Author Topic: Fave Books / Currently Reading  (Read 945979 times)

Rainer

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Fave Books / Currently Reading
« on: April 13, 2007, 11:30:05 PM »
Dear FOT Brain Trust,

Watcha read? Watcha reading?

My faves:

Life: A User's Manual by Georges Perec
The Book of Disquiet by Fernando Pessoa
Requiem for a Dream by Hubert Selby
The Power of Now by Eckhart Tolle
Knickerbocker's History of New York by Washington Irving
The Devil And Sonny Liston by Nick Tosches
Masters of Atlantis by Charles Portis
The Lady in the Lake by Raymond Chandler
The Gnostic Gospels by Elaine Pagels
Hitchcock by Francois Truffaut and Helen Scott
The Jesus Mysteries by Timothy Freke and Peter Gandy

Currently Reading:

The Omnivore's Dilemma: A Natural History of Four Meals by Michael Pollan

Emily

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Re: Fave Books / Currently Reading
« Reply #1 on: April 14, 2007, 12:37:02 AM »
currently reading:
"left behind" by tim lahaye & jerry jenkins (its christian fiction week in library school ;-)

also was reading "the lucifer effect" (philip zimbardo) for like 1 day before i realized i can't recreationally read right now.

recently recommended to me & on my 'to read' list:
"the devil in the white city" by eric larson
"manhunt: 12 day chase for lincoln's killer" by james l. swanson

(pointless?) book title contest:
http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/entertainment/6553497.stm

John Junk

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Re: Fave Books / Currently Reading
« Reply #2 on: April 14, 2007, 05:29:54 AM »
Later on I'll edit this and put the right author's names in... maybe.

Favorite books ever (some of them) in no particular order:
Books of short stories by T. Coraghessen Boyle. 
Drop City was good, but not an all time fave....

Civilwarland In Bad Decline - George Saunders

This Is It - Alan Watts

The Possessed, a.k.a. The Devils - Dostoevsky

Infinite Jest - David Foster Wallace

Sons And Lovers - D.H. Lawrence

Journey To The End Of The Night - Celine (I could never read this now, but at the time it changed my life)

Minor Histories - by Mike Kelley

Behind The Mouse - multiple authors, anthropological essays about Disney World.

Currently Reading:

The Decline And Fall of the Roman Empire - Edward Gibbon

Nero - Some Guy

Surrealism and the Politics of Eros - Alyce Mahon

The Complete Idiot's Guide to the Roman Empire

The Book - Alan Watts (hey, I got it at the Henry Moore Library in Big Sur, and got a special stamp in it)

Also just trying to keep up with my subscriptions to the New Yorker and Harpers.  It's a lot of type.

Sarah

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Re: Fave Books / Currently Reading
« Reply #3 on: April 14, 2007, 07:56:03 AM »
Rainer, one of my biggest work-related regrets is that I didn't get to work on that Perec book.  Godine first started considering it when I was working there (Perec was still alive at the time, I do believe):  I read the original and was in charge of getting a couple of outside readers to review it.  At the time, it was too ambitious a project for the company to take on.  I was very pleased when I saw that David had finally pubished it, but by the time he did I was long gone. 

Ah well.  Tongue or pen . . .

bruce

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Re: Fave Books / Currently Reading
« Reply #4 on: April 14, 2007, 08:05:18 AM »
Let's see what am I currently reading:

For future review over at Bookgasm:

The End of The Story - Clark Ashton Smith
Bloodlines - F. Paul Wilson
Shakedown - Charlie Stella
Big Ike  - Andrew Fenady
What's So Funny - Donald Westlake
Stone Rain - Linwood Barclay
Covet - Tara Moss
Tailed - Brian Wiprud
The Big Bamboo - Tim Dorsey
2 Stark House books

About to be sent another package of stuff can't remember whats in it

On top of the regular crap I read for my column comin up on my one year writing for the site.

Chris L

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Re: Fave Books / Currently Reading
« Reply #5 on: April 14, 2007, 08:31:03 AM »
Masters of Atlantis by Charles Portis

BINGO!

Fido

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Re: Fave Books / Currently Reading
« Reply #6 on: April 14, 2007, 01:18:02 PM »

This is only tangentially related to this thread, but sometime this week I recalled that Best Show segment in which Mawky Ramone discussed his newfound career of writing romantic Harlequinesque novels.  The line that cracked me up, in which he explained how prolific he had become:  "These stories write themselves..."

Rainer

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Re: Fave Books / Currently Reading
« Reply #7 on: April 14, 2007, 02:37:23 PM »
Quote
Rainer, one of my biggest work-related regrets is that I didn't get to work on that Perec book.

Godine! Geez Looweez ... "not too shabby." There is a literary rockstar on the board.

