Consciousness Explained By Daniel Dennett

Interesting read. He lays out framework for a theory of consciousness that isn't based on mystical ideas for once. ie. He doesn't invoke a soul, a "cartesian theatre", or any other dualistic component to the brain. A bunch of clear thought experiments, historical references, diagrams and an insightful/witty writing style makes this 400+ page book a breeze to arrive at the back cover. Recommended for anyone who has an interest in philosophy, neuroscience, or psychology.

The Grapes of Wrath by John Steinbeck

I probably missed out reading this one in high school while I was sleeping during english class or walking off campus to the local bowling alley in order to go play an arcade game that awards candy, entitled "la pinada". Ah, those were the days.

Anyways, this is a good book. It's rustic and raw in it's storytelling (goes into detail about slaughtering a pig, granma "poppin a squat" in a highway bush, another character dying of stroke on the side of the road, family dog getting runover, etc.), but it is thoroughly enjoyable and must be written well because I have been moving right along without having to reread any sentences.

I'm quite selective about what I pick up. These days I have so many recommendations from people with similar tastes that it's rare for me to encounter a book I don't like. But then, as in the past, I give a novel a hundred pages before I decide it's not worth my time. Some writer's styles are so weird it's like reading another language, but once absorbed the story is too compelling to put down. Others, like J.K. Rowling, I knew I would not enjoy in the first few pages but gave it the good old hundred page chance anyway.

So to answer your question, not often, but when I do it is without hesitation.

I read an article that said our attention spans are getting worse and worse because of the internet. I went through a period over the last year where my reading habits steadily got worse and worse and worse. I used to devour books. Then I started reading more and more on the internet, just mindless but fun stuff that unfortunately takes too much time away from substantive reading. Getting back into reading books now by limiting my time on the internet.

Also, I have a personality that just screams to WORK WORK WORK! all the time. I feel guilty for taking a minute to just unwind and enjoy myself. The irony is that while I churned out a bunch of stuff by writing all the time, I am sure that period of work suffered drastically by not using some of that time to refuel by reading other peoples stories. But now, realizing how much I need to learn from other writers about story and prose, I'm back to reading for at least an hour or two every day. Reading is one of those things that is like exercise. It may be hard, but it's too important for my mental health to get lazy.

I just started a fantastic collection of short stories called Wastelands: Stories of the Apocalypse.

The story I recommend is called "Judgment Passed." Some astronauts return to Earth to find evidence that the Rapture came and went while they were gone.

johnathon kellerman or something. book is called 'RAGE'...it sucks nuts. just as i say that i should finish books, i couldnt do it for this one. i had to stop.

picked up the last harry potter. been putting this one off for a while now and its time to finish it.

so far so good!

Finished the Tesla biography (Wizard: life and times of Nikola Tesla). Fascinating, and rather amusing (in a sad way) at how many things he discovered but didn't get any credit for because he didn't bother to patent them, or didn't consider the marketing possibilities, etc.
Ridiculous genius.

orange, well, I'm still jealous. haha

Busto, I have that Wastelands book on my "to read" list. It might be a while before I get to it, but it's nice to hear another good recommendation.

Fantastic book, falls in the category of "paradigm shifter" for me. Hard for a guy to have as much impact as Dennett does without really truly doing any actual research. He's the best example I can think of for "the guy you should recommend to someone who thinks philosophy is just a bunch of semantic masturbation." This is my favorite of his books but Intentional Stance is also very good, if a little less accessible and practical, and Breaking the Spell is ok but slightly more polemic and less useful to someone who doesnt need much convincing that superstition has a dark side.

Currently reading Sometimes a Great Notion by Ken Kesey, definitely an interesting and thoroughly entertaining reading experience. Pretty dense and unique novel, but I don't think anyone can match Kesey in terms of descriptiveness. Definitely has the potential to become one of my favorites.

Also recently finished both of John Kennedy Toole's novels, A Confederacy of Dunces and The Neon Bible. Confederacy was a very fun read and hilarious. I was unaware of its existence before this summer, but I understand it has quite the cult following. Very easy, lighthearted read. Neon Bible was interesting because Toole wrote it when he was 16 (though it was released posthumously) and though it's rough and juvenile at points (narrator issues or not I haven't really been able to determine) there are certainly parts which are truly heartfelt and emotional. You can see Toole's potential poking through throughout. At 130-ish pages, it's a pretty quick read and I would recommend it to Confederacy fans.

