Legion World Forums LEGION COMPANION The Anywhere Machine So what are you READING?

Yesterday, at a Garge Sale, I picked up a first edition of the Naked Lunch for a price so cheap that its laughable. Woot! non-linear prose anyone?

I'm currently re-reading "The Four Agreements" which is a Toltec philosophy book. I forget the author's name. The four agreements are:

1. Be impeccable with your word.
2. Don't take anything personally.
3. Don't assume.
4. Always do your best.

I find myself referring to these agreements a LOT in day to day life. I find it especially hard to be impeccable with my words, because it's really easy to whine or b*tch about things. If we really think before we speak, we'd put a lot less negativity out there. We'd put more constructive, positivity out there.

We are raised to take things personally, both insults and compliments. If we were able to rely on our own understanding of how we are with/at things, others couldn't hinder us. Also, we wouldn't rely on others to make us feel worthy, we'd already know we are. That'd put more positivity out there.

We assume a LOT in our culture. We make decisions based on our assumptions all the time. I'm actually still reading this chapter. I'll elaborate when I finish.

It seems like a no-brainer to always do your best, but really, how often do we do that? I know in my busy life, it's easy to run at about 80%, just trying to get everything done. What if I actually slowed down and gave everything 100%? It might take longer, but everything would be better. Right?

Reading books like this really does help me, though I can't say that it's very practical to give myself completely to these ways of thinking. This reminds me of another book, "The Prophet" which I haven't read in a long time. Ancient ideas that really help in today's busy world.

I just started King Leopold's Ghost. It's a history of the pillage of the area around the Congo river by Belgium's King Leopold II.

I'm reading The Buddha of Brewer Street by the incredible Michael Dobbs.

Dean, your book sounds great though those philosophies would be very hard to follow 100%

Reading "Reading Lolita in Tehran"
Might as well o.d. on pro-Fem

Read "The Four Agreements" in July. "Don't take it personally" has probably been the most valuable advice to me.

I've finished Kazuo Ishiguro's "Never Let Me Go." Probably the most moving novel I've read in a decade and profoundly sad. I can't stop thinking about it. Ishiguro is a master. In a year or so, I'll have to read it again. I think it's one of those rare books that can be read on several levels. No doubt it's an English teacher's dream with all its imagery and metaphor. That said, Ishiguro's style is very engaging and the book never drags, although nothing really exciting ever happens directly in the story - all the sensational stuff happens outside of the story, but permeates the story and its characters. I note that "Never Let Me Go" has been short-listed for the Mann Booker Prize. I can't imagine a more deserving winner.

I'm about halfway through Catch Me If You Can, which is surprisingly different from the movie. I'm really enjoying it -- I just wish I could find the time to finish it!! >< Dumb school reading.

/mini-rant.

But I really do enjoy the way he writes. It's hilarious and fun, while having some serious undercurrents too. You can see how intelligent he is, too. It's pretty neat.

I'm now reading "Misfortune" by Wesley Stace, who is also known as the musician, John Wesley Harding. (who'd a thunk it?) It's a Dickensian style novel about an abandonned baby boy resuced from a garbage heap in Victorian England by a fey noble named Geoffroy Loveall. Geoffroy, age 33 or so, has only one love in life - his sister who died at the age of 5 (or so). Geoffroy decides to raise the baby boy as a girl. Problems ensue.

It's nicely written, although I'm a bit spoiled right now just having finished Ishiguro's "Never Let Me Go," (which I think is one of the best books written).

Misfortune is a hefty novel, just as I like them. It doesn't appear to be written tongue-in-cheek - thankfully! The reviews have been good.

Started working on Les Miserables a few weeks ago. I've been on this French literature kick lately. I'm told there is a cure, but it involves German prose, so I'm sticking with the French works.

Am reading "Death Comes As The End" by Agatha Christie - a marvellous meld of whodunnit intertwined with the rich culture of yesteryear. The reader gets a detailed glimpse of a society whose human frailities had withstood the passage of time and as such, could be related to by anybody in the present time.

It was announced today that "The Sea" by John Banville won the Booker Prize.

Supposedly, there was a tie in the voting -- out of five judges, two preferred Ishiguro's book, and two preferred Banville's. John Sutherland, chairman of the panel, cast the deciding vote by selecting "The Sea."

(Note that Ishiguro beat out Banville for the Booker Prize in 1989 with "The Remains of the Day.")

How does Ishiguro's latest compare to his last book which I think was "When we were Orphans"? I remember enjoying that one quite a bit a few years back. I think it was set in Colonial Shanghai.

Damn.

the Devils Dictionary by Ambrose Beirce. for like the 10th time

The recent talk about the Booker Prize and the discussion about movies men endure at the behest of their partners reminds me of a book. This past week I've been rereading In the Skin of a Lion by Michael Ondaatje (who also wrote the Booker Prize winning The English Patient).

It's my favourite book set in Canada and Toronto in particular. A book about immigrants by an immigrant, can't get more Canadian than that.

Nobody reading anything? I'm still reading Misfortune and enjoying it.

I am finishing up Perilous Time - Free Speech in Wartime - from the Sedition Act of 1798 to the War on Terror.

I had shared this from the book with the guys (& FC) during the con.

During WWI the US government encouraged civic organizations to ferret out "disloyalty". Among the groups were: The Knights of Liberty, The Boy Spies of America, The Sedition Slammers, and The Terrible Threateners. All of which strike me as names from the Golden Age of Comics.

The Employee Retirement Income Security Act of 1974 -- A Political History

For anyone who enjoyed the Charlene Harris vampire books, you should also love the series by Kim Harrison.... Book One, 'Dead Witch Walking,' Book Two, 'The Good, the Bad and the Undead,' and now Book Three, 'Every Which Way But Dead.' The heroine, Rachel, is a very powerful witch in a world which has equal numbers of mundane humans and magickal folk. Rachel tracks down and deals with witches, vampires, demons, and were creatures who break the rules and kill humans. Interesting and entertaining, and would make a fun movie.

knife of dreams came out!

im reading through it....pretty good, better than maybe the last two....

you read like real books?

I just finished Migrant Daughter for my Chicano Studies class and I actually really enjoyed it, so I thought I'd share. w00t~

That is all.

I just got a copy of "Moominvalley in November" -- this was the last in the Moomin series of children's books by Finnish author Tove Jansson. I read all the other books in the series as a kid, but for some reason never got a hold of "November." By the time I thought to look for it, it was no longer available in the US.

They finally started reprinting it a few years ago -- and I finally found out about it recently -- and now I'll be able to say that I've read the entire series, at last.

My favorites are still "Comet in Moominland" and "Finn Family Moomintroll." The later ones were well-written and evocative, but melancholy and less fun...

So what is this Mooninvalley - a place for butt flashers?