I was thinking i was the only one who thought this. Thank god! Ithought da vinci was okay, it was a quick read...but I tried Angels and Demons later, and I swore i was reading the same damn book. I got about 80 pages into it and realized what a shitty recipe written book it was. He shhould've just called DaVinci code something like "Angels & demons - RE-EDITED!"
I thought I was the only person who was not a Da Vinci coda fan. I put it down halfway through and never finished it. The short chapters, lack of any character development, and fast pace I found very annoying. What I like about reading (the ability to really flesh out characters and get inside what characters are thinking and what their motives are) was completely absent from that book.
Just my opinion. Every one I know who has read it has loved it so more power to those who enjoyed it.
I just finished over the long weekend Dan Browns "The DaVinci Code" what a great book.
"It comes in a 8-pack where's the other 7. We've got band member up here they're dry ... We'd like some more beer, beer for the band and all our friends. Let's go." - Vedder (2005.09.22 Halifax)
I thought I was the only person who was not a Da Vinci coda fan. I put it down halfway through and never finished it. The short chapters, lack of any character development, and fast pace I found very annoying. What I like about reading (the ability to really flesh out characters and get inside what characters are thinking and what their motives are) was completely absent from that book.
Just my opinion. Every one I know who has read it has loved it so more power to those who enjoyed it.
On the contrary I thought there was plenty of character development. I guess Browns style isn't for all readers; have you read any of his other books? I've heard mixed reviews on Angels & Demons.
"It comes in a 8-pack where's the other 7. We've got band member up here they're dry ... We'd like some more beer, beer for the band and all our friends. Let's go." - Vedder (2005.09.22 Halifax)
On the contrary I thought there was plenty of character development. I guess Browns style isn't for all readers; have you read any of his other books? I've heard mixed reviews on Angels & Demons.
Fair enough.
No I haven't read any of his other books. Da Vinci really turned me off to him.
I don't really know what to make of it. I'm at chapter 13 and it feels like I'm reading a maintenance manual but with philosophical terms instead of motorcycle parts.
Actually, I don't know if I'll ever finish it. I don't remember where I last put it down.
I'm in a world lit course this quarter, so I've been assigned a shitload of 'classics' I finally plucked up and read one flew over the cuckoo's nest and catch-22...both were awesome. got to reading the yield thread over on the proch, and read ishmael as well. I keep thinking about givers and takers. I don't really understand what the big fuss about dan brown is lately...his writing is okay the first time around but after some reflection, it's like...holy jesus, how many times can the catholics threaten world peace and sanity? Actually, don't answer that
deep, deep blue of the morning
gets to me every time
« One man's glory is another man's hell.
You’re on the outside, never bound by such a spell.
Together in the darkness, alone in the light.
I took it upon me to be yours, Timmy,
I’ll lead your angels and demons at play tonight......»
just bought 'lullaby' by Chuck Palahniuk today. hope it's good as 'survivor'.
any fans?
Yeah, I loved survivor and FC. Stopped reading his stuff after choke and invisible monsters were such let downs. Cool guy though, met him in NYC a few years ago.
Yeah, I loved survivor and FC. Stopped reading his stuff after choke and invisible monsters were such let downs. Cool guy though, met him in NYC a few years ago.
did you have the chance to talk to him? judging by what he writes he seems to be a very lone, uptight person...
'Go easy, step lightly, stay free!'
You have been banned for the following reason:
inappropriate post.
'Too many people on this earth. We need a new plague.' - Dwight Schrute
I am about 1/4 done with Neil Gaiman's "Neverwhere" and it's pretty kickass so far.
That's a good book! Neil Gaiman is fantastic.
I'm in the middle of "American Gods" by Neil Gaiman which is about the gods of immigrant America and what happens when people forget about them.
I'm also half-way through a book about wizards called The Magician's Guild by Trudy Canavan. Its shittily written though.
"We have to change the concept of patriotism to one of “matriotism” — love of humanity that transcends war. A matriarch would never send her own children off to wars that kill other people’s children." Cindy Sheehan --- London, Brixton, 14 July 1993 London, Wembley, 1996 London, Wembley, 18 June 2007 London, O2, 18 August 2009 London, Hammersmith Apollo (Ed solo), 31 July 2012 Milton Keynes Bowl, 11 July 2014
London, Hammersmith Apollo (Ed solo), 06 June 2017
I'm in the middle of "American Gods" by Neil Gaiman which is about the gods of immigrant America and what happens when people forget about them.
