I could write a great novel if my neighborhood weren't so upscale (book thread)

[davy]

So here's my haul from the book sale (as usual, it was as much about obtaining copies of old favorites as it was about finding exciting new things to read):

old:
The Truth About Celia by Kevin Brockmeier
The Brief History of the Dead by Kevin Brockmeier
In the Heart of the Sea: The Tragedy of the Whaleship Essex by Nathanial Philbrick

new:
Hyperion by Dan Simmons
Finn by Jon Clinch (that's the one about Huck's dad...couldn't resist it for a buck)
Great Plains by Ian Frazier

...grand total of $7!

That last one has a great cover, and I thought for a moment that it might be the same author who wrote a certain book that came out a few years ago that I remembered because it featured one of the most gorgeous covers I've ever seen--a book about boats and trucks with a wonderfully fragile drawing of the same on the jacket--but I didn't see that book mentioned with Ian Frazier's other publications. So then my mission became finding out what that other book was, and who it was by. I remembered that the author was an old guy who'd published dozens of books about American things like boats and trucks and basketball. I tried googling "books about boats and trucks" and "book cover with drawing of boats and trucks" etc etc. And I came up empty until I tried "has written other books about boats and trucking." A page at Powell's for the book in question was the 4th result for that query. I love Google sometimes.

Here's the jacket:



So I ordered a copy of that, too. The author, John McPhee, is so famous I should be quite ashamed of myself. He won a Pulitzer in 1999 (for Annals of the Former World) and is considered a pioneer of narrative nonfiction, which is basically all I read these days. Just about every book this guy has written looks excellent to me, so maybe March will be the month of McPhee.

Anybody read his stuff?

[Bernard]

tons -- favorites include oranges, sense of where you are, giving good weight levels of the game

and I say this as somebody who hates sports

[cold before sunrise]

Saramago kills it. This is coming from somebody who hates religion.

[Maaik]

Is that the same one Patricia Arquette's all goofy over in Stigmata?

[G.C.R]

So here's my haul from the book sale (as usual, it was as much about obtaining copies of old favorites as it was about finding exciting new things to read):

old:
The Truth About Celia by Kevin Brockmeier
The Brief History of the Dead by Kevin Brockmeier
In the Heart of the Sea: The Tragedy of the Whaleship Essex by Nathanial Philbrick

new:
Hyperion by Dan Simmons
Finn by Jon Clinch (that's the one about Huck's dad...couldn't resist it for a buck)
Great Plains by Ian Frazier

...grand total of $7!

That last one has a great cover, and I thought for a moment that it might be the same author who wrote a certain book that came out a few years ago that I remembered because it featured one of the most gorgeous covers I've ever seen--a book about boats and trucks with a wonderfully fragile drawing of the same on the jacket--but I didn't see that book mentioned with Ian Frazier's other publications. So then my mission became finding out what that other book was, and who it was by. I remembered that the author was an old guy who'd published dozens of books about American things like boats and trucks and basketball. I tried googling "books about boats and trucks" and "book cover with drawing of boats and trucks" etc etc. And I came up empty until I tried "has written other books about boats and trucking." A page at Powell's for the book in question was the 4th result for that query. I love Google sometimes.

Here's the jacket:



So I ordered a copy of that, too. The author, John McPhee, is so famous I should be quite ashamed of myself. He won a Pulitzer in 1999 (for Annals of the Former World) and is considered a pioneer of narrative nonfiction, which is basically all I read these days. Just about every book this guy has written looks excellent to me, so maybe March will be the month of McPhee.

Anybody read his stuff?

Davy, PLEASE talk to me about Great Plains. I would love to know what you think. Its basically one of my favourite books of ever.

I haven't read the McPhee book but it looks like something I'd dig.

[davy]

Oh cool, good to know. It's a few slots away on the To-Read list, but I'll let you know.

Have you read Frazier's New Yorker travel essay about Siberia? It was printed in 2 parts and it's supposed to be quite good. I couldn't find it online so I pulled it off one of the databases at my school. I could cut & paste & email it if you wanted to read it.

