books to read

[ConnyMas]

I've been reading On the road by Kerouac and it's rad.
Of course I'm hyped to do something similar, although I have the feeling I'm going to get raped/shot/robbed of a kidney while doing it.

Finished it about a week ago, it was pretty interesting. 

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I've been reading a lot of Cormac McCarthy. So far my favorite of his is Outer Dark. That may change because I'm only half way through Blood Meridian.

[close]

Haven't read that but I fuckin loved Blood Meridian. Will check that out.

Now my debate is whether to start Dharma Bums or All the Pretty Horses, haven't read any Cormac McCarthy in a long time.   What's his book about the dude that bangs his sister and has a kid?

Anyways have to finish this book first:

[oyolar]

[Mark Renton]

Rad novel about resistance movements during WWII.

[kilgore.]

the man

[Mr. Fink]

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I've been reading On the road by Kerouac and it's rad.
Of course I'm hyped to do something similar, although I have the feeling I'm going to get raped/shot/robbed of a kidney while doing it.

[close]

Finished it about a week ago, it was pretty interesting. 

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I've been reading a lot of Cormac McCarthy. So far my favorite of his is Outer Dark. That may change because I'm only half way through Blood Meridian.

[close]

Haven't read that but I fuckin loved Blood Meridian. Will check that out.

[close]

Now my debate is whether to start Dharma Bums or All the Pretty Horses, haven't read any Cormac McCarthy in a long time.   What's his book about the dude that bangs his sister and has a kid?

Anyways have to finish this book first:

That would be Outer Dark.

[Rusty_Berrings]

Anyone ever heard of John Bellairs? He wrote Eyes of The Killer Robot, Trolley into Yesterday, House With Clocks in its Walls, and a hand full of others I never got around to reading. Favorite author. It looks like they're all out of print though. At least with the original artwork.

[AnotherHardDayAtTheOffice]

Took a little project upon myself. Made it through the first 150 (small-printed) pages and I must say that it's pretty interesting. It's hard to remember all those different characters, but I guess that's part of the fun.

[oyolar]

I know some people will keep cheat sheets of all of the characters in their copies of War & Peace.

Speaking of Russian authors, I'm reading this:



I already read the second half, so I figured I should go fill in the gaps.

[Smell Good]

Man, I've read a bit of Nabokov before.

Can't recall if it was one of his short stories or novels but it was a few years ago and I just couldn't finish it. Just the wrong time in my life I guess. There was a melancholy quality to it that just hit me too hard, maybe melancholy isn't the right word but that's the closest word I can find. It didn't make me feel good.

[shark tits]

Man, I've read a bit of Nabokov before.

Can't recall if it was one of his short stories or novels but it was a few years ago and I just couldn't finish it. Just the wrong time in my life I guess. There was a melancholy quality to it that just hit me too hard, maybe melancholy isn't the right word but that's the closest word I can find. It didn't make me feel good.

justified ain't on tonight, much to my displeasure. that reminded me of elmore leonard's 'raylan novels'. i didn't start reading them before the series but they come in good when FX be boolshitting. i haven't read 'fire in the hole' which the whole series is based off of but i've read a few and asides raylan having a larger estranged family and some other minor differences they are pretty faithful to the show. vice versa.

[EAT PUSSY!]

shame on me for not reading it way earlier.

[AnotherHardDayAtTheOffice]

I know some people will keep cheat sheets of all of the characters in their copies of War & Peace.

Yeah, I actually thought about doing that, too. But then I found that homepage that gives a good overview of characters and their relations to each other without giving away too much of what's going to happen. I'm through the first part now and I feel like I can still distinguish between characters. I have always made sure to link a specific trait to each character (e.g. Anatol? Oh, that's one of the "bear guys). Now the military part sets in and I feel like I'll lose track of who's who pretty quickly...

[kilgore.]

[Mark Renton]

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I've been reading On the road by Kerouac and it's rad.
Of course I'm hyped to do something similar, although I have the feeling I'm going to get raped/shot/robbed of a kidney while doing it.

[close]

Finished it about a week ago, it was pretty interesting. 

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I've been reading a lot of Cormac McCarthy. So far my favorite of his is Outer Dark. That may change because I'm only half way through Blood Meridian.

[close]

Haven't read that but I fuckin loved Blood Meridian. Will check that out.

[close]

Now my debate is whether to start Dharma Bums or All the Pretty Horses, haven't read any Cormac McCarthy in a long time.  What's his book about the dude that bangs his sister and has a kid?

Speaking of McCarthy I just finished "The Orchard Keeper". I don't really know.
Starting soon "The House by the Medlar-Tree" by Verga!

[tortfeasor]

Just finished "S" by JJ abrams last night. One of the better books i have read in the past couple months. It's really unique and very engrossing. Plus there are tons of fun puzzles to solve. Shit is even comes with a decoder ring. If your looking for something enjoyable and not looking for the greatest book of all time; Would recommend.

Also given a lot your massive boners for Scientology you should have all already read "going clear." Which is the best book I have read in the past few months.

[Ollie Ringwald]

Just finished this, really good quick airport, holiday, book.

[ChronicBluntSlider]

I'm about 250 pages into The Brothers Kamarazov right now. It's one of my brother's favorite novels and he's been trying to get me to read it for awhile. I just always lean more towards reading three or four shorter books than one super long one. Prior to this I've only read shorter stuff by Dostoyevsky like Poor People, Notes from the Underground, and The Crocodile (I think that's it) all of which I really liked. I'm liking The Brothers too, but it's kind of dragging for me, kind of like the British and American Romantic novels from around the same time that were also printed in serial where  it just seems like there's a lot of fat that could've been trimmed around the gems. The characters are a lot more interesting than the hoity-toity characters in a lot of those books though. Maybe it will all come together further along or maybe I'm just off on this but have about 500 pages left and am already looking forward to reading something else.

