Current reading material?

[sedita]

murakami is totally brilliant and is far and away my favorite contemporary author.  i was only reading murakami books for a while this spring.  sputnik sweetheart, the wind up bird chronicles, and norwegian wood where all amazing, interesting, and had me up all night racing to the end.  dance dance dance and the elephant vanishes were comparitively not so good.  i think i need to go get south of the border, west of the sun next.

justin, if you didn't like dance dance dance, it's because you didn't
read 'a wild sheep chase' first.  'd,d,d' is the sequal....

[william]

re Slaughterhouse Five: Call me crazy, but this isn't my favorite Vonnegut book. I love it, it's probably number three or four, but Breakfast of Champions and Bluebeard are definitely much better.

Well, I haven't read Bluebeard, and I do have to agree that Breakfast of Champions is brilliant (goodbye blue monday!), but i find the intricacy of Slaughterhouse's structure incredible and beautiful, especially as he does not let this interfere with the overall tone of the book. Which, incidentally is pure Vonnegut. Who else could write a book about the bombing of Dresden in which the main character gets kidnapped by space aliens???

[Roque]

Murakami is brilliant. America owes the New Yorker and Jay Rubin quite a bit. Otherwise, God knows when (or if!) we would've had the good fortune of discovering him. Did anyone catch that Voice article claiming he's the best living writer, or something to that effect? (Myself, I'm still a Pynchon fanatic.)

[Roque]

Children of postmodernity that many of you are, you are probably not fans of Harold Bloom. Still, I have to agree with Prof. Bloom that the "Byron the Bulb" passage in Gravity's Rainbow is one of the finest passages ever constructed in literature, ever. Passages like these are the reason that wannabes like DFW (and many writers across the pond) will never touch vintage Pynchon.

[steph]

I just finished David Sedaris' new book, Dress your family in courderoy and denim, and it was fantastic. I love that style of writing.

i am generally in love with david sedaris & just started his new book.
i've also been listening to this american life recordings of him telling stories and i think that makes reading the book even better, because i can imagine him saying it & emphasising certain words, etc.

i also recently finished the book of laughter and forgetting by kundera and recommend it highly.

s.

[Brian]

Good news that someone mentioned poetry- Charles Simic has a new Selected Poems out, and Wallace Stevens is the finest American poet of the lot.

Also, all this talk of Pynchon has got me interested- should I start with Lot 49? If Harold Bloom's a fan, I'm a fan.

[Roque]

Brian: yeah, I'd start with V. or Lot 49. After you wrap up those two, you'll be more or less ready as you'll ever be for the sublime, sprawling mindfuck of GR. Hah, if you're a Harold Bloom fan, no wonder you're a Wallace Stevens fan. Not that you have to be the former to be the latter, by any means. I love Stevens, but never got into Merrill, another Bloom fave, whose collected poems came out pretty recently.

Speaking of poetry, Osip Mandelstam, one of the best Russian poets since Pushkin (for serious), will have a decent translation--Merwin + Clarence Brown--of some of his poems coming out. The NYRB planned to have it out by April, but the word around the campfire is that it'll be out in about 4 weeks.

Also, being a massive Larkin fan, I recommend the new Collected Poems that's out. It plumps for Larkin's own ordering preference over the previous (inferior) chronological sequence. If unaware of Larkin's talent, Google "larkin aubade" to read one of his greatest poems for a taster.

/////

[Good Intentions]

Book of the New Sun by Gene Wolfe

Magical realism / surrealism for those who aren't afraid to be called geeks.  It also happens to be some of the greatest books I've ever read.  It is so beautifully textured without getting into that godawful how-do-I-fit-a-story-into-only-2000-pages thing fantasy/sci-fi people get sucked into.  Yes, it is 4 books, yes, it does approach 2000 pages.  They're worth it.  No poncy character-developement sketches, thank the heavens.

And the greatest book by Kurt Vonnegut is undoubtedly The Sirens of Titan.  I can't describe it, just go and bloodywell read it.  Jesus Christ, what a book.

[ecoulage]

murakami is totally brilliant and is far and away my favorite contemporary author.  i was only reading murakami books for a while this spring.  sputnik sweetheart, the wind up bird chronicles, and norwegian wood where all amazing, interesting, and had me up all night racing to the end.  dance dance dance and the elephant vanishes were comparitively not so good.  i think i need to go get south of the border, west of the sun next.

heh, i'm right in the middle of the wind-up bird chronicle.  

sputnik sweetheart is waiting for me in a box somewhere at home, and i also bought 'after the quake'.  has anyone read that one?  what'd you think?

[justinh]

murakami is totally brilliant and is far and away my favorite contemporary author.  i was only reading murakami books for a while this spring.  sputnik sweetheart, the wind up bird chronicles, and norwegian wood where all amazing, interesting, and had me up all night racing to the end.  dance dance dance and the elephant vanishes were comparitively not so good.  i think i need to go get south of the border, west of the sun next.

justin, if you didn't like dance dance dance, it's because you didn't
read 'a wild sheep chase' first.  'd,d,d' is the sequal....

i was sort of thinking of that the other day, like the sheep man, wild sheep chase.  but didn't quite make the connection.  thanks for poiniting that out.  i guess i thought that parts of it didn't seem as smooth as other murakmai books.  like the dancing dwarf....am i just not picking up on something here or was that somewhat pointless besides the lesson (and the motto) that keeps him going? that whole passage just seemed jarring to me.  ah well, i guess i'll have to read a wild sheep chase and go from there.

