Wear 381: Yellow or Pink: Or Both?
5 years ago
Showing posts with label books. Show all posts
Showing posts with label books. Show all posts
Wednesday, February 11, 2015
Monday, November 1, 2010
Under Construction ...
Ten Books That Refer to Other Books That I Am, or Recently Did, or Soon Will Read.
1. The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-time (Mark Haddon) refers to James Gleick's Chaos: Making a New Science.
2. Peter Robinson's A Necessary End, refers to another book in my reading pile, The Mill on the Floss by George Eliot.
3. Snow Falling on Cedars by David Guterson makes a reference to Tolstoy's War and Peace.
4. Ripper by Isabel Allende references my recently finished read Stiff: The Curious Lives of Human Cadavers by Mary Roach. Great book(s).
1. The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-time (Mark Haddon) refers to James Gleick's Chaos: Making a New Science.
2. Peter Robinson's A Necessary End, refers to another book in my reading pile, The Mill on the Floss by George Eliot.
3. Snow Falling on Cedars by David Guterson makes a reference to Tolstoy's War and Peace.
4. Ripper by Isabel Allende references my recently finished read Stiff: The Curious Lives of Human Cadavers by Mary Roach. Great book(s).
Under construction ...
Ten Places from Books That Make Me Want to Visit Them.
1. From Michael Moorcock's King of the City: New Marshalsea Market, London, for the birds.
1. From Michael Moorcock's King of the City: New Marshalsea Market, London, for the birds.
Monday, October 25, 2010
Wednesday, September 8, 2010
Friday, August 27, 2010
Under Construction ...
Ten Books I am Going to Borrow After I Hand in my Thesis.
* Based on a random word search in the Deakin Library Title search.
* Based on a random word search in the Deakin Library Title search.
Wednesday, August 11, 2010
Thursday, July 29, 2010
Under Construction ...
Ten Books In A Fortnight.
1. Angels and Demons; Dan Brown.
2. Auto de Fay; Fay Weldon.
3. Deadly Decisions; Kathy Reichs.
4. Fairyland; Sumner Locke Elliot.
5. Gallows View; Peter Robinson.
6. The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo; Steig Larsson.
7. Harry Potter and the Philosopher’s Stone; JK Rowling.
8. House of Sand and Fog; Andre Dubus III.
1. Angels and Demons; Dan Brown.
2. Auto de Fay; Fay Weldon.
3. Deadly Decisions; Kathy Reichs.
4. Fairyland; Sumner Locke Elliot.
5. Gallows View; Peter Robinson.
6. The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo; Steig Larsson.
7. Harry Potter and the Philosopher’s Stone; JK Rowling.
8. House of Sand and Fog; Andre Dubus III.
Wednesday, March 31, 2010
Ten Recommended Books from My Google Book Search Based on my 'Currently Reading' Book List.
* I have entered the books I am currently reading onto my i-Google page under the My Google Book Search gadget. Those books are: The Book of Secrets, Sense and Sensibility, On the Road, The Picture of Dorian Gray, The Little Red Writing Book, Chaos: Making a New Science, Dear Me: Letters to my 16 year old self, The Kingdom of Infinite Space, She, Oscar Wilde's Plays Prose Writings and Poems, The Virgin in the Garden, The Gulag Archipelago II, The Norton Anthology of Poetry, Don Quixote, Crime and Punishment, The Chronicles of Narnia, Karma: The Ancient Science of Cause and Effect, From Cape Wrath to Finisterre, Antigone, War and Peace, The Complete Works of Edgar Allen Poe, King of the City, and, Travels with Charley. The Following are recommendations My Google Book Search makes for other books for me to read, based on what I have already listed.
1. Four more versions of She, including an omnibus of H Rider Haggard novel which is what I am reading. How does recommending a book you are already reading work exactly? It's not like it is even in translation and the third sentence on page twenty-eight may be reworded differently. This is just silly.
