dude le skibum's book club

[dude_le_skibum]

here is the book of the week

Life of pi from ian martel

i'm not done reading it, but there were good reviews of it aka bookers prize too

[The Reverend Floater]

Next week, we'll take a look at Joe Simpson's "This Game of Ghosts".

Please be at least halfway into it by Wednesday.

[watersnowdirt]

LOVED Life of Pi. Thought it was great. My book club (yes, I am actually in a book club) hated it and I spent the entire evening defending it. Ah well.

Enjoy and keep us posted on what you think!

[dude_le_skibum]

i'm read slow in english, sorry. not done yet

[bossass]

Holy ! I just read that book. A roommate who moved out forgot it and I interupted the leviathon that is Don Dililo's "underworld" to read it. Took me about three nights, hoser. Really good book. Not profound or anything, but a really great story. WSD, I don't see how your bookclub could not like it, it's a true story. Tell them to stop taking themselves so seriously. How about the island with the Mircats? Best part of the book. Richard Parker.

[vinzclortho]

I'm about 100 pages into the Whitey Bulger book Black Mass. pretty interesting stuff....maybe just cuz I live in Boston.

just finished Fast Food Nation. friggin TERRIFYING! I will never eat fast food! There's poop in your burgers!

[bossass]

Originally posted by vinzclortho
I'm about 100 pages into the Whitey Bulger book Black Mass. pretty interesting stuff....maybe just cuz I live in Boston.

just finished Fast Food Nation. friggin TERRIFYING! I will never eat fast food! There's poop in your burgers!

Vinz,
Didn't you get the point of the book? Fast food hamburger is actually cleaner then supermarket burger (even the premium stuff) This is due to the fact that since fast food companies are such big business for the beef industry, they can order them to slow down the processing of cattle, thus reducing the accidents where they cut the intestines and all the shit goes all over the inside of the cow. Supermarket beef comes off the line much faster and it is virtually impossible to trace a tainted burger back to where it came from.

Aside from that, yes there is shit in all ground chuck (unless you butcher your own cow). Fast-food is still evil, and we should all try to cut down, if for anything our health.

The scary thing is that almost everything in that book came from trade publications. Info widely available and known in the industry. It was a great book, but didn't require any extreme underground investigative journalism.

I wrote a twelve-page paper on this book in 10 hours and no sleep and got an 'A' from a very smart and talented professor. It was my crowning achievement in procrastination in college.

[watersnowdirt]

Originally posted by bossass

I wrote a twelve-page paper on this book in 10 hours and no sleep and got an 'A' from a very smart and talented professor. It was my crowning achievement in procrastination in college.

That describes my entire college career - except I got "B"s, and rarely "A"s. I rarely started a paper before midnight the day it was due. Used to stay up all night and just crank and that's when I wrote the best papers! Damn, brings back memories.

Oh, and I still need to read Fast Food Nation. Think I'll order it today.

[Mountain Junkie]

Fast Food Nation is a good read. I rarely ate fast food before reading that book, so it pretty much vindicate my self imposed boycott.

I have heard that some of the research presented in the book is a little dubious. A writer is always trying to persuade you to his point and will naturally introduce some bias. Granted, it's better than Michael Moore.

I was recommended Food Politics by my friend's ex-girlfriend, who is a nutritionist. Haven't read it yet, but is supposed to be a bit more on the mark.

[gincognito]

Just finished Life of Pi. A fast, entertaining read that felt a little lacking until I got to the end. I kept thinking I was missing something, like there was more to the story than just the words at face value.

"A story that will make you believe in God." I find that interesting. Is that an acknowledgement that, regardless of reality, religion is valid because it acts as reassurance? If the truth is in the second story and Pi concocts the first in order to escape the horrible reality, is that what he is saying religion and God are? Escapes from brutal truths. We should believe in God because it is a better story. Is that the moral?

Sick and ashamed and happy (and I'm not sure about the "true story" aspect - I'm off to search for it),
d.

[watersnowdirt]

Originally posted by gincognito
Just finished Life of Pi. A fast, entertaining read that felt a little lacking until I got to the end. I kept thinking I was missing something, like there was more to the story than just the words at face value.

