OS Book Club Pt II

[Fresh Tendrils]

Re: OS Book Club Pt II

Interesting mix of stuff. I was in English CP/Honors/AP in high-school and never really hated anything we were assigned apart from reading the Bronte sisters. I still have nightmares of reading Wuthering Heights.
Required Readings:

Spoiler

Grapes of Wrath
The Pearl
Of Mice and Men
Brave New World
Frankenstein
The Oedipus Cycle
The Great Gatsby
To Kill A Mockingbird
Death of a Salesman
The Scarlet Letter
Heart of Darkness
Lord of the Flies

Or what I remember anyway. For my final lit. analysis paper in AP we were allowed to select our own novels. I selected A Clockwork Orange. Fantastic book.

[DieHardYankee26]

Re: OS Book Club Pt II

I had forgotten Wuthering Heights, the Scarlet Letter, Lord of the Flies. I actually read Brave New World and 1984 for a Computer Networking class because our teacher told us to read them and figure out which future we'd more like to be a part of because it's inevitable lol. There's a million things to be said about those books.

One of my favorite quotes is: "What Orwell failed to predict was that we'd buy the cameras ourselves, and that our biggest fear would be that nobody was watching."

LOL imagine being told to read 1984 as you're learning about the internet and having to see the way things ended up. Surreal to read fears from a time when surveillance was the biggest fear while growing up in a time when privacy is being given away. It's almost less scary than Brave New World though. A world where people are distracted by nonsense to the point where they cease feeling about important events? Damn near nonfiction.

[Fresh Tendrils]

Re: OS Book Club Pt II

Having not read 1984 I feel like it would be a mixture of both. If 1984 focuses on a surveillance state and "Big Brother" (which was another, albeit minor, theme in Great Gatsby) then Brave New World focuses on the interpersonal dynamics of an "advanced" society. Both of which I think are spot on today, but its hard for me to say if anything has changed drastically or not because I only know these times.

[DieHardYankee26]

Re: OS Book Club Pt II

There are definitely bits and pieces of each in the real world today, there's probably full classes going over the intersections between them. The parallels are incredible.

Neil Postman: "What Orwell feared were those who would burn books. What Huxley feared was that there would be no reason to ban a book, for there would be no one who wanted to read one. Orwell feared those who would deprive us of information. Huxley feared those who would give us so much that we would be reduced to passivity and egotism."

It's like the chicken and the egg. What's worse: the idea that someone limits and tells you exactly what books you can read or the idea that there are so many books you are overwhelmed to pick one? So good. I'm not sure which I prefer, them and Fahrenheit all go together thematically. They all make you ask yourself what freedom truly means. The thing that bothers me is, like you said, I don't know what it looked like before this. What was Orwell seeing that made him fear these things so drastically? How similar are we today truly to what they envisioned? It's hard to know, but ceaselessly interesting to question.

[Fresh Tendrils]

Re: OS Book Club Pt II

We have the allusion of an abundance, but are actually limited.

That seems about right to me considering how much smaller the internet feels now compared to 10-15 years ago.

[superjames1992]

Re: OS Book Club Pt II

Having not read 1984 I feel like it would be a mixture of both. If 1984 focuses on a surveillance state and "Big Brother" (which was another, albeit minor, theme in Great Gatsby) then Brave New World focuses on the interpersonal dynamics of an "advanced" society. Both of which I think are spot on today, but its hard for me to say if anything has changed drastically or not because I only know these times.

You've got to read 1984. It's one of my favorite books. I first read it in middle school, and have read it a few times since then, as well.

[DieHardYankee26]

Re: OS Book Club Pt II

A biography on Obama came out a month ago called Rising Star, it's almost 1500 pages, most of the reviews say it's tedious but that there is some stuff in there that's worth reading. Part of me wants to get into it but 800 pages on FDR was already a slog, almost twice as much on a guy who's still alive would be excruciating. Maybe one day.

[Fresh Tendrils]

Re: OS Book Club Pt II

I would love a memoir from Obama about his presidential campaign and time in office.

[DieHardYankee26]

Re: OS Book Club Pt II

Same, but it won't be what I really want lol. I was surprised at how candid Dreams from My Father turned out to be but I probably shouldn't be given how young he was and how little (comparatively speaking) he had done at the time. Hillary is putting out a book that's supposed to give her take on the election, I can't wait for that one. I haven't read any of her other books so I don't know how much I should expect to be revealed or whether she's gonna pour her heart out, but I'm hopeful.

[Fresh Tendrils]

Re: OS Book Club Pt II

Same, but it won't be what I really want lol. I was surprised at how candid Dreams from My Father turned out to be but I probably shouldn't be given how young he was and how little (comparatively speaking) he had done at the time.

Oh, I believe we'll never get THAT book.

[Fresh Tendrils]

Re: OS Book Club Pt II

I need to get Between the World and Me back from my brother. I planned on reading it again this Summer, but parts of it keep popping up in my brain especially with current events this past week.

[DieHardYankee26]

Re: OS Book Club Pt II

I just checked Coates's Wikipedia page to see what he's up to and I knew he was writing something but didn't know it was a novel. Thats something to look forward to.

I'm getting through Contact, never seen the movie. I love Sagan and Ann Druyan, and reading fiction books by people who's mind you have a familiarity with is unique. You can see the parts of them that they put into the story. Even that he named the main character after Eleanor Roosevelt, I love everything about it so far.

[Fresh Tendrils]

Re: OS Book Club Pt II

I'm starting to see your reluctance on choosing novels longer than 400 pages or so. I feel like I've been reading the same Harry Potter for a year. If I wasn't going away this weekend I would be able to finish it tomorrow.

A novel by Coates is definitely interesting and the premise sounds familiar between him and Baldwin. Those other projects sound great, too. I'll have to keep an eye out for that HBO series and look into that series of books.

I also found that Coates is releasing a collection of his essays (some new, some previously published) on the Obama era and includes an interview with the President. Comes out in October. Sounds like a pre-order to me.

[DieHardYankee26]

Re: OS Book Club Pt II

Dude you feel me. It's such a mental hurdle. I think it'd be worse if I had to deal with physical books and have to constantly have the reminder of the thick side of the book.

I would love a book of essays from Coates. I'm gonna start looking out for more because a lot of my favorite books so far this year have been random assortments of essays, it's a good way to get a general idea of the authors ideas on different subjects. Found a list of the top 100 essay collections from Book riot, and a few are ones I've read (Souls of Black Folk, Notes of a Native Son, The Fire Next Time, A Supposedly Fun Thing I'll Never do again). I'll look over it a bunch more times but the ones I want to add on first glance are Consider the Lobster (another by DFW), A Collection of Essays by Orwell, Playing in the Dark by Toni Morrison, and Shadow and Act by Ralph Ellison is already on my list. Unrelated by I just thought of it, I want to get through a book either fiction or poetry of Bukowski, partly because he's a cold mother ****er but also because he's the guy Hank Moody from Californication was based on so I've got built in interest there.

[War Eagle!]

Re: OS Book Club Pt II

Currently reading the Magic of Believing by Claude M. Bristol.

Just finished up As a Man thinketh by James Allen and the Strangest Secret by Earl Nightingdale. Both were repeat reads for me but some kind of way I stumbled across the Magic of Believing through one of those books.

As was mentioned earlier in the thread I took am in the process of growing up. In this process of growing up there is a lot i've lost interest in. At the same time there is much being revealed to me through experience so books of the sort have been very enlightening because it provides physical evidence for the conclusions i've drawn from my own experiences.

Pretty neat are the powers of the mind. Even more interesting throughout time is the spin that people have put on these revelations for whatever reasons.