The Book Discussion Thread

[thefourthwall]

So bookmooch looks pretty amazing...any guarantee on the quality of book though? I'm a crazy annotator and hate almost everyone else's marginalia.

Also, Pride and Prejudice and Zombies looks amazing and like it will be a welcome addition to my pop culture adaptations of canonical works class.

[Mara]

So bookmooch looks pretty amazing...any guarantee on the quality of book though? I'm a crazy annotator and hate almost everyone else's marginalia.

There's a part where you can put the condition of the book, although I think most people aren't too picky. You might put a special note on your file that you don't like notes in the margin.

Also, Pride and Prejudice and Zombies looks amazing and like it will be a welcome addition to my pop culture adaptations of canonical works class.

It's a pretty fun time.

[Mara]

Apparently, Ayn Rand is having a resurgence in popularity.

I find Ayn Rand incredibly annoying.

[D_Davis]

I'm loving The Neverending Story. So much different than the film. I'm 160 pages into a 400 page book, and already everything from the movie (almost, anyway) has already happened. I have no idea where it's going now. That's exciting.

It's a great book.

Do you have a version with the different colored text?

[EvilShoe]

So bookmooch looks pretty amazing...any guarantee on the quality of book though? I'm a crazy annotator and hate almost everyone else's marginalia.

I've mooched 12 books in total and so far none of them had notes in the margin.
One book did have some passages underlined, but that was mentioned in the condition section.

[EvilShoe]

Apparently, Ayn Rand is having a resurgence in popularity.

I find Ayn Rand incredibly annoying.

I can't imagine I'll ever check her work out.
Every time someone brings her or Atlas Shrugged up, it's in a negative manner.

[Kurosawa Fan]

It's a great book.

Do you have a version with the different colored text?

Yep. I have less than a hundred pages left. I'll post comments when I finish.

[Benny Profane]

Apparently, Ayn Rand is having a resurgence in popularity.

I find Ayn Rand incredibly annoying.

Collectivist.

[Mara]

Collectivist.

Am not.

*googles term*

...Am so, apparently.

[Benny Profane]

Book of the month club. Whose turn is it?

[Kurosawa Fan]

Received two of the books I mooched from BookMooch, both in immaculate condition. One was accompanied by an original artwork by our very own Mara, which my wife and I are considering having framed.

Either way, I came on to say that BookMooch rules. I've shipped out nine books I didn't like at all, and received three in exchange, and still have credit for seven more.

[Mara]

Received two of the books I mooched from BookMooch, both in immaculate condition. One was accompanied by an original artwork by our very own Mara, which my wife and I are considering having framed.

Good. I spent, like, seven hours on it.

And I haven't gotten any books I requested yet, but they should be on the way. I'm considering uploading a few more tonight, because I enjoy having credit. It makes me feel rich.

[thefourthwall]

Hmm...finding books to get rid of for bookmooch is trickier than I thought. And I'm afraid of what people will think of me if I fill my inventory with my grandmother's old romance novels...

[Mara]

Hmm...finding books to get rid of for bookmooch is trickier than I thought. And I'm afraid of what people will think of me if I fill my inventory with my grandmother's old romance novels...

I got really worried about what I was putting up and asking for, but then decided to deliberately not care. If I wanted a specific, classic work I would probably go out and buy it. I'm using bookmooch as an opportunity to pick up things I wouldn't normally read. If I don't like them, I'll put them back up again.

And I'm going to trade some of my grandmother's old books, too.

[Kurosawa Fan]

Finished The Neverending Story last night. Good stuff. The first half is considerably stronger than the second, and I can see why they ended the film when they did. I thought the rebuilding of Fantastica was a bit sluggish at times, but once AURYN started to have an effect on Bastian, it picked back up. Some great messages in there for kids, about working to change yourself instead of taking the easy way out and hoping change will happen magically.

Started reading Florence of Arabia by Christopher Buckley. Very promising start.

[Benny Profane]

I have to read another Buckley, as I loved Little Green Men. Let me know how that one goes.

[D_Davis]

Apparently, Ayn Rand is having a resurgence in popularity.

I find Ayn Rand incredibly annoying.

There will always be impressionable 20 year old college students.

[lovejuice]

Book of the month club. Whose turn is it?

we kinda drop that last year due to lack of participation. if you still want to go on, i can revive that.

There will always be impressionable 20 year old college students.

i actually like aye rand. she's an extremist, and like many extremists, most of the time her thought is slightly ga-ga, but it only takes an extremist to see thing an average joe overlooks.

[Benny Profane]

A brief cut from Atlas Shrugged:

"Do you wish to know whether that day is coming? Watch money. Money is the barometer of a society's virtue. When you see that trading is done, not by consent, but by compulsion – when you see that in order to produce, you need to obtain permission from men who produce nothing – when you see that money is flowing to those who deal, not in goods, but in favors – when you see that men get richer by graft and by pull than by work, and your laws don't protect you against them, but protect them against you – when you see corruption being rewarded and honesty becoming a self-sacrifice – you may know that your society is doomed. Money is so noble a medium that it does not compete with guns and it does not make terms with brutality. It will not permit a country to survive as half-property, half-loot."


Rand grants god-like powers to her main characters, but they always derive these powers from man's ability to reason, apply that reason to the world, and reap the benefits. She separated the producers from the parasites, though she does so with a fairly heavy hand.

It's just the opposite of writers like Steinbeck who grant god-like powers to characters of a different political will.

I enjoy both.

[Mara]

It's just the opposite of writers like Steinbeck who grant god-like powers to characters of a different political will.

Huh. I'd never thought about that.

[number8]

Does bookmooch carry comics?

[Kurosawa Fan]

Does bookmooch carry comics?

Looks like they carry graphic novels, but not individual comics. Seems they carry just about anything that someone wants to get rid of.

[EyesWideOpen]

Looks like they carry graphic novels, but not individual comics. Seems they carry just about anything that someone wants to get rid of.

I just browsed through the site and they do have individual comics listed.

[monolith94]

Finished The Neverending Story last night. Good stuff. The first half is considerably stronger than the second, and I can see why they ended the film when they did. I thought the rebuilding of Fantastica was a bit sluggish at times, but once AURYN started to have an effect on Bastian, it picked back up. Some great messages in there for kids, about working to change yourself instead of taking the easy way out and hoping change will happen magically.

Started reading Florence of Arabia by Christopher Buckley. Very promising start.

I actually preferred the second half. I felt that the setting's were tantalizing, and the drama, with its psychological tinge, was more sophisticated. Plus, the lion of the desert = awesomesauce.

What the second movie did to Xayide... I cannot forgive.

[Lucky]

I just finished the memoir portion of Man's Search for Meaning and I'm really looking forward to getting into Part II where Frankl discusses logotherapy. My GRE psych guide alluded to it and ever since then I've been interested in reading about it.

I finished Narcissus and Goldmund weeks ago but forgot to say thanks to whoever hyped that up around these parts. Someone's opinion pushed me to pick that up, and I enjoyed it. Perfectly fit the psychological study mood I've been in recently.

I'm also almost finished with The Plague. The novel lost some of its steam as it goes on, but I'm looking forward to seeing how things wrap up.