Teh Log

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Well I think this is a good idea to keep track of what I've read in the last while. Not necessarily in chronological order. But it dates only back as far as the middle of fifth year. (A year and a half maybe)

Thomas DeQuincey - Confessions of an English Opium Eater - The parts about opium really made me want to do opium , mostly a good read with some dull parts

Ernst Hemingway - The old man and the Sea - I remember that I enjoyed it... but not much else

Francis Crick - The Astonishing Hypothesis - Wasn't that astonishing But an interesting book on neuroscience

Jostein Gaarder - Sophie's World - Very good read, and a wonderful introduction to Philosophy

George Orwell - Nineteen Eighty Four - Good, but I thought it kinda had the same theme as animal farm, and I prefered animal farm

George Orwell - Burmese Days - Really liked this book, powerful ending. My second favourite Orwell of all time

George Orwell - Down and Out in Paris and London - Very enjoyable. Paints a clear picture of almost-poverty. Second favourite orwell . (animal farm is 1 but it was a looong time ago)

George Orwell - Homage to Catalonia - Good, didn't really understand the bits on politics though

George Orwell - Keep the Aspidistra Flying - Some good parts, but over all I didn't really enjoy it. Wouldn't reccommend unless you're a big Orwell fan.

Kitty Fergusun - Stephen Hawking: Quest For a Theory of Everything - Biography of Stephen Hawking, good precursor to his book. Quite enjoyable

Yann Martell - Life of Pi - Couldn't put it down, read it in a day

Voltaire - Candide and Other Stories - Candide and the micromegas were my favourites (I think I'll stop the commentaries, this is taking ages)

Fyodor Dostoyevsky - Crime and Punishment

Fyodor Dostoyevsky - The Idiot

Fyodor Dostoyevsky - Notes from Underground

Fyodor Dostoyevsky - The House Of The Dead and Poor Folk

George R.R Marting - A Game Of Thrones

George R.R Marting - A Clash Of Kings

George R.R Marting - A Storm Of Swords

George R.R Marting - A Feast For Crows

Joseph Heller Catch-22

James Joyce - Dubliners

Anita Desai - Fasting, Feasting

Currently Reading :

Bertrand Russell - History of Western Philosophy

Jack London - The Call of the Wild, White Fang, and Other Stories

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'The Call of the Wild, White Fang, and Other Stories' - Jack London.

I found these to be immensely enjoyable. Didn't think a story about a dog-wolf could be so good. The short story "batard" was my favourite out of all the stories in this book. The end really brought a smile to my face (although perhaps it shouldn't have )

Now reading: A Brief History of Time - Stephen Hawking

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Stephen Hawking - A Breif History of Time - Found this to be a very interesting book on the problems of theoretical physics today, but also found many parts of it quite difficult for a lay noob such as myself. Never the less, it has gotten me very excited about studying physics in college next year

Now reading : Will finish Bertrand Russell's History of Western Philosophy. Going to start Demons by Dostoyevsky

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Bertrand Russell - History of western philosophy - Very enjoyable (and big) history of philosophy. Was very difficult at some parts, and some parts I never quite got, but the parts I did get were very rewarding. I found some aspects of scholastic philosophy kinda boring though.

Russell's bias is quite clear in this, but I think it works really well in this book. He points out fallacies where they occur, and throws in the odd humerous sarcastic statement which had me "lol"ing quite a few times. Overall a brilliant book which I would reccomend to anyone who is interested in philosophy, from this book you can find which philosophers/philosophies appeal to you and then pursue them further after you have read it.

Now Reading : Jonathan Swift - Gulliver's Travels , Dostoyevsky - Demons (haven't gotten around to starting this yet)

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Jonathan Swift - Gulliver's Travels - Decided to read this when a referance was made to it in the opening chapters of 'Demons'. Was a good book I guess, kinda boring at parts, but picks up towards the end. It was described as a "corrosive satire" at the back of the book, but i didn't really notice any serious criticism of anything until the second half of the book. I would say the book is only good. But perhaps this is due to my ignorance... it is a classic after all

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Fyodor Dostoyevsky - Demons - Brilliant book, had me reading about a hundred pages a day. I was worried that this wouldn't match up to the rest of Dostoevsky's work because of some of the reviews it got online (amazon only gave it 3 stars for readability where the rest of dostoyevsky got 5. I think this is because there was alot of french in it), and because of all these rumours of it being "heavily political". It didn't dissappoint however. There's nothing too political that an ignorant swine like myself couldn't understand. I would reccommend this to all Dostoyevsky fans, especially if you don't mind a bit of french.

