Book a Week in 2015 - BW4

[Jane in NC]

Also, my DH was disappointed with me for reading the book because he had heard the movie had a lot of bad language so he figured the book did too (which it did, but not as bad as some). So my question is: when you are reading, do you hear the bad language words or do you just see them, but not say them in your mind? Or do you not read a book because it has that kind of language? As you can tell this book has given me many things to think about. Not sure what I will tackle next. :)

 

The language issue is tricky for me.  To be honest, an occasional expletive creates an appropriate tone for a book or character within the book, but rapid fire cursing turns me off--in books or movies.  The prude in me wants to don a hat and pair of gloves in order to hand out a list of adjectives, assisting the writer with his or her limited vocabulary. ;)

 

 

Speaking of mysteries, last night I finished an early PD James mystery, Shroud for a Nightingale, and wasn't blown away by it. If it wasn't for the fact that it was written by PD James, one of the grand dames of British mystery writing, I might not have finished it.  I never got to know the detective, Dalgleish, and learned too much about all the possible suspects in this closed room mystery.  Maybe I just wasn't in the mood for it?

 

 

You have summed up my feelings on PD James.  Last year I read her "closed island in a storm" mystery The Lighthouse. James is analytic, a quality reflected in her detective.  I think one does have to be in the mood for these books.  I read one on occasion but usually a couple of years will go by before I pick up another.

 

 

Hi ladies! I'm not a regular in this thread, but wanted to pop in to ask a question! I feel like I've struggled the past few months to really get into a book. Most are ok, but quite a few I've stopped a third of the way in. Life's too short to waste time reading an un-enjoyable book! I'm looking for some of your favorite page turners, the book you know most people will love. I like to read a variety of styles and genres, usually enjoying an "escape" the most (nothing too literary or difficult!). Some past favorites include I Capture The Castle, The Other Boleyn Girl, Gone Girl, GOT, Pride and Prejudice, etc. Any ideas?

 

Hello Wonderchica.

 

You have received some solid recommendations but I'll throw in some older books since you like Dodie Smith and Jane Austen.

 

Barbara Pym's Excellent Women is probably up your alley.  Many of us have enjoyed Mary Stewart's novels, books like The Moon-Spinners or This Rough Magic.  Our Hearts were Young and Gay is a terrific travel memoir by two young innocents abroad in the 1920's.  I love E.M. Delafield's Provincial Lady books.

 

These are items that may reside in the dusty stacks of your library.

 

Now keep us posted on what captures your fancy!

 

[Openhearted]

Jane in NC, I agree and feel the same way. You put my thoughts into words so wonderfully.

Prairiegirl, thank you for your thoughts, I agree, bad use of language can be distracting.

Guilfordlake, thank you for your honesty. You don't sound superior to me at all. I hope my question didn't seem high-minded.

Mumto2, this sums it up for me as well. I expected bad language in American Sniper because it is a war story with soldiers. In fact, I expected more four lettered words than there was.

 

Thank you all very much for your thoughts and experiences. All of you have made me feel better and put my thoughts into words.

[Mom22ns]

The prude in me wants to don a hat and pair of gloves in order to hand out a list of adjectives, assisting the writer with his or her limited vocabulary. ;)

 

Love this.

 

I have no objection to some bad language. There are characters who wouldn't be real without it. However, some writers seem to use it as a crutch and would benefit from Jane's help. :)

[Chrysalis Academy]

Philosophy isn't my strong point, so I must ask what this means. It sounds most learned!

 

 

 

 

 

Well, I'd do a better job answering if I hadn't bailed on the book!  :001_rolleyes:

 

His basic thesis is that Plato and Aristotle set up the two competing modes of thought that have influenced the Western world since, well, then.  Plato is the idealist, concerned with how things should be, the abstract.  Thinkers/events in his tradition include the art of the Renaissance, Neoplatonism, huge influences on Christianity via Augustine, More's Utopia, the idea of the genius, Rousseau and romanticism , Marx, Nietzsche, the Nazis.  Also Dewey & progressive education.   There is a lot of focus on striving for an unobtainable ideal.  Faith goes in this category.  And deductive reasoning.

 

Aristotle is concerned with what actually is, in the world, not with what should be.  He's the ultimate/first scientist, who made observations and described and categorized things as he found them, and tried to understand what they were for.  Inductive logic all the way.  A show-me, hands-on guy.  Which leads to Thomas Aquinus, Machiavelli, the scientific method, the enlightenment, Darwin, capitalism & the industrial revolution, the Human genome project.  but also Islamic fundamentalism and terrorism, bubbles & financial collapse.

