Printable View
I'm lucky enough to have been drinking with Iain Banks a few times. He really knows his malt scotch! Great guy as well as an intriguing author. "The Crow Road" has the greatest personal resonance for me. Apart from the dark mystery at its heart, it reminds me so much of growing up in Scotland around the same time.Quote:
Originally Posted by You Love Us
Is it as good as his earlier book, "The Prize" Stavros?
In a word, no. The Prize was originally published in 1991, so The Quest begins around that time -end of the USSR, Desert Storm, Globalization, and its latest stats on the history of oil prices are from this year, so its bang up to date. At 800 pages it looks daunting but its really a sequence of longish essays on various energy topics, some badly written and over-written prose in Yergin's style (he hasn't improved on this since his first book on the NSA) but always well informed and acutely in tune with the issues, coal, oil and gas, shale, nuclear, renewables, climate change, et al -it can be superficial but that's Yergin.
His argument: The mixed-energy future is already here; conventional fossil fuels are helping the existing rich states maintain their energy security, while bringing in a new cohort of previously underdeveloped states (India and China most obviously) into urban environments at a higher level of consumption, which means he sees global peak oil set around 2030 -but, with more conservation, unconventional fossil fuels (shale), and renewables, demand will be met; the real quest for energy security longer term, is going to be met through knowledge and innovation.
It is a topical rather than an intellctual study, far too long, and like The Prize it covers a lot of politics and science, but Yergin never gets into the business history or the business issues; even in The Prize the seven sisters were not considered in the context of modern capitalism.
Yergin is a clever guy, he published his Cambridge [UK] thesis on the National Security Agency in a crowded field and must have realised if he wanted a career it lay somewhere else, and The Prize is a major improvement on Sampson, in what was at that time a neglected subject. He has cornered the market and added the think-tank element through Cambridge Energy Research Associates (now IHS) so his industry covers the history and politics as well as detailed policy. Another American, Joe Pratt writes interesting books on the petroleum industry but doesn't have the Grade A status of Yergin, who charges the earth for public appearances.
I'm reading the latest three part novel by Haruki Murakami "IQ84" - a wonderfully strange and haunting novel set in two different (it seems) worlds in Japan in the 1980s. A really great and original writer.
I'm reading tons of books at the minute. Just finished Winter In Madrid by C J Sansom. An odd book around the Spanish Civil War. But very readable.
I read The Wind-up Bird Chronicle......................i found it similar to looking at a Dali painting: not quite sure what to make of it!Quote:
Originally Posted by Prospero
I just finished Ian McCalman's The Last Alchemist (a somewhat irreverent and highly enjoyable biography of Giuseppe Balsamo AKA Count Cagliostro). Right now I'm reading Goethe's The Sorrows of Young Werther (which is far more philosophical and engaging than I thought it would be) as well as Orhan Pamuk's The New Life (which i find dense yet whimsical, contrived and mysterious all at the same time)
Yes - there is a very surreal quality to Murakami. Experimental writing in some ways and yet woven into an exceedingly compelling narrative. I have the Wind-Up Bird as my next notional read- though Umberto Eco's new book "The Prague Cemetary" is also on my Kindle.
Pamuk is a great writer. If you've not read them I can recommend "Snow" and "My Name is Red."
So many books, so many girls, so many films, so much... and so little time.
Well, I recently finished the entire d'Artagnan cycle (which comes to either 6 or 7 novels depending on the publisher and translation) by Dumas pere and now I'm bouncing between Thoughts on Life and Art by Da Vinci and Who Censored Roger Rabbit? by Gary Wolf (which is darker and funnier than the movie loosely adapted from it).
Though the thought occurs that I probably should have balanced Da Vinci with George Carlin.
Maybe I'll do Plato-Carlin alternate read next, that should make my head explode.
