Comments | myth: Books that I read this year, (mostly) in the order I read them

myth

Books that I read this year, (mostly) in the order I read them

Dec 06, 2005 16:25

... and commentary written about them. (In the spirit of wynand.) See also books I read in JanuarySaussure, Course in General Linguistics. A classic of the field, I'm glad to have read it, and can easily recommend it (despite its age) to anyone with an interest in either linguistics or semiotics. It's frustrating how he seems to be on the right ( Read more... )

books

Comments 11

duinlas December 6 2005, 21:47:30 UTC

Might as well use this post to make a completely unrelated (to the post) comment.

I was just thinking about one of the most memorable pieces of music I've ever heard, and it is a tune that keeps coming into my mind. The first time I heard it, I thought it haunting and very immersive.

Ages of Durin by you.

It's probably quite simplistic by your current day standards, but I figured I should tell you considering I started humming it from memory last night. :)

really late reply myth January 17 2006, 16:56:37 UTC

This is a fine compliment. Thanks. :)

clysm December 7 2005, 01:06:33 UTC

Galapagos is the one Vonnegut book that I started but lost interest in. Maybe I should give it another look. I recommend The Sirens of Titan if you haven't read that one. Cat's Cradle is my favorite by him. I liked Slaughterhouse Five, too. Somehow I managed to get through school without being assigned to read it, and I read it just recently.

I, too, was disappointed that the second of those Lovecraft collections was not quite as good as the first one. But I guess that just shows they did a good job compiling the first one.

I didn't like American Gods at all, and I thought I was the only one. I don't start and abandon too many books, but this is another one I quit halfway through. I found his book Neverwhere pretty interesting, but not as good as some of his Sandman books (World's End being my favorite, followed closely by A Season of Mists).

very late reply myth January 17 2006, 17:00:14 UTC

I haven't read Slaughterhouse-Five yet, though it's probably next on my Vonnegut list. I think the gf has a copy of the Sirens of Titan that I can borrow, so I'll probably check that out too.

I am so glad to hear that smart people didn't like American Gods. I brought it to Estonia/Latvia/Lithuania with me as "light" reading and had to FORCE myself to read it instead of, e.g., staring out of the window of the bus. Not so good.

piman December 7 2005, 04:44:42 UTC

As probably the biggest Gaiman fan reading your journal, I agree American Gods was one of his weakest stories. But I don't think it could have ended any other way; the overarching tale is an Eddic one, and that has to end more or less the same way every time. I much preferred his more recent Anansi Boys, which managed to tell a better story.

> If Le Guin had written the book today, Ai and Estraven would have made sweet, sweet love in that tent, over and over.

I'm not sure if this is supposed to be a comment about what the Ekumen should be like, or what you think Le Guin would have written if she had been writing today. She did write a story in which the narrator goes into a kemmerhouse, though she is a regular Gethenian. Though honestly, do you really think that many people have thrown off gender today? I find it reasonable that a human 1000 years from now (or whatever), especially after significantly divergent evolution, would be equally confused by that condition.

late reply myth January 17 2006, 17:26:00 UTC

I'm not sure if this is supposed to be a comment about what the Ekumen should be like, or what you think Le Guin would have written if she had been writing today.

I think that if Le Guin had written the book today, Ai's views would seem out of place. Back in the day, I guess that they might have been seen as "reasonable," but now that we have a whole literature of books that question gender, now that gender is a recurrent issue in politics and pop culture, I feel like the way he thinks about gender is a little outdated. Which either means that the Ekumen never experienced in its history a thorough questioning of gender, or Ai is unusually biased in his views - which makes him unqualified to be sent on a mission to a planet like Gethen.

As for the Estraven/Ai sex comment - I dunno. Was I the only one who expected this to happen?

harvey December 7 2005, 05:53:48 UTC

Re: Brautigan, I'm glad you finally got around to him. Revenge of the Lawn is also worth it, if it can be found - it's a collection of short stories from various places, and some of my favorite stuff is in there. Also, interestingly enough, I found an album of his: various recordings of noise, reading his stories, etc.

Have you ever read Danielewski's House of Leaves? It's pretty creepy, and I couldn't seem to put it down while I was reading it. Hmm. Now I want to read it again.

Hunter S Thompson is pretty damned awesome.

myth January 17 2006, 17:26:48 UTC

House of Leaves is on my wishlist. Maybe I'll buy it with some of the gift certificate capital I ended up with after the holidays.

myth June 12 2006, 17:31:16 UTC

House of Leaves was a good recommendation. Scared the shit out of me toward the middle there. This plus An Inconvenient Truth (images of the arctic icecap melting) gave me a two day-long anxiety attack. Whee!

harvey June 14 2006, 03:05:55 UTC

Man, I love HoL. I'm glad you dug it.

Heard Gore on NPR the other day. Maybe I should check that one out, too.

wynand December 7 2005, 19:25:09 UTC

Hey, I found a copy of "How To Do Things With Words" for a buck at some used bookstore years ago, read it, forgot it, and never realized for a moment that it was written by Austin! It might be worthwhile to read again maybe--all I remember was a lot of reflection on my part about how this was a completely forest-for-trees view of language use, which is actually how I think about Austin's work in general, but no matter, I guess.