there are some serious readers here on the nect. my reading consists of archinect, news websites, wired (print), national geographic (print), and random assorted architecture journals (print). i also occasionally pick-up herodotus's histories, deluding myself into believing i will eventually finish it.
currently reading
The Aesthetics of Equity, by Craig L. Wilkins
and its blowing my mind.... i love it
will Hip-Hop define our future spaces and allow architecture to move past this "design aesthetics only" mentality and be able to tackle real issues in the world such as politics and economics?
Ah, kanu, I'm so glad you reminded me! I spoke at length with Mr. Wilkins when he was in town and have been meaning to get that book - I'm off to Powells.com right now.
I started The Road, which others here have loved, and it was too harrowing. I can't read anything involving children under duress. So I stopped. I have so little time to read I don't want to spend it reading fiction that makes me cringe.
Otherwise, I'm with jafidler - I read archinect and magazines. Love Discover mag, even though it's Science Lite I always learn something!
yes, lb, the road's really dark, but great. i flew through that one. didn't want to put it down.
one i recently finished is "the devil in the white city" by erik larson. another one that you just want to keep reading and reading. it tells the parallel stories of the chicago world's fair of 1893 and the notorious serial killer, h.h. holmes, who built a death hotel near the fair grounds.
"Devil in the White City" is good, if for no other reason that it gives outsiders a glimpse into what we do as architects and city builders (via its story about Burnham et al). The delays. The budgets. The egos. The disasters. The anxieties. Well done.
O here here how hoth sprowled met the duskt the father of fornicationists but, (O my shining stars and body!) how hath fanespanned most high heaven the skysign of soft advertisement!
i love 'the devil in the white city' too. keep recommending it to people but they look unimpressed.
reading:
we didn't mean to go to sea by arthur ransome
a model world (short stories) by michael chabon
the rigour of short stories is really appealing to me right now. i'm trying to track down some richard bausch but his stuff doesn't seem to be published here.
Also amazing. Seven lectures over seven nights, each on a different topic: the divine comedy, nightmares, the thousand and one nights, Buddhism, Poetry, the Kabbalah, and finally blindness.
He was blind when he gave these lectures. He memorized them the night before. You can read them one at a time or do the whole thing in one night.
citizen, if you like crabgrass book you may also enjoy "dreaming the rational city", by m. christine boyer. i like her better than fishman, and dolores hayden for that matter. she doesn't seem to be trying as hard to make a point...
i read lots of books about planning and suburbia. and 1 or 2 articles a day on same. but that is work. mostly i read SF and fantasy for fun. terry pratchett is a favorite. SF is making turn again towards philosophy again which is also cool. amongst the more thoughtful are robert j sawyer and greg bear both writing a lot lately about the existence of the soul and how to discuss it through science. cool stuff, and fun cuz they are after all popular writers...anything by either of them is probably pretty good.
I'll "fifth" Hesse's Glass Bead Game. An awesome power wreathed in beauty and humility. I'll admit to missing out the hundred or so pages of poetry towards the end, though I read all the prose.
I'll also admit that I rarely read novels these days, hence Borges short stories, also loving the language use in the shorts of Damon Runyon. Very funny.
If you need your mind blowing in a sort of 2girls1cup way, Georges Bataille's "Story of the Eye", written in 1928 is right up there, and short enough to read in an hour.
I find that books with distinct linguistic styles (not styles that you come across anywhere else whether in conversation or prose) help me break out of my mind a little. Colckwork Orange, another good short, must be read, and preferably read aloud.
Another linguistic treat, and root of many words in (un)common usage today is 16th Century French Monk Francois Rabelais' "Gargantua and Pantagruel". Those looking to cast doubt upon their enemy's mother's predilections will find an unending arsenal of irrefutable insults. (There are several translations, some of which are weaker). Gargantua and Pantagruel is a large book, but broken into very short sections that hold minimal chronological narrative so it makes for great short-burst toilet-reading.
Unfortunately none of these books looks even vaguely like work type literature, but they will open new worlds of imagery, spreading osmotically across bubbles of consciousness, mixing dimensions transcendentally to make you a much better person.
agfa: they're amazing, aren't they? 'we didn't mean to go to sea' is my favourite, i think, at least from what i remember of the rest when i was a kid. i got the very grown-up 25th birthday present of first/early editions of 'swallows and amazons', 'we didn't mean...' and 'pigeon post'. i hate sailing but love reading about it, woolworth plate signal lights and all.
i am stealing tattoo ideas from the maps inside.
psyarch: your "if you liked 2girls1cup, you'll love..." style recommendation reminds me of those clunky classic/modern classic pairings. love it.
can never seem to find the time to read anymore. only on vacations. next on the list is: On and By FLW - A Primer of Architectural Principles. picked it up last month at taliesin west but barely touched it.
instead, i've been listening/watching lectures from ted.com daily. a never ending supply of mostly 20 minute long lectures by amazing people. highly recommended. for those who haven't heard of it, its an annual conference of the elite from the fields of Technology, Entertainment and Design and they've uploaded video of a lot of the talks. weird to watch negroponte's lectures from 1984 and 2006 back to back.