Plato and Carlin - lol
How about Da Vinci and the Da Vinci Code.....
or Aristotle and stephen King etc
Although it was published in 1998, the best book that I read this year was Tony Judt's The Burden of Responsiblity, in which he examines the lives of three Frenchmen: Leon Blum, Albert Camus and Raymond Aron. The book is short by today's standards, and offers an incisive analysis of anti-semitism in France, and the bitter conflict between and within the left-wing and right-wing intelligentsia -in which Sartre comes off very badly indeed, as is inevitable when the facts about this pseudo-political acrobat are set in their proper context.
I also recommend Archie Brown's The Rise and Fall of Communism (2009), focused for the most part on the USSR and Eastern Europe.
Paul Donnelley's Fade to Black, A Book of Movie Obituaries has been a favourite for years; I also read Eileen Chang's Lust, Caution before seeng the film for a second time -it is a powerful and explicit film and adds a lot more than is in the story, which is a minor classic.
I like Tony Judt a lot (or should that be in the past tense) but haven't read that one Stavros. Gonna order it today.
The best thing I read over the last six months is Galore by Michael Crummey. It's a kind of Newfoundland version of one hundred years of solitude. I highly recommend it.
Currently I'm about a fourth of the way into Luminarium by Alex Shaker. It was slow getting into but it's getting interesting. It's an excursion into cyber-Hindu-cosmology! Also in the middle of David bellos's Is That A Fish In Your Ear? An personal look at the philosophy of language translation. [Also thoroughly involved in Stability and Chaos in Celestial Mechanics by Alessandra Celletti, but it's not for everyone]
Got that on my Kindle but haven't opened it yet. Without spilling any beans can you recommend it? I loved his Cryptonomicon, couldn't get through Quicksilver. Couldn't even make myself start Anathem. I do love all his early cyberpunk stuff, especially Snow Crash.Quote:
Originally Posted by lancecd
Trish do you now read most of your books on a kindle? It's odd because I read so much on the web on this screen, but can't imagine ever using a kindle to read a book -I wonder how many people use them--?
I us a Kindle for novels - books that I figure I'll not read again. (But never for books I plan to keep) Saves cluttering the house and very portable. Great for reading on trains and planes (though they tell you to turn your book off during landing and take off. You don't have that problem with a paperback) Plus one drawback to a Kindle is you can't pass your book on to anyone else. And I've not cracked anyway to copy from a kindle to m computer so i can let someone else can have the book. But then they cost a third of the cost of the hardback.
To be precise, I use the Kindle App on my iPad. The nearest bookstore really good book store is more than an hour away (I live in a rural college town). When I read a good review or hear an author being interviewed, the temptation to just download the book and not have to wait for next trip to my favorite bookstore is just too tempting. I can read professional books on the iPad. When reading math or science I need to stare and contemplate a page for what may be hours at a time. It's too much of a drain on the battery.
The big drawbacks of reading books on the iPad are:
1) you need an electric charge just to read a fucking book!!!!
2) you can't lend or give away your book (there is a limited loaning policy but it's so constraint it sucks royally).
3) you can't admire the cover whenever your book is just sitting on the counter or desktop. i tend to forget the titles and authors of minor works without those frequent reinforcements.
The pluses are:
1) you can take a whole library of books with you where ever you go and read whatever you're in the mood to read.
2) you can make notations no margin could ever hold and not have them clutter up the page.
3) at present, Kindle books are a tad cheaper than book books.
I think you mentioned all of the above pros and cons in one form or another.
Reading on the iPad is kinda new to me and so I'm a bit enamored by the experience. I'm sure it'll wear thin within a few more months.
