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^ I hated The Alchemist. What a disappointing book. Coelho is made out to be this incredible author (and I'm sure some of his other books are better) but I found that one to be so trite and ordinary and (not spoiling anything here Ultra Jorge) but it's BIG, IMPORTANT message is so weak and superficial it almost feels like it came from a bumper sticker!
A self-help children's book for someone who has never done a moment's introspection is probably a good way to describe that book. Ugh!
As far as shockingly pedestrian, bumper-sticker level philosophising and woefully-written, fictional self-help books go though, nothing can beat The Celestine Prophecy for me. Easily the *worst* book I have ever read. I still cringe at the thought of it. Ugh x a milion!
The Name of the Rose looks fab though. That's been sitting on my shelf waiting to be read for about six months now. I need to get around to it one day soon. I've been putting it off hoping I'll forget the events of the movie and therefore be surprised by what happens in the book but I don't think it's working. Guess I'll just have to go in spoiled.
Tell me Ultra Jorge - was the Latin a problem for you? I remember reading the first chapter or so a while ago and thinking that there were a few paragraphs that I just couldn't understand and wondered if I was even meant to.
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The book I'm currently reading is called The Tall Man by a journalist called Chloe Hooper. It's a true-life account of the death in custody of an Aboriginal man on Palm Island off Australia's east coast and the resulting court case of the policeman accused of his killing.
It won pretty much every Australian book award going a couple of years ago and it's not hard to see why - it's an incredibly good book. A very multi-layered one too. It doesn't just tell you the story of the doomed man and his alleged killer but also paints a very moving and intense portrait of the history of Aboriginal culture and identity in Australia and the problematic relationship that exists between the 'whitefella' and the 'blackfella' here today.
It's a somewhat sad and moving book but Hooper writes with a fairly light and easy-to-read prose so it never feels too heavy, and the story of the death, the riot that followed and the eventual court case is such an interesting one that the pages almost fly by.
Highly recommended.
From: Australia | Registered: Dec 2003
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I'm currently taking a little trip back in time with John Gardner's James Bond books. I get on kicks like that every once in a while.
And I am contemplating buying Rhino Ranch. It closes out the Last Picture Show series from Larry McMurtry. I say thinking about it because Dwayne's Depressed was so much of an end to the story I don't know if there's much more to say that wouldn't be very maudlin, akin to emotion porn for me. And I just ain't that deep. Ask anyone here.
-------------------- Damn you, you kids! Get off my lawn or I'm callin' tha cops!
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Hey Blacula. Thanks for the heads up on the Alchemist. I was hoping it would get a bit deeper. Sadly though there are probably people who need this type of book. Certainly it's a simple fable and not much more.
The Name of the Rose I either could figure the Latin out myself (the gist of it) or would sometimes look it up. The toughest part of the book was the intense history regarding different orders of monks, heresies, and religious controversies of the middle ages. I had to wiki almost all of that so I can see how that played into the book.
From: Tampa | Registered: Mar 2004
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Right now I'm reading Dark Prophecy: A Level 26 Thriller Featuring Steve Dark, the digi-novel version, on my iPad. Pretty great read so far and the best use yet of the iPad for interacting with the material you read. Every ebook should be done this way.
From: Utah | Registered: Jul 2003
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Not two far into it and I have no idea where it's going... has something to do with someone walking a tight rope between the Twin Towers... not exactly light vacation reading but a couple of friends and I started a book group with this as our first book...
-------------------- Just when you thought it was safe to go back in the water...
From: The waters off eastern Long Island | Registered: Jul 2003
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John Gardner's Scorpious, a James Bond thriller. Part of it is set in Hilton Head, SC. That may be the second time he used that setting, if I recall correctly. I think he used it one time before with the Nina Bloefeld story.
-------------------- Damn you, you kids! Get off my lawn or I'm callin' tha cops!
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Currently reading Truman by David McCullough. I have Cleopatra: a Life by Stacy Schiff on deck.
-------------------- Five billion years from now the Sun will go nova and obliterate the Earth. Don't sweat the small stuff!
From: Boston | Registered: Aug 2003
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Hyperpath: Email this page to someone!
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Guess I'll just have to go in spoiled. ![[Wink]](wink.gif)
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