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Author Topic: Book Thread  (Read 92680 times)

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theinevitable

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Re: Book Thread
« Reply #285 on: January 15, 2014, 05:47:49 pm »
The person saying "black people don't get tattoos, for obvious reasons" was not from the tennis academy, he was living in the halfway house.

I am so tantalizingly close to the end.
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CortJstr

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Re: Book Thread
« Reply #286 on: January 15, 2014, 05:57:27 pm »
Quote from: theinevitable on January 15, 2014, 05:47:49 pm
The person saying "black people don't get tattoos, for obvious reasons" was not from the tennis academy, he was living in the halfway house.

I am so tantalizingly close to the end.

Well, the physical end of the book. Because that thing is a non-chronological motherfucker.
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theinevitable

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Re: Book Thread
« Reply #287 on: January 21, 2014, 08:45:47 pm »
Yesterday I went to my friends' house and made them veggie soup. They are a houseful of nice ladies who are all kind of flaky but good friends. We ate the soup and talked, and then all did work/ read and sat around and talked. Excellent. The end of the night was sitting at the foot of my friend's bed reading infinite jest. She has the real book so I got to hold it in my hands for the first time. I was so comfortable and engrossed that I got completely sucked in-- whenever she would talk I felt like I was waking up from a dream. Why am I in/on bed with this friend? Something about their house (creaky radiators, dusty old wooden house, mothball-y smell from thrifted clothes) felt like my grandma's house. Very disorienting.

I have like 100 pages to go. Every time there is one of those 5-page endnotes I scream.
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Social pressures exist
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You're gonna find that your head's been kicked in
You're gonna do it all for the grind

ianmalcolm2

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Re: Book Thread
« Reply #288 on: January 22, 2014, 03:23:33 pm »
What is it with grandparents' houses being the best possible place to read? I'm a grown-ass man, and I still bring a good book when I visit my grandma at holidays. Something about the environment just lubes up my word comprehension.

And I hope I am not spoiling, but the huge footnote giving the origins of the AFR was a total near-end highlight for me.
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theinevitable

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Re: Book Thread
« Reply #289 on: January 24, 2014, 07:03:30 am »
I finished that book. Hmmm.

I am doing some Googling, and for some reason I am having a (false?) memory of reading some of his philosophy articles at some earlier time. Lately a lot of weird memories are surfacing in a way which feels very strange.

Quote
It was a defining tension: the very conceptual tools with which he pursued life’s most desperate questions threatened to keep him forever at a distance from the connections he struggled to make.
« Last Edit: January 24, 2014, 08:38:58 am by theinevitable »
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CortJstr

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Re: Book Thread
« Reply #290 on: January 24, 2014, 05:31:26 pm »
Quote from: theinevitable on January 24, 2014, 07:03:30 am
I finished that book. Hmmm.

I am doing some Googling, and for some reason I am having a (false?) memory of reading some of his philosophy articles at some earlier time. Lately a lot of weird memories are surfacing in a way which feels very strange.


It took me so long to read it that I'd completely forgotten having read the (chronological) ending like 2 months prior.
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theinevitable

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Re: Book Thread
« Reply #291 on: March 24, 2014, 01:28:47 am »
Faulkner. Damn, I cannot understand a single event that is happening in this book (As I Lay Dying).

This kind of writing makes me feel like a philistine. Ditto poetry. I get almost nothing out of these sentences. It's not just that I am not absorbing content, they are also so opaque that I can't even enjoy words or phrases. I am trying to remember that I have read other "difficult" things and ended up appreciating them in the end. But it is always hard to remember in the moment.

Also, didn't realize that those creepy achewood characters whose name I don't remember ("all souls did burn," the guy who said "hine") were a Faulknerian thing.

Love in the Time of Cholera, that was enjoyable as all get out.
« Last Edit: March 24, 2014, 01:53:32 am by theinevitable »
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ianmalcolm2

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Re: Book Thread
« Reply #292 on: March 24, 2014, 02:02:10 am »
For me at least, As I Lay Dying falls into the category of books I can't enjoy because I'd have to make a graph or flowchart to even understand what's going on. I first read it in a literature class where the prof spent the entire hour and a half explaining to us what happens and in what order. And even then, it wasn't that exciting.

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pmcd9

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Re: Book Thread
« Reply #293 on: March 24, 2014, 02:37:24 am »
I tried to read Faulkner once. I think it was Absalom, Absalom! I gave up after about 30-40 pages.
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theinevitable

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Re: Book Thread
« Reply #294 on: May 01, 2014, 04:01:02 am »
Gormenghast. So good. Have any of you guys read these? The first one is awesome so far.
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Social pressures exist
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You're gonna do it all for the grind

theinevitable

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Re: Book Thread
« Reply #295 on: May 12, 2014, 06:17:38 pm »
OK you guys, read the Gormenghast series. Weirdo "fantasy" written in the 1940s and 1950s, before the all-pervading influence of Tolkien. A really unique vision-- a surreal castle filled with unique and strange characters living a life of pedantic and pointless-seeming ritual. Characters all have wonderfully distinct voices and use lots of strange vocab a la Onstad. The second book is hilarious, the first book is a little more "dramatic."

These are so good, you guys.
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Social pressures exist
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AugustWest

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Re: Book Thread
« Reply #296 on: May 13, 2014, 04:33:39 am »
Quote from: theinevitable on May 12, 2014, 06:17:38 pm
OK you guys, read the Gormenghast series. Weirdo "fantasy" written in the 1940s and 1950s, before the all-pervading influence of Tolkien. A really unique vision-- a surreal castle filled with unique and strange characters living a life of pedantic and pointless-seeming ritual. Characters all have wonderfully distinct voices and use lots of strange vocab a la Onstad. The second book is hilarious, the first book is a little more "dramatic."

These are so good, you guys.

OK, I'm downloading the audiobook and I'll start listening tomorrow.
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ianmalcolm2

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Re: Book Thread
« Reply #297 on: May 13, 2014, 12:36:08 pm »
I tried Gormenghast years ago, and couldn't do it, but probably only on account of me being kind of a dolt. I'll have to give it a try again.
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theinevitable

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Re: Book Thread
« Reply #298 on: May 13, 2014, 04:24:47 pm »
I think I wouldn't like them as much if I didn't have the Kindle "click on a word to see the definition" feature.
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You're gonna do it all for the grind

wombat

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Re: Book Thread
« Reply #299 on: May 13, 2014, 04:55:43 pm »
I'm going to wait for Aug's review, I definitely need a second opinion on this one.
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