Das Book: the very new reading thread

[milesofsparks]

KJ, I'm surprised Cloud Atlas wasn't as gripping for you.  I've never read any of his other books, though, so maybe they're even better?

they're a little less formal.  and I could see how someone might find cloud atlas disjointed--the connections are subtle until you get further in.  the first section I read was not that enticing, and if I hadn't been in a profound state of thesis procrastination, I might have given up at that point.

[KJ]

I never got beyond the first section, myself. I dunno, I bet if I'd stuck with it I would ended up really liking it, it's just seeing that amount of paper behind the right-hand page it such a fucking drag sometimes, knowwhatimean?

His first, Ghostwritten, is fantastic. Very sharp and quick. The concept's pretty similar to Cloud Atlas in that it's a collection of short stories linked together, but I think it's probably a little less ambitious. There's no time-traveling, for example (but there is a brain-stealing Mongolian ghost!)

Number9Dream is Mitchel getting all his love of Japanewse cyberpunk stuff out in one glorious, rambling mess. I thought it was great, but opinion is a little more divided on that one.

[nonotyet]

HEY LOOK IT IS A NEW BOOK  FROM ALICE SEBOLD AND THE COVER LOOKS EXACTLY THE SAME AS THE OLD ONE EXCEPT NOW IT IS RED


I am not sure why this is making me so annoyed, but it is.

[Almanzo]

I think that while Cloud Atlas is magnificent, Ghostwritten does the same thing better because it's not trying as hard. And Black Swan Green is the greatest coming-of-age book I've ever read.

My favorite McCarthy is actually Child of God, followed by the Border Trilogy and down through Suttree. But  Blood Meridian is inarguably his greatest.

I'm alternating right now between Murakami's last book of short stories (got it for Christmas last year and hadn't read it yet and was feeling guilty) and the two Red Dwarf books.

[Almanzo]

I am not sure why this is making me so annoyed, but it is.

Because the state of modern publishing makes the state of the music industry look utopian by comparison?

[davy]

i know for a fact that there's an english professor at UGA who's been teaching suttree every semester for years. since long before i knew who mccarthy was.

[guanajuato]

i know for a fact that there's an english professor at UGA who's been teaching suttree every semester for years. since long before i knew who mccarthy was.

Suttree is his Joycian portrait of life/Faulkner impression/loner/sad/funny book. I'm not too hot on it, because I think Faulkner does a better Faulkner impression, and Joyce does a better Joyce. I actually like the Border trilogy better, and I'm not hot for those either. I don't know, in general as a writer he conjures lots of emotions that are principal of the wasteland, and in Suttree there is tons of stuff not principal of the wasteland. I don't think it's very strong. It doesn't have the large heart of abandoned family that, let's say, the Road is filled to the brim with. The family stuff here reads fake to me. Suttree worked for me better than Ambien is what I'm trying to get across to you and yours. Probably if he wrote Suttree now it would work better, because having a kid will change you (see the Road for example).

[rockmeamadeus]

finished Beautiful and Damned... I was almost glad to see those bourgeoisie bastards bite it. Maybe that's the marxism speaking.

Reading:



to which I owe an undying debt of gratitude to Milly el Guanajuato.

god I love this shit.

[guanajuato]

Nice!! Dude, that book looks great. The Bloody Crown!

[rockmeamadeus]

man these editions are sweeeeeeeeeet.

[guanajuato]

man these editions are sweeeeeeeeeet.

I found 'the science fiction bookclub presents the essential conan" at a used book store!! Some fool who didn't understand how to love the barbarian left the additional poster that it came with inside the front cover. I hung that bitch up! Nobody who comes over ever mentions it, neither do I. This is the poster



Except it's bigger and shows the snake Conan is wrestling! That's right ladiez. I got a fantasy poster up. Wanna go steady?

[rockmeamadeus]

ohhhhhh man that is fucking cool.

[davy]

i want IN to this club.

[rockmeamadeus]

davy man you got to check that shit out, Robert E. Howard is one hell of a fine pulp writer, the fucking best... the movie's are cool, but almost nothing like the books, there's this whole world and mythology and life built up around Conan and his world... and he's not just a barbarian, he's also a their and a king at times and... and...

man, holy nerdiness.

It's seriously the bomb, man. If you want I will lend you a book.

[hannah]

I received this in the mail today:



On the bus tomorrow I'll probably be reading something else, though.

[morgan]

Except it's bigger and shows the snake Conan is wrestling! That's right ladiez. I got a fantasy poster up. Wanna go steady?

Uh...yes.  Duh.

[davy]

It's seriously the bomb, man. If you want I will lend you a book.

would you personally select it by hand?!

[rockmeamadeus]

It's seriously the bomb, man. If you want I will lend you a book.

would you personally select it by hand?!

YES.

[auto-da-fey]

I just finished Mike Davis' Magical Urbanism: Latinos Reinvent the U.S. City. A really wonderful book, like most of Davis' work that I've read, but it was so sad to reach the hopeful ending, written at the end of the 90s, about a new labor coalition taking form, headed by black/brown alliances, that will spearhead a successful living-wage movement and use it as a springboard to even bigger, better, and transnational things.

And then . . . the Bush years. Goodbye, glorious vision.

(don't get me wrong, I believe this needs to happen and will happen. But man oh fucking man, eight years of overwhelming setbacks are not speeding it along so well).

[dominic]

If I remember rightly there are some Springsteen fans around here. Has anyone read



I've only just started skipping through it, as I've got a class on celebrity culture this thursday and was pointed in the direction of this.

[Lucy]

If I remember rightly there are some Springsteen fans around here. Has anyone read



I've only just started skipping through it, as I've got a class on celebrity culture this thursday and was pointed in the direction of this.

haven't read it yet but its on my bookshelf. my friend kelly highly recommends it though.

[Andrew_TSKS]

i've considered it myself, but haven't yet taken the plunge. i'd actually be curious to hear how it is too.

[dominic]

If I remember rightly there are some Springsteen fans around here. Has anyone read



I've only just started skipping through it, as I've got a class on celebrity culture this thursday and was pointed in the direction of this.

haven't read it yet but its on my bookshelf. my friend kelly highly recommends it though.

I think I'd second that recommendation. The dude doesn't go for big all encompassing theories about Springsteen fans, or fans in general, he just goes about his business of trying to find connections between them and trying to extrapolate some meaning from them. He's clearly a little frustrated with lot's of the previous work written on music fans, but tries to conceal that by pointing out the mistakes they may have made as courteously as possible. There's a whole lot of quite interesting little stories from fans about how they come across Springsteen's music, and their conversion to it. As well as the author's only personal narrative. Personally I wouldn't have minded less of the latter and more of the former, but this didn't wreck anything.

[Greg Nog]

oh my fucking god dhalgren just fucking end already

[Almanzo]

oh my fucking god dhalgren just fucking end already

I'm your friend when I say this - it's not worth it. Move on.