Showing posts with label books. Show all posts
Showing posts with label books. Show all posts

Monday, March 31, 2008

Quick Hit

Lou Dobbs rants about race, calling the United States the most racially, ethnically, and religiously diverse and progressive nation in the world (actually, in 2007 The Economist ranked the U.S. 17th in the most democratic countries in the world. I guess Lou hasn't heard about those pesky Scandinavian countries.) Anyway, so, Lou is blithering on about how ungrateful these certain politicians are (Condoleeza Rice and Barack Obama, in particular) and...well...see for yourself:



Oh, Lou, you crazy-ass old man.

Mooooooving on, in the news of the completely irrelevant, we have this little gem about who 50 Cent is supporting in the Dem primary. Because 50 Cent is whom I have always turned to first for political advice.

Last, there's an amusing article [via Feministe] over at the New York Times about literary compatibility and how, let's face it, some of us can be kind of snobbish. But it's ok! Says Sloane Crosley in the article:
“If you’re a person who loves Alice Munro and you’re going out with someone whose favorite book is ‘The Da Vinci Code,’ perhaps the flags of incompatibility were there prior to the big reveal.”

Totally. I do wonder, however, about the veracity of the claim that women tend to be more critical of their partners book choices than men. Maybe that's because I know some pretty book snobbish dudes (and I love you all). Also, I'm guilty of really liking The Unbearable Lightness of Being which is derided in the article by one person interviewed as "trendy, bogus metaphysics" (even though he admits in the same sentence that he knew nothing about Kundera or his work at the time of this assumption and, I think, made up his mind based on that god-awful movie). Anyway, I thought it was kind of a fun article. [Update: Amanda Marcotte has a post about this article, too.]

That's all for now. What random stuff have you come across? Sock it to me, dudes!

Thursday, March 20, 2008

Burnt Pages Book Corner

At it's inception, Burnt Pages was planned as a literary blog. That idea went by the wayside when we realized that we're busy people and sometimes reading is a luxury we can't afford. But I believe there is still intention to review books when possible and, probably as an encouragement to myself, I decided to put up my current reading list which is subject to change at a moment's notice.

One day, I swear I will finish Natalie Angier's Woman: An Intimate Geography. I really enjoy this book but for some reason it's taking me a long time to get through it. I go through stretches of time where I just completely forget that it's there and waiting for me. I have to finish Kate Chopin's The Awakening which I read several years ago but am currently writing a research paper on so a rereading is necessary. After that I'd like to read Jared Diamond's Guns, Germs, and Steel: The Fates of Human Societies at Caecus's suggestion. I've been meaning to read Watership Down by Richard Adams for many years and just haven't done it. And The Darling by Russell Banks. One day, I will get my hands on a copy of Carol Adams' The Sexual Politics of Meat: A Feminist-Vegetarian Critical Theory which I want to read so badly that it would make a very quick cut to the top of the list should I possess it anytime soon.

If I ever figure out what happened to my copy of the study "Sex, Lies & Stereotypes: How Abstinence-only Programs Harm Women and Girls" [pdf] by Julie Kay with Ashley Jackson from Legal Momentum, I will read that and probably have an opinion to give on it afterward. I just don't feel like reprinting the entire 80 or so pages. We'll see how that goes...

So guys, what's on your list?