Insomniac's blog - books

Adding to My Library

noreply@blogspirit.com (insomniacs' blog) — Mon, 18 Jul 2005 20:58:15 -0400

For the last few weeks I have been adding books to my personal library. The University Bookstore has had some fantastic bargains on books. The books I have picked up have been mostly literature books. The ones I have added are: The Heart of Darkness by Joseph Conrad, John Keats's Lyric Poems (the only English poet who I actually like), Shakespeare's Hamlet, Romeo and Juliet, and MacBeth, and Hawthorne's The Scarlet Letter. Some of these books I bought for as little as 80 cents! I also decided to save some of the books from my summer classes. I saved John Steinbeck's Of Mice and Men, and Alan Paton's Cry, the Beloved Country. So far I have not had the time to devote to reading outside of schtuff for classes, but hopefully in my 19 day break in between summer and fall classes I can get a few things read. I did of course read Of Mice and Men and Cry, the Beloved Country during my classes, but now I think I would like to re-read them both. I kinda sped-read them the first time through and I think I missed a lot of the more subtle schtuff. Oh, and I also have a running book list on the 'fridge of books and articles to read in my lifetime. Needless to say, I don't think I will get them all read even if I live to be 100! I might have to shed the techno-peasantness and actually create a list of books on Excel or something. Ughhh. We must pick and choose what literature we read, but I know I won't be reading any sci-fi anytime soon. It is very low on my list (sorry Jon, Becky and Rob!). Although I almost did buy 1984 today. I think I will get it from the library for free first and if I like it I will buy it later. Feel free to drop me any suggestions for my library.

Good Little Read

noreply@blogspirit.com (insomniacs' blog) — Wed, 22 Jun 2005 01:42:49 -0400

Hee hee. Tonight I read a little book, essay really, that I picked up for a friend. It is titled "On Bullshit" by Harry G. Frankfurt, professor of philosophy Emeritus at Princeton. Absolutely hilarious, in an intellectual sort of way. By the end of the book, you can't help but think, "Was this whole book just bullshit"? In the book, Professor Frankfurt tries to distinguish bullshit from lying. My favorite qoutation:
"...a person who undertakes to bullshit his way through has much more freedom. His focus is panoramic rather than particular."
Check it out. I thought it was pretty darn funny, and that's no bullshit.

Oprah and the Reading Push

noreply@blogspirit.com (insomniacs' blog) — Fri, 10 Jun 2005 22:36:16 -0400

Hello all from 311. If you are interested, I found a spiffy link about reading and people's perception of reading at Oprah's site. One of the links I thought was kind of cool was on Books That Made a Difference. You can look up different famous persons and get qoutations about which books have impacted their lives the most. Some of the names in the Books That Made a Difference section are: Hillary Clinton, J.K. Rowling, Diane Sawyer, and many more. When you get to the site, look for the Discover what reading means to section and just click on a name. The site also has a link called Browse Famous Bookshelves where you can look at what books the famous have in their collections. Anyhow, I thought a few of you may be interested in taking a look at this.