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Dracko .
Joined: 10 Oct 2005 Posts: 2613
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Posted: Tue Apr 15, 2008 2:44 pm Post subject: |
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Are the works of Robert Greene worth the read? _________________ "This is the most fun I've ever had without being drenched in the blood of my enemies!" |
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elvis.shrugged .
Joined: 10 Jan 2006 Posts: 108 Location: Stratford, CT
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Posted: Wed Apr 16, 2008 7:57 pm Post subject: |
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I remember that article! I brought it up with a friend and we debated the New Deal.
I love Reason. |
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Harveyjames the meteor kid
Joined: 06 Jul 2006 Posts: 3636
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dhex Breeder
Joined: 13 Dec 2004 Posts: 6319 Location: brooklyn, Nev Yiork
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Posted: Mon Apr 21, 2008 10:11 am Post subject: |
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i'm re-reading the road to serfdom. i'm kinda out of new books for a while. i should probably reread women, fire and dangerous things again. _________________
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Shapermc Hot Sake!
Joined: 14 Oct 2004 Posts: 6279
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Posted: Fri May 02, 2008 4:50 am Post subject: |
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Hey, so how's henry miller's tropic of cancer? _________________ “The average man has a secret desire to be a swaggering, drunken, fighting, raping swashbuckler.”
-Robert E. Howard in a letter to a friend circa Decmber 1932
"There is no place in this enterprise for a rogue physicist!" |
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dhex Breeder
Joined: 13 Dec 2004 Posts: 6319 Location: brooklyn, Nev Yiork
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Posted: Fri May 02, 2008 7:18 am Post subject: |
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i think miller is great, but i recommend reading black spring first. if you have, and you liked it, capricorn - and to a lesser degree, cancer - are both more moody. black spring is far more amoral and almost emotionally neutral, beyond his insane swings into ridiculous mania. _________________
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helicopterp .
Joined: 13 May 2006 Posts: 1435 Location: Philadelphia
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Posted: Sun May 18, 2008 5:30 am Post subject: |
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N. Scott Momaday wrote: | A single knoll rises out of the plain in Oklahoma, north and west of the Wichita range. For my people it is an old landmark, and they gave it the name Rainy Mountain. There, in the south of the continental trough, is the hardest weather in the world. In winter there are blizzards, which come down the Williston corridor, bearing hail and sleet. Hot tornadic winds arise in the spring, and in summer the prairie is an anvil's edge. The grass turns brittle and brown, and it cracks beneath your feet. There are green belts along the rivers and creeks, linear groves of hickory and pecan, willow and witch hazel. At a distance in July or August the steaming foliage seems almost to writhe in fire. Great green and yellow grasshoppers are everywhere in the tall grass, popping up like corn to sting the flesh, and tortoises crawl about on the red earth, going nowhere in the plenty of time. Loneliness is there as an aspect of the land. All things in the plain are isolate; there is no confusion of objects in the eye, but one hill or one tree or one man. At the slightest elevation you can see to the end of the world. To look upon that landscape in the early morning, with the sun at your back, is to lose the sense of proportion. Your imagination comes to life, and this, you think, is where Creation was begun. |
-from House Made of Dawn, and later modified in a section of The Way to Rainy Mountain.
Momaday writes oblique perspectives in direct language. One segment of House Made of Dawn focuses on the diary and letters of an American Indian Catholic Priest in the late 1800's. He succumbs to madness as his acolytes--with whom he may have had some physical intimacy--grow older and explore additional avenues of faith in the community. It is a vicious, alluring tale. _________________ Like you thought you'd seen copter perverts before. They were nothing compared to this one. |
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ryan .
Joined: 20 Feb 2005 Posts: 999
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Posted: Sun May 18, 2008 5:47 pm Post subject: |
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Can we ask for suggestions here? I'd like to learn a little about programming. I don't plan on going too fast or shooting for the stars, but I want something that is geared to the novice. Most tutorials or materials I've read that are for beginners aren't for normal beginners but beginners with some experience, which is of no help. Online tutorials tend to jump a bit beyond around the second or third chapter, going from explaining terms to the basic Hello World and then shooting past the next step that I need. I hear the Head First series, obnoxious covers aside, are actually pretty good.
