What's in your bookshelf?

Purple Hawk

ryan198 wrote:

I don't think conservatives read books, they just listen to the radio...kidding I just want to roil someone up so that they'll present their definitive conservative list.

To tell you the truth, I don't read many books written by conservatives like Coulter, O'Riley, etc, and especially from whackos like Horowitz. (seriously, the guy is a characature of himself) I'm not really interested in their books because they don't test any of their theories and all they are doing is espousing their opinion, and I really don't care about their opinions. Same thing goes for Zinn, Chomskey...When I read about politics, I want to see some empirical evidence. anectodal evidence is pretty much a waste of time, no matter who is putting it forth.

In terms of my favorite authors, I've only glanced through so far, and haven't read all the posts, but wonder if anyone likes Kafka? The trial and the castle are among my favorites.

And actually, I think On the Road is overrated, although I did like it...if that makes sense.

ryan198

Purple Hawk wrote:

To tell you the truth, I don't read many books written by conservatives like Coulter, O'Riley, etc, and especially from whackos like Horowitz. (seriously, the guy is a characature of himself) I'm not really interested in their books because they don't test any of their theories and all they are doing is espousing their opinion, and I really don't care about their opinions. Same thing goes for Zinn, Chomskey...When I read about politics, I want to see some empirical evidence. anectodal evidence is pretty much a waste of time, no matter who is putting it forth.

In terms of my favorite authors, I've only glanced through so far, and haven't read all the posts, but wonder if anyone likes Kafka? The trial and the castle are among my favorites.

And actually, I think On the Road is overrated, although I did like it...if that makes sense.

PH what do you mean by empirical evidence? From where I stand all of those authors offer empirical evidence based on "real" things that they observe and feel. As far as Zinn goes I've used his work to demonstrate U.S. dominance over the Dominican Republic, and found it quite useful and explanatory...maybe he's not that way for everything though.

Byrnzie

Ms. Haiku wrote:

Is it time to list the books on the second shelf of a bookcase?

I have an entire shelf with nothing but Henry Miller on it.

Tropic of Cancer
Tropic of Capricorn
Black Spring
Collossos of Maroussi (Original hardback)
The books in My Life (Original hardback)
Book of friends
Dear, Dear Brenda
A Literate Passion - Letters to Anais Nin, 1987
The Durrell-Miller Letters 1935-1980, 1988
My Bike and other friends (Original hardback)
Big Sur And the Oranges of Heironymous Bosch
Sunday After the War (Original hardback & New Directions paperback)
The Smile at the foot of the ladder (signed)
Henry Miller Biography - Robert Ferguson
A devil in Paradise
The world of sex
The Air-Conditioned Nightmare
Nights of love and laughter
Quiet Days in Clichy
The Time of the Assassins (Original hardback)
Sexus (Original Grove press edition paperback)
Plexus (Original Grove press edition paperback)
Nexus (Original Grove press edition paperback)

Ms. Haiku

Purple Hawk wrote:

And actually, I think On the Road is overrated, although I did like it...if that makes sense.

Boy do I agree with you there! I was reading it my senior year of college, and I thought to myself Why am I reading this? I hang out with people like this. Really, the people I hung around with at that time were irresponsble drug addicts, some nice some not, and it didn't make sense for me to read about what was in front of my eyes.

Byrnzie

Ms. Haiku wrote:

Boy do I agree with you there! I was reading it my senior year of college, and I thought to myself Why am I reading this? I hang out with people like this. Really, the people I hung around with at that time were irresponsble drug addicts, some nice some not, and it didn't make sense for me to read about what was in front of my eyes.

I think 'On the road' is a book that's better the 2nd time around. Many people approach it with high expectations, having heard all the hype. I enjoyed it much more the 2nd time.

parel jam

Too many books to mention...

