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*What book are you reading ?

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Double Vision by Tricia Sullivan. I read her debut effort, Maul and thoroughly enjoyed it's feminist take on sci-fi (very different from other fem sci-fi writers), but so far with DV...not too sure TBH.

I also started reading Monkey by Wu Ch'eng-En (trans. Arthur Waley) and it's excellent so far...
 
pootle said:
I mean, if it's upsetting you Tinker Bell, why read it? :confused: I had to give up on reading "Stalingrad" because it just upset me...
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I knew someone would ask me that. The way i feel about it is the authors of this book desperately want their story to be heard and i feel like it would be, i don't know, almost an injustice to them if i didn't read it to the end - like turning a blind eye and pretending it didn't happen... I don't know if that makes sense - it's just how i feel.
 
Tinker_bell said:
I knew someone would ask me that. The way i feel about it is the authors of this book desperately want their story to be heard and i feel like it would be, i don't know, almost an injustice to them if i didn't read it to the end - like turning a blind eye and pretending it didn't happen... I don't know if that makes sense - it's just how i feel.
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It kind of makes sense to me, but if it makes sense to you, than even better! I wasn't having a go or anything, I was just genuinely intrigued.

Actually, the more I think about it, the more I see what you are getting at. :)
 
pootle said:
It kind of makes sense to me, but if it makes sense to you, than even better! I wasn't having a go or anything, I was just genuinely intrigued.

Actually, the more I think about it, the more I see what you are getting at. :)
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Oh no, i know you weren't getting at me matie :)
 
:cool:

Ooh, and I'm reading "The Five People You Meet in Heaven" atm. I can't decide if it's lovely or mawkish though. :confused:
 
Re: upsetting books. I don't believe books should just be for entertainment, but for edification too. We need to know about the dark side of the human spirit even if it's upsetting. The more we avoid it the more upsetting and surprising it is when we encounter it.
 
the book group lot reminded me of that cheerful chappie Dostoevski :D

so i'm reading Notes From the Underground again. i haven't read it for over 10 years, but i'm loving it.

i always remember this Dostoevski line....

"Man only likes to count his troubles, but he does not count his joys"

ain't that the truth. :cool:
 
finally finished The Big Book of Concepts.. since none of you will want to read it isn't a spoiler to tell you that it's good on empirical data but in the end a bit weak on a coherent theoretical framework for concept and category learning & knowledge.. i suspect the guy is a bit too old school to be comfortable with connectionist models :cool:

now reading Seamus Heaney's translation of Beowulf. i like.
 
Still on David Ikes book, sadly it's got too stupid now.

It was quite fun at first but now it has sunk into the babblings of a mad man. The trouble is he has mixed some fun and interesting ideas that have enough backing to give them a little cred, with utter mentalist noncence.
 
onemonkey said:
finally finished The Big Book of Concepts.. since none of you will want to read it isn't a spoiler to tell you that it's good on empirical data but in the end a bit weak on a coherent theoretical framework for concept and category learning & knowledge.. i suspect the guy is a bit too old school to be comfortable with connectionist models :cool:
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Pah! That's often the problem IMO. :rolleyes: (Tunnel vision due to massive ego problems - especially pertinent with cognitive theorists, I find. Don't end up like that OM)!

Does it have any of Fodor's theories in it BTW? - he's a complete pain in the arse. Why do cognitive people have to over complicate stuff that could easily be written in a more basic format? (They don't fool me, that's for sure)!
 
Vixen said:
Does it have any of Fodor's theories in it BTW? - he's a complete pain in the arse. Why do cognitive people have to over complicate stuff that could easily be written in a more basic format? (They don't fool me, that's for sure)!
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mercifully free of fodor thankfully..

though that doesn't mean they aren't still a little scared of him.. even my supervisor says that in some sense (a dull, abstract philosophical sense) Fodor has got a point.. i don't think that is true... but i haven't found a good debunking of him.. and i wonder if i should even bother wasting my time looking for it (or worse yet attempting to write it!!! )
 
onemonkey said:
mercifully free of fodor thankfully..

though that doesn't mean they aren't still a little scared of him.. even my supervisor says that in some sense (a dull, abstract philosophical sense) Fodor has got a point.. i don't think that is true... but i haven't found a good debunking of him.. and i wonder if i should even bother wasting my time looking for it (or worse yet attempting to write it!!! )
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What I can understand makes sense but I just tire of the over-complicated way he (and others) write about this stuff. Makes it impossible to follow unless you're apart of the 'cognitive world'. And let's face it, what 'normal' person is! - :p

Let me know if you do find something better than him though - or write it (You could always try to explain it to me in simple terms, I could record you, and Hey! Presto! A cure for my insomnia ;)).
 
Just finished 'Jonathan Strange And Mr Norrell'. And I hated it. HATED IT. An absolutely pointless exercise with a paper thin plot weighed down by silly attempts at creating an alternative and credible supporting historical framework. Why? Why? Why? It didn't help! This 1000 odd page drivel could (and should) be cut down to a third of the size!

And also just finished 'The Dumas Club' by Arturo Perez-Reverte, which was much much better!

BB :)
 
atitlan said:
Just finished "The time traveller's wife" by Audrey Niffenegger - very enjoyable.
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Ooo, I've just finished this too, and absolutely loved it. Concepts and philosophies of time, fantastic story telling, interesting narrative technique - am gutted I've finished it now.

So - time to move onto something completely different - No Irish No Blacks No Dogs, J Lydon - finally got around to buying it!
 
CharlieAddict said:
couldn't finish life of pi, can't read things i don't enjoy.
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I couldn't finish this either - bored me to tears. I've just given it to a mate to see if she fares better with it.
 
reading 'When we were orphans' by Kazuo Ishiguro, it's a tret to read on the tube and i'm really looking forward to reading 'Never let me go' next :)

also have 'Small Island' on the next book to read pile, anyone read it? any good?
my mum recommended it but sometimes her tastes can be a bit...um... dodgy :D
 
just finished Stone Junction by Jim Dodge, and I'm afraid I just didn't enjoy it as much as I tried to convince myself I had. Fup and Not Fade Away were great, but to be honest this was a bit of a mess, but not in a good way. The first half was great, but as it carried on it started to read like a dodgy fantasy book in places and a bad airport thriller in others. It really lost its way. He's a great writer, but perhaps not over 400+ pages.

So now i'm going to read Under The Volcano by Lowry because people are always banging on about it and because it's set during the Day Of The Dead. :)
 
Dubversion said:
So now i'm going to read Under The Volcano by Lowry because people are always banging on about it and because it's set during the Day Of The Dead. :)
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Ah, that one's staring guiltily at me from the pile. I stopped 100 pages in. Failure to concentrate properly.
 
foamy said:
also have 'Small Island' on the next book to read pile, anyone read it? any good?
my mum recommended it but sometimes her tastes can be a bit...um... dodgy :D
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i liked it (but then, i'm a mum :D)

light read material
 
Dirty Martini said:
Ah, that one's staring guiltily at me from the pile. I stopped 100 pages in. Failure to concentrate properly.
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try again. i reckon it needs at least two goes. guarantee that you will enjoy it.
 
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