The OFFICIAL Unofficial Achewood Message Board
Trivial Pursuits => Arts & Entertainment => Topic started by: Bozack on February 17, 2004, 04:12:38 pm
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Currently, I'm reading Illywhacker (quiet you!), by Peter Carey, apparently one of the best writers to come out of Australia (which, coupled with 50 cents, will buy you a cup of coffee). It's pretty good. Next up: John Dos Passos "American Trilogy."
What about you cats?
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Rereading Neuromancer right now, by tonight I'll be onto rereading Pashazade by Jon Courtenay Grimwood, so that I can go onto Effendi, it's sequel, and then Fellaheen when it comes out in paperback.
I also have some more Murakami to read, Pattern Recognition - the latest Gibson, and Hey Nostradamus - the last Coupland book.
I feel like I need to read Diamond Age again, by Neal Stephenson, given it's one of my favourite books - the language in it being stunning, but I have so much else to read. And I need to reread Fouc*ult's Pendulum too. Here's hoping nothing new that I need read comes out. Crap though I have, erm, oh damn the latest Stephenson to read too, but I forget it's name.
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Ah, Fouc*ult's Pendulum. What a great book. The Davinci Code isn't fit to share the planet with it.
Back on topic, I just finished :)'s People which I had read long ago. Enjoyed it even more the second time. LeCarre is a writer who transcends his genre. His characterizations are brilliant.
I'm in the middle of Claudius the God which is wonderful. I'd been looking for a copy in my used bookstore haunts and finally found one. Good stuff.
Also picked up My Three Years with Eisenhower by Capt. Harry Butcher. Butcher was a personal friend of Ike's who served as his naval aide throughout WWII. He kept a daily diary of Eisenhower's activities, both personal and official, through the war. Fascinating stuff. A re-read, but this is a good one to pick up and browse through.
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Chuck Klosterman's Sex Drugs and Cocoa Puffs, which is a hoot.
Next up, a non-hoot: Erich Auerbach's Mimesis.
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Concurrently: The Fall, by Camus, and Me Talk Pretty One Day, by David Sedaris - both oh so good and quotable, in wildly different ways.
Later, for not thinking, I have a couple of Donald E. Westlake books, and the last two Ender books by Orson Scott Card. Also, Be Cool, by Elmore Leonard. I like to not think too much when reading sometimes.
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Also, Be Cool, by Elmore Leonard. I like to not think too much when reading sometimes.
Yeah, I always bust out the Leonard when I just want something fun and good.
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Later, for not thinking, I have a couple of Donald E. Westlake books,
Which ones, I love Westlake -- great stuff. I'm also a big fan of Lawrence Sanders.
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Which ones, I love Westlake -- great stuff. I'm also a big fan of Lawrence Sanders.
Right now, "Help, I am Being Held Prisoner" and "Smoke" - I like Lawrence Sanders, too, but have read all of his stuff and am a little upset about his publisher sending out the vultures to pick on his corpse.
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Crap though I have, erm, oh damn the latest Stephenson to read too, but I forget it's name.
Cryptonomicon? Eeeexcellent.
Sounds like Slink and I have the same taste in fiction...
I'm reading a book of Asimov mysteries a friend gave me as I unwind in the evenings, but I've just bought a copy of Health Care Meltdown by Robert LeBow, which explains why US Healthcare sucks ass. It's sort of a passion of mine. When I'm done with that, I'll probably read Jitterbug Perfume by Tom Robbins, which I got for my birthday. And I'm reading a friend's screenplay in my spare time, which is copious these days.
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Cryptonomicon? Eeeexcellent.
Not the one I was thinking of, though it's superb. I was talking of... Quicksilver (http://www.iblist.com/book.php?id=7376). Bingo.
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I'm in the middle of Speaker for the Dead by OSC, which I am not enjoying as much as Ender's Game, and Fraud by David Rakoff, the poor man's David Sedaris. It will most likely be my first and last David Rakoff book.
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I'm in the middle of Speaker for the Dead by OSC, which I am not enjoying as much as Ender's Game, and Fraud by David Rakoff, the poor man's David Sedaris. It will most likely be my first and last David Rakoff book.
Warning: The series goes waaaay downhill (IMHO, of course) after Speaker. The characters are less compelling after they grow up.
As a side note, my former roommate's Mom goes to the same Temple as OSC. She's friends with his wife. It's neat.
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I've been working my way through Robert Burton’s The Anatomy of Melancholy for a while now, and just started up with Updike's Rabbit Redux, but I'm having a hell of a time with it, because I already hate Rabbit so much. Maybe I'll give it a miss and go back to Evelyn Waugh (just finished Decline and Fall a week or so ago, and I still have Vile Bodies and Black Mischief waiting around).
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I was put off of OSC by Lost Boys (if I'm remembering the title right) -- a modern-era horror/suspense thing which implied that playing D&D made you a pedophile and featured the worst semantic debate in the history of literature. I should try the Ender books, but sooo much inertia.
Right now I'm mostly doing class-related reading -- Paco Underhill's Why We Buy and Rachel Bowlby's Carried Away, for a class on the sacrality of shopping in modern America. Fairly interesting stuff, really; Underhill's is far more about consumer psychology, while Bowlby focuses on the anthropological approach.
Other than that, it's primarily been the two American Splendor collections I got for Christmas. Harvey Pekar is some sort of bodhisattva, I'm pretty sure.
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Harvey Pekar is some sort of bodhisattva, I'm pretty sure.
Best gift I've ever given: this year, for my brother's birthday, I gave him a signed copy of the American Splendor DVD. I actually shook hands with Harvey Pekar, and was UNABLE TO SPEAK to him. This means that Harvey Pekar makes me more speechless than BRUCE CAMPBELL.
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I actually shook hands with Harvey Pekar, and was UNABLE TO SPEAK to him. This means that Harvey Pekar makes me more speechless than BRUCE CAMPBELL.
Word. As much respect as I have for Bruce Campbell, Harvey > Bruce, no question.
(He actually came within 15 minutes of me for a viewing/discussion of Splendor at the local modern-art museum; sadly enough, this was about three days after my first viewing of the film, and I was unable to attend. BITTER DISAPPOINTMENT.)
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Which ones, I love Westlake -- great stuff. I'm also a big fan of Lawrence Sanders.
I like Lawrence Sanders, too, but have read all of his stuff and am a little upset about his publisher sending out the vultures to pick on his corpse.
Agreed. Scumsuckers.
and just started up with Updike's Rabbit Redux, but I'm having a hell of a time with it, because I already hate Rabbit so much.
Yeah, but the writing is just so damn good. Also, it's kind of fun to read about suck flawed people. What's interesting about this series is I found that as the series went on (Rich and At Rest), Rabbit became somewhat more sympathetic. Ironically, by the end Nelson becomes just as self-absorbed and obnoxious as his father was.
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As a side note, my former roommate's Mom goes to the same Temple as OSC. She's friends with his wife. It's neat.
Roughly where is this geographically? Because I've heard people say he lives around here.
I just finished re-reading Ultimate HG2G. Not sure what's next. I picked up Bruce Campbell's (sp?) autobiography at a book exchange but don't know if it's any good. And my mom got me like all the Dan Brown books for Christmas (which I'm guessing is really jus the same story 4 times over).
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Greensboro, NC. Ender Wiggin's hometown.
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I'm trying to read the Bible. This is my third attempt and i've yet to get out of the old testament. I don't know if i'll make it this time either, but i'm slogging through as best as I can. Reverend Lovejoy put it best, "it's a 2500 page sleeping pill." I wanted to read the Koran, but thought I should read the Bible first. At this rate I don't think reading the Koran is in the cards.
~Paul
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the Bible is not easy, nor is the Koran. I would suggest reading a book called "The History of God" (http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/tg/detail/-/0345384563/qid=1077091113//ref=pd_ka_1/002-1393353-4560818?v=glance&s=books&n=507846) which is a study of the Divine figure in the three major Common Era religions. That will give you some good ideas about the similarities and differences among Judaism, Christianity, and Islam.
The only problem with this book is that if you are a faithful believer, you will note that she looks at God more as a concept or a construct and not so much as Real, as Creator, speaking through the Prophets, etc. If you don't mind a sort of academic look, this is a good book for you.
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I'm trying to read the Bible. This is my third attempt and i've yet to get out of the old testament. I don't know if i'll make it this time either, but i'm slogging through as best as I can. Reverend Lovejoy put it best, "it's a 2500 page sleeping pill." I wanted to read the Koran, but thought I should read the Bible first. At this rate I don't think reading the Koran is in the cards.
~Paul
There are some good methods by which you can get a very solid overview of the Bible without actually reading evey word. If you're interested, PM me and I'll hook you up. Also, you might consider a modern translation -- I don't know what translation you're using, but I highly recommend The Message (http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/tg/detail/-/1576832899/qid=1077127603//ref=pd_ka_3/002-9012654-5619212?v=glance&s=books&n=507846). It's a beautiful translation in which much of the Torah/Old Testament reads like poetry. If you've never read the whole Book, it's much easier to read it the first time through in a modern translation, and then to go back again later if you feel strongly about the KJV.
That's my experience, anyhow.
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Just rent "The Ten Commandments" and "The Greatest Story Ever Told."
That way you can write your paper and you don't even have to read the book!
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Cryptonomicon? Eeeexcellent.
Not the one I was thinking of, though it's superb. I was talking of... Quicksilver (http://www.iblist.com/book.php?id=7376). Bingo.
I have just started this and it is pretty awesome. Also recently read Pattern Recognition: best thing Gibson's done since Mona Lisa Overdrive in my opinion.
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I have just started this and it is pretty awesome.
Good to know. I have been really looking forward to it, but I have read reviews coming to a whole range of conclusions. Still looking forward to it regardless mind you.
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I have just started this and it is pretty awesome.
Good to know. I have been really looking forward to it, but I have read reviews coming to a whole range of conclusions. Still looking forward to it regardless mind you.
If you enjoyed the sprawling style of Cryptonomicon you will probably like this one.
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Ah, Quicksilver's awesome. Stephenson is one of those authors whose works I keep by my bed and reread over and over. This leads to problems, however, when you read about a syphilitic dream about dancing corpses, fall asleep, and have a sex dream where the other party suddenly turns into an Albrecht Durher woodblock print of Death.
THIS CAN BE UNSETTLING.
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THIS CAN BE UNSETTLING.
Unsettling I can imagine, but stunning!
I do the same with Stephenson. His writing, like that of Gibson, David Mitchell, Murakami and China Meiville just has me reading them over and over. The language of all of them is stunning.
Diamond Age in some ways is my favourite, but Snowcrash is just too damn good to not be.
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Ah, Fouc*ult's Pendulum. What a great book. The Davinci Code isn't fit to share the planet with it.
So my mom bought me all the Dan Brown books for Christmas. Since I didn't have any other new books I decided to go ahead and chug through them. While the stories themselves are insteresting the writing that gets you there is pretty sub-par. Any suggestions for books that are similar but good?
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I have to recommend a book I just started when I forgot to take what I was reading away with me...
The Eyre Affair by Jasper Fforde. It's really rather fun.
It's based around a literary detective named Thursday Next. Essentially, it's based in a different universe to ours, but with a lot of similarities. Kind of reminds me of Michael Marshall Smith in some ways.
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I have to recommend a book I just started when I forgot to take what I was reading away with me...
The Eyre Affair by Jasper Fforde.
Seconded. The sequel is great, too. There's more to come, as well.
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The Eyre Affair is the book which involves a pet dodo which goes "plock!", isn't it? Or at least it's from the same series? If so, I need to find it and read it.
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It is indeed. And where performances of Richard III are attended and participated in as though it were Rocky Horror Picture Show. Awesome stuff.
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It is indeed. And where performances of Richard III are attended and participated in as though it were Rocky Horror Picture Show. Awesome stuff.
Egad, why have I not read this yet? It is going on my List.
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It is indeed. And where performances of Richard III are attended and participated in as though it were Rocky Horror Picture Show. Awesome stuff.
Okay, it just went from "had a decent idea that I should read it" to "MUST ACQUIRE." Whee!
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Wow, didn't know it was at all known outside the UK. Glad my mentioning brought it to someone elses attention.
And yea, the dodos are rather fine!
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Ya'll are all like oh yeah, I gotta read this, and i'm thinking man that sounds like a load of rubbish.
~Paul
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Ya'll are all like oh yeah, I gotta read this, and i'm thinking man that sounds like a load of rubbish.
~Paul
Who has got the party-pooping spirit? Him (Paul has)
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I found The Eyre Affair and Lost In A Good Book to coast more on 'shiny things' than on solid writing, plotting, characterization, etc. But the shiny things are really quite shiny, so I enjoyed them anyway.
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The new one in the series is out! I just bought it - I'll let you know how it is when I finish it. By my estimate, that should be sometime tomorrow.
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I polished off "Fouc*ults Pendulum" on vacation and am nearing the end of "Madame Bovary." However, as much as I kick it old school style with the Flaubert-Dawg, I'm having some trouble because there have been so many crappy books that I've read where they've basically ripped off the premise of "Madame Bovary" (if you're really pretentious and bougeious, you suck), and I've also seen "Reality Bites", so my interest is waining. Also, I rocked the hell out of Rick Moody's book of short stories, and here's something interesting I've noticed: is it just me, or are a lot of contemporary authors basically having an "I'm tragic" competition? Don't get me wrong, Rick Moody is a really good author; however, out of the maybe 10 stories in the collection, at least 4 of them are pseudo-autobiographical, about dealing with his sister's death. He also has written a full memoir about, basically, dealing with his sister's death. But he's a good writer, and I'm cool with that, he's using writing to deal with a very difficult personal subject. The problem I see is, EVERY hot new author is tragic like this. Dave Eggers' parents died, and everything I've read by him deals with dealing with other people die, and that one Fry guy, who called Eggers a "pussy," he was in rehab and did tons of drugs, etc. I don't doubt the quality of their writing (well, in Fry's case, I do, because he is AWFUL), and obviously, when you're a writer, you're going to use really important things from your own life in your work. But I actually get the feeling that the literary estabishment is so in love with these tragic authors (there are a couple of others, it's not just Moody, Eggers and Fry), which makes me wonder if this is a symptom of a cultural lust for "problems" that we seem to have.
Or maybe I'm pissed off because I'm a crappy writer, and I envy their ability to routinely put words in coherent order on a page.
Thoughts?
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Thoughts?
I'm pretty much with you on that. Although, if I suspect a book is in any way crappy I won't bother starting it. It means that I don't read as much as I'd like, because I'm so very picky, and there's such an awful lot of crap out there.
I really, at this kind of time, having just woken up, and thus not being able to fully get into what I would say in reply without, I don't know, using this many protracted commas, wanted to mention a couple more books related, or at least brought about by what you said.
David Mitchell - who actually has just released a new book, Cloud Atlas.
His first two, Ghostwritten and Number9dream, are splendid books. I rate them this highly, particularly noting his similarity, in a good healthy way, to Haruki Murakami, who if you havn't read - GO READ! Murakami is probably my favourite author now. Despite the other wonderful books, Murakami can write about the protaganist preparing spaghetti and make it beautiful. I'd recommend starting with Hard-Boiled Wonderland and the End of the World , which I read first, but then [i}Wind-Up Bird Chronicle[/i] is probably my second favourite. Very Japanese, but stunningly written and involving enough magic and wonderment to just... read them!
But anyway, David Mitchell I was reminded of, because while you could read his books and think he was verging on tragic, that's all he does. He skates along it, but never dives into it. And I doubt that even number9dream is at all biographical.
His writing is joyous, and particularly with Ghostwritten, there are sections throughout that just made me grin as I got to them and realised where he was going.
It's a truly beautiful book and I do look forward to Cloud Atlas.
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1) have to agree somewhat with Ben-San that The Eyre Affair was inventive in the construction of its world, but dull and flat in its plotting, characters, etc.
2) Confusion, the follow up to Quicksilver will be out on April 13th.