A problem I encountered - an ongoing thread at Qt3 is about this - is what language to start with. Since I'm looking at this more as a hobby, I'd go with anything that has the kind of documentation I need. Suggestions? _________________ Come to me, Mordel. We shall depart. |
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dhex Breeder
Joined: 13 Dec 2004 Posts: 6319 Location: brooklyn, Nev Yiork
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Posted: Wed May 21, 2008 12:19 pm Post subject: |
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i'm reading some bernie lewis right now - specifically the muslim discovery of europe (thank you, housing works).
great historian, total shit politics. (this is a ridiculously common combination)
hey, anyone want to recommend a good book on game theory? _________________
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Scratchmonkey .
Joined: 02 Mar 2005 Posts: 1439
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Posted: Wed May 21, 2008 4:00 pm Post subject: |
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You got my friends' suggestion of Binmore, right? |
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Harveyjames the meteor kid
Joined: 06 Jul 2006 Posts: 3636
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Posted: Thu May 22, 2008 12:10 pm Post subject: |
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did you guys read that F. Scott Fitzgerald thing I linked to? It's good! |
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dhex Breeder
Joined: 13 Dec 2004 Posts: 6319 Location: brooklyn, Nev Yiork
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Posted: Thu May 22, 2008 12:36 pm Post subject: |
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Quote: | You got my friends' suggestion of Binmore, right? |
well, i did now. hmm. i'll have to see if i can find it used.
harvey: sorry, not an f. scott fan. _________________
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Dracko .
Joined: 10 Oct 2005 Posts: 2613
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Posted: Tue Jun 17, 2008 3:30 pm Post subject: |
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Never date a writer.
Quote: | Mandy,
I know you don't want to speak with me, but I just wanted to thank you for forcing me to realize my own repugnance, the blackness of heart and vanity of spirit I've ignored. So thank you, and I wanted to say that you will love again, sooner than you think. With your tenacity and strength of character, you deserve someone who loves you and who is actually happy to see you every day. Through your inadequacy to fulfill me, I have realized my own egotism. I can' t thank you enough.
I know I'm in no position to ask you for a favor, but I am currently vacationing in New York City, making it damn hard to edit news stories. I know you are interning all day, but if you could edit the stories I've attached I would deeply appreciate it. I believe that you editing my stories would make things less weird between us and would help forge the road to friendship. You have no reason to like me, but I would like to be your friend. I miss you.
You may be wondering why I did not email someone else and ask them to fill in for me, but I chose not to because of their intense hatred toward me. Since we broke up, I have started to realize that the reason people put up with me was because I was dating you. None of those people will ever be my friend, and The Post is just a job for me.
Again, I am sorry that because of me, you are broken. I am a terrible person because your love couldn't sustain me, and what I did to you is the most terrible thing I've ever done. Everything you ever said to me was completely true, and I feel awful.
Please let me know if you can edit those stories. Thanks
Josh. |
_________________ "This is the most fun I've ever had without being drenched in the blood of my enemies!" |
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seryogin JRPG Kommissar
Joined: 14 Oct 2004 Posts: 886 Location: Occupied Stalingrad
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Posted: Wed Jun 18, 2008 7:48 pm Post subject: |
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I crawl out of my hole and see this! Fuck you, Dracko! _________________
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dhex Breeder
Joined: 13 Dec 2004 Posts: 6319 Location: brooklyn, Nev Yiork
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Posted: Fri Jun 20, 2008 8:03 am Post subject: |
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i'm re-reading foucault's pendulum and had forgotten how much of it is laugh-out-loud funny. _________________
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Dracko .
