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(08-21-2024, 01:41 PM)Greg Wrote: Tao Te Ching by Lao Tzu
Ah, research. I've read it before. I thought I would read it again to gain a little insight into Taoism. The most helpful parts of this version were the afterwords and appendix. They did a deep dive into why they translated words a certain way and what those words meant. It was all fascinating but confusing.
I'm going to track down the Ursula K. LeGuin version to see if that makes it better.
Which translation did you read? I recommend Cleary. English (as in the ironically named translator Jane English) is the classic.
Also it’s Dao De Jing in pinyin, which is the standard romanization now.
LeGuin’s is terrible. Rumor is she just took several English translations and made up her own ideas about what she thought it was about. Not recommended.
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(08-21-2024, 02:05 PM)Drunk Monk Wrote: Which translation did you read? I recommend Cleary. English (as in the ironically named translator Jane English) is the classic.
Also it’s Dao De Jing in pinyin, which is the standard romanization now. I read the Victor Mahir translation. When I say or write Dao, I tend to get corrected. Plus it was the title as printed on the book.
I have the Cleary on order from the library. I'll skip the LeGuin.
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(08-21-2024, 02:11 PM)Greg Wrote: (08-21-2024, 02:05 PM)Drunk Monk Wrote: Which translation did you read? I recommend Cleary. English (as in the ironically named translator Jane English) is the classic.
Also it’s Dao De Jing in pinyin, which is the standard romanization now. I read the Victor Mahir translation. When I say or write Dao, I tend to get corrected. Plus it was the title as printed on the book.
I have the Cleary on order from the library. I'll skip the LeGuin.
Oh, I don't know Mahir.
Yeah, the Tao/Dao thing is annoying just like the Qigong/Chi Kung or Tai Chi/Taiji thing. I've written articles about that.
https://ymaa.com/articles/2023/04/it-chi-kung-or-qigong
https://ymaa.com/articles/2022/04/is-it-...i-or-taiji
Perhaps you need this: https://ymaa.com/publishing/book/dao-de-...rpretation - let me know. I can likely hook you up with a digi version.
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08-21-2024, 03:12 PM
(This post was last modified: 08-21-2024, 03:14 PM by Greg.)
The Mahir came out in 1990, part of the mystical classics of the World series. It was the one that jumped out at me from the library.
Dr. Yang's book looks good. Kind of what I'm looking for.
What is Dr. Yang's opinion of GM Tu?
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I like the Gia Fu Feng/Jane English translation. They strike a nice balance between plain speaking and enigmatic. But of course, "the Tao that can be named is not the eternal Tao."
"Blunt the sharpness, untangle the knots"
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(08-21-2024, 03:12 PM)Greg Wrote: Dr. Yang's book looks good. Kind of what I'm looking for.
Give me a bit and I’ll get you one. I might have an extra hard copy. I can definitely get you an ebook.
(08-21-2024, 03:12 PM)Greg Wrote: What is Dr. Yang's opinion of GM Tu?
No idea. Not even sure he’s aware of him.
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The Lewis Man by Peter May
Fin has quit his job as a policeman and has returned to the Isle of Lewis in the Hebrides. Meanwhile his childhood sweetheart/ current girlfriend's father is suffering from dementia and could be the main subject in a murder investigation into a body found in the bog. Once again, there are two storylines as we trace the Demented Father's early life and we follow Fin around the island as he tries to solve the mystery. Pretty measured going for the most part until the exciting climax.
I think May wanted to talk about the struggles of dementia in this book as well as a program that basically gave orphan kids to families that needed help around their farms.
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The Chess Men by Peter May
More life on the isle of Lewis. Fin finds a dead body in an airplane that had crashed into a loch and was revealed when the loch vanished. The two storylines this time involve Fin solving the case and Fin's early life involved with a rock band that got started on the island just as he was going to college. Fin also has a job now rounding up poachers. Unfortunately one of his best friends from when he was younger is one of those poachers. Again slow paced until the big dramatic finish.
