bup's comments
(member since Oct 07, 2007)
bup's comments from the SDMB - Straight Dope group.
(showing 1-20 of 37)
Wow - cool stuff! I have to read these.
The SDMB has a higher incidence of published authors than the population as a whole - which of them have people read?
I know jsgoddess has a book of poetry published -
http://www.goodreads.com/book/show/16453...
and cricetus has just had his first book published -
http://www.goodreads.com/book/show/34082...
What other ones?
I've kind of had a reverse process with Faulkner - because it was so hard for me when I was younger, I thought of it as great. Now he doesn't do it for me.
Hemingway, on the other hand, who I thought was dumb when I was younger (but never read any - I was a jerk), is one of my favorite writers.
bup.
This topic is reminding me that there's still about 8000 books I've always meant to read.
Good Lord. I've read 70 this year, of which 20 have been audio, and that's the most I've ever read in a year. I don't know how you people do it.
My goal for next year is 50 books.
I'm getting "Les Mis" as an unabridged audio book. It might be my commute book for an entire year, but that's OK.
"A Tale of Two Cities" has a little humor in it - involving grave-robbing.And a great ending.
A bunch, but like Julie, many more in my 'too read' list than 'read.'
But, but Laura! The title of the list is "1001 Books You MUST READ before you DIE."You MUST read them. This is not a springboard for new ideas, it's an imperative. And any spreadsheet that KNOWS WHEN I'LL DIE is too smart to be questioned on matters such as what are the good books.
Here's the list:http://www.goodreads.com/list/show/6.Bes...
"Pride and Prejudice" is number 7. We also have "Portrait of Dorian Gray," "Dracula," "Sense and Sensibility," "Northanger Abbey"...
And it's not just like a one-person slip-up. This list represents *consensus*, which is what really makes me fear for society. Admittedly, the list is young and the total number of voters and votes is small thus far. Still, *gnashes teeth*
In the "list" section of this site, there's a list of the best books of the 20th century.
Right now number 4 on the list is "Jane Eyre."
What's really obnoxious is that book "1001 Books YOU MUST READ BEFORE YOU DIE." So no matter how big your reading list was before, now it's bigger.And you know the people who wrote the stupid book haven't read every one of them, but now they make us feel like we're inferior because we haven't.
And I've read like 30 of them, and there's a spreadsheet that says I have to read 31 a year now because the spreadsheet knows WHEN I'LL DIE.
Sometime I'll do one of these. Because of budget realities in my life, I'm depending on paperbackswap/garage sales/friends for my books right now, so "Thread of Grace" won't work (I think I could snag a copy by ~October!).But I do watch this group and someday hope to do a group read.
Well, wait a minute - what was the thing that bothered you from "East of Eden"?
You know, my goals for 2008 are about the same as they were in 2007 - 2 books a month.
I'm having no problem - if I include audio books and YA, I've read 17 books already this year. Take away YA and audio, and I've still read 8 books.
Of course, my reading goals are pretty modest by this group's standards.
I don't have any special goals for content - I tend to go for classics anyway, and have purposely tried to lighten it up a bit this year.
He felt like gazpacho. He was hungry.
Oh, and the dang "Left Behind" books are famous for this. The first book, which I could only stomach for ~50 pages, had La Guardia as an international airport, and airplanes in radio contact to airports from thousands of miles away. Lots of other stuff, too, that I'm blocking on.
...and that made it past the editors!? Or was it vanity press?Wow...the ones I've caught pale in comparison.
Rabies in Australia in one book (I'm pretty sure it's been kept out).
JK Rowling's astronomy knowledge is -- just terrible. Fer instance, she has two towns in England having sunrises at significantly different times. That's just not going to happen. She has Venus up at 11:30 at night. Orion visible in June. Stuff like that.
