moimoi
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Post by moimoi on May 1, 2019 21:10:47 GMT -5
Update 9! I have completed Brighton Rock by Graham Greene for "Guns of Brixton" Damn, this was good. Greene's breakout novel has many of his signature touches: evocative language, wry humour, a suspense-filled plot, and deeply Catholic ruminations on the human condition. What I wasn't expecting was a strong female protagonist. This not only made me want to see all the movie versions of his books/screenplays (The Third Man is one of my favorite films of all time and there are some parallels to the plot structure of Brighton Rock), but it made me want to read a bunch of his other stuff too. How Well Did It Fit the Theme of the Challenge? 100% How likely would you have been to read the book without the challenge? Ever since another complex Catholic Englishman sang about " Dallow, Spicer, Pinkie, Cubitt" this has been on my list. I have been itching to read it this year and it did not disappoint. What's Next? I'm still lugging the Bloomsbury Cookbook around the allergists' lobby, but the goal is to finish it at the same time I finish The Ethics of Ambiguity - in the next week or so. Our Mutual Friend will occupy all my reading time (train, allergist, etc.) so I want to get started before June. If I somehow manage to finish this challenge early, I'll dive into my "Louder Than Bombs" reading challenge for 2020
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Post by Jimmy James on May 3, 2019 7:39:04 GMT -5
"Guns of Brixton" I finally read Dashiell Hammett's Red Harvest. I was aware of this, as the basis for Kurosawa's Yojimbo, and (second-hand) the Sergio Leone classic A Fistful of Dollars. While the novel follows some of the same broad strokes, with a Pinkerton detective / samurai / bounty hunter arriving in town and pitting the rival factions against each other, the particulars vary significantly. The femme fatale archetype is mandatory for this type of story, but there's no real equivalent character in the film versions. The Continental Operative (like Eastwood's Man With No Name, he never gets properly identified) also has a more complicated job, navigating the alliances and enmities between three gangs and a corrupt police force instead of simply two families. One of the more striking things was that he was described as about 5'6" and kind of pudgy, a far cry from Toshiro Mifune's lithe ronin or Clint Eastwood's imposing gunslinger.
How Well Did It Fit the Theme of the Challenge?It's all about criminals doing some crimes, so it fits the letter of the challenge. While it's about the part of south London Paul Simonon actually grew up in, the imagery of the young crook shot down on the pavement, or being hauled off in the black mariah, seem to belong to a more stylized and cinematic version, even directly referencing the film The Harder They Come. Appropriate for the novel, which feels like film noir minus the film.
Also, Paul seems to spend most of his time dressed like a prohibition era gangster, so I have to imagine he'd approve. How likely would you have been to read the book without the challenge?40%. I had heard good things about this, after enjoying both of the quasi-film adaptations, so I'm glad I finally checked it out. What's Next?I found a couple likely candidates for a book about ethics, but they were checked out of the local branch of my library. I could request it from one of the other branches, but the easier thing to do was check out Rebecca Skloot's The Immortal Life of Henrietta Lacks, which seems like it should fit the theme. I can always see of one of my other choices is back at the library when I'm done, in case I feel like I'm unethically shirking the challenge.
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moimoi
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Post by moimoi on May 7, 2019 19:37:50 GMT -5
Update 10. I have completed The Ethics of Ambiguity by Simone de Beauvoir for "Wrong 'Em Boyo"
Maybe it was over my head, maybe it was a bad translation, or maybe French Existentialists are full of shit, but I found this book a meandering waste of time. Maybe every 20-40 pages, Beauvoir makes a lucid point and I nod my head; the rest is just simple words arranged in as abstract a fashion as possible to obscure any attempt at intelligible meaning. I found myself rolling my eyes at self-parodic passages like this (taken at random): pg. 141 "There is an art only because at every moment art has willed itself absolutely; likewise there is a liberation of man only if, in aiming at itself, freedom is achieved absolutely in the very fact of aiming at itself. This requires that each action be considered as a finished form whose different moments, instead of fleeing toward the future in order to find there their justification, reflect and confirm one another so well that there is no longer a sharp separation between present and future, between means and ends. But if these moments constitute a unity, there must be no contraction among them. Since the liberation aimed at is not a thing situated in an unfamiliar time, but a movement which realizes itself by tending to conquer, it cannot attain itself if it denies itself at the start; action cannot seek to fulfill itself by means which would destroy its very meaning..." I can think of a specific Professor of mine (a prominent scholar on globalization) that writes and speaks just like this.
