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crankdatbatman posted:
It depends. As mentioned, there's stuff like C.S. Lewis and Chesterton's Father Brown stories, which are explicitly Christian allegories. The Narnia books I find especially grating now, reading them as an adult, because I feel like I'm getting hit with a LOOK ITS JESUS hammer every time Aslan shows up and it irritates me that I didn't grasp it all when I was a kid. The best literary Christian writer I'm aware of is Graham Greene. Try The End of the Affair. Explicitly catholic christian, but intelligent as all hell.
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Mar 12, 2012 15:20
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Hieronymous Alloy posted:It depends. As mentioned, there's stuff like C.S. Lewis and Chesterton's Father Brown stories, which are explicitly Christian allegories. The Narnia books I find especially grating now, reading them as an adult, because I feel like I'm getting hit with a LOOK ITS JESUS hammer every time Aslan shows up and it irritates me that I didn't grasp it all when I was a kid. Lewis' Screwtape Letters is worth a look at, especially if you can get hold of the audiobook version which is read by John Cleese.
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Mar 12, 2012 17:20
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crankdatbatman posted:
There have been some good recs so far. I will particularly back Chesterton's stories -- Father Brown, but also his short novel The Man Who Was Thursday, which is sort of like what would happen if Kafka wrote Christian literature. Also, I suppose Evelyn Waugh's mid-to-later stuff has religious points (he's like Graham Greene, only incredibly more farcical/spiteful). My utmost recommendation, however, would go to the stories of Flannery O'Conner. She's one of my favorite writers ever and has a very counter-intuitive sense of Christianity. So counter-intuitive that in an argument I greatly surprised one writer, a Catholic convert who was convinced her stories represented the evils and excesses of modern fiction, with the fact she was an ardent Catholic herself and wrote quite a bit on faith in modernity.
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Mar 12, 2012 17:54
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H.P. Shivcraft posted:There have been some good recs so far. I will particularly back Chesterton's stories -- Father Brown, but also his short novel The Man Who Was Thursday, which is sort of like what would happen if Kafka wrote Christian literature. Also, I suppose Evelyn Waugh's mid-to-later stuff has religious points (he's like Graham Greene, only incredibly more farcical/spiteful). Waughs' Brideshead Revisited is jolly good, I'd recommend it quite highly. It's an examination of the Roman Catholic faith though, not a more general "Christian" sort of book. I'm also very fond of Graham Greene. Try The End of the Affair, as a previous poster said, and if you like that, give The Power and the Glory a shot. It's about a vice-ridden priest in 1930s Mexico, where the government is attempting to outlaw Catholicism. It's a beautifully-written, very moving book.
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Mar 13, 2012 00:05
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So this is something people might find interesting: http://www.book-buzzes.com/ It emails you when any of your chosen authors release a new book. coffeetable fucked around with this message at 00:17 on Mar 13, 2012 |
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Mar 13, 2012 00:15
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Can anyone recommend a good, compelling read about the entire history of Ancient Rome-- formation to the time it was sacked by barbarians? That era in history absolutely fascinates me, and I'd like to spend what precious little reading time I have on something worthy.
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Mar 15, 2012 17:04
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Irisi posted:Waughs' Brideshead Revisited is jolly good, I'd recommend it quite highly. It's an examination of the Roman Catholic faith though, not a more general "Christian" sort of book. Both The Power and the Glory and Brideshead Revisited are absolutely fantastic. Another exquisite Graham Greene is The Heart of the Matter, which is basically one long rumination on despair and Catholic guilt. Amazing. And, on that note, I'd also recommend Willa Cather's Death Comes for the Archbishop, which is a wonderful, quick and easy, more positive look at Catholocism through the character of a missionary to the Spaniards & Indians in what would become the American Southwest. It's really quite beautiful and moving. Bringing things up to date and making them specifically American is Anne Tyler's Saint Maybe, a great exploration of small-town, American fringe religion and is, I think, her best novel, though I've never read a bad one by her. It's deeply humanizing and ultimately gracious to everyone concerned. On the other side of things, there's John Updike's In the Beauty of the Lilies, which details how four generations of one American family deal with the question of God. It's pretty bleak and the fourth section is a dud; the third section though is amazing - it's the kind of stuff that makes you remember why we read Updike in the first place, and the other two are pretty good too. On a lighter note, while not so good as Chesterton's excellent Father Brown mysteries, the Brother Cadfael mysteries by Ellis Peters, about a monk in medieval times, are often very insightful about religious groups and also have cracking good plots and a lot of very accurate historic detail. I love religion as a topic in art. I guess you can tell. And, yeah, whoever said Flannery O'Connor up there? Is right on. Wiseblood is essential and is you read no other short stories, read A Good Man is Hard to Find. O'Connor used to say she wrote about "actions of God in territory largely held by the Devil," and nowhere is that more evident than in that bracing little story.
