reading list

[Yankee]

Hello Class,

So what are you reading right now? Also, name a few of your favorite pieces of literature.

[クロネコ]

Systemic Functional Linguistics.

Nice big book that also doubles as a doorstop.

[Yankee]

Happy you joined the pot here kitty.

[kurogane]

The Conquest of Happiness, by Bertrand Russell.

I'm losing the battle.

Paperweight, Stephen Fry

I cry til I pee.

Gutara seikatsu no Nyumon (How to live a lazy life ??), by Shusaku Endo

See book #2.

[Yankee]

The Conquest of Happiness, by Bertrand Russell.

I'm losing the battle.

Paperweight, Stephen Fry

I cry til I pee.

Gutara seikatsu no Nyumon (How to live a lazy life ??), by Shusaku Endo

See book #2.

I don't know either of these

[Danger Man]

Hello Class,

So what are you reading right now?

This thread!!

[kurogane]

I don't know either of these

There's actually 3 of them there.

Anyways, all are recommended.

The first is quite philosophical, the second two are just good silly but insightful fun.

[Thebunnyhauntsme]

The Conquest of Happiness, by Bertrand Russell.

I'm losing the battle.

Paperweight, Stephen Fry

I cry til I pee.


Bertie (does anyone else automatically think 'Wooster' after that name?) once wrote that pain is not relative, although circumstances could be. Thus the pain that a spoiled six year old feels for a lost balloon is conceivably the same as that felt by a grandmother who loses her entire family in a brutal war. Counterintuitive but brilliant, that man...

Stephen Fry should be canonized. Our Lady of the Dubious Sincerity, perhaps. Have you read 'The Liar' and 'Making History' yet?

Endo Shusaku is good for scouring out the corners of one's soul after a long day of insensitivity. 沈黙 always gets me, despite (because of) my agnosticism.

All three are serious additions to the bedside table. I, shallow creature that I am, am currently reading Eddie Burke's 'Philosophical Enquiry into the Origin of our Ideas of the Sublime and Beautiful'. It's surprisingly light reading - in both senses of the word, as I have been taking it on the train. At home, I am enjoying Simon Singh's 'Code Book', which has nothing to do with inane 'Da Vinci' conspiracy theories and everything to do with the more interesting parts of cryptoanalysis. I've just finished the chapter on the Enigma machines from WWII.

I need to read something deeper, I know, but can't summon the energy in the coming Tokyo summer...

[deleted at user request]

i've been too busy to read anything heavy...

i'm re-enjoying old ____ francis novels at the moment, lightweight for the train, power through three or four a week!

[kurogane]

i've been too busy to read anything heavy...

i'm re-enjoying old ____ francis novels at the moment, lightweight for the train, power through three or four a week!

Ahhh, Dicky.

How about some light LeCarre???

TTSS, or the Honourable Schoolboy?

[Kaigangirl]

Empire and Sexuality - The British Experience by Ronald Hyam.

Thoroughly entertaining and a jolly good read...

[bayareababe_707]

Hello Class,

So what are you reading right now? Also, name a few of your favorite pieces of literature.


I'm reading/studying LSAT material AND 'Lead Me Your Ears'
great speeches in history...yeah fun stuff:(

[Pkl]

Hello Class,

So what are you reading right now? Also, name a few of your favorite pieces of literature.

I tend to shy away from the serious stuff and stick to fiction. I'm currently rereading The Count of Monte Cristo, which I recommend to anyone who's never read it before.

Odd that I've heard some people refer to it as a "children's book."

[Anonymous]

Bertie (does anyone else automatically think 'Wooster' after that name?) once wrote that pain is not relative, although circumstances could be. Thus the pain that a spoiled six year old feels for a lost balloon is conceivably the same as that felt by a grandmother who loses her entire family in a brutal war. Counterintuitive but brilliant, that man...

Stephen Fry should be canonized. Our Lady of the Dubious Sincerity, perhaps. Have you read 'The Liar' and 'Making History' yet?

Endo Shusaku is good for scouring out the corners of one's soul after a long day of insensitivity. 沈黙 always gets me, despite (because of) my agnosticism.

All three are serious additions to the bedside table. I, shallow creature that I am, am currently reading Eddie Burke's 'Philosophical Enquiry into the Origin of our Ideas of the Sublime and Beautiful'. It's surprisingly light reading - in both senses of the word, as I have been taking it on the train. At home, I am enjoying Simon Singh's 'Code Book', which has nothing to do with inane 'Da Vinci' conspiracy theories and everything to do with the more interesting parts of cryptoanalysis. I've just finished the chapter on the Enigma machines from WWII.

I need to read something deeper, I know, but can't summon the energy in the coming Tokyo summer...
Who are you?

I'm reading The Rules of Attraction by Bret Easton Ellis. It's about a bunch of damaged snobby college kids in the 1980s. Lots of puking and f*cking. Brutal but funny. And horny. It gave me a boner on the train today.

I just finished Kawabata's Palm of the Hand Stories, a collection of his earliest stuff up to the last he wrote before he gassed himself. Ironically I thought he was just getting good. If you decide to add it to your reading list, I'd skip the first 40 years or so. Utterly pointless.

[Yankee]

I tend to shy away from the serious stuff and stick to fiction. I'm currently rereading The Count of Monte Cristo, which I recommend to anyone who's never read it before.

Odd that I've heard some people refer to it as a "children's book."

I think we make that mistake often, when we were assigned the book in grade school. It's easy to think, 'I read that book in 8th grade, that's a kid's book.' Of course, just because you could read it as a kid, doesn't mean you fully appreciated it as a child.
Dickens is a great example of that. The ubiqiotous Catcher in the Rye, another.

[account cancelled]

Dr. Futility
By Philip K ____


Highly recommended...