Joined: 10 Oct 2005 Posts: 2613
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Posted: Sun Jul 13, 2008 7:57 pm Post subject: |
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Remembering Thomas M. Disch. _________________ "This is the most fun I've ever had without being drenched in the blood of my enemies!" |
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seryogin JRPG Kommissar
Joined: 14 Oct 2004 Posts: 886 Location: Occupied Stalingrad
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Posted: Sun Jul 13, 2008 11:22 pm Post subject: |
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Mike and I both read "The Dreams our Stuff is Made Of" and I believe that both of us came away impressed. Though Disch's bitchy prose reminded me too much of Truman Capote. Or at least how I imagine Truman Capote; I've never actually read him. _________________
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dhex Breeder
Joined: 13 Dec 2004 Posts: 6319 Location: brooklyn, Nev Yiork
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Posted: Mon Jul 14, 2008 7:39 am Post subject: |
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yeah, the only down part of that book is when he got all pissy about burroughs and other "regular" writers using the trappings of sci fi and sometimes being identified with the genre; it was very much an angry neckbeard nerdpocalypse moment. purity is for puritans; or perhaps sci fi authors as a whole smoke too much weed.
i finished this earth of mankind recently, and will move onto book two. that this guy turned an oral story from almost two decades in a prison camp into a well-paced set of books in only a few years is absolutely amazing. i'll be durned if i can see the slightest hint of marxism-leninism that got toer tossed in jail in the first place, but that's military juntas for you. _________________
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seryogin JRPG Kommissar
Joined: 14 Oct 2004 Posts: 886 Location: Occupied Stalingrad
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Scratchmonkey .
Joined: 02 Mar 2005 Posts: 1439
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Posted: Mon Jul 14, 2008 11:19 am Post subject: |
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seryogin wrote: | Or at least how I imagine Truman Capote; I've never actually read him. |
Read In Cold Blood. |
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dhex Breeder
Joined: 13 Dec 2004 Posts: 6319 Location: brooklyn, Nev Yiork
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Posted: Thu Jul 17, 2008 7:31 am Post subject: |
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time for my summer re-read of illuminatus! _________________
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Dracko .
Joined: 10 Oct 2005 Posts: 2613
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Posted: Mon Jul 21, 2008 4:37 pm Post subject: |
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Beckett wrote comics (not). _________________ "This is the most fun I've ever had without being drenched in the blood of my enemies!" |
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Swimmy .
Joined: 16 Sep 2005 Posts: 990 Location: Fairfax, VA
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Posted: Fri Aug 01, 2008 1:10 am Post subject: |
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My girlfriend asked me to read Watchmen, so I did.
I just can't put myself in the time this was made for. I realize it was important, but it's also really, really a product of its time. Most of the themes it explores are done better in Dark Knight Returns. The ones that aren't are, well, kinda silly. No, it's not the best utilitarian parable ever. Having a character who can see into the future kinda kills all the debate over utilitarianism anyway--hence the cheating "oh the future is staticy here!" nonsense. _________________
"Ayn Rand fans are the old school version of Xenogears fanboys."
-seryogin |
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Scratchmonkey .
Joined: 02 Mar 2005 Posts: 1439
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Posted: Fri Aug 01, 2008 11:54 am Post subject: |
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My sister came over last month and left Joan Didion's The Year of Magical Thinking, so I sat down and read it in a single sitting. It's a memoir of when her husband died from a massive heart attack at the same time when her daughter is in the hospital from a mysterious infection that leads to her condition waxing and waning through the book. The book is already raw and painful and made only more so by the fact that her daughter died months after the book was published. The book does an incredible job of trying to put you in the shoes of somebody who's suffered immense emotional trauma. One of the techniques she uses is subtle repetition to recreate the constant revisiting of memories and pain as the brain struggles to deal with loss. It is probably the best piece of writing about grief that I've read.
A couple months before that I read Mishima's Patriotism. It seemed like a pretty obvious metaphor for how Japan has rejected its essential nature, with the Lieutenant standing in the place of the Japanese martial tradition, only idealized in Mishima's eyes instead of being the weak men who surrendered to the West and allowed the country to become emasculated, taking their citizentry (Rukio) along with them. That's my half-assed high-school literature analysis anyway. The prose is beautiful, even if I think he's a nutty nationalist.
I recently got Barzun's Dawn to Decandance for 50 cents (hardcover, even) and I look forward to slowly plowing through it. |
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Dracko .
Joined: 10 Oct 2005 Posts: 2613
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Posted: Mon Aug 04, 2008 5:42 pm Post subject: |
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Solzhenitsyn is dead. _________________ "This is the most fun I've ever had without being drenched in the blood of my enemies!" |
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helicopterp .
