Book talk.

by **Krueger** on Sat Feb 09, 2008 11:32 pm

william18 wrote:Krueger, if you like Star Wars then join us in the

Star Wars Trivia Thread

http://www.conquerclub.com/forum/viewtopic.php?t=39197

Thanks,

I think that I will drop in soon.

by **Fruitcake** on Sun Feb 10, 2008 2:30 pm

got tonkaed wrote

Fruitcake wrote:
suggs wrote

Quote:
I guess that was a B-side for him.

Indeed, the A side was:

The only true wisdom is in knowing you know nothing

it is the type of statement that the average person would not think to or be capable of comprehending. Which is why i suppose in the grand scheme of things he wasnt all that average.

True, but then having Greek Philosophy beaten into me as a young chap seemed one of the craziest things I had to learn all those years ago...it is only as one heads towards the autumnal/winter years of life that one begins to really see these guys truly did know their stuff. Just wish I had taken more notice of my Master back then. As he would shout (while hurling a blackboard rubber with uncanny accuracy at my head)...

Education is the best provision for old age boy!!!!

by **btownmeggy** on Thu Feb 14, 2008 4:13 pm

As I've mentioned, and as you SHOULD know yourself, PBS is dedicating all of Masterpiece Classic this season to Jane Austen. Earlier this week I read Pride and Prejudice so I could better understand the nuances of the dramatization. The last time I read Pride and Prejudice was, I think, my senior year of high school, and I wasn't very impressed. I liked it WAY BETTER this time around. In fact, I thought it was wonderful. At some points I actually teared up not because of its tragedies, but because it was just so good! I'm disappointed with all the literary criticism that I've read regarding it over the past couple of days since I finished the book. They just don't get it. No one has put their finger on that elusive something that makes this book incredible.

Anyway, on the suggestion of this thread, I started reading The Satanic Verses today. Uh-uh. Can't do it. I can imagine eventually reading it and really liking it, but not after I just finished Pride and Prejudice!! I need emotional middle-class women in conflict over the confines of their socioeconomic system!

Help me. What should I read? Sense and Sensibility (haven't read that one since junior high)? Jane Eyre (never read it)?

Please give me suggestions. And remember--it has to be GOOD, real good.

by **suggs** on Thu Feb 14, 2008 4:21 pm

Yeah Pride and Prejudice is brilliant. Much funnier than i thought it would be-Elizabeth is a great character.
How about Wuthering Heights?

by **btownmeggy** on Thu Feb 14, 2008 4:29 pm

suggs wrote:How about Wuthering Heights?

Ooh, there's an idea. I've never read it.

Very good, is it?

by **Curmudgeonx** on Thu Feb 14, 2008 4:40 pm

Try some Virginia Woolf, especially "To the Lighthouse". Different spin on some Austen-esque themes 100 years later.

by **suggs** on Thu Feb 14, 2008 6:07 pm

btownmeggy wrote:
suggs wrote:How about Wuthering Heights?

Ooh, there's an idea. I've never read it.

Very good, is it?

To be honest, I've only read the first 100 page. It wasbloody good, but i put it down and forgot about it.
A friend of mine who did English Literature at Uni reckoned it was one of the greats. A bit scary though :lol:

by **mandyb** on Thu Feb 14, 2008 6:45 pm

btownmeggy wrote:
suggs wrote:How about Wuthering Heights?

Ooh, there's an idea. I've never read it.

'Very good, is it?

wonderful book - full of passion, betrayal and vengeance.
Emily is definitely the most talented of the Brontë sisters, but Jane Eyre is still an enjoyable read as is Agnes Grey - neither compare to Wuthering Heights, however - which was so ahead of it's time..

To kill a Mockingbird' is another great book - a man's struggle for justice in a town steeped in hypocrisy and prejudice - you may have read it or possibly seen the film.

recently read and enjoyed 'Drowning Ruth' - simply yet beautifully written

and on a lighter note 'Toast' by Nigel Slater - but I think you may have to be english to fully appreciate it (all about a childhood in England remembered through food)!

you know, I joined a 'book club' on this site some time back - anyone know where it dissappeared to?

by **Dekloren** on Thu Feb 14, 2008 7:07 pm

9/11 WAS AN INSIDE JOB

by **Frigidus** on Thu Feb 14, 2008 7:09 pm

Dekloren wrote:9/11 WAS AN INSIDE JOB

I think I read that one.

by **reminisco** on Thu Feb 14, 2008 8:09 pm

Wuthering Heights was hard to get through. but it was worth it, in retrospect. read that years ago.

i tend to read four books at one time...

something i picked up from college... cause we'd often have four classes that each required 400 pages of reading per class per week. after intense training like that, it just stuck with me.

right now i'm reading:

Guests of the Ayatollah: The First Battle in America's War with Militant Islam by Mark Bowden.

you may know him as the author of Black Hawk Down, Killing Pablo: The Hunt for the World's Greatest Outlaw, or Doctor Dealer: The Rise and Fall of an All-American Boy and His Multi-Million Dollar Cocaine Empire. all of which are good reads.

