What Are You Reading Right Now?

[theblackdog]

I just read Love in the Ruins by Percy Walker, and all I have to say is "What the [profanity deleted] did I just read?"

[The Raven]

Now reading [i]This Side of Paradise [/i]by F. Scott Fitzgerald.

[flaccopoe]

[quote name='theblackdog' timestamp='1363792633' post='1406405']
I just read Love in the Ruins by Percy Walker, and all I have to say is "What the [profanity deleted] did I just read?"
[/quote]

What's it about?

[theblackdog]

[quote name='flaccopoe' timestamp='1363807702' post='1406644']
What's it about?
[/quote]

I'll start with the description from Amazon:
In Walker Percy’s future America, the country is on the brink of disaster. With citizens violently polarized along racial, political, and social lines, and a fifteen-year war still raging abroad, America is crumbling quickly into ruin. The country’s one remaining hope is Dr. Thomas More, whose “lapsometer” is capable of diagnosing the spiritual afflictions—anxiety, depression, alienation—driving everyone’s destructive and disastrous behavior.

But such a potent machine has its pitfalls. As Dr. More soon learns, in the wrong hands, the powerful lapsometer could lead to open warfare, pushing America into anarchy at full-speed.

Basically the entire book is him rambling about past events in his life and dealing with his lapsometer up until two days before July 4 (when the book starts) and a man from some consortium of private and public agencies shows up and wants him to sign over the lapsometer to them because they've already found a way to not only make it diagnose, but cure. At the same time he's got a sniper shooting at him, he's overheard a potential conspiracy to overthrow the government, and he's trying to arrange a tryst with one of the nurses at the mental hospital he's both worked for and been a patient of.

There were so many confusing things going on that it was hard to keep up and a lot of loose threads basically got the "Now let's fast forward a few years later and let the narrator explain what happened" treatment that I was half expecting him to come to in a hospital bed and we find out it was all hallucinations he was having because he's actually been a mental patient for years. That isn't the case here. I also found it hard to be sympathetic to him because there was never a good discernment of some of his motivations other than he wanted to be famous (i.e. win the Nobel Prize for his lapsometer) and get laid, all while making amazingly dumb decisions.

[flaccopoe]

[quote name='theblackdog' timestamp='1363813913' post='1406772']
I'll start with the description from Amazon:
In Walker Percy’s future America, the country is on the brink of disaster. With citizens violently polarized along racial, political, and social lines, and a fifteen-year war still raging abroad, America is crumbling quickly into ruin. The country’s one remaining hope is Dr. [size=5][b]Thomas More[/b][/size], whose “lapsometer” is capable of diagnosing the spiritual afflictions—anxiety, depression, alienation—driving everyone’s destructive and disastrous behavior.

But such a potent machine has its pitfalls. As Dr. More soon learns, in the wrong hands, the powerful lapsometer could lead to open warfare, pushing America into anarchy at full-speed.

Basically the entire book is him rambling about past events in his life and dealing with his lapsometer up until two days before July 4 (when the book starts) and a man from some consortium of private and public agencies shows up and wants him to sign over the lapsometer to them because they've already found a way to not only make it diagnose, but cure. At the same time he's got a sniper shooting at him, he's overheard a potential conspiracy to overthrow the government, and he's trying to arrange a tryst with one of the nurses at the mental hospital he's both worked for and been a patient of.

There were so many confusing things going on that it was hard to keep up and a lot of loose threads basically got the "Now let's fast forward a few years later and let the narrator explain what happened" treatment that I was half expecting him to come to in a hospital bed and we find out it was all hallucinations he was having because he's actually been a mental patient for years. That isn't the case here. I also found it hard to be sympathetic to him because there was never a good discernment of some of his motivations other than he wanted to be famous (i.e. win the Nobel Prize for his lapsometer) and get laid, all while making amazingly dumb decisions.
[/quote]

Thomas More, spiritual guru? Wonder who that could be a metaphor for?

[img]http://www.luminarium.org/renlit/stmore.jpg[/img]

[flaccopoe]

Reading about Kim Il-Sung and Gnassingbe Eyadena.

[The Oakland Cathedral]

Anyone know of any books on the Kenya-Uganda Railway or it's role in imperialism or colonization outside of the The Lunatic Express by Charles Miller?

[The Oakland Cathedral]

Anyone else have a favorite book shop (that isn't a chain shop like Barnes and Noble)?

[The Oakland Cathedral]

Also has anyone read house of leaves?

[Purple Nurple]

[quote name='Miami Hurricane' timestamp='1364239018' post='1415031']
Anyone know of any books on the Kenya-Uganda Railway or it's role in imperialism or colonization outside of the The Lunatic Express by Charles Miller?
[/quote]

No. That's the only one. That subject has always held a secret room in my heart.

