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Master List of Books
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Here's the list of suggestions; I will update this as promptly as possible after suggestions are submitted. Bold titles have been chosen to read.
- Adelstein, Jake. Tokyo Vice. (xenomouse)
- Banks, Iain M. The Player of Games. (WindUpBird)
- Baum, L. Frank. The Marvelous Land of Oz. (Dreg)
- Baum, L. Frank. Dorothy and the Wizard in Oz. (Dreg)
- Baum, L. Frank. The Road to Oz. (Dreg)
- Baum, L. Frank. The Tin Woodman of Oz. (Dreg)
- Chesterson, G.K. The Man Who Was Thursday. (Rbx5)
- Dworkin, Ronald. Justice for Hedgehogs. (Jon Brescia)
- Eco, Umberto. Foucault's Pendulum. (Rbx5)
- Endo, Shusaku. Scandal. (Rbx5)
- Heinlein, Robert A. Number of the Beast. (kaazuwulf)
- Heller, Joseph. Catch-22. (Blank_Kold)
- Irving, John. The World According to Garp. (kaazuwulf)
- Larson, Erik. The Devil in the White City. (BrokenMagnum)
- Lessing, Doris. Briefing for a Descent into Hell. (JonBrescia)
- Morgan, Richard. Altered Carbon. (WindUpBird)
- Murakami, Haruki. Hard-Boiled Wonderland [...]. (Rbx5)
- Murakami, Haruki. IQ84. (Rbx5)
- Murakami, Haruki. Underground. (Rbx5)
- Ronson, Jon. The Psychopath Test: A Journey Through the Madness Industry. (Dave)
- Rothfus, Patrick. The Name of the Wind. (Spankminister)
- Ryan, Johnny. A History of the Internet and the Digital Future. (TheJoel)
- Thompson, Hunter S. The Great Shark Hunt. (RobotBastard)
- Turnbull, Colin. Mountain People. (Jon Brescia)
- Vollmann, William T. Rising Up and Rising Down (Abridged Edition). (JonBrescia)
- Wallace, David Foster. Oblivion. (w3a2)
- Wallace, David Foster. The Pale King. (w3a2)
- Williams, Walter Jon. Hardwired. (RobotBastard)
- Wolfe, Gene. An Evil Guest. (kaazuwulf)
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"The Great Shark Hunt" is kind of a long collection of short works and excerpts. It's all good, but I suggest that instead of reading the whole thing we do:
"The Kentucky Derby Is Decadent And Depraved"
"The Temptations Of Jean-Claude Killy"
"Strange Rumblings In Aztlan"
"Presenting: The Richard Nixon Doll"
"October" and "Epitaph"
"Fear And Loathing: The Scum Also Rises"
"What Lured Hemingway To Ketchum?"
"Those Daring Young Men In Their Flying Machines...Ain't What They Used To Be!"
"The Great Shark Hunt"
"Ashes to Ashes & Dust to Dust: The Funeral Of Mother Miles"
"Welcome To Las Vegas: When The Going Gets Weird The Weird Turn Pro"
That ought to be enough to talk about; it's got the HST works that people are most familiar with (FLLV, FLOTC, Hell's Angels), it's got "Great Shark Hunt" which is a sort of prototype FLLV, and it's got some of the investigative journalism he did before he decided that being fucked up on pills all the time was the way to go. -
Thanks RB! When Shark Hunt comes up as a selection I'll be sure to quote your post in the book choice thread for that month.
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I suggest The Name of the Wind by Patrick Rothfuss because I've heard so much about it. It's supposed to be the next huge epic fantasy book, so I'm wondering whether it earns its reputation.
I also loathe Hunter S. Thompson, but I'm willing to give myself some more hate fuel up to a certain point. :D -
Putting forth Richard Morgan's Altered Carbon, because its a pretty great Sci-Fi book, as well as Iain M. Banks The Player of Games for similar reasons; everyone should read at least one Culture novel.
I'll second the Patrick Rothfuss suggestion, mainly because he pledged to buy Firefly for Joss Whedon if those books hit it big. The story and structure sounds fantastic, as well. -
Ok kids, we're coming to the end of our first month, so it's time to select a new book. If anyone wants to add a title or two to the list, suggest away. On or about Sunday the 24th, I'll make the selection, so don't dawdle if you want to make a suggestion!
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I would recommend the basic writings of Bertrand Russell, but i don't know how many people here would get into that book. Also I already have 2 recommendations on the list.
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I'd be down for adding it, as I've only read select portions of his work, but let's see what everyone else thinks about potentially reading an ~800-page book of philosophy in a month. Eeeeeeveryone?
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Since the book is divided into 27 parts we could do 1 or 2 essays from each part. Most essays are under 10 pages, so reading 2 a day would be doable.
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Also a possibility. Let's see what popular opinion is. (I'd just end up reading the whole damn thing, myself.)
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The Name of the Wind was mentioned by Spankminister and Penny Arcade. Sounds like something I'd like to know more about.
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Indeed. I tacked it on to the list a while back. I'm just going to use an RNG to give me a book again, unless there's some serious disapproval of that method.
