Grand unified books thread

[Darth Wagtaros]

Everyone should read Night's Dawn.

Was Final Crisis finished?  Or did they decide to just let it die and go on to Blackest Night?

[Pedrito]

I'm reading (and much enjoying) Daniel Keyes' The minds of Billy Milligan, an account on the life, trials and psychiatric treatment of this guy who committed several crimes, including three rapes, and was diagnosed with a stunning case of multiple personality disorder: from time to time, he was split between not two, not three, but ten different personalities, and during the treatment psychologists discovered other 14 personalities, for a grand total of 24 of them

A quick (and amusing, in a rather sad way) of the main 10 personalities:

1. Billy Milligan (William Stanly Milligan) is the core personality.
2. Arthur is a extremely sophisticated and educated Englishman. He studies in the fields of science and medicine, with a focus on hematology. He speaks and reads arab. He controlled the spot during times that required intellectual thinking. Only one of the two who could classify a person as an undesirable.
3. Ragen Vadascovinich is the "keeper of hate". Ragen has a Slavic accent and can write and speak in Serbo-Croatian. He is an expert in munitions and also has extreme strength due to the fact that Arthur taught him how to control his adrenalin flow. Ragen has a soft spot for women and children, in general, and will not hesitate to assist one if they are in trouble. He controls the spot in dangerous times and is the second person to be able to label someone as undesirable.
4. Allen is a con man and a manipulator. He is the most common person to talk to the outside world. He plays the drums and paints portraits. Also the only person to be right-handed.
5. Tommy is the escape artist; he is often confused with Allen. He plays the tenor sax and is an electronics expert. He is also a painter, but he paints landscapes.
6. Danny is the scared person. He is afraid of people, especially men. He only paints still lifes, due to the fact that Chalmer made him dig his own grave and was then buried in it.
7. David who is only eight is the "keeper of pain". He comes to the spot to take the pain of the others.
8. Christene ,who is three, was the one who would go and stand in the corner in school when "Billy" would get in trouble. Arthur was able to teach her how to read and write but she was found to have dyslexia. Ragen has a special bond with her.
9. Christopher, Christene's brother, plays the harmonica.
10. Adalana, a lesbian, who actually wished Ragen off the spot during a mix up time, when she raped the Ohio University students. She cooks and cleans house for the others, and writes poetry.

L.

[Savonarola]

Next up The Philosophy of Tolkien by Peter Kreeft.

It was more The Philosophy of Peter Kreeft's as illustrated by JRR Tokien and CS Lewis, but still worthwhile.  Next up The Ecclesiastical History of the English People by Bede.

[BuddhaRhubarb]

Finished "Let the Right One In". great book. lending it to a co-worker today. started China Mielville's "King Rat"... lacking a George Segal, but still pretty entertaining thus far.

[Josephus]

Finished John Irving's Last Night in Twisted River. Irving fans will love it. You will never look at an 8-inch skillet the same way again.

[Savonarola]

One interesting note that the translator made was that the 72 Houris are only found in the Sutras written when Mohammed had one wife (and I believe she was several years older than him.)  In the Sutras written when he had nine wives (plus numerous slaves) heaven is depicted as more like a Persian bath.

Why are they giants?

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Houri#Description

I'm not sure, but I think there was a belief common in that period that mankind started out as taller but degenerated over time.  In City of God, for instance, Saint Augustine mentions the giant teeth (presumably from a mastadon) he has seen as evidence that there were giants in previous ages. Since in Islamic tradition humans will be recreated as they enter paradise, I would presume the scholars who believe that the Houri will be giants also believe that men will be recreated more perfectly, that is to say as giants themselves.

[AnchorClanker]

Cuurently reading R.J.B. Bosworth's biography of Mussolini.  Good read, thus far.  I'm at 1921 now.

[Ed Anger]

Cuurently reading R.J.B. Bosworth's biography of Mussolini.  Good read, thus far.  I'm at 1921 now.

/Spoiler

He becomes dictator

[Queequeg]

Just finished the Magus in an epic 250 page cession.

Holy fuck.

Especially mind blowing as I'm in something of a similar situation with a girl, though I'm in Istanbul.  And am want for insanely rich, possibly Greek experimental psychologists.

[Josephus]

Cuurently reading R.J.B. Bosworth's biography of Mussolini.  Good read, thus far.  I'm at 1921 now.

/spoiler. He gets hung upside down at the end.

[Savonarola]

Next up The Ecclesiastical History of the English People by Bede.

It's an interesting account of the Dark Ages especially in Northumbria.  He dwells at length on how the poor, dumb Harps celebrate Easter on the wrong day and how their monks cut their hair wrong.  Fortunately they were saved from error in the eighth century and all has been peace and prosperity in Ireland since.   

Next up: Nennius's "History of the Britons" and "The Welsh Annales."

[Admiral Yi]

And am want for insanely rich, possibly Greek experimental psychologists.

I've seen this happen before; you study a foreign language and it crowds your first language out of your brain.

[FunkMonk]

Goldsworthy's Caesar: Life of a Colossus. Just started it a few days ago, but great so far. I should have been born two thousand years ago. :patton:

[Queequeg]

Feel like the book deserves a real mention, as it is great.

THE MAGUS by John Fowles

Set in the early 1950s, Mr. Nicholas Urfe , a rakish, somewhat fashionable young Oxford graduate,  attempts to escape an increasingly serious relationship with a beautiful Australian stewardess, Amanda, by becoming a teacher on an obscure Greek island, Phraxos.  Urfe becomes acquainted with the Island's most colorful inhabitant, Maurice Conchis, a very wealthy man of unknown origin but supreme erudition and wit.  The majority of the plot details the various, increasingly bizarre tasks Conchis sets up for Urfe, including very Languish re-enactments and seemingly supernatural spectacles. 

Without wishing to spoil any of the plot, I can firmly say that this is the greatest novel I have read since Moby-Dick, which was a good two years ago.  Fowles somehow manages to predict almost all of what would soon be called Post-Modernism, and Fowles' fitfully brilliant prose and singularly intriguing characters make for an unforgettable read.  Can't but recommend it for all who seem interested. 

I'm now interested in reading something more on modern Greece.  Sheilbh, Mihail, what translation of Kazantzakis (I'm very sure that name has Turkish origins, interestingly) did you read?  I also think both of you would like The Magus a great deal.

[Pat]

Finished Jascha Golowanjuks "My golden road from Samarkand", an autobiographical description of his escape over mountains and across deserts from the Bolsheviks during the Russian revolution. Great book.