[Since1990]

I'm reading 「地下鉄に乗って」by 浅田次郎. So far so good. I enjoy stories that involve a little bit of time travel.

[deleted at user request]

Who are you?

I'm reading The Rules of Attraction by Bret Easton Ellis. It's about a bunch of damaged snobby college kids in the 1980s. Lots of puking and f*cking. Brutal but funny. And horny. It gave me a boner on the train today.



I love Bret Easton Ellis....Less than Zero made a pretty good film too, but the others didn`t turn out so well.

[Danger Man]

Who are you?

I'm reading The Rules of Attraction by Bret Easton Ellis.

Took the words out of my mouth.

'American Pyscho' is all the Ellis you'll ever need.

"What's Left? How Liberals Lost Their Way" by Nick Cohen is my current bedside read.

[Yankee]

I think Ellis is over-rated drivel. I've read Less Than and Glamorama. I read Glamorama during a week long mushroom binge,which was kinda captivating regardless of the quality. But he really is a one-trick pony, that trick being the excess of the wealthy. Which he in fact is a card carrying member of; the coke-snorting self-absorbed elitists. There is a rare documentary about him which proves that his main subject, is himself (and his protagonists tend to be snobbish, narcicistic assh0les).
I'm not trying to invalidate your choice, I'm trying to get you to kick my ___ into understanding why I am mistaken.

[deleted at user request]

I think Ellis is over-rated drivel. I've read Less Than and Glamorama. I read Glamorama during a week long mushroom binge,which was kinda captivating regardless of the quality. But he really is a one-trick pony, that trick being the excess of the wealthy. Which he in fact is a card carrying member of; the coke-snorting self-absorbed elitists. There is a rare documentary about him which proves that his main subject, is himself (and his protagonists tend to be snobbish, narcicistic assh0les).
I'm not trying to invalidate your choice, I'm trying to get you to kick my ___ into understanding why I am mistaken.

I think you are quite right - I'm sure he is a horrible person to spend time with, but I still like his books (although i haven't read Lunar park or glamorama yet).

To Danger Man - I agree that American Psycho is the one you should read, but it is quite different to the informers, less than zero and the rules of attraction. It's a lot funnier, less nihilistic and more satirical than those books - the most important, yes, but not really typical of his stuff.

[Danger Man]

I think you are quite right - I'm sure he is a horrible person to spend time with, but I still like his books (although i haven't read Lunar park or glamorama yet).

To Danger Man - I agree that American Psycho is the one you should read, but it is quite different to the informers, less than zero and the rules of attraction. It's a lot funnier, less nihilistic and more satirical than those books - the most important, yes, but not really typical of his stuff.

Well, you might want to skip the other two then. 'Glamorama' is good, but it covers a lot of the ground in 'American Psycho' but parodies fame instead of Yuppie culture. Lunar Park is just a mess...

[tanako]

About halfway through Glue by Irvine Welsh, perhaps this goes in the guilty pleasure category? Reading all the Scotish slang is trip, and I'm sure I look like a total moron on the train, slowly mouthing along, ah'm jis daein mah best tae make sense oot ay it aw, but, eh.

[Thebunnyhauntsme]

I think Ellis is over-rated drivel. I've read Less Than and Glamorama. I read Glamorama during a week long mushroom binge,which was kinda captivating regardless of the quality. But he really is a one-trick pony, that trick being the excess of the wealthy. Which he in fact is a card carrying member of; the coke-snorting self-absorbed elitists. There is a rare documentary about him which proves that his main subject, is himself (and his protagonists tend to be snobbish, narcicistic assh0les).
I'm not trying to invalidate your choice, I'm trying to get you to kick my ___ into understanding why I am mistaken.

Don't let Victor see you writing this sort of thing...

Brett Easton Ellis has always struck me as a kind of _______ child of John Updike and Hunter S. Thompson. American Psycho is a fine novel in its way, but was over-hyped by puritan types. I suspect that, had he managed to avoid such moral outrage, he'd be a footnote. For an uproariously funny satire of his 'world', try VW Felske Coerte's 'The Shallow Man', which is a much funnier book than it should be.

It also taught me what a 'frostie' was.

[deleted at user request]

it's not a sugar coated cornflake?

[Thebunnyhauntsme]

Why, no.

No it isn't.

[min89]

Systemic Functional Linguistics.

Nice big book that also doubles as a doorstop.
Yeah that's good stuff. I always get a giggle out of 'rheme'. Very colourful, if a bit smelly. And the likes of the 'principle of end weight', calls up a clear image of the bloke in the freak show who suspends cinderblocks from his nipples.

[Kaigangirl]

Tonight back issues of The Snapper circa 1927 featuring my Great-Grandfathers correspondence detailing the families escapades in Egypt, the Raj and Burma… Utterly fabulous and funny to boot… but folk may not agree thus an extract…

“…The Burmese is a man, and a white one at that; that at least is my experience. Follow a native on his way home from work. Slung on his arm is a bit of cloth knotted at the corners, and as he walks he pulls the seeds from the coarse grasses and fills the cloth till he has sufficient. Arrived home, he has to winnow it, grind it (between two rough stones), and bake it into cakes or chupatties before he can get a meal. I have tasted these chupatties, and found them unpalatable, but the native will drop them into any stagnant puddle or pool to soak, and then appear to enjoy a meal of them…”

[クロネコ]

Yeah that's good stuff. I always get a giggle out of 'rheme'. Very colourful, if a bit smelly. And the likes of the 'principle of end weight', calls up a clear image of the bloke in the freak show who suspends cinderblocks from his nipples.

Some people love a good bit of rheme-ing I dare say. But this may too quickly become a saturated term so we should handle with care and let your fingers do the walking.