Great book. I have both this one and Ranting Again. Damn, BunnyGirl, I suppose now I have to plot to steal you away from BunnyBoy and thinksnow.
I’ve also got his other two previous to this one. Dennis Miller is a [sub]demi-[/sub]god.
Ooooooooooooh, there are so many good books in this thread! Lots of good memories!
Books I’ve read in the past month:
The Brothers Karamazov, which I finally decided to read after staring guiltily at it on my bookcase for over a year. That started my Dostoyevski kick, so I followed up with Crime and Punishment, a book that wigged me out so much I turned to Blonde by Joyce Carol Oates. Also, there was a Blaise Cendrars book of short stories in there, unfortunately I can’t remember the title. He’s a great writer, though.
Currently, I’m reading:
–The Lord of the Rings (which I couldn’t find in English, unfortunately, which means I’m actually reading Le seigneur des anneaux.
–The Collected Short Stories of Roald Dahl which is fun but definitely should be read in tandem with something less misanthropic.
–Songlines by Bruce Chatwin. My favorite Chatwin book, even though in the biography of Chatwin by Nicholas Shakespeare it’s pretty clear he made a lot of stuff up. Chatwin’s travel books are so wonderful, although people who don’t want to be disillusioned about Mr. Chatwin should not read his biography.
Oh, I’m rambling. So sorry. Books are my favorite topic.
The Lord of the Rings. Where, can you all tell me, have I gone wrong?
I like science fiction. I even like fantasy, occasionally. I like adventure. I pretty much like any well-written fiction I can get my hands on. Why does this series let me down? I think it’s BORING!
When I was in high school I read The Hobbit and was unmoved. My husband thinks the books so imaginative he knows I’d love them – and he’s been bugging me to read them for years. Finally last winter I read Fellowship of the Ring. When I closed the final page, he thrust the next one in my hands. “Aren’t you dying to find out what happens?”
Not especially. Long boring conferences, with elves. Pages and pages of odes to battles and legendary figures that are explained nowhere. Treks across country that is supposed to be understandable: we are provided maps.
I don’t know. These books have been so popular for so long, could it just be me? Surely not!
maryliza, I read Crime & Punishment for the first time last year. What a truly incredible book - a look into the criminal mind. Amazing.
I’d love to be part of a Doper Book Club on that one.
I’m plodding through:
The Poems of James Joyce
“Dubliners” by Joyce
Me and a buddy went on a drunken pilgrimage to see Joyce’s grave one rainy evening in Zürich, Switzerland. I felt bad upon kissing his statue that I’d only read “Portrait” and about three pages of “Finnegan’s Wake”, so I’m getting through his other works. Next up is “Ulysses”, but only after I finish Homer’s “Odyssey”.
“The Roman Forum”
I saw the friggin’ thing two months ago, and I figured I should learn now what all those crumbly ruins used to be.
“Anti-Semitism: A History Portrayed”
I’ve also started Virgil’s “Aeneid”.
Earlier this summer I read “College Tramps”, an ADORABLE book I got from the MSU library about eight Yale juniors who take a walking trip up the Rhine circa 1879. I also read “On the Road” on trains going through Europe. Last summer I read something like twelve books, and I’m deeply disappointed in myself this time around. 
Me too. What an unbelievable book. It shook me up pretty badly: I started feeling like I was the narrator and was going to flip and randomly kill someone. And the scene with the horse had me almost crying. Great book.
I’m going to have to go back and read that one again. We did it in high school and I remember it as being one of the most mind-numbingly boring books I’ve ever read. You get 400 pages of “Should I do it?” Two pages of action. And then 400 pages of guilt.
Of course that was 18 years ago, and I suppose I might not have been in the correct frame of mind.
:: pcubed goes off to add C&P to his Amazon wish list…
Well if you’re a freak you at least have company. I found the LOTR trilogy to be agonizingly dull. NO ONE WILL BE ADMITTED DURING THE PULSE-POUNDING “THREE GUYS RUNNING FOR 100 PAGES” SCENE! I finished it, I can appreciate the amount of care and detail that went into the book and wish that other fantasy authors would also put the same amount of thought into their works, but lord it was dull.
Since my last response I started reading ‘Buddhism for Beginners’ as a prelude to ‘An Introduction to Zen Buddhism’ as a prelude to ‘Buddhism Without Beliefs’ by Stephen Batchelor. I read this last book a while back but felt I would get more out of it by having a good idea of standard Buddhism before reading about his slightly adapted version.
Currently?
Tom Clancys’ The Bear and the Dragon, Clive Cusslers’ Valhalla rising, and my Algebra textbook.
Does my MG maintenance manual count?
After rummaging, I have settled on Robert A. Heinlein’s 1964 classic Farnham’s Freehold as the next “ancient tome”… Though it isn’t quite as obscure (due in large part to the author’s fame) as other books I’ve recently read, I think the age factor alone will qualify it… I vaguely remember enjoying it the first time a couple decades ago - let’s hope I enjoy it as much this time around…
Well then the obvious recommendation is Jude the Obscure. Your quest ends with Hardy.
Seabiscuit is a hell of a book. For another good horse racing book, I liked Jane Smiley’s Horse Heaven.
Currently reading: Gao Xingjiang’s Soul Mountain - I try to make a point of reading at least one book from every Nobel Prize winner in Literature.
<aside>Does anyone know why they have to spell Xingjiang with an Xi??? The Chinese don’t spell it that way, they use pictograms. This is the English spelling, why not spell it like it sounds?? Seems stupid.</aside>
Also reading Rise to Rebellion by Jeff Shaara, and am always trying to keep up with Harry Turtledove - he is Stephen King like in his prolificity.