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Post by funkymartini on Oct 3, 2004 12:52:55 GMT -5
anyone reading any?
Just started really getting into non-fiction. Currently reading No Logo, by Naomi Klein... about how advertising, and brands have proliferated and taken over society. good book, but ack.. its so doom and gloom, that's why I stayed away from this type of non-fiction for so long. It's depressing and yet its addictive, you can't put it down.
Also getting into some classics.. Jude The Obscure, Don Quixote etc.
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Post by DocD83 on Oct 3, 2004 13:48:33 GMT -5
I'm currently reading "Dr Suess Goes to War," which is a collection of Theodor Seuss Geilsel's political cartoons from January 1941 to...I think he stopped in '43. It's a good read, though I think the author tends to get a little annoying trying to prove Dr. Seuss a racist. Another book is "The Evolution of Useful Things" by Henry Petroski. I never finished it when I got it in high school, but by a wierd coincidence my sister in law had just bought the same book and loved it so I'm going to give it another shot. From what I remember it interspersed the history of the design of various ordinary things (forks and paperclips were the two I recall) with some semi-philosophical chapters about how the design of ordinary things change with time. As for classics might I recommend "All Quiet on the Western Front"? It's a good book. I put a review on my website [/shameless plug] |
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Post by Al on Oct 3, 2004 21:09:17 GMT -5
I'm vainly struggling to find time in between schoolwork for Simon Winchester's Krakatoa: The Day the World Exploded. It's a little dry at times, like when he launches into the extended history of Krakatau and it's spice trade, but overall he provides a rather fascinating look at the first major disaster of the modern world. Also, How the Irish Saved Civilization by Thomas Cahill, the first part of his series on alternative histories of the world. Really interesting stuff (even for the nonIrish like me) told in a well-paced and witty style.
As for classics, if you enjoyed Jude, I'd recommend Tess of the D'Urbervilles also by Thomas Hardy. It's just as depressing, but this time there's rape and murder! Whee! No, seriously, it's good.
Al
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Post by pfrsue on Oct 3, 2004 21:30:26 GMT -5
It's not non-fiction, but if you liked All Quiet on the Western Front, you might also like One Day in the Life of Ivan Denisovich by Alexander Solzhenitsyn. It's set in a Russian prison camp during the Stalinist era and basically follows a prisoner through one complete day. (Solzhenitsyn spent time in them himself, so it comes across as very authentic.) Even translated from the original Russian, it's written in an informal first-person voice, that I really like. Easy read, not long, but it sticks with you.
Just a thought,
Sue
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Post by TheLuckyOne on Oct 4, 2004 15:45:01 GMT -5
I'm currently reading "Dr Suess Goes to War," which is a collection of Theodor Seuss Geilsel's political cartoons from January 1941 to...I think he stopped in '43. It's a good read, though I think the author tends to get a little annoying trying to prove Dr. Seuss a racist. Dr. Seuss a racist? For real? But... but what about the Star-Bellied Sneetches? Were we all wrong in thinking that was a parable, uh, against racism? -D |
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Post by Magill on Oct 4, 2004 16:17:06 GMT -5
Before I can make my recs, it depends on what type of nonfiction you like reading. Autobiographies? Histories? Science? Business (which is what No Logo sounds like)? True Crime?
On an unrelated note, calling Tess of the D'Ubervilles depressing is a bit of an understatement. I hated it, mostly because Hardy seemed to be saying that Tess didn't deserve any happiness because of the unpleasantness that happened to her in her earlier days (trying not to spoil the plot, though the books been in print for how many years?).
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Post by DocD83 on Oct 4, 2004 19:55:18 GMT -5
He was very anti-racist when it came to Jews and Blacks, but act like everyone else at the time acted towards Asians and all of a sudden he's supposed to be reviled. He was, I think, less racist in even that regard than the superhero comic books of the day (the bits they showed on the history channel anyway), but whatever, the guy who wrote the book wants us to hate Seuss now.
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Post by Al on Oct 4, 2004 21:29:50 GMT -5
I hated it, mostly because Hardy seemed to be saying that Tess didn't deserve any happiness because of the unpleasantness that happened to her in her earlier days. I had thought it was more that she couldn't escape what had happened, either because of her own inability to move on or the bad reactions by others to her admission. Hardy seems to like that sense of cosmic injustice (see also: Jude the Obscure); it's not so much she doesn't deserve any happiness, just that fate has ordained she doesn't get any. Take what I'm saying with a grain of salt though, I only read the book once and it was a few years back. Your point may absolutely be present and I just missed that whole vein. Al |
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Post by Ms. Jellybean on Oct 11, 2004 15:02:26 GMT -5
Queen Bees and Wannabes is next on my list, and that counts as nonfiction. Besides, it's what Mean Girls is based upon... 
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