Molly

says

Jay R says

Hi, Molly, great shelf, great groups, good on ya.
I just finished another PK Dick and am feeling stoaked.
happy reading,
Jay

posted 5 months ago. ( send a note )

D says

Oh hey! Long time no correspond! 2666 is really really great, but I'm only about 150/900 pages in. I wish I could read it in Spanish but my knowledge is pretty much non-existent. The English translation apparently does it justice though, and I don't feel like any of the magic of the story has been lost. You should definitely check it out if you have the time. Unfortunately I haven't read much in the past month. Pretty much only got the chance to read the 150 pages of this since mid-April because I have three huge exams coming up at the end of this month and the start of June. So all I've been reading is extremely boring narratives of British history, ugh.

posted 1 year ago. ( send a note )

D says

Oh wow that sucks. Spree killers are probably worse than serial killers. And I didn't finish 1984 yet, in fact I didn't even start it haha. I have it right in front of me. And on Vonnegut, I have Slaughterhouse-five right in front of me too! It's a toss up between 1984 and Slaughterhouse-five. I'm thinking of SH5 first because it's shorter and I haven't had much time to do reading lately since I started all of these research intense history modules. :( How' the Wire watching going? Broadwalk Empire finished recently, I think, so I'm going to binge on that pretty soon.

posted 1 year ago. ( send a note )

D says

Brave New World was pretty good! Definitely on the level with Fahrenheit 451 on the dystopia scale. I'll get to reading 1984 eventually so I can claim to have read the main three dystopian novels haha. That Bradbury/Mars concept sounds like an interesting one, and I'm warming more to the idea of the use of science fiction now that I understand there's quite a difference between science fiction and fantasy (I don't mind the rockets anymore, as long as what I'm reading has no wizards or imaginary monsters haha). I think the reason we revere these older dystopian novels is because they seemed so prophetic and they put a value on literature and the validity of our current predictions (maybe there's an obscure novel floating around out there that predicts Sarah Palin will get elected and America will spiral into a Nazi Germany like politics than warns against the dangers of political apathy and misinformation in the media that will be hailed as a classic when we are in our last decades of life).

And I definitely agree on the theories of media. The problem is, for me, that it gives some people a false sense of a) how easy it is to solve a crime or b) how easy it is to commit one! An old high school acquaintance who genuinely applied to study criminal forensics at University and wrote on his application that he was influenced by watching CSI. Thankfully, he's at some obscure University studying a completely unrelated subject now, haha.

posted 1 year ago. ( send a note )

D says

Haha yeah, no worries about the late reply, I got back from the first lecture of the new semester a couple of hours ago. Glad you like the Wire! I'm not so much of a criminal minds fan, to be honest. As much as I like forensic psychology, I just think it's way too overused to the extent that it's unrealistic in that show. The only reason I'm reading Notes from Underground was because it's a classic and it's short and I like to break up my longer reads with novellas. Little did I know that the style in which it's written would mean I had to read it at half-speed haha. I've only read the first chapter and it took me close to three hours, so I've put it down in favour of some quicker reads. Here's an interesting story you'll like. It's half detective work and half a commentary on people's ignorance in regards to metal health: http://www.advocate.com/Arts_and_Entertainment/Commentary/Chasing_the_Duclod_Man/ and http://www.advocate.com/Arts_and_Entertainment/Commentary/Finding_the_Duclod_Man_Part_2/

posted 1 year ago. ( send a note )

D says

It's like you are me in a different dimension! I ordered Notes From Underground three days ago haha

posted 1 year ago. ( send a note )

D says

My University library saves me so much money. Local libraries around here are terrible though and only cater for what seems to be people over the age of 50 since they have large stocks of large print romance novels but hardly anything on their classics shelves :( As for stories, I just burned through Joseph Conrad's Heart of Darkness in about six hours yesterday, and I enjoyed it quite a bit. It's a touching story about slavery, but it's much more than just a story. And I see you've read Fahrenheit 451? I eventually got around to ordering it on Christmas day so it should be coming any time soon. Do you think someone who isn't usually into sci-fi would like it? I hear its more of just a straight up dystopian novel (which is bound to contain at least a little bit of sci-fi), but I'm assuming it isn't over the top with spaceships and time travel and stuff haha

posted 1 year ago. ( send a note )

D says

Our lowest temperature ever is something like -27 degrees so I'm glad we haven't even come close to breaking it haha. We've been getting something like -5 to -101 during the day and up to -15 on some nights. :( So how did Christmas go? Did you get any new books?

posted 1 year ago. ( send a note )

D says

Haha, no worries about the late reply. Your department chair sounds like he has possibly the best job ever. The actual snow status here is that we have pitiful amounts. However, the status of the country's infrastructure because of the snow is that we're in a meltdown (the bad kind). We can't handle any snow. And since I rely on public transport, who rely on the local governments to properly clear the roads (who are useless and struggling to survive anyway), I have to spend hours making a 30 minute journey. :(

posted 1 year ago. ( send a note )

D says

Yeah, the Wire is tragically realistic. I believe many of the people who write for it have been cops, journalists, teachers etc. (teachers and journalists get their stories told in later seasons) in Baltimore, and some of the writers have written non-fiction books and made documentaries about Baltimore's crime and public services. I think they even made a show about it, of which David Simon was at the helm but I've forgotten its name. The show had most of the good guys from The Wire playing bad guys so it's probably fun to watch once you're done. But, yes, you have a great journey to look forward to with The Wire! It's definitely changed my outlook on a lot of things on life, even if it is just a TV show.

