Me Talk Pretty One Day by David Sedaris - it's really great, he's one of my favroite authors ever - he wrote meoirs, and the way he writes just seems so fluid. A lot of his thigns are funny, and sometimes just heartbreaking. Me Talk Pretty One Day deals with a lot of the time he spent in France, and learning the language. Like, for instance, he used to only be able to say "bottleneck" in French, so if the butcher asked him what he wanted, he said "bottleneck"

Really, you should all go read David Sedaris now he's one of the best writers we have right now.

Uhhhh I'm reading this trippy non fiction book right now, 2012: The Return of Quetzalcoatl by Daniel Pinchbeck, which is about the impending apocalypse! It's actually incredibly fascinating, though it's difficult to keep an open mind while reading it. He does do a good job of arguing things, though, and he covers a HUGE range of topics in various ways and proves his point with support from a lot of philosophers, scientists, and various professional statistics.

It's got me kind of nervous, actually. You know. If it's true that we've only got 6 years left. I haven't gotten to the part of the book where he actually talks about the actual apocalypse yet (so far he's talked about the nature of human consciousness, hallucinigens, crop circles and alien abductions, his childhood, 9-11, psychic phenomenon, consumerism, destruction of the biosphere, quantum physics, Jesus, the need for humanity to make itself miserable, and lots of other weird things). He explains how he has been a skeptic to almost everything out there, and walks you through the process so you can at least understand why he changed his mind about certain things, and why he stays skeptical to others.

A good read, too. He's an excellent writer.

Oh yeah, we learned about the Mayan calendar a few weeks back. Mayan legend states that on December 23, 2012 the world will end or somewhere around that date. Yeah, it is kind of creepy.

Anyway, right now I'm reading Jurassic Park. There are alot of differences between the book and movie, but the movie actually did a fairly good job of staying true to it. Although the parts they did change are very, very drastic changes. Some of the characters have completely different personalities in the movie.

Jillers
Me Talk Pretty One Day by David Sedaris

Yeah, I read that book. He's hilarious.

Finished Jurassic Park. Good book.

Now I am reading a very interesting and awesome book.

I am Legend

I'm reading Plato's Republic.

ccs1989

Jillers
Me Talk Pretty One Day by David Sedaris

Yeah, I read that book. He's hilarious.

I started reading him before too. He's pretty funny. Reminds me of a heartbreaking work of staggering genius. (my favorite book title in the world)

right now I'm reading flat broke with children and trying very hard to write a paper...but...keep...getting...sidetracked.

Now I'm reading One for the Money (Janet Evanovich). There's Catch 22 lying in my house, but I'll save it for when I can handle that many pages.

I think the thing that let me down about Catch-22 is that my friends and a lot of people I know who read it just gave it a huge amount of hype. So I was disappointed in it just because I had raised my expectation of it being a really really good book.

Right now I'm getting ready to read Crazy English: The Ulitmate Joy Ride Through Our Language by Richard Lederer. I haven't started it yet, but I'm looking forward to it. It sounds like he's a witty, good writer.

LIZARD_B1TE
Finished Jurassic Park. Good book.

Now I am reading a very interesting and awesome book.

I am Legend

Are you reading the story or the comic adaptation? 'Cause the story is wicked hard to find.

Funfact: Did you know that it's being adopted as a film? And guess who's staring in it? None other than our favorite leading man Will Smith! The poster shows him holding two guns crossed over his chest.

LOOKS LIKE THEY'RE KEEPING THE INTENTION OF THE BOOK IN TACT!




...fuck.

Loki
Are you reading the story or the comic adaptation? 'Cause the story is wicked hard to find. (I Am Legend)

I just bought that book to read, I didn't know there were different versions. :/ It's a pretty recent printing I think so it's probably the comic adaption then... what's the difference?

-Loki, it's already had two film adaptions, one staring Charlton Heston.
-Skool, it's a fairly old book, writen in the 50's I think? A damn good story. I've only heard the BBC radio adaption.

I would say there are two films based thematicly on the book, rather than calling them adaptations.

The reprint is a comic. It contains nearly all text from the book in it though, so it's a great subsitute. The novel has been out of print for years. At least, it was the last time I checked a few months ago. If there has been a new release recently, it's news to me.

I know someone who works in a library, so they got it for me. I just finished reading it yesterday, good book. Now, that is how vampire stories should be.

And, actually, that whole movie thing isn't an adaptation of the book so much as a remake of the Omega Man. Hopefully it will still be good in it's own right, but I doubt it will be faithful to the book at all.

Seriously, guns? Whatever happened to wooden stakes? They worked in the book, they worked in all the old legends. Why is it that vampires these days all go to nightclubs and are hunted by Blade wannabes? Bram Stoker's Dracula was the last vampire movie I saw that didn't involve nightclubs and leather.

Crap. I can't see Will Smith in that role. I just can't. And the ending probably won't be faithful at all.

SPOILERS AHEAD
-mod edit.- when someone says they're going to read the book it's not nice to give away the ending, even if it does have a spoiler notice.-

Loki
I would say...

Yes, you may say that, but they were adaptions, at least by Hollywood standards (which are pretty borad!). Matherson initially helped write the first one.
And it's apparently still being re-printed .

Sorry for the modding Lizard Bite. Although it's enough to say they'll probably change the end wich is the whole point of the title.
And he does use a gun or two in the story... The story is all about examining what works and why it does. If you want to watch a more "authentic" vampire film, Nosferatu is free on Google: http://video.google.com/videoplay?docid=-6185283610506001721&sourceid=searchfeed
It's highly regarded, although it is about 84 years old.

Yes, he does use guns at times, but it doesn't work, that was my point.

This thread is dying again...

Now I'm reading Christopher Moore's Lamb which I recieved for my birthday. I think it's absolutely hilarious.

