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Post by KoKoDrgN on Oct 16, 2006 14:10:23 GMT -7
eh. its time for me to start building up my library. i need suggestions on good books.
my interests are, but not limited to:
world mythology (greek roman native american etc.)
poetry (classical)
art (any)
self help and inspiration
history
smart fantasy and sci fi (stuff that makes you think)
philosophy
sociology
science
thanks. any suggestions will be looked into. 3rd grade lit will more than likely be ignored
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Post by RAIVEN on Oct 16, 2006 15:08:10 GMT -7
I own something like 500-600 books, mostly in hard copy, mostly literary novels and some poetry and literary criticism. ( I am now at the point of a self ban from bookstores) The first book I would reccommend is 'The Western Canon' by Harold Bloom. To my mind he is a genius of literary criticism and reading this book will only increase one's understanding of literary and enduring masterpieces. The next book I want to reccommend is "The Master and Margarita' by Mikhail Bulgakov. It is inherently strange and brilliant. It can be interpretted and understood on many, many levels. The story I wrote called 'The Master' is based on a very simple interpretation of this novel. Here is a link: en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Master_and_MargaritaAnother Link: www.amazon.com/Master-Margarita-Vintage-International/dp/0679760806"Hilarious, Terrifying, and Just Plain Brilliant, April 9, 2003 Reviewer: Christopher Forbes "weirdears" (Brooklyn,, NY) I've always been a fan of Russian novels, ever since I read my first Dostoevsky novel at the age of 10...(okay, it was a Classics Illustrated comic book version of Crime and Punishment!)but had never run across anything by Bulgakov until a few years ago. A Russian friend of mine really pressed me to read the book. I bought it, but it just stayed on the shelf until a few weeks ago. All I can say is, I didn't know what I was missing. Master and Margarita is a wickedly funny, sad, frightening, and ultimately haunting masterpiece of fiction. Bulgakov was one of the first generation of Soviet writers who flourished in the 20s, during the short lived Soviet Experimental movement, and then suffered horribly after the stregnthening of Stalin's regime. Bugakov was primarily a man of the Theater, and something of a theatrical quality hangs on to this book. The chapters have an almost tableaux style construction. When the Stalinist purges began, Bulgakov was began work on Master and Margarita, pretty much to please himself. He knew that he would never live to see it published.
The novel itself is nearly impossible to describe. It consists of three separate plots. On the surface is the visit to Moscow, of the Devil in the guise of a professor named Woland, and his henchmen, two grotesque disfigured men, a naked woman and a cat who plays chess among other things. The group proceeds to essentially terrorize the city's intellectual community, mostly by exposing each character's inner hypocracy. The satire of communist society in this section is quite biting, and uproariously funny. Embedded in this story is a "novel within a novel" ...the story of Pontius Pilate and his encounter with the itinerant spiritual man, Yeshua. Finally, there is the story of the separated lovers, the Master and Margarita, who interweave between the other two stories. They live in the present day Moscow, but the Master ostensibly wrote the manuscript which told the story of Pontius Pilate.
This rich and complicated stew of a book works on so many different levels. At it's most obvious, it is a scathing attack on communism and the cultural elite's complicity with the evils of the system. It is also rather pitiless in it's exposure of the greed, corruption and mendacity of human nature. But Bulgakov is not a conventional moralist. The Devil as Woland is an evil figure...sometimes a terrifying figure, and yet he ends up as the instrument of the redemption of both the Master and Margarita. There is a deep spiritual viewpoint at work here...Early in the novel, Yeshua tells Pilate that, "all men are good", to Pilate's incredulity. In the context of the novel, Yeshua seems hopelessly naive, but by the end of the novel, you wonder if this may actually not be the author's central point. Even the devil is capable of some good here.
This book contains a whole world. Characters change in dizzying fasion and events go by with lightening speed. And yet, by the last pages there is a haunting beauty, an almost incandescent light that shines over the prose. Some of these final images stay etched in my brain even now, several weeks after finishing.
I highly recommend that anyone read this book. It may be one of the greatest novels of the 20th century. It certainly is the greatest Russian novel of the last 100 years!"
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elchico
Sorcerer
semi-retired, sick of the drama
Posts: 53
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Post by elchico on Oct 19, 2006 14:56:37 GMT -7
i say buy anything published buy tor publishing if you like good alternate reality/scifi/good books, i myself own about 20 books legally and pretty much own the town library cuz i read so much lol
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Post by RAIVEN on Nov 10, 2006 16:58:11 GMT -7
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Post by RAIVEN on Nov 10, 2006 23:42:56 GMT -7
The Western CanonFrom BooklistA review of 200 or 300 words cannot do justice to a book like this: it is the summation of a great critic's most fundamental beliefs--something like a dying Bernstein's last performance of Mahler's ninth, though in this case a lot less sad. In fact, this book of essays represents Bloom at his most celebratory, and there's a wonderful, vigorous energy about it. Why, one wonders, reading it, do we bother reading anybody but Shakespeare, Dante, or Chaucer? The argument for Shakespeare is particularly compelling. Bloom believes that Shakespeare is the canon: that he defines for the Western world the standards by which we judge all literature. And more: he defines for us what we are ourselves, what we understand of human nature. This argument, offered with Bloom's customary flare for the controversial, is akin to the remark that all philosophy is a footnote to Plato, and like it, is probably in large measure true. Thus, modern psychology doesn't add very much to what people could have already learned from reading Shakespeare because Shakespeare defines the limits of what we know: we can't get beyond or outside him. Certainly, experience teaches that Bloom is right; indeed, the evolution of human consciousness seems to have taken one of its periodic jolts forward about the time of Shakespeare, and he above all seems to have captured the entire scope of what was new. As Bloom points out, Shakespeare is universally adored, in all languages, and perhaps it is for this reason. The essays on Dante and Chaucer are almost equally powerful, though in a sense less awesome. And the brief remarks about the powerful movements of resentment trying to push apart these great pillars of the Western canon, though perspicacious, are melancholy and incidental. Get this book for the great essays on Shakespeare. For lovers of literature, probably nothing more powerful or in an odd way more religious will be written this year. ~~ Stuart Whitwell --This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.