 

It's very interesting - he doesn't put either on a pedestal, nor demonize either.  He makes an effort to trace the thread of the different ways of thinking through all of western thought.  Very dualist of him - he must be a platonist?  ;)

 

"Mysticism versus common sense, religion vs science, empiricism vs idealism"

 

Anyway, I'll definitely have to get back to it some day! I'm just feeling a little overhwelmed right now, I got too many plates spinning.

[Jane in NC]

Well, I'd do a better job answering if I hadn't bailed on the book!  :001_rolleyes:

 

His basic thesis is that Plato and Aristotle set up the two competing modes of thought that have influenced the Western world since, well, then.  Plato is the idealist, concerned with how things should be, the abstract.  Thinkers/events in his tradition include the art of the Renaissance, Neoplatonism, huge influences on Christianity via Augustine, More's Utopia, the idea of the genius, Rousseau and romanticism , Marx, Nietzsche, the Nazis.  Also Dewey & progressive education.   There is a lot of focus on striving for an unobtainable ideal.  Faith goes in this category.  And deductive reasoning.

 

Aristotle is concerned with what actually is, in the world, not with what should be.  He's the ultimate/first scientist, who made observations and described and categorized things as he found them, and tried to understand what they were for.  Inductive logic all the way.  A show-me, hands-on guy.  Which leads to Thomas Aquinus, Machiavelli, the scientific method, the enlightenment, Darwin, capitalism & the industrial revolution, the Human genome project.  but also Islamic fundamentalism and terrorism, bubbles & financial collapse.

 

It's very interesting - he doesn't put either on a pedestal, nor demonize either.  He makes an effort to trace the thread of the different ways of thinking through all of western thought.  Very dualist of him - he must be a platonist?  ;)

 

"Mysticism versus common sense, religion vs science, empiricism vs idealism"

 

Anyway, I'll definitely have to get back to it some day! I'm just feeling a little overhwelmed right now, I got too many plates spinning.

 

As an undergrad, I took a History of Philosophy class that was developed along the lines you describe (with the exception of modern world events)--and taught by an Aristotelian.  No new ideas here but it does sound like a potentially good overview of the history of philosophy.

 

 

[Chrysalis Academy]

Yes, and very easy to read! which most philosophy books are not, I find . . . 

 

 

[TeacherZee]

Thanks Jane for the Grantchester rec. Just the type of book I want to read now.

[Chrysalis Academy]

As an undergrad, I took a History of Philosophy class that was developed along the lines you describe (with the exception of modern world events)--and taught by an Aristotelian.  No new ideas here but it does sound like a potentially good overview of the history of philosophy.

 

 

 

And, thinking more about it, I guess the main appeal for me is having some kind of an organizing thread, a framework for fitting in the different philosophical ideas.  Maybe it's just me being Aristotelean and trying to categorize things?  But I think part of my difficulty with reading philosophy is that I don't have any formal background/training in it, and more than almost any other genre, philosophers are always talking to each other, right? They are always referring to and contrasting their ideas with what has come before.  I have no framework for understanding this, so the shorthands and references they make to other philosophers don't enlighten me to where their position falls vis a vis the field and the history of its ideas as a whole.  I'm a big picture person, and I need to see the forest before I can make any sense of the individual trees.

 

I'm doing daily readings from The Harvard Classics In  a Year kindle book that somebody posted about yesterday, and this morning I hit an essay by Mazzini about Byron & Goethe "The Soaring Eagle and the Contented Stork" where he's discussing the poets, what they reacted to, how they defined their era, and how they were being re-interpreted a generation later.  It's interesting, but pretty hard to follow for me because I don't know a ton about the poetry of that era, particularly not German or French poetry, so I don't get all his references, though i do get some.  And I realized - this is how philosophers write all the time, and this is why it's so hard for me to read philosophy!

 

Anyway, just some more random thoughts.  I need plenty of History of Philosophy before I tackle the actual philosophy itself.  

 

Shukriyya, does your dh have any suggestionf for a newbie, other than Read Plato?

 

ETA: if I'm grokking this correctly, Mazzini is a Platonist, characterizing Byron & Goethe as the Aristotelean expressors of the spirit of their age, the "age of revolutions".  Or is a little knowledge just a dangerous thing?  ;)  :D

[Jane in NC]

VC or her husband may also have some ideas for you, Rose.

 

[Kareni]

Since Jane Austen has been much discussed lately, you might be interested to know that 202 years ago

 

Pride and Prejudice Published on January 28, 1813

 

(Link here: http://www.heroesandheartbreakers.com/blogs/2015/01/pride-and-prejudice-published-on-january-28-1813)

 

Regards,

Kareni

[Nan in Mass]

Hello Wonderchica.

 

You have received some solid recommendations but I'll throw in some older books since you like Dodie Smith and Jane Austen.

