Ducati Monster Forum

Moving sucks (for the most part, anyway).
However, there are a few good things.

It is a good opportunity to get rid of unnecessary stuff.

You will find some forgotten items something you really liked at one point in your life.

So, I’ve found some (quite a bit, actually) books that I was (sort of) forgetting these days.

Hence, this thread ...


Do androids dream of electric sheep?
Philip K Dick
first published in 1968

Written by U.C. Berkeley drop out Philip K Dick in the late 60s, this novel is mostly known as “the original story of the classic cult movie BLADE RUNNER”.

Yes, I’m a big fan of BLADE RUNNER, so, I can tell you, if you liked the film (I’m talking about 1982 original film) but have never read the book, you owe yourself to read this book at least once.

The story (characters and plot) is quite different in the book, from the movie adaptation. Like, in the novel, the story takes place in San Francisco with his wife, but in the film, they changed the location to Los Angels and he’s divorced, living alone. In the film, Rick Deckerd is a retired Blade Runner who is supposed to be the best, in the novel, he’s a little bit of a looser at his work.
To put is simple, Rick Deckered in the book is a second rate bounty hunter, doesn’t have much respect coming from his wife, his boss, and perhaps, even from himself.(In a way, that makes him more realistic character than movie version of him.)


As you keep reading the story, you will find out more parts that were (kind of) shown (briefly) but never explained  in the film.
And, that alone makes it worth reading the book if you liked the film.

Unlike the movie, in the novel, there’s no action sequence between Deckard and Roy Batty, no love romance between Deckerd and Rachel (he ends up sleeping with her, but for a different reason)
... but, ... it will ask you far deeper and far more complex questions, such as ..

What is the definition of “human”?
What separates us human from Nexus 6 (which exactly look like  human, act like human, develop their own emotion / ego as they live ... so, they are pretty much the same thing as human, the only difference is that they are genetically engineered, not born from human parents.)

And deep down, ... What is the reality? (If you read more than a few of his book, it is evident that, in his mind,
“the reality is only real while you are looking at it”.
In other words, the world is not entirely real, what you believe “real” stays real only until you blink.
You close your eyes, then, the reality is gone, and when you open your eyes again, there’s no guarantee that the same “reality” exists. Because “what you believe as reality” only exists in your perception, only in your mind ...)
The book does better job than the film, about this.



The long goodbye
Raymond Chandler
first published in 1953

The hardboiled  PI story that takes place in 1950s Los Angels ...
Wait, don’t go away, just because it’s a PI story doesn’t mean this book is just like others.
Quite opposite, actually.

A lot of people, both the writers and the readers, got the wrong idea about “hardboiled”.

Wearing a trench coat does not make you “hardboiled”.

Wearing .45 AUTO does not make you “hardboiled’.

The good example (of “wrong idea”) would be Mickey Spillane / Mike Hammer.

I love Chandler, but I hate Spillane.
Because his idea of being a tough guy is a physically big man with a gun pushing people around.
Just insensitive and arrogant.
Perhaps, the biggest difference (between Chandler and Spillane) is sensitivity (or lack thereof).

The following conversation, which immortalized Philip Marlow character, is not from “The long goodbye”, but from Philip Marlow’s next story (and the last, and also Chandler’s last book) “Playback”.

“How can such a hard man be so gentle?” The heroine asks.
“If I wasn’t hard, I wouldn’t be alive. If I couldn’t ever be gentle, I wouldn’t deserve to be alive.” Marlow replies.




Another keyword would be “sentimental”.

How?

Say, you are a PI, in early 1950s LA, a lone wolf, no families, no business partners, never been married (and probably never will), not many friends.

You meet a guy with a scar (from the War, he was in SAS and badly wounded) on one side of his face, polite, but weak character, and drunk, who’s married to multimillionaire’s daughter.

You develop the casual friendship with him, every once in a while, he visits your office and you go out for a drink, that sort of friendship.

Then, one day, he shows up on your door steps, five o’clock in the morning, with a gun in his hand.

It wasn’t pointed at you. He was just holding it.

He says, he’s in “a great deal of trouble”, he needs a ride to Tijuana, where he can catch the air plane.


You tell him you can drive him to Tijuana, as long as you are not told if he has committed any crime, or he knows that the crime has been committed.

You drive him to Tijuana, and get back to LA, and get yourself in “ a great deal of trouble”.

Then, you meet your next job’s client, out of this world beauty’ who’s married to successful writer, but her heart was forever taken by her first husband who died in Normandy during the war ( that’s what she was told).

Her biggest disappointment was not that he was lost forever(as she believed), but he actually survived, then turned into totally different kind of man.

