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Ya-ta Boy
Joined: 16 Jan 2003
Location: Established in 1994
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 Posted: Mon Dec 01, 2008 6:14 pm Post subject: |
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I finished Amitav Ghosh's 'A Sea of Poppies', an historical novel set in India, 1832. It's the first of a trilogy. Eventually the characters are going to China to get involved in the Opium War. Have to wait a year or so for the next volume to come out.
Vikram Chandra's "Sacred Games" (cops and the underworld in Mumbai) was better.
I just started re-reading "The Future of Freedom: Illiberal Democracy at Home and Abroad" by Fareed Zakaria. |
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jcmarsha
Joined: 09 Nov 2008
Location: Seoul
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| Posted: Mon Dec 01, 2008 9:19 pm Post subject: |
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I just finished Crime & Punishment last week
Now I'm flying through the Adventures of Kavalier & Clay
next I'm either going to borrow a book from a friend or go out and buy David Copperfield. |
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rayjoy
Joined: 19 Jan 2008
Location: Dynamic Busan
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| Posted: Mon Dec 01, 2008 9:40 pm Post subject: |
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| I just started "the omnivore's dilemma" and its pretty amazing so far. Gives you a real idea of where your food comes from. We all eat lots of food but who actually gives any though to its production. Well after this book you will. |
I brought that with me to Korea but I already obsess about where my food comes from. It actually makes me feel badly, like I shouldn't ever throw something away and I should be paying $20 for a lb of apples for the hardwork that farm laborers do.
Second thought: Where are all the animal farms in Korea? Are livestock just raised indoors in factories here? Pretty much A1 reason I'm vegetarian in Korea.
Also, wow, everyone reads serious literature! Nobody going for fluff? I am reading David Sedaris' new book. I love him.
I should be reading articles to get going on my thesis. Instead I'm reading Dave's.  |
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IncognitoHFX
Joined: 06 May 2007
Location: Yeongtong, Suwon
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| Posted: Mon Dec 01, 2008 10:28 pm Post subject: |
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| rayjoy wrote: |
Also, wow, everyone reads serious literature! Nobody going for fluff? |
I don't think many people read for fluff anymore. I'm always surprised by someone if they are. The only people I know who read "fluff" are my older relatives.
If I want fluff, I'll download a TV series and watch it front to back... or play a video game. |
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yawarakaijin
Joined: 08 Aug 2006
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| Posted: Mon Dec 01, 2008 10:32 pm Post subject: |
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After finishing up Guns, Germs and Steel im on to Plato's Republic. So much for heading into Tokyo to pick up some reading for my holiday to Fiji.  Looks like I am going to have them both finished before I even step on the plane.
It's often easy to forget that kind of rush you feel after reading a really good book. I'll admit it. I play way too much PS3 :wink. That has got to stop. It feels amazing to get through a wonderful, enlightening book. |
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Atramentous
Joined: 12 Jan 2008
Location: Ansan
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| Posted: Mon Dec 01, 2008 11:24 pm Post subject: |
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| I just finished The Chocolate War by Robert Cormier. The sad ending is a bit of a bummer but if the book had a happy one it would have been a bit pointless and Disney-ish. I am about to start Sons and Lovers by DH Lawrence. |
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movybuf
Joined: 01 Jan 2007
Location: Mokdong
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| Posted: Tue Dec 02, 2008 12:58 am Post subject: |
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| rayjoy wrote: |
Also, wow, everyone reads serious literature! Nobody going for fluff? I am reading David Sedaris' new book. I love him. |
I like to insert a "fluff" book now and then. I read David Sedaris' book "Naked" a while ago. It was amusing, not as laugh-out-loud funny as I thought it would be. I would read his other books if given the chance, but not buy them.
One of my favorite "fluff" books was "Good Omens" by Neil Gaiman and Terry Pratchett. I remember reading a long time ago that Terry Gilliam was trying to make this book into a movie. I think that would have been awesome. Too bad it fell through. |
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Atramentous
Joined: 12 Jan 2008
Location: Ansan
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| Posted: Tue Dec 02, 2008 2:59 pm Post subject: |
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Everyone reads a bit of fluff, I hope. 