Hmmm....I see the point about storage, I sold 500 books about 10 years ago but I still have at least a thousand or more and I know from the last time I moved I am dreading the next move when it comes; but though I do like to sit in a room that looks like a library I wonder if I had to choose how many I would keep -then I could have them in hard copy and the rest on a kindle, only I have so many obscure books I doubt they exist electronically. And one of the trends in publishing I am getting quite grumpy about is the length of books -700-800 pages now seems normal for biographies and histories, it is beyond a joke. Soon people will have to have the foundations of their houses reinforced because of all that extra weight. And what can be said in 700 pages that can't be said in 200? One of the best books on colonialism, Kenneth Robinson's The Dilemmas of Trusteeship is 95 pages long -a lifetime of wisdom distilled into a pocket book that says more than most books five times as long. end of rant.
So what you're saying is that you're into light reading? ;)Quote:
Originally Posted by trish
Agreed about these biographies....seems everybody these days feel the need to divulge the details of their sordid but banal lives and opt to take 'the more due to less' path wherein they substitute the lack of anything interesting with long rambling chapters filled with meaningless bullshit which is somehow meant to deceive the masses into thinking the thing is worth reading.....kinda like reality TV shows.Quote:
Originally Posted by Stavros
Books filled with extraneous words may have their roots in Gibbons' The History of the Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire in which he carefully uses 100 words where 6 would have sufficed. So I lay some of the blame at the feet of the British.
If you need a home for your books.................I'd be happy to provide one!
Well it might not sound like it, but the Luminarium is light reading...sorta science fictiony so far. Stability and Chaos...not so much.Quote:
Originally Posted by runningdownthatdream
Putting all that weight in the "cloud" doesn't sound quite right either. It must be a black, precipitous thunder cloud.Quote:
Originally Posted by Stavros
I agree. For me the length of a book can be quite off-putting. I need to know I can read it within one lifespan.Quote:
And what can be said in 700 pages that can't be said in 200? One of the best books on colonialism, Kenneth Robinson's The Dilemmas of Trusteeship is 95 pages long -a lifetime of wisdom distilled into a pocket book that says more than most books five times as long. end of rant.
There are a lot of books, even recent publications, that haven't made it to Kindle yet and may never be. Victor Pelevin's Hall of Singing Caryatids is on my list of books to buy at the book store, because it's not available in Kindle format.Quote:
Hmmm....I see the point about storage, I sold 500 books about 10 years ago but I still have at least a thousand or more and I know from the last time I moved I am dreading the next move when it comes; but though I do like to sit in a room that looks like a library I wonder if I had to choose how many I would keep -then I could have them in hard copy and the rest on a kindle, only I have so many obscure books I doubt they exist electronically.
1) The development of word processors and then laptops/PCs has been cited as a cause -in the days when a writer sat at a desk with pen and paper, the physical act of writing determined length -now one can sit for hours, days, weeks without stop, so a 250 page book becomes 750 -but where are the editors in the publishing houses on this?Quote:
Originally Posted by runningdownthatdream
2) Biographies -you now really do need to know how many women Byron slept with (or JFK if they can count them all); how many children -in secret- the Duchess of Tinseltown gave birth to (and by whom); yet you rarely get told that King Charles I was five foot tall when Peter the Great of Russia was six foot eight, and just how big was Cromwell's -or Lincoln's- cock? Also, the only time Louis XIV took a bath was when he was ordered to by his physician who though it might be good for him...and William the Conqueror was the scion of Viking immigrants to Normandy.
3) You blame the British for lots of things, because you are Canadian (I have been to Canada, I know about these things) -maybe you should be more specific and blame the Scots...
There are a lot of books, even recent publications, that haven't made it to Kindle yet and may never be. Victor Pelevin's Hall of Singing Caryatids is on my list of books to buy at the book store, because it's not available in Kindle format
Description:
After auditioning for the part as a singing geisha at a dubious bar, Lena and eleven other “lucky” girls are sent to work at a posh underground nightclub reserved exclusively for Russia’s upper-crust elite. They are to be a sideshow attraction to the rest of the club’s entertainment, and are billed as the “famous singing caryatids.” Things only get weirder from there. Secret ointments, praying mantises, sexual escapades, and grotesque murder are quickly ushered into the plot. The Russian literary master Victor Pelevin holds nothing back, and The Hall of the Singing Caryatids, his most recent story to be translated into English, is sure to make you squirm in your seat with utter delight.