[G.C.R]

I'd love to, if its not a hassle.

[Anglophile]

Productive reading week for me:

[davy]

I'd love to, if its not a hassle.

Cool, I just sent it in an attachment to the email address you've got listed on your profile.

[G.C.R]

Thanks!

[davy]

Gene Wolfe might've gone a little overboard with the cover for his new novel:



It's about a haunted house. There's also a new Dan Simmons novel (again). It's about a Native American boy who touches Gen. Custer's body shortly after he died and becomes the vehicle for Custer's ghost. Or something. It looks like this:

[girl]

I forgot to post that I finished Sometimes A Great Notion by Ken Kesey (again). I'm still amazed by this book. I remember reading it from the point of view of sympathizing with Lee, but this time through I sort of hated Lee and was pretty staunchly on Hank's side. (Now I'm trying to figure out who I was then, but that's another story.) The important thing is, I still LOVE this book.

I'm starting A Game of Thrones by George R. R. Martin now. It's been on my "to read" list for ages now.

[davy]

I'm starting A Game of Thrones by George R. R. Martin now. It's been on my "to read" list for ages now.

WOOOO!

We can talk about it! I just reread it last month!

[morgan]

Hell yessssssss A Game of Thrones! I thought about picking that up and starting to read it again, but decided that I should probably wait until the semester is over. Because, let's be honest, if I pick up that series again, I'm not putting it down until it's over 4000+ pages later.

[girl]

Excellent! I remember that it was LPtJ approved.

[Ah_Pook]

the first three song of ice and fire books are so fucking good its ridiculous. the fourth one kinda slogged out on me, but i cant tell if its because it was less good or if i was reading them all in a marathon and i just got burned out on it by that point.

speaking of fantasy stuff i picked up The Name Of The Wind by Patrick Rothfuss today, after seeing some pretty glowing write ups around. im pretty excited about it. anyone familiar with that thing?

[morgan]

It took me a while to get into the fourth one; I think it might have been because of the characters. Just a totally different world.

[G.C.R]

One of the nice things of having the main thing that you collect obsessively be children's books is that man, it's a cheap thing to collect! For twenty New Zealand cents each today:

Else Homelunk Minarik's Little Bear
Dr Seuss's one fish two fish red fish blue fish
Rosemary Wells' Max's Dragon Shirt
Jenny Wagner and Ron Brooks' The Bunyip of Berkeley's Creek
And, especially exciting, After Dark by Louis Baum and Susan Varley (recommend linked article much)

[davy]

It took me a while to get into the fourth one; I think it might have been because of the characters. Just a totally different world.

I don't even know why I bother posting anymore when I see morgan's name in a thread, but yes, that's exactly it. It's the characters. I don't know if this is common knowledge or not, but the 4th and 5th books in the series tell concurrent stories. I'll let wikipedia take it from here:

Due to complexities that arose during the writing process, A Feast for Crows only includes half of the POV characters from the past novels, as well as some new characters who appear only briefly. The remaining characters will return in A Dance with Dragons, the fifth book.

A Feast of Crows continues the events of A Storm of Swords (2000), the third novel in the series, and its plot runs concurrently with that of the forthcoming novel A Dance with Dragons . . . .

The reason for the delays were that the novel grew too long and the format changed from the previous book, with the introduction of short-lived POV characters who only had one or two chapters apiece. Martin also wrote a 250-page prologue to the novel which he then scrapped and scattered throughout the novel. Finally, when the novel was nearing completion his publishers realised it was significantly longer than A Storm of Swords and requested it be split in half for publication. After initially considering publishing it as 'Part 1' and 'Part 2', Martin's friend and fellow author Daniel Abraham suggested splitting it by POV and location instead, which Martin agreed with. Thus A Feast for Crows only contains the POV characters from the South of the Seven Kingdoms and the Iron Islands. The characters in the North and the Free Cities (including fan-favourites Tyrion Lannister, Daenerys Targaryen and Jon Snow) will return in the fifth book. The split of the novel also meant that the series would be seven rather than six books long. A Dance with Dragons remains the title of the fifth book.

