Advertisement
If you have a new account but are having problems posting or verifying your account, please email us on hello@boards.ie for help. Thanks :)
Hello all! Please ensure that you are posting a new thread or question in the appropriate forum. The Feedback forum is overwhelmed with questions that are having to be moved elsewhere. If you need help to verify your account contact hello@boards.ie

koth's reading log

13567

Comments

  • Moderators Posts: 51,683 ✭✭✭✭Delirium


    A Religious Orgy in Tennessee - H.L. Mencken

    a-religious-orgy-in-tennessee-reporters-account-scopes-h-l-mencken-paperback-cover-art.jpg
    Collected in print for the first time is Mencken's scathingly honest and fiercely intelligent coverage of the Scopes Monkey Trial, with his perceptive rendering of the courtroom drama, piercing portrayals of key figures Scopes, Clarence Darrow and William Jennings Bryan, and his ferocious take on the fundamentalist culture surrounding the case. It also includes his withering coverage of Bryan's death just days after the trial, as well as a complete transcript of the trial's legendary exchange: Darrow's blistering cross-examination of Bryan.

    If you can read this, you're too close!



  • Moderators Posts: 51,683 ✭✭✭✭Delirium


    I am Legend - Richard Matheson

    31QIcoOTQhL._SL500_AA300_.jpg
    Plot outline: The main character is Robert Neville, apparently the sole survivor of a pandemic whose symptoms resemble vampirism. It is implied that the pandemic was caused by a war, and that dust storms in the cities and an explosion in the mosquito population have resulted. The narrative details Neville's daily life in Los Angeles as he attempts to comprehend, research, and possibly cure the disease, to which he is immune. Neville's past is revealed through flashbacks.

    If you can read this, you're too close!



  • Moderators Posts: 51,683 ✭✭✭✭Delirium


    Anno Dracula - Kim Newman

    2171685.jpg.size-300_maxheight-300_square-true.jpg
    In an alternate history of the nineteenth century, Queen Victoria has married Vlad Tepes, better known as Count Dracula, leading to a reign of terror, while, in Whitechapel, Silver Knife, a murderer of vampire girls, threatens the new regime.

    If you can read this, you're too close!



  • Banned (with Prison Access) Posts: 1,320 ✭✭✭dead one


    I think books will vanish in next few centuries due to rapid change in technologies... I mean hard books not soft books.. but it amazing to see some people still read these books..


  • Moderators Posts: 51,683 ✭✭✭✭Delirium


    we need to talk about Kelvin - Marcus Chown

    12693_jpg_280x450_q85.jpg
    Look around you. The reflection of your face in a window tells you that the universe is orchestrated by chance. The iron in a spot of blood on your finger tells you that somewhere out in space there is furnace at a temperature of 4.5 billion degrees. Your TV tells you that the universe had a beginning. In fact, your very existence tells you that this may not be the only universe but merely one among an infinity of others, stacked like the pages of a never-ending book. Marcus Chown, author of "Quantum Theory Cannot Hurt You", takes familiar features of the world we know and shows how they can be used to explain profound truths about the ultimate nature of reality. His new book will change the way you see the world: with Chown as your guide, cutting-edge science is made clear and meaningful by a falling leaf, or a rose, or a starry night sky.

    If you can read this, you're too close!



  • Advertisement
  • Moderators Posts: 51,683 ✭✭✭✭Delirium


    The Art of Choosing - Sheena Iyengar

    41kF4x-UB9L._BO2,204,203,200_PIsitb-sticker-arrow-click-small,TopRight,12,-30_AA300_SH20_OU02_.jpg
    Every day we make choices. Coke or Pepsi? Save or spend? Stay or go?

    Whether mundane or life-altering, these choices define us and shape our lives. Sheena Iyengar asks the difficult questions about how and why we choose: Is the desire for choice innate or bound by culture? Why do we sometimes choose against our best interests? How much control do we really have over what we choose? Sheena Iyengar's award-winning research reveals that the answers are surprising and profound. In our world of shifting political and cultural forces, technological revolution, and interconnected commerce, our decisions have far-reaching consequences. Use THE ART OF CHOOSING as your companion and guide for the many challenges ahead.