 

Barbara Pym's Excellent Women is probably up your alley.  Many of us have enjoyed Mary Stewart's novels, books like The Moon-Spinners or This Rough Magic.  Our Hearts were Young and Gay is a terrific travel memoir by two young innocents abroad in the 1920's.  I love E.M. Delafield's Provincial Lady books.

 

These are items that may reside in the dusty stacks of your library.

 

Now keep us posted on what captures your fancy!

 

 

I second Our Hearts were Young and Gay, as someone who loves Dodie Smith.  More older books you could look for - Spoonhandle (Ruth Moore), Cluny Brown (Margery Sharp), A Countess Below Stairs (Ibotson?), the Mrs. Tim books (D.E.Stevens), and Pilgrim's Inn (Elizabeth Goudge).  And would like to add the encouragement that becoming absorbed in a book is a matter of finding the right book, for me, anyway. : )

 

Nan

[Angel]

:thumbdown:  This is the third time I've lost a post.  Now I'm annoyed.  Stupid internet has screwed everything up.

 

So I'll sum up...

 

Glad I'm not alone in my view of The Princess Bride!  And Mom-ninja, I was trying to be nice to poor Buttercup!

 

I agree with guilford lake.  I don't like language in my books!  It annoys me.  The language leaps off the page at me and lingers in my brain.  My brain has better stuff to be filled with than that  ;)

 

Mom-ninja, just to offer another view...my dh, Skye, and Aly all finished The Giver series (well Skye will finish Son this week).  They have all enjoyed it.  They seem to have taken each story for itself and enjoyed Lowry's writing.  

 

If this doesn't work, then I give up :tongue_smilie:

[Stacia]

I've been pondering the bad language thing in books. I'm not sure I've ever read a book where it really stood out to me. I mean, I know I've read books w/ profanity in them, but they were a part of the character or characters, so it didn't stand out as excessive or oddly-out-of-place or anything. In that respect, it doesn't bother me. I think sometimes I don't notice it all that much vs. how much it may stand out to others. (I say this because I think Angel mentioned swear words in Slaughterhouse-Five & I didn't remember it having that much, but when I flipped back through the book looking specifically for that, I noticed quite a bit.)

 

So, I guess, overall, I'd say it doesn't bother me to have it in books, nor do I even notice it that much (at least so far in my reading journeys). Maybe it's almost like 'white noise' to me -- I just read around it. Otoh, I don't want to read gory details about gross or violent things. In the Mongol Queens book I'm reading, I read a short section that was talking about sexual violence against women & girls & I'm not sure I can ever erase that from my brain. History needs to be known so as to not repeat the bad things, but... ugh. 

 

ETA: Maybe I'm partially immune to the swearing thing because my sister swears like a sailor, as the saying goes...? :tongue_smilie: :lol:  And my dad was (sort of) a sailor. ;)  So, I've got the familial vaccination thing going on...?

[Angel]

I picked up and finished Neil Gaiman’s Fortunately, the Milk yesterday.  It was cute.  I think the little girls that Skye nanny’s for will enjoy it as a read aloud.  This was my third Gaiman.  I read The Graveyard Book last year, and Stardust a few years ago.  I can’t say that he is my favorite writer but I certainly applaud his unique stories and creativity!  When you pick up one of his books, it’s like you know that you are not going to get a formulaic story.  I appreciate that.  In fact, The Graveyard Book still floats its way into my mind now and again.  I think I may have liked it better than I thought.  But back to the milk!  I chuckled at the reference to the pink pony with a pale blue star.  Obviously the author is familiar with the My Little Pony craze :laugh:    And the image of the nice, handsome, misunderstood wumpire also gave a chuckle.  All in all definitely a CUTE book that is a great read for the kids!

 

Favorite quote:  “We have spoons.  Spoons are excellent.  Sort of like forks, only not as stabby.†I don't know why but I can envision Matt Smith's Doctor saying this  :laugh: 

 

*01.  As You Wish by Cary Elwes (non fiction)

*02.  The Strange Library by Haruki Murukami (January Author, BaW rec, Japan)

*03.  The Princess Bride by William Goldman

*04.  Fortunately, the Milk by Neil Gaiman (BaW rec)

[Stacia]

I agree. I think Fortunately, the Milk is a cute story. Plain ol' fun.

[Chrysalis Academy]

I've been pondering the bad language thing in books. I'm not sure I've ever read a book where it really stood out to me. I mean, I know I've read books w/ profanity in them, but they were a part of the character or characters, so it didn't stand out as excessive or oddly-out-of-place or anything. In that respect, it doesn't bother me. I think sometimes I don't notice it all that much vs. how much it may stand out to others. (I say this because I think Angel mentioned swear words in Slaughterhouse-Five & I didn't remember it having that much, but when I flipped back through the book looking specifically for that & noticed quite a bit.)

