books to read

[Mark Renton]

What's something you could suggest me if I like both Kurt Vonnegut and Irvine Welsh? Besides more Vonnegut and Welsh.
An inspiring and funny page-turner..

[Coastal Fever]

Not sure if it fully fits into the Vonnegut/Welsh category, but there's one by Kerouac/Burroughs called And The Hippos Were Boiled In Their Tanks that was funny/dark/enjoyable.

Tried to read Glue by Welsh and just couldn't handle the Irish pronunciation style writing which makes up most of the book.  Was too busy deciphering words to enjoy the story. 

Also gave up on The Sound Of Fury by Faulker, which is supposed to be a classic, but was mostly incoherent run on sentences.  With the exception of the first part, written from the point of view of a mentally disabled 33 yr old farm boy.  That was a challenging and interesting read.

Currently reading Winter Of Our Discontent by John Steinbeck.. A little depressing so far but definitely some beautiful writing in there.

[Grampa]

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Im about to start reading The Big Sleep tonight which I'm pretty excited about.

[close]

Yes! Raymond Chandler is the best crime writer, imho. I reread all of his stuff every couple of years, which I never normally do.

[close]

I can also suggest some Jim Thompson if you really want a story that's gonna pull you in and keep you there.  He's my #1 crime writer hands down.

Just picked up Slaughterhouse 5.... been having people tell me about Vonnegut for decades so figured I should give him a shot. 

Jim Thompson is the best! Pop. 1280 and The Killer Inside Me are two of my favorite books without a doubt. This reminded me that I have The Grifters sitting on my shelf but have yet to read it.

As for Vonnegut, I highly recommend Breakfast Of Champions if you haven't already read it.

[oyolar]

Since Vonnegut has come up, this podcast might interest you guys. Two of the people behind Cracked have a podcast discussing Vonnegut work. They're going through his books chronologically and their discussions are detailed and super in-depth but still fun and approachable since they take it from a fan perspective rather than a literary critic one. They're pretty far into the Vonnegut canon but they're good at explaining any callbacks to previous books and discussions so jump in wherever.  I read all of Vonneguts work but it was from the end of high school through my undergrad career so it's nice to get reminders of the stories and what I liked so much about them. https://soundcloud.com/kurtvonneguys

[themoustache]

[Mark Renton]

Not sure if it fully fits into the Vonnegut/Welsh category, but there's one by Kerouac/Burroughs called And The Hippos Were Boiled In Their Tanks that was funny/dark/enjoyable.

Tried to read Glue by Welsh and just couldn't handle the Irish pronunciation style writing which makes up most of the book.  Was too busy deciphering words to enjoy the story. 

Thank you! I will order it, for now I'll jump on the slap favorite SlaughterhouseV since it was the only decent one in the small english section en la libreria here.
Welsh books are wrote in scottish slang but it's not so bad once you get used to it, after that it's pure enjoyment for me because I can remember one or two sayings and make them mine in a way.
Finished Filth by Welsh and it threw me in a bad mood for a good couple of days.

[shark tits]

i've got 2 going on right now, 'urban farms' by sarah g rich and 'sean penn, his life and times'. sean penn book got me wanting to surf before breakfast, live that better life. just read his early yrs through bad boys/spicolli and now he's romancing madonna and about to start whooping paparazzi ass.
the farm book, it's inspiring to what i'm doing here. i am doing a subsistence thing but i might wanna go into a capitalist venture down the road. it's got pictures and little write ups of various co-ops and urban farms all over the east coast and calls detroit 'the mecca of urban farms'.

[Molte]

Just finished Don Quixote a couple of weeks ago. That one was pretty epic.

[NeppuNeppu]

I'm reading The Book of Disquiet by Fernando Pessoa translated by Richard Zenith right now. It's all assorted thoughts that do not explicitly develop a plot, but the further I progress into the book the more of a narrative around the protagonist is capable of being formed. The book is also composed of two parts, so it might follow a structure like Notes From the Underground, but for the first 200 pages the closest thing I can think of is the beginning of Either/Or: A Fragment of Life. The writing is really beautiful and depressive, so it's still interesting. It'd probably be a good book to read if you only have or want to dedicate short periods of time to read it, since most passages are less than a page and at most only five.

Before that I read Diary of Indignities by Patrick Hughes which was a collective of the author's humorous, real life stories. It's extremely similar to the online classic of davesecretaryatwork's stories, which are a total must read. It isn't humorous in the way Vonnegut or Catch-22 is, but I laughed a lot while reading it.

[Chuck Gender]

Just finished Don Quixote a couple of weeks ago. That one was pretty epic.

Did you enjoy reading it? I started that book like 3 times and never made it past the first 20 pages... Does it get better?

[Lobo]

Just finished The Long Hard Road Out of Hell,biography of "male Madonna" Marilyn Manson and I want my 2 months back!

[n0torious]

Recently read this for the second time. It's a semi-autobiographical satire about the Devil coming to Moscow and laying bare hypocrisy and corruption. Bulgakov was never published in his lifetime - he struggled with censorship and was marginalized because his work didn't contain heroic communist characters. The Master and Margarita is his seminal novel and his life's work - he dictated revisions to his wife shortly before his death. A staggering, wonderful book.

[SFblah]

I’ve had Master and Margarita on my shelf for months and can’t wait to get to it. A few months ago I read ‘Heart of A Dog’ by him. The  stories behind the banned Russian authors is always interesting.

