Das Book: the very new reading thread

[guanajuato]

i like nancy farmer so i picked up her sequel to sea of trollls, a book called the land of silver apples. i read it all in a span of a few, trembled-out hours. it was one of those books that seems big but the typeset is big. a quick read, really, unlike sea of trolls which i listened to on audiobook (and took FOREVER). nancy farmer is the author of some other great books...the eye, the ear. and if i am not mistaken she won a national book award. etc.

but in these ones in particular she channels sources from the same river as neil gaiman: mainly the reinvention of myth. there were a couple issues, where the characters became more or less flat, and i got the feeling she wrote the book in a hurry. there were some suspect issues with the ground rules of her myths because some of the ideas didn't play very well together. but all in all she's got enough chops as a storyteller that it even the rough spots were more or less smoothed over, and forgivable. as a writer, she's very clear, which is important because her primary audience is children, and at times her clarity is breathtaking.

[Greg Nog]

Hey, has anyone here read any of Maurice Leblanc's "Lupin" stories?  I saw a display of them at the bookstore the other day, and was surprised I'd never heard of them before.  I was all, "Hey now!  A roguish gentleman-thief whose larceny is as sophisticated as his sense of aesthetics?  That sounds like exactly the kind of preening mincery that would be right up my alley!"

Lupin?  Anyone?  Anyone?

[nonotyet]

no, but the phrase "preening mincery" is making me inexplicably happy.

[alex]

Shortly after finishing all my exams and theses and whatnot, I was all joyous about the fact that I finally had the time and energy to read books again. I read a bad German science fiction book of marginal relevance to my PhD project and Go Tell It on the Mountain. It was good times.

Then I made the mistake of starting Adorno's Philosophy of New Music a couple of weeks ago. A stupid sense of pride (as well as the need to familiarise myself with some music theory anyway) stops me from admitting defeat and reading something else instead, but basically that just means that I'm down to not reading anything at all again.

[Andrew_TSKS]

Hey, has anyone here read any of Maurice Leblanc's "Lupin" stories?  I saw a display of them at the bookstore the other day, and was surprised I'd never heard of them before.  I was all, "Hey now!  A roguish gentleman-thief whose larceny is as sophisticated as his sense of aesthetics?  That sounds like exactly the kind of preening mincery that would be right up my alley!"

Lupin?  Anyone?  Anyone?

i feel like we might carry these books at my store but i'm off work today, so i will have to check on it tomorrow and get back to you.

[Lindsay With An A]

I am reading Paradise Lost for school right now, and it's blowing my mind. You certainly do not have to be stoned to find any extraordinary delight in it, but I was when I read some of it tonight and it was pretty awesome.

[rockmeamadeus]

whoa, I've never tried that.

awesome.

[guanajuato]

Sacrilege! I don't really dig The Amazing Adventures of Kavalier & Clay for assorted reasons, but before I gave up on Chabon I happened across a short story of his called the Laughing God (I think). From there, I read the novella The Final Solution which I thought was brilliant. On the brink of beginning Gentleman of the Road and it looks fantastic.

[rockmeamadeus]

wait, what now?

that sounds cool, who is the Chadon person?

[Andrew_TSKS]

michael chabon. he's written a whole bunch of really great books, and some comics and movies as well.

[elpollodiablo]

Hey, has anyone here read any of Maurice Leblanc's "Lupin" stories?  I saw a display of them at the bookstore the other day, and was surprised I'd never heard of them before.  I was all, "Hey now!  A roguish gentleman-thief whose larceny is as sophisticated as his sense of aesthetics?  That sounds like exactly the kind of preening mincery that would be right up my alley!"

Lupin?  Anyone?  Anyone?

i feel like we might carry these books at my store but i'm off work today, so i will have to check on it tomorrow and get back to you.

Isn't Leblanc's Lupin a direct descendant of Poe's Dupin from his detective stories?

Also: finished Outer Dark today, about to start on The Orchard Keeper. Opinions to follow.

[Almanzo]

I finished Neuromancer - I forgot not only what a page-turner it was, but that they spend like TWO THIRDS of the book in outer space! - and have decided to re-read all of the Gibson Sprawl books, so I'm deep in Count Zero today.

[elpollodiablo]

I actually preferred the Bridge trilogy to the Sprawl books overall, though Neuromancer trumps basically anything else he's written. My dad got me Spook Country for my birthday, but it'll probably be a while until I get around to reading it. What I think I'd rather read is Gibson and Sterling's Difference Engine, but I'd have to do some digging to find my copy.

[Almanzo]

I have a ton of affection for the sprawl books due in no small part to the time in my life when I read them, and in no small part to how eighties they are in a lot of good ways. The eighties really felt like the future was finally happening at the time, and the sprawl books feel like that future's future.

I could never get into the Bridge books as much, though I think Idoru might be his finest novel.

[elpollodiablo]

I think maybe I like the Bridge books more for the same reasons you like the Sprawl stuff. I was an adolescent, and they seemed very emblematic of the mid 90s.

[Andrew_TSKS]

so, we don't have leblanc's lupin novels here. should we be carrying them? anyone?

[Greg Nog]

I guess I'll go buy a collection today.  I'm down to only thirty more pages of Dhalgren now, so I should be able to give you some Lupin feedback within about a week.

[coldforge]

http://www.amazon.com/Mortdecai-Trilogy-Kyril-Bonfiglioli/dp/0141003774/

[andronicus]

What I think I'd rather read is Gibson and Sterling's Difference Engine, but I'd have to do some digging to find my copy.

That's actually my favorite Gibson by a country mile. 

[guanajuato]

wait, what now?

that sounds cool, who is the Chadon person?

he won a pulitzer for the amazing adventures of... but i'm not so fond of it. his other stuff is pretty great! you would like!

[maggiego]

I loved Kavalier and Clay. Milly, wanna fight?

also Greg, I read some Arsene Lupin stories in French class when I was a kid and loved them, but I don't remember them very well.

[dieblucasdie]

It's a great novel trapped in an OK novel.  The middle draaaaaaaaags like nobody's business and the ending is kinda wack.

Also, weren't they going to make a movie?  I'm actually really shocked they haven't.  I was just thinking that K&C is one of the cases where I could imagine the movie solving a lot of the pacing problems and actually being better than the book.

[hannah]

think scott rudin has had it in development for forever. the book is dumb, even if maggie isn't. last i heard some non jew was up for every role. dumb. why not russell crowe and richard gere???

[maggiego]

It's listed as forthcoming 2009 on IMdB. If Zach Braff is cast, I will sabotage production I swear to G_D.

I would like to see Adrien Brody in there myself.

[dieblucasdie]

I'm guessing Sean Williams Scott and Adam Sandler (he's a serious actor now!)