Page Count Grade 0-9 Date I finished Source (FPL: Fargo Public Library, MSU: Minnesota State University Moorhead Library)
I picked this book on a lark and although it covered some rather uninterest scientific history, it did spark some interest in me to do some more research starting where this book left off: 1876. The book was well writen and not at all booring. "At Hartford in 1874 the secretary of the local committee, a clergyman, playfully remarked, "We have looked upon you with mystification. Our daily papers since you came have been unintelligible..I had in mind, indeed, to preach a sermon upon the text: 'such knowledge is too wonderful for us.'" A Detroit reporter indulged in more biting humor. The AAAS, he wrote had been "pooring out acre after acre of learned papers, whose weird interest and thrilling nature are finely illustrated by the fact that the morning papers which have printed them nearly in full, have lost a large protion of their all ready small circulations this week."" page 356 362 pages 5.0 1/1/88 FPL
One can tell these are his early works, they aren't that effective. His diarys are far more interesting as are his songs. It was interesting but I wouldn't want to reread it. 100 pages 5.0 1/1/88 Craig
This is a collection of his recent works. Of the three poetry books Suzanne sent me this is the only one that makes it. His references aren't too complicated for me due to there simplicity and all the background material I read about Ginsberg. Two of the stranger topics are "Bleeding Heart Liberalism" Politics, and "No Bones" Homosexual encounters. Neither bothers me, it's just strange to see them in a poem. Sad,touching poems as Ginsberg relives his past and examines his own mortality...but I'm doing that already. It's All So Brief: I've got to give up - Books, checks, letters - File cabinets, apartment-pillows, bodies and skin - even the ache in my teeth. 85 pages 5.0 1/1/88 Craig
The first half of the book are his poems. His poems to a large extent are written in mythological terms. Detailed workings of Greek and or Roman myths, referenced that easily elude me. If I was really interested I cound spend months looking up these references and learning his vocabulary. But, as I said, I don't find Ezra to my taste. He tends to write about the world and I seem to be looking for personal thoughts...I think these thoughts are best suited to poetry,, these thoughts are poetic at least mine are. The second half of the book; excepts from his Cantos. This is prose more than poetry. He's writing about different times and places using every lanuage in the world (Have pity on this poor reader) I read only to get the just, for it was too detailed to gleem anythig else out. I thing he's a Marxist or something... always raving. What interested me was the visual in my mind while I read his words. Visuals that had nothing to do with what he was writing about. This sugjest to me an approach to prose/poetry simular to Wm Burroughs cut-up system, on sythnisising the ideas that come to mind by mistake? 184 pages 3.0 1/1/88 Craig
A Spectator's Guide To The 1988 Election
George, who is my favorite columnist, can't write a book that means anything. He keeps running off on tangents, talking insistentally about Reagan, and spouting booring facts as if they have any real bearing on the 88 election. It was interesting reading but not the least bit informative. 203 pages 4.0 1/1/88 FPL
And other dispatches from the Cola Wars
I found this book quite entertaining. It reinforced my views on good management and pointed out things that would easily escape ones view. 289 pages 7.0 2/1/88 Dad
What seemed like a cool book by a guy with a well developed pencil style was actually very limited. I couldn't say I learned anything special from the book. 160 pages 5.0 3/1/88 MSU
I was looking for pictures and biographical information to read, this was the best I could find. It's not bad, but for a man of Einsteins stature I expected more. Reading it, I realize that more than Christ, he's a man worthly of the title. He does deflated his own mythology, yet it only makes him that much better. His ideas tend to overlap my own. 323 pages 4.0 3/1/88 MSU
I picked this book up because I liked some of the examples, but then I started reading the captions, then the text; it was very interesting. I want to do some of the exercises...to develope a more artistic free style vs the commercial style I'm using. At least to try to expand my horizons. 185 pages 5.0 3/1/88 MSU
