What are you reading?

[sinnedk]

I don't read many bios but when they are written well, they can take one back to a place and/or time as well as any non-fiction book. They not only give one a better sense of the person but they can give the reader a better perspective on what the culture, location(s), politics were at the time.

exactly, well said

steve jobs bio?

its a bit slow i admit, but i feel the content is interesting

[genevieveryoko]

Why do people read bios? Seems a bit fetishistic.

reading biographies has never struck me as strange, but i've always wondered about the people who write them. seems like a very unabashedly obsessive thing to do.

[asdf123]

Ive been itching to read something mindblowing. Anyone have any suggestions?

Anything from Dostoevsky.

[Vanna]

Anything from Dostoevsky.

Ive read everything hes ever written. Anything else?

[asdf123]

Ive read everything hes ever written. Anything else?

Then re-read it ;) After I finished Brothers Karamazov I couldn't read anything for almost a year without having the feeling its just a book for kids.
Too bad you probably don't know Polish. I could recommend Stachura but he's almost impossible to translate.

[Faust]

Ive read everything hes ever written. Anything else?

Herzog or Humboldt's Gift by Saul Bellow

[Pumpfish]

Ive read everything hes ever written. Anything else?

Vasily Grossman's, "Life and Fate".

[Johngd]

Herzog or Humboldt's Gift by Saul Bellow

have you also read Henderson the Rain King?

[Faust]

/\ That's one of the few I haven't read and I know I must.

[Vanna]

Thanks for all of the suggestions. I'm googling them all now and they all look like books I'd be interested in immersing myself in. Looks like I have reading for a bit now. Yay.

[Czx]

Then re-read it ;) After I finished Brothers Karamazov I couldn't read anything for almost a year without having the feeling its just a book for kids.
Too bad you probably don't know Polish. I could recommend Stachura but he's almost impossible to translate.

For Stachura
I'll back up Faust's propositions for sure. Bellow is truly mindblowing. If you are into topics of depression and such I also recommend Pessoa's Book of Disquiet, quite beautiful and haunting description of the state of psyche one goes trough in such condition.

[viv1984viv]

It was in the interview at the end of Harman's book on Meillassoux.

"GH: Surprise is perhaps one of the greatest cognitive tools that humans have. What do you think would be the most surprising thing about Quentin Meillassoux as a thinker or person that your readers might never expect?

QM: I think no one can imagine the number of works I have in progress, or their frequent incongruity with respect to what is commonly viewed as the center of my interests. They are works on Hegel, Nietzsche, Mallarme, Marcel Duchamp, Darwinism, Pyrrho… My ‘hidden’ works may be very different from my ‘public’ works, and I hope one day to be freed from this ‘double identity’ – this gap between what I do and what people think I do. (p.173 – 174)"

The Mallarme book was published in september, but only in french. Here's Harman's english overview: 1, 2.

Sweet, thanks man - will have to check that out.

I read a few things recently, Mladen Dolar's 'The Voice and Nothing More', Dostoevsky's 'Crime and Punishment' simply amazing - there are some great little theories about the characters over at the Dostoevsky forum -Svidrigailov is just the BEST villain. I read DBC Pierres latest, 'lights out in wonderland' - again, great contemporary lit. have to get back to berlin to check out the gestapo HQ and Tempelhof now - I also need to wear a faux fur coat and douse my self in Guerlains Jicky...... I also read China Mieville's 'The City and The City', first Mieville I've read and I enjoyed it, breakneck speed - quite a caper... Also dipping into Ovid and Nietzsche's 'The Birth of Tragedy' just to get up on the Dionysian tip...

Has anyone read Moby Dick? Ever since finishing Danielewski's 'House of Leaves' I've been meaning to pick it up - is it dense or fast? Should I save it for after term is what im asking I guess!

[byhand]

I've been meaning to pick it up - is it dense or fast?

This actually made me laugh. Thanks.

MD was originally published in three volumes.

[viv1984viv]

I know it's a big book, but how does it read? Is it something that deserves an hour session at least or can you jump straight in?

[Faust]

It's a very fast read, Viv. Super short chapters, not dense at all, a lot of dialogue. The preacher's speech at the Church is spine-chilling. I wonder if it inspired the one in The Portrait of an Artist as a Young Man.