books to read

[botefdunn]

chris g you prolly read it but hells angels by hst seems to cover a lot of ground you mention. just read it, good read

[chris gentryfied]

Expand Quote

Hillbilly Elegy was dece. i'm a fan of Appalachia and Kentucky in particular. book is back and forth from Kentucky/Ohio where a lot of hillbillies moved for work. then when outsourcing took the plants overseas, opiate addiction moved in.
the author went to college and then Ivy league school after that. pretty neat, broke the cycle and all that.
didn't really provide a roadmap for others but good for him.
one interesting stat 'the American dream is more alive in France and some European countries than in America'.
he also said it's not to blame Obama or Bush or faceless corporation or capitalism since all the destructive white trash shit, we do to ourselves.

[close]

This is somewhat off topic, but you would probably like the doc - "the true meaning of pictures" by Shelby lee. Controversial, but as someone who lives/grew up in what you're describing its accurate. Its backwoods wild down here.

hell yeah, i'll check that out! i hitched around KY for a few wks 10 yrs ago and it changed my life. coal miners, drinking on hollers, backwoods crime and cushaw. i'm wicked into the family agriculture style.
to botefdunn, thanks i did like that one. and Songs for the Doomed was my favorite HST.

[ChuckRamone]

Finished Graham Greene’s The Quiet American.  A lot has been said about its criticism of American attitudes towards Vietnam but I’m surprised to see so little written about its portrayal of Brits.  It was not super kind to them either.  The main character (who is British) isn’t a great dude.

Reading Belly Up by Rita Bullwinkel now, which is her debut short story collection.  It’s fine. Weird, which I like, but I’m just not a short story person for most people so it’s not doing too much for me.

I love Graham Greene. one of my favorite fiction writers.

reading Gaddis’ The Recognitions now. I was worried it was going to be one of those insanely dense and difficult postmodern books but his writing style is not that crazy.

[Peter Zagreus]

Diderot was a G. I'm into picaresque stuff, and "philosophical novels," and this is up there with the best of both. Like a hyper-modern (i.e. metafictional moves) Don Quixote, but much shorter and more fun to read.

[honey island]

i buy books all too frequently, but find myself barely reading, having said that, committed to getting through this -



currently at 235/668


after this, i want to try and read a book a week

[Carrolls Chesthairs]

Burned through this in 6 days.
Seeing the movie on Wednesday.

[tortfeasor]

not sure if comic talk is allowed here but holy shit this might be the best series ive read since chew....





really outstanding stuff.

[botefdunn]

tried to get into lemire before but didnt like the art on that antler boy series. will check this out.

[tortfeasor]

if you are kind of picky about art-- check this one out a shop first.  the art is different than that other comic but its also different. its water color and charcoal on canvas in a style similar to that of "the incal."  to me it looks pretty amazing on the page.

[chris gentryfied]

i'm traipsing through one now called 'The Eastside Of Addiction' about Shrewsbury St junkies and drunks coming up in the 60s-70s. when i was a kid, Shrewsbury St and my neighborhood were like cousins. mine is a little more mixed though it was called French Hill 120 yrs ago, Shrewsbury St was [and still is] mostly Italian.
during/after high school, we'd go to their parties at East Park and they'd go to ours at Holmes Field. i've always been a lurker/skater so i was involved in brawls w/ my neighbors but never really friendly w/ the cool Italian kids but i knew who they were. then a few yrs ago when i was on the clinic, i'd see a lot of them in line for methadone.
so if you ain't from where i live, idk if this book will resonate but it's wicked relatable to me and also, the whole troubled youth-jail pipeline that a lot of us were on.

[chris gentryfied]

^finished that one, now i'm onto one about 'the troubles' in Northern Ireland. it's called Say Nothing. so far, the IRA have done some really fucked up shit, kidnapped a mother of 10 and tortured her to make her talk then killed her. killed their own traitors, blown up Protestant property.
the British government tortured IRA prisoners, threw them out of helicopters near ground [mock execution] just some Abu Ghraib type shit and the Irish thought that war was outdated, they would do peaceful MLK type civil rights protests. the British met them w/ rocks and sticks.
that peaceful shit only works if the news likes your side and promotes your agenda.
dope quote tagged on a Belfast wall 'god made the catholics but the armalite made us equal.'

[BuckyFellini]

Finally have a Fugazi addition to this book series.

[topblagger]

Just got "Fast Times at Ridgemont High" in the mail today.

I'm hoping it'll get me back into reading, I used to read quite a bit and after an epileptic fit I've had trouble concentrating on reading for more than about 5-10 minutes.

[WastedHippy]

I've just started reading this, always been interested in this time period/legend yet find it odd it's written by Gene Simmons

[Alan]

Reading this collection of essays at the moment. I'm a 100 pages in, and for now it's mostly biography and memoir reviews, but the guy's a historian and he gives a lot of context on the author, and the history of the time. It's slightly academic, so maybe not for everyone, but probably interesting for anyone into 20th century European intellectual scene. Looking at the table of contents he also touches on broad historical topics.

