http://www.calitreview.com/forum/ Just another bbPress community en Sat, 20 Mar 2010 05:21:26 +0000 http://www.calitreview.com/forum/topic/literary-prizes#post-80 Thu, 05 Feb 2009 12:39:55 +0000 Jem Bloomfield 80@http://www.calitreview.com/forum/ <p>I was just reading an article in "Prospect" magazine from a few months ago about literary prizes. I've only got a very limited perspective on this (I don't know how such things are managed in the US) but big fiction prizes like the Booker seem to occupy a sort of middle ground between the smaller, genre-specific prizes (like the CWA, or the Romance Authors awards, which sometimes have the air of an intra-industry private party) and the more obviously "artistic" events like the Turner Prize, which simply provides an opportunity for the tabloid papers to be self-righteously Philistine. I wonder what everyone thinks about literary prizes generally? Are they useful ways of recognising people who contribute to our language's cultural life and give a bit of publicity to struggling writers? Or are they a self-indulgent exercise in propping up the "literary novel" which otherwise would have quietly died because no-one actually wants to read it? </p> http://www.calitreview.com/forum/topic/which-books-got-you-started-as-a-reader#post-76 Sat, 13 Dec 2008 19:27:58 +0000 sandy 76@http://www.calitreview.com/forum/ <p>For me it was anything by Dr. Seuss. The artwork, the humor, the rhyming - I got more enjoyment (over and over again) from those books, than from anything else in my childhood.</p> <p>If I had to choose one, it would probably be GREEN EGGS AND HAM. </p> http://www.calitreview.com/forum/topic/best-book-ever-read#post-70 Sun, 16 Nov 2008 16:51:25 +0000 robin 70@http://www.calitreview.com/forum/ <p>I'd have to say JANE EYRE by Charlotte Bronte. For me, it's a perfect work of fiction that works on all levels - history, drama, characters, etc. </p> http://www.calitreview.com/forum/topic/worst-book-you-ever-read#post-68 Sat, 08 Nov 2008 14:44:30 +0000 burt 68@http://www.calitreview.com/forum/ <p>"Jonathan Livingston Seagull" by Richard Bach. I think it caused permanent psychological damage. </p> http://www.calitreview.com/forum/topic/best-book-ever-read#post-67 Fri, 17 Oct 2008 16:55:00 +0000 sandy 67@http://www.calitreview.com/forum/ <p>"Siddhartha" by Herman Hesse - it has the same effect on me that a walk through the forest or a swim in the ocean does. It puts things in perspective and lets me appreciate the beauty in the world. </p> http://www.calitreview.com/forum/topic/worst-book-you-ever-read#post-64 Wed, 15 Oct 2008 16:30:16 +0000 Jem Bloomfield 64@http://www.calitreview.com/forum/ <p>Yes, I'm afraid so! I'm teaching it the week after next - bizarrely, it's now set in a translated version. </p> http://www.calitreview.com/forum/topic/worst-book-you-ever-read#post-63 Tue, 14 Oct 2008 19:30:08 +0000 robin 63@http://www.calitreview.com/forum/ <p>"Beowulf" - are kids still required to read it? </p> http://www.calitreview.com/forum/topic/whats-everyone-reading#post-62 Mon, 13 Oct 2008 23:44:06 +0000 claudia 62@http://www.calitreview.com/forum/ <p>Continuing along the medical thriller genre, Robin Cook's, TRAUMA,is a great book. Does anyone recommend any other of his books? </p> http://www.calitreview.com/forum/topic/worst-book-you-ever-read#post-50 Mon, 06 Oct 2008 13:02:54 +0000 hardboiled 50@http://www.calitreview.com/forum/ <p>"Moby Dick" </p> http://www.calitreview.com/forum/topic/best-book-ever-read#post-49 Mon, 06 Oct 2008 01:10:26 +0000 fitler 49@http://www.calitreview.com/forum/ <p>"Adventures of Huckleberry Finn" by Mark Twain </p> http://www.calitreview.com/forum/topic/best-book-ever-read#post-47 Sun, 05 Oct 2008 14:04:20 +0000 claudia 47@http://www.calitreview.com/forum/ <p>"I Know This Much Is True" by Wally Lamb. </p> http://www.calitreview.com/forum/topic/best-book-ever-read#post-45 Sat, 04 Oct 2008 18:54:04 +0000 deborah 45@http://www.calitreview.com/forum/ <p>Let me balance my "worst book" thread with one for best book. I loved THE FOUNTAINHEAD by Ayn Rand. I'm not a Randian, but the story just moved and inspired me. I reread it every few years. </p> http://www.calitreview.com/forum/topic/worst-book-you-ever-read#post-43 Sat, 04 Oct 2008 18:41:49 +0000 deborah 43@http://www.calitreview.com/forum/ <p>There are many awful books out there, but when a book is extremely popular and you hate it, you wonder if it's just you or if you're missing something.</p> <p>The worst book I ever read was LEFT BEHIND, the first of the series by Tim LaHaye. I never read any of the others. The plot was absurd, the dialogue wooden. I thought it was beyond bad.