This. Or if I read and really like the book, I might choose not to even watch the movie at all. Like with The Da Vinci Code or The Life of Pi. Or The Old Man and the Sea. I feel like the movie would ruin it for me.
Book Reading Thread!
- Thread starter canada-man
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This. Or if I read and really like the book, I might choose not to even watch the movie at all. Like with The Da Vinci Code or The Life of Pi. Or The Old Man and the Sea. I feel like the movie would ruin it for me.
Missy.
I agree on The Da Vinci Code, both the book and film are corn turds. You're missing out on the other two, both are great films. Spencer Tracy gave his best performance in the Hemingway classic, and (as John McEnroe would say) mere words cannot express how awesome Richard Parker is.
I agree on The Da Vinci Code, both the book and film are corn turds. You're missing out on the other two, both are great films. Spencer Tracy gave his best performance in the Hemingway classic, and (as John McEnroe would say) mere words cannot express how awesome Richard Parker is.
Why ask a lady about shit when it's my term? Corn turds are what you get when you do a No. 2 the morning after a BBQ. Grilling corn on the husk makes it harder to digest, you don't get a uniformed log the next morning - you get corn turds.
Dan Brown is a corn turd, he's built his entire career by ripping off Umberto Eco. Granted Brown's books are more accessible, Eco is much more complex and cryptic. For best effect his books should be read in Italian.
I got around to watching To Kill a Mockingbird. Gregory Peck has been something of a role model for me, his chiaroscuro masculine timbre is a perfect fit Atticus Finch. The movie is faithful to the book, taking out some details that aren't essential to the plot line. However there are to glaring omissions, the first one regards the rabid dog. I agree with the director, it would have created a spoiler. The second one concerns the lynch mob, I couldn't buy into it. In the movie Atticus faces off against them alone, then his children move in to protect him and disarm the mob with their charm offensive. Mary Badham as Scout had her finest scene in the film with it. When the mob disperses, the jailed Tom Robinson asks if all is safe and Atticus reassures him. In the book, Atticus is not alone. He has a sniper in a darkened room on the second floor window of the hardware store adjacent to the jailhouse. After the mob disperses, Atticus tells him to put his shotgun down.
As for Gregory Peck as a role model. I had an annoying habit of talking through my nose - no one will take you seriously when you do that. So I started paying attention to how Gregory Peck talks and started talking from my throat like he does. It made me a far better negotiator.
Dan Brown is a corn turd, he's built his entire career by ripping off Umberto Eco. Granted Brown's books are more accessible, Eco is much more complex and cryptic. For best effect his books should be read in Italian.
I got around to watching To Kill a Mockingbird. Gregory Peck has been something of a role model for me, his chiaroscuro masculine timbre is a perfect fit Atticus Finch. The movie is faithful to the book, taking out some details that aren't essential to the plot line. However there are to glaring omissions, the first one regards the rabid dog. I agree with the director, it would have created a spoiler. The second one concerns the lynch mob, I couldn't buy into it. In the movie Atticus faces off against them alone, then his children move in to protect him and disarm the mob with their charm offensive. Mary Badham as Scout had her finest scene in the film with it. When the mob disperses, the jailed Tom Robinson asks if all is safe and Atticus reassures him. In the book, Atticus is not alone. He has a sniper in a darkened room on the second floor window of the hardware store adjacent to the jailhouse. After the mob disperses, Atticus tells him to put his shotgun down.
As for Gregory Peck as a role model. I had an annoying habit of talking through my nose - no one will take you seriously when you do that. So I started paying attention to how Gregory Peck talks and started talking from my throat like he does. It made me a far better negotiator.
I read it and saw the movie a couple of times. I know it's a classic novel but it's one of the few times where I actually prefer the movie over the book.
Madame Blavatsky's Victorian-era masterpiece is now scaled down to its essentials, providing the most readable, accessible experience ever of one of history's seminal occult works.