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Mar 16, 2012 03:24
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Rogue1-and-a-half posted:On a lighter note, while not so good as Chesterton's excellent Father Brown mysteries, the Brother Cadfael mysteries by Ellis Peters, about a monk in medieval times, are often very insightful about religious groups and also have cracking good plots and a lot of very accurate historic detail. I remember watching the TV series on PBS with Derek Jacobi, and I always enjoyed it. I never knew they were based on books, but I also wasn't reading as much then as I was now. I may have to put these on my wishlist so I remember to pick them up sometime.
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Mar 16, 2012 05:22
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Oh, and if you want christian works with a more popular sci-fi type style, try A Canticle for Liebowitz.
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Mar 16, 2012 14:26
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I went yesterday to buy an office chair from a local second hand shop but ended buying some dirty cheap books instead. Among them were two first books of The Baroque Cycle. I have never read Stephenson, what should I expect? Big turn-off for me is flat characters, but I can manage if story and sense of wonder (or whatever) is good enough. Edit: I noticed that Stephenson thread just now. 
Maksamakkara fucked around with this message at 10:55 on Mar 17, 2012 |
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Mar 17, 2012 07:53
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I'm thinking about getting something to protect my books, since they get kind of beat up in my bag. Anyone have any recommendations for brands/styles?
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Mar 19, 2012 00:33
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I had that same problem of paperback books getting hosed up in my backpack. If you want a quick poor man's solution, grab some of those plastic colored folders with the string that ties around them. Put your book inside of it and tie it over the middle. Offers the ability to color code your stuff too, that way you can toss Wuthering Heights in the pink one and ignore it for the rest of time.
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Mar 19, 2012 15:28
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I thought the point of mass market paperbacks is that they're cheap and essentially disposable. If you want a durable book, buy a hardcover.
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Mar 19, 2012 18:27
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futile posted:I had that same problem of paperback books getting hosed up in my backpack. If you want a quick poor man's solution, grab some of those plastic colored folders with the string that ties around them. Put your book inside of it and tie it over the middle. Offers the ability to color code your stuff too, that way you can toss Wuthering Heights in the pink one and ignore it for the rest of time. That's not a bad idea, thanks!
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Mar 19, 2012 21:52
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futile posted:Offers the ability to color code your stuff too, that way you can toss Wuthering Heights in the pink one and ignore it for the rest of time. PHILISTINE! 
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Mar 19, 2012 23:48
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Ornamented Death posted:I thought the point of mass market paperbacks is that they're cheap and essentially disposable. If you want a durable book, buy a hardcover. *You can actually get hardcover used books so cheap on Amazon marketplace. In great shape too. I live and die by Amazon marketplace and hardcovers, but sometimes I do end up in the unfortunate situation of owning a paperback. Conduit for Sale! posted:PHILISTINE! 
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Mar 20, 2012 00:07
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futile posted:Well they're also cheaper*. There's nothing wrong with wanting to buy a cheap paperback and keep the book in decent shape beyond a first reading. Plus it's a nuisance to read a book when the cover and pages are tearing off, bent, and dirty. I guess it depends on how cheap we're talking here. If you're paying full price for paperbacks, you'd really be better served making the switch to eBooks. If you're getting them for a quarter a piece at Goodwill, then you could probably just buy another copy for the same price as any sort of protector.
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Mar 20, 2012 01:50
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Ornamented Death posted:I guess it depends on how cheap we're talking here. If you're paying full price for paperbacks, you'd really be better served making the switch to eBooks. If you're getting them for a quarter a piece at Goodwill, then you could probably just buy another copy for the same price as any sort of protector. That's pretty much why I try to avoid hardcovers:. Used paperbacks are also just as cheap (or even cheaper) and it's easier to flip them at used bookstores once I'm finished reading them.
