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[AugustWest]

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.

[pmcd9]

[AugustWest]

When's that from, Paul.  My guess is around 1972.  Am I close?

[pmcd9]

When's that from, Paul.  My guess is around 1972.  Am I close?

You missed it by one year.

~Paul

[Nabubrush]

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.

[side_show]

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.

[Choop]

First, a key.
MF: Modern Fantasy
PF: Pure Fantasy
ST: Satire of Today
HF: Historical Fiction
---
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
---
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.
---
*He added the extra 'x' to enhance the somewhat criminal satire. An excellent read, very funny, fast, and fun.

[Limmo]

ST: Maxx* Barry, Syrup

I bought Syrup at an airport bookstore.  Talk about your perfect airplane read.  I want a can of Fukk Cola.

[andalucia]

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.

[AugustWest]

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.

[Nabubrush]

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.

[Bozack]

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).

[Carlos del Vaca]

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.

[AlohaDawg]

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.

[wombat]

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.