Books

[Guard Dog]

Just curious here. How many books are you guys reading at any one time? I guess I have a limited attention span because I usually read one at a time, but never more tha two.

[Hurlshort]

Yeah, I only read one. Sometimes I'll set down a book for another and pick it up later, or sometimes I'll read one book at work and one at home. But I prefer to focus on one book, and typically I go through one every two weeks, although it depends on my schedule and how good the book is.

[Musopticon?]

Two books and usually some kind of study book in small intakes.

[Tale]

Just curious here. How many books are you guys reading at any one time? I guess I have a limited attention span because I usually read one at a time, but never more tha two.

I usually read only one book. However, I have a tradition that goes back to High School that I pick up once in a while.

 

1 book at work/school/on the road. A paperback book

1 book at home. A Hardcover.

 

I haven't followed it until recently on my cruise. I'd been reading Wolves of the Calla, but took Children of Dune and God Emperor of Dune on the boat. Also, now that I'm back and my copy of Harry Potter and the Deathly Hollows has arrived, it's become three books because I want to finish this before some ahole spoils it.

[Pop]

RON KILLS MEGATRON

 

Just finished up The Yiddish Policeman's Union. It gets all weird and Watchmen-y towards the end. I liked it.

[Cantousent]

When you say "Watchmen-y," do you mean the classic graphic novel? I loved that book, although I was a tad confused at certain points in the story.

[Pop]

Yes. As in, the story goes from being relatively local and centralized to being quite epic.

[Enoch]

Just finished up The Yiddish Policeman's Union. It gets all weird and Watchmen-y towards the end. I liked it.

I really liked Chabon's Kavalier & Clay, but I'd been shying away from this one. Based on reviews I've seen, it looks to be full of references based on nuances of 20th century Judaism/Israel/etc. I'm a bit reticent, in that I think most of these would sail over my head. Is background reading necessary (or worthwhile)?

[Pop]

Just finished up The Yiddish Policeman's Union. It gets all weird and Watchmen-y towards the end. I liked it.

I really liked Chabon's Kavalier & Clay, but I'd been shying away from this one. Based on reviews I've seen, it looks to be full of references based on nuances of 20th century Judaism/Israel/etc. I'm a bit reticent, in that I think most of these would sail over my head. Is background reading necessary (or worthwhile)?

I didn't do any background reading, I just jumped into it on vacation, and I wouldn't consider myself especially learned when it comes to the history of the jews, and I got a lot out of the book. As you probably read, in Union's alternate timeline, a jewish protectorate is created in Alaska after the holocaust, the atom bomb is dropped on Berlin, and the state of Israel collapses in 1948. Fast forward 60 years, and the protectorate is a few months away from receding back into Alaska and scattering the jews to the wind again. What I got was that the book is less about jews in the 20th century as it's about the way the jews have always been, their "psyche", if you will. Perpetually homeless, self-pitying and lacking in faith, but often willing to make the best of things. There are some sly parrallells to modern-day Israel. For example, ultra-orthodox ("black hats", as they're called in the book) jews build settlements in claimed native Alaskan land and incite violence, but beyond that there's not much. It's not about the setting, really, it's more about the sad-sack characters (it's a throwback to 40's noir detective novels, so nobody's happy) than about the setting, but it's a good setting. There are also some subtle jabs at the current political climate in America as it relates to faith and inter-faith relations.

 

So in answer to your question, no, background reading isn't really necessary if you've got a vague idea of just what the jews have been through for the last 4000 years (in a nutshell, disappointment). It might also take you a little bit to make sense of some of the yiddish words that are used in place of english phrases ("man", for example, becomes "yid") But reading would be worthwhile, there are history courses dedicated to the hebrews and their descendants, and with good reason. There aren't a hell of a lot of cultures that have survived relatively unchanged for 4 millenia, existing within dozens of other cultures, with only so much as a dream of a homeland in some God-forsaken desert.

Edited July 23, 2007 by Pop

[Enoch]

Thanks, Pop. Maybe I will pick that up when I get a chance.

