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  • I mentioned this a couple months ago but George Saunders' first novel Lincoln in the Bardo is a great read. If you haven't read much modern or post-modern lit, the structure may be an annoyance for a while but stick with it and you'll be rewarded. If you're already a Saunders fan, your fandom will be strengthened. I found it to be a beautiful take on empathy among many other things.

    If you're an audio book lover, they went all out on this one. Supposed to be quite the celebrity laden event. NY times has a 10 minute 360 VR clip that's really cool.

    https://youtu.be/phuCt50JCk8

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    • I finished A Gentleman in Moscow last week. Absolutely loved it. Favorite book I have read in a while.

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      • I've been listening to The Nix on Audible. I'm enjoying it, but it seemed to be taking forever. I was a little annoyed with the narrator, I like his accents and inflection, but he seemed to droll on, and it has seemed like a really long book.

        With about an hour left in the book today, I noticed that I had my Audible app at 0.75X speed.

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        • I just find it curious that he makes absolutely no mention of one of the biggest stars on the Nike "roster" (Lance Armstrong and Livestrong), yet celebrates his personal connections to Alberto Salazar. I speculate that Phil Knight's personal relationship with running and the Oregon running community has blinded him somewhat. Other than that the memoir is interesting.

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          • Originally posted by Jeff Lebowski View Post
            Most of my audible listening is done in the car. I don't have a long commute but I am always amazed at how quickly I can get through books that way.

            At the same time I always have a book going on kindle for when I want to just read.
            Spurred by LiveCoug's mention of his public library audiobooks, I downloaded Overdrive and signed up for a library card. With my normal commute, it took me about one week to finish a standard sized book. During the same time, I read a Jack Reacher book on my Kindle. 2 books per week would end being a lot of books over the year.
            Ain't it like most people, I'm no different. We love to talk on things we don't know about.

            "The only one of us who is so significant that Jeff owes us something simply because he decided to grace us with his presence is falafel." -- All-American

            GIVE 'EM HELL, BRIGHAM!

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            • Originally posted by falafel View Post
              Spurred by LiveCoug's mention of his public library audiobooks, I downloaded Overdrive and signed up for a library card. With my normal commute, it took me about one week to finish a standard sized book. During the same time, I read a Jack Reacher book on my Kindle. 2 books per week would end being a lot of books over the year.
              "There is no creature more arrogant than a self-righteous libertarian on the web, am I right? Those folks are just intolerable."
              "It's no secret that the great American pastime is no longer baseball. Now it's sanctimony." -- Guy Periwinkle, The Nix.
              "Juilliardk N I ibuprofen Hyu I U unhurt u" - creekster

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              • Originally posted by chrisrenrut View Post
                I've been listening to The Nix on Audible. I'm enjoying it, but it seemed to be taking forever. I was a little annoyed with the narrator, I like his accents and inflection, but he seemed to droll on, and it has seemed like a really long book.

                With about an hour left in the book today, I noticed that I had my Audible app at 0.75X speed.
                Oh my. That is hilarious.

                I have purchased that book and it is waiting in my queue. I plan to enjoy it at 1.25x speed!
                "There is no creature more arrogant than a self-righteous libertarian on the web, am I right? Those folks are just intolerable."
                "It's no secret that the great American pastime is no longer baseball. Now it's sanctimony." -- Guy Periwinkle, The Nix.
                "Juilliardk N I ibuprofen Hyu I U unhurt u" - creekster

                Comment


                • Originally posted by woot View Post
                  I wrote my junior thesis at BYU about LBJ's handling of the war, and remember really liking that book, along with "Where the Domino Fell" and one with a title like "10,000 days of war" or something. "Dereliction of Duty" and "The Wrong War" were also really good from a more critical standpoint.
                  "Dereliction of Duty" by H.R. McMaster is not carried by the King County library system.

                  Written in 1998, it is currently the #1 book at Amazon right now. Nice perk of being named to be the National Security Adviser I guess.
                  You're actually pretty funny when you aren't being a complete a-hole....so basically like 5% of the time. --Art Vandelay
                  Almost everything you post is snarky, smug, condescending, or just downright mean-spirited. --Jeffrey Lebowski

                  Anyone can make war, but only the most courageous can make peace. --President Donald J. Trump
                  You furnish the pictures, and I’ll furnish the war. --William Randolph Hearst

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                  • Los pasos perdidos by Alejo Carpentier. It's his master work, and I've put off reading it for 17 years. So far, no me gusta.
                    "Yeah, but never trust a Ph.D who has an MBA as well. The PhD symbolizes intelligence and discipline. The MBA symbolizes lust for power." -- Katy Lied

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                    • Still working on A House Full of Women. LDS women were big on speaking in tongues and the laying on of hands, at least up until the late 1850s. Additionally, polygamy worked because most of those women basically functioned like single working mothers. I would recommend the book.

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                      • Finished (so I guess this doesn't belong in this thread) a couple of books over the weekend. Hero of the Empire (Candice Millard) is the story of Churchill during the Second Boer War, including his imprisonment and escape, which became huge news in the UK and helped launch his political career upon his return. It was enjoyable, but I didn't like it as much as Millard's Destiny of the Republic (the all-too-brief political life of James Garfield, including his assassination and the botched treatment by physicians ignorant of things like sepsis), which was outstanding.

