Lets make up ideal books we'd like to read, and have people more well-read than us tell us if they exist!

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Okay, I want to read a book that talks about different religions in different cultures, and what degree it played in their society/government/daily lives, but doesn't talk about just one... it compares and contrasts and explains how it changed over time. If this exists, I'll orgasm. Thank you.

― I have no handles, Sunday, 18 December 2005 10:02 (eighteen years ago) link

Great idea for a thread, I've got one too!
I'd like a book about daily life in the Soviet Union. Not its history, not its politics; just about how everyday people got by and what they thought about the world around them. Topics could include Soviet news media, and whether they took it seriously or saw through the propaganda; their opinions about capitalism/communism, including their ideas of what the West must be like; and insights into common social practices such as dating, recreation, family life, etc. Also stuff about Soviet TV shows and pop music would be nice.

― naus (Robert T), Sunday, 18 December 2005 11:11 (eighteen years ago) link

In Russia, daily life writes book about YOU.

― The Wanderers' Wandering Daughter (noodle vague), Sunday, 18 December 2005 11:29 (eighteen years ago) link

i want a book that has the excitement and awesome theology of dostoevsky and the gorgeousness of awesome travel books and the incredibly fun tangents of moby dick.

― Maria (Maria), Sunday, 18 December 2005 16:47 (eighteen years ago) link

ps i have to order some books about russia to prepare for my study abroad program next semester, i'll let you know if any of them fit that description

― Maria (Maria), Sunday, 18 December 2005 16:48 (eighteen years ago) link

Naus -
"How We Survived Communism & Even Laughed" by Slavenka Drakulic

Mostly about making ends meet, a little bit less in the insight department than I think you might want, but I thought it was an enjoyable read.

― Mattattack (matt attack), Monday, 19 December 2005 03:03 (eighteen years ago) link

I want a history of jazz and second line culture in New Orleans, preferably not dry or Euro dixieland fandude-ish.

― Jordan (Jordan), Monday, 19 December 2005 04:14 (eighteen years ago) link

Actually, fuck it, I know enough about that stuff. What I could use is a good history of New Orleans in general.

― Jordan (Jordan), Monday, 19 December 2005 04:28 (eighteen years ago) link

Would either of these Russia books help?

http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/0472060708/104-2262825-8868743?n=283155

http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/0195050010/104-2262825-8868743?v=glance&n=283155

― Mary (Mary), Monday, 19 December 2005 06:29 (eighteen years ago) link

I'd like to read an entertaining, scholarly and critical study of the rise of the American college and university system--historical implications and current practices. Discussion of religious roots, the importance of the German research model, the Land Grant Act, Sputnik, etc. There are about ten books at the library dealing with this subject, from "International and Historical Roots of the American Higher Education System" to "University Inc." However they seem a bit dry. I am also looking forward to reading "The Chosen" when it finally gets through cataloging--the book about the history of the admissions process at Harvard and some other elite schools and how it developed in reaction against what was viewed as too many qualified Jewish candidates.

― Mary (Mary), Monday, 19 December 2005 06:41 (eighteen years ago) link

Re New Orleans, I'm not sure this is a good history, but it is very entertaining.

http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/1560254947/104-2262825-8868743?v=glance&n=283155

― Mary (Mary), Monday, 19 December 2005 06:48 (eighteen years ago) link

you should totally read the first russia book mary linked to! i've had to read bits of it in russian. disjointed and not academic, but random and funny.

― Maria (Maria), Monday, 19 December 2005 07:01 (eighteen years ago) link

Somehow I feel few scholars these days would even try to tackle such a subject, because most of them are conscious of how easy it is to misprepresent other cultures. On a historical level, Max Weber perhaps did something to that effect in "Gesammelte Aufsatze zur Religionssoziologie" (this has probably been translated into English). In it he compares the big world religions from a sociologist's point of view - it's a rather theoretical work, so it won't go too much into everyday life, and since it was written in the 1910s/1920s, his knowledge of other religions than Christianity is probably not accurate from today's point of view, but it's still an interesting read.

― Tuomas (Tuomas), Monday, 19 December 2005 07:38 (eighteen years ago) link

An illustrated book about the darkest evilest Scandinavian myths and legends specifically designed to give me the willies if even I so much as look at the spine peeking out from my bookshelf.

― Carl Handwriting (dog latin), Monday, 19 December 2005 16:45 (eighteen years ago) link

sort of related...
here's all the made-up books ever. Well the ones that are mentioned in other books at any rate.

http://www.invisiblelibrary.com/

― Angelic Void Madonna (angelic void madonna), Monday, 19 December 2005 16:51 (eighteen years ago) link

Thanks for all your suggestions, I'm going to look for those books as soon as I get off work!

― naus, Monday, 19 December 2005 17:27 (eighteen years ago) link

one month passes...

I'd like to read some sort of collection of odd, evocative scraps (ideally of various length) by a single author?

― Gravel Puzzleworth (Gregory Henry), Friday, 3 February 2006 11:39 (eighteen years ago) link

I guess pretty close to Patterson's 'Book of Shadows', if it included a few more poems and one-line fragments and, well, shadows.

― Gravel Puzzleworth (Gregory Henry), Friday, 3 February 2006 11:51 (eighteen years ago) link

Monday or Tuesday - Eight Stories by Virginia Woolf - just finished reading. Small volume with proper short stories as well as a few paragraphs e.g. about a string quartet. Not very much in it though.

― beanz (beanz), Friday, 3 February 2006 11:52 (eighteen years ago) link

pater-son, btw

― RJG (RJG), Friday, 3 February 2006 11:53 (eighteen years ago) link

Cheers, RJG.

Cheers beanz, will check out. Any more?

― Gravel Puzzleworth (Gregory Henry), Friday, 3 February 2006 12:02 (eighteen years ago) link

Any Swift compilation might fit the bill, Gravel.

― The Man in the Iron-On Mask (noodle vague), Friday, 3 February 2006 12:04 (eighteen years ago) link

a full-length novel written by someone under the age of 11. that isn't about children.

― killy (baby lenin pin), Friday, 3 February 2006 18:02 (eighteen years ago) link

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