Book Club: "The Diceman" - Luke Rhinehart / "Fooled by Randomness" - Nicholas T

Tight Ted

hotspur wrote: »

Well to be fair Ted you managed to misunderstand a 2 word sentence from Mellor when he wrote "Literature fail", thinking he was agreeing with your analysis rather than having a pop at you.

"Literature Fail" to be fair is hardly a concise statement! That's why I intentionally 'misunderstood' him in an effort to point out the ambiguity of his insult!

I'm sorry the irony was lost on you.:pac::pac::pac:

djsctt

I'll might aswell throw my hat in the ring also. A few titles I would have suggested have been posted already, but here's a few I picked that may or may not generate some interest:






And the obligatory fiction:

YULETIRED

hotspur wrote: »

Well you'll need a few laughs after that one so...
The Time Machine Did It - John Swartzwelder


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+1 I have all of these Frank Burly books if anyone wants to borrow, I was disappointed when I loaned one to a friend of mine and he went meh? It's not like I wrote it or anything but i was nearly offended. Even ADD sufferers will get though this very quickly. If you are constipated, sit on the jacks and read this, you'll get the ol splashback soon enough.

YULETIRED

djsctt wrote: »

I'll might aswell throw my hat in the ring also. A few titles I would have suggested have been posted already, but here's a few I picked that may or may not generate some interest:

Infuriating, I must confess to have been astonished by the revelations in this book, (not as well informed as some of you on American Politics)
His dealings with the Vietnamese were shameful if true. :mad: (evil man imo)

pocketdooz

YULETIRED wrote: »

Infuriating, I must confess to have been astonished by the revelations in this book, (not as well informed as some of you on American Politics)
His dealings with the Vietnamese were shameful if true. :mad: (evil man imo)

now this book, I really want to read . . . This man is an enigma

LuckyLloyd

This post has been deleted.

BobSloane

Lol nice list. I think i've read exactly ten

Heres my 3 fwiw.

1. On the road. Jack Kerouac
Someone gave me this when I was going to France for a few months 7 or 8 years ago. Its one of the few books I read more than once and when I eventually traded it with some australian dude in a hostel for some plop by mathew riley i felt he was getting the best of the deal.
Its autobiograpical with names changed and probably a few facts as Kerouac tells of a series of road trips over and back across america, culminating with a trip to mexico, involving mostly him and his friend when they're in their early twenties.

2. Slaughterhouse 5 - Kurt Vonnegut
Ages since I read this and can't really remember it but I know it was quite short and I enjoyed it. More autobiography with names and facts changed. Some dude travels forward and back in time from the Dresden bombings at the end of WW2 to USA some time after the war. Oh yeah and he's also been abducted by aliens.

3. Stone Junction - Jim Dodge
This was the book I was reading when I first stumbled onto the boards poker forum. Its just good fun - and theres some poker in it! This kid gets orphaned and gets trained up by this secret society in various useful disciplines such as growing dope, safe-cracking and playing poker. (He is coached in poker by the worlds greatest poker player, Bob Sloane:o).


I read catcher in the rye in school. I thought it was sh1t. Some time later I saw the movie 6 degrees of separation with will smith rabbiting on about it. I read it again. I still thought it was sh1t. I think catcher in the rye is sh1t. My secret shame

Wreck

LuckyLloyd wrote: »

Where do we go from here?

Maybe pick three of the suggestions at random and have a vote? We could do this a good few times with that shortlist. Or we could just arrive at a consensus without the need to vote like we did with the Diceman. Either way, we definitely need to narrow down that list imo.

It looks like alot of us have pretty similar taste. I've read 21 off of that list, and I'd guess others have probably read more. I've no objections to reading most of them again, especially Girls Only!: All about Periods and growing up stuff which I enjoyed immensely the first time.

BobSloane

Theres ~70 books there. Maybe categorise them, randomly or otherwise in 12 groups of 6 and have a vote each month on a group. That would last a year - or until we got sick of it

fatguy

There's a distinct lack of Sci-fi in that list, although the Hobbit covers fantasy. How about The Fountains of Paradise by Arthur C Clarke?

Icarus152

LuckyLloyd wrote: »

Where do we go from here?

Can't we just change your post to a poll with all the choices?

cooker3

I've only read 3 of them. I am such an illiterate.
Dice Man arrived today but my brother told me there was already a copy in the attic *sigh*

hotspur

Okay I'm putting letters to lists of recommendations. Each letter is one list of recommendations by one person. There have been a few duplicates especially with the earlier informality of recommendations and I have left them as duplicates if they were part of a list by anyone who would then only have 2 recommendations. I have worked backwards mostly btw as that had more order.