    If you can read this, you're too close!



  • Moderators Posts: 51,683 ✭✭✭✭Delirium


    for the win - Cory Doctorow

    14429335_300x300_1.jpg
    A provocative and exhilarating tale of teen rebellion against global corporations from the New York Times bestselling author of Little Brother -- a call to arms for a new generation. Not far in the future! In the twenty-first century, it's not just capital that's globalized: labour is too. Workers in special economic zones are trapped in lives of poverty with no trade unions to represent their rights. But a group of teenagers from across the world are set to fight this injustice using the most surprising of tools - their online video games. In Industrial South China Matthew and his friends labour day and night as gold-farmers, amassing virtual wealth that's sold on to rich Western players, while in the slums of Mumbai 'General Robotwallah' Mala marshalls her team of online thugs on behalf of the local gang-boss, who in turn works for the game-owners. They're all being exploited, as their friend Wei-Dong, all the way over in LA, knows, but can do little about. Until they begin to realize that their similarities outweigh their differences, and agree to work together to claim their rights to fair working conditions.Under the noses of the ruling elites in China and the rest of Asia, they fight their bosses, the owners of the games and rich speculators, outsmarting them all with their unbeatable gaming skills. But soon the battle will spill over from the virtual world to the real one, leaving Mala, Matthew and even Wei-Dong fighting not just for their rights, but for their lives!

    If you can read this, you're too close!



  • Moderators Posts: 51,683 ✭✭✭✭Delirium


    the soft machine - William Burroughs

    4639358138_320cb4bff4.jpg
    The first novel in William Burroughs’ anarchic ‘Cut-Up Trilogy’.

    A world populated by hanged soldiers, North African street urchins, addicted narcotics agents, Spanish rent boys, evil doctors, corrupt judges and monsters from the mythology of history or the laboratories of science – Burroughs was truly the Hieronymus Bosch of the twentieth century. In this surreal, savage and brilliantly funny novel, his famous ‘cut-up’ technique, the slicing and random folding in of words, transforms the narrative into an extraordinary, unequalled new form of prose poetry, taking us deeper into the dark recesses of Burroughs’ imagination.

    If you can read this, you're too close!



  • Moderators Posts: 51,683 ✭✭✭✭Delirium


    the bad place - Dean Koontz

    9780747234449.jpg
    Frank Pollard awakens in an alley, knowing nothing but his name and that he is in danger. Over the next few days he develops a fear of sleep because when he wakes he finds blood on his hands and bizarre and terrifying objects in his pockets. Distraught and desperate, Frank begs husband-and wife detective team Bobby and Julie Dakota to get to the bottom of his mysterious, amnesiac fugues. It seems a simple job, but they are drawn into ever-darkening realms where they encounter the nightmare, hate-filled figure stalking Frank. And their lives are threatened, as is that of Julie’s gentle, Down’s-syndrome brother, Thomas.

    To Thomas, death is the ‘bad place’ from which there is no return. But as each of them ultimately learns, there are equally bad places in the world of the living, places so steeped in evil that, in contrast, death seems almost to be a relief...

    If you can read this, you're too close!



  • Moderators Posts: 51,683 ✭✭✭✭Delirium


    the underground man - Mick Jackson

    1342493.jpg
    Victorian England's most famous eccentric, the Duke of Portland was renowned for both his enormous wealth and for the elaborate series of tunnels he had built beneath his massive estate. The Duke, who is a fountain of nineteenth-century knowledge and curiosity, faithfully records in his journal the events that make up his days. His research extends into the fields of chiropractic medicine, and the study of auras, archaeology, and phrenology in a series of hilarious episodes that echo the New Age exploits of our own era while revealing the Duke to be a true naif: wonderfully humane, painfully shy, and untouched by the power his great wealth affords him.

    As the Duke's enthusiasms gradually turn inward to the working of the mind and memory, he slowly slips into madness. The natural end of his journey of self-discovery gives The Underground Man its horrifying and unforgettable climax. A brilliant comic and tragic creation, Mick Jackson's Duke of Portland is one of the most memorable and heartbreaking characters to emerge from recent fiction.

