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Post by baldrick on Dec 8, 2009 15:23:50 GMT -5
Any of the Zackary Nixon Johnson SciFi detective series by John Zakour (The Plutonium Blonde, The Doomsday Brunette, and others). Hilarious send up of hard boiled detective novels, but set in the future with psionic super babes and killer droids. Mindless, but thoroughly entertaining.
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Post by flylooper on Dec 19, 2009 17:22:48 GMT -5
The Photographer - Didier Lefèvre and Emmanuel Guibert East of Eden - John Steinbeck Barney's Version - Mordecai Richler What is the What - David Eggers American Hardcore - Stephen Blush Wow! As I recall, the opening chapter of East of Eden contained one of the mostly beautifully written descriptions of the Salinas Valley. It was an amazing novel. There was a movie of it with James Dean years ago, too, but it sucked compared to the novel. My current reading: The Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire - Edw. Gibbon (Very hard to read! I've relegated it to the top of my toilet tank) The Rest is Noise - History of 30th Century Serious Music The Orientalist - Biography of Lev Nussimbaum Dungeon, Fire and Sword - History of the Knights Templar
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Post by will on Dec 19, 2009 19:42:15 GMT -5
Toynbee's A Study of History.
The abridged version is plenty, but the unabridged forty-leven volumes is the most amazing speculative history you can imagine. Arnold Toynbee was a completely unreconstructed modernist who believed in the march of progress and the superiority of technically advanced cultures, but considering when he was writing, it's hardly surprising. His speculations about what might have happened if Zenobia, a warlike middle eastern queen, had been spreading Christianity in the manner Islam spread a number of centuries later are fascinating. At least to me.
Anything written by Barbara Tuchman is worth reading, as is anything written by Umberto Eco.
In Defense of Anarchism by Robert Paul Wolff. It's an interesting short essay about why authority is immoral.
The Nature and Art of Workmanship by David Pye. It's a short, to the point essay regarding the intersection of thought and physical work, and how the intersection makes itself known.
Great Time Coming by David Faulkner. It's recent American history in the form of a biography of Jackie Robinson.
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Post by flylooper on Dec 20, 2009 10:16:43 GMT -5
Toynbee's A Study of History. The abridged version is plenty, but the unabridged forty-leven volumes is the most amazing speculative history you can imagine. Arnold Toynbee was a completely unreconstructed modernist who believed in the march of progress and the superiority of technically advanced cultures, but considering when he was writing, it's hardly surprising. His speculations about what might have happened if Zenobia, a warlike middle eastern queen, had been spreading Christianity in the manner Islam spread a number of centuries later are fascinating. At least to me. Anything written by Barbara Tuchman is worth reading, as is anything written by Umberto Eco. In Defense of Anarchism by Robert Paul Wolff. It's an interesting short essay about why authority is immoral. The Nature and Art of Workmanship by David Pye. It's a short, to the point essay regarding the intersection of thought and physical work, and how the intersection makes itself known. Great Time Coming by David Faulkner. It's recent American history in the form of a biography of Jackie Robinson. Hey, Will.... Wow! Barbara Tuchman - One of my favorites. I've read "The Guns of August, " "A Proud Tower" and "A Distant Mirror." She's a wonderful writer.
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Post by daveb on Dec 20, 2009 12:34:24 GMT -5
Eco rites gud.
db
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Post by baldrick on Dec 21, 2009 15:08:16 GMT -5
Hey, Will.... Wow! Barbara Tuchman - One of my favorites. I've read "The Guns of August, " "A Proud Tower" and "A Distant Mirror." She's a wonderful writer. He's one of those Eastern Intellectuals, dontcha know! ;D
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Post by bizarro on Dec 21, 2009 15:30:38 GMT -5
Homoglorical socialist elitist, even.
Did I mention Our Band Could Be Your Life?
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Post by baldrick on Dec 21, 2009 15:43:10 GMT -5
It could? That's kinda frightening! ;D
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Post by dantheman77 on Dec 21, 2009 18:30:21 GMT -5
play-boy hustler screw
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Post by daveb on Dec 21, 2009 20:52:53 GMT -5
Some day, boy, you'll under-stand what's in the pictures... db
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Post by john on Dec 21, 2009 23:45:06 GMT -5
Some day, boy, you'll under-stand what's in the pictures... db I've heard they have Messican wimen in dere?
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Post by jeromeoneil on Dec 28, 2009 13:17:11 GMT -5
I'm about 100 pages into Quicksilver, and every page reminds me of why I like Neal Stephenson so much. The man knows how to build likable characters.
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Post by scissors on Dec 31, 2009 8:26:25 GMT -5
A World out of Time - Larry Niven Guns of the South - Harry Turtledove The Diamond Age (or A Young Lady's Illustrated Primer) - Neal Stephenson Snow Crash - Neal Stephenson Xanth series - Piers Anthony Shannara series - Terry Brooks
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Post by rhetorik on Jan 8, 2010 11:56:53 GMT -5
A Practical Guide to Racism - C.H. Dalton
Fucking hilarious.
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Post by rhetorik on Jan 8, 2010 11:59:19 GMT -5
The Photographer - Didier Lefèvre and Emmanuel Guibert East of Eden - John Steinbeck Barney's Version - Mordecai Richler What is the What - David Eggers American Hardcore - Stephen Blush Wow! As I recall, the opening chapter of East of Eden contained one of the mostly beautifully written descriptions of the Salinas Valley. It was an amazing novel. There was a movie of it with James Dean years ago, too, but it sucked compared to the novel. My current reading: The Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire - Edw. Gibbon (Very hard to read! I've relegated it to the top of my toilet tank) The Rest is Noise - History of 30th Century Serious Music The Orientalist - Biography of Lev Nussimbaum Dungeon, Fire and Sword - History of the Knights Templar Steinbeck is probably my favourite author. His ability to write mucho detail in an incredibly gorgeous manner that keeps the reader turning pages is hard to beat.
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