3) About to start Moorcock's The Skrayling Tree, though I really wish he'd stop digging up Elric and get around to releasing The Vengeance of Rome.
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(Interesting point about "tragic" authors, our cultural obsession with "problems," &c)
I have to agree -- it all strikes me as mildly silly, if not sort of vaguely unintentionally sad. I am reminded of a poetry selection I saw a girl present once in high school; three of the poems she did were by the same author, and they covered the subjects, respectively, of: a) going to a serial killer's mass body-dump site to identify the mangled pieces of one's wife; b) one's gay son being brutally murdered by large homophobic men; and c) one's sixteen-year-old daughter and her friend being raped and murdered on a school trip. My thought at the time, beyond "can we stop yet?," was "I sure as fuck hope this author doesn't write autobiographical poetry."
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Inspired by the I, Ro-bot (http://www.apple.com/trailers/fox/i_*****/) movie trailer, I decided to read I, Ro-bot. However, my brilliant and insightful husband informed me that I, Ro-bot is, in fact, a collection of short stories, and that the upcoming film is instead based on The Caves of Steel. So I read it. Halfway through, I realized that my darling spouse was misinformed. I think they took the universe in which I, Ro-bot's stories are based and created an original story for the film. But, by that time, I was hooked. So I sailed through Caves and The Naked Sun in three days, and now I'm working on The Ro-bots of Dawn. All the while, I'm thinking: Why haven't I ever got around to reading these before?
Mmmmmm...ro-botic goodness.
Also: this is neat. (http://www.i*****now.com/index.php)
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When is someone going to do a movie based on the Foundation trilogy?
And where can I get my degree in psychomath?
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I just finished the third in the Jasper Fforde series, The Well of Lost Plots, and it was delightful. Now I've moved on to more softball, irreverant British writing, with yet another Terry Pratchett novel. Damn, his stuff just never gets old.
By the way, both of my pet rats, Peaches and Dangerous Beans, are named after characters from a Terry Pratchett children's book.
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Breaking the Tongue (http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/tg/detail/-/0393057925/104-4504864-3175109?v=glance) by Vyvyane Loh: finished this last night. Utterly incredible novel about Singapore just before and during the Japanese invasion in WWII. Best thing I've read in ages. This book is not getting the buzz it deserves, so here's me trying the word of mouth thing.
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Despite the encouragement of this board, I have yet to make it much further into Rabbit Redux. So, for them moment I'm reading Truman Capote In Cold Blood, and a book on Freudian psychology (it's a good laugh so far).
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i'm trying very hard to get into some Dean Koontz' book, but i got frightened after only the first chapter, wherein the main character is walking her dog and get's startled by her own shadow.
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i'm trying very hard to get into some Dean Koontz' book, but i got frightened after only the first chapter, wherein the main character is walking her dog and get's startled by her own shadow.
I've started about five Dean Koontz books and have yet to be able to finish any of them (except for Demon Seed, which I was stuck with on a bus and which was a bad laugh all the way through). I find him fairly overrated, myself, or maybe I just can't handle his style; I can't deal with the kind of author who gives characters names like "Enoch Cain, Jr." and "Thomas Vanadium" with a straight face and pretensions towards integrity.
On the scary-books front, I've gone on a Peter Straub bender this Spring Break. I've read Ghost Story and Magic Terror so far, and I'd recommend both; Magic Terror is an uneven but generally good short-fiction collection, albeit a little over-reliant on child abuse (and with a last story so over-the-top black-Melville that I couldn't finish it), while Ghost Story is an excellent novel provided you're willing to work with horror that doesn't always play fair and involves a lot of the typical genre tropes.
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I can only hope to have a name as awesome as Thomas Vanadium in my next life.
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I just picked up Wicked. Somebody gave it to my S.O. for her birthday but she won't get to it for a while so I snatched it up. It's interesting so far but the style is a bit strange.
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I just picked up Wicked. Somebody gave it to my S.O. for her birthday but she won't get to it for a while so I snatched it up. It's interesting so far but the style is a bit strange.
Oh, lord, this reminds me -- a few days ago I finished reading The Wizard of Oz for a class. (No, I don't know why it was assigned.) It wasn't exactly what I expected, managing to be both simplistic and hallucinatorily overcomplicated.
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I just picked up Wicked. Somebody gave it to my S.O. for her birthday but she won't get to it for a while so I snatched it up. It's interesting so far but the style is a bit strange.
Oh, lord, this reminds me -- a few days ago I finished reading The Wizard of Oz for a class. (No, I don't know why it was assigned.) It wasn't exactly what I expected, managing to be both simplistic and hallucinatorily overcomplicated.
Hopefully you aren't dealing with the silly gold-standard theory. I just word how much I'm missing by only having seen the movie twice and never having read any of the original books. I know there were like 15 which must've covered quite a bit.
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The Oz books are excellent. I believe all of them are available from Project Gutenberg, too, so you can download them for free and read them on your computer or PDA.
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I'm reading Dinner at the Homesick Restaurant by Anne Tyler. It's hell of good so far, but I'm not really that far into it
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You know what the saddest thing is?
I haven't read an actual book, aside from perusing stuff I've already read, in about two weeks. I used to polish off about two a week, but right now I feel absolutely no urge to start a new book. Conversely, I've been rerouting all o the money and brainpower I'd usually spend on new books to alt-country albums and comic books.
What should I read that will return me to the fold of....book....?
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I'm generally a reader, but because of my work I have to spend so much time on the web that for the past two years I've done most of my reading through either the screen or printouts of longer articles &c.
And I read a number of magazines every week.
However, I am currently reading Truffaut's Hitchcock book, which contains transcripts of interviews between the two which is just amazing. I hate the format of the book, which is like a huge coffeetable book - but it does have many pretty pictures.
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I just picked up Wicked. Somebody gave it to my S.O. for her birthday but she won't get to it for a while so I snatched it up. It's interesting so far but the style is a bit strange.
Oh, lord, this reminds me -- a few days ago I finished reading The Wizard of Oz for a class. (No, I don't know why it was assigned.) It wasn't exactly what I expected, managing to be both simplistic and hallucinatorily overcomplicated.
Hopefully you aren't dealing with the silly gold-standard theory. I just word how much I'm missing by only having seen the movie twice and never having read any of the original books. I know there were like 15 which must've covered quite a bit.
I suspect we're going to be talking about it on some level, which fills me with exultation. Having gone to high school in Nebraska, I really need more education about William Jennings Bryan and his issues like I need a hole in the head.
That said, the original book (I haven't read any sequels, but I'm pondering it) is probably worth the (short) reading time. It's far less linear and more outright strange than the movie, including several odd digressions and stuff that just didn't get filmed.
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You know what the saddest thing is?
I haven't read an actual book, aside from perusing stuff I've already read, in about two weeks. I used to polish off about two a week, but right now I feel absolutely no urge to start a new book. Conversely, I've been rerouting all o the money and brainpower I'd usually spend on new books to alt-country albums and comic books.
What should I read that will return me to the fold of....book....?
I find that it runs in cycles. I'm always reading something. Might be the back of a shampoo bottle or a seed catalog, but I've got to read. Of course, my level of involvement varies. Usually I have at least 3 or 4 books that I can graze from. I don't always have a book that I'm really committed to, unfortunately.
I'm going through a drought at the moment. Nothing is appealing to me. Tomorrow I could pick something up and spend 7 straight hours reading it, then go to the library and get everything I can by the author.
Life is funny that way.
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(http://www.paulmcrae.com/images/Miscellany/Misc/MOKF_015-E500.jpg)
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When's that from, Paul. My guess is around 1972. Am I close?
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When's that from, Paul. My guess is around 1972. Am I close?
You missed it by one year.
~Paul
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I know this is a bit late, but I wanted to note that I recently read two Dean Koontz books on the recommendation of a co-worker (and what else do I have to do with my time while I'm at work), and he is still a hack, just as I remembered. Indeed, he is the King of the Hacks. The man can't put a paragraph together without sticking an extended simile in there. Nothing can ever be just what it is. It gets extremely tiresome after a while.
Yeah, like after two pages.
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Magazine: Ad Busters
Comic Book: Transmetropolitan
Book: I'm embarrased to write this, cause I'm not all touchy feely usually but, I just finished tuesdays with morrie.
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First, a key.
MF: Modern Fantasy
PF: Pure Fantasy
ST: Satire of Today
HF: Historical Fiction
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MF: Neil Gaiman, Neverwhere
PF: Terry Pratchett, Small Gods
ST: Maxx* Barry, Syrup
HF: C. S. Forester, Hornblower and the Hotspur
SF: Douglas Adams, The Restaurant at the End of the Universe
PF: Terry Pratchett, Mort
PF: Neil Gaiman, Stardust
HF: Wilbur Smith, Monsoon
PF: Gregory Maguire, Wicked
SF: Ben Bova, The Precipice
ST: Max Barry, Jennifer Government
PF: Terry Pratchett, Moving Pictures
SF: Douglas Adams, Life, the Universe, and Everything
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All books I've started and finished in the last three months. [edit to add]There are many I've forgotten because they made no impression. Yes, I'm a ridiculous Discworld fan, and a Gaiman fan. Sue me.[/edit] Sorry I don't post in this thread very often, but I just tear too quickly through cheap fiction.
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*He added the extra 'x' to enhance the somewhat criminal satire. An excellent read, very funny, fast, and fun.
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ST: Maxx* Barry, Syrup
I bought Syrup at an airport bookstore. Talk about your perfect airplane read. I want a can of Fukk Cola.
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Magazine: Ad Busters
Aie. I gave up on them a while back (around the time of the Jesus-in-a-landfill issue, if that means anything to you). I find it kind of embarassingly self-satisfied now. I mean, even more so than a publication of that genre deserves to be.
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I took William Gibson's All Tomorrow's Parties with me on my trip this weekend. Took a little persistance, but I'm halfway through it and into now.
I'm kinda torn over Gibson. I read all of 'em 5 or 6 years ago and enjoyed them very much. However, I've picked them back up to read again and they haven't engaged me at all. Normally when I find a book I like, I'll read it over and over (or at least parts of it...) So it's odd that I can't do that with say, Count Zero or Neuromancer because I enjoyed them both very very much on the first go round.
Also, I seem to be very conscious that Gibson is Writing as opposed to just telling a story. Don't get me wrong, he can turn a phrase exceptionally well. There are some beautifully descriptive passages in the book I'm reading that have struck me with their literary merit. However, there's a part of me that thinks that going around hitting people between the eyes with your goddamn literary merit can distract them from the story you're trying to tell.
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I'm reading Andrew Vachss "Dead and Gone" right now. I'm a regular reader of his stuff, but somehow missed this one. Also, much of the book takes place in Portland, which is a bonus. I just finished "Black Images in the Comics" by Fredrik Stromberg (I'm sure there's a way to put an umlaut over that 'o' but I don't know how). Interesting, if brief book, on a topic that deserves a great deal more analysis.
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So I finally started reading again; right now I'm doing Cut Numbers, by Nick Tosches, A Cook's Tour, by Anthony Bourdan, and A Day in the Life of Ivan Denisovich, by Alexander Solzhenitsky. Respectively, they're about gangsters trying to fix the New York State lotto (with tons more navel-gazing than you'd expect from a crime novel; Tosches is like the Elmore Leonard that actually has stuff to say), a cook's tour of the world, in search of the perfect meal, and a day in the life of a prisoner of a Siberian labor camp. An odd set, I know, but they are all united in the fact that they were cheap (none more than $5.95).
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Be sure to read Bourdain's Kitchen Confidential, if you haven't already. He's an arrogant prick, but it's still a good read. Remember, don't order giraffe on Mondays.
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Second on Kitchen Confidential. It's a riot and it gives you good insight.
Any other foodies out there, have you read "The Debt to Pleasure" by John Lanchester? If you haven't, it's awesome.
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Any other foodies out there, have you read "The Debt to Pleasure" by John Lanchester? If you haven't, it's awesome.
Never heard of it, tell us more.
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Salon.com's Wanderlust for leisure, and Brave New World and The Teachings of the Compassionate Buddha for school.
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Hello ancience. Mighty fine avatar you've got there. Welcome to the board.
~Paul
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Howdy, Ancience.
Currently, I am about halfway through "The Confusion," Neal Stephenson's latest attempt to build his biceps up via carting a 1000-page longhand manuscript everywhere. It's actually really good. Immediatly lined up is "Will You Miss Me When I'm Gone," a biography of the Carter Family, "England Is Dreaming," a massive, phone-book sized history of punk rock in England and "Alice in Quantumland," an allegorical tale trying to make quantum physics more understandable for my primative Cro-Mag brain. Also, I STILL have to read Toches' "In The Hand of Dante."
Sigh. I'm back to reading every book I can pick up, again. Oh well!
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"England Is Dreaming," a massive, phone-book sized history of punk rock in England
Oh lord, I read that a few years ago when I was into the punk rock, and my brain is still spitting out punk trivia. I'd put the Slits' cover of "Heard it through the Grapevine" on a mix for a friend as a nostalgia trip for myself, and was still able to recite their names and ages at time of recording for her when she asked the band's name.
I just finished The Red Tent and I'm onto The Will to Power. I guess that is kind of a weird juxtaposition.
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I read The Princess Bride last week. It was a fine read. I like the part in the introduction where he says, "you're only reading this because you saw the movie" so then he talks about the movie for a bit.
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I read The Princess Bride last week. It was a fine read. I like the part in the introduction where he says, "you're only reading this because you saw the movie" so then he talks about the movie for a bit.
An excellent read. The book and the movie have slightly different "hooks," so I had no trouble mentally separating the two. Except for Cary Elwes. He stayed mentally in my head in the book version, because he's just so darned cute.
Welcome aboard, Ancience!
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I read The Princess Bride last week. It was a fine read. I like the part in the introduction where he says, "you're only reading this because you saw the movie" so then he talks about the movie for a bit.
An excellent read. The book and the movie have slightly different "hooks," so I had no trouble mentally separating the two. Except for Cary Elwes. He stayed mentally in my head in the book version, because he's just so darned cute.
I found that the descriptions in the book matched the actors pretty much right on anyway. Except Fezzik because he does not have a mustache! At least he said "hello, lady."
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Any other foodies out there, have you read "The Debt to Pleasure" by John Lanchester? If you haven't, it's awesome.
Never heard of it, tell us more.
Interestingly, in the UK it was titled "A Debt to Pleasure". The Richmond review reviewed it thusly:
First novels are often accused of being thinly disguised autobiography. John Lanchester has performed tortuous literary acrobatics to escape this dictum. What he has used from his previous incarnation as a literary and restaurant critic is a finely tuned sense of literary dos and don'ts, and an encyclopedic tour of world gastronomy. For the literary type, Lanchester's malevolent and self-deluded protagonist, Tarquin, is a satisfactorily deceitful and menacing guide through a psychopath's life and relationships. For the gourmand the learned, precious, but frequently just observations that litter the narrative journey from Britain to France on the nature of food, and the plethora recipes that accompany these ruminations, are a delight.
Tarquin (a name he adopted to replace his given name, Rodney) is convinced that his achievements in the culinary world far outstrip those of his dead brother, a celebrated sculptor. A harmless enough conviction, one might think: deluded, yes, absurd, yes, but hardly dangerous. It is Tarquin's great gift - his love of food - that provides us with more and more clues as to why he is trailing a seemingly harmless young couple on their honeymoon, armed with a well-thumbed copy of the Mossad Manual of Surveillance Techniques.
Tarquin's life is his work of art. His parents, his nanny, his brother all experience Tarquin's genius at full tilt. He is an ironist and a humourless pedant. To create a character who carries the whole thrust of the narrative upon his smug and thoroughly dislikeable shoulders is a daring move on the author's part. The result is a novel which is part thriller, part culinary guide and which functions with chilly luminosity. This is not a novel of the heart, but of the mind. And although Tarquin's empty narration can become wearisome at times, admiration for Lanchester's technical virtuosities has the edge as Tarquin fulfills his debt to pleasure with gruesome satisfaction.
