-
Christopher Hitchens and Sean Hannity must be so depressed.
links for 2008-03-11
Categories: Daily Link Dump
11 Comments
hyper: a prefix usually implying excess or exaggeration
Hey, we doing a book club? Or has school gotten to you?
I’m all for reading something.
After that article in the NYT, I’m never publicly discussing books again. I’m going to read in the closet.
what article?
I actually read that article. I was irritated by it. Maybe I could just buy the right books and put them on my shelf. Whoops I already do that. Reminds me of the movie “Born Yesterday.” (I hate to admit that I have seen it.) But this high brow reporter derides the main character because she hasn’t read “Democracy in America.” Later in the movie, after reading the book the main character wants to talk about the book with said reporter and the reporter has to admit that she has never read the book, just knows the name of it.
I think the author had a fairly valid point. Everyone’s trying to sell an image (single people more so). For the avid reader books are very much so a part of that image. While the books one reads are not a definitive characterization, they can certainly offer small insights into the reader’s personality. Personally, I don’t know many readers at all, so I don’t worry much about prominently displaying the codices. Just the fact that I read a lot and in a wide spectrum is all I’m advertising. However, that article certainly made me think twice about what books I have on my mantle (coincidentally, Atlas Shrugged is one–a book specifically derided in this essay).
So what the books are is more important than what you think of them or even why you think that. That was what I got from the article.
So totally different subject. Saw an ad for the Prius. Gets 45 mpg. That’s pretty good. But does anyone remember the Geo with its 55 mpg. Not even a hybrid. Wow
So as far as the book thingy goes. Everybody give a suggestion and we will make a choice. What about:
Robert Heinlein–Farmer in the Sky (preferred), or Stranger in a Strange Land (read it, but am willing to read it again)
Thomas Pynchon–Gravity’s Rainbow
E R Eddison–The Worm Ouroboros
Malcolm Lowry–Under the Volcano
That I can tell, all these are available at amazon.com
I’ve heard good things about Under the Volcano.
I test drove a Prius the other day. I was getting ~40mpg with the A/C on. I read an article the other day that suggested that since you take about a 20% hit in mpg when running the A/C that if you live in Tejas or some other state where it’s hot 10 months out of the year, you might be better off with one of the non-hybrid high mpg cars.
That’s one vote, UtV had several good reviews. Both FitS and SiaSL got the Hugo and I like Heinlein (well mostly). tWO is a fantasy novel and GR to me looks interesting as a post WWII novel maybe a little scifi, but I am not sure. I plan on reading all of them eventually anyway.
So everybody else give a pick.