How Well Did It Fit the Theme of the Challenge? 100%
How likely would you have been to read the book without the challenge? I wanted to read something by Simone de Beauvoir and I thought I should start with a more general philosophical treatise before getting into her feminist writings. I think that was a mistake. I should not have read this book and after disappointment with Camus, I am loathe to read more French Existentialist works.
What's Next? I am so enjoying The Bloomsbury Cookbook that I'll be sad when I finish it. But finish it I must so I can devote all my energy to Our Mutual Friend.
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moimoi
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Post by moimoi on May 11, 2019 16:31:46 GMT -5
Update 11! I have completed The Bloomsbury Cookbook: Recipes for Life, Love, and Art by Jans Ondaatje Rolls for "Lost in the Supermarket"
I have never read a book like this before. Part cookbook, part biography, part artistic retrospective, it is just a really interesting take on a really interesting topic, impeccably researched and beautifully presented. As its title suggests, the topic is the Bloomsbury Group - turn-of-the-century British writers, artists, and epicureans, including Virginia Woolf, E.M. Forster, and J.M. Keynes. The book is divided into roughly chronological chapters covering the origins of the Group at Cambridge, their heyday in London and in famous country homes during the interwar period, and how their generations have fared up to the present day. Each chapter consists of vignettes, beginning with a quote from one of the Group's works or personal writings, describing who was active in the group, what they were working on, and what they were eating. The text is accompanied by copious photos and art prints, including stuff like the Vanessa-Bell-designed original cover of A Room of One's Own and silly hand-written/illustrated notes by Dora Carrington and Lytton Strachey. The recipes range from traditional Victorian fare to dishes from France, Italy, India, Russia, and wherever else the Group traveled. The recipes, artwork, and stories are all inspiring.
How Well Did It Fit the Theme of the Challenge? 100% there are hundreds of recipes in this book and meals are described in great detail
How likely would you have been to read the book without the challenge? Around the time I bought my house, I picked up a set of Kew Garden commemorative postcards from the gift shop at one of Chicago's locally-owned garden emporiums. The postcards showcased 20th Century British design, and from this I was inspired to decorate the kitchen in my 1920 bungalow in the style of the interwar years. I bought the Bloomsbury Cookbook not only out of interest in the artists involved (particularly Virginia Woolf - my favorite writer) but as an addition to the kitchen itself. It has sat enticingly on the shelf with my other cookbooks for years, but I never had the time or inclination to actually go through it. I am quite glad that I did.
What's Next? I have completed 15% of Our Mutual Friend, but I'm afraid next week I will not have time to read on my regular commute. At a pace of at least 200 pages a week (40 pages per round trip to/from the office, 5 days a week) I'm still aiming to finish by mid-June, though. Luckily, it's a page-turner...for now at least.
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Post by Jimmy James on May 20, 2019 7:35:13 GMT -5
"Wrong 'Em Boyo"To complete this, I opted for Rebecca Skloot's The Immortal Life of Henrietta Lacks. Long story short, cells from a tumor on Henrietta's cervix were found to be incredibly resilient and proliferant. This made them useful for all sorts of research, but they were taken without consent (or, for a long time, even knowledge) of Henrietta or her family. It's easy to sympathize with Henrietta's husband and children. They seem on the whole proud of how her cells have contributed to numerous medical discoveries. The main sticking point for them seems to be not that the cells were taken without Henrietta's consent, but that they've proved so profitable, both directly via medical supply companies selling vials of cultured HeLa cells, and then indirectly from drugs developed using these cells. Meanwhile her survivors live in poverty. It's a resentment driven by the inconsistency of Henrietta being forced to act altruistically, giving for free biological material that ultimately benefited the common good, while the people who acquired her cells did not respond in kind. This is all a couple steps removed, though- initial cell cultures were distributed by George Gey gratis to other researchers, and the commercialization only came in later.
How Well Did It Fit the Theme of the Challenge?While there are some ethical questions at the heart of the case, this is primarily long-form journalism about the Lacks family, not a book on the philosophy of ethics. But maybe I was trying to avoid that anyway? The afterword gives a little extra discussion to scientific and medical research ethics. How likely would you have been to read the book without the challenge?35%. I'm a little late on this one, but it's become a popular book assigned for college courses and such, and it's good to be able to enter the conversation. What's Next?Going with Jane Austen's Persuasion, from the small set of posthumous novels that are actually complete. Trying to avoid a situation like The Mystery of Edwin Drood where I only get half a story.