    If you can read this, you're too close!



  • Advertisement
  • Moderators Posts: 51,683 ✭✭✭✭Delirium


    the hellbound heart - Clive Barker

    11537722.jpg
    Clive Barker is widely acknowledged as the master of nerve-shattering horror. The Hellbound Heart is one of his best, one of the most dead-frightening stories you are likely to ever read, a story of the human heart and all the great terrors and ecstasies within. It was also the book behind the cult horror film, Hellraiser. In a quiet house on a quiet street Frank and Julia are having an affair. Not your ordinary affair. For Frank it began with his own insatiable sexual appetite, a mysterious lacquered box- and then an unhinged voyage through a netherworld of imaginable pleasures and unimaginable horror! Now Frank- or what is left of Frank -waits in an empty room. All he wants is to live as he was before. All julia can do is bring him her unfulfilled passions!and a little flesh and blood!

    If you can read this, you're too close!



  • Moderators Posts: 51,683 ✭✭✭✭Delirium


    snuff - Chuck Palahniuk

    1840511.jpg
    In the crowded greenroom of a porn-movie production, hundreds of men mill around in their boxers, awaiting their turn with the legendary Cassie Wright. An aging adult film star, Cassie Wright intends to cap her career by breaking the world record for serial fornication by having sex with 600 men on camera—one of whom may want to kill her. Told from the perspectives of Mr. 72, Mr. 137, Mr. 600, and Sheila, the talent wrangler who must keep it all under control, Snuff is a dark, wild, and lethally funny novel that brings the presence of pornography in contemporary life into the realm of literary fiction.

    If you can read this, you're too close!



  • Registered Users Posts: 7,462 ✭✭✭Queen-Mise


    Was snuff - Chuck Palahniuk any good Koth? The spiel is really interesting


  • Moderators Posts: 51,683 ✭✭✭✭Delirium


    Queen-Mise wrote: »
    Was snuff - Chuck Palahniuk any good Koth? The spiel is really interesting

    I'd be somewhat biased as I haven't read a book of Palahniuks that I didn't like.

    Like all his books, I couldn't put this book down. I would recommend it if the blurb I posted reads as a book you might like.

    If you can read this, you're too close!



  • Moderators Posts: 51,683 ✭✭✭✭Delirium


    The Minotaur Takes a Cigarette Break - Steven Sherill

    minataur.jpg
    Five thousand years out of the Labyrinth, the Minotaur finds himself in the American South, living in a trailer park and working as a line cook at a steakhouse. No longer a devourer of human flesh, the Minotaur is a socially inept, lonely creature with very human needs. But over a two-week period, as his life dissolves into chaos, this broken and alienated immortal awakens to the possibility for happiness and to the capacity for love.

    If you can read this, you're too close!



  • Moderators Posts: 51,683 ✭✭✭✭Delirium


    Lex - James Mylet

    11454606.jpg
    Lex is all but finished growing up in Clifden, Connemara, where he runs a radio station from his bedroom and makes plans to go to university in London. As he shares his views on life, music and Michelle, the best girl in town, Lex is absurdly acute and brilliantly entertaining. Michelle is not only older than Lex, but she's dating the town thug, someone Lex would do well to avoid, but where's the fun in that?

    Surrounded by his adoring family and constantly taking the flak for his crazy best friend, Davey, he's caught between modesty and an edge of cool. But he finds himself in trouble when a friend uses Lex's own radio station to announce to the entire town that Lex is still a virgin and asks some nice young girl to help him out before he heads to London in the same state... Especially when Lex accidentally lets slip he'd like that nice girl to be Michelle.

    Being seventeen is the stuff of rollercoasters - from one period of angst to boundless joy and on to another crisis - and Lex's summer is set to be typical. He's organised a major music festival in Clifden, or so he's told his favourite band, Toots and the Maytals. But when Davey's mother gets sick and he loses his temper one too many times, Ireland's answer to Glastonbury may not happen at all.

