Current reading material?

[Baconesque]

I have read waaay too much this summer, but I'm about to start on Gaddis' The Recognitions even though I'm not too sure if I'll get it done before my classes begin.

[Maaik]

what was the name of that nirvana bio azerrad wrote? it was supposed to be good...is it? i was never the hugest nirvana fan, but i imagine the story is a damn good one.

Come As You Are.  And yeah, it is a good story.  It's not just a band bio, it's like a bio of nearly everyone involved.  There's a really funny bit about Kris Novoselic having his jaws wired shut when he was a teenager, and the chronicle of Dave Grohl's time in Scream is pretty cool.  The book is culled from hundreds of hours of taped interviews with all the band members, significant others, parents, other bands, label men, producers etc. etc., so it's an incredibly dense book.  Even if you have only a passing interest in Nirvana, the book is interesting enough on its own terms and can be genuinely educational in the ways of the music industry.

So yeah, thumbs up.

[erin]

Maaik, thanks for the recommendations. Both of those books sound pretty cool, though I have no idea wtf a lexifeticist is. I'm unedumacated, dude.

[Andrew_TSKS]

the azerrad nirvana bio is called "come as you are". i personally found "heavier than heaven" by charles cross to be just as good if not better. it gets a lot more into the dirt.

[Maaik]

I have no idea wtf a lexifeticist is. I'm unedumacated, dude.

Nah, it's alright.  It's just a word I started using (I'm not going to claim to have made it up, though I am the only person I know that's using it) to describe the state of enrapturement with language.  Root words lexi- (as in lexicon) and fetish.  I talked to a psych major friend of mine tonight and found "lexifetishist" or "lexiphile" would be more legit, but I'm not one to stand on formality--and lexifeticist slithers off the tongue in a more satisfying way.

Haven't read Heavier Than Heaven.  I might, but I'm really not as interested in Nirvana's dirt as their music (and I really only have a waning interest in that anymore).

[TheNames]

i just finished "slowness" by kundera (which was by far the funniest of his books i've read) and "the spirit of prague" by klima, which end in an awesome essay on kafka. just started "the futurological congress" by stanislaw lem, which is a cheeky sci-fi book a la vonnegut. just about every paragraph has been a gem so far.

[ecoulage]

as of this evening, dante's [alighieri] 'the divine comedy'.  actually, the library had a 'great books comp' with [geoffrey] chaucer and dante all in one; the divine comedy, troilus & criseyde, and the canterbury tales.  

ancient lit. is kicking much ass right now.  and forever.

[Matos_W.K.]

just got this forthcoming book (I work at a newspaper and we get gallleys of new stuff) called Hip: The History, by John Leland, who was one of the best music critics of the '80s and '90s before he went off to do other stuff. (He is an arts editor at the New York Times currently.) I'll probably devour it this weekend.

[davy]

i spent most of my time at work yesterday finishing fargo rock city, which i now have decidedly mixed feelings about. the thing is, klosterman's an entertaining writer, but as a person--or as the person he projects himself as--i don't really like him much. and the central argument of the book, that 80s glam metal was an important artistic movement, is entirely unconvincing. more often than not, i simply didn't agree with him at all (it was especially annoying how he would try and make any statement or belief or opinion totally irrelevant by slapping a sardonic "hipster" label on it). indeed, even in the funnier sections, i often felt like i was laughing more *at* him than *with* him. as a writer, he's funny, clever, intriguing, but his debating tactics rub my fur the wrong way. it basically boils down to the fact that he is in love with crappy music--perhaps the crappiest music EVER--and he knows it, but he's a good enough communicator that he can admit this, and not only avoid sounding like a moron, but actually have people believe him. his writing chops are such that he can make his audience feel like, yes, stryper DOES deserve an artistic reappraisal. in this respect, he's a bit like a politician.

to his credit, i enjoyed the book. i just don't know if i liked it. and also to his credit, he does finally open up and talk straight in the final two pages, but by then, i'm too jaded as a reader to care.

ah well. it did influence me to whip out bon jovi's new jersey--the only glam metal album i have on cd...i think--and *really* enjoy it on the drive down to denver the other day. so there's that.

~davy

[Ah_Pook]

im reading the new Myth book by robert aspirin. i loved the books as a kid and this is the first new one in like 10 years so i figured i would check it out. its pretty good so far, if youre a fan of the series. yknow, light punny fantasy. im sure everyone around here loves that shit.

after that these are lined up

Dry - Augusten Burroughs
Childhood's End - Arthur C Clarke
Re Joyce - Anthony Burgess

[Ewan]

I'm conscious I can't keep up with the range of reading choices in this forum. I'm pretty uncool in my reading habits.