[Carrolls Chesthairs]

Only 1,000 more pages to go!

[gaunt]

Dedicated to the oppressed and based on his own experience helping Brazilian adults to read and write, Freire includes a detailed Marxist class analysis in his exploration of the relationship between the colonizer and the colonized.

In the book Freire calls traditional pedagogy the "banking model of education" because it treats the student as an empty vessel to be filled with knowledge, like a piggy bank. He argues that pedagogy should instead treat the learner as a co-creator of knowledge.

awesome book which does a good job exploring the relation between various instances of dominant-dominated oppositions such as the dichotomy between the colonizers and the colonized. ultimately revealing a cyclical process of regeneration in which the oppressed become the oppressors when assuming a position of power (after a successful revolution, for instance).

ultimately relating this to the teacher-student relation in the classroom as an instance of dominant-dominated dichotomy, he identifies the faults at which lend way to the same feedback loop outlined above and then suggests an alternative approach to education to the current one.  worth reading


full PDF here:
https://learn.mesaprogram.org/wp-content/uploads/2018/05/freire-pedagogy-oppressed.pdf

[Kumiko]

Right now I'm in the middle of Dirk Gently's Holistic Detective Agency by Douglas Adams, Technological Slavery: The Collected Writings of Ted Kaczynski, and Journey to the End of the Night by Louis-Ferdinand Celine. I'm also 4/5 on The Hitchhiker's trilogy by Douglas Adams.

Dirk Gently is okay. It has all the likable aspects of Adams, but doesn't have the same allure of any of the Hitchhiker's books and is a bit longer than it needs to be.

Uncle Ted has some good stuff say and a lot of assertions that don't amount to much. If he wasn't the unabomber I doubt anyone would care what he has to say at all. There are better authors out there with similar viewpoints.

Journey to the End of the Night is alright. The faster and more attitude you have while reading it the better it comes across. It's decent enough, but I wouldn't go out of my way to read it.

[botefdunn]

Uncle Ted has some good stuff say and a lot of assertions that don't amount to much. If he wasn't the unabomber I doubt anyone would care what he has to say at all. There are better authors out there with similar viewpoints.

Curious who you are referring to in saying there are others doing it better. I red that collected works when it came out and was aware of people like zerzan and derek jensen, but I didn't find them to be better. Lots I don't know obviously but genuinely curious who you might be thinking of.

[Kumiko]

Expand Quote

Uncle Ted has some good stuff say and a lot of assertions that don't amount to much. If he wasn't the unabomber I doubt anyone would care what he has to say at all. There are better authors out there with similar viewpoints.

[close]

Curious who you are referring to in saying there are others doing it better. I red that collected works when it came out and was aware of people like zerzan and derek jensen, but I didn't find them to be better. Lots I don't know obviously but genuinely curious who you might be thinking of.

I should clarify that I'm unconvinced by his conclusions of doing away with technology/a revolution against technology and that I think other authors' concerns with technology and its effects I find more agreeable such as Annie Le Brun or Guy Debord. Kaczynski is the most blatant anti-tech author I've read, so I don't mean to make any claims about that particular field of thought and the people who compose it - just authors who also address concerns of how technology impacts life.

[martha dumptruck]

john zerzan is awful to read and he mostly rides ted k's nutsack.  not quite the same genre but edward abbey was against a lot of trappings of the modern world w/out being a luddite. he sabotaged for sport and was a great writer.
unabomber wrote a great short story called 'ship of fools' you can find online. kind of sums up what's going on today w/ every tiny special interest group hooting and hollering meanwhile we're destroying our habitat.

[botefdunn]

john zerzan is awful to read and he mostly rides ted k's nutsack.  not quite the same genre but edward abbey was against a lot of trappings of the modern world w/out being a luddite. he sabotaged for sport and was a great writer.
unabomber wrote a great short story called 'ship of fools' you can find online. kind of sums up what's going on today w/ every tiny special interest group hooting and hollering meanwhile we're destroying our habitat.

Yeah ship of fools does a much better job of summing up his position than his manifesto. I like Abbey a lot but tend to put him in a different category because fiction. I can see disagreeing with TK's conclusions about putting people in the sky, but I do think he writes as compellingly as anyone on the subject.

[MichaelJacksonsGhost]

Journey to the End of the Night is alright. The faster and more attitude you have while reading it the better it comes across. It's decent enough, but I wouldn't go out of my way to read it.

I read this a while ago because Bulowski always hyped him up so much, but I found it to be a bit of a drag. Struggled to finish the last 60 pages or so. Bukowski’s minathropy is just way more overt and makes me laugh a lot more.


