West Coast Connection Forum
Lifestyle => Sports & Entertainment => Topic started by: Lord Funk on April 22, 2007, 11:57:04 AM
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I remember Seer starting this thread maybe a couple of years ago... kind of like an intellectual version of 'what you bumping' on the main board ;)
I'm about a quarter of the way through a novel called 'Black Swan Green' by a dope writer called David Mitchell. I got into him about 18 months ago when I read his 'Cloud Atlas', an amazing novel where he tells six interweaved stories about individuals throughout history, present day and an imagined future. Easily one of the most incredible stories I've read.
This is a lot more down-to-earth - it's a 'coming of age' story about a kid growing up with a stammer in the Malvern Hills in Worcester. t's a really easy read - highly recommended.
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I finished reading The Alchemist by Paulo Coelho which was a fantastic read. Now I'm on The Grapes of Wrath by Steinbeck.. Then I might give Ulysses a crack.
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i don't read much fiction @ all. about 2 months ago i read all 6 of the harry potter books, but other than that all i read are comics or technical (computer) books. before the harry potter books, the last fiction book i read was when i was 16 in highschool (im 26 now)
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Garfield
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Band of Brothers-Stephen Ambrose(3rd time)
Im more amazed each time
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just finished reading "cheating death, stealing life" by eddie guerrero. excellent biography frum him. i think its one of the best bios from wwe. worth checking out from a man who went from a negative to a positive.i'm currently reading "the death of wcw" and "have a nice day" by mick foley.
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Catch-22
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I've just finished reading My Life With Bob Marley by Rita Marley, now Im readin Gangs : A Journey Into The British Underworld by Tony Thompson and next Im gonna read Dr. Dre : A Biography by Ronin Ro. I dont read any fiction books, not 4 me!
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I just finished reading Fantasyland by Sam Walker
Book about one mans passion with Roto basbeball :D...fuckin funny if you like baseball.
Now i need a new book to read...
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Iain Banks - The Bridge
"Iain Banks' 3rd novel tells the tale of a car crash victim and the symbolic dreamscape he inhabits while deep in a coma"
I HIGHLY recommend this book to everyone on here, or any of his books for that matter... He is a genius!
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Bridge_(novel)
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pornography
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AN OLD 1967 FRENCH BOOK - LES TEMPS MODERNES : LE CONFLIT ISRAELO/ARAB BY JEAN-PAUL SARTRE
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Just finished reading a book called "The Greatest American Speeches". Now I'm reading a book called "Jesus for the non-religious".
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Iain Banks - The Bridge
"Iain Banks' 3rd novel tells the tale of a car crash victim and the symbolic dreamscape he inhabits while deep in a coma"
I HIGHLY recommend this book to everyone on here, or any of his books for that matter... He is a genius!
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Bridge_(novel)
Sounds a bit like 'Life On Mars' on the BBC!
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I haven't read anything in about a year besides the newspaper and some magazines.
The last book I read was called "An Underground Education" by Richard Zacks. It's a non fiction book pretty much going into detail with photos of the stuff history books have left out of their pages. From the real origins of fairy tales (not the watered down versions today) to Pocahontas being a spokeswoman for the tobacco industry to the 1949 Nobel prize winner who performed lobotomies with an ice pick. It's pretty interesting to say the least.
Here's an excerpt:
Jackie Robinson was not the first black man to play in the Major Leagues. A handful of blacks player in organized major leagues, such as the American Association, in the 10th century until they were banned in the late 1880s. Black jockeys won fifteen of the first twenty-eight Kentucky Derbies until they were ousted in 1911. The majority of blacks were legally disenfranchised in the southern and boarder states from 1890 to 1907. In 1896, the Supreme Court upheld segregation. Enormously popular minstrel shows barnstormed the country depicting blacks as toadying fools. An African pygmy was exhibited behind bars at the Bronx Zoo. In 1921, whites in Tulsa, Oklahoma, dropped dynamite from a plane onto a black ghetto, killing seventy-five people and wrecking more than 1,100 homes.
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I haven't read anything in about a year besides the newspaper and some magazines.
The last book I read was called "An Underground Education" by Richard Zacks. It's a non fiction book pretty much going into detail with photos of the stuff history books have left out of their pages. From the real origins of fairy tales (not the watered down versions today) to Pocahontas being a spokeswoman for the tobacco industry to the 1949 Nobel prize winner who performed lobotomies with an ice pick. It's pretty interesting to say the least.
Here's an excerpt:
Jackie Robinson was not the first black man to play in the Major Leagues. A handful of blacks player in organized major leagues, such as the American Association, in the 10th century until they were banned in the late 1880s. Black jockeys won fifteen of the first twenty-eight Kentucky Derbies until they were ousted in 1911. The majority of blacks were legally disenfranchised in the southern and boarder states from 1890 to 1907. In 1896, the Supreme Court upheld segregation. Enormously popular minstrel shows barnstormed the country depicting blacks as toadying fools. An African pygmy was exhibited behind bars at the Bronx Zoo. In 1921, whites in Tulsa, Oklahoma, dropped dynamite from a plane onto a black ghetto, killing seventy-five people and wrecking more than 1,100 homes.
That sounds really interesting. Reminds me of a great book I read years back called "Lies My History Teacher Told Me".
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Im reading The Godfather II book now. Its a fucking great book. If you liked the movie you should definetly check the Godfather books. Its much better then the movies.
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Che: A Memoir By Fidel Castro
Timothy Leary - High Priest
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I haven't read anything in about a year besides the newspaper and some magazines.
