What are the last five books you've read?

Tim OConnor · Getting comfortable Joined: 10 Jun 2002 Posts: 9 Gender:

Here are the last five books that I have read.

I should admit up front that I have no interest in fiction of any kind. I simply cannot bring myself to put time and effort into reading a story, unless it has some kind of immediate relevance. Recently my interest has been history, but mostly I spend time in the sciences.

I enjoy a good debate, but not for the debate's sake. I try to read things that challenge my own views, rather than support them. And above all, I read to learn - for the more I learn, the more I realize just how ignorant I really am.

5. The Iron Wall - Israel and the Arab World by Avi Shlaim (currently reading)
4. One Palestine Complete - Jews and Arabs Under the British Mandate by Tom Segev
3. Blaming the Victims: Spurious Scholarship and the Palestinian Question by Edward Said and Christopher Hitchens
2. Shroedinger's Kittens and the Search for Reality by John Gribbin
1. The Food Revolution by John Robbins

Kenny Meek

Hey- I Just Blew through about a third of that Gore Vidal book yesterday. I like it ...it's sort of like Noam Chomsky condensed for guys like me who never quite make it through Chomsky. It's the first of his stuff I've ever read. Are his novels any good?

Andonicus · Eligible to vote! Joined: 20 Oct 2002 Posts: 19 Gender:

I've never read Gore Vidal.

Last Five:

The Life and Death of King John William Shakespeare
Derek Walcott; A Critical Study John Thieme
American Poetry: The Twentieth Century Library of America
Ulysses James Joyce
The Atonement Louis Auchincloss

Ando

Kenny Meek · Posted: Fri Nov 08, 2002 8:58 am Post subject: Re: My last 5

Is Blinded by the right any good? The Washington Post write up just made him sound bitter and biased....but with critics you never can be sure.

rage · Getting comfortable Joined: 18 Nov 2002 Posts: 6 Gender:

Atlantis Found - Clive Cussler
The Tommyknockers - Stephen King
Atlas Shrugged - Ayn Rand
The Dreamcatcher - Stephen King
Job: A Comedy of Justice - Robert Heinlein
Stranger in a Strange Land - Robert Heinlein

There is the last 6

Currently working on:

The Fountainhead - Ayn Rand
Inca Gold - Clive Cussler

NaddiaAoC · Posted: Tue Nov 19, 2002 1:53 am Post subject: Re: hmm.....

Luke,

What did you think of Atlas Shrugged? I really wanted to read that and went to buy it one day and was like holy smokes! That thing is huge. So I decided to put it off. I do want to read it eventually though.

Have you read any of Ayn Rand's non-fiction? I plan to start reading her Lexicon soon. I don't know much depth about her philosophies but what I do know really interests me.

Cheryl

Kenny Meek · Posted: Tue Nov 19, 2002 9:48 am Post subject: Ayn Rand

I read The Fountainhead in it's entirety and started Atlas Shrugged, but didn't make it through. They're both long as hell. Ayn Rand's journals are interesting. Her case against altruism could be deemed reasonable by some I suppose.

To me, her philosophy of objectivism starts out reasonably, but by the time it all comes to fruition- which is in the present as translated by her most fervent disciple and adherent Leonard Piekoff(SP?) her(his?) world isn't any better off than it would be under the rule of fundamentalist Christians. That's just my quicky opinion on Ayn Rand. She was one of my first rationalistic reads so I was sort of engrossed at the beginning but as she melded in to my sometimes feeble mind she made less and less sense. I would probably be better off with Ayn Rand had I never read or seen (on TV)Piekoff's interpretations, because he just comes across as arrogant and narrow minded. Her involvement on the Mc Carthy movement is most interesting also. She carried an anti-communist agenda which didn't really do America any favors in terms of civil liberty in a wacked out era. She testified for the Committee against un american commies or whatever they were called and probably helped get the ACLU established.(I'm really kidding about that one...she did testify, but I'm kidding about the ACLU part)

I think Ayn Rand is a must for any critical thinker, good or bad. Always something to think about.

see ya
kenny

rage · Getting comfortable Joined: 18 Nov 2002 Posts: 6 Gender:

While some of the book is a little far-fetched, and some of the ideas presented I don't agree with, over all, it is very well written. The first hundred or so are a bit slow, but after that, I zoomed through it (finished it in a couple of days, reading it after I got off work).