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Crash Test Dumbass
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Post by Crash Test Dumbass on May 27, 2019 9:08:46 GMT -5
Clampdown: read a dystopian novel Roadside Picnic by Arkady and Boris Strugatsky.
The aliens visited Earth, but just passed through. Literally: there are entry and exit points on the surface of the planet called Zones which are now thoroughly corrupted and just full of death traps and inexplicable artifacts. Red Schuhart is one of the stalkers, a group of people who attempt to make a living scavenging the Zones for anything useful and trying not to die. The Zone has affected him even deeper than he realized.
How Well Did It Fit The Theme? It is Soviet sci-fi. The Communist Party has mandated that all literature produced in the Soviet Union must be bleak and depressing.
Would You Still Have Read The Book? Maybe? I'm not even sure where I heard of it, but it sounded pretty interesting, so if I can get a medal for completing the challenge, then I will certainly add to it. I do get a medal, right?
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Post by Jimmy James on May 27, 2019 13:21:01 GMT -5
Clampdown: read a dystopian novel Roadside Picnic by Arkady and Boris Strugatsky. The aliens visited Earth, but just passed through. Literally: there are entry and exit points on the surface of the planet called Zones which are now thoroughly corrupted and just full of death traps and inexplicable artifacts. Red Schuhart is one of the stalkers, a group of people who attempt to make a living scavenging the Zones for anything useful and trying not to die. The Zone has affected him even deeper than he realized. How Well Did It Fit The Theme?It is Soviet sci-fi. The Communist Party has mandated that all literature produced in the Soviet Union must be bleak and depressing. Would You Still Have Read The Book?Maybe? I'm not even sure where I heard of it, but it sounded pretty interesting, so if I can get a medal for completing the challenge, then I will certainly add to it. I do get a medal, right? I'm a little curious about this one- I heard of it as the basis for Andrei Tarkovsky's Stalker, which I enjoyed, and I'll probably try and read it at some point.
I am willing to make up MS Paint Certificates of Completion for all successful challengers. Yogurt-lid medals are also an option, though mailing those out may be impractical if moimoi is in another hemisphere.
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Post by Jean Luc de Lemur on May 27, 2019 14:42:26 GMT -5
It is Soviet sci-fi. The Communist Party has mandated that all literature produced in the Soviet Union must be bleak and depressing.
I know this is a joke but the Strugatsky brothers also did a utopian universe that they implied was a descendant of the Soviet system, though given the rest of their output this was probably a bit tongue-in-cheek and a lot of their stuff is against a sort of official optimism about science and human systems (which is probably why they worked well with Tarkovsky, as opposed to Lem who was also not really an optimist but also more of modernist, if that makes sense).
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moimoi
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Post by moimoi on May 27, 2019 15:00:30 GMT -5
I'm a little curious about this one- I heard of it as the basis for Andrei Tarkovsky's Stalker, which I enjoyed, and I'll probably try and read it at some point.
I am willing to make up MS Paint Certificates of Completion for all successful challengers. Yogurt-lid medals are also an option, though mailing those out may be impractical if moimoi is in another hemisphere. I am in Chicago, America and I want my yogurt-lid medal! Also, I am more than 50% through Our Mutual Friend - it's really good!
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Post by Jimmy James on May 31, 2019 7:31:50 GMT -5
"Death or Glory" For this challenge I read Jane Austen's Persuasion. This is the second of hers I've read, after Pride and Prejudice. On the whole, I think I liked this less- the supporting characters in Anne Elliot's family seem less sympathetic than the Bennetts.
How Well Did It Fit the Theme of the Challenge? Well, it's a posthumous work, but Austen's world of society and manners seems far removed from the cheap hoods of the Clash song.
How likely would you have been to read the book without the challenge? 25%? I probably would have been encouraged to read more Austen at some point, but this would likely not have been the next one if I hadn't needed a posthumous work.
What's Next? Already started Mike D and the king Ad Rock's Beastie Boys Book. It's the biggest one of the challenge so far, both in terms of page count and physical volume of the book, but there are lots of pictures and it should go quickly.
