Este tema está marcado actualmente como "inactivo"—el último mensaje es de hace más de 90 días. Puedes reactivarlo escribiendo una respuesta.
1MikeBriggs
1) Dewey's Nine Lives - Vicki Myron - 01/31/11-02/01/11 - 4.88
Animals, cats, pets
Collection of stories of different people and cats
2) Ball Four - Jim Bouton - 03/04/11-03/11/11 - 3.45
Sports, baseball, memoir, autobio
A year in the life of a big league pitcher
3) The Bay Ridge Chronicles - Jerome Hoffman - 04/10/11 - 3.00
History, Brooklyn, Bay Ridge
4) When Brooklyn Was the World - Elliot Willensky - 04/15/11-04/16/11 - 3.03
History, Brooklyn
5) Britannia, the Roman Conquest and Occupation of Britain - George Patrick Welch - 05/29/11-06/01/11 - 4.95
History, Romans, Britain
6) Hospital Sketches - Louisa May Alcott - 06/02/11 - 4.00
Memoir, Autobio, Nursing, Civil War
7) Nerd Do Well - Simon Pegg - 06/17/11-06/20/11 - 3.55
Memoir, Autobio
An interesting book. While his acting work appears throughout the book, it is given little space. An in depth look at his acting career will have to wait for another day, as this book focuses more on his life story, pre-fame, and the popular culture that influenced his career.
The book includes a fictional story in different type-face that runs throughout the book. Pegg as a rich strong guy with his hand-built robot. The combination of the fiction with some of his writing style sometimes overwhelmed the ability to tell when he is being truthful, and when he is just joking.
In the end it was/is an interesting look at what growing up in England is like and if read in that light, without looking for in-depth discussion on Pegg's work, then it might be a worthwhile read.
Animals, cats, pets
Collection of stories of different people and cats
2) Ball Four - Jim Bouton - 03/04/11-03/11/11 - 3.45
Sports, baseball, memoir, autobio
A year in the life of a big league pitcher
3) The Bay Ridge Chronicles - Jerome Hoffman - 04/10/11 - 3.00
History, Brooklyn, Bay Ridge
4) When Brooklyn Was the World - Elliot Willensky - 04/15/11-04/16/11 - 3.03
History, Brooklyn
5) Britannia, the Roman Conquest and Occupation of Britain - George Patrick Welch - 05/29/11-06/01/11 - 4.95
History, Romans, Britain
6) Hospital Sketches - Louisa May Alcott - 06/02/11 - 4.00
Memoir, Autobio, Nursing, Civil War
7) Nerd Do Well - Simon Pegg - 06/17/11-06/20/11 - 3.55
Memoir, Autobio
An interesting book. While his acting work appears throughout the book, it is given little space. An in depth look at his acting career will have to wait for another day, as this book focuses more on his life story, pre-fame, and the popular culture that influenced his career.
The book includes a fictional story in different type-face that runs throughout the book. Pegg as a rich strong guy with his hand-built robot. The combination of the fiction with some of his writing style sometimes overwhelmed the ability to tell when he is being truthful, and when he is just joking.
In the end it was/is an interesting look at what growing up in England is like and if read in that light, without looking for in-depth discussion on Pegg's work, then it might be a worthwhile read.
2qebo
Welcome! I checked the "currently reading" list on your profile, and Twenty-Five Books That Shaped America looks interesting. And I've heard enough good things about Hospital Sketches to add it to my wish list.
3MikeBriggs
Thanks for the welcome. I've read more than 75 fiction books so far this year, so a nonfiction group/thread should help increase my nonfiction reading. Probably not to 75 a year though.
25 Books is good so far. I have been reading it without break for other books. It probably should/could be read in short gulps. The author stresses that it is 25 books that shaped America, not The 25 books. Point being that there probably should be at least 200 books on the list to be The list.
So far I've found Ben Franklin's Autobiography; James Fenimore Cooper's Last Mohican; Hawthorne's Scarlet Letter; Melville's Moby-Dick (which I've learned was first published in England, and under a different title - The Whale).
Hospital Sketches was slightly hard to get into, then ends flat.
25 Books is good so far. I have been reading it without break for other books. It probably should/could be read in short gulps. The author stresses that it is 25 books that shaped America, not The 25 books. Point being that there probably should be at least 200 books on the list to be The list.
So far I've found Ben Franklin's Autobiography; James Fenimore Cooper's Last Mohican; Hawthorne's Scarlet Letter; Melville's Moby-Dick (which I've learned was first published in England, and under a different title - The Whale).
Hospital Sketches was slightly hard to get into, then ends flat.
4MikeBriggs
I've created links for the works read, included the tiny little review I did for Pegg's book, and here leave a link to my nonfiction wiki page. Well, link to nonfiction works read that appears on my Wiki page on LT; as opposed to a nonfiction wiki page. Though the page is, in fact, nonfiction.