Joined: 13 May 2006 Posts: 1435 Location: Philadelphia
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Posted: Mon Sep 01, 2008 7:50 am Post subject: |
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Dhex, why am I supposed to like Henry Miller? I read nearly 200 pages of Tropic of Cancer over the last few days, and I decided I can't stand it anymore. I mean yeah whatever maybe I'm a slave to conventions, but I'm not THAT much of a slave to conventions. Seriously, what gives? _________________ Like you thought you'd seen copter perverts before. They were nothing compared to this one. |
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dhex Breeder
Joined: 13 Dec 2004 Posts: 6319 Location: brooklyn, Nev Yiork
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Posted: Mon Sep 01, 2008 10:18 am Post subject: |
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i think he's awesome. even if he did invent the livejournal. but he definitely talks like he's completely schizoid.
my favorite is black spring; the most accessible is colossus of maroussi (sp?) or the oranges of big sur. capricorn is better than cancer. _________________
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Dracko .
Joined: 10 Oct 2005 Posts: 2613
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Posted: Mon Sep 01, 2008 12:11 pm Post subject: |
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Hey so dhex, is Christopher Hyatt worth reading? _________________ "This is the most fun I've ever had without being drenched in the blood of my enemies!" |
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dhex Breeder
Joined: 13 Dec 2004 Posts: 6319 Location: brooklyn, Nev Yiork
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Posted: Mon Sep 01, 2008 6:43 pm Post subject: |
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i would give that a qualified yes. "undoing yourself" is worth a shot for starters. _________________
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Dracko .
Joined: 10 Oct 2005 Posts: 2613
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Dracko .
Joined: 10 Oct 2005 Posts: 2613
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Posted: Thu Sep 11, 2008 8:02 am Post subject: |
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_________________ "This is the most fun I've ever had without being drenched in the blood of my enemies!" |
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helicopterp .
Joined: 13 May 2006 Posts: 1435 Location: Philadelphia
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Posted: Thu Sep 11, 2008 9:09 am Post subject: |
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Fun! _________________ Like you thought you'd seen copter perverts before. They were nothing compared to this one. |
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moonside .
Joined: 06 Jul 2008 Posts: 13 Location: nyc
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Posted: Thu Sep 11, 2008 9:18 pm Post subject: |
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Harveyjames wrote: | did you guys read that F. Scott Fitzgerald thing I linked to? It's good! |
yes i had to read that story in high school. i loved it also...
i'm reading milk closet now. tomizawa has some strange ideas (although this page does not really illustrate any of them).
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ryan .
Joined: 20 Feb 2005 Posts: 999
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Posted: Thu Sep 11, 2008 11:12 pm Post subject: |
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I'm currently reading Procopius' Secret Wars: Books I-II (Persian Wars). Pretty good! You get all sorts of the near pointless stories that old historians are known for but interesting all the same.
I also found an issue of Edge at Books-a-Million and have been going through it. I miss old Next-Generation so bad now. The price was cheaper than I had expected, $8.99. _________________ Come to me, Mordel. We shall depart. |
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dhex Breeder
Joined: 13 Dec 2004 Posts: 6319 Location: brooklyn, Nev Yiork
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Posted: Fri Sep 12, 2008 9:37 am Post subject: |
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finished the sling and the stone - worthwhile reading if you're interested in new trends in warfare.
also almost done with a 1960s dissertation by a british dude on the history of the wobblies. quite good! the final splinter between the centralists/communists/soviet pawns (take your pick) and the syndicalists/anarchists/crazypants segments is very good. _________________
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seryogin JRPG Kommissar
Joined: 14 Oct 2004 Posts: 886 Location: Occupied Stalingrad
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Posted: Thu Sep 18, 2008 12:06 pm Post subject: |
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Does anyone around here read Charles Portis? _________________
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moonside .
Joined: 06 Jul 2008 Posts: 13 Location: nyc
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Dracko .