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moimoi
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Post by moimoi on Jun 7, 2019 0:16:08 GMT -5
Update 12! I have completed Our Mutual Friend by Charles Dickens for "Death or Glory"
A colorful tale of mistaken identity, social satire, and romance, this was well worth a read. Dickens is a great storyteller, who draws you in from the first scene of a man and his daughter in a rowboat with a dead body. The characters are memorable and it's fun to cast people you know in the story, like with so many Dickens adaptations.
How Well Did It Fit the Theme of the Challenge? Wikipedia had led me to believe this was posthumous, but apparently it was published as a serial five years before Dickens' death. So bit of a fail there.
How likely would you have been to read the book without the challenge? This book has been sitting in my room since my old boss cleaned out his office and gifted it to me sometime in 2017. No idea when I would have cracked it open.
What's Next? I'm taking a bit of a break to read Please Kill Me: The Uncensored Oral History of Punk for Music Book Club, but I should still be able to knock out Creative Quest on my visits to the allergist.
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moimoi
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Post by moimoi on Jun 11, 2019 23:20:22 GMT -5
Update 13! I have completed Creative Quest by Ahmir "Questlove" Thompson for "Koka Kola"
This is basically a self-help book about how to cultivate your creativity, using examples and observations from Questlove's multi-faceted career as a performer, DJ, designer, writer, entrepreneur, and professor.
How Well Did It Fit the Theme of the Challenge? Technically, this is classified as "Psychology/Creative Ability" but it does use a lot of examples from a wide swathe of popular culture.
How likely would you have been to read the book without the challenge? This book wasn't originally part of the challenge - I picked it up at the airport on my last trip and it was such a quick read I figured it would be a good fit for "Koka Kola".
What's Next? Ever since Boardwalk Empire Season 2 (which has allusions to the genre), I've been interested in reading a Jacobean revenge play. My brother, who is an English major, also says they're pretty cool, so I'm going to try "The Duchess of Malfi" for "The Card Cheat".
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moimoi
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Post by moimoi on Jun 19, 2019 20:48:04 GMT -5
Update 14! I have completed The Duchess of Malfi by John Webster for "The Card Cheat"
This was quite violent and quite good. The play, like similar tragedies by Shakespeare and other contemporaries, sheds light on 16th century European societies in transition from feudalism to mercantilism, with all the attendant themes of greed and honor and virtue.
How Well Did It Fit the Theme of the Challenge? 90% - spoiler alert: the Duchess dies in the penultimate Act
How likely would you have been to read the book without the challenge? As I mentioned, Boardwalk Empire aroused my curiosity about Jacobian revenge plays because of allusions and inspirations in Season 2's storyline with Jimmy Darmody (I lament that, in the show's truncation by suits at HBO, it lost much of its literary bent). So this was on the list, but not a huge priority.
What's Next? Not being a fan of romance in the conventional sense, I went for White Mughals: Love and Betrayal in Eighteenth Century India by historian William Dalrymple for "Lover's Rock".
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Post by Jimmy James on Jun 20, 2019 7:43:21 GMT -5
Elevator, goooooing up!
"Koka Kola" The career-spanning new book about the Beastie Boys, the aptly titled Beastie Boys Book. This was fun, though it felt rushed in the second half- there was much more time spent on them becoming the Beastie Boys than on say, the last eight or nine years from To the Five Burroughs to Hot Sauce Committee, Part 2. Written by Mike D. and Ad Rock, it feels as much like a tribute to MCA / Adam Yauch as anything else, with him receiving credit for many of the group's ideas. I also feel vindicated by Ad Rock's claim that Hello Nasty is their best album, which I've felt for a long time but kept to myself for fear of it being a minority opinion. With 22 tracks, I'm thinking that should be my challenge for next year. I had also given The Mix-Up short shrift for a long time, finally giving it another shot after reading about it again here. How Well Did It Fit the Theme of the Challenge?Pretty well. The Clash get cited early on as ones to bridge the gap between punk and rap music, while the Beasties were segueing from hardcore to hip-hop. Cameo appearance from Lee Perry later on in the book.
How likely would you have been to read the book without the challenge?95%. Multiple copies had been sitting on tantalizing display in the library since January, and I was basically just waiting for an appropriate challenge. What's Next?I need a book where the main character dies, so my first thought was David Wong's John Dies at the End. That was unavailable, so the next choice was Joseph Conrad's Nostromo. I haven't read anything of his since Heart of Darkness for AP Lit, and I reserve the right to bail on it if it goes poorly.