American Gods is great. I love that book.
I am in the middle of a term paper on Gravity's Rainbow by Thomas Pynchon right now. So I am just kind of reading parts of that over and over again.
The Man has a branch office in each of our brains, his corporate emblem is a white albatross, each local rep has a cover known as the Ego, and their mission in this world is Bad Shit.
I was thinking i was the only one who thought this. Thank god! Ithought da vinci was okay, it was a quick read...but I tried Angels and Demons later, and I swore i was reading the same damn book. I got about 80 pages into it and realized what a shitty recipe written book it was. He shhould've just called DaVinci code something like "Angels & demons - RE-EDITED!"
formula:
- langdon wakes in the middle of the night to a random phone call about a gruesome murder
- is introduced to inevitably sexy coworker on the scene
- creepy psychotic killer wanders from scene to scene in a religious fervor doing the bidding of...
- shadowy overseer who has mysterious phone conversations with other shadowy overseers
- a formerly helpful and knowledgable (yet slightly suspicious, as they all are) supporting character turns out to be part of the conspiracy
- langdon narrowly escapes certain death to confront and surprise the mastermind and get the girl
voila! you have a dan brown best-seller. i read deception point as well. same outline, different characters. he's far from brilliant, his writing is mediocre. but he has a knack for mingling academia and pop culture and tossing in enough cliffhangers to keep people reading. ill give him that.
Im reading Cold Mountain. It's so much better then the movie.
I'm reading 'Trickster Makes this World' by Lewis Hyde
The Trickster is a mythological or archetypal character found in stories throughout the world. The best known in Western myth are Hermes and Loki. In this fascinating study, Lewis Hyde gives equal time to the Native American Coyote, the Chinese Monkey King and India's Krishna. At first glance, these characters are merely pranksters; humorous, sometimes annoying and occasionally dangerous ne'er do wells who disrupt the normal flow of things. As the title of this book suggests, Hyde believes tricksters are much more than this. He makes a convincing case that tricksters are essential in both preserving and transforming societies. Without their disruptions, cultural stagnation would result. He points out that tricksters can either help to maintain the status quo or bring about radical transformation. An example of the former case is illustrated by carnivals such as Mardi Gras, where social customs are predictably and temporarily ignored or reversed. This allows people to vent their frustrations and unleash their inhibitions before returning to normal life. Hyde mentions the abolishionist Frederick Douglas as an example of the more radical sort of trickster who brings about permanent change. Within the institution of slavery, slaves were allowed one week of freedom and revelry. Douglas was not satisfied with this; he wanted to completely overhaul the status quo and indeed helped to accomplish this. 'Trickster Makes this World' describes the antics of both actual (e.g. Douglas, the artist Marcel Duchamp, Allen Ginsberg) and mythic (e.g. Hermes, Coyote, Krishna) tricksters. This, of course, suggests a worldview similar to that of Joseph Campbell and others, who see the mythic as the foundation of real life. This book isn't easy reading; Hyde has a trickster-like style of zig-zagging his way all over a very expansive intellectual terrain. It doesn't so much make a case or present an argument as suggest a way of seeing the world. At the center of this worldview is not the all-powerful Zeus, but the slippery messenger/thief/trader Hermes (or one of his counterparts). Getting back to the provocative title, Trickster does not make the world in the conventional way (as the God of the Bible, for example). Rather, he (tricksters are usually male, an issue Hyde devotes a chapter to exploring) remakes and readjusts the world in which he finds himself. This is arguably a task as important as creation itself, or an essential part of creation.
