FOT Forum
FOT Community => General Discussion => Topic started by: emma on June 13, 2009, 12:07:15 PM
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I'm going out-of-country for two weeks and I need to bring a ton of books. Do you guys have any suggestions?
Preferred qualities:
-available in softcover
-not too long/huge/heavy so i can cart them around
-awesome and/or life-changing in some way
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When you say you're going out of the country, do you mean you're traveling to Western Maine?
Do you guys have any suggestions?
Yeah, get that Tom Stoppard luggage (http://www.nytimes.com/2008/01/27/fashion/27POSS.html). It's awesome.
(http://graphics8.nytimes.com/images/2008/01/27/fashion/27poss650.1.jpg)
On topic I will randomly list some books I like. They're pretty standard, good, but not too challenging for vacation.
(http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/en/e/e3/BRIDESHEAD.jpg)
(http://farm4.static.flickr.com/3632/3480660489_82d7ba6dfd.jpg)
(http://www.fantasticfiction.co.uk/images/n4/n24080.jpg)
(http://www.chrismasto.com/delicious/images/194)
(http://www.eso-garden.com/images/uploads_bilder/epictetus_1.jpg)
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Free-Range Chickens and Ant Farm by Simon Rich:
http://www.newyorker.com/humor/2007/03/26/070326sh_shouts_rich
http://www.newyorker.com/humor/2007/07/23/070723sh_shouts_rich
http://www.newyorker.com/humor/2008/08/04/080804sh_shouts_rich
http://www.newyorker.com/humor/2008/08/04/080804sh_shouts_rich
http://www.amazon.com/Ant-Farm-Other-Desperate-Situations/dp/1400065887/ref=sr_1_3?ie=UTF8&s=books&qid=1244910992&sr=8-3
Anything by George Saunders.
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Emma, where are you going out-of-country? If it's someplace exciting, maybe you shouldn't read too much, but experience a lot of stuff instead. However, if it's just another trip to Buffalo, you're right, you'll need to bring a lot of books.
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I rather liked this, and a prequel is out this week.
(http://wordlily.files.wordpress.com/2009/05/shadow-of-the-wind.jpg)
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Emma, where are you going out-of-country? If it's someplace exciting, maybe you shouldn't read too much, but experience a lot of stuff instead. However, if it's just another trip to Buffalo, you're right, you'll need to bring a lot of books.
I'm actually going somewhere amazing - my grandmother, mum and I are going on a two-week cruise that starts in Venice and ends in Barcelona. Which, you know, holy shit. None of us are really Cruise People, but my grandma's 82 and it makes sense to have a lot of organized trips and hassle-free food and stuff. (Not that she acts her age - she's most excited about climbing the acropolis.)
So while I'm not going to be reading all day every day, there are a few days where we're just at sea and I'll want to sit around. Plus a lot of bus rides+the trips to and from home.
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A Supposedly Fun Thing I'll Never Do Again by David Foster Wallace is great, and has a fantastic essay about cruise ships.
White Noise by Don Delillo sure blew my mind when I first read it, but some of the big ideas may seem dated to you. Anyway, it's smart and funny and scary.
The Omnivore's Dilemma by Michael Pollan.
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Some fun cruise reading:
(http://a5.vox.com/6a00cdf39f2893cb8f00e398be422d0003-500pi)
(http://farm4.static.flickr.com/3019/2447665247_67ba7d5ed9.jpg)
(http://www.bookalley.com/files/thedemon_1.jpg)
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This topic is intimidatingly broad, but I'll second Pale Fire, assuming you've read Lolita already. If you haven't, then get to it.
The Adventures of Augie March is one of my very favourites. It's high lit but also a not-difficult summer read, and it involves world-travel, sort of.
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Seriously, though, this is light and funny and one of my favorite books ever:
(http://antykwariatangielski.pl/pliki_upload/produkty/scaled3/townsend-%20the%20secret%20diary%20of%20adrian%20mole%20aged%2013.jpg)
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This topic is intimidatingly broad
emma is an intimidating broad.
