Author Topic: books to read  (Read 431333 times)

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botefdunn

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Re: books to read
« Reply #2280 on: May 27, 2015, 09:22:59 AM »
sf peeps probably know him, I just picked up a couple of his zines at a bookfair. Aaron Cometbus, always enjoyable


shark tits

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Re: books to read
« Reply #2281 on: May 27, 2015, 09:42:49 AM »
sf peeps probably know him, I just picked up a couple of his zines at a bookfair. Aaron Cometbus, always enjoyable


haven't seen one in forever [no indie bookstore around here] but i always dug his stories. read the KC one and assorted others at people's houses and that crazy bookstore in portland. forget the name, powells? think that's it.

lickcakes

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Re: books to read
« Reply #2282 on: May 28, 2015, 07:26:57 AM »


Amazing short stories. I read 10 pages every night before I go to bed: that's about 1-4 mini-tales. There's a certain melancholy in the tone; the narrators are often directionless women. It sounds like a downer, but it's somehow really funny. My friend read one of the stores in class, and my uncontrollable laughing made it difficult for her to read it:

The Good Taste Contest

The husband and wife were competing in a Good Taste Contest judged by a jury of their peers, men and women of good taste, including a fabric designer, a rare-book dealer, a pastry cook, and a librarian. The wife was judged to have better taste in furniture, especially antique furniture. The husband was judged to have overall poor taste in lighting fixtures, tableware, and glassware. The wife was judged to have indifferent taste in window treatments, but the husband and wife both were judged to have good taste in floor coverings, bed linen, bath linen, large appliances, and small appliances. The husband was felt to have good taste in carpets, but only fair taste in upholstery fabrics. The husband was felt to have very good taste in both food and alcoholic beverages, while the wife had inconsistently good to poor taste in food. The husband had better taste in clothes than the wife though inconsistent taste in perfumes and colognes. While both husband and wife were judged to have no more than fair taste in garden design, they were judged to have good taste in number and variety of evergreens. The husband was felt to have excellent taste in roses but poor taste in bulbs. The wife was felt to have better taste in bulbs and generally good taste in shade plantings with the exception of hostas. The husband’s taste was felt to be good in garden furniture but only fair in ornamental planters. The wife’s taste was judged consistently poor in garden statuary. After a brief discussion, the judges gave the decision to the husband for his higher overall points score.

max power

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Re: books to read
« Reply #2283 on: May 28, 2015, 08:14:06 AM »
really enjoying this at the moment:

botefdunn

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Re: books to read
« Reply #2284 on: May 28, 2015, 10:27:08 AM »
haven't seen one in forever [no indie bookstore around here] but i always dug his stories. read the KC one and assorted others at people's houses and that crazy bookstore in portland. forget the name, powells? think that's it.

that place is incredible. Also, one of the most highly-controlled spanging spots ever, the front door is like shift work with a 1-hour turnover.

Smell Good

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Re: books to read
« Reply #2285 on: May 28, 2015, 07:51:54 PM »
Well over the halfway mark in Ellroy's Cold Six Thousand, but couldn't resist cracking this bad boy open




abudabi

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Re: books to read
« Reply #2286 on: May 29, 2015, 10:04:09 PM »
how do you guys become interested in current authors? book reviews?
im curious because all the books i want to read are pretty old (usually mid 60s at the latest).

shark tits

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Re: books to read
« Reply #2287 on: May 29, 2015, 10:32:32 PM »
how do you guys become interested in current authors? book reviews?
im curious because all the books i want to read are pretty old (usually mid 60s at the latest).

cool girls usually. john waters has a quote 'if you go to someone's house and they don't have books, do not fuck them!'
usually i'd borrow something from a girl or maybe a buddy and then i spose there's book reviews in weeklies and other lowkey ads for modern books. whenever i'm in a new town i always read the wklies.

Dengles

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Re: books to read
« Reply #2288 on: May 29, 2015, 11:40:06 PM »
Expand Quote
how do you guys become interested in current authors? book reviews?
im curious because all the books i want to read are pretty old (usually mid 60s at the latest).

[close]
cool girls usually. john waters has a quote 'if you go to someone's house and they don't have books, do not fuck them!'
usually i'd borrow something from a girl or maybe a buddy and then i spose there's book reviews in weeklies and other lowkey ads for modern books. whenever i'm in a new town i always read the wklies.
Goddamn John Waters is the best.  I see him around town on occasion I want to high five him for that quote. 

shark tits

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Re: books to read
« Reply #2289 on: May 29, 2015, 11:44:30 PM »
Expand Quote
Expand Quote
how do you guys become interested in current authors? book reviews?
im curious because all the books i want to read are pretty old (usually mid 60s at the latest).