 

So, I guess, overall, I'd say it doesn't bother me to have it in books, nor do I even notice it that much (at least so far in my reading journeys). Maybe it's almost like 'white noise' to me -- I just read around it. Otoh, I don't want to read gory details about gross or violent things. In the Mongol Queens book I'm reading, I read a short section that was talking about sexual violence against women & girls & I'm not sure I can ever erase that from my brain. History needs to be known so as to not repeat the bad things, but... ugh. 

 

 

Ack, I haven't gotten to that part yet.

[Stacia]

Ack, I haven't gotten to that part yet.

 

It's how the beginning of chapter 5/The War Against Women starts.

[Seasider]

I don't enjoy my books full of bad language, but words define the characters so I am more understanding of it in print.

 

Now, audiobooks...yikes! For a long time I only (coincidentally) listened to nonfiction audiobooks. The first time I listened to a contemporary fiction audiobook while I painted the dining room, I was quite shocked.

[Uff Da!]

My closest encounter with actual winnowing was not exactly poetic.

 

When I was at summer school in China in 1981, virtually all the agriculture was done in the back breaking, old fashioned way without any modern machinery.  In the area around the city of Nanjing, where I was, they plant and harvest 3 crops a year!!  There isn't a quiet winter break for resting up.  On a bus trip in June to a rural town we went through clouds of winter wheat that was being winnowed -- they were literally on the dirt road, throwing huge scoops of wheat up into the air, and stepping back to let our bus pass by as we DROVE over the wheat and chaff!! I don't know if that was how they milled the grain, but it was quite something to see.  It gave me pause as I contemplated the wheat in my steamed buns at breakfast.... 

 

 

 

 

 

In the heart of mid-winter I'm enjoying the agrarian feeling the word 'winnow' evokes. It's a word that seems to have gone out of use. A quick glance at the dictionary yields several meanings the first of which is...

 

1.

blow a current of air through (grain) in order to remove the chaff.

remove (chaff) from grain.

"women winnow the chaff from piles of unhusked rice"

 

Though a lot of the country is under snow I'm imagining golden fields of grain swaying as a great wave, times past when there was an actual collective and seasonal alchemy of hand to earth, and the way a body might have bent and knelt into the landscape making of its work a kind of somatic prayer.

 

 

Maybe I'm imagining it wrong but I can't get the image of winnowing out of my head.   A breath, a wind, and all the chaff is removed exposing what's worth keeping.  Even under bus tires, there's something poetic about it- maybe even more so under bus tires.

[JennW in SoCal]

As I was listening today to As You Wish, I started to wonder if any of you who have already read or listened to it are old enough to have an immediate mental image of Captain Kangaroo?  Then, thinking that Cary Elwes made a point of the fire marshall's red hair color helping to make him look like Captain Kangaroo, it occurred to me that the show lasted longer than my brief infatuation with it, in black and white, in the early 1960s.  So I googled it, and yep -- it went til 1984!  It was in black and white til 1967, so the switch to color was long after I had outgrown the show.

 

Does the name "Captain Kangaroo" immediately conjure up a face for you?  (Americans only, of course...doubt his show was broadcast anywhere else.)

 

 

[Lady Florida.]

I've been pondering the bad language thing in books. I'm not sure I've ever read a book where it really stood out to me. I mean, I know I've read books w/ profanity in them, but they were a part of the character or characters, so it didn't stand out as excessive or oddly-out-of-place or anything. In that respect, it doesn't bother me. I think sometimes I don't notice it all that much vs. how much it may stand out to others. (I say this because I think Angel mentioned swear words in Slaughterhouse-Five & I didn't remember it having that much, but when I flipped back through the book looking specifically for that, I noticed quite a bit.)

 

So, I guess, overall, I'd say it doesn't bother me to have it in books, nor do I even notice it that much (at least so far in my reading journeys). Maybe it's almost like 'white noise' to me -- I just read around it. Otoh, I don't want to read gory details about gross or violent things. In the Mongol Queens book I'm reading, I read a short section that was talking about sexual violence against women & girls & I'm not sure I can ever erase that from my brain. History needs to be known so as to not repeat the bad things, but... ugh. 

 

ETA: Maybe I'm partially immune to the swearing thing because my sister swears like a sailor, as the saying goes...? :tongue_smilie: :lol:  And my dad was (sort of) a sailor. ;)  So, I've got the familial vaccination thing going on...?

 

This sounds a lot like how I would answer. I barely notice it, and it doesn't bother me. I curse. People around me curse. If it fits the character then it's not intrusive.