The Secret Doctrine, Helena Petrovna Blavatsky's masterwork on the origin and evolution of the universe and humanity itself, is arguably the most famous, and perhaps the most influential, occult book ever written. Published since 1888 only in expensive, two-volume editions of some 1,400 pages, it has long eluded the grasp of modern readers- until now.
This single-volume edition, abridged and annotated by historian and Theosophical scholar Michael Gomes, places the ideas of The Secret Doctrine within reach of all who are curious. In particular, Gomes provides a critical sounding of the book's famous stanzas on the genesis of life and the cosmos- mysterious passages that Blavatsky said originated from a primeval source and which form the heart of The Secret Doctrine. Gomes scrupulously scales down the book's key writings on symbolism to their essentials, and offers notes and a glossary to illuminate arcane references. His historical and literary introduction casts new light on some of the book's sources and on the career of its brilliant and elusive author, one of the most intriguing personages of the nineteenth century.
At once compact and representative of the work as a whole, this new edition of The Secret Doctrine brings unprecedented accessibility to the key esoteric classic of the modern era.
Red Card
http://www.simonandschuster.com/books/Red-Card/Ken-Bensinger/9781501133909
It's about corruption in FIFA got it for Father's Day.
VBB
http://www.simonandschuster.com/books/Red-Card/Ken-Bensinger/9781501133909
It's about corruption in FIFA got it for Father's Day.
VBB
From the Back Cover
The End of War
In the aftermath of World War III, the world is resolved as never before to eliminate war. The United States of America has followed the lead of the new international government to ensure that global conflict is wiped from the earth. All nations have agreed to eliminate the most serious threat to world peace. The solution? Outlaw religion.
No religion. Peace on earth.
Paul Stepola plays a key role in the world's backlash against religious extremists. As an agent working for the National Peace Organization, Paul relishes his job. The law has forced religion underground, but that's not enough for Paul. With unlimited resources, he is determined to expose religious zealots-flush them out, expose them, and destroy them. But when his life is turned upside down, he is forced to see the world in a whole new way.
This one man's search to find the truth points him to sinister conspiracies. Startling revelations. Supernatural events.
When will the world discover the astonishing climax to these events? When will the nations learn they are experiencing a new beginning...the beginning of the end?
Soon.
The Beginning of the End.
Almost done reading my book on mindfulness! I really enjoyed it and it's nice to read someone else prepective about mindfulness and other theories.
I really enjoyed the book. I think its a great way to open someones eyes on how important it is to just be nice to each other and lifting peoples spirits up.
I need a new book to read now! Ill be reading this thread to see your favourites etc.
Enter the continuing story of double agent Paul Stepola as he works to protect his fellow believers from the government that is trying to eliminate them. The underground church is in mortal peril following the apocalyptic events in Los Angeles, which have only cast further suspicion upon Christians. Meanwhile, Paul struggles with how to tell his family about his newfound faith without raising the suspicions of his ruthless father-in-law. A gripping futuristic thriller that will keep you glued to the page.
Tensions are rising in the Middle East. Iran’s president vows to annihilate the United States and Israel. Israel’s prime minister says someone must hit Iran’s nuclear sites “before it’s too late.” The American president warns against a preemptive strike on Iran’s nuclear facilities and says negotiations are the key to finding peace.
And amid it all, rumors are swirling throughout the region of a mysterious religious cleric claiming to be the Islamic messiah known as the Mahdi or the Twelfth Imam. Word of his miracles, healings, signs, and wonders is spreading like wildfire.
CIA operative David Shirazi was born for this moment. He is recruited and sent into Tehran with one objective: use all means necessary to disrupt Iran’s nuclear weapons program, without leaving American fingerprints and without triggering an apocalyptic new war. But time is running out.