[close]
cool girls usually. john waters has a quote 'if you go to someone's house and they don't have books, do not fuck them!'
usually i'd borrow something from a girl or maybe a buddy and then i spose there's book reviews in weeklies and other lowkey ads for modern books. whenever i'm in a new town i always read the wklies.
[close]
Goddamn John Waters is the best.  I see him around town on occasion I want to high five him for that quote. 
stomp on his foot to show gratitude. i've been diggin him since hairspray w/ ricki lake and then i went back and watched his gnarlier films as well as his mainstream newer joints. dude pretty much rules. my town has denis leary, i'd trade him for JW in a second.

abudabi

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Re: books to read
« Reply #2290 on: May 30, 2015, 02:01:46 PM »
Expand Quote
how do you guys become interested in current authors? book reviews?
im curious because all the books i want to read are pretty old (usually mid 60s at the latest).

[close]
cool girls usually. john waters has a quote 'if you go to someone's house and they don't have books, do not fuck them!'
usually i'd borrow something from a girl or maybe a buddy and then i spose there's book reviews in weeklies and other lowkey ads for modern books. whenever i'm in a new town i always read the wklies.
word, its been a while since ive hung out with a girl who actually reads. i dont really trust book reviews a lot of the time, especially when things like infinite jest and ayn rands dumb ass get hyped up.

shark tits

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Re: books to read
« Reply #2291 on: May 30, 2015, 02:20:45 PM »
Expand Quote
Expand Quote
how do you guys become interested in current authors? book reviews?
im curious because all the books i want to read are pretty old (usually mid 60s at the latest).

[close]
cool girls usually. john waters has a quote 'if you go to someone's house and they don't have books, do not fuck them!'
usually i'd borrow something from a girl or maybe a buddy and then i spose there's book reviews in weeklies and other lowkey ads for modern books. whenever i'm in a new town i always read the wklies.
[close]
word, its been a while since ive hung out with a girl who actually reads. i dont really trust book reviews a lot of the time, especially when things like infinite jest and ayn rands dumb ass get hyped up.
me neither lately and as such i ain't been reading as prolifically as i usedta. prolly this thread has given me some new ideas although a lot of folks are on the classics kick [nothing wrong w/ that] or some weird esoteric shit that don't interest me. lately i've grown TMZ shtoops and if i can get a biography of a rock star or whatever i'll fuck w/ that. public library fronted on me w/ al jourgenson's which apparently has an anecdote about sucking the dick of 'groovie mann' of 'my life w/ the kill thrill kult'.
in jail there's a genre that's fast replacing louis l'amour westerns and they call it 'urban novels' which are basically poorly written hood tales. they're not wicked enlightening but they're page turners for sure.

oyolar

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Re: books to read
« Reply #2292 on: June 11, 2015, 09:20:56 AM »

Gray Imp Sausage Metal

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Re: books to read
« Reply #2293 on: June 11, 2015, 05:34:17 PM »
Got scott bourne's book sitting on ice, forgot to take it with me on my recent business trip.
Other than that I've been rocking this:
http://www.amazon.com/Lyrics-Poems-1997-2012-John-Samson/dp/1894037588
People probably won't care about if they aren't into the weakerthans, fortunately I've been obsessed with john since his demo tape and thus this is book porn to me!

Impish sausage is definitely gonna blow up as a euphemism this year

Hannity

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Re: books to read
« Reply #2294 on: June 11, 2015, 05:38:43 PM »
i usually read sociology books on youth and society, transition to adulthood, things like that, but i've grown to be a big news junkie the last few years. and this last year has been really interesting as far as social issues in the news, and particularly all the racial tensions that have been bubbling up. was thinking about getting this to see a comedian's take on things as of late, and sort of gauge where we're at as a society in the midst of all this race-fueled drama that keeps popping up every few weeks.

"the [racial] dialogue veers only to the extreme poles of either angry or pandering...maybe we need to admit the sad truth, which is that we are not smart enough to solve any of these things."



http://www.salon.com/2015/06/11/colin_quinn_on_race_comedy_and_political_correctness_people_should_stop_lying_and_pretending_theres_a_racial_dialogue/?utm_source=facebook&utm_medium=socialflow

AnotherHardDayAtTheOffice

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Re: books to read
« Reply #2295 on: July 05, 2015, 03:24:36 AM »
What happened to y'all? Stopped reading, or what?  ;) Let's get this thread going again!