 

The only time cursing really bothered me was the opening scene of the movie Pulp Fiction. Dh and I tried to watch it on VHS (yes, vhs lol) and every other word was the F word. We are not prudes. We are not bothered by cursing, not even that word. But that was just over the top to us. We turned it off and returned the movie. People have often told us we should have let ourselves get past it because it would have been worth it. I'm sure they were right, but to this day neither of us has seen the movie nor have we had any desire to watch it.

[Jane in NC]

As I was listening today to As You Wish, I started to wonder if any of you who have already read or listened to it are old enough to have an immediate mental image of Captain Kangaroo?  Then, thinking that Cary Elwes made a point of the fire marshall's red hair color helping to make him look like Captain Kangaroo, it occurred to me that the show lasted longer than my brief infatuation with it, in black and white, in the early 1960s.  So I googled it, and yep -- it went til 1984!  It was in black and white til 1967, so the switch to color was long after I had outgrown the show.

 

Does the name "Captain Kangaroo" immediately conjure up a face for you?  (Americans only, of course...doubt his show was broadcast anywhere else.)

 

I adored the Captain--and Mr. Green Jeans!

 

Red hair?  Really?  The Captain and Mr. Green Jeans were strictly shades of gray (in the old fashioned, black and white television sense).

 

[Stacia]

Capt. Kangaroo brings up this image in my mind. Red JACKET, not red HAIR!

 

I am confused by a reference to red hair! :confused1:

[Lady Florida.]

As I was listening today to As You Wish, I started to wonder if any of you who have already read or listened to it are old enough to have an immediate mental image of Captain Kangaroo?  Then, thinking that Cary Elwes made a point of the fire marshall's red hair color helping to make him look like Captain Kangaroo, it occurred to me that the show lasted longer than my brief infatuation with it, in black and white, in the early 1960s.  So I googled it, and yep -- it went til 1984!  It was in black and white til 1967, so the switch to color was long after I had outgrown the show.

 

Does the name "Captain Kangaroo" immediately conjure up a face for you?  (Americans only, of course...doubt his show was broadcast anywhere else.)

 

Yes it does. I remember it in black and white but I have seen color pictures. I didn't get the red hair comment when I listened to As You Wish. I remember blonde hair. Red jacket, but blonde hair. I googled images, and I was right. If there was more than one person who played Captain Kangaroo, I'm unaware of it. Plus, Elwes is about my age, so we would have known the same captain.

[Stacia]

I'm thinking the Capt. Kangaroo hair color comment must have stemmed from a bad color tube on Elwes' tv, back in the early days of color tvs.

 

:lol:

 

Otherwise, it's just not logical.

 

Red hair? I think of Ronald McDonald. *That's* red hair.

[Chrysalis Academy]

Yep, I remember Captain Kangaroo - in color, and he was definitely a blond!  I had some hideous green toughskins and I remember my dad calling me Mr. Greenjeans when I wore them.

[Lady Florida.]

I'm thinking the Capt. Kangaroo hair color comment must have stemmed from a bad color tube on Elwes' tv, back in the early days of color tvs.

 

:lol:

 

Otherwise, it's just not logical.

 

Red hair? I think of Ronald McDonald. *That's* red hair.

 

Ooh, new theory. Maybe he's not up on American characters and confused Ronald McDonald with Captain Kangaroo.  :lol:

 

I could easily make such a mistake about English fictional characters or tv personalities.

[shukriyya]

So many posts I'd like to respond to but the lack of multi-quote (which seems to be permanent???) has made me lazy...

 

I remember Captain Kangaroo, in shades of black, white and grey, I might add, but I grew up with the Canadian equivalent, Mr. Dressup and his pals Casey and Finnegan :D Stacia, red hair brought an immediate image of Ronald McDonald, too.

 

Coarse language in books...context is everything.

 

More later, out the door for ds's piano lesson.

 

TTFN :seeya:

 

 

[Angel]

I guess my "bad" words are crap, butt, and fart.

 

Umm, I had no idea they were "bad" words until one of my co-op students went home and told his mom (my IRL friend) that Miss Angel was swearing in class  :lol:

 

Yes, I live a sheltered life  :lol:

[mumto2]

I guess my "bad" words are crap, butt, and fart.

 

Umm, I had no idea they were "bad" words until one of my co-op students went home and told his mom (my IRL friend) that Miss Angel was swearing in class :lol:

 

Yes, I live a sheltered life :lol:

Some words have different meanings in different countries.....fanny means something totally different in British. Blush, someone finally told me. You can google I refuse to link. It could be far worse but I don't use that kind of language.

 

Has anyone heard from Pam? I haven't seen her today.

 

I did finish Foxglove Summer, the latest in the Peter Grant series. https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/22365955-foxglove-summer. It was a good outing for what appears to be a long series. For some reason I expected many open plot issues to resolve themselves so was a bit disappointed but the storyline was good.

