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complex303
Joined: 07 Nov 2009 Location: Bucheon, South Korea
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Posted: Tue Nov 10, 2009 2:36 pm Post subject: Anyone read any good books lately? |
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Anyone have any great book recommendations? Especially newer books. I just finished reading Crank by Ellen Hopkins.
I usually go for books with a sense of humor... but I'll read almost anything. |
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Lao Wai

Joined: 01 Aug 2005 Location: East Coast Canada
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Posted: Tue Nov 10, 2009 3:44 pm Post subject: |
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Hi,
I'm about 10 pages away from finishing 'Shantaram' by Gregory David Roberts. It is an awesome book. It's a long read but I've been enjoying every minute of it. I feel like I have now been been to India.
Shantaram is a 2003 roman � clef written by Gregory David Roberts, a convicted Australian bank robber and heroin addict who escaped from Pentridge Prison and fled to India where he lived for 10 years. |
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tzechuk

Joined: 20 Dec 2004
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Posted: Tue Nov 10, 2009 4:19 pm Post subject: |
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Well... it depends. I just bought Dewey, a book about this cat in this small town called Spencer in Iowa. It's REALLY CUTE! But i am a chick who likes cute things. |
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Underwaterbob

Joined: 08 Jan 2005 Location: In Cognito
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Posted: Tue Nov 10, 2009 4:57 pm Post subject: |
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Not too long ago I read Glasshouse by Charles Stross. Far-future post-humans perform an experiment reenacting twentieth century society in order to re-create lost history. It sounds completely messed up, but it's actually a well written, humorous human drama. |
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Bloopity Bloop

Joined: 26 Apr 2009 Location: Seoul yo
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Posted: Tue Nov 10, 2009 5:42 pm Post subject: |
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I'm currently reading City of Thieves by David Benioff.
Also, I just started reading The Game by Neil Strauss (aka Style--on of the world's top pick-up artists). It's a REALLY interesting look into the lives of master pick-up artists. For those not in the know, pick-up artists are guys who have just about perfected the art of picking women up. One of the first stories in the book is about a pick-up artist named Mystery who gets a number off a Maxim model right in front of her date--Scott Baio!
Basically, it chronicles the 2 years Strauss spent traveling with a group of pick-up artists and how this lifestyle both positively and negatively affected his life--and how it changed him forever.
All the accounts are true. It's really quite amazing.
EDIT: edited for spelling errors. |
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smartwentcrazy
Joined: 26 Feb 2009
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Posted: Tue Nov 10, 2009 5:48 pm Post subject: |
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The Savage Wars of Peace
by Max Boot
Very informative, engaging read for those interested in American military history. It traces all the conflicts we've engaged in since the very inception of the republic, most of which have wide neglected. Conflicts ranging from the early Barbary Pirates to the current war in Iraq. It draws parallels from the past and the follies of nation-building. |
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DWAEJIMORIGUKBAP
Joined: 28 May 2009 Location: Electron cloud
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Posted: Tue Nov 10, 2009 7:55 pm Post subject: |
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Just finished Camu's 'The Stranger.' |
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cashpiles

Joined: 17 Sep 2007 Location: Busan, South Korea
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Posted: Tue Nov 10, 2009 8:41 pm Post subject: |
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A friend I met during my CELTA course recommended a book called Master And Margarita. He told me that he reads it again every year.
I'm about halfway through and finding it very fun.
Pretty much the Devil visits early twentieth-century atheist Russia and starts causing all kinds of devious social mischief. |
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Harpeau
Joined: 01 Feb 2003 Location: Coquitlam, BC
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Posted: Tue Nov 10, 2009 8:47 pm Post subject: |
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I just finished reading Oliver Sack's "Musicophilia". It's a very interesting book about the use of music in the lives of dementia patients. |
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Bloopity Bloop

Joined: 26 Apr 2009 Location: Seoul yo
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Posted: Tue Nov 10, 2009 9:08 pm Post subject: |
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DWAEJIMORIGUKBAP wrote: |
Just finished Camu's 'The Stranger.' |
This depressed me for the longest time. Like all existentialist work. |
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DWAEJIMORIGUKBAP
Joined: 28 May 2009 Location: Electron cloud
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Posted: Tue Nov 10, 2009 9:51 pm Post subject: |
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Bloopity Bloop wrote: |
DWAEJIMORIGUKBAP wrote: |
Just finished Camu's 'The Stranger.' |
This depressed me for the longest time. Like all existentialist work. |
To the contrary, I found it rather life affirming and very true to the world of humanity.
It's like people who think Neitsche was a nihilist when really he was a romantic humanist at heart.
I thought it was a bit silly though that he shot the Arab just because of the heat and reflections of the sun on the knife etc... Camu could've tried a bit harder to make those purey physical things that aggrevated Mearsault psychologically a bit more likely in my opinion.
Apart from that I liked it.
Basically 'This is how we want the world to be and pretend it is when we make our sooical construsts and institutions. What happened to Mearsault is how it really is. People are predjudiced, fickle, easily swayed by rhetoric and often unable to judge or understand an individual as an individual.'
I guess I found it life affirming as - though not to the same extent - I see much of the world and feel it is the same as the world Camu presents... |
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complex303
Joined: 07 Nov 2009 Location: Bucheon, South Korea
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Posted: Wed Nov 11, 2009 12:23 am Post subject: |
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Bloopity Bloop wrote: |
I'm currently reading City of Thieves by David Benioff.
Also, I just started reading The Game by Neil Strauss (aka Style--on of the world's top pick-up artists). It's a REALLY interesting look into the lives of master pick-up artists. For those not in the know, pick-up artists are guys who have just about perfected the art of picking women up. One of the first stories in the book is about a pick-up artist named Mystery who gets a number off a Maxim model right in front of her date--Scott Baio!
Basically, it chronicles the 2 years Strauss spent traveling with a group of pick-up artists and how this lifestyle both positively and negatively affected his life--and how it changed him forever.
All the accounts are true. It's really quite amazing.
EDIT: edited for spelling errors. |
Ha ha!! I've read this book! As a girl it's nice to read about 'games' that might be played on me. I've actually handed this book out to a few guy friends who need help with girls. |
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Old Gil

Joined: 26 Sep 2009 Location: Got out! olleh!
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Posted: Wed Nov 11, 2009 1:19 am Post subject: |
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Joseph Campbell-The Hero With a Thousand Faces. Amazing, about world myth.
James Fallows--Postcards from Tomorrow Square, it's about China. I love China.
China Road--Also about China
Rivals--about the comparative states of Japan, China and India going forward in the next few decades written by the former Bureau chief of the Economist in Japan. |
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TheWesternShoreKid
Joined: 22 Feb 2003 Location: Parts Unknown
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Posted: Wed Nov 11, 2009 5:44 am Post subject: |
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Kafka on the Shore - Haruki Murakami
A mind bending novel. Murakami sure knows how to addict people to his work. I had trouble putting this down.
Also, to make things interesting I also listened to the audio version of the novel. It was fun flipping back and forth between the two mediums. |
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tzechuk

Joined: 20 Dec 2004
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Posted: Wed Nov 11, 2009 7:00 am Post subject: |
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Old Gil wrote: |
Joseph Campbell-The Hero With a Thousand Faces. Amazing, about world myth.
James Fallows--Postcards from Tomorrow Square, it's about China. I love China.
China Road--Also about China
Rivals--about the comparative states of Japan, China and India going forward in the next few decades written by the former Bureau chief of the Economist in Japan. |
Can I buy these books off you when you're done, 同志?!! |
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