| Author |
Message |
Richard Chambers
Guest
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| Posted: Sun Nov 07, 2004 9:27 pm
Post subject: Book recommendations for Christmas and 2005. |
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At this time of year, I start to think about buying at least one book for
myself, under the pretext that it is a Christmas present for my wife.
I would be glad to receive your recommendations on which books to buy. I get
confused very easily by too many recommendations from the same contributor,
so I ask you please to recommend a maximum of two books per person, as
follows:-
a. One recommendation for the best fiction you have read this year
(alternatively, the best fiction you have read in your lifetime).
b. One recommendation for the best factual book you have read this year
(with the same alternative as above).
In both cases, a brief synopsis, and an explanation of why you liked the
book, would help me (and other readers) to decide whether it is "my sort of
book".
My own contribution:-
----------------------------------------------------
Fiction.
"The curious incident of the dog in the night-time", by Mark Haddon.
Jonathan Cape, 2003.
The story of a few months in the life of a teenager who suffers from
Asperger's Syndrome, written from his own point of view. Autism comes in
varying degrees of seriousness. At the milder end of the spectrum, we have
Asperger's Syndrome. The sufferer can sometimes be highly intelligent, even
near-genius within a relatively narrow field, but psychologically is a near
cripple because of his inability to form relationships with other people.
This may include an inability to form a relationship even with his own
parents, The condition also makes it impossible for the sufferer to
understand any point of view but his own, and often includes obsessive
behaviour. We follow the young man as his behaviour causes havoc to all
around him.
I liked the book because it alternated unpredicably between the very funny
and the extremely sad. An unusual novel, in that it introduced various
extraneous subjects that the young man was interested in, such as Chaos
Theory, Mathematical Probability Analysis, etc. The author did this very
cleverly, so that an intelligent lay reader could easily understand. The
novel therefore provides an entertaining introduction of the reader to a
variety of subjects that he has probably never studied before. The novel is
both intelligent and entertaining.
-----
Factual
"The making of the English working class", by E P Thompson. Penguin Books.
A 935-page history of the turbulent period from 1780 to 1832, when England
started its long drawn-out industrial revolution. A time of perpetual
near-revolution by the workers, restrained by frequent repression by the
government. Government spies keeping their eyes on agitators. Riots.
Subversion by the disaffected during the war against Napoleon Bonaparte. The
disgraceful Peterloo incident, in which several peaceful demonstrators,
demanding the right to vote, were cut down when the cavalry rode in to break
up the demonstration. Child labour in factories, not very far removed from
actual slavery. The secret night-time meetings and torch light processions
of the Luddites, intent on breaking the machines that they perceived as a
means of denying them a livelihood. The Cato Street Conspiracy and the
attempt to assassinate King George IV.
A ripping yarn. So well written that I found it difficult to put the book
down.
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Laura F Spira
Guest
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| Posted: Sun Nov 07, 2004 10:24 pm
Post subject: Re: Book recommendations for Christmas and 2005. |
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|
Richard Chambers wrote:
[..]
| Quote: |
a. One recommendation for the best fiction you have read this year
(alternatively, the best fiction you have read in your lifetime).
|
The two pieces of fiction that have made the greatest impression on me
recently are:
The Minotaur takes a Cigarette Break, Steven Sherill, Canongate 2004
- which I thought addressed the problems of being an outsider in a very
insightful and quite extraordinary way. The Minotaur has somehow become
what I think is called a short-order cook, in a diner but no-one seems
very surprised by this. The difficulties he has in daily life -
problems with accidental damage by his horns, for example, and hang-ups
about his past - could have been farcical but are told in a way that I
found very moving.
Sunset over Chocolate Mountains by Susan Elderkin, 4th Estate 2000
I loved this, another tale of misfits, set partly among the saguaro
cactus (for which I have a great affection) in Arizona, full of quaint
characters, who display great humanity, and live lives full of
belief-stretching coincidences. Reminded me of early Anne Tyler.