“The tragedy of life ... is not that  beautiful things die young , but that they grow old and mean...”


By the way, all Philip Marlow’s stories are written in first person narration, which is pretty common in this type of story.
(eg : The Maltese Falcon , Dashiell Hammett)
Technically, this style is called “first person limited point of view”.
It’s obviously first person because Marlow is “I” who’s telling the story, and it’s “limited” because Marlow doesn’t have access to the inner thoughts, feelings of other characters in the story. And he doesn’t know everything what’s going on around.

And, since we (reader) are in the Marlow’s head the entire time, we get to know his personality pretty well, which is a combination of being sarcastic, cynical, but sensitive and sentimental, a good observer, and a loner.
This is what makes Chandler stand out so much, as a detective story writer.

When the movie “BLADE RUNNER” was first introduced, it had Deckerd (Harrison Ford)’s voice over narration, which gave the kind of “hardboiled PI story” impression. (Apparently, the director, Riddley Scott, didn’t like it as well as “uplifting happy ending”. So, in the director’s cut version, the happy ending part and Deckered’s narration were completely removed. But, in a way, I still like the “original” 1982 theater version.)

Great thread since I've started reading for pleasure again and also need new material â€" thanks for starting this!


My two additions that pop immediately into my head:

Unbroken by Laura Hillenbrand
The Five People You Meet In Heaven by Mitch Albom 

'Venus on the Halfshell'...Kilgore Trout

Every Book that Asimov wrote ( who else can tie in 90% of what he wrote into one epic universe )

especially the Foundation Trilogy  ( The Mule kicks ass )


A THOUSAND-YEAR EPIC, A GALACTIC STRUGGLE, A MONUMENTAL WORK IN THE ANNALS OF SCIENCE FICTION

FOUNDATION begins a new chapter in the story of man's future. As the Old Empire crumbles into barbarism throughout the million worlds of the galaxy, Hari Seldon and his band of psychologists must create a new entity, the Foundation-dedicated to art, science, and technology-as the beginning of a new empire.

FOUNDATION AND EMPIRE describes the mighty struggle for power amid the chaos of the stars in which man stands at the threshold of a new enlightened life which could easily be destroyed by the old forces of barbarism.

SECOND FOUNDATION follows the Seldon Plan after the First Empire's defeat and describes its greatest threat-a dangerous mutant strain gone wild, which produces a mind capable of bending men's wills, directing their thoughts, reshaping their desires, and destroying the universe.



The Talisman by Stephan King and Peter Straub

On a brisk autumn day, a twelve-year-old boy stands on the shores of the gray Atlantic, near a silent amusement park and a fading ocean resort called the Alhambra. The past has driven Jack Sawyer here: his father is gone, his mother is dying, and the world no longer makes sense. But for Jack everything is about to change. For he has been chosen to make a journey back across America--and into another realm.

One of the most influential and heralded works of fantasy ever written, The Talisman is an extraordinary novel of loyalty, awakening, terror, and mystery. Jack Sawyer, on a desperate quest to save his mother's life, must search for a prize across an epic landscape of innocents and monsters, of incredible dangers and even more incredible truths. The prize is essential, but the journey means even more. Let the quest begin. . .

Atlas Shrugged - Ayn Rand

Ringworld - Larry Niven

Quote from: Speeddog on November 03, 2018, 08:37:31 PM
Atlas Shrugged - Ayn Rand

I've started this 3 times now.  Everyone keeps saying that once you've reached roughly page 100, then you're into it.  Haven't made it that far.  Yet.   ;)

Quote from: Stella on November 04, 2018, 11:13:47 AM

I've started this 3 times now.  Everyone keeps saying that once you've reached roughly page 100, then you're into it.  Haven't made it that far.  Yet.   ;)

It's an intimidating book. I'd like to reread it myself.

The Alchemist - Paulo Coehlo

Sometimes a Great Notion - Ken Kesey

The Sunday Papers - Bill Watterson talking about Calvin and Hobbes in the Sunday papers

For any aviation nerds, or those that want to better understand recip engines.

Allied Aircraft Piston Engines of World War II

While it took the demands of two World Wars to bring aviation into acceptance by the general public, it was a relative handful of engineers, entrepreneurs, and pilots who positioned the technology and resources necessary to make aviation one of the deciding factors in ending World War II. This book attempts to illuminate some of the historically significant technical developments that were incorporated into World War II aircraft engines that directly contributed to the execution and tactics of the war.
Engines detailed in the book include those from these manufacturers:

Rolls-Royce
Bristol, Napier
General Electric
Pratt and Whitney
Allison
Wright Aeronautical Corporation