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Crash Test Dumbass
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Post by Crash Test Dumbass on Jun 20, 2019 9:11:33 GMT -5
I started panicking about not being able to finish this in time, and then I remembered I have six more months, as it's a year challenge.
...it is a year, right?
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Post by Jimmy James on Jun 20, 2019 9:27:29 GMT -5
I started panicking about not being able to finish this in time, and then I remembered I have six more months, as it's a year challenge. ...it is a year, right? Yeah, that's what I figured on. Moimoi and I are just ahead of schedule, which I guess leaves time if I pick some duds in the last six challenges. We could also set a formal end date of December 14, to coincide with the 40th anniversary of the album release.
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moimoi
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Post by moimoi on Jun 20, 2019 13:26:20 GMT -5
I started panicking about not being able to finish this in time, and then I remembered I have six more months, as it's a year challenge. ...it is a year, right? Yeah, that's what I figured on. Moimoi and I are just ahead of schedule, which I guess leaves time if I pick some duds in the last six challenges. We could also set a formal end date of December 14, to coincide with the 40th anniversary of the album release. My goal is to finish before 12/14 (I like that as the deadline) and squeeze in a couple potential music book club nominations for next year before starting my Smiths Louder Than Bombs reading challenge for 2020. It will be 24 books with the following themes: 1. Is It Really So Strange? - read a sci-fi/fantasy book 2. Sheila Take a Bow - read something by a female author 3. Shoplifters of the World Unite - read a book about capitalism or consumerism 4. Sweet and Tender Hooligan - read a book where the protagonist changes dramatically 5. Half a Person - read a book about children or childhood 6. London - read a book where the city features prominently (London or otherwise) 7. Panic - read a thriller 8. Girl Afraid - read a book with a female protagonist 9. Shakespeare's Sister - read a classic (pre-modern) play 10. William, It Was Really Nothing - read a post-modern play 11. You Just Haven't Earned It Yet Baby - read a book about finance or the economy 12. Heaven Knows I'm Miserable Now - read a sad story 13. Ask - read about an investigation or a mystery 14. Golden Lights - read a book about a famous person 15. Oscillate Wildly - read a book about science 16. These Things Take Time - read a history or historical novel 17. Rubber Ring - read a book where the protagonist has an 'alternative lifestyle' 18. Back to the Old House - read a book about aristocracy 19. Hand in Glove - read a book that takes place in the Victorian era 20. Stretch Out and Wait - read a book about sports or exercise 21. Please Please Please Let Me Get What I Want - reader's choice! 22. This Night Has Opened My Eyes - read a book about a single event 23. Unloveable - read a book with an unlikable or flawed protagonist 24. Asleep - read either a book about drugs, dreaming, or altered consciousness OR a long boring book that would put you to sleep
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moimoi
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Post by moimoi on Jun 20, 2019 13:31:04 GMT -5
"Koka Kola" The career-spanning new book about the Beastie Boys, the aptly titled Beastie Boys Book. This was fun, though it felt rushed in the second half- there was much more time spent on them becoming the Beastie Boys than on say, the last eight or nine years from To the Five Burroughs to Hot Sauce Committee, Part 2. Written by Mike D. and Ad Rock, it feels as much like a tribute to MCA / Adam Yauch as anything else, with him receiving credit for many of the group's ideas. I also feel vindicated by Ad Rock's claim that Hello Nasty is their best album, which I've felt for a long time but kept to myself for fear of it being a minority opinion. With 22 tracks, I'm thinking that should be my challenge for next year. I'm glad you read this, as it is currently sitting on my shelf and I might want to nominate it for music book club next year. Also I look forward to seeing your Hello Nasty Challenge, after perusing some of the titles. Do you think we could keep this thread going for reading challenges?
