FOT SUMMER OF 2012 READING CHALLENGE

[fonpr]

Kropotkin's Memoirs of a Revolutionist (I have no idea how this book came into my possession)

You're welcome.

[gravy boat]

I just finished Cormac McCarthy's Blood Meridian. I'm going to go with something lighter now...

Isn't the ending to that a motherfucker? I thought the book was a tad dull for stretches but it had some great moments and the last chapter is certainly one of those great moments... Believe it or not-- although it has been five or so years since I read "Blood Meridian" the final scene of The Judge was the first thing I thought of when I saw the "Rated GG" cover...

Supposedly Tommy Lee Jones owns the film rights...

I had just finished Blood Meridian and I had the same reaction when I got the Rated GG cover.  Exactly how I pictured The Judge at the end.

[Joe Rogaine]

Been reading Shirley Jacksons The Lottery and other short stories.

Also read The Stories of Breece DJ Pancakes and im convinced that's where Mike got the idea to name his puppet Skeevy.

[ben]

Finally started the Ken Rogers book - it's really good.

[Joe Rogaine]

Finally started the Ken Rogers book - it's really good.

I want to hear about the Gambler chapter.

[dave from knoxville]

Just finished "Stiff", which I though was a whole lot of fun http://www.goodreads.com/book/show/32145.Stiff. About halfway through Wodehouse's "Leave it to Psmith". http://www.goodreads.com/book/show/1244295.Leave_It_to_Psmith

Finished the Wodehouse. It was pleasant enough, a nice diversion. Now considering the next read; leaning towards Greil Marcus' Mystery Train. Got a copy of the awesome fanzine Ugly Things that is probably going to occupy a few days. http://comps.soybomb.com/compsproject/intro.php?&lifilter=4&lispeed=1

[fonpr]

Mystery Train is an excellent read.

Some claim it was the inspiration for London Calling.

[dave from knoxville]

Mystery Train is an excellent read.

Some claim it was the inspiration for London Calling.

I zigged when I should have zagged. I started The Broom of the System.

[Steve of Bloomington]

I finally finished that damn Neal Stephenson book REAMDE. 1000 page books like that take all the oxygen out of the room. Reading At Swim-Two-Birds by Flann O'Brien at the moment.

[Barry in Ireland]

A little late to the FOT Reading Challenge party, but so far this summer I've put away the most recent Eugenides The Marriage Plot, and then took a notion to try Anna Karenina. It's not a decision I regret, but being 220+ pages into a book and still only 1/4 of the way through is...disconcerting.

[Shaggy 2 Grote]

Just started Tearing Down The Wall of Sound after renewing it from the library 28 times (no exaggeration).  Glad I didn't give up!  Thankfully he only spends one short chapter on Spector's mostly-boring childhood (unlike the otherwise very good McCartney bio Fab, in which that part seemed to go on forever).  I'm still on the Lieber & Stoller/Ertegun days, in which Spector was neurotic and a back-stabbing asshole, but not yet interestingly nuts.

[yesno]

I just finished Middlemarch, which took about a week longer than I expected since I was traveling, and it turns out that it's hard to read after a 12-hour day walking around in Chicago in the heat.

It's really, really good.  There are passages in it that just leave you astonished, they're so good. I always feel that the 19th Century British novelists are a huge gap in my reading.  There are so many renowned books of the time, so few of which I've read.  But I think now that I've gotten this tome out of the way others will be less intimidating.

[not that clay]

A little late to the FOT Reading Challenge party, but so far this summer I've put away the most recent Eugenides The Marriage Plot, and then took a notion to try Anna Karenina. It's not a decision I regret, but being 220+ pages into a book and still only 1/4 of the way through is...disconcerting.

I loved Anna Karenina! I don't read much fiction but I thought it was a blast.

[JonFromMaplewood]

I just finished Cormac McCarthy's Blood Meridian. I'm going to go with something lighter now...

Isn't the ending to that a motherfucker?

I think it's fair to say that that whole book is "a motherfucker."

Just finished Things Fall Apart by Chinua Achebe.  A grim, elegant book.   

I am deciding now whether to read Beautiful Ruins by Jess Walter or go for some non-fiction with Daniel Kahnemann's Thinking, Fast and Slow.  Reading Kahnemann's research was the highlight of my grad-school experience.

[Barry in Ireland]

A little late to the FOT Reading Challenge party, but so far this summer I've put away the most recent Eugenides The Marriage Plot, and then took a notion to try Anna Karenina. It's not a decision I regret, but being 220+ pages into a book and still only 1/4 of the way through is...disconcerting.

I loved Anna Karenina! I don't read much fiction but I thought it was a blast.

I'm at the bit where the dude fucks up his horse but good. I think that was the name of the chapter, originally.