Author, Author !!!

[Cygnus Q'ol]

There's have been a few pieces of good literature written in the last 100 years Bob. What interests you?

Maybe I can find something good for ya.

 

Jae, Brave New World? I'm ignorant, is that Crichton?

I certainly trust your opinion on this. To Barnes and Noble I go.

 

Anything else I should pick up while I'm there?

...any definate must haves? (besides raiding the Godiva shelves)

[Cygnus Q'ol]

@Sabertooth Thanks for the tip, I think I'm gonna have to digest myself. I heard about tours of DaVinci's work and large groups of tourists searching his work for clues.

 

@Vaelastraz Stackpole is seriously well detailed. Some of his flight scenes are so complete, I feel like I'm there. One of my favs.

Can't go wrong with Tolkien, intense but, worth every word.

 

(Sorry for the double post, I can't keep up. My typing skills are lacking)

[Jae Onasi]

There's have been a few pieces of good literature written in the last 100 years Bob. What interests you?

Maybe I can find something good for ya.

 

Jae, Brave New World? I'm ignorant, is that Crichton?

I certainly trust your opinion on this. To Barnes and Noble I go.

 

Anything else I should pick up while I'm there?

...any definate must haves? (besides raiding the Godiva shelves)

 

Yep, there's some good stuff out there that are more recent. I've not read anything by Hemingway (yet) but have heard great things. I'm trying to think of who else has made acerbic observations of modern society but nothing's coming up for me at the moment except Dave Barry, and he's humor rather than something serious. Barry's certainly insightful, but probably not the way Bob's looking for.

 

Brave New World was written by Aldous Huxley. I'm betting B&N will have it, but I know the libraries will have it, too if the bookstore doesn't (or if you need to save pennies).

[Darth333]

I have quite a few books in English but I rarely get passed page 50 (my record must have been about 100 pages of LOTR) before switching to the French or Spanish version (I read way to slowly in English).

 

Right now I'm trying to find time to finish some novels in Spanish from Mario Vargas Llosa and Javier Perez Reverte but most of the time I read books in French. I read books from various authors from classic (Balzac, Dumas, Flaubet, Hugo, etc...) to modern writers. When I have time, I like to stop at the library and look at the novelties. When I do this I usually end up buying about 5-6 books at a time, hoping I'll find enough time to read them

 

I read Harry Potter too... but in French

[Jae Onasi]

Hugo I like. Flaubert is so...relentlessly cheerless. He so needed an anti-depressant.

I love Moliere's plays.

 

Totally not serious, but I like Asterix. The plays on words don't translate as well into English, though naming Idefix 'Dogmatix' in English was perfect.

[Darth333]

Hehe I have the entire Asterix collection I got the first one when I was four and I still read them sometimes. I always wondered how Asterix was in other languages...they are just so "French" and full of plays of words. I should pick up an English copy sometime, just to see. I read one in Spanish once but I was very young and I don't quite remember.

 

I even bought the last ones made by Uderzo but the books are far from what they were when Goscinny was alive...

[Pavlos]

Lord of the Flies--it's a very well written book, but it was a little too depressing for me.

 

Now, now... don't be silly. There is nothing depressing about an eleven year old boy "wept for the end of innocence, the darkness of man's heart, and the fall through the air of the true, wise friend called Piggy." . Lord of the Flies is depressing, but that is the whole point of it. William Golding went off to serve in the Royal Navy during WW2 with the idea that deep down everyone is a "Jolly good chap" and will listen to reason... obviously he was wrong and war stripped him of this attitude - showing him that beneath the layer of society - man is little more than an animal. And that is what the novel is about - the fact that it is about a bunch of middle class grammar school boys makes it all the worse. It caused quite a stir when it was released. Or if you believe the 1980s film version (Jmac, I'm looking at you ) it is an action and adventure film about a group of military school children.

 

I have quite a few books in English but I rarely get passed page 50 (my record must have been about 100 pages of LOTR) before switching to the French or Spanish version (I read way to slowly in English).

