BOOKLOG: Help!

1. Pedro Silva 04.07.07 / 7am
   

   Glory Road by R.A.H.

   This is one of few Heinlein’s fantasy books; he disliked fantasy on the grounds that “reality was much more fantastic than fantasy” (by the way, the other ones are The unpleasant profession of Jonathan Hoag, and Waldon & Magic Inc.).

   I guess the best thing it has going for it is that it includes the amazing Pantheistic solipsism theory. Nowadays, it’s actually a common-place: everybody’s used it by now (from Douglas Adams to The Last Action Hero). However, and yes this is a pattern, R.A.H did it first (in the Future History series).
2. Margarida 04.07.07 / 8pm
   

   Oh, that is a tough request! I have read many of those addictive books before I turned 16. Unfortunately as the years go by it seems harder and harder to find them. You know that I am deeply enjoying reading “Post-War” by Tony Judt. But probably that is not exactly what you are looking for. Have you read “A convidada” by Simone de Beauvoir or “Persuasion” by Jane Austen? Currently I am reading mostly non-fiction. A book that I read recently and that changed somewhat how I look at certain war conflicts was Collapse by Jared Diamond. An outstanding book that I am absolutely sure (100%!!) that you will love reading is “The Story of Art” by Gombrich. It will sweep you of your feet! ; )
3. Isabel 04.09.07 / 3pm
   

   i would recommend Dharma Bums, by Jack Kerouac. it explores the discrepancy between his real life and the way he wanted or aimed to live. The rhythm of the book really changes as he tries to reach some sort of spiritual peace, but is drawn to a more wild existence.

   Kerouac wrote it after the success of On The Road, and in my opinion it’s his best. (hmm… it’s actually probably better to read On The Road first, but perhaps you have done it already?) well, it’s highly addictive, but i guess all his works are, at least for me. I remember once he described a jazz jam session in such a way that i felt i was at the club, front row, catching all the sweat drops tossed by the frantic musician (yuck!).

   so, Helena, if you’ve already read this book, than i hope someone that hasn’t will take my advise and read it cause it’s really worth it.

   by the way… nice to know that my sister is still alive and kicking… and has internet. apparently edinburgh is not in the ass of judas (like the translation?.. nice, uh?) as one might think.
4. Nelson 04.09.07 / 5pm
   

   I think I know what you want! So I recommend you a few books that haven’t read yet but I want to (the reviews are from Amazon):

   In Cold Blood by Truman Capote, two two-time losers living in a lonely house in western Kansas are out to make the heist of their life, but when things don’t go as planned, the robbery turns ugly. From there, the book is a real-life look into murder, prison, and the criminal mind. The author contributed to a style of writing in which the reporter gets so far inside the subject, becomes so familiar, that he projects events and conversations as if he were really there.

   Corfu by Robert Dessaix, a wry, thoughtful and beautifully evocative novel about living abroad and the search for home. One Easter a young actor, far from home, rents a house from a writer he’s never heard of called Kester Berwick, and becomes fascinated by the absent Berwick’s rootless, self-invented existence. Corfu is also a meditation on literary landscapes, from Homer and Sappho to Chekhov and C.P. Cavafy. Dessaix is alive to Corfu’s ghosts - Odysseus, washed up naked on the shore to be found by the princess Nausicca; Elisabeth, Empress of Austria, who, hopelessly adrift on dreams of Homer, built a palace called Achilleon; and Berwick himself, the absent centre where all these stories meet.

   Fiesta: The Sun Also Rises by Ernest Hemingway, Paris in the twenties: Pernod, parties and expatriate Americans, loose-living on money from home. Jake is wildly in love with Brett Ashley, aristocratic and irresistibly beautiful, but with an abandoned, sensuous nature that she cannot change. When the couple drifts to Spain to the dazzle of the fiesta and the heady atmosphere of the bullfight, their affair is strained by new passions, new jealousies, and Jake must finally learn that he will never possess the woman he loves.

   I think the last one is in the pole position to be the first of my reading attention. I hope you like the suggestions!
5. Helena 04.09.07 / 7pm
   

   Ahhh!! Amazing! you are alive (not only Margarida!) and suggesting so good things to me! First of all, Thank You!!!!!

