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[andalucia]

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.

[Choop]

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.

[Va]

The last book I read that was not about pregnancy, breastfeeding or babies was Darwin's Radio which was a big disappointment.  Before that I reread Wizard and Glass in anticipation of getting a copy of The Wolves of Calla, but they're taking their sweet-ass time bringing out the trade paperback edition.

Before that was The Golden Transcendence and The Confusion.  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?  His stuff is amazing.

[V-Adore]

The last book I read that was not about pregnancy, breastfeeding or babies was Darwin's Radio 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.

[Va]

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".

[side_show]

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.

[Bozack]

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.

[CortJstr]

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.

[slink]

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...

[PinkStainlessTail]

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.

[AugustWest]

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.

[sjlimmer]

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.

[TALKYdude]

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.

[andalucia]

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.

[AugustWest]

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.