<p>Ooh, vectors. haha. Those were hard. But that might have been because we had a student teacher during that chapter... well, anyway, have fun dot-product-ing.</p>
<p>CC is a shot to my self-esteem. I basically have no chance of getting into TASP now. Lovely. </p>
<p>But it does mean that you all are intelligent good writers!</p>
<p>ooh...precalc vectors. blech. haha iris, for me it's the other way around. i took precalc before taking physics, so now i'm thinking dot product and other crazy calc stuff when i'm trying to solve physics problems. XD</p>
<p>aeshchina, why the sadness? :( don't put yourself down! we've all had our moments of doubt about our writing. you're your own harshest critic. (unless you're one of those people that tried out for American Idol, in which case, you're not really your own harshest critic, simon is.)</p>
<p>"But it does mean that you all are intelligent good writers!"</p>
<p>Nah, all it means is that we are good at thinking of intelligent topics to write about.</p>
<p>To get our minds off of TASP for a while (I know, it's almost impossible -- BUT it's necessary for our health and sanity), I suggest we list some recommended literature so as to occupy the TASP-limbo with fine reading! (Not just reading, but FINE reading) </p>
<p>I'll go first. It has come to my attention that not many people are familiar with some of Canada's most brilliant authors. Two of my favorites are Carol Shields and Douglas Coupland. Anything from these two is quite genius and would be a great source of intellectual enlightenment (Note: Coupland also wrote the film "Everything's Gone Green" <-- highly recommended, especially for Directorscut!).
I specifically recommend Larry's Party by Carol Shields (recently read it and it reminded me of The General in His Labyrinth by Marquez and The Possessed by Dostoevsky, if you liked those read this). It's culturally recent, entertaining, and a study of the modern human condition. Also, any of Coupland's 'generational guides' -- Microserfs (did my critanal on this), jPod, or Generation X -- are excellent reads as well. </p>
<p>So, someone make a suggestion because I need something to read! Hopefully this will cure my bout, and yours, of PTS.</p>
<p>Secret Life of Bees by Sue Monk Kidd - Not challenging/philosophical reading, but I thought it was very well-written and I definitely felt an emotional connection with the characters. I sobbed at certain parts, but then again, I'm notorious for being overly sentimental. All the same, a fine read indeed.</p>
<p>the george orwell essay collection "why i write" is awesome, only like 120 pages too</p>
<p>Sophie's World is a good book (then again, i haven't read it since 6th grade...in swedish), but i think you guys would like it, nice simple history of philosophy with a fictional background</p>
<p>Coin Locker Babies. Hokkaido Popsicle? Elaborate, Iris!</p>
<p>REALLY. I think we should have summer book-trading orgies. I'd be up for it. So... who'd be up for that? I think it'd be pretty cool. Mailing each other books and whatnot; I've done it before. Always excellent.</p>
<p>0re0 - WHAT?! THE DEADLINE PASSED?!?!?! OMG OMG OMG OMG.</p>
<p>We know.</p>
<p>Million: "I don't know how well I'd do at RSI, if I even got in, due to my blatant lack of...stuff." XD</p>
<p>TASP is bringing you/us all together. It is so wonderful. <em>tear</em></p>
<p>Million, Arial Narrow is the excellent space-saving font. I've used it too. Now I'm in love with Lucida Sans Unicode and Garamond just because they're aesthetically pleasing. Times New Roman can suck my eyeballs; it's UGLY! Verdana and Tahoma are pretty good; clean-cut and simple while still non-uglified. Roam and I had a whole convo JUST about fonts. Can we GET any geekier? XD </p>
<p>Okay... as for books. (See? That's why a temp-book-trade would rock.) "Perfume" by Patrick Suskind. Yes, there's a movie coming out, but read the book. It's quite wonderful; so descriptive and just... YUM. I want to EAT the book.</p>
<p>Anyway. <em>cough</em></p>
<p>A Series of Unfortunate Events: The End. If you pay attention, this book is SOOOO relevant to EVERYTHING. Life-wise, I mean. There are so many parallels that can be drawn here, to religion, politics, and eveything.</p>
<p>It's been a while (5+ years, to be exact; I read it in 7th grade), but I loved the His Dark Materials Trilogy by Philip Pullman, especially the last book. Very awesome.</p>
<p>CHUCK PALAHNIUK CHUCK PALAHNIUK CHUCK PALAHNIUK.
