I seriously doubt you have books about vegetarianism.
- SuperJail Warden
- Gone Forever
- +654|4080
My kid is a meat eater
"Ah, you miserable creatures! You who think that you are so great! You who judge humanity to be so small! You who wish to reform everything! Why don't you reform yourselves? That task would be sufficient enough."
-Frederick Bastiat
-Frederick Bastiat
- SuperJail Warden
- Gone Forever
- +654|4080
Just like his father eh. They start so young these daysJay wrote:
My kid is a meat eater
Got this yesterday
- globefish23
- sophisticated slacker
- +334|6684|Graz, Austria
You really needed that "Truth About Burnout", didn't you?Dilbert_X wrote:
This should raise some laughs.
- SuperJail Warden
- Gone Forever
- +654|4080
Spawn is a 1990's gay BDSM fantasy character.
Look at all those spikes and chains. Had he not existed and you showed me a picture and told me he was created as LGBT response to batman, I would have believed you.
Look at all those spikes and chains. Had he not existed and you showed me a picture and told me he was created as LGBT response to batman, I would have believed you.
And you still think I'm a homophobe. Tsk tsk.SuperJail Warden wrote:
Spawn is a 1990's gay BDSM fantasy character.
Look at all those spikes and chains. Had he not existed and you showed me a picture and told me he was created as LGBT response to batman, I would have believed you.
needs a bigger codpiece.
I have just no idea how to even pick what to read anymore. I don't have any set category, i.e. science fiction/fantasy that would guide my decisions and I know far too little about the current literature scene to know what's coming out that's good.
you're supposed to grow out of genre fiction, you big infant. do you want to be reading the same 7 tropes your whole life? do you want to become the old lady with dentures who reads a whodunnit every week and refers to her cats with both first and last names? look at yourself, going to ruin, as the warp and weft of time makes a new baby out of you.
read some jonathan franzen. subscribe to the New Yorker. consider the plight of Iraqi children. limit the amount of time you let government sponsored gamma rays enter your brain from the glare of twitter's mesmerising, awesome data-stream.
read some jonathan franzen. subscribe to the New Yorker. consider the plight of Iraqi children. limit the amount of time you let government sponsored gamma rays enter your brain from the glare of twitter's mesmerising, awesome data-stream.
Well, I never really read those categories to begin with, but was using them as an example of stuff people read. Interestingly, Franzen was what lead me down the train of thought to that post because I read something about a new book he's got and they're calling him a great American author, but I've heard jack shit about him until just now. I've tried reading David Foster Wallace a while back who's also apparently quite good, but I felt severely out of my element like there was a lot I wasn't picking up on.uziq wrote:
you're supposed to grow out of genre fiction, you big infant. do you want to be reading the same 7 tropes your whole life? do you want to become the old lady with dentures who reads a whodunnit every week and refers to her cats with both first and last names? look at yourself, going to ruin, as the warp and weft of time makes a new baby out of you.
read some jonathan franzen. subscribe to the New Yorker. consider the plight of Iraqi children. limit the amount of time you let government sponsored gamma rays enter your brain from the glare of twitter's mesmerising, awesome data-stream.
seeing franzen in a few weeks. they turn the garden square opposite my place into a giant literature festival. I don't actually like him, he's such a boring curmudgeon. with that said, freedom is a really great 'traditional' novel. foster Wallace is definitely more sexy and hip for the non-bookish crowd (my MA thesis is on him so I get what you mean about the esotericism).
in general you don't need to be up on current trends in books. some of the shit written by the Romans is good for all time. same for quattrocento Italy. same for Elizabethan England. the history of literature is a giant chocolate box and you can just pick the variety and flavours you like. I pay relatively little attention to contempo lit. most of it bores me and seems a little quirky for the sake of being quirky (the creative problem of trying to do something interesting with forms that have been around for as long as the gutenberg press – if not longer). I like stuff from 1870-1930 best, it's full of virtuosic writing and formal-technical experimentation (coeval with all sorts of interesting new political and technological innovations). but maybe you'll like the social satires of the mannered 18th century. maybe you'll like the epic realist-naturalist encyclopaedias of the French 19th century. maybe you'll like the incredible vigour and energy of the Russian novel in its miraculous mid-19th century efflorescence, before Bolshevism stamped on its beautiful budding flower, etc.
my general advice would be to read classics that are meant to be funny. good writing with a little levity is a good way in to 'serious' topics. catch 22, Vonnegut, Nabokov etc. read Lolita. it's hilarious and perfectly written. things like that.
in general you don't need to be up on current trends in books. some of the shit written by the Romans is good for all time. same for quattrocento Italy. same for Elizabethan England. the history of literature is a giant chocolate box and you can just pick the variety and flavours you like. I pay relatively little attention to contempo lit. most of it bores me and seems a little quirky for the sake of being quirky (the creative problem of trying to do something interesting with forms that have been around for as long as the gutenberg press – if not longer). I like stuff from 1870-1930 best, it's full of virtuosic writing and formal-technical experimentation (coeval with all sorts of interesting new political and technological innovations). but maybe you'll like the social satires of the mannered 18th century. maybe you'll like the epic realist-naturalist encyclopaedias of the French 19th century. maybe you'll like the incredible vigour and energy of the Russian novel in its miraculous mid-19th century efflorescence, before Bolshevism stamped on its beautiful budding flower, etc.
my general advice would be to read classics that are meant to be funny. good writing with a little levity is a good way in to 'serious' topics. catch 22, Vonnegut, Nabokov etc. read Lolita. it's hilarious and perfectly written. things like that.