What kind of person would choose a highly respected book on investing written by an authority on the subject, and then choose a book on global issues like climate change written by motherfucking Glenn Beck?!
I have to teach a bit on some of them. I think I've got a handle on the Question Concerning Technology. I actually quite enjoyed Husserl's Cartesian Meditations.
READING LIST
FSCOTT FITZGERALD- The Great Gatsby
SLAVOJ ZIZEK- Looking Awry
W. E. SEBALD - Rings of Saturn
W. E. SEBALD- Austerlitz
MANUEL DELANDA - War in the Age of Intelligent Machines
I want to know what you are reading.
why read when you can watch millionaire matchmaker?
10-
-James Joyce - Ulysses
-Neil Leach - Anesthetics of Architecture
-William Gibson - Neuromancer
Currently no fun, only work:
Perec - Species of Spaces
Deleuze - Difference and Repetition
Norberg-Schulz - Meaning in Western Architecture
Vidal: Burr
Vidal: Lincoln
Diamond: Guns, Germs and Steel
Gibbon: the History of the Decline and Fall of the Roman Civilization, vol.II
Borges: Labyrinths
Balmond: Element (looking at the pictures)
so far the pictures aren't great
there are some serious readers here on the nect. my reading consists of archinect, news websites, wired (print), national geographic (print), and random assorted architecture journals (print). i also occasionally pick-up herodotus's histories, deluding myself into believing i will eventually finish it.
currently reading
The Aesthetics of Equity, by Craig L. Wilkins
and its blowing my mind.... i love it
will Hip-Hop define our future spaces and allow architecture to move past this "design aesthetics only" mentality and be able to tackle real issues in the world such as politics and economics?
love it.
Robert Fishman, Bourgeois Utopias: Suburbia, 1870-1930
A. J. Jacobs, The Know-It-All: One Man's Humble Quest to Become the Smartest Person in the World
Bill Pronzini, Quicksilver (A 'Nameless Detective' Mystery)
"The vertigo of the mélange"
Ah, kanu, I'm so glad you reminded me! I spoke at length with Mr. Wilkins when he was in town and have been meaning to get that book - I'm off to Powells.com right now.
I started The Road, which others here have loved, and it was too harrowing. I can't read anything involving children under duress. So I stopped. I have so little time to read I don't want to spend it reading fiction that makes me cringe.
Otherwise, I'm with jafidler - I read archinect and magazines. Love Discover mag, even though it's Science Lite I always learn something!
yes, lb, the road's really dark, but great. i flew through that one. didn't want to put it down.
one i recently finished is "the devil in the white city" by erik larson. another one that you just want to keep reading and reading. it tells the parallel stories of the chicago world's fair of 1893 and the notorious serial killer, h.h. holmes, who built a death hotel near the fair grounds.
"Devil in the White City" is good, if for no other reason that it gives outsiders a glimpse into what we do as architects and city builders (via its story about Burnham et al). The delays. The budgets. The egos. The disasters. The anxieties. Well done.
i love 'the devil in the white city' too. keep recommending it to people but they look unimpressed.
reading:
we didn't mean to go to sea by arthur ransome
a model world (short stories) by michael chabon
the rigour of short stories is really appealing to me right now. i'm trying to track down some richard bausch but his stuff doesn't seem to be published here.
khaled hosseini's 'kite runner' and '1000 splendid suns'. not architecture related, but the best books i've read
Yesterday I finally finished The Man without qualities by Robert Musil.
Now I'm starting The Glass Bead Game by Hermann Hesse
tk, is that Finnegan's Wake? Jeez.
me: 'Everyware', and 'Folklore & the Sea', which actually have turned out to have alot in common.
Kitchen Confidential and The Nasty Bits Tony Bourdain
I just finished readin both of these and was very entertained. Before that I read Into The Wild
'glass bead game' is a tough slog but it's still one of the best books i've ever read.
I couldn't get through Glass Bead Game, maybe I'll give it another shot once I clear the decks.
The Gathering - Anne Enright
mostly two pages at a time before drifting off
I just finished re-reading Mad Money by Jim Cramer this evening.
I'm also in various stages on the following:
The Intelligent Invester by Benjamin Graham
Five Lessons, the Modern Fundamentals of Golf by Ben Hogan
An Inconvenient Book by Glenn Beck
and Analysis for Financial Management by Robert C. Higgins
The saddest part...none of it is required. I'm just an uber-dork.
carbide, I love Ransom... I have the whole set!
Labyrinths is awesome. Has anyone read:
BORGES- 7 Nights
Also amazing. Seven lectures over seven nights, each on a different topic: the divine comedy, nightmares, the thousand and one nights, Buddhism, Poetry, the Kabbalah, and finally blindness.