[Kareni]

As regards profanity, I hear a lot of it on the bus.  What I hear more of though and what I find even more irksome is an over abundance of the word 'like'.  I suspect, Jane, that your hat, gloves, and list of adjectives could be useful.  "But, like, I guess, no one would be, like, interested."

 

Regards,

Kareni

[Uff Da!]

Some words have different meanings in different countries.....fanny means something totally different in British. Blush, someone finally told me. You can google I refuse to link. It could be far worse but I don't use that kind of language.

 

 

I know a woman who, on her first day in Nottingham, walked into a pub and told the bartender, "Just wait one minute while I get my money out of my fanny pack."  The entire pub went silent.

 

I made the mistake of walking into a outdoor gear store and asking for "waterproof pants".  Oops.... :leaving:     No bladder control problems here.  Promise.

[shukriyya]

And, thinking more about it, I guess the main appeal for me is having some kind of an organizing thread, a framework for fitting in the different philosophical ideas.  Maybe it's just me being Aristotelean and trying to categorize things?  But I think part of my difficulty with reading philosophy is that I don't have any formal background/training in it, and more than almost any other genre, philosophers are always talking to each other, right? They are always referring to and contrasting their ideas with what has come before.  I have no framework for understanding this, so the shorthands and references they make to other philosophers don't enlighten me to where their position falls vis a vis the field and the history of its ideas as a whole.  I'm a big picture person, and I need to see the forest before I can make any sense of the individual trees.

 

I'm doing daily readings from The Harvard Classics In  a Year kindle book that somebody posted about yesterday, and this morning I hit an essay by Mazzini about Byron & Goethe "The Soaring Eagle and the Contented Stork" where he's discussing the poets, what they reacted to, how they defined their era, and how they were being re-interpreted a generation later.  It's interesting, but pretty hard to follow for me because I don't know a ton about the poetry of that era, particularly not German or French poetry, so I don't get all his references, though i do get some.  And I realized - this is how philosophers write all the time, and this is why it's so hard for me to read philosophy!

 

Anyway, just some more random thoughts.  I need plenty of History of Philosophy before I tackle the actual philosophy itself.  

 

Shukriyya, does your dh have any suggestionf for a newbie, other than Read Plato?

 

ETA: if I'm grokking this correctly, Mazzini is a Platonist, characterizing Byron & Goethe as the Aristotelean expressors of the spirit of their age, the "age of revolutions".  Or is a little knowledge just a dangerous thing?  ;)  :D

 

Dh suggests that you read Copleston. I will warn you there are, wait for it...11 volumes...which seems fairly comprehensive, dontcha think :lol: This is what all the PhD candidates used to prepare for their comprehensive exams on the history of philosophy when dh was a student.

 

He is also happy to choose one or two of the shorter, more accessible Socratic dialogues for you to explore. And he says they're a lot easier to understand than all these people writing about them :D

 

[wonderchica]

Thanks for the kind recommendations ladies! I will definitely add some of those to the next library run. I Capture The Castle is probably my favorite book ever, so nice to hear others enjoyed it as well.

 

I'm currently reading The Tiger's Wife by Tea Obreht. I'm enjoying it so far, but it's more of a "quiet" book to me. I recently picked up The Ship of Brides by JoJo Moyes and Is Everyone Hanging Out Without Me?, a memoir/essay collection by Mindy Kaling. I think she's so smart and funny, so looking forward to that one!

[mumto2]

I know a woman who, on her first day in Nottingham, walked into a pub and told the bartender, "Just wait one minute while I get my money out of my fanny pack." The entire pub went silent.

 

I made the mistake of walking into a outdoor gear store and asking for "waterproof pants". Oops.... :leaving: No bladder control problems here. Promise.

I know exactly how you felt. Poor you and the waterproof pants. :lol:

 

Then they have fun vocabulary like knackeredhttp://dictionary.cambridge.org/dictionary/british/knackeredor fun until another friend explained it was a bit strange for me to use because it didn't fit the rest of my vocabulary.

 

The greeting Hiya! Drives me nuts. The kids aren't allowed to use it. I don't care who said it.

 

Edited to finish. I somehow hit post early.

[aggieamy]

As I was listening today to As You Wish, I started to wonder if any of you who have already read or listened to it are old enough to have an immediate mental image of Captain Kangaroo?  Then, thinking that Cary Elwes made a point of the fire marshall's red hair color helping to make him look like Captain Kangaroo, it occurred to me that the show lasted longer than my brief infatuation with it, in black and white, in the early 1960s.  So I googled it, and yep -- it went til 1984!  It was in black and white til 1967, so the switch to color was long after I had outgrown the show.