In the past couple of weeks I read the following books... first of all, Toni Morrison's Beloved. Really intense and important book! It's about a woman (and various other characters) who escaped slavery in the South in the mid-18th century. It's about killed children, real ghosts (!), and questions of guilt. I liked it a lot, even thought it's far from an easy read. There's a lot of implications and loose ends. This is part of what makes the novel interesting, but it doesn't make it light reading. Which is perfectly fine. Just so everyone knows what to expect.



Next up was Cormac McCarthy's Blood Meridian. I was looking forward to that book, because the only McCarthy novel I had read before was The Road, which I really liked. Blood Meridian wasn't my cup of tea at all and, overall, I didn't enjoy it. The first two thirds of the book seemed like a monotonous repetition of massacres. The first part of the novel also suffered from extremely one-dimensional characters in my eyes. There was just zero character development and zero emotional or intellectual depth. Things only got interesting when the Judge was described in more detail. I really liked the ending, but overall, Blood Meridian seemed like a generic Western to me. Western stories are not my cup of tea at all. On top of that, a McCarthy novel is just the complete opposite of Beloved in every way, so maybe it was just the wrong time to read it. Blood Meridian was by far (or at least that's what it seemed like) the most male novel I've ever read. It's all about violence, men in rugged nature, a complete lack of empathy, and apart from the odd whore or killed Indian/Mexican woman here and there, there's a complete lack of female characters. As said, not my cup of tea.



At the moment, I'm reading Eduardo Galeano's The Open Veins of Latin America. This book is a history of Latin America since the arrival of European powers and recounts how the continent has been exploited by outside powers since the very beginning: from European colonizers (Spain and Portugal) at first to English and Dutch trade companies and then ultimately to the US since the mid-18th century. It's also a critique of capitalism and the inequalities that world trade has produced. I think it's pretty accurate for the most part, even though it seems a bit outdated in some parts (especially when addressing the Cuban revolution), as it was written about 50 years ago and of course can't address what happened in Latin America during past decades. If you're interested in Latin American history (as opposed to contemporary Latin American politics), I can only recommend this book! It's one of the standard books for Latin American history (at least from a socialist perspective) and pretty much the Latin American equivalent to Howard Zinn's A People's History of the United States. Galeano died a few months ago, so his name might ring a bell...



I also read a couple of short stories by Alice Munro and George Saunders, both of which are authors I really like. Next up will be Knausgaard's My Struggle 1. I'm not sure what to expect. I feel like, for me personally, this could be a love-it-or-hate-it kind of thing. We'll see...
« Last Edit: July 05, 2015, 03:33:26 AM by AnotherHardDayAtTheOffice »

cookieboy

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Re: books to read
« Reply #2296 on: July 05, 2015, 12:34:30 PM »
Does anyone have some recommendations of books in spanish? I'd greatly appreciate it!

ChronicBluntSlider

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Re: books to read
« Reply #2297 on: July 05, 2015, 01:48:13 PM »


Best short story collection I've read in a while. All of the stories feature characters of Indian descent, most of whom are first or second generation immigrants living in America. Very emotionally powerful writing and the stories all have impactful endings which I find lacking in a lot of short stories without having a kind of contrived O. Henry feel to it .



Also read this. I've been getting more interested in world history and religion as of late. He speculates on if the historical Jesus claimed to be God and tracks the progression of the early church from saying that he was born human and then exalted to divinity at the resurrection, to that he was born human and then exalted at baptism, to saying that he was born divine and was so even before his birth. Also talks about stuff like if Jesus is God and is the son of God than how is Christianity a monotheistic religion, and the arguments and paradoxical reasoning the early church used to explain the contradictory things found in the Gospels.



About to begin this. Talks about how corporate America conflated capitalism and Christianity to kind of recruit religious communities in their battles against socialism, unionization, etc.
« Last Edit: July 05, 2015, 01:51:40 PM by ChronicBluntSlider »

oyolar

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Re: books to read
« Reply #2298 on: July 05, 2015, 04:03:52 PM »
AnotherHardDayATTheOffice - definitely feeling you with regards to Blood Meridian.  I found the plot and characters to be lacking (although the flat, brusque characterization didn't bother me too much since I feel that it was intentional), but there were a lot of moments that were very poetic and stood out to me.  The writing of ending scene really redeem a lot of the books other flaws in my opinion.


Does anyone have some recommendations of books in spanish? I'd greatly appreciate it!

I'm trying to use Borges to help me learn Spanish better.


I finished the new Danielewski novel a few weeks ago at the start of my vacation and am definitely in for the foreseeable volumes.  I'm interested to see what else he does now that the introductions are (for the most part) out of the way.  I liked his use of some borderline supernatural elements as it reminded me of things I like to include in my own fiction writing so that was somewhat reassuring.  The signiconic and "meta-" aspects of the novel could definitely be huge turn-offs for people but I didn't mind them.