[Sionn]

The Andromeda Strain by Michael Crichton

 

 

The greatest piece of literature to grace my 14-year old eyes.

[Alvin Nelson]

Harry Potter

[Sionn]

Just finished Harry Potter last night, the end was kind of hokey.

[Xard]

I think ending was good until the epilogue came in.

[Sionn]

How exactly was the Elder Wand Draco's?

[Xard]

Uhh, that's spoilers and for that - read ending of the sixth book again, IIRC

Draco was first to touch Elder Wand after Dumbledore's death

[Enoch]

How exactly was the

Elder Wand Draco's?

The theory is that

Draco disarmed and subdued Dumbledore, which counts as defeating him for the purposes of wand ownership. The fact that Snape came along and subsequently killed big D is irrelevant

. What I don't get is why

a wand's "ownership" will pass to the victor in a combat in which that wand wasn't even wielded-- why should Harry have gained the allegiance of the Elder Wand from Draco when the Wand was still sitting in D's tomb

? Really, all the focus on the

legal minutiae of wand ownership made the ending seem kinda gimmicky to me, as did the whole "lets pause the big battle while Harry sticks his head in the pensieve for an hour" thing. And it was a bit disappointing that is had to go through the same "Dumbledore explaining what happened after the fact" at the end of the book. I thought she had kicked that habit in Book 6

. And, yes, the epilogue stunk. It just seems wrong that our only view into the future of these characters is

mundane, bourgeois child-rearing

.

 

Overall, I enjoyed the book, though. The revelation about

Dumbledore's rather dark history

was a pleasant surprise. It also had more interesting, tense action sequences than the first six books did put together. Although I was disappointed that

Snape-- by far the most interesting character in the series, and the one around whom there was the most mystery leading up to this volume-- only appeared in about three scenes and never had to confront Harry after his secret was exposed

.

Edited July 24, 2007 by Enoch

[Hurlshort]

Just finished Potter. Good ending, a few surprises and it wrapped up well enough. I'm interested in seeing how they handle the final movie, as it's rather violent.

[Sega_Shaman]

Just finished Potter.

Same here. And I

wonder how Ron started bleeding when splinched, since someone did that last book and didn't bleed when their leg was missing.

Did I miss something ?

Edited July 26, 2007 by Sega_Shaman

[Krookie]

Finished Deathly Hallows. Fight scene was cool Molly Weasly vs. Bellatrix (or whatever) was kinda corny, but still cool. I liked how JK handled Snape. Probably my favorite Potter book.

 

Oh, and maybe it was one of those wounds that didn't have blood going everywhere, it was just mangled. Where as Ron could have sliced himself or something.

Edited July 27, 2007 by Krookie

[metadigital]

Just curious here. How many books are you guys reading at any one time? I guess I have a limited attention span because I usually read one at a time, but never more tha two.

I always buy books that interest me as soon as I see them in a bookseller (in addition to any that I am recommended through friends or literature), so that I have a collection from which to choose when I am ready to begin a new one. I can have many open at once, though this is less likely now than previously owing to the speed with which I now read (which is due to my renewed focus on reading through dedicated time during a typical day). I do have a couple open at the moment, though.

 

I just finished The Five Families. Suffers from a lack of clarity and accuracy (there are frequent self-contradictory statements through-out the book, which is not helped because the author's style is more episodic), though perseverance through to the epilogue reveals that perhaps the author knows this.

[Musopticon?]

Jane Austen's Sense and Sensibility

 

I should be ready by tuesday morning, but this blasted book doesn't grab me at all.

[Guard Dog]

Currently reading All Creatures Great and Small. I don't know how I have managed to not read it already but I'm really enjoying it.

[Fionavar]

Niebuhr, Reinhold. Love and Justice: Selections from the Shorter Writings of Reinhold Niebuhr. Ed. D.B.Robertson

[Guest The Architect]

Innovation and Change, by Rod Jones. Just more business stuff.