It's a good read and I recommend it to those of you who consider yourself foodies.
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And to set the record straight, regardless of some of what that last paragraph of the review says, this book is NOT about Jough.
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Man, that book is so much like my life I SHOULD SUE
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In Cold Blood kicks ass. If you ever wander over near the True Crime section again at your local bookseller, check out David Simon's Homicide: A Year on the Killing Streets upon which the TV Series (which I never watched) was based. Not much like In Cold Blood, not at all in fact, other than I found them in the same section. It was a very engrossing read.
Despite the encouragement of this board, I have yet to make it much further into Rabbit Redux. So, for them moment I'm reading Truman Capote In Cold Blood, and a book on Freudian psychology (it's a good laugh so far).
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Cryptonomicon? Eeeexcellent.
Not the one I was thinking of, though it's superb. I was talking of... Quicksilver (http://www.iblist.com/book.php?id=7376). Bingo.
I just started Cryptonomicon. I was interested in the Triology Quicksilver's part of but I've never read any of Stephenson's stuff before so I decided to read this first since it's only 900 pages instead of 2,700.
I finished Codex by Grossman yesterday. Once you get past the first 2 chapters it's a good read although there's a small part of the ending that isn't satisfying.
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As long as this got resurrected, I'll add my current reading list. I'm on a bit of a 19th century Brit Lit kick lately. I'd convinced myself in high school that I hated the stuff, but, determined to give it one last try, I picked up Pride and Prejudice. Loved it (perhaps because I was dreamily imagining Colin Firth the whole time). Now I'm reading Hard Times, which is forcing me to re-evaluate my opinion of Mr. Dickens. It's a really biting, hilarious satire.
I also just finished Eats, Shoots and Leaves, which is just about the funniest book about being a punctuation nazi I've ever read. As a person who weeps openly at misplaced apostrophes, I loved it.
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Right now, I'm pumping through Nick Cave's book, And The Ass Saw The Angel, which is actually amazing, despite being a novel set in the American South with classic American South Literature characters written by an Australian. Despite the fact that he uses "dialect" (which means that "ah" equals "I"), and the fact that brutal Southerners is almost as cliche as the prostitute with the heart of gold that is also in the book, it is an amazingly intricate, fantastically dark piece of literature. If you're a Nick Cave fan, pick this up; if you don't know who he is, pick it up, and then grab a few albums. I'm a ways into England's Dreaming, but my interest is flagging, which is sad, because I'm just getting to the good stuff on the Sex Pistols. I grabbed a bunch of books on sale (another Nick Toches! A hardcover book called "Malcontents," filled with satire!). Sigh. All of my reading time this summer seems to be called already.
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I don't know how I missed it, but Tom Robbins published a new book last year, and it just came out in paperback. So far, Villa Incognito is pretty good, but I just started on it yesterday...
I don't think Tom Robbins is capable of writing a bad book, though.
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If you're a Nick Cave fan, pick this up; if you don't know who he is, pick it up, and then grab a few albums.
What about those of us who are actively not Nick Cave fans?*
I imagine a Southern novel of his being far too much like his reworking of Stagolee, which is like the nadir of....... everything.
I'm around page 475 of Finnegans Wake, still hoping to finish it in under 2 years, which means before September. This precludes most other reading, but I did just finish Middlesex, by Jeffrey Eugenides, which was great. One of those trendy, well-reviewed books that I had never gotten around to reading.
* Except for the Nick Cave featuring Everyone In The Universe track on your utterly rad mix, which I got a big kick out of.
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I'm most of the way through Live from New York: An Uncensored History of Saturday Night Live, as told by its stars, writers, and guests - it's pretty good. There's a bunch of drama around each cast leaving, the bad years ('80-'85), and the drugs and deaths that have happened, but they really do talk to pretty much everybody who has been involved with the show and is still around to talk about it. It's a very oral history book.
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The last book I read that was not about pregnancy, breastfeeding or babies was Darwin's Radio (http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/tg/detail/-/0345435249/qid=1092936579/sr=8-1/ref=pd_ka_1/104-9339217-0939914?v=glance&s=books&n=507846) which was a big disappointment. Before that I reread Wizard and Glass (http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/ASIN/0670032573/qid=1092936609/sr=ka-1/ref=pd_ka_1/104-9339217-0939914) in anticipation of getting a copy of The Wolves of Calla (http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/tg/detail/-/0743251628/qid=1092936641/sr=12-1/104-9339217-0939914?v=glance&s=books), but they're taking their sweet-ass time bringing out the trade paperback edition.
Before that was The Golden Transcendence (http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/ASIN/0765307561/qid=1092936817/sr=ka-1/ref=pd_ka_1/104-9339217-0939914) and The Confusion (http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/ASIN/0060523867/qid=1092936848/sr=ka-1/ref=pd_ka_1/104-9339217-0939914). The Diamond Age used to be my favorite N. Stephenson, but Quicksilver/The Confusion/The System of the World have supplanted it.
Anyone here read any Vernor Vinge (http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/search-handle-url/index%3Dstripbooks%26field-keywords%3Dvernor%252520vinge%26store-name%3Dbooks/104-9339217-0939914)? His stuff is amazing.
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The last book I read that was not about pregnancy, breastfeeding or babies was Darwin's Radio (http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/tg/detail/-/0345435249/qid=1092936579/sr=8-1/ref=pd_ka_1/104-9339217-0939914?v=glance&s=books&n=507846) which was a big disappointment.
Oh, good Lord. Just reading that Amazon summary... merciful Lord, the biology major in me wants to go outside and scream to the heavens:
GENES ARE NOT THERE TO CAUSE DISEASES! THE GENETIC CODE IS NOT SOME CLICHE "TICKING TIME BOMB" WAITING TO EXPLODE ON US! OUR GENES ARE NOT MALIGNANT!! JESUS CHRIST WHAT ARE YOU PEOPLE ON?!
... er, yes, anyway. The concept in and of itself seems good, and I have mad respect for Greg Bear, but it all sounds a little too Robin Cookly and twee to live.
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The concept in and of itself seems good, and I have mad respect for Greg Bear, but it all sounds a little too Robin Cookly and twee to live.
Well, the core "big idea" of the book is speciation events, and how they could come about, if the punctuated equalibrium model is correct. The parts of the book that actually dealt with the "big idea" and the women and children living it were fascinating, but were buried in pages and pages of booooooring political "drama".
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Hooray to Va for bringing this thread back to life!
I am currently reading "Fast Girls: Teenage Tribes and the Myth of the Slut" by Emily White, which doesn't really make the best bedtime reading. It's an interesting book though - there's a part about the myth of the "train job" (i.e. that story everyone's heard about the girl who sucked off the whole football/basketball/vollyball team) that got me talking and asking questions to my buds. Everyone I've asked had this same story told about all their highschool sluts.
Read "Hey, Nostradamus" by Douglas Coupland before that. I was disapointed, as I have been by everything after "Girlfriend in a Coma." I might just have to give up on him.
I also recently finished "Oryx and Crake" by Margaret Atwood, which was good, until the total cop-out ending.
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Awww, it's my baby thread! It CAME HOME!
Currently, I am reading nothing (other than the "Mojo Collecton: Ultimate Music Companion"). I was forced to stop in the middle of Japrisot's "A Very Long Engagement" and at the begining of Will Self's "My Idea of Fun" because, as it turns out, I start college in a week and have not, as of yet, graduated from high school. I was really liking the former, as suddenly I am very much interested in WW1; the latter....ehhhh. I was leafing through a collection of short stories by Self and liked them, so I picked up the novel sight unseen. In the first few pages, the guy talks about ripping the heads off of homeless people and fuck*ng their neck stumps. Sigh. Look, dude, just because your writing style is akin to Nick Hornby doesn't mean I'm gonna put up with any of this Bret Easton Ellis shit.
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I'm finally reading Fouc*ult's Pedulum. But I just got a copy of The Future Dictionary of America for my birthday so I'll be thumbing through that for the next few days.
Ooo, and the most recent Liberty Meadows book.
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I'm finally reading Fouc*ult's Pedulum.
I was trying to describe that to someone the other week, and had no idea how to. I need to reread it but my list of things to read is everygrowing, my lost of things to reread is far too long, and Fouc*ult's Pendulum isn't a snappy read...
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Slowly trudging through T.E. Laurence (of Arabia)'s Seven Pillars of Wisdom. It's good, but I can only take it in small doses. I should probably be reading something else in parallel, but my current brainspace is maxed out.
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Fouc*ult's Pendulum is excellent!
Lessee, I'm reading Patrick O'Brian's The Mauritius Command, Bill Bryson's A Short History of Everything and continuing to slowly plow through Claudius the God.
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I just finished The Conquest of Constantinople by Villehardouin (a first person account of the fourth Crusade), and I'm working on Darwin's Voyage of the Beagle. Eventually I need to get back to Anantomy of Melancholy and Rabbit Redux, both of which sit semi-read on my bookshelf. Oh, and after the discussion in another thread, I'm trying to make myslef give Gravity's Rainbow another try.
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I finished Neil Gaiman's American Gods recently and reread Owen Wister's The Virginian which is a longtime favorite. Now I'm reading Po Bronson's What Should I Do With My Life?. Up next is a very slim Spider Robinson book, Callahan's Touch. I think that's what it's called. I'm too lazy to get up and look. After that I'll probably get some of the books recommended here; a lot of interesting sounding reads on this thread. I completely adored both Fouc*ult's Pendulum and The Name Of The Rose. I recommend the latter to those of you that mentioned Fouc*ult's Pendulum. Tom Robbins: I too didn't know he had a new one out, and I just loved Fierce Invalids Home From Hot Climates.
I've only read Gibson's Pattern Recognition, but I thought it was brilliant. It reminded me of Cory Doctorow in parts, but that's probably because Doctorow is inspired by Gibson rather than vice versa, of course. I recommend anything by Cory; his work is really fun to read.
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I finished Neil Gaiman's American Gods recently
I nead to reread that; it was such a rad book.
I'm finishing Dissemination by Jacques Derrida and in my break before I start Infinite Jest or Gravity's Rainbow, I'm planning to read either Bob Dylan's book Tarantula or maybe some Richard Brautigan, as I remembered this summer how much I love him when I reread Trout giraffeing in America. Either way, taking a break between heavy postmodernists for some upbeat 60's surrealism.
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Seconded (thirded?) on American Gods. It was hexcellent, (=hella+excellent). So was Fierce Invalids. That wacky Tom Robbins and the language he does use! My goodness gracious.
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Most of my current reading is fluff, but I'm preparing to reembark on my second attempt to read Mervyn Peake's Gormenghast Trilogy. This may be a fool's errand given that school is starting again soon-like, but I figure I have to take a stab at it.
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I recommend anything by Cory [Doctorow]; his work is really fun to read.
Seconded! And Cory heartily encourages you to read his work for free on teh intarweb (http://craphound.com/). He is rad in multiple (http://eff.org/) ways (http://boingboing.net).
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Fierce Invalids I liked, but the more recent Villa Incognito seemed too short, and almost unfinished.
For the sake of completeness, I just finished reading Song of Susannah, the next to last book in Stephen King's Dark Tower series. I still think the first two books in that series were excellent, but they've been dropping off in quality (and going up in price) since then. I'm a sucker, so I'll still buy the last one when it comes out next year. Constant Reader, indeed.
Also, David Sedaris' Dress Your Family in Corduroy and Denim is more excellentness from him. Unfortunately, my obsessive NPR listening and book tour attending meant that I'd heard about half the stories in that book already when it came out.
Now I'm reading Neuromancer.
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GAIMAN GAIMAN GAIMAN.
Yeah, mad props for American Gods. Every time I go on a road trip, I re-read that book. I've actually spent a fair amount of time driving through and spending time in really small-town America, and there are parts in that book that I just adore.
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I got a copy of Gardens of the Moon by Steven Erikson for my birthday. Has anybody read this? Since it's part of a series I'm afraid to start it and find out it sucks.
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I'm finally all moved back to New York and now dorming it, and I'm reading Gravity's Rainbow on the subway. Up to page hunned-sumtin and no real problems yet. I mean, I don't UNDERSTAND much of it, but I'm taking it slow.
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I'm finally all moved back to New York and now dorming it, and I'm reading Gravity's Rainbow on the subway. Up to page hunned-sumtin and no real problems yet. I mean, I don't UNDERSTAND much of it, but I'm taking it slow.
The subway thing is a good idea, except that it seems like an awfully heavy book to bring around every day. However, there it is, right now, gazing recriminatingly down at me from the shelf in my dorm-cube.
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As avid a reader as I am (600+ pages/week) I can't believe it's taken me this long to start posting to this thread.
I just tonight finished All Tomorrow's Parties by William Gibson, which I started yesterday. This week I also started and finished Border Liners by Peter Høeg, author of Smilla's Sense of Snow. Meanwhile, I'm using The List by Chet Dettlinger as filler between good books. It's an exposé of Atlanta's police & governmental problems during the child murders/Wayne Williams controversy of the early-mid eighties.
A friend, when I quit my job, gave me three terrible fantasy books which I promptly devoured: The Sword of Truth series by Terry Goodkind. The first is so ridiculously derivative (former holder of precious eternal object named Samuel (Smeagol?) now small and hunkered with long arms and big yellow eyes, etc.) I laughed every twenty pages or so at its absurdity. I'm looking desperately for the rest of the books in the series. I'm hooked. How did I get this way.
Up next I've got DNA's The Salmon of Doubt and Bernard Cornwell's Sharpe's Fortress lined up. I love and hate second-hand bookstores because they have books you can't find anywhere and don't really want in the first place; also because the books they have that you want aren't really that well discounted in the first place. Plus the guy that runs the one I love/hate the best/worst has some form of Tourette's, which makes it really hard to shop for books. Come to Atlanta. I'll take you there. Seriously.
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As avid a reader as I am (600+ pages/week) I can't believe it's taken me this long to start posting to this thread.
I just tonight finished All Tomorrow's Parties by William Gibson, which I started yesterday. This week I also started and finished Border Liners by Peter Høeg, author of Smilla's Sense of Snow.
clippedy
Bernard Cornwell's Sharpe's Fortress lined up.
I read All Tomorrow's Parties this spring and liked it. Liked it better than Idoru, as I recall. I also enjoyed Smilla a lot when I read it (which was when it came out, so my recollection of it isn't great). Thought it was a good murder mystery and well written to boot. Good read and good writing, if you follow me. Reminded me of LeCarre a little in that sense. Would you recommend this one?
I intend to start the Sharpe books when I either finish or get tired of O'Brian's Aubrey/Maturin books. They are wonderful.
Currently I've only got one book going (which is odd for me). Like Mr. Bear, I'm reading Bill Bryson's A Short History of the Universe. It's very good. I can well understand why it terrified/depressed Cornelius. But I'm trying to remain philosophical. I am well pleased with this book and it has improved my opinion of Bryson. As I think I've said somewhere herein (perhaps on this thread) I've found Bryson's humorous works a little glib and self-satisfied. He proves himself a solid researcher and writer in this book. He's really up to the task of digesting centuries of complex scientific research and presenting it clearly without oversimplifying.
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Up next I've got DNA's The Salmon of Doubt
I got that one when it first came out. My review: depressingly short.
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Up next I've got DNA's The Salmon of Doubt
I got that one when it first came out. My review: depressingly short.
Damn straight. I really enjoyed it, though it hasn't a huge reread value, but the actual Dirk Gently, ummm, excerpt is depressing. Holistic Detective Agency is in some ways my favourite book by him, although I have always been such an H2G2 fanatic (owning most of the iterations of it and knowing it all by heart having grown up on it), and so to be teased so is just frustrating.
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Now reading Small Gods by Terry Pratchett.
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A friend, when I quit my job, gave me three terrible fantasy books which I promptly devoured: The Sword of Truth series by Terry Goodkind. The first is so ridiculously derivative (former holder of precious eternal object named Samuel (Smeagol?) now small and hunkered with long arms and big yellow eyes, etc.) I laughed every twenty pages or so at its absurdity. I'm looking desperately for the rest of the books in the series. I'm hooked. How did I get this way.
