1987 Reading Record Comments | |
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In 1987 I'm keeping better track of the books I'm reading. Each time I head to the library I'm writing down all the books I read in my journal. This is why they all share the same date. The comments are not very helpful, so if you want more information about the book, click the title or the book image for links to Amazon Page Count Grade 0-9 Date I finished Source (FPL: Fargo Public Library, MSU: Minnesota State University Moorhead Library) |
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Pascal, the Life of Genius I couldn't stand to read the book, 1/2 way through it I switched to speed reading. Pascal was a dink. A French dink to boot! Blase did nothing to warrant his fame. 354 pages 2.0 1/31/87 MSU | |
Sheltering Sky, The A Sting reference (Tea in the Sahara), a substory page 32-35; the book is the tragic story of Port, Kit and Tunner. Port dies of typhoid, Kit flips out and becomes a white slave, and Tunner is too always too late haven been ditched by Port. 304 pages 8.0 1/31/87 MSU | |
Dylan Thomas, a Biography Well written. Dylan was a dink too, but an interesting dink. A pathetic child all his life and again his legend is larger than his life. As with Pascal, his sister is an interesting charactor, both found them selfs along with my sister in one of my songs. 314 pages 5.0 1/31/87 MSU | |
Delany Intersection, The Happy to find these work of criticism, I soon photocopied them to add to my Delany collection. They are only useful for the biographical information. 64 pages 5.0 1/31/87 MSU | |
Hell's Angels A restrained Hunter, makes this book less entertaining, but more informative which in this case the subject warrants the attention. 348 pages 6.0 1/31/87 MSU | |
Samuel R. Delany Happy to find these work of criticism, I soon photocopied them to add to my Delany collection. They are only useful for the biographical information. 77 pages 5.0 1/31/87 MSU | |
Bad Girls Very power short stories, making the long search for the book worthwhile. 201 pages 7.0 2/25/87 MSU | |
Flamingo's Smile, The A Bunch of essays; some good, none great, so although he has written many books this will be the last. He's not the Sagan of Biology. 450 pages 4.0 2/25/87 MSU | |
Ingres the Artist, his style and impact. Important because like me he's a drawer. 171 pages 5.0 2/25/87 MSU | |
Subterraneans, The I was looking for a jazz book. The subject was, the subject wasn't. The Prose was hard to comprehend, yet I'd like to read more. (The start of a long Beat phase!!) 152 pages 4.0 2/25/87 MSU | |
Songs of Distant Earth, The A nice bit of writing, easy and entertaining, but no 2010. 251 pages 6.0 3/11/87 FPL | |
World of Carl Larsson, The Swedish family man 193 pages 5.0 3/11/87 FPL | |
Balthus I love little girls 149 pages 4.0 3/11/87 FPL | |
Stairway to Heaven A stupid theory, but it was fun reading about something as close to my heart as Rock'n'Roll. 338 pages 6.0 3/11/87 FPL | |
SF by Asimov A gift for reuping my magazine subscription to IASFM. Nice short stories to read when you're too tired to read anything long. 62 pages 5.0 3/17/87 Craig | |
Heartbeat (My Life with Jack & Neal) Only a work in progress, the movie was better. It's interesting how human the 'cool' things were in the 50's. Everything is materialistic and hi tech now. I hope it swings the other way sometime soon, for me at least. 93 pages 5.0 3/21/87 MSU | |
Dharma Bums, The I was looking for that cool jazz, but found jack on the road again, searching for the truth yet finding the strangest things. Buddism on the top of a mountain, standing on your head as he realizes the world is upsidedown. The jazz must be Neil. 192 pages 6.0 3/21/87 MSU | |
Writers Notebook, A When he was young he was opinionated, the last pages he was 70+, he was content and cool. Life is a flame.. oh burn bright now. 367 pages 5.0 3/21/87 MSU | |
Voyagers II The Alien Within Not bad considering I haven't read #1. A one sitting book; fun and exciting. 344 pages 6.0 3/25/87 FPL | |
Razors Edge I had to read it after seeing the movie. (Bill Murry) I enjoyed it eventhough it didn't have a happy ending. Maugham says it does because everyone got what they wanted. Part of a collection of his storys (I didn't count them), someone wrote insipid comments in the tiny margins; I hate that! 201 pages 6.0 3/25/87 FPL | |