I finally finished reading all of Christopher Moore's 11 books. They're all pretty funny and worth a read if you're looking for something light and humorous.

This is my preliminary ranking, I might revise it later.

11. Practical Demonkeeping
10. The Lust Lizard of Melancholy Cove
9. The Stupidest Angel: A Heartwarming Tale of Christmas Terror
8. You Suck: A Love Story
7. Bloodsucking Fiends: A Love Story
6. A Dirty Job: A Novel
5. Island of the Sequined Love Nun
4. Fluke: Or, I Know Why the Winged Whale Sings
3. Fool: A Novel
2. Coyote Blue - Probably a bit biased because my dad really likes this one.
1. Lamb: The Gospel According to Biff, Christ's Childhood Pal - This is my favorite ainec

I'm 1/3 thru P.J. O'Rourke's "Driving Like Crazy". It's really good so far, especially if, like me, you spent a lot of your high school years under the hood of your car. O'Rourke rehashes some articles he had written from years ago for "Car and Driver" (and some other car mags) and adds contemporary comments.

I've loved O'Rourke's writing for a long time. His article in Rolling Stone during the 80's on the etiquette of doing cocaine was one of the funniest and socially relevant things written about drugs up to that point, which was even more relevant if you'd read it with a snoot full of "Bolivian Marching Powder". He's still funny, even if he is getting a bit politically cranky in his later years.

I will have to look for it somewhere.

Just finished up the final piece of the Hitchhiker's "trilogy," "Mostly Harmless." I've read the series over a couple years because I felt that if I read to much Douglas Adams, I would start to think like him, i.e. crazy. The span of 2/3 years though makes it hard for me to rank the books in the series so I won't and just say that I loved each and every one of them. I was completely thrown off by the ending, though. I thought it would wrap up more neatly and certainly not as abrupt.

I love Christopher Moore, and I'm pretty excited that the only one of his I have left to read is the one you ranked first. Dont really agree with you on Coyote Blue, it was middle of the pack at best, and I think you underrate Dirty Job, my list is prob like:

Fool
Dirty Job
Love Nun
Coyote Blue
Lust Lizard
Fluke
all the rest meh

finished the last harry potter (deathly hollows) and really really enjoyed it. wow this book was different from the others. not sure what i'm going to go for next.

Read a few things in the past while.

To the Lighthouse, by Virgina Woolf: Not bad. I suspect I enjoyed this more than I otherwise would have had I not endured similar vacations in my childhood. Some bits were pretty interesting and spot-on, but overall I didn't really feel like the book went anywhere; stuff just kind of happens and then at some point stops happening and that's it. So yeah, not bad. A close reading would maybe make me appreciate it more, but I don't really feel like I missed much.

The Double Hook, by Sheila Watson: A very Canadian novel, and kind of meh, though not necessarily because of it's thorough Canadianness. It was billed somewhere (either in the introduction or back-cover; or else I made it up) as an experimental novel and I would judge it something of a failure, frankly. At least in part. The story and the structure aren't terrible, but quite a lot of the actual writing is surprisingly and, imo unnecessarily, dull. A closer reading would very likely make me appreciate the whole thing more, as I'm near certain there's quite a lot I missed (thematically, anyway), but I almost dread trudging through it again. And it's only like a hundred and thirty pages.

The Wars, by Timothy Findley: Another novel Canadian in origin, though not so much in spirit this time. It's about WW1, and I was pretty excited through the first few chapters: the voice seemed lively and compelling and devoid of crippling earnestness. But by the end I was disappointed. Like To the Lighthouse (in effect, though not in execution and means), things just sort of happen until they don't. There isn't really enough tension and enough building within the novel. A few scenes (I'm thinking of one specifically) seem like they were thrown in just because the author wanted them in there, or else they're meant to hastily introduce some clumsy and cliche theme that really has little bearing on the story. On that same note, there are a number of lengthy tangents devoted to the family histories of innocuous and unimportant characters. The climax of the story slinks by quietly; near the end of the scene, it dawned on me that this was what had been foreshadowed and anticipated, and I thought to myself, "Oh, neat, I guess". Anyway, could have been better, is the point.

Of the Farm, by John Updike: That Prose Stylist thread inspired me to read some Updike. The book was pretty good. I sort of get both sides of the Updike debate.