“Ripped from the headlines—next year’s headlines.” —Washington TimesTHE TEHRAN INITIATIVEThe world is on the brink of disaster. Iran has just conducted its first atomic weapons test. Millions of Muslims around the world are convinced their messiah — known as the Twelfth Imam — has arrived on earth. Israeli leaders fear Tehran, under the Twelfth Imam’s spell, will soon launch a nuclear attack that could bring about a second Holocaust and the annihilation of Israel. The White House fears Jerusalem will strike first, launching a massive preemptive attack against Iran’s nuclear facilities that could cause the entire Middle East to go up in flames, oil prices to skyrocket, and the global economy to collapse. With the stakes high and few viable options left, the president of the United States orders CIA operative David Shirazi and his team to track down and sabotage Iran’s nuclear warheads before Iran or Israel can launch a devastating first strike. But will they be too late?DAMASCUS COUNTDOWNIsrael successfully launches a first strike on Iran, taking out all of their nuclear sites and six of their nuclear warheads. American president William Jackson threatens to support a U.N. Security Council resolution condemning the Jewish State for unprovoked and unwarranted acts of aggression. And the Twelfth Imam prepares to order a genocidal retaliation.
Meanwhile, CIA operative David Shirazi has infiltrated the Iranian regime and intercepted top secret intelligence indicating that two Iranian nuclear warheads survived the attack and have been moved to a secure and undisclosed location. In danger not only from the ongoing war between Israel and Iran but also from the increasingly hostile governments in multiple countries, Shirazi and his team are in a race against time to find the remaining nuclear warheads before the most cataclysmic event in the history of the Middle East comes to pass.
For over 30 years, author Dr. Jeff Herten was a high-functioning alcoholic one who drinks every day, yet continues to lead a productive, successful life. Now he shares his first-hand knowledge of the conspiracy of misinformation about the healthful nature of alcohol.
In the introduction to The Sobering Truth, Herten describes alcohol as the most addictive and destructive drug on the planet. Those are bold claims considering competing drugs such as heroin, cocaine, and meth. But, a recent study published on November 1, 2010 in the respected medical journal Lancet, supports his claims. Alcohol affects us not only emotionally but physically. Alcohol consumption is contributory to nine different cancers, heart disease, acid reflux, osteoporosis, immune system suppression, hypertension, stroke, depression, allergies, peripheral neuropathy, insomnia, hepatitis, pancreatitis and diabetes; and causes fetal alcohol syndrome. The Sobering Truth explores the numerous facets of alcohol consumption in the United States, including the physical risks, the behaviors associated with alcohol, and the innocent victims of alcohol abuse. But it also offers hope for those wishing to become sober and recommends resources to help them turn their lives around.
Frank and honest, and including many case studies, The Sobering Truth is a must-read for every spouse, parent, child, employer, physician, and counselor whose life is touched by alcohol. It may be just the wake-up call you need.
Dr. Jeff Herten, a native Californian, resides in rural San Luis Obispo with his wife, Debby. Jeff is a dermatologist, dermatopathologist and dermatologic surgeon. His past as a high-functioning alcoholic, his medical expertise and his life experiences have uniquely equipped him to expose the shocking physical, psychological and social effects of alcohol. Jeff is a former long distance runner, having completed 50 marathons, and ultramarathons including three 100 mile races. In deference to his knees, he now enjoys endurance horseback riding! Jeff teaches at UC Irvine Medical School in addition to maintaining his highly successful medical practice.
The Late Show - Michael Connelly
Interesting thread - searching for some of the titles that are recommended.
My current read: THE LATE SHOW: Michael Connelly
The blurb was lifted from "Goodreads"
From #1 New York Times bestselling author Michael Connelly, a new thriller introducing a driven young detective trying to prove herself in the LAPD
Renée Ballard works the night shift in Hollywood, beginning many investigations but finishing none as each morning she turns her cases over to day shift detectives. A once up-and-coming detective, she's been given this beat as punishment after filing a sexual harassment complaint against a supervisor.