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Robert M. Pirsig - Zen & the Art of Motorcycle Maintenance - Nice book on philosophy. Some interesting stuff on "quality". Although after reading Russell's history there was little new about philosophy in it. The actual story of the book was quite good too.

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Aldous Huxley - The Doors of Perception & Heaven and Hell - Very interesting non-fiction on mescaline and psychoactive substances in general. In 'The Doors of Perception' he gives a vivid description of the mescaline experience 'filled with immediacy'. The book is both artisically and scientifically rich, there is some great writing and many an interesting hypotheses formed.

In 'Heaven and Hell' he gives a further account of all psychoactive substancs along with examples of some fascinating ways to induce a visionary experience (breathing in carbon dioxide and the like). Overall both books were highley enjoyable, you'd be mad not to chow down on some peyote after reading it .

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Fyodor Dostoyevsky - The Gamber, Bobok and A Nasty Story - A nice collection of stories this was. The Gamber was very enjoyable, captures the huzz and buzz of the whole gambling scene very well. Also I think The Gamber is a good example of 'stoys great knowledge of human nature and psychology and all that. There are some very interesting characters in this story, and how they are affected by gambling is very entertaining. Bobok was nice if a bit ridiculous, and 'A Nasty Story' was really quite nasty :P.

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Stephen Fry - The Liar - Very enjoyable piece of light reading, he uses some quirky language throughout which is why I think I liked it. There were some overly graphic scenes in it though, and I didn't really know what it was about, but I was a rarely sober when reading it. But that has nothing to do with it, a friend who read it didn't know what it was about either.

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J.D Salinger - The Catcher In The Rye - Good stuff, very good dipiction of that whole range of emotions associated with puberty. Thought he was a real character, like. Rarely have time to read these days... those last two were simply detractions from what I'm reading now, been stuck half way through for years. A log of the books you've read is like a diary in a way, when you think of a book you think of the time you read it... so yeah. Not sure about having it online though, suppose it's accessable from anywhere.

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Philip Larkin - High Windows - All that time away from the leaving cert left me with a hefty hankering fer some poetry. So I slapped up this Larkin book with me vouchers. Same old leaving cert Larkin it seems, that's what I was looking for though.

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Nikolai Gogol - The Squabble - This also had 'Olde-Worlde Landowners' and 'The Carriage'. Really enjoyed all these stories, the squabble most of all. Tragic and hilarious, and it had really good language. Gogol is one of my favourite authors now after reading this, I really like the way he kind of ambushes you with massive descriptive passages. He does stuff like "I'm not going to describe how (insert massive description here)". Most of these stories had really amazing endings, reminds me of some of orwell's stuff

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George R.R. Martin - Dream Songs, book one - Grand collection of short stories to tide me over till the next in the ice and fire series comes along. Nearly everything Martin (incidentaly, just saw there that I had spelled it "marting" earlier, did alot of other retarded things too, I said two different books were both my second favourite orwell, oh if only I could edit) has ever written crammed into these two books, with comic book scripts and everything. I didn't really like most of the horror ones, apart from sandkings, don't really like horror.But otherwise it's classic martin here, and I'd reccommend this to fans of "a song of ice and fire"

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Fyodor Dostoyevsky - White Nights, The Honest Thief, The Christmas Tree And A Wedding, The Peasant Marey, Notes From The Underground, A Gentle Creature and The Dream Of A Ridiculous Man - This were a Modern Library Collection of short stories... and notes from the underground. Had read alot of 'em already, but there's not time to read full books these days. White Nights and A Gentle creature were my favourites I think. A good collection that.

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Plato - The Republic - I suppose there's no need for me to comment on the brilliance of teh Republic. What I will say is that I noticed a massive difference between "reading philosophy" and "reading about philosophy". The socratic method really includes the reader in the dialogue, I found myself considering all the questions posed as though they were directed at me, and this made the whole experience much more enjoyable. I found I disagreed with plato alot though. Especially with his theory of art, I thought it was well mank.

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Ernest Hemingway - A Farewell To Arms - This was one of those books that I couldn't put down and read in a short period of time. It is pretty emotive and depressing at times, but there is also a kind of childish humour in the dialogue between the protagonist and the people he meets. I also really enjoyed how the thought process of Henry was depicted, how he contradicts himself and tries to calm him self.

