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Mar. 1st, 2006 10:10 pmYou know, whenever I feel particularly cool and on top of things something happens- like I trip, or I spill something, or "All I Wanna Do Is Make Love To You" comes up on my media player- that makes me feel like a big, fat dorkus malorkus.
So, on that note: Five Little-Read Books That I Love!
1. The Cheese Monkeys, by Chip Kidd. It's a novel about art school set in the fifties, but that doesn't quite sum it up. It's got frat parties, Pontius Pilate Easter eggs, an Evil-Yet-Sexy Design teacher (who should be played by James Spader), art students being stranded in the wilderness and forced to make their way back to civilization with a piece of bristol board and a marker, and gum wrappers. (If that doesn't convince you, try this quote, or this one.)
2. The Chinese Mirror, by Alice Grey. A Scottish immigrant writing a book about Chinese mythology. It helps that it's set in Canada, I guess. the story is, this kid named Peter got a mirror from his grandmother when he was young, and when he's a teenage one night he sees a flicker underneath the glass. It turns out to be a fish named His Excellency, who is one of many different animals living on the other side of the mirror that are all waking up. The last of the animals to wake, the tiger Shen-ch'i, who will destroy both the mirror world and the real world if he breaks the bindings that hold him down, and it's up to Peter, his sister, and one of his friends to stop it from happening. Petty larceny, talking animals, and a system of magic so complex that every time I read it I pick up new details I missed the first time around- God, I fucking loved this book.
3. The Girl With The Silver Eyes, by Willo Davis Roberts. This was the first book about telekinesis, and one of the few that ever offers an explanation as to why the character has these insane abilities. The main character, Katie, is smart and mature, and could talk to animals, and used her abilities to torment her babysitters, investigate government conspiracies, and find other children like her. I always wanted to read a sequel to this- all of the kids with silver eyes banding together to fight injustice, sort of like the X-Men.
4. The Thirteen Clocks, by James Thurber. When my sisters, my father and I were going on a trip to Newfoundland, and Mum bought us a few books to read in the car. This was one of them, and one of my most vivid memories of that trip is sitting in the back of the car in the middle of the night trying to read by the roadside light, completely fascinated. It was full of the things I liked in a book: princes in disguise, wicked dukes, gloomy castles, beautifullest ladies, riddles, poems, ghosts, monsters, chases, escapes, true love, miracles... I want to write a book like this someday. (Except without the Princess Saralinda being pretty much helpless.)
5. Borderliners, by Peter Hoeg. I read this book two years ago, and when I started it I didn't expect to like it, but it drew me in, very slowly and very calmly. It's a book about institutionalized cruelty, adulthood, education and reform, and the nature of time, and one of the saddest things about it is that it's mostly true.
Quick question. Anyone else notice that Stephen Harper kind of looks like a potato?
Another quick question. (Actually, a little less with the quick this time.) I'm writing a philosophical essay for Political Science and I need to present philosophical arguments for the idea that human beings are inherently selfish and against that idea. I've already got three philosophers for it (Rand, Freud, and Hobbes), but the only ideas I have for "against" are Locke and maybe Marx. (We're allowed to use him as a philosopher, apparently.) Anyone who knows more about philosophy than me have any ideas?
So, on that note: Five Little-Read Books That I Love!
1. The Cheese Monkeys, by Chip Kidd. It's a novel about art school set in the fifties, but that doesn't quite sum it up. It's got frat parties, Pontius Pilate Easter eggs, an Evil-Yet-Sexy Design teacher (who should be played by James Spader), art students being stranded in the wilderness and forced to make their way back to civilization with a piece of bristol board and a marker, and gum wrappers. (If that doesn't convince you, try this quote, or this one.)
2. The Chinese Mirror, by Alice Grey. A Scottish immigrant writing a book about Chinese mythology. It helps that it's set in Canada, I guess. the story is, this kid named Peter got a mirror from his grandmother when he was young, and when he's a teenage one night he sees a flicker underneath the glass. It turns out to be a fish named His Excellency, who is one of many different animals living on the other side of the mirror that are all waking up. The last of the animals to wake, the tiger Shen-ch'i, who will destroy both the mirror world and the real world if he breaks the bindings that hold him down, and it's up to Peter, his sister, and one of his friends to stop it from happening. Petty larceny, talking animals, and a system of magic so complex that every time I read it I pick up new details I missed the first time around- God, I fucking loved this book.
3. The Girl With The Silver Eyes, by Willo Davis Roberts. This was the first book about telekinesis, and one of the few that ever offers an explanation as to why the character has these insane abilities. The main character, Katie, is smart and mature, and could talk to animals, and used her abilities to torment her babysitters, investigate government conspiracies, and find other children like her. I always wanted to read a sequel to this- all of the kids with silver eyes banding together to fight injustice, sort of like the X-Men.
4. The Thirteen Clocks, by James Thurber. When my sisters, my father and I were going on a trip to Newfoundland, and Mum bought us a few books to read in the car. This was one of them, and one of my most vivid memories of that trip is sitting in the back of the car in the middle of the night trying to read by the roadside light, completely fascinated. It was full of the things I liked in a book: princes in disguise, wicked dukes, gloomy castles, beautifullest ladies, riddles, poems, ghosts, monsters, chases, escapes, true love, miracles... I want to write a book like this someday. (Except without the Princess Saralinda being pretty much helpless.)
5. Borderliners, by Peter Hoeg. I read this book two years ago, and when I started it I didn't expect to like it, but it drew me in, very slowly and very calmly. It's a book about institutionalized cruelty, adulthood, education and reform, and the nature of time, and one of the saddest things about it is that it's mostly true.
Quick question. Anyone else notice that Stephen Harper kind of looks like a potato?
Another quick question. (Actually, a little less with the quick this time.) I'm writing a philosophical essay for Political Science and I need to present philosophical arguments for the idea that human beings are inherently selfish and against that idea. I've already got three philosophers for it (Rand, Freud, and Hobbes), but the only ideas I have for "against" are Locke and maybe Marx. (We're allowed to use him as a philosopher, apparently.) Anyone who knows more about philosophy than me have any ideas?