17-10-2004 04:32									#61
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quote: Originally posted by Whaleboy Kuci, who do you read?

I've read Mill's On Liberty, Representative Government, Utilitarianism, and IIRC another thing by him the name of which I forget. I've read An Enquiry Concerning Human Understanding, Berkeley's Three Dialogues between Hylas and Philonious, and parts of the Philosophy of Right and the Metaphysics of Morals. Does the Federalist count?

	17-10-2004 04:36									#62
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IMHO, Dan Brown's books are all structurally very similar, formulaic and about as deep and meaningful as a teaspoon. However, they are pretty gripping and provide a good afternoon's entertainment, so they're still definitely worth a read.

	17-10-2004 04:40									#63
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quote: Originally posted by Krill Strata by Terry Pratchett. I've read the entire Discworld series (started when I was 8, still reading 50% of my life later ) and;

Are you twelve or sixteen?

	17-10-2004 04:44									#64
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Kuci, why haven't you read Plato's Republic?

Hobbe's Leviathan is also a good bet. I'd suggest also reading Montaigne's essays (try to find a complete volume... the Penguin classics version is pretty good) and of course the obligatory "Problems of philosophy" by Bertrand Russell. Wittgenstein is also a good idea for you I think, and for god's sake, avoid Karl Popper like the plague!

Berkeley:

Try reading some Hume too. If you want to start on existentialism, start with Sartres "Existentialism and humanism" and then move to Husserl and Heidegger. There's also a great book by Appignanesi on the subject too, which I treasure like a child. However, and most importantly, my work on the Mill Limit and contextual relativism

	17-10-2004 04:49									#65
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quote: Originally posted by Whaleboy Kuci, why haven't you read Plato's Republic?

I read one of his dialogues and thought he was stupid.

quote: Try reading some Hume too.

Did you miss my mention of An Enquiry Concerning Human Understanding?

	18-10-2004 21:08									#66
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oh yeah, ive also started "A Bend in the River" by V. S. Naipul.

	18-10-2004 22:43									#67
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quote: Are you twelve or sixteen?

Sixteen. Though sometimes I feel sooo old...

	19-10-2004 00:16									#68
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quote: I read one of his dialogues and thought he was stupid.

I suppose you're one of those people who doesn't look at it in its context, and tries to think of it in the modern world. Plato was working in a time when philosophy was an art, not a science or a function of sociology.... metaphors and concepts were expressed abstractly, and open to interpretation... indeed one must approach his works as literature not canonical reasoning.

quote: Did you miss my mention of An Enquiry Concerning Human Understanding?

Evidently

	19-10-2004 01:41									#69
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I'm through with Baudolino now, so I just started reading "Ancient Roman Nightlife".

	19-10-2004 02:00									#70
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I am currently reading "Warlock" by Wilbur Smith. It's okay.

	19-10-2004 02:14									#71
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.NET and COM: The Complete Interoperability Guide by Adam Nathan

and

Influence: The Psychology of Persuasion by Robert B. Cialdini

	19-10-2004 02:32									#72
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I think I'll read Les Mis.

	19-10-2004 03:39									#73
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Currently re-reading The Numbers Game by Alan Schwarz. For class, I'm in the middle of the Aeneid (the Fitzgerald translation, of course; ANYTHING is better than the Dryden translation ).

I've somehow managed to avoid reading The DaVinci Code and any of the Harry Potter books.

On my "I'll get around to it eventually" list:

-- Olaf Stapledon's Last and First Men and The Starmaker
-- Jon Stewart's America (The Book)
-- The Hobbit. Dunno how I've avoided reading that for so long.

	19-10-2004 04:29									#74
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quote: Originally posted by Whaleboy I suppose you're one of those people who doesn't look at it in its context, and tries to think of it in the modern world. Plato was working in a time when philosophy was an art, not a science or a function of sociology.... metaphors and concepts were expressed abstractly, and open to interpretation... indeed one must approach his works as literature not canonical reasoning.

His conclusions are still stupid.

	19-10-2004 06:31									#75
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No they're not.

quote: I've somehow managed to avoid reading The DaVinci Code and any of the Harry Potter books.

	19-10-2004 07:03									#76
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Just finished reading The Da Vinci Code.

Now reading an operations manual.

	19-10-2004 07:07									#77
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quote: Originally posted by Immortal Wombat IMHO, Dan Brown's books are all structurally very similar, formulaic and about as deep and meaningful as a teaspoon. However, they are pretty gripping and provide a good afternoon's entertainment, so they're still definitely worth a read.

I concur with the above. The deep and meaningful content was about as stirring and persuasive as Ishmael, but with more entertainment and less preaching.

