Romeo's Reading list

[romeothemonk]

As some of you may know, I am a fairly avid fan of literature.
Due to my job, I have a lot of time to kill. I used to perfer to kill it with KoC and CDZ, but both of them have been up and down a lot recently.
In a pinch, I have resorted to reading books which I will catalog here.
Suggestions of books are recommended, with my preference being to "classics" of American or World lit. As you can see, I get enough sci fi junk on my own.
My recent readings include
The Sound and the Fury
Outbound Flight
Assignment in Eternity
Job
The Moon is a Harsh Mistress
The Man who sold the moon
The complete works of Lewis Carrol
etc

[bed_head7]

I have been meaning to get to The Moon is Harsh Mistress, as well as some other classic Heinlein. What did you think of it?

[romeothemonk]

I have read probably 10 Heinlein books in the past month.
I recommend Job and PuppetMasters the most.
The Moon is a harsh mistress is a decent book, the style takes a while to get used to, and it doesn't have quite the flow of a Fualkner. Both TMISAHM and The sound and the fury are written in interesting styling and both are decent books, but TSATF has more "Beauty" to it.
My favorite Heinlein books are "Starship Troopers" and Job.

[romeothemonk]

Hmm, Time to update this page.

I just read Pickwick Papers and Oliver Twist. I loved them both. Is it too late to change my name to Mr. Winkle?

I checked out 2 new books today: Joseph Conrads collected sailing works ( I want Heart of Darkness, Secret Sharer and maybe The Nigger from the Narcisuss) and Wicked (A take on the Wicked witch of the West from the Wizard of Oz).

Other recommendations are welcome.

[Shabbaman]

Did you read Stranger in a strange land as well? I think it's Heinlein's best. BTW, there's a book thread somewhere in the OT section.

[romeothemonk]

Anyway, I am bored here as my wife is severly limiting what I can do around the house, and I already packed all my books.

I read some more stuff, most notably some Chuck Palahniuk (Sp?), Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde, Portrait of Dorian Gray, and another slug of Heinlein books.

Recommendations for good classic or semi-classic books are appreciated.

[Socrates]

quote:Originally posted by romeothemonk

Chuck Palahniuk (Sp?)

Being a big fan of the movie, do you recommend me reading "Fight Club" ? What I like in particular in the movie is [can't find the word in English nor in French] the way the sentences are built (words, rythm, etc...). Of course I'm only interested in the English version.

[romeothemonk]

I can highly recommend his writings. I have not read fight club, I read lullaby, and found it to be one of the best on sentance building. i.e. no wasted words, alliteration in key spots etc.

[sz_matyas]

As far as semi-classic, I jsut finished "The Name of the Rose" for interesting mystery surrounding 14th century monastic (think Sherlock Holmes as a monk) and will be moving on to A Brief History of Time and Candide, though I can't recommend them yet as I haven't personally read them through. (I have read most of candide, just not in order in a sitting)

[Darkness]

quote:Originally posted by sz_matyas

As far as semi-classic, I jsut finished "The Name of the Rose" for interesting mystery surrounding 14th century monastic (think Sherlock Holmes as a monk)

Umberto Eco right?
I saw the movie a few years back, and I've been thinking about reading it, but I've been told that it is really long-winded and it has quite boring long passages on descriptions of the monastary...

[Shabbaman]

Some time ago I read A plot against america (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Plot_Against_America), by Philip Roth. Contemporary american literature, but one of the best books I've ever read.

[sz_matyas]

I agree that it can be a touch long winded at various times, especiallyas it seems to try and reach two audiences, those interested in medieval church/theology and those who enjoy the murder mystery. Both appealed to me, letting me enjoy it without getting bored. I suspect the movie didn't appeal to the theological disputes at teh center of the mystery and hence was a little weaker for it.

[romeothemonk]

Man, I haven't updated this in ages!!
Some of the highlights of stuff I just read in the past year.
3 textbooks for MBA
Re-engineering the Corporation
6 different technical books on electronics and Six Sigma
3 different books on quartz crystals and oscillators
A couple more Heinlein books
The first 3 books from the Harvard Classics. (Marcus Aurelious didn't seem nearly up to the same level as the others)
A huge stack full of Comic books. (The Yankton Public Library has a large graphic novels section and I am a sucker for that stuff)
Harry Turtledoves Timeline 191 series starting with the outbreak of WW1.
A fair amount of Sir Francis Bacon, Milton and other similar British Philosophers/Scientists of the early 1600's.

I am currently working on Catch-22, and will probably move on to Adam Smith next, but I am still open to fundamental philosophical works as well as decent morality play fiction.

[romeothemonk]

I finished up Catch-22 and have moved on to Jules Verne. I purchased a 7 volume compendium of his works, and have thus far read: 5 weeks in a balloon, Journey to the center of the earth, From the earth to the Moon, and Round the moon.

I hope to finish up with the next three in the next month: 20,000 leagues under the sea, mysterious isle, and around the world in 80 days.

That should put me in better standing to read and comprehend the third installment of League of Extraordinary Gentlemen.

[ProPain]

Read Eco's Name of the Rose ears ago and loved that. Now almost finished Baudolino and I think it's soso, starts out good but kinda of a dread after a while.

Started on 'everything is illuminated' by Jonathan Safran Foer and what I read so far is hilarious. I read 'A spot of bother' (Mark Haddon) last summer and I can higly recommend that as well, the style matches 'The incident of the dog in the nighttime' which is a must read imho.