2. Sex Matters: From Sex to Superconsciousness by Osho. Okay, on two counts: if you like an author maybe you'd like to read something else he wrote, and, everyone will take a recommendation to read a book about sex—even if you are sitting there denying it, you're still curious.
3. The Complete Idiots Guide to American Literature. What is Google saying? Are they calling me a complete idiot?
4. Seventeen different versions of Don Quixote. Seven of which are in Spanish, and one dual language. For the ridiculousness of this suggestion, and for the benefit of any multiple but same suggestions that follow, see number one.
5. Brewer’s Famous Quotations. This may be a half sensible suggestion—although I am sure to find that ninety percent of the quotes are from either Oscar Wilde, or, Don Quixote.
6. Viewpoints, bulletin of the School of Education, Indiana University. Okay, thanks. I will see if I can get around to reading it sometime. Did you have any particular issue in mind?
7. The All Music Guide to Country. Where on Earth did they get that suggestion from? Have they also accessed my i-Pod playlists? Oops, have I given away something I didn’t really want anyone to know?
8. Malcontents: The best bitter, cynical and satirical writing in the world. That sounds Oscar-chocker but also like a bit of a fun read. I think I could get my writing into that work eventually—it does tend to be bitter, cynical and satirical!
9. Women's Almanac: Twelve How-To Handbooks in One. That sounds quite useful, even if also derogatory.
10. Sparknotes Cheaters Guide to The Scarlet Letter. Okay? I am not reading The Scarlet Letter, nor am I studying it,writing an essay on it, researching a thesis or taking an exam on it, but, hey, no reason not to be prepared with some salient thoughts about the text.
1. Four more versions of She, including an omnibus of H Rider Haggard novel which is what I am reading. How does recommending a book you are already reading work exactly? It's not like it is even in translation and the third sentence on page twenty-eight may be reworded differently. This is just silly.
2. Sex Matters: From Sex to Superconsciousness by Osho. Okay, on two counts: if you like an author maybe you'd like to read something else he wrote, and, everyone will take a recommendation to read a book about sex—even if you are sitting there denying it, you're still curious.
3. The Complete Idiots Guide to American Literature. What is Google saying? Are they calling me a complete idiot?
4. Seventeen different versions of Don Quixote. Seven of which are in Spanish, and one dual language. For the ridiculousness of this suggestion, and for the benefit of any multiple but same suggestions that follow, see number one.
5. Brewer’s Famous Quotations. This may be a half sensible suggestion—although I am sure to find that ninety percent of the quotes are from either Oscar Wilde, or, Don Quixote.
6. Viewpoints, bulletin of the School of Education, Indiana University. Okay, thanks. I will see if I can get around to reading it sometime. Did you have any particular issue in mind?
7. The All Music Guide to Country. Where on Earth did they get that suggestion from? Have they also accessed my i-Pod playlists? Oops, have I given away something I didn’t really want anyone to know?
8. Malcontents: The best bitter, cynical and satirical writing in the world. That sounds Oscar-chocker but also like a bit of a fun read. I think I could get my writing into that work eventually—it does tend to be bitter, cynical and satirical!
9. Women's Almanac: Twelve How-To Handbooks in One. That sounds quite useful, even if also derogatory.
10. Sparknotes Cheaters Guide to The Scarlet Letter. Okay? I am not reading The Scarlet Letter, nor am I studying it,writing an essay on it, researching a thesis or taking an exam on it, but, hey, no reason not to be prepared with some salient thoughts about the text.
Sunday, March 7, 2010
Ten Quotes I Really Like From Books on the Reading Pile
1. From: Travels with Charley; John Steinbeck. Re: Turkeys. 'To know them is not to admire them for they are vain and hysterical. They gather in vulnerable groups then panic at rumors.' Fresh, fabulous writing. This is what turkeys are like, no-one ever said it this way before.
2. From: From Cape Wrath to Finisterre; Bjorn Larsson. Re: Marriage. 'Why then, one might ask with some justification, don't more people move in together on a boat for a trial period? They would soon find out whether there was any point in getting spliced.' In a sailing book what better analogy for marriage than rope-talk.
