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The Autobiography of Abbie Hoffman - 10/10

A very funny, engaging account of his time as a kid growing up in Worchester Mass, his political activist days up until he went underground. Offers some great insight into the hippie movement, all the protests, the trial of the Chicago 7 - everything. He was a genius for organizing and incorporating satire into political protests- the Mark Twain of the 60s just acted out in real life instead of on paper.

thomas hardy - jude the obscure 9/10
great story, as dark and bleak as it gets. lost one point for being a little boring at times.

I'm not much for reading books usually. Not because I don't like reading, but mostly because I have a hard time focusing attention to something for long periods of time.

A scanner darkly - 7.5/10 - I really enjoyed reading this. Olivia's dad let me borrow this, do androids dream of electric sheep, and valis. I couldn't seem to put it down though. I thought the writing was really good, and it flowed nicely. The movie follows the book to a tee aside from when he enters rehab. Planning on reading valid next as that was the one he liked best.

henry cowell -- new musical resources. interesting sections on rhythm.

Marley and Me - 9/10
The last few chapters were crushing, especially so soon after dealing with putting our dog down. It brought back so many good memories of our times with Duke, and reminded me of how painful it was to have to put him down. I'm a pussy, I guess.

I really need to start reading more upbeat books. Fuck.

Tropic of Cancer - Henry Miller - 10.

Incredible, except for the voices in my head shrieking CAN'T STAND YA! the whole time.

Meat Won't Pay My Light Bill - 9.9/10

I may be slightly biased, considering the author gave me a copy of this book before I could even pay him (he's a regular at one of the bars I shamefully frequent) -- and he remembers the interesting things I say, discards the filler. I like that in people.

I thought it was going to be bland Bukowski worship, but it turned out wonderfully...

brief review


(the quote in my signature is taken from this book...)

2666 by Roberto Bolaño - 9/10

This posthumous "incomplete" work is a phenomenal account of an almost unapproachable series of murders in the city of Santa Teresa, Mexico (the crimes are based off the murders in Juarez). The prose is varied throughout the five separate parts of the book and the poetic devices are outstanding. Most of the book is a really smooth read besides its cumbersome body (895 pages, larger dimensions). The only part that I felt it difficult to read to or keep myself interested in pursuing further reading was the fourth part, which is literally 300 pages of autopsy reports of strangled and raped girls of all ages; the content can be disturbing for some people - but certainly not to anyone here - but the prose is the driest in this part of the book. Nonetheless, the book is wonderful and I can see why it made many top 10 lists for 2008. I plan on picking up a copy for myself in the future to reread.

Leo Tolstoy - The Kruezer Sonata 9/10

more hatred than 100 hatesphere CDs inside a hatelocker

pretty clear dude must have been a faggot....he really HATEs wimmins. Yes some hard morsels of truth jammed in there. Not bad, faggot.

Zerohero wrote:Leo Tolstoy - The Kruezer Sonata 9/10

more hatred than 100 hatesphere CDs inside a hatelocker

pretty clear dude must have been a faggot....he really HATEs wimmins. Yes some hard morsels of truth jammed in there. Not bad, faggot.

woah, that one was a little too much for me. i've really enjoyed "resurrection" among all that christian stuff was a lot of truth. tolstoy was never a man of the church, he was very critical of it and he would have been in danger for his opinions if he wasn't the famous writer he was. he came to his own conclusion through thought and bible study and his comments on belief were highly influencial on wittgenstein for example.
that said, his views on matrimony and the relations of man and woman, were really too much for me. should be archived under vexations of an old man.

The Big Sleep: 9/10
Hard Revolution: 6/10
Breakfast of Champions: 7.5/10
A Canticle for Leibowitz: 9/10

I'm reading RIM right now. Fucking futuristic cyberpunk private eye noir words-on-pages stuff. So far it's 8/10.

Frantz Fanon - Black Skin White Masks 8/10

The best and most powerful work yet written about the psychological trauma of colonialism and racism.

I just started reading Didiey Fassin - When Bodies Remember: Experiences and Politics of AIDS in South Africa and it is fantastic.

Foundation, Foundation and Empire, Second Foundation.

I liked these books OK. 8 out of 10 for being slow, and for not going all the way to the end of the plan.

