Current book being read/just finished

[canaan]

Have you read any other Woolf? I read To the Lighthouse this year and had immense trouble following it....so I'm now interested in trying anything else from her...unless I learn that her other stuff is more accessible (nice way of putting easier)

To the Lighthouse is a mediocre attempt at stream of consciousness--its not worth the effort, in my opinion. The Waves is okay but nothing fantastic.

The Years is probably my 2nd favorite behind Mrs. Dalloway.

That's good to know, i'll probably get to Mrs Dalloway at some point.

On a somewhat related note, is anyone familiar with what makes a book available for free and not? Woolf for instance has several of her books on the prject gutenberg site, but not all of them? Why?

first and foremost, the book needs to be in the public domain. from there, gutenburg gets volunteers to transfer the text to plain vanilla ASCII format.

from their FAQ

C.10. What books are in the public domain?
Any book published anywhere before 1923 is in the public domain in the U.S. This is the rule we use most.

U.S. Government publications are in the public domain. This is the rule under which we have published, for example, presidential inauguration speeches.

Books can be released into the public domain by the owners of their copyrights.

Some books published without a copyright notice in the U.S. prior to March 1st, 1989 are in the public domain.

Some books published before 1964, and whose copyright was not renewed, are in the public domain.

If you want to rely on anything except the 1923 rule, things can get complicated, and the rules do change with time.

[LeopardLetang]

Have you read any other Woolf? I read To the Lighthouse this year and had immense trouble following it....so I'm now interested in trying anything else from her...unless I learn that her other stuff is more accessible (nice way of putting easier)

To the Lighthouse is a mediocre attempt at stream of consciousness--its not worth the effort, in my opinion. The Waves is okay but nothing fantastic.

The Years is probably my 2nd favorite behind Mrs. Dalloway.

i enjoyed to the lighthouse but it was a bit tedious. i bought mrs dalloway on book on cd but didn't get far with it.

but i really enjoyed A Room of One's Own (nonfiction) where she wrote about women writers and the need for women of the time to have financial/emotional freedom/encouragement to become writers/artists.

[LeopardLetang]

heart of darkness, was surprisingly not impressed with it. my favorite book is still probably Exterminate all the Brutes - which devised its format around discussing heart of darkness, and ever since all i read are books pertaining to colonization of third worlds or africa - but i have no desire to go back and read heart of darkness again. it was good, but i'm surprised i don't love it.

[LeopardLetang]

Not much is going on. Despite the racist undertones, I likeHeart if Darkness very much and I do think that Conrad is a great stylist. I'm not sure, however, if Conrad would agree with the reception by both the critics and the readers over the years. To an extent, the novel has become much more than it - or Conrad - ever intended it to be, but that's just how literature works sometimes, and it doesn't really matter if Conrad likes the interpretations or not. The novel is a bit like Kafka without trying to be Kafka.

I have it on the kindle, i'm actually reading the Trial right now on the Kindle and Heart of Darkness is on deck.

report on the trial if you remember, troy. it might be the coolest book that i never finished. it was a while ago but it felt like a psychological thriller that could be made into a modern movie.

[Troy Loney]

Ok , i just found this,

Works Produced Between 1923-1964
If an author published a book or registered it before publication between January 1, 1923 and January 1, 1964 with a notice of copyright, the work was protected for 28 years. If the copyright was not renewed in the 28th year, the work became part of the public domain. Renewing the copyright extended this legal protection for an additional 47 years.

Does this basically mean that basically all important work after 1923 will likely have the copyright extended and will not be public domain for 75 years?

[Troy Loney]

Not much is going on. Despite the racist undertones, I likeHeart if Darkness very much and I do think that Conrad is a great stylist. I'm not sure, however, if Conrad would agree with the reception by both the critics and the readers over the years. To an extent, the novel has become much more than it - or Conrad - ever intended it to be, but that's just how literature works sometimes, and it doesn't really matter if Conrad likes the interpretations or not. The novel is a bit like Kafka without trying to be Kafka.