Split Images by Elmore Leonard a novel from 1981. i read a lot of him, but haven't gotten through his entire canon.

Cotton Comes to Harlem by Chester Himes -- old school, tough guy, pulpy detective fiction set in Harlem. i've read a few by this guy. he wrote during the 60's, mostly. great dialogue, solid plots.

The Best American Crime Reporting 2007 edited by Linda Fairstein, series editors, Otto Penzler and Thomas H. Cook. a great series. different guest editors each year. the best crime articles from top end magazines around the nation.

by **suggs** on Fri Feb 15, 2008 5:24 am

mandyb wrote:
btownmeggy wrote:
suggs wrote:How about Wuthering Heights?

Ooh, there's an idea. I've never read it.

'Very good, is it?

wonderful book - full of passion, betrayal and vengeance.
Emily is definitely the most talented of the Brontë sisters, but Jane Eyre is still an enjoyable read as is Agnes Grey - neither compare to Wuthering Heights, however - which was so ahead of it's time..

To kill a Mockingbird' is another great book - a man's struggle for justice in a town steeped in hypocrisy and prejudice - you may have read it or possibly seen the film.

recently read and enjoyed 'Drowning Ruth' - simply yet beautifully written

and on a lighter note 'Toast' by Nigel Slater - but I think you may have to be english to fully appreciate it (all about a childhood in England remembered through food)!

you know, I joined a 'book club' on this site some time back - anyone know where it dissappeared to?

No, but a book club is a BLOODY GOOD idea! Lets do it.
I am ALL ABOUT the books.

by **Genghis Khant** on Fri Feb 15, 2008 7:27 am

Frigidus wrote:
Dekloren wrote:9/11 WAS AN INSIDE JOB

I think I read that one.

I think it was one of the chapters in Michael Moore's Stupid White Men.

by **Phil1580** on Fri Feb 15, 2008 8:57 am

If 9/11 is your thing, the 9/11 Commission Report was actually good for a government report in book form. Some of it was incredibly dry, but large chunks of it were entertaining in a novel sort of way.

At the moment, reading "The Art Of War", by Sun Tzu. Has all kinds of Taoist stuff in it....get me geared towards taking you all down, haha.

by **btownmeggy** on Fri Feb 15, 2008 9:50 am

I didn't have time to go to the bookstore yesterday, so I'm now reading The Wings of the Dove by Henry James, which I already owned but had never read. I'm not very far into it, but it has potential.

by **apey** on Fri Feb 15, 2008 10:11 am

I like the earths children series (clan of the cave bear etc.)
by jean auel
Just waiting as always for her to finish the dang series took over ten years for the last book but so worth the wait

by **CrabNebula** on Fri Feb 15, 2008 11:03 am

Mentioning Harry Potter for the sake of it

by **reminisco** on Fri Feb 15, 2008 11:59 am

btownmeggy wrote:I didn't have time to go to the bookstore yesterday, so I'm now reading The Wings of the Dove by Henry James, which I already owned but had never read. I'm not very far into it, but it has potential.

Henry James can be dry and difficult sometimes, but the pay off is always huge. i recommend him highly.

by **kleep** on Fri Feb 15, 2008 12:08 pm

Anyone read "World War Z"? I couldn't get into it, the author just doesn't really make you feel like he is interviewing people. There is not enough personality in the interviews.

Another book I couldn't get into was Black Sun Rising by C. S. Friedman.
The idea for the book was awesome, but it just didn't capture my interest. I just didn't care about the characters, and some of the choices they made angered me...

by **reminisco** on Fri Feb 15, 2008 1:02 pm

haven't read World War Z, i'll look it up though.

anyone here read Ender's Game, by Orson Scott Card? i must've read that 4 times, when i was coming up.

probably the absolute coolest sci-fi novel to read at age 11. and of course, again and again.

if you like RISK, chances are you're a bit of a nerd, like me. If you haven't read that book, check it out. it's so ridiculously awesome, you won't regret reading it.

by **kalishnikov** on Fri Feb 15, 2008 1:07 pm

reminisco wrote:haven't read World War Z, i'll look it up though.

anyone here read Ender's Game, by Orson Scott Card? i must've read that 4 times, when i was coming up.

probably the absolute coolest sci-fi novel to read at age 11. and of course, again and again.

if you like RISK, chances are you're a bit of a nerd, like me. If you haven't read that book, check it out. it's so ridiculously awesome, you won't regret reading it.

Ender's Game was one of my favorites when I was young; classic sci-fi. Ever read any of the rest of the series? Awhile back I tried to get more of them but that's impossible here and I don't buy things via the Internet anymore.

Orson Scott Card is almost as good as Isaac Asimov in my opinion, some of the best stuff ever written in that genre.