Be warned: around the fifth book or so something strange happens. Goodkind decides he's the new Ayn Rand and becomes mind numbingly didactic. Fantastic elements all but disappear, and the books become completely tiresome. I read on in bemusement for awhile, but finally gave up.
Still working on Seven Pillars of Wisdom here, though the end is in sight. oddly enough, my next reading will probably be Lawrence's second memoir entitled The Mint. Apparently it recounts the time period after WWI where Lawrence joined the RAF as an enlisted man under an assumed name.
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Now reading Small Gods by Terry Pratchett.
Excellent, excellent book. I would recommend it further, but clearly you're already reading it and thus don't need it. For anyone else in the thread -- read it. it's good.
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I got a copy of Gardens of the Moon by Steven Erikson for my birthday. Has anybody read this? Since it's part of a series I'm afraid to start it and find out it sucks.
Well since you people were no help I decided to start this. It's pretty cool so far. It's very non-formulaic fantasy.
Has anybody read The Egyptologist or Jonathan Strange & Mr. Norrell? I've started hearing good buzzings about both. But I'm worried that Strange & Norrell is getting too much hype to actually be that good.
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Dammit, you people have been holding out on me. I know you've been reading. I bet you even got books for Christmas. So start talkin'!
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I just finished Clive Barker's "Sacrament" - It ain't no damn Foucalt's Pendulum.
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I'm halfway through Infinite Jest, which I am finding to be pretty much the greatest book I've ever read and just started a biography of Nick Drake. My Christmas books included one on Francis Bacon, the McSweeney's humour collection, and that book Bob Dylan wrote.
Also, today was my first day back at school, and I've got two literature courses... one French hermeneutics course, and one on Tolstoy and Dostoeyevsky.
So you'd better believe I'll be reading.
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I'm glad to hear that. Amazon recommended Infinite Jest to me but I like to hear from a real person.
This weekend I finished Quicksilver (after 900 pages I'm still hazy on the plot but it was still a good read), Snow Crash (good, but I doubt I'd read it again), and Neverwhere (there's no good way to end a story like that).
I just started The Confusion which should help fill in that whole plot-thingy. Whatever I'm reading will be abandoned for Deadhouse Gates when it's released next month. If it's anywhere near as good as Gardens of the Moon then I'll already have my BotY.
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one French hermeneutics course,
I'm guessing you aren't one for hats - what with needing them custom made at size 47 or whatever.
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I just finished Clive Barker's "Sacrament" - It ain't no damn Foucalt's Pendulum.
Well what is?
Best thing I've been reading lately is Bob Dylan's new autobiography, Chronicles. It's very good. Dylan is a surprisingly good prose writer, although he's still capable of striking imagery. The Dylanness still comes through in his prose. Also, I'm struck by how much of a regular guy Dylan is, how normal his childhood seems to be.
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God, I picked up "Jonathan Strange & Mr. Norrell," which, being a book about magicians in 19th century London, is basically finely attuned to my geeky qualities. It's pretty good for what it is. I'm also pounding through John Dos Passos's 'U.S.A. Trilogy," entering into the second book, "1919."
Andalucia has to keep her excess brain mass in a bell jar on a tiny push-cart she carries with her. When she thinks real hard, you can see it pulse and glow.
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Andalucia has to keep her excess brain mass in a bell jar on a tiny push-cart she carries with her. When she thinks real hard, you can see it pulse and glow.
I'm pretty sure that when that happens, anyone within 100 feet loses control of their own brain and starts to make little jerky dancing motions - due to the thought-interference.
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Speaking of stray brain matter, I recently came into a copy of Driving Mr. Albert, a memoir about driving various in-jar bits of Albert Einstein's brain (and the scientist who scavenged it in the first place) across the country. It's a slightly melancholy book, written as it is about the wreckages of several lives, but the fact that it is at least purported to be true makes it very, very strange. Much page time thus far has been dedicated to "so why did the guy steal Einstein's brain in the first place?", with no answers.
Also on the subject of no clear answers, I just got back from purchasing my textbooks for our winter interterm, and one of them (which I need to read for tomorrow) is Nabokov's The Defense. More updates as I throw myself at Nabokov, over and over, with no relief.
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God, I picked up "Jonathan Strange & Mr. Norrell," which, being a book about magicians in 19th century London, is basically finely attuned to my geeky qualities. It's pretty good for what it is.
I wanted to pick that up when it first came out but decided to save it for Xmas. Right now the SO is reading it. So far her only comment is that it's interesting that Strange has only appeared via footnotes thus far.
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Yeah, the footnoting is really cool. She basically invented an entire bibliography; i.e. she continually footnotes references to books that exist within the fictional universe; not only that, she'll often refer to the same book several times, in differing capacities. For a 800-page first novel, I think it's a good one; however, given that it took her 10 years to write, I guess we can expect her sophomore effort in 2014.
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I must admit that in fiction I love footnotes. I immensely enjoy it in books like hg2g and Good Omens so I'm looking forward to Strange & Norrell
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I must admit that in fiction I love footnotes.
Well, then, you really should pick up Infinite Jest. It's got, let's see, 388 endnotes, some of which have their own endnotes.
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I must admit that in fiction I love footnotes.
Well, then, you really should pick up Infinite Jest. It's got, let's see, 388 endnotes, some of which have their own endnotes.
Nested endnotes, blaaaarrghhh </Homer drool>
Actually now that I think about Ghost in the Shell was like that.
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I don't think my post x-mas reading list has been as intellectual as some mentioned here. I've already read my way through Alton Brown's I'm Just Here for the Food (well, one of the two copies I received, anyway). Right now I'm about half way through Bill Bryson's A Short History of Nearly Everything, which is thoroughly enjoyable so far. And his scientific explanations are often better than Alton Brown's (not to bad-mouth A.B., but science isn’t always his strong point).
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I don't think my post x-mas reading list has been as intellectual as some mentioned here. I've already read my way through Alton Brown's I'm Just Here for the Food.
That is a fun book. The scampi and ramen radiator are the only recipes I've actually tried, though.
Apparently now there's a sequel, I'm Just Here for More Food.
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I think the only recipe in Alton Brown that I've actually made is the chili. It was complicated but good. I then improvised something that was halfway between that and the chili in the Achewood cookbook. It was sublime, but of course I can't recreate it.
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I had chili last night made from shredded potatoes and carrots. It was ridiculously good.
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Isn't shredded potatoes and carrots just hash browns with carrots in them?
How is that chili?
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Isn't shredded potatoes and carrots just hash browns with carrots in them?
How is that chili?
My S.O. made a vegetarian chili a couple weeks ago that used sweet potatoes. The sweet potatoes fell apart and really thickened the soup, giving it a nice chili consistency.
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Nabu, I think that requires a recipe thread 'cause I'm interested but confused.
I got your back, Asher - give me a little bit of time.
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I'm trying to get thru the classics I should have read a long time ago- 1984, Animal Farm and The Catcher in the Rye down, reading Brave New World by Aldous Huxley at the mo, countless more to go... One good thing bout being ill is spending some quality time curled up in bed reading a good book n having a smoke :)
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Who the Hell is in charge up in this bitch? Why is this in History? I was looking for this all over the damn place.
I'm reading "The Tetherballs of Bouganville". It's stupidly funny.
Edit: To me, the correct spelling of words is not optional.
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Ooh, "Tetherballs!" I may have to go on a Mark Leyer binge again -- the last time, sadly enough, was eighth grade, and my attention span was pretty low. It is to weep.
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Leyner hasn't had a new book out since Tetherballs, which I think came out in '97 or '98. He wrote a monthly column for Esquire for awhile and none of them have been collected into a volume yet either.
WTF? Team Leyner cannot be allowed to die. If ever a man's work deserved a message board it's Leyner's.
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Who the Hell is in charger up in this bitch? Why is this in History? I was looking for this all over the damn place.
I'm reading "The Tetherballs of Bouganville". It's stupidly funny.
It was started before the Trivial Pursuit category redesign. Back then History was The Study which did make sense. A mod could move it to A&E.
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Leyner hasn't had a new book out since Tetherballs, which I think came out in '97 or '98. He wrote a monthly column for Esquire for awhile and none of them have been collected into a volume yet either.
WTF? Team Leyner cannot be allowed to die. If ever a man's work deserved a message board it's Leyner's.
Damn, I haven't read any Leyner in years. I'd not heard of The Tetherballs of Bougainville before. I'll have to track that down.
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I started on "My Cousin" but that kind of writing makes me tired. I'll try again after I finish the other. I've got to say, though, that his writing is sort of . . . easy, I guess is the word I want. I mean, I can see how he did it. I don't know how to explain it. I guess I'd have to say that if I were a writer I'd write like that. Not because I would be shooting for that, but because I think that's the kind that would be easiest for me. And that's not to say that I think it would be easy to write a book as fun as that one. I just can see myself writing a book like that long before I can see myself writing "Blood Meridian" or something.
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Moved to A&E by request.
Man, on the subject of Blood Meridian -- I recently read BR Myers's A Reader's Manifesto, a manifesto (dull surprise!) about the many flaws of modern "literary" prose -- more specifically, its surface-level over-ornamentation and obfuscation that often covers up a dreadful lack of any kind of meaningful, challenging content. Myers discussed Cormac McCarthy at great length, to my satisfaction, because I have always found McCarthy's prose ugly and nearly unreadable. FIGURE OUT WHEN TO END A SENTENCE, DUDE. IT IS NOT HARD.
(Apologies to McCarthy fans, but jesus. I will, however, freely confess that some of this bitterness may be because my hateful tenth-grade English teacher loved McCarthy above virtually all else, so... yeah, festering hatred.)
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that kind of writing makes me tired.
Wow, this is possibly the worst criticism I can imagine.
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and that book Bob Dylan wrote.
Also, today was my first day back at school, and I've got two literature courses... one French hermeneutics course, and one on Tolstoy and Dostoeyevsky.
I also got the Dylan book. I really like it so far. I'm still working on the first volume of the autobiography by Gabriel Garcia Marquez. I didn't do much reading during the holiday break, and school just started up again yesterday, so I fear it may be a while before I finish it, even though it's not long at all.
I registered to take a class on 19th century Russian Lit and I was really excited because apparently the professor is quite the Dostoevksy scholar, and I have recently really been into him, but it didn't work with my schedule. So this semester I'll be reading a ton of stuff about the Philosophy of Ecology. My other classes appear to be light on reading (which tends to be the case with most of my Philosophy classes).
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and Neverwhere (there's no good way to end a story like that).
Thanks to y'all I read American Gods and enjoyed it quite a bit. So I picked up Neverwhere. It's good, but I still haven't finished it (I have a horrible habit of starting and not finishing books for a few months--I often have to start over). I don't like it, so far anyway, as much as American Gods however.
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and Neverwhere (there's no good way to end a story like that).
Thanks to y'all I read American Gods and enjoyed it quite a bit. So I picked up Neverwhere. It's good, but I still haven't finished it (I have a horrible habit of starting and not finishing books for a few months--I often have to start over). I don't like it, so far anyway, as much as American Gods however.
I haven't read American Gods yet. I read Neverwhere and Snow Crash because they were lent to me. I found Neverwhere harder to get into but was glad I read it once.
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Man, on the subject of Blood Meridian -- I recently read BR Myers's A Reader's Manifesto, a manifesto (dull surprise!) about the many flaws of modern "literary" prose -- more specifically, its surface-level over-ornamentation and obfuscation that often covers up a dreadful lack of any kind of meaningful, challenging content. Myers discussed Cormac McCarthy at great length, to my satisfaction, because I have always found McCarthy's prose ugly and nearly unreadable. FIGURE OUT WHEN TO END A SENTENCE, DUDE. IT IS NOT HARD.
(Apologies to McCarthy fans, but jesus. I will, however, freely confess that some of this bitterness may be because my hateful tenth-grade English teacher loved McCarthy above virtually all else, so... yeah, festering hatred.)
I dropped English as a major in part to avoid ever having to read McCarthy beyond the bits I had already read (not really, I dropped it for various reasons). Did you read the extended essay in book form? I read the essay that was in the Atlantic Monthly a couple of years ago. I bought that issue because of the Mark Twain story included, and found the essay to be a good read. Fitting that it was in the same issue as the Twain story because he is one of the great English prose writers, one who understands when to end a sentence, and how to write something, well, interesting. My favorite part of the essay was this (paraphrased):
Oprah tells Toni Morrison that she has a tough time reading some of her sentences, often having to stop midway and start over again. Morrison responds by saying, "that, my dear, is called reading." Myer writes, "No, Toni that, my dear, is called bad writing."
Or something like that.
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Wow, all of a sudden this got crazy. You know, everybody got something they love, and isn't it beautiful.
I will point out here that for me, as an English major and someone who has spent some time looking at how English ought to be put together, McCarthy just punched me right in the head, saying this is how it is to be done. But, you will probably have results that vary. Also, I am reading "The Life of Pi" which is beautiful.
But for me, McCarthy puts every word right where it is supposed to be. That was always my main impression of his work. He chose each word carefully, and put it where it was supposed to be. I'm intrigued that the two of us should have such differing opinions of his work.
Also, I am listening to "Boogie Wonderland" right now. Much love to each and every one of you.
I may not be entirely sober.
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Speaking for myself, I don't hate McCarthy, I just didn't want to have to study him, and it seemed like a lot of the post-modern classes covered him. Maybe V has stronger opinions on him.
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Wow, am I just the creepy guy? Because he was assigned in classes, but I actually enjoyed reading him.
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I'm really sorry, but every sentence of McCarthy I've ever read -- the several quoted passages in Manifesto and those brought up in English class -- just... don't work for me. They sound like someone who is desperately throwing words at the page in the hope that some of them will stick. I realize that this opinion can get me lynched in some crowds, but hey.
In conclusion, Nabu, I have no idea whether or not you are the creepy guy.
And yes, I read the book form of the essay.
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I've been reading the same book for two months now... "Collected Fictions" - Borges. it is basically a compilation of all his works put together and it is more huge than I imagined.
I've read longer books, but the fact that each story has such impact no matter how short it is, causes me to have to pay close attention which, if read at night before bed = falling asleep a few pages into it. plus, the names of most the characters are long.
I have now put my new goal at reaching pg300 by the end of the week. I am on pg274. I'd like to read other books soon (I'm a bit OCD about not reading other books at the same time unless it's manga or magazines which aren't real books).
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Yeah, I guess I am the creepy guy. I'd go and pick out some sentences of C-Mac's . . . maybe later. I don't want to get in some kind of weird literature fight.
I'm finishing "Life of Pi" right now, by Yann Martel. It's a Man Booker prize-winner. It's quite good. This poor kid is stuck on a lifeboat with a Bengal tiger.
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I, ummm....I've been reading and rereading a bunch of my old comics, my graphic novels and a few Will Eisner and Scott McCloud books, given that I'm "hopefully" going to start serious woodshedding on my comic script any day now.
Yeah, my comic script. BRING IT.
Also, I finished "Jonathan Strange & Mr. Norrell." It was good, engaging, informative...it wasn't "If on a Winters Night a Traveler...", but it was really enjoyable, and, as a first novel, quite amazing.
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I, ummm....I've been reading and rereading a bunch of my old comics, my graphic novels and a few Will Eisner and Scott McCloud books, given that I'm "hopefully" going to start serious woodshedding on my comic script any day now.
Yeah, my comic script. BRING IT.
Also, I finished "Jonathan Strange & Mr. Norrell." It was good, engaging, informative...it wasn't "If on a Winters Night a Traveler...", but it was really enjoyable, and, as a first novel, quite amazing.
After catching the end of X-Men 2 the other day I'm filled with the desire to pull out the old Dark Phoenix Saga TPB.