(Oddly, both of these books were chance finds, the makeweights in "3 for
2" offers where the other books were those I had specifically wanted to
read.)
| Quote: |
b. One recommendation for the best factual book you have read this year
(with the same alternative as above).
|
I'm reading Binyon's "Pushkin" (Harper Collins, 2003) at the moment and
think that will be the best but I was greatly impressed by
The Rhetoric of Economics by Deirdre McCloskey (University of Wisconsin
1998). McCloskey analyses the rhetorical tropes used by economists in
advancing their arguments in a way that offers a fresh perspective on
academic writing. (She used to be Donald McCloskey and I look forward to
reading her memoir "Crossing" which tells about her gender change.)
My *worst* factual book of the year has to be Galileo's Finger by Peter
Atkins which I found disappointingly unreadable. I really wanted to know
about the ten great ideas of science but I found Atkins' writing style
very irritating as he keeps referring to what has yet to come in
subsequent chapters. I'd be grateful for recommendations of good science
writing, accessible to the person whose knowledge of physics and
chemistry ended at O level 40 years ago!
--
Laura
(emulate St. George for email) |
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Jim Ward
Guest
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| Posted: Sun Nov 07, 2004 10:49 pm
Post subject: Re: Book recommendations for Christmas and 2005. |
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|
On Sun, 07 Nov 2004 14:27:13 GMT, "Richard Chambers"
<richard.chambers7@NOSPAMntlworld.com> wrote:
| Quote: | b. One recommendation for the best factual book you have read this year
(with the same alternative as above).
|
I suggest "Yoga for People Who Can't Be Bothered to Do It" by Geoff
Dyer. Geoff is such a fun slacker, and even better, he writes like a
slacker. It's a nice change-up from writers who want to move their
plot along and tell you about things. As one Amazon reviewer writes,
it's like sitting in a chair with a glass of whisky and listening to a
hippie raconteur tell you his tale.
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Jim Ward
Guest
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| Posted: Sun Nov 07, 2004 10:52 pm
Post subject: Re: Book recommendations for Christmas and 2005. |
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On Sun, 07 Nov 2004 15:24:00 +0000, Laura F Spira
<laura@DRAGONspira.fsbusiness.co.uk> wrote:
| Quote: | I'd be grateful for recommendations of good science
writing, accessible to the person whose knowledge of physics and
chemistry ended at O level 40 years ago!
|
If you like chemistry, I suggest Oliver Sacks' "Uncle Tungsten". |
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Jim Ward
Guest
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| Posted: Sun Nov 07, 2004 11:02 pm
Post subject: Re: Book recommendations for Christmas and 2005. |
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|
On Sun, 07 Nov 2004 14:27:13 GMT, "Richard Chambers"
<richard.chambers7@NOSPAMntlworld.com> wrote:
| Quote: | At this time of year, I start to think about buying at least one book for
myself, under the pretext that it is a Christmas present for my wife.
|
Just one book? My M.O. is to collect reccommendations from all my
friends, set a budget of $100 (good luck with that one), buy all the
books on the list, put them on a shelf and graze at will over the
holidays (it's such a treat to have a whole shelf of books that you
might like, you will feel like a kid opening a box of chocolates).
When I'm done with a book, I pass it along. Happy reading! |
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the Omrud
Guest
|
| Posted: Sun Nov 07, 2004 11:59 pm
Post subject: Re: Book recommendations for Christmas and 2005. |
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|
Richard Chambers typed thus:
| Quote: | At this time of year, I start to think about buying at least one book for
myself, under the pretext that it is a Christmas present for my wife.
I would be glad to receive your recommendations on which books to buy. I get
confused very easily by too many recommendations from the same contributor,
so I ask you please to recommend a maximum of two books per person, as
follows:-
a. One recommendation for the best fiction you have read this year
(alternatively, the best fiction you have read in your lifetime).
b. One recommendation for the best factual book you have read this year
(with the same alternative as above).
