What books are you reading?

I'm in the process of reading the Harry Potter series. I probably should feel ashamed about that, but these books are surprisingly good. Before that, I read Neuromancer (Gibson) and the entire Dune series (hence, my signature).

 

I recently finished A Death in the Family by James Agee. I won't say that I liked it, but I can see why it won the Pulitzer. Agee was amazing in his ability to capture very different points of view of a single event.

Right now I'm reading Cold Mountain by Charles Frazier. It's a novel about a Confederate deserter walking home. Although I'm not done, I have to say it's one of the best books I've ever read. Of course, I won't be able to convince people to read this much longer. I hear that Tom Cruise is developing it into a movie, and I'm sure he'll do his usual hack-job acting, which will then ruin everyone's impression of what is a spectacular book.

Other books that I've recently read and enjoyed are Legs by William Kennedy and Juneteenth by Ralph Ellison.

 

We have similar interests. I've read all of those. Don't miss Mars Mystery, either - my favorite.

I'm currently on book 3 of the Earth Chronicles, The Lost Realms, by Zecharia Sitchin. This is the Twelfth Planet series that Hancock is always refering to... Fascinating stuff.

So what do you think the (Great Pyramid) "air shafts" are really for?

 

Haven,

Funny, that is actually a book I've read. I got it because we moved to ATL.

DoD,

Those are not Egyptology books, those are mass market fluff.

If you want the real deal, try Egypt: The World of the Pharaohs edited by Regina Schulz and Matthias Seidel. I can give more if you want to get really academic.

As for me, I am reading such exciting things as The Norton Anthology of Critical Theory, Literary Theory by Terry Eagelton, Aesthetics by Monroe Beardsley, Art, Class, and Cleavage by Ben Watson, and some Gogol whenever time permits. I am also reading one pro and one college bball magazines.

 

I actually thought the Dune books got better as they progressed, Chapterhouse being the best of them. I dont like the new Dune books, they dont have the same feel.

I am reading the complete Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy by Douglas Adams.

 

BAH! You idiot.

Actually I know what you're saying and it's the same argument I've heard about a lot of books written by Graham Hancock and those like him. I really should've worded my original statements differently because a couple of the books I'm reading really have nothing to do with Egyptology, but rather use some Egyptian facts to prove the existence of "unknown civilizations". I usually like to read a few books that point me in one direction, then a few that are contrary to those books. Then I weigh the facts/opinions and decide what I believe. To this point, Hancock does seem to back up his statements with what appear to be solid facts. Since I'm just getting into this I can't really refute his opinions/facts until I read more, though.

I'm also looking for something different than the usual Egyptology theories of "The Pyramids were built to imitate the alignment of the stars in the Belt of Orion". Okay, we all know that is very possibly true, but I want to know more about how these people came to know all this. How did they acquire their architectural knowledge? Why did they pyramids after the Pyramids at Giza seem to show nothing of the grandeur of those at Giza? Did everybody get stupid or did they run out of resources?

One question Hancock is posing in the Fingerprints of the Gods is how maps in the 14th and 16th centuries depicted the coastline of Antarctica with accuracy when the entire mass was covered by ice for thousands of years. The technology required for us to do the same didn't exist until the 20th century. Were these maps based upon some ancient map left over by people we don't know about?

Needless to say, this is really interesting stuff.

 

Why did they pyramids after the Pyramids at Giza seem to show nothing of the grandeur of those at Giza? Did everybody get stupid or did they run out of resources?

A lot of it had to do with dwindling power/resources, from what little I know.

If you are interested specifically in the Giza site and their construction, look into the work of Mark Lehner. He is looking into the "Lost City" of Gize, which isbasically te city where the some 20,000 workers who built them lived. It is "very exciting stuff" as my Egyptologist boss says.

Sorry about the razzing, I was just trying to be mean.

 

DoD, read the Earth Chronicles series by Sitchin when you're done with Hancock. I was extremely dubious when I first started reading it, but I'm already convinced, and I'm not even finished with the series. He's got about the only theory that seems to fit all of the evidence, and very few holes. And man, he just keeps piling the evidence on, and on, and on... Of course "conventional" archeologists and historians don't want to touch his theories, because their basic premise is so outlandish and it would threaten their personal domains, but all of the evidence fits...

