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Grand unified books thread

Started by Syt, March 16, 2009, 01:52:42 AM

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Ed Anger

Seefor read me the riot act once for reading Max Boot.
Stay Alive...Let the Man Drive

jimmy olsen

It is far better for the truth to tear my flesh to pieces, then for my soul to wander through darkness in eternal damnation.

Jet: So what kind of woman is she? What's Julia like?
Faye: Ordinary. The kind of beautiful, dangerous ordinary that you just can't leave alone.
Jet: I see.
Faye: Like an angel from the underworld. Or a devil from Paradise.
--------------------------------------------
1 Karma Chameleon point

Ed Anger

Max Boot was evil or something. I laughed at him.
Stay Alive...Let the Man Drive

Malthus

Finished Musashi.

http://www.amazon.com/dp/156836427X

Written in the 30s about Japan's most famous (historical) swordsman, this novel is well worth reading - for one, it's a rollicking read; but for another, it is a glimpse into a truly different set of cultural romantic expectations (for those of us who are not Japanese).

The ostensible subject is the adventures of a wandering swordsman, but very quickly it becomes obvious that the real subject is the quest for self-improvement - is this quest a noble one, or ultimately selfish? Everywhere our hero goes, disaster follows - he leaves the woman who loves him, and others who depend on him, basically to fend for themselves; his quest seems to be in equal parts a quest to perfect his murdering prowess and to perfect his skill in all of the arts - he's part serial killer and part artist, eventually able to appreciate a blood feud and flower-arranging (there is one passage in which he realizes the skill of a samurai by the message he passes on - which contains the gift of a cut flower; the cut of the stem is perfect).

The hero gradually comes to realize that perfection has to serve a social purpose, but it is not at all obvious what, exactly, that purpose is to be.
The object of life is not to be on the side of the majority, but to escape finding oneself in the ranks of the insane—Marcus Aurelius

Syt

Quote from: Gups on January 23, 2013, 09:39:44 AM
Pretty sure you'll enjoy him. He has big ideas and he knows how to put them into words. He aslo has a great sense of humour.

Recommend that you start with Consider Phlebas or The Player of Games.

I'm about half way through Consider Phlebas (end of the Damage game on Vavatch) and having a good time with it. It's satirical exaggeration and casual callousness reminds me of Transmetropolitan a fair bit, and I'd be surprised if Ellis wasn't at least partly influenced by Banks in his portrayal of the future.
I am, somehow, less interested in the weight and convolutions of Einstein's brain than in the near certainty that people of equal talent have lived and died in cotton fields and sweatshops.
—Stephen Jay Gould

Proud owner of 42 Zoupa Points.

11B4V

"there's a long tradition of insulting people we disagree with here, and I'll be damned if I listen to your entreaties otherwise."-OVB

"Obviously not a Berkut-commanded armored column.  They're not all brewing."- CdM

"We've reached one of our phase lines after the firefight and it smells bad—meaning it's a little bit suspicious... Could be an amb—".

Ed Anger

Stay Alive...Let the Man Drive

Admiral Yi


Habbaku

Currently reading The Steel Bonnets, by George MacDonald Fraser.  Good stuff.

http://ecx.images-amazon.com/images/I/71VAKmb5R9L.jpg
The medievals were only too right in taking nolo episcopari as the best reason a man could give to others for making him a bishop. Give me a king whose chief interest in life is stamps, railways, or race-horses; and who has the power to sack his Vizier (or whatever you care to call him) if he does not like the cut of his trousers.

Government is an abstract noun meaning the art and process of governing and it should be an offence to write it with a capital G or so as to refer to people.

-J. R. R. Tolkien

Josephus

Finished reading Alan Furst's Mission to Paris....did I ever mention how brilliant he is?

Also read Flashback by Dan Simmons, a dystopian future of an America ruined by Obama's spending and a population addicted to a new drug that allows them to relive moments of their lives.
Civis Romanus Sum<br /><br />"My friends, love is better than anger. Hope is better than fear. Optimism is better than despair. So let us be loving, hopeful and optimistic. And we'll change the world." Jack Layton 1950-2011

Grey Fox

Colonel Caliga is Awesome.

garbon

That Improbable bit seems like an odd subhead.
"I've never been quite sure what the point of a eunuch is, if truth be told. It seems to me they're only men with the useful bits cut off."
I drank because I wanted to drown my sorrows, but now the damned things have learned to swim.

Caliga

For some reason I have no interest whatsoever in Australian history, but I've read up on the history of New Zealand a bit. :hmm:
0 Ed Anger Disapproval Points

garbon

Quote from: Caliga on February 27, 2013, 09:50:35 AM
For some reason I have no interest whatsoever in Australian history, but I've read up on the history of New Zealand a bit. :hmm:

For some reason I have no interest whatsoever in your posts, but I've read many. :(

:P
"I've never been quite sure what the point of a eunuch is, if truth be told. It seems to me they're only men with the useful bits cut off."
I drank because I wanted to drown my sorrows, but now the damned things have learned to swim.

Caliga

That describes most posts made by most posters from my standpoint. :hmm:
0 Ed Anger Disapproval Points