 

I agree with you there! Reading books in French hurts my mind... I did manage to read Harry Potter and the Philosopher's Stone. But I also disagree... reading the translation often spoils the original effect of the writing. I know this from translating Vergil from the original Latin. When you bring the Latin into English it sounds and reads terribly... but in its original form it is amazing. Latin is an exceptionally poetic language, mostly because it is inflected rather than reliant upon positioning of words for meaning. What this means is that a Roman poet could arrange a sentence in a certain way to build suspense, or to add a deeper meaning to his work. I remember one passage where Aeneas wittnesses the death of Priam's sons (And of Priam. This is in book II) and it takes Vergil about ten lines to tell us who is running away from the Greek assassins. Such suspense building can't be done in a modern Romantic, or Germanic language!

 

I am glad that I have never read Shakespeare in another language... it probably isn't anywhere near as good as the original. But we have to translate things for other people to experience them. I can't imagine myself learning Ancient Greek to read the original Illiad.

 

P.S. On the subject of languages... I do remember forgetting to say "Je ne sais pas" and instead replacing it with "Je ne pense pas" which led to giggles from the person I was talking to...

 

Edit: Asterix was great! I have loads of the comics locked up somewhere in my house - all in English I am afraid... I can say that the film versions were just dubbed over with English voices. Anyone mind PMing me a list of names for the characters? I would love to see the plays on words!

[Darth333]

But I also disagree... reading the translation often spoils the original effect of the writing. I know this from translating Vergil from the original Latin. When you bring the Latin into English it sounds and reads terribly... but in its original form it is amazing.

 

I agree with you that a translation always takes something away from the original text but when reading the originial version becomes more painful than fun, then a translation is better than nothing. I do enough of serious reading at the office in four languages (including English) and when I read books durign my free time, I do it for fun, not to get headaches

 

Edit: Asterix was great! I have loads of the comics locked up somewhere in my house - all in English I am afraid... I can say that the film versions were just dubbed over with English voices. Anyone mind PMing me a list of names for the characters? I would love to see the plays on words!

Well I just googled "Astérix" and "personnages" and came across this:

http://pierre.renault.waika9.com/asterixpersonnages/asterix_personnages.htm

 

However, the plays of words are everywhere in the comics, not just the names (check the "dialogues" section in the link above for some examples).

 

Edit: even better- I found a complete list of names here: http://www.mage.fst.uha.fr/asterix/perso/persoidx.html

[Pavlos]

Ooo thanks! But we have some pretty good plays on words in the English version - but... you can't understand them all unless you have some classics under your belt. My favourite in English (In French he seems to be Assurancetourix) is Cacofonix. Hehe, obviously you can see his name in English: Cacophony. But if you know some Greek (Only a little - I'm terrible at it!) it literally means Bad Voice... which is nice .

[stingerhs]

i love a good book, even if i haven't had much time to read them recently. as far as the stuff i like, well, i think most people know what my favorites are.

 

for those of you that don't, i mostly group my books by author, so here's my favorite authors:

• Tom Clancy
  Frank Herbert
  Micheal Crichton
  Steven King (just started getting into his stuff, and i must say that although it can be a bit creepy, its really good)
  Alistair MacLeon
  JRR Tolkien
  CS Lewis
  Arthur C. Clarke

 

i have a couple of other favorites, but i can't seem to remember them right now.

[Jeremia Skywalk]

I read some random books, i dont even remember, like about traveling, hiking, biking and stuff. I have read all the usual geek literature (harry potters and lord of t3h rings) also from more grown-up literature i kinda like Kurt Vonnegut's books, sometimes they are weird and you mostly dont understand what exactly do you like in them. Real good. I liked Takashi Satsuoke(sp?) Cloud of Sparrows as well. bout samurais and stuff.

[Jae Onasi]

Now, now... don't be silly. There is nothing depressing about an eleven year old boy "wept for the end of innocence, the darkness of man's heart, and the fall through the air of the true, wise friend called Piggy." .

 

Oh lordy, where'd I put that Prozac and crate of Kleenex?

 

I remember one passage where Aeneas wittnesses the death of Priam's sons (And of Priam. This is in book II) and it takes Vergil about ten lines to tell us who is running away from the Greek assassins. Such suspense building can't be done in a modern Romantic, or Germanic language!

 

Oh, it can be done in German if they put all the verbs at the end.

 

P.S. On the subject of languages... I do remember forgetting to say "Je ne sais pas" and instead replacing it with "Je ne pense pas" which led to giggles from the person I was talking to...