[shark tits]

I'm about 250 pages into The Brothers Kamarazov right now. It's one of my brother's favorite novels and he's been trying to get me to read it for awhile. I just always lean more towards reading three or four shorter books than one super long one. Prior to this I've only read shorter stuff by Dostoyevsky like Poor People, Notes from the Underground, and The Crocodile (I think that's it) all of which I really liked. I'm liking The Brothers too, but it's kind of dragging for me, kind of like the British and American Romantic novels from around the same time that were also printed in serial where  it just seems like there's a lot of fat that could've been trimmed around the gems. The characters are a lot more interesting than the hoity-toity characters in a lot of those books though. Maybe it will all come together further along or maybe I'm just off on this but have about 500 pages left and am already looking forward to reading something else.

i really enjoyed that and crime and punishment. the latter got me all curt and vodka drunk but i more identified w/ the ivan brother in karamazov. maybe all the brothers and goofball dad at different points. when i lived in cleveland there was a band named 'stinking lizaveta' which i thought was sick. never listened to them but nice homage.

[tumulishoomaroom]

There are some fuckin' great parts in Brother Karamazov but it's a really long read... It's rewarding tough. It gives some fascinating views about Russia.

Recently finished this :


As always with this king of meta-writers there's stuff that I will not get before I've read it a least twice but this is always a pleasure to read Pynchon. Really funny as well.

[oyolar]

I really liked Bleeding Edge.  I picked it up the day it came out and started the day after.  It felt almost like "Pynchon-lite" when I think about Gravity's Rainbow.  Probably because it had a more easily followed plot.  Very funny though and very well done.  I listened to this after I finished because I wanted to discuss it with people, but no one I knew read it.  It's a really cool discussion and I really liked Pynchon's treatment of everything.

http://www.slate.com/articles/podcasts/the_audio_book_club/2013/11/two_thirds_of_the_audio_book_club_liked_pynchon_s_new_novel_one_third_hated.html

Man, I've read a bit of Nabokov before.

Can't recall if it was one of his short stories or novels but it was a few years ago and I just couldn't finish it. Just the wrong time in my life I guess. There was a melancholy quality to it that just hit me too hard, maybe melancholy isn't the right word but that's the closest word I can find. It didn't make me feel good.

I wish you could remember which one it is, because for as melancholy, cruel, or "grotesque" as Nabokov can be sometimes, he is also an extremely uplifiting author and artist too in my opinion.  Except it comes out in different ways than being simplistic and sappy.  I've always known that, but the cool thing about this biography is it's reminding me of that aspect of his works.

[tumulishoomaroom]

I agree with you, It feels like Pynchon's last two books (especially Inherent Vice) are lighter, and that's obvious if you compare it to V or Gravity's Rainbow; yet it doesn't hurt or change much in the end, I still enjoy reading him a lot !

And thank you very much for the Podcast !

[Harem]

[oyolar]

Finished the biography, so now I'm reading The Eye by Nabokov.  It's one of his shorter works (barely 100 pages).  I have a goal of 30 books this year and my last two took up a lot of time, so I'm focusing on some shorter ones to make up for it.

[Beer Keg Peg Leg]

just finished 100 years of solititude, now reading the secret agent by joey joe joe jr. shabadoo conraad. both are dank as some purple nuggets of chronic

[tortfeasor]

just finished 100 years of solititude, now reading the secret agent by joey joe joe jr. shabadoo conraad. both are dank as some purple nuggets of chronic

what did you think of 100 years of solitude? i tried to get into love in the time of cholera but it just never clicked for me.

[shark tits]

just started 'lies my teacher told me' and so far it's stuff you already know [columbus was a mean motherfucker, helen keller was a socialist] but i'm guessing at some point it'll be all eye opening and shit. it goes into a little bit about how for brevity's sake people are deified in history so we don't learn that woodrow wilson was racist or mlk had affairs or whatever. stuff like that usedta be more important to me when i was a kid. i assume anyone who gets famous is half an asshole in their private life or else they'd only live a private life.

[excitableboy]

anyone is half an asshole.

One of the liberating truths literature offers.

[Beer Keg Peg Leg]

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just finished 100 years of solititude, now reading the secret agent by joey joe joe jr. shabadoo conraad. both are dank as some purple nuggets of chronic

[close]

what did you think of 100 years of solitude? i tried to get into love in the time of cholera but it just never clicked for me.

it was great. when reading it you feel almost as if you are pulled into the temporality of the narrative, you could be reading for five minutes and it would feel like two hours or vice versa. it feels disorienting at first but once you get used to his style and begin to differentiate between all the characters with the same/similar names (the family tree at the front of the book helps) you can't put it down.

[sametelt]

[shark tits]

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anyone is half an asshole.

[close]

One of the liberating truths literature offers.

here's another 'liberating truth'
from 'lies my teacher told me'
"Irish legends written in the 9th or 10th century tell of an abbot and 17 monks who journeyed to the promised lands of the saints during a 7 yr sojourn in a leather boat centuries earlier. the stories include details that are literally fabulous: each Easter, the priest and his crew supposedly conducted Mass on the back of a whale. they visited a pillar of crystal [perhaps and iceberg] and an island of fire. we cannot dismiss these legends however. when the Norse first reached Iceland, Irish monks were living on the island, whose volcanoes could have provided the 'island of fire'."