Currently reading The Gift by Nabokov.  It's his last Russian language novel and when I finish it, I'll have read all of his novels at least once.  But it's pretty difficult to get into so far (although some of that might have been trying to read it while on vacation).  It's very Russian lit heavy (which I don't have a strong background in) and reads like him writing a farewell to Russian literature before moving onto English writing. 

Watt

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Re: books to read
« Reply #2299 on: July 05, 2015, 07:11:33 PM »



Cant recall having seen any Houllebecq in this thread. His stuff is brilliantly depressing and always intellectually stimulating.



I just recently found out about Tom Wolfe. Picked up A Man in Full and I have to say it was the quickest 700 page read of my life. Another macho book about men being men for the Slap Boys' Book Club.



This fop can fuckin' write em!



This guy writes like a Chinese Dostoevsky. A brutal, slick little book. I highly recommend it. 
« Last Edit: July 05, 2015, 07:13:46 PM by Watt »

AnotherHardDayAtTheOffice

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Re: books to read
« Reply #2300 on: July 06, 2015, 03:17:45 AM »
AnotherHardDayATTheOffice - definitely feeling you with regards to Blood Meridian.  I found the plot and characters to be lacking (although the flat, brusque characterization didn't bother me too much since I feel that it was intentional), but there were a lot of moments that were very poetic and stood out to me.  The writing of ending scene really redeem a lot of the books other flaws in my opinion.


I totally see what you mean, oyolar. I definitely thought the lack of empathy and its corresponding characterization of the characters was intentional, but I didn't think it really enriched the book; it worked well in some ways (the novel felt very aesthetically coherent) and didn't in others. I agree that the first 200 pages felt like there was no real plot and no interesting characters to pay attention to. Then the judge came in and things took a turn for the better (or at least things became more interesting...). I agree that the language and some descriptions in particular were very poetic; however, they weren't really my cup of tea. Blood Meridian felt a lot like "tough white men do what tough white men do" and I thought its poetic moments only underlined that notion.

I feel like everything Watt said about Tom Wolfe could equally be adapted to Cormac McCarthy (although not necessarily in a good way). I also feel like my reading patterns and preferences are changing right now and I'm moving away from the Jack London or Charles Bukowksi masculine-macho kind of writer... Blood Meridian really made me aware of that for the first time...

AnotherHardDayAtTheOffice

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Re: books to read
« Reply #2301 on: July 06, 2015, 07:55:54 AM »
Does anyone have some recommendations of books in spanish? I'd greatly appreciate it!

In general, in case you're a learner of Spanish, I'm not sure books/novels are the best way to learn a language; for example, movies or newspaper articles are usually better sources of authentic Spanish. Another advice is to begin with short stories or poems before reading an entire novel in Spanish. Oyolar brought up Borges, who I personally consider one of my favorite authors as well! That being said, he uses an abundance of rare terms and I found him way more difficult to read than other Spanish authors (it's definitely worth it, but I prefer reading Borges in translation). If you wanna give him a shot, try "El Sur", which I find one of his easier stories. Other than that, try short stories and poems from the standard canon of Latin American and Spanish literature: Octavio Paz, Juan Rulfo, Baldomero Lillo, etc, etc.

If you want an entire book, I'd recommend the bilingual edition of Roberto Bolano's Tres. Tres is a book covering three of Bolano's prose poems. Prose poems are easier to read than lyric poems and you're forced to focus on individual words and grammar, which enhances learning. Having the translation at hand is also really useful. Above all, Tres, like all of Bolano's work, is just awesome as fuck!



If you already speak Spanish well or if you're a native speaker... the answer is Roberto Bolano, Roberto Bolano, and Roberto Bolano. Los Detectives Salvajes is the best book written in literary history and that's a fact  ;)
« Last Edit: July 06, 2015, 01:38:57 PM by AnotherHardDayAtTheOffice »

shark tits

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Re: books to read
« Reply #2302 on: July 06, 2015, 08:07:38 AM »
currently reading 'the secret life of bees'. it's about a white girl runaway and her grown black sidekick weaseling their way into these 3 black sisters beekeeping lives. some interesting facts about bees and it's fiction but kind of a good snapshot of south carolina in the pre-civil rights era.

sametelt

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Re: books to read
« Reply #2303 on: July 07, 2015, 01:39:53 AM »
Cant recall having seen any Houllebecq in this thread. His stuff is brilliantly depressing and always intellectually stimulating.