Currently reading The Brothers Karamazov and I’m really liking it. I’m not sure the book is meant to be all that comical, but I can’t help but relate Fyodor to Ignacious Reilly from A Confederacy of Dunces. The guy really is a funny character. All around good shit, IMO.

[Mark Renton]

Bought these three books.
First two for coffee table reading.
Last one is my lifetime mission before I bite the dust.

[AnotherHardDayAtTheOffice]

@Mark Renton: I'd be interested in hearing your opinion on Proust once you get started. I'm currently thinking about reading another longer work of fiction. Right now, I'm torn between Gravity's Rainbow and Infinite Jest, but Proust has been on my list ever since I started reading Knausgaard.

I just got back into reading a couple of weeks ago. I don't know why, but I just wasn't into reading this winter / spring. It took me months to finish Harari's Sapiens, even though it's such a pageturner.

The other day, I finished Faserland by Christian Kracht, which is considered German "pop-literature". I'm not sure a translation is available in English, but I liked it.

I'm about to read Sherman Alexie's The Absolutely True Diary of a Part-Time Indian with my 8th grade English class, which will be pretty exciting. I just heard about the accusations of sexual harassment against Alexie and Junot Díaz. It's really disappointing how some famous writers act behind the scenes. I'll definitely discuss this with my students.

Just put together my summer reading list. I'll definitely have to finish Knausgaard's My Struggle 6, because I just had to take a break about halfway through. Too much to digest at once. Ordered these books and I'm excited about each one:

[Mark Renton]

@Mark Renton: I'd be interested in hearing your opinion on Proust once you get started.

I’ve already read the first book (Du côté de chez Swann) some years ago and it was really beautiful, especially the first part (Combray). Then I bought the second book read like one third and lost it when I moved home. So now it made sense for me to have everything in one book.
It’s definitely amazing writing. Sometimes though it was hard for me to keep on going as it’s very descriptive and I kept losing focus. I alternated it with some Irvine Welsh books and then it was easier to digest.
I just can’t see myself reading it as my only book cover to cover if that makes sense.

[Dustwardprez]

via Imgflip Meme Generator

This is likely the last book I read twice

[doctorpoopy]

just finished The Wasp Factory after somebody recommended it on here.  Very good, but what a fucking bummer of a book.  Anybody got some uplifting suggestions?

[Peter Zagreus]

@Mark Renton: I'd be interested in hearing your opinion on Proust once you get started. I'm currently thinking about reading another longer work of fiction. Right now, I'm torn between Gravity's Rainbow and Infinite Jest, but Proust has been on my list ever since I started reading Knausgaard.

Expand Quote

Journey to the End of the Night is alright. The faster and more attitude you have while reading it the better it comes across. It's decent enough, but I wouldn't go out of my way to read it.

[close]

I read this a while ago because Bulowski always hyped him up so much, but I found it to be a bit of a drag. Struggled to finish the last 60 pages or so. Bukowski’s minathropy is just way more overt and makes me laugh a lot more.

Currently reading The Brothers Karamazov and I’m really liking it. I’m not sure the book is meant to be all that comical, but I can’t help but relate Fyodor to Ignacious Reilly from A Confederacy of Dunces. The guy really is a funny character. All around good shit, IMO.

I'm reading Gravity's Rainbow (for school) and Brothers Karamazov (for a reading group I frequent) in tandem and am thoroughly enjoying them both.

HardDay: I read Infinite Jest 5-or-so years ago, and while I thought it was a fun read (notwithstanding length and formal quirks), I'd recommend GR. Pynchon is raunchier and I think his subject matter is more compelling, if less timely than Foster Wallace. That's my unsolicited advice.

Jackson'sGhost: I agree with you and Kumiko - Bukowski made me want to like Celine so much, but he's a dud for me. His wikipedia page isn't too inspiring either.

I strongly second your feelings on Fyodor. The early scene at the monastery where he trolls everyone (himself included) in front of the revered elder had me cracking up.

[AnotherHardDayAtTheOffice]

@ Mark Renton: Are you reading Proust in the French original?

@Peter Zagreus: Now that's a statement. Thanks! And it's not unsolicited if I implicitly asked for it. I remember oyolar having similar thoughts, saying that DFW is better as a writer of non-fiction.

I've only read Consider the Lobster, which I liked a lot. It's been three years since and I still remember passages from his essay on Dostoevsky. Which doesn't happen often and shows that he stood the test of time. I read through the German translation of A Supposedly Fun Thing I'll Never Do Again at the bookstore the other day until they me out right before closing time. I got my hands on an English copy right after that.

I read The Crying of Lot 49 and Inherent Vice back to back a couple of years ago. I liked the first one, but the second one didn't do anything for me. I thought the movie by Paul Thomas Anderson was better, too. I'm willing to give Pynchon another shot and might pick up Gravity's Rainbow this summer (rather than Infinite Jest).