Walden - Henry Thoreau

Well I finally finished Walden. Finishing this book
was certainly an undertaking - very long and very
descriptive - Thoreau took boredom to a new level.
Walden has moments of genius and clarity and some
interesting points are made. Thoreau is a
transcendentalist (thus the 350 pages about a lake)
and is seemingly incredibly well versed in western
history. If you read it, make sure you get the copy
with the notes in the back or you wont fully
appreciate this book. With all this said, there are
certain sections in this book (e.g. the battle between
the two ant colonies) that rate up there with the best
of what I have read so far.

David

Roger Penrose's new book

Could be interesting...

http://science.slashdot.org/science/05/05/09/2145236.shtml?tid=228&tid=6&tid=14

Haven't seen it yet though.

The Da Vinci Code - Dan Brown

If Jerry Bruckheimer commissioned a novel I would imagine that the Da
Vinci Code would be it. On a recent trip overseas I bought this book to
read on the thirteen hour flight home.

While not an exceedingly terrible novel it is hardly, in the words of
the Washington Post, "Exceedingly clever. Both fascinating and fun...a
considerable achievement.". Perhaps the achievement is in how much hype
the author has managed to generate about such a mediocre piece of work
and how I was conned (God bless glossy "#1 best-seller" stickers) into
reading it.

The novel follows Robert Langdon, accused of a crime he did not commit,
who, with the help of a beautiful woman, must decipher a series of
cryptic puzzles in his search for the identity of the murder and,
rather melodramatically, the truth about the Holy Grail. It is obvious
that a lot of effort has gone into researching the history of the Grail
and locations in which the novel is set. It is also obvious that the
plot is as thin as the seat of a well-worn pair of underpants.

If you are bored or are having trouble sleeping I recommend this novel.

Greg

Ravelstein - Saul Bellow

Sad news - Saul Bellow died today. I started reading Ravelstein and put it down, but was inspired to pick it up again late last year. It's a fine novel, quite slowly paced, about the life and character of political philosopher Allan Bloom (Ravelstein) and his lasting friendship with the author. It details the latter part of his life when he was suffering from AIDS, and elegantly captures his many eccentricities. Sunday afternoon reading material.

The Secret Sharer - Joseph Conrad

The Secret Sharer, by Joseph Conrad, is a short book that
while lacking a particularly interesting story does offer
good insight into the true-self, better-self, higher-self
psychoanalysis contempory to his time. Conrad exploits
the good versus evil, conscious versus sub/unconscious
etc. dichotomy we all deal with but I wouldn't recommend
the book to someone unless this is exactly what they need
to read.

David

The Picture of Dorian Gray - Oscar Wilde

The picture of Dorian Gray, by Oscar Wilde, projects a
world where all of life's paths leads to self-destruction.
The moral of this book could be that mans chief end is to
develop his nature to the fullest by "always searching for
new sensations", and that when the soul gets sick the way
to cure it is to deny the soul nothing, for "nothing can
cure the soul but the sense, just as nothing can cure the
senses but the soul". Alternatively, Wilde may equally be
offering a sense (the book) to jolt our souls out of self
worshipping by graphically depicting the path and end that
vanity can lead to. One of my all time favourite books.

David

I, Lucifer - Glen Duncan

"I, Lucifer" by Glen Duncan, is a first person
narrative of Satan having a 1 month trial run of being
human before God wraps everything up. The book is
commentary on everything human - decadence, money,
sexuality, friendship, family, love and anything else
you can think of. A really good read with a great
twist with a whole lot of interesting facts about
religion presented in a unique perspective. If you
are after a good novel with a bit of depth, this is a
good choice.

David

The Elegant Universe - Brian Greene

Welcome to the WLW Book Club. I'll start things by mentioning that I'm finishing Brian Greene's The Elegant Universe and, although extremely well written (and edited) it waffles on far too much about how Superstring Theory is the bee's knees of all theories - even though it's completely untestable. I officially recommend the first half to people who would want to sound impressive at parties, and the second half to people who would like to sound impressive at a Star Trek convention.

- Tim