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I was beginning to feel that I didn't have a place in this conversation, not having an english major or anything like that. I'm just a humble commercial writer. But then I saw "Life of Pi" mentioned. Goddamn I loved that one. I've passed it on to everyone I know. Every last person loving it.
I just whipped through "The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night Time" It's written from the perspective of an autistic child and it's just awesome. He gets it amazingly.
I read "the book of Five Rings" right after that. It's about tactics, it's supposed to apply to every day life. I guess I have to read it again to get that out of it, but it's pretty cool. I'll be better at heroclix because of it. It makes you want to be a samurai.
Now I'm in a bit of a pause, without a novel. I've decided to hit the TPB's as well. Some Avengers and really old Spider-man. I'll probably read the Watchmen again and get depressed again.
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I started reading Fray the other day. Comic book that Joss Whedon did a while back. It's really good. I've been getting the Astonishing X-Men run that he's doing at the moment, which has been damned good so far.
That and the followups in the Arabesks from Jon Courtenay Grimwood which are brilliant. A cyberpunk Alexandria with a guy who has an Arctic fox in his head as his guide.
Then I have to read The Scar, the second China Mieville novel, so I can read his new one which people are getting even more excited about.
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I'm finishing "Life of Pi" right now, by Yann Martel. It's a Man Booker prize-winner. It's quite good. This poor kid is stuck on a lifeboat with a Bengal tiger.
When you finish, could you post again and tell me what you thought of how it ended? I had a big argument with a friend about this and am interested in a second opinion, although I suppose since it was so successful I guess it's obvious that most people thought it was great.
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Read & loved Life of Pi awhile ago (and yes, the ending is weird), read A Curious Incident over break, and also loved it (I used to babysit an autistic kid, and have a few Aspergers symptoms myself), and I worked my way through Quicksilver last month, which, despite its length and dry passages, kept me reading.
Now I'm in the midst of Fraud by David Rackoff, which is hilarious. Next is either Jonathan Strange or Infinite Jest, unless I read a Terry Prachett novel first.
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I worked my way through Quicksilver last month, which, despite its length and dry passages, kept me reading.
It took me almost 2 months to read Quicksilver but about 3 weeks to read Confusion (I'm only halfway, so I'm projecting here). Maybe it's just because I can keep the various Dukes &c straight now.
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I started reading Fray the other day. Comic book that Joss Whedon did a while back. It's really good. I've been getting the Astonishing X-Men run that he's doing at the moment, which has been damned good so far.
Yeah, his stuff is really good. I never really got into Buffy, but if he writes this well normally, SHOOOO JESUS.
If anyone wants to dip their toe into good comic writing, check out anything by Bendis. He is AWESOME.
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I did just read "Stuck Rubber Baby". The blurb implied it was as good as "Maus" but I didn't think so. Interesting sidelight - it was only like 6 hours after I finished it that I finally got the title. So not only am I the creepy guy, I'm also the sort of oblivious guy as well.
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I finished "Life of Pi". I thought the ending was actually pretty good, considering I had to deal with the two blind buys having their lifeboats bump into each other in the middle of the Pacific, and also that crazy island. I thought the ending was sort of a breath of fresh, realistic air. I didn't mind starting with the animals in the boat, but I can't be expected to suspend all my disbelief and still view the book in the same way. It's like it turns into a Narnia book otherwise, and I expect to see populations of people that hop around on one giant leg.
As an aside, somebody gave this book to my wife because her first name is Pi.
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Your wife's first name is Pi? That's not a nick name or anything?
That is awesome. Do you call her 3.14159 for kicks?
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If anyone wants to dip their toe into good comic writing, check out anything by Bendis. He is AWESOME.
Yea. I'm getting Powers at the moment, since I never got round to it before.
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Your wife's first name is Pi? That's not a nick name or anything?
That is awesome. Do you call her 3.14159 for kicks?
No. But she does celebrate her birthday on March 14th.
She'll be 90 this year!
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I felt like Life of Pi ended like the kind of story you write when you're eight years old - writing yourself into some fantastic situation that you can't think of a way out of and giving up and saying 'it was all a dream.'
My friend thought it was all brilliant and ambiguous and that you really didn't know which was the truth. Me, I just felt ripped off.
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I had to deal with the two blind buys having their lifeboats bump into each other in the middle of the Pacific, and also that crazy island.
In that light you could make anything seem stupid. But yeah, now that you mention it, two blind guys bumping into eachother in the pacific is fucked.
For me I found the ending to be a choice of what you want to believe. At this point you are so comitted to the character and his story you just want to believe the one he told you. SURE! You did survive on a boat with a tiger and that Island that tried to eat you was an asshole.
He tells these crazy stories in such a convincing way you wonder what Pi Partel and Yann Martel have in common. Besides the obvious: their last names.
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I'm rather disappointed that Nabu's wife isn't actually named "Pi." I had a glorious image for a moment of Nabu and Pi, the best sitcom ever released on the planet Zoborf.
(Also, this thread is sort of making me want to read Life of Pi.)
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I'm sorry, V. I didn't make that post very clear. My wife is HELL OF named Pi. It's only that simple.
So, even though I haven't met so many cool people as the rest of you, I guess my coolness just skyrocketed, due to being married to a woman named Pi, eh?
My no was in response to Jough's question about whether I call her 3.14~etc.
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My wife is HELL OF named Pi.
When come back, bring her.
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I'm sorry, V. I didn't make that post very clear. My wife is HELL OF named Pi. It's only that simple.
This is the 2nd coolest name I've ever encountered.
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I'm waiting, CJ . . .
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I'm waiting, CJ . . .
I had to wait for somebody to ask. Via work I became aware of a radiologist named Baz de Baz, MD. This is untoppable.
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And then you had to wait another hour and 45 minutes? Thanks. Now my day is shot to hell.
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And then you had to wait another hour and 45 minutes? Thanks. Now my day is shot to hell.
Hey, you replied at 5:01 and I couldn't very well reply while fleeing work at high speed.
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I'm sorry, V. I didn't make that post very clear. My wife is HELL OF named Pi. It's only that simple.
This is the 2nd coolest name I've ever encountered.
I'm just saying that is a hell of a cliffhanger to post 7 minutes before leaving work, is all.
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I had a friend in my post-high school years whose last name was Pi, which was pronounced "pee". Somewhere along the way, she decided to use her father's last name instead, which was Yu.
I BEGGED her to consider hyphenating instead, so she could be Casey Pi-Yu. I offered money. Sexual favors. Anything. She wouldn't budge.
It ranks with the greatest of personal disappointments in my life.
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It ranks with the greatest of personal disappointments in my life.
As well it should. Truly a Bullwinklesque anecdote.
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I read Infinite Jest this weekend. Yeah, pretty much all of it. This Weekend. Even though it was a gorgeous day here in the ATL I couldn't even haul my ass off the couch to go out and have a cigarette because I had to finish it. Today. So my brain's a little fried, and I really need to interface with someone in re this book (see, I told you I'm fried over this book), but nobody I know has read it. Good book.
The next book I read had better be some Pratchett or something; I'm desperate for a book that's at least mostly freaking linear.
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that is my favorite book of all time. it made me want to cry and laugh when i read it which very few books can do.
ALL OF YOU SHOULD READ INFINITE JEST.
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I'm reading Deadhouse Gates right now. It's an actual coherent interesting fantasy series. There's so much drivel in this section of the bookstore that I'm really glad I found out about Erikson. Just pretend the cover of the first book isn't there.
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I've been reading... well, class material right now, but it's fairly interesting. I'm working through the Robert Alter translation of Genesis, supplemented by Louis Ginzberg's The Legends of the Jews. I'm currently procrastinating on a paper attempting to synthesize these two sources' accounts of Abraham. Whee!
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Man, Infinite Jest pretty much colonized my mind when I read it. I don't get those people who whined about it being long, cause I'd be pretty happy if I could keep reading it forever.
Unfortunately, all things come to an end, and then one is left with one's school reading. In my case, Nietzsche, Wagner, lots of things that are in Olde Frenche, and essays on Errol Morris. However, I read the first half of Nabokov's Bend Sinister this morning, which was charming. I hadn't read any Nabokov in a long time but I love him madly.
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I'm about to start the new Murakami book 'Kafka on the Shore' .....after I finish reading the back of the book notes about South American historical figures of the 1800's from that Borges fictions book that took forever to read through. really, I'm just slightly OCD and figure it would be "cool" to know random facts otherwise I wouldn't read these notes
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I'm about to start the new Murakami book 'Kafka on the Shore'
I cannot wait to get round to that. That and the last Mitchell book (Cloud Atlas) are pretty much top of my list at the moment.
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I can't wait for Kafka On the Shore to come out in paperback. I'm currently alternating the damn Dos Pasos "USA" trilogy(DEEP READING) with Boris Akunin's "Murder on the Leviathan" (LIGHT READING). I've found out that I am a sucker for historical fiction, especially that which deals with the Victorian Era or literature.
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i would also like to read kafka on the shore, i've never read murakami before but i'm very interested in magic realism taken to that extent (if that's what it is; i'm just inferring from what i've heard about the book).
andalucia: i felt the same way. when it ended i felt like someone in my family had died, or something. i actually went out in search of theses online or other supplemental material i could find so i could stay in that universe (i did end up finding one interesting thesis, but not much else).
CortJstr: are you referring to Steve Erickson and you left out the 'c'? He is a very good sci-fi writer who has some fantasy elements to him.
School reading-wise I just finished Aristotle's Ethics and have moved right on to Politics; pleasure reading, I am still working on Brian Greene's Fabric of the Cosmos, which is really interesting and fun but which takes a sort of non-scientific person like me a long time to get through.
Sorry for asking a lot of questions but I am sort of a book freak.
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I can't wait for Kafka On the Shore to come out in paperback.
Yeah, I almost waited, but Murakami is my favourite author and I was just about done with the book I was reading, so figured, why not?
It is of the uncomfortable hardback size (I only have one other hardback book of his -- 'after the quake' and it's a mini-hardback, so I guess I just had the wrong idea.. heh), so I may trade in when the paperback comes out though... for collection-wise reasons.
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CortJstr: are you referring to Steve Erickson and you left out the 'c'? He is a very good sci-fi writer who has some fantasy elements to him.
Nope. This is Steven Erikson (http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/search-handle-url/index=books&field-author=Steven%20Erikson/102-2163255-7480162). Minus the C but +N.
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So aside from the school related stuff (contemporary ethics, ecology, shit like that) I haven't had much time for reading. But the other night I went to a reading by Pete Dexter. I was impressed by the material he presented (a book he's working on) and so I picked up a copy of Paris Trout, which I guess won the National Book Award in the late 80s. And people were having books signed, so I had him sign it. Really nice guy. I guess something about me screamed "STUDENT!" (I look about 18 when clean shaven, and 21 tops with some scruff, I'm told) and he asked me if I was, I said yes, and he gave me a copy of Train, his newest book. Really nice guy. He lives up near Seattle, where I'm from, so that was cool too.
Paris Trout was really good, I thought, and I will hopefully start Train this weekend, depending on how much work I can get done on a paper. It seemed like someone had mentioned his name here before, but I couldn't find anything.
Also, Nabubrush, I remember you mentioned Andrew Vachss. He was recommended to me a couple months ago, and I picked up Flood. The blurb made it seem like it was right up my alley (I love crime/detective fiction) but I wasn't even able to finish it. I wasn't expecting a parody of the genre, but it read like a poorly executed one. I also felt like I was being preached at the entire time, like he was just trying to get me to understand that child abuse is a problem and we need to get the scum off the street, and it got a bit obnoxious. From what I understand, though, Vachss started writing fiction in order to inform what he thought (probably correctly, but I just don't like to be preached at by crime novelists) was a thoroughly ignorant public about the dangers of child abuse, and since Flood is his first novel, I wonder if he develops a more subtle voice in his later ficiton. Is this the case, Nabu? And if so, can you suggest a title or two that may be a better start than Flood?
I'm still slowly making my way through Dostoevsky's works, when I get the time (I had an Amazon gift certificate a while back, so I bought the newly translated versions of his novels). Tony Hillerman provides a good quick fix when I'm not as busy and want some crime ficiton.
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All this talk about readin' kinda put me in the mood too. Didn't have an inkling of what I wanted to read, so I just grabbed a random "Top 100 Novels" list and figured the top was a good place to start. Just ran to the library and checked out Ulysses. First impression: Damn, this book is big.
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All this talk about readin' kinda put me in the mood too. Didn't have an inkling of what I wanted to read, so I just grabbed a random "Top 100 Novels" list and figured the top was a good place to start. Just ran to the library and checked out Ulysses. First impression: Damn, this book is big.
My favorite english teacher said her one goal after she retired was to read Ulysses. I can't imagine ever even trying.
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Geek confession:
After seeing a trailer for A Scanner Darkly last weekend, I had to dig that one out to re-read. I haven't read a lot of P.K. Dick novels, but so far that's been my favourite by a long shot (except maybe Ubik). I'm also a few chapters into Grass' The Tin Drum, but I haven't picked it up for a few nights.
Paris Trout was really good, I thought, and I will hopefully start Train this weekend, depending on how much work I can get done on a paper. It seemed like someone had mentioned his name here before, but I couldn't find anything.
I read this in my college writing class, and a few times again since. It's not something I would normally see myself being into, but I really enjoyed it. Maybe it's time to dig it out again...
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Ulysses isn't as hard as it's rumoured to be... I think mostly no one finishes it because they regard it as some sort of horrible epic task when mostly it's just a really clever, witty book.
Theory B is that I am just a big nerd.
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Well, Day 1 proved to be quite the frustrating experience. But then, I took the book to work and was reading it there, so that probably had a lot to do with it. I think it's a book that's meant to be read without distraction.
It also helped that I looked up the Wikipedia entry on it and got the run-down on what, exactly, was happening. When you know the story ahead of time, it's a lot easier to understand. Which maybe spoils it a little bit, but I sure wasn't getting very far comprehension-wise without it.
I used to read a lot - I was an English major in college. But over the past five years, I've read one, maybe two novels. Trying to make 2005 a better year in the department.
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I just read "A Scanner Darkly" for the first time a few weeks ago, and it actually inspired me to start looking around for ways to volunteer to help out at drug-treatment centers around me. In a few years, I'm actually going to try to join the Scottish Rite Freemasons, because they focus on community-based drug rehab. My mom, long before she had me, had a pretty serious drug problem. That she was able to kick her habit, remain sane, and go on to work with addicts one of the most amazing things about her. It's in the family!
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I just finished Jennifer Government. It didn't inspire me in any way.
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That's too bad; corporate terrorism is probably a field whose prospects can only get better with time.
A coworker gave me Jennifer Government to read on a cross-country trip I made a couple of years ago. It moved him in some leet-nerd way. I found it more entertaining than staring at the back of the seat in front of me. Interesting way of looking at things.
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I think the ideas in the book were so close to the actual mark that I kept wanting more. It just seemed like it had been done before, over and over.
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Just finished up Snow Crash, and now I've moved on to What's The Matter With Kansas?, mainly because I'm getting tired of Thomas Frank being the go-to guy whenever Kansas comes up in the national news. I figure I can justify my disdain for him by reading his book.
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Geek confession:
After seeing a trailer for A Scanner Darkly last weekend, I had to dig that one out to re-read. I haven't read a lot of P.K. Dick novels, but so far that's been my favourite by a long shot...
A Scanner Darkly is also one of my favorites. I want to reread it before the movie come out, but my friend Kelly has it.
I am reading a book about the college admissions process.
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Just finished up Snow Crash
I just read that for the first time last month. I guess it was cool but having read his other stuff first it didn't really hold a candle.
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Just finished up Snow Crash
I just read that for the first time last month. I guess it was cool but having read his other stuff first it didn't really hold a candle.
I adore that novel. I just love what he did to cyberpunk.
Also, finest denoument, ever...
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Just finished up Snow Crash, and now I've moved on to What's The Matter With Kansas?, mainly because I'm getting tired of Thomas Frank being the go-to guy whenever Kansas comes up in the national news. I figure I can justify my disdain for him by reading his book.
