Ancient Jello

And I thought UG was populated by mainly semiliterates!

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UG's Blues Group
UG's LGBTQQ Group



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uhh_me?

oh dear, i don't even know how to approach either of those books.

when i said that reading War and Peace gave you the confidence to never be intimidated by another book, i was lying. those 2 scare the shit out of me.

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If we got married would that be cool?

GettintheLedout

Regarding The Dark Tower series by Stephen King:
I started reading it due to the high reviews from you guys. The first book was amazing, and when I was done I went out and bought the other six.
The second book was good, but nowhere near the awesomeness of the first.
The third was decent.
I couldn't finish the fourth. That was six months ago.

Does the series continue in this vein? Do the books keep getting more and more tedious? I know they get longer and longer, but do they ever return to the awesomeness of the first or at least the goodness of the second?


Basically, is it worth it to try to continue?

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Selling an Epiphone Les Paul plus top and a Takamine G-Series acoustic-electric. PM for info.

Well Don't Let That Daylight Steal Your Soul!

Get In Your Wheels And

Roll, Roll, Roll, Roll, Roll, Roll, Roll.

Night_Lights

its considered a classic book of philosophy, so yes. I'm only an eighth way through.

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Youtube covers

[URL=http://www.youtube.com/user/MrJumboHumbo[/URL]

20cdndollars

Just about to start that. I just finished book 8 of the Pendragon series by DJ MacHale. Yeah, they're for kids, but they're soo much fun. I like them better than Harry Potter. Despite their clichéd, predictableness.

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Everyone has been dying to have you...

But I've been the only one...

Killing for it.

almighty_dylan

It was a good read but it left me feeling underwhelmed. I think it was mainly because it was quite short.
I just finished reading 'Flow, My Tears, The Policeman Said' by Phillip K. Dick which is a great book, I think I enjoyed it just as much as 'Do Androids Dream Of Electric Sheep?'.

Can anyone recommend me any good books by Haruki Murakami? I've only read 'The Hard-Boiled Wonderland and the End of the World'.

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My finger's on the pulse
(but where's the beat?)

skagitup

currently reading a few things. the birth of tragedy by nietzsche, marxism and literary criticism by terry eagleton & hunting mr heartbreak by jonathan raban (fantastic little travel book retracing the steps of hector st. john crevecoeur and the millions of other emigrants to discover america, sailing from the docks of liverpool to new york and on to alabama, seattle etc. certainly recommend to anyone with a particular interest in americana and/or the works of bill bryson).

as for stuff i'd recommend... any teenage boy should enjoy the american beats. obvious starting point would be "on the road" by kerouac (the subterraneans and pic are also great), bit of ginsberg ("howl" would be the obvious suggestion this time), naked lunch by burroughs, fear & loathing by hunter s. thompson. bukowski is a beautiful writer. "post office" by him is a great place to to start. "come on in" is my favourite of his poetry collections, though all are predictably fantastic. ferlinghetti as well. i find that beat enthusiasts tend to enjoy william blake, so i'd recommend him (especially when read by allen ginsberg - do a youtube search!!). anyone with an interest in dylan should check out his "chronicles"... i'd rate it alongside the beat writing easily. his "tarantula" is alright... good for a laugh, but chronicles is really an exceptionally well-written autobiography. (that new lennon autobiography is truly awesome as well, my dad's reading it atm but i managed to get through the first 100 pages the other day and can't wait to finish it).

this year i've been mainly trying to get through the canon. shakespeare's history plays (rarely appear on secondary english syllabi), dostoevsky, tolstoy, d.h. lawrence, austen, eliot (though i hated middlemarch), forster (heartily recommend "a room with a view"), wilde etc. whoever mentioned fitzgerald's "the great gatsby" should check out his other stuff if they haven't already (particularly "tender is the night" and "the diamond as big as the ritz", both gorgeous).

i've had a real cummings fetish recently as well. any of his kind of "greatest hits" poetry collections are worth getting. most people immediately take to "maggie and milly and molly and may", "anyone lived in a pretty how town", etc. absolutely enjoyable.

erm. i think somebody mentioned richard dawkins? i'd recommend christopher hitchens as an alternative ("god is not great"). just as, if not more vitriolic and an extremely fascinating book. it's difficult to find a contemporary atheist without the acerbic tone, haha.

be back with more specific recommendations later.

uhh_me?

that one is amazing. i'd suggest reading The Wind Up Bird Chronicles and Kafka On The Shore. if you like those move onto A Wild Sheep Chase and Dance Dance Dance, but you have to read those two in order...well, you don't have to but DDD is sort of a sequel.

