Books

[physicsfactor]

Man, this is making me want to re-read all of his novels. Agree with Rome on Suttree. Child of God is the one I liked the least. That one was just strange.

 

[rome8180]

Man, this is making me want to re-read all of his novels. Agree with Rome on Suttree. Child of God is the one I liked the least. That one was just strange.

It was pointless. A character starts out insane and murderous and ends that way and that's the whole story.

Have you read Outer Dark?

 

[physicsfactor]

No, I haven't. I thought I had read them all, but when I saw your post, I looked up a plot summary and didn't recognize anything. Then I went to the bookshelf, and sure enough, I don't have that one. I am now very excited. It's like he wrote that one just for me to have a new one.

 

[rome8180]

It's short too.You can probably read it in a couple sittings.

 

[rome8180]

Any graphic novel fans here? Getting more into them. Never really bothered because they feel a little too expensive for how quick you can read them. But my girlfriend has a nice collection.

Right now I'm reading Y: The Last Man. This shit needs to be a TV show.

 

[physicsfactor]

Finally finished David Copperfield by Dickens. Man, that was good. He created such memorable characters.

 

[aiw]

My favorite part of that book was when Dickens had David Copperfield make the Statue of Liberty disappear and then he sexually assaulted someone.

 

[rhfarmer]

My favorite part of that book was when Dickens had David Copperfield make the Statue of Liberty disappear and then he sexually assaulted someone.

That's really well done in the movie, too.

 

[deepdarkblue]

My favorite part of that book was when Dickens had David Copperfield make the Statue of Liberty disappear and then he sexually assaulted someone.

That's really well done in the movie, too.

You think so? It just seemed forced to me.

 

[torontoduke]

I need that shaking head emoji that TDD had

 

[Slap the Floor]

@Rome I just bought your book it should be arriving in a few days

 

[Slap the Floor]

Just finished reading this book:

 

[rhfarmer]

@rome8180 since I got some readers, I started back on Doors. So much more enjoyable when I can see the words.

 

[physicsfactor]

I just started listening to A Short History of Nearly Everything. Man, it is fucking awesome if you're into science and the history of science. So many wonderful anecdotes and tidbits about the great scientists throughout time. It does a great job of showing how science evolved and how different fields emerged as new discoveries inspired new questions.

I'm about 75% through this one and have really enjoyed it. Thanks for the recommendation.

 

[Rollins]

“we were 8 years in power”

i admittingy fall into the category of white person who worships ta-nehisi coates. this collection is amazing to re-read even if you followed the writing as it was published over the last administration.

the question i have is is there a legitimate retort to anything he proposes? i’m mesmerized by his writing and it has pretty fundamentally changed how i view america and the world at large.

But.. he’s really toxic for the conservative crowd. people i know with conservative leanings will not touch his writing or just dismiss it entirely. does anyone else have a similar experience when recommending his writing?

the most recent atlantic article “i’m not black i’m kanye” is pretty amazing as well.

two excerpts that stuck out.

"West, in an accessible age, when every fuck is a tweet and every defecation a status update. And perhaps, in that way, West has done something more remarkable, more amazing than Jackson, because he is a man of no mystery, overexposed, who holds the world’s attention through simply the consistent, amazing, near-peerless quality of his work"

“When Jackson sang and danced, when West samples or rhymes, they are tapping into a power formed under all the killing, all the beatings, all the rape and plunder that made America. The gift can never wholly belong to a singular artist, free of expectation and scrutiny, because the gift is no more solely theirs than the suffering that produced it.”

https://www.theatlantic.com/entertainment/archive/2018/05/im-not-black-im-kanye/559763/

 

[deeyoukayeee]

Just finished 'The Emperor of all Maladies: A Biography of Cancer'. Incredibly interesting book. I had no idea that virtually all therapeutic innovation and understanding of the disease has basically taken place in my lifetime. With the exception of a few horrific surgical procedures for a few specific types of cancer, your option prior to the 60s was basically a fairly quick death. Makes me wish I'd had the persistence to stick it out through orgo back at Gross chem.

Would love to be able to discuss the subject with family and friends who have gone though it, but I imagine my fascination is not shared in the same way. Will have to have a neighbor who is an oncologist over for drinks.

 

[physicsfactor]

I work in a cancer clinic, and it's funny to hear from the old guys about how they used to treat things. It makes me wonder what I'll think about our current techniques when I'm in my 60s.

 

[deeyoukayeee]

My aunt is a 2-time survivor from the mid-80s and late-90s. I expect things changed massively even between those bouts. Having lunch tomorrow with a buddy who does financings for health companies - primarily gene therapy operations - and I can't wait to pick his brain, as it is likely things have evolved even since this book was written in 2010. I've always had a kind of morbid interest in cancer, I wrote my first ever term paper in HS on it in '84. Back then, Interferon was going to cure everything.

Since my cardiovascular health is preternaturally good due to genetics/exercise, I figure cancer will be what gets me in the end. If I wasn't before, this read will make me extra responsible about getting fingered/scoped and hitting the dermatologist regularly.

 

[deeyoukayeee]

So just finished Gone with the Wind. Not sure what to make of it. Undeniably a well written, engrossing story. Tremendously racist and filled with piles of 'Lost Cause' Southern bullshit. Watched the movie a half dozen times growing up, so I knew the story, but I was shocked that a book this 'Confederate' was so popular in 1936. And that the movie was - relatively - cleansed of the excesses, even though Mitchell wrote it with the vision of a movie in her head. Apparently she modeled the character of Rhett Butler after Clark Gable as she was writing. Can't tell if she was writing for realism, in that Southerners during reconstruction actually felt (unjustifiably, by most historical records) like they did in the book, or for her own beliefs.

 

[physicsfactor]

I finally read Brave New World. Seems like something I would have read long ago but I never got around to it. It was scary good and perhaps not too far off.