But one night she catches two cases she doesn't want to part with: the brutal beating of a prostitute left for dead in a parking lot and the killing of a young woman in a nightclub shooting. Ballard is determined not to give up at dawn. Against orders and her own partner's wishes, she works both cases by day while maintaining her shift by night. As the cases entwine they pull her closer to her own demons and the reason she won't give up her job no matter what the department throws at her.
Interesting thread - searching for some of the titles that are recommended.
My current read: THE LATE SHOW: Michael Connelly
The blurb was lifted from "Goodreads"
From #1 New York Times bestselling author Michael Connelly, a new thriller introducing a driven young detective trying to prove herself in the LAPD
Renée Ballard works the night shift in Hollywood, beginning many investigations but finishing none as each morning she turns her cases over to day shift detectives. A once up-and-coming detective, she's been given this beat as punishment after filing a sexual harassment complaint against a supervisor.
But one night she catches two cases she doesn't want to part with: the brutal beating of a prostitute left for dead in a parking lot and the killing of a young woman in a nightclub shooting. Ballard is determined not to give up at dawn. Against orders and her own partner's wishes, she works both cases by day while maintaining her shift by night. As the cases entwine they pull her closer to her own demons and the reason she won't give up her job no matter what the department throws at her.
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After God intervenes with a miracle of global proportions, the tide is turned on international atheism and the National Peace Organization (NPO). The underground church has grown to the extent that Christians are becoming the majority. Agent Paul Stepola and his wife Jae are exposed and forced to become international fugitives. The NPO will stop at nothing to capture Paul and eliminate the underground church--until God intervenes and the final judgment is at hand.
colleges are 4 year universities in the U.S.A
“A striking new book… Although full of the comedies, rivalries and mini-dramas one might find in a high school movie or romcom, it is also a serious—and seriously depressing—study of American higher education.”—Matthew Reisz, Times Higher Education
“Paying for the Party is well written and perversely hard to put down. Readers who did their own share of partying in college may cringe in rueful recognition.”—Mary Taylor Huber, Change
“Instead of being a great equalizer, Paying for the Party argues, the American way of college rewards those who come not just academically but socially prepared, while treating working-class students more cruelly, and often leaving them adrift.”—Ross Douthat, The New York Times
“Focusing on the pathways leading to the college experience, the authors reveal an honest, if at times unflattering, look at the reality of the academic experience for women of both high and low socioeconomic status. Packed in with the data derived from the authors’ interviews is an intimate portrait of the study’s participants combined with researcher commentary that clarifies what the data represent: an unsettling picture of universities failing to lessen the disadvantages facing many of their students… This work will provide spectacular insights into gender and schooling and serve as a useful example of how to report ethnographic research.”—Rachel Wadham, Library Journal (starred review)
“In typical frat parties, Armstrong and Hamilton see much that is wrong with college education today. Such parties allow daughters of the affluent to flaunt their social advantages while exposing the vulnerabilities of female students from less-privileged backgrounds. Unfortunately, the authors find such parties well established in the ‘party pathway’ through the university. Focusing on female students, the authors find from campus observations and interviews ample evidence that four years on the party pathway will open doors of power for the elite while stranding the wannabes with mountains of student-loan debt and few employment options for paying off that debt… A provocative exposé of socially polarizing trends in higher education—certain to spark debate.”—Bryce Christensen, Booklist
“Armstrong and Hamilton report the results of their five‐year study of a group of young women who began in the same freshman dorm but ended up in very different situations. The constraints of social and economic class remained formidable, and moving into the professional class seemed virtually impossible, especially for those women who followed what the authors call ‘the party pathway.’ Women from more privileged backgrounds survived their partying through school due to their more substantial support systems at home. We also see how difficult the college adjustment was for less talented students and for women from modest backgrounds and small towns… The conclusions are sobering, if not depressing. Armstrong and Hamilton assail the university itself for a number of failures, including an ineffectual system of student advising; a plethora of meaningless majors and courses designed to attract full‐paying students, many of whom have no intention of actually pursuing such a career; and its continuing support for the fraternity/sorority system, which the authors contend undermines the very academic mission of the university. Athletics take some major blame, as well. The authors also discovered that some of the women who transferred to regional campuses performed better and were happier.”—Kirkus Reviews
