What are you reading?

[Shum]

big up choc-ice, might have to pick that book up.

Speaking of non-Euclidean geometries, here's a very readable history on the subject:



Another book I've read recently:



There is also a second volume though the first has all the good shit IMO. You will need to be fairly comfortable with university level maths to make sense of it.

Finished this a few weeks back, I suppose the best description would be a poetic fairy tale.

[autobot]

zen and the art of motorcycle maintenance - good argument on quality, as well as a bit of a dig at our current academic structure. just finished it and its amazing.

so onto his next book



so far so good, talking about how american indians have shaped american culture.

[kay]

big up choc-ice, might have to pick that book up.

Speaking of non-Euclidean geometries, here's a very readable history on the subject:



Another book I've read recently:



There is also a second volume though the first has all the good shit IMO. You will need to be fairly comfortable with university level maths to make sense of it.

Finished this a few weeks back, I suppose the best description would be a poetic fairy tale.

Might have to check those out at some point!

[Morike]

Just finished

Just started

[Motorway to Roswell]

Mount Analogue is wicked. It's short because Daumal died before he could finish it. Cuts off mid-sentence.

Part of the inspiration for Jodorowsky's The Holy Mountain.

Reading On the Road atm. Read half of it a few years ago and thought it was terrible, dull and poorly written. Thought I'd give it another go before I write it off.

Read Ham on Rye and Innocent When You Dream - Tom Waits: The Collected Interviews the other week. Both of which were great.

[Mr_Frost]

Just finished this one. The Narrative of Cabeza de Vaca's journey across the US around the 1500s. Basically him and a group of men go ashore to have a look. They get lost in the woods and spend the next 8 years walking from Florida to Northern Mexico. This book relates the people, places, and challenges they encounter along the way.

Could use some recs for some classic literature...was thinking of getting a copy of Dante's inferno or Homer.

[JBoy]

^sounds really good actually.

[antipode]

Herman Hesse's Steppenwolf.

Not too far through, just got to the end of The Treatise on The Steppenwolf. Pretty incredible.
And had an Inception moment when I realised I was reading a book inside a book inside a book

[cosmic_surgeon]

Hesse is an incredible author, never read Steppenwolf but The Glass Bead Game has a very similar structure in places! How's Steppenwolf?

[antipode]

Hesse is an incredible author, never read Steppenwolf but The Glass Bead Game has a very similar structure in places! How's Steppenwolf?

Pretty great so far. I guess books like this you can take whatever personal meaning you want from them, but I am really enjoying it.
Especially the parts on manifold/multi-faceted personalities.
Here's a quote:

“The mistaken and unhappy notion that a man is an enduring unity is known to you. It is also known to you that a man consists of a multitude of souls, of numerous selves. The separation of the unity of the personality into these numerous pieces passes for madness. Science has invented the name schizomania for it. Science is in this so far right as no multiplicity maybe dealt with unless there be a series, a certain order and grouping. It is wrong insofar as it holds that one only and binding lifelong order is possible for the multiplicity of subordinate selves. This error of science has many unpleasant consequences, and the single advantage of simplifying the work of the state-appointed pastors and masters and saving them the labors of original thought. In consequence of this error many persons pass for normal, and indeed for highly valuable members of society, who are incurably mad; and many, on the other hand, are looked upon as mad who are geniuses...This is the art of life. You may yourself as an artist develop the game of your life and lend it animation. You may complicate and enrich it as you please. It lies in your hands. Just as madness, in a higher sense, is the beginning of all wisdom, so is schizomania the beginning of all art and all fantasy.”

It's a bit dense taken out of context but you get the idea. He also uses the analogy that characters in a story can be viewed not as individual beings, but as aspects of the author/poet's own soul expressed through art.

And yeah the main character is pretty interesting, looking forward to seeing what happens.

edit: In the context of the story, The Steppenwolf believes he leads a dual life, assigning some aspects of his personality to the "wolf" in him and the refined, humane parts of him to the "Man" in him. Where in reality, there is more than just 2 Harrys, there is hundreds or thousands of different Harrys.. And the problems stem from him simplifying his personality so much.
And there is also this whole thing about him feeling nostalgia for his bourgeois upbringing, and feeling comfortable among "normal" people even though he's an outsider.

I think.

[cosmic_surgeon]

Sounds like a great book, might have to that one a read!

[Naan_Bread]

Just finished. Cannot recommend highly enough.

[magma]

Judging by the first 60 pages, this is going to be utterly fucking brilliant. I already want to daub myself in Woad, marry an Iceni warrior queen and conceive the Prince who'll bring unity back to the tribes.

[kay]

80 pages in, very promising so far.

[Dub_freak]

A bit outdated, but still brilliant.

[Shum]

Just finished. Cannot recommend highly enough.

+1

[Ba-zinga]

turnin out to be my 2nd fav. book of all time. adams writing is simply amazing...the right touches of humor, exactly the kind of writing i like. would recommend to all. actually if you haven't read this yet please do so now i don't care where you are at

[fassyman]

Reading On the Road atm. Read half of it a few years ago and thought it was terrible, dull and poorly written. Thought I'd give it another go before I write it off.

think thats next on my list, reading this atm



really enjoying it

[magma]

turnin out to be my 2nd fav. book of all time. adams writing is simply amazing...the right touches of humor, exactly the kind of writing i like. would recommend to all. actually if you haven't read this yet please do so now i don't care where you are at

I love these books more than almost anything else on my shelf.

[fergus222]