I have it on the kindle, i'm actually reading the Trial right now on the Kindle and Heart of Darkness is on deck.

report on the trial if you remember, troy. it might be the coolest book that i never finished. it was a while ago but it felt like a psychological thriller that could be made into a modern movie.

I'm enjoying it. Like the Castle, I feel like this work has inspired the theme of some of my favorite sitcoms (Arrested Development in particular), where one the main character is sane and the story is his interactions with everyone else who is insane.

[Troy Loney]

White Teeth by Zadie Smith. Good read

On Beauty was also thoroughly entertaining.....although it takes place in sort of that intellectual/pretentious bubble of the sophisticates...so I would imagine it doesn't automatically translate to people who like white teeth.

[LeopardLetang]

Not much is going on. Despite the racist undertones, I likeHeart if Darkness very much and I do think that Conrad is a great stylist. I'm not sure, however, if Conrad would agree with the reception by both the critics and the readers over the years. To an extent, the novel has become much more than it - or Conrad - ever intended it to be, but that's just how literature works sometimes, and it doesn't really matter if Conrad likes the interpretations or not. The novel is a bit like Kafka without trying to be Kafka.

I have it on the kindle, i'm actually reading the Trial right now on the Kindle and Heart of Darkness is on deck.

report on the trial if you remember, troy. it might be the coolest book that i never finished. it was a while ago but it felt like a psychological thriller that could be made into a modern movie.

I'm enjoying it. Like the Castle, I feel like this work has inspired the theme of some of my favorite sitcoms (Arrested Development in particular), where one the main character is sane and the story is his interactions with everyone else who is insane.

cool thought

[KennyTheKangaroo]

this gentleman is reading the johnstown flood book by david mccullough. very interesting read thus far.

[Shyster]

Does this basically mean that basically all important work after 1923 will likely have the copyright extended and will not be public domain for 75 years?

Correct, thanks to the federal Copyright Term Extension Act of 1998. That law is often also called the Mickey Mouse Protection Act, as the Disney Corporation spent a ton of money lobbying for its passage. Had it not passed, the earliest works featuring Mickey Mouse would have already passed into the public domain.

[Troy Loney]

One more quick question though. mrs dalloway was published in 1925...would that then be public domain? or can copyright be renewed more than once?

[Shyster]

Not much is going on. Despite the racist undertones, I likeHeart if Darkness very much and I do think that Conrad is a great stylist. I'm not sure, however, if Conrad would agree with the reception by both the critics and the readers over the years. To an extent, the novel has become much more than it - or Conrad - ever intended it to be, but that's just how literature works sometimes, and it doesn't really matter if Conrad likes the interpretations or not. The novel is a bit like Kafka without trying to be Kafka.

I get the themes of colonialism and the attitudes toward native Africans. I disagree on the style. I thought the prose could be clearer, and the way the characters acted and spoke didn’t seem realistic to me. To be honest, I think the lack of clarity is why the novel has the good reputation among academics. It permits them to project all sorts of stuff onto the story.

[Shyster]

Now reading Unlearning Liberty: Campus Censorship and the End of American Debate. The author is the president of the Foundation for Individual Rights in Education (http://thefire.org), a public-interest group and law firm that specializes in advocating for and defending individual rights at America's colleges and universities. In the book Mr. Lukianoff discusses some of FIRE’s most prominent projects and describes some of the absolutely terrible abuses of freedom of speech committed by colleges and universities. Some of them are absolutely horrifying. For example, the University of Delaware had a mandatory program for its resident students that constituted nothing more than thought-control designed to “reprogram” students to fit a particular political agenda. Some descriptions of the program are here:

http://thefire.org/article/10389.html
http://thefire.org/article/9869.html

This is an excellent book.

[Gaucho]

To be honest, I think the lack of clarity is why the novel has the good reputation among academics. It permits them to project all sorts of stuff onto the story.

There's probably some truth to that, yes.

