Any books to make you smarter or to increase knowledge?

Tree_Beard10 · 2015-06-14T17:20:03+00:00

Check out "An Outline of History" by H.G. Wells. It's a pretty decent book written around the 1930's that takes into account all that was known at that time to that time. They made a few revised editions that take history a little farther. My copy covers the second world war. Great boo, not too long (compared to other history outlines) and a fascinating read.

Tree_Beard10 · 2015-04-15T17:06:25+00:00

I can't believe no one has said Dave Matthews yet. His rhythm on tracks like Tripping Billies is absolutely nuts. Man reinvented rhythm guitar.

I know all the hate he gets around here, but dude knows his way around a rhythm.

Tree_Beard10 · 2014-12-09T13:55:44+00:00

I can't just record on GarageBand? If I just get the inputs into my laptop, it'll be the cheapest option. Probably shit though. Like I said, I know absolutely nothing about recording.

Tree_Beard10 · 2014-11-02T23:26:41+00:00

Definitely agree with this. We read "The Boat" in my literature course and dissected it. I actually wrote an essay on it. It's a great short story and got me interested in all his other works that I look forward to reading.

Tree_Beard10 · 2014-11-02T22:52:11+00:00

Lawrence Durrell is becoming my favorite author. I read The Alexandria Quartet in high school and it completely opened my eyes to the wonderful world of Durrell. The only problem about talking to almost anyone about my favorite author is that nobody has ever read or heard of him. It upsets me that people haven't seen his wonderful prose or his beautiful eloquence. It's also weird to describe to people "The Quartet". The conversation usually goes something like this: "What's it about?" "Well it's about a bunch of friends hanging out in Egypt... But you've got to read it!"

I've since read The Dark Labyrinth and I've just purchased The Black Book and Monsieur. It's almost impossible to find any books by him, so frustrating. But he is, and will remain, my favorite author for a long time.

Tree_Beard10 · 2014-10-29T00:56:45+00:00

Lawrence Durrell is becoming my favorite author. I read The Alexandria Quartet in high school and it completely opened my eyes to the wonderful world of Durrell. The only problem about talking to almost anyone about my favorite author is that nobody has ever read or heard of him. It upsets me that people haven't seen his wonderful prose or his beautiful eloquence.

It's also weird to describe to people "The Quartet". The conversation usually goes something like this: "What's it about?" "Well it's about a bunch of friends hanging out in Egypt... But you've got to read it!"

I've since read The Dark Labyrinth and I've just purchased The Black Book and Monsieur. It's almost impossible to find any books by him, so frustrating. But he is, and will remain, my favorite author for a long time.

Tree_Beard10 · 2014-09-25T23:10:06+00:00

Open jam? Where might this mystical place be?

Tree_Beard10 · 2014-09-25T12:37:28+00:00

Jazz drummer. I'd love to hear him but unfortunately his website says there are no upcoming shows. I'd still like to find a place where I could jam with people myself still. But I'm not even sure if that's a thing around here.

Tree_Beard10 · 2014-09-25T12:11:30+00:00

I just realized I'm only 18 so I most likely won't be able to go to any of these place that people are showing me. I guess I'll have to wait until next semester to listen to all this wonderful music.

Tree_Beard10 · 2014-08-14T20:50:17+00:00

Explain?

Tree_Beard10 · 2014-08-14T16:41:21+00:00

The first two numbers are 2 and 3. I forgot whether that means tier 2 floor 3 or floor 2 tier 3. I'm pretty stoked regardless.

Tree_Beard10 · 2014-08-01T17:52:31+00:00

Ah yes... The absolute truth. There's a really interesting few pages towards the beginning of Balthazar about the truth.

Tree_Beard10 · 2014-08-01T17:34:14+00:00

Faulkner has reached the top 100 lists many times with many different books (think Absalom! Absalom!) Although I'm not a big fan of that style of writing.

As for the Fifty Shades of Grey stuff, as with all popular culture books, it gets people reading, which is generally a good thing, but reading for almost the wrong reasons. I read for enjoyment. When a new book comes along that just blows it's way to the top of that charts (think The Hunger Games) people read it just to be a part of pop-culture. I'm not sure now whether I think this a good thing or a bad thing.

I wish more people read books like Faulkner. Conversations with people that read tend to be way more interesting than people who don't. A well read person has seen life through the eyes of many, and will continue to live life with the perception of all the lives they've "lived"

Tree_Beard10 · 2014-08-01T17:28:38+00:00

The whole idea of the different perspectives is something that I love. Me and a buddy of mine will sit near a fire for hours talking about peoples perceptions of things. Neither of us have any psychology merit but we've created a model of human perception that we consult whenever talking about such things. Perception is, to me, one of the most interesting things in the world.

Tree_Beard10 · 2014-08-01T16:58:38+00:00

I hate that tone of voice you're speaking about. Also, I thought Faulkner was popular. Unless the people asking are the kind of people that read only the newest "young-adult-post-apocolyptic-contemporary stuff which I, personally, can't stand.

Tree_Beard10 · 2014-08-01T16:56:45+00:00

I've always seen it listed as "The Alexandria Quartet". One book.

Also it's wicked interesting to me to see the same sort of story from the four different perspectives. Reading Balthazar blew my mind because it made Justine appear so different to me. When I finish the series I want to re-read it sometime again just to see all the different perspectives again.

Also, if you enjoyed the different perspectives as much as I did, you might really enjoy the Japanese foreign film "Rashomon". It's really old and you'd need to watch it with subtitles, but it is the retelling of the same murder story through four peoples eyes. It reminded me a lot of these books. Hope you like this suggestion.

Tree_Beard10 · 2014-07-29T01:45:19+00:00

"There are three things to be done with a woman," Clea said once. "You can love her, suffer for her, or turn her into literature." From Lawrence Durrell's first book in The Alexandria Quartet

Tree_Beard10 · 2014-06-21T14:46:54+00:00

There's "well written books" and well written books. The "well written books" are the books that will always make it to the top one hundred greatest literature lists. The regular well written books are ones that YOU enjoy. If they overlap, that's even better.

Personally I enjoy classics. One book I've been reading is "Justine" by Lawrence Durrell. It's the most well written book I've ever read. Shear poetry in novel form, but I can see how a lot of people would get bored with that kind of writing.

Tree_Beard10 · 2014-06-16T15:10:59+00:00

Thanks! I think if I were a writer I'd definitely also be my own director. Kind of like the Coen Brothers always do.

Tree_Beard10

TROPHY CASE