I must admit that I've never heard of Thomas Frank. What's his damage, and what does he think is the matter with Kansas? Is this one of those "midwestern small towns conceal a dark heart" twonkishnesses that (if I may segue back on topic) have ensured that I will never again attempt to read Kent Haruf?
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Just finished up Snow Crash, and now I've moved on to What's The Matter With Kansas?, mainly because I'm getting tired of Thomas Frank being the go-to guy whenever Kansas comes up in the national news. I figure I can justify my disdain for him by reading his book.
I must admit that I've never heard of Thomas Frank. What's his damage, and what does he think is the matter with Kansas? Is this one of those "midwestern small towns conceal a dark heart" twonkishnesses that (if I may segue back on topic) have ensured that I will never again attempt to read Kent Haruf?
He used to write a publication called The Baffler, which I have never heard of but many apparently have. His thesis in What's The Matter With Kansas? is that the right has successfully duped rural voters into voting Republican based on Moral Values, but then only implements pro-business legislation which then hurts those same rural voters. In this book he explores how the right managed to do that, particularly when Kansas was quite the socialist hotbed back in the day.
I'm sure it's bigger news here in Kansas than other places, but I've seen Frank on several national news/interview shows, and it seems that any time something in Kansas makes the national news they call up Tom.
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I must admit that I've never heard of Thomas Frank. What's his damage, and what does he think is the matter with Kansas? Is this one of those "midwestern small towns conceal a dark heart" twonkishnesses that (if I may segue back on topic) have ensured that I will never again attempt to read Kent Haruf?
Isn't he mainly dismayed with the conservativism of middle America?
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Isn't he mainly dismayed with the conservativism of middle America?
Kinda like the rest of us.
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Isn't he mainly dismayed with the conservativism of middle America?
Kinda like the rest of us.
It's going . . . it's going . . . rent the room, Mother - that one's not coming home.
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I just finished Jennifer Government. It didn't inspire me in any way.
There's nothing in Jennifer Government that wasn't essentially done better in The Space Merchants (http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/tg/detail/-/0312749511/qid=1109711598/sr=8-1/ref=pd_bbs_1/002-8593349-9846410?v=glance&s=books&n=507846).
I'm about to give up on Kim Stanley Robinson's latest, Forty Signs of Rain. Really dull, only read as far as I have because I loved the Mars trilogy and The Years of Rice and Salt.
Edit cuz those italics looked like robot ass.
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I got the Dante Club as a present. Has anybody read this? I don't think I'll even consider tackling it until after System of the World, though.
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I got the Dante Club as a present. Has anybody read this? I don't think I'll even consider tackling it until after System of the World, though.
I read it in a day whilst trying to fly from New York to Kentucky. Given that I'm a sucker for literary historical fiction, I was down with it. Interesting stuff.
I'm currently working on Carlos Luiz Zafon's "Shadow of the Wind," which is, suprise suprise, a literary historical fiction novel.
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I read it in a day whilst trying to fly from New York to Kentucky.
Trying?
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I read it in a day whilst trying to fly from New York to Kentucky.
Trying?
Tying a red S cape on your back just isn't enough.
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I understand it involves throwing oneself toward the ground and missing.
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My superpower is actually that any time I fly, I fly on a day where there will be a snowstorm or massive power-outage; the last four times I've flown, there have been three freak snowstorms and the power went out on the entire Eastern seaboard. So, every time I fly, I end up taking about a day and a half to actually get anywhere, and so I read a lot on flights.
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I gotta fly all the time for work. I bring crosswords and my gameboy and maybe a book, but I always get bored with whatever I'm doing. Luckily I usually get first class so I can just drink myself into a coma. I'm reading Fredric Brown right now.
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Currently, I am reading:
"Filth" by Irvine Welsh (for the second time)
"Yoga for People Who Can't Be Bothered to Do It" by Geoff Dyer (stuck at a boring part right now)
"Homestead : The Glory and Tragedy of an American Steel Town" by William Serrin (also a little bored at the moment)
I love reading Welsh's stuff. I just love getting immersed in the dialect. I just have to be careful not to call everyone "cunt." If you've read his stuff, you know what I mean.
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I've been trying to get round to finishing off the Arabesque trilogy by Courtenay Grimwood, which is great, but I'm just pretty busy at the moment. My brother has got me to read this book by Tom Robbins that is supposedly great, has a very odd first line... Villa Incognita. Something about scrotum parachutes...
That and I finally got a copy of Cloud Atlas. I adore David Mitchell, almost as much as Murakami, so that ought to be a treat.
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Just finished Simon Gray's Fat Chance, a fascinating little book about the time Stephen Fry ran away from a production of Gray's play Cell Mates. The book was actually written as events were unfolding, so Fry does come off as a bit of a jerk (no idea if he and Gray ever reconciled actually), but perhaps the most interesting part was just how sweet the "real" Rik Mayall apparently is.
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Just finished Simon Gray's Fat Chance, a fascinating little book about the time Stephen Fry ran away from a production of Gray's play Cell Mates. The book was actually written as events were unfolding, so Fry does come off as a bit of a jerk (no idea if he and Gray ever reconciled actually), but perhaps the most interesting part was just how sweet the "real" Rik Mayall apparently is.
That sounds like a fun book. Thanks for the heads up.
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I'm reading (well, listening to) Umberto Eco's Baudolino which is terrific, thought provoking and funny all at the same time.
I just finished The Little Shepherd of Kingdom Come which was weird because it is a 19th century novel set in my hometown and the surrounding areas. Odd to read fiction that refers to places that you see everyday.
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I just finished The Little Shepherd of Kingdom Come which was weird because it is a 19th century novel set in my hometime and the surrounding areas. Odd to read fiction that refers to places that you see everyday.
Oh my God. That is the specialest book to me. I have a very old edition that was given to me by my late grandfather, because the boy and the dog reminded him of me and my dog. It's one of my most treasured gifts.
Do they still publish it? I want to read it again, but with a newer edition so I don't wear out the old one anymore than it is.
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I just finished The Little Shepherd of Kingdom Come which was weird because it is a 19th century novel set in my hometime and the surrounding areas. Odd to read fiction that refers to places that you see everyday.
Oh my God. That is the specialest book to me. I have a very old edition that was given to me by my late grandfather, because the boy and the dog reminded him of me and my dog. It's one of my most treasured gifts.
Do they still publish it? I want to read it again, but with a newer edition so I don't wear out the old one anymore than it is.
I haven't the slightest. I read it on my PDA, which is scary enough in itself. If there's anyplace you could find a newer edition it would be here, so PM me and I'll do what I'm capable of to find you one.
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Oh, man, what have I read since I last posted to this thread...
-- Nabokov's Pale Fire. Gorgeous and very, very strange. Maybe not Lolita-level good, but the narrator is significantly more interesting, and points for the structure.
-- About seventy pages of DeLillo's White Noise, before I got tired and gave up. Goddamn wretched book. Why is this regarded as one of the all-time greats?
-- The first ten pages of Jasper Fforde's The Eyre Affair, about five times. I know I should like this book but am having acute failure to get into it.
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you REALLY should pick white noise back up. i didn't like how it started out either, frankly, and i only forced myself through the first half because david wallace thinks delillo is such a genius, and i will literally do anything david wallace tells me to do.
the second half the plot changes significantly, and i think it gets much more interesting. so, there you are. keep reading it.
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The Eyre Affair is one of those books where you will only enjoy it if you find the concept and literary fanservice precious enough to let you overlook how badly it's written. I found it tolerable but occasionally got overwhelmed by a sense of "This is a world where all the things that I, Jasper Fforde, personally like have justly triumphed over all the things that I dislike, and all other right-thinking literary individuals should consider it paradise therefore and not look too closely at the illogic."
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I love "White Noise" with almost reckless abandon, and find there's lots to like on the first damn PAGE let alone the first 70 pages - but yes, the book does shift considerably in the second half.
I never thought of it starting off badly before, but then again, I've been reading books since before post-post-modern existed, so maybe you need to come at it from a pomo tradition to appreciate it as a pomo satire.
Although admittedly at first I found the Hitler Studies major to be a little *too* tongue in cheek, at least until I found you could major in Tupac Shakur at Stanford.
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I dunno, the first seventy pages of White Noise made me want to inflict grievous bodily harm on Don DeLillo. I think it's best for my blood pressure if I let it sit -- but hey, whatever works for y'all.
The Eyre Affair... man, I don't know. Is there an actual novel under all the twee ideas?
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The Eyre Affair... man, I don't know. Is there an actual novel under all the twee ideas?
Not really, but what twee ideas! I've loved all of the books so far, though I agree that the premise wears thin.
I'm currently reading The Autograph Man, which is excellent, though not much at all like White Teeth, and The Brothers Karamazov. This is my third try at reading the thing - I'd start it and then get too caught up in other things to keep track of it. But this is my spring break, so I'm flying through it this time. Next stop: Gravity's Rainbow.
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I just read Batman: The Dark Knight Returns, and really enjoyed it. This is probably the first superhero type comic I've read since grade school when I read The Punisher, like, once.
I was trying to decide between Dostoevsky's Demons, Train by Pete Dexter, or Midnight Children by Rushdie next, but I think I'll pick Train because school is not going to well right now, and Train will take less time. I think Demons is next in line though, when school is over in three and one half weeks. Also, still reading Tony Hillerman every once in a while. It's so comforting for some reason, but I'm a bit worried because I'm almost caught up to his most recent novel.
Book related news: I should be getting bookshelves this week! I'm tired of all the stacks.
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I've been having trouble finding time to read ever since Lydia was born, which is actually kind of odd considering how much time I now spend with my ass planted in a chair with one hand free.*
I'm about halfway through Terry Pratchett's Bromeliad Trilogy, which is wonderful. I'm looking forward to getting into The System of the World, which has been sitting on a bookshelf glaring at me for months.
* For the uninitiated, that's nursing, and I'm doing it right now.
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I'm about halfway through Terry Pratchett's Bromeliad Trilogy, which is wonderful. I'm looking forward to getting into The System of the World, which has been sitting on a bookshelf glaring at me for months.
I'm ~200 pages into System of the World. So far I like The Confusion better but that's only because I'm all about Eliza.
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Just finished Kyril Bonfiglioli's Don't Point that Thing at Me (http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/tg/detail/-/1585675628/qid=1112733692/sr=1-1/ref=sr_1_1/002-0016359-4762414?v=glance&s=books): a terrific crime novel from the 70s, with a wonderfully amoral main character, and lots of lovely Wodehousian overtones that should really be out of place in a book with all this sex and violence and malfeasance and whatnot. Well worth it (short too, if you're looking for a quick read).
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I feel like a schlub when I say that at the moment my reading is what appears to be the overwhelming majority of all Green Lantern comic books ever published, and I expect this state of affairs to last at least into the early 1990s when I hear the series starts to suck badly.
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I just finished Steve Martin's Shopgirl which was a lovely overview of a deep emotional story. As a narrator, Martin assures you there's depth there but that you need not get bogged down in it. The book is short.
I also recently read The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-time by Mark Haddon. It's a wonderful emotional book posing as a mystery story told by a severely autistic British 15-year-old. I highly recommend it. Even if you don't think the autistic first person device is engaging, the story's over before it has a chance to annoy you. This book is also short.
I'm currently reading Innumeracy: Mathematical Illiteracy and its Consequences by John Allen Paulos. It's about how people get really upset when the news anchor uses the word 'infer' when he means 'imply' but don't notice when the weatherman says there's a 50/50 chance of rain on Saturday and a 50/50 chance of rain on Sunday only to conclude that it means there's a hundred percent chance of rain this weekend. He's trying to say that being mathmatically illiterate can be as bad for society as being actually illiterate. People are more afraid of terrorists than bike-rides when ten-speeds are a gajillion times more menacing. So far so good. Also very short.
Finally, I'm trying to read all the posts in this thread. It's over a year long now, and the size of a novel!
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Just finished Kyril Bonfiglioli's Don't Point that Thing at Me (http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/tg/detail/-/1585675628/qid=1112733692/sr=1-1/ref=sr_1_1/002-0016359-4762414?v=glance&s=books): a terrific crime novel from the 70s, with a wonderfully amoral main character, and lots of lovely Wodehousian overtones that should really be out of place in a book with all this sex and violence and malfeasance and whatnot. Well worth it (short too, if you're looking for a quick read).
Thanks for the suggestion. Well, I guess I should thank you after I read it, but it sounds like it's right up my alley. I love quick reads and crime fiction better than sex. And I really like crime fiction with lots of violence and sex. It took me a while to find a copy, though. All the Barnes & Noble and Borders stores in the area didn't stock them, but I finally found a copy at an independent bookstore. I should be shopping there more often, but it's so out of the way. There is a B&N right next to where I work, and there are two Borders and about four B&Ns not too far off the route to school (it's 40 minutes by car, so there is a lot of ground to cover, but still). Plus, the lady I talked to was so nice.
For my Ethics class, I'm reading Natural Goodness by Philippa Foot, which is pretty good. It's short enough that we're reading the whole thing, and she's a good enough writer that it's not a pain in the ass to read.
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My boss (one of the best I've ever had) loaned me a collection of Wodehouse, so I'll get started on that right after I finish Gibson's Mona Lisa Overdrive. After this one and The Difference Engine, I think I've read them all. Least fave? Pattern Recognition (four out of five*) - and I loved that one, too.
I read The DaVinci Code in an evening (2/5), and Fouc*ult's Pendulum is waiting for me. I look inordinately forward to it.
Also, I received Found (http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/tg/detail/-/0743251148/002-2322337-1994439) today and am loving it.
Also read recently: Bernard Cornwell, Heretic (4/5); Stephen King, The Dark Tower VII: The Redundant Title (2/5); David Sedaris, Holidays On Ice (4/5) and naked (5/5); Terry Pratchett, Jingo (4/5) and Monstrous Regiment (4/5); William Gibson, Idoru (5/5); Jon Stewart, Naked Pictures of Famous People (4.5/5). Also currently reading AntiPatterns, a software engineering college-course-text-that-didn't-quite-make-it.
* Why haven't most of the books listed above and in pages past been rated? The unit doesn't matter, so long as there's a scale.
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Numbered rating systems are crass! Haven't you learned anything from The Onion AV Club?
I finally finished Greene's Fabric of the Cosmos, which was overall very, very good. He's got Hawking's gift for making some pretty unusual concepts make sense without losing too much of the science. Unfortunately, if you're a dillettante like me, and not a real scientist, it's going to take you a long time to read, and that means that by the end you're going to have forgotten some shit you read about before that's vital to the understanding of the later stuff, and then you'll be constantly flipping back and forth, which is aggravating (especially when he gets into shit like M-Theory, which is so crazy he doesn't even seem to fully understand it).
Anyway, in between Aristotle's Physics for school reading I am working on my first Philip Dick Novel, The Man in the High Castle. I've heard a lot of stuff about Dick over the years (having spent much of my earlier childhood in the scifi section), but it took a recommendation from my favorite radio host (http://www.toeradio.org) to spur me. In between both of those, for my modern nonfiction fix (it is insatiable), I am reading David Foster Wallace's Everything and More: A Brief History of [Infinity Symbol], which is mathematically rather more dense than I expected; however, Mr. Wallace is my literary profit, and ye I will go where he taketh me.
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The best book you mentioned is Fouc*ult's Pendulum. It's something of an effort, but it's definitely worth it. I finished Baudolino a couple of weeks ago and it was terrific. Probably Eco's most accesible. Umberto RAWKS!!!
Based on my experience I wouldn't bother with Da Vinci Code. I mean sure, it's badly written, but hey, at least it has no basis in fact!
Mona Lisa Overdrive is OK but not Gibson's best work.
You pretty much can't go wrong with Wodehouse, but personally I have to be in the right mood. It's kind of like Perelman that way.
Sedaris is a great monolougist and a good writer. He's like Spalding Gray that way.
