Off-topic The Bay’s favourite books fred

[jannissary]

The last book I read was probably the second-last Harry Potter book. Read all of them except the last one, so I still don’t know how it ends.

This was before Rowling turned out to be a transphobic piece of sh*t, though.

last book isn't memorable tbh, very boring and really drags on.

 

[zackah]

Worst book OAT - The Great Gatsby. Made me read that shit in grade 11. **** off. I tried to cliff notes the movie version (Robert Redford ) and that was even worse

 

[V_23]

Worst book OAT - The Great Gatsby. Made me read that shit in grade 11. **** off. I tried to cliff notes the movie version (Robert Redford ) and that was even worse

Was it a new release when you studied it back in school?

 

[zackah]

Was it a new release when you studied it back in school?

Studied is a stretch. Wagged English class and smoked weed would be more accurate.

 

[zackah]

Also drugs are bad.

 

[Triggering Tiger]

Studied is a stretch. Wagged English class and smoked weed would be more accurate.

Sounds like a standard prepubescent school kid's life in Oz.

 

[zackah]

Sounds like a standard prepubescent school kid's life in Oz.

I would think postpubescent.

Unless you live in Broadmeadows.

 

[Triggering Tiger]

I would think postpubescent.

Unless you live in Broadmeadows.

I actually tried weed for the first time when I was around 12 and school was a bit boring so I use to wag now then and hit arcades.

 

[FISTO]

I’ve been listening to Where’s Wally on audiobook.
Can’t find the campaigner

 

[zackah]

I’ve been listening to Where’s Wally on audiobook.
Can’t find the campaigner

You probably need what I had in high school.

 

[CatToTheFuture]

Just finished A Tale of Two Cities - I delayed reading it for years, not sure why. It's incredible.
Just before that was a biography of Martin Luther.
Now started a History of Seances book I received for Christmas.

Tale of two cities sounds good I'll chuck it on the list (there's a backlog)

 

[FISTO]

You probably need what I had in high school.

Dare I ask?

 

[zackah]

Dare I ask?

Your moth...

No its 2025, be better zackah

 

[Chronz]

Check out Orlando Figes, he's done a lot of work on Russian history (popularly accessible yet still quite weighty).

Always keen to read more about it, I'll check it out.

 

[James Colorado]

Always keen to read more about it, I'll check it out.

Thinking further, also check out Simon Sebag Montefiore. There's a chance the book you read may have been by either of them.

 

[the avoca drover]

As a serious answer, my favourite book since childhood has been Treasure Island, but due to being an elitist, pretentious snob, my literary movement as a whole is the 19th Century Russian Golden Age; the depth and insight of Tolstoy and Dostoyevsky is incredible. And there's still a lot I haven't read (Fathers and Sons is supposed to be Turgenev's masterpiece, yet I've only read First Love and On The Eve by him, which while not being as deep as others in the genre have an absolutely fluid style that is amazing).

Do you sit on the Chesterfield, pipe in one hand, book in the other?

 

[Mofra]

As a serious answer, my favourite book since childhood has been Treasure Island, but due to being an elitist, pretentious snob, my literary movement as a whole is the 19th Century Russian Golden Age; the depth and insight of Tolstoy and Dostoyevsky is incredible. And there's still a lot I haven't read (Fathers and Sons is supposed to be Turgenev's masterpiece, yet I've only read First Love and On The Eve by him, which while not being as deep as others in the genre have an absolutely fluid style that is amazing).

Dostoyevsky is one of the greatest descriptive writers in history. And to think Crime and Punishment started as a newspaper series and was one of his first books.

Weirdly, I've read a few books of his but none of Tolstoy.

 

[CatToTheFuture]

Check out Orlando Figes, he's done a lot of work on Russian history (popularly accessible yet still quite weighty).

I read his book Revolutionary Russia covering the 100 years before the breakup of the soviet union, was brilliant. I still think about it a lot and I read it like 5 years ago.

 

[Mofra]

Check out Orlando Figes, he's done a lot of work on Russian history (popularly accessible yet still quite weighty).

Putting that on the list for sure

 

[Tyler Durden007]

Ben Elton is a strange character. As a writer and producer, brilliant, as a comic, hopeless. I love all of his books but the two that stand out for me were non-humorous and one was based on real people and their lives.