- many books about nature, weather, geology and hydrology
- java2 and c++
- Lonely Planets of USA, NYC, Dublin, Scandinavia, Florida
- Books in English (like 100 years of solitude, michael moore, dan brown, huxley (many books), Dostojevski, Twain, Kerouac, Hemingway (many), even Harry Potter 1-5.
- Dutch books - Giphart, Geert Mak, WF Hermans and more.
- Books about Bob Dylan, Queen, Pearl Jam, Nirvana, Doors
- Casper and Hobbes
- Asterix and Obelix
- dictionaries (Dutch, English, German, French, Spanish)
- photo albums
- jazz guitar book, playing solo's on guitar and other guitar books
- lots of vinyl (like Pink Floyd, Queen, Metallica, Pearl Jam, Rory Gallagher)
- bottle of good Scottish whisky.

catefrances

Byrnzie wrote:

I have an entire shelf with nothing but Henry Miller on it.

Tropic of Cancer
Tropic of Capricorn
Black Spring
Collossos of Maroussi (Original hardback)
The books in My Life (Original hardback)
Book of friends
Dear, Dear Brenda
A Literate Passion - Letters to Anais Nin, 1987
The Durrell-Miller Letters 1935-1980, 1988
My Bike and other friends (Original hardback)
Big Sur And the Oranges of Heironymous Bosch
Sunday After the War (Original hardback & New Directions paperback)
The Smile at the foot of the ladder (signed)
Henry Miller Biography - Robert Ferguson
A devil in Paradise
The world of sex
The Air-Conditioned Nightmare
Nights of love and laughter
Quiet Days in Clichy
The Time of the Assassins (Original hardback)
Sexus (Original Grove press edition paperback)
Plexus (Original Grove press edition paperback)
Nexus (Original Grove press edition paperback)

don't see 'under the roofs of paris' there. :(


and in regards to kerouac's 'on the road'. i think you have to come to it naturally. not have someone say 'hey man you gotta read this.' it's better when you're ready, as with any other book.

Guiness

I actually donated all of my books to the local library when I moved...the only book I kept was my copy of Stephen King's "It"...it is my favorite book of all time...in my books to read pile:

The Tender Bar
Confederacy of Dunces
Lord Foul's Bane
1776
The collected works of Raymond Chandler

Just finished The Kite Runner - I highly reccomend this book, it moved me and evoked more emotion than any other book I have read

Purple Hawk

ryan198 wrote:

PH what do you mean by empirical evidence? From where I stand all of those authors offer empirical evidence based on "real" things that they observe and feel. As far as Zinn goes I've used his work to demonstrate U.S. dominance over the Dominican Republic, and found it quite useful and explanatory...maybe he's not that way for everything though.

by empirical evidence, I mean that you put forth a hypothesis, and some alternative hypotheses, and actually test them as opposed to putting forth analytical narratives.

brain of c

my bookshelf? new stephen king tomorrow.

danika_bookworm

the one in my hand right now: Brave New World by Aldous Huxley

catefrances

danika_bookworm wrote:

the one in my hand right now: Brave New World by Aldous Huxley

ooh good book. freaked me out a little bit. but that's okay.

seagoat2

Guiness wrote:

I actually donated all of my books to the local library when I moved...the only book I kept was my copy of Stephen King's "It"...it is my favorite book of all time...in my books to read pile:

The Tender Bar
Confederacy of Dunces
Lord Foul's Bane
1776
The collected works of Raymond Chandler

Just finished The Kite Runner - I highly reccomend this book, it moved me and evoked more emotion than any other book I have read

"Confederacy of Dunces" - Good book....funny too! Enjoy!

ryan198

Purple Hawk wrote:

by empirical evidence, I mean that you put forth a hypothesis, and some alternative hypotheses, and actually test them as opposed to putting forth analytical narratives.

Doesn't this type of hypothesizing necessarily remove things from their context? In other words by isolating variables, etc. are you not simplifying seriously complex arguments and social settings to get a statistical analysis of only partial truths. As such is that any different than analytical narrativization? I would argue it's no different at all, in fact the politics in chosing variables and hypothesis are analytical narratives themselves cleverly hidden under the guise of some sort of objectivity.