A
On the road. Jack Kerouac
Slaughterhouse 5 - Kurt Vonnegut
Stone Junction - Jim Dodge

B
The Selfish Gene; Richard Dawkins
The Trial of Henry Kissinger; Christopher Hitchens
The Reluctant Fundamentalist; Moshin Hamid

C
An Introduction To Philosophical Analysis; John Hospers
The Time Machine Did It; John Swartzwelder
The Psychopathology of Everyday Life; Sigmund Freud

D
The Hobbit; J.R.R. Tolkien
The Art of Learning; Josh Waitzkin

E
A Short History of Nearly Everything; Bill Bryson
Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas; Hunter S. Thompson

F
The Gambler; Fyodor Dostoevsky
Flat Earth News; Nick Davies

G
War by Candlelight; Daniel Alarcon
The Gambler; Fyodor Dostoevsky
Cannery Row; John Steinbeck
Lolita; Vladimir Nabokov

H
The Border Trilogy; Cormac McCarthy available as one book.
Consisting of:
1.All the Pretty Horses
2.The Crossing
3.Cities of the Plain

I
The Alchemist; Paulo Coelho
The Great Gatsby; F. Scott Fitzgerald
A Brave New World by Aldous Huxley
1984 by George Orwell
Veronica Decides To Die by Paulo Coelho

J
Blood Meridian - Cormac Mc Carthy
For Whom the Bell Tolls - Hemmingway

K
Never Let Me Go by Kazuo Ishiguro.
True History of the Kelly Gang by Peter Carey.
Straw Dogs: Thoughts on Humans and Other Animals by John Gray

L
The Damage Done; Warren Fellows
American Psycho; Bret Easton Ellis
Lord of the Flies; William Golding
Oedipus Rex; Sophocles

M
Midnight Cowboy - James Leo Herlihy
The Road - Cormac McCarthy
Ghost Train to the Eastern Star - Paul Theroux
A Confederacy of Dunces - John Kennedy Toole

N
The Master and Margarita; Mikhael Bulgakov
The Rum Diary; Hunter S. Thompson

O
Money; Martin Amis
Post Office; Charles Bukowski
Dispatches; Michael Herr

P
James Frey - Bright shiny morning
James Frey - A million little pieces
Yann Martel - Life of Pi
Howard Marks - Mr.Nice
David Peace - The damned Utd

Q
Underworld; Don DeLillo
Amongst Women; John McGahern
Friday Night Lights: A Town, A Team, and A Dream; H.G. Bissinger
Devil In A Blue Dress; Walter Mosley

R
The Leopard; Giuseppe Tomasi di Lampedusa
Journey to the Ants: a Story of Scientific Exploration; Edward O. Wilson and Bert Hölldobler
(had also included The Dice Man)

S
The Black and Tans by Richard Bennet
Shadow of The Wind by Carlos Ruis Zafron
Q&A by Vikas Swarup

T
Hank Thompson Trilogy by Charlie Huston
Tragically I was an only twin: the comedy of peter cook - Peter Cook
Hidden River by Adrian McKinty
Guards by Ken Bruin

U
Keep The Aspidistras Flying; George Orwell
Fooled by Randomness; Nicholas Taleb
The Sound and the Fury; William Faulkner
For Esme - With Love and Squalor; J.D. Salinger
Catch - 22; Joseph Heller


As best as I can tell that is all of those who gave lists in with the definite intention of those being their formal recommendations. But others were recommended in single so I am going to group them.

V
Frankenstein: Or the Modern Prometheus; Mary Wollstonecraft Shelley
A Heartbreaking Work of Staggering Genius; Dave Eggers

W
My Traitor's Heart: A South African Exile Returns to Face His Country, His Tribe, and His Conscience - Rian Malan
Atomised; Michel Houllebecq
The Fountains of Paradise by Arthur C Clarke

This list doesn't include the book for girls or A Farewell to Arms as that was mentioned as a rebuttal to a post about Hemingway. If I missed any others out there that Lloyd had then please mention it so we can group it.

So I imagine we will have a poll on this up tomorrow and we vote for a list. We ought not, imo, to use this one poll to create the order we tackle lists in beyond the first as people can only vote for one list. Everyone should be able to vote for the next list and have it count every time, so I guess we vote again in a while after we have voted in our first list. Oh and no voting for your own list.

What should we do when we have voted for a list. Obviously if the list only has 2 books then we can each just choose one or both ourselves to read. Where there are 3, 4 or 5 I reckon a further vote should be held to to get it down to 2, preferably one each of fiction and non-fiction if permitting.