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Post by Jimmy James on Jun 20, 2019 14:04:48 GMT -5
"Koka Kola" The career-spanning new book about the Beastie Boys, the aptly titled Beastie Boys Book. This was fun, though it felt rushed in the second half- there was much more time spent on them becoming the Beastie Boys than on say, the last eight or nine years from To the Five Burroughs to Hot Sauce Committee, Part 2. Written by Mike D. and Ad Rock, it feels as much like a tribute to MCA / Adam Yauch as anything else, with him receiving credit for many of the group's ideas. I also feel vindicated by Ad Rock's claim that Hello Nasty is their best album, which I've felt for a long time but kept to myself for fear of it being a minority opinion. With 22 tracks, I'm thinking that should be my challenge for next year. I'm glad you read this, as it is currently sitting on my shelf and I might want to nominate it for music book club next year. Also I look forward to seeing your Hello Nasty Challenge, after perusing some of the titles. Do you think we could keep this thread going for reading challenges? I'd be happy to keep this thread going, it might also be worthwhile to start a new thread. One thread per year is not an excessive amount of forum clutter, in my opinion.
Previous thought had been Springsteen's The River (turning 40 in 2020, like London Calling is in 2019) but that would lead to "read a book about fancy cars, now read another book about stealing cars, now read a book about driving cars..." I love Bruce, but he has certain themes he likes to stick to.
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moimoi
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Post by moimoi on Jun 26, 2019 19:22:14 GMT -5
Update 15: I'm afraid White Mughals was just too heavy and cumbersome to take on my morning commute, so since I'm ahead of schedule, I'm relegating it to the allergist's lobby. The remaining books on my list are portable, so I made a substitution to keep things moving. Thus, I have completed The End of the Affair by Graham Green for "Lover's Rock"
At 160-pages this is the deepest romance novel I've ever read. Through an unlikeable (and semi-autobiographical) protagonist, Greene meditates on one of life's big questions, "What is love?", in the story of a wartime love affair that ends in tragedy.
How Well Did It Fit the Theme of the Challenge? 110% this is not just a love story, but a story about the nature of love
How likely would you have been to read the book without the challenge? After enjoying Greene for "Guns of Brixton" I consulted with my neighborhood indie bookseller and he recommended I try this one next. I had earmarked it for next year's reading challenge for "Heaven Knows I'm Miserable Now" or "Unloveable" so I would have read it for sure in the next 18 months.
What's Next? I'm determined to get through White Mughals by the end of the challenge, but for tomorrow's commute, I'll be taking Empire of Cotton: A Global History for my western/rural "Four Horsemen" selection.
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moimoi
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Post by moimoi on Jul 12, 2019 20:41:38 GMT -5
Update 16: I have completed Empire of Cotton: A Global History by Sven Beckhert for "Four Horsemen"
'NY Times Book of the Year' my arse. This book was torture: a dry, disorganized, repetitive litany of commodity prices and pictures of white men responsible for massive exploitation and misery. The subject could have been so interesting if it was discussed on any human scale, but there are really only two chapters that focus on the millions who labored in the cotton industry (one on slavery and one on child labor). Instead, we get a story of capitalists, or "capital" - an entity that exists in the mind of jerk economists as the protagonist of history. Although this book doesn't articulate any sort of thesis well, what I took away is that the natural outcome of unchecked capitalism is slavery. So I guess this book was good for something. But otherwise, I really didn't need this collection of rejected articles from the Cambridge Historical Journal.
How Well Did It Fit the Theme of the Challenge? 3/5ths? It was a bit of a compromise since I don't like to read Westerns
How likely would you have been to read the book without the challenge? I regret that I purchased this book on impulse at the Amazon store because I'm interested in the textile industry and labor. It's enough to put off my Ph.d applications for a few years.
What's Next? I have started something inspirational, The Architecture of Happiness by Alain de Botton, for "I'm Not Down". At this rate, I may finish the challenge by Autumn and have a whole season to prepare for my next challenge :-)
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moimoi
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Post by moimoi on Jul 17, 2019 20:58:34 GMT -5
Update 17: I have completed The Architecture of Happiness by Alain de Botton for "I'm Not Down"
I do enjoy the pop philosophizing of Mssr. de Botton. This is a nice, breezy primer on aesthetics with a particular focus on architecture. I recommend it.
How Well Did It Fit the Theme of the Challenge? I changed theme for this one. But it fit MY theme, so...
How likely would you have been to read the book without the challenge? Pretty likely. As I said, I enjoy de Botton and his School of Life.
What's Next? The Best We Could Do is a graphic novel, so it will be my free time reading, while I'll take How to Bake Pi on the train. At this rate, I shall complete the challenge by the end of the month!
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Post by Jimmy James on Jul 18, 2019 8:29:55 GMT -5
Meanwhile I haven't forgotten the thread, I'm still just plugging away on Nostromo. I had considered doing Doctor Zhivago for my romance one, but if I'm just coming off of another long one, I might be looking for something shorter and quicker- I welcome any recommendations.
