What are you reading?

[wub]

An Idiot Abroad: The Travel Diaries of Karl Pilkington

How is it??
I've got season 1 on blu-ray and I can't get enough of it

Honestly, it's a bit shit.

He comes across as a fuckwit and the way it's written ("I saw the pyramids today and they are big, bigger than I thought and there is sand") is like a slightly retarded child talking about what they did on their summer holidays. I've not seen the TV series, but I can imagine it's better when you see him acting like a twat rather than just writing like one.

That being said, it's an easy read and I burned through 100 pages the other night with no effort, so I'd recommend it as something to keep on the back of the toilet for when you're having a shit.

[vishes]

Hahaha yeah I think I get what you mean.
You do have to know though that he really is like that, he's not acting it. But I agree, the things he says sometimes are extremely obvious or stupid, but by seeing his expressions when he says those things, or the way he says it, is usually what makes me laugh.

[AllNightDayDream]

To Kill A Mockingbird is such a great book. That and the great gatsby were the only school-required readings I really enjoyed. It's unfortunate how whenever a reading is assigned to you for school, there's a good chance you won't enjoy it for that fact alone.

[JBoy]

Kark pilkington is a fuckwit, dont see what the fascination is with him.

Anyway, interview with the vampire.

[James Kofi]

You do have to know though that he really is like that, he's not acting it.

he's as real as the only way is essex

Kark pilkington is a fuckwit

you always save me time in threads

[AllNightDayDream]

Just finished "Alienation and Freedom" by Richard Schmitt. A very pleasant surprise, and pretty short too, 133 pages. It explores both concepts through the works of various philosophers like Hume, Rousseau, Kierkegaard, Nietzsche, economists like Marx, Smith, Bentham, and uses literature by the likes of Tolstoy and Flaubert. It really made me want to read some Tolstoy. I originally picked it up just to gain a second-hand understanding of marx's formulations of alienation, but I got much more than that out of it.

[SCope13]

I read Anna Karenina a couple summers ago, I highly recommend it.

[AllNightDayDream]

I got a compilation of his short stories, they're pretty rad.

Anyone ever get that feeling halfway through a book when you realize it's complete shit? Just happened to me reading this

[cosmic_surgeon]

I got a compilation of his short stories, they're pretty rad.

Anyone ever get that feeling halfway through a book when you realize it's complete shit? Just happened to me reading this

epic.

[Devry_Kaneda]

I buy way too many books and dont have time to read any of them. feels like shit.

[apmje]

Still...finally getting into it.

[antipode]

Girl w/ Dragon Tattoo still.. girls getting in way of reading.

But I did just get a copy of Bram Stoker's Dracula, can't wait to crack into it.

[butter_man]

'upanishads' on a quest for enlightenment.

[butter_man]

Just finished "Alienation and Freedom" by Richard Schmitt. A very pleasant surprise, and pretty short too, 133 pages. It explores both concepts through the works of various philosophers like Hume, Rousseau, Kierkegaard, Nietzsche, economists like Marx, Smith, Bentham, and uses literature by the likes of Tolstoy and Flaubert. It really made me want to read some Tolstoy. I originally picked it up just to gain a second-hand understanding of marx's formulations of alienation, but I got much more than that out of it.

ive read the first volume of war and peace, its not easy reading 80 pages on a ball where they discuss the different details of there love affairs and ball gowns. that mixed with paragraph long sentences and finding you have to go back to the start of each chapter if you dont read it through in one bit, makes it a toughie.

[Naan_Bread]

You could always start with some of the shorter ones: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Leo_Tolstoy_bibliography

"Alienation and Freedom" looks really cool, but as I said in the things that pissed you off today thread: it's going to cost me about £40 (rough conversion) because it's a uni text.

Fucking disgusting, still pissing me off.

[fassyman]

I got a compilation of his short stories, they're pretty rad.

Anyone ever get that feeling halfway through a book when you realize it's complete shit? Just happened to me reading this

had to double take then, read the author as Francis Fukyamomma lol

[magma]

Girl w/ Dragon Tattoo still.. girls getting in way of reading.

But I did just get a copy of Bram Stoker's Dracula, can't wait to crack into it.

The solution to this problem is to give up on the Larsson and get into Dracula. I read it as a teenager and it's COMPLETELY FUCKING AWESOME.

Accept no substitutes. I thought Anne Rice's books (Interview with a Vampire etc) might be a good follow-up... but from what I remember, they were boring as shit.

[AllNightDayDream]

Just finished "Alienation and Freedom" by Richard Schmitt. A very pleasant surprise, and pretty short too, 133 pages. It explores both concepts through the works of various philosophers like Hume, Rousseau, Kierkegaard, Nietzsche, economists like Marx, Smith, Bentham, and uses literature by the likes of Tolstoy and Flaubert. It really made me want to read some Tolstoy. I originally picked it up just to gain a second-hand understanding of marx's formulations of alienation, but I got much more than that out of it.

ive read the first volume of war and peace, its not easy reading 80 pages on a ball where they discuss the different details of there love affairs and ball gowns. that mixed with paragraph long sentences and finding you have to go back to the start of each chapter if you dont read it through in one bit, makes it a toughie.

Yeah dunno if I'm gonna dive into that haha... It's like in les miserables when Hugo takes like 200 pages to describe the Parisian sewer system. I might be wrong but I think they were paid by the page back then.

@naan bread: yeah I really only get stuff from my uni library these days. Fuck me if Im about to drop 40 bucks for a 100 page book!

[kay]

Girl w/ Dragon Tattoo still.. girls getting in way of reading.

But I did just get a copy of Bram Stoker's Dracula, can't wait to crack into it.

The solution to this problem is to give up on the Larsson and get into Dracula. I read it as a teenager and it's COMPLETELY FUCKING AWESOME.

Accept no substitutes. I thought Anne Rice's books (Interview with a Vampire etc) might be a good follow-up... but from what I remember, they were boring as shit.

Yeah I've got Dracula on the bookstack too. I've read it before a long time ago, but thought it was about time to give it another go.

I think Interview was ok, Lestat was just about bearable. But Queen of the Damned onwards was just farcical. Might as well have dressed them up in spandex.

[kay]

Just started reading this:



2 chapters in, good read so far!

Definitely wanna pick this one up at some point, brian cox is a don. This along with "A Short History of Nearly Everything" look like good crash courses on modern science.

It's going reasonably well so far, definitely have learnt a few new things. Some of it is a bit difficult to read as they write out the equations and steps in solving the equations in prose, would've been much easier if they'd just written it out in a few simple lines of equations.

I think there are maybe 1 or 2 analogies which are a bit wonky, but overall seems to do the job without needing much more than understanding basic algebra and pythagoras.

I can handle that. Post your thoughts after you're done!

Finally done. Mostly happy with the book, its explained a few things in a different light (no pun intended), pointed out a few things which other books don't really touch on. It does sometimes go off on a tangent but those diversions are usually fairly entertaining and informative about historical figures in science. I think some of the concepts and explanations will make more sense if you've read other similar but less mathematically-inclined books first (e.g. The Elegant Universe). But on the whole it's reasonably well explained with analogies. It doesn't of course show the actual mathematical proof, but it does bring you in a step-by-step way to the same conclusion.

This will happily sit alongside Warped Passages on my bookshelf.