What's odd is that there are a lot of people in my school who are mad that I'm reading this "spoof of the bible!" yet I go to a public school. Huh.

Mazoo
What's odd is that there are a lot of people in my school who are mad that I'm reading this "spoof of the bible!" yet I go to a public school. Huh.

I go to a Catholic school and the people there didn't care when some kid read the DaVinci Code.

This is inverted.

I just have to say, I've read them before but I'm in the middle of re-reading the His Dark Materials books, and they are so great.

I'm dreading reaching the ending again though. :(

Currently reading The Flashman Papers.

Harry Flashman, hero of the Victorian age, veteran of...nearly all the military campaigns there were, looks back on his military career from a venerable old age. Except he was no hero at all, he stumbles from encounter to encounter with an amazing level of cowardice, self preservation and far too much luck. He is vindictive, shallow and self serving. Once blackmailed into serving aboard a slave ship he takes to his duties amazingly well. There is no reason to like the guy, imagine Black Adder... but succesful.

If you like historical accuracy these books will amaze you in their depth. And the number of places the fella pops up is unbelievable. For instance there was at the battle of little bighorn an unidentified figure seen running across the battlefield. Guess who!

The man is a rapist, slave driver, coward, thief, blackmailer, liar, cheater, murderer, occasional soldier and (through no fault of his own) hero. But you can't help but like him.

Reread Animal Farm a little bit ago to brush up on my coup-throwing technique. Now all I need is a small army of dogs...

Also reread the first 6 books in the Robotech series. It's the Macross Saga. I've never seen the television show... And granted, the books aren't amazingly well-written, but I really like the story.

In the middle of going back through The Hitchiker's Guide to the Galaxy Trilogy. I never made it to the fourth and fifth books, but if I remember correctly, they got worse as the "trilogy" went on.

About a month ago I finished Dharma Bums by Jack Kerouac. Easily my favorite author, though this one wasn't quite up to par with On the Road. If you're between the ages of 16 and 28, living in America, read On the Road.

Finally, I'm slowly working my way through the Dalai Lama's Art of Happiness. It isn't as good as I was hoping because it's actually written by some psychiatrist and based on his conversations with His Holiness. He takes all of the spirituality out of it.

But don't take my word for it. Take his:

The fourth book of Hitchhikers was great (that's how I remember it away), the fifth book sucked. I think Adams wrote it when he was sort of just basically sick of the series and deliberately wanted to kill it off. That's pretty sad, I've never actually considered it part of the "cannon" anyway.

Eww... I just used "cannon" (did I even spell it right?), that's such a dork word when used in this context...

dude, reading rainbow rocks!
I still remember the episode they did when they went to a comic company.
that was hella cool

subcultured
dude, reading rainbow rocks!

I CONCUR.

subcultured
dude, reading rainbow rocks!

that show scares me... :(

Rich

subcultured
dude, reading rainbow rocks!

that show scares me... :(

How!? That show was awesome! I remember learning so much about mummies and Chinese egg-painting and other random stuff...

...I'm now reading The Ancestor's Tale by Richard Dawkins, which is about evolutionism and it's theories and whatnot. It's really complicated, but really interesting too.

I just finshied Lamb. It was silly. I'll need to stop by the library to find some more Moore (ha! pun...)

I just finished reading Christopher Moore's "A Dirty Job". It was pretty funny and silly, but some of the parts just made me go "WTF?" and the ending was soooo anticlimatic, not to mention horribly predicatable. (I knew what was going to happen at the end by the third chapter of the book!).

Now I've moved onto Charles Chadwick's "It's All Right Now". It's a bit difficult, because there is a lot of British slang and technicalities in it, and it's a wee bit boring. The back said it was pretty profound and moving, so I'm hoping things will get better soon.

I'm being forced to read Walden by Thoreau. It's dull. Very dull. The guy basically contradicts himself around 5 times in the first chapter alone. I don't know why it's considered such a great work, because it just strikes me as being pointless. Well written, but pointless. The guy talks the talk (and well, I might add) but doesn't walk the walk. In fact much of the time I was wondering what kind of walk he was trying to talk about, since he changes subjects so much.

He's like the poor man's Emerson.

Walden is a book I believe can only be taught in school if you have a supremely amazing English teacher who knows very well what they are doing. I read this back in 7th grade and I would not have gotten one word of it if not for my teacher, Mr. Johnson. I doubt there are more than a handful of people out there who can even come close to the level that guy is at.

Thoreau contradicts himself because he is exploring all types of philosophies--even some he doesn't agree with. To find Truth (with a capital "T" ) he must find all perspectives to see it at.

Walden actually takes place on a plot of land owned by Emerson. He and Thoreau used to be buddies. When money and resources were extremely tight, Emerson would give small jobs for Throeau to do.

hey, thoreau wrote an essay about civil disobedience-- and then refused to pay his taxes and went to jail because he was protesting ... er.. something. So you can't say he didn't walk the walk!
Im in the middle of Don Delillo's White Noise, and so far, it's not TheGreatestThingI'veEverRead, but it's well written.
my recommendations?

sirens of titan
in cold blood
clockwork orange
les miserables
east of eden
fear and loathing in las vegas
1984
Lolita
Jane Eyre
Three Musketeers

There's my top 10 favorite books of all time! I've been completely brainwashingly obsessed with all of these books at different junctures of my life (admittedly, least obsessed with Lolita and Three Musketeers than with the others... I used to paint scenes from "In Cold Blood" back in the day... I used to go and lay out in the fields near my house and imagine I was in Salinas with Cal Trask from East of Eden... I used to try to use the Russian-influenced slang of Clockwork Orange... and I can recite the entire play of Les Mis. I'm cRaZy.)