"A story that will make you believe in God." I find that interesting. Is that an acknowledgement that, regardless of reality, religion is valid because it acts as reassurance? If the truth is in the second story and Pi concocts the first in order to escape the horrible reality, is that what he is saying religion and God are? Escapes from brutal truths. We should believe in God because it is a better story. Is that the moral?

Sick and ashamed and happy (and I'm not sure about the "true story" aspect - I'm off to search for it),
d.

G - I wish you were in my book club. These are the kinds of questions that I love. Sadly, my book club, which actually is a very fun gathering, is not about asking the good questions. I try not to get frustrated by the general lack of interest to dig a bit deeper, and just enjoy the flowing wine and great food, but I do miss diving into things a bit. Wanna join my book club? 10 women in our early thirties, and all quite cool (though only a couple serious snow fiends in the group)

[gincognito]

Originally posted by watersnowdirt
Wanna join my book club? 10 women in our early thirties, and all quite cool...

That's the best offer I've had all.... well, ever. Perhaps we should book some time during the Summit to further discuss...

Sick and ashamed and happy (and only just realized that you didn't actually comment on anything I wrote),
d.

[watersnowdirt]

Originally posted by gincognito
That's the best offer I've had all.... well, ever. Perhaps we should book some time during the Summit to further discuss...

Sick and ashamed and happy (and only just realized that you didn't actually comment on anything I wrote),
d.

Sheesh. And I thought it was enought that I offered to let you into our very exclusive, very elite, all women's enclave. Ah well - next time I'll stick to the book talk.

In short - and this will be very short since it's later than late for me right now - I do think it's all about the "story", and the idea of faith. Any kind of faith is all about choosing to believe one story over another. People seem to have forgotten than in some ways, faith has little to do with fact, but rather an ability to believe something that cannot be proven. In a modern day society that revolves around science, the concept of faith has increasingly been shunned, since the concept of believing something that can't be proven seems almost "childlike".

That's why I loved "Pi" so much, since it was such a blatant acknowledgement that it doesn't really matter what the facts are, as long as the story helps you move through an increasingly chaotic and unstable world.

Anyway, for more on that, you'll really need to come to book club....

[gincognito]

Originally posted by watersnowdirt
Sheesh. And I thought it was enought that I offered to let you into our very exclusive, very elite, all women's enclave. Ah well - next time I'll stick to the book talk.

Sorry if anything came across as dinkish, it's just that everytime I've been around someone who has read the book there's also someone there who hasn't but wants to. So, though I've been eager to discuss, the talk's been somewhat limited.

Actually, last night I was able to ramble a little and the girl I rambled to essentially agreed with most everything you and I have said. Given that, I was surprised when she said that she believed the first story. "It's the nicer story." Exactly. I also found it interesting that she does not believe in God.

Sick and ashamed and happy (and let me know when this book club meets so I can fly across the continent to partake),
d.

[watersnowdirt]

Originally posted by gincognito
Sorry if anything came across as dinkish,
d.

Not at all - I should have just put a winky face there.

I actually have been loving conversations like this - I've been reading a lot of books that have had religious undertones, or religion as a primary theme. It's been interesting and extremely thought provoking. We'll have to have a mini book club on a chairlift ride at the summit.... Start brainstorming a reading list

[Benny Profane]

Originally posted by bossass

I wrote a twelve-page paper on this book in 10 hours and no sleep and got an 'A' from a very smart and talented professor. It was my crowning achievement in procrastination in college.

ummm..hmmm...when you are soon in the real world, you may discover that he was "smart and talented" in very different ways than you first thought.

[char]

Initial impression after reading 4 chapters:

Simple, Hemingway like style of writing. I like it.

"I have nothing to say of my working life, only that a tie is a noose, and inverted though it is, it will hang a man nonetheless if he's not careful."

A motto for life.

[dude_le_skibum]

i'm still not done reading it. the boat just crashed. i read super slow..

[MoonDoggy]

I've lurked for awhile and this topic caught my eye because of a few books I just finished. The first is called "Running with Scissors", forget the author at present. Anyone that thinks they've had a rough life has got to read this book. The second is called "We Die Alone" by David Howarth. If you want to read about survival I can think of none better. Both are true stories and will blow your mind IMHO.