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Altered Carbon, which WUB suggested, is the first book in the series that I mentioned a week back in the What Are You Reading Thread. You should all read it so we can discuss what the word for Mary Sue is when the author is not ACTUALLY inserting himself into the story.
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Just call it Asari
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Random number generator says Great Shark Hunt. Barring a revolt, this will be our May book choice.
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gg random number generator!
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What, you're a celebrity now?
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Nah man, you gotta own it. FUCK YEAH I'm a celebrity, what are you?! That's fucking right, shut up!
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Sorry about the delay. I'll add Dave's suggestion to the list and have our June choice up in the morning.
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I added Psychopath Test to the list, then ran the RNG. Guess which book it picked? Looks like Dave has powers far beyond our comprehension.
June's book is The Psychopath Test: A Journey Through the Madness Industry by Jon Ronson. -
Yay i can contribute! If you guys want to read the book in the mousy british voice of the author (which I found enjoyable) listen to the first story from http://www.thisamericanlife.org/radio-archives/episode/385/Pro-Se. He as one of those voices that just sticks in your head. The story covers some of the same material as the book though so...Spoilers?
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Oh lord, a whole episode about pro se representation?
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You could have contributed to both the other books to. The idea is to read the books, not talk about books you already read. Just saying. Sucks I kept forgetting about the last one. I like some of Thompson's writing even if he gets on my nerves easily. I bought it but who knows when I'll get around to it.
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I'm so glad I'm losing my job. I will finally have time to read and study Arabic. No idea how I found time to read the entirety of the Thompson book last month. And I even quit taking amphetamines at the end of April, too, so I can't cite uppers.
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You stopped taking drugs before reading a Hunter Thompson book? Sacrilege!
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Yeah, I stopped the drugs, but I upped the drink to prodigious levels and then deprived myself of both food and sleep. I wanted to get as close to the full experience as I could without tripping over laws or continuing the amphetamine habit, as the latter was making me feel thin, dim, and distant.
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Squirrel said:
You could have contributed to both the other books to. The idea is to read the books, not talk about books you already read. Just saying. Sucks I kept forgetting about the last one. I like some of Thompson's writing even if he gets on my nerves easily. I bought it but who knows when I'll get around to it.
I couldn't read it, I tried several times but it just put me to sleep every time. I can see the appeal of it but I had no connection to the stories, even The Number of the Beast gave me hate and rage to keep me reading.
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Threads created!
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Do we really need separate threads for every three chapters of a book? That seems kind of excessive.
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I guess the original idea was to prevent spoilers on a weekly basis. It seemed like a fair unit of time to use to break down discussions. If folks prefer something else, I'll happily change things up. Suggest away!
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July's book club book is The Player of Games by Iain M. Banks. Content's in the works for June's book. All in due time.
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I see that it is part of a series - was it meant to be read in a specific order, or is it more anthological in nature?WindUpBird said:Putting forth ... Iain M. Banks The Player of Games
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About all you need to know is that it's about The Culture, which Banks suggests is what human society will evolve into after a couple thousand years of having omnipotent supercomputers run everything.
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Podcasts unlikely due to schedule conflicts in July and my impending departure for Europe. Will endeavor to write something about the last couple books. The book for August is Colin Turnbull's moving account of life with the Ik tribe: The Mountain People. Sorry for my scant offerings of content these days. Things have been hectic.
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As should be obvious by now, September's book is: Ryan, Johnny. A History of the Internet and the Digital Future. (TheJoel)
October's book will be: Rothfus, Patrick. The Name of the Wind. (Spankminister)
Going to need more suggestions soon, so feel free to post some! -
Shusaku Endo's "Scandal" or Umberto Eco's "Focault's Pendulum" would be my suggestions.
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I would be participating but I am still in the middle of the games of thrones. I did read The Psychopath Test and all I have to say about it is that you shouldn't pretend like your crazy during a psychological exam. I hear they will think you are crazy after that.
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The Breaking of a Terrorist was pretty good and a quick read to boot.
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I would kinda like to see how you guys would react to something like Gene Wolfe's 'An Evil Guest'. I loved that book, but I can defiantly see how people could hate it.
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Hey enjoyed the recent podcast, been meaning to read "The Name of the Wind" and I have it in my house already so hopefully I can follow along with you guys for October.
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Gotta find the book in some format or another. Maybe it will be cheap to get on my tablet...that or find someone to send me it in epub.
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I'm seeing several results for it on Dussmann's site. Like this:
http://kultur-kaufhaus.shop-asp.de/shop/action/productDetails?aUrl=90008115&artiId=6903755
And to assuage language fears:
Sprache: Englisch.
So if all else fails, they could ship it to you. -
That's a good link, but if I'm going to pay 8,50 euro I might as well pay $7 and save something like 3 dollars. If my friend can't "find" it for me then I'll just purchase off the Amazon ebook store.
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Yeah, if you don't mind e-book formats, that's a good way to go for price. I'm one of those book collecting fools.
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Books would be too heavy to bring back on the plane which is why I have switched to e-books.