Trish, I am concerned for your health and well-being....
Gogol.
In general, our world has become more prone to over-run - in literature pleonasm (great word!) seems to have become the norm.Quote:
Originally Posted by Stavros
Indeed, us Canadians should be blaming the Scots and their predilection for wanting to get everything right regardless of the physical/mental/spiritual consequences. Are they really still so anal in Scotland? Though without their efficiencies the Empire would likely never have accomplished as much as it did.
Of course "Things get weirder from there" got my attention. But I think is was the word "squirm" appearing in the same sentence with "utter delight" that assured its place in my list of books to read. Besides I love caryatids and was previously delighted by Pelevin's Sacred Book of the Werewolf.Quote:
Originally Posted by Stavros
My lady is currently reading The blood countess,the first Pandora English novel series by Tara Moss and is thoroughly enjoying it.It's got that real supernatural theme feel,similar to the true blood series by Charlaine Harris.
i am reading the Black Company by Glen Cook its about a mercenary company hired by warlocks to fight in a war against rebel warlocks and their soldiers .a great book!
Hah! I hadn't thought of Da Vinci and the Da vinci Code!Quote:
Originally Posted by Prospero
But I think if you go by sheer volume of sales it should be the Bible and Stephen King. Though I venture to guess more people have actually read King.
How about Machiavelli and Milton Friedman?
Quote:
Originally Posted by MatiasTz
By now King has written far more words than are in the Bible. He must have have outpaced it tenfold. But I'd argue with the idea that he is more read. The Bible and the Qur'an must be the most read books surely.
yeah both a pain in the ass:hide-1:Quote:
Originally Posted by Prospero
Would you agree that people read Stephen King for diversions and entertainment, but 'consult' the Bible and the Qu'ran for anything but diversion and entertainment -indeed, if they read it properly or understand it; but seek comfort, or guidance or worse- an excuse to behave in a way that those religious texts do not condone? I think this is why they are both controversial, quite apart from the issues of who wrote it, what was intended, and for whom -none of which are problems with Stephen King.Quote:
Originally Posted by Prospero
Can't disagree with what you say Stavros, but I also don't see how this conflicts with my point that both these sacred texts are 'read" more than King's entertainments. Understanding, misusing, using it for solace or guidance or comfort etc are not the point.
Just had a few days at home due to a small op and have just re read 2 books from a very crouded bookshelf. On the Road by Jack Kerouac and Fierce Invalids Home from Hot Climates by Tom Robbins.
Just started La Sombra Del Veinto in Spanish just to try and keep up my rapidly diminishing Spanish!
D
Starting to read the George R. R. Martin's A Game of Thrones 4 pack bundle that I got for the Kindle.
Well, I was being facetious, but that said, I'm not so sure about that. Many, many people own the Bible (and the Koran) but have not read them beginning to end. (I own both and have read them more than once, but I'm the only person I know that has done so) In my overall experience most people do not read the Bible, they let others, like their preists, pastors, etc., read and interpret it for them.Quote:
Originally Posted by Prospero
I'll do some research and see if there's been a study about those that own the Bible as opposed to those that actually read it. And I don't mean finding a few sections and reading them -- I mean cover to cover.
I hope you'll give a review ...Quote:
Originally Posted by ValerieNelson
Will do :)Quote:
Originally Posted by MatiasTz
I'm reading the manual to my NorthStar V8 STS :) Damn thing requires a PHD to figure out.
I loved "Fierce Invalids". I feel like I'm one of the few who think Robbins is getting better all the time.Quote:
Originally Posted by deangamble1967
Currently reading a couple of posthumous Vonnegut short story collections, starting with While Mortals Sleep.
i was reading lullaby by chuck palahniuk but have moved on to a more interesting novel about elizabeth bathory