 

Does the name "Captain Kangaroo" immediately conjure up a face for you?  (Americans only, of course...doubt his show was broadcast anywhere else.)

 

Red jacket and grey hair?!?!  I have an image but the colors might be wrong.  I definitely get a mental image though.  

[Pam in CT]

Well, I have my first abandoned book of 2015 - The Brothers Karamazov. I really dislike the spiritual philosophising. I find it incredibly boring, and from what I can gather it will continue to play a big part in the rest of the book. I don't feel bad about dropping it.

 

Yesterday I finished The Phantom of the Opera, and can't say I was impressed. I gave it two stars. It was a silly story and not well written. I didn't like any of the characters (none of whom I think were well developed). My theory is the musical is the only reason this story is still popular. 

 

I think I've been reading a lot of difficult books lately and needed something light and fun. I started The Rosie Project this morning and am at 20% already. I think this is just what I need right now.

 

I'm still plugging along in Ulysses and Unbroken. I also started reading Death Comes for the Archbishop after the My Antonia thread. 

 

After yesterday's audible.com purchases, I decided to start listening to For Whom The Bell Tolls, and will save Out Stealing Horses for later.

 

Noooo.... you're giving up on Karamozov?  Me, I am right.on.the.edge of giving up Ulysses.  I feel like it's just washing over me without making any impact whatsoever.  The individual sentences are masterful but it's still not coalescing into an experience, if that makes any sense.

 

I've been off the threads because I lost my writing journal more than a week ago.  I didn't worry about it because mostly always such things reappear in a couple of days, but it hasn't yet.  I suppose I'll have to wander around the house and pick books off the floor to remember what I've read, sigh.

[Pam in CT]

Hi everyone!

 

I just finished The Tao of Pooh.  I think I'm going to start A Path Appears next.  I read Half the Sky a few years ago and it really inspired me, so hopefully this one is just as good. 

 

My list,

1. Gone Girl

2. All the Light We Cannot See

3. The Conscious Parent

4. The Tao of Pooh

 

Oh good.  I got that when it first came out and it's been sitting by my bed ever since; by this point it's so far down the stack that it's basically irretrievable.  Tell me it's as good as Half the Sky and I'll dig it out!

 

shukriyya.  Those zentangles are AMAZING.

 

Ali - I do hope you're a bit better by now....   :grouphug:

 

 

(where oh where has the multi quoting gone?)

[Pam in CT]

...

Decided in real life zentangling isn't for me. However , in my dreams last night had a Russian and a Chinese spy creating masterful pictures which were suppose to be full of secret clues for each to decipher. Guess my subconscious is enjoying it more. ;)

 

:lol:

[Pam in CT]

Nan, I thought of you as I was reading the news this morning. Glad to hear you're ok. I'm with Jane, what's a 'moo' in relation to a window?

 

I'm thinking about Pam and hoping she's ok. Do we have other Northeasters in our little tribe?

 

Aww, you're sweet.  We got about 10-12 inches, which is more than we usually do, but held on to the power.  The woods look grand now, straight out of Robert Frost.  I think NH and Maine ended up with the worst of it.

[SilverFirefly]

Boy is it hard to keep up with these threads. I haven't updated since the beginning of the first week.

 

Last night I finished Special Topics in Calamity Physics by Marisha Pessl. This is one of those books that made me want to start reading all over again from the beginning in order to catch all the things I might have missed the first time through. The other most notable read since my last post was The Color Purple by Alice Walker which was both painful and beautiful.

 

I am currently reading:

This One Summer by Jillian Tamaki

Russian Fairy Tales by Gillian Avery (read aloud)

The Forgotten Seamstress by Liz Trenow (audiobook)

The Indian in the Cupboard by Lynne Reid Banks (read aloud)

Songs of Childhood by Walter de la Mare (read aloud)

Bible in One Year

 

Completed in weeks 1-3:

9. The Age of Miracles by Karen Thompson Walker (audiobook) ****

8. Kat and the Emperor's Gift by Emma Bradford (read aloud) ***

7. The Mindful Way Through Depression by Mark Williams **

6. The Tale of Despereaux by Kate DiCamillo (read aloud) ****

5. Babe: The Gallant Pig by Dick King-Smith (read aloud) ****

4. Glinda of Oz by L. Frank Baum (read aloud) ****

3. The Color Purple by Alice Walker (book club) *****

2. The Adventures of Robin Hood by Roger Lancelyn Green (read aloud) ****

1. The Magic of Oz by L. Frank Baum (read aloud) ***

 

[MicheleinMN]

Noooo.... you're giving up on Karamozov

 

 

I'm with you Pam!  Brothers Karamazov is a favorite of mine, but I did use the audio book to help me along.  (Oh, and did I mention I was dealing with an aging Catholic grandmother and totally dysfunctional family stuff at the time?)

