Four String Chef
Cook
- Joined
- Jul 2, 2012
- Messages
- 82
Picking up Tao Te Ching again. I've needed some inspiration this past week. The teachings haven't let me down yet so I'ma crack this open once again.
Just wondering ... what is everyone reading now?
- Thread starter pdswife
- Start date
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JoAnn L.
Master Chef
Just starting Jane Eyre.
purple.alien.giraffe
Executive Chef
The free version if Arabian Nights for the kindle. The witer's/witers' idea of a hero is every bit as strange to me as the greeks. I mean, Sindbad stole from corpses. Many of the heros are a bit shady or incredibly foolish.
A lot of the stories don't have heros, which is kind of cool. They seem to be about average people who have extrodinary things happen to them. What's interesting is that in most mythology, if an average person has something extrodinary happen to him, he becomes a hero of some sort. In these stories though, the average person just remains an average person.
It's also strange to me how disposable the women in the story are, even though not all of the women are treated as second class citzens and some are powerful sorceresses, or great thinkers, or noteworthy in some other manner. I mean, women are second class, disposable and property in a lot of mythology. The difference in these stories is that in general, women aren't second class or owned, just disposable. It's an odd juxtaposition. I mean, it fits with the over-arching story of a king who kills his bride every morning after a single night of marriage and the bride who is trying to stop the practice. It's still just really diffrent.
I'm also not sure how great this compilation of the stories is. It states that it cut out the poetry and lengthy philosiphizing and other "uninteresting" bits, and put in just the stories. I find at times the narrative jumps abruptly and I wonder how much of that is because things were cut out.
A lot of the stories don't have heros, which is kind of cool. They seem to be about average people who have extrodinary things happen to them. What's interesting is that in most mythology, if an average person has something extrodinary happen to him, he becomes a hero of some sort. In these stories though, the average person just remains an average person.
It's also strange to me how disposable the women in the story are, even though not all of the women are treated as second class citzens and some are powerful sorceresses, or great thinkers, or noteworthy in some other manner. I mean, women are second class, disposable and property in a lot of mythology. The difference in these stories is that in general, women aren't second class or owned, just disposable. It's an odd juxtaposition. I mean, it fits with the over-arching story of a king who kills his bride every morning after a single night of marriage and the bride who is trying to stop the practice. It's still just really diffrent.
I'm also not sure how great this compilation of the stories is. It states that it cut out the poetry and lengthy philosiphizing and other "uninteresting" bits, and put in just the stories. I find at times the narrative jumps abruptly and I wonder how much of that is because things were cut out.
I got City of Bones for $1.99 earlier this week and just finished it. I thoroughly enjoyed it and decided to go get City of Ashes (book #2). Well, its $15 dang it all. So, I requested it at the library and I will just have to go peruse my Kindle freebies til it comes in. I think I have one called Squeaky Clean that sounds fun.
I can't imagine reading those stories without the poems. They are as integral to the story as the narrative. It's been a long time since I read them, at least 30 years. May have to revisit.
I am reading "Don't Breathe A Word," by Jennifer McMahon. The story of a 12 year old who is stolen by the Fairy King and her brother and his wife 15 years later, delving into the mystery.
I'm reading 7th Annual Edition, The Year's Best S-F, published in 1963. I love old SF. It is usually dated, but enjoyable. This is surprisingly, mostly not that dated.
purple.alien.giraffe
Executive Chef
taxlady said:
One of my favorite collections of SF is an anthology of Hugo award wining SF from the 60's. Isaac Asimov rights a little blurb introducing each story. The entire thing is a great read.
I've been reading like crazy lately. A lot of Iris Johansen, Eileen Dreyer, Jeffrey Deaver.
I've got another barrage on order. Havin' fun!
I've got another barrage on order. Havin' fun!
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Greg Who Cooks
Executive Chef
If anybody wants to read pulp fiction they should read Mickey Spillane. I cut my "mystery" teeth on his novels, loaned to me in my early teens by my gramma, and I bet my mom and dad would have objected if they had known what I was reading (me as a 13 year old). Pretty tame by today's standards.
As a great follow-up to Mickey Spillane's novels I recommend John D. MacDonald's Travis McGee novels. Both authors were awesome, and IMO they plowed the same fields. Sadly, both authors are "of the past."
As a great follow-up to Mickey Spillane's novels I recommend John D. MacDonald's Travis McGee novels. Both authors were awesome, and IMO they plowed the same fields. Sadly, both authors are "of the past."
Cindercat
Sous Chef
I just got "The Hunger Games" from the library. I had to sign up for the wait list for it.
purple.alien.giraffe
Executive Chef
I would get every one of these if I could. http://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Hugo_Winners#section_1
Here is the list for the Hugo Winners and Nominees for Best Novel:
Hugo Award for Best Novel - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
purple.alien.giraffe
Executive Chef
PrincessFiona60 said:
Right, so I was born in 1978, so it would seem logical that I wouldn't recognize the names of a lot of the authors from the mid 80's on and be more familiar with authors from the 90's onward. I'm sort of backward though. From the beginning of the list through 1986 there were very few authors listed whose works were completely unknown to me. I've read at least a short story or two by most of them, although I haven't read many of the works actually listed. From '86 - '93 I recognized about half the authors. After that I recognized the ones that have a more mainstream pressence (JK Roweling, Neil Geiman, George RR Martin) or were mentioned previously in the list (Greg Bear) or I recognized one or two novels that I was like, "Oh, that's who wrote that," but I haven't heard of most of them. So from a litterary perspective I'm stuck in the past from before I was born and not the part that was worth an award... I'm weird Marcy.
LOL! I took a copy of the list and I have most of the winners and nominees.
I love SF, have since I was 5...that was in 1965....I read many of these BEFORE they hit the Hugo list.
I think I started reading SF when I was 7 or 8. I learned very quickly that there was a picture of a rocket on the spine of SF books at the library.
But, back then, SF was considered crap literature. It wasn't something you talked about. Then between my junior and senior years of high school (11th & 12th grades, 1966) I took a summer course called "Honours Radiation Biology". Two smart, science oriented kids from each of about 15 high schools were chosen to attend.
The teacher mentioned a voder. The girl sitting next to me said, "I didn't think that was real." She had read the same SF story as me, about a Martian who whistled, but spoke English using a voder. Then, the topic of SF came up with the rest of the kids. All of us were SF fans.
I never kept my mouth shut about SF to English teachers again. I challenged them to read it if they thought it was crap.