Jesus fuck, you got my number. In leiu of fantasy/sci-fi/hentai, when I had free time I did start reading all the classics I had wanted do, but I do hold a special place for the the humorous ones. When I was flying out on vacation, I brought Catch-22 with me to re-read and had forgotten how funny it was, leaving me chuckling like a moron to myself.
tragicomedy is a rich seam, and it's wildly popular with both high-brows and low, appealing as it does to both the gut with uproarious laughter and the mind with noble sentiment. it's why Shakespeare is so uniquely popular whereas other near-perfect dramatists, such as Racine, remain a fairly cloistered and elite affair. Shakespeare had nob gags and included (what would become) slapstick for the crowd in the standing pit.
Read Closing Time then. It doesn't have the same bite and will make you sad, but it's a worthy sequel.DesertFox- wrote:
Jesus fuck, you got my number. In leiu of fantasy/sci-fi/hentai, when I had free time I did start reading all the classics I had wanted do, but I do hold a special place for the the humorous ones. When I was flying out on vacation, I brought Catch-22 with me to re-read and had forgotten how funny it was, leaving me chuckling like a moron to myself.
"Ah, you miserable creatures! You who think that you are so great! You who judge humanity to be so small! You who wish to reform everything! Why don't you reform yourselves? That task would be sufficient enough."
-Frederick Bastiat
-Frederick Bastiat
incidentally this list of 'funny' good books is normally always the same 4-5 texts that reddit recommends and valorises endlessly.
pynchon's latest novel is good and funny if you want to break away from the fedora litterateurs.
pynchon's latest novel is good and funny if you want to break away from the fedora litterateurs.
Anybody read The Luminaries and have an opinion to share? My friend is getting rid of a few books and wants to know if I want to take her copy. All I know is it won the Man Booker and has some kind of decaying chapter structure.
the booker prize is like an awful pulitzer
I don't disagree, but it still might be worth reading. I think I'll take a chance on it and see for myself. Worse comes to worse it's a waste of space on my shelf.
I like reading a bad book every now and then to remind one just how unitive and transformative a good book can be.
I can't read bad books. I'll just stop reading them. Maybe a cop out or missing some redeeming quality at the end, but to me it just seems like more of a waste of time.uziq wrote:
I like reading a bad book every now and then to remind one just how unitive and transformative a good book can be.
opposite approach here. especially with a reasonably sized novel. I'll give every book its full length and due. I figure it was planned and structured that way for a reason, or in the very worst case scenario at least excised by an editor as such. some artworks take patience. can you imagine how shit some classic films would seem if you turned them off after the first 15 minutes?
but I agree, there's not enough time in this world for bad books etc. Theres not even enough time for the utmost best ones, even. but you internalise and take something away from all art, even the terrible stuff that underscores by negative example rather than highlights through superb display.
but I agree, there's not enough time in this world for bad books etc. Theres not even enough time for the utmost best ones, even. but you internalise and take something away from all art, even the terrible stuff that underscores by negative example rather than highlights through superb display.
Please find the redeeming quality here: http://www.amazon.co.uk/Kim-Kardashian- … kardashianuziq wrote:
opposite approach here. especially with a reasonably sized novel. I'll give every book its full length and due. I figure it was planned and structured that way for a reason, or in the very worst case scenario at least excised by an editor as such. some artworks take patience. can you imagine how shit some classic films would seem if you turned them off after the first 15 minutes?
but I agree, there's not enough time in this world for bad books etc. Theres not even enough time for the utmost best ones, even. but you internalise and take something away from all art, even the terrible stuff that underscores by negative example rather than highlights through superb display.
"Ah, you miserable creatures! You who think that you are so great! You who judge humanity to be so small! You who wish to reform everything! Why don't you reform yourselves? That task would be sufficient enough."
-Frederick Bastiat
-Frederick Bastiat
Oh I'll give it more than a few pages, yeah. I'm trying to remember the last book i didn't finish but can't really. I don't have the patience to delve into books on my own so usually im either reading classics or from lists curated by people I trust/look up to/like their taste so i end up seeking out stuff I actually want to read.uziq wrote:
opposite approach here. especially with a reasonably sized novel. I'll give every book its full length and due. I figure it was planned and structured that way for a reason, or in the very worst case scenario at least excised by an editor as such. some artworks take patience. can you imagine how shit some classic films would seem if you turned them off after the first 15 minutes?
but I agree, there's not enough time in this world for bad books etc. Theres not even enough time for the utmost best ones, even. but you internalise and take something away from all art, even the terrible stuff that underscores by negative example rather than highlights through superb display.