This week, I are mostly reading....

Ddad · 06-05-2009 12:04am

Just finished Heavier than heaven the Kurt Cobain biography. Heavy allright. Enjoyed it but I've been a fan for a very long time and I found it fairly well crafted if a little sycophantic. Now to returns to the masters reading.

pauline fayne · 06-05-2009 4:37am

The gathering by Anne Enright

John · 06-05-2009 10:50am

Niccolò Machiavelli The Prince

Denerick · 06-05-2009 4:05pm

John wrote: »

Niccolò Machiavelli The Prince

Not nearly as extreme as we like to think. Think of him as a mere political scientist... Someone who has examined and analysed human behaviour and decided to inform his prince on the best methods of rule, from a purely subjective point of view... Or as a true Republican - his love of liberty is in equal measure to his love and recognisation of the necessity for law and order, hence 'the Prince'.

I'd reccomend reading some of the scholarship behind the Prince when your finished, like Mary Diatz or Isiah Berlin. The Prince is after all a primary historical document as well as a contemporary political pamphlet - trying to understand primary documents is pointless without a broad understanding of the historical context of the document, which is rarely ever presented along with it. Unless you got a copy with a decent introduction.

I loved Machiavelli once...

Capt'n Midnight · 06-05-2009 7:46pm

Denerick wrote: »

Not nearly as extreme as we like to think.

especially when you consider the norms in warfare at the time.

Great book must re-read it again.
TBH Bush should have been made read the bits about New Princes before the invasion.

John · 07-05-2009 3:10pm

Denerick wrote: »

Not nearly as extreme as we like to think. Think of him as a mere political scientist... Someone who has examined and analysed human behaviour and decided to inform his prince on the best methods of rule, from a purely subjective point of view... Or as a true Republican - his love of liberty is in equal measure to his love and recognisation of the necessity for law and order, hence 'the Prince'.

Yeah, I was expecting it to be completely cut-throat but it is remarkably tame, even by today's standards.

I'd reccomend reading some of the scholarship behind the Prince when your finished, like Mary Diatz or Isiah Berlin. The Prince is after all a primary historical document as well as a contemporary political pamphlet - trying to understand primary documents is pointless without a broad understanding of the historical context of the document, which is rarely ever presented along with it. Unless you got a copy with a decent introduction.

I loved Machiavelli once...

Any particular book you'd recommend for someone mostly ignorant of history?

Now reading:
Mark Haddon The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-time

Denerick · 07-05-2009 4:22pm

This is a good start (Berlin is one of my favourite writers)

http://www.nybooks.com/articles/10391

'Niccolo's Smile', or whatever it is actually called, is probably the best biography of Machiavelli. I read sections of it, you learn to do that in a history course. Very informative.

John · 07-05-2009 10:36pm

Cheers, will have a gander at that tomorrow during my break.

John · 08-05-2009 12:08pm

Thomas Ligotti My Work is Not Yet Done

nerdysal · 10-05-2009 6:36pm

The Seamstress by Frances de Pontes Peebles

PattheMetaller · 10-05-2009 8:55pm

The Kill Call by Stephen Booth; its the latest in the excellent Cooper & Fry series

Denerick · 10-05-2009 10:17pm

Was a nice warm day today and started reading William Kennedy's Ironweed out in the sun. About 40 pages left which I'll read before I go to bed.

All in all I'm a little disappointed because I heard this was supposed to be a great book. Distinctly average in my view. Decent, and some parts of it are certainly gripping but its just... lacking something I can't put my finger on. Will have a better idea when I finish it.

Richy165 · 10-05-2009 10:21pm

The Book of Dave by Will Self. I finished Grey Area last week, and after that I'm going to read Under The Greenwood Tree but Thomas Hardy.

DublinWriter · 10-05-2009 10:35pm

I made myself get through a Patricia Cornwell novel last week and now I sort of know how Morgan Spurlock must have felt when he made Supersize Me.

What is it with modern crime writers and their complete inability to punctuate effectively or come up with characters who are more than one-dimensional?

I'm back on a more healthy diet this week, reading Donna Tartt's The Little Friend...an amazing buke.

raah! · 11-05-2009 2:32am

Blush_01 wrote: »

Now starting The Wasp Factory - Iain Banks. Already giving the impression it'll be a gudun!

I have this book, got it as a present, so I have to read it. But it's a horror so I'm afraid to start.

How would you describe the levels of "horror" in it so far?

BaZmO* · 11-05-2009 8:08am

raah! wrote: »

I have this book, got it as a present, so I have to read it. But it's a horror so I'm afraid to start.

How would you describe the levels of "horror" in it so far?

It's been a very long time since I read it but I can't remember it being a "horror"
It is quite dark but not what you'd called a classic horror.

raah! · 11-05-2009 1:45pm

Ah good stuff, dark is fine, but I have a strong distaste for horrors.

DroghedaColeen · 11-05-2009 6:28pm

again and again, she keeps churning out stuff people want...
She's also trying to make it in the States, and no doubt she will - they're already on about her.
http://www.irishcentral.com/ent/Marian-Keyes-wins-Irelands-Popular-Fiction-Book-of-the-Year--44718962.html?page=3

GhostInTheRuins · 11-05-2009 7:53pm

raah! wrote: »

I have this book, got it as a present, so I have to read it. But it's a horror so I'm afraid to start.

How would you describe the levels of "horror" in it so far?

It's definitely not a horror, it is brilliant though.

RHRN · 13-05-2009 2:35pm

Devices and Desires - K.J. Parker

Blush_01 · 13-05-2009 11:27pm

Wormwood - G. P. Taylor

StonedParadoX · 14-05-2009 12:14am

Book 6 of 7 of Saga of the 7 suns by Kevin J Anderson

bloody excellent read

i love war/alien space operas.. do YOU know of any more?

John · 14-05-2009 12:13pm

Philip K. Dick The Man in the High Castle

Tawfee · 15-05-2009 9:09am

The Road by Cormac McCarthy

tHE vAGGABOND · 15-05-2009 1:10pm

Quicksilver by Neil Stephenson

Been on my bookshelf for years and I have never read it for some reason..

Odysseus · 16-05-2009 8:35pm

I left my Shakespeare collection in my mothers house, I have started to bring it my home one book at a time, reading it in the process. It was time to start again, whilst I have read the full collection once I have read my favorites nemerous times. So in the past few weeks I have read Romeo and Julite and Henry V. Currently I'm reading Henry IV Part one.

Allison91 · 16-05-2009 9:54pm

Revelation - C.J Sansom.

af_thefragile · 17-05-2009 11:30am

Consfessions of an Economic Hitman - John Perkins.

PattheMetaller · 17-05-2009 5:53pm

No Lovelier Death - Graham Hurley. (It's the latest in the DI Joe Faraday series which is excellent and based in Portsmouth)

John · 18-05-2009 7:58pm

Henry James The Turn of the Screw and Other Stories

This week, I are mostly reading....

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