Looks interesting.
What are you reading now?
- Thread starter FischerKing
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Looks interesting.
Sounds accurate.
I could be lying.
jenna2891
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got "replay" in the mail today from jason. 
got "replay" in the mail today from jason.
You should like it. This side of our personality did.
jenna2891
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as long as basketball is not involved, i'll take your word for it.
That is really the only thing we don't agree on.
Ok those who have read Life of Pi.
Which was it...
I find myself thinking about this book quite a bit...to where I can't even read Owen Meany because I'm thinking about Pi and his story.
Life of Pi = very good book...any book that has me thinking about it after the fact is great, IMO. I think I'd even read it again which I only really do with one other book...Catch 22. Well, two as I've read Bonfire of the Vanities twice....
Which was it...
Was the story with animals, or the story without animals the real thing. I LOVE the way this is introduced. It is done in such a way that it is the real thing...and it explains when the two blind men meet earlier in the story...the conflict in the mind, etc. It threw a big monkey wrench into the whole thing. But what do you think was the book's reality? The unbelievable survival among animals and man, or the unbelievable survival and canibalism. Where did the small bones come from in the boat?
I find myself thinking about this book quite a bit...to where I can't even read Owen Meany because I'm thinking about Pi and his story.
Life of Pi = very good book...any book that has me thinking about it after the fact is great, IMO. I think I'd even read it again which I only really do with one other book...Catch 22. Well, two as I've read Bonfire of the Vanities twice....
obviously, it's wide open to interpretation, but I think that was a story he made up in his mind to protect him from the horrors. For Pi Patel, it was reality.
It's one of my favorites. I still find myself thinking about it every once in a while.
As soon as he starting telling the second story I was stunned. My mind immediately started comparing the two stories to how people can interpret religion/spirituality.
I guess I interpret the second story to be the “truth”, but the first story is how Pi interpreted it.
I guess I interpret the second story to be the “truth”, but the first story is how Pi interpreted it.
I just read it. Great book, I really eat stuff like this up. I got really interested in this topic when I took a few psychology classes in college. I thought the autistic discussion near the end was fascinating. My wife has a highly functional autistic student in her 1st grade class. I was in there helping out a few months ago and got to work with him a little bit. It was really interesting to observe his behaviors. He was only 7 and his drawings looked like they belonged to a high school art student.
I'm picking this up from the library today.
I think the same in that the second story is probably "reality" (which is challenged by Pi in general) while the first is the way he perceived it in order to survive the horror of what was necessary to live.
I was stunned too, Bada...that came out so fast and was shocking. I read it over again.
I love the way he says agnostics would miss "the better story" and then he uses that in the end asking the two investigators which was the better story. And his line at the end something like "and so it is with God" can be interpreted in two different ways...1) that he is saying the animal story that they chose as the better story is the one that he believe that God believes to be true, or that 2) with religion in general you don't have empiracal evidence to back up the story, and it sounds impossible on the face but believing in God is the better story, because without a higher purpose, life sucks and is boring. I tend to lean on the 2nd interpretation on that line.
There are little things like where did the small bones come from, etc, that make me wonder if the first story is true though...and that the tiger is there all the time (but that can be said he is fighting with his inner tiger in his head).
This book is the kind that should be used for book clubs...most aren't, but this really provokes discussion.
I was stunned too, Bada...that came out so fast and was shocking. I read it over again.
I love the way he says agnostics would miss "the better story" and then he uses that in the end asking the two investigators which was the better story. And his line at the end something like "and so it is with God" can be interpreted in two different ways...1) that he is saying the animal story that they chose as the better story is the one that he believe that God believes to be true, or that 2) with religion in general you don't have empiracal evidence to back up the story, and it sounds impossible on the face but believing in God is the better story, because without a higher purpose, life sucks and is boring. I tend to lean on the 2nd interpretation on that line.
There are little things like where did the small bones come from, etc, that make me wonder if the first story is true though...and that the tiger is there all the time (but that can be said he is fighting with his inner tiger in his head).
This book is the kind that should be used for book clubs...most aren't, but this really provokes discussion.
Great, great book. Thanks Jason for the recommendation.
Well, finally picked this up from the library. Will start it shortly.
The book is a little plodding and doesn't develop the characters very well, IMO.
I'm about 3/4 through and only now is something actually happening--and rather doubiously at that (meaning, I don't really buy into why the central character is doing what he's doing).
I'll finish it, but I'm not too happy about it.
Finished it, and true to my word, I wasn't happy about it. I thought the motivations of just about every character was suspect.
I hope the movie is better.
Here is a list of the books I got at the VNSA sale today. I spent $10.50.