   So, about Heinlein’s book, my sweet husband… This is one book that is in that pile at home waiting to be read, but, as you know, I’m not feeling in a Heinlein’s science fiction mood right now. I know, there is so much things of Heinlein that I still need to read and you know how good they are that you start to feel anxious about it. I promise, I will read everything as soon as I start to feel more confortable with this English!!

   Next, Margarida, you gave me “A Convidada” as a gift six years ago… Did you forget about that???? I read and I love it. The surprise wasn’t so big as it was with the Life of others, also by Simone de Beauvoir, but I guess it’s because this was the first and had this advantage! In both I love the way how she put in question our freedom and our responsibility, in two different ways… So regarding this I just want to thank you once more for having shared these books with me! About your other suggestions, I will check “The Story of Art”, it’s true that me and Pedro are with our eyes in that book for a while, maybe it’s time!

   But I need to say that your suggestion, Isabel, really open my curiosity. I never read anything of Kerouac, I will try to get them (yes, both, because I didn’t read “On The Road” also) , then I will tell you if I like it! And the same about one of the books that you suggest, Mano, also get my attention, Corfu by Robert Dessaix. I didn’t know it, and it really seems my style ;) But I will also check more deeply the others that you put here!

   Once more, Thanks!

   I think I will have a lot of new things to read for the next months!

   P.S: Please, after this don’t go away from our Heptahedron again, we are such a useful community! ;) And let me just send to Margarida a huge kiss to Edinburgh! I hope that you are having a wonderful time!
6. Margarida 04.12.07 / 9pm
   

   I have another suggestion! It’s a very small and engaging book. You can read it in an afternoon if you wish. “The Double Helix” by James D. Watson. I have a copy of this book in Portugal for a few years now but I never got around to read it. I stole Pedro’s copy and read it most of it on my trip back to Chicago (and I slept for most of that trip!). It has pearls like: “One could not be a successful scientist without realizing that, in contrast to the popular conception supported by newspapers and mothers of scientists, a goodly number of scientists are not only narrow-minded and dull, but also just stupid”. You have to read this book! It should be mandatory for all scientists since it will impact how we conduct science. Well, at least it changed me a bit ☺
7. Confras 04.17.07 / 11pm
   

   Hello all!

   Living in the UK has largely increased my book collection. Unlike most things here, books are cheap. There are always offers on bookshops and there’s amazon.uk for even better deals.
   I’ve become a fan of historic novels and would recommend Richard Zimler for that: The Last Cabbalist of Lisbon or Hunting Midnight (haven’t read the other yet). If you like Graal-related stories, maybe Labyrinth by Kate Mosse (made me want to go to Pays d’Oc and visit everything). La Sombra del Viento, by Carlos Ruiz Zafón is really good.
   I also liked Never Let Me Go, by Kazuo Ishiguro and The Five People We Meet in Heaven, by Mitch Alborn. These are also fiction, but not historic.
   For relaxing simple stories, try the No. 1 Detective Agency Series, by Alexander McCall Smith.
   These are some of my recent reads which I can undoubtedly recommend. I think I’m forgetting of important things, but old age brings bad memory…
   Apart from that, I have a huge wish list of books to read. Graphic novels, have you tried? I haven’t yet, but there are two I’d like to read at the moment: Blankets, by Craig Thompson and Persepolis by Marjane Satrapi.

   Have fun and let us know what you’ve decided.

   Hug, :)
8. Helena 04.19.07 / 8am
   

   Hi!!!!!

   Thank you so much for all the suggestions, Margarida and Ana!! You put so much enthusiasm in all the books that I want to read all at once!

   I didn’t choose any Ana, last week I came across “On the Road” by Jack Kerouac (suggested by Isabel) in a used books store (yep, here in Berkeley is also amazing the amount of bookstores and the book’s cheap prices!) and I bought it. I started and I’m completely stuck to the book until now. The book is really nice, specially for someone who is living in the United States right now, as I am. It’s giving me an amazing perspective of this country! Thanks Isabel!

   But I have now a list with some of your suggestions!

   My cousin also read the The Last Cabbalist of Lisbon, and she really liked it. I just don’t know if I will be able to read these historic novels in English… probably I will need to get them from my personal mail from Portugal (also known as my parents ;)).

Powered by Hemingway flavored Wordpress.

Posts RSS Comments RSSLog in Webmail