christmastime means reading time
Bibliophilia:
So in 2008 I read 40 books. I set a goal of 50 (not including plays) for 2009.
So far I have read 20 (including plays). But hey, it was a busy year. I'll post a year-end literary review thing soon. Until then...
finished:
Poor Folk by Fyodor Dostoevsky. - it was no Notes From Underground, but it was still pretty solid... kinda heart wrenching at times. Still, there's some glorious prose.
This is also the book I selected for a bookcircle/sharing thing. I had to write notes in it and stuff... which was hard for two reasons: first, because I'm generally very against marking up books, and second, I was often to absorbed in the story to make note of anything. Mostly I just put "awww this is sad" or underlined lines I thought were particularly well written. It felt weird though. Writing in books with pen... crazy!
up next/currently reading:
Bloodletting & Miraculous Cures by Vincent Lam
The next installment for the bookcircle thing, provided by Katy. she has written in it. and now I will write in it too. hurrah! I will start it tonight.
The Shock Doctrine by Naomi Campbell
about half way through. I really like it, and think people should read it... but there are particular things about her style I still hate (especially just having taken a course in which I studied democracy, neo-liberalism [and the two major thinkers connected to it], the two major topics of her book). Having come at the whole neo-liberal thing from a purely theoretical/philosophical side, it's kind of hard to read someone trash it from the "this isn't democracy" side. It's not that it isn't democracy... it's just not what she wants democracy to be or mean. Not agreeing an idea is not the same as it being incoherent; something Klein does not seem to understand. I am not defending neo-liberalism. I tried my best to tear it to shreds in two separate essays this past semester, but I did so with an understanding of the conditions, goals, concepts and picture-of-human-nature that it encompasses. Still, the stuff that bugs me is stuff that probably won't bug you (unless you have also spent a lot of time studying Milton Friedman, Fredrich Von Haykek, Thomas Hobbes and the development of democratic theory). It's a good book and so far I agree with the message she's trying to get across.
Newly Acquired:
Exit Ghost by Philip Roth
The Adolescent by Fyodor Dostoevsky
So in 2008 I read 40 books. I set a goal of 50 (not including plays) for 2009.
So far I have read 20 (including plays). But hey, it was a busy year. I'll post a year-end literary review thing soon. Until then...
finished:
Poor Folk by Fyodor Dostoevsky. - it was no Notes From Underground, but it was still pretty solid... kinda heart wrenching at times. Still, there's some glorious prose.
This is also the book I selected for a bookcircle/sharing thing. I had to write notes in it and stuff... which was hard for two reasons: first, because I'm generally very against marking up books, and second, I was often to absorbed in the story to make note of anything. Mostly I just put "awww this is sad" or underlined lines I thought were particularly well written. It felt weird though. Writing in books with pen... crazy!
up next/currently reading:
Bloodletting & Miraculous Cures by Vincent Lam
The next installment for the bookcircle thing, provided by Katy. she has written in it. and now I will write in it too. hurrah! I will start it tonight.
The Shock Doctrine by Naomi Campbell
about half way through. I really like it, and think people should read it... but there are particular things about her style I still hate (especially just having taken a course in which I studied democracy, neo-liberalism [and the two major thinkers connected to it], the two major topics of her book). Having come at the whole neo-liberal thing from a purely theoretical/philosophical side, it's kind of hard to read someone trash it from the "this isn't democracy" side. It's not that it isn't democracy... it's just not what she wants democracy to be or mean. Not agreeing an idea is not the same as it being incoherent; something Klein does not seem to understand. I am not defending neo-liberalism. I tried my best to tear it to shreds in two separate essays this past semester, but I did so with an understanding of the conditions, goals, concepts and picture-of-human-nature that it encompasses. Still, the stuff that bugs me is stuff that probably won't bug you (unless you have also spent a lot of time studying Milton Friedman, Fredrich Von Haykek, Thomas Hobbes and the development of democratic theory). It's a good book and so far I agree with the message she's trying to get across.
Newly Acquired:
Exit Ghost by Philip Roth
The Adolescent by Fyodor Dostoevsky