    With all his dreams falling around his ankles, Lex is determined to go out with a bang, leaving the town reeling with his loss. And he will, but it might not be quite what he had in mind.

    If you can read this, you're too close!



  • Moderators Posts: 51,683 ✭✭✭✭Delirium


    Angel Time - Anne Rice

    7073332.jpg
    Anne Rice returns to the mesmerizing storytelling that has captivated readers for more than three decades with this new novel -- the first book in a new series called "Songs of the Seraphim."
    Angel Time is a dark, suspenseful novel about angels, reluctant assassins and a journey of redemption.
    Toby O'Dare -- a.k.a. Lucky the Fox -- has fallen far from grace. He is a contract killer who carries out violence whenever and wherever he is told, a soulless soul who takes orders from someone he calls "The Right Man." When a mysterious stranger comes into Lucky's nightmarish world and offers him a chance to save lives rather than destroy them, Lucky seizes the opportunity to escape the darkness. He is lifted in (angel) time and carried back through the ages to the primitive and treacherous world of thirteenth-century England, where Jews live an uneasy existence. He begins a journey that leads him from the medieval villages of England to the cities of London and Paris as his quest becomes a story of danger and flight, loyalty and betrayal, selflessness and love.

    If you can read this, you're too close!



  • Moderators Posts: 51,683 ✭✭✭✭Delirium


    how to be a woman - Caitlin Moran

    10600242.jpg
    Caitlin Moran puts a new face on feminism, cutting to the heart of women's issues today with her irreverent, transcendent, and hilarious How to Be a Woman. "Half memoir, half polemic, and entirely necessary," (Elle UK), Moran's debut was an instant runaway bestseller in England as well as an Amazon UK Top Ten book of the year; still riding high on bestseller lists months after publication, it is a bona fide cultural phenomenon. Now poised to take American womanhood by storm, here is a book that Vanity Fair calls "the U.K. version of Tina Fey's Bossypants....You will laugh out loud, wince, and--in my case--feel proud to be the same gender as the author."

    If you can read this, you're too close!



  • Moderators Posts: 51,683 ✭✭✭✭Delirium


    Stephen Fry in America - Stephen Fry

    2604700.jpg
    Britain's best-loved comic genius Stephen Fry turns his celebrated wit and insight to unearthing the real America as he travels across the continent in his black taxicab. Stephen's account of his adventures is filled with his unique humour, insight and warmth in the fascinating book that orginally accompanied his journey for the BBC1 series.

    Stephen Fry has always loved America, in fact he came very close to being born there. Here, his fascination for the country and its people sees him embarking on an epic journey across America, visiting each of its 50 states to discover how such a huge diversity of people, cultures, languages, beliefs and landscapes combine to create such a remarkable nation.

    If you can read this, you're too close!



  • Moderators Posts: 51,683 ✭✭✭✭Delirium


    Moonwalking with Einstein - the art and science of remembering everything - Joshua Foer

    12969063.jpg
    Foer's unlikely journey from chronically forgetful science journalist to U.S. Memory Champion frames a revelatory exploration of the vast, hidden impact of memory on every aspect of our lives.
    On average, people squander forty days annually compensating for things they've forgotten. Joshua Foer used to be one of those people. But after a year of memory training, he found himself in the finals of the U.S. Memory Championship. Even more important, Foer found a vital truth we too often forget: In every way that matters, we are the sum of our memories.


    Moonwalking with Einstein draws on cutting-edge research, a surprising cultural history of memory, and venerable tricks of the mentalist's trade to transform our understanding of human remembering. Under the tutelage of top "mental athletes," he learns ancient techniques once employed by Cicero to memorize his speeches and by Medieval scholars to memorize entire books. Using methods that have been largely forgotten, Foer discovers that we can all dramatically improve our memories.

    If you can read this, you're too close!



  • Advertisement
  • Moderators Posts: 51,683 ✭✭✭✭Delirium


    Philosophy for Life: And Other Dangerous Situations - Jules Evans

    13629522.jpg
    Philosophy for Life looks at how people use ancient philosophy today, to cope with adversity and build flourishing lives. It explores the direct influence of ancient philosophy on Cognitive Behavioural Therapy and Positive Psychology. It was described as 'something of a revelation' by the Observer, and as 'a wonderful book, beautifully written' by Lord Richard Layard of the LSE.