Illustrated Encyclopedia of Family Health | |
Whiskey and Wild Women It didn't have anything on Moorhead, the wickedest city in the west. Reading this book it seems this title was bestowed on everytown the railroad hit. 292 pages 6.0 4/14/87 FPL | |
Of Human Bondage In Razor's Edge, Larry, the main charactor is looking for truth. In Bondage it's Somerset. in his psuedo-autobiography, Somerset finds what we all find: there is no meaning to life. Some unlucky people won't find this out until they die. there is a biological reason: raising a family. The bok ends with him getting married and settling down. I found parellels to myself that were hard to accept. I couldn't help but think I'd never fall for some of the things he did. I have felt the force of passion, would I be able to withstand the pressure? It makes me laugh now! 607 pages 6.0 4/14/87 FPL | |
Father De Smet in Dakota DeSmet was a Jesuit missionary in the Dakota Territory and his story(s) of his mission were interesting. Not to be confused with that Dakota story Suzanne told me. 76 pages 5.0 4/14/87 FPL | |
Comet Dry for Carl, I sensed a forced enthusiasm for comets, afterall in his own words they are nothing but dirt and ice. Snirt! 373 pages 3.0 4/14/87 FPL | |
Jack Smith's L.A. Better than Herb Caen's book on S.F., yet it doesn't tell me what I want to know about L.A. I want a survival manual, at least it was an easy read. 200 pages 3.0 4/14/87 FPL | |
Arco Fighting Israeli Air Force | |
Pursuit of Virtue and Other Tory Notions, The A Book of fascinating essays, it make you wonder how this country is going to survive the future. He has a conservitive view point including a solid anti-abortion stance, he'd make a good Catholic. 381 pages 3.0 4/14/87 FPL | |
MIG Pilot A great story, the MIG-25 foxbat highjack. I read it in two sittings. The story seems a little exaggerated someone. The bleak picture of Russia and the glowing USA. Viktor's only regret is the feeling of homesickness for Russia. 217 pages 6.0 5/9/87 FPL | |
New York A Serendipiter's Journey A preview for my NYC trip, I need a small camera and a good notebook. 141 pages 4.0 5/9/87 FPL | |
Horses Neck In some ways it was as perverted than Carroll's 'Basketball Diaries'! Like Carrolls book it was fun finding the references to song lyrics in the text. Pete uses big words, a work of art, I had to use Webster to find some of the words Pete uses. (British nouns mainly) 134 pages 7.0 6/1/87 Craig | |
Expert Driving A book Victor let me read. It was interesting. I thought some of the advice was bad. I did pay more attention to my own driving. Trying to make it smooth. 195 pages 5.0 7/1/87 Victor | |
Without Stopping I was just glancing at it but the first 100 pages were so crazy I had to read it. Paul lives an amazing life, never stopping, he seems to run into everybody who is anybody, and he lives in Morroco? 370 pages 7.0 7/2/87 MSU | |
Paul Verlaine , A Study In Parallels Tom Verlaine's name sack, another strange charactor for his time, self-destructive. I found only a few interesting lines, this may be due to being French and writting in French: Open your soul and ear to the sound of my Mandolin-It's for you that I've made this cruel and wheedling song. 202 pages 3.0 7/2/87 MSU | |
Jewel-Hinged Jaw, The I read it backwards, to deterime if I wanted it. Warm up the photocopier. 326 pages 4.0 7/2/87 MSU | |
Babel I got this for the Tom Verlaine picture. There were a number of interesting poems as well, which I photocopied into the last journal. 202 pages 5.0 7/2/87 MSU | |
Witness To Power I figured someone should read dad's autographed book. Suzanne tells me John is a nice man. Witness to Power is a look at the inside of the Presidency how things work and in Nixon's case how it went wrong. The best part was how it paralleled the Iran-Contr 417 pages 6.0 7/12/87 Dad | |
Neveryona, or The Tale of Signs and Cities : Some Informal Remarks Towards the Modular Calculus, Part Four (Book 2 In this book Delany uses the myth to show the begining of civilization. How writing helps to destroy that myth. Chip's work is again at a high level, but without the intellectual peaks of his other books. I also had a shorter list of unfamiliar words. I learned his vocabulary and near the end of the book, grew tired of writing words down; I wanted to enjoy the book uninterupted. His Appendix was a corespondence between a Yale professor and the doped-up lost in time field worker whose discoveries sparked Chip Delanys work on the Neveryona books. 449 pages 7.0 8/11/87 Craig | |