[william]

Don Delillo. Is it just me? Do I just not GET him?

Sample dialogue (from white noise):
'Where are you living Murray?'
'In a rooming house [...] Seven or eight boarders, more or less permanent except for me. A woman who harbours a terrible secret. A man with a haunted look. A man who never comes out of his room. A woman who stands by the letterbox for hours, waiting for something that never seems to arrive. A man with no past. A woman with a past.'

I think if I asked Murray where he lived and he said this, I would probably punch him.

[justinh]

Don Delillo. Is it just me? Do I just not GET him?

Sample dialogue (from white noise):
'Where are you living Murray?'
'In a rooming house [...] Seven or eight boarders, more or less permanent except for me. A woman who harbours a terrible secret. A man with a haunted look. A man who never comes out of his room. A woman who stands by the letterbox for hours, waiting for something that never seems to arrive. A man with no past. A woman with a past.'

I think if I asked Murray where he lived and he said this, I would probably punch him.

it's not just you, it's me too at least.  i tried reading underworld and thought it was boring and overstated.  i don't really like grand books that attempt to unite the universe into a single cosmic gesture.  perhaps it's just my perception.

[william]

it's not just you, it's me too at least.

Hooray!

i also recently finished the book of laughter and forgetting by kundera and recommend it highly.

kun-der-A! kun-der-A! kun-der-A!

[Charming Tedious]

I'm reading Caeteno Veloso's autobiography, which is engrossing and unrelentingly clever, if a bit more hagiographical than I'd like to see.

and Thomas Frank's new book on Kansas, which is maybe the best analysis of contemporary american electoral politics I've ever read.  I know some people don't like Frank because he said some mean things about the Doors and Bob Dylan in a previous book, but I can't recommend this one highly enough to anyone who wants to understand how we got into this mess.

[Lalitree]

I intend to defend DF Wallace and DeLillo here soon, just, it's gonna take some sittin' down time and I haven't had much recently. FYI.

[Anthony M]

I'm looking forward to it. I've only read White Noise and A Supposedly Fun Thing I'll Never Do Again and I really enjoyed them both.

I thought I was done reading rock books (the ratio of rock crap to all other reading material has been something like 15:1) but now I've got my nose deep into Rip It Up: The Black Experience In Rock'n'Roll and that Greil Marcus '70s comp Stranded and I'm happy about it.

[william]

I intend to defend DF Wallace and DeLillo here soon, just, it's gonna take some sittin' down time and I haven't had much recently. FYI.

 
I'm actually looking forward to that too. It's not that I'm trying to DeLillo down or anything, I am ready to give him a chance. When i picked up White Noise, though, loads of it came across really forced and unengaging and I for one really couldn't relate to what he was doing. Please though, I'd like to be proved wrong on this cos I know loads of people who like him. Apart from Dale Peck who straight up hates the guy.

[Roque]

I intend to defend DF Wallace and DeLillo here soon, just, it's gonna take some sittin' down time and I haven't had much recently. FYI.

Someone may just have to play devil's advocate. And by 'devil's advocate' I of course mean Duty-bound Guardian of High Literature. 8)

/////

[justinh]

and Thomas Frank's new book on Kansas, which is maybe the best analysis of contemporary american electoral politics I've ever read.  I know some people don't like Frank because he said some mean things about the Doors and Bob Dylan in a previous book, but I can't recommend this one highly enough to anyone who wants to understand how we got into this mess.

i really want to read this.  i read the article on salon.com and thought it was fascinating.  for the interested, here's the link to the article (get a free day pass to view it):

http://www.salon.com/books/int/2004/06/28/tomfranks/index.html

[Keith from TTIKTDA]

Currently reading Thomas Franks Commodify Your Dissent collection of essays from The Baffler. GREAT stuff.

next up: Either I'll reread The Watchmen, or dive into Greil Marcus's Lipstick Traces

Of course, I could just go to the bookstore and see something that DEMANDS to be read immediately... like China Mievilles new one that I'm avoiding because I really can't spare the time or the money for it.

[normalcarpetride]

I just finished The Fortress of Solitude by Jonathan Lethem and am on the second book of The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy.

[Tad]

I know some people don't like Frank because he said some mean things about the Doors and Bob Dylan in a previous book, but I can't recommend this one highly enough to anyone who wants to understand how we got into this mess.

That Mr. Frank is willing to criticize the Doors only serves to increase my respect for him.  I'm almost finished with Commodify Your Dissent, which has been consistantly impressive.  And several weeks ago with the help of CSPAN2, I was able to witness a talk given by Frank regarding his most recent book.  That was enough to convince me that the new book will be worth reading.

[Keith from TTIKTDA]

Oh! I'm also reading Dave Eggers novel in progress as Salon syndicates out each chapter.

Thats been fun.

[Brian]

Thanks Roque- Larkin is really amazing, and yes, the last Collected Poems was a really weird arrangement- 'Afternoons' is my own favourite- talk about scaring people in a quiet way. He reminds me of Morrissey- everybody thinks he's depressing, but, there's so much humour, beauty and lyricism in his work that there must be more to him than thinking he pessimistic.

[polishq]

DeLillo - AWESOME
DFW - Potentially AWESOME, assuming I read one of his books and like it