I'm reading (OK listening to) my first Sharpe novel after about 17 Aubrey & Maturins. I started yesterday so it's too soon for me to comment. I'm pleased with it so far. If I didn't know better I'd say they were written by the same guy.
I don't understand all the hoo-hah over Phillip K. Dick. He's good but not great. I can name 4 or 5 better contemporaneous SF writers of the top of my head. I'm not knocking him really, I just don't understand why he gets all the adulation. "What if the Nazi's won WWII?" My, that's an original premise!
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My next Audible freebie is coming up, so if anyone can recommend anything that is not only a good book but is also well-read/recited I'd sure like a recommendation.
I've finished:
Stephen King's "On Writing"
Kafka's "The Trial"
Ayn Rand "The Fountainhead"
John Stewart "America: The Audiobook"
Bill Bryson "A Short History of Nearly Everything"
Elmore Leonard "Be Cool" (read very well by Campbell Scott, one of my favourite actors who seems to have fallen off the face of the earth)
I think there was another one, too... hmm... I can't recall now, Senator.
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I really liked "Through a Scanner Darkly," but that was hardly sci-fi, and the only Philip K. Dick book I've read.
Last week, I went out drinming with my ex-boss. The next day, I was basically okay, but she was fucccckkkkeeddd. So I spent the morning sitting next to her as she puked up everything she had eaten, all of the water she had drunk, her liver, an old boot, a tire with a patch in it, etc. She had a copy of "Tripmaster Monkey: His Fakebook," by Maxine Hong Kingston, on her floor. I read maybe 20 pages waiting for her to fully expell all of the lost matter in the universe from herself, and when she could speak, she told me to take the book. It is pretty good, and makes me want to move to San Francisco.
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I don't understand all the hoo-hah over Phillip K. Dick. He's good but not great. I can name 4 or 5 better contemporaneous SF writers of the top of my head. I'm not knocking him really, I just don't understand why he gets all the adulation. "What if the Nazi's won WWII?" My, that's an original premise!
I am only through five chapters so far, so I can't make a defense or even determine whether I want to. So far I get a Bradbury vibe from the guy; sort of messy, sometimes downright irksome writing style, but some pretty unusual takes on common notions. As I sort of had the same attitude toward the "what if firefighters burned shit" premise I thought the comparison might help.
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I just took a break from System of the World to check out the
Book of Bunny Suicides and Return of Bunny Suicides. Classic mirthmaking.
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Just started with some Wodehouse, and so far, it's great. Halfway through Meet Mr Mulliner. After that, Joy in the Morning, I think.
Also, Don't Point that Thing at Me was terrific. Have you read any of his other novels, Pink?
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So... was I supposed to whole-heartedly enjoy Fouc*ult's Pendulum? I mean, yeah, it was a creative storytelling, but good Pete it took forever to get through. I don't recall the last time I struggled so much with a book to get the payoff (which was not quite worth it, but I'm glad I finished it).
Up next: Mr. Mulliner, Wodehouse.
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Also, Don't Point that Thing at Me was terrific. Have you read any of his other novels, Pink?
I read After You With the Pistol a few weeks ago and really enjoyed it. It's a bit more madcap than Don't point that Thing at Me.
Finished John Crowley's Little, Big (http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/tg/detail/-/0060937939/002-0016359-4762414?v=glance) last night. Fantastic book: a big sprawling romantic fairy tale, with lots of odd little details, flourishes, and references to Lewis Carrol.
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I read After You With the Pistol a few weeks ago and really enjoyed it. It's a bit more madcap than Don't point that Thing at Me.
A bit? I'm about half-way throught it, and it's way more madcap, but I'm enjoying it too. Just taking a while longer because I just started finals. I wish more of his stuff was readily available. He's a lot of fun.
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Also, Don't Point that Thing at Me was terrific. Have you read any of his other novels, Pink?
I read After You With the Pistol a few weeks ago and really enjoyed it. It's a bit more madcap than Don't point that Thing at Me.
Finished John Crowley's Little, Big (http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/tg/detail/-/0060937939/002-0016359-4762414?v=glance) last night. Fantastic book: a big sprawling romantic fairy tale, with lots of odd little details, flourishes, and references to Lewis Carrol.
I think many years ago I read a collection of short stories by John Crowley called 'Novelty,' and I have to say it was one of the best collections I ever read. Have you read any of his other books? I should get into him.
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So... was I supposed to whole-heartedly enjoy Fouc*ult's Pendulum? I mean, yeah, it was a creative storytelling, but good Pete it took forever to get through. I don't recall the last time I struggled so much with a book to get the payoff (which was not quite worth it, but I'm glad I finished it).
I read that over the summer and I found it thoroughly meh. While I'm really enjoying the Baroque Cycle even though it was slow to start.
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While I'm really enjoying the Baroque Cycle even though it was slow to start.
Yeah, Quicksilver was a painful first few chapters. After this Mulliner collection, I've got Gibson's The Difference Engine lined up, followed by The Confusion. I won't even order System of the World until after I've finished that second one. Man, I've been into the tomes lately.
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While I'm really enjoying the Baroque Cycle even though it was slow to start.
Yeah, Quicksilver was a painful first few chapters. After this Mulliner collection, I've got Gibson's The Difference Engine lined up, followed by The Confusion. I won't even order System of the World until after I've finished that second one. Man, I've been into the tomes lately.
I'm 700 pages into System of the World and I must say that the Confusion was my favorite of the 3, especially The Juncto. I was about 100 pages into SotW when I stumbled onto a signed copy at Olsson's, which was kind of sad.
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Also, Don't Point that Thing at Me was terrific. Have you read any of his other novels, Pink?
I read After You With the Pistol a few weeks ago and really enjoyed it. It's a bit more madcap than Don't point that Thing at Me.
Finished John Crowley's Little, Big (http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/tg/detail/-/0060937939/002-0016359-4762414?v=glance) last night. Fantastic book: a big sprawling romantic fairy tale, with lots of odd little details, flourishes, and references to Lewis Carrol.
I think many years ago I read a collection of short stories by John Crowley called 'Novelty,' and I have to say it was one of the best collections I ever read. Have you read any of his other books? I should get into him.
I'll definitely be reading more by him, and Little, Big is officially on my list of "you have to read this" books.
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I read After You With the Pistol a few weeks ago and really enjoyed it. It's a bit more madcap than Don't point that Thing at Me.
A bit? I'm about half-way throught it, and it's way more madcap, but I'm enjoying it too. Just taking a while longer because I just started finals. I wish more of his stuff was readily available. He's a lot of fun.
I think all his works (sadly not much) are available from the UK if you feel like importing; and Overlook will be releasing Something Nasty in the Woodshed sometime this summer in the US.
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For us students, summer is upon us. It starts this coming Friday for me, but let's face it, I'm phoning in these last three papers (two classes down, two to go).
Do any of you have a good summer reading list? I was cleaning my room tonight (much needed) and made a stack of books that I mean to read this summer. I'm taking classes, but in the form of an intenstive language program in Germany that will last only a month. So I should have some time to read.
The stack turned into three stacks (plus my German text books stack), so I doubt I will get to all of it (in fact, I know I won't), but I think I'm going to start with the recent translation of Don Quixote by Edith Grossman. I was supposed to read it for my Comp Lit class a few years ago but never got around to it, and I hear this is a good translation (I read her translation of Love in the Time of Cholera, and I loved that book, so she's doing something right). Next, Demons by Doestoevsky. And then I need to finish (actually, start again and finish) the autobiography of Garcia Marquez (also trans. by Grossman). I'll see where it goes after that. I will start on Don Quixote when I finish Don't Point that Pistol at me, which may not be until this next weekend, as I'm really busy this week.
That reminds me, in between the weightier stuff will be the normal fix of crime fiction, plus some Pete Dexter. He's great, and is usually a pretty quick read. I really liked Meet Mr Mulliner, so I'll continue with Wodehouse, as well.
Depending on how my German studies go (it's been a couple years), I may even tackle some Kafka and Goethe in the original. But we'll see.
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Has anyone here rocked the Illuminatus trilogy, by Robert Anton Wilson? Is it good?
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Well, post used book sale today the list is in this condition:
Allan Bloom: Closing of the American Mind (already started, more on it later)
Saul Bellow: It All Adds Up
Oliver Sacks: Seeing Voices
Thomas More: Utopia
Gabriel Marquez: The General in his Labywrinth
Umberto Eco: The Name of the Rose
Haruki Murakami: South of the Border, West of the Sun
There's more than that, but even my most optimistic estimations don't get me through anything else before I head back to school.
Anyway, back to the Bloom book: I just started it today, and it's incredible. Infuck*ngcredible. Anybody heard of this guy? He was a professor at U of Chicago, died a couple years ago. A quote:
There is one thing a professor can be certain of: almost every student entering the university believes, or says he believes, that truth is relative...[students] are unified only in their relativism and their allegiance to equality....
Openness - and the relativism that makes it the only plausible stance in the face of various claims to truth...is the great insight of our times. The true believer is the real danger. The study of history and of culture teaches that all the world was mad in the past....The point is not to correct the mistakes and really be right; rather it is not to think you are right at all.
Guy goes on to chalk the whole thing up to the fact that educational systems are invariably defined by the political systems they serve, and that the reason students are brainwashed with 100% equality of all things and so retreat to relativism is that a democratic government demands 100% allegiance to said equality.
I can't say I don't feel pretty thoroughly implicated, and I'm only 20 pages in.
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I haven't read any Bloom but he's talked about a lot by classicists, and I have some friends that are. Also, I dated a girl that attended a small private college run by mormons down in Southern Utah, and I think she talked about him some (the school was built around a classicist philosophy, as I remember). And it seems that back when I was an English major he came up when studying Shakespeare.
I think he was also embraced by the right with the publication of that book, and I think I can see why. Although I've heard it doesn't match the entire agenda of the right.
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Has anyone here rocked the Illuminatus trilogy, by Robert Anton Wilson? Is it good?
YES.
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Exxxxxcellent.
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Has anyone here rocked the Illuminatus trilogy, by Robert Anton Wilson? Is it good?
fnord Me too fnord
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Man, I haven't even started on a summer reading list. I suspect it will involve finishing Zen and the Art of Motorcycle Maintenance, though. The problem, of course, is that I am overscheduling my summer in advance -- "oh, yeah, I'll go up and spend a week in Pennsylvania, and my parents will come later on, and I'm going to learn to knit, and I'll go to Boston all the time, and if there are cool shows I'll go, and at some point I'll do my research-assistant job, oh boy" -- that reading may not even come up.
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I haven't read any Bloom but he's talked about a lot by classicists, and I have some friends that are. Also, I dated a girl that attended a small private college run by mormons down in Southern Utah, and I think she talked about him some (the school was built around a classicist philosophy, as I remember). And it seems that back when I was an English major he came up when studying Shakespeare.
I think he was also embraced by the right with the publication of that book, and I think I can see why. Although I've heard it doesn't match the entire agenda of the right.
My school (http://www.sjca.edu) is big on him for the same reasons. I have his translation of the Republic (which is very good) and that's why his name caught my eye.
Bloom was the first influential student of Leo Strauss, the latter of which is falsely given credit for developing the neoconservative philosophy. In fact, neoconservativism (as near as I can tell, I've been trying to untangle the mess all semester) pirated and subsequently bastardized Straussian philosophy in order to meet its own ends, when Strauss himself (and by extension Bloom) did not intend for their philosophical ideas to be used in such a way.
That's how I get to sleep at night, at any rate.
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Has anyone here rocked the Illuminatus trilogy, by Robert Anton Wilson? Is it good?
It is THE BEST.
I :heart: Robert Anton Wilson.
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I whipped through Bloodsucking Fiends by Moore based soley on how freaking much Amazon insisted on recommending it to me. It was enjoyable but unlike some people I've talked to online it didn't make me want to rush out and buy all his books.
I also read Rule of Four. It was . . . there. The bits with the police were entirely unnecessary. I also felt dirty in helping this whole quest novel craze.
I also read The Battle of Corrin because I, apparently, am a masochist.
The only Pratchett I've read is Good Omens. So as far as his solo work goes, where do I start?
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I've read a lot of his stuff and while his later discworld novels are indeed funnier, I would say start at the beginning with Colour of Magic. The discworld series is quite addicting though. Before you know it, you'll have an entire bookshelf dedicated to it....
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I'm entirely ambivalent about Prachett. What an oxymoronic sentence...
I tried The Color of Magic years ago and found it pretty tedious. A couple more stabs at it found similar results.
But not long ago I picked up one that I liked. I can't recall the title but it was the one where Death dies. It was very good. Then I read Pyramids and liked it very much too. The next one I tried brought me back to my original non-plussedness.
Some people love his stuff. I guess I can see why, but as far as I'm concerned he's no Douglas Adams (or even Neil Gaiman). Yeah, he can come up with some decent puns, but so can Piers Anthony. It's hit or miss. Pratchett needs a better editor. He's capable of producing quality but he seems dedicated to quantity. But who'll be remembered as the better writer -- Harper Lee or Isaac Asimov?
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Pratchett books can generally stand on their own without confusing you too much with back story, so it's really just a matter of what you can find and what type of thing you like.
These books stand alone almost entirely:
Pyramids
Moving Pictures
Small Gods
The Truth*
Going Postal*
There are several series of books that share most of the same characters, so if you want to break it up into smaller chunks that's a good way to go:
The "Rincewind" series - centers around a Wizard who can't really cast spells but is really good at running away.
The Colour of Magic
The Light Fantastic
Sourcery
Eric
Interesting Times
The Last Continent
The Last Hero
The witch series - centers around witches in a small mountainous area, and features some of the best characters ever in the history of best.
Equal Rites (More about Wizards, but the first appearances of the witches)
Wyrd Sisters
Witches Abroad
Lords and Ladies
Maskerade
Carpe Jugulum
The death series - My personal favorite, centered on Death and how he learns about and is influenced by humanity. Soul Music contains much that is awesome about music.
Mort
Reaper Man
Soul Music
Hogfather
Thief Of Time
The Watch series - Follows the Ankh-Morpork Night Watch as it develops from useless into an actual force for good. Cop drama.
Guards! Guards!
Men At Arms
Feet Of Clay
Jingo
The Fifth Elephant
The Truth*
Night Watch
Going Postal*
(*Though these books don't feature the Watch as main characters, they take place in a very established city after other world-changing events, and should probably be read after the Watch series to avoid confusion)
So, yeah. They're addictive. It's fantasy from a sci-fi mind.
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I would advise against starting with the early books -- Colour of Magic, in particular, is pretty weak and not a good starting point. Lister's enumerated the series pretty well, so if you go with one of those you should be generally fine. And yes, almost all of them stand alone quite well.
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I would advise against starting with the early books -- Colour of Magic, in particular, is pretty weak and not a good starting point. Lister's enumerated the series pretty well, so if you go with one of those you should be generally fine. And yes, almost all of them stand alone quite well.
What confused me is that Small Gods was mentioned in this thread several times but when I looked it up it's listed as a Discworld book. So I figured it's a series and I'd have to start at the beginning.
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I would advise against starting with the early books -- Colour of Magic, in particular, is pretty weak and not a good starting point. Lister's enumerated the series pretty well, so if you go with one of those you should be generally fine. And yes, almost all of them stand alone quite well.
What confused me is that Small Gods was mentioned in this thread several times but when I looked it up it's listed as a Discworld book. So I figured it's a series and I'd have to start at the beginning.
Yeah, Small Gods is an aberration; it's a Discworld book, but it in particular shares next to no continuity with any of the others. Without getting into spoiler-space, it's set in an entirely different country from any other Discworld book and is set quite far in the past as compared to the rest of the series, so it stands alone particularly well. (There are a few later books that are made funnier if you've read Small Gods, but no book relies on you having read it, and it stands alone.)
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Geek Love - Katherine Dunn
I'm reading it for the second time - anyone else read it?
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Geek Love - Katherine Dunn
I'm reading it for the second time - anyone else read it?
YES. And it is awesome. I read it in seventh grade, and while I would not recommend it to seventh-graders in general, it broke me in just the best way.
