Brewster Rockit by Tim Rickard for August 26, 2022

Well I have read Moby Dick.

My problem is that I am a fairly slow reader, so I tend to buy books faster than I can read them.

Yes there are some books that I have ended up buying multiple copies of because I had forgotten that I had already bought it. Thank god for used book stores, where I get most of my books from.

I’ve read MD and W&P. I have “A Tale of Two Cities” lined up for Dickens. I have no interest in “Ulysses”, but I HAVE read “The Odyssey” twice; does that count?

(Currently reading Adam Smith’s “The Wealth of Nations”, learning more about 18th c. international commerce than anyone ever needs to. But I did enjoy this historical tidbit: He expresses his admiration for a potato diet over wheat by telling us that Irish laborers are the strongest and Irish prostitutes are the prettiest.)

For some, it’s all about appearances.

I began Satanic Verses when Rushdie was first put under the Fatwah… I’m still not even a quarter of my way through it… BORING…

I see Jaws is no longer on the show-off list. But shouldn’t she have A Brief History of Time on there?

I bought Ulysses when the Penguin paperback edition came out in 1969. I’m still trying to get past the first thirty pages or so.

There are over 400 books on my bookshelves that I have read and a couple dozen on top I haven’t read yet

I’m keeping up reading almost as fast as I buy them, so there’s still room on top

Pretty soon I need to add a fourth set of shelves, I’m overflowing what I have

I’ve read “War and Peace” and “Great Expectations”. Haven’t read “Ulysses” but I did read “Finnegans Wake” during the pandemic. Took six months with several detours to more normal books along the way. Probably the best book I ever read.

read them…read ‘war and peace’ in 5th grade and on my own, not class assignment…read everything i could get my hands on

My love of reading started with comic books… then science fiction books that my dad bought me (his own sci-fi books were a bit too advanced for me then.) It worked – I studied computers and AI in college and recently retired from a software engineering career.

I read Great Expectations, it wasn’t all that I hoped for.

Buying books and not reading them is called tsundoku.

“Great Expectations” was one that I had to read in school.

I signed up for a classics book-of-the-month club back in the 1980s when I was young and foolish. Each month brought a famous book, all bound in leather. I think that they were $19.95 each. I read a few of them, most just went on the bookshelf. My kids have used some of them for schoolwork.

I’ve only read those, because the English teacher assigned them to me.

Some of the books were required reading in English Literature. “Ulysses” “Moby Dick” and ”Great Expectations”. Today’s reading I look on the book shelve and I find books by Tom Clancy, Dean Koontz, and Michael Crichton. I have even read James Cavell’s “SHOGUN”.

Where’s her copy of A Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy? That one might be useful.

I try to keep my library down to what will fit in my two bookcases – about 300 books, almost all of which I have read at least twice.

I once offered a spare book to an actress friend. She told me she had to check and see if she already had it. We were standing in her apartment, so I suggested she check immediately.

“Oh, most of my books aren’t here, I still have a couple of hundred at Mom’s place.”

How many here have read all 5 of the Game of Thrones? That’s over 5,000 pages. I wish R.R. would finish #6 before he passes on.

I seldom have read all the way through most of my books. Some of the Biblical analysis books can run over 800 pages long. But, some of the novels I have read cover to cover and several times. I really appreciate Those Who Love by Irving Penn.

I always thought Moby Dick was a venereal disease.

I seldom read all my books from cover to cover. Some of the Biblical exegesis books can run over 800 pages with extensive footnoting. My technical books are usually just there to provide information on a given subject like earth sheltering, for instance. But, my novels are often read completely through, and several times. My favorite title is that of Irving Stone called Those Who Love. It gives the married life of John and Abigail Adams.

Hmm I’m looking into getting the “Art of War” by Sun tzu. Any opinions (non-spoilers) on it would be welcome

Heinlein said that after his wife Virginia learned Russian, she read “War and Peace” and found that it was even more boring and soporific than in the English translation…

Who knew, Pam is a pseudo intellectual snob. Given the intellectual level of the R.U. Sirius crew that would appear to be a wasted effort.

I’ve read Great Expectations – both assigned in school and a few years later on my own. I’ve tried to read Moby Dick half a dozen times, but I just can’t get through the first chapter.

I have never lied about having read or watched something, if only because there’s always a chance that someone will try to talk to you about it in detail.

To have a book in one’s personal library just for the prestige of having THAT particular tome in one’s possession does happen, even if one never reads it. I have read all such books in my personal library at least once. Whether or not I ever reread them I do not know.

Call Me Ishmael

I’ll make war on those opposed to peace!

I remember reading Great Expectations. pretty good, especially the multiple possible endings.

Every time I find a book with the word $#!+ in the title I buy a copy and put it on the book shelf in my cubicle. Every time a coworker comes to me with a technical question I select one of those books and tell the curious one that the answer is in there. The thing is, the answer almost always IS in there or a reference directing them to such enlightenment..