I've just finished a couple of excellent early feminist novels that I picked up for real cheap at a remainders sale. Rebecca West's Return of the Soldier from 1913 (melodramatic in a sense, but wonderfully articulated and with a pretty cutting critique of marriage), and Louise Meriwether's Daddy Was a Numbers Runner from 1970, about a girl growing up in 1930s Harlem. Very well-written, it has a glimmer of hope but isn't warm and uplifting. Great stuff.

Now I'm reading another book I bought cheaply, a collection of short stories by William Saroyan. I actually don't know anything about Saroyan at all, but he's a really great writer, always foregrounding his own practice and with an eloquent style.

Oh yeah, and a history of the London Underground too, which I'm boring all my friends with interesting facts from.

[Gavin]

Must admit "The White Album" is in my box of 'books I've never managed to finish'. Kind of put me off reading anything else by her, but sounds like I should give it a go.


EDIT: ...oops looks like I missed the 7 other pages of discussion on this thread, apologies for turning the clock back

[Andrew_TSKS]

i spent most of my time at work yesterday finishing fargo rock city, which i now have decidedly mixed feelings about. the thing is, klosterman's an entertaining writer, but as a person--or as the person he projects himself as--i don't really like him much. and the central argument of the book, that 80s glam metal was an important artistic movement, is entirely unconvincing. more often than not, i simply didn't agree with him at all (it was especially annoying how he would try and make any statement or belief or opinion totally irrelevant by slapping a sardonic "hipster" label on it). indeed, even in the funnier sections, i often felt like i was laughing more *at* him than *with* him. as a writer, he's funny, clever, intriguing, but his debating tactics rub my fur the wrong way. it basically boils down to the fact that he is in love with crappy music--perhaps the crappiest music EVER--and he knows it, but he's a good enough communicator that he can admit this, and not only avoid sounding like a moron, but actually have people believe him. his writing chops are such that he can make his audience feel like, yes, stryper DOES deserve an artistic reappraisal. in this respect, he's a bit like a politician.

to his credit, i enjoyed the book. i just don't know if i liked it. and also to his credit, he does finally open up and talk straight in the final two pages, but by then, i'm too jaded as a reader to care.

ah well. it did influence me to whip out bon jovi's new jersey--the only glam metal album i have on cd...i think--and *really* enjoy it on the drive down to denver the other day. so there's that.

~davy

davy, you've already seen this because i commented to your journal entry about this. but i'm going to repost my thoughts here to see what other people on here have to say about it.

it's interesting you reacted to "fargo rock city" that way. i think i took it completely differently than you did, because of the fact that i grew up totally loving glam metal. and when i read that book, it reminded me that, oh yeah, i used to love this shit. hey, maybe i still do. and i went out and bought all these glam metal tapes out of dollar bins, and loved them all. so for me, it really WAS that glam deserved an artistic reappraisal. sure, it's silly and ridiculous and stupid, but the fact is that "cry tough" by poison, "stagefright" by def leppard, and "public enemy #1" by motley crue, among many many others, will always sound like great songs to me. that book made me feel vindicated for my history as a music fan, specifically the way it began. so maybe that's why i didn't come away with such a bad taste in my mouth--because i could accept the concept that glam metal really is great shit.

[the great architect]

ive been working on this list for the last 6 mos.  
http://www.randomhouse.com/modernlibrary/100bestnovels.html

half the books i have read, and most of the otehrs seem like they are worth reading.   i just finished battlefield earth, which i consider to be a complete waste of time. i finished satanic verses by salman rushdie, which was wonderful, and have not yet decided  which to tackle next.   maybe  ulysses.  any suggestions?

[Radiation Cow]

Currently reading Ursula le Guin's "Earthsea Quartet". Pretty and light reading.

Battlefield Earth? By L. Ron Hubbard? I tried reading the first one, and managed to get through it...
Yet another reason why never to bother with a reader's best of list.

[swilkes]

What's up with all the Ayn Rand on the readers' list? I smell ballot stuffing...but I've read 10 more books on the readers' list than on the "board's" list, fwiw.  It's good to see Toni Morrison's "Beloved" on the readers' list--boo to the board for neglecting it!

Switching to nonfiction, has anyone read "Straw Dogs" by John Gray? It's supposed to be a philosophical jeremiad on why humans are nothing special, we're just an evolutionary accident like every other species, and that religion, humanism, platonism, and just about everything else is a myth people have set up to avoid seeing their animal natures.  I'm about to walk over to the library to check it out, and am very excited.  I'd love to hear any thoughts from anyone who's read it.

