the books we read

[Isobella]

H. L. Hamburger, M. E. Grimshaw, Linear transformations in $n$-dimensional vector space. An introduction to the theory of Hilbert space.

Paul Halmos  Finite Dimensional Vector Spaces

[Bumbeli]

Nabokov only the last few days. Already read Maschenka, Lolita and Laughter in the Dark and I am currently reading Pnin (very entertaining). If I knew those books were that great, I would have read them earlier.

[tomEisenbraun]

Just went through David Benioff's City of Thieves and Orwell's 1984 last week. Working on Everything Is Illuminated right now. About 130 pages and loving it. They had to necessarily discard so much of Safran's beautiful back story for the movie, and I'm loving the book all the more for being able to discover it.

Still haven't finished Guitar: An American History. I'm about 80 pages shy of the end, but just kind of got tired of the author's name-dropping history of rock and roll. Not that he's rubbed elbows with too much greatness, but just that there are so damn many names throughout that he constantly refers to. I suppose that's what a history is, in some regards, but it's gotten to the point where it's somehow feeling self-important, as though he's done something great in this compilation of stories of rock and roll and the electric guitar. What I really want to know about is the building of his instrument, but he's not taken quite so much stock in that aspect of the book, leaving it to be more of a mystery than I would have hoped.

After Everything Is Illuminated, I'm a little back and forth about whether or not to re-tackle Ray Bradbury's Dandelion Wine for the first time since middle school (it left me misty eyed several times back then, and I can't wait to discover all that I missed an understanding of in my adolescence) or to go ahead and read Salinger's Seymour, and Raise High the Roofbeams, Carpenters!. I went through Franny and Zooey for the second time this fall and loved it all the more and can't wait to delve more into those characters. I'm thinking I might go for Dandelion Wine first. But those are definitely my next two.

Sorry for the essay about my book reading.

[pawpaw]

I haven't read, like, ANYTHING for several months...been pretty busy with stuff, but a couple nights ago I started re-reading Tales Of The City by Armistead Maupin. Really light, really fun book. It's a perfect little snapshot of 70s San Francisco. Such a friendly, knowing little book...I love it.  :)

[Leontheslut]

I started reading the Communist Manifesto, I put it down after ten pages.

[Bumbeli]

I started reading the Communist Manifesto, I put it down after ten pages.

You are not going to regret this

[Leontheslut]

I started reading the Communist Manifesto, I put it down after ten pages.

You are not going to regret this

Have you read it in it's entirety? It wasn't so much the theory's just the style it was written in.

[Bumbeli]

I read it a few years back when I was preparing for my highschool exams. I never really liked the theories of Marx and Engels, and as you said, the style is rather annoying. I actually read it in german, and I am assuming you read it in english, so I don't know how good the translations are, but sometimes it doesn't really seem logical to me, and, most of all, I never really liked the idea of reducing it all to the class struggle.

[Angry Ewok]

Glad I'm not the only one, Bumbeli. On a related note, I may go back and read Atlas Shrugged, again. Awesome book. For the time being, though, I'm less than a third way through Shelby Foote's three volume Civil War Narrative. Very good stuff, so far.

[Leontheslut]

Glad I'm not the only one, Bumbeli. On a related note, I may go back and read Atlas Shrugged, again. Awesome book. For the time being, though, I'm less than a third way through Shelby Foote's three volume Civil War Narrative. Very good stuff, so far.

I read about 400 pages of Atlas Shrugged. I really dug it, but I left it in my car one hot day and the binding glue melted and all the pages fell out. There was no way I was trying to put those fuckers in order!

[MickeyReds]

Glad I'm not the only one, Bumbeli. On a related note, I may go back and read Atlas Shrugged, again. Awesome book. For the time being, though, I'm less than a third way through Shelby Foote's three volume Civil War Narrative. Very good stuff, so far.

I read about 400 pages of Atlas Shrugged. I really dug it, but I left it in my car one hot day and the binding glue melted and all the pages fell out. There was no way I was trying to put those fuckers in order!

Leon,you know you cant read!

[Leontheslut]

Glad I'm not the only one, Bumbeli. On a related note, I may go back and read Atlas Shrugged, again. Awesome book. For the time being, though, I'm less than a third way through Shelby Foote's three volume Civil War Narrative. Very good stuff, so far.

I read about 400 pages of Atlas Shrugged. I really dug it, but I left it in my car one hot day and the binding glue melted and all the pages fell out. There was no way I was trying to put those fuckers in order!

Leon,you know you cant read!

;D ;D ;D ;D ;D

Have you seen my baseball?

FRANKS AND BEANS!

[tomEisenbraun]

Does it make me shallow that I don't resonate well with tough endings?

Not disappointed with Everything Is Illuminated, but just sort of...I don't know how to receive it. It was a beautiful book, but it was missing an aspect that would have made it one of my favorites. It was beautifully written, but just didn't speak to me the way I was hoping. Maybe I need to give it more than 30 minutes on a 90% exhausted brain to fully sink in, but I think I was hoping for something that wasn't quite there.

On to Dandelion Wine now. I need Bradbury's amber-gilded nostalgia after a book like this.

[Angry Ewok]

Even though I likely won't finish Shelby Foote's Civil War Narrative anytime soon, can anyone refer me to a great William Faulkner book?

[Bumbeli]

If you were going for his best one, you should probably be getting "The Sound and the Fury", but for starters I'd get "Light in August" or "As I lay dying", both are far more accessible in my opinion. Sound and Fury was a pretty tough one to read for me, because english is not my first language and is very complex in it's structure.
As I lay dying, while it is an excellent book, doesn't match Sound and Fury in various aspects, but I found it easier to read (also read it in english)
I read Light in August in german, which is probably the reason I found this one the easiest to read. I did enjoy it a lot, but I'd still prefer the other 2 ones.
Imho, Faulkner peaked at "The Sound and the Fury", but I can only judge upon those three books I've read.

[the sun and moon]

wow, i never realized how the twilight series can serve as an alternative to crack! i went from skeptic to devotee (or addict). next, I'll have to read charlaine harris's southern vampire series.

[Penny Lane]

wow, i never realized how the twilight series can serve as an alternative to crack! i went from skeptic to devotee (or addict). next, I'll have to read charlaine harris's southern vampire series.

i agree completely.

[Janet]

Everyone I know who has read those books, myself included, feels that way.  Too bad the movie was horrible.

I also read The Host which was pretty good as well.

[ycartrob]

One of those books that's been sitting around for a couple of years that I finally picked up; wish I'd picked it up a while back.

[tomEisenbraun]

Seriously.

Every chapter in this has given me a lump in my throat. Bradbury writes from such a beautiful place...