Like the U-2 song says; "I still haven't found what I'm looking for". This book was a big disappointment, not so much the poetry but my expectations were so great. The poems were simple and direct which I liked but lack the depth, subject and style I'm looking for. 208 pages 4.0 3/1/88 MSU
I had to pick this one up when I saw what was in it. Wild comics and ideas for illustration for me. The writing of the history ie the text was terrible but then who cares. 320 pages 7.0 4/1/88 MSU
I came to the library with out my book list, a bad memory and a time shortage. I looked up two subjects a book with "She'll be coming 'round the Mountain" which I found and pictures of cartoon heroes costumes. This book didn't have the costumes I was looking for, for it dealt with older comics and that was why I read it. The older ones had interesting beginings and an unusual amount of violence. 189 pages 5.0 4/1/88 MSU
I looked a long time for this book; strange because according to the card (it still had a card) it hadn't been checked out since 1975. This was the condensed version of the whole Beat Generation. Although it was really interesting I found it rather self serving. The more he tried to prove the Beat Generation was a unique youth/rebellious generation the more it seemed like it wasn't. It was just different in the look but not the attitude. I did refine my view of the Beats: I find them interesting, but I'm not modeling my life around them. 309 pages 6.0 4/1/88 MSU
This book clued me into those areas of cartooning I didn't know and brought to my attention things it would have taken a long time for me to figure out. Easy to read and full of usable tidbits. 231 pages 7.0 4/1/88 MSU
I only read the chapter on Nikola Tesla to double check Laurie Anderson's work on him. (She didn't exaggrate that much!) He screwed himself, but it was unavoidable for he was an old world man in the new world. It sounds like he was a pain in the ass too. 28 pages 5.0 4/1/88 MSU
This book confunded "The Holy Barbarians" the Beats, Flappers, Mods, Hippys, and Punks are all the same and with with out Purtian beliefs to rebel against life is rather booring. ie repression is a neccessary evil. The theory is my own, actually the book was more on the history of the 1920's it did a good job there. 357 pages 5.0 5/1/88 MSU
Yes, this is the book from the PBS series 'though I never saw it. I found the book quite entertaining and informative. Their contention is there a multiple Englishes and none are better that any other. BUT, there does exist a Standard English and we come closer to speaking it here in North Dakota than in New York. 351 pages 6.0 5/1/88 MSU
Although this was a comic book, it read like a short novel. It was illustrated by R. Crumb and so had that underground look. The material was totally different from any comic in as it was a somewhat realist portrail of Harveys life. Harvey was Beat!! 96 pages 6.0 5/1/88 MSU
Walt thinks he's jesus and everything is great. At first this seemed like the best poetry I've ever read but by the end his world view was too happy for me. It also seems he could trim it down to a rounder core. Still on a nice sunny day it was great. 145 pages 4.0 5/1/88 MSU
This is the book I was looking for last time I went to the library. That interesting chick tripped in the aisle and the book was out. It contains a number of interesting photographs and an overview of the beat poets. 185 pages 6.0 5/1/88 MSU
In June I didn't read but this. It was a very interesting, but poorly written. I learned a lot of trivia about U-2. How they made it; how they almost didn't...sort of like the Who. 313 pages 5.0 6/1/88 FPL
This made DeSade's 120 days seem like a lullibye, so grotesque that I won't be reading any of his other material. Sci-fi-ish, he almost invented cybro-punk! he uses the horrors of our Modern times to maximum effect. No supernatural terrors, just the real thing.å 303 pages 5.0 7/1/88 MSU
It wasn't that hard to read, harder in fact to find. Joyce either made some leap to Ulysses or there is a lot of hype involved. I found the movie "The Dead" made the story come alive. I culd see their faces and knew their manorism. I also read the background material that was included, which explained aspects of the story such as locations, songs, language etc. 279 pages 5.0 7/7/88 MSU
I believe this book was written first as a work of art; ie the art of writting. the story seems to take the backseat to the myth process that the story parallels. It was interesting to read, it was hard to read and it was a joy...ce to read. He like to use word games. The dream sequence reminded me of Burrough's "Naked Lunch", so William didn't invent that style, but then neither did Joyce according to the "Allusion in Ulysses" The strange references didn't bother me too much, Bob and I use songs, movies, TV, etc to create our own language. 768 pages 6.0 7/14/88 MSU
