(no subject)

[be_themoon]

Chest sore. Still coughing.

I really want some classes that actually challenge me, not just tell me stuff I already freaking KNOW. I'm not a genius, or even as smart as people keep thinking I am. I have a brain that I USE, and now I want to use it for more than rote memorization, and I finished Salt yesterday! And it was an awesome book but now I need more.

All right f-list! Break out the book recommendations. Preferably nonfiction, something that requires thought and is interesting. Philosophy, good history, even economics. I am desperate, y'all.

(Look, I am using my Eowyn at a FUNERAL icon. I am heading straight towards a foul mood if I don't get some real thinking done.)

Comments

[lassiterfics.livejournal.com]

Oh my goodness! Most things by Pico Iyer, but I will focus on these two:
The Global Soul: about the global nomad, how globalization is changing the souls of cities, about airports and shopping malls and jet lag, about the illusion of homogenization, displacement, transience. But a very anecdotal telling, told through conversations with people. Poignant as fuuuck. <333
The Lady and the Monk: Also very poignant. Partly a travelogue about Japan, partly a love story, loosely biographical. I have underlined the shit out of this book, and also the previous one.

The Karl Marx biography by Francis Wheen is also very amusing and astute, and has lots of hilarious anecdotes about Marx's life. The writer has a good sense of humor.

But yeah for nonfiction, I especially, especially, especially recommend The Impossible Country by Brian Hall, about the whole Yugoslavia Serb Croat Slovene debacle in the early 90s. Part travelogue, part history, again with the poignance. Mostly told through anecdotes and little details. It is sharp, self-aware, very funny at parts, heartbreaking at parts, and thoroughly compelling. I am in the middle of it and thoroughly enjoying it. The writer has a good eye for characters and knows how to capture them on the page.

[be-themoon.livejournal.com]

Oh, those sound like -fun!- I'll have to see if my library has any of them, and if it doesn't I shall find some other way to read them. XD

Thank you so much!