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If we got married would that be cool?

radio_schizo

I am reading:

Post Office by Charles Bukowski
Locked in the arms of a crazy life by Howard Sounes
West of Rome by John Fante
Mexico City Blues by Jack Kerouac

Next in line:

The Sicilian by Mario Puzo
Travels with Charley by John Steinback
We Are Not in This Together by Raymond Carver
Nexus by Henry Miller

R_H_C_P

I know what you mean there, they're similar books in the way that the "government" tells you what you do and don't believe etc

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"Breathe, breathe in the air
Don't be afraid to care"

Fender Strat/Tokai LS80>few pedals>Orange Rocker 30

lp345

I'm currently reading Wuthering Heights for English class. I'm enjoying it alot, to my surprise, I thought I would hate it. Its alot nastier than I thought it would be. The relationship between Heathcliff and Catherine is very turbulent.

Also, is Heathcliff the character that all the women love?

LastToKnow

I'm studying it for Eng Lit. too, and also absolutely loving it. I've never got why women seem to like Heathcliffe, I guess because he's so intense. People seem to think that Wuthering Heights and the Brontes' work in general will be similar to Austen, when in actual fact they're totally different. In general the Brontes are a lot more gritty, and Wuthering Heights I think sums up the difference. The three sister's style of writing is not exactly the same of course, but their subject matter is similar. For the major difference between them and Austen, compare the, without sounding to pretentious, I want to say brutality, or Wuthering Heights to Austen's most well known book, Pride and Prejudice. A good book, but there's no comparison IMO.

That was a random rant.

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Musically ignorant. Seeking education.

Am female. Finally have bass!

As cunning as a fox who has just been made professor of cunning at Oxford university.

Muse = genius.

freddaahh

I loved 1984, but it has been horrifically overrated in recent years - although I still say it's a must-read. I can see Homage... being better, I'm really interested in the Spanish Civil War. Need to finish my Bill Hicks book first - can't stand reading multiple books.

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slayer1516

I began reading the first book. Its ok. I'm at the part where the main charecter meets the kid from earth. Does it get better?




I agree about 1984, it is a fantastic book, but every kid who reads it just goes "OMG, te govt contruls yur mmindzz!". It has much deeper themes than goverment

thefrigginbob

I really need to start reading more, I really enjoy it when I find a book that I like.

The last 2 that I really enjoyed were Running with Scissors and Dry, both written by Augusten Burrows.

Next up I am going to read The Tipping Point by Malcolm Gladwell, recommended by a friend. I haven't started it yet though.

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GettintheLedout

The first one, yeah. But if you didn't think it was amazing until now, you probably won't.

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Selling an Epiphone Les Paul plus top and a Takamine G-Series acoustic-electric. PM for info.

Well Don't Let That Daylight Steal Your Soul!

Get In Your Wheels And

Roll, Roll, Roll, Roll, Roll, Roll, Roll.

andy16al

this month i have been reading all 5 books of Hitchhiker's guide to galaxy and i really enjoyed them

COBGage

Any Dean Koontz fans? I've read Velocity , Strange Highways and False Memory, and I'm currently reading Odd Thomas.

I'm also going to get my hands on a copy of Interview With The Vampire, I bought The Vampire Armand, however I never knew at first that it was part of a series.

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My Last.FM

"The more you think, the better you're going to play. That should be a quote somewhere."
- Marty Friedman

lp345

This is the first Bronte work I've read, and I haven't read any of Austin's novels, so I can't really look at in that context. Taking the book on its own merit's though, it is really good. Most of my other classmates are struggling with it, I'm on like page 100, everyone was amazed when I said it

I'm on the part just after Heathcliff has married Isabella. I like the supernatural and eerie atmosphere. The moor lands really fascinate me somewhat. And the human relationships is very real, unlike that Twilight bull****.