In both cases, a brief synopsis, and an explanation of why you liked the
book, would help me (and other readers) to decide whether it is "my sort of
book".
My own contribution:-
----------------------------------------------------
Fiction.
"The curious incident of the dog in the night-time", by Mark Haddon.
Jonathan Cape, 2003.
|
This would be on my short list for this year too. If you want to
explore the same theme into somewhat darker territory, I recommend
"Speed of Dark" by Elizabeth Moon. It is written from the point of
view of an autistic adult in the near future when autism has been
eliminated - the story teller is one of the last people to "suffer"
with the condition. He and other autistic people are employed to do
work which requires their outlook on the world, but they are
expensive. A new boss wants them to undertake treatment to become
"normal". There is much discussion of the nature of what makes an
individual. It's nowhere as much fun as The Dog, but it's a lot more
adult.
Stephen Baxter continues to write consistently good SF novels - I've
read a few this year, and would suggest "The Light of Other Days"
(with a nod to Bob Shaw's "Other Days, Other Eyes"), co-written with
Arthur C Clarke. It's difficult to explain the plot without giving
away some of the important points, but it explores a world in which
everybody can see what everybody else is doing, and expands the scope
of this to a point far beyond what I would have thought of.
If you accept the definition of the book I most often re-read, it's
The Illuminatus Trilogy by Robert Anton Wilson and Robert Shea.
Astonishing. I've not yet re-read Eco's "Foucault's Pendulum", but I
found many parallels between these two, and the latter may be the
better book. Note that both of these are very heavy going.
--
David
=====
replace the first component of address
with the definite article. |
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Harvey Van Sickle
Guest
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| Posted: Mon Nov 08, 2004 12:03 am
Post subject: Re: Book recommendations for Christmas and 2005. |
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|
On 07 Nov 2004, Laura F Spira wrote
-snip-
| Quote: | My *worst* factual book of the year has to be Galileo's Finger by
Peter Atkins which I found disappointingly unreadable.
|
The worst one I tried was Melvyn Bragg on the "Adventure" of English,
which I purchased for "train reading" on a short break to Lille.
Gobstoppingly amateurish. (I gave up on it a little over half way
through -- about where he confidently gave one of the folk etymologies
for "tip" and followed it up a few pages later with one of the most
blatant comma splices I've come across in a published work. Pah.)
--
Cheers, Harvey
Ottawa/Toronto/Edmonton for 30 years;
Southern England for the past 22 years.
(for e-mail, change harvey.news to harvey.van) |
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Mickwick
Guest
|
| Posted: Mon Nov 08, 2004 2:21 am
Post subject: Re: Book recommendations for Christmas and 2005. |
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|
In alt.usage.english, Richard Chambers wrote:
| Quote: | I would be glad to receive your recommendations on which books to buy. I get
confused very easily by too many recommendations from the same contributor,
so I ask you please to recommend a maximum of two books per person, as
follows:-
|
[...]
Sorry, RC, I tend not to remember good things. It's an inherited
condition. Nothing I can do about it. (I'm sick, I need help. Make your
cheques out to ...)
Bad things, though? I'm your man.
The most *disappointing* book I read this year was _How Mumbo-Jumbo
Conquered the World: A Short History of Modern Delusions_ by the hugely
witty and likeable soft-lefty Francis Wheen. I'd been looking forward to
it for months and demanded a hardback copy as a present as soon as it
came out.
Don't buy it, not even as a remaindered paperback. It doesn't do what it
says on the tin. It says on the tin that Wheen, the always witty Wheen,
will show how Margaret Thatcher and the Ayatollah Khomeini combined to
kill off the Enlightenment and plunge us into a new Age of Unreason, a
world of wacky cults and weird French intellectuals, a world in which
anything will be believed as long as it doesn't make any sense.
