Trav Le Bleu Posted 2 July 2008 Posted 2 July 2008 I'll be reading it for the second time this summer - so I like it I looked at Brodie's Notes in a bookshop so I don't have to read it. Thanks to my dad's large collection of these... which I read when I was a kid, I have a broad knowledge of classic literature, despite having actually read very few of them (in their original context)
hebangsthedrums Posted 2 July 2008 Posted 2 July 2008 'I was Keith Richards' drug dealer' arrived from ebay today, also bought el diego and don quixote the other day, should get around to reading them before the end of the year
stez Posted 2 July 2008 Posted 2 July 2008 I've launched into this one, which is great if you get off on prime numbers and mathematical theorems. prime numbers are so my thing! and any book recommended by the daily mail has to be worth it actually i may've once heard that bad things happen when the year is a prime number, or something like that. i love math(s) me! 'no comebacks' by freddy forsyth. a collection of sort stories, each with a twist. if you read them, i recommend the one called 'privilege' that one was funny clever and bloody annoying.
Lillehamring Posted 17 July 2008 Posted 17 July 2008 once again forcing myself to read some contemporary stuff, got a free reading copy of iain banks' 'steep approach to garbadale', which (despite the prose being a little too conversation and quasi-street) i am finding to be pretty enjoyable, the blurb says it is his best yet, though it's not exactly blowing me away, very readable though. should last me through my holiday though, have some somerset maughn (i think) as back up...
Daggers Posted 17 July 2008 Author Posted 17 July 2008 once again forcing myself to read some contemporary stuff, got a free reading copy of iain banks' 'steep approach to garbadale', which (despite the prose being a little too conversation and quasi-street) i am finding to be pretty enjoyable, the blurb says it is his best yet, though it's not exactly blowing me away, very readable though.should last me through my holiday though, have some somerset maughn (i think) as back up... I liked Espedair Street the best "Two days ago I decided to kill myself. I would walk and hitch and sail away from this dark city to the bright spaces of the wet west coast, and there throw myself into the tall, glittering seas beyond Iona (with its cargo of mouldering kings) to let the gulls and seals and tides have their way with my remains, and in my dying moments look forward to an encounter with Staffa’s six-sided columns and Fingal’s cave; or I might head south to Corryvrecken, to be spun inside the whirlpool and listen with my waterlogged deaf ears to its mile-wide voice ringing over the wave-race; or be borne north, to where the white sands sing and coral hides, pink-fingered and hard-soft, beneath the ocean swell, and the rampart cliffs climb thousand-foot above the seething acres of milky foam, rainbow-buttressed. Last night I changed my mind and decided to stay alive. Everything that follows is . . . just to try and explain." I've just read 'Why People Believe Weird Things: Pseudoscience, Superstition, and Other Confusions of Our Time' by Michael Shermer. It was OK but not a touch on 'The Demon-Haunted World: Science as a Candle in the Dark' by Carl Sagan. In the first section, Shermer discusses the ideas that he has towards skepticism. He also explains his convserion to atheism from Fundamentalist Chrsitianity and New Age thought.In part two Shermer explains paranormal thinking and how one comes to believe in things without evidence. He uses Edgar Cayce as an example, and while he agrees with parts of Ayn Rand's Objectivism, he criticizes its moral absolutism and points out that many follow her philosophy unquestioningly, which he believes contradicts free thinking.[1] Part three begins with Shermer describing several debates he had with Duane Gish. He lays out some creationist arguments in 25 separate claims, and attempts to debunk each one with his own evidence. He closes retelling how a constitutional ban on teaching creationism in public schools was narrowly upheld at the Supreme Court in 1989. Shermer shows that the Holocaust deniers reject proven facts for, as he states, ideological reasons. Like the creationists, he asserted, many Holocaust denialists believe that the evidence sides with them. He describes meeting and arguing with the deniers and lays out their arguments then shows evidence to support his own statements. In part 5 Shermer relates Frank J. Tipler to Voltaire's character Pangloss to show how smart people deceive themselves. Shermer explores the psychology of scholars and business men who give up their careers in their pursuit to broadcast their paranormal beliefs. In his last chapter, added to the revised version, Shermer explains that "smart people" can be more susceptible to believing in weird things than others.
Bellend Sebastian Posted 17 July 2008 Posted 17 July 2008 I'm reading 'As I walked out one Midsummer Morning' by Laurie Lee. It's about a bloke that goes to Spain in the 1930s and wanders about a bit (I think it's autobiographical). It's ace. It was recommended to me in an email from British Sea Power. For a rock band, they do provide very good book recommendations
The People's Hero Posted 17 July 2008 Posted 17 July 2008 I'm currently reading 5 different books and I've lost where I am in all of them. I really am stupid.
