lady's Dressing Room" and "A Beautiful Young Nymph Going to Bed" (in that order!). And finish with the poem where Swift satirically kills himself: "Verses on the Death of Dr. Swift." And when you put it down sigh to yourself with a tear in your eye and say "No, Dean, it has been centuries, and we have never stopped mentioning you."

Ohhh God do I love Swift.

[Ace!]

is what made me love Swift. This is amazing.

[Kingpun]

haha thats great

[Horseboy]

[Ace!]

You mean the Damn Interesting book? I can highly recommend it. It's basically a compilation of a bunch of articles on the site, but it's in book form! I used it a lot on my last school for reading classes, and it usually went over well.

I've been a huge DI fan for a few years now, and the guy supposedly is going to get started on it again. I can't wait. I've learned a lot from him/them.

[pwb]

recommend me a book,

preferably something really good, and preferably before 9:30 am pst, when I have to leave for work in the morning!

[Horseboy]

[Ace!]

Oh man, there is so much there that I want to recommend, but since time is short, fucking Frankenstein. I've read it at least six times, and I get more out of it each time I go through it.

[pwb]

I've already read The Hobbit and Frankenstein, and while I am a big fan of both I am sort of in the mood for something new! I guess my to-read list needs a little bit of tidying up. Neuromancer I've tried to read several times but I've never made it more than a couple chapters in. Thanks for the recommendations, though! I'm just gonna grab something at random and see how I like it. If you guys have any other ideas, though, please share them! I want to get back into the habit of reading all the time, because I thoroughly enjoy it.

[pwb]

I grabbed Love in the Time of Cholera on the way out the door. Been a while since I sunk my teeth into some Marquez.

[BaconFat]

I'm at 82% of Neuromancer right now!! Like all genre initiating books its not as engaging as its later counterparts. It's very impressive how much of this shit Gibson came up with without much prior inspiration. It's also interesting how his depictions of cyberspace tend to be subtle and abstract rather than the perfect virtual reality video games we see in movies now (i.e. Matrix, Tron and Inception.) It's worth reading if you want to see the origins of cyberpunk but I'm struggling to truly follow what's going on or connect with any of the characters.