The first is "Two Brothers". Twin brothers, born into a Jewish family in 1920 in Germany. Considering their puberty experience was the rise of the National Socialist party and their early adulthood was the second world war...

The second is "Time and Time Again". Masterfully written fiction with an epic twist.

And solid mention to "Identity Crisis" a brilliant pre-cursor to the woke age and all of it's sickness.


Honourable mention to "History's Greatest Mistakes... and the people who made them"

 

[Mofra]

Ben Elton is a strange character. As a writer and producer, brilliant, as a comic, hopeless. I love all of his books but the two that stand out for me were non-humorous and one was based on real people and their lives.

The first is "Two Brothers". Twin brothers, born into a Jewish family in 1920 in Germany. Considering their puberty experience was the rise of the National Socialist party and their early adulthood was the second world war...

The second is "Time and Time Again". Masterfully written fiction with an epic twist.

And solid mention to "Identity Crisis" a brilliant pre-cursor to the woke age and all of it's sickness.


Honourable mention to "History's Greatest Mistakes... and the people who made them"

I haven't read much of him beyond Stark and High Society but did enjoy those. I'll take the above as recommendations.

 

[Aristotle Pickett]

The HOLY bible.

Written by human peasants with little knowledge of the world 100 years after Jesus copped it.

 

[frggr]

Yet awful little tankies apologise for the horrors of the soviets still to this day!

Sure there were horrors - especially under particularly authoritarian regimes, but people forget the capitalist system kills hundreds of thousands every year - lack of housing, lack of affordable healthcare.

Pretty sure they count war dead in the "deaths due to communism" tallies too - that's 20 million there and then.

What I found interesting, and it could be rose coloured glasses, but people who lived under both systems think the old system was better.

At the very least they had guaranteed holidays, housing etc and better, safer working conditions.

When capitalists took over corporate interests in the former Republics, all of that took a nosedive for a vast majority of people.

Anyway, back on topic - French existentialist works are great.

The House of Leaves is mindbending if you're keen for existential horror coupled with a piss take on academia.

Blindman's Bluff is an excellent read on the Cold War submarine arms race and the history of submarine espionage.

I like Cormac McCarthy's works - Blood Meridian is a standout. No Country For Old Men is better than the film (and the film is incredible). The Road.

Steinbeck's East of Eden is timeless and The Grapes of Wrath is crucial more than ever.

Daniel Quinn's Ishmael series takes an interesting perspective on culture and what it is to be human - some flaws, but interesting all the same.

Marcus Aurelius' Meditations is transformative - though the advice is simple, the application is, as always, the hardest part.

Haruki Murakami's books are as much about his record collection as anything else. Abstract psychedelica set in Japan. Kafka on the Shore is at the deeper end. Norwegian Wood a more traditional introduction. The Second Bakery Attack is a short story you can find online that's an interesting taster.

Convenience Store Woman by Sayaka Murata is a great read.

The Remains of the Day - Kazuo Ishiguro. Never Let Mě Go.

Prometheus Rising - Robert Anton Wilson

Tokyo Vice - Jake Adelstein. American moves to Japan, gets a job as a newspaper reporter in a Japanese language newspaper, covers organized crime - true story. They made a TV series of it recently.

Illusions: The Adventures of a Reluctant Messiah - Richard Bach - a book that revisits the nature of reality and self.

Things the Grandchildren Should Know - Mark Oliver Everett aka E from the band EELS.

He had such a weird and ****ed up life and this is his autobiography of sorts. His father was a renowned physicist who was responsible for the "many worlds interpretation" in quantum physics.

Insanely talented.

 

[Jazny]

Sure there were horrors - especially under particularly authoritarian regimes, but people forget the capitalist system kills hundreds of thousands every year - lack of housing, lack of affordable healthcare.

Pretty sure they count war dead in the "deaths due to communism" tallies too - that's 20 million there and then.

What I found interesting, and it could be rose coloured glasses, but people who lived under both systems think the old system was better.

At the very least they had guaranteed holidays, housing etc and better, safer working conditions.

When capitalists took over corporate interests in the former Republics, all of that took a nosedive for a vast majority of people.

 

[frggr]

I'm already there. It's Bay 13.

Meanwhile the moyenne bourgeoisie swan about clucking their tongues and wielding the banzhammer while drinking sparkling white wines