I'm reading 'Trickster Makes this World' by Lewis Hyde
The Trickster is a mythological or archetypal character found in stories throughout the world. The best known in Western myth are Hermes and Loki. In this fascinating study, Lewis Hyde gives equal time to the Native American Coyote, the Chinese Monkey King and India's Krishna. At first glance, these characters are merely pranksters; humorous, sometimes annoying and occasionally dangerous ne'er do wells who disrupt the normal flow of things. As the title of this book suggests, Hyde believes tricksters are much more than this. He makes a convincing case that tricksters are essential in both preserving and transforming societies. Without their disruptions, cultural stagnation would result. He points out that tricksters can either help to maintain the status quo or bring about radical transformation. An example of the former case is illustrated by carnivals such as Mardi Gras, where social customs are predictably and temporarily ignored or reversed. This allows people to vent their frustrations and unleash their inhibitions before returning to normal life. Hyde mentions the abolishionist Frederick Douglas as an example of the more radical sort of trickster who brings about permanent change. Within the institution of slavery, slaves were allowed one week of freedom and revelry. Douglas was not satisfied with this; he wanted to completely overhaul the status quo and indeed helped to accomplish this. 'Trickster Makes this World' describes the antics of both actual (e.g. Douglas, the artist Marcel Duchamp, Allen Ginsberg) and mythic (e.g. Hermes, Coyote, Krishna) tricksters. This, of course, suggests a worldview similar to that of Joseph Campbell and others, who see the mythic as the foundation of real life. This book isn't easy reading; Hyde has a trickster-like style of zig-zagging his way all over a very expansive intellectual terrain. It doesn't so much make a case or present an argument as suggest a way of seeing the world. At the center of this worldview is not the all-powerful Zeus, but the slippery messenger/thief/trader Hermes (or one of his counterparts). Getting back to the provocative title, Trickster does not make the world in the conventional way (as the God of the Bible, for example). Rather, he (tricksters are usually male, an issue Hyde devotes a chapter to exploring) remakes and readjusts the world in which he finds himself. This is arguably a task as important as creation itself, or an essential part of creation.
These cuts are leaving creases. Trace the scars to fit the pieces, to tell the story, you don't need to say a word.
A Star called Henry - Roddy Doyle-extremely colourful language but bloody good
I read that one a few years back and loved it, have read the second in the trilogy also(henry escapes to the states.....), but that was a little fantastical, maybe it needs to be consumed within a short time of reading A Star.......
Am reading dostoevskys The Idiot at the moment, only a liitle way in so not much to judge, the last of his big4 for me. Have notes from underground for after....
I'm not usually the type of person who reads detective novels and stuff similar to them but this one I'm really really enjoying.
"Don't be faint-hearted, I have a solution! We shall go and commandeer some small craft, then drift at leisure until we happen upon another ideal place for our waterside supper with riparian entertainments."
i'm reading A Million Little Pieces by James Frey....it's about what he went through when he was recovering from his addiction to drugs and alchohol. there's some contraversy over the accuracy of his story, but he said he wrote it as he remembered it. it's still a really good story and helps you to understand what addicts go through in recovery.
No need to be void, or save up on life...
You got to spend it all
i'm reading A Million Little Pieces by James Frey....it's about what he went through when he was recovering from his addiction to drugs and alchohol. there's some contraversy over the accuracy of his story, but he said he wrote it as he remembered it. it's still a really good story and helps you to understand what addicts go through in recovery.
i read that a couple of months ago and despite the controversy and the fact that a lot of it isn't true, it's still a pretty good read.
i usually have two books on the go, one at home and one at the office. my office book right now is Love & Death by Max Wallace and Ian Halperin about the "murder" of Kurt Cobain. My office is upstairs from a second hand/discount book store and i picked it up for $3.99 the other day. It's been pretty interesting so far.
My home book, which i am just about to crack open is Everything is Illuminated by Jonathan Safran Foer. A friend of mine is obsessed with it so i thought i would give it a shot before i watch the movie.
i'm reading A Million Little Pieces by James Frey....it's about what he went through when he was recovering from his addiction to drugs and alchohol. there's some contraversy over the accuracy of his story, but he said he wrote it as he remembered it. it's still a really good story and helps you to understand what addicts go through in recovery.
actually, this book is pure bullshit, and im not talking about accuracy. his portrayal of what it's like to be an addict and how to recover is pure fiction. the only person who would think this is an accurate portrayal of recovery is someone who's never been through it or seen it up close and personal.
actually, this book is pure bullshit, and im not talking about accuracy. his portrayal of what it's like to be an addict and how to recover is pure fiction. the only person who would think this is an accurate portrayal of recovery is someone who's never been through it or seen it up close and personal.
well, i can't say that i know what it's like because i've personally never been addicted to any drugs or alchohol.....but i have a few friends that are recovering addicts and some that are addicts. some of them can relate with what he wrote, but not all of them. i think it can be different with each person.
No need to be void, or save up on life...
You got to spend it all
actually, this book is pure bullshit, and im not talking about accuracy. his portrayal of what it's like to be an addict and how to recover is pure fiction. the only person who would think this is an accurate portrayal of recovery is someone who's never been through it or seen it up close and personal.