Some of the speaches in there are GREAT. But there are certain problems that you will run into with some of the ideas she presents. (i.e. - she presents a utopian world, but none of the possible faults that it could present, as all utopian worlds do).

Also, she goes to great lengths to make tons of people look like idiots, and it is hard to believe that many people could be THAT stupid.

I would recommend reading it though. I'm looking into finding some of her non-fiction work to read after I finish the fountainhead, so I would be able to better critique her philosophy then.

Kenny Meek · Posted: Tue Nov 19, 2002 7:09 pm Post subject: The Fountainhead

I'll be interested to hear your opinion on the trial when you get around to it. I think maybe she should have collaborated with John Grisham or something??

Drunkenblade of Kay · Almost a regular Joined: 20 Sep 2002 Posts: 40 Gender:

I read Fountainhead, and am currently working up the motivation to dig into Atlas Shrugged, which I incidently bought while in Cincinnati Cheryl.

While her philosophy of individualism is really hard to swallow and lends itself naturally to fanacism, her works of fiction are nonetheless enduring pillars of entertainment. She has an accute understanding of social politics and banter and makes good use of the subtleties of dialogue. The epic subterfuges between Elsworth M. Toohey, and Dominique Francon are engrossingly revolting and commandingly admirable all at the same time. At the very least, you will be entertained and intellectually stimulated, but as Kenny said, you may not be better off as a direct result of her philosophy.

Here's one of my favorite quotes from The Fountainhead:

"I should like you to give that commission to my husband. I understand, of course, that there's no reason why you should do so--unless I agree to sleep with you in exchange. If you consider that a sufficient reason--I am willing to do it"

He looked at her silently, allowing no hint of personal reaction in his face. She sat looking up at him, faintly astonished by his scrutiny, as if her words had deserved no special attention. He could not force on himself, though he was seeking it fiercely, any other impression of her face than the incongruous one of undisturbed purity.

He said: "That is what I was to suggest. But not so crudely and not on our first meeting."

"I have saved you time and lies."

"You love your husband very much?"

"I despise him."

"You have a great faith in his artistic genius?"

"I think he's a third-rate architect."

"Then why are you doing this?"

"It amuses me."

"I thought I was the only one who acted on such motives."

"You shouldn't mind. I don't believe you've ever found originality a desirable virtue, Mr. Wynand."

"Actually, you don't care whether your husband gets Stoneridge or not?"

"No."

"And you have no desire to sleep with me?"

"None at all."

"I could admire a woman who'd put on an act like that. Only it's not an act."

"It's not. Please don't begin admiring me. I have tried to avoid it."

Whenever he smiled no obvious movement was required of his facial muscles; the hint of mockery was always there and it merely came into sharper focus for a moment, to recede imperceptibly again. The focus was sharper now.

"As a matter of fact," he said, "your chief motive is I, after all. The desire to give yourself to me." He saw the glance she could not control and added: "No, don't enjoy the thought that I have fallen into so gross an error. I didn't mean it in the usual sense. But in its exact opposite. Didn't you say you considered me the person before last in the world? You don't want Stoneridge. You want to sell yourself for the lowest motive to the lowest person you can find."

"I didn't expect you to understand that," she said simply.

"You want--men do that sometimes, not women--to express through the sexual act your utter contempt for me."

"No, Mr. Wynand. For myself."

The thin line of his mouth moved faintly, as if his lips had caught the first hint of a personal revelation--an involuntary one and, therefore, a weakness--and were holding it tight while he spoke:

"Most people go to very great lengths in order to convince themselves of their self-respect."

"Yes."

"And, of course, a quest for self-respect is proof of its lack."

"Yes."

"Do you see the meaning of a quest for self-contempt?"

"That I lack it?"

"And that you'll never achieve it."

"I didn't expect you to understand that either."

"I won't say anything else--or I'll stop being the person before last in the world and I'll become unsuitable to your purpose." He rose. "Shall I tell you formally that I accept your offer?"

She inclined her head in agreement.

Edited by: Drunkenblade of Kay at: 11/19/02 6:26:18 pm


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