Jungle Tales of Tarzan #6 I wanted to read some pure summer books. I chose Tarzan. This one 191 pages 7.0 8/20/87 Craig | |
Tarzan The Untamed #7 Besides the reasons stated above, I was also looking for a particular scene involving Jane in the jungle. I knew in was in this series of connected novels( 7-9), but I was in no hurry to find it. It wasn't in this one #7 254 pages 7.0 8/23/87 Craig | |
Tarzan The Terrible #8 It was in this one. (Page 168 for those interested) ..."He was looking at her naked limbs and her golden breast-plates, the loin cloth of the Jato-hide, the harness and ornaments that constitute the apparel of the Ho-don women- the things that Lu-don had dressed her in as his passion for her grew. Not Ko-tan's daughter, even, had finer trimings." 217 pages 7.0 8/27/87 Craig | |
Cult Of Information, The A Neo-Luddite Treatise On High Tech, Artificial Intelligence, And The True Art Of Thinking Mr Roszak said alot of bad things about computers and I actually had to agree with him. Not only his arguements, but from my own experience. All he was saying is not to put too much faith in the computer. Not to confuse what we do with what they do. This I recognize this as many people's problem: I tend to use it to my advantage. I only disagree with his arguement that the computer will never be able to think. Never, Forever and the lack of knowledge of our own brains (thinking itself), voids excluding the possiblity of silicon consciousness. Reading it made me wish we could stop these blind adoltation of the computer, but it's not going to happen, beside there are more pressing things to worry about. 220 pages 6.0 9/1/87 MSU | |
Flight From Nevery�n (Return To Neveryon) I could say a lot or a little. Okay a little it is. Delany is pushing me. His writing is pushing me farther out on a limb. In this last of a series he doesn't so much end the book as disintegrate into psuedo-nonfiction. I'm talking from page 175 onward. This is not to say I didn't like it, in fact I raced to get to this his disertation on AIDS and life as Samuel Delany but even this became detrious because I don't have the background to understand all the literary theories he throws around and Chip doesn't bother to explain them or illustrate them. This is his failing for me. He has my undivide attention and he throws it away.(I skim without slowing) As far as content my notes on book two cover it. 385 pages 8.0 9/12/87 Craig | |
Edgar Rice Burroughs The Man Who Created Tarzan I wanted to show Victor. I had to read it in two nights. It destroyed another myth of my youth. Burroughs was a complete mercinary in his work, yet it was pretty interesting. There were tons of interesting facts, pounds of illustrations, ounces of maps, but almost no romance. That's life! 699 pages 5.0 10/14/87 MSU | |
Cosmic Code, The Quantum Physics As the Language of Nature I wish I didn't have to race through this book. It explained things about Quantum Physics, how it works and what all those particles are. I wonder if this was the book Kimberly was talking about, I thought about her explaining those concepts when I read them. Saturday Morning as I was reading, dad stuck his nose in and asked what I was reading. After giving him the title, he said,"Is that science-fiction?" I replied,"No...but considering Quantum Mechanics, it could be!" which I though a clever if not predictable remark. 313 pages 6.0 10/17/87 MSU | |
Forced Entries The Downtown Diaries 1971-1973 I just finished Jim Carroll's book. I read it in three settings (the three locations/states of mind) It's just as cool as his first. 184 pages 9.0 10/21/87 Suzanne | |
SuperJoe The Joe Namath Story I had this strange interest in Joe Namath and his place in the 60's from a snipet on ESPN. I wanted to explore it further, the library didn't have anything so I got this old book out of the attic and red it one weekend. There were some really interesting facts. I also got a better feel for the sport. 246 pages 5.0 11/1/87 Craig | |
