Comments | deusxxmachina: Book Meme...stolen from Deena!

deusxxmachina

Book Meme...stolen from Deena!

Oct 05, 2007 15:37

Because I'm having bad luck with my strike-through and underline functions (for some reason they won't show up), I'm just going to list my thoughts, book by book. Interestingly enough, I've read a ton of these books - having an english teacher for a Mother does that to you, I guess - but I'd only count a slim few as books that had a great impact ( Read more... )

Comments 11

hollowkatt October 5 2007, 22:58:26 UTC

Is it sad that not only have I only read 20 of those, but that I have no desire whatsoever to read any of the ones I haven't?

Also, where the fuck have you been? It's really hard to chat with someone when the up and fucking disappear :)

Also, hugs or something :)

mothwentbad October 6 2007, 17:36:49 UTC

Hmmmm. Joseph Heller, other than Catch-22, wrote another book called Something Happened, which is an unrelentingly frank monologue about the crushingly trivial nature of the narrator's corporate post-war life with wife and 2.5 kids. It's a psychological 500-some pages of uninterrupted crystal-clear fatalism. It's very un-Catch-22, though, I can't make any prediction whether you'll like it at all. But I read it a few years ago, and it was trippy in its forthrightness.

I need to start reading again sometime. It's still something that I can't do compulsively. It's an act of will every time, even if the book turns out to be one of my favorites. I'm that way about a lot of stuff. Hmmm.

mothwentbad October 7 2007, 05:55:43 UTC

I still haven't read The Fountainhead, if you can believe it.

mothwentbad October 7 2007, 05:58:44 UTC

Part of that has to do with my vague idea of what objectivists are like. I saw one give a speech once, and he was like some kind of creepy overbearing atheist Baptist preacher.

mothwentbad October 7 2007, 06:00:22 UTC

My general impression is that Rand is someone that smart people like way too much when they're 13, and then they get to feel embarrassed about it for the rest of their lives. Either that, or they turn into maladapted jerks. I guess I'll have to see sometime.

deusxxmachina October 8 2007, 14:32:17 UTC

I don't think I'm a maladapted jerk. Nor do I feel embarrassed about having read Ayn Rand. I think there are a few people in our society (E, for one) who stand up for their personal beliefs in such a bold, unflagging fashion as to recall Howard Roark.
And while it may not always be practical, I think it's a beautiful ideal.

Thread 7

wicked_sassy October 8 2007, 14:49:17 UTC

i really loved both of the gabriel garcia marquez books on this list--hundred years of solitude has won a bunch of awards, though i actually prefer love in the time of cholera.

do you like banana yoshimoto?

great to see you last night, darlin. xoxoxo.

deusxxmachina October 8 2007, 15:12:31 UTC

I LOVE yoshimoto! I actually spent a small fortune to buy one of her books in huurigana (Kanji with hiragana subtitles) while I was in Japan to practise my kanji recognition and my reading skills.

I was great to see you and really fun to meet C. E said so, as well. We'll have to get together again soon!

Thanks again for the kukicha! That was super sweet of you ;-)