	19-10-2004 07:08									#78
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I have to read Hitchhikers Guide to the Galaxy at some point.

	19-10-2004 07:12									#79
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Oh, also finished The Heart of Darkness. I didn't get it. Apparently the horror of it all was before my time.

I also got sick of Conrad mentioning the "x of darkness" every 2 pages. The fact that I lost the book and don't care says a lot I think.

	19-10-2004 08:33									#80
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quote: Originally posted by Vlad Antlerkov I've somehow managed to avoid reading . . . any of the Harry Potter books.

I weep for you.

quote: Originally posted by Whaleboy I have to read Hitchhikers Guide to the Galaxy at some point.

Boy, you can say that again!!

quote: Originally posted by Whaleboy I have to read Hitchhikers Guide to the Galaxy at some point.

Oh ha ha. Very funny. That's such an old joke.

	19-10-2004 09:00									#81
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basic electronics. It's for class though . I would never read that on my own.

	19-10-2004 09:19									#82
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quote: Originally posted by MosesPresley Lord of Light by Roger Zelazny, the second time in about twenty years....

A pleasure to read this one. I've read it about 3 times so far, and have to wait until I forget enough of it to maximize the excitement. Good stuff, short but has a lot to it.

I also enjoyed Creatures of Light and Darkness by Zelazny, though it is more amusing than thought provoking and doesn't work as a novel as well. Still some funny stuff.

	19-10-2004 09:20									#83
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quote: Originally posted by Kuciwalker Does the Federalist count?

Only to ten.

	19-10-2004 09:55									#84
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Oh, and I'm reading Warfare in the Early Modern World which is great for people who like EU2. I'm also reading Great Tales of Okinawan Masters by Nagamine The Oxford History of British Empire.

I'm managing to maintain my reading list at about 90% non-fiction.

	19-10-2004 22:51									#85
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I'm 300 pages into the da Vinci Code, and I agree with IW's assessment as well. This is the first time I've read Brown, but the formula is just oozing out from there.

E.g. thing X is finally discovered by the characters, after figuring out yet another clue from the scribblings a person managed to think up and make in 15 minutes (granted, Brown does describe him as someone who does have the brains to do this) . The true nature of thing X is now apparent. But because this is a suspense novel, I will irritatingly shift the viewpoint every single time you're about to find something out. HA!

A classic device, yes, but it gets oooold. I like having to put my hand over the next page to keep my eyes from skipping to the big revelation, thankyouverymuch. I must add that I merely loaned it on impulse from a friend. Hey, you don't see books in paperback and their original language in this neck of the woods too often.

Also, it's just so a rip-off of Broken Sword: Shadow of the Templars.

He's not unlike a Finnish novelist called Ilkka Remes, his books aren't the epitomes of deep thought but they're a thrilling read. And he churns them out on a regular basis. And I always get the newest one and read it within two days with a passion, and then have an intellectual hangover after the act.

	19-10-2004 23:00									#86
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Yeah, it's almost a rip-off of a book called the Daughter of God (another Vatican conspiracy thriller), and the author tried to sue him. Probably jealousy. Daughter of God was pretty unexceptional and sold nowhere near as well.

Incidentally, the formula I was describing was intended to be the way all four of his books have the same basic plot, characters and so on. But it works on a lower level as well. He teaches creative writing, I believe.

	19-10-2004 23:05									#87
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Ah, I was thinking you meant that there's same formula to all books, but I've only read TDVC, and even that half-way, and yet I there are these... things. And he does teach creative writing, it says so in the first page. I'd be hard pressed to describe his mechanical application of the same structure over and over again as creative, though.

	20-10-2004 00:33									#88
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It's also a rip-off of Gabriel Knight 3: Blood of the Sacred, Blood of the Damned, which happens to be about the best classic adventure game ever made. Or to be more accurate, based on the same pseudohistorical work, namely Holy Blood, Holy Grail by a group of BBC producers.

	20-10-2004 01:22									#89
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I'm going through a Clancy period and am reading Red Storm Rising again. This is my tenth Clancy novel in a row, all read in a period of a few weeks.

	20-10-2004 01:28									#90
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quote: Originally posted by Patriqvium It's also a rip-off of Gabriel Knight 3: Blood of the Sacred, Blood of the Damned, which happens to be about the best classic adventure game ever made. Or to be more accurate, based on the same pseudohistorical work, namely Holy Blood, Holy Grail by a group of BBC producers.

Yes, this was another thing that irked me. I've known about that purported Big Conspiracy that they showcase in The da Vinci Code for a good while now, so it felt really awkward when the big revelation was actually stuff I'd heard about years ago. Quite an anticlimax.