</p> <p>Anyone else care to share? </p> http://www.calitreview.com/forum/topic/whats-everyone-reading#post-41 Thu, 02 Oct 2008 20:50:58 +0000 robin 41@http://www.calitreview.com/forum/ <p>A friend recommended "The Story of Edgar Sawtelle" by David Wroblewski. I thought it was great. It's the story of a boy, born mute in rural Wisconsin, whose father is murdered. He has to go on the run with his three dogs. The description of life in the wild is wonderful. At one point the story is even told from the dog's point of view. Very imaginative. </p> http://www.calitreview.com/forum/topic/three-books-that-permanently-changed-the-way-i-view-the-world#post-31 Fri, 26 Sep 2008 17:37:38 +0000 burt 31@http://www.calitreview.com/forum/ <p>FREE TO CHOOSE by Milton Friedman: The degree to which capitalism and freedom are linked was an eye-opener for me.</p> <p>THE ROAD TO SERFDOM by F. A. Hayek: The collectivist ideal - giving government the means to production - leads inevitably, to totalitarianism.</p> <p>LINCOLN by David Herbert Donald: An amazing biography that demonstrates what one can achieve despite humble beginnings and almost overwhelming challenges. </p> http://www.calitreview.com/forum/topic/three-books-that-permanently-changed-the-way-i-view-the-world#post-30 Tue, 23 Sep 2008 20:07:59 +0000 fictiongirl 30@http://www.calitreview.com/forum/ <p>For me, it was one book - "Are You There God? It's Me, Margaret" by Judy Blume. I read this when I was 10 years old and it made me realize that no one has the answers. It's OK to be uncertain. And it also made me a book lover. </p> http://www.calitreview.com/forum/topic/whats-everyone-reading#post-28 Sun, 21 Sep 2008 17:54:14 +0000 fictiongirl 28@http://www.calitreview.com/forum/ <p>I highly recommend "What You Have Left" by Will Allison. I read it earlier this summer and can't get it out of my head. It's the story of a 5 year old girl who is essentially abandoned and has to make a life for herself under almost impossible circumstances. I'd read other books since then, but none compare to this one. </p> http://www.calitreview.com/forum/topic/whats-everyone-reading#post-21 Wed, 10 Sep 2008 00:00:45 +0000 claudia 21@http://www.calitreview.com/forum/ <p>I just finished reading Tess Gerritsen, Life Support; it was a great read. Fast paced, suspenseful, I couldn't wait to read the last page. I also just finished Dean Koontz, Lightning,another great book; takes time travel &#38; makes it thrilling. I like the medical thriller genre. Any recommendations? </p> http://www.calitreview.com/forum/topic/whats-everyone-reading#post-13 Thu, 21 Aug 2008 16:32:21 +0000 Jem Bloomfield 13@http://www.calitreview.com/forum/ <p>I've just read Graham Greene's "The Human Factor", which was very enjoyable - the first book by Greene I think I've read. Just starting Adam Nicholson's "Power and Glory" about the translation of the King James Bible - I hurried through a couple of chapters of it a while ago whilst working on marginalia in the Renaissance, and was so impressed I'm returning to it for fun. Interesting material, but also a cracking good read. (Never knew that Londoners in the seventeenth century believed that in the spring swallows returned from wintering at the bottom of tin mines in Cornwall...) </p> http://www.calitreview.com/forum/topic/whats-everyone-reading#post-12 Thu, 21 Aug 2008 15:24:56 +0000 robin 12@http://www.calitreview.com/forum/ <p>I just finished "A Thousand Splendid Suns" by Khaled Hosseini and highly recommend it. I loved "The Kite Runner" and this was this one was every bit as good.</p> <p>Next up is "The World Without Us" by Alan Weisman. I saw a documentary about this same topic on The History Channel last month and found it very interesting. </p> http://www.calitreview.com/forum/topic/three-books-that-permanently-changed-the-way-i-view-the-world#post-10 Sun, 17 Aug 2008 13:33:22 +0000 fitler 10@http://www.calitreview.com/forum/ <p>Here are three books that fundamentally and permanently changed the way I view the world:</p> <p>* DEATH AND LIFE OF GREAT AMERICAN CITIES by Jane Jacobs - I read this book in the early 70s and was still enamored by the Robert Moses, Ed Bacon school of city planning. Raze old "slum" neighborhoods and put in beautiful modern office skyscrapers or eight lane interstate highways. Jane Jacobs saw the sterility and inhumanity of those actions and she also saw the vibrancy, safety and humanity of those "slum" neighborhoods. I've never looked at cities the same way since.</p> <p>* ON HUMAN NATURE by E.O Wilson - The frightening idea that altruism may be an evolutionary adaption and not a human virtue.</p> <p>* DENIAL OF DEATH by Ernest Becker - Our fear of death may be the driving force in the development of civilization and particularly religious institutions. The ferocity of religious wars is because of how devastating the questioning of our religious world view is to our view of self.</p> <p>I'd be very interested in reading what three books others would choose. </p>