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Crash Test Dumbass
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Post by Crash Test Dumbass on Jul 23, 2019 10:31:36 GMT -5
Update n+1: "Death or Glory" – Read a posthumous work Ernest Hemingway, A Moveable Feast I haven't read Hemingway since The Old Man And/Or The Sea in high school, so I don't really remember his style, but somehow despite it being extremely rambly and in need of an editor, I liked this book. It did feel like a diary, almost, if a heavily selected one. The edition I read included a couple of forewords from Hemingway's relatives (which spoiled some of the book, in classic foreword fashion -- how do people not know that the FOREword comes FIRST and maybe don't talk about stuff the reader hasn't read yet?) and some sketches of introductions and endings which were an interesting glimpse into his writing methods. I can see why he never finished it completely.
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moimoi
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Post by moimoi on Jul 24, 2019 20:39:38 GMT -5
Update n+1=18: I have completed How to Bake Pi: An Edible Exploration of the Mathematics of Mathematics by Eugenia Cheng for "Train in Vain"
I really wanted to like this book, but...Dr. Cheng writes like...a mathematician. For a book about logic, this was one of the most meandering and pointless drafts I've ever read. I say draft becauseI can tell that the 1-page synopsis for this book probably sounded great, but when Dr. Cheng got around to writing, she found that the topic was much harder to flesh out. There is a lot of redundancy, typos (!), and chapters that do not follow or build on each other. On pg. 141, she basically starts over with a chapter entitled "What Mathematics Is" even though in her first chapter, entitled "What Is Math?" she provides a perfectly satisfactory definition. She also focuses much of the book on her specialty, category theory, which she explains is NOT a field of applied mathematics. So where does the baking come in? In random recipes at the beginning of each chapter. She can't use many examples from baking because that would be applied mathematics. I was actually hoping to learn some applied mathematics from reading this and I learned nothing.
How Well Did It Fit the Theme of the Challenge? I forgot if I changed the theme for this one, so I dunno?
How likely would you have been to read the book without the challenge? I got this book to read with my dad, a retired engineer, because math is one of his few interests in life. I think this book would bore him only slightly less than it bored me.
What's Next? I think I'll finish the challenge stronger with The Best That We Could Do and in the meantime, I'll start this enticing volume:
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Post by Lord Lucan on Jul 26, 2019 0:24:39 GMT -5
moimoi. Sounds laughably ill-conceived.
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Post by Lord Lucan on Jul 26, 2019 0:29:57 GMT -5
Update 16: I have completed Empire of Cotton: A Global History by Sven Beckhert for "Four Horsemen" 'NY Times Book of the Year' my arse. This book was torture: a dry, disorganized, repetitive litany of commodity prices and pictures of white men responsible for massive exploitation and misery. The subject could have been so interesting if it was discussed on any human scale, but there are really only two chapters that focus on the millions who labored in the cotton industry (one on slavery and one on child labor). Instead, we get a story of capitalists, or "capital" - an entity that exists in the mind of jerk economists as the protagonist of history. Although this book doesn't articulate any sort of thesis well, what I took away is that the natural outcome of unchecked capitalism is slavery. So I guess this book was good for something. But otherwise, I really didn't need this collection of rejected articles from the Cambridge Historical Journal. How Well Did It Fit the Theme of the Challenge? 3/5ths? It was a bit of a compromise since I don't like to read Westerns How likely would you have been to read the book without the challenge? I regret that I purchased this book on impulse at the Amazon store because I'm interested in the textile industry and labor. It's enough to put off my Ph.d applications for a few years. What's Next? I have started something inspirational, The Architecture of Happiness by Alain de Botton, for "I'm Not Down". At this rate, I may finish the challenge by Autumn and have a whole season to prepare for my next challenge :-) Interesting. Maybe this—which is on my own list—is better.
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moimoi
AV Clubber
Posts: 5,002
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Post by moimoi on Jul 27, 2019 0:03:22 GMT -5
Update 19: I HAVE COMPLETED THE LONDON CALLING READING CHALLENGE by finishing The Best We Could Do by Thi Bui for "Revolution Rock"
This award-winning graphic novel tells the story of Bui's family and their emigration as refugees from the war in Vietnam. It's incredibly moving as well as informative. I cried three times because it hits close to home. If you have any interest in the immigrant experience, this is essential reading.
