Fave Books / Currently Reading

[jbissell]

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.

[wood and iron]

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 read the first volume of the Complete Collected Sherlock Holmes. It was pretty good but for some reason took me forever to get through. I'd read a story and then read something else. On and on.

I really love how casual Sherlock Holmes is about his cocaine use. He's just like "I'm bored so I do coke".

[Chris L]

I really love how casual Sherlock Holmes is about his cocaine use. He's just like "I'm bored so I do coke".

Something tells me the upcoming Guy Ritchie version of Holmes will be extremely faithful in that respect. 

[bakersfieldchimp]

Just started Calvino's "The Castle of Crossed Destinies", and it's already pretty great.

[Steve of Bloomington]

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?

[AllisonLeGnome]

I finally just bought and started This Is Your Brain on Music, which I've been meaning to get for years (it's exactly what I'm interested in- I'm a biopsychology and music major). I've only really read the section that largely consists of going over basic music things I already know so far, but it's interesting.

[crumbum]

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.'

[wood and iron]

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.

[jbissell]

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?

Yeah, they just came out a few weeks ago.  Obama's Blackberry got some interesting press when an Iranian state TV network reported that the group had actually hacked into his Blackberry and were sharing sensitive exchanges.

[jbissell]

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.

[wood and iron]

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.

It's been a few years but I'm pretty sure the book version of the Maltese Falcon and the movie version with Bogart are nearly identical. I can't remember any glaring differences. And they're both worth your time.

[Matt]

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).

I checked out his MySpace as well. Ew buoy. His fans? Kinda creepy - they call him "Saint Nick". He's a musician as well, and he has his Boxmasters-caliber rock posted there for all to enjoy. And if you needed another reason to dock a couple points from this guy, here's a great two-line poem he posted a while back:

     "Just Say Yes"
     By Nick Tosches

     Talk to your kids about drugs.
     Tell them where to cop.

And I have no doubt he actually believes it. Maybe I should burn these books instead...

[kittykittymeowmixhead]

Insomnia. There's no emoticon here for what I am feeling... maybe.

Some of my faves:

The Crazyladies of Pearl Street - Trevanian (set in my home town of Albany!)
A Heartbreaking Work of Staggering Genius - Dave Eggers
The Giver - Lois Lowry
Sons and Lovers - D. H. Lawrence
V. - Thomas Pynchon
The Corrections - Jonathan Franzen
Ramona Quimby, Age 8 - Beverly Cleary
One Hundred Years of Solitude - Gabriel García Márquez
Youth in Revolt - C. D. Payne
Catch-22 - Joseph Heller
The House of the Spirits - Isabel Allende
A Farewell to Arms - Ernest Hemingway

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

Will Read Soon:

Gravity's Rainbow - Thomas Pynchon
The Other Boleyn Girl - Phillipa Gregory
The Metamorphosis - Franz Kafka
Insect Dreams The Half Life of Gregor Samsa - Marc Estrin

Most Ridiculous Book I've Ever Read:

Friends: A Love Story - Angela Bassett and Courtney B. Vance

[crumbum]

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.

[emma]

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.