Currently reading...

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i've almost finished reading joe sacco's published oeuvre.

which includes:

"palestine" - a graphic novel written when he spent 6 months or so in the occupied territories...a really vivid and poignant picture of what life is like there for a lot of the displaced palestinians.

"notes from a defeatist" - a collection of his earlier work and shorter pieces, including a HI-larious one about working in a library that rings really true to me (because i work part time in a library)

"the fixer" - about a man in sarajevo trying to carve out a life for himself as a "fixer" (a person who acts as a mediator for foreign journalists, getting them information, acting as their native informant), after the war is in its waning days. again, a really powerful narrative of the aftermath of war and its affects on people

"war's end: profiles from bosnia" - two short pieces...one about coming in contact with one of the greatest war crimes villains in the war, the second one about a prominent bosnian artist who also fought in the war as a mine specialist.

the last one i have to read is "safe area gorazde: the war in eastern bosnia 1992-95" and apparently he just published one about north korea.

i've been all about grpahic novels lately, so another two i would recommend are by craig thompson.

"blankets" is a fantastic story about first love told with amazing, evocative pictures...it's a coming of age story.

"good bye, chunky rice" is a small cute little tale about longing and loss and love and companionship.

phew!

NOW, i'm reading:

"louis riel" - a graphic novel biography of louis riel by chester brown. which is fan-fucking-tastic. he was such a badass! the canadian government sucks! haha.

"everything is illuminated" - jonathan safran foer - i just started this, so i'm on page one, but it's come highly recommended by anyone i know who's opinion i trust.

"the rebel sell" by joseph heath and andrew potter which is a critique of the contemporary leftist counterculture movement. which is a topic i'm deeply interested in, as i'm always trying to suss out valent forms of resistance in late capitalist society.
Grey Area by Will Self
beats are there to be broken http://musicindevon.org/
vox Wrote:i've almost finished reading joe sacco's published oeuvre.

nevereardofim Oops
I'm reading a critical biography of Martin Heidegger by Rudiger Safranski. Very good it is too - superior to earlier attempts.

I will however transcribe an interesting passage I chanced upon which, as a little aside talks about Thomas Mann's 'Magic Mountain':

"Up there in Davos Thomas Mann, in his 'Magic Mountain' had let the humanist Settembrini and the Jesuit Naphta conduct their great debate. They were archetypes of the spiritual battle of the period. On the one side Settembrini, an unrepentant child of enlightenment, a liberal, an anticlerical, a humanist of boundless eloquence. On the other Naphta, the apostle of irrationalism and the Inquisition, in love with the eros of death and violence. To Settembrini the spirit is a power of life, given to man to help him, while Naphta loves he spirit against life. Settembrini wants to elevate, comfort and extend people; Naphta wants to scare them, to rouse them from their humanist "bed of idleness", to drive them out of their residences of learning and to break the neck of their conceit. Settembrini means to be kind to people. whereas Naphta is a metaphysical terrorist."

Lol Piratenaphta
god you literary buffs!

Here I am sitting with a heap of schoolbooks instead Wink
i say, this naphta fellow sounds like a wise man!

i've tried to start heidegger's 'being and time' for half a year now, but i always end up buying or loaning other books before it Mad
Razzle and Escort.

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Well, it beats Heidegger.

Currently reading :

H.P. Lovecraft - The Call of Cthulhu and other Weird Stories
* Wrote:h.p. lovecraft

Xyxthumbs
john cage - silence

Chin
The Hands of Shang Chi, Master of Kung Fu (Marvel Comics series)

Choppage
Statto Wrote:The Hands of Shang Chi, Master of Kung Fu (Marvel Comics series)

Choppage

Hahaha

I have every issue of that! It took me a while to track them all down.

[Image: shangchi01.gif]

I'm still a few issues short of completing my Power Man and Iron Fist collection though. Icon_sad
Iain Banks - The Wasp Factory.
unsane Wrote:i have every issue of that! it took me a while to track them all down.

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i'm still seven short Icon_sad
Statto Wrote:
vox Wrote:i've almost finished reading joe sacco's published oeuvre.

nevereardofim Oops

hehehe...there's a lot of author's i've never heard of. he is a graphic novelist, and he made his name doing journalistic pieces about war-torn areas of the world.

i just finished "safe area gorazde", which made me cry in public. it's about this so-called u.n. designated "safe area" during the bosnian war, and how the international community basically turned their backs on it while these horrid genocidal atrocities were being committed...and how the denizens of that community managed to stay alive.

it's awe-inspiring.
hearts in atlantis-stephen king
i was told to read this before reading the last dark tower book, which has owned me for the past year or so, doesn't seem like many are into this but this series really is something[Image: icon_twisted.gif]
"All things serve the beam,"
Perfect Health - the complete mind/body guide - deepak chopra
Invasion of the Dykes to Watch Out For

new Alison Bechdel cartoons

Icon_yippee
GCSE Science Revision Guide Baffled
Hahaha

Hugs
Sartre - Being and Nothingness

and a bunch of commentaries on it. Including one by my great aunt, Mary Warnock Smile She's an awesome lady.
Physics of Musical Instruments (Rossing, Fletcher)
Sound Design (Sonnenschein)
Timbre, Tuning, Spectrum, Scale (Sethares)
reijo norio - suomi-neidon geenit
prized and praised book about the one-of-a-kind genotype in finland and how it can be seen in a unique selection of rare hereditary diseases (and in the almost complete lack of the genetical diseases more common in other parts of the world)

UFO_over_easy Wrote:Sartre - Being and Nothingness

and a bunch of commentaries on it. Including one by my great aunt, Mary Warnock Smile She's an awesome lady.

nausea bored the hell out of me. is this any better?
it's hefty and difficult... not a fan of his style really. the issues he raises are really interesting though. so the commentaries are more fun than the original sartre Xyxthumbs
ufo_over_easy Wrote:it's hefty and difficult... not a fan of his style really. the issues he raises are really interesting though. so the commentaries are more fun than the original sartre Xyxthumbs

that's the case on many other interesting authors i've noted. sometimes it's much nicer to chew on others' thoughts instead of bothering to make your own.