Sunday, March 12, 2006

Books

There have been several books that I have been wanting to read, but I never seem to find the time to read them. When I do read them, I like having someone to discuss them with. So I was thinking we could start a kind of blogging book club where we all pick a book every month, and during that month we can read the book and talk about it together. That would give the comparative literatureists among us (Jenny, I'm looking in your direction) to expound to us lower literary creatures their vast knowledge which, though it may not employ them at least makes them decent at trivial pursuit (well, the brown questions).

Here are a few I have been wanting to read:

Being and Time- Martin Heidegger
-(ha ha ha! uh..just kidding)

Cosmicomics- Italo calvino
The Name of the Rose- Umberto Eco
Faust (I've just heard so much about it)
Sense and Sensibility or any other Jane Austin (I just started this one)
Don Quijote
I'm only putting some of these on here so I can finally know what Jenny is talking about whenever we get together with her comp lit friends.

Theres more, but I'll see what other suggestions there are

7 comments:

JennyW said...

Well of course I'm going to be in favor of something involving reading ... maybe we can work our way up to Being and Time :)

There ought to be a disclaimer that participation in said reading activity in no way actually increases one's ability to answer the brown TP questions. To answer all of those you'd need Comic Book Guy on your team.

Here are a few books on my list to read/that I think would be fun to discuss:

Gilead by Marilynne Robinson
Invisible Cities by Italo Calvino
Joseph Smith: Rough Rolling Stone by Richard Bushman
David O McKay and the Rise of Modern Mormonism by Prince and Wright
The Koran

Erin Teichert Barbuto said...

I just finished From Beruit to Jerusalem by Tom Friedman and I'm looking for a sequal. I also read an interesting book that came out last november called Hillary Vs. Condi. It's an NPR reverse book--you can't call it unfair but you sure can't call it unbiased, either.
I'm reading 1776 right now and I also just read a Nancy Drew mystery which was a lot of fun. I also just read (you have to understand that I recently moved for work to an isolated town in Wyoming-as all towns in Wyoming are-and let's just say I have a lot of time to read) Freakinomics (I think I spelled that wrong) and it was very interesting, too. Have you ever read East of Eden by Steinbeck? I've heard it's fantastic, but I must admit that I struggle with Steinbeck. Not that I don't love his purpose or his subjects...I just get a little queasy with how graphic he is sometimes. Another book that's a good one is In God's Underground--about the communist era in Romania. Rough times. I read that and then I read Mandela's autobiography and it was interesting to see the different ways that people were so oppressed. I love the idea of a blog book club...and I love saying blog book club--I feel like I'm eating something when I say it.

JonF said...

Has anyone read "The Alchemist", or anything else by Paulo Coehlo? I think it's interesting. It's kind of magic realism.
I must admit though, I get kind of stuck on fiction, like Terry Pratchett, Tom Clancy, and Orson Scott Card. Katie rolls her eyes at me (until she remembers she has Harry Potter in her hands).

JonF said...

P.S. Hey Jenny, Katie is reading the Richard Bushman book right now.

Erin Teichert Barbuto said...

What is all this about Robert Bushman? I've got to know! And Jon, congratulations on your baby! That's fantastic! And is this Jared we hear so much about our dear Jared Gillins?

Anonymous said...

It is indeed our dear Jared Gillins--the dearest Jared Gillins known to man. Good call on the Alchemist, Jon; you know I'm a fan. I've read the majority of Paulo Coelho's books, and in my opinion the only other one worth reading (but well worth it) is The Fifth Mountain. Both of those books are excellent. And I've heard nothing but good things about the Richard Bushman book.

JennyW said...

Erin--Richard Bushman just wrote a new biography of Joseph Smith called Rough Rolling Stone. I've started it (just the first few chapters) and it's really good so far.