Joined: 10 Oct 2005 Posts: 2613
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Posted: Sun Sep 28, 2008 6:00 pm Post subject: |
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http://fleursdumal.org/ - Collection of Baudelaire's poetry
http://realitystudio.org/ - William S. Burroughs resource
http://bookkake.com/ - Now this is very interesting, and I'm compelled to order their set of books in spite of the price because it's the sort of initiative I approve of
Good books there, too. _________________ "This is the most fun I've ever had without being drenched in the blood of my enemies!" |
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Dracko .
Joined: 10 Oct 2005 Posts: 2613
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Posted: Tue Sep 30, 2008 10:44 pm Post subject: |
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Enjoy Banned Book Week with a copy of Ulysses and an Ambushed Trifle. _________________ "This is the most fun I've ever had without being drenched in the blood of my enemies!" |
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dhex Breeder
Joined: 13 Dec 2004 Posts: 6319 Location: brooklyn, Nev Yiork
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Posted: Wed Oct 22, 2008 8:10 am Post subject: |
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reading auster's the invention of solitude.
it is brutal. _________________
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Ethoscapade .
Joined: 30 Oct 2005 Posts: 276
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Posted: Wed Oct 29, 2008 8:12 pm Post subject: |
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I read that on a beautiful morning in the south of Rome after waking up on the couch of a gay American studies professor. It's my favorite work of Auster's. |
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Dracko .
Joined: 10 Oct 2005 Posts: 2613
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Posted: Tue Nov 25, 2008 7:36 pm Post subject: |
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http://nakedlunch.org/
Watch this space. _________________ "This is the most fun I've ever had without being drenched in the blood of my enemies!" |
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Dracko .
Joined: 10 Oct 2005 Posts: 2613
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Posted: Sat Dec 13, 2008 7:54 pm Post subject: |
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Why does The Road remind me of Watership Down so much? _________________ "This is the most fun I've ever had without being drenched in the blood of my enemies!" |
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helicopterp .
Joined: 13 May 2006 Posts: 1435 Location: Philadelphia
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Posted: Sun Dec 14, 2008 1:18 am Post subject: |
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because there is no hope for rabbit kind _________________ Like you thought you'd seen copter perverts before. They were nothing compared to this one. |
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dhex Breeder
Joined: 13 Dec 2004 Posts: 6319 Location: brooklyn, Nev Yiork
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Posted: Sun Dec 14, 2008 9:27 am Post subject: |
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i'm reading pale fire for the first time. it's weird. _________________
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Dracko .
Joined: 10 Oct 2005 Posts: 2613
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Posted: Sun Dec 14, 2008 11:27 am Post subject: |
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Also, insanely good. _________________ "This is the most fun I've ever had without being drenched in the blood of my enemies!" |
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helicopterp .
Joined: 13 May 2006 Posts: 1435 Location: Philadelphia
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Posted: Sun Dec 14, 2008 11:27 am Post subject: |
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You're so lucky!
Hope it makes the grade! ha? ha? fellow pale fire readers? ha? _________________ Like you thought you'd seen copter perverts before. They were nothing compared to this one. |
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dhex Breeder
Joined: 13 Dec 2004 Posts: 6319 Location: brooklyn, Nev Yiork
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Posted: Sun Dec 14, 2008 7:54 pm Post subject: |
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well, we'll see.
man i got hells of a lot of books for my birthday. some of that public choice stuff i bothered swimmy about, some shit on game theory, the bryan caplan book, three more mishima titles, the great outdoor fight, the pbf collection and um some other stuff i'm forgetting. _________________
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Dracko .
Joined: 10 Oct 2005 Posts: 2613
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Posted: Mon Dec 15, 2008 8:34 am Post subject: |
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helicopterp wrote: | because there is no hope for rabbit kind |
I think the larger point is that there is always hope, it's just that such a thing is not inherently a problem solver and life is fucking rough.
P.S. 30 Ways to Die of Electrocution _________________ "This is the most fun I've ever had without being drenched in the blood of my enemies!" |
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helicopterp .
Joined: 13 May 2006 Posts: 1435 Location: Philadelphia
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Posted: Mon Dec 15, 2008 9:28 am Post subject: |
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Dracko did you finish the road?
Dhex did you finish pale fire?
Both are books I always want to talk about, but I don't want to be a spoiler. _________________ Like you thought you'd seen copter perverts before. They were nothing compared to this one. |
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