Link: http://www.librarything.com/wiki/index.php/User:MikeBriggs/Nonfiction
This would work more if I recalled how to create a link. But alas, I cannot recall.
Link: http://www.librarything.com/wiki/index.php/User:MikeBriggs/Nonfiction
This would work more if I recalled how to create a link. But alas, I cannot recall.
5fdholt
I really like your wiki page, especially the break-down by subject. I've just added more to my wishlist. Sigh!
6MikeBriggs
Thanks :)
7MikeBriggs
8) Twenty Five Book that Shaped America - Thomas C. Foster - 6/23/11-6/27/11 - 4.16
Literary Criticism
On phone, so difficult to say more than complete.
some expected books, some books never heard of. one common theme that seems to run throughout is how the author, Foster, seems to prefer loose, plot-less books & short story collections which he prefers to call novels.
The most entertaining reads were the chapters on The Cat in the Hat and To Kill a Mockingbird. I also found, with some exceptions, that the chapters that contained books I had read were easier and or more enjoyable reads than those chapters about works I had never heard of before. As mentioned, there are exceptions.
Literary Criticism
On phone, so difficult to say more than complete.
some expected books, some books never heard of. one common theme that seems to run throughout is how the author, Foster, seems to prefer loose, plot-less books & short story collections which he prefers to call novels.
The most entertaining reads were the chapters on The Cat in the Hat and To Kill a Mockingbird. I also found, with some exceptions, that the chapters that contained books I had read were easier and or more enjoyable reads than those chapters about works I had never heard of before. As mentioned, there are exceptions.
8MikeBriggs
9) Bambi vs. Godzilla - David Mamet - 6/27/11-6/28/11 - 3.40
Movie Industry
My enjoyment of Mamet's films has, most of the time, been constrained by use of words and language that I am not used to. This tendency hampers my enjoyment of this book, plus the injection of national politics which was jarring and unexpected. The large number of films referenced by Mamet and unknown by me is both a plus and negative. A plus in that I have new films to search out. A negative in that some films are used to show certain concepts, and my lack of knowledge impacts my ability to fully understand.
An interesting book. If you like Mamet you will probably like, if you dislike Mamet's films you will dislike the book. I am uncertain what a reader unfamiliar with Mamet might think of the book.
Movie Industry
My enjoyment of Mamet's films has, most of the time, been constrained by use of words and language that I am not used to. This tendency hampers my enjoyment of this book, plus the injection of national politics which was jarring and unexpected. The large number of films referenced by Mamet and unknown by me is both a plus and negative. A plus in that I have new films to search out. A negative in that some films are used to show certain concepts, and my lack of knowledge impacts my ability to fully understand.
An interesting book. If you like Mamet you will probably like, if you dislike Mamet's films you will dislike the book. I am uncertain what a reader unfamiliar with Mamet might think of the book.
9MikeBriggs
10) Talking About Detective Fiction - P.D. James - 6/29/11 - 4.33
10MikeBriggs
11) Here is New York - E.B. White - 6/30/2011 - 5.00
Read and reviewed
Powerful short book that pulled me along from the first sentence all the way to be battered about the head near the end. Others have noted it in reviews, I believe maybe even on here. Noted the mention of the planes. And the destruction. The mention of how New Yorkers fear the planes, collapsing buildings, fire, destruction . . .
"burn the towers, crumble the bridges, turn the underground passages into lethal chambers, cremate the millions. The intimation of mortality is part of New York now" . . .
Again, this has been mentioned before. And I had known about it before I started. The book pulled me in, though, and I didn't remember, didn't recall then rushed into the death and destruction as the page turned. Of course the book is from 1949. The book actually ends with the building of the United Nations complex. Not the fall of the Twin Towers. And the planes, well the part I left out from the quote above shows how this destruction is feared to come about a "single flight of planes no bigger than a wedge of geese can quickly end this island fantasy..." The fear is bomber planes. Though planes flying into the Empire State building was mentioned in an earlier section.
Read and reviewed
Powerful short book that pulled me along from the first sentence all the way to be battered about the head near the end. Others have noted it in reviews, I believe maybe even on here. Noted the mention of the planes. And the destruction. The mention of how New Yorkers fear the planes, collapsing buildings, fire, destruction . . .
"burn the towers, crumble the bridges, turn the underground passages into lethal chambers, cremate the millions. The intimation of mortality is part of New York now" . . .
Again, this has been mentioned before. And I had known about it before I started. The book pulled me in, though, and I didn't remember, didn't recall then rushed into the death and destruction as the page turned. Of course the book is from 1949. The book actually ends with the building of the United Nations complex. Not the fall of the Twin Towers. And the planes, well the part I left out from the quote above shows how this destruction is feared to come about a "single flight of planes no bigger than a wedge of geese can quickly end this island fantasy..." The fear is bomber planes. Though planes flying into the Empire State building was mentioned in an earlier section.