 

 

Yeah, I got a funny look from an Hispanic guy when I first started studying some Spanish for my trip to Cancun and apparently said something wacky. I feel like it's important to know all the important phrases in a foreign language, so I picked up Spanish for Complete Idiots and Learn Spanish in Your Car so that I could at least try and not be the stereotypical stupid American who refuses to speak the native language. I learned important words like "no," "yes," "please," and "thank you." Then I moved onto such necessary phrases like "I don't speak Spanish," "Where's the bathroom?", "Is the water purified?" "Where's the beach?" "Two margaritas, please", "Where's the Wal-Mart?" "What does gringo mean?" "What's roundhouse kick in Spanish? I only know it in Korean," and "I need a lawyer." My favorite on the Learn Spanish in Your Car was "Mi gato vive de bajo de mi casa." JimboFett, who speaks Spanish pretty fluently, doubled over laughing immediately. I had to wait for the translation. How the guy said 'my cat lives under my house' with a straight face I'll never know. I'm sure it took him 20 takes to do it right.

Anyway, I think I said to the guy "No soy espanol" instead of "No hablo espanol". He had the good grace not to laugh. In my face, anyway.

 

And just to bring this back on topic, I like Keats and Browning for poetry.

And yes, you can learn a decent amount of Spanish using a combo of a tape/CD in the car and the Complete Idiot's guide. The combo of seeing it in written form and hearing it on the CD, even when the topics don't match up, makes the learning even faster, so if you're going the DITY route to learn a language, that's one of the best ways to go.

[MTV2]

Authors -

J.R.R Tolkien

Stephen King

J.R Rowling

Books -

The Silmarillion

Misery

Geralds Game

Harry Potter series

The Dark Tower series

[CountVerilucus]

i read encyclopedias and i enjoy it too

[RaV™]

J.R.R Tolkien

Stephen King

J.K Rowling

S.E Hinton (Only read The Outsiders and it OWNED)

 

Verilucus you must have waaaay too much time on your hands..

[GrayJedi]

I am an avid reader and I would highly recommend:

 

- LOTR trilogy (we all know this!)

- The Hobbit (prequel to the above)

- The Silmarillion (won't make sense without knowledge of Hobbit and LOTR)

 

- Halo Series (Fall of Reach, The Flood, First Strike);Deitz and Nylund

- Poirot series by Agatha Christie (Detective Stories)

- Jane Austen titles, mainly Pride and Prejudice (enlightening)

 

- Endar's Game (cool sci-fi)

- 1984 (enlightening)

- Animal Farm (enlightening)

 

- Redwall series by Brian Jacques (good for readers of all ages)

- Chronicles of Narnia series (good for young readers)

 

- The Once and Future King (simplified version of Morte D'Arthur)

- Outlaws of the Marsh (inspiration for Jade Empire)

- Romance of the 3 Kingdoms (superb!)

[Darth InSidious]

@Cygnus: How many other writers do you know of called Douglas Adams?

 

Asterix is fantastic, though I haven't read it in French, it's still hilarious in English.

 

@Pavlos: While the Aeneid is a great epic tale, I must disagree about the suspense...While it's a lot less circumlocutory than Homer's offerings, its still pretty long-winded in parts. The Aeneid's great strength for me is that the characters are much more 3-dimensional, and a lot less pompous than those in the Odyssey.

[Jae Onasi]

@JM12--I'd forgotten about some of the stuff I read as a kid--Hardy Boys, Trixie Belden, Encyclopedia Brown, Alexander Key (Escape to Witch Mountain).

 

Comics/Graphic novels/whatever they get called now, besides Asterix--Elfquest

[Cygnus Q'ol]

Ahhh, Alexander Key, that's who wrote those.

I had totally forgotten about them. Those were great. My Grandma would make us read them, then she took us to the movies to see them when they came out.

 

I've just flown back home from a trip this weekend and since I've read Airframe (Crighton) and a couple of other controversial pieces on air travel, I really needed to have a literary distraction on the plane so I wouldn't freak out the people around me as I sat there white knuckled and sweating.

 

I took a great book of 'shorts' by Azimov called "Nightfall and other stories". There's some really good ones in there. Including the short of "Nightfall" that was the catalyst for him turning that great story into a novel. Shorts are great for situations like those.