An Annotated List
At first I read every entry, but as I got further into Ulysses, I needed less help as I got Joyce to flow. I used this Allusions book for supplimentary information. 499 pages 4.0 7/28/88 MSU
The first piece was so good, I read the book. Rest of the pieces were either dense of stupid. Joe had some interesting views on creativity and he used Joyce as an example. Campbell said, that a truely creative work moves the viewer past the flaming sword and the cherubs to a higher level ie. past death and sex to a higher plain. This sounds great but makes no sense to me. It seems impractical, the same as spending your life looking for "truth" or "the meaning of life" when neither exists(?) 289 pages 5.0 8/1/88 MSU
it was better than I thought it would be. The language wasn't hard to read or understand. It was fun to note all the references that have come from this play. 243 pages 5.0 8/7/88 MSU
I finally got this book out of NDSU, it wasn't easy either. The first hundred or so pages were an interesting account of his youth in Denver. Some how I don't really believe he did all that stuff at the age he claims too. I myself knew kids like that around the age of 14. It does tend to show there is nothing new under the sun, it's just coming out now. Rest of the book was his fiction: drab, some letters: hip, but generally uninteresting. I'm sort of done with this beat thing, though it's quite magnetic maybe I'll read "On the Road" and "Desolation Angels" ??? 157 pages 6.0 9/1/88 NDSU
This book Suzanne recomended. She said it was like a modern day Twain. I don't think so, it was more like listening to a drunk, crying in his beer and telling somewhat amusing storys of his less than glorified father. 244 pages 3.0 9/1/88 FPL
Picture This was different form the other Heller books, more like a history text. I liked it just as much if not more because it had a high brow humor to it. He came up with this wonderful story about Aristotle coming to life on the canvas of Rembrandt. He uses this story to Compare/Contrast/Parallel competing cultures in three periods of history. 1) Athens vs Sparta 2) Dutch vs English 3) USA vs USSR. He took most of the book discribing the government of Athens. How it's a model for all governments. I highly recommend Picture This. 352 pages 6.0 9/1/88 FPL
I got this book at NDSU as well. As soon as I read the first two short chapters I knew I wasn't going to stop. I finished late that night. (I started at 9 PM) Although it was really funny, I thought the people in the book would be wish to Guy Grant as an Allen Funt-like guy. Always expecting him behind his stunts and distancing themselfs from anything he was involved with. Now I got to find the movie on video tape as I remember it stars Peller Sellers and Ringo Starr. 148 pages 9.0 9/1/88 NDSU
I enjoyed an informed look at something that was important to me when I was just a little tike. I remember begging to stay up late to watch the broadcast, then fighting to say awake through the delays, only to fall asleep. In the passing years, more information has been released on not only the Soviet missions but the American as well...Both programs have been exceedingly dangerous. Only good luck and good engineers have save many flights from disaster. Still just as the American frontier saved Europe the "Last Frontier" will save Earth and mankind. I wish people were not so timid so ignorant, there really is much time left. 443 pages 4.0 10/1/88 MSU
Odyssey Three
I found this book just laying around at the library. Actually according to the stamp it's been there since January 1988. I was excited to read some high class science fiction and I wasn't disappointed. It wasn't as good as 2010 but still it's alot better than most shit I read. I read it in about three hours in one sitting. Clarke stopped trying to make the facts fit and just spun a tale. He did use Heywood, Frank and the monolith to validate all the ghosts he has running around these 2001 novels. (very unscientific Authur!) 279 pages 7.0 10/1/88 FPL
I was looking for the poem Suzanne Vega based the song Night Vision on. The library didn't have it, instead I picked this up just to taste Paul's poems. The favor wasn't really to my liking. 215 pages 3.0 10/1/88 MSU