    If you can read this, you're too close!



  • Moderators Posts: 51,683 ✭✭✭✭Delirium


    A Clash of Kings (A Song of Ice and Fire, # 2) - George R.R. Martin

    13097686.jpg
    A comet the color of blood and flame cuts across the sky. Two great leaders--Lord Eddard Stark and Robert Baratheon--who hold sway over an age of enforced peace are dead, victims of royal treachery. Now, from the ancient citadel of Dragonstone to the forbidding shores of Winterfell, chaos reigns. Six factions struggle for control of a divided land and the Iron Throne of the Seven Kingdoms, preparing to stake their claims through tempest, turmoil, and war. It is a tale in which brother plots against brother and the dead rise to walk in the night. Here a princess masquerades as an orphan boy; a knight of the mind prepares a poison for a treacherous sorceress; and wild men descend from the Mountains of the Moon to ravage the countryside. Against a backdrop of incest and fratricide, alchemy and murder, victory may go to the men and women possessed of the coldest steel...and the coldest hearts. For when kings clash, the whole land trembles.

    If you can read this, you're too close!



  • Moderators Posts: 51,683 ✭✭✭✭Delirium


    How to outwit Aristotle: and 34 other really interesting uses of philosophy - Peter Cave

    51g4%2B%2BWt4AL._BO2,204,203,200_PIsitb-sticker-arrow-click,TopRight,35,-76_AA278_PIkin4,BottomRight,-66,22_AA300_SH20_OU01_.jpg
    Philosophy might make you think of dusty statues in togas or Zen masters meditating, but the philosophical world has far more to offer than ancient men in beards: it can also tell you everything there is to know about life, love and death.

    In a series of highly original, entertaining and often extraordinary scenarios, How to Outwit Aristotle brings to life 35 key philosophy concepts in a way that anyone can understand. From the realm of the unconscious to the principles of logic, the 35 bite-sized chapters in this book will not only help you understand our world, how we find meaning in life, and how we think of right and wrong, they'll help you win arguments, learn the art of seduction, and even get one up on Aristotle. Easy to follow and impossible to put down, this book will not only help you to think like a bat – it will have you thinking like a philosopher.

    If you can read this, you're too close!



  • Moderators Posts: 51,683 ✭✭✭✭Delirium


    Dolores Clairborne - Stephen King

    836642.jpg
    Suspected of murdering the crippled widow for whom she worked as a housekeeper and companion, Dolores Claiborne has a story to tell. But it isn't the one the police are expecting to hear. It's a little darker, a little stranger - and a lot more horrifying.

    If you can read this, you're too close!



  • Moderators Posts: 51,683 ✭✭✭✭Delirium


    The Lonely Dead - Michael Marshall

    574196.jpg
    A guilty man walks alone into the cold mountain forests of Washington State, aiming never to return. What he finds there starts a chain of events that will quickly spiral out of control.
    Meanwhile in Los Angeles a woman's body is discovered, sitting bolt upright in a motel bedroom. She is dead, and her killer has left his mark. It soon becomes clear he has something to say, and a lot more work to do.

    And Ward Hopkins, an ex-CIA agent recovering from the recent shocking death of his parents, is on the trail of his past, tracking down the men who destroyed everything he once held dear, and the murderer whose face he sees every time he looks in the mirror.

    These three are ominous strands in a web of deadly secrets, roads to a dark history that should never have been told. There are people who will do anything to protect it. Anything at all. As in life, it's not a matter of who dies.

    If you can read this, you're too close!



