Metal Reviews

Read the second Dresden Files book by Jim Butcher, Fool Moon. Pretty bleh.

Robert Harris- Lustrum

They get pretty dull once you get over the initial 'Womfg, a crime-solving wizard!' aspect of it.

My Classics teacher recommended Lustrum to me, how is it?

So far it's great. It's the second book in his Cicero series (the first one is titled Imperium, and is about Cicero's rise to the consulship- this one is about his consulship and the aftermath). Although his account of late Republican politics can be a bit simplistic (he doesn't seem to recognize that the designation of "patrician" had little importance in the late Republic, and his version of Catalina is pretty much the completely evil monster of Cicero's speeches), he does nail the feel of the time and the character of Cicero in particular. They're not the best historical fiction novels I've ever read, but they're entertaining, well written and historically accurate, which is good enough for me.

Goat: Ya, I don't quite get what all the hype is about. My friends say that the first couple books are average and that it gets much better later, though. Have you read the later Dresdens?

I think so, all are pretty meh. Great idea, often rather tedious books.

Think I have that Robert Harris - Imperium too, but it has to go back to the library tomorrow, worth getting out again? I find less time for reading these days than I'd like.

I definitely think it's worth reading, especially if you like Roman history. That said, it's not one of my favourite books or anything, so if you have other books that you'd prefer to read and not much time to do it, don't feel bad about saving it for later when you have more time.

As for Dresden... In that case, I probably won't be continuing on. Maybe if I find the third book secondhand for a couple of bucks like I found the second book, but otherwise... The books just aren't that exciting.

Yes, books about a wizard/PI solving crime should be much more exciting.

And cheers, might well do; it looked like a better read than those Conn Iggulden ones.

Finished The Two Towers, now I'm onto The Return Of The King.

200 pages into In Defense of Lost Causes. Minus the awesome readings of Speilberg and Titanic this book really seems aimless so far. My lack of knowledge on Heidegger and Mao may be causing that.

Don't get me started on Conn Iggulden... Those are some of the worst books I've ever read.

should I read A Portrait of the Artist as a Young Mad, Godel Escher Bach or Anil's Ghost?

Sophie's World. Awesome. Been meaning to read it for the past 6-7 years and I realize I should have read it before.

I'd boo all those answers. Did you actually finish Infinite Jest?

Yar. Couple days ago. I was pretty shocked when it ended because I wasn't thinking about the 200 pages of footnotes. :[

I'm reading Aldous Huxley's Art of Seeing, which is pretty interesting even though I don't have visual problems. Probably gonna do Portrait next.

Oh my god. I semi-kinda know someone who finished it.

Cool.

I just finished In Defense of Lost Causes. Wow. So 20th century Russian classical music isn't really my thing but I guess it's Zizek's. A lot of the interesting stuff seemed to have been said better in his other books. Too much psychoanalysis. His treatment of his critics was pretty awesome yet disparaging. It's sad that it makes me worry whether one could be respected by Zizek while criticizing Zizek.

girlfriend gave me On The Road ("the original scroll"), comes with 4 introductory essays and stuff.

so i'll finish A Hundred Years of Solitude soon, and then choose between The Road and The Ascent of Money.

I've got about two books in the house worth reading, yikes. Why are second-hand books so expensive all of a sudden?

Bought that when it first came out but I was told to read the published text by a professor. I ended up hating the immaturity and recklessness of the characters so much I've never attempted the scroll.

Prokofiev and Schnittke are badass.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_kIK00Oh36Q piano rage against communism

He is actually comparing Dmitri Shostakovitch who can be seen as a devout Soviet composer or a closet dissident and comparing him to Prokofiev the outwardly dissenting.