I bought it in january before all the flack about it came out. I wish I would have read it before it came out that it is not true. I do not know what it is like to recover from drugs so it may be, as soulsinging says, pure bullshit even from that standpoint. It is a good read though.
well, i can't say that i know what it's like because i've personally never been addicted to any drugs or alchohol.....but i have a few friends that are recovering addicts and some that are addicts. some of them can relate with what he wrote, but not all of them. i think it can be different with each person.
my issue was more with the attitude. he made himself out to be so bad ass. everything he thought and said was true and indicated what a cool independent guy he was. everything the counselors said in there was wishy-washy bullshit. anybody who got honestly upset or emotional was a pansy. him and his hard ass crew were the real people who'd make it. it was a crock.
ive seen people come into recovery with the attitude he presented in the book. "ill do it my way and i dont give a fuck what anyone tells me." they dont make it. that's why i say his story was bs.
Comments
I thought I was the only person who was not a Da Vinci coda fan. I put it down halfway through and never finished it. The short chapters, lack of any character development, and fast pace I found very annoying. What I like about reading (the ability to really flesh out characters and get inside what characters are thinking and what their motives are) was completely absent from that book.
Just my opinion. Every one I know who has read it has loved it so more power to those who enjoyed it.
2003.06.29 ~ Montreal
2005.09.22 ~ Halifax
On the contrary I thought there was plenty of character development. I guess Browns style isn't for all readers; have you read any of his other books? I've heard mixed reviews on Angels & Demons.
2003.06.29 ~ Montreal
2005.09.22 ~ Halifax
Fair enough.
No I haven't read any of his other books. Da Vinci really turned me off to him.
I don't really know what to make of it. I'm at chapter 13 and it feels like I'm reading a maintenance manual but with philosophical terms instead of motorcycle parts.
Actually, I don't know if I'll ever finish it. I don't remember where I last put it down.
SOOOO Interesting. PM me if ya wanna hear mooooooorrrreeee!!!
gets to me every time
You’re on the outside, never bound by such a spell.
Together in the darkness, alone in the light.
I took it upon me to be yours, Timmy,
I’ll lead your angels and demons at play tonight......»
By Raymond Carver
Just finished:
"Dress your family in corduroy and denim"--- David Sedaris
"The People's History of the United States"--- Howard Zinn
'03: 4/30; 6/28; 7/2,3,5,6,8,9,14;
'04: 5/14: Ed, CCFA, Shwbx.
'05: 3/18; 5/25 Ed w/ rck schl kds; 9/1,2;
'06: 7/16,18,22,23.
'08: 4/7
Yeah, I loved survivor and FC. Stopped reading his stuff after choke and invisible monsters were such let downs. Cool guy though, met him in NYC a few years ago.
'03: 4/30; 6/28; 7/2,3,5,6,8,9,14;
'04: 5/14: Ed, CCFA, Shwbx.
'05: 3/18; 5/25 Ed w/ rck schl kds; 9/1,2;
'06: 7/16,18,22,23.
'08: 4/7
did you have the chance to talk to him? judging by what he writes he seems to be a very lone, uptight person...
You have been banned for the following reason:
inappropriate post.
'Too many people on this earth. We need a new plague.' - Dwight Schrute
That's a good book! Neil Gaiman is fantastic.
I'm in the middle of "American Gods" by Neil Gaiman which is about the gods of immigrant America and what happens when people forget about them.
I'm also half-way through a book about wizards called The Magician's Guild by Trudy Canavan. Its shittily written though.
---
London, Brixton, 14 July 1993
London, Wembley, 1996
London, Wembley, 18 June 2007
London, O2, 18 August 2009
London, Hammersmith Apollo (Ed solo), 31 July 2012
Milton Keynes Bowl, 11 July 2014
American Gods is great. I love that book.
I am in the middle of a term paper on Gravity's Rainbow by Thomas Pynchon right now. So I am just kind of reading parts of that over and over again.
formula:
- langdon wakes in the middle of the night to a random phone call about a gruesome murder
- is introduced to inevitably sexy coworker on the scene
- creepy psychotic killer wanders from scene to scene in a religious fervor doing the bidding of...
- shadowy overseer who has mysterious phone conversations with other shadowy overseers
- a formerly helpful and knowledgable (yet slightly suspicious, as they all are) supporting character turns out to be part of the conspiracy
- langdon narrowly escapes certain death to confront and surprise the mastermind and get the girl
voila! you have a dan brown best-seller. i read deception point as well. same outline, different characters. he's far from brilliant, his writing is mediocre. but he has a knack for mingling academia and pop culture and tossing in enough cliffhangers to keep people reading. ill give him that.