I mean, of course it wasn't as good. It lacked Jon Snow.

[morgan]

I was going to write about how I knew about the 4th and 5th books &c. but I am drunk so all I will say is:

Jon Snow is the hero. And I love him.

[Ah_Pook]

The Name Of The Wind by Patrick Rothfuss is quite good, if any of you are looking for something fantastical to read. the second one will probably be out well before the next Song Of Ice and Fire book too.

edit: to elaborate a little, imagine harry potter if jk rowling could actually write. also if they started out the length of the last couple. its much better than the harry potter books in general, but there are definitely some similarities.

[davy]

Anybody else here a fan of Ian McEwan?

His new novel is entitled Solar, and is apparently about a piggish physicist who publicly decries the theory of global warming and at some point accidentally cuts off his penis.

 



Ok. whatever, I'll read it.

[DCDave]

Earlier today I was talking on another message board about how largely unimpressed I am by his entire ouevre and how I feel it largely consists of period novels about rich white people with problems.

[Ashley]

This is what i'm reading.  It's not a novel, but its not what it looks like either.  Stephen Heller is a guy who writes a lot of very important design books and we're told to read him a lot, and a lot of our textbooks are books by him.  When I started reading the second chapter I was really confused because it didn't seem to have anything to do with graphic design and seemed to be just him talking about how magazines are too pornographic and models are always nude on the cover and he thinks that is bad for society.  It made more sense as I read on because a lot of the other chapters are about magazines.  But there's also a chapter where he interviews his 11 year old son about Pokemon cards and Heller is like "I really like the typography on this charzard card.  What do you like best about it?" and the kid is like "Charzard is the best but I wish it were holographic because holographic cards are so rare.  My favourite colour is holographic green".

Its a weird book, but I like reading it because I get a better idea of how Stephen Heller rolls, although now I think he's way more of a dick than I previously thought he was.


I'm also reading this, which is not an novel either.   The book sounded cool when I bought it, and its well written, I'm pretty sure the guy who wrote it is batshit insane.  I mean, I am terrified that this man is a practicing psychiatrist.  There's a chapter where he explains in full detail his theory about how tattoos cause people to steal cars. 

The cause of criminality among the white population of England is perfectly obvious to any reasonably observervant person, though criminologists have yet to notice it.  This cause is the tattooing of the skin.
A slow acting virus, like that of scrapie in sheep, is introduced into the body via the tattooing needle and makes its way into the brain, where within a few years it causes the affected to steal cars, burgle houses and assault people.

That sounds tongue in cheek and like later he's going to say "Haha I'm kidding, this is how tattoos are relevant".   But he doesn't.  He just gets deeper into it.  The entire book is like that.  There's no form of attempting to understand "the underclass", just ... him describing how he views it.  Its like these people have no chance of ever being people to him.

I like the typography on the cover though.

[Ah_Pook]

I'm also reading this, which is not an novel either.   The book sounded cool when I bought it, and its well written, I'm pretty sure the guy who wrote it is batshit insane.  I mean, I am terrified that this man is a practicing psychiatrist.  There's a chapter where he explains in full detail his theory about how tattoos cause people to steal cars. 

The cause of criminality among the white population of England is perfectly obvious to any reasonably observervant person, though criminologists have yet to notice it.  This cause is the tattooing of the skin.
A slow acting virus, like that of scrapie in sheep, is introduced into the body via the tattooing needle and makes its way into the brain, where within a few years it causes the affected to steal cars, burgle houses and assault people.

That sounds tongue in cheek and like later he's going to say "Haha I'm kidding, this is how tattoos are relevant".   But he doesn't.  He just gets deeper into it.  The entire book is like that.  There's no form of attempting to understand "the underclass", just ... him describing how he views it.  Its like these people have no chance of ever being people to him.

I like the typography on the cover though.

this review on amazon gave me a chortle, i dunno

This book contains nothing which cannot be seen every night (with a more entertaining slant) on the Jerry Springer show - minus the classist,right-wing dogma.

thats the whole review.