3. From: Gilles Deleuze; Claire Colebrook. Re: Love. ‘Love is the encounter with another person that opens us up to a possible world.’ That's a great way to think of something that is usually over-defined and thus pray to disappointment.
4. From Written on the Body; Jeanette Winterson. Re: Something unforgettable that someone says (or shows) to you. 'I've hidden those words in the lining of my coat. I take them out like a jewel thief when no-one's watching. They haven't faded.' Ah, Jeanette! Whole tracts of your work could be in this list. You are magic with words. I have a line of words hidden in my coat lining too. Just as they were hidden on a wall in marking only detectable by ultra violet light when I was first shown them.
5. From 1Q84; Haruki Murakami. Re: Amazing ways of describing facial expressions. 'Komatsu smiled. It was the kind of smile he might have found way in the back of a normally unopened drawer.'
6. From Auto de Fay; Fay Weldon. Re: Justifying name changes. 'Those who don't change their names enjoy a straight line from their past to their future, stay the same person, for good or bad.'
7. From Aleksandr Solzhenitsyn's Gulag Archipelago Volume II. Re: Stool pigeons in the general populace. 'He is an ordinary human being like you and me with a measure of good feelings, a measure of malice and envy, and with all the weakness which makes us vulnerable to spiders.'
8. From Tender is the Night; F Scott Fitzgerald. Re: The characteristics of children. 'Lanier was an unpredictable boy with an inhuman curiosty. "Well, how many pomeranians would it take to lick a lion, Father?" was typical of the questions with which he harrassed Dick.'
9. George Bernard Shaw quoted in Primal Body, Primal Mind: Beyond the Paleo Diet for Total Health and a Longer Life; Nora T Gedgaudas. 'No diet will remove all the fat from your body because the brain is entirely fat. Without a brain, you might look good, but all you could do is run for public office.'
10. From The Wind-Up Bird Chronicle; Murakami again. Re: simply stunning simile. 'I held May Kasahara's hand in my pocket. It was a small hand and warm as a sequestered soul.' Simile and metaphor are sometimes too clever for themselves, but I cannot help but hold them as my favourite word game.
2. From: From Cape Wrath to Finisterre; Bjorn Larsson. Re: Marriage. 'Why then, one might ask with some justification, don't more people move in together on a boat for a trial period? They would soon find out whether there was any point in getting spliced.' In a sailing book what better analogy for marriage than rope-talk.
3. From: Gilles Deleuze; Claire Colebrook. Re: Love. ‘Love is the encounter with another person that opens us up to a possible world.’ That's a great way to think of something that is usually over-defined and thus pray to disappointment.
4. From Written on the Body; Jeanette Winterson. Re: Something unforgettable that someone says (or shows) to you. 'I've hidden those words in the lining of my coat. I take them out like a jewel thief when no-one's watching. They haven't faded.' Ah, Jeanette! Whole tracts of your work could be in this list. You are magic with words. I have a line of words hidden in my coat lining too. Just as they were hidden on a wall in marking only detectable by ultra violet light when I was first shown them.
5. From 1Q84; Haruki Murakami. Re: Amazing ways of describing facial expressions. 'Komatsu smiled. It was the kind of smile he might have found way in the back of a normally unopened drawer.'
6. From Auto de Fay; Fay Weldon. Re: Justifying name changes. 'Those who don't change their names enjoy a straight line from their past to their future, stay the same person, for good or bad.'
7. From Aleksandr Solzhenitsyn's Gulag Archipelago Volume II. Re: Stool pigeons in the general populace. 'He is an ordinary human being like you and me with a measure of good feelings, a measure of malice and envy, and with all the weakness which makes us vulnerable to spiders.'
8. From Tender is the Night; F Scott Fitzgerald. Re: The characteristics of children. 'Lanier was an unpredictable boy with an inhuman curiosty. "Well, how many pomeranians would it take to lick a lion, Father?" was typical of the questions with which he harrassed Dick.'
