To take part in discussions on talkSFU, please apply for membership (SFU email id required).
Does anybody read for fun anymore?
I used to read a lot when I was younger, especially throughout high school but it seems like ever since I came to university, there's no more time for recreational reading. To counter act that, I take english classes every other semester so it gives me a chance to read and discuss different kinds of literature. Anyone else into discussing literature on this board? Shakespeare, Orwell, Thatcher, Atwood, anything goes
Comments
so I finished 'The Fountainhead' by Ayn Rand and 'Gulag: A history' by Anne Applebaum.
I highly recommend Gulag, I couldn't put it down for three days straight!! the book describes the harsh conditions of forced labour workers in the soviet era (from lenin to stalin and finally its fall from power in 1991). many of the accounts described in the book were just horrifying and I personally believe it is a must-read in order to understand the complicated political, social, and economical issues in modern Russia.
any books on your "want-to-read" list?
Gulag is now on my want to read list :) as is Machiavelli - The Art of War and The Essays of Warren Buffet
i like the last one i read, more sex is safer sex :)
and i read a bunch of technical analysis /stock books, dunno if those count heh
Unless it's those books they make you read in English105, like Sophocles... which didn't appeal to me at all.
The book im on now (which i should have finished two weeks ago!) is "White Teeth"....i like it but its very long and somewhat boring in some parts.
I'm reading George Orwell's 1984 right now. I'm sure some of you guys are familiar with it, because the last time I read it was in high school. The second time around, I'm getting a lot out of it and have learned a significant amount about politics, socialism, and totalitarianism. What do you guys think was Orwell's intention in writing it?
and when i was reading Gulag i kept thinking about how much 1984 resembled Soviet society. then i did some research on Google and apparently George Orwell did base much of his fictional dystopian society on Stalin's Soviet Union. more reason for you to read Gulag right after :P
i'm finishing up Atonement right now. I read it when it first came out but that was too long ago and since i really want to watch the movie, i want to be able to see if the adaptation lives up to the book.
I believe 1984 was written shortly after the second world war and I think Orwell wrote it for a lot of reasons. Especially because it being written right after World War II and right into the Cold War, he probably intended it as a "warning" that if societies and attitudes didn't change, the world would gradually become like the dystopia portrayed in 1984. He probably tried to reflect what would happen if the leaders of the Communist nations would continue their rule: loss of individual freedoms, loss of free speech, brain-washing, etc. many of which were already happening in the Communist nations at the time of Orwell's writing.
I've always wanted to read the classics. Ranging from the ancient Latin and Greek works to more modern-day, contemporary classics. Basically books like Les Miserables, 1984, Catcher in the Rye.. some I've already read.
You should read The Illiad and The Odyssey. Both are very good Greek classics.
I found The Iliad to be quite gruesome in some sections, but other than that, i really liked those books.
There are so many books i want to read, but alas, not enough time :( Busy busy busy.