FOT Forum
FOT Community => General Discussion => Topic started by: ~L on June 20, 2012, 12:27:43 PM
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Step away from your technical gadgets, unless it's your eReader...
Challenge yourself to an old-fashioned summer of reading!
Post your challenge here: how many books you'd like to read over the summer or how many hours per week you hope to spend reading.
List your books read and post your progress here.
Kind of like weight watchers for readers, but no money down, and without the guilt if you slip!
Let the reading begin!
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Just finished "Stiff", which I though was a whole lot of fun http://www.goodreads.com/book/show/32145.Stiff (http://www.goodreads.com/book/show/32145.Stiff). About halfway through Wodehouse's "Leave it to Psmith". http://www.goodreads.com/book/show/1244295.Leave_It_to_Psmith (http://www.goodreads.com/book/show/1244295.Leave_It_to_Psmith)
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I just discovered Thrift Books and their great deals, so my summer list is a bit eclectic:
A Confederacy of Dunces
Legends of a Suicide and Caribou Island
Little, Big
Saturday Night and Sunday Morning
I know the first on the list is recommended by many, so I'm really excited to get into it!
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I read A Confederacy of Dunces many years ago. My recollection of it is in line with most great first books (and often, only books):
- great idea
- wonderful writing
- runs out of steam
- last third is incoherent
- the writer had no idea how to end it
Does that track?
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I read A Confederacy of Dunces many years ago. My recollection of it is in line with most great first books (and often, only books):
- great idea
- wonderful writing
- runs out of steam
- last third is incoherent
- the writer had no idea how to end it
Does that track?
As long as it's a good read, I won't mind. It can't be worse than some of the stuff I've read. That's what happens when you don't cut your losses and stop. Gotta get to the end!!
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Just finished The Rest Is Noise by Alex Ross this week. I got it as a gift and really don't know much about classical music, but getting through it was pretty rewarding. Though some of the music jargon is lost on me, Ross does a great job of describing trends/movements in the last 100 years or so of classical music and how it's influenced by, and itself influences, popular culture. Very interesting. Plus, you get turned on to a grip of fascinating modern composers.
I don't know how much I'll read this summer. Last year, I was like, "I'm reading 100 books," and I think I got through like 3 or 4. We'll see.
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I loved A Confederacy of Dunces and have no recollection at all of the ending.
Do research books count? I just read five in rapid succession in the last two weeks, somewhat overlapping:
Breaking The Rules: The Wooster Group by David Savran
Nine Years Among The Indians, 1870-1879 by Herman Lehmann
Bury My Heart at Wounded Knee by Dee Brown
On the Art of Noh Drama by Zeami, translated by J. Thomas Rimer and Yamazaki Masakazu
Occasional Work and Seven Walks from The Office for Soft Architecture by Lisa Robertson
Nine Years Among The Indians was actually a pretty fun read, if disturbing, and the Lisa Robertson book is pretty amazing.
I want to get back to something fun, or perhaps a classic, but in between all the research reading and my work, all I have the brainpower for are comic books. I've had Tearing Down The Wall of Sound out from the library for over a year now, and am hoping to get to Sam Lipsyte's The Ask.
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The Ask is excellent, as is all Lipsyte. I find some of the zanier parts in it and Homeland/Venus Drive to occasionally flirt with Newbridge style humor, especially since he deals with Jersey a lot. But I guess it maintains a darker edge.
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I just finished Cormac McCarthy's Blood Meridian. I'm going to go with something lighter now, Franzen's Freedom, then read a classic I have never read--Tale of Two Cities. Having read the ending but still actually having no idea how it ends, I plan to re-read Blood Meridian later in the summer. That's probably the only 3 I'll read.
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Freedom is light compared to Cormac McCarthy, but not light in and of itself.
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Little, Big
I just read the Aegypt cycle. I need to tackle Little, Big next. John Crowley is so good.
Currently trying to get through 50 pages a day of Middlemarch. 50 pages a day has been my standard for a few months (it helps that I read while walking the dog now instead of listening to podcasts) and I've managed to get through quite a few great books recently---Moby Dick, the Book of Disquiet by Pessoa, Pillow Book of Sei Shonagon, the Essential Alan Coren, Greenblatt's the Swerve, Sum by David Eagleman, In Patagonia by Bruce Chatwin, Strange Forces by Leopoldo Lugones, How to Live Safely in a Science Fictional Universe by Charles Yu, Consent of the Networked by Rebecca MacKinnon. I recommend all of these.
If Middlemarch doesn't kill me my reward is "The Audacity of Hype" by Armando Iannucci. I also want to read "The Most of S.J. Perelman" pretty soon and the last few years of "The Best American Comics." Also "Red Plenty" by Francis Spufford.
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This summer my reading plan is to alternate reading fiction with non-fiction.
I just finished PURE by Julianna Baggott; Sci-fi post-disaster, with characters that have altered body parts and are very Tim Burton-esque.
Started INCOGNITO: The Secret Lives of the Brain by David Eagleman; about how our subconscious brain is busy doing millions of amazing things while we are oblivious.
Meanwhile reading: THE DRAGON'S PATH by Daniel Abraham; Fantasy, battles and gore, and those made up names that are hard to pronounce.
Also reading DROP DEAD HEALTHY by A.J. Jacobs; who was featured on Seven Second Delay recently, the book follows his OCD year long quest to be the healthiest he can be.
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I just finished Cormac McCarthy's Blood Meridian. I'm going to go with something lighter now...
Isn't the ending to that a motherfucker? I thought the book was a tad dull for stretches but it had some great moments and the last chapter is certainly one of those great moments... Believe it or not-- although it has been five or so years since I read "Blood Meridian" the final scene of The Judge was the first thing I thought of when I saw the "Rated GG" cover...
Supposedly Tommy Lee Jones owns the film rights...
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I almost hate to do this because it feels like a kiss ass move, but I just read A BAD IDEA I'M ABOUT TO DO by Chris Gethard and it really is a funny book though I admit I am certainly predisposed to like any book by a socially awkward geek who was/is obsessed with pro wrestling.
CLEVELAND by Harvey Pekar was also a good read if you're a Pekar fan.
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Working my way through the A Song of Ice and Fire series. I just finished "A Storm Of Swords." They're long, but so easy to read - Stephen King meets Tolkien.
Rereading The Razor's Edge. I just saw the Bill Murray movie, which I thought was pretty good, and I haven't read the book since I was 15. It's not a long book by any means, but judging by the first paragraph, this may be a slog.
I have to finish More Information Than You Require, Kropotkin's Memoirs of a Revolutionist (I have no idea how this book came into my possession), and William V. Shannon's The American Irish: A Political and Social Portrait which I've been working on for a couple of years now.
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Kropotkin's Memoirs of a Revolutionist (I have no idea how this book came into my possession)
You're welcome.
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I just finished Cormac McCarthy's Blood Meridian. I'm going to go with something lighter now...
Isn't the ending to that a motherfucker? I thought the book was a tad dull for stretches but it had some great moments and the last chapter is certainly one of those great moments... Believe it or not-- although it has been five or so years since I read "Blood Meridian" the final scene of The Judge was the first thing I thought of when I saw the "Rated GG" cover...
Supposedly Tommy Lee Jones owns the film rights...
I had just finished Blood Meridian and I had the same reaction when I got the Rated GG cover. Exactly how I pictured The Judge at the end.
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Been reading Shirley Jacksons The Lottery and other short stories.
Also read The Stories of Breece DJ Pancakes and im convinced that's where Mike got the idea to name his puppet Skeevy.
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Finally started the Ken Rogers book - it's really good.
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Finally started the Ken Rogers book - it's really good.
I want to hear about the Gambler chapter.
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Just finished "Stiff", which I though was a whole lot of fun http://www.goodreads.com/book/show/32145.Stiff (http://www.goodreads.com/book/show/32145.Stiff). About halfway through Wodehouse's "Leave it to Psmith". http://www.goodreads.com/book/show/1244295.Leave_It_to_Psmith (http://www.goodreads.com/book/show/1244295.Leave_It_to_Psmith)
Finished the Wodehouse. It was pleasant enough, a nice diversion. Now considering the next read; leaning towards Greil Marcus' Mystery Train. Got a copy of the awesome fanzine Ugly Things that is probably going to occupy a few days. http://comps.soybomb.com/compsproject/intro.php?&lifilter=4&lispeed=1 (http://comps.soybomb.com/compsproject/intro.php?&lifilter=4&lispeed=1)
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Mystery Train is an excellent read.
Some claim it was the inspiration for London Calling.
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Mystery Train is an excellent read.
Some claim it was the inspiration for London Calling.
I zigged when I should have zagged. I started The Broom of the System.
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I finally finished that damn Neal Stephenson book REAMDE. 1000 page books like that take all the oxygen out of the room. Reading At Swim-Two-Birds by Flann O'Brien at the moment.
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A little late to the FOT Reading Challenge party, but so far this summer I've put away the most recent Eugenides The Marriage Plot, and then took a notion to try Anna Karenina. It's not a decision I regret, but being 220+ pages into a book and still only 1/4 of the way through is...disconcerting.
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Just started Tearing Down The Wall of Sound after renewing it from the library 28 times (no exaggeration). Glad I didn't give up! Thankfully he only spends one short chapter on Spector's mostly-boring childhood (unlike the otherwise very good McCartney bio Fab, in which that part seemed to go on forever). I'm still on the Lieber & Stoller/Ertegun days, in which Spector was neurotic and a back-stabbing asshole, but not yet interestingly nuts.
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I just finished Middlemarch, which took about a week longer than I expected since I was traveling, and it turns out that it's hard to read after a 12-hour day walking around in Chicago in the heat.
It's really, really good. There are passages in it that just leave you astonished, they're so good. I always feel that the 19th Century British novelists are a huge gap in my reading. There are so many renowned books of the time, so few of which I've read. But I think now that I've gotten this tome out of the way others will be less intimidating.
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A little late to the FOT Reading Challenge party, but so far this summer I've put away the most recent Eugenides The Marriage Plot, and then took a notion to try Anna Karenina. It's not a decision I regret, but being 220+ pages into a book and still only 1/4 of the way through is...disconcerting.
I loved Anna Karenina! I don't read much fiction but I thought it was a blast.
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I just finished Cormac McCarthy's Blood Meridian. I'm going to go with something lighter now...
Isn't the ending to that a motherfucker?
I think it's fair to say that that whole book is "a motherfucker."
Just finished Things Fall Apart by Chinua Achebe. A grim, elegant book.
I am deciding now whether to read Beautiful Ruins by Jess Walter or go for some non-fiction with Daniel Kahnemann's Thinking, Fast and Slow. Reading Kahnemann's research was the highlight of my grad-school experience.
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A little late to the FOT Reading Challenge party, but so far this summer I've put away the most recent Eugenides The Marriage Plot, and then took a notion to try Anna Karenina. It's not a decision I regret, but being 220+ pages into a book and still only 1/4 of the way through is...disconcerting.
I loved Anna Karenina! I don't read much fiction but I thought it was a blast.
I'm at the bit where the dude fucks up his horse but good. I think that was the name of the chapter, originally.
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A little late to the FOT Reading Challenge party, but so far this summer I've put away the most recent Eugenides The Marriage Plot, and then took a notion to try Anna Karenina. It's not a decision I regret, but being 220+ pages into a book and still only 1/4 of the way through is...disconcerting.
I loved Anna Karenina! I don't read much fiction but I thought it was a blast.
I'm at the bit where the dude fucks up his horse but good. I think that was the name of the chapter, originally.
Which translation? I hear the Richard Pevear and Larissa Volokhonsky translations are all very good, and I was planning to read their Anna Karenina.
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I finally finished that damn Neal Stephenson book REAMDE. 1000 page books like that take all the oxygen out of the room. Reading At Swim-Two-Birds by Flann O'Brien at the moment.
http://www.theparisreview.org/blog/2012/06/08/what-books-impress-a-girl/ (http://www.theparisreview.org/blog/2012/06/08/what-books-impress-a-girl/)
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I finally finished that damn Neal Stephenson book REAMDE. 1000 page books like that take all the oxygen out of the room. Reading At Swim-Two-Birds by Flann O'Brien at the moment.
http://www.theparisreview.org/blog/2012/06/08/what-books-impress-a-girl/ (http://www.theparisreview.org/blog/2012/06/08/what-books-impress-a-girl/)
Interesting, but would have been more helpful to me some years ago...
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reading: Game of Shadows: Barry Bonds, BALCO, and the Steroids Scandal that Rocked Professional Sports
and finally reading Treasure Island.
finished Spray Paint the Walls, and The Heroin Diaries by Nikki Sixx. Wow, that was something.
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A little late to the FOT Reading Challenge party, but so far this summer I've put away the most recent Eugenides The Marriage Plot, and then took a notion to try Anna Karenina. It's not a decision I regret, but being 220+ pages into a book and still only 1/4 of the way through is...disconcerting.
I loved Anna Karenina! I don't read much fiction but I thought it was a blast.
I'm at the bit where the dude fucks up his horse but good. I think that was the name of the chapter, originally.
Which translation? I hear the Richard Pevear and Larissa Volokhonsky translations are all very good, and I was planning to read their Anna Karenina.
I read the Constance Garnett translation. It was great.
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I read the Library of America's Pauline Kael anthology (good) and Joan Didion's Slouching Towards Bethlehem (very overrated). I'm currently reading Hunter Thompson's Fear and Loathing: On the Campaign Trail '72 (probably the best one of his I've read) and Dwight MacDonald's Masscult and Midcult (great stuff).
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Alright, I'm in. Time to lay waste to the books on my bedside table:
-This Cake Is For The Party, by Sarah Selecky
-Writing Gordon Lightfoot, by Dave Bidini
-The Game, by Ken Dryden
-Can I Keep my Jersey, by Paul Shirley
-griffin & sabine trilogy
-Post Punk Diary by George Gimarc
-stack of textbooks
-stack of razorcakes/roctober/mrnr
Go!
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Halfway through Drop Dead Healthy; it is hard to refrain from reading passages out loud to whomever is in my vicinity, as the anecdotal info is too funny not to share, which makes the reading goes slowly. Unexpectedly picked up and finished Toni Morrison's new book HOME; I had never read anything by her before, a cross between slow paced and brutally descriptive.
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Which translation? I hear the Richard Pevear and Larissa Volokhonsky translations are all very good, and I was planning to read their Anna Karenina.
I read the Pevear & Volokhonsky. It's actually easy reading so I don't think the translator matters much. It's just really long. It's a sensible question though. I had a couple of false starts with Demons/The Possessed until I found the P&V translation.
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A little late to the FOT Reading Challenge party, but so far this summer I've put away the most recent Eugenides The Marriage Plot, and then took a notion to try Anna Karenina. It's not a decision I regret, but being 220+ pages into a book and still only 1/4 of the way through is...disconcerting.
I loved Anna Karenina! I don't read much fiction but I thought it was a blast.
I'm at the bit where the dude fucks up his horse but good. I think that was the name of the chapter, originally.
Which translation? I hear the Richard Pevear and Larissa Volokhonsky translations are all very good, and I was planning to read their Anna Karenina.
Louise and Aylmer Maude translated the version I have. Good people.
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I'm currently reading Lord Jim by Joseph Conrad. I'm having the same reaction to it as I had to Roughing It by Mark Twain. Is this how writing was back in the day? Did everything have to be wordy?
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2/3 of the way through Tearing Down The Wall of Sound and it's great. I hate reading multiple books at once, but I'm also reading Ovid's Metamorphoses for research and Robert Ben Garant and Thomas Lennon's Writing Movies for
Fun and Profit because I'm going out to LA to beg for a new job next week. That last one isn't telling me a whole lot I don't already know, but it's a fun read and it's helping me freak out a little less.
I also just burned through vol. 9 of the Sandman series ("The Kindly Ones"). It never ceases to surprise me how Neil Gaiman is kind of a lousy writer who nonetheless managers to suck me in every time. Though I guess the same can be said about countless other genre authors.
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2/3 of the way through Tearing Down The Wall of Sound and it's great. I hate reading multiple books at once, but I'm also reading Ovid's Metamorphoses for research and Robert Ben Garant and Thomas Lennon's Writing Movies for Fun and Profit because I'm going out to LA to beg for a new job next week. That last one isn't telling me a whole lot I don't already know, but it's a fun read and it's helping me freak out a little less.
I also just burned through vol. 9 of the Sandman series ("The Kindly Ones"). It never ceases to surprise me how Neil Gaiman is kind of a lousy writer who nonetheless managers to suck me in every time. Though I guess the same can be said about countless other genre authors.
You really hit the nail on the head regarding Gaiman and my experience with him. All of his stuff just seems completely stuck in the gear of "underworld=magic" and Hot Topic-level gothic stuff yet all of the material of his I've read or consumed I genuinely enjoyed, especially Sandman and American Gods. Wait, strike that. Neverwhere the miniseries was awful.
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Just finished The City and The City by China Mieville. Great read.
About to start Little, Big by John Crowley
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Finished I, Partridge finally. That thing was like 300+ pages of jokes and jokes. A nice complementary piece to the Partridge saga.
Also finally getting to Snake 'n' Bacon, the Kupperman book I've missed. That's another one packed with funny.
And finally, cracked Sam McPheeters's Loom of Ruin this weekend. Saw him read a few chapters at a bookstore a few months ago. So far, very intense.
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Just finished Ray Bradbury's I Sing The Body Electric and Green Shadows, White Whale about his time in Ireland writing the screenplay for John Huston's Moby Dick. I started today, and will probably finish tomorrow, Chris Leo's White Pigeons. It's pretty good so far, chapter 7, which I am approaching, is in the form of a full length album.
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Just finished DROP DEAD HEALTHY by AJ Jacobs, full of great, and fun, health tips such as "If you are walking in New York (City), cross the street by walking through the subway station, forcing you to go down and up the stairs (bonus: no waiting for red lights)." I will have to try that.
Also finished DEATH AND THE DEVIL by Frank Schatzing, book jacket describes this as a "riveting historical thriller set in Medievil Germany", yet it was perfect bedtime reading, ten minutes and I was out.
Still trying to alternate reading fiction with non-fiction, so I've renewed INCOGNITO: The Secret Lives of the Brain.
Started MUDWOMAN by Joyce Carol Oates.
Also reading Michio Kaku's PHYSICS OF THE IMPOSSIBLE: A Scientific Exploration into the World of Phasers, Force Fields, Teleportation, and Time Travel.
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Currently reading:
The Ask, by Sam Lipsyte, recommended by our very own Martin in Sweden. Not too far in, but already laughing.
Beautiful Ruins by Jess Walter (as mentioned in a previous post). So far, terrific.
Just finished The Wordy Shipmates by Sarah Vowell. Not sure how I felt about this one. Very informative, but I don't think I like the mix of pop culture references and history lessons.
Still haven't gotten around to Thinking Fast and Slow by Daniel Kahneman.
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Ooh, I just read "The Ask" and it was great.
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I loved 'The Ask'. If you get a chance, read 'Home Land', also by Lipsyte, which is very funny (it consists largely of letters the protagonist writes to his High School Alumni Newsletter and contains this classic:
'Take care of yourself', she said. It was a strange thing for somebody smoking a crack pipe to say.
)
I found out about it via Marc Maron back when he was on Air America.
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The Ask, by Sam Lipsyte, recommended by our very own Martin in Sweden. Not too far in, but already laughing.
He's got a short story in a recent New Yorker (the Sci Fi issue), I was laughing so hard, I was like, "who is this guy?" and wrote down his name in my mind. I'm glad there is a book by him too! Thanks for the tip.
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The Ask, by Sam Lipsyte, recommended by our very own Martin in Sweden. Not too far in, but already laughing.
He's got a short story in a recent New Yorker (the Sci Fi issue), I was laughing so hard, I was like, "who is this guy?" and wrote down his name in my mind. I'm glad there is a book by him too! Thanks for the tip.
Yeah, that New Yorker piece was my first exposure to him as well. That thing was crazy.
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So glad to see Sam getting love on here. Check out his story collection Venus Drive, it is amazing. Also his new collection comes out this year, with that new yorker story included.
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Gonna finally slog my way through the entirety of "Infinite Jest" by David Foster Wallace (lifetime attempt #3). I love it, probably moreso than I would have years ago when I first tried to read it, but it can get pretty alienating for long stretches.
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I just finished Gone Girl for my book club, and it was one of the better books we've read. If you still believe a little bit in love but wish to be entirely relieved of that burden, I recommend this book.
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Gonna finally slog my way through the entirety of "Infinite Jest" by David Foster Wallace (lifetime attempt #3). I love it, probably moreso than I would have years ago when I first tried to read it, but it can get pretty alienating for long stretches.
I've read it 3 times. Pretty amazing, stuff. I am currently reading The Broom of the System; not as fully realized, but there's some pretty amazing stuff in there too.
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I just downloaded 50 Shades of Grey for my Kindle. can't wait to read this heaping pile of aids.
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Dreamcatcher - Stephen King. The Summer of Dumb Books continues. It was totally gross and I couldn't stop reading it.
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I finished Lord Jim and found it incredibly wordy and lame. On to One Hundred Years of Solitude.
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I finished Lord Jim and found it incredibly wordy and lame. On to One Hundred Years of Solitude.
Huh. Well, no one ever said One Hundred Years of Solitude was wordy.
Wait, I mean "wasn't."
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FINISHED: A Separate Peace, John Knowles. This was my favorite book I ever read in high school, largely because I had a perfect best friend I secretly wanted to destroy. I no longer have anyone in my life I would willingly betray, but I still love this book.
One Shot At Forever, Chris Ballard. Ballard writes for Sports Illustrated and I've never been much of a fan. I picked this up because I needed something to read on a plane ride and took it on a flyer. It's the true story of how some small farm town from downstate Illinois became a state powerhouse. It's REALLY good. It follows the sports book template of how a small town team came together to overcome the odds. But the characters in it are great. The central character is Lynn Sweet, the weird hippie high school English teacher who never coached baseball and was begged to take the job because no one else wanted it.
There are other sports books I like more; I can never read Bottom of the 33rd by Dan Barry again because the first time through was so magical I don't want to see any flaws. But I really liked this book a lot and eagerly await the movie starring Matthew McConnahey (or however you spell his dumb name).
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Yeah, bc, he's about to jump out of the frying pan and into the fire. For the record, I think both books are great. Nothing wrong with wordiness if it's interesting and builds suspense. Conrad builds suspense like no other writer I know. The boat sinking section in Lord Jim is fantastic.
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Still working at The Broom of the System.
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Still working at The Broom of the System.
That one didn't really stay with me like Infinite Jest did. Have you read 'The Pale King'? It felt more like a collection of stories than a novel. Really good stories though.
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Yeah, bc, he's about to jump out of the frying pan and into the fire. For the record, I think both books are great. Nothing wrong with wordiness if it's interesting and builds suspense. Conrad builds suspense like no other writer I know. The boat sinking section in Lord Jim is fantastic.
APMike - "You can stop right there. He's already read it."
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I finally finished that damn Neal Stephenson book REAMDE. 1000 page books like that take all the oxygen out of the room. Reading At Swim-Two-Birds by Flann O'Brien at the moment.
I'm about 2/3 of the way through REAMDE right now. It's the first thing by him that I've read, and I'm pretty much loving it. I'm blowing through it pretty quickly. (Unemployment helps on that count.) It's a little more pulpy than I expected, but I ain't complaining!
I recently read Super Sad True Love Story, which I also enjoyed very much. I had read Absurdistan, and thought it was just OK - overpraised. This one was kind of like Evil Dead 2 is to Evil Dead 1: it has almost everything that Absurdistan has in it, but it's better on almost every level.
Before that I read a George Pelecanos book called the Night Gardener. Very much on the same wavelength as The Wire.
And also recently read Black Swan Green by David Mitchell. Not as virtuosic/show-offy as Cloud Atlas. Still great! I didn't expect the tie-in to Cloud Atlas, so that was a nice surprise (not really a spoiler.)
I tried and tried to read Blood's A Rover by James Ellroy. I got about 400 pages in before I came to the conclusion that I was never going to enjoy it. It's kind of interesting on a stylistic level, but it is all very samey.
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I zigged when I should have zagged. I started The Broom of the System.
When I borrowed that one from the library back in 1994 or so, someone had inscribed a warning in the front cover "Don't bother with this - it is a waste of time." I read it anyway. Pretty impressive for a 20-something, but not in the same league as Infinite Jest.
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And one more thing: can anyone remember the name of the book and writer that Tom described as Pynchon with training wheels (or something to that effect)?
Sorry for the multiple posts, but I somehow missed this topic for weeks, and also have been reading more than usual (that's the unemployment thing again.)
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Masters of Atlantis by Charles Portis :-)
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Thanks!
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I finally finished that damn Neal Stephenson book REAMDE. 1000 page books like that take all the oxygen out of the room. Reading At Swim-Two-Birds by Flann O'Brien at the moment.
I'm about 2/3 of the way through REAMDE right now. It's the first thing by him that I've read, and I'm pretty much loving it. I'm blowing through it pretty quickly. (Unemployment helps on that count.) It's a little more pulpy than I expected, but I ain't complaining!
I recently read Super Sad True Love Story, which I also enjoyed very much. I had read Absurdistan, and thought it was just OK - overpraised. This one was kind of like Evil Dead 2 is to Evil Dead 1: it has almost everything that Absurdistan has in it, but it's better on almost every level.
Before that I read a George Pelecanos book called the Night Gardener. Very much on the same wavelength as The Wire.
And also recently read Black Swan Green by David Mitchell. Not as virtuosic/show-offy as Cloud Atlas. Still great! I didn't expect the tie-in to Cloud Atlas, so that was a nice surprise (not really a spoiler.)
I tried and tried to read Blood's A Rover by James Ellroy. I got about 400 pages in before I came to the conclusion that I was never going to enjoy it. It's kind of interesting on a stylistic level, but it is all very samey.
Definitely check out Cryptonomicon, also by Stephenson. It alternates between a cryptographer who works with Turing during WWII, and his grandson, who works with a startup creating a data haven. Similarly quite enjoyable to read and very interesting for the historical content (we geeks love Turing). Pretty nicely goes into encryption and codebreaking techniques without getting too opaque, although IIRC there's an appendix that gets fairly deeply into the Pontifex algorithm that appears in the book, if you want to go there.
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Thanks for the suggestion - I was thinking I would check out Snow Crash next (because of its prominent presence in Party Down!) but will move Cryptonomicon up the queue.
The thing that is most impressive about REAMDE is how he makes all the complicated nerd stuff so lucid and easily digestible. I was trying to summarize it to my wife, and realized that the premise is incredibly dense and complex.
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Yeah, bc, he's about to jump out of the frying pan and into the fire. For the record, I think both books are great. Nothing wrong with wordiness if it's interesting and builds suspense. Conrad builds suspense like no other writer I know. The boat sinking section in Lord Jim is fantastic.
APMike - "You can stop right there. He's already read it."
Maybe "wordy" wasn't the right word for Lord Jim. I guess I just didn't like or couldn't stay interested in it. In contrast, I find One Hundred Years of Solitude way more interesting after only 50 pages.
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Been out of a good reading groove lately, but a long weekend trip should get me back in. Bringing a few short story books/poetry books and maybe try Zambra's "Private Lives of Trees" or Saramago's "Cain" if i want something a bit longer.
