The Anti-Science Thread

**Cyclone62** · 01-29-2008, 10:40 PM

I cannot stand Ayn Rand. Good god, I got halfway through Atlas Shrugged and said, for the first time ever about a book "This is so damned awful, I can't finish reading this crap."

**ISUKyro** · 01-29-2008, 10:41 PM

Originally Posted by Cyclone62

"This is so damned awful, I can't finish reading this crap."

I thought the same thing about Old Man and the Sea. Why that is considered a classic I will never understand

**Cyclone62** · 01-29-2008, 10:41 PM

Originally Posted by Angie

WOW - right down to the cummings, that's very close to my library. That's kind of scary - haven't read Lysistrata, but I even love the same plays!! LOVE To Kill A Mockingbird and Gatsby.

Have you read Salinger's Nine Stories? Some of the most moving short stories ever - I love "A Perfect Day for Bananafish". Ties in a lot with Frannie and Zooey.

OH MY GOD! I just used that short story for my Catcher in the Rye unit! That story was great.

**Angie** · 01-29-2008, 10:43 PM

Originally Posted by Cyclone62

OH MY GOD! I just used that short story for my Catcher in the Rye unit! That story was great.

LOL - well, I'm officially frightened. Have you read Vonnegut's Welcome to the Monkey House collection? I absolutely love Harrison Bergeron - read it when I was in TAG class in 6th grade, and it really made me get into Vonnegut.

**Cyclone62** · 01-29-2008, 10:46 PM

Originally Posted by Angie

LOL - well, I'm officially frightened. Have you read Vonnegut's Welcome to the Monkey House collection? I absolutely love Harrison Bergeron - read it when I was in TAG class in 6th grade, and it really made me get into Vonnegut.

No, I haven't read that yet. Have you read his semi-a****iography Timequake? That thing was weird and hard to follow... If I remember right, he referred to himself as characters from his books, then talked about writing them, then talked as the character again. Quite an odd read.

**Angie** · 01-29-2008, 10:48 PM

Originally Posted by Cyclone62

No, I haven't read that yet. Have you read his semi-a****iography Timequake? That thing was weird and hard to follow... If I remember right, he referred to himself as characters from his books, then talked about writing them, then talked as the character again. Quite an odd read.

Yeah, I grabbed that a few years ago. It may have been that I was reading it while I had mono, but it kind of left my head swimming a few times. I think the first full book I read of his was Galapagos - his style of black humor just destroys me. Fantastic sense of the absurd, too.

**drum1306** · 01-30-2008, 12:25 AM

Originally Posted by Angie

LOL - well, I'm officially frightened. Have you read Vonnegut's Welcome to the Monkey House collection? I absolutely love Harrison Bergeron - read it when I was in TAG class in 6th grade, and it really made me get into Vonnegut.

TAG? Did you go to school in St Louis by chance?

**drum1306** · 01-30-2008, 12:26 AM

Also, I liked the Fountainhead, but strictly because it was about an idealistic architect. Rand's totally extreme characters are way too unrealistic for me.

**CloneFan65** · 01-30-2008, 02:03 AM

Originally Posted by Angie

I forgot to mention Chuck Palahniuk!! He's my favorite modern author (usually I mostly read classics). I've read almost everything he's written - I felt so dirty reading Choke...

The scene where he comes into that woman's room with the pantyhose on his head and...well you know...is one of the funniest things I've ever read.

My favorite authors in no order:

Hubert Selby Jr.
John Updike
Richard Russo
Roddy Doyle

**Enginerd** · 01-30-2008, 02:09 AM

On The Road - Jack Kerouac
The Road - Cormac McCarthy
ISU Media Guide - Iowa State Athletic Department

**Iastfan112** · 01-30-2008, 02:23 AM

All these people above me stealing good books, lets see. For me I'll just list some of my favorites: Catch 22, Fahrenheit 451, Slaughterhouse 5, A Farewell to Arms, Of Mice and Men, The Fountainhead(Atlas Shrugged bored me more), All Creatures Great and Small, LOTR, Cantebury Tales, and to round out the top 10...... A Walk in the Woods by Bill Bryson.

Books that I wouldnt mind seeing burned: Any of the Bronte sisters works and Faulkner.

**Cyclone62** · 01-30-2008, 05:32 AM

Originally Posted by Iastatefan112

Books that I wouldnt mind seeing burned: Any of the Bronte sisters works and Faulkner.

I actually really liked the Bronte's stuff. I think it's Emily (I can't find my anthology to be sure), but her poetry is much better than her stories in my opinion.

**cycloneace55** · 01-30-2008, 06:44 AM

Being and engineer I like science fiction, my favorties include:

Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep? By: Phillip K Dick (Most of you know it as "Blade Runner")
Battlefield Earth By: L. Ron Hubbard
Stranger in a Strange Land By: Robert Heinlein
Ender's Game By: Orson Scott Card

I also read comics and right now Astonishing X-men and Punisher (Max) are by far my favorites, with Powers and Walking Dead coming in 3rd and 4th.

**isugcs** · 01-30-2008, 07:13 AM

Originally Posted by Angie

LOL - well, I'm officially frightened. Have you read Vonnegut's Welcome to the Monkey House collection? I absolutely love Harrison Bergeron - read it when I was in TAG class in 6th grade, and it really made me get into Vonnegut.

I read Harrison Bergeron in Engl 104, good stuff.

**jdoggivjc** · 01-30-2008, 08:14 AM

Journalism major here (the English major for those that choose to have career opportunities after they graduate

)

I tend to be more into book "series" than standalone books.
Lord of the Rings trilogy
Chronicles of Narnia
The Hitchhikers' Guide to the Galaxy

I also like just about anything written by Jack Higgins, especially his Sean Dillon novels (Sean Dillon is basically a badass James Bond who makes Bond look like a wuss). I also like just about anything written by Ted Dekker (who's been dubbed the Christian Stephen King)