Tyty

The Path Between the Seas - the Creation of the Panama Canal by David McCullough

About a third of the way thru it, and REALLY enjoying it. Lots that I didn't know about the unsuccessful French attempt at the canal. Written back in the 70's, but who cares. It's a great read.

MM MD

I'll add some, not sure what has already been posted.

Poker: Education of a poker player - Herbert Yardley
Love/Obsession: ?
Anxiety: The Stranger - Camus (There's a reason so many rec it)
Old Age: Old Man and the Sea - Hemmingway
Anomie: Wherever You Go, There You Are: Mindfulness Meditation in Everyday Life. - John Kabat Zinn
Poverty: Down and Out in Paris and London - Orwell

Great list, all of them are on my bookshelves.

Re vaguely related recent interest, Harvard and the Unabomber: Education of an American Terrorist is a great great book.

I'm about a little more than 1/3 of the way through Infinite Jest, aside from pretty much skipping the description of the interior of MIT, I think it is a fantastic book, so far.

I'm not sure if I posted this but I also recently finished Good Old Neon, David Foster Wallace's story from Oblivion, which was incredibly moving, especially given its form.

Also, I was fortunate enough to stumble on the poem "Darkness" by Lord Byron recently, which I don't know how popular or anthologized it is, but it is first rate.

I remember posting something about a poem by Louise Gluck called Illuminations some time ago. I finally have the text, if anyone is interested.

This has no plot, uniformly unpleasant characters, and a crap ending, but it's curiously enjoyable.
I think the author is someone called Joseph O'Neill, apparently his first book was better than this one

Great ending!

think I might try this one.. just finished with Orwell's Aspidistra and found it pretty meh.. first half was good then it just gets boring and repetitive..

I finished Ulysses. I already miss having it in my life. The vocal performance was absolutely the best I've ever heard in any audiobook. The last chapter they switched to a female narrator.

I tried to start Heart of Darkness and loathed the narrator, who sounded like he was reading the minutes from a condo owners association, then tried Emma and liked the narrator but not the subject matter or the writing style really. Jane Austen seemed to be just telling me things about her characters rather than showing them.

I don't know what's next. There's a free audio version of Finnegan's Wake...

Finished the first two volumes of both translations of Robert Musil's The Man without Qualities: A Sort of Introduction, The Like of It Now Happens (I) and The Like of It Now Happens (II) and have started on Volume Three: Into the Millennium (The Criminals).

It remains one of the best books I've read. Reading both translations close in time makes me wish I knew German so I could better understand why one translator chose one wording and the other another. When I am finished I'll post a review and some sample translations.

http://ubu.com/sound/joyce_fw.html

I listened to the first 4 or 5 hours of Finnegan's Wake. I've read like 12 pages of it before so I got considerably farther with the audio. I'm going to finish it despite only catching concepts here and there, it's still enjoyable to listen to. Apparently Joyce himself recommended the book be listened to rather than read.

Patrick Healy reads SO FAST which is double-edged. There's no lingering over anything, and no attempt to help the listener. On the other hand it's over in 35 hours!

The structure of the book strikes me as depicting mental contents as they are sifted and sorted in a sleeping mind. Where Ulysses was about the stream of waking consciousness, in all its wild discontinuity and randomness, Finnegan's Wake doesn't even have a stream, just snatches of content flying around at a level below discursive thought. It's an incredible thing to attempt to depict, if that's what he's doing.

I estimate I am missing close to 100% of the puns, portmanteaux & etc.

Elroy's break from writing about Los Angeles made him better at it IMO

The speed, clarity and preciseness he reads the book without stopping is absurd.

Trying to get back into reading and also motivate myself in the poker aspect of my life. Picked these up off amazon. How'd i do?

How to Win Friends and Influence People by Dale Carnegie

The Magic of Thinking Big by David Schwartz

The 7 Habits of Highly Effective People by Stephen Covey

Tough Sh*t by Kevin Smith (Smith is my guilty pleasure. Read the first couple chapters of this already and it actually motivated me a lot)

StrengthsFinder 2.0 by Tom Rath

Think and Grow Rich by Napoleon Hill

just finished Crime & Punishment, I usually wouldn't boast about finishing a book on here, but *** it I feel like I should be able to after that one.

I think King's lost some of his edge since his accident, but the softer emotional stuff that replaced it is pretty great. I still rank 11/22/63 as the greatest love story ever told.

I am currently reading Howard Jacobson's Collection of essays published as Whatever it is, I don't like it. Can anyone advise me about the relative merits of his fiction works and which one I should select if I was to chose only one?

For what little it's worth, I like his newspaper columns but passionately hated the book he published last year, Zoo Time, I think it was. It was smug, unfunny, and the worst sort of alpha male self regard.

Anyone ever read the corrections? I think its right up my alley but not sure. I mthinking about reading it

If you think The Corrections is up your alley it probably is. Definitely well-written and worth spending time on. Kioshk is a big fan.

Yeah, I like Franzen a lot. Freedom is good too.

On roughly p. 750 of Infinite Jest. Loving the book. It alludes to Robert Burton's Anatomy of Melancholy which I've been interested to read for some time.

Just started "The death of Bunny Munro" by Nick Cave.

Heard a lot of good things about this.

Looks solid, I would add The Chimp Paradox by Prof Steve Peters.