How Well Did It Fit the Theme of the Challenge? Pretty well - a good chunk of the book is also contemporaneous with the Clash
How likely would you have been to read the book without the challenge? Migration studies is kinda my jam, so this was definitely on the list for this year.
What's Next? My all-new Louder than Bombs Reading Challenge for 2020 starting in January. In the meantime, I have stack of 16 'bonus' books to get me through the rest of this year.
FINAL STATS: # of pages completed: 6136* This does not count 1 audio book and it takes into account one book substitution. Still, page numbers vary between editions so it is a rough estimate. # books crossed off my reading list: 8 (hoping to increase this number next year) # of owned books (prior to the challenge) finally read: 7 # of new books purchased for the challenge: 4 # of books from this challenge I am keeping: 8 % of books that were purchased new from Amazon (online or in store): 50% The rest were used, borrowed, and/or bought from an indie shop. Hoping to decrease this number next year.
Top 5: The Bloomsbury Cookbook, The End of the Affair, Our Mutual Friend, The Best We Could Do, Brighton Rock
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Post by Jimmy James on Jul 31, 2019 7:26:53 GMT -5
"The Card Cheat"After striking out at the library on the first few compelling suggestions where the protagonist dies at the end, I wound up grinding my way through Joseph Conrad's Nostromo. Spoilers for a book from 1904, I guess. The book details multiple revolutions in the fictional South American republic of Costaguana, and Nostromo's efforts to spirit away all of the silver from the mines before one faction can arrive and acquire it. There's a bit of a Count of Monte Cristo vibe as Nostromo slowly grows rich from the treasure everyone else assumed lost, but it seems more simple greed than something as noble as Edmund Dantes' revenge. At the end of all this, he's shot by a friend in a case of mistaken identity while trying to claim his love and run away forever. Whether this means the silver, or his killer's young daughter is an open question.
Nostromo himself plays more of a role in the faster paced second half of the novel- the beginning details more of the politics of Costaguana and the history of the silver mine. Much of it is about Nostromo in the sense of other characters talking about what a dashing and daring figure he is, but he's a man of grand actions and few words. I picture him like Clint Eastwood in The Good, the Bad, and the Ugly.
How Well Did It Fit the Theme of the Challenge?Quite well. Like the hero of the song, Nostromo is a gambler, but never comes out ahead. How likely would you have been to read the book without the challenge?5%? My grandfather's a big Conrad fan, and maybe I would have gotten around to exploring his work beyond Heart of Darkness at some point. What's Next?Picked up Erin Morgenstern's The Night Circus from the library last evening. I found it on this list of romantic novels for people who hate (or at least don't know where to start with) romance novels. A few more on there sounded like they'd be worth checking out outside of the challenge.
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Post by Jimmy James on Jul 31, 2019 7:36:51 GMT -5
Update n+1=18: I have completed How to Bake Pi: An Edible Exploration of the Mathematics of Mathematics by Eugenia Cheng for "Train in Vain"
I really wanted to like this book, but...Dr. Cheng writes like...a mathematician. For a book about logic, this was one of the most meandering and pointless drafts I've ever read. I say draft becauseI can tell that the 1-page synopsis for this book probably sounded great, but when Dr. Cheng got around to writing, she found that the topic was much harder to flesh out. There is a lot of redundancy, typos (!), and chapters that do not follow or build on each other. On pg. 141, she basically starts over with a chapter entitled "What Mathematics Is" even though in her first chapter, entitled "What Is Math?" she provides a perfectly satisfactory definition. She also focuses much of the book on her specialty, category theory, which she explains is NOT a field of applied mathematics. So where does the baking come in? In random recipes at the beginning of each chapter. She can't use many examples from baking because that would be applied mathematics. I was actually hoping to learn some applied mathematics from reading this and I learned nothing.
How Well Did It Fit the Theme of the Challenge? I forgot if I changed the theme for this one, so I dunno?
How likely would you have been to read the book without the challenge? I got this book to read with my dad, a retired engineer, because math is one of his few interests in life. I think this book would bore him only slightly less than it bored me.
The original theme for this one was kind of weak, I was going to do Stephen King's "The Body", since it was listed as "Train in Vain (Stand By Me)" in the US.
Sorry this one was kind of a dud for you, but congratulations on being the first to finish the challenge.
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