What a terrific premise for a book!
Indeedy-doody, but Wheen didn't write it. Oddly, he didn't even try.
Khomeini hardly gets a look-in. Mrs Thatcher? A few routine punches on
the snout, that's all. Homeopathy, wacky cults, other Age of Unreason
stuff? Perhaps a dozen pages, no more. The Enlightenment overthrown?
Nope. Almost entirely forgotten.
After the first couple of chapters, the book turns into a tired and
*witless* Guardianista-on-autopilot rant against all the usual suspects
- Blair, Iraq, America ... Snore, snore, snore. Very, very, very, very
disappointing.
--
Mickwick
Vanity Fair's a ripper, though the TV adaptation of a couple of years ago is
even better. |
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Laura F Spira
Guest
|
| Posted: Mon Nov 08, 2004 3:02 am
Post subject: Re: Book recommendations for Christmas and 2005. |
|
|
Mickwick wrote:
| Quote: | In alt.usage.english, Richard Chambers wrote:
I would be glad to receive your recommendations on which books to buy.
I get
confused very easily by too many recommendations from the same
contributor,
so I ask you please to recommend a maximum of two books per person, as
follows:-
[...]
Sorry, RC, I tend not to remember good things. It's an inherited
condition. Nothing I can do about it. (I'm sick, I need help. Make your
cheques out to ...)
Bad things, though? I'm your man.
The most *disappointing* book I read this year was _How Mumbo-Jumbo
Conquered the World: A Short History of Modern Delusions_ by the hugely
witty and likeable soft-lefty Francis Wheen. I'd been looking forward to
it for months and demanded a hardback copy as a present as soon as it
came out.
Don't buy it, not even as a remaindered paperback. It doesn't do what it
says on the tin. It says on the tin that Wheen, the always witty Wheen,
will show how Margaret Thatcher and the Ayatollah Khomeini combined to
kill off the Enlightenment and plunge us into a new Age of Unreason, a
world of wacky cults and weird French intellectuals, a world in which
anything will be believed as long as it doesn't make any sense.
What a terrific premise for a book!
Indeedy-doody, but Wheen didn't write it. Oddly, he didn't even try.
Khomeini hardly gets a look-in. Mrs Thatcher? A few routine punches on
the snout, that's all. Homeopathy, wacky cults, other Age of Unreason
stuff? Perhaps a dozen pages, no more. The Enlightenment overthrown?
Nope. Almost entirely forgotten.
After the first couple of chapters, the book turns into a tired and
*witless* Guardianista-on-autopilot rant against all the usual suspects
- Blair, Iraq, America ... Snore, snore, snore. Very, very, very, very
disappointing.
|
Yup, I agree. I'd saved it to read on train journeys last week. Very
disappointing and not even funny. The front cover says "Hilarious -
Jeremy Paxman": well, whatever makes Jeremy laugh, it doesn't raise even
a smile from me. Wheen on Marx was much better.
--
Laura
(emulate St. George for email) |
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Ross Howard
Guest
|
| Posted: Mon Nov 08, 2004 3:08 am
Post subject: Re: Book recommendations for Christmas and 2005. |
|
|
On Sun, 7 Nov 2004 16:59:19 -0000, the Omrud <usenet.omrud@gmail.com>
wrought:
| Quote: | Richard Chambers typed thus:
At this time of year, I start to think about buying at least one book for
myself, under the pretext that it is a Christmas present for my wife.
I would be glad to receive your recommendations on which books to buy. I get
confused very easily by too many recommendations from the same contributor,
so I ask you please to recommend a maximum of two books per person, as
follows:-
a. One recommendation for the best fiction you have read this year
(alternatively, the best fiction you have read in your lifetime).
b. One recommendation for the best factual book you have read this year
(with the same alternative as above).