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Mar 20, 2012 01:53
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A used bookstore that doesn't accept hardcovers is a fairly new concept to me. All the local ones that I visit only stipulate that you need to have a dust jacket, but the last time I was up in DC every one I went to only accepted paperbacks or big-name new releases in hardcover. That largely defeated the purpose of me going since I like to look for those rare finds that the bookstores don't know they have, and those are almost always hardcovers  .
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Mar 20, 2012 02:03
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It's the same where I am. Last time I asked, it's just because they're harder to move, especially if they're more than few years old (since people can just buy the paperback then). In other words, nobody's going to give me more then a couple dollars credit for my Too Big to Fail hardcover.
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Mar 20, 2012 03:11
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I don't know if this fits here or not but I'll give it a shot. I'm trying to find an old short story I read 4-5 years back. I think it was in Russian originally and had a shoddy translation. It was about some guy who hated a bunch of nobility because they had done a great wrong to him, and so he had to climb some stairs to get up there to enact his revenge, only problem is he couldnt get up there by himself and needed help from the devil to climb each step of the stairs or something like that. Each step the devil would ask for something in return for helping the dude with his revenge plot, and then the big twist in the end is that he gave up so much to the devil for his revenge he becomes the same despicable human being as the nobles he sought to destroy or something. If that sounds familiar to anyone, please let me know! It made quite an impression on me when I was younger.
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Mar 20, 2012 15:24
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Hieronymous Alloy posted:Oh, and if you want christian works with a more popular sci-fi type style, try A Canticle for Liebowitz. How the heck did I not put that there? Good catch; that's an amazing book.
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Mar 21, 2012 03:17
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Pride & Prejudice & Zombies and Abraham Lincoln: Vampire Killer were great books, but I'm feeling a little trepidation about his Seth Grahame-Smith's next book. It will be either amazingly good or horrifyingly bad. http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B005SCR5R6/ref=pe_174260_23257570_nrn_desc quote:They're an iconic part of history's most celebrated birth. But what do we really know about the Three Kings of the Nativity, besides the fact that they followed a star to Bethlehem bearing strange gifts? The Bible has little to say about this enigmatic trio. But leave it to Seth Grahame-Smith, the brilliant and twisted mind behind Abraham Lincoln: Vampire Hunter and Pride and Prejudice and Zombies to take a little mystery, bend a little history, and weave an epic tale.
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Mar 27, 2012 12:07
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Charlz Guybon posted:Pride & Prejudice & Zombies and Abraham Lincoln: Vampire Killer were great books Are you sure?
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Mar 28, 2012 01:02
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Yes, I too enjoy classic lit but only when it has supernatural creatures. Some of my favorites are Portrait of the artist as an undead man, The life and opinions of tristram shandy, werewolf and War and peace and cthulhu.
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Mar 28, 2012 02:40
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I read rear end Goblins of Auschwitz the other day, given to me by "that guy", you know, the guy that owns everything from Eraserhead press and all of the "classic title + trochee" books. Not since "The Vagina rear end of Lucifer Niggerbastard" have I been so deeply moved. Is there really a market for this crap? Makes me very 
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Mar 28, 2012 10:30
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Reading Moby Dick, bout 1/5th through, they haven't even left Nantucket yet. Anyone else read this whale? I will probably have a better chance of finishing if some goons have a few kind words about the book. As for myself, conflicted feelings so far. The writing wanders at times into unnecessary over description. It either gets really boring or really brilliant. Some parts fly by and I don't want to put it down, while other sections put me right to sleep. Seems like theres enough quality for me to see it through though. also i do not know a lot of the words 
hobbez fucked around with this message at 23:43 on Mar 28, 2012 |
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Mar 28, 2012 23:40
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hobbez posted:Reading Moby Dick, bout 1/5th through, they haven't even left Nantucket yet. Anyone else read this whale? I will probably have a better chance of finishing if some goons have a few kind words about the book. I've read it last years, but you'll hear no kinds words from me. The only possible way I could enjoy this book was for me to imagine that the whole 'giant monster you'll never catch' was a metaphor for readers never being able to make it through that monster of a book. But Melville wasn't modern or playful enough for that kind of poo poo by a long shot.