Well done everyone on the lists, some great reading ahead of us I reckon.

Tight Ted

hotspur wrote: »

[ ] understands what concise means

I actually suspected you were going to reply with that, and was tempted to change the word! But decided I would leave it because it was clear what I meant, and thought 'it would do'.

Now it is me that is made to look the fool.

*I feel so ashamed.

hotspur

Tight Ted wrote: »

I actually suspected you were going to reply with that, and was tempted to change the word! But decided I would leave it because it was clear what I meant, and thought 'it would do'.

Now it is me that is made to look the fool.

*I feel so ashamed.

Funny thing is I had just deleted my post because I genuinely don't want to fight with you, you kinda pwned yourself with the quote. Anyway /bickering, or at least let's leave it to BBV

Tight Ted

hotspur wrote: »

Funny thing is I had just deleted my post because I genuinely don't want to fight with you

Thanks bro, to be honest I really just want to concentrate on books not have pathetic slanging matches, so it was good of you to delete what you said I appreciate it

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Yes I am trying to wind you up lol

Tight Ted

BTW is Diceman commonly available in highstreet book shops? I might pick up a copy tomorrow.

A lot of talking about books to read in this thread, and not a lot of actual reading of books.

phantom_lord

the affiliate account is up to a solid £3. shipship.

LuckyLloyd

This post has been deleted.

hotspur

Tight Ted wrote: »

BTW is Diceman commonly available in highstreet book shops? I might pick up a copy tomorrow.

A lot of talking about books to read in this thread, and not a lot of actual reading of books.

You'll save money and generate affiliate money using PhantomLord's bookdepository affiliate link, free posting and will get here from the UK in no time.

http://www.bookdepository.co.uk/ref/flynnshane.aff

Mellor

Tight Ted wrote: »

You're obviously a big fan, sorry I just didn't like it. I read the majority of the book, but think I stopped after he graphically described one of his quite nasty experiences with a hooker. It was all just a bit too gritty for me. And to be honest I didn't think it was particularly good in any way either.

Well people are going to disagree on every book we read. Without fail. It's fine that you didn't like it, but I was just surprised at your reasons.
I certaibnly won't like alot of books on the list

Hectorjelly wrote: »

I think its one of the best written books I've ever read. However one of my friends who doesn't read much and once wanted to bet against the first law of thermodynamics thought it was badly written. Can you spot a pattern!

I'm pretty sure you recommended it in the BBV before I went traveling. And I'd agree on one of the best written books i've read. I couldn't find a hardcopy in australia (banned most places here), but I got it on ebook, Rules of attraction is up next. (what ever book we choose)

YULETIRED

good work lads, I may be going blind but I dont see the trial of henry Kissinger, *not that im picking it.

hotspur

YULETIRED wrote: »

good work lads, I may be going blind but I dont see the trial of henry Kissinger, *not that im picking it.

Your shingles have spread to your eyes, it's under B.

YULETIRED

hotspur wrote: »

Your shingles have spread to your eyes, it's under B.

thank you Holster, I iz a badger.

El Stuntman

just an observation or two:

1. loads of American writers
2. quite a lot of British
3. just one Irish
4. a smattering from the rest of the world but not really much (a Brazilian, a Boer, a Jap, a Russkie, an Ancient Geek and a few others

the generally homogenous background of the writers we consider important is kind of interesting in itself!

LuckyLloyd

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El Stuntman

LuckyLloyd wrote: »

Hmm, that's a good observation. Thinking about the books I own and have read, it largely is a case that if it isn't Irish or American, I ain't reading it. And I'm comfortable with that.

ah yeah, that other 95% of the world's population never wrote anything worth reading anyway

I've actually made a conscious effort in the last few years not to read stuff from out of my own cultural mix - which I would qualify as irish, British,American, Australian etc. (which reminds me that dammit, I should have recommended a Murakami book) but it's actually quite difficult to do!

LuckyLloyd

This post has been deleted.

YULETIRED

El Stuntman wrote: »

ah yeah, that other 95% of the world's population never wrote anything worth reading anyway



I've actually made a conscious effort in the last few years not to read stuff from out of my own cultural mix - which I would qualify as irish, British,American, Australian etc. (which reminds me that dammit, I should have recommended a Murakami book) but it's actually quite difficult to do!

I picked an Irish, Spanish and Indian writer for no other reason than they are good books

Flushdraw

YULETIRED wrote: »

thank you Holster, I iz a badger.

[ ] noticed what time Hotspur edited both posts