I'm curious about how translations get published. Did Godine commission the David Bellos translation?  Or did Bellos obtain rights from Perec to translate his book and just take it upon himself to look for a publisher?  Were you reading the raw Bellos translation or the original La Vie mode d'emploi)? 

I also love the Bellos Perec bio, A Life In Words.  I bought it at a library booksale for 50 cents (it had never been checked out and was stamped INSUFFICIENT INTEREST). 

Omar is David Bellos to Scharping's Perec.  Did I say that correctly? :)

Sarah

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Re: Fave Books / Currently Reading
« Reply #8 on: April 14, 2007, 04:07:21 PM »
I was reading the French original, which David (I don't mean to be a name dropper, but he'll always be David to me--hell, the man owes me a letter, even!) had picked up at the Frankfurt Book Fair (I think) and passed on to me to read myself and to send out to various readers for review.  As I said, I was no longer working at Godine when the translation finally came out--it's a big book, and Godine was and probably still is perennially poor, since the books cost so much to make, what with the fancy production standards, so David probably had to scrounge around for grant money.  I'm sure he commissioned Bellos to do the translation, though.  In my experience, few translators translate on spec; they wait for a publisher to hire them.

I'm sort of amazed Godine rings bells for you, actually.  For a small press, it's well known, but many have never heard of it.  It's where I got my start in the biz.  I think my biggest achievement there was to work with Richard Howard when he was translating Les Fleurs du Mal (you'll find me lurking in the acknowledgments).  'Twas a proud day for the press when the book won the National Book Award.

Rainer

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Re: Fave Books / Currently Reading
« Reply #9 on: April 14, 2007, 05:51:26 PM »
I've placed a hold on that edition of "The Flowers of Evil" at my local library.  I'm all giddy now.  The "Godine" label resonates for me in the same way that "John Peel" does for many music fans (myself included).  I've always thought that Godine must have been either a trust fund kid or living hand to mouth.  BTW, I neglected to include another Godine classic on my best-of list:

http://godine.com/isbn.asp?isbn=0879234490

I was introduced to Godine via Perec via Paul Auster's "The Art of Hunger" that includes a review of LAUM.  Perec figured prominently in my marriage proposal.  I wedged the ring into the book and motioned my soon-to-be fiance over to ask her "what does this mean in English?"  Whereupon she saw the teensy rock I could barely afford. Alright, take your finger out of your throat ...

As far as name-dropping goes, I was an uncredited "transcriber" of a volume of "poetry" that Hyperion published in the mid-90s.  If I told you who the author was, I would have to kill you, and violence ain't my bag.


Rainer

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Re: Fave Books / Currently Reading
« Reply #10 on: April 14, 2007, 06:19:18 PM »
Quote
(pointless?) book title contest:

Emily, when I discovered that "The Stray Shopping Carts of Eastern North America: A Guide to Field Identification" won the award for oddest book title, my first thought was that Davezilla needs to ramp it up and cash in:

<< Update 4/14/2007: Unbeknowst to the poster, attempting to access the root level of a recommended link reveals NSFW stuff >>


Emily

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Re: Fave Books / Currently Reading
« Reply #11 on: April 14, 2007, 07:31:06 PM »
good lord.

i just had the shocking experience of stumbling upon an explicit website while trying to navigate back to the home page of freakwatchers.com.

i'm not offended or anything, i was just caught off guard.

***
anyway, i just wanted to say, thanks for the info about Godine. i want to learn more about printing history & typography - so its cool to see an entire section devoted to it.

Susannah

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Re: Fave Books / Currently Reading
« Reply #12 on: April 14, 2007, 07:34:17 PM »
Great thread!

I just finished Norman Mailer's "The Executioner's Song," and am now reading Flannery O'Connor's "Wise Blood". I read her complete collected short stories in high school but never got a chance to read the novel.

Favorites:

I, Claudius--Robert Graves
The Winshaw Legacy (What A Carve Up)--Jonathan Coe
Waterland--Graham Swift
Shamela/Joseph Andrews--Henry Fielding
The French Lieutenant's Woman--John Fowles
Los Angeles: The Architecture of Four Ecologies--Reyner Banham
Moscow to the End of the Line--Venedikt Eerofeyev

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!

Emily

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Re: Fave Books / Currently Reading
« Reply #13 on: April 14, 2007, 07:46:30 PM »
cool link!  that reminds me of this one i just found out about:

http://bookmooch.com/

i'm not signed up yet, but probably by the summer..

Rainer

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Re: Fave Books / Currently Reading
« Reply #14 on: April 14, 2007, 08:25:23 PM »
Quote
i just had the shocking experience of stumbling upon an explicit website while trying to navigate back to the home page of freakwatchers.com.

Sorry about your less than desirable browsing experience. Believe me, I had no idea. Let's forget about this unfortunate hiccup, shall we? Books anyone?