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You Like it Darker by Stephen King
Mr. King can be counted on for a good collection of short stories, probably more so than a good novel. This collection doesn't reach the heights of Night Shift or Skeleton Crew but there are some good solid stories in there. There are a few clunkers, more vignettes than stories, but they are miles better than the last collection of short stories I read. Mr. King's voice for the characters always seems spot on. They all seem believable.
I do like Mr. King's transition to detective and mystery stories and away from the supernatural elements. The grounding helps the stories a lot. Although, there was one story that did give me the creeps because of its ghost elements. I also like the stories are farther afield than just the Maine setting. We go to Florida. We are in the midwest. There is even a story in northern New Hampshire that references a town where my parents had a cabin.
The two best stories in the book were of Novella length and those were the two best stories in the book.
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The Firemaker by Peter May
Eleanor is fleeing Chicago and some bad memories. She takes a job on the spur of the moment to teach forensics in Beijing for six weeks. Lin has just been promoted to Deputy Police detective in Beijing and on his first day there are three different homicides to fall. Naturally Eleanor and Lin meet. They hate each other on first sight but they have to work together because her expertise in dissecting burn victims dovetails nicely with his case. Of course over the course of the investigation their feelings change.
I liked seing the workings of Beijing from the insider level. It might be a totally fictitious view of the culture in China back in 1999 but I liked it. It was a time as the country was slowly regrouping after the effects of the Cultural Revolution and the wounds were still a bit raw.
The murder mystery itself was compelling at first but then went off the rails as it became a nationwide conspiracy.
Good book for the atmosphere, bad for the plot. The love story was also a bit over wrought.
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My Sister, the Serial Killer by Oyinkan Braithwaite
My first Nigerian author! i read this upon recommendation from my grand niece and it was quite good. Korede is a nurse in a Lagos Hospital and her sister Ayoola has just come to her to help her with her dead boyfriend. Well, big sisters have to help out their little sisters.
The story was a quick read and very focused on the story. Each chapter was only a couple pages but all vivid. In many ways the story could have been anywhere. It's a tale of sisters fighting and using the internet and meeting boys. In many ways it was a slice of Nigerian culture.
Kind of recommended to hear a different voice.
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The Root of Chinese Qigong by Dr. Yang, Jwing-Ming
Phew! This book was a lot. I have a lot better understanding of what Qi and Qigong is supposed to do. This book doesn't really tell you how to do it. Lots of theory. Lots and lots. So much. I have a pad full of notes.
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The Woman who walked into Doors by Roddy Doyle
Brutal.
Paula Spenser is a 39 year old Dublin housewife and alcoholic. From the way this book ends, she has every right to be. For the first three quarters of the book, it's like a straight memoir for Paula as she recounts her life growing up and her marriage to Charlo. She's kind of wild girl in school. She goes on Holiday with her parents. She meets Charlo, they fall in love, and get married. Paula's father hates the marriage and never really speaks to Paula again. Although there is insinuation that Paula's father might have done something bad to Paula's older sister.
The book is filled with great details about Dublin life back in the 1980s which I always appreciate.
Then the book abruptly changes gears and you feel incredibly sad for Paula. Charlo was not the best choice of husband.
There is a bit of uplift at the end but it's a rough road to get there.
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Number One is Walking by Steve Martin and Harry Bliss
I heard about this book when it was mentioned in the new Steve Martin documentary. It was kind of interesting idea. Martin's life in pictures as told through cartoons drawn by Bliss. I finished the whole thing in about 30 minutes. Thankfully I got the book from the library.
There weren't a lot of good new stories in the book. In fact, there weren't a lot of stories. The only one that jumps out is Martin was playing banjo with some friends in SF and a stranger joined in with them. It was basically a jam session backstage at a concert. Only later did Martin realize the stranger was Jerry Garcia. But there weren't a lot of stories. Each movie was given about a page of drawings and that's it. And the movie anecdotes only cover a bout a third of the book. The other two thirds relate to the subtitle of the book: My life in the movies and other diversions. The other diversions is just page after page of Harry Bliss single page cartoons. They were funny. There was two Martin anecdotes in there. But no more movie anecdotes.
I was extremely disappointed by the fact there weren't more movie stories in the book.
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His memoir "Born Standing Up" is good, if you haven't already read it.
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