Before The Chocolate War I read the fluffiest of crap - The Twilight series. In hospital and then during the recovery from surgery I read that dippy series. I figured that legions of women were reading it, especially my highschool girls, so why not find out what the fuss was about?
Basically, it is a mildly interesting take of vampires but each book could do with some serious editing. |
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aerialsimulacrum
Joined: 11 May 2008
Location: Space is the place
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| Posted: Wed Dec 03, 2008 1:49 am Post subject: |
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| I am going to start on Isaac Asimov's "Foundation" - I ordered it at Kyobo and picked it up at the store today. "Prelude to Foundation", written later but set earlier in time, was good. The books all seem to be fast reading so I will likely finish the Foundation series within a few months. |
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BreakfastInBed
Joined: 16 Oct 2007
Location: Gyeonggi do
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| Posted: Wed Dec 03, 2008 2:39 am Post subject: |
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| 3/4 through "Emma." She just has to get with Mr. Knightley. Next up is "Oliver Twist." |
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tacon101
Joined: 31 Oct 2005
Location: seoul
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| Posted: Thu Dec 04, 2008 1:37 am Post subject: |
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| fullmulletjacket wrote: |
| I just started "the omnivore's dilemma" and its pretty amazing so far. Gives you a real idea of where your food comes from. We all eat lots of food but who actually gives any though to its production. Well after this book you will. |
thought it was a great book and bought copies for all of my friends for graduation. it's amazing how much is done with corn and how destructive US farming really is
| Quote: |
Illysook
Last week, I read someone's "Year of Living Biblically" and I thought that it was a rather shallow take on things. |
yeah, it felt like he was just doing it to write a book. have you read his encyclopedia book? that one was pretty funny and interesting (i loved all the random encyclopedia facts)
I just finished:
Berube's "What's so Liberal About the Liberal Arts"
-some parts were really interesting and others seemed like the author was just using it as a way to defend some attacks laid against his views
Norman Doidge's "The Brain that Changes Itself"
-really really interesting with great medical stories, but i didn't like that he brought Freud into it
now i'm on:
Pearl S. Buck's "Kinfolk"[/quote] |
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Koveras
Joined: 09 Oct 2008
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| Posted: Thu Dec 04, 2008 6:44 pm Post subject: |
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The Poems of T.E. Lawrence. I hope some of you have read Seven Pillars and are familiar with the wrenching dedication, To S.A. That's his best poem, I think, but he wrote others, some of them quite fine.
Edit: It seems he didn't write them, but a lady named Gwendolyn did. I'll leave the post alone as a reminder of how ignorant I am.
Last edited by Koveras on Thu Dec 04, 2008 8:11 pm; edited 2 times in total |
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Nierlisse
Joined: 11 Oct 2008
Location: South Korea
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| Posted: Thu Dec 04, 2008 7:48 pm Post subject: |
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| Currently reading "Battle Royale". Pretty good so far. |
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jcmarsha
Joined: 09 Nov 2008
Location: Seoul
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| Posted: Thu Dec 04, 2008 9:52 pm Post subject: |
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| Nierlisse wrote: |
| Currently reading "Battle Royale". Pretty good so far. |
is this what the Japanese film is based on?
If so, that's news to me. |
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Gopher
Joined: 04 Jun 2005
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| Posted: Thu Dec 04, 2008 10:15 pm Post subject: |
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| aerialsimulacrum wrote: |
| I am going to start on Isaac Asimov's "Foundation" - I ordered it at Kyobo and picked it up at the store today. "Prelude to Foundation", written later but set earlier in time, was good. The books all seem to be fast reading so I will likely finish the Foundation series within a few months. |
Prelude seemed pretty cheesy to me.
The first Foundation novels are excellent, however. Quick reads, too. You ought to get through them in a few weeks rather than a few months.
If you like science-fiction reading, check out F. Herbert and also K. Stanley Robinson.
As for me, I am reading M. Mazower's Salonica; and R. Guha's India after Gandhi at the moment. |
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