9. George Bernard Shaw quoted in Primal Body, Primal Mind: Beyond the Paleo Diet for Total Health and a Longer Life; Nora T Gedgaudas. 'No diet will remove all the fat from your body because the brain is entirely fat. Without a brain, you might look good, but all you could do is run for public office.'
10. From The Wind-Up Bird Chronicle; Murakami again. Re: simply stunning simile. 'I held May Kasahara's hand in my pocket. It was a small hand and warm as a sequestered soul.' Simile and metaphor are sometimes too clever for themselves, but I cannot help but hold them as my favourite word game.
Tuesday, March 2, 2010
Ten First Lines in the books on the 'Book of the Day' Gadget I Added to my i-Google Site Today.
1. 'The present century has been marked by a prodigious increase in wealth-producing power.'
(Progress and Poverty: An Inquiry into the Cause of Industrial Depressions, and of Increase of Want with Increase of Wealth. The Remedy; Henry George.) I am serious—sounds fascinating doesn't it.
2. 'In those strange old times, when fantastic dreams and madman's reveries were realized among the actual circumstances of life, two persons met together at an appointed hour and place.'
(The Complete Works of Nathaniel Hawthorne Volume 12; Nathaniel Hawthorn. Extract from 'The Hollow of the Three Hills'. Please note: due to there being no limited preview of this book available, it cannot be guaranteed that the extract is actually from this book. Sorry to the purists.) This sounds intriguing. That's a good first line. I want to read on.
3. 'Whilst every one at court was busily engaged upon his own affairs, a man mysteriously entered a house situated behind the Place de Greve.'
(The Man in the Iron Mask; Alexandre Dumas.) This doesn't sound too bad either, a bit of french, a bit of mystery. Detractors: why are there no women at court? why do I see Leonardo Di Caprio's face whenever I think of this book? I never saw that movie adaptation.
4. 'When the Narasimha Rao government, shortly after taking office in mid-1991, announced its intention to overhaul the workings of the Indian economy, many observers considered the plans of Finance Minister Manmohan Singh far too radical for what 'the compulsions of democratic politics' would allow.'
(Democratic Politics and Economic Reform in India; Rob Jenkins. Technically this is the first line of chapter 2; pages one an two are missing on the limited Google preview. That was just the introduction. Although, bet it was a snappier line.) Might wait on ordering this one off the net, maybe I can borrow it from the library.
5. 'In our current technical society we often measure a continuously varying quantity.'
(Digital Filters; Richard Wesley Hamming.) Too many books are actually published. Like getting pregnant—they say it is incredibly difficult, but so many people seem to accomplish it regardless.
6. 'It has been estimated that the human body is made up of over [10 to the power of 14] cells of which only around 10% are mammalian.'
(Oral Microbiology; Philip Marsh and Michael V Martin) Oh, that is a car accident. I had to look. Turns out the rest are our leeching microflora. Euuogh! It got me reading, it made me want to stop.
7. 'No one would try to teach electrodynamics without using vector calculus.'
(Applied Differential Geometry; William L Burke.) I think I will stick with life. after. theory and The Moral Vision of Oscar Wilde for the moment thanks.
8. 'Amadeo Terra is staring out the window to the sea on which the sun is dancing.'
(The Cigar Roller; Pablo Medina.) It's not overly catchy for a first line. I dont expect to see it in an overpriced book journal like the one I saw today in Border's—the kind you list the books you have read in. The character's name is a little of a draw though as someone called Terra would seem perhaps like he is going to be an everyman, and therefore I would think that maybe this will be a book about me.
9. 'It is inherently human to show pity to those who are afflicted; it is a quality that becomes any person, but most particularly is it required of those who have stood in need of consolation and have obtained it from others; now if ever there was a man who craved pity or valued it or rejoiced in it, that man was I.'
(The Decameron; Giovanni Boccaccio, Guido Waldman, Jonathan Usher.) I have wanted to read The Decameron for a while so the wordy first sentence won't put me off. I will persevere.
10. 'Dictionary-style definitions of anti-Semitism ("hostility to Jews") are usually not much help, in part because their brevity and abstractness are inadequate to this particular protean phenomenon.'