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Any Bolaño: if 2666 or The Savage Detectives are too daunting, try By Night in Chile and/or Nazi Literature in the Americas. Ditto Nabokov, Saunders, DeLillo, and DFW, and I'll raise that with Barthelme, Pynchon, Vonnegut, David Markson, Italo Calvino, and Gary Shteyngart. Also check out Iris Murdoch and Alice Munro. I haven't read it yet, but Life, Inc. by Douglas Rushkoff looks pretty great.
If you like poetry, I recommend Anne Carson and Nick Flynn.
Just some random favorite books from the past few years:
Ficciones, Jorge Luis Borges
The Magic Mountain, Thomas Mann
Moby Dick, Herman Melville
The Fortress of Solitude, Jonathan Lethem
Low Life, Luc Sante
The Parallax View, Slavoj Žižek
The Complete Stories, Flannery O'Connor
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I haven't read it yet, but Life, Inc. by Douglas Rushkoff looks pretty great.
Am I the only one who thinks he comes across as kind of a smug jerk on his WFMU radio show?
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Candyfreak: A Journey through the Chocolate Underbelly of America by Steve Almond.
CivilWarLand in Bad Decline by George Saunders.
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This would be my choice:
An Incomplete Education
Editorial Reviews
Amazon.com Review
You'll find everything you forgot from school--as well as plenty you never even learned--in this all-purpose reference book, an instant classic when it first appeared in 1987. The updated version takes a whirlwind tour through 12 different disciplines, from American studies to philosophy to world history. Along the way, Judy Jones and William Wilson provide a plethora of useful information, from the plot of Othello to the difference between fission and fusion. It's not a shortcut to cultural literacy, the authors write in their introduction, but it's an excellent "way in" to the building blocks of Western civilization: the "books, music, art, philosophy, and discoveries that have, for one reason or another, managed to endure." Think of it as finishing school for your brain; study up and you'll gain a lifetime's worth of cocktail conversation--as well as a new list of books you simply must read.
From Library Journal
The current emphasis on cultural literacy and the first edition's popularity (LJ 6/1/87) induced an update of this fascinating refresher course of core curriculum subjects. Two freelance writers, aided by several contributors, cover in bite-sized portions some "essentials" for an educated person. The treatment of 12 disciplines is au courant, sometimes irreverent and cynical, but substantially reliable, helping the authors achieve their purpose?to provide an entertaining invitation to information that has inspired and/or confused us over the years. While some topics, e.g., American studies and art history, are only slightly revised from the 1987 edition, coverage in science and political science is updated or new. One of the most successful chapters treats in a novel approach the culture, history, and geopolitics of 18 countries. Not strictly for the reference collection, this book can be profitably read by people of widely different age groups who may approach its contents selectively. An excellent layout with numerous photos and illustrations adds to the overall appeal.?Stanley P. Hodge, Ball State Univ. Lib., Muncie, Ind.
Copyright 1995 Reed Business Information, Inc.
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I haven't read it yet, but Life, Inc. by Douglas Rushkoff looks pretty great.
Am I the only one who thinks he comes across as kind of a smug jerk on his WFMU radio show?
I think a lot of people think that. In my limited interactions with him, he's a good guy, if a little lacking in social niceties. We're on right before him on the next schedule, so hopefully my opinion of him will hold up.
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Douglas Rushkoff
I think he just needs to borrow Tom's voice modulator.
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Richard Brautigan's Revenge of the Lawn and a book called Ghost Maps. You can't go wrong and I guarantee no wasted luggage weight.
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Emma, the cruise you're going on, while still a cruise, looks like it goes to places that are well worth visiting. I'm not a cruise person either, but maybe the cruisiness is mitigated by places like Barcelona and Venice and whatever's in between. So you can visit Lido, as well as the Lido deck, right?
I actually had that book An Incomplete Education and enjoyed it a lot. It's breezy, fun, and not too heavy. I couldn't handle Borges while at the beach or on a cruise, but I had to second Grote's nomination of Ficciones.
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(http://www.utexas.edu/utpress/largeimage/0292743505.jpg)
This book is insane. It reads like some terrifying grown-up fairytale.
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These are all really great-looking suggestions. Thank you! Keep 'em coming!
There is nothing I like more than a smart group of people whose knowledge I can plunder for my own needs.