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Post by RAIVEN on Nov 10, 2006 23:53:22 GMT -7
How to Read and Why by Harold BloomInside the Mind of a Thoughtful Reader, 13 May 2004 Reviewer: Donald Mitchell "Founder of The Billionaire Entrepreneurs' Master Mind -- billiondollarbusiness.blogspot.com/" (a Strategic Management professor, author and consultant in Boston) - See all my reviews How to Read and Why is an excellent and interesting book about literature, but the contents have relatively little to do with the title. As I always do when the title is misleading, I rated the book down one star. If the book had a more accurate title (something like How I Enjoy Literature), I would have happily rated the book with five stars. On the other hand, I am indebted to the title because I might not have read the book otherwise. Because of that benefit, I was tempted to revise my rating to five stars. But I felt a need to be consistent in my grading that may be "the hobgoblin of little minds." Having avoided all literature classes after high school but having much enjoyed the great literature I have read, I was interested in a book that would expand my ability to perceive and benefit from fine literature. What I found was useful in that regard, but less so than a fuller treatment might have been. Let me explain what is in the book, and then go on to what is not. This book is organized into five major parts: Short Stories; Poems; Novels, Part I; Plays; and Novels, Part II. The format for each is an introduction about Professor Bloom's choice of literature to consider, then a series of short sections that analyze a few passages from each work, followed by a summary that puts the works into themes and connects those themes to the benefits that a reader may seek. The major exception is the poetry section which does provide readers with guidance on how to read: On first reading, use an annotated guide to explain the words and the allusions (what I assume he means by mediation); read aloud; reread; memorize; and recite aloud when the poetry strikes you as relevant to the situation or the moment. I suspect that more than poetry would benefit from this approach. Ulysses is a case in point. In the preface, he encourages us to embrace literature directly in other cases. He is very concerned that the philososphy of the day may divert our attention from the subjective lessons otherwise from within ourselves. He often repeats that written words are more than marks on paper, that the feelings evoked are more important than the things described, and that literature creates the possibility of expanding our ability to communicate and to appreciate. He seems to be a bit discouraged about trends in readership, citing concerns about whether good novels will be able to sustain the necessary audience to support their continuance. What I found most beneficial about the book were his descriptions of works that I had not read before. I considered it a great treat to learn his views about what he enjoys and why, among all of the vast amounts of literature that he must have read. From this, I was able to locate literary works that I would like to explore. So think of this aspect of the book as being like an outstanding Amazon.com reader review. Except, of course, he has vastly more knowledge and skill at this than do any reviewers I have read on-line. The second most beneficial part of the book was his creation of themes in literature, as he perceives them. While one may or may not agree with those themes (they are very simple), they certainly do add another element to consider when one reads a given work. On the works themselves, you may (if you are like me) disagree with his reading in a particular case. That's perfectly fine with him. In fact, reading his interpretations of a passage after developing my own created a sort of mental dialogue between us that I found interesting. If I ever meet Professor Bloom, we would have a great deal to discuss in an enjoyable fashion. In fact, given that this is a popular book, I suggest you read it in part because you can then use it as a Rosetta Stone of sorts to compare your views with others who have also read it. That would be much more enjoyable than most of what people who have just met discuss at cocktail parties. As Professor Bloom points out, a common theme in literature is the inability of people to communicate to one another . . . because they do not listen. I have two primary regrets about this book (other than wishing he had included more of his favorite works). One, that Professor Bloom did not personalize the book more. He might have explained how his life's decisions and actions were affected by literature in critical instances. Two, that Professor Bloom ignored other forms of writing such as essays and nonfiction books. I assume he reads both, and I wish to know what he likes and why. In other words, I would wish to know Professor Bloom better through his book. I was attracted to the parts of his personality I became acquainted with and would have liked to have continued the conversation in my mind. Enjoy this book, be enhanced by remembering the works he describes that you like, and delight in, the works that you will read because you learned more about them here!
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Post by RAIVEN on Nov 11, 2006 0:06:11 GMT -7
I lent one of the members of the 'Club' who is an avid reader, my copies of "The Wetern Canon" and "Shakespeare: The Invention of the Human" both by Harold Bloom. This guy actually read law at Oxford and his father is a supreme court justice. While he had them he was visiting his father in Ottawa and lent them to him to read as well. His father's comment was that reading Bloom was like getting a first rate University education and indeed Bloom is currently a Sterling Professor of the Humanities at Yale University and Berg Professor of English and American Literature at New York University.
I am a great fan of Harold Bloom, but agree or disagree with him, he makes you think about important literary works.
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