CHICKENS IN A BOOK: BOOK BOOK BGAWK (new book thread)

[jm]

from here: http://www.lastplanetojakarta.com/forums/index.php?topic=12441.500;num_replies=508

I finally got around to picking up Cultural Amnesia after cf recommended it like two years ago, and I think I'm in love with this fucking book.

EDIT: While I can't quite pinpoint it yet, what I like about this book is very similar to what I like about Proust, down, even, to the sentence structure.  It's a lot of precise meaning packed into every sentence, but never clinical or tedious.

[davy]

Nice thread title! Sure to cause giggles and confusion.

I just finished Vonnegut's Look at the Birdie--the recent posthumous collection of unpublished short fiction. God damn it, I loved it to pieces. One of the most fulfilling reads I've had in quite some time, and among Vonnegut's most enjoyable books. It's certainly not just a cash grab, which I guess is what I expected until reading the reviews...this is grand stuff. Comparing it to his other collections, it's maybe a half-notch lower than Welcome to the Monkeyhouse, but that's very high praise indeed. Bagombo Snuff Box, his prehumous collection of unpublished stories, did not grab me the same way this did, but perhaps now I should revisit.

[davy]

Mario Vargas Llosa wins the Nobel! Dude is awesome.

http://nyti.ms/bbEILd

[Thermofusion]

a.k.a. 'Peruvian Gregory Peck'

[Lucy]

I'm in a massive dork phase and am currently reading "Communication and Relational Maintenance" by Dan Canary and Laura Stafford.  I'm a little disgusted by how much I'm enjoying it, but I guess it means I'm studying the right thing in school.

Also reading "The Possessed" by Elif Bautman. My winters are for The Russians, and I'm digging this memoir of a scholar studying them!

[clare]

I just finished reading Kerry Greenwood's latest Phryne Fisher which took all of two days of in-between-toddler-wrangling which was exactly what I needed.

My next plan is Stieg Larsson, as we just saw The Girl Who Played With Fire without having read any of them,or seen the first movie.

Or I could read Darius Bell, as I bought it for the big boy and he really liked it, and keeps asking me if I've read it yet.

And I'm also about to have a major tantrum, but someone bought him (the big boy) a copy of Dav Pilkey's latest hideousness and I want to throw it away. Honestly, what is that man thinking? His readers are in the 7-10 age bracket. In this book there are _deliberate_ misspellings "freind" "complamentery" "resourses". While I understand that getting on the level of your reader is a good way to encourage reading in younger children (I'm happy about Andy Griffiths and all his "Bum" books) I can't see that these misspellings are necessary. The big boy's reading has come along a treat in the last 18 months, but his spelling is still pretty shaky, and 'normalising' bad spelling isn't something I can condone.

[rockmeamadeus]

Also reading "The Possessed" by Elif Bautman. My winters are for The Russians, and I'm digging this memoir of a scholar studying them!

Hrmm I saw that a while back and was interested... you think I'd like it?

I am reading Sirens of Titan (Vonnegut) again and, I shit you not, had two separate girls hitting on me on the T today. It was fucking odd.

[Black Amnesia of Heaven]

Saw a guy brandishing Pinter with real emphasis tonight on the N. Wonder if anyone talked to him.

[rockmeamadeus]

I had a girl hit on me concerning Plutarch one time. I nearly fell in love but was stopped midswoon by her Dave Matthews Band t-shirt.

Seriously if that chick had been wearing something else that day we could be married and cuddling on the couch watching Bruce Campbell movies and talking about Ancient History while sipping Pernod but she was wearing her faults that day and alas, I sit here with a beer watching Bruce Campbell thinking about Ancient History and trying to remember the name of that Poison song that would deftly describe the situation that I find myself in.

[Good Intentions]

That, sir, was one damn fine post.

[davy]

alas, I sit here with a beer watching Bruce Campbell thinking about Ancient History and trying to remember the name of that Poison song that would deftly describe the situation that I find myself in.

"Every Rose Has Its Thorn," obviously.

[rockmeamadeus]

Actually, it hit me this morning, it was "Look What the Cat Dragged In".

"I got a foot in the gutter and a foot in the grave, ain't seen home in the last three days" etcetera and awesome.

[davy]

My second guess would've been "Cry Tough."

[Lucy]

Also reading "The Possessed" by Elif Bautman. My winters are for The Russians, and I'm digging this memoir of a scholar studying them!

Hrmm I saw that a while back and was interested... you think I'd like it?