Daggers Posted 17 July 2008 Author Posted 17 July 2008 I'm reading 'As I walked out one Midsummer Morning' by Laurie Lee.It's about a bloke that goes to Spain in the 1930s and wanders about a bit (I think it's autobiographical). It's ace. It was recommended to me in an email from British Sea Power. For a rock band, they do provide very good book recommendations I've never had email from a band. I got a letter from Mark E Smith once, it resembled a ransom note. I thought at the time I think this man has issues.
Bellend Sebastian Posted 17 July 2008 Posted 17 July 2008 I've never had email from a band.I got a letter from Mark E Smith once, it resembled a ransom note. I thought at the time I think this man has issues. You should sign up for the British Sea Power email even if you don't particularly like them. It's top. Did you get a piece of actual personal correspondence from MES? And yes, I think he does have issues. More than most, in fact
Daggers Posted 17 July 2008 Author Posted 17 July 2008 Did you get a piece of actual personal correspondence from MES? The most deranged letter: three different coloured biros and a few glossy magazine collages across 5 pages. I was amazed when I discovered he was abusing cocaine.
Bellend Sebastian Posted 17 July 2008 Posted 17 July 2008 The most deranged letter: three different coloured biros and a few glossy magazine collages across 5 pages.I was amazed when I discovered he was abusing cocaine. This is the man who once took heroin at a party 'just to be sociable'. Do you know him or something? I'd be honoured, if terrified, if I'd had a letter from him
Daggers Posted 17 July 2008 Author Posted 17 July 2008 This is the man who once took heroin at a party 'just to be sociable'.Do you know him or something? I'd be honoured, if terrified, if I'd had a letter from him No one knows MES. I used work in the business and I met him a few times. Not one of them can I look back upon with any sense of fondness.
Bellend Sebastian Posted 17 July 2008 Posted 17 July 2008 No one knows MES. I used work in the business and I met him a few times. Not one of them can I look back upon with any sense of fondness. I love the music but I imagine he's a complete cock. I read an interview with Ben Pritchard recently that he did when the whole band walked off the US tour in 2006 and it sounds like it was pretty much a living hell. I get the impression Morrissey is a total arse as well. Never meet your heroes
Bellend Sebastian Posted 17 July 2008 Posted 17 July 2008 I bet Bob Dylan is a right laugh though. I'd ask him about his contribution to We Are The World
The People's Hero Posted 17 July 2008 Posted 17 July 2008 If anyone ever asks me for an example of sublime ----> ridiculous.... Dan Aykroyd Harry Belafonte Lindsey Buckingham Kim Carnes Ray Charles Bob Dylan Sheila E. Bob Geldof Daryl Hall James Ingram Jackie Jackson LaToya Jackson Marlon Jackson Michael Jackson Randy Jackson Tito Jackson Al Jarreau Waylon Jennings Billy Joel Cyndi Lauper Huey Lewis Kenny Loggins Bette Midler Willie Nelson John Oates Jeffrey Osborne Steve Perry The Pointer Sisters Lionel Richie Smokey Robinson Kenny Rogers Diana Ross Paul Simon Bruce Springsteen Tina Turner Dionne Warwick Stevie Wonder And.... Dan Ayckroyd!!!
Bellend Sebastian Posted 17 July 2008 Posted 17 July 2008 At least Kenny Loggins was on hand to give the exercise some credibility
ozleicester Posted 17 July 2008 Posted 17 July 2008 animal farm...or any Orwell Helter Skelter (the manson murders) My life and the beautiful game - pele
ASH17LCFC Posted 17 July 2008 Posted 17 July 2008 Eric Bischoff - Controversy Creates Cash, pretty good so far, the guy is abit up his own arse though.
Bellend Sebastian Posted 17 July 2008 Posted 17 July 2008 Eric Bischoff - Controversy Creates Cash, pretty good so far, the guy is abit up his own arse though. It said on Big Brother's Little Brother this morning that that's one of the contestants' favourite books. Fancy that
ASH17LCFC Posted 17 July 2008 Posted 17 July 2008 It said on Big Brother's Little Brother this morning that that's one of the contestants' favourite books.Fancy that I didn't watch it because i was at work this morning but thanks, thats changed my life.
ASH17LCFC Posted 17 July 2008 Posted 17 July 2008 That's my pleasure Was it the little geeky lad who said it ?
Bellend Sebastian Posted 17 July 2008 Posted 17 July 2008 Was it the little geeky lad who said it ? It might well have been. I don't really watch it, so it didn't convey much to me. In previous years I would have lapped up this information like a thirsty dog. Now I think it's a load of old shite
ASH17LCFC Posted 17 July 2008 Posted 17 July 2008 It might well have been. I don't really watch it, so it didn't convey much to me. In previous years I would have lapped up this information like a thirsty dog. Now I think it's a load of old shite Yeah, Big Brother went crap after the one where the Jungle cats and ahmed were in it. I can't just sit down and watch it now.
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