As for why pyramid construction and sophistication deteriorated, I believe there was a massive climate change (an extended drought) in the third millenium BC. If I'm not mistaken...

 

Subtomic:

I read "A Death in the Family" a couple years ago. It almost seems to have a cult following... myself, I thought it was good but not great.

Good characters, mediocre plotting... good writing, though.

 

rimbaud, treeman,

Thanks for the suggestions on further reading. If I can manage to get through these books anytime soon, I'll see about getting the ones you mentioned.

 

I've heard a bit about the series and I think I know his basic idea that there's another planet out there w/ a 3000 year orbit that basically seeded humanity.

Now the single biggest knock I've heard against his idea is that he never gives any hints as to how life could exist on a planet that far away, so far that it's basically an asteroid. Especially lacking is any theory as to how a species even close to man could evolve in such an environment. Have you found anything at all in the books you've read so far?

 

The idea of a large planet with a 3600 year orbit bothered me, too, when I first considered it. But then I realized that we've catalogued large asteroids with 75,000 year orbits, so... How do they stay warm? That also bothered me at first, but he provides a very good answer: internal geological heat. He theorizes that the core of the 12th planet is similar to uranium, which is not at all impossible from what I gather. Dense, fast-spinning metals tightly packed generate alot of heat, which can be channeled. This is the theory of all planetary cores... Whether or not there's liquid water there would depend upon how hot the core really is in relation to the surface area of the planet itself...

His theories are pretty speculative on the 12th planet - he's basically going by ancient Sumerian, Babylonian, Akkadian, and Egyptian texts at face value in his estimation of a 12th planet. They all knew about all of the planets we know of today (even Pluto), but they all claimed that there was/is a 12th planet (it would be a 10th planet by our reckoning)... I'm still not sure about an actual 12th planet, although the Sumerian explanation does explain the asteroid belt... What I'm pretty sure of is that his basic "ancient astronaut" theory is correct, and that mankind is the result of that seed. Where it came from I don't know.

It's fascinating, no doubt.

 

If you like History - pickup ANY of Stephen Ambrose's books.

I am on my second now "Band Of Brothers".

I have also read "Citizen Soldiers".

Both are great.

The amount of sacrifice they made still amazes me.

 

Excellent HOOP T - I just bought Third Option on the weekend and can't wait to start it. Vince Flynn's first two books were awesome.

I just finished reading BlackHawk Down. Great book, and just a little frightening.

DoD/treeman/rimbaud,

I have long though about reading some Egyptology material but never got around to it. Any suggestions on a good place to start?

 

Out of curiosity, what exactly made the plotting mediocre? It wasn't a suspense novel or a story set over a long period of time. It's more like a snapshot of a few days, with a few memories interspersed among the images. I'm not sure what else the author could have done to make the plot better.

Of course, the reason I had trouble with A Death in the Family was the sheer density of images. At times, it was as if Agee noticed every speck on the wall. Maybe that's accurate in times of tragedy - I've often noticed the stupidest, most mundane things in similar situations. However, it makes for a long and tiring read.

 

Plotting bothered me because I felt it was mixing genres. Novels of philosophy in general have a difficult time of it with plot, imo... and only the really, really good ones succeed. Not a failure of the author per se, so much as an uphill battle that the author didn't quite succeed at.

Sorry not to be more specific, i read this 2-3 years go.

Edited addition:

Incidentally, I realize I was unclear what I meant as to "plot." In this case, I'm not referring to any esoteric mechanism that failed, but rather the fact that the plot itself wasn't inviting. I enjoyed the book, aggregately, but it was almost inspite of the events that were taking place. I cared about the characters, but what was happening bored me. And I'm not one to get bored easily by plots.

Some people would argue that this isn't necessarily a flaw, and in some cases, I might agree, even. But I'm of Umberto Ecco's school of thought... make a book as cryptic, intellectual, and non-mainstream as you want... but for godsake make sure it's entertaining and well-plotted .

 

Charlotte's Web

 

hey smokey, "that's some pig"

rH

 

"Me Talk Pretty One Day" by Sedaris is hilarious!