Get it? :P Diary was the first one I read, but the rest are quite awesome, too. Seriously, Chuck is greatness. <3 I liked... Choke, especially. (He's the author of Fight Club!) Haunted is okay, not that great. The individual stories are super cool, but the MAIN storyline is...blah. So just read the short stories, especially "Guts" and "The Nightmare Box". They are really worth your while. Trust me. Oh! But Guts is not for the faint of heart, sexually repressed, or easily disgusted. <em>grin</em> </p>
<p>For those that know Spanish, "La Charca", by Manuel Zeno Gandia, is a great novel about Puerto Rico during the period of stagnation it suffered in the late 19th century and early 20th century. It was the first novel that made me love Spanish again (after a torrid love affair with English, mind you). Another one in Spanish that I really loved was "La Amortajada" by Maria Luisa Bombal. A dead woman is not really dead; she needs to die a second-time, "the death of the dead". It's interesting and uber short. ^_^ Some lovely imagery.</p>
<p>Brave New World by Aldous Huxley, duh.</p>
<p>I've never actually <em>read</em> Middlesex, but I've heard wonders about it, so I guess you should also check that out.</p>
<p>"Critical Analysis: Raymond Smullyan's dialogue "Is God a Taoist?" 1.9 pages." WHOA. I read that. It was a trip. ^_^ How offbeat IS your humor, ToastWomble? <em>actually chuckled upon typing the name</em> </p>
<p>An anal critnal, bwahaha. The Virgin Suicides... Gah. I want to read it, but I haven't bought it yet. <em>tear</em></p>
<p>Aida, if you want, I can send you my conflict essay. That'll give you an idea. Although you probably understand my humor already, judging from the reaction I got in the TASP chat after asking what everyone's favorite color is.</p>
<p>And I recommend everyone reads the work I did my critical analysis on (Is God a Taoist?)</p>
<p>Question for all you avid readers:
Does anyone stop reading a book in the middle? For me, this happens rarely, but sometimes I just don't feel any connection to the book and thus no motivation to finish it. Does anyone else do this too? A friend of mine can't stop a book half way through, even if she doesn't like it. She says she feels somehow obligated to give it a "fair chance" and read it through to the end. Hah, maybe I'm just impatient :)</p>
<p>Read The Grass is Singing by Doris Lessing. There's a reason I did that for my critical analysis.
I read Choke too! At first I didn't believe it, and then I ended up really liking it.
As for other books...I love James Joyce. But his stuff's classic...hmmm.
I'll think about some really good books and post later.</p>
<p>Sheep</p>
<p>Some lovely books I really really enjoyed: </p>
<p>The Sherlock Holmes Canon. My. Goodness. It is sheer genius. To say anything else would fail to do it justice. Then again, as an avid Sherlockian I might be a tad bit biased...</p>
<p>Jane Eyre: I think this story very romantic and well-written. This stands as one of my favorite classics of all time. Don't you just love a good love story?</p>
<p>A Song of Ice and Fire series by George RR Martin: arguably the best science fiction/high fantasy I've ever put my hands on. Phenomenal writing, plot, and characterization. Very long, however.</p>
<p>Kafka's The Metamorphosis: I like this for its philosophical depth and bizarre, surrealistic quality. After all, it's not everyday that a man gets turned into a giant bug. </p>
<p>Bartleby the Scrivener: This is technically a short story, but I found it very poignant. I actually, er, wept a little at the end...</p>
<p>1984: Not much to say here. Orwell is a genius. The end!</p>
<p>Slaughterhouse-Five: You all have probably already read this, but I must reiterate its brilliance. Not to mention, Vonnegut went to UChicago, my love! :)</p>
<p>Annie Dillard's Pilgrim From Tinker Creek: Sigh. This book made me fall in love with nature--and life itself, come to think of it. Very profound and lyrically written, almost like a poem.</p>
<p>Well, that's all I can think of off the top of my head, for now. Happy reading!</p>
<p>Haha, I managed to stay away for less than a day. You guys are too great to leave. T__T</p>
<p>Hokkaido Popsicle: Honestly one of the best books I ever read. It's totally eaaccessable too, no digging through dense prose (Virginia Woolf anyone? God. She's impossible first time through) but SO DEEP. It's about a journalist in Japan, writing about the death of a rock star. It's funny, heartwrenching, etc. I was reading it on the subway (nose in a book, fall off the tracks. Hahaha.) feeling down, and then Billy Chaka (the journalist) goes into a subway and spoke about EXACTLY how I was feeling! I love this book!</p>
<p>Coin Locker Babies: One of the most bizarre, disturbing books ever written. I fel my skin crawl every time I picked it back up. I love underground fiction, and the more boundary-pushing it is, the better, but this was ALMOST too intense for even me. It's about children found in coin lockers and the twisted, SICK lives they lead.</p>