“Armstrong and Hamilton pepper the book with student interviews, and ultimately suggest substantial changes to university structure for creating an egalitarian, merit-based environment. The extensive research and approachable writing style make this book useful to any audience interested in learning more about social differences within the education system.”—Publishers Weekly
“With astute observations and insights, Paying for the Party sheds new light on the lived experiences of contemporary students. It is a very important piece of scholarship that will inform the national discourse on the current state of U.S. higher education.”—Richard Arum, author of Academically Adrift
“By focusing on the lives of young women who spent freshman year living on a ‘party floor,’ Armstrong and Hamilton help us understand critical issues facing American higher education, including the out-sized role of sororities and fraternities and how the values of affluent students coincide with the interests of universities to empower the ‘party pathway.’ Richly observed and vividly narrated, this is an important ethnography of American campus life.”—Steven Brint, University of California, Riverside
“In this bold book, Armstrong and Hamilton capture the strikingly different pathways women undergraduates can take through public universities—‘party,’ ‘professional,’ or ‘mobility’—and show how the dominant campus culture indulges the upper-middle class and limits the prospect of the upwardly mobile. The authors show the complex connections between parental resources, sociability, educational outcome, post-graduation lives, and the importance of the right brand of shoes. This book illuminates the realities of the college experience today, when an adult life without crushing debt is fast becoming the privilege of the few.”—Michèle Lamont, author of How Professors Think
“Paying for the Party is very provocative and should be read by every dean of students on every residential campus. At a time when women are making rapid progress in educational attainment compared to men, Armstrong and Hamilton show how young women’s academics, social lives, and labor-market opportunities get aligned in college—and what happens when they do not.”—Mitchell Stevens, author of Creating a Class
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https://www.forbes.com/sites/learnv...g-class-kids-to-fail-in-college/#3f8e8a604024
It's a depressing idea: College—that integral part of the American Dream, and a key ingredient in social mobility in the U.S.—could actually prove to be not as helpful for working-class kids as it is for their more affluent counterparts.
And the two sociologists proposing this controversial theory didn't arrive at their conclusions lightly, either. In "Paying for the Party: How College Maintains Inequality," Elizabeth A. Armstrong and Laura T. Hamilton describe the year they spent living on the dorm floor of a large Midwestern university, the more than 200 student interviews they performed over the course of five years ... and the 2,000 pages of field notes that followed.
In other words, they immersed themselves in the scene to see what was really happening on campus—or at least inside one particular dormitory hall, from which, they say, it's easy to extrapolate.
LearnVest spoke to Hamilton, as well as undergrads who describe themselves as working class, to find out why this could still be happening in America in 2013, and what you need to know to choose the right school.
Why Class Matters At College
While most freshman, regardless of provenance, move into similarly utilitarian dorm rooms, those interchangeable cinderblock walls often do little to level the playing field in the long run, say Armstrong and Hamilton.
What they found is that if two students of equal ability, with parallel aims, arrive at the same school—yet one is from a less-advantaged background—the forces at work on college campuses today mean that she may not complete her degree, may feel socially ostracized and may have a harder time finding a job after graduation.
"One of the findings in the book was that translating a college degree with an associated major and GPA depends so much on parental capital and social resources," explains Hamilton. "Take two students with a 3.9 GPA and the same major. The student from the more affluent family will have two unpaid internships on her resume when she graduates—maybe one that her parents helped her get."
And, as Hamilton and Armstrong continued to follow the women after they graduated, they found the same held true once the women were job hunting.