[Onceuponatime]

I finished Book, Line and Sinker. The end was disappointing to me, even though I enjoyed the story as a whole.

 

When I think of philosophy, I think of the difference between the two sayings "I think, therefore I am" and "The mind is what the brain does." I guess these are Platonic and Aristotlean in their own way?

 

Which brings me to one of my favorite jokes: Rene DeCarte walked into a coffee shop that he frequented regularly. The guy behind the counter said, "Can I get you the usual?" Mr. DeCarte replied thoughtfully, "Hmmm, I don't think so." POOF! He vanished without a trace.

 

 

 

 

ETA: For joke connoisseurs, I know, I messed up. In the wee hours of the morning, a wee little voice woke me up saying, "I think not...I think not."

[Stacia]

Which brings me to one of my favorite jokes: Rene DeCarte walked into a coffee shop that he frequented regularly. The guy behind the counter said, "Can I get you the usual?" Mr. DeCarte replied thoughtfully, "Hmmm, I don't think so." POOF! He vanished without a trace.

 

That's so silly I actually laughed out loud. Thanks for the chuckle!

[Robin M]

Swearing in books. I can handle it if it's within context but when they are swearing right off the bat on the first page of the book (f word mainly), I'm not interested in reading the book.   I started off having a couple of my characters using the f word in one of my stories but when my son started wanting to read my stories, I decided to clean up the language.  Decided it isn't necessary.   James wanted to watch iron sky so I looked up the parents guide and they said there are 70 instances of using the f word. Seriously.  Don't people know how to communicate without it.  I'm not perfect and can swear like a sailor when I'm mad but seriously I don't want to watch a movie where every other word is the F word.  There have been some great movies which have been ruined because of the language.

 

Captain Kangaroo, I remember him in black and white - but not red hair. 

 

 

[SunnyDays]

This lack of multi quote means I will forget many things on which I intended to comment!  (What *did* happen to that anyway?  I missed it in my absence, I'll have to poke around.)

 

Captain Kangaroo:  Yes, I definitely remember watching - in color - in the late 70's/early 80's.  Red jacket, greyish blonde hair, green pants on the other guy!  ;)

 

Glad everyone out east is okay.  Sounds like some areas ended up lighter than originally predicted. 

 

Regarding bad language... I don't usually even notice a smattering.  Heavy usage makes me want to join Jane in donning gloves and pearls and offering more prudent alternatives.  Constant F-bombs usually means the book/movie ends up being left unfinished.

 

Still reading the Peter Enns book and haven't started my lighter reading yet... plan on that tonight!!

 

 

ETA:  Found the multiquote thread.  It told me, essentially, that multiquote is gone...  :LOL:

 

[Chrysalis Academy]

Dh suggests that you read Copleston. I will warn you there are, wait for it...11 volumes...which seems fairly comprehensive, dontcha think :lol: This is what all the PhD candidates used to prepare for their comprehensive exams on the history of philosophy when dh was a student.

 

He is also happy to choose one or two of the shorter, more accessible Socratic dialogues for you to explore. And he says they're a lot easier to understand than all these people writing about them :D

 

 

:lol:  :lol:  :lol:  I'll get right on that!!!  

 

I did read a couple of the dialogues - The Apology, Crito, and Phaedo - but I totally lost it trying to read The Republic and I haven't been back since.  I'm not quite sure if I'm ready to tackle the reading list for a philosophy PhDs comps - ask him which of the Socratic dialogues I should read, and I'll take a stab at them.  I can't promise I'm ready to tackle The Republic again yet, though.

 

Actually, after writing about it this morning, I did rescue The Cave and the Light from my library retun bag and started reading it again . . . because I don't actuallly have to *finish* anything this week, I'm waaaaaaaaay ahead of schedule - right?  Right?   ;)  :D

[Stacia]

If you like pretty pictures, have a look: 10 Great Meals in Literature. Just don't go through them if you're hungry because you'll probably be rummaging for a snack after looking at these.

 

<excuse me while I run off to the pantry now...>

[SunnyDays]

If you like pretty pictures, have a look: 10 Great Meals in Literature. Just don't go through them if you're hungry because you'll probably be rummaging for a snack after looking at these.

 

<excuse me while I run off to the pantry now...>

 

Strangely (or not), I'm now craving apple pie....

 

Yes, you did warn me.  In fairness, I didn't *know* I was hungry!!  :)

[Stacia]

Strangely (or not), I'm now craving apple pie....

 

Yes, you did warn me.  In fairness, I didn't *know* I was hungry!!  :)

I really want a grilled cheese now! :lol: