Masters of Atlantis by Charles Portis
Rainer, one of my biggest work-related regrets is that I didn't get to work on that Perec book.
(pointless?) book title contest:
i just had the shocking experience of stumbling upon an explicit website while trying to navigate back to the home page of freakwatchers.com.
no need to apologize.
I'm obsessed with the website www.goodreads.com.
I have wondered if Confederacy of Dunces is worth reading
I should finally read some Vonnegut.
Jim Thompson - Bad Boy
Evidence of parental sexuality was too painful for my pre-adolescent self to bear...anyone else ever do something like that?
Re: Terry Southern--I didn't know he'd written much other than the screenplay for "Dr. Strangelove" and "Candy," which I love. I'll definitely have to check out his other books.
Both my mom and dad had separate copies of "Candy," which I read when I was 12 and got so embarrassed for both of them that I stole both books and hid them (though I read the novel on the sly, obviously.) Evidence of parental sexuality was too painful for my pre-adolescent self to bear...anyone else ever do something like that?
If you give a teenage boy a candy bar with a ruler on the back of the package, he will measure his dick
Is the peanut chew a NJ/Philly thing?
Is the peanut chew a NJ/Philly thing?
Two of my favorite contemporary writers are Amanda Filipacchi (Love Creeps) and Jonathan Ames (What's Not to Love?; Wake Up, Sir!).
He's the guy that writes filth, right?
Should I read that Ames book?
- Everything is Illuminated*
*great book, awful movie
Did you ever go see Ames do his "Octopussy" show?
I love Wodehouse, and Waugh and all that jazz.
Should I read that Ames book?
Shamela/Joseph Andrews--Henry Fielding
I like the wacky, zany, zippy stuff from the 20s through 40s.
I also just noticed -- the book is dedicated "to Lou."
QuoteI also just noticed -- the book is dedicated "to Lou."
My old boss. I was his personal assistant from 1990 to 93.
J.S. Foer - Incredibly Loud and Extremely Close
Ooh I really really liked that too!QuoteJ.S. Foer - Incredibly Loud and Extremely Close
OK, now I am going to definitely read this book. You and an old college friend have both recommended it ...
Ooh I really really liked that too!
Let's keep this thread floating, floating, flloating out to sea ... we'll catch up to our selves on the other side.
Anybody read Robert Musil's unfinished "The Man Without Qualities"? Your opinion?
John E. Woods' translations of Buddenbrooks and The Magic Mountain kind of give me that same special something that Musil provides --- the translations are worlds away from the text-book versions most libraries keep on the shelves. The downside of visual Musil is that he is almost a dead-ringer for Weiner Cheney.
Musil is a paella of psychological / historical / spiritual / philosophical / political prose. If that makes your mouth water, check out his stuff.
I haven't read "The Man Without Qualities," but it's sitting on my shelf next to Svevo's "Zeno's Conscience" and a few other books...
I'm obsessed with the website www.goodreads.com. It's a library/book-cataloguing site that also has a social networking function. My user name is susannahlaura, if anyone is interested in creating a library. I'm in the process of editing mine, it's surprisingly fun!
It was at this meeting that I suggested that the time may have come to break free completely from existing constricting grids and perceive each front cover as a blank canvas upon which carefully chosen artists might express themselves within the negotiable bounds of a particular title or author identity. The Penguin brand identity would then rely wholly upon retaining orange, blue or green spines, and by placing Tschichold’s magnificent symbol in the top right corner of the front and back covers, unless there was a good design reason for placing it elsewhere. These suggestions were well received and for the following six months Sir Allen would sit alongside me at my desk in Harmondsworth for an hour or so almost daily, keeping a sharp eye on how the new look was developing. Here are three covers utilising existing images.
While I'm here, I recently re-read Devil in the White City by Erik Larson. Fascinating.
I forgot to answer Omar's Tim O'Brien question from another thread.
My favorite O'Brien books are The Things They Carried, Going after Cacciato, and July,July.
While I'm here, I recently re-read Devil in the White City by Erik Larson. Fascinating. Have you read it yet, Emily? (You mentioned you had it on deck.)
I just got my hands on Hollywood Babylon and Hollywood Babylon II at a yard sale. I've also been reading sections of Thom Jones's short fiction collection Sonny Liston Was A Friend Of Mine. Some of it drags, but it's not bad.
I'm a big fan of Thom Jones's Cold Snap collection (http://www.amazon.com/Cold-Snap-Stories-Thom-Jones/dp/0316472573).
"No One Belongs Here More Than You : Stories" (http://noonebelongsheremorethanyou.com/) by Miranda July is my new favorite book.
I love it so much because it is funny and also because her story telling is so unique.
Just check it out!
I'm currently reading Henry Darger: Disasters of War, which features several excerpts from his "Vivian Girls" epic. I wanted to read it after viewing a Henry Darger painting at the Walker Art Center in Minneapolis. I've fallen in love with it. I can see myself getting obsessed with him in the same way I was completely infatuated with Anaïs Nin. How can I get my hands on a complete edition of The Story of the Vivian Girls, in What Is Known as the Realms of the Unreal, of the Glandeco-Angelinnian War Storm, Caused by the Child Slave Rebellion? Yes, I realize this book was never completed... But still! I want to read all of it.
Isn't that book supposed to be like 4,000 pages long?
I got caught up in a John D McDonald fest, focusing on the Travis McGee novels.
Chuck Palahahahahniurgggggggghk is an FWD.plus his books can be read in like one sitting (a little under two hours)
Has anyone read House of Leaves? I've been thinking about picking it up..
Has anyone read House of Leaves? I've been thinking about picking it up..
I have actually read it twice. I recommend it if you don't judge me later.
I have actually read it twice. I recommend it if you don't judge me later.
I just finished Hell's Angels by Hunter S. Thompson and it put me in the mood to whip someone with a chain.
I'm reading No Country for Old Men by Cormac McCarthy. It's good.
Oh yeah it is.I'm reading No Country for Old Men by Cormac McCarthy. It's good.
It's awesome not just good
I also just finished reading The Book by Alan Watts. I've always been a big Alan Watts fan. Something about his approach to zen and philosophy really resonates with me. There's nothing particularly earth shattering in this book, but I believe that's the point.
Have y'all read any other McCarthy stuff? I rocketed through about 7/9 of the Border Trilogy a few months ago and abruptly stopped. What I read was really good. I'm wondering how No Country... compares. From what I've heard, Blood Meridian and The Road are the winners.
I also just finished reading The Book by Alan Watts. I've always been a big Alan Watts fan. Something about his approach to zen and philosophy really resonates with me. There's nothing particularly earth shattering in this book, but I believe that's the point.
Yeah, I have a feeling that it wouldn't resonate as much as an adult. But when I was 15 and didn't know my ass from my elbow, it totally knocked me on my elbow.
I would Chris L but I've got other stuff that takes precendent like some smelly old must paperback that will turn out to be uttter crap*.Have y'all read any other McCarthy stuff? I rocketed through about 7/9 of the Border Trilogy a few months ago and abruptly stopped. What I read was really good. I'm wondering how No Country... compares. From what I've heard, Blood Meridian and The Road are the winners.
Suttree is justly considered a masterpiece but you need to start Blood Meridian, like, tonight.
The Laughing Policemaen.
I'm currently reading Henry Darger: Disasters of War, which features several excerpts from his "Vivian Girls" epic.
Banham wrote the book "Brutalism: Ethics or Aesthetics," on which I based my entire senior thesis in 2006, and which I'll be damned if I can remember anything about now.
It was buried somewhere in the 2nd floor of my university's Fine Arts library. I think you can also get it online if you order it from amazon.co.uk or alibris.com. Yay for architecture!
*actually I'm about to start The French Connection, Dog Day Afternoon, and The Laughing Policemen.
I'm just bustin balls, B. Seriously, though, does The French Connection really need new readers at this late date? It's got to be a little moldy compared to recent big drug bust books, no?
Life is short is all I'm sayin.
"the devil in the white city" by eric larson
As I scrolled through this thread, my peripheral vision kept reading "Favre Books". Yikes.
I am on a George Saunders kick; in the past 3 weeks I read The Brief and Frightening Reign of Phil, Civilwarland in Bad Decline, and I've started In Persuasion Nation. Fun stuff, if you hate humanity like I do.
I am on a George Saunders kick; in the past 3 weeks I read The Brief and Frightening Reign of Phil, Civilwarland in Bad Decline, and I've started In Persuasion Nation. Fun stuff, if you hate humanity like I do.
My favorite current books are C.J. Sansom's Shardlake mysteries.
Although, looking back at that list now, the Adrian Mole book does seem hilariously out of place among the McCarthys, Selbys, and Ellroys.
Current: I'm obsessed with Continuum's 33 1/3 series. For those unfamiliar with the series, each pocket-sized volume concerns itself with a classic album. There are about 40 or 50 them and I've probably read about 20. I've run across a few duds so far (the volumes about the debut Ramones LP and U2's Achtung Baby were disappointing), but most of them are good to great.
Current: I'm obsessed with Continuum's 33 1/3 series. For those unfamiliar with the series, each pocket-sized volume concerns itself with a classic album. There are about 40 or 50 them and I've probably read about 20. I've run across a few duds so far (the volumes about the debut Ramones LP and U2's Achtung Baby were disappointing), but most of them are good to great.
Read Mike McGonigal's one on My Bloody Valentine's Loveless. Mike McGonigal is a nice man.
Current: I'm obsessed with Continuum's 33 1/3 series. For those unfamiliar with the series, each pocket-sized volume concerns itself with a classic album. There are about 40 or 50 them and I've probably read about 20. I've run across a few duds so far (the volumes about the debut Ramones LP and U2's Achtung Baby were disappointing), but most of them are good to great.
Read Mike McGonigal's one on My Bloody Valentine's Loveless. Mike McGonigal is a nice man.
Laurie, you know Yeti Mike too? The world shrinks yet again.
Is Bee Thousand the source material for Bee Movie?
Flann O'Brien
I really liked volume on Neutral Milk Hotel's In the Aeroplane Over the Sea as well.THats the only one I've really liked. The Replacements one is a total letdown.
Beth, here are some recent (as in, in the last decade) books you might like:
Jonathan Lethem's Motherless Brooklyn, You Don't Love Me Yet, Fortress of Solitude, and Men and Cartoons
Jonathan Franzen's The Corrections
Michael Chabon's The Amazing Adventures of Kavalier and Clay
Nathan Englander's The Ministry of Special Cases
Alice Munro's Hateship, Friendship, Courtship, Loveship, Marriage
Haruki Murakami's The Wind-Up Bird Chronicle
Shelley Jackson's Half-Life
Jhumpa Lahiri's Interpreter of Maladies
Whatever that recent collection of 3 Rick Moody novellas is called
They've also been around for a while, but Philip Roth, Luc Sante, Don DeLillo, and Thomas Pynchon are all still writing interesting stuff.
Personally, I've really been into semi-forgotten obscure and/or experimental writers lately: David Markson, Frederic Tuten, Stanley Elkin, Flann O'Brien, Leonard Michaels, Roberto Bolano. And Donald Barthelme, though he's kind of famous and obscure at the same time. Some of these guys might be on the weird side, depending on your tastes.
Oh, and if you like sci-fi, Octavia E. Butler's work is amazing and terrifying.
I'm taking four reading courses this semester, so I haven't had a lot of time to read for pleasure. Luckily, I've been reading some pretty good stuff in my classes:
The Road, Cormac McCarthy
No Country For Old Men, Cormac McCarthy
Duane's Depressed, Larry McMurtry
Seven Guitars, August Wilson
Buried Child, Sam Shepard
Angels in America, Tony Kushner
This thread has provided me with a lot of stuff to check out, though, so thanks everybody!
a late thank you for this. I'll use my winter break well
I'm taking four reading courses this semester, so I haven't had a lot of time to read for pleasure. Luckily, I've been reading some pretty good stuff in my classes:
The Road, Cormac McCarthy
No Country For Old Men, Cormac McCarthy
Duane's Depressed, Larry McMurtry
Seven Guitars, August Wilson
Buried Child, Sam Shepard
Angels in America, Tony Kushner
This thread has provided me with a lot of stuff to check out, though, so thanks everybody!
Interesting selection there, rover96. You a theater major? Tony Kushner is my boy.
I just started my first Cormac McCarthy book (All the Pretty Horses). I'm only a little way into it, and my back is already up. Am I completely misguided to think of him as a more prolix Hemingway? And are run-on sentences a recurring schtick? If so, yuck: I'm not a fan of writing that calls attention to itself. It is possible,after all, to craft beautiful language that doesn't in effect mug for the camera.
Now I have to find something fun to read on my shelves
Just what do you imagine my bookshelves are like? I assure you, they're pretty much a desert.
Hate to admit it, but I envisioned you living in your own Hay-on-Wye. With blue inkwells and quills set up strategically throughout the house. Now I'm picturing you living in Jack Nicholson's barren white apartment at the end of Carnal Knowledge.
It's no Hay-on-Wye but here is one of my many bookcases:
QuoteIt's no Hay-on-Wye but here is one of my many bookcases:
Looks like you've got Careless Love there. I've always meant to read that. Any good?
Now I'm picturing you living in Jack Nicholson's barren white apartment at the end of Carnal Knowledge.
You would have loved the Godine offices back when I worked there: the company was in the basement of an old brownstone in Back Bay (in Boston, for any philistines out there). Lots of built-in dark wood shelves--probably mahogany or something fancy like that--loaded with books dating from the very beginning of the press, as well as various other typographical wonders from David's collection. I seem to recall there was a Persian rug in his office.
I second the recommendation of Last Train to Memphis & Careless Love. I really loved both parts, though Careless Love had a bunch more stuff I didn't know.
Careless Love is good, but his increasing degradation just goes on and on for hundreds of pages. More than a little depressing.
Apparently, Godine isn't just a quirky champion of off-the-beaten-track books, but also a stickler for printing method/quality.
Found this interesting article that also includes the only available picture of Godine on the Internet:
http://www.barnstablepatriot.com/david_godine_publisher_with_a_spine_news_50_9041.html
QuoteCareless Love is good, but his increasing degradation just goes on and on for hundreds of pages. More than a little depressing.
True. But the parts about the 68 Comeback Special are awesome. That (and the couple of albums he made around the same time) are my favorite period of Elvis, so I was glad to read about that.
I'm a huge fan of Kavalier and Clay...
Really? I feel like I've got to at least attempt Tinker, Tailor, Soldier, Spy, though it may take me years. I'm not as big on plot in books, though - I do enjoy the Graham Greene-style intrigue
I'm a huge fan of Kavalier and Clay...
Yes! Genius.
Did you read Yiddish Policeman's Union?
Really? I feel like I've got to at least attempt Tinker, Tailor, Soldier, Spy, though it may take me years. I'm not as big on plot in books, though - I do enjoy the Graham Greene-style intrigue
It's better as a mini series. I read the book years ago and forced myself to finish it.
I just bought a load of books to read over Christmas break:
- Lawrence Sterne, Tristram Shandy
- Malcolm Lowry, Under the Volcano
- Stendhal, The Red and the Black
I just bought a load of books to read over Christmas break:
- Lawrence Sterne, Tristram Shandy
- Malcolm Lowry, Under the Volcano
- Stendhal, The Red and the Black
Well those three are pretty fun easy reads
- W. Somerset Maugham, Of Human Bondage
Tonight I start on JG Ballard's Crash.
loved the book hated the film it was a valiant try thoughTonight I start on JG Ballard's Crash.
God help you, Dave. I hope you're not easily susceptible to the willies.
I seem to recall there was a Persian rug in his office.
He died on my birthday.
I'm a huge fan of Kavalier and Clay...
Yes! Genius.
Did you read Yiddish Policeman's Union?
Am spending my Christmas break reading "War and Peace." Is that really as sad as I think it sounds?
Still plowing through Crash, now praying for a quick end. I will say one thing for these gentlemen; they are enthusiastic about their automobiles!!!
He died on my birthday.
My mother gave up on the book and she grew up in a house where Yiddish was spoken all the time. Sadly the only yiddish I know are the words I scream in traffic.I'm a huge fan of Kavalier and Clay...
Yes! Genius.
Did you read Yiddish Policeman's Union?
I haven't yet, but I'm waiting for it to come out in paperback, which might have already happened - but I have a huge backlog right now anyway...
Am spending my Christmas break reading "War and Peace." Is that really as sad as I think it sounds?
QuoteIt's no Hay-on-Wye but here is one of my many bookcases:
Looks like you've got Careless Love there. I've always meant to read that. Any good?
It's the second part of the Elvis bio its a fantastic. Read both parts.
Just finished Part 1, Last Train to Memphis. Really great. Love the bit about the Teddy Bear named Pelvis.
I love that book. The second book gets sadder and sadder as it goes along, with less and less magic. Be careful, Rainer, if you go on to that one.
Re: Vonnegut, I enjoyed Bluebeard (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bluebeard_%28novel%29) a great deal.
Am re-reading "Rebecca" on this somewhat cold, rainy evening. Do any men enjoy this book, or is its appeal limited to women only?I liked it Susannah see its not all about Hard Boiled Noir for me.
Finished "War and Peace" a few weeks ago and have been reading Oliver Sacks's "An Anthropologist on Mars" ever since.
I am currently reading "A Tale of Two Cities" ... what stuff did you love reading in high school? What did you hate?
Dickens is pretty much anathema to teenagers
Dickens is pretty much anathema to teenagers
Yep. I've had teachers try to make him interesting at me for years, and every time it's gone over like a lead balloon
Are you sure you're not talking about Dikkens with two k's, the well-known Dutch author?
My pastor has suggested the start-up of a "serious" reading group, to spur discussion of ideas and issues that don't traditionally come up in church. So far, sounds pretty good. He wants to start with The Brothers Karamazov. Suddenly I am paranoid that I will look like an idiot. Should I/could I get through it?
I am finishing off George Saunders, his book of essays called The Braindead Megaphone. It's entertaining enough, but it doesn't approach his fiction, at least so far. He does include a nice tribute called Vonnegut in Sumatra. Saunders is often compared to Vonnegut (which I think does both a mild disservice, but whatever.) The piece acknowledges how Slaughterhouse Five turned his preconceptions about literature inside out. (Basically, he didn't need to have a dictionary by his side to understand it, and in the face of making actual points, it still manages to be fun, at least mostly.) Very nice.
My pastor has suggested the start-up of a "serious" reading group, to spur discussion of ideas and issues that don't traditionally come up in church. So far, sounds pretty good. He wants to start with The Brothers Karamazov. Suddenly I am paranoid that I will look like an idiot. Should I/could I get through it?
Dostoevsky is amazing. Don't worry too much about how "heavy" it is Dave, just enjoy the read. I'm sure your pastor will help place it within the context of the church. Afterall, if everyone "got it" then your pastor wouldn't have anything to teach regarding it. :)
I am a reading a Michael Chabon book called Summerland, that blends baseball, Norse mythology, and native-American folklore. It's intended for smart kids, so it's an easy read, Harry Potterish in many ways. After that I think I am going to continue working my way through Cormac McCarthy's works with his second novel, Outer Dark. But I might lose heart and pick up something else first.
I read the Story of the Eye by Georges Bataille for class.
I've been slogging through Denis Johnson's Tree of Smoke
just started thomas pynchon's against the day.
For some bizarro reason, I am always confusing him with Tom Robbins.
I am reading Portrait of the Aritist as a Young Man by James Joyce.
I loved 'Kiss Kiss Bang Bang.' Whenever I show it to someone, they act really surprised that it was any good.A lot of people told me to see it when it came out. Telling me to trust them that I'll get a huge kick out of something. Then when I saw it was based on a Mike Shayne book and pretty much aped the style of books in the film I was just giddy.
I'm reading Let It Blurt, Jim Derogatis's biography of Lester Bangs, and jesus jumping christ in a sidecar it is one of the saddest things I have ever read. It's not the best-written biography, but the story of this guy's life is depressing enough. Eesh.Rent Nico Icon once you done
I am currently captivated by "Death of a Citizen". More soon. Still waiting on the library to re-send the copies of Handling Sin and The Adventures of Hucklebarry Finn that they so cruelly recalled from me afore Iza finished withum.Glad your liking it Dave
Now I'm reading Thackeray's "Vanity Fair," which is great if you have patience for satirizing and moralizing simultaneously.
I am still slogging my way through Huckleberry Finn. Is this really the greatest American novel, Mr Saunders? Really?
I'm reading Red Dwarf: Infinity Welcomes Careful Drivers. Pretty foncy, huh?
I am still slogging my way through Huckleberry Finn. Is this really the greatest American novel, Mr Saunders? Really?I re-read Huck Finn last year, and it certainly didn't change my life. I sense that one had to live in the time of Twain to be floored by it.
I am still slogging my way through Huckleberry Finn. Is this really the greatest American novel, Mr Saunders? Really?I re-read Huck Finn last year, and it certainly didn't change my life. I sense that one had to live in the time of Twain to be floored by it.
I "cheated" a bit, and actually listened to it as a recorded book 2 years back--and was profoundly moved by it. Not floored exactly, but moved. I loved it. Hearing the characters acted out, without having to do the work myself, made it easier, no doubt; in the same way that hearing an actor do Shakespeare is ultimately more satisfying than reading the play could ever be for me. But still--loved every minute of it, and was very sorry to have it end. The version I listened to was read/performed by Dick Hill, and I recommend it. He does a masterful job.
An excerpt: http://excerpts.contentreserve.com/FormatType-25/0857-1/060649-TheAdventuresOfHuckleberryFinn.wma
I read Huckleberry Finn decades ago, but I remember wanting to smack Tom when he cropped up at the end of it--and I had read Tom Sawyer several times. He's irritating even in his own book, but in Huck's he is insufferable. In part, I think--though, as I said, it's been years--because Huckleberry Finn is really quite a serious book, and Tom seemed incongruous.
I really liked Huck when I read it, but for some reason my strongest memory of it now is the part where he betrays his sex by snapping his legs together to catch something that is falling from a table, instead of spreading them wide to collect it in the skirt he's wearing as part of a disguise. I think I questioned the accuracy of the generalization, which certainly wasn't true at the time of my reading but may have been in the more skirt-wearing 1800s.
If you thought Tom Sawyer was annoying, just wait 'til you meet Today's Tom Sawyer.
For the next two days, I will be reading only:
Cases and Materials on Corporations (Second Edition)
by Thomas R. Hurst and William A. Gregory.
Who's jealous?
I finally finished "Special Topics in Calamity Physics" and am baffled by its positive reviews.
I finally finished "Special Topics in Calamity Physics" and am baffled by its positive reviews.That's a shame. I've got that one on my list. Only four days before I can read for fun again.
things that are kind of scatalogical but also smart. Any good ones that might satisfy these criteria?
Iit's somewhat controversial in the travel writing world
Luc Sante's Kill All Your Darlings.
Are any of you in a Secret Society?
Are any of you in a Secret Society?
I just read that a film version of CD Payne's "Youth in Revolt"--one of my favorite books in high school--is being adapted for a film to star Michael Cera! Thoughts?Well since its being trying to be made since it came out I'm not holding my breath. Loved the book when I read it years ago. the sequels not so much a bit over the top
next: 'blindness'
"There's, like, no plot"
"There's, like, no plot"
She's kind of got a point.
next: 'blindness'Oh can you post how this is when you're done? I've had it recommended to me a bunch of times but always in kind of dubious/awful contexts so I don't know what to do about it.
Can't wait for the film (http://www.apple.com/trailers/miramax/blindness/trailer/),
(http://i13.ebayimg.com/02/i/000/e8/f5/d65d_1.JPG)
(http://i13.ebayimg.com/02/i/000/e8/f5/d65d_1.JPG)
How respectful is it?
im currently reading what is the what by dave eggers. this is really interesting, does anyone else like it? also has anyone read the new david sedaris?
im currently reading what is the what by dave eggers. this is really interesting, does anyone else like it? also has anyone read the new david sedaris?
well i think palahanuik is a crummy writer, and i also was defeated by infinite jest. i did read some of his essays and short stories and i only thought they were alright. have you read any william t vollmann?
well i think palahanuik is a crummy writer, and i also was defeated by infinite jest. i did read some of his essays and short stories and i only thought they were alright. have you read any william t vollmann?
well i think palahanuik is a crummy writer, and i also was defeated by infinite jest. i did read some of his essays and short stories and i only thought they were alright. have you read any william t vollmann?
well i think palahanuik is a crummy writer, and i also was defeated by infinite jest. i did read some of his essays and short stories and i only thought they were alright. have you read any william t vollmann?
Talk about a trifecta of writers I hate, at least Palahniuk you can finish in like an hour or so. But Vollmann needs to learn not every little thought about a subject needs to be a chapter in a book. Or even made into a never ending series of books that never seem to get completed.
what do you like bruce?
"Predictably Irrational"-- just read. Pretty good book about the consistent errors people make in thinking about money.
"The Black Swan" by Nassim Nicholas Taleb-- pretty amazing. The author seems like a bit of a dick, but his point is a good one.
I'm considering reading the Dark Tower books by Stephen King. I haven't read anything of his except for The Stand, in middle school, which I liked a lot (but I like all books about everyone dying). Otherwise, I'm not too into horror or suspense writing. But people keep telling me they're really good, and I like to get lost in a story. Anyone read them?
I'm about to start Things I've Learned from Women Who've Dumped Me (http://www.amazon.com/Things-Learned-Women-Whove-Dumped/dp/0446580694/ref=pd_bbs_sr_1?ie=UTF8&s=books&qid=1213273282&sr=8-1). Heavyweight lineup: Colbert, The Wizard of Oswalt, Odenkirk... Has anyone read this?
I'm about to start Things I've Learned from Women Who've Dumped Me (http://www.amazon.com/Things-Learned-Women-Whove-Dumped/dp/0446580694/ref=pd_bbs_sr_1?ie=UTF8&s=books&qid=1213273282&sr=8-1). Heavyweight lineup: Colbert, The Wizard of Oswalt, Odenkirk... Has anyone read this?
I'm about to start Things I've Learned from Women Who've Dumped Me (http://www.amazon.com/Things-Learned-Women-Whove-Dumped/dp/0446580694/ref=pd_bbs_sr_1?ie=UTF8&s=books&qid=1213273282&sr=8-1). Heavyweight lineup: Colbert, The Wizard of Oswalt, Odenkirk... Has anyone read this?
I read it about a month ago after hearing the editor (whose name escapes me) on Jesse Thorn's show. It's entertaining enough, sort of hit or miss, but every once in a while there's a big belly laugh.
You won't hate yourself for reading it, Samir.
Currently reading Empire Falls by Richard Russo. This is the fourth of his I've read and he has yet to disappoint.
I would never put David Foster Wallace in the Canon of Terrible with Palahniuk and Eggers, but that's just me.
I just finished reading "Lush Life" by Richard Price--a recommendation from a fellow FOT! I really enjoyed it--kind of hard boiled and literary at the same time. Price wrote "Clockers" and many episodes of "The Wire," which I still have not seen, so perhaps there is a sub-thread dedicated to this book somewhere else on the board.
I'm teaching two new classes next Fall--history seminars to seniors, rather than just the freshman English classes I taught this year, so I'm currently finding material for them. One class is an Introduction to Media and Culture (kind of an intro crash course on Lit Theory and major cultural movements), and another is "Seminal Moments in the 20th Century," any suggestions are welcome!
Currently reading Empire Falls by Richard Russo. This is the fourth of his I've read and he has yet to disappoint.
Currently reading Empire Falls by Richard Russo. This is the fourth of his I've read and he has yet to disappoint.
Russo's a treat. I wish I'd've read Nobody's Fool before seeing the movie--I'd've appreciated Newman's performance a whole a lot more. Excellent all around.
Eagleton is a treat to read, although some past professors of mine have been kind of hostile to him.
He's dead wrong on Dawkins, too.
Eagleton is a treat to read, although some past professors of mine have been kind of hostile to him.
He's dead wrong on Dawkins, too.
How so? I'm pretty anti-Dawkins, but I haven't read enough to really defend my opinion - just that I tend to like a lot of his enemies from radically different disciplines, like Eagleton and Stephen Jay Gould. And I hate Hitchens, with whom he is often lumped (fairly or not) and have since before he was calling for Kissinger's head.
Would you come to Sunday School with me this week, yesno?
I am an atheist and appreciate Dawkins' arguments in "The God Delusion", but like yesno, I find Dawkins' approach way too aggressive toward religious people. He is definitely not doing good PR for us atheists. I respect those who believe in God and even envy them. Dawkins embarrasses me in the same way that the militant liberals at the Park Slope Food Coop embarrass me regarding my liberalism.*
*I am not dissing *everyone* at the Park Slope Food Coop...just those individuals who have zapped all the joy out of being pro-people.
I'm about to start Things I've Learned from Women Who've Dumped Me (http://www.amazon.com/Things-Learned-Women-Whove-Dumped/dp/0446580694/ref=pd_bbs_sr_1?ie=UTF8&s=books&qid=1213273282&sr=8-1). Heavyweight lineup: Colbert, The Wizard of Oswalt, Odenkirk... Has anyone read this?
If you want a more philosophically-grounded exposition of Darwinian ideas, I highly recommend Daniel Dennet's Darwin's Dangerous Idea. Dennet, Pinker, and Dawkins are definitely something of a mutual appreciation society, however.
I'm about to start Things I've Learned from Women Who've Dumped Me (http://www.amazon.com/Things-Learned-Women-Whove-Dumped/dp/0446580694/ref=pd_bbs_sr_1?ie=UTF8&s=books&qid=1213273282&sr=8-1). Heavyweight lineup: Colbert, The Wizard of Oswalt, Odenkirk... Has anyone read this?
ive been wanting to read this for months, but cant bring myself to spend the money on a hardcover. im waiting for it to be in soft/paperback.
im broke. always.
I'm about to start Things I've Learned from Women Who've Dumped Me (http://www.amazon.com/Things-Learned-Women-Whove-Dumped/dp/0446580694/ref=pd_bbs_sr_1?ie=UTF8&s=books&qid=1213273282&sr=8-1). Heavyweight lineup: Colbert, The Wizard of Oswalt, Odenkirk... Has anyone read this?
ive been wanting to read this for months, but cant bring myself to spend the money on a hardcover. im waiting for it to be in soft/paperback.
im broke. always.
Investigate your local public library!
I'm about to start Things I've Learned from Women Who've Dumped Me (http://www.amazon.com/Things-Learned-Women-Whove-Dumped/dp/0446580694/ref=pd_bbs_sr_1?ie=UTF8&s=books&qid=1213273282&sr=8-1). Heavyweight lineup: Colbert, The Wizard of Oswalt, Odenkirk... Has anyone read this?
ive been wanting to read this for months, but cant bring myself to spend the money on a hardcover. im waiting for it to be in soft/paperback.
im broke. always.
Investigate your local public library!
they have no idea what im talking about. although, i went downtown and it was checked out. i know im going to add it to my "library", so i'll probably just wait.
but in the same vein as the todd barry joke, i have have spent afternoons at barnes and noble reading books i know i wont ever buy but want to read.
Around here, there's something called interlibrary loan as well. But maybe that's just for the sticks.
Just getting into Cormac McCarthy now. He's an author I've pretty much ignored, with the exception of The Road, and I'm glad I stopped ignoring his other novels. I just finished No Country for Old Men (a quick and satisfying read) and am now reading All The Pretty Horses.
Have also been reading Blink and The Tipping Point. Just thought I ought to, in case there's something interesting in there. This is the equivalent of waiting until a movie comes out on video, and then waiting some more.
Just getting into Cormac McCarthy now. He's an author I've pretty much ignored, with the exception of The Road, and I'm glad I stopped ignoring his other novels. I just finished No Country for Old Men (a quick and satisfying read) and am now reading All The Pretty Horses.
Have also been reading Blink and The Tipping Point. Just thought I ought to, in case there's something interesting in there. This is the equivalent of waiting until a movie comes out on video, and then waiting some more.
I am working my way chronologically through Cor Double-Mac (thank you JJ Jackson!). Suttree is next. The first three were horrific. My therapist (don't judge) actually asked me to stop reading them. I'm sorry, I meant my "friend that I pay".
I am working my way chronologically through Cor Double-Mac (thank you JJ Jackson!). Suttree is next. The first three were horrific. My therapist (don't judge) actually asked me to stop reading them. I'm sorry, I meant my "friend that I pay".
I am working my way chronologically through Cor Double-Mac (thank you JJ Jackson!). Suttree is next. The first three were horrific. My therapist (don't judge) actually asked me to stop reading them. I'm sorry, I meant my "friend that I pay".
I judge you awesome. Cognitive behavioral? Freudian? I found cognitive behavioral to be most effective for me.
I'm about to start Things I've Learned from Women Who've Dumped Me (http://www.amazon.com/Things-Learned-Women-Whove-Dumped/dp/0446580694/ref=pd_bbs_sr_1?ie=UTF8&s=books&qid=1213273282&sr=8-1). Heavyweight lineup: Colbert, The Wizard of Oswalt, Odenkirk... Has anyone read this?
I am working my way chronologically through Cor Double-Mac (thank you JJ Jackson!). Suttree is next. The first three were horrific. My therapist (don't judge) actually asked me to stop reading them. I'm sorry, I meant my "friend that I pay".
I judge you awesome. Cognitive behavioral? Freudian? I found cognitive behavioral to be most effective for me.
I will email him right this moment and ask.
...and that's exactlywhy I don'tno one should read Palahniukanymoreever. He's disgusting.
I am working my way chronologically through Cor Double-Mac (thank you JJ Jackson!). Suttree is next. The first three were horrific. My therapist (don't judge) actually asked me to stop reading them. I'm sorry, I meant my "friend that I pay".
I judge you awesome. Cognitive behavioral? Freudian? I found cognitive behavioral to be most effective for me.
I will email him right this moment and ask.
Hey, he got back to me and said "Very close to traditional cognitive behavioral, with a dollop of voodoo."
I collect music reference books.
I collect music reference books.
My friend has this book that I think was titled The History of Rock & Roll. I do clearly remember a picture in it of Joey Ramone that was titled "Patti Smith".
I'll see what i can do. I'll be seeing said friend in a couple of weeks.I collect music reference books.
My friend has this book that I think was titled The History of Rock & Roll. I do clearly remember a picture in it of Joey Ramone that was titled "Patti Smith".
Oh how I would love a scan of this. It's possibly the only thing that would make me replace my Neil Numberman original.
I hate "business" books that take an essay's worth of idea and stretch it into 900 pages. That's what Friedman does. You get as much out of reading a good review of one of those books, as from reading the book itself.
They end up just being a string of anecdotes, which Malcolm Gladwell can do entertainingly, but just about no one else can.
I've just about finished Myra Breckenridge by Gore Vidal. I'd never read anything by him before, and had him pigeonholed as a John Cheever-ish observer of upper-middle class life. (I like Cheever, btw.)
Holy cow, was I wrong! It's a crazy book. It seems like a natural for an FOT reading list - weird sex, drugs, celebrity obsessions and psychoanalysis. And it's hilarious.
Did anyone see the interview (http://www.nytimes.com/2008/06/15/magazine/15wwln-Q4-t.html?_r=1&oref=slogin) with Gore Vidal in the NY Times a few weeks ago? For an 82-year-old, he's still spunky as hell.
As for me, I have been reading the same book for four months due to work and family requirements. But I had too many surrenders in the past year. I refuse to give up!
I hate "business" books that take an essay's worth of idea and stretch it into 900 pages. That's what Friedman does. You get as much out of reading a good review of one of those books, as from reading the book itself.
I hate "business" books that take an essay's worth of idea and stretch it into 900 pages. That's what Friedman does. You get as much out of reading a good review of one of those books, as from reading the book itself.
But when I heard the book was actually coming out, I started to worry. Among other things, I knew I would be asked to write the review. The usual ratio of Friedman criticism is 2:1, i.e., two human words to make sense of each single word of Friedmanese. Friedman is such a genius of literary incompetence that even his most innocent passages invite feature-length essays.
I've just about finished Myra Breckenridge by Gore Vidal. I'd never read anything by him before, and had him pigeonholed as a John Cheever-ish observer of upper-middle class life. (I like Cheever, btw.)
Holy cow, was I wrong! It's a crazy book. It seems like a natural for an FOT reading list - weird sex, drugs, celebrity obsessions and psychoanalysis. And it's hilarious.
Did anyone see the interview (http://www.nytimes.com/2008/06/15/magazine/15wwln-Q4-t.html?_r=1&oref=slogin) with Gore Vidal in the NY Times a few weeks ago? For an 82-year-old, he's still spunky as hell.
The World Is Flat would appear as no more than an unusually long pamphlet replete with the kind of plug-filled, free-trader leg-humping that passes for thought in this country. It is a tale of a man who walks 10 feet in front of his house armed with a late-model Blackberry and comes back home five minutes later to gush to his wife that hospitals now use the internet to outsource the reading of CAT scans. Man flies on planes, observes the wonders of capitalism, says we're not in Kansas anymore. (He actually says we're not in Kansas anymore.) That's the whole plot right there. If the underlying message is all that interests you, read no further, because that's all there is.
Nerding out with The Silmarillion. Second time reading it.
Nerding out with The Silmarillion. Second time reading it.
Been doing a lot of planning for this year's set of courses, so I've re-read The Catcher in the Rye, John Berger's Ways of Seeing, part of Plato's Republic, and a textbook. For fun, I read Chuck Klosterman's Sex, Drugs and Coco-Puffs, which was equal parts amusing and infuriating.
Klosterman always manages to pick examples to illustrate his ideas that, for whatever reason, I ENTIRELY disagree with. In the essay he wrote on the coolness/greatness divide of Billy Joel, he made an off-handed comment about how silly it is when people defend artists on the strength of their deep cuts, not their radio hits. The example he uses to illustrate this point is Dexy's Midnight Runners. But Dexy's WERE a great band--it's not their fault they were a one-hit wonder act in this country! Their deep cuts are great!
There were others, but that stuck out. My favorite line, though, was, "What in Andrew WK was that all about?"
I am reading Demons In The Spring by Joe Meno and it's already in my top 10 books of all time. And I'm not even finished yet! Also, it has a ton of beautiful illustrations in it.
susannah gets it...why not the dopes I know who want to talk about this book?!
i didnt jump on the chuck klosterman boat originally, but i just finished SEX, DRUGS, AND COCOA PUFFS. im only halfway impressed.
i would recommend it to friends, but i dont talk it up. i'd rather let me them figure it out on their own. it was worth the second-hand $7.
I finally finished No Country for Old Men and enjoyed it. Tied up some loose ends from the film. It was a pretty good read.
Then, inspired by the snippet I heard on fmu, I read A Good Man is Hard to Find and I was sort of surprised by the plot - never read it before & only caught about the middle on air. It was funny at parts.
And now I'm reading This is Your Brain on Music, and so far, so good. I skimmed it in the store & then sort of impulsively purchased it & I'm glad to have my own copy - it's oddly inspiring me to think about art projects.. so I'm happy with it & would go so far as to recommend it, even though I only just started it yesterday.
Anyone else read it/have an opinion?
susannah gets it...why not the dopes I know who want to talk about this book?!
Eh, I think a lot of people get it. It's a fun read, he poses some interesting ideas that are humorously phrased, etc. etc. What always strikes me about him (and this was even more true in Chuck Klosterman IV, which I legitimately disliked) is that he always manages to choose the exact WRONG example (in my opinion) to illustrate his points. Case in point: his essay in defense of Vanilla Sky. I hated that movie when it came out in 1999 or 2000, and nearly a decade later, I still hate it and think I probably haven't seen a worse movie. Too many terrible lines of dialogue ruled out any deeper philosophical meaning for me:
"The bathroom's over there, next to that girl who looks like Bjork."
"In the next life, I want to come back as the mole on your breasts."
"In the next life, we shall all come back as cats."
Sorry. Indefensibly bad, Klosterman.
That said, though, there's an eerie, lucid quality to his essay about encounters with serial killers, and a poignancy to his essay about the Guns N' Roses cover band, Paradise City.
Like the actual original scroll? where are you?
I just read my reading list for my new Science Fiction class. I think next time I'll read the essays before I add them to the course packet.
I just read my reading list for my new Science Fiction class. I think next time I'll read the essays before I add them to the course packet.
I am feeling that right now, JG. Cornel West's "Race Matters?" I don't even like that guy. "We Other Victorians" by Foucault? I don't even want to deal with that nonsense, much less any seventeen-year-old. Blergh.
I am reading Demons In The Spring by Joe Meno and it's already in my top 10 books of all time. And I'm not even finished yet! Also, it has a ton of beautiful illustrations in it.
Ooh, I have to get that! I love Joe Meno.
Like the actual original scroll? where are you?
Is that in Indianapolis right now? I actually did see the real one in Austin this summer, and took a few crappy camera phone pictures that I'll post if I ever get around to it. But the unedited scroll, with real names, toilet talk, and Kerouac actually acknowledging the sexism of the Beats, was published in a handsome edition by I think Viking (too lazy to check).
Incidentally, Flannery O'Connor is incredibly awesome.
I just finished Freedomland by Richard Price. First thing I've read by him. I was expecting crime fiction, and it is, to a great respect, a police procedural. But it's very ambitious, and it fulfills its ambitions, too. Great, great stuff. It's closer to late-period Philip Roth than to Ian Rankin.
I just finished Freedomland by Richard Price. First thing I've read by him. I was expecting crime fiction, and it is, to a great respect, a police procedural. But it's very ambitious, and it fulfills its ambitions, too. Great, great stuff. It's closer to late-period Philip Roth than to Ian Rankin.
If you enjoy being depressed, pick up Lush Life, by Richard Price. Even though it is set in the Lower East Side, Lush Life, to me, is the The Wire's lost 6th season.
If you didn't follow The Wire, this was the season where Clay Davis sold 1,000 liquor licenses in a 10 block radius and
turned a community pool into a indie rock/dodgeball venue--thereby solidifying Baltimore's up-and-coming status.
It's also the season where Carcetti makes a run for president, using the revitalized Western District, as well as its impressive statistic of Most FWDs Per Upscale Hot Dog Restaurant, as proof of his ability to lead.
The team's star linebacker has always lived on the edge and enjoyed the nightlife more than he should. But when he's found beaten nearly to death in the stadium parking lot, it's clear he's gotten himself into more than even he bargained for, and it's something that threatens to tear himself and his team's promising season apart.
QuoteThe team's star linebacker has always lived on the edge and enjoyed the nightlife more than he should. But when he's found beaten nearly to death in the stadium parking lot, it's clear he's gotten himself into more than even he bargained for, and it's something that threatens to tear himself and his team's promising season apart.
Omar, Can I borrow that when you're done? I make it a point to read every book recommended by Giants (and Tecmo Bowl) legend Phil McConkey: "Buckle up your chin strap and get ready to be smashed in the mouth—this is an explosive novel for anyone who thinks pro football is all about money, celebrities and fame."
Just getting into Cormac McCarthy now. He's an author I've pretty much ignored, with the exception of The Road, and I'm glad I stopped ignoring his other novels. I just finished No Country for Old Men (a quick and satisfying read) and am now reading All The Pretty Horses.
i just finished:
SHOTS IN THE DARK
(http://images-eu.amazon.com/images/P/0821227750.02.LZZZZZZZ.jpg)
Thinking of tackling Jonathan Lethem's The Fortress of Solitude after that, even though I didn't much care for the only other book I've read by him, Amnesia Moon. Does anybody know if this one is as good as it's supposed to be?
i just finished:
SHOTS IN THE DARK
(http://images-eu.amazon.com/images/P/0821227750.02.LZZZZZZZ.jpg)
That looks pretty great. I think that cover photo might also be in Luc Sante's Evidence, which holds a permanent place on my coffee table (...OF HORRORS!).
Thinking of tackling Jonathan Lethem's The Fortress of Solitude after that, even though I didn't much care for the only other book I've read by him, Amnesia Moon. Does anybody know if this one is as good as it's supposed to be?
I enjoyed most of it, there were parts of it that actually reminded me a lot of David Gordon Green's George Washington (if it were set in Brooklyn). I'm split on the other Lethem I've read. Motherless Brooklyn was pretty good (although it's been many years since I read it and I don't remember much about it now) but I absolutely hated You Don't Love Me Yet.
I just finished Portnoy's Complaint by Philip Roth. It's now in my top 5 list of "1st person, Self-Deprecating Novels."
Any other suggestions for this category?
I also liked Motherless Brooklyn. The Fortress of Solitude didn't do too much for me. Like The Amazing Adventures of Kavalier and Clay (another fat book that incorporates comic book myths and was shooting for "great book" status) I actually think that my own comic book fandom interfered with my appreciation of it. In all, I think that I liked Fortress a little more than Kavalier and Clay, but wouldn't wholeheartedly recommend it.
I just finished Portnoy's Complaint by Philip Roth. It's now in my top 5 list of "1st person, Self-Deprecating Novels."
Any other suggestions for this category?
So far I have:
-Various Charles Bukowskis
-Lolita
-A Confederacy of Dunces, even though it's not 1st person
-P.G Wodehouse
Anything I'm missing?
I just finished Portnoy's Complaint by Philip Roth. It's now in my top 5 list of "1st person, Self-Deprecating Novels."
Any other suggestions for this category?
So far I have:
-Various Charles Bukowskis
-Lolita
-A Confederacy of Dunces, even though it's not 1st person
-P.G Wodehouse
Anything I'm missing?
I just finished Portnoy's Complaint by Philip Roth. It's now in my top 5 list of "1st person, Self-Deprecating Novels."
Any other suggestions for this category?
Wonder Boys. (I'm pretty sure it's first person). Portnoy's Complaint is really great, isn't it? There are a few lines that still rattle around in my head, ten years after reading them.
I usually don't read books when I have already seen the movie, for fear that I've been tainted. For some reason I can't get over seeing the protagonist as a Hollywood celeb.
Wake Up, Sir! by Jonathan Ames.
i just bought this book from amazon. jonathan ames is one of the funnier writers i enjoy, but never have a chance to binge on his books because there so hard to find other than online. apparently the internet makes me forget a lot of things.
i just bought this book from amazon. jonathan ames is one of the funnier writers i enjoy, but never have a chance to binge on his books because there so hard to find other than online. apparently the internet makes me forget a lot of things.
I've never read him. Though I did go listen to him read at B & N when he put that book out. He was funny. I liked his reading voice too. He definitely inspired me to go purchase all those cute looking Wodehouse reprints. They're so pretty I want to wallpaper my house with their jackets.
http://www.overlookpress.com/wodehouse.php
ive looked into the Wodehouse catalog. it's insanely overhwelming, but a serious challenge im willing to take on.
ive looked into the Wodehouse catalog. it's insanely overhwelming, but a serious challenge im willing to take on.
I'm thinking of checking out Paul Auster's New York Trilogy. Any thoughts?
ive looked into the Wodehouse catalog. it's insanely overhwelming, but a serious challenge im willing to take on.
They're very fast and charming little trifles. Nothing to be intimidated about there.
New Sarah Vowell is out today, in case anyone else is a fan.I'm going to her reading on Friday! I had preordered the book in an order that isn't scheduled to ship for a while, so I'll buy a copy then.
I am reading Rendezvous with Rama. I am a dork.
I am reading Rendezvous with Rama. I am a dork.
The sequels aren't as good.
I am reading Rendezvous with Rama. I am a dork.
The sequels aren't as good.
I promise not to read them. Thanks for the heads up. So far it reminds me of House of Leaves.
Thee Rock Bible by Henry and Pattton. They did it again!
I just got Neal Stephenson's Anathem. It's almost 1000 pages long. God knows when I'll have the strength to take it on, much as I love the man's writing. But knowing I have it gives me a feeling of security.
I am reading "Soon I Will Be Invincible" by Austin Grossman, and I am laughing my ass off.
(http://bfgb.files.wordpress.com/2008/02/soon-i-will-be-invincible.jpg)
I just got Neal Stephenson's Anathem. It's almost 1000 pages long. God knows when I'll have the strength to take it on, much as I love the man's writing. But knowing I have it gives me a feeling of security.
I'm reading my favorite author, Jean-Marie Gustave Le Clézio.
Why?
Just started Dream: Re-imagining Progressive Politics in an Age of Fantasy by Stephen Duncombe. The author thanks Jason Grote in the acknowledgments, so his every word is suspect.
For me: just started Roberto Bolaño's The Savage Detectives and am totally digging it.
For me: just started Roberto Bolaño's The Savage Detectives and am totally digging it.
I started this a couple nights ago; it is pretty awesome. The section where Garcia Madero wonders through the Fonts' house in the dark and eats all their food is AMAZING.
Gets a little smutty from there on, but in a good way.
Just started Dream: Re-imagining Progressive Politics in an Age of Fantasy by Stephen Duncombe. The author thanks Jason Grote in the acknowledgments, so his every word is suspect.
Hey, that's my buddy. I love that book. Sometimes it seems like it doesn't know whether it wants to be an 05/06-type "what progressives should do now" book in the mold of What's The Matter with Kansas or Don't Think of an Elephant and more of an academic theoretical text, but I pretty much agree 100% with the ideas in there, and I appreciate that he keeps the ideas accessible to the average reader. Not everybody feels up for reading Žižek 100% of the time.
Just finished it. I'm persuaded. I have reservations about some of the people and organizations mentioned, but not his use of their example.
Just started Dream: Re-imagining Progressive Politics in an Age of Fantasy by Stephen Duncombe. The author thanks Jason Grote in the acknowledgments, so his every word is suspect.
Hey, that's my buddy. I love that book. Sometimes it seems like it doesn't know whether it wants to be an 05/06-type "what progressives should do now" book in the mold of What's The Matter with Kansas or Don't Think of an Elephant and more of an academic theoretical text, but I pretty much agree 100% with the ideas in there, and I appreciate that he keeps the ideas accessible to the average reader. Not everybody feels up for reading Žižek 100% of the time.
Just finished it. I'm persuaded. I have reservations about some of the people and organizations mentioned, but not his use of their example.
Jimmy McDonough's biography of Neil Young
Sure. Critical Mass, for one. Plenty of people do vital work that requires them to be punctual. What if a home health care provider needs to give someone medication on the hour, but can't because of a CM ride? Or working people who just need to be on time? Disrupting these people's lives doesn't seem ethical to me, and I wouldn't want an entity whose aims and values I share to be the guilty party. These are misgivings I have, not a blanket condemnation.Just started Dream: Re-imagining Progressive Politics in an Age of Fantasy by Stephen Duncombe. The author thanks Jason Grote in the acknowledgments, so his every word is suspect.
Hey, that's my buddy. I love that book. Sometimes it seems like it doesn't know whether it wants to be an 05/06-type "what progressives should do now" book in the mold of What's The Matter with Kansas or Don't Think of an Elephant and more of an academic theoretical text, but I pretty much agree 100% with the ideas in there, and I appreciate that he keeps the ideas accessible to the average reader. Not everybody feels up for reading Žižek 100% of the time.
Just finished it. I'm persuaded. I have reservations about some of the people and organizations mentioned, but not his use of their example.
Mind if I ask who and why? I'm just curious -- totally fine if you don't feel like sharing.
I got DeLillo's Underworld for Christmas, and holy s-hit that thing is a brick. I had no idea.
I'll probably finish it in 2010. Check in with you then.
Yeah, I've read White Noise (loved it), and Falling Man, so I'm very excited to get more into his stuff.
For me: just started Roberto Bolaño's The Savage Detectives and am totally digging it.
I started this a couple nights ago; it is pretty awesome. The section where Garcia Madero wonders through the Fonts' house in the dark and eats all their food is AMAZING.
Gets a little smutty from there on, but in a good way.
Yes! I just read that same passage. This is like an accidental book club!
That belongs on a "move titles I don't want to see" thread: "The Accidental Book Club."
I am enjoying Richard Wright's Black Boy.
I am enjoying Richard Wright's Black Boy.
Hey, I just found out there's a book by this name, too!
I am enjoying Richard Wright's Black Boy.
Hey, I just found out there's a book by this name, too!
Hay-O!
Thanks, Humor Buddy!
I am enjoying Richard Wright's Black Boy.
Hey, I just found out there's a book by this name, too!
Hay-O!
Thanks, Humor Buddy!
I don't understand what's happening here.
I am enjoying Richard Wright's Black Boy.
Hey, I just found out there's a book by this name, too!
Hay-O!
Thanks, Humor Buddy!
I don't understand what's happening here.
It's OK, there's not really anything to understand.
My brother-in-law beat me at chess so many times in a row over the holidays. I've decided it's time to step it up and purchased Silman's Reassess Your Chess. Those suckers at Yahoo Games won't know what hit them.
Cormac McCarthy's Blood Meridian. That's some heavy shit.
Cormac McCarthy's Blood Meridian. That's some heavy shit.
Ben Nichols lead singer of Lucero just released a solo album based upon that novel.
Cormac McCarthy's Blood Meridian. That's some heavy shit.
Ben Nichols lead singer of Lucero just released a solo album based upon that novel.
true story.
Last Pale Light in the West, straight outta Memphis.
Planet of Slums by Mike Davis.
Cormac McCarthy's Blood Meridian. That's some heavy shit.
Yeah, I've read White Noise (loved it), and Falling Man, so I'm very excited to get more into his stuff.
Libra is my favorite.
Right now I'm in the middle of an article written by Tucker Carlson--who the book refers to as "the whitest man in America". The piece is about going on a piece keeping mission to Liberia with Al Sharpton and Cornel West. It's insane and feels like it would make a great movie: http://tinyurl.com/carlson-sharpton
Right now I'm in the middle of an article written by Tucker Carlson--who the book refers to as "the whitest man in America". The piece is about going on a piece keeping mission to Liberia with Al Sharpton and Cornel West. It's insane and feels like it would make a great movie: http://tinyurl.com/carlson-sharpton
Thanks for the link. That article is kind of awesome and and succeeded in making me relate to / enjoy the writing of Tucker Carlson. Gonna go scrub my brain with steel wool now.
Cormac McCarthy's Blood Meridian. That's some heavy shit.
That book ruined me. It gave me nightmares for weeks.
Easily the most disturbing book I've ever read.
Also one of the best. I don't go for the gruesome stuff, either.
Cormac McCarthy's Blood Meridian. That's some heavy shit.
That book ruined me. It gave me nightmares for weeks.
Easily the most disturbing book I've ever read.
Also one of the best. I don't go for the gruesome stuff, either.
Yeah, that book was rough stuff. It's a good book, but I'm 100% sure I'll never read it again. Like you say, the most disturbing thing I've ever read.
Planet of Slums was pretty mind blowing. :o City of Quartz is also worthwhile.Planet of Slums by Mike Davis.
Mike Davis is a gifted writer. Agree with his perspectives or not, it's well worth checking out his stuff, especially his books about L.A. The lens through which he sees and analyzes both the world and the world of southern California is fascinating and his writing well worthwhile.
Cormac McCarthy's Blood Meridian. That's some heavy shit.
That book ruined me. It gave me nightmares for weeks.
Easily the most disturbing book I've ever read.
Also one of the best. I don't go for the gruesome stuff, either.
Yeah, that book was rough stuff. It's a good book, but I'm 100% sure I'll never read it again. Like you say, the most disturbing thing I've ever read.
I'm at page 200 or so, and every so often I'll find myself flipping to the author photo and staring into his mild, content face, and thinking, who is this maniac?
I just finished a Swedish non-fiction book called "Swedish Mafia". You may laugh, but it's pretty unsettling stuff. The rise of prison gangs, organized crime families, biker gangs, Balkan clans, etc. Very thorough book written by two reporters who've been covering this shit for years. Not alarmist, but with the subject matter you don't really need to be. It's also an indictment against Swedish law enforcement, who's been sleeping on the job for the last 40 years and is now faced with an overwhelming problem.
Anyway, a good read.
Now I'm starting on Let the Right One In, which was given to me as a birthday gift a couple of years ago. I figured I have to read the book before I see the film, because if I do it the other way around, I'll never get to the book.
Cormac McCarthy's Blood Meridian. That's some heavy shit.
That book ruined me. It gave me nightmares for weeks.
Easily the most disturbing book I've ever read.
Also one of the best. I don't go for the gruesome stuff, either.
Yeah, that book was rough stuff. It's a good book, but I'm 100% sure I'll never read it again. Like you say, the most disturbing thing I've ever read.
I'm at page 200 or so, and every so often I'll find myself flipping to the author photo and staring into his mild, content face, and thinking, who is this maniac?
The only thing I can think of that's comparable in terms of bleakness is The Room by Hubert Selby Jr. Not that his other stuff is a terribly lighthearted, but that's a whole new level of ugly.
i've read "blood meridian" (twice!). what i'm reading now outdistances cormac, i think: roberto bolano's "2666," specifically chapter four, "the part about the crimes." i'm about 80 pages into that chapter and if things continue on their present course, i do not think i will need to read the word "rape" again for about 26 years.
i've read "blood meridian" (twice!). what i'm reading now outdistances cormac, i think: roberto bolano's "2666," specifically chapter four, "the part about the crimes." i'm about 80 pages into that chapter and if things continue on their present course, i do not think i will need to read the word "rape" again for about 26 years.
I finally finished off Blood Meridian last week, and as much as I've heard only great stuff about 2666, based on your description I don't think I can face it just yet. I need something lighthearted for now... I'm thinking John Hodgman's latest, perhaps.
Amusing Ourselves to Death by Neil Postman. I wonder what that guy would have thought about Twitter.There is a lot packed into that short read, dense and very interesting. I downloaded a lecture from him sometime ago, smart guy.
I'm taking a 20th Century Lit class called The Grotesque . The booklist is pretty amazing.
A few Edgar Alan Poe short stories
Flannery O'Connor - A Good Man is Hard to Find and other stories
Henry James - Turn of the Screw/ The Aspern Papers
Cormac Macarthy - No Country For Old Men
Nabokov - An Invitation to a Beheading
Patrick Suskind - Perfume
Paul Auster - The New York Trilogy
O'Connor - The Violent Bear it Away
and we also have to watch Vertigo.
Now THAT sounds like a great, great class.
Enjoy it. Do not drink while you read for this class.
About to start in on David Copperfield. I will become cultured, even if it kills me.
The Mote in God's Eye: a really good sci-fi novel.
About to start in on David Copperfield. I will become cultured, even if it kills me.
I love Dickens! He is one of my very favorites, and has been since I was 9.
Spin: ditto.
So far, I am finding out that many of the comedy heros of my youth are unbearably pretentious people.
Which Robert Bolano book should I read first: The Savage Detectives or 2666?
Which Robert Bolano book should I read first: The Savage Detectives or 2666?
I have begun to read Wodehouse's Leave It to Psmith. We will see if I stick with it.
I don't think that the factory farming of animals is needed to feed people in the sense of keeping them alive--just in the sense of giving them the food they want to eat. And many of the pseudo-foods Pollan complains about aren't keeping anyone alive, either.
Also, I love snack cakes.
...foo-like substances...
Up next is either The Kid Stays in the Picture
Up next is either The Kid Stays in the Picture
This is much more enjoyable if you know what Bob Evans sounds like then read it in his voice. Is it? You bet it is.
I haven't read the Evans book. But I thought the documentary of the same name was excellent.
Has anyone read the book "Easy Riders, Raging Bulls" by Peter Biskind? Really interesting book about Hollywood in the 60's and 70's. Although, it has a tendency to get a bit "tabloid-y" at times.
I wonder if that's actually true that processed food has enabled more hungry people to eat.
Also, Jon, I think that should be the name of your Foo Fighters cover band.
Well, my understanding is that the Food and Agriculture arm of the U.N., the W.H.O., World Bank, IMF, etc. work together to distribute food to third world countries (of course, because corrupt, self-interested governments get involved, this can get derailed). And much of that food comes from U.S. overabundance. In Kenya, for example, the staple food for many families is "unimix" - a concoction of corn oil and milk powder imported from other nations by the U.N. I am talking partially from knowing, and partially out of my ass. I would need to investigate further.
Also, Jon, I think that should be the name of your Foo Fighters cover band.That is a damn good idea, Jason. I think the name is good enough to justify the band! You're on drums.
Now, in a possibly futile attempt to keep myself sane during this movie project, I'm reading a Writers' Guild Fund benefit anthology wherein screenwriters write about their first jobs. It's called The First Time I Got Paid For It, and I picked it up for 2 bucks in a used bookshop in either Austin or Berkeley. So far it sucks, but I've only read the William Goldman and Alan Alda essays. I think I'll try reading it out of order.
Is there anyone here that has read or is currently reading the book "Nixonland," by Rick Perlstein? If there is, I would be interested to hear your thoughts because I am thinking about checking it out from the library. Because it is 700 pages long, I want to know if it would be worth my time to read it. The literary scribes seem to love it.
Paul Feig's SUPERSTUD was a superdud. I've never seen such a collection of awful similes. "my heart was pounding like a loan shark beating on a deadbeats door." ewwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwww berrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrother.
I am reading The Road right now as a matter of fact. Haven't gotten very far yet, though.
Someone just checked this out at the library! : "How the Japs Fight"
I can't find it anywhere online, otherwise I'd post a pic of the cover.
Shit, I loved The Road so much. I love it's simplicity.
I'm reading a book about clouds. It's called The Book of Clouds. Mammatus clouds rule!
Shit, I loved The Road so much. I love it's simplicity.
Agreed. Although very different, I have not seen stripped down prose like that since James Ellroy's "White Jazz."
I openly wept at the end.
Shit, I loved The Road so much. I love it's simplicity.
Agreed. Although very different, I have not seen stripped down prose like that since James Ellroy's "White Jazz."
I openly wept at the end.
"I'VE GOT THE FLAME IN ME."
What an incredible line. When I read that, I imagined Tom screaming it to motivate himself after a series of bad calls.
Considered reading it around the time it came out but when i saw the trailer for the film i got excited and went out and bought it.
Considered reading it around the time it came out but when i saw the trailer for the film i got excited and went out and bought it.
Oh man, will you be disappointed.
I'm about to start on Blood Meridian, as soon as it comes in the mail. I'm reading it for the AV Club's new book club, Wrapped Up In Books. The last - and first - selection was Katherine Dunn's Geek Love, which was a pretty fun read but somewhat frustrating on a narrative level. Too many plots points not given proper impact and the like. I'd recommend it, though.
Considered reading it around the time it came out but when i saw the trailer for the film i got excited and went out and bought it.
Oh man, will you be disappointed.
I'm about to start on Blood Meridian, as soon as it comes in the mail. I'm reading it for the AV Club's new book club, Wrapped Up In Books. The last - and first - selection was Katherine Dunn's Geek Love, which was a pretty fun read but somewhat frustrating on a narrative level. Too many plots points not given proper impact and the like. I'd recommend it, though.
Considered reading it around the time it came out but when i saw the trailer for the film i got excited and went out and bought it.
Oh man, will you be disappointed.
I'm about to start on Blood Meridian, as soon as it comes in the mail. I'm reading it for the AV Club's new book club, Wrapped Up In Books. The last - and first - selection was Katherine Dunn's Geek Love, which was a pretty fun read but somewhat frustrating on a narrative level. Too many plots points not given proper impact and the like. I'd recommend it, though.
What by the film?
Considered reading it around the time it came out but when i saw the trailer for the film i got excited and went out and bought it.
Oh man, will you be disappointed.
I'm about to start on Blood Meridian, as soon as it comes in the mail. I'm reading it for the AV Club's new book club, Wrapped Up In Books. The last - and first - selection was Katherine Dunn's Geek Love, which was a pretty fun read but somewhat frustrating on a narrative level. Too many plots points not given proper impact and the like. I'd recommend it, though.
What by the film?
I think he means that the trailer for the movie has a lot more action than was present in the book.
Considered reading it around the time it came out but when i saw the trailer for the film i got excited and went out and bought it.
Oh man, will you be disappointed.
I'm about to start on Blood Meridian, as soon as it comes in the mail. I'm reading it for the AV Club's new book club, Wrapped Up In Books. The last - and first - selection was Katherine Dunn's Geek Love, which was a pretty fun read but somewhat frustrating on a narrative level. Too many plots points not given proper impact and the like. I'd recommend it, though.
I also frequent The AV Club and am looking forward to their Book Club take on Blood Meridian.
I may put off The Brothers Karamazov for the umpteenth time to catch up on some classic crime fiction, of which I've read unaccountably little beyond Chandler. Recommendations welcome.
I may put off The Brothers Karamazov for the umpteenth time to catch up on some classic crime fiction, of which I've read unaccountably little beyond Chandler. Recommendations welcome. I watched THE FRIENDS OF EDDIE COYLE last week and the dialogue was so sharp it made we want to check out the book, which doesn't often happen for me after watching a film adaptation first.
Sometimes I get overwhelmed by the number of 'must-read' classics out there. There's just not enough time in life.
I'm starting The Savage Detectives tonight. Exciting.
I may put off The Brothers Karamazov for the umpteenth time to catch up on some classic crime fiction, of which I've read unaccountably little beyond Chandler. Recommendations welcome.
I really enjoyed Hammett's Red Harvest and The Maltese Falcon. Also, if you want something super breezy but also super fun, check out any of the Fletch books by Gregory MacDonald. Yup, the movies were based on them. Sort of.
I may put off The Brothers Karamazov for the umpteenth time to catch up on some classic crime fiction, of which I've read unaccountably little beyond Chandler. Recommendations welcome.
I really enjoyed Hammett's Red Harvest and The Maltese Falcon. Also, if you want something super breezy but also super fun, check out any of the Fletch books by Gregory MacDonald. Yup, the movies were based on them. Sort of.
I'd also add Hammett's The Thin Man which I'm reading now. I think I already like it better than the two mentioned above (mainly because it's funnier). Denis Johnson's Nobody Move was a fun literary thriller similar to No Country for Old Men (McCarthy seems to have started a trend; Pynchon's got something similar coming out in August called Inherent Vice). Jim Thompson is also great crime fiction. Pop. 1280 is my favorite, but The Killer Inside Me is also great. After The Thin Man, I thought I'd dive a little deeper into Elmore Leonard for the summer (Hombre, Swag, La Brava, and Killshot).
I have given up on difficult reading. I am running through the Spenser series.
I have given up on difficult reading.
Joan Didion's The Year of Magical Thinking, and honestly I'm not sure what I think of it.
Joan Didion's The Year of Magical Thinking, and honestly I'm not sure what I think of it.
Did you read/like Play It As It Lays? I just started it the other day; so far really into it.
Shouldn't you be writing up Dressed to Kill right about now?
You should go to the library and check it out.
I am reading 'Misquoting Jesus', which is about the history of the Bible and the many hands and languages it has been through.
That and 'Physical Computing', which is about hooking up sensors and motors and whatnot to little microchips which leads into building world conquering robots and all that.
Re: 'Physical Computing' we may be Robuts already.
I am reading 'Misquoting Jesus', which is about the history of the Bible and the many hands and languages it has been through.
That and 'Physical Computing', which is about hooking up sensors and motors and whatnot to little microchips which leads into building world conquering robots and all that.
I really enjoyed "Misquoting Jesus" myself. The guys who do the Reasonable Doubts podcast use this kind of info to debate Xian apoolgists.
Re: 'Physical Computing' we may be Robuts already.
Quote from: fonpr link=topic=761.msg117628#msg117628 date=
Re: 'Physical Computing' we may be Robuts already.
Some of us more likely than others, but you're pretty low on that list, Fredericks.
Quote from: fonpr link=topic=761.msg117628#msg117628 date=
Re: 'Physical Computing' we may be Robuts already.
Some of us more likely than others, but you're pretty low on that list, Fredericks.
Hey Buffy,
Did you compliment me?
Mind= confused.
What do you know about the Psychologist from Watchmen?
Just started Simon Reynolds' Rip Up and Start Again: Postpunk, 1978-1984. Liking it so far. Anyone else here read it?
Just started Simon Reynolds' Rip Up and Start Again: Postpunk, 1978-1984. Liking it so far. Anyone else here read it?
Yeti #7 and J.G. Ballard's Super-Cannes just came in the mail today. I'm pretty psyched for both.
I like you, Fredericksy, warily. Don't take that personally - wary is more or less the buffcoat Way.
Just started Simon Reynolds' Rip Up and Start Again: Postpunk, 1978-1984. Liking it so far. Anyone else here read it?
i started it, and life got in the way - so i only made it 70-80 pages in. i liked it a lot, though, and it's on my get-back-to-it list. i also peeked ahead to the chapter about the fall, which only made me want to purchase mark e. smith's book. and any other book about the fall.
Just started Simon Reynolds' Rip Up and Start Again: Postpunk, 1978-1984. Liking it so far. Anyone else here read it?
i started it, and life got in the way - so i only made it 70-80 pages in. i liked it a lot, though, and it's on my get-back-to-it list. i also peeked ahead to the chapter about the fall, which only made me want to purchase mark e. smith's book. and any other book about the fall.
Yeah, I'm about 30 pages in, and I like it, but it's pretty freaking dense. Not dense as in academic (though, in true postpunk fashion, it is that), but dense as in music-nerd. It makes an interesting companion to Our Band Could Be Your Life, though: after 1976-77, the UK went in an art-school/pop direction, whereas the US went into a more populist but noisier one.
nabokov, "bend sinister." amazing, his ability to refigure sensation. with one exception ("invitation to a beheading"), i have been nothing less than dazzled by every word writ by the guy. one of - if not THE - best?
nabokov, "bend sinister." amazing, his ability to refigure sensation. with one exception ("invitation to a beheading"), i have been nothing less than dazzled by every word writ by the guy. one of - if not THE - best?
Agreed Pale Fire might be the single greatest work of literature in English.
nabokov, "bend sinister." amazing, his ability to refigure sensation. with one exception ("invitation to a beheading"), i have been nothing less than dazzled by every word writ by the guy. one of - if not THE - best?
Agreed Pale Fire might be the single greatest work of literature in English.
Thirded. I've read Pale Fire, Lolita, Pnin, Despair and Speak, Memory, and all are among my favorite books.
nabokov, "bend sinister." amazing, his ability to refigure sensation. with one exception ("invitation to a beheading"), i have been nothing less than dazzled by every word writ by the guy. one of - if not THE - best?
Agreed Pale Fire might be the single greatest work of literature in English.
Thirded. I've read Pale Fire, Lolita, Pnin, Despair and Speak, Memory, and all are among my favorite books.
i'm about halfway through all of it. i've been reading his novels in the order they were published. it's interesting to watch the same images/fixations pop up again and again; the puzzles get more fun with each new book. people who write VN off as a manipulative grump unburdened by human emotions (i've heard this complaint, or ones like it, several times) must not be reading the same books as me.
The Annotated Lolita is amazing. The games that man played with language and meaning are astounding. I certainly needed a guide to find them, let alone understand them.
Just finished up Michael Chabon's The Yiddish Policeman's Uniform. His ability to blend genre and literature so effortlessly never fails to impress me. I loved the little glimpses into the alternate history of the book, too (for example, the main character's favorite movie is Orson Welles's version of Heart of Darkness). I will say that it kind of stalled out right before the big reveal of the mystery that started the book but it coasted into a satisfying ending.
Speaking of alternate-universe Jews, I polished off Philip Roth's The Plot Against America in two days. What an awesome read. Now I am on to Confessions of an Economic Hit Man, which is OK but not great.
I am reading Sherlock Holmes for the first time, which is a trip. Next up is David Dark's The Sacredness of Questioning Everything. I love the premise, but I hope the writing style is less clumsy than the title.
I really love how casual Sherlock Holmes is about his cocaine use. He's just like "I'm bored so I do coke".
The new Kasper Hauser books, Obama's Blackberry and Weddings of the Times, are very funny.
Just started reading Blood Meridian, looking forward to all the bloodshed everyone keeps warning me about.
Hammett's The Thin Man. It's my first crack at his stuff and he's much funnier than I would have guessed. Though on the surface the style is very simple and direct, it's so compact that it took me a few hours of slogging before I finally got the hang of it.
'She was small and blonde, and whether you looked at her face or at her body in powder-blue sports clothes, the result was satisfactory.'
The new Kasper Hauser books, Obama's Blackberry and Weddings of the Times, are very funny.
Just started reading Blood Meridian, looking forward to all the bloodshed everyone keeps warning me about.
There are Kasper Hauser books? Besides SkyMaul(?) I mean?
Hammett's The Thin Man. It's my first crack at his stuff and he's much funnier than I would have guessed. Though on the surface the style is very simple and direct, it's so compact that it took me a few hours of slogging before I finally got the hang of it.
'She was small and blonde, and whether you looked at her face or at her body in powder-blue sports clothes, the result was satisfactory.'
While Hammett generally has a wit in his work, don't expect the funny in his other works like there is in The Thin Man. But I highly recommend Red Harvest.
Hammett's The Thin Man. It's my first crack at his stuff and he's much funnier than I would have guessed. Though on the surface the style is very simple and direct, it's so compact that it took me a few hours of slogging before I finally got the hang of it.
'She was small and blonde, and whether you looked at her face or at her body in powder-blue sports clothes, the result was satisfactory.'
While Hammett generally has a wit in his work, don't expect the funny in his other works like there is in The Thin Man. But I highly recommend Red Harvest.
Red Harvest is the only one of his books I've finished so far, but it's really great. I'm curious to read The Thin Man, Maltese Falcon, etc. because I'm so familiar with their movie adaptations I'm wondering if I'll like the stories more.
Just finished:
Jitterbug Perfume - Tom Robbins
Starting:
Water for Elephants - Sara Gruen
In the middle of:
Infinite Jest - David Foster Wallace
The Stranger - Albert Camus
I just finished Nick Tosches's HELLFIRE last week. Holy moley, what a terrific book.
I got three more Tosches books from the library: THE DEVIL AND SONNY LISTON, KING OF THE JEWS and POWER ON EARTH. I will be reading them in that order (though I might move KING OF THE JEWS to the front of the line, since I suspect it's a biography of me).
Just finished:
Jitterbug Perfume - Tom Robbins
Starting:
Water for Elephants - Sara Gruen
In the middle of:
Infinite Jest - David Foster Wallace
The Stranger - Albert Camus
So you're a simultaneous reader? Me too. When I was younger I used to sometimes have six or seven on the go at once, but now it's more like three. Even now, though, a book will occasionally fall off my radar and I'll find it in a bedside table drawer months later, half-read.
I have a problem w/ simultaneous/parallel reading, too.
It only got worse when I got a kindle. I don't think I'll ever finish a book again, although I do still plow through graphic novels.
Just finished:
Jitterbug Perfume - Tom Robbins
Starting:
Water for Elephants - Sara Gruen
In the middle of:
Infinite Jest - David Foster Wallace
The Stranger - Albert Camus
So you're a simultaneous reader? Me too. When I was younger I used to sometimes have six or seven on the go at once, but now it's more like three. Even now, though, a book will occasionally fall off my radar and I'll find it in a bedside table drawer months later, half-read.
I just finished Nick Tosches's HELLFIRE last week. Holy moley, what a terrific book.
I just finished The Angel Riots by Ibi Kaslik and I'm feeling really really disappointed. Like, way more than I should be. All the reviews and profiles I'd read before the book were really complimentary, plus I keep hearing all about how great she is and the book was nominated for a Trillium prize and everyone I know who's met her says she is scary nice, so. The whole book was just super melodramatic and kind of humourless and overwritten and I had a ton of problems with it and I probably should not care so much, blah blah blah.
Mick Foley's Tietam Brown. It's... OK. Funny at times in a manic kind of way, but it feels like a YA novel with a lot of graphic sex thrown in. It received a surprising amount of serious critical praise when it came out, and the author used to be a pro wrestler who went by the name Mankind (pretty famous I think), so I was intrigued enough to give his first novel a try. Now I think a lot of the praise came out of the critics' surprise that this guy knows how to put a sentence together.
I've been subbing in all the Choose Your Own Adventures I never read as a kid. Thanks, eBay!
I've been subbing in all the Choose Your Own Adventures I never read as a kid. Thanks, eBay!
I've been subbing in all the Choose Your Own Adventures I never read as a kid. Thanks, eBay!
This should definitely be the next review thread on the board. But only if you have a copy of either Vampire Express or Space Vampire, which were the high points of the series. This had nothing to do with them being about vampires, by the way. That was just a coincidence.
If nothing else, I think we should at least have a "best Choose Your Own Advenutre cover" thread.
I've been subbing in all the Choose Your Own Adventures I never read as a kid. Thanks, eBay!
This should definitely be the next review thread on the board. But only if you have a copy of either Vampire Express or Space Vampire, which were the high points of the series. This had nothing to do with them being about vampires, by the way. That was just a coincidence.
If nothing else, I think we should at least have a "best Choose Your Own Adventure cover" thread.
I have copies of every single effing one, Wes(ley). And all the Time Machine books AND the D&D Endless Quest books. I went a little nuts in the early days of eBay. After I paid $50 for a Nerf Golf set from 1984 I had to let it go for awhile.
I've been subbing in all the Choose Your Own Adventures I never read as a kid. Thanks, eBay!
This should definitely be the next review thread on the board. But only if you have a copy of either Vampire Express or Space Vampire, which were the high points of the series. This had nothing to do with them being about vampires, by the way. That was just a coincidence.
If nothing else, I think we should at least have a "best Choose Your Own Advenutre cover" thread.
I have copies of every single effing one, Wes(ley). And all the Time Machine books AND the D&D Endless Quest books. I went a little nuts in the early days of eBay. After I paid $50 for a Nerf Golf set from 1984 I had to let it go for awhile.
I've been subbing in all the Choose Your Own Adventures I never read as a kid. Thanks, eBay!
This should definitely be the next review thread on the board. But only if you have a copy of either Vampire Express or Space Vampire, which were the high points of the series. This had nothing to do with them being about vampires, by the way. That was just a coincidence.
If nothing else, I think we should at least have a "best Choose Your Own Adventure cover" thread.
I have copies of every single effing one, Wes(ley). And all the Time Machine books AND the D&D Endless Quest books. I went a little nuts in the early days of eBay. After I paid $50 for a Nerf Golf set from 1984 I had to let it go for awhile.
Did you get any of the Wizards, Warriors & You books? I remember them being the finest of the choose your own adventure style books. I was always the Warrior, though, because the Wizard was kind of a douche.
This site (http://www.gamebooks.org/show_series_images.php?id=30) has covers of the whole CYOA series, including the shitty reissue covers and Australian variant covers. I think the spinoff thread needs to happen now. Also, I never knew there was a sequel to Space Vampire. Now I know why my life has felt empty all these years.
Trudging through "The Gulag Archipelago" by Aleksandr Solzhenitsyn. I just started chapter 3 (aka pg 93).
Reading Red Harvest by Dashiell Hammett. Cool book. I think it was the inspiration for Yojimbo/Fist Full of Dollars ect.
I'm for that.
Finished the Greek plays, now onto Obama's Dreams From My Father. So far it's as good as everyone says it is.
Yeah, I'm not going anywhere near Audacity of Hope. That's more like an actual politician book. I don't know that Dreams From My Father could have come out once Obama started running for major office.
I have a vague memory of reading that Agnew gag in MAD 400 years ago. Was it a real book, too?
I have a vague memory of reading that Agnew gag in MAD 400 years ago. Was it a real book, too?
Starting Remainder by Tom McCarthy. Anyone read it?
I'm on Bookmooch.
I read the first 30 pages last night. I didn't care for any of the text on those pages.
If you haven't joined already, these are great:
http://www.librarything.com/ (http://www.librarything.com/)
http://www.paperbackswap.com (http://www.paperbackswap.com)
I read the first 30 pages last night. I didn't care for any of the text on those pages.
Is it not so good, then? I was wondering ...
Based on these pages, I would recommend avoiding the book. The stuff I read included a staggeringly unfunny preface about not wanting to write the book, and a few short chapters featuring "rants" that were also not funny or remotely insightful. One of these rants was a bizarre attack on cops that seemed better suited to the first Body Count record. Cross is also not a fan of fat and/or lazy people.
David Cross is good on TV shows. But his comedy routines make me want to pour poison into the porches of my ears.
Nathan Rabin, who wrote this article http://www.avclub.com/articles/portraits-of-awesomeness-3-scharpling-wurster,8635/ (http://www.avclub.com/articles/portraits-of-awesomeness-3-scharpling-wurster,8635/) has a new book out called "The Big Rewind."That just came from Amazon! I haven't started it yet.
From what I've read I'd highly recommend it.
If you want something "different", heady, gritty but still accessible..
The Raw Shark Texts by Steven Hall changed my reading forever. I can't appreciate a work of fiction anymore because this was so good, and everything else is weak to me. You've been warned.
http://www.amazon.ca/Raw-Shark-Texts-Steven-Hall/dp/0002008408
The religious aspect may turn you off, but that's a shame, because this
(http://i231.photobucket.com/albums/ee183/gaughin/41t4rn-RhDL_SL500_AA240_.jpg)
is fan-fucking-tastic.
Trudging through "The Gulag Archipelago" by Aleksandr Solzhenitsyn. I just started chapter 3 (aka pg 93).
It would be awesome if this was a choose your own adventure book.
Read Camus's The Stranger for the first time. On to The Metamorphosis, also for the first time. I guess it's a classic existentialist kind of week.
I'm reading a Leni Reifenstahl bio. God she was loony tunes.Ever see the movie? That chick had nice legs.
I'm working, slowly, through City of Quartz, Mike Davis' scalding, Marxist history of Los Angeles. It's a bit old, but very thought provoking and explains the the strange malaise and lack of culture that made growing up and living here stressful and depressing for me.
http://www.versobooks.com/books/cdef/d-titles/davis_m_city_of_quartz.shtml
I'm reading a Leni Reifenstahl bio. God she was loony tunes.Ever see the movie? That chick had nice legs.
(http://i705.photobucket.com/albums/ww57/afamilyofturtles/lenireifensthal.jpg)
I started "Lolita" two days ago.
We'll see if all the fuss about Vladdy is justified. Oh, yes, we will see.
I'm reading a Leni Reifenstahl bio. God she was loony tunes.Ever see the movie? That chick had nice legs.
(http://i705.photobucket.com/albums/ww57/afamilyofturtles/lenireifensthal.jpg)
Sure have. I've got a weird obsession w/her.
I have been saving the latest Hodgman book for my vacation. Which starts tomorrow. No, I am not braggin'. But I am REALLY looking forward to it. His first was so much fun. I think the biggest laugh in the first book was when I was reading the "700 Hobos" part, reading all these great hobo names and then arriving at the hobo name of Terry Gross (http://www.e-hobo.com/hoboes/i/65282424).
Goddamn that's funny.
I have been saving the latest Hodgman book for my vacation. Which starts tomorrow. No, I am not braggin'. But I am REALLY looking forward to it. His first was so much fun. I think the biggest laugh in the first book was when I was reading the "700 Hobos" part, reading all these great hobo names and then arriving at the hobo name of Terry Gross (http://www.e-hobo.com/hoboes/i/65282424).
Goddamn that's funny.
I'm reading a Leni Reifenstahl bio. God she was loony tunes.Ever see the movie? That chick had nice legs.
(http://i705.photobucket.com/albums/ww57/afamilyofturtles/lenireifensthal.jpg)
Sure have. I've got a weird obsession w/her.
It has to be said, Triumph of the Will is an amazing film. Breathtaking and inspiring. Inspiring for evil, but she could direct the hell outta shit.
If you want something "different", heady, gritty but still accessible..
The Raw Shark Texts by Steven Hall changed my reading forever. I can't appreciate a work of fiction anymore because this was so good, and everything else is weak to me. You've been warned.
http://www.amazon.ca/Raw-Shark-Texts-Steven-Hall/dp/0002008408
This is a WATCHMEN spin-off, I take it? One of the detectives' diaries or something like that?
I picked up some books yesterday: Don DeLillo's UNDERWORLD and Henry Miller's SEXUS and PLEXUS. And a couple of weeks before that, I picked up Richard Price's LUSH LIFE and a couple others, none of which I've touched since. I'm calling a moratorium on purchasing new books until I read every one I own that I haven't read. This should keep me busy for the next three years.
I may put off The Brothers Karamazov for the umpteenth time to catch up on some classic crime fiction, of which I've read unaccountably little beyond Chandler. Recommendations welcome.
I read Brief Interviews With Hideous Men for the first time on my vacation, and now I just keep reading it over and over again.
I tried to read something a librarian recommended to me (http://www.blackthenovel.moonfruit.com/#/the-hustle/4520851664), but it really really really really sucked so I just went back to DFW.
Currently reading Rushkoff's book, Life, Inc. It's a little bit of a slog, but pretty good. And I'm actually learning things, which is really saying something, considering I devour anti-corporate books like candy.
Currently reading Rushkoff's book, Life, Inc. It's a little bit of a slog, but pretty good. And I'm actually learning things, which is really saying something, considering I devour anti-corporate books like candy.
I'm going to read some anti-academic books to balance the score.
Currently reading Rushkoff's book, Life, Inc. It's a little bit of a slog, but pretty good. And I'm actually learning things, which is really saying something, considering I devour anti-corporate books like candy.
I'm going to read some anti-academic books to balance the score.
Are there even such things? I don't think Allan Bloom counts. I think I'd totally be into them if there were, academia sucks.
Also, sorry if you're a corporation, Buffcoat. I thought you were a single dude.
I can't help noticing all the women the protaganist wants do look kind of like Scarlet Johanssen.
I can't help noticing all the women the protaganist wants do look kind of like Scarlet Johanssen.
What a weirdo!
I can't help noticing all the women the protaganist wants do look kind of like Scarlet Johanssen.
What a weirdo!
Clowes or me?
Currently reading Rushkoff's book, Life, Inc. It's a little bit of a slog, but pretty good. And I'm actually learning things, which is really saying something, considering I devour anti-corporate books like candy.
I'm going to read some anti-academic books to balance the score.
Are there even such things? I don't think Allan Bloom counts. I think I'd totally be into them if there were, academia sucks.
Also, sorry if you're a corporation, Buffcoat. I thought you were a single dude.
I can't help noticing all the women the protaganist wants do look kind of like Scarlet Johanssen.
What a weirdo!
Clowes or me?
Both of you, probably. But I was just making a dumb joke, trying to be ironic - you know, saying that someone would have to be a real weirdo to be attracted to the Scarlett Johansen type.
My daughter talked me into reading "The Giver", a Newbery winner; it's written at about an eighth grade level, but it describes a fairly inventive dystopian world. Very entertaining!
'The Russian Debutante's Handbook' by Gary Shteyngart. I liked 'Absurdistan', and so far I like this.
My daughter talked me into reading "The Giver", a Newbery winner; it's written at about an eighth grade level, but it describes a fairly inventive dystopian world. Very entertaining!
Try Flannery O'Connor if you haven't or haven't in awhile.
My daughter talked me into reading "The Giver", a Newbery winner; it's written at about an eighth grade level, but it describes a fairly inventive dystopian world. Very entertaining!
I suspect that a lot of the public schools in NJ assign this, as every semester I have to deny 3 or 4 students' proposals to write papers on it.
About a month ago, in a used bookstore in DC, I found a copy of Robert A. Heinlein's 1980 novel The Number of The Beast, which I read and liked when I was 11. It is the worst piece of shit I have ever read. I got about 150 pages in, thinking I could find whatever I liked about it as a kid (probably just parallel universes and descriptions of boobs), and eventually got so outraged that I tore the goddamn thing in half.
I just started it, but Pynchon's Inherent Vice is a lot of fun.
I just started it, but Pynchon's Inherent Vice is a lot of fun.
Yeah, I'm someone who's given up on Gravity's Rainbow twice but I'm 40-some pages into this and already really enjoying it. I'm getting Big Lebowski vibes off of it.
I loved The Crying of Lot 49 and have since started and put down every other of his novels, finding them either incpmprehensible or boring. I'll take a look at his new one. What do you mean by Big Leibowski vibes?
I'm currently reading The Crying of Lot 49 since I thought it might function as a Pynchon gateway and so far it's delivering.
About a month ago, in a used bookstore in DC, I found a copy of Robert A. Heinlein's 1980 novel The Number of The Beast, which I read and liked when I was 11. It is the worst piece of shit I have ever read. I got about 150 pages in, thinking I could find whatever I liked about it as a kid (probably just parallel universes and descriptions of boobs), and eventually got so outraged that I tore the goddamn thing in half.
I just had sorta similar experience reading through Naked Lunch for the first time. That is, I feel like if I had read it in grade school my mind would have been completely blown. But as an adult who is not that impressed with constant aimless descriptions of sexual torture and ejaculation, my verdict is: BAN IT AGAIN.
On the positive side, I'm reading Jerzy Kosinski's The Painted Bird right now and really enjoying it.
I think you don't readNaked LunchBurroughs so much as you turn the pages, mimicking the act of reading. It's really the only way to get through it.
Do comics count for this thread?I would think so, since the thread title is Favorite Books/Currently Reading. Comics would fall into the "currently reading", so I would say you're safe. There are comic threads, though.
Do comics count for this thread?Yes, and so do lifestyle magazines.
My two favorite parts of Gravity's Rainbow:
The Disgusting English Candy Drill (http://foner.www.media.mit.edu/people/foner/Fun/gravity.html)
The Story of Byron the Bulb (http://www.cse.psu.edu/~dhking/byron.html)
It's been quite a while since I read The Crying of Lot 49 but I don't remember enjoying it that much. The only previous Pynchon book I read with enjoyment was Vineland and that's considered one of his worst. Gravity's Rainbow was over my head and Mason and Dixon wore me down (even though it contained some very good bits).
V will probably take you like 3-4 months, but I think it's worth it. It's the first Pynchon I ever attempted, and I thought it was a lot of fun, and totally surprising.
Do comics count for this thread?
Do comics count for this thread?
Just call them graphic novels. I read Night Fisher the other night, also Ghost of Hoppers.
I was just living my life at the time, but it's a big book and kind of impossible to read quickly. Though on the other hand, it's written in a way where it's kind of impossible to follow everything that's going on, so maybe you won't miss much by skimming. I think it would be OK to read during school as long as you didn't have to do a lot of reading for class and such.
Do comics count for this thread?
Just call them graphic novels. I read Night Fisher the other night, also Ghost of Hoppers.
Do comics count for this thread?
Just call them graphic novels. I read Night Fisher the other night, also Ghost of Hoppers.
In that case I'm reading about 5 graphic novels a week.
I'm reading the new Nick Hornby, 'Juliet, Naked', and I have to say, it's pretty ace.
What NEW books are you guys looking forward to reading?
What NEW books are you guys looking forward to reading?
Are they actually graphic novels or do you mean monthly comic books (or just collected trades or HCs)? Whatever the case, what are you reading and what do you think about them?
-Haruki Murakami's 1Q84 - It got rave reviews in Japan, but no English translation has been announced yet.
-Jonathan Lethem's CHRONIC CITY - I'm a big Lethem fan. September.
-Dave Eggers's THE WILD THINGS - A long novel adaptation to go along with the upcoming movie he co-wrote. He's said that the novel is more his story and the movie is more Spike Jonze's. I can't wait for either. (Eggers also just released ZEITOUN, a nonfiction book about a Syrian man in New Orleans during and after Katrina; that was pretty good)
Jonathan Lethem is awesome.
I have a bad habit of buying books as soon as they come out and holding onto them for years. Here's an example: I bought a full-price copy of Simon Reynolds' Rip It Up And Start Again in 2005, still hadn't read it when I saw it half-price at Powell's in 2007, and finally got around to reading it a couple of months ago.
Do the FOT like Paul Auster? I'm a big fan of city of glass.I read Man in the Dark by Paul Auster and really dug the first hundred pages but thought it ended very weakly.
I am reading 'Youth in Revolt' - it's pretty okay, but I feel a little too old for it. Some funny bits.
I am reading Stanislaw Lem's "Mortal Engines", but I am NOT a nerd!
Finished Frankenstein last night. Read it for my Victorian Monsters senior seminar class but it was on my pile of books to read anyway. Not too bad. Has the bad Victorian habit of giving nearly every character a deep back story and using a lot of exclamation points when they speak. I was a bit thrown off by how much and how eloquently the creature spoke. But worth a read.
I'm now on to Mingering Mike, a book which I received from our own Chris L as my Secret Santa present last year. Interesting stuff - here's an intro (http://www.nytimes.com/2004/02/02/arts/music/02MIKE.html?ex=1178856000&en=ca85ca04a5c8cd1d&ei=5070) if you don't know the saga.
Do the FOT like Paul Auster? I'm a big fan of city of glass.
Do the FOT like Paul Auster? I'm a big fan of city of glass.
City of Glass is phenomenal. I'm also a fan of the movie he did, Smoke although it's obviously not in the same league.
I just finished The Crying of Lot 49, and I liked it, but man, if that's his most accessible book... hoo boy!
I am reading Stanislaw Lem's "Mortal Engines", but I am NOT a nerd!
I read Solaris a long time ago. Pretty mind-altering stuff!
I am reading Stanislaw Lem's "Mortal Engines", but I am NOT a nerd!
I read Solaris a long time ago. Pretty mind-altering stuff!
The movie (Tartovsky one) is not too shabby, either.
I am reading Stanislaw Lem's "Mortal Engines", but I am NOT a nerd!
I read Solaris a long time ago. Pretty mind-altering stuff!
The movie (Tartovsky one) is not too shabby, either.
Ha! Me and a friend were just discussing the differences between the book and the Tarkovsky film. Weird.
And nerdy.
Let The Right One In. It's pretty damned impressive.
Do the FOT like Paul Auster? I'm a big fan of city of glass.
City of Glass is phenomenal. I'm also a fan of the movie he did, Smoke although it's obviously not in the same league.
I liked City of Glass, too. I liked David Mazzuchelli's comic book adaptation even better though. The rest of Auster's books haven't done much for me.
I heard Flann O'Brien's 'The Third Policeman' is an incredible book, so I picked it up at the library.
IamBaronVonTito highly recommends the book, also.
I like it so far.
(http://ebookstore.sony.com/comingsoon/i-drink-for-a-reason/image_s4.jpg)
I like it so far.
(http://ebookstore.sony.com/comingsoon/i-drink-for-a-reason/image_s4.jpg)
Really? I think this is one of the worst books ever written. As @clarencethomas might say, Cross needs to ZIP IT!
Comedians don't exactly have a great track record in the book department. I liked Woody Allen's book OK, but otherwise I am really wracking my brain trying to think of a comedian's book where I could read more than 3 pages at a time.I like all of Chris Elliott's books. Born Standing up by Steve Martin is good too.I like it so far.
(http://ebookstore.sony.com/comingsoon/i-drink-for-a-reason/image_s4.jpg)
Really? I think this is one of the worst books ever written. As @clarencethomas might say, Cross needs to ZIP IT!
Comedians don't exactly have a great track record in the book department. I liked Woody Allen's book OK, but otherwise I am really wracking my brain trying to think of a comedian's book where I could read more than 3 pages at a time.I like all of Chris Elliott's books. Born Standing up by Steve Martin is good too.I like it so far.
(http://ebookstore.sony.com/comingsoon/i-drink-for-a-reason/image_s4.jpg)
Really? I think this is one of the worst books ever written. As @clarencethomas might say, Cross needs to ZIP IT!
O4L: I've been listening to the audiobook, and there are some nice touches on there. Les Savy Fav perform the list of quirks for an indie filmmaker, and the intro is read by old chum H. Jon Benjamin. I've heard that there are a lot of spelling/grammar mistakes in the printed edition, I'm spared from those on the audio, which is nice. It's definitely uneven - but I liked sections of it a lot. The scrapbooking expose was funny, but the character stuff, even as Kenny Dupree, isn't. I'm about halfway in so far, more full appraisal to follow. REMAIN ON TENTERHOOKS.
I like it so far.
(http://ebookstore.sony.com/comingsoon/i-drink-for-a-reason/image_s4.jpg)
Really? I think this is one of the worst books ever written. As @clarencethomas might say, Cross needs to ZIP IT!
Comedians don't exactly have a great track record in the book department. I liked Woody Allen's book OK, but otherwise I am really wracking my brain trying to think of a comedian's book where I could read more than 3 pages at a time.I like all of Chris Elliott's books. Born Standing up by Steve Martin is good too.I like it so far.
(http://ebookstore.sony.com/comingsoon/i-drink-for-a-reason/image_s4.jpg)
Really? I think this is one of the worst books ever written. As @clarencethomas might say, Cross needs to ZIP IT!
OK, I can see Cruel Shoes - can check out Born Standing Up. I hadn't seen or heard of Chris Elliott's books, but being a fan of his from the Letterman days on, I'll look for them.Comedians don't exactly have a great track record in the book department. I liked Woody Allen's book OK, but otherwise I am really wracking my brain trying to think of a comedian's book where I could read more than 3 pages at a time.I like all of Chris Elliott's books. Born Standing up by Steve Martin is good too.I like it so far.
(http://ebookstore.sony.com/comingsoon/i-drink-for-a-reason/image_s4.jpg)
Really? I think this is one of the worst books ever written. As @clarencethomas might say, Cross needs to ZIP IT!
Chris Elliott's books are insanely silly. They are pretty much weird reworks of history with him being involved or past family members being involved somehow. The ones I've read are "The Shroud of the Thwacker" which is a parody of Jack The Ripper. He has a great funny role for Teddy Roosevelt and just a perfectly hilarious view on what the 1880s in New York was like.
Into Hot Air is about his climb to Mount Everest with the likes of Michael Moore and Tony Danza. It's a hilarious book and like I said before, they're both silly and very absurd.OK, I can see Cruel Shoes - can check out Born Standing Up. I hadn't seen or heard of Chris Elliott's books, but being a fan of his from the Letterman days on, I'll look for them.Comedians don't exactly have a great track record in the book department. I liked Woody Allen's book OK, but otherwise I am really wracking my brain trying to think of a comedian's book where I could read more than 3 pages at a time.I like all of Chris Elliott's books. Born Standing up by Steve Martin is good too.I like it so far.
(http://ebookstore.sony.com/comingsoon/i-drink-for-a-reason/image_s4.jpg)
Really? I think this is one of the worst books ever written. As @clarencethomas might say, Cross needs to ZIP IT!
I saw him at the Brooklyn Book Festival but chickened out and didn't talk to him. He seemed to perk up a little bit at my WFMU shirt, too - I know he likes the station.
. . it seems like everyone on this board would be a huge fan of "The Brief Wondrous Life of Oscar Wao" if you haven't read it already.
Interested in metaphors comparing Trujillo's Dominican dictatorship to the rise of Sauron? With a protagonist that has a body like Ignatius in "Confederacy of Dunces," the teenage angst of Holden Caulfied, and the comic book love of a Patton Oswalt?
Seriously one of the best books I've ever read, although it's quite sad so I can't get up the gumption to read it again yet. "Confederacy of Dunces" also might be one of my most favorite books ever.
Oh god, I attend one Gathering of the FOT and now find myself crawling into even the non-Best Show related threads... :p
I couldn't slog through all 64 pages of this so apologies if this book has already been mentioned. But it seems like everyone on this board would be a huge fan of "The Brief Wondrous Life of Oscar Wao" if you haven't read it already.
Interested in metaphors comparing Trujillo's Dominican dictatorship to the rise of Sauron? With a protagonist that has a body like Ignatius in "Confederacy of Dunces," the teenage angst of Holden Caulfied, and the comic book love of a Patton Oswalt?
Seriously one of the best books I've ever read, although it's quite sad so I can't get up the gumption to read it again yet. "Confederacy of Dunces" also might be one of my most favorite books ever.
Fully entrenched in Cormac McCarthy's Child of God. Of the four I've read, it's the most blatantly Faulknerian, but it's also the most pleasurable to read. It's nasty and horrific, of course, but kinda fun.
Did I just call Cormac McCarthy "fun"? I think AP Mike may've spiked my pizza last week.
Fully entrenched in Cormac McCarthy's Child of God. Of the four I've read, it's the most blatantly Faulknerian, but it's also the most pleasurable to read. It's nasty and horrific, of course, but kinda fun.
Did I just call Cormac McCarthy "fun"? I think AP Mike may've spiked my pizza last week.
It's the only Cormac McCarthy book I've read yet, and I loved it. I couldn't get through "All the Pretty Horses" (an Imus favorite, by the way--my dad's a big fan of the I-Man).
I want to give The Road a shot, but I'm steeling up the courage.
After Patton Oswalt's Italo Calvino reference during his last appearance on the show, I asked for a recommendation. He suggested Invisible Cities which I'm just about done with (it's a very fast read). Strange and wonderful stuff (I recommend the William Weaver translation). Similar in some ways to Jorge Borges who I like very much.
The one to prepare for is Blood Meridian. It was so unpleasant that I'm not sure whether or not I liked it.
After Patton Oswalt's Italo Calvino reference during his last appearance on the show, I asked for a recommendation. He suggested Invisible Cities which I'm just about done with (it's a very fast read). Strange and wonderful stuff (I recommend the William Weaver translation). Similar in some ways to Jorge Borges who I like very much.
I actually just picked up some Borges (Ficciones) at a used book sale. For some reason, I'm intimidated by it. Is this a good place to start with him? Is my apprehension warranted at all?
Similar in some ways to Jorge Borgeswhowhom I like very much.
By the way, I'm currently reading The Braindead Megaphone by George Saunders. I'd read Pastoralia prior to this, but this is a collection of his non-fiction. I'm pretty early on in it, but it's very readable and enjoyable so far.
No excuse not to read Borges. He's written a small handful of easily readable short stories. Some essays, some poems. Read that mofo.
By the way, I'm currently reading The Braindead Megaphone by George Saunders. I'd read Pastoralia prior to this, but this is a collection of his non-fiction. I'm pretty early on in it, but it's very readable and enjoyable so far.
The Braindead Megaphone is great! I haven't actually read any other of his books- I should get on that. Recommendations, anyone?
I'm reading Malcolm Gladwell right now. I just finished "Outliers" and "The Tipping Point" before that. Reading "Blink" right now. Pretty much my favorite author right now.I LOVED Tipping Point and Blink. Haven't read Outliers yet. Blink changed the way I thought about people, I guess I mean to say it made me rethink my first impressions.
By the way, I'm currently reading The Braindead Megaphone by George Saunders. I'd read Pastoralia prior to this, but this is a collection of his non-fiction. I'm pretty early on in it, but it's very readable and enjoyable so far.
The Braindead Megaphone is great! I haven't actually read any other of his books- I should get on that. Recommendations, anyone?
Oh boy, I love his short fiction. I would start with Civilwarland in Bad Decline, but Pastoralia is great too. Here's my obligatory annual nod to Jesse Thorpe for introducing me to Saunders via the Soil of Young America.
The future where humans interact with space lizards.
This is a pretty routine point, but I get the same kind of pleasure from reading Borges (or Calvino to a lesser extent) as I get from really good sci-fi. The way they just take some weird idea and run with it. Bad sci-fi authors write about dumb ideas poorly, and of course some sci-fi is just adventure stories in space.
Where Borges seems to take his ideas from history, literature, theology, and philosophy, your Iain Banks takes his from science. (Social science is included in here are the best sci-fi always has visions of weird societies. Ken MacLeod is great at projecting things like left libertarianism into the future where humans interact with space lizards.)
Oh god, I attend one Gathering of the FOT and now find myself crawling into even the non-Best Show related threads... :p
I couldn't slog through all 64 pages of this so apologies if this book has already been mentioned. But it seems like everyone on this board would be a huge fan of "The Brief Wondrous Life of Oscar Wao" if you haven't read it already.
Interested in metaphors comparing Trujillo's Dominican dictatorship to the rise of Sauron? With a protagonist that has a body like Ignatius in "Confederacy of Dunces," the teenage angst of Holden Caulfied, and the comic book love of a Patton Oswalt?
Seriously one of the best books I've ever read, although it's quite sad so I can't get up the gumption to read it again yet. "Confederacy of Dunces" also might be one of my most favorite books ever.
Fully entrenched in Cormac McCarthy's Child of God. Of the four I've read, it's the most blatantly Faulknerian, but it's also the most pleasurable to read. It's nasty and horrific, of course, but kinda fun.
Did I just call Cormac McCarthy "fun"? I think AP Mike may've spiked my pizza last week.
It's the only Cormac McCarthy book I've read yet, and I loved it. I couldn't get through "All the Pretty Horses" (an Imus favorite, by the way--my dad's a big fan of the I-Man).
I want to give The Road a shot, but I'm steeling up the courage.
The Road is actually a very easy read. You can probably make it through in a day or two. The one to prepare for is Blood Meridian. It was so unpleasant that I'm not sure whether or not I liked it.
No Country For Old Men is good but kind of unnecessary if you've seen the movie since they are almost identical. I haven't tried with any of the Border Trilogy since I've been warned away more than once.
Oh god, I attend one Gathering of the FOT and now find myself crawling into even the non-Best Show related threads... :p
I couldn't slog through all 64 pages of this so apologies if this book has already been mentioned. But it seems like everyone on this board would be a huge fan of "The Brief Wondrous Life of Oscar Wao" if you haven't read it already.
Interested in metaphors comparing Trujillo's Dominican dictatorship to the rise of Sauron? With a protagonist that has a body like Ignatius in "Confederacy of Dunces," the teenage angst of Holden Caulfied, and the comic book love of a Patton Oswalt?
Seriously one of the best books I've ever read, although it's quite sad so I can't get up the gumption to read it again yet. "Confederacy of Dunces" also might be one of my most favorite books ever.
I liked OSCAR WAO. I was led to believe one of my classes this semester had the book on the syllabus, but it doesn't. I have a decent Spanish vocabulary, but I wonder how people with no background would fare with the random words thrown in there. Obviously context helps a lot for the most part, but I remember thinking to myself at random times that even with context, somebody that hadn't taken a Spanish class would probably not understand this sentence, sometimes paragraph if the word was important.Fully entrenched in Cormac McCarthy's Child of God. Of the four I've read, it's the most blatantly Faulknerian, but it's also the most pleasurable to read. It's nasty and horrific, of course, but kinda fun.
Did I just call Cormac McCarthy "fun"? I think AP Mike may've spiked my pizza last week.
It's the only Cormac McCarthy book I've read yet, and I loved it. I couldn't get through "All the Pretty Horses" (an Imus favorite, by the way--my dad's a big fan of the I-Man).
I want to give The Road a shot, but I'm steeling up the courage.
The Road is actually a very easy read. You can probably make it through in a day or two. The one to prepare for is Blood Meridian. It was so unpleasant that I'm not sure whether or not I liked it.
No Country For Old Men is good but kind of unnecessary if you've seen the movie since they are almost identical. I haven't tried with any of the Border Trilogy since I've been warned away more than once.
Haha damn. I was planning on running through a lot of McCarthy this summer and decided on starting with BLOOD MERIDIAN. What little I read was very unpleasant for me. I got 25-30 pages in and decided I'd rather read something else, and then never went back to McCarthy over the summer. So THE ROAD is a good starting point?
I'm reading Malcolm Gladwell right now. I just finished "Outliers" and "The Tipping Point" before that. Reading "Blink" right now. Pretty much my favorite author right now.I LOVED Tipping Point and Blink. Haven't read Outliers yet. Blink changed the way I thought about people, I guess I mean to say it made me rethink my first impressions.
Oh god, I attend one Gathering of the FOT and now find myself crawling into even the non-Best Show related threads... :p
I couldn't slog through all 64 pages of this so apologies if this book has already been mentioned. But it seems like everyone on this board would be a huge fan of "The Brief Wondrous Life of Oscar Wao" if you haven't read it already.
Interested in metaphors comparing Trujillo's Dominican dictatorship to the rise of Sauron? With a protagonist that has a body like Ignatius in "Confederacy of Dunces," the teenage angst of Holden Caulfied, and the comic book love of a Patton Oswalt?
Seriously one of the best books I've ever read, although it's quite sad so I can't get up the gumption to read it again yet. "Confederacy of Dunces" also might be one of my most favorite books ever.
I liked OSCAR WAO. I was led to believe one of my classes this semester had the book on the syllabus, but it doesn't. I have a decent Spanish vocabulary, but I wonder how people with no background would fare with the random words thrown in there. Obviously context helps a lot for the most part, but I remember thinking to myself at random times that even with context, somebody that hadn't taken a Spanish class would probably not understand this sentence, sometimes paragraph if the word was important.Fully entrenched in Cormac McCarthy's Child of God. Of the four I've read, it's the most blatantly Faulknerian, but it's also the most pleasurable to read. It's nasty and horrific, of course, but kinda fun.
Did I just call Cormac McCarthy "fun"? I think AP Mike may've spiked my pizza last week.
It's the only Cormac McCarthy book I've read yet, and I loved it. I couldn't get through "All the Pretty Horses" (an Imus favorite, by the way--my dad's a big fan of the I-Man).
I want to give The Road a shot, but I'm steeling up the courage.
The Road is actually a very easy read. You can probably make it through in a day or two. The one to prepare for is Blood Meridian. It was so unpleasant that I'm not sure whether or not I liked it.
No Country For Old Men is good but kind of unnecessary if you've seen the movie since they are almost identical. I haven't tried with any of the Border Trilogy since I've been warned away more than once.
Haha damn. I was planning on running through a lot of McCarthy this summer and decided on starting with BLOOD MERIDIAN. What little I read was very unpleasant for me. I got 25-30 pages in and decided I'd rather read something else, and then never went back to McCarthy over the summer. So THE ROAD is a good starting point?
I've been meaning to read some Gladwell, especially after his guest spot in Scary-Go-Round, but I'm lead to believe he's a little psuedosciencey. Should I check him out?
By unpleasant, I was talking much more about the prose and writing style itself rather than subject matter. I simply did not enjoy reading it. But if you guys just mean unpleasant subject matter, do McCarthy's other books read similarly?
I was going to sort of make fun of Gladwell but chickened out. Grote broke the ice. Honestly, though, he's okay if you consider his origins as a magazine writer, whose job is to hype whatever he's writing about. He takes research and blows it up beyond what the actual researchers who came up with it would ever do.
I haven't read Outliers, and, although it's obvious the fact that success owes a lot to luck and circumstance, and then to hard work second, strikes me as being very, very worth saying, in a day where people believe we have a "meritocracy" contrary to all the evidence. (#1 predictor of how you'll turn out in life is how rich your parents are, not your own "merit." Also, there is less social mobility in the US and Britain than continental Europe. I've met plenty of smart people who think that we have a nation where smart, energetic poor people do better in life than dumb rich lazy people.)
If you like modern "secret hidden truth of whatever" authors, I'd recommend "Predictably Irrational" by Dan Ariely and everything Nassim Nicholas Taleb has written.
I've met plenty of smart people who think that we have a nation where smart, energetic poor people do better in life than dumb rich lazy people.
I like the way Gladwell writes but at the end of anything I read from him I have to ask "so?".
"their are outliers". ok.
"some decisions are made instantaneously". fine.
"some other dude invented stuff at the SAME TIME". so?
There's never any closure. Just more questions.
The message of all these books is basically, "No one knows anything," which is a hard pill to swallow, even for a hardened cynic.
No it isn't.
Why do you say that?
The message of all these books is basically, "No one knows anything," which is a hard pill to swallow, even for a hardened cynic.
No it isn't.
What do you mean by "it" dhere, F. Ricks?
What do you mean by "it" here, F. Ricks?
I just finished Jennifer 8. Lee's "The Fortune Cookie Chronicles: Adventures In The World Of Chinese Food." I'd recommend it for anyone curious about how Chinese cuisine changed when it came to America. I like her writing style, and there's plenty of fun tidbits (the D.C. boardinghouse where John Wilkes Booth and his accomplices planned Abraham Lincoln's assassination is now a Chinese restaurant called Wok n Roll).
In an effort to catch up withe the rest of you well-read humps, I've started reading a collection of Lovecraft stories.
I'm very much enthralled with the Brooklyn of yesteryear. All overgrown swamps and graveyards. If he were a alive now he would re-write "The Lurking Fear" to be about coke withdrawl the day before a job interview at The Strand Bookstore.
I acquired 2 collections of Borges' stories. So far, so good.Library of Babel FOR THE WIN!
I'm thinking of reading James Ellroy's latest, "Blood's A Rover." I have enjoyed the four other books of his that I've read, but man does James Ellroy bug me in real life.
[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zCSGrwqIszk[/youtube]
In a Q&A about the book on the Facebook Ellroy fan page, he refers to the "Beethovian greatness" of the book. He also says, "Meticulousness, diligence, profoundly rigorous work habits all contributed to the greatness of this novel. During the odd moments that my super-human resolve faltered, I stared at the numerous portraits of Beethoven that adorn my pad."
I'm thinking of reading James Ellroy's latest, "Blood's A Rover." I have enjoyed the four other books of his that I've read, but man does James Ellroy bug me in real life.
[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zCSGrwqIszk[/youtube]
In a Q&A about the book on the Facebook Ellroy fan page, he refers to the "Beethovian greatness" of the book. He also says, "Meticulousness, diligence, profoundly rigorous work habits all contributed to the greatness of this novel. During the odd moments that my super-human resolve faltered, I stared at the numerous portraits of Beethoven that adorn my pad."
I know what you mean, but it's pretty clearly an affectation. It's part of a strutting, attitudinizing public persona. I think so, anyway. Anyway, I don't let it bother me any more than when Jerry Lee Lewis or Little Richard or Cassius Clay (you probably know him as Muhammad Ali) calls himself "the greatest."
I'm about 100 pages into Blood's a Rover. If you like the others you've read (especially if American Tabloid or The Cold Six Thousand are part of that list), I'd say check it out.
Thanks MOS. I've read The Black Dahlia, The Big Nowhere, L.A. Confidential, and American Tabloid. In other words, I've started but not finished two of his multi-book series.
You're probably right about Ellroy's public persona.
Thanks MOS. I've read The Black Dahlia, The Big Nowhere, L.A. Confidential, and American Tabloid. In other words, I've started but not finished two of his multi-book series.
You're probably right about Ellroy's public persona.
Yah me too - I read him early on but never got around to the series ... and RE his persona, did anyone read My Dark Places? From what I remember it's pretty much his explanation for why he is the way he is.
Reading A Farewell To Arms by Hemingway, about two-thirds through. I'm enjoying it, but some of the writing feels goofy and some of the dialogue, especially between the protagonist and the love interest, is cheesy.I am completely unable to differentiate A Farewell To Arms from The Sun Also Rises in my mind- I have the differences between the locations okay, but that's about it- and I can never remember the titles. It's probably because we read them back to back in high school.
Probably going into Cormac McCarthy's All The Pretty Horses after this, or maybe The Sun Also Rises.
I finally got an NY library card because, for the first time, I'm doing research for a project where I don't actually want to own the books (in this case, commercially successful "realistic" plays). The first one was Neil LaBute's Fat Pig, which was offensive to me not because it's sexist or fattist or whatever but because it's shockingly fucking incompetent and moronic. The second was Adam Rapp's Red Light Winter, which (aside from being deeply misogynistic, whereas Fat Pig just pretends to be) was actually a pretty good read.
Reading A Farewell To Arms by Hemingway, about two-thirds through. I'm enjoying it, but some of the writing feels goofy and some of the dialogue, especially between the protagonist and the love interest, is cheesy.
Probably going into Cormac McCarthy's All The Pretty Horses after this, or maybe The Sun Also Rises.
I just finished the David Cross audiobook which would have been like listening to his stand up without an audience and would have been fine but throughout the entire recording he constantly berated the listener for not buying the book (by the way, the audiobook was five dollars more than the hardcover). I understand that reading a book is better and cooler than listening to an audiobook but I work fifty hours a week (for a meager wage I might add) and have kids to raise when I get home so lately listening to audiobooks at work is really the only way I can "read". I like David Cross as a comedian and when he's in something besides the latest CGI kidfest movie I usually like him as an actor but does he just think that if your career and/or lifestyle doesn't permit one to read that they should just stay dumb?
I have a friend who loves comedy and also happens to be severely dyslexic. He bought Cross's book from audible, and he was so angry that he was berated for listening instead of reading. I think Mr. Cross might have lost two fans out of this.
You know, fans of alternative comedy are the last people I would expect to be offended by Mr Cross's politically insensitive anti-audiobook screed. In fact, given Cross's love of jokes that fold in on themselves, your reaction to this setup might be the punchline to his intentional joke that we wouldn't even know existed were it NOT for the discussion that follows this type or reaction.
Or something.
I just finished the David Cross audiobook which would have been like listening to his stand up without an audience and would have been fine but throughout the entire recording he constantly berated the listener for not buying the book (by the way, the audiobook was five dollars more than the hardcover). I understand that reading a book is better and cooler than listening to an audiobook but I work fifty hours a week (for a meager wage I might add) and have kids to raise when I get home so lately listening to audiobooks at work is really the only way I can "read". I like David Cross as a comedian and when he's in something besides the latest CGI kidfest movie I usually like him as an actor but does he just think that if your career and/or lifestyle doesn't permit one to read that they should just stay dumb?I have a friend who loves comedy and also happens to be severely dyslexic. He bought Cross's book from audible, and he was so angry that he was berated for listening instead of reading. I think Mr. Cross might have lost two fans out of this.
Yeah, that's messed up. How does he berate the listener? Just randomly interjecting that they should be reading? What else is changed from book to audiobook?
I use the Kindle (and Stanza) apps on my iPhone for convenient anywhere reading. I can't see lugging around an extra device. Maybe good for vacations, but vacations for me always include book shopping. In any event the screens aren't that great. Grey on grey. The big one would be killer for comics if it were color.
Anyway, that's not why I checked out this thread. What I was supposed to say was that Amazon is finally introducing the Kindle here in Europe, and I sort of want to try it. Anyone got one? Tried it? Good/bad experience?
Good point. Didn't know there was a Kindle app for the iPhone. Guess screen size is a drawback on the iPhone, but other than that... yeah.
What?! Kindle has graphic novels? That sounds kind of terrible.
Graphic novel on the Kindle = person typing out 'heh heh.'
I usually skip the graphics and just read the word ballooons anyway.
I linger over the wonderful illustrations. Or at least take note of them.
Oh and I'm currently about halfway through Slaughterhouse 5 which I'm loving so far. I know I should have read it a long time ago but better late than never.
And you see the plot twists coming.
I rarely read short fiction but I read about E. Annie Proulx's Close Range - seems like a great choice to me.
I am reading Wonder Boys. I loved the movie, but hadn't read the book yet. The movie is very close to the book, but it's worth reading if only for the stuff about the life of a writer and the 'midnight disease'. I'm not a writer (though I've tried), but I identify with them for some reason. I love when writers write about writers and writing :)
I rarely read short fiction but I read about E. Annie Proulx's Close Range - seems like a great choice to me.
I am reading Wonder Boys. I loved the movie, but hadn't read the book yet. The movie is very close to the book, but it's worth reading if only for the stuff about the life of a writer and the 'midnight disease'. I'm not a writer (though I've tried), but I identify with them for some reason. I love when writers write about writers and writing :)
Just finished Kazuo Ishiguro's Never Let Me Go. Fantastic, very moving and technically ingenious -- sort of an inversion of Great Expectations set in an alternate-reality present day England (more or less).
One of the best new books I've read in the past few years.
Is now a good time to mention that I don't OWN a television?Yep.
I'm about halfway through When Engulfed in Flames. My feelings on it are mixed so far.
Since you asked, here's what I thought of 'Engulfed in Flames' - http://areyougenehackman.blogspot.com/2008/06/all-beauty-you-will-ever-need.html
I just got through this audiobook. Surprisingly serious, reflective and not insane.
(http://23.media.tumblr.com/tumblr_krqtugKTyn1qzt30so1_500.jpg)
Since you asked, here's what I thought of 'Engulfed in Flames' - http://areyougenehackman.blogspot.com/2008/06/all-beauty-you-will-ever-need.html
I just got through this audiobook. Surprisingly serious, reflective and not insane.
(http://23.media.tumblr.com/tumblr_krqtugKTyn1qzt30so1_500.jpg)
I haven't read it, but I have the audiobook. It seemed to mark a new maturity for Mr. Sedaris.I much prefer the audiobook versions of Sedaris' work. Especially when it's a live recording. He adds just enough for it to be rather rewarding.
I've been re-reading all my Chris Ware stuff. Got into the first Rusty Brown last night. That dream scene in Jimmy Corrigan where he has to shoot his tiny horse make me sob every time.
I've been re-reading all my Chris Ware stuff. Got into the first Rusty Brown last night. That dream scene in Jimmy Corrigan where he has to shoot his tiny horse make me sob every time.
The last issue of Acme, from late 2008 I believe -- the one with the sci-fi story as its first half -- was incredible.
I haven't read it, but I have the audiobook. It seemed to mark a new maturity for Mr. Sedaris.I much prefer the audiobook versions of Sedaris' work. Especially when it's a live recording. He adds just enough for it to be rather rewarding.
I picked up a copy of "Vital Lies, Simple Truths: The Psychology of Self-Deception" after yesno mentioned it in the thread about "New Hope for the Ape Eared."
I picked up a copy of "Vital Lies, Simple Truths: The Psychology of Self-Deception" after yesno mentioned it in the thread about "New Hope for the Ape Eared."
And?
I just Google Books'd that for the quote, which I had read/heard elsewhere. So I hope it's good.
"Sway: The Irresistible Pull of Irrational Behavior" is a pop science take on this same subject (I think). Pretty dang interesting.
Onto NOBODY MOVE by Denis Johnson. Fun little genre exercise.
Now reading SABBATH'S THEATER by Philip Roth. Like the other Roths that I've read from the same period, the prose is utterly mesmerizing. I'm not sure where the story is going yet, but I'm enjoying the writing so much that I kinda don't care.
Now reading SABBATH'S THEATER by Philip Roth. Like the other Roths that I've read from the same period, the prose is utterly mesmerizing. I'm not sure where the story is going yet, but I'm enjoying the writing so much that I kinda don't care.
That is one of his few novels I've still never gotten around to. I kind of overdosed on his stuff about ten years ago and haven't loved some of his more recent work, but the mid-career stuff is his best, I think, so I really ought to go back and check that one off my list. Of all his books I think 'American Pastoral' and 'The Counterlife' are my favorites. And 'Portnoy's Complaint', of course. It's as endlessly funny to me as the first Pee Wee movie.
Now reading SABBATH'S THEATER by Philip Roth. Like the other Roths that I've read from the same period, the prose is utterly mesmerizing. I'm not sure where the story is going yet, but I'm enjoying the writing so much that I kinda don't care.
That is one of his few novels I've still never gotten around to. I kind of overdosed on his stuff about ten years ago and haven't loved some of his more recent work, but the mid-career stuff is his best, I think, so I really ought to go back and check that one off my list. Of all his books I think 'American Pastoral' and 'The Counterlife' are my favorites. And 'Portnoy's Complaint', of course. It's as endlessly funny to me as the first Pee Wee movie.
AMERICAN PASTORAL is my favorite of the ones I've read. I really liked THE HUMAN STAIN as well. The one from this period that didn't do much for me is OPERATION SHYLOCK.
I just heard a lengthy interview with Roth on CBC Radio's Writers & Company. It's a good listen. There's a flash player here (http://www.cbc.ca/writersandcompany/audio.html) and podcast here (http://www.cbc.ca/podcasting/index.html?arts#writersandcompany).
Now reading SABBATH'S THEATER by Philip Roth. Like the other Roths that I've read from the same period, the prose is utterly mesmerizing. I'm not sure where the story is going yet, but I'm enjoying the writing so much that I kinda don't care.
I'm reading I Can't Go On, I'll Go On a career-spanning, 700+ page Samuel Beckett reader. I'm looking forward to hearing from all the other FOT who are also currently reading this.
I'm reading I Can't Go On, I'll Go On a career-spanning, 700+ page Samuel Beckett reader. I'm looking forward to hearing from all the other FOT who are also currently reading this.
James Ellroy seems like a creep but I'm reading the final part of the Underworld series right now. Blood's a Rover. Its actually tough for me to get into this one although I had no problems with the others. It may have more to do with the fact that I watched/read some of his recent interviews than it does with the quality of the writing.
Yeah Im going to stick with it. I've also read that he's just trying to fuck with people, I guess that some of the sentiments expressed coupled with some of the less savory characters in the books can put a bad taste in mouth so to speakJames Ellroy seems like a creep but I'm reading the final part of the Underworld series right now. Blood's a Rover. Its actually tough for me to get into this one although I had no problems with the others. It may have more to do with the fact that I watched/read some of his recent interviews than it does with the quality of the writing.
I liked Blood's a Rover a lot. Ellroy does seem like a creep in interviews, but keep in mind he was the same creep when he wrote the other books. Plus it's hard to know when he's been serious in his interviews/public appearances. Someone called in recently reporting that they'd seen him at a book reading where he was saying things like "Rodney King deserved that beating" and kinds of other inflammatory shit, but I've read interviews where he was asked about his apparent political conservatism and he says something like "I just say that shit to fuck with people."
That's on my list too. I do love Beckett.
There's a lot of unreadable -- not Beckett-unreadable, but just plain unreadable -- stuff in the first third of this, mostly juvenalia, but I'm a completist so I read it anyway.
Yeah, that's great. I want to try it and see if I lose weight.
I am reading I Shudder: And Other Reactions to Life, Death, and New Jersey by Paul Rudnick.
I like him better than David Sedaris, who I don't like very much.
But this book is just cute, nothing more, really.
I am reading I Shudder: And Other Reactions to Life, Death, and New Jersey by Paul Rudnick.
I like him better than David Sedaris, who I don't like very much.
But this book is just cute, nothing more, really.
I just finished 'My Custom Van', Michael Ian Black's book which was very, very funny. Anyone else read it?
I'm pretty certain it's helping me understand why I can only absorb the first five minutes of "Democracy Now!"
I'm pretty certain it's helping me understand why I can only absorb the first five minutes of "Democracy Now!"
Too much truth, JN?
Celine's Journey Into the End of the Night. IT'S GREAT!
Lady Into Fox. It's a 1922 book about a lady who turns into a fox. The four-legged kind. It's not the template for the teensploitation 'girl with glasses takes off glasses and is suddenly hot' genre.
Pale Fire.
85 pages in.
Absolutely blowing my mind. I have no idea why I waited so long to read this.
My wife got me a book that's 'the best of WFMU's LCD (Lowest Common Denominator)'. I didn't know such a thing existed. Tom Scharpling interviews Neil Hamburger within, also there are some good bits about the history of WFMU and free-form radio in general, and comix, lots and lots of comix.
Just started Roland Barthes' Image Music Text. Hilarious!
Just started Roland Barthes' Image Music Text. Hilarious!
Currently reading Carl Wilson's 33 1/3 book on Celine Dion. A pretty amazing piece of criticism and philosophy, and actually making me kind of like her.
Currently reading Carl Wilson's 33 1/3 book on Celine Dion. A pretty amazing piece of criticism and philosophy, and actually making me kind of like her.
This book is wonderful. I was agnostic about Wilson (who's pretty ubiquitous in Canadian pop music criticism) and obviously not a fan of Celine Dion. But he really does some interesting stuff in this book.
Just started Roland Barthes' Image Music Text. Hilarious!
Don't you think he's a sweetie pie? I edited a book of his once and thought he was just darling. And, no, I am not being facetious.
Seriously? That's pretty great.
been reading "...supposedly fun..." by david foster wallace and I'm shocked by how funny and easy to read it is - it's just like a bunch of Douglas Adams essays.
Also reading 'hylozoic' by rudy rucker which is like douglas adams on some kind of stimulant.
The Cold Six Thousand by James Ellroy.
At this point in the book, one of the main characters is helping Howard Hughes invest money in Vegas casinos, helping the Mob skim off the top of that investment, and then siphoning the skim into legit businesses for laundering purposes. He is also using MLK's organizations as said legit businesses to help J. Edgar Hoover screw MLK.
That is one sliver of the story line. This is the fifth Ellroy book I have read and I still cannot figure out how he does it. Total OCD writing.
The Cold Six Thousand by James Ellroy.
At this point in the book, one of the main characters is helping Howard Hughes invest money in Vegas casinos, helping the Mob skim off the top of that investment, and then siphoning the skim into legit businesses for laundering purposes. He is also using MLK's organizations as said legit businesses to help J. Edgar Hoover screw MLK.
That is one sliver of the story line. This is the fifth Ellroy book I have read and I still cannot figure out how he does it. Total OCD writing.
I am reading 'Perfect Rigor' which is about Grigory Perelman, the guy who proved the Poincare Conjecture, posted it on the Internet, won prestigious prizes and was offered many jobs, and then rejected everybody and everything and dropped off the face of the earth.
It is a pretty interesting look into the late Soviet era mathematics world, so it's not 'A Beautiful Mind 2: A More Beautiful Mind'
Just saw a discovery channel doc about the guy beautiful mind is about. That's an insane story - should have been directed by David cronenberg or someone
Just saw a discovery channel doc about the guy beautiful mind is about. That's an insane story - should have been directed by David cronenberg or someone
He almost did with SPIDER, the movie that some call the 50th greatest of the 00's.
Reading Japrocksampler:How The Post-War Japanese Blew Their Minds On Rock'N'Roll by Julian Cope.
Highly recommended. Some of the band histories are completely nuts.
Reading Japrocksampler:How The Post-War Japanese Blew Their Minds On Rock'N'Roll by Julian Cope.
Highly recommended. Some of the band histories are completely nuts.
Listening to the audio book of Black Swan Green by David Mitchell.
Hmmm....I will investigate.Reading Japrocksampler:How The Post-War Japanese Blew Their Minds On Rock'N'Roll by Julian Cope.
Highly recommended. Some of the band histories are completely nuts.
And, from what I've heard, largely fiction.
Yeah, I'd like to hear more. I have a copy of Japrocksampler that I haven't read yet and I need to know what I'm getting into.