Narcissus and Goldmund, by Herman Hesse: An odd novel, but worth reading. I was bit taken aback at first by how super gay it is at times in the first fifty or so pages (in a simmering, repressed, Catholic church kind of way, which makes sense given the setting and whatnot; I just let my guard down, I guess). From there it flirted with (and later sporadically relapsed into) near soft-core pornography; admittedly, philosophically infused and well-written soft-core pornography. It levels out for the last couple hundred pages, and is a pretty awesome ride, at any rate.

I'm now reading Lolita, by Nabokov. It's good.

He's always been a bit of a political nutjob. His coworkers at the National Lampoon said he was always a bit strange and they figured he was probably a narc.

That said, the guy can be incredibly funny at times. I read a bunch of his Lampoon stuff, Republican Party Reptile, and a fair bit of his other stuff, and while I consider his politics disposable, you gotta admit when funny is funny. I think I remember the story you're talking about -- it had some bizarre long title like "How to drive 80 mps snorting coke while a teenager girl sucks your wing wang" or something.

recently, i took care of futureproof, by n. frank daniels. then i wished i didn't. last time i impulse buy for a while.

currently going after god is not great, by christopher hitchens, and brief interviews with hideous men, by david foster wallace. both are excellent so far.

oh, also looking into small stakes hold em, by miller, sklansky and malmuth.

Just finished:
The Autograph Man, by Zadie Smith
Painful to get through. Not really my type of genre.

Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas, by Hunter S. Thompson
A very quick and read, I breezed through this in a couple of afternoons. Mildly entertaining, but I guess you really have to have the drug background to fully appreciate it. The book needed more gambling content and less drugs -- it's set in Las Vegas, after all. I would've liked some sort of completion to the girl-on-the-plane storyline. Are illustrations really necessary?

Just started:
Air Monopoly, by Keith McArthur
How Robert Milton's Air Canada Won - and Lost - Control of Canada's Skies

LOL last night I received a book I bought off Half.com. I couldn't remember ordering anything else so opened the package happy to have a surprise. The cover is dark red with the words, "The Theory and Practice of Hell."

WTF? Why would I order a book on religion?

Then I saw the subtitle and realized it's another book on concentration camps.

I'm in the middle of that right now. I hated the first four and skipped 5+6. Very surprised by how much I am enjoying this one.

Just read Watchmen today after seeing the movie last night. Excellent comic, very solid parallel story with the pirate ship thing, the comic drags less than the film does through the final couple hours.

Can't say a lot without spoiling it for people who never read it, but it's pretty damn good.

For those who haven't seen the film yet, I would recommend reading the book first.

My chick bought me two books for my birthday. The first is David Cross's first book called "The Reason I drink" which I predict will be hilarious since he is one of my favorite comedians. The other is Armageddon in Retrospect by Kurt Vonnegut Jr. Once I get through The Corrections I'll tackle these two.

I think I have to find a copy of Conferacy of Dunces

Just finished "To say Nothing of the Dog" Connie Willis - the review on the front compares it to Dunces. Good book. Not as good as The Doomsday Book but a lighter theme. Very funny and for book junkies many references to other books.

Before that was Bruce Sterling "Holy Fire" Sci Fi - anti authority with a underground art theme I like this more than Heavy Weather as the characters are more developed. Most of his books are about people that don't fit in or have something that seperates them from normal society and they are trying to fit in/find out what they need or want. Those who are not scifi fans with struggle with his books but will likely enjoy Connie Willis books.

Devil May Care - by Sebastian Faulks writing as Ian Fleming.

This is actually a pretty good mimicking of Ian Fleming's James Bond stories. It definitely reads like Fleming whenever Bond or the main villain is central to the prose, and is much closer than either Kingsley Amis's 'Colonel Sun' or any of the Raymond Benson's James Bond stories (and these in turn are miles ahead of the mostly lame John Gardner stories), and I enjoyed it a lot. also a pretty good villain, some classic Bondery with Bond taking on the villain directly in a sport/game where the villain turns out to be cheating (this time Tennis, but reminiscent of Goldfinger/Golf or Drax/Bridge) But it did fall down in some places. Long stretches had other characters taking over the investigation - Mathis tracking down a henchman, Felix Leiter tracking down the details of the plot - which is definitely a big big departure from standard Bond/Fleming dynamics, and worse for it.


Overall though, a sterling effort, and I'd read another if he does this again.