The last book I read was called "An Underground Education" by Richard Zacks. It's a non fiction book pretty much going into detail with photos of the stuff history books have left out of their pages. From the real origins of fairy tales (not the watered down versions today) to Pocahontas being a spokeswoman for the tobacco industry to the 1949 Nobel prize winner who performed lobotomies with an ice pick. It's pretty interesting to say the least.
Here's an excerpt:
Jackie Robinson was not the first black man to play in the Major Leagues. A handful of blacks played in organized major leagues, such as the American Association, in the 19th century until they were banned in the late 1880s. Black jockeys won fifteen of the first twenty-eight Kentucky Derbies until they were ousted in 1911. The majority of blacks were legally disenfranchised in the southern and boarder states from 1890 to 1907. In 1896, the Supreme Court upheld segregation. Enormously popular minstrel shows barnstormed the country depicting blacks as toadying fools. An African pygmy was exhibited behind bars at the Bronx Zoo. In 1921, whites in Tulsa, Oklahoma, dropped dynamite from a plane onto a black ghetto, killing seventy-five people and wrecking more than 1,100 homes.
That sounds really interesting. Reminds me of a great book I read years back called "Lies My History Teacher Told Me".
*Edit* I fixed my typos so the excerpt reads better.
I really enjoy books with more off beat facts that aren't so mainstream. The history books make the worlds' past seem so tame and unified and I know it wasn't like that. I'll have to check out the book you mentioned above. The title already has me interested.
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I gotta read a bunch of books for my French class (last year of university!):
Albert Camus - L'étranger (The Stranger - Keanu Reeves' favourite book btw. Didn't find it all that interesting myself though)
Paul Coelho - L'alchimiste (The Alchemist)
Molière - L'Avare
Jean-Paul Sartre - Le Mur
Voltaire - Zadig & Candide
That's it as far as 'serious litterature' goes. A few weeks ago I read some great crime novels by George Pelecanos (writer on The Wire):
Right As Rain
Hell To Pay
^^^^I can recommend ANY Pelecanos book if you're into crime novels.
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A few weeks ago I read some great crime novels by George Pelecanos (writer on The Wire):
Right As Rain
Hell To Pay
^^^^I can recommend ANY Pelecanos book if you're into crime novels.
Yeah, I love crime novels. They're great when you don't want anything too heavy - I rarely remember the plots once I finish them, but they always suck me in while I'm reading them. Might check Pelecanos out
I particularly liike Ian Rankin's John Rebus series set in Scotland, although the later novels aren't a patch on the earlier ones.
EDIT: On Amazon.co.uk, one reviewer compares Pelecano to Ian Rankin. Cool :)
I'm reading a pretty crap book at the moment - a novel called 'Plainsong' by Kent Haruf, about the residents of a small farming town in Colarado in the early 1980s. I liked it when I read the first page in the shop, but Christ it's slow. I'm nearly half way through and I'm wondering where the hell it's going...
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i just finished - THE LIFE IN GUANTANAMO - ( hardest jail in the world ) by NIZAR SASSI
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I particularly liike Ian Rankin's John Rebus series set in Scotland, although the later novels aren't a patch on the earlier ones.
Ian Rankin...never heard of him. I'll check him out after my exams (end of June). Thanks for the suggestion!
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Think I'm gonna start readin Cosa Nostra : Story Of The Sicilian Mafia as I just finished the Dre book!
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picked up a few tpb comics today
civil war - fantastic four
civil war - wolverine
civil war - road to civil war
civil war - frontline
they didnt have spiderman or the series civil war in stock, gotta wait for those
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Im Reading
The Ambler Warning by Robert Ludlum
On parrish island, off the coast of virginia, there is a little known and never visited psychiatric facility. There, far from prying eyes, the government stores former intelligence employees whose psychiatric state makes them a danger to their own government.
One of these employees, former agent Hal Ambler, is kept heavily medicated and closely watched. but there's one difference between Hal and the other patients, Hal isn't crazy. Hal pulls off a daring escape and now he's out to discover who stashed him there and why. But the world he returns to has changed. No one remembers him, there are no official records of Hal Ambler, and, when he first looks in the mirror, the face he sees is not his own.
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^^^
I like the sound of that - is it any good?
I'm onto 'My Trade', a history of British journalism by a BBC journalist called Andrew Marr - really interesting.
Also read a pretty interesting book at the weekend called 'How To Write Great Copy' by a fella called Dominic Gettins. It's about the creative process behind writing adverts - a random read but gives you a great insight into how everything from TV commercials to posters are put together. I'd recommend it for any creative types here :)
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^^^
I like the sound of that - is it any good?
yeah its pretty good. In all honesty im not a huge reader so i dont have a lot of books to compare it to. Ive enjoyed it though , when i finish im gonna check out some other robert ludlum novels as my dad has a load of them.
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I started The Bridge (Boo Yaa's recommendation) and so far its dino.
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Im Reading
The Ambler Warning by Robert Ludlum
On parrish island, off the coast of virginia, there is a little known and never visited psychiatric facility. There, far from prying eyes, the government stores former intelligence employees whose psychiatric state makes them a danger to their own government.
One of these employees, former agent Hal Ambler, is kept heavily medicated and closely watched. but there's one difference between Hal and the other patients, Hal isn't crazy. Hal pulls off a daring escape and now he's out to discover who stashed him there and why. But the world he returns to has changed. No one remembers him, there are no official records of Hal Ambler, and, when he first looks in the mirror, the face he sees is not his own.
Sounds pretty interesting. I'll have to check that out... *props
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Fahrenheit 451 for my English class. Well, more like spark notes.