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Altered Carbon - Richard Morgan
Gridlinked - Neil Asher
Dance Dance Dance - Murukami
Plus some more old sci fi a friend passed me, and more Johnny the Homicidal Maniac.
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Any of you comics people know Julie Doucet? She's from Montreal and I think she is all sorts of angry broken-english awesome. I got her book "Long Time Relationship" from the library today and I am real excited about that. Also Jonathan Safran Foer's "Everything Is Illuminated", which I'd been meaning to read.
I haven't been reading much that is awesome lately because of my philosophy class which kept me busy Heidegger > Fanon style. (this is meant to indicate a span of time and intellectual development of existential philosophy between those two, not to indicate that Heidegger is greater than Fanon, which I don't really even think is true.) Anyways, I had my exam for that this morning, so now I am free to read hell of comics. (Next month's summer course is on cinematography, so probably a bit less with the thinking, I hope.)
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I've read Julie Doucet. Her Dirty Plotte made me very uneasy.
~Paul
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Fair enough. You are aware of what "plotte" means in quebecois slang?
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Fair enough. You are aware of what "plotte" means in quebecois slang?
I am now.
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You are aware of what "plotte" means in quebecois slang?
She makes it farily obvious.
~Paul
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Iberia by James Michener. Pretty good travel writing. I've never read any Michener before and I'm reasonably impressed. A little wordy, but still good.
The Corrections by Jonathan Franzen. Just picked this up and I'm not sure about it yet. The protaganist seems to be wholly unlovable, but the writing is good (if a bit too consciously literary for my tastes). I'm sticking with it a while longer.
Just finished re-reading Neuromancer. Still good stuff. He's SF's Elmore Leonard. The matrix is his one big innovative idea, but he can hella write a gritty thriller.
Speaking of travel writers, anybody have any recommendations? I've always enjoyed Paul Theroux and to a lesser extent Bill Bryson (Bill's a little too self-satisfied at his own wittiness for my taste.) Anyway, I dig the travel writing. Suggestions?
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Speaking of travel writers, anybody have any recommendations? I've always enjoyed Paul Theroux and to a lesser extent Bill Bryson (Bill's a little too self-satisfied at his own wittiness for my taste.) Anyway, I dig the travel writing. Suggestions?
No recommendations, but Theroux's The Old Patagonian Express is on my list. Any other suggestions for him?
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I am trying to get into Jim Shepard's Project X, but I find it actively unpleasant to read -- one of those books about middle-school outcasts where the protagonists are both arbitrarily persecuted by everyone and roundly, deeply terrible people, so there is no fun there. I've had a class with Jim Shepard and he seemed interesting, but daamn.
Otherwise, I'm reading a book on improving my Japanese conversational style. I hope it works.
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i have not read the books in quite a while it would seem. started that relationship book mr alohadawg suggested in a different thread, and picked up a collection of George Orwell stories too. sadly, i realize in hindsight i'd never read Animal Farm nor 1984. now i get to read them both, from the same book, for free; how splendid!
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Speaking of travel writers, anybody have any recommendations? I've always enjoyed Paul Theroux and to a lesser extent Bill Bryson (Bill's a little too self-satisfied at his own wittiness for my taste.) Anyway, I dig the travel writing. Suggestions?
No recommendations, but Theroux's The Old Patagonian Express is on my list. Any other suggestions for him?
I really enjoyed: The Kindness of Strangers: Penniless Across America by Mike McIntyre, the titles pretty self-explainitory - an autobiographical account about a guy who thumbed his way across the continental US without a penny, depending on strangers for food, shelter and transport. A lovely book, lots of wonderful moments.
(It's been a major dream of mine to do this in Canada, but being female, I think it would be ill advised to do alone, and my SO is not game for it.)
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Geek Love - Katherine Dunn
I'm reading it for the second time - anyone else read it?
YES. And it is awesome. I read it in seventh grade, and while I would not recommend it to seventh-graders in general, it broke me in just the best way.
Wow - yes, totally not a grade 7 book, but this coming from a girl who was such a dork that she read the uncondensed version of Les Miserable in grade 7. I have forgotten much of the story as I read it several years ago, so it's very enjoyable to re-read it.
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Speaking of travel writers, anybody have any recommendations? I've always enjoyed Paul Theroux and to a lesser extent Bill Bryson (Bill's a little too self-satisfied at his own wittiness for my taste.) Anyway, I dig the travel writing. Suggestions?
No recommendations, but Theroux's The Old Patagonian Express is on my list. Any other suggestions for him?
The Old Patagonian Express is probably my favorite, but Riding the Iron Rooster and the one where he canoes around the Polynesian islands are good too.
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"Happy Isles of Oceania" by Theroux is the one where he paddles around in the Pacific.
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Speaking of travel writers, anybody have any recommendations? I've always enjoyed Paul Theroux and to a lesser extent Bill Bryson (Bill's a little too self-satisfied at his own wittiness for my taste.) Anyway, I dig the travel writing. Suggestions?
Tim Cahill. If only for his titles: Pecked to Death by Ducks, A Wolverine is Eating my Leg, etc. More adventure travel sorts of things as you can probably tell from the titles. I like the early ones better than the recent stuff - I think I didn't finish his most recent book yet. I both love Bill Bryson and understand your reservations, so we might have similar tastes.
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Geek Love - Katherine Dunn
I'm reading it for the second time - anyone else read it?
Yes. I stopped trying to recommend it to people after the looks I got the first few times. Some people, sheesh.
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Geek Love - Katherine Dunn
I'm reading it for the second time - anyone else read it?
Yes. I stopped trying to recommend it to people after the looks I got the first few times. Some people, sheesh.
Well, uh, you have to admit that it's not exactly the easiest sell. I mean, the book is about a family of forcibly-mutated carnival freaks, and then it keeps going from there. I am not inclined to judge too harshly those whom this premise squicks.
Speaking of troublesome premises: are there any Jasper Fforde fans in the house? If so, could you please explain what I'm supposed to be getting out of The Eyre Affair? I've thrown myself at it three times now, and every time I turn back within twenty pages because the tweeness chokes me.
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Man, I picked up the Eyre Affair because I'd heard Fforde's name bandied about on this board, and I thought it was hell of lame. What should I have read instead?
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Speaking of travel writers, anybody have any recommendations? I've always enjoyed Paul Theroux and to a lesser extent Bill Bryson (Bill's a little too self-satisfied at his own wittiness for my taste.) Anyway, I dig the travel writing. Suggestions?
Tim Cahill. If only for his titles: Pecked to Death by Ducks, A Wolverine is Eating my Leg, etc. More adventure travel sorts of things as you can probably tell from the titles. I like the early ones better than the recent stuff - I think I didn't finish his most recent book yet. I both love Bill Bryson and understand your reservations, so we might have similar tastes.
Have you ever read Colin Fletcher? His books are all about hiking, but he's an excellent writer. I recently picked up The Man Who Walked Through Time which is about his walk from one end of the Grand Canyon to the other, the first ever. His Complete Walker is more of a hiker's manual but it's fun to read too.
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I don't know Colin Fletcher. I've kind of gone off travel writing lately (so maybe the lack of appeal of Cahill's last book isn't his fault, come to think of it) but I will keep it in mind.
Did you read Bryson's book about hiking the Appalachian Trail? His companion with the obsession with Little Debbie snack cakes is one of the most memorable characters I've read about lately. Although I grant that that may be because one of the reasons I stay out of the woods is the lack of access to cake.
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Y'all reading travel guides now? Did they stop writing real books?
~Paul
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New read: Trevor Corson's The Secret Life of Lobsters, which deals not only with the habits of said lobsters but with the people obsessed with them (that is to say, marine biologists and lobstermen). Maybe it's a little cornball "human interest," but it's compulsively readable, and sometimes you need solid prose about decent people interspersed with truly bizarre facts about lobster reproduction. (Good heavens, the things I have learned.)
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I just finished Diamond Age. I found a cheap autograhped copy while browsing last week and figured that since I've already read around 4,000 pages of Stephenson in the past 12 months I might as well add this one to the list. The first 3/4 or so were completely awesome. I'm a slow reader but was just tearing through this book. But the ending I didn't really care for.
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Stephenson has Problems with endings. It seems like everything's going awesome and great and really cool and then he flashes the lights on and off and tells everybody to get the fuck out. I think he did better with the new stuff, but Snow Crash, Diamond Age, Zodiac and The Big U all suffer from this.
Shit, I just realized I've read every single book Stephenson's ever put out.
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but Snow Crash, Diamond Age, Zodiac and The Big U all suffer from this.
I agree that the ending ending of Snow Crash was a bit concise, but Hiro's ending is just one of my favourite things ever!
Shit, I just realized I've read every single book Stephenson's ever put out.
I do plan to, I just have so much else to read at the moment that I haven't even bought Quicksilver yet.
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I do plan to, I just have so much else to read at the moment that I haven't even bought Quicksilver yet.
I don't even KNOW you anymore!
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Shit, I just realized I've read every single book Stephenson's ever put out.
I do plan to, I just have so much else to read at the moment that I haven't even bought Quicksilver yet.
The whole series is worth reading just for The Confusion. That was frickin' awesome.
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I um, got Snow Crash as my audible.com book last month.
I'm a reader, but I've never really found modern novels that held my attention - so rather than leave them half-finished I'm listening to them in audiobook format and find that they make nice soundtracks for a late night walk or washing the dishes or something.
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how exactly do you end snow crash differently? i mean, is there really a way to phrase "and then a shitload of young girls knock on the door and say 'ya, about that dumping us into ditches to die and shit, ya, that's not gonna happen again, least to _us_'" any better?
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Well, the issue my friend had with the ending was that he never found out quite what happened to Uncle Enzo. And I could kind of see what he meant, but at the same time...
(Wasn't much of an issue as he loved it.)
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how exactly do you end snow crash differently? i mean, is there really a way to phrase "and then a shitload of young girls knock on the door and say 'ya, about that dumping us into ditches to die and shit, ya, that's not gonna happen again, least to _us_'" any better?
i'm mentally challenged and can't discern from snow crash and diamond age and very sorry.
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i'm mentally challenged and can't discern from snow crash and diamond age and very sorry.
I was being confused by that but figured maybe you meant all the couriers or something. I see what you mean though. Most people I know are disappointed by the second half of The Diamond Age, but by then I was just in love with that book so much for the writing that I didn't care and can't tell.
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i'm mentally challenged and can't discern from snow crash and diamond age and very sorry.
I was being confused by that but figured maybe you meant all the couriers or something. I see what you mean though. Most people I know are disappointed by the second half of The Diamond Age, but by then I was just in love with that book so much for the writing that I didn't care and can't tell.
i am struck, from the ending of diamond age, with a concurrent, overwhelming sense of joy and doom.
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The Diamond Age feels like there were another three or four chapters to go at the end that were mysteriously clipped off by the editors and never restored in subsequent editions. A shame too, because the first half of the book is this insane rush of brilliant ideas.
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I finally got around to reading Watchmen this week. It was interesting but took me a while to get into. What's the deal with their crazy cigarettes?
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Wow, no reaction to Watchmen. I figured I was the last person here to read that one.
Anyway, just finished Stardust. Good stuff. I found it more enjoyable than Neverwhere but I can't exactly say why.
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how are their cigarettes crazy?
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how are their cigarettes crazy?
They're long with bulbs on the end. Just like the electric cars and the charging station that Comic Reading Kid is always leaning against, they're meant to be little makers reminding you that the story does not occur in your world. The story occurs in a world where there were superheroes. It's the eighties, but it's a different eighties. The godlike Dr. Manhattan has won the Vietnam War and unbalanced the Cold War toward the US. Watergate never happened, and Nixon has overcome term limits to achieve FDR-like longevity. It's the eighties of the future. And they smoke Camel Crazies.
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Ignorance.
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I um, got Snow Crash as my audible.com book last month.
I'm a reader, but I've never really found modern novels that held my attention - so rather than leave them half-finished I'm listening to them in audiobook format and find that they make nice soundtracks for a late night walk or washing the dishes or something.
Snow Crash is great for listening to while screwing around. It's not at all a smart novel, but it's fun and blatantly unpretentious. Did you get it unabridged?
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Is.
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Stephenson has Problems with endings. It seems like everything's going awesome and great and really cool and then he flashes the lights on and off and tells everybody to get the fuck out. I think he did better with the new stuff, but Snow Crash, Diamond Age, Zodiac and The Big U all suffer from this.
Shit, I just realized I've read every single book Stephenson's ever put out.
I liked the ending of Diamond Age. The little girl army was awesome! The drummers I didn't really care for. I appreciate that speculative fiction is about stretching your boundaries, but that seemed more than a bit ridiculous, and needlessly grotesque. But perhaps my tastes are too banal. I like Confucian judges and armies of little girls.
Cryptonomicon's gold-gasm didn't really do it for me though I loved most of that book.
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Just.
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Stephenson has Problems with endings. It seems like everything's going awesome and great and really cool and then he flashes the lights on and off and tells everybody to get the fuck out. I think he did better with the new stuff, but Snow Crash, Diamond Age, Zodiac and The Big U all suffer from this.
Shit, I just realized I've read every single book Stephenson's ever put out.
I liked the ending of Diamond Age. The little girl army was awesome! The drummers I didn't really care for. I appreciate that speculative fiction is about stretching your boundaries, but that seemed more than a bit ridiculous, and needlessly grotesque. But perhaps my tastes are too banal. I like Confucian judges and armies of little girls.
I dunno. I seemed to me that for 3/4 of the book he was just telling us stuff that happened and it was all perfectly interesting. But then he suddenly realized he needed something major to close out the novel and tie everything together. Also, I was sad that we didn't get to see any more the judge.
It's the eighties of the future.
I did find it funny that it was a vaguely futuristic 1985 despite the fact that the comic was released in 86-87. I also never realized how similar the early Tick comics were to Watchmen which is really pretty weird if you think about it. And here I thought Ben Edlund was really creative for thinking of a former super-hero autobiography.
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So I'm back in my normal reading groove--that is, not being able to finish books. I keep getting distracted. The last book I was able to finish was an Elmore Leonard novel. Although I just started the Human Factor by Graham Greene, and it's great so far. I'm going to force myself to not get distracted. I also started God's Grace. It's by Bernard Malamud, and it's great so far.
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Same here: started reading five books and haven't finished any of them. Guns, Germs and Steel by Jared Diamond, Aloft by Chang Rae-Lee, The Neverending Story by Michael Ende (but I read this when I was younger) are just three of the titles I can remember off the top of my head. The other two are sitting on my dresser/cardboard box and have been neglected for some time now.
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Guns, Germs and Steel is a great book.
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I'm currently reading
The Sacred Romance by Brent Curtis and John Eldredge and
Wild at Heart by John Eldredge
If you are looking for an interesting book that could serve to help you clarify your sense of faith in the modern world, the first is pretty interesting.
If you are a guy pondering your faith and it's place in your life, and your life and it's place in your faith, and if you are wondering how much being a 'guy' matters in 2005, the second is pretty interesting too.
If you are a secular agnostic into moral relativism and gender equality in every aspect of life imaginable, then the second book may not be for you.
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I'm currently reading
The Sacred Romance by Brent Curtis and John Eldredge and
Wild at Heart by John Eldredge
If you are looking for an interesting book that could serve to help you clarify your sense of faith in the modern world, the first is pretty interesting.
If you are a guy pondering your faith and it's place in your life, and your life and it's place in your faith, and if you are wondering how much being a 'guy' matters in 2005, the second is pretty interesting too.
If you are a secular agnostic into moral relativism and gender equality in every aspect of life imaginable, then the second book may not be for you.
I'm intrigued. Dare I add two more to my ever-growing list? Thanks Aloha, I'll definitely be checking those two out.
I let my sister borrow Naked by David Sedaris and Aloft so that she will leave my copy of The Neverending Story alone. I feel robbed.
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14 pages is long enough. I'm starting a dang ol' new thread.