[retired_sajnesh]

Originally posted by RedefiningForm:
I think I'm being won over by the genius that is Ayn Rand, just about to finish her magnus opum in Atlas Shrugged, and that title's deserved. Her literary techniques aren't the focus of it all, in fact the grandeur which characters adopt, where all their conversations seem to be exchanges of speeches do irk, a little, but the entire Objectivist philosophy's coming through, and it's the innate realisation with that philosophy that most of the things that exist in this world are self-harming, at best, that make it a masterpiece. It's enough to turn the most convinced Socialist away from that evil, it's as powerful a book as any. Non-fiction dressed up in fiction, so go get it.

sounds truly interesting. And as a fairly convinced Socialist, I think I'll give it a whirl.

Moving on to Lolita by Nabokov, but I've a whole stack of books to get through, the prime one of which is Dostoyevsy's The Idiot.

Lolita and the idiot are both excellent, so happy reading for you there.

[retired_mika318]

I have advanced no further due to my hectic whirl of a social life, work and various DIY projects that I've successfully completed :cool:.

Still waiting for my girlfriend's friend to get me my free books from Orion

[retired_bibitte]

Still plugging along with Wuthering Heights. Think I might pop into the library on Friday to get a few new books.

[retired_sajnesh]

Originally posted by T!mbo:
I have advanced no further due to my hectic whirl of a social life, work and various DIY projects that I've successfully completed :cool:.

Still waiting for my girlfriend's friend to get me my free books from Orion

You can do DIY? Wow. The most complicated thing I've ever managed to do is put a lock on our bathroom door. And that took me three years.

So so glad I earn enough to pay other people to DIFM.

How does the free books thing work?

[retired_assy22]

Expect it to take a hell of a long time, though, I spend about 2-3 hours reading it every night for round about 3 weeks, and I'm just about to finish it. It's not one for the faint hearted, just over a thousand pages and the font is miniscule \o/

Need to do some reading up on trip to Munich, too, not sure how I'll fit that in.

[retired_mika318]

Originally posted by spotg:
<BLOCKQUOTE>Originally posted by T!mbo:
I have advanced no further due to my hectic whirl of a social life, work and various DIY projects that I've successfully completed :cool:.

Still waiting for my girlfriend's friend to get me my free books from Orion

You can do DIY? Wow. The most complicated thing I've ever managed to do is put a lock on our bathroom door. And that took me three years.

So so glad I earn enough to pay other people to DIFM.

How does the free books thing work? </BLOCKQUOTE>

At the moment it's more destruction rather than construction but I've redecorated the bathroom and we just need to agree on what sort of flooring that we want for it to be properly finished.

I don't have a great wealth of DIY knowledge but I'm learning as I go along and it's actually quite good when you see something finished/improved.

The free books thing is because one of my girlfriend's friends works for Orion (well, used to until about two weeks ago when she joined the staff here at Kent :cool. Her Mum still works for Orion though so whenever there's anything we see or anything that she thinks we'll like she sends it to us.

We also get books from the various divisions at Orion like Weidenfeld & Nicholson.

[trotamundos]

I'm 70 pages from the end of The Odyssey. In order to brighten up everyone's lives I will post my current list of books I have in my possession later on and people can tell me which one to read next.

if you want, or you can ignore it and I'll toss a coin or something.

And I'll post about Odyssey upon completion.

[retired_assy22]

Oh, I'll have Garcia Marquez and some sort of rubbish book on 'Mother London' which I won't have time to read before it's due at the library, so I suppose that's consigned to the books I'll never read list.

[retired_jovendedios]

One of the more creative and stunning cycle of books I read in the last years is:
Neil Stephenson, The Baroque cycle (Quicksilver, The Confusion, System of the World)

It's a fantastical interpretation of the history of late 17th early 18th centuries thereby passing over scientifical, philosophical, political, economical & cultural history. Found it under the header 'fantasy' but to be honest it's not really comparable to what this header usually covers.

[retired_justin05]

Finished War and Peace which was excellent. Also finished Sophie's World which I thought was fairly average. Going to try and find a second hand book tomorrow as I'm getting a taste for the classics.