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Holiday Reading (pg. 4)
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| Silky Johnson |
Atlas Shrugged is my favorite book ever. I swear to god I had a "crush" on this book...rather, the ideas in it. I had heard so much about it many times, and was determined NOT to like it because of that. But within the first 3 pages I was in love.
It really changed/broadened my perspective about a lot of things in such subtle ways, and it takes a lot to do that...but I'm glad for it.
Rand basically integrates her philosophy of objectivism through the characters and their personal moral struggles without being elusive or pretentious about it (god, I ing hate when authors do that! *cough*Umberto Eco*cough*). And yeah, it reads beautifully.
I literally went to bed with it every night, lol. |
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| MarkT |
^^^ a much more compressed book on her philosophy might interest you both (if you haven't already read it)...The Virtue of Selfishness.
| quote: | Originally posted by The Highroller
Key element here. This is your best ticket to learn the language. Practice with him as much as you can. |
indeed...he's already promised to help me prepare :D
I imagine that simply being where you are must be resulting in a radical improvement in your French, no matter how good it was to begin with (and proper French instead of the Quebecois bastardization that we have here, lol).
Sarah...I agree with how one's perspective changes when you go back later. It really is a different experience. No pressure outside of what you put on yourself and you bring more to the table from your additional life and work experience. I'm quite enjoying it for the most part.
I will also pick your brain if I do go the MBA route too ;) |
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| Silky Johnson |
| quote: | Originally posted by MarkT
^^^ a much more compressed book on her philosophy might interest you both (if you haven't already read it)...The Virtue of Selfishness.
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To be honest, the egotism is the one part of her philosophy I DON'T agree with. I mean I understand what she means and she justifies it really nicely...and it's a great idea in theory, but it just doesn't work in the real world, imo. I believe that people ARE partly altruistic, and I think you'd have to be a robot to live entirely according to her ideals.
But yeah, I had considered reading her other books. :p |
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| Orko |
| quote: | Originally posted by MarkT
^^^ a much more compressed book on her philosophy might interest you both (if you haven't already read it)...The Virtue of Selfishness.
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Read it, since I do not have time to read a 1000+ page book. I had to re-read a lot of the essays in virtue of selfishness. Interesting, and challenging philosophy, but a hard read. |
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| rabbitjoker |
Check this book out:
"The Gulag Archipelago: 1918-1956" by Aleksandr I. Solzhenitsyn (all parts).
It's a heavy read - but a remarkable piece (more than a book, one of those few works of literature that impacted the modern world as we know it).
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"The Gulag Archipelago" is a non-fictional account from and about the other great holocaust of our century--the imprisonment, brutalization and very often murder of tens of millions of innocent Soviet citizens by their own Government, mostly during Stalin's rule from 1929 to 1953.
Aleksandr Solzhenitsyn has called "The Gulag Archipelago" his "main" work, setting it above the major novels that won him the reputation of Russia's pre-eminent living writer and the 1970 Nobel Prize. The importance he attaches to the book, written in 1958-68 but authorized for Western publication only after the Soviet secret police seized a copy of the manuscript last August, is understandable.
Solzhenitsyn's first purpose has been to document for the Soviet people, whose Government has acknowledged only part of the truth and almost none of the responsibility, the full dimensions of what happened. A survivor himself, Solzhenitsyn feels a messianic obligation to "all those tortured and murdered," but even more to living and future generations. He wants the whole truth of official criminality and civic acquiescence openly acknowledged and condemned so that the nation can achieve spiritual and political renewal through "the great Russian tradition of penitence." As a chronicle of the holocaust, "The Gulag Archipelago" is an extraordinary achievement. |
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| slingshot |
I've had this on my shelf for a while now but haven't been able able to read it due to an increased workload overload over the last month....
The Age of Turbulence - Alan Greenspan
I'm also hoping to get to....
The Black Swan - Nassim Nicholas Taleb
(especially looking forward to it given the recent sub-prime fiasco) |
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| Kate Manus |
yay... my on amazon order arrived today :D
a few books coming up for me include Bob Woodward's "Inside the Clinton Whitehouse" (loved his 3 books on the Bush admin) and Stephen Colbert's "I am America (and so can you)" that came out earlier this month... for some lighter political humour. |
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| Matt |
Not very intellectual, but I am looking forward to reading I Am America (and So Can You!)
Too many school readings and lines to memorize to read anything else... |
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| Silky Johnson |
| Oh! I'm also reading F. Scott Fitzgerald's 'Tender is the Night' at work! |
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| EvilTree |
| quote: | Originally posted by rabbitjoker
Check this book out:
"The Gulag Archipelago: 1918-1956" by Aleksandr I. Solzhenitsyn (all parts).
It's a heavy read - but a remarkable piece (more than a book, one of those few works of literature that impacted the modern world as we know it). |
+1
It's been a while since I've read it (I think I read this when I was 14) but it's a fascinating read. Actually, anything about gulags are generally a decent read |
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| EvilTree |
| quote: | Originally posted by soupastah
HP all the way |
burn in hell |
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