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Mar 28, 2012 23:48
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I am concerned when they get to sea he will run dry on topics to espouse upon and will hammer home the same metaphor for the next 300 pages compounded by banal facts on whaling aplenty it is inevitable, mr anderson
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Mar 29, 2012 00:04
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To quote my high school AP U.S. history teacher: "It was painful, but I learned a lot about fishing." (I haven't read the book, though, so I can't comment.)
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Mar 29, 2012 00:35
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It helps to skip every other chapter.
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Mar 29, 2012 02:22
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Ornamented Death posted:It helps to skip every other chapter. This. Just start skipping all the plot chapters and come away with an encyclopedic knowledge of cetuses.
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Mar 29, 2012 02:48
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Reading Moby Dick is like reading War & Peace: you will hate it as you read it and feel like abandoning it forever, but once you finish it, it feels goddamned good and it all comes together as something greater than the sum of its parts. I love both books and will probably read them again someday. That said, it made me really want to go whale watching or something else that's ultra white up in New England or British Columbia.
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Mar 29, 2012 04:27
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vegaji posted:Reading Moby Dick is like reading War & Peace: you will hate it as you read it and feel like abandoning it forever, but once you finish it, it feels goddamned good and it all comes together as something greater than the sum of its parts. I love both books and will probably read them again someday. Basically this. I love Moby Dick, but only after five tries. The first three times I gave up. On my fourth try I made it through and didn't want to see the drat book ever again. Re-read it recently and loved it. Everything just clicked. It's a big, crazy novel that can also be boring somehow. One prof I had said to think of it as being on a boat in the ocean. Dive into the parts you like, skim atop the rest. That's how I got through it the first time.
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Mar 29, 2012 05:05
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I loved the opening about Man and The Sea. That was it.
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Mar 29, 2012 05:25
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Interesting I find this quote while randomly skimming reviews of Gravity's Rainbow on GoodReadsquote:By way of something approximating a meaningful comparison, I'd say that what Herman Melville does for Whales in Moby Dick is sort of akin to what Pynchon does for Rockets in Gravity's Rainbow. True enough. Anyone here read V? Might be next on the list. I miss my postmodern dudes, and I shouldn't reread Infinite Jest for a few years. For my health you know.
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Mar 29, 2012 06:17
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hobbez posted:
My favorite Pynchon book. All the usual stuff: very funny, lots of grotesque bits, silly character names, obscure references. One barely compehensible chapter written from a deranged character's viewpoint.
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Mar 29, 2012 06:46
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Conduit for Sale! posted:Are you sure? Ok lets rephrase that. They were extremely enjoyable fun books. I've read lots of great literature that I appreciated on an intellectual level which I did not particularly enjoy.
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Mar 29, 2012 10:42
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I'm reading Stranger in a Strange Land by Heinlein and nearing the end. I read Time Enough for Love and The Moon is a Harsh Mistress so I know he loves him some polygamy but I find myself hoping for the death of all of Mike's "church" so they can't spread to the rest of the planet. I know it makes me ignorant but gently caress them. They don't laugh and are inhuman gods. He set out to join the human race but is going to change them instead. They all say how wonderfully happy they are but are so rich that they no longer understand the concept of money. None of them produce anything. They only know how to send poo poo into nothingness, which makes its own set of problems if they continue to permanently disappear matter. An entire planet like them would be boring as hell. Characters keep comparing him to Jesus but Jesus never taught people to raise the dead or walk on water. Oh yeah, and they cannot be killed or poisoned and live as long as they want. I'll see how it ends soon.
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Mar 29, 2012 18:33
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We got a kitten from my mother-in-law's cat and we named him Poe. My mother in law's reaction: "POE?! Wha'tha hell kinda name is Poe? Y'all pick the dumbest names fer yer animals. Poe. It don't make sense". I didn't think in this day and age there would be someone who's never heard of Edgar Allan Poe. I was like "um, probably the most famous American writer of the 19th century?" "Never even heard of him. Y'all are strange". Irony: she named Poe's mom Squeaky.
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Mar 29, 2012 19:19
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