posted 1 year ago. ( send a note )

D says

Oh wow. I haven't been here in a while haha. So sorry for the veery late reply! I have been snowed under with essays due for before Christmas break, but I'm pretty much all done now so hopefully I can get a little bit of reading done before I start on my stuff due for January argh. Anyway, did you start watching The Wire yet?

posted 1 year ago. ( send a note )

John Lopez says

Hey there Molly. I'm discussing The Decameron at www.booktalk.org. I'm contacting some members here who are reading the book. Hopefully I can wrangle enough to make a good book discussion. Let me know if you're interested. :)

posted 1 year ago. ( send a note )

D says

I doubt that Chomsky would accept a position as a leader which holds as much power as the President as the U.S.A. haha. And no, I haven't been watching it... yet! I'm going to start watching it once the season finishes so that I can binge on it over the course of two or three days.

posted 1 year ago. ( send a note )

D says

Well, I wouldn't say we've "resorted" to dishonesty and immoral practises within politics, it's always been like that. :( I recently watched a documentary you may like on youtube called "Madness in the Fast Lane". http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Madness_in_the_Fast_Lane Interesting stuff. You might have heard of it already, though.

posted 1 year ago. ( send a note )

Lee W says

Hello, thanks for the add. Do you have a favorite short story collection you would recommend?

posted 1 year ago. ( send a note )

D says

Ah yes, I'm sadly all too familiar with Fox and their "news". I try to keep tabs on it because Rupert Murdoch owns a news channel over here too, and a few newspapers/magazines. Luckily, every time he tries to use his news channel or papers for political gain, there's a sharp and harsh rebuttal from the general British population. Guess as a collective we're just not as susceptible to stuff like that since in the past our news has always been pretty non-bias. And I love James Gandolfini so I may have to watch that. The Sopranos is my second favourite show, after The Wire. I'm assuming you mean did the Indian Mutiny take place during the American Civil War? (since there hasn't ever been an event branded the Indian Civil War, which is not to say that events which have the characteristics of one have occurred, just not in the American sense). It started in 1857, though, which I believe is four years before the American Civil War, by which time it was well and truly over.

posted 1 year ago. ( send a note )

D says

HBO is my favourite American network (is it a network? we don't have them here so I have no idea what to call it). Especially for war related stuff. I have Band of Brothers on DVD and I should probably watch The Pacific too. Speaking of war stories, I think I might dive into Catch 22 if I can't find anything shorter. I have to go to the library today to pick up another boring academic work on the Indian Mutiny though, so I wont have much time to read anything else. :( And how, if I may ask, did Travels with Charley save your life?

posted 1 year ago. ( send a note )

D says

Haha yes, I finished the Great Gatsby in about 18 hours including an eight hour sleep, three meals and messing around at the computer. I think it's the fastest I've ever read anything. Prohibition is very interesting. I studied it last year as part of my American Civil Rights History class, turns out the same people who fought for it to be enacted were the very same ones who fought for it to be abolished, since it facilitated so much more mob activity and allowed them to fund themselves for even worse activities. I'm not particularly interested in the era on its own, but I have both read and seen a performance of Of Mice and Men, which if I recall is set in the late twenties or early thirties, which is another amazing piece of American literature. I don't know what I'm going to be reading next, I have these two book (V and The Name of the Rose) that I'm about 3/4 of the way through but I haven't picked either up for well over a month, and I'm afraid I'm going to probably be assigned to read another banal academic monograph from this evening's class, so I wont have time to leisure read this week. :(

posted 1 year ago. ( send a note )

D says

Ah, yes. As interested as I am in serial killers, I imagine there are thousands of other occasions on which criminal psychology can be applied. I'm mostly ignorant to them, because honestly, the media is too, so I have no way to imagine it. Although I enjoy the show The Mentalist. Have you seen it? Also, the BBC made their own dramatised version of Sherlock Holmes that showed on TV at the end of summer, which was amazing. Psychology is cool when it enables someone to act with such acuity in any situation because they're able to predict how the other person thinks. Although, I think I'm right in assuming that very few people like that actually exist? Which is sad. :( Anyway, I have finished The Trial! It has a very good ending, even if you can tell that it was hastily finished. I'm glad he did write the ending, otherwise the rest would have seemed pointless. And you should definitely look up some analyses and essays on the book, because there were quite a few things I missed, and I was sure I'd picked up on almost all of his elaborate metaphors, haha. Time to move on to The Great Gatsby!

posted 1 year ago. ( send a note )

D says

Haha, well, I can't possibly speak from an informed perspective about how the media perceives criminal psychologists, so I just thought I'd see how someone in the field felt about it, since I've read an equal amount of discourse from either side of the fence (the one which argues that it's incredibly useful in many cases, the other that it's only useful in some cases, like serial killers). But it's always something I've been intrigued with. And apologies for the late reply, among University work and social commitments I haven't had the chance to do much else but read an extremely verbose book for one of my classes during my free time. Luckily it was only 250 pages so I've managed to burn through it in five days.

posted 1 year ago. ( send a note )