So good. About to read Platform.

cookieboy

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Re: books to read
« Reply #2304 on: July 07, 2015, 07:57:05 PM »
Expand Quote
Does anyone have some recommendations of books in spanish? I'd greatly appreciate it!
[close]

In general, in case you're a learner of Spanish, I'm not sure books/novels are the best way to learn a language; for example, movies or newspaper articles are usually better sources of authentic Spanish. Another advice is to begin with short stories or poems before reading an entire novel in Spanish. Oyolar brought up Borges, who I personally consider one of my favorite authors as well! That being said, he uses an abundance of rare terms and I found him way more difficult to read than other Spanish authors (it's definitely worth it, but I prefer reading Borges in translation). If you wanna give him a shot, try "El Sur", which I find one of his easier stories. Other than that, try short stories and poems from the standard canon of Latin American and Spanish literature: Octavio Paz, Juan Rulfo, Baldomero Lillo, etc, etc.

If you want an entire book, I'd recommend the bilingual edition of Roberto Bolano's Tres. Tres is a book covering three of Bolano's prose poems. Prose poems are easier to read than lyric poems and you're forced to focus on individual words and grammar, which enhances learning. Having the translation at hand is also really useful. Above all, Tres, like all of Bolano's work, is just awesome as fuck!



If you already speak Spanish well or if you're a native speaker... the answer is Roberto Bolano, Roberto Bolano, and Roberto Bolano. Los Detectives Salvajes is the best book written in literary history and that's a fact  ;)

Thanks for all the recommendations! Going to begin looking at a few poems. I am also a native speaker so I do plan to look Roberto Bolano! Thanks again!!

dog boy

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Re: books to read
« Reply #2305 on: July 08, 2015, 12:15:05 AM »
Been reading these and so far I like them


 
the statistics in this are what intrigued me. I was talking to my grandmother about this today and she pretty much summed it up by saying
"were losing so much for everything that were gaining."



This is great. A look into the lives of people in the kink / BDSM culture in Chicago. There are recurring conversations between people through online chat and such. Makes me question myself. I like that.



I love Crass. So this seemed like a no brainer. Pretty philosophical and spiritual actually. I'm going to have to re-read this for it all to sink in though.



I don't like the idea of a self help book, but a friend of mine told me about this so I though I'd give it a try. Pretty interesting so far and sometimes a little difficult for me to wrap my head around / not roll my eyes. But it is funny because I have been struggling with my sense of self for a while now and it's only been a year since I decided to make a drastic life change. So for me to keep living in my past or dwelling on my future just seemed to be a reoccurring problem for me. Hopefully I will get a little clarity from this. I also feel like a re-read would benefit me.

Gray Imp Sausage Metal

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Re: books to read
« Reply #2306 on: July 08, 2015, 12:22:32 AM »
I love Crass. So this seemed like a no brainer. Pretty philosophical and spiritual actually. I'm going to have to re-read this for it all to sink in though.

*wants*

Impish sausage is definitely gonna blow up as a euphemism this year

abudabi

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Re: books to read
« Reply #2307 on: July 08, 2015, 06:01:40 AM »
taking rimbaud's name is super wack. just saying.

Makaveli

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Re: books to read
« Reply #2308 on: July 15, 2015, 08:20:41 AM »
Just finished All Quiet on the Western Front. I'd seen both movies and have always had a historical interest in World War I, so I'd been meaning to read it for a long, long time. Definitely not as good as I expected, there was a lot of "telling" rather than "showing." Remarque is a little too preachy, and has multi-page rants about the war taking innocence away, but never says how. Yet, there are some beautifully poetic moments that stand out, and toward the end of the book, the writing and the story become abject and devastatingly poignant. Overall, its a good book, but not what I expected.

I'm almost done with Salinger's Franny and Zooey. Have to say, pretty good book. Wes Anderson definitely stole a lot from this book for Royal Tenebaums.

I think I might read Pynchon's book Gravity's Rainbow, but it seems like quite the endeavor at 1000 or so pages. Anyone read it?
I’m a ghost that everyone can see.

oyolar

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Re: books to read
« Reply #2309 on: July 15, 2015, 09:41:37 AM »
I have. I posted a bunch about it back when this thread first popped up.  Took me forever to finish it.  Well over a year and a half (granted that was when I was in college and wouldn't be able to read it when classes were going on), so maybe about a year of consistent reading.  Definitely don't go for it without having read Pynchon before and rely on the Pynchon wiki that I've linked to before.  It's a good book though and I definitely suggest reading it.  I plan on going back to it at some point now that I'm more familiar with Pynchon's work.