According to the researchers, this parental advantage, combined with the allure of a college party scene that may take a student's focus away from academics, can hurt working class students more than affluent ones, who can more readily fall back on parental ties and safety nets.
Since When Did Colleges Become Country Clubs?
It's hardly a secret that college costs have skyrocketed. But what may be lesser-known is one reason why: "On the campus we studied, there was massive building of recreational centers and luxury apartments," says Hamilton. "These projects are more about student life—the academic quality of things isn't getting better. Someone called it the country-clubization of higher education."
They may have a point.
Richard K. Vedder, a professor at Ohio University who studies the economics of higher education, was quoted in the New York Times after a new report on college spending showed that public research universities, such as the one Hamilton studied, increased their spending on student services by 20% between 1998 and 2008. Yet spending on instruction increased by just 10%.
"A lot of it is for great athletic centers and spectacular student union buildings," Vedder told the Times. "In the zeal to get students, they are going after them on the basis of recreational amenities."
Hamilton agrees. "As the states have pulled funding from large, mid-tier schools, they’ve raised tuition and heavily recruited out-of-state and international students," she explains. "They can only get the less studious of the rich, so their effort is on creating a great party place." But, that environment, she adds, "is problematic for less-privileged kids: They can get sucked into a huge party scene they can't afford."
A Tale Of Sorority Disparity
In "Paying for the Party," Hamilton and Armstrong describe a deep divide between Greeks and non-Greeks on the campus they studied: A Pan-Hellenic system that catered to wealthy, white women, while the less-affluent were literally left "Initially, we assumed that floor isolates would find each other and create their own friendship groups," writes Hamilton of women who were excluded quite noticeably from the goings-on on their dorm floor. Take Michelle, a working-class student paying her own way through college and a floor isolate who was "surrounded by affluent partiers—Naomi and Abby on one side, and Melanie on the other," describes Hamilton in "Paying for the Party."
Despite repeated requests to quiet down, the revelers next door were "really loud," Michelle told the researchers. "[My roommate] Valerie and I could not sleep. There were nights when we were up until 5 a.m. just waiting for them to shut up." It was like, she said, "Do you guys go to class? Do you not have classes? I can't understand why people would come to college and fail. I guess if you're not paying for it yourself, you can just take it for granted."
Many would argue that college isn't the middle school cafeteria—it's about getting a degree. But the social impact of that first year was so severe for some isolates that not only did the dynamics often impede their academic efforts, some left the university altogether as a result.out in the cold, becoming what Hamilton termed social "isolates."
Jenna Miscavige was raised to obey. As niece of the Church of Scientology's leader David Miscavige, she grew up at the center of this controversial organization. At 21, she made a break, risking everything she'd ever known and loved to leave Scientology once and for all. Now she speaks out about her life, the Church, her escape, going deep inside a religion that, for decades, has been the subject of fierce debate and speculation worldwide.
Piercing the veil of secrecy that has shrouded the world of Scientology, this insider reveals unprecedented firsthand knowledge of the religion, its rituals and its mysterious leader—David Miscavige. From her prolonged separation from her parents as a small child to being indoctrinated to serve the Church, from her lack of personal freedoms to the organization's emphasis on celebrity recruitment, Jenna goes behind the scenes of Scientology's oppressive and alienating culture, detailing an environment rooted in control in which the most devoted followers often face the harshest punishments when out of line. Detailing some of the Church's notorious practices, she also describes a childhood of isolation and neglect—a childhood that, painful as it was, prepared her for a tough life in the Church's most devoted order, the Sea Org.
Despite this hardship, it's only when her family approaches dissolution and her world begins to unravel that she's finally able to see the patterns of stifling conformity and psychological control that have ruled her life. Faced with a heartbreaking choice, she mounts a courageous escape, but not before being put thru the ultimate test of family, faith and love. Captivating and disturbing, Beyond Belief is an exploration of the limits of religion and the lengths to which some went to break free.