  • Moderators Posts: 51,683 ✭✭✭✭Delirium


    The Quotable Atheist: Ammunition for Nonbelievers, Political Junkies, Gadflies, and Those Generally Hell-Bound - Jack Huberman

    93422.jpg
    Surprisingly, no book of quotations on God and religion by atheists and agnostics exists. Luckily, for the millions of American nonbelievers who have quietly stewed for years as the religious right made gains in politics and culture, the wait is over. Bestselling author Jack Huberman's zeitgeist sense has honed into the backlash building against religious fundamentalism and collected a veritable treasure trove of quotes by philosophers, scientists, poets, writers, artists, entertainers, and political figures. His colorful cast of atheists includes Karen Armstrong, Lance Armstrong, Jules Feiffer, Federico Fellini, H. L. Mencken, Ian McKellen, Isaac Singer, Jonathan Swift, Ludwig Wittgenstein, Virginia Woolf and the Marquis de Sade.

    If you can read this, you're too close!



  • Moderators Posts: 51,683 ✭✭✭✭Delirium


    and the ass saw the angel - Nick Cave

    417JxaspE3L._BO2,204,203,200_PIsitb-sticker-arrow-click,TopRight,35,-76_AA300_SH20_OU01_.jpg
    Cave’s only novel to date takes on the southern gothic in this bizarre baroque tale. Born mute to a drunken mother and a demented father, tortured Euchrid Eucrow finds more compassion in the family mule than in his fellow men. But he alone will grasp the cruel fate of Cosey Mo, the beautiful young prostitute in the pink caravan on Hooper’s Hill. And it is Euchrid, spiraling ever deeper into his mad angelic vision, who will ultimately redeem both the town and its people.

    If you can read this, you're too close!



  • Moderators Posts: 51,683 ✭✭✭✭Delirium


    Story Engineering: Mastering the 6 Core Competencies of Successful Writing - Larry Brooks

    9912752.jpg
    What makes a good story or a screenplay great?The vast majority of writers begin the storytelling process with only a partial understanding where to begin. Some labor their entire lives without ever learning that successful stories are as dependent upon good engineering as they are artistry. But the truth is, unless you are master of the form, function and criteria of successful storytelling, sitting down and pounding out a first draft without planning is an ineffective way to begin.

    "Story Engineering" starts with the criteria and the architecture of storytelling, the engineering and design of a story - and uses it as the basis for narrative. The greatest potential of any story is found in the way six specific aspects of storytelling combine and empower each other on the page. When rendered artfully, they become a sum in excess of their parts.

    You'll learn to wrap your head around the big pictures of storytelling at a professional level through a new approach that shows how to combine these six core competencies which include: Four elemental competencies of concept, character, theme, and story structure (plot)Two executional competencies of scene construction and writing voice The true magic of storytelling happens when these six core competencies work together in perfect harmony. And the best part? Anyone can do it.

    If you can read this, you're too close!



  • Moderators Posts: 51,683 ✭✭✭✭Delirium


    Your Creative Writing Masterclass - Jurgen Wolff

    13305499.jpg
    If you dream of being a writer, why not learn from the best? In Your Creative Writing Masterclass you'll find ideas, techniques and encouragement from the most admired and respected contemporary and classic authors, including Charles Dickens, Jane Austen and Anton Chekhov.

    Jurgen Wolff, bestselling author of Your Writing Coach, helps you translate these insights into action to master your craft and write what only you can write.

    From Robert Louis Stevenson to Mary Shelley, Alice Munro to Stephen King, Your Creative Writing Masterclass guide you through:

    * finding your style
    * constructing powerful plots
    * generating story ideas
    * overcoming writer's block
    * creating vivid characters
    * crafting your ideal writer's life

    If you can read this, you're too close!



  • Advertisement
  • Moderators Posts: 51,683 ✭✭✭✭Delirium


    On Writing: A Memoir of the Craft - Stephen King

    11584.jpg
    Part memoir, part master class by one of the bestselling authors of all time, this superb volume is a revealing and practical view of the writer's craft, comprising the basic tools of the trade every writer must have. King's advice is grounded in the vivid memories from childhood through his emergence as a writer, from his struggling early career to his widely reported, near-fatal accident in 1999 - and how the inextricable link between writing and living spurred his recovery.

    There is a reason why Stephen King is one of the bestselling writers in the world, ever. Described in the Guardian as 'the most remarkable storyteller in modern American literature', Stephen King writes books that draw you in and are impossible to put down.

    If you can read this, you're too close!



Advertisement