Not sure, will get back to you on that. Halfway in, I'm thinking its not sufficiently badass and too much of her personal life/academia bullshit. I'll let you know if I'm see more passion, death or duels though.

[Nick Ink]

I just finished Will Self's "The Butt", and am now onto his newest one, "Walking To Hollywood". If I can sustain my Self-interest (sorry) beyond that, I keep hearing "Book Of Dave" is also brilliant, and that's another of his that slipped through my net.

[rockmeamadeus]

Also reading "The Possessed" by Elif Bautman. My winters are for The Russians, and I'm digging this memoir of a scholar studying them!

Hrmm I saw that a while back and was interested... you think I'd like it?

Not sure, will get back to you on that. Halfway in, I'm thinking its not sufficiently badass and too much of her personal life/academia bullshit. I'll let you know if I'm see more passion, death or duels though.

Yeah death and duels are key. I love academics but I am not all that keen on reading about people doing academics. If you know what I mean.

Duels to the death are best.

[nonotyet]

Some people (i.e. goodreads and the guy I am dating) recommended that I read The Name Of The Wind, and my copy came in at the library today, and what the jesus fuck this thing is 600 pages and has a picture of a shirtless dude on the cover and some leaves or something. I am going to read it!  Or die trying! Just because I have never found a fantasy book I like doesn't mean I should write off the genre completely! And I read that there is a heroin-addicted dragon in the book!

A HEROIN-ADDICTED DRAGON
SOMEWHERE AMONG 600 PAGES

woo

[rockmeamadeus]

Heroin addicted dragon? Man, three magic words.

[alistarr*]

you can chase all you want but you'll never catch that dragon.

i'm about 250 pages into against the day and moving pretty slowly. i think i'm enjoying it more the further i get, but i'm not sure. since started it i've read invisible cities and if on a winter's night a traveller, both of which were brilliant. and i just started i am a cat by some japanese writer. early days with that one but i'm not quite sold on the whole "i am but a small creature revealing large truths about the cruel and selfish nature of humans" angle it's running with right now. had i read it a hundred years ago maybe i'd feel differently, but i guess we've all seen a few episodes of doctor who since then.

[jess]

I tried reading both I am a Cat and Against the Day, and I suppose wasn't sufficiently enthused by either to finish, although, if I recall correctly, I wasn't that I disliked either. Invisible Cities on the other hand is one of my all time favorites, and the first chapter of If on a winter's night a traveller is so good, although I think the rest of the book fails to live up to that (but to be fair, that's a tall order).

[alistarr*]

i loved pretty much all of if on a winter's night a traveller right up until the last chapter or two, but i didn't really care for the novel's resolution. on the way into the final quarter it really starts to twist itself around itself in rather marvellous ways but then backs off right at the crucial moment, or so it seemed to me. the opening is pretty spectacular, though, it's true. i read invisible cities on a train journey and really loved it, and will probably give it another go-round at some point.

i really hope i get into against the day soon - i don't really fancy another 800 pages at my current pace, as that'll take me well into 2012 and that's a long time to have the book sat on one's desk. people will get the wrong idea.

[G.C.R]

I tried reading both I am a Cat and Against the Day, and I suppose wasn't sufficiently enthused by either to finish, although, if I recall correctly, I wasn't that I disliked either.

I think there are two super different translations of I am a cat floating around, and I think I read one that I had a similar reaction to - fine, but not really holding me. my friend read the other translation and was pretty hyperbolic in his praise, which has always made me think I just got the wrong one.

[davy]

I joined this website, Readernaut. Readernaut.com. I think it's basically like goodreads except with an emphasis on making notes as you go along and writing down quotes from individual pages rather than rating the books when you're done with them.

Damn.  Wish I would have known about this when I was reading all that damn Proust.  There was one particular quote that I can't, for the life of me, remember that I really liked (and even now, I'm not sure whether it was in book 2 or book 3).

By the way, you can do this on goodreads, now. On your home page, in the top-right corner, is a box containing the books you're currently reading. Under each title is a link that says "update status." If you click that link, it lets you type in the page you're on, and underneath that is a box where you can type in notes (or quotes) specific to that page.

And speaking of goodreads, I need more friends. Who else has an account there but isn't friends with me yet?

[elpollodiablo]

I stopped using mine and I think I'm going to delete my account, because no matter how many times I unsubscribe from their bullshit junk emails, I still manage to get 2-3 week.

[davy]

Really? I never get anything from them.