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Timothy Leary - The Psychedelic Experience: A Manual Based On The Tibetan Book Of The Dead - This fellow interprets the "death" refered to inthe tibetan book of the dead, to apply to "ego death" as attained during the psychedelic experience. Some useful and interesting information here.... but alot is difficult to swallow if you are not a buddhist or something like that perhaps.

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Fyodor Dostoyevsky - The Brothers Karamazov - 'Stoy's as good as he ever is here. This really makes a nice finish to his works, it contains ideas and character templates from all his previous works along with some new ones, and is able to express them very well in the context of teh parricide and the relationship between the brothers.

I think perhaps I should read this again though, it did not have the same impact on me that much of dostoyevsky's earlier works had. Also as note to myself here I should read demons again too sometime , as reading this book was a massive experience, and it is mainly against this that I am comparing the brothers karamazov negatively.

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William Golding - Lord of the Flies - An amazing and terrifying novel. One of the best books I've ever read, I cannot think of a single necessary aspect missing from this novel. Brilliant characters, brilliant description, etc etc. It was very freightening though... I was supposed to wake up at a reasonable hour tomorrow for study too, I only meant to read a chapter, and ended up reading almost the entire book. But yeah, it's really good anyway.

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Iain Banks - The Wasp Factory - Very nice read. Interesting characters and all that, some very disgusting parts though. The twist at the end was pretty good too.

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George R.R. Martin - Dream Songs, book one - Another grand collection of short stories, my favourites in this were the adventures of tuf haviland, and the hedge night. Although I must say I developed somewhat of a distaste for martin's personality while I was reading this. I think reading science fiction can serve as an impediment to one's intellectual developement, also.

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Fyodor Dostoyevsky - The Double - I like the ideas and character depiction. But at times the methods used to fully depict mr goldyakin (like when the narrator mimics his mode of communication) got tedious, and made it more difficult to read than perhaps it should have been. Also due to how it was written it is very hard to know what is going on at times, which reduces its readability. After finishing the novel however and knowing what it was about, it actually helps in understanding certain aspects of mr goldyakin.

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Andrey Kurkov - Death And The Penguin - Grand pie.

I see I said some harsh things about science fiction there... I was just unhappy with george rr martin really.

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Nikolay Gogol - Dead Souls - This book has earned Gogol a rank amongst my favourite authors. Even though it was unfinished, many of the scenes could be read in isolation and the genius of gogol would still be apparant. Pity it wasn't finished though.

That's "dream songs ,book two" up there.

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Plato - Selected Dialogues of Plato (The Modern Library) - A grand collection of Plato's dialogues consisting of : The Ion, The Protogoras, The Phaedrus, The Symposium and The Apology. I think this was a pretty good selection, introduces socratic method in the Ion, and goes on to discuss things like rhetoric, education , sex with boys... etc. I am pretty pleased with this overall, although stories of the exultation of love about spherical double faced people aren't exactly what I was looking for . An added bonus it was

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Ernest Hemmingway – For Whom The Bell Tolls – Really enjoyed reading this. Gave a very good sense of those spanish pine mountains where the book was set, and of the mindset of the main character, which hemmingway is apparantly very good at doing. Apart from description and all that he says a good deal about death and a bit on suicide which was very interesting considering how hemmingway died.

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Charles Bukowski - Post Office - Had a grand time reading this, was very short. It was hard for me to relate in anyway to it though, the type of dissolution described here is quite different than that which I am used to reading about. He never goes into describing why he's this or that, you just see his cynical attitude through his actions and way of talking and thinking. All the same it was good to read about. But if I were ever to go on such a spree, I wuold not do it like that. I prefer dostoyevsky's treatment of such situations. Then again, his characters were fictional and did fictional things.

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Jack Kerouac - On the Road - Beat-tastic beat da beat beat. He said the word "beat" a bit much, but you can see what he's at. Very good book this was, filled me with a desire to go travelling on a mystic quest of some sort It appears I can't get enough of the americans this summer. Moby Dick is there on my shelf, but it's a coincidence.

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Adam Gottlieb - Peyote and other Psychoactive Cacti - Well, I've read this like a zillion times , as well as looking on the internet for information too. It's filled with inaccurate and outdated information. It was fairly expensive too, nice pictures though.

So I have no money for books now. I'll have to read crapping Don Quixote and Moby Dick now, but they're so damn big that i've been avoiding them, so I have.

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Samir Okasha-Philosophy of Science: A very short introduction- Very short indeed . I sounds kinda stupid when I read over the things I've said about some of those books up there.