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<  The Third Eye Reading Room  ~  What's On Your Bookshelf?

Melody
Posted: Fri May 28, 2004 9:28 am Reply with quote
Joined: 20 May 2004 Posts: 2242 Location: TX
Tire,

In the pile of books next to my desk, Foucault's Pendulum is currently resting underneath the equally huge Quicksilver by Stephenson -- both are going with me on my one-woman westward ho vacation extravaganza, but only one will be chosen due to time constraints, I'm sure.

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lshap
Posted: Fri May 28, 2004 9:36 am Reply with quote
Site Admin Joined: 12 May 2004 Posts: 4246 Location: Montreal
Charles -- You're scaring me. Man! What a list!

For some perverse reason the thing that interests me most is your family history opus. Probably for the same reason I go over to someone's house and pore through their photo albums.

Melody -- I don't buy the argument from either you or Bocce that DVC was 'badly written'. Yes, Brown reached farther than he could grasp, but he churned out a very well-paced mystery book that hooked millions of eyeballs.

I get a little miffed at the presumption that the masses are, essentially, stupid and unable to discern good from bad. This book was a huge hit amongst adults all over the continent not because it was 'badly written', but because Brown was able to combine enough elements successfully enough to please his audience. All us pseudo-writers in here should be that bad.

The book doesn't take the place of serious research (thanks for the references, Tirebiter), nor does it delve deeply enough into its central theme to leave me feeling intellectually satisfied, but it was fun.

As to the screenplay, I'll bet real money it'll devolve into another stupid action movie cliche.
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lshap
Posted: Fri May 28, 2004 9:38 am Reply with quote
Site Admin Joined: 12 May 2004 Posts: 4246 Location: Montreal
FYI - I started DVC two days after finishing Anna Karenina. I have no idea how the juxtaposition of Tolstoy and Brown screwed with my psychology; someone else figure it out.
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Marilyn
Posted: Fri May 28, 2004 9:39 am Reply with quote
Joined: 20 May 2004 Posts: 8210 Location: Skokie (not a bad movie, btw)
I'm also interested in neurology. Oliver Sacks is a particular favorite. I've tried to delve into Antonia Damasio, but it's a bit over my head.
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lshap
Posted: Fri May 28, 2004 9:48 am Reply with quote
Site Admin Joined: 12 May 2004 Posts: 4246 Location: Montreal
Neurology written from what angle? (Notice my use of color which reflects gray matter)
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tirebiter
Posted: Fri May 28, 2004 9:50 am Reply with quote
Joined: 20 May 2004 Posts: 4011 Location: not far away
mel: "Quicksilver" was-- physically-- the heaviest book I ever read. I think they printed it on vellum or something.

Love that Neal Stephenson tho. The sequel's out soon-- likely another 900-pager....
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Marilyn
Posted: Fri May 28, 2004 9:57 am Reply with quote
Joined: 20 May 2004 Posts: 8210 Location: Skokie (not a bad movie, btw)
Tire, LOL. The neurology Sacks writes in on the order of short stories about people with unusual brain injuries. He wrote about an artist who lost the ability to see color, a man who mistook his wife for a hat (in other words, could not match language with visual cues), his own experience with a reverse phantom limb syndrome (he had his leg but it experienced it as an alien appendage that he wanted to be rid of). Damasio deals with the neurology of consciousness, that is, the biological foundation of the soul.
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marantzo
Posted: Fri May 28, 2004 10:08 am Reply with quote
Guest
A virtual non-reader has something to contribute.

tireface, I agree with you and the hipster in regards to Sanders. Tales of Beatnik Glory was wonderful.

When I was living in NYC I ran into Sanders a few times. I had interviewed him in the past when I had a show on CBC radio. Twice I had him in my cab and we would go get a beer. He was writing Family at the time. I then ran into him very late at night at the White Horse Tavern. Family had been released a few months earlier. I asked him about it and one of the things he said was, "After I finished writing that book I felt like taking a two week long shower." He also said that Charley was not going to like it. When I asked him how the book was doing, he said it was doing well, but he was a little disturbed that the country in which it was selling the most was Germany.


I still haven't read Family. I'm going to look for it and rectify that.
tirebiter
Posted: Fri May 28, 2004 10:15 am Reply with quote
Joined: 20 May 2004 Posts: 4011 Location: not far away
Marilyn: I didn't know Sacks suffered from apotemnophilia-- sexual gratification from limb removal. I read an article about it a few years back in Harpers that absolutely freaked me out, then tripped over another fascinating piece a few weeks ago (at laweekly.com/ink/00/04/features-ciotti.php) called "Why Did He Cut Off That Man's Leg?" Flabbergastingly interesting stuff-- human behaviors are not explicable.

I like Sacks but haven't read him in 20 years-- I think I'll pick him up again.
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tirebiter
Posted: Fri May 28, 2004 10:17 am Reply with quote
Joined: 20 May 2004 Posts: 4011 Location: not far away
Not Harpers-- The Atlantic, December 2000. Probably still available-- it's called "A New Way To Be Mad" by Carl Elliott. Not for the faint-hearted.
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billyweeds
Posted: Fri May 28, 2004 10:20 am Reply with quote
Joined: 20 May 2004 Posts: 20618 Location: New York City
lissa wrote:
Goldberg is wonderful, as is Julia Cameron (just got her latest).



In the name-dropping department, Julia Cameron is a good friend of mine. She's awesome.
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Melody
Posted: Fri May 28, 2004 10:28 am Reply with quote
Joined: 20 May 2004 Posts: 2242 Location: TX
Lorne,

Maybe you're right. Maybe DVC wasn't as much badly written as it was not for me. I've never picked up a best-seller thriller type book in my life, and only did so this time because it was the monthly pick for our local library reading club. For all I know, best-seller thrillers should be so lucky to have such a master story-teller in their midst. And I won't deny dude can spin a yarn, derivative though it may be.

Thanks for calling me on my elitist bullshit. I'm working on it.
Confused

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tirebiter
Posted: Fri May 28, 2004 10:38 am Reply with quote
Joined: 20 May 2004 Posts: 4011 Location: not far away
Hey Gary: I loved "The Family: The Story of Charles Manson and His Dune Buggy Attack Batallion." You will too. But it's important to get the first Dutton edition, as Dutton and Sanders were sued by the Church of the Final Process and the Ordo Templo Orientis (OTO) shortly after publication, and all mention of them was removed from subsequent editions. It's some of the best stuff in the book-- as Sanders would say, "oo-ee-oo."
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marantzo
Posted: Fri May 28, 2004 10:41 am Reply with quote
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Were you referring to me with your snide 'namedropping' comment, Billy? I'm not a name dropper. Now my buddy Norman Mailer, there's a name dropper.
ehle64
Posted: Fri May 28, 2004 10:45 am Reply with quote
Joined: 20 May 2004 Posts: 7149 Location: NYC; US&A
For new fiction, I read an interesting review of The Master by Colm Toibin. It's about Henry James, sounded interesting, anyone else read it?
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