In both cases, a brief synopsis, and an explanation of why you liked the
book, would help me (and other readers) to decide whether it is "my sort of
book".
My own contribution:-
----------------------------------------------------
Fiction.
"The curious incident of the dog in the night-time", by Mark Haddon.
Jonathan Cape, 2003.
This would be on my short list for this year too. If you want to
explore the same theme into somewhat darker territory, I recommend
"Speed of Dark" by Elizabeth Moon. It is written from the point of
view of an autistic adult in the near future when autism has been
eliminated - the story teller is one of the last people to "suffer"
with the condition. He and other autistic people are employed to do
work which requires their outlook on the world, but they are
expensive. A new boss wants them to undertake treatment to become
"normal". There is much discussion of the nature of what makes an
individual. It's nowhere as much fun as The Dog, but it's a lot more
adult.
Stephen Baxter continues to write consistently good SF novels - I've
read a few this year, and would suggest "The Light of Other Days"
(with a nod to Bob Shaw's "Other Days, Other Eyes"), co-written with
Arthur C Clarke. It's difficult to explain the plot without giving
away some of the important points, but it explores a world in which
everybody can see what everybody else is doing, and expands the scope
of this to a point far beyond what I would have thought of.
If you accept the definition of the book I most often re-read, it's
The Illuminatus Trilogy by Robert Anton Wilson and Robert Shea.
Astonishing. I've not yet re-read Eco's "Foucault's Pendulum", but I
found many parallels between these two, and the latter may be the
better book. Note that both of these are very heavy going.
|
Don't you find, like me,[1] that *Illuminatus!* gets even heavier
going with each reread? Why does that happen?
As for Foucault's Pendulum, I disliked it intensely: For me, it was
just a postmodern *Illuminatusª* with a dash of *The Crying of Lot
Forty-Nine* for good measure, stapled together in a hurry by someone
who should have quit while he was ahead after *The Name of the Rose*.
Disturbingly, Eco's career as a novelist mirrors that M. Night
Shenanigan's as a filmmaker -- each oeuvre can be counted on to be
much, much worse than its predecessor. And if *Foucault's Pendulum*
was Eco's *Signs*, then *Baudalino* is his *The Village*.
But, since I'm just two thirds of the way through the first of the
three volumes of Neal Stephenson's Baroque Cycle, and I temporarily
put down *Infinite Jest* a few months ago with a mere 600 pages to go,
I don't expect I'll be needing any more book recommendations until
after Christmas.
--
Ross Howard |
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Qp10qp
Guest
|
| Posted: Mon Nov 08, 2004 3:29 am
Post subject: Re: Book recommendations for Christmas and 2005. |
|
|
| Quote: | a. One recommendation for the best fiction you have read this year
(alternatively, the best fiction you have read in your lifetime).
b. One recommendation for the best factual book you have read this year
(with the same alternative as ab
|
I enjoyed "Post Office" by Charles Bukowski - a mixture of fact and fiction.
Cleanly written, pacy, and packed with enough cynicism to make Reinhold Rey
seem like Mother Teresa.
Peasemarch. |
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the Omrud
Guest
|
| Posted: Mon Nov 08, 2004 6:17 am
Post subject: Re: Book recommendations for Christmas and 2005. |
|
|
Ross Howard typed thus:
| Quote: | On Sun, 7 Nov 2004 16:59:19 -0000, the Omrud <usenet.omrud@gmail.com
wrought:
If you accept the definition of the book I most often re-read, it's
The Illuminatus Trilogy by Robert Anton Wilson and Robert Shea.
Astonishing. I've not yet re-read Eco's "Foucault's Pendulum", but I
found many parallels between these two, and the latter may be the
better book. Note that both of these are very heavy going.
Don't you find, like me,[1] that *Illuminatus!* gets even heavier
going with each reread? Why does that happen?
