My teacher says I'm breaking books at an eighth grade level: book thread

[Thermofusion]

no one trolled until cf trolled me, for god knows what fucking reason

[jm]

Hahaha what? I didn't see anybody trolling anybody here. Jesus people. Calm the fuck down.

[Thermofusion]

I don't think there's any way to read coldforge's post as anything but trolling but hey anyway

Raymond Carver: great storywriter, even better poet

[fishjim]

I love Carver's stories, his poetry not so much. But you're right, he's his own thing.

[elpollodiablo]

The thing about my fundamental inability to connect meaningfully with poetry in the moment of its reading is that I don't know precisely what it stems from. It doesn't seem rational, I don't think it's aesthetic. It's just like a profound lack of capacity on my part to be fully present in the reading of it, or to value it beyond picking it apart to get at its ideas. And it's not that I don't appreciate the artifice of the language or a wry turn of phrase or construction. It's that for being able to appreciate all that, I don't value it as I value the novel, or drama, or even journalism. The idea of "finding the poetry" in/of this or that doesn't really connect for me either; I look for in poetry what I find most compelling about the world, and if it's there, I can appreciate that poem or poet to that much greater a degree--I don't review the world and the things that please me to account for what's poetic in them.

[jebreject]

You guys should check out this poet Charles Bukowski I don't know if you've heard him or not but he's not faggy at all

[Thermofusion]

I love Carver's stories, his poetry not so much. But you're right, he's his own thing.

One of his more famous ones but worth posting for the punch to the gut it delivers:

What The Doctor Said
by Raymond Carver

He said it doesn't look good
he said it looks bad in fact real bad
he said I counted thirty-two of them on one lung before
I quit counting them
I said I'm glad I wouldn't want to know
about any more being there than that
he said are you a religious man do you kneel down
in forest groves and let yourself ask for help
when you come to a waterfall
mist blowing against your face and arms
do you stop and ask for understanding at those moments
I said not yet but I intend to start today
he said I'm real sorry he said
I wish I had some other kind of news to give you
I said Amen and he said something else
I didn't catch and not knowing what else to do
and not wanting him to have to repeat it
and me to have to fully digest it
I just looked at him
for a minute and he looked back it was then
I jumped up and shook hands with this man who'd just given me
something no one else on earth had ever given me
I may have even thanked him habit being so strong

[Greg Nog]

That's fantastic!

[fishjim]

Oof.

[hannah]

Taking my PhD qualifying exams in 7.5 weeks. So many books to read! Sadly, only one of them is a novel: Theodore Dreiser's An American Tragedy (Sergei Eisenstein was planning on adapting it). (Technically I have other novels my list—Ulysses! St. Mawr! Moby-Dick!—for Eisenstein-related reasons, but I've already read 'em.) Anyhow, the Dreiser is somehow 900 pages. It is my bedtime reading—and it's perfect, really, 'cuz it puts me right to sleep! Har har!

[G.C.R]

Hay awesome! On shortly being a PhD student, rather than tiresome reading, I mean.

[jebreject]

Hay awesome! On shortly being a PhD student, rather than tiresome reading, I mean.

Agreed!

[Good Intentions]

Not a book, but an astonishingly good article in the Atlantic.
http://www.theatlantic.com/magazine/archive/2011/11/all-the-single-ladies/8654/1/

It's about the changing social conditions of single women in America, and the background factors as well. Many here would find this very interesting indeed (like Anne).

[Nick Ink]

My brother just dropped this round, but I haven't started it yet. Lookspromising though.

[Anne the Man]

Not a book, but an astonishingly good article in the Atlantic.
http://www.theatlantic.com/magazine/archive/2011/11/all-the-single-ladies/8654/1/

It's about the changing social conditions of single women in America, and the background factors as well. Many here would find this very interesting indeed (like Anne).

Holy shit that was great!

[davy]

Whoa, this looks fun!

http://www.toplessrobot.com/2012/04/game_of_thrones_is_about_to_finally_reveal_its_gam.php

[coldforge]

My dad's book, The Inquisitor, comes out in the US today: http://www.amazon.com/The-Inquisitor-Mark-Allen-Smith/dp/0805094261

[elpollodiablo]

That's awesome! Is it kind of an espionage thriller? I couldn't quite tell from the description.

[coldforge]

Yeah, basically.

[jebreject]

Cool! I will read it.

[Black Amnesia of Heaven]

My dad's book, The Inquisitor, comes out in the US today: http://www.amazon.com/The-Inquisitor-Mark-Allen-Smith/dp/0805094261

totally into this

[davy]

My dad's book, The Inquisitor, comes out in the US today: http://www.amazon.com/The-Inquisitor-Mark-Allen-Smith/dp/0805094261

Whoa, he snagged the collection development triple crown! Starred reviews from Kirkus, Publishers Weekly, and Library Journal. Nicely done, coldforge's dad!

[fishjim]

Looks pretty good, CF! I think I may snag it.

NP: Whenever I see this thread title, I think of this quote from edit0r -

"Books are like rocks. You hold one in your hand and look at it in various lights to get a sense of it, and then when you get a good angle, you throw it through a window to see what happens."

[coldforge]

Yeah, he's getting positive reviews from Wash Post, NY Times—it's crazy. And apparently it's a best-seller in Germany.

[davy]

The fact that it's gotten props from the three publications I mentioned means it'll be held by practically every public library in the country. Starred reviews are usually automatic acquisitions.