 

I also brought "Mars" by Ben Bova. I jumped into that and for a while, I forgot I was even flying.

 

@Darth In Sidious - None. But, I didn't know if he wrote anything else. That's the only thing I've read by him.

 

Has anyone read Hemmingway? Do you like his work?

I thoroughly enjoyed "The sun also rises".

...Makes me want to run with the bulls.

[JediMaster12]

@Jae I read a few of the Hardy Boys and Nancy Drew

Some more books from the boring school teacher:

Codex Telleriano-Remensis

Aztec and Mayan Myths

Falling Leaves

Chinese Cinderella

The Bonesetter's Daughter

The Joyluck Club

The Kitchen God's Wife

The Hundred Secret Senses

The Constitution-not really a book

The Declaration of Independence-again, not a real book

Jurrassic Park

The Lost World

Holy Blood, Holy Grail

The Dead Sea Scrolls

Frankenstein (again)

American Girls: Kaya, Josefina, Addy, Samantha, Kit (all were anthologies)

The Encyclopedia to Witchcraft

 

As you can see, I am very liberal in terms of reading. Too liberal if you ask me

[Darth InSidious]

@cygnus: Not much. He also wrote a couple of Doctor Who stories, and two detective novels, Dirk Gently's Holistic Detective Agency, and The Long, Dark, Teatime of the Soul. He was working on a third when he died, but it's largely incomplete

[Mace MacLeod]

Books...oh man.

 

Had to leave my library in Canada when I moved to Ireland...*sniff*

 

Just finished reading the Hitchhiker's compilation for probably the tenth time.

I usually prefer sci-fi for light reading, but lately I've been going through the series written by Marc "Chopper" Read. The first three, Chopper; Chopper2--How to shoot friends and influence people; and Chopper3--Hell hath no fury like a mate shot in the arse, are all hysterical, gruesome, and full of sociopathic glee. If you've seen the movie Chopper, it's only a tiny tip of the iceberg. This guy is NUTS.

 

A few of my fave authors--

Iain (M.) Banks

William Gibson (can't believe no one's mentioned him)

Arthur C. Clarke

[Pavlos]

@Cygnus: How many other writers do you know of called Douglas Adams?

 

Asterix is fantastic, though I haven't read it in French, it's still hilarious in English.

 

@Pavlos: While the Aeneid is a great epic tale, I must disagree about the suspense...While it's a lot less circumlocutory than Homer's offerings, its still pretty long-winded in parts. The Aeneid's great strength for me is that the characters are much more 3-dimensional, and a lot less pompous than those in the Odyssey.

 

I will agree to that. Aeneas is not a homeric character through and through. He often has to think of ways out of situations but even as a leader he has those moments where he goes off on one. The prime example being where he runs through person xyz (I can't remember the name) at the end of the final book.

[Cygnus Q'ol]

@ jm12 Is there such a thing as a boring school teacher? OK maybe that teacher in "Ferris Bueller's day off".

 

I was really lucky I guess. Mostly all of my teachers were pretty interesting. I loved my high school teachers immensely. Especially my french teacher.

She was so hot, I'm surprised I learned a thing.

...something about that accent.

 

What level of instruction do you command? What is your biggest challenge as far as getting that lightbulb to illuminate over your students' heads? I'm not sure I have the patience to teach.

Don't tell me it's poetry. Although, I would believe it.

 

The Lost World, YESSS! Isla Sorna was too cool. Unlike Isla Nebular, the dinos there had time to revert back to a natural balance. Truly it was a jurrassic park.

 

Is the "Dead Sea Scrolls" a fictional story or is it a historical account of what they've found? Very intriguing.

 

@Mace Sorry to hear of your loss. I would die if I had to leave my library.

Tell me, what do you do since you can't access your library?

...I hope.

What are your favorite Clarke stories?

[Darth InSidious]

I will agree to that. Aeneas is not a homeric character through and through. He often has to think of ways out of situations but even as a leader he has those moments where he goes off on one. The prime example being where he runs through person xyz (I can't remember the name) at the end of the final book.

Turnus

 

Also, the entire of Book X is pretty much just Aeneas killing random people who get in his way. The only really amusing bit there is the bitchy argument between Juno and Venus