Books you're currently reading???

[wolf]

Originally Posted by Brianna

Yes, I am duly reassured!---Now--can you explain THE WAY OF THE PILGRIM? coz after reading FRANNY AND ZOOEY, I got that book and tried to read it and I think I may have (read it) but I didn't get much out of it. Yeah--it's Russian Mystic shit and it made Franny have a complete breakdown....so....what is the deal with that book?

Ooooh. I didn't realize that what I thought was a relatively obscure book was referenced in another relatively obscure book.

I'm halfway through it, but it's like this.

There's this Russian peasant, see, and it's like when there were still Tsars and Pogroms and such, and he just kind of wanders around all over. Well, in the first few pages of chapter one he explains that he heard this sermon focused on a passage in First Epistle of Paul to the Thessalonians (not one of the more remarkable bits of the New Testament) where Paul says one should "Pray without Ceasing".

Deceptively simple, isn't it?

The Pilgrim, of course, doesn't get it.

So off he wanders until he comes upon an old priest who gives him this book of commentary by Eastern Orthodox mystics and ascetics called the Philokalia (The Love of Spiritual Beauty). He learns from this book that he should repeat the "Jesus Prayer" thousands of times per day. Ways of working up to the recommended total are provided.

The old priest dies, and the Pilgrim spends the rest of the book wandering from place to place, finding other people from a variety of social strata (from other peasants to very wealthy landed gentry) who coincidentally are ALSO endlessly repeating the Jesus Prayer, or he talks folks into doing so to enrich their spiritual lives. He has many encounters which at first glance seem coincidental, but in which he certainly sees the hand of God at work.

And he eats a lot of bread.

[Sundae]

Originally Posted by SteveDallas

Just remember, there's no "I" in "team," but there's an "M" and an "E"!

Makes me think of Shaun of the Dead

Originally Posted by SteveDallas

However I attempted to read the first one of the series, "The Color of Magic," and I found it an unbearable snooze and abandoned it halfway through.

Nooooooooooooooooooooooooooo!

I read the Colour of Magic when it first came out in paperback- I would have been about 14. I read my copy to bits and had to buy another one. That & The Light Fantastic were the funniest, most original books I had ever read (I had only seen Hitchhikers on TV at that age, I hadn't read the books). Then again I remember thinking we should be studying David Eddings in our English classes......

Sad to hear it hasn't aged well.

[Trilby]

Wolf: Thanks for the sum-up. Yeah, the Jesus Prayer. Kinda like magic, right?

[Cyclefrance]

Originally Posted by Sundae Girl

Makes me think of Shaun of the Dead


Nooooooooooooooooooooooooooo!

I read the Colour of Magic when it first came out in paperback- I would have been about 14. I read my copy to bits and had to buy another one. That & The Light Fantastic were the funniest, most original books I had ever read (I had only seen Hitchhikers on TV at that age, I hadn't read the books). Then again I remember thinking we should be studying David Eddings in our English classes......

Sad to hear it hasn't aged well.

Pratchett is good, I like the ones with Cohen the Barbarian as they have a certain personal attraction....

His children's books Truckers, Diggers and Wings are also excellent and adult-digestible. However, after reading about 10 Discworld books I wanted something different and was introduced to Robert Rankin. I can recommend his 'Armageddon' series (get used to a time travelling brussel sprout named Barry who resides in Elvis Presley's brain - who of course is still well and living in the 21st century), but my favourite will always remain 'The Brentford Triangle' out of the Brentford Trilogy (now running to ten novels I believe) - serious laugh-out-loud material. I can only describe Rankin as surrealist humour - you have to be prepared to bend your mind to his, and provided you make this sacrifice you will definitely enjoy....

[SteveDallas]

Originally Posted by Sundae Girl

I read the Colour of Magic when it first came out in paperback- I would have been about 14. I read my copy to bits and had to buy another one . . . Sad to hear it hasn't aged well.

Well, maybe I should give it another try. I may have been more favorably inclined if I had read it first before the other novels. Though I suppose it is a compliment (however backhanded) in that it suggests great improvement in his writing over the years.

Originally Posted by Sundae Girl

. . .I remember thinking we should be studying David Eddings in our English classes......

Oh, yeah an essay explaining the plot parallels between the Belgariad and the Elenium. There's the ticket!

[elSicomoro]

Originally Posted by Griff

Dude, are you that pissed at tw?

Fontbonne (the school I'm attending) has a 24-month MBA program that I considered...and every time I thought about it, I kept thinking of tw.

MBAs are overrated, IMO. The Management program I'm in is good, and only takes 18 months. That'll work for me.

[elSicomoro]

Originally Posted by Cyclefrance

Get yourself a copy of Goldratt's 'The Goal' - it won't cost you much second-hand but it will be one of the most useful management books you read, being the entry novel to a management and business process concept that stands up to scrutiny and that really does work and deliver. I'll be surprised if you don't get hooked.

Thanks for the tip...I'll have to check it out!

[Cyclefrance]

Originally Posted by sycamore

Thanks for the tip...I'll have to check it out!

One of his books, 'Critical Chain', deals with MBAs and takes the line you do. It's essentially about Project Management and solving the bottlenecks that you get which cause delays to completion of projects, but there is a parallel 'plot' that deals with the issues and potential solutions to the way MBAs are constructed and taught. If you end up liking 'The Goal' then the next obvious ones are 'It's Not Luck' (deals with sales and marketing) and then 'Critical Chain'.

I took a TOC course when I was working on a project for the fish and fruit markets, and the process identified some real problems plus helped create and evaluate possible solutions. I use their basic problem analysis tool (generally referred to as the Evaporating Cloud or Conflict Resolution Diagram) quite regularly as a means to condense and resolve issues, but the full programme approach is really for large tasks and projects.

[wolf]

Sycamore, my dear boy, get a copy of Covey's 7 Habits. They can be had for $1.99 or less from amazon.com marketplace. Then get yourself a nice degree from one of those internet diploma mills.

Intereject wise sounding nonsense from the 7 Habits into your conversations, particularly admonishing people to "Stay in Quadrant II!!" (as I recall, that's the quadrant where the Klingons aren't, so it's always a good choice)

This method will waste less of your time and money than actually going to business school, and will be just as useful in the long run.

[wolf]

Slammerkin by Emma Donoghue

Not a book that I would ordinarily read. It was a Quality Paperback Book Club main selection about five years ago. You all know what happened ... I forgot to send one of the little cards back, and it's less hassle to send them money once you open the package than it is to send the book back.

Follows two years of a young girl's life in London in 1760something.

It's grittier than it sounds.

[bargalunan]

"the 12th planet" and "Stairway to heaven" Zecharia Sitchin

"Gateway to Atlantis" Andrew Collins

[bookbuyer]

I'm just finishing up "48 Laws of Power" by Greene. A good psychology/business book that goes about teaching its lessons in story form from history with lessons learned.

[wolf]

I heard about that book at a community group meeting I attended. I'm getting it from amazon at some point. (It's ordered, it's just clumped with a buncha other stuff for cheaper shipping and one of the items is taking longer than I expected)

My latest
From a Buick 8 - Stephen King

[lookout123]

How to win friends and influence people - Carnegie
think and grow rich - napoleon hill

the bibles of sales. my stubborness has prevented me from reading them for a decade or so. my knowledge and skill have taken me as far as they will, i guess i better learn to communicate with people now.

[bookbuyer]

Lookout, you want the book "Master the Art of Selling" by Tom Hopkins. HTWFAIP and Think/Grow Rich are good books, but Hopkins book is in a class by itself. Really. Pick it up.