I this book more interesting than one would think. Even though I don't listen to his music, I could understand what he was getting at. I'm sure it isn't one tenth as interesting as he makes it sound. That probably goes for a Glass fan reading Townshends writtings. Its good that we live in a land free enough to allow all artist their vision, to me this is the most important freedom, that and freedom from religion as above. 209 pages 4.0 10/1/88 MSU
Myth and Metaphor in the Discovery of Geological Time
This guy is no Sagan he comes up with this esoteric idea and devotes a book to it. I didn't find it the least bit interesting. It does seem we who have rejected our faith spent more time thinking about it than those who have faith. HaHa Such a small price... 208 pages 2.0 10/1/88 FPL
Robert has made an attempt to tie many of his works of fiction together while telling the tale of Maureen Johnson Smith (she tells it). Actually, this is a ruse Robert uses as he always seems to, to explain his Libertian views. I agree with most of them except for: having children, having lots of children. I agree having children is a real biological need but must be tempered by the proof of our age: Over population is the root problem on this planet! (my opinion) Another plot piece I found amusing : the Howard Foundation was breeding them for lifespan. Not only were they breeding like rabbits but they were living long too. Why not breed them for brains? Two reasons 1. So the charactors would live long enough for Heinlein to fit all the action in. 2. General health and fertility are physicially related to genes whereas brains are most likely not. 407 pages 8.0 10/1/88 FPL
Finally, I read the Kerouac book. Funny, Reading all that material before hand makes the book incrediblily sad. If I had read On the Road first, it would have been a wild wild ride through American...very Beat. But knowing what I know about their lives I see it as an escape from reality. Neil, and to a lesser extent Jack, were self destructive and so dragged every-one down. They'd cross that fine line and be kicked out, forced to beat an escape to the other coast (NYC-SF). They were likable and so things would calm down when they'd return. The road and drugs killed Neil. Success and Alcohol killed Jack. It wasn't hip it was pathetic. Even Allen Ginsberg saw it. 310 pages 7.0 10/1/88 MSU
It's hard to believe the B-1 bomber ever got built, but thanks to short sighted lobbying it did. I learned some interesting things about Ike and Cap. Ike had a great grasp of what was going on and Casper wasn't going to be writing any blank checks for Regan. It makes you think you should elected right wing military presidents if you want to kill or control military projects. 263 pages 7.0 10/1/88 FPL
Anne wrote a fine travel log of their adventure fly from New York to China via the polar route. It reminded me of the book on the Mongolian expeditions I read a couple of years back. It is a shame; every place on the planet is a tourist attraction or a war zone. Back then travel was an adventure! 255 pages 5.0 10/1/88 MSU
Most of Roberts ideas were stong, practical unlike most peaceniks. McNamara understands the real world and seems to have practical solutions to global disarmament. Enjoyable writting too. 200 pages 5.0 11/1/88 MSU
The Records (Guinness)
I got this book for the pictures, but then I started reading the interesting text. It gave a quick history and rundown of the U.S. and Soviet missions in space. 161 pages 6.0 11/14/88 MSU
When Pete Townshend was on David Letterman, he meantioned what I thought was George Louie Burges. I did a brouse on the computer by author and missed it. By some amazing coincidence his name popped up when I was doing a term search under "disk"! A book of poems and short prose, I enjoyed the prose, doesn't suffer so greatly under the translators hand. 96 pages 4.0 11/28/88 MSU
This look at Eisenhower was interesting. Ike started as a social realist, a man committed to stopping war and military. Rich friends refocused his ideas and made him President. Once President these friends made him a stanch anti-communist, where he was once a friend to the Soviet Union. He did work hard to prevent any use of the bomb, keeping us out of another World War. In doing so, he traded the long term for the short, set up the military-industrial complex he rightly feared and made the world safe for American Imperialist Capitalism. It was depressing to read the ending, no wonder rest of the world doesn't like us anymore than the Russians. 346 pages 6.0 12/7/88 MSU
Just looking at the graphics was enough to pick up the book. A list of the technical credits was enough to read the book, enough to photocopy excepts from it. I love to have some of that equipment and software for my Mac. 238 pages 7.0 12/28/88 MSU