Uncle Tom's Cabin - Harriet Beecher Stowe

One of those classic paperbacks I snatched out of my parent's collection to read someday, subconsciously I guess, I finally picked it up during the lead-up to Obama's inauguration. Funny how you can go through life thinking you know a story through the allusions people make to it and realize that allusion is fundamentally flawed. Uncle Tom submits to his two friendly masters like any other slave is forced to, and forgives all like a docile/true Christian, but ultimately lives his degraded life with as much honor as possible and dies in the effort to resist a brutal owner's attempt make him wield the whip against his brethren and then to torture him to discover the whereabouts of two escapees. Not quite the "Benedict Arnold" (Note to self, study Benedict Arnold), the allusions paint him to be, he doesn't betray anyone, black or white, and stands strong when his core ideals are tested.

Stowe is no literary genius, but she is a good story teller, as in Dickens this was originally a serial, and her narrative and ideological rants work in a supplementary way to each other, rather than deplete from each other. Truly a book that paints as good a picture as any that slavery even at its best was humanity at its worst, and that the political values of democracy and religious values of Christianity were revealed as a total sham once the veil of polite Southern society were lifted, but thenredeemed by the courageous efforts of both the Slaves and the Abolitionists. As Christ sanctified the Cross, does Tom and his brethren bear the scars of the master's whip as a badge of true honor and dignity.

10/10

The Brain That Change Itself: Stories Of Personal Triumph From The Frontiers Of Brain Science - Norman Doidge, MD - 9.5

Holy fucking fascinating. This book covers a ton of ground, from the history of brain science (all the way back to Descartes), the internal science behind psychotherapy, a girl with only one brain hemisphere, the brain and body changing from pure thought, the neuroplastic implications of internet porn (he says he thinks foot fetishes come from the brain map of the feet being next to the genitals...) and fetishism, and so on. It has all sorts of added significance for those of us into RAW, Leary, Crowley, and such.

He talks about an experiment where they were able to create austistic rats to study, by exposing the babies to white noise. It contains many different frequencies and so excites many different areas in the sensory cortex during the sensory imprinting periods, and so becoming the SNAFUd up baseline state... He says that excessive white noise from electronics and the environment could be what is causing the autism epidemic. This begs the question:

DID NOISECORE CREATE JOFA?!?

Good read/listen for sure.

http://audiobookcorner.blogspot.com/200 ... tself.html

The Screwtape Letters by C.S. Lewis - 7/10

It was the first time I ever read through this book. The read was very quick and easy, and the letters were really entertaining. I love the arguments that C.S. Lewis proposes in favor of Christianity; while I am not a Christian myself, I have really enjoyed Mere Christianity in the past and I wanted to see what else would be present here (since, to my knowledge, this book precedes Mere Christianity by ten years). I would consider owning a copy for myself just for future skimming.

I'm reading "Ishi in two worlds" By Theodora Kroeber. So far the book is very good. Its chock full of local history, which is mostly on the depressing side, since most of the content involves genocide of the native americans that used to inhabit this part of northern california. I'm only half way done with the book, but his story is pretty amazing, inspiring and depressing.

CS Lewis is great...

i just finished reading The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn. There's not a thing about this book I don't like. One of the funniest books I've read, too. The entire scenario with Jim towards the end of the book almost had me in tears.



10/10

Of Revelation and Revolution - Jean and John Comaroff 6/10

Objectively good, but boring.

Herzog on Herzog - 8
Jarry - The Supermale 8

reading The Road right now. as far as the narrative goes, this book is just pulling me right along. i've read close to 150 pages in two days. that is unusual for me. as far as his style goes, i'm beginning to get annoyed by his unnecessary vocabulary. vestibular? really?! even when I don't need the dictionary, it's often grating and contrary to hear a character who is having trouble remembering the past use or think terms of that kind.

anyways, great book.

Illusions: The Adventures of a Reluctant Messiah by Richard Bach

10/10

Cholas and Pishtacos: Stories of Race and Sex in the Andes by Mary Weismantel 7.5/10

Pretty cool, interesting book about folklore around Andean market ladies with the big skirts and funny hats that you see pictures of and myths of white killers. It explores definitions of sex and race through these two figures.

finished the road early this morning. it has been a long time since I've read a book (any book) in less than a week. this damn thing grabbed me by the balls and pulled me through it. i really like the way he structured the book, the pacing was perfect, the intensity is perfect - my only complaint is the contradiction built into his writing style: short fragmented thoughts complimented by completely lucid, sometimes overly verbose descriptions. the two work together well enough, but at times broke the spell that the pace of the novel was setting.

8/10