Now reading (The Book Thread)

Just finished Imajica by Clive Barker.

Now reading: Manifold: Time by Stephen Baxter.
The Gangs of New York by Herbert Asbury.
 
Just read The Antichrist, by Lawrence M. Nelson. It's really hilarious, at least until you realize the author is quite serious.

SPOILER: The antichrist, according to Nelson, is the papacy. While even I could eventually come to accept this assertion in context, Nelson's "logic" is so vapid that all he really accomplishes is reminding the rest of us that "Christian thinker" is a term which has long outlived its value.

There's nothing I can do about this guy. It's up to the Christians to put down this kind of crap. Seriously, if I was the alien anthropologist who found the remnants of human civilization, and all I could find of the Christian record was the Bible and books like this, I would have a hard time figuring out if I was seeing a legitimate historical presence in Christianity or the longest-running comedy in Broadway history.
 
Finished a few graphic novels recently -

Guy Delisle - Pyongyang
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pyongyang_(comic)
Guy Delisle - Shenzhen
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Shenzhen_(comic)
Pyongyang's the one to go for if you do. I loved it. Shenzhen's good too, but a bit lacking and isn't so interesting.

Marjange Satrapi - Persepolis (1+2)
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Persepolis_(graphic_novel)

Cool book (graphic novel again) about a girl growing up during the Iranian revolution. Her travels and education in Europe, moving back to Iran and subsequently her marriage and the changes in her country. Recommended :)

I'm about to start -

Joe Sacco - Palestine

The guy's a legendary graphic novelist, so I thought I should check some stuff out. His style's fairly unique, too.

Normal books I've yet to read -
The Aquariums of Pyongyang - Kang Chol-Hwan (trans by Pierre Rigoulot)
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Aquariums_of_Pyongyang

The Idiot - Dostoevsky
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Idiot_(novel)
I enjoyed Crime and Punishment, so thought I'd give more of his stuff a go.
Found a Wordsworth Edition (blue paperback) copy in Borders so grabbed it. The Worsdworth Edition collection is pretty cool and full of classics. The books are cheap - between £1.50 and £2.50 really, so ideal if you're skint and want a new copy.
 
I'm currently reading 3 books at this time (somewhat of a rotating thing):

Daniel C. Dennett - "Darwin's Dangerous Idea"

Richard Southwood - "The Story of Life"

Eric Kandel, James Schwartz and Thomas Jessell - "Principles of Neural Science"
 
Slaughterhouse 5 satirical, hilarious, tragic, and wonderful.
my uncle has perfect pitch, and can read close to 2000 words a minute.
 
Manseau, Peter and Jeff Sharlet. Killing the Buddha: A Heretic's Bible.

From the founders of the neat-o website by the same name (KillingtheBuddha.com), this truly amazing 2004 release from Free Press combines the road tales of Manseau and Sharlet's cross-country search for true believers with Biblical retellings by A.L. Kennedy, Peter Trachtenberg, Charles Bowden, Randall Kenan, and more.

To cite the introduction:

What do you say about yourself, for example, to explain the things you do? Forget the hypothetical--let's start here, with this book. We had more reasons for making it than there are words between the covers. One of us is a Jew raised by a Pentecostal Hindu Buddhist, one is a son of a Catholic priest and former nun. The priest kept the vestments in the front hallway and held mass in the dining room; the Hindu Buddhist asked Charismatic Christians to pray over her as she lay dying ....

.... Like the original, this Bible crosses freely between genres, between history and prophecy, confession and myth. Seven of the contributors responded to our call with nonfiction: Genesis, Exodus, and Ruth as personal investigations; Leviticus, Job, and Isaiah as critical riffs; Song of Songs as a love letter. Six responded with fiction: one book of biblical history is revised (Samuel), the rants of three prophets are translated and improved (Ezekiel, Daniel, Jonah), and books of the New Testament (the Gospels and Revelation) are entirely made up. Threaded through the chorus of our makeshift choir are our own counterharmonies, thirteen postcards from our trip across this strange, godless, pious land: not so much walking the Bible as stalking its shadow. Every one of these psalms is 100 percent true, pure American revelation. (Manseau and Sharlet, 2-5)​

Amazon, public library, best friend's bookshelf: raid whatever and wherever you need in order to get hold of this book.

Really. It's just that good.
 
Christopher Hitchens: God is not Great.

Joseph Conrad: Lord Jim

James Fallows: How the Media Undermine American Democracy
 
Last interesting read- Bill Bryson's A Short History of Nearly Everything. Most recent not so interesting read- Joan Borysenko's A Woman's Journey to God. Its taking me a lot longer to read the latter because I keep putting it down and not coming back to it. Plus in school now reading the ever popular Pathophysiology: The Biologic Basis for Disease in Adults and Children and Mosby's Guide to Physical Examination.
 
I'm just reading Stephen King's "It". I bought it in an airport when my flight got delayed, and now I'm finishing it.
 
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