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Masters of Atlantis by Charles Portis :-)
I've just started reading Portis' The Dog of the South -- great! Can't wait to read this one next
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Just for fun, it you are a current Doctor Who fan, watch this to see what the cast is reading. http://www.bbcamerica.com/doctor-who/videos/what-are-the-stars-reading/ (http://www.bbcamerica.com/doctor-who/videos/what-are-the-stars-reading/)
I am now reading on the new "Marilyn Monroe: The Passion and the Paradox" biography, by Lois Banner. So far, it focuses on Marilyn as a feminist, a bi-sexual, a survivor of childhood sexual abuse, who was raised in foster homes and orphanages, and says that she became a cultured intellectual who marketed her sex goddess image for PR and fame. She was severely underpaid for her work in films, while her image today, fifty years, after her death is still making millions for others.
Also reading Dan Ariely's "The (Honest) Truth about Dishonesty: How we lie to everyone--Especially Ourselves." Basically, he's a Ph.D psychologist and behavioral economist, who says we all lie for a variety of reasons at different times which vary only due to the perceived consequences.
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I got sidetracked from my previous list. Just about done with Confederacy of Dunces and finished Legend of a Suicide before that.
I seem to be on an Alaska trajectory when I noticed Caribou Island and The Yiddish Policemen's Union next in line. Any Alaska themed suggestions would be greatly appreciated.
I worked in Ketchican and Juneau for about 18 months, so I'm guessing this is my subconscious putting myself back there. I loved every minute of it!
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I'm really liking Generation A, which is a few years old now but still feels pretty zeitgeist-y (and is more than tolerable, despite what appears to be a conscious effort to make it zeitgeist-y).
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Finished "The World of Downton Abbey". A great book for fans of the series, full of historical and behind the scenes details, fashion and customs, beautiful photographs of the locations and actors. Any written or printed material used in the show all had to be created individually in the style, as any real time period printed matter would look to old to use, some of these graphics are pictured in the book.
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Finishing up my summer reading with "Into the Wild" by Jon Krakauer, and trying to get to "Gone Girl" by Gillian Flynn before it is overdue!
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The last of my summer reading was finally getting around to reading Freedom by Jonathan Franzen and Cloud Atlas by David Mitchell. This was the first Franzen I've read and while I totally understand the "middle class white people ennui" genre is pretty played out, a lot of the book was affecting for me (except the portions with the son. I gave no shit about him).
Cloud Atlas was beautifully written and I was fully pulled into each segment. However, the whole "six stories intertwine" sounds much more tricky than the device actually is. There are recurring themes and motifs but it's not some technical writing achievement. The previous story is just referenced in the next. So that whole part was kind of a let down. But a good book nonetheless.
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Atlas Shrugged for the sixth time Why?
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Gonna finally slog my way through the entirety of "Infinite Jest" by David Foster Wallace (lifetime attempt #3). I love it, probably moreso than I would have years ago when I first tried to read it, but it can get pretty alienating for long stretches.
I've read it 3 times. Pretty amazing, stuff. I am currently reading The Broom of the System; not as fully realized, but there's some pretty amazing stuff in there too.
I finished it a few weeks ago, and it easily became one of my favorite books of all time, if not THE favorite. So happy I gave it another chance, and it probably wouldn't have had nearly the same impact if I would have stuck with it in my late teens.
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A Confederacy of Dunces should never be made into a movie
Little, Big might work as a movie, if handled correctly
Saturday Night and Sunday Morning was turned into a TV movie in the UK, I think
On to Caribou Island and The Yiddish Policemen's Union next. We may have to start thinking about a Fall/Winter Reading Challenge!
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A Confederacy of Dunces should never be made into a movie
Little, Big might work as a movie, if handled correctly
Saturday Night and Sunday Morning was turned into a TV movie in the UK, I think
On to Caribou Island and The Yiddish Policemen's Union next. We may have to start thinking about a Fall/Winter Reading Challenge!
Yes, onward to the Fall/Winter Reading Challenge!
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change the title of the thread its not summer anymore