[the great architect]

its nice to have some sort of direction in what to read next, or else ill keep reading my favorites over and over.  with battlefield earth, i figured if the guy can start a religion with his writtings maybe there is something to it.  poor assumption on my part.

anyone have thoughts of "ishmael" by david quinn?

[jebreject]

It gets a big ol' "meh" from me.

[Baconesque]

What's up with all the Ayn Rand on the readers' list? I smell ballot stuffing...but I've read 10 more books on the readers' list than on the "board's" list, fwiw.  It's good to see Toni Morrison's "Beloved" on the readers' list--boo to the board for neglecting it!

Switching to nonfiction, has anyone read "Straw Dogs" by John Gray? It's supposed to be a philosophical jeremiad on why humans are nothing special, we're just an evolutionary accident like every other species, and that religion, humanism, platonism, and just about everything else is a myth people have set up to avoid seeing their animal natures.  I'm about to walk over to the library to check it out, and am very excited.  I'd love to hear any thoughts from anyone who's read it.

What's up with that list?  Ayn Rand is horrid.

[justinh]

It gets a big ol' "meh" from me.

yeah, lots of 'meh' from me too.  but at one time i thought it was pretty cool.  sort of ties into the primitivist anti-agriculture thing.

[crazyjane]

I've been reading the Finnish epic poem The Kalevala, and it's beautiful - full of magic and chock-loaded with Jungian significance and cool names. Also, Steve Martin's The Pleasure of My Company which is hilarious, so I'm hoping it goes somewhere good...

This is my first post here, so... Hey everybody!

~jane

[Maaik]

It gets a big ol' "meh" from me.

yeah, lots of 'meh' from me too.  but at one time i thought it was pretty cool.  sort of ties into the primitivist anti-agriculture thing.

Never read Ishmael, but I did read the Story of B, which is quite good, if enormously pedantical (but this is Quinn we're talking about).  I read an interview with him saying he felt like he pulled a lot of punches with the two Ishmael books, but this one was more full-bore--so if you aren't a fan, this may still be worth a shot.  I thought it was pretty good, but it's been years since I actually read it.

[TheNames]

I just finished the play "White Guard" by Bulgakov and his satirical novel about the writing and staging of the same play called "Black Snow"
I'm reading the bhagavad gita right now.

[justinh]

Never read Ishmael, but I did read the Story of B, which is quite good, if enormously pedantical (but this is Quinn we're talking about).  I read an interview with him saying he felt like he pulled a lot of punches with the two Ishmael books, but this one was more full-bore--so if you aren't a fan, this may still be worth a shot.  I thought it was pretty good, but it's been years since I actually read it.

i read that one, too.  but for the life of me i can't remember what it was about.  can you refresh my memory? i remember it being vaguely about religion...

[Maaik]

Never read Ishmael, but I did read the Story of B, which is quite good, if enormously pedantical (but this is Quinn we're talking about).  I read an interview with him saying he felt like he pulled a lot of punches with the two Ishmael books, but this one was more full-bore--so if you aren't a fan, this may still be worth a shot.  I thought it was pretty good, but it's been years since I actually read it.

i read that one, too.  but for the life of me i can't remember what it was about.  can you refresh my memory? i remember it being vaguely about religion...

I don't have the book in front of me, so if I fuck up some details, forgive me.  Basically, the Vatican (or could be the Eastern Orthodoxy) sends a priest to Europe to investigate a man calling himself B who some claim is the Antichrist.  At first, B seems to be nothing more than a misplaced history professor, travelling a lecture series based on a mixture of religion, history, ecology and agriculture.  If you've read any Quinn, you probably already have an idea of his anti-totalitarian agriculture stance.

Like I said, good book.  I'd go so far as to say it's an important read, highly recommendable to the public at large in the same way The DaVinci Code is: already well-documented theory that nonetheless got little public attention until it was fictionalized.

I just finished The DaVinci Code, and I'd like to hear other people's reaction to it.  I'd actually already read about the history it purports (the Merovignian bloodline etc.  I don't want to give anything away), so it wasn't a huge revelation to me, but it was a pretty good read anyway.  The writing wasn't great, but the story carried it well.  I haven't been as wrapped up in a book in a while so that shows for something--and I found myself solving some of the puzzles ahead of the characters and anxiously reading quicker to get to the solutions.

Anyone?  Anyone?  Beuler....?   Beuler?