Comments | mybrilliantname: what i've been reading

mybrilliantname

what i've been reading

Sep 11, 2005 07:45

Lately, I've been reading a lot of Max Allan Collins. He does the novelizations (graphic and otherwise) of CSI, among other historical mysteries. I enjoy what he does with the stories and the characters more than the TV version.

I also listened to Candide on tape, which was good and bad. Good, because it's my favorite book and I got a little more ( Read more... )

Comments 2

cdeacon September 11 2005, 18:35:43 UTC

It made me happy to see your icon on my friends list today. I've never read Candide. Should I read it? Why is it your favorite book?

mybrilliantname September 13 2005, 00:53:28 UTC

Yay :) Glad I could do that for you. You might like it, it's very witty. The first time I read it, I was sort of agape at every turn in the plot, thinking, "oh my god! how could they have survived that?" Of course, their travails are satirically inflated, but not by all that much. It makes a lot more sense the more you know about European history during the Age of Exploration (yay colonialism!) and the Enlightenment. There's a lot of jabs towards the Church and all the philosophies and reasoning that people employ to explain why bad things happen to people. It was inspired by the devastating Lisbon Earthquake that happened several hundred years ago... not too unlike Katrina. Lots of urban devastation. Anyway, all these incredibly nasty things keep happening to the characters, and the naieve title character always tries to use the philosophy that his teacher, Dr. Pangloss, taught him: "All's well in this best of all possible worlds." The further along you read, the more that statement becomes ironic. As for the rest, I won't spoil the ( ... )