<p>Across the Nightengale Floor: Great book about a fictional Japan that explores all sorts of themes. Michiko Kakutani agreed with me too. =3</p>
<p>Jonathan Strange and Mr. Norrel: 800 tiny print pages of a Britain where magic is practiced by two famous men. You've probably heard of it. I highly reccomend it, if you have the WILL, COURAGE, and LOVE OF LITERATURE to see it through to the end. This book will also command your life; you won't be able to put it down.</p>
<p>Finally, Bartimaus. What a great book. Read it; it's hilarious and the trilogy will provoke your mind.</p>
<p>All these books are easily read (with the exception of Jonathan Strange) but that's why they're so great. They all show that you don't need to write about a Big Whale to create an epic, and archaic words aren't needed to move the heart.</p>
<p>By the way, I just threatened the RSI kids on their (lame, we win) thread. =O</p>
<p>you guys keep on dreaming. i'm waiting for harry potter and the deathly hallows :D</p>
<p>Hmm, everyone is doing written literature. For the sake of diversity, I'll do literature in the form of the cinema.</p>
<p>Some personal favorites along with standard canon of films everyone should have seen by the time they are in college. Esp TASPers!</p>
<p>So alphabetically,</p>
<p>2001:A Space Odyssey - Stanley Kubrick
The 400 Blows - Francois Truffaut
Aguirre, the Wrath of God - Werner Herzog
American Beauty - Sam Mendes
Annie Hall - Woody Allen
Apocalypse Now - Francis Ford Coppola
Babel - Alejandro Gonzalez Innaritu
Bambi - Walt Disney
The Bicycle Thief - Vittorio De Sica
The Birth of a Nation - D.W. Griffith
Blowup - Michelangelo Antonioni
Blue Velvet - David Lynch
Boys Don't Cry - Kimberly Pierce
Breathless - Jean Luc-Godard
Brokeback Mountain - Ang Lee
Casablanca - Michael Curtiz
Citizen Kane - Orson Welles
City Lights - Charlie Chaplin
A Clockwork Orange - Stanley Kubrick
The Decalogue - Krzysztof Kieślowski
Do The Right Thing - Spike Lee
La Dolce Vita - Frederico Fellini
Dr. Strangelove - Stanley Kubrick
Easy Rider - Dennis Hopper
Fantasia - Disney
Fargo - Coen Brothers
Fight Club - David Fincher
The Godfather I and II - Francis Ford Coppola
Goodfellas - Martin Scorsese
Hoop Dreams - Steve James
An Inconvenient Truth - Davis Guggenheim
It's A Wonderful Life - Frank Capra
Jarhead - Sam Mendes
Lawrence of Arabia - David Lean
The Maltese Falcon - John Huston
Manhattan - Woody Allen
On The Waterfront - Elia Kazan
Persona - Igmar Bergman
Psycho - Alfred Hitchcock
Pulp Fiction - Quentin Tarantino
Ran - Akira Kurosawa
Rashomon - Akira Kurosawa
Rear Window - Alfred Hitchcock
Rebel Without A Cause - Nicholas Ray
The Rules Of The Game - Jean Renoir
Schindler's List - Steven Spielberg
The Searchers - John Ford
Singin' In The Rain - Donen and Kelly
Some Like It Hot - Billy Wilder
Taxi Driver - Martin Scorsese
Tokyo Story - Yashijuro Ozu
Vertigo - Alfred Hitchcock
West Side Story - Robbins and Wise
The Wizard of Oz - Fleming</p>
<p>Tried my best to include good recent films and to stay away from the silents and arthouse. Once I post this, there will be so many more that come to mind.</p>
<p>Life of Pi by Yann Martel is a fantastic book. It's not only an exploration on religion and life in general, but it's a great adventure/sci-fi novel. Check it out. Honestly, one of my favorites. Who doesn't like a story of a kid stuck in a lifeboat with a tiger??</p>
<p>Also, The Stand: Uncut by Stephen King is amazing, too. It's 1100 pages long, but worth every minute spent reading it. It encompasses every genre, but a simple Christian good vs. evil story at heart.</p>
<p>DC - Annie Hall is my favorite film, and I'm a big New Wave fan, esp. Truffaut and esp. 400 Blows, so I whole-heartedly endorse that list. Though I question the absence of Renoir's The Grand Illusion. If not quite as good as The Rules of the Game, it's up there. Oh, and I just realized - Raging Bull in not present. Hmm?</p>
<p>ah Bartleby....ahh humanity.<br>
I think that must be the single greatest ending to a story ever. I considered doing my critical analysis on Bartleby the Scrivener but I didn't think I could capture it effectively in two pages. I highly recomend that everyone read that story- it is short and can be found for free online. Actually the online library Bartleby is named for the story.</p>
<p>I did Crime and Punishment as my actual critical analysis (which I again completely failed to do justice in two pages). It got me interested in Dostoevsky and I am currently reading The Brothers Karamasov which I have found to be incredibly interesting.</p>
<p>I must also recommend Foucault's Pendulum- I have heard it described as "the thinking man's Da Vinci Code" and I have to agree. It is quite entertaining but also intellectual and subtely humorous</p>
<p>Ahh, how did I forget Raging Bull, one of my favorites!? And La Grande Illusion!</p>
<p>I should add The Good, The Bad, and The Ugly while I'm at it.</p>
<p>DC - there's no way to make these lists comprehensive on the first go around. But overall, yours is great. By the way, who are you rooting for next month? I'm pushing for Scorsese, just out of habit.</p>