I'm reading 'Trickster Makes this World' by Lewis Hyde
The Trickster is a mythological or archetypal character found in stories throughout the world. The best known in Western myth are Hermes and Loki. In this fascinating study, Lewis Hyde gives equal time to the Native American Coyote, the Chinese Monkey King and India's Krishna. At first glance, these characters are merely pranksters; humorous, sometimes annoying and occasionally dangerous ne'er do wells who disrupt the normal flow of things. As the title of this book suggests, Hyde believes tricksters are much more than this. He makes a convincing case that tricksters are essential in both preserving and transforming societies. Without their disruptions, cultural stagnation would result. He points out that tricksters can either help to maintain the status quo or bring about radical transformation. An example of the former case is illustrated by carnivals such as Mardi Gras, where social customs are predictably and temporarily ignored or reversed. This allows people to vent their frustrations and unleash their inhibitions before returning to normal life. Hyde mentions the abolishionist Frederick Douglas as an example of the more radical sort of trickster who brings about permanent change. Within the institution of slavery, slaves were allowed one week of freedom and revelry. Douglas was not satisfied with this; he wanted to completely overhaul the status quo and indeed helped to accomplish this. 'Trickster Makes this World' describes the antics of both actual (e.g. Douglas, the artist Marcel Duchamp, Allen Ginsberg) and mythic (e.g. Hermes, Coyote, Krishna) tricksters. This, of course, suggests a worldview similar to that of Joseph Campbell and others, who see the mythic as the foundation of real life. This book isn't easy reading; Hyde has a trickster-like style of zig-zagging his way all over a very expansive intellectual terrain. It doesn't so much make a case or present an argument as suggest a way of seeing the world. At the center of this worldview is not the all-powerful Zeus, but the slippery messenger/thief/trader Hermes (or one of his counterparts). Getting back to the provocative title, Trickster does not make the world in the conventional way (as the God of the Bible, for example). Rather, he (tricksters are usually male, an issue Hyde devotes a chapter to exploring) remakes and readjusts the world in which he finds himself. This is arguably a task as important as creation itself, or an essential part of creation.
so true. the movie was only so-so, but the book was phenomenal.
I know....I was disappointed in the movie but now that im reading the book...I really think the movie was subpar.
Am reading dostoevskys The Idiot at the moment, only a liitle way in so not much to judge, the last of his big4 for me. Have notes from underground for after....
I'm not usually the type of person who reads detective novels and stuff similar to them but this one I'm really really enjoying.
You got to spend it all
i read that a couple of months ago and despite the controversy and the fact that a lot of it isn't true, it's still a pretty good read.
i usually have two books on the go, one at home and one at the office. my office book right now is Love & Death by Max Wallace and Ian Halperin about the "murder" of Kurt Cobain. My office is upstairs from a second hand/discount book store and i picked it up for $3.99 the other day. It's been pretty interesting so far.
My home book, which i am just about to crack open is Everything is Illuminated by Jonathan Safran Foer. A friend of mine is obsessed with it so i thought i would give it a shot before i watch the movie.
actually, this book is pure bullshit, and im not talking about accuracy. his portrayal of what it's like to be an addict and how to recover is pure fiction. the only person who would think this is an accurate portrayal of recovery is someone who's never been through it or seen it up close and personal.
well, i can't say that i know what it's like because i've personally never been addicted to any drugs or alchohol.....but i have a few friends that are recovering addicts and some that are addicts. some of them can relate with what he wrote, but not all of them. i think it can be different with each person.
You got to spend it all
I bought it in january before all the flack about it came out. I wish I would have read it before it came out that it is not true. I do not know what it is like to recover from drugs so it may be, as soulsinging says, pure bullshit even from that standpoint. It is a good read though.
my issue was more with the attitude. he made himself out to be so bad ass. everything he thought and said was true and indicated what a cool independent guy he was. everything the counselors said in there was wishy-washy bullshit. anybody who got honestly upset or emotional was a pansy. him and his hard ass crew were the real people who'd make it. it was a crock.
ive seen people come into recovery with the attitude he presented in the book. "ill do it my way and i dont give a fuck what anyone tells me." they dont make it. that's why i say his story was bs.