[Alan]

‘Heart of A Dog’

A great book, agreed. And M&M is a classic.

[n0torious]

Glad to hear you both liked it, just put it on my list.

[shark tits]

just started this jawn.
http://ecx.images-amazon.com/images/I/51MTGPSQQ0L._SY344_BO1,204,203,200_.jpg

[Grind King Rims]

just started this jawn.
http://ecx.images-amazon.com/images/I/51MTGPSQQ0L._SY344_BO1,204,203,200_.jpg

Ayyyyyyyyyy, +1

[ImportantGuy]

https://crimethinc.com/books/contradictionary

[shark tits]

just finished one called 'confessions of a recovering environmentalist' that was pretty cool if you're into nature and thinking about humans/our impact on our surroundings in a philosophical way.
moved onto 'make love like a porn star' the jenna jameson story. idk if she's that clever or her ghostwriter but it's well put together and funny even though she gets raped in chapter 2. she's just graduated from poledancing to being a nude model right now and she turned down nikki sixx for sexx cause she was on the rag. she's still 17.
can't wait to see where this goes.

[oyolar]

Reading Why This World: A Biography of Clarice Lispector by Benjamin Moser.  I'm still not super into Clarice as a novelist but I'm interested in her life and learning more about her because she was apparently an arresting and intriguing person.

Although I did read The Hour of the Star by her right before starting this biography and enjoyed it.  I think I like when she has some sort of plot to act as some sort of a foundation no matter how much she ignores it.  Her freeform, more pure idea works interest me less, which I think is what her novels turn into (unlike her short stories).

[NeppuNeppu]

Currently reading The Situationist International Anthology edited by Ken Knabb. A lot of interesting ideas from them, although the "How to Talk Like a Situationist" essay is probably the best thing to come out as a result of the group. They also claim responsibility for the May 1968 happenings in France, but I'm not sure how much of an influence was directly from these writings. Still an overall fun read.

Also looking to start The Heart is a Lonely Hunter by Carson McCullers soon.

[shark tits]

Currently reading The Situationist International Anthology edited by Ken Knabb. A lot of interesting ideas from them, although the "How to Talk Like a Situationist" essay is probably the best thing to come out as a result of the group. They also claim responsibility for the May 1968 happenings in France, but I'm not sure how much of an influence was directly from these writings. Still an overall fun read.

Also looking to start The Heart is a Lonely Hunter by Carson McCullers soon.

i always wanted to read guy debord. i think the situationists were a big deal [more so in paris than here] then and they kinda inspired adbusters [is that magazine still around?].
that 2nd book, bukowski usedta mention it. he said it was a good title anyways.

[venture5.8]

just finished me talk pretty one day, I really enjoyed it! Friend lent it to me about a year ago and I finally started it last week. I'm on homage to Catalonia now. I was thinking about that book about the replacements called trouble boys if any of you have read it

[Alan]

Homage to Catalonia is excellent. One of my favourites.

Trouble Boys sounds interesting! Think I'll try and track it down.

[Carrolls Chesthairs]

Late to the party but I like it.

[givecigstosurfgroms]

I haven't read much but I remember liking "Artic Dreams"  which I read on va ca in mex once.  Great writing with mind blowing facts about how polar bears will travel 200 miles in a period of 3 days or how these whales or seals will have a hole a metre or two square that hasn't frozen yet that is the last connection between to VAST bodies of ocean that will freeze closed for the winter.  They end up having to go thru one at a time and they travel thousands of miles to get there and its location obviously is different every year and they know where it is regardless, with a day or two to spare.

[Alan]

I haven't read much but I remember liking "Artic Dreams"  which I read on va ca in mex once.  Great writing with mind blowing facts about how polar bears will travel 200 miles in a period of 3 days or how these whales or seals will have a hole a metre or two square that hasn't frozen yet that is the last connection between to VAST bodies of ocean that will freeze closed for the winter.  They end up having to go thru one at a time and they travel thousands of miles to get there and its location obviously is different every year and they know where it is regardless, with a day or two to spare.

Nice one. It's important to learn about history.

[givecigstosurfgroms]

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I haven't read much but I remember liking "Artic Dreams"  which I read on va ca in mex once.  Great writing with mind blowing facts about how polar bears will travel 200 miles in a period of 3 days or how these whales or seals will have a hole a metre or two square that hasn't frozen yet that is the last connection between to VAST bodies of ocean that will freeze closed for the winter.  They end up having to go thru one at a time and they travel thousands of miles to get there and its location obviously is different every year and they know where it is regardless, with a day or two to spare.

[close]

  Is that a global warming ref. ?    good one
Nice one. It's important to learn about history.

[tortfeasor]

Late to the party but I like it.

no shame in fun books. angels and demons is even better.



wrapping up this:


it had some cool parts but i'm not jumping up and down to recommend it.   sadly the last three books ive read have all kind of been a wash (lost city, shogun, and rise of the warrior cop).  im going back to dumb beach novels until  The Cadaver King finally gets released in feb.

[tortfeasor]

just finished me talk pretty one day, I really enjoyed it! Friend lent it to me about a year ago and I finally started it last week. I'm on homage to Catalonia now. I was thinking about that book about the replacements called trouble boys if any of you have read it

dude you should just ride the sedaris train and hop into Naked or Dress Your Family in Corduroy and Denim.  one of the few authors that makes me actually laugh out loud when reading.