(Esau's Tears: Modern Anti-Semitism and the Rise of the Jews; Albert S Lindemann.) This text would, I imagine, be quite interesting. The first sentence, from a writer's point of view, and a critic's scathingness, is not fabulous though. Starting with dictionary definitions. I can't. Sorry.
(Progress and Poverty: An Inquiry into the Cause of Industrial Depressions, and of Increase of Want with Increase of Wealth. The Remedy; Henry George.) I am serious—sounds fascinating doesn't it.
2. 'In those strange old times, when fantastic dreams and madman's reveries were realized among the actual circumstances of life, two persons met together at an appointed hour and place.'
(The Complete Works of Nathaniel Hawthorne Volume 12; Nathaniel Hawthorn. Extract from 'The Hollow of the Three Hills'. Please note: due to there being no limited preview of this book available, it cannot be guaranteed that the extract is actually from this book. Sorry to the purists.) This sounds intriguing. That's a good first line. I want to read on.
3. 'Whilst every one at court was busily engaged upon his own affairs, a man mysteriously entered a house situated behind the Place de Greve.'
(The Man in the Iron Mask; Alexandre Dumas.) This doesn't sound too bad either, a bit of french, a bit of mystery. Detractors: why are there no women at court? why do I see Leonardo Di Caprio's face whenever I think of this book? I never saw that movie adaptation.
4. 'When the Narasimha Rao government, shortly after taking office in mid-1991, announced its intention to overhaul the workings of the Indian economy, many observers considered the plans of Finance Minister Manmohan Singh far too radical for what 'the compulsions of democratic politics' would allow.'
(Democratic Politics and Economic Reform in India; Rob Jenkins. Technically this is the first line of chapter 2; pages one an two are missing on the limited Google preview. That was just the introduction. Although, bet it was a snappier line.) Might wait on ordering this one off the net, maybe I can borrow it from the library.
5. 'In our current technical society we often measure a continuously varying quantity.'
(Digital Filters; Richard Wesley Hamming.) Too many books are actually published. Like getting pregnant—they say it is incredibly difficult, but so many people seem to accomplish it regardless.
6. 'It has been estimated that the human body is made up of over [10 to the power of 14] cells of which only around 10% are mammalian.'
(Oral Microbiology; Philip Marsh and Michael V Martin) Oh, that is a car accident. I had to look. Turns out the rest are our leeching microflora. Euuogh! It got me reading, it made me want to stop.
7. 'No one would try to teach electrodynamics without using vector calculus.'
(Applied Differential Geometry; William L Burke.) I think I will stick with life. after. theory and The Moral Vision of Oscar Wilde for the moment thanks.
8. 'Amadeo Terra is staring out the window to the sea on which the sun is dancing.'
(The Cigar Roller; Pablo Medina.) It's not overly catchy for a first line. I dont expect to see it in an overpriced book journal like the one I saw today in Border's—the kind you list the books you have read in. The character's name is a little of a draw though as someone called Terra would seem perhaps like he is going to be an everyman, and therefore I would think that maybe this will be a book about me.
9. 'It is inherently human to show pity to those who are afflicted; it is a quality that becomes any person, but most particularly is it required of those who have stood in need of consolation and have obtained it from others; now if ever there was a man who craved pity or valued it or rejoiced in it, that man was I.'
(The Decameron; Giovanni Boccaccio, Guido Waldman, Jonathan Usher.) I have wanted to read The Decameron for a while so the wordy first sentence won't put me off. I will persevere.
10. 'Dictionary-style definitions of anti-Semitism ("hostility to Jews") are usually not much help, in part because their brevity and abstractness are inadequate to this particular protean phenomenon.'
(Esau's Tears: Modern Anti-Semitism and the Rise of the Jews; Albert S Lindemann.) This text would, I imagine, be quite interesting. The first sentence, from a writer's point of view, and a critic's scathingness, is not fabulous though. Starting with dictionary definitions. I can't. Sorry.
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