A Day in the Life of the Soviet Union
Blinded by the Right, David Brock
The Conduct of Soviet Foreign Policy, Hoffman and Fleron
Mission to Moscow, Davies
Lies and the Lying Liars Who Tell Them, Franken
Term Limits, Flynn
Deception Point, Brown (to be a gift)
Digital Fortress, Brown (also to be a gift)
The Romanov Prophecy, Berry
Politika, Clancy
Acts of War, Clancy
Games of State, Clancy
The Lost World, Crichton
The Moscow Club, Finder
The Russia House, Le Carre
The Constant Gardener, Le Carre
Absolute Friends, Le Carre
A Day in the Life of the Soviet Union
Blinded by the Right, David Brock
The Conduct of Soviet Foreign Policy, Hoffman and Fleron
Mission to Moscow, Davies
Lies and the Lying Liars Who Tell Them, Franken
Term Limits, Flynn
Deception Point, Brown (to be a gift)
Digital Fortress, Brown (also to be a gift)
The Romanov Prophecy, Berry
Politika, Clancy
Acts of War, Clancy
Games of State, Clancy
The Lost World, Crichton
The Moscow Club, Finder
The Russia House, Le Carre
The Constant Gardener, Le Carre
Absolute Friends, Le Carre
Just got
" A Savage War of Peace , Algeria 1954-1962 " by Alistair Horne.
This is the hard to get book that is being read and devoured by most of the U S military minds, currently attempting to understand the strategies being used in the Middle East by the indigents.
Took me 2 months to track this one down.
" A Savage War of Peace , Algeria 1954-1962 " by Alistair Horne.
This is the hard to get book that is being read and devoured by most of the U S military minds, currently attempting to understand the strategies being used in the Middle East by the indigents.
Took me 2 months to track this one down.
I heard about this. How'd you find it?
I just got it today from Amazon.com.; Only read the preface. I'll start chewing on it tonight.
"Stumbling on Happiness," Daniel Gilbert.
It's basically the science of happiness. Very interesting, so far. If you liked Blink and the Tipping Point, I think you'd like this one.
Here's what Gladwell ("Blink" author) has to say about it:
"Stumbling on Happiness is a book about a very simple but powerful idea. What distinguishes us as human beings from other animals is our ability to predict the future--or rather, our interest in predicting the future. We spend a great deal of our waking life imagining what it would be like to be this way or that way, or to do this or that, or taste or buy or experience some state or feeling or thing. We do that for good reasons: it is what allows us to shape our life. And it is by trying to exert some control over our futures that we attempt to be happy. But by any objective measure, we are really bad at that predictive function. We're terrible at knowing how we will feel a day or a month or year from now, and even worse at knowing what will and will not bring us that cherished happiness. Gilbert sets out to figure what that's so: why we are so terrible at something that would seem to be so extraordinarily important?"
It's basically the science of happiness. Very interesting, so far. If you liked Blink and the Tipping Point, I think you'd like this one.
Here's what Gladwell ("Blink" author) has to say about it:
"Stumbling on Happiness is a book about a very simple but powerful idea. What distinguishes us as human beings from other animals is our ability to predict the future--or rather, our interest in predicting the future. We spend a great deal of our waking life imagining what it would be like to be this way or that way, or to do this or that, or taste or buy or experience some state or feeling or thing. We do that for good reasons: it is what allows us to shape our life. And it is by trying to exert some control over our futures that we attempt to be happy. But by any objective measure, we are really bad at that predictive function. We're terrible at knowing how we will feel a day or a month or year from now, and even worse at knowing what will and will not bring us that cherished happiness. Gilbert sets out to figure what that's so: why we are so terrible at something that would seem to be so extraordinarily important?"
"The Pleasure of my Company," Steve Martin
I really enjoy Steve Martin's fiction. I especially like it because I hear his voice in my head when I read it.
I really enjoy Steve Martin's fiction. I especially like it because I hear his voice in my head when I read it.
How many books do you read at a time, Jason? Do you have multiple books going at the same time, or do you finish one before you start another?
How do you find the time to read so often? Oh, you don't watch TV, huh?
How do you find the time to read so often? Oh, you don't watch TV, huh?
I watch very little TV compared to what I used to. I probably watch about 4 hours a week, and all of that is on TiVo time.
I generally have one hard-copy book going at a time and read that at lunch and at for 30 minutes or so before bed. Takes about a week for me to knock it out. I also usually have a non-fiction audio book going in the car (I have about a half-hour commute, longer when I have to pickup or drop off the kids). Most of the non-fiction you'll see me post here is audio.
That makes a ton of sense then...I was wondering how you were tearing through several of those non-fic books so quickly.
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