I just finished Bleak House by Charles Dickens. It was a real chore.
Not jumping straight into Infinite Jest then? I forced myself to read it. For me it was up there with Gravityās Rainbow in terms of boredom. I liked some of the articles he wrote though.
No, I want small easily recognizable accomplishments so Iām not going into any big books right now.
might i recommend, the alchemist?
I think you have that backwards.
I read the former years and years ago - if I donāt have it tucked away some place, Iām buying it again.
Marcus depends a good deal on the translation. I read it back in university and got less than nothing out of it. Hayes translation opened the entire books and, largely, the entire philosophy for me. I have it on Kindle and a pair of dogeared paperbacks.
I wanted to like this so much. I re-read it thinking that I had obviously missed somethingā¦though donāt believe that I did.
My copy is somewhere between storage and an unknown address, possibly still in storage, but I will hope to remember to check this!
That was nice of you!
No.
If you disagree, thatās fine. Iāll stand by my assessment, thanks.
IIRC the author of Zen was worried that Science was supposed to come to conclusions, yet it seemed to produce more and more hypotheses, thus negating its purpose. A couple of seconds thought would seem to solve this
Knowledge is a balloon, which constantly gets bigger. We know everything inside the balloon, outside it is what we donāt know, and science is the skin of the balloon; as the volume inside gets bigger the area of the surface increases.
The only difficulty is can the balloon continue to expand so we can continue to learn indefinitely; is the balloon inside a container, so we will reach the limits of knowledge; will the balloon stop expanding because of the limitations of the skin i.e. what the mind can know? (Personally, I think it will pop, and we can back to hunting/gathering and checking each other for fleas.)
Reminds me of this
Giant Book Month Continues. Finished Bleak House, on to Anna Karenina. After that I still have The Man Who Would Be King left to read.
I usually really like Kipling, but this is a case where the movie is better- though the story is still good, the movie is just so good.
Re-reading Murakamiās Sputnik Sweetheart, for nostalgiaās sake. Canāt believe itās been out for 20 years now!
The movie is WAY better. Fun Fact: Michael Caine is still married to the actress who played the princess in that movie.
I got my wires crossed on the book though. Iāll be reading The Once and Future King, not the Kipling book/story.
The Miso Soup by Ryu Murakami, an award winning Japanese author.
Starts as good story and insight into modern urban night life Shinjuku Tokyo, then turns into a graphic psycho bizarro story which many people would not want to read and I kind of skimmed over myself, now I feel like I need to cleanse my mind and soul.
The only thing that scares worries me is the skimming part. I only skim right before I give up and read the wiki.
I hate giving up on a bookā¦but sometimes itās just a waste. (N.K. Jemisim, 3 time hugo winnerā¦I couldnāt even be bothered with the wiki)
His other one has some chick saw a dudeās feet off if thatās your thingā¦
Just wasnāt interested in the very unexpected gory psycho psychological second half.