Just kidding. But seriously, I can't imagine two books being written on the subject so I'm gonna stick with no.

[The Oakland Cathedral]

[quote name='Purple Nurple' timestamp='1364394069' post='1416910']


No. That's the only one. That subject has always held a secret room in my heart.

Just kidding. But seriously, I can't imagine two books being written on the subject so I'm gonna stick with no.
[/quote]Oh, I'm good now. I've found about 20 more books on the subject.

[flaccopoe]

[quote name='Miami Hurricane' timestamp='1364360696' post='1416776']
Also has anyone read house of leaves?
[/quote]

The book about rural West Virginia?

[flaccopoe]

Been reading a lot about North Korean politics.

[The Oakland Cathedral]

[quote name='flaccopoe' timestamp='1364418662' post='1417679']


The book about rural West Virginia?
[/quote]No, the one by Mark Z. Danielewski.

[Purple Nurple]

[quote name='Miami Hurricane' timestamp='1364399572' post='1416990']
Oh, I'm good now. I've found about 20 more books on the subject.
[/quote]

Proof you can write about anything.

[flaccopoe]

[quote name='Purple Nurple' timestamp='1364447551' post='1418201']
Proof you can write about anything.
[/quote]

What have you been reading lately?

[Purple Nurple]

Tax law. It's mind numbing.

[The Oakland Cathedral]

[quote name='Purple Nurple' timestamp='1364447551' post='1418201']


Proof you can write about anything.
[/quote]Funny thing is I actually needed the books to do research for my IB Extended Essay.

[flaccopoe]

[quote name='Purple Nurple' timestamp='1364449575' post='1418210']
Tax law. It's mind numbing.
[/quote]

Read [i]The Pale King [/i]by David Foster Wallace.

[flaccopoe]

Anyone familiar with RJ Rummel?

[sliceanddic3]

Reading through WWZ at the moment, its amazingly written. Some of the accounts are really intense, while some are more low key and just explain the history. Great read if anyone is interested in those kind of novels.

Just finished reading a classic, 1984. The way Orwell describes the distopia is phenominal, great, great book.

[sliceanddic3]

[quote name='Miami Hurricane' timestamp='1364360696' post='1416776']
Also has anyone read house of leaves?
[/quote]
I've been trying to get my hands on it at my library for a couple of weeks, I've heard it's amazing.

[MsMarvel73]

John Marzluff and Tony Angell's [i]Gifts of the Crow: How Perception, Emotion, and Thought Allow Smart Birds to Behave Like Humams[/i]

[flaccopoe]

[quote name='INRavensgirl' timestamp='1364696848' post='1420560']
John Marzluff and Tony Angell's [i]Gifts of the Crow: How Perception, Emotion, and Thought Allow Smart Birds to Behave Like Humams[/i]
[/quote]

What is it with you and birds?

[MsMarvel73]

[quote name='flaccopoe' timestamp='1364705880' post='1420632']
What is it with you and birds?
[/quote]



Birding. ornithology etc. is one of my great passions.

But now I'm starting in on [i]The Roadside Geology of Indiana[/i] again. *chuckle*

[flaccopoe]

Refreshing my knowledge of the Sierra Leonian civil war.

[George70]

[quote name='sliceanddic3' timestamp='1364684316' post='1420444']
Reading through WWZ at the moment, its amazingly written. Some of the accounts are really intense, while some are more low key and just explain the history. Great read if anyone is interested in those kind of novels.

Just finished reading a classic, 1984. The way Orwell describes the distopia is phenominal, great, great book.
[/quote]

Thanks for reminding me of "1984" - I really should obtain another copy of that book, as I had it in paperback some years ago.

[flaccopoe]

[quote name='sliceanddic3' timestamp='1364684316' post='1420444']
Reading through WWZ at the moment, its amazingly written. Some of the accounts are really intense, while some are more low key and just explain the history. Great read if anyone is interested in those kind of novels.

Just finished reading a classic, 1984. The way Orwell describes the distopia is phenominal, great, great book.
[/quote]

I hope it was I who inspired you to read it?!

[darklight1216]

It's time to revive this thread. It should never have died...

 

Speaking of death, I've been on kind of a Neil Gaiman marathon. I'm on Neverwhere right now and I really can't believe that I had never picked up one of his books until this year.

[The Oakland Cathedral]

It's time to revive this thread. It should never have died...

Speaking of death, I've been on kind of a Neil Gaiman marathon. I'm on Neverwhere right now and I really can't believe that I had never picked up one of his books until this year.

Lol, I forgot this thread existed. I'm currently reading Jane Eyre and Prey