Howl I started this whole Ginsberg kick because of a joke on SNL. It's is snowballing as I find the subject interesting right now. I read Howl about five times. Now, those opening lines just kill me..."I saw the best minds of my generation..." 44 pages 8.0 11/1/87 MSU | |
As Ever The Collected Correspondence of Allen Ginsberg and Neal Cassady Letters between Allen and Neal Cassady. Strange compared to the letters my sister and I write. Where we use humor to mask or tone down our love, they use drippy adjectives. They get all metaphysical too, yet they are interesting reading. 219 pages 6.0 11/1/87 MSU | |
Journals I found it interesting to see how a professional does it. My booring stories are more interesting than his real life New York dealings. I can draw better too. I can't touch his poetry, but then I really don't understand/enjoy poetry. As far as writing he probably put the good stuff in his poems. I wonder if the environment plays that much in the richness of the writing. Maybe you never see the detail in a rich environment because you're too busy trying not to get run over by it. 302 pages 5.0 11/1/87 MSU | |
First Blues I was taken by the lyrics and when I transcribed the music to the Mac, I just had to record a couple of songs.(See tape 16) I think Dylan helped him or sugjested some music because it was cool and fun too! 77 pages 7.0 11/1/87 MSU | |
Reality Sandwiches I read this book over my reality lunches at work, while Vince and Victor where there. I read a couple to Vic and taped My Alba to Suzanne. It seemed all the good ones were in the beginning of the book. 98 pages 7.0 11/1/87 MSU | |
Kerouac A Biography A very engrossing account of Jacks sad little life. It takes the hype out, bringings him down to earth. It listed a number of book references, giving me a feel for his books; what to read. I was really into it, I read the bulk of the book in one day. It did get really sad at the end, but it is non-fiction. 411 pages 7.0 12/1/87 MSU | |
Wasteland and Other Poems I picked it up to reread and check out the references that Pete Townshend made to...Alfred Prufrock. I enjoyed the Wasteland but don't have the elucidation to understand the poem. I read Ash Wednesday late one night and it really hit me. 88 pages 8.0 12/1/87 MSU | |
LSD My Problem Child: Reflections on Sacred Drugs, Mysticism, and Science Interesting facts and interesting stories. If one really wanted to get into the mystical, LSD would be the way to go...maybe latter. I guess I didn't know it was invented back in 1938. When taken under supervision is completely safe because the dosages are so small 0.1 milligrams! this one quote by Goethe sums up the LSD idea: "Were the eye not sunny, It could never behold the sun; If the power of the mind were not in matter, How could matter disturb the mind." 209 pages 7.0 12/1/87 MSU | |
Visions of Cody This was one of those books that weren't that fun or interesting to read but it came to mind all the time. In the way I'd write my journal,(start counting all those extra commas!), Poems, Art all kinds of external references popped up. The book was Neil Cassady but the style was so dense you didn't get facts, you got soul and I think that was what Jack was after. The first chapter set the style, positioning Jack. Chapter 2 gave the earily history of Cody (Neil). Chapter 3 was the actual? tape transcripts of Jack and Neil up in Cassady's attic doing dope and rapping...really blowing. Bizarre, interesting, and from my experiences accurate account. After that, the "Limitations of Tape" chapters, where Jack made up the stuff he wanted to say, to tell. The Last section told of the road trips. Here the text becames familar, here he started racing to finish the book. Now that I've finished I'm ready to follow a side street to this beat generation because I'm tired too*. (* Beat according to Jack refers to being tired!) 398 pages 6.0 12/1/87 MSU | |
Fear And Loathing In Las Vegas A Savage Journey To The Heart Of The American Dream Finally, the book is in the stacks. I was a quick fun read. When I was done I saw all kinds of strange behavior. A week or two later I saw Thompson on David Letterman; Hunter is a wasted shell of a man. Suzanne was telling me about her adventures with him and it was a little dissettling: he's become an old pain in the ass. 206 pages 7.0 12/1/87 MSU | |
14423 pages 0.0 MSU | |
67 Books / 14,423 Total Pages |