                        And How the Irish Saved Civilization turned out to be a very interesting read. While not fully agreeing with some its sweeping conclusions, I found the whole story of the fall of the Roman Empire and its implications for Western letters (the illiterate Vikings and Germanic hordes destroyed much of the libraries at the time) fascinating. Thanks to the Irish who, starting with a British Roman slave who would become St. Patrick, started monasteries where the Bible and other great works of Latin literature were copied on a vast scale, much of our great literature and Aristotelian scholasticism were preserved. Thomas Cahill takes some poetic and historical license, but he writes superbly. It was a fun and interesting read, and has me very excited to visit Ireland and some of the monastic historical sites.

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                        • Originally posted by PaloAltoCougar View Post
                          And How the Irish Saved Civilization turned out to be a very interesting read. While not fully agreeing with some its sweeping conclusions, I found the whole story of the fall of the Roman Empire and its implications for Western letters (the illiterate Vikings and Germanic hordes destroyed much of the libraries at the time) fascinating. Thanks to the Irish who, starting with a British Roman slave who would become St. Patrick, started monasteries where the Bible and other great works of Latin literature were copied on a vast scale, much of our great literature and Aristotelian scholasticism were preserved. Thomas Cahill takes some poetic and historical license, but he writes superbly. It was a fun and interesting read, and has me very excited to visit Ireland and some of the monastic historical sites.
                          If you want to confirm your doubts about the Irish, then have a look at a book I recently finished reading called "The Swerve: How the World Became Modern"... specifically, Chapter Two. Basically, it presents the case that the ancient texts from Greece and Rome were preserved by Benedictine monasteries in Italy, Germany, and Switzerland (Ireland was not specifically mentioned). Rules of these monastic orders - as you note - included requirements for literacy, the demand for books, and the spiritual importance of the monotonous work of transcription, and so forth. This ensured that religious texts were not lost and also (somewhat) accidentally preserved many secular works. The one work highlighted in Swerve is Lucretius' "On the Nature of Things" which, written in 50BC, was a fairly incredible piece of work that predicted the existence and behavior of what he called "atoms" and other ideas that served (so it is claimed) as the source of inspiration for jump starting the Renaissance.

                          I can't recommend this non-fiction book highly enough. It is jam-packed with curious stories and ideas from the medieval past. Also FWIW, I'm confident that SeattleUte also would give it his highest recommendation.
                          You're actually pretty funny when you aren't being a complete a-hole....so basically like 5% of the time. --Art Vandelay
                          Almost everything you post is snarky, smug, condescending, or just downright mean-spirited. --Jeffrey Lebowski

                          Anyone can make war, but only the most courageous can make peace. --President Donald J. Trump
                          You furnish the pictures, and I’ll furnish the war. --William Randolph Hearst

                          Comment


                          • Originally posted by Walter Sobchak View Post
                            If you want to confirm your doubts about the Irish, then have a look at a book I recently finished reading called "The Swerve: How the World Became Modern"... specifically, Chapter Two. Basically, it presents the case that the ancient texts from Greece and Rome were preserved by Benedictine monasteries in Italy, Germany, and Switzerland (Ireland was not specifically mentioned). Rules of these monastic orders - as you note - included requirements for literacy, the demand for books, and the spiritual importance of the monotonous work of transcription, and so forth. This ensured that religious texts were not lost and also (somewhat) accidentally preserved many secular works. The one work highlighted in Swerve is Lucretius' "On the Nature of Things" which, written in 50BC, was a fairly incredible piece of work that predicted the existence and behavior of what he called "atoms" and other ideas that served (so it is claimed) as the source of inspiration for jump starting the Renaissance.

                            I can't recommend this non-fiction book highly enough. It is jam-packed with curious stories and ideas from the medieval past. Also FWIW, I'm confident that SeattleUte also would give it his highest recommendation.
                            you know I was going to discard this opinion and recommendation becasue, well, you know, its yours, but since SU would agree, then I guess I better read it!
                            PLesa excuse the tpyos.

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                            • Originally posted by creekster View Post
                              you know I was going to discard this opinion and recommendation becasue, well, you know, its yours, but since SU would agree, then I guess I better read it!
                              Hey, I said for what it's worth! For some, that is worth very little. YMMV.

                              SU has been itinerant of late, otherwise I'm sure he would chime in with a very reasonable endorsement that agreed with my own. But he's probably busy doing something important - like attending medical school - and just doesn't have the time.
                              You're actually pretty funny when you aren't being a complete a-hole....so basically like 5% of the time. --Art Vandelay
                              Almost everything you post is snarky, smug, condescending, or just downright mean-spirited. --Jeffrey Lebowski

                              Anyone can make war, but only the most courageous can make peace. --President Donald J. Trump
                              You furnish the pictures, and I’ll furnish the war. --William Randolph Hearst

                              Comment


                              • Norwegian by Night, by Derek Miller. Excellent so far.


                                EDIT: Finished yesterday. This novel might be the easiest recommendation ever as it will please such a wide variety of readers. If you're into genre fiction, it can stand toe to toe with just about any thriller and if literary fiction is more your thing it is a profound and contemplative novel worthy of your time. I'll be shocked if it isn't a movie within a few years.
                                Last edited by SteelBlue; 03-03-2017, 02:56 PM.

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