[Godric]

Faulkner, Tolstoy, and A. Huxley are far and away my favorite authors on what I've read in the last couple years

Random, I know, but I was wondering if anyone could recommend someone

Thomas Pynchon, Jonathan Lethem, Cormac McCarthy, Jorge Luis Borges, James Joyce, Thomas Mann, Graham Greene, Paul Auster, Samuel Beckett, Julian Barnes, Bruce Chatwin. You can thank me later.

ditto on McCarthy (Blood Meridian is my personal fave and have noted as such in the thread), Greene (Power and the Glory), and Beckett (Godot). I'll add:

A Canticle for Lebowitz (Walter Miller)
This Way to the Gas, Ladies and Gentlemen (Tadeusz Borowski)
All Quiet on the Western Front (Remarque)
Love in the Time of Cholera (GG Marquez)
Pygmalion (Shaw)
Mrs. Dalloway (Woolf)
The Awakening (Chopin...for the feminist in us all)
In Cold Blood (Capote)
Jude the Obscure (Hardy)
Harrison Bergeron (Vonnegut)
The Importance of Being Earnest (Wilde)

...some of my favorites.

Thanks Gaucho, Canaan and Troy! I'll check em out

[Troy Loney]

Faulkner, Tolstoy, and A. Huxley are far and away my favorite authors on what I've read in the last couple years

Random, I know, but I was wondering if anyone could recommend someone

Thomas Pynchon, Jonathan Lethem, Cormac McCarthy, Jorge Luis Borges, James Joyce, Thomas Mann, Graham Greene, Paul Auster, Samuel Beckett, Julian Barnes, Bruce Chatwin. You can thank me later.

ditto on McCarthy (Blood Meridian is my personal fave and have noted as such in the thread), Greene (Power and the Glory), and Beckett (Godot). I'll add:

A Canticle for Lebowitz (Walter Miller)
This Way to the Gas, Ladies and Gentlemen (Tadeusz Borowski)
All Quiet on the Western Front (Remarque)
Love in the Time of Cholera (GG Marquez)
Pygmalion (Shaw)
Mrs. Dalloway (Woolf)
The Awakening (Chopin...for the feminist in us all)
In Cold Blood (Capote)
Jude the Obscure (Hardy)
Harrison Bergeron (Vonnegut)
The Importance of Being Earnest (Wilde)

...some of my favorites.

Read that last night, that was really funny how non chalant they were after they were outing for lying about their idenities. Out of the 5 plays that were in copy that I had, I thought the Ideal Husband was the funniest. TIOBE definitely had the funniest premise, but the dialogue in Ideal Husbad was my favorite.

[legame]

"The Anti-Soviet Resistance in the Baltic States"... Writing a thirty pager on the Forest Brothers of Lithuania post World War II and having a great time with this book.

To sum it up: "The anti-Soviet resistance in the Baltic states gives a general view of the resistance to the totalitarian communist regime in the Baltic states and its suppression between 1940 and 1958. The book covers the history of the armed struggle for the restoration of independence. It also discusses the efforts of the resistance fighters to establish ties with the west across the Iron Curtain, the efforts taken by the secret services of some Western countries to use the resistance fighters for their own purposes and the attitude of the Catholic Church to the Soviet regime and to the underground movements."

[Godric]

http://books.google.com/books/about/Ima ... PsvBBJxLkC

Good read... nothing really world breaking, I knew this all intuitively but its still worth the read

[Gaucho]

Philip Roth calls it quits:

http://www.salon.com/2012/11/10/philip_roth_a_eulogy_for_a_living_man/

[Gaucho]

About to spend a few weeks or months with JG Ballard.

[Digitalgypsy66]

About to spend a few weeks or months with JG Ballard.

Ah, I enjoyed Empire of the Sun.

[columbia]

About to spend a few weeks or months with JG Ballard.

I read "Crash" about 10 years ago.
About halfway through, it seemed perfectly normal that they were driving around causing accidents.

You have to be a very good writer to convince me of that.

[Godric]

[Troy Loney]

That was a cool watch, is there anywhere that lists all these THINKR book clubs? Atleast they did this one with a winning combination of good book/knowledgeable commentary.

[shafnutz05]

Just finished Ender's Game...very, very enjoyable book. Tried to read it when I was much younger, but don't think I was able to appreciate it.