He was blind when he gave these lectures. He memorized them the night before. You can read them one at a time or do the whole thing in one night.
citizen, if you like crabgrass book you may also enjoy "dreaming the rational city", by m. christine boyer. i like her better than fishman, and dolores hayden for that matter. she doesn't seem to be trying as hard to make a point...
i read lots of books about planning and suburbia. and 1 or 2 articles a day on same. but that is work. mostly i read SF and fantasy for fun. terry pratchett is a favorite. SF is making turn again towards philosophy again which is also cool. amongst the more thoughtful are robert j sawyer and greg bear both writing a lot lately about the existence of the soul and how to discuss it through science. cool stuff, and fun cuz they are after all popular writers...anything by either of them is probably pretty good.
Oracle Night by Paul Auster
The Truth Machine by James Halperin
Slavoj Zizek: The sublime object of ideology
David Deutsch: The fabric of reality
Wallace Stegner: Beyond the 100th Meridian
Proust: Swann's Way
(I've been reading the Proust for over a year now)
I just finished: "Red Dust" a path thru China by Ma Jian
I'm just starting: "In the Cities and Jungles of Brazil" by Paul Rambali
I'm continuously reading ICBO 2003 and NFPA 101 2003 inorder to develop a greater understanding of the Techincal Writting.
I'll "fifth" Hesse's Glass Bead Game. An awesome power wreathed in beauty and humility. I'll admit to missing out the hundred or so pages of poetry towards the end, though I read all the prose.
I'll also admit that I rarely read novels these days, hence Borges short stories, also loving the language use in the shorts of Damon Runyon. Very funny.
If you need your mind blowing in a sort of 2girls1cup way, Georges Bataille's "Story of the Eye", written in 1928 is right up there, and short enough to read in an hour.
I find that books with distinct linguistic styles (not styles that you come across anywhere else whether in conversation or prose) help me break out of my mind a little. Colckwork Orange, another good short, must be read, and preferably read aloud.
Another linguistic treat, and root of many words in (un)common usage today is 16th Century French Monk Francois Rabelais' "Gargantua and Pantagruel". Those looking to cast doubt upon their enemy's mother's predilections will find an unending arsenal of irrefutable insults. (There are several translations, some of which are weaker). Gargantua and Pantagruel is a large book, but broken into very short sections that hold minimal chronological narrative so it makes for great short-burst toilet-reading.
Unfortunately none of these books looks even vaguely like work type literature, but they will open new worlds of imagery, spreading osmotically across bubbles of consciousness, mixing dimensions transcendentally to make you a much better person.
I promise.
agfa: they're amazing, aren't they? 'we didn't mean to go to sea' is my favourite, i think, at least from what i remember of the rest when i was a kid. i got the very grown-up 25th birthday present of first/early editions of 'swallows and amazons', 'we didn't mean...' and 'pigeon post'. i hate sailing but love reading about it, woolworth plate signal lights and all.
i am stealing tattoo ideas from the maps inside.
psyarch: your "if you liked 2girls1cup, you'll love..." style recommendation reminds me of those clunky classic/modern classic pairings. love it.
I actually love reading the essays and short stories by Orwell and Twain. But I would say my favorite type of pieces to read, are auto-biographies.
can never seem to find the time to read anymore. only on vacations. next on the list is: On and By FLW - A Primer of Architectural Principles. picked it up last month at taliesin west but barely touched it.
instead, i've been listening/watching lectures from ted.com daily. a never ending supply of mostly 20 minute long lectures by amazing people. highly recommended. for those who haven't heard of it, its an annual conference of the elite from the fields of Technology, Entertainment and Design and they've uploaded video of a lot of the talks. weird to watch negroponte's lectures from 1984 and 2006 back to back.
Species of Spaces by Perec
Hey, me too - I just finished it, and I'm moving on to Plato's Republic
I like reading the reading lists of different classes that I can't afford, but because of the power of the internets I can now get.
like this
mediascapes
anybody have anymore pdfs from classes they took?
Been cracking on my social revolution lately:
Walden
Civil Disobedience
Zen and the Art of Motorcycle Maintenance
Content by OMA/AMO
Koolhaas is actually a nice read. Not as heavy as I imagined.
I finished too, agfa, moving on to foucault's the order of things
agfa,
you have to read socrates before moving up to plato...
Try Wanderlust by Rebecca Solnit. Get lost in her thoughts and words and you come out satiated and smart.
What kind of person would choose a highly respected book on investing written by an authority on the subject, and then choose a book on global issues like climate change written by motherfucking Glenn Beck?!
nah, I started at derrida, holz. i'm working backwards.
haha. yeah, good call. makes you use your brain more...
though you flew through if you are already @ plato...
did you just gloss over husserl, heidegger and merleau ponty?
I think I've read one of theirs each. And when I say read, don't mistake that for understood...
i've reid sein und zeit (being and time) in germand and english several times, and the comprehension just isn't there for either.
I have to teach a bit on some of them. I think I've got a handle on the Question Concerning Technology. I actually quite enjoyed Husserl's Cartesian Meditations.
I also read Neil Gaiman's Marvel 1602 recently.
clearly it's time for me to put down all the architecture rags...
nah - someone's got to keep p2an and phuyaka in control on the 'name that building' thread.
Has anyone read any Colomina? Any comments?
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