As for Foucault's Pendulum, I disliked it intensely: For me, it was
just a postmodern *Illuminatusª* with a dash of *The Crying of Lot
Forty-Nine* for good measure, stapled together in a hurry by someone
who should have quit while he was ahead after *The Name of the Rose*.
Disturbingly, Eco's career as a novelist mirrors that M. Night
Shenanigan's as a filmmaker -- each oeuvre can be counted on to be
much, much worse than its predecessor. And if *Foucault's Pendulum*
was Eco's *Signs*, then *Baudalino* is his *The Village*.
|
It was about five years ago that I read Foucault's Pendulum - I
certainly don't remember disliking it, but I didn't feel the same
excitement I get from Illuminatus. No, I don't think I have had any
problems re-reading Illuminatus although this year for the first time
I gave up during my fourth or fifth read of the Schroedinger's Cat
Trilogy.
--
David
=====
replace the first component of address
with the definite article. |
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R H Draney
Guest
|
| Posted: Mon Nov 08, 2004 11:14 am
Post subject: When semioticists attack (was: Book recommendations for Chri |
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Ross Howard filted:
| Quote: |
=>As for Foucault's Pendulum, I disliked it intensely: For me, it was
just a postmodern *Illuminatusª* with a dash of *The Crying of Lot
Forty-Nine* for good measure, stapled together in a hurry by someone
who should have quit while he was ahead after *The Name of the Rose*.
Disturbingly, Eco's career as a novelist mirrors that M. Night
Shenanigan's as a filmmaker -- each oeuvre can be counted on to be
much, much worse than its predecessor. And if *Foucault's Pendulum*
was Eco's *Signs*, then *Baudalino* is his *The Village*.
|
I can say that I was, at worst, disappointed by "Foucault"...to a greater extent
than "Rose", the story didn't end, it just "stopped happening"...ultimately, it
was a clever premise that didn't prove out as narrative...but I disagree that
Eco's going downhill with each book; "The Island of the Day Before" held my
interest better than either of its precursors....
Haven't had a chance to finish "Baudolino" yet...things are literally piling up
here....r |
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don groves
Guest
|
| Posted: Mon Nov 08, 2004 11:50 am
Post subject: Re: When semioticists attack (was: Book recommendations for |
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|
In article <cmmrr302app@drn.newsguy.com>, R H Draney at
dadoctah@spamcop.net poured forth...
| Quote: | Ross Howard filted:
=>As for Foucault's Pendulum, I disliked it intensely: For me, it was
just a postmodern *Illuminatusª* with a dash of *The Crying of Lot
Forty-Nine* for good measure, stapled together in a hurry by someone
who should have quit while he was ahead after *The Name of the Rose*.
Disturbingly, Eco's career as a novelist mirrors that M. Night
Shenanigan's as a filmmaker -- each oeuvre can be counted on to be
much, much worse than its predecessor. And if *Foucault's Pendulum*
was Eco's *Signs*, then *Baudalino* is his *The Village*.
I can say that I was, at worst, disappointed by "Foucault"...to a greater extent
than "Rose", the story didn't end, it just "stopped happening"...ultimately, it
was a clever premise that didn't prove out as narrative...but I disagree that
Eco's going downhill with each book; "The Island of the Day Before" held my
interest better than either of its precursors....
Haven't had a chance to finish "Baudolino" yet...things are literally piling up
here....r
|
Literarily?
--
dg (domain=ccwebster) |
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R H Draney
Guest
|
| Posted: Mon Nov 08, 2004 1:32 pm
Post subject: Re: When semioticists attack (was: Book recommendations for |
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|
don groves filted:
| Quote: |
In article <cmmrr302app@drn.newsguy.com>, R H Draney at=20
dadoctah@spamcop.net poured forth...
=20
|
There's that "=20" again....
| Quote: | Haven't had a chance to finish "Baudolino" yet...things are literally pil=
ing up
here....r
Literarily?
|
That too...also musicodiscographically....r |
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