books to read

[Carrolls Chesthairs]

https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/44436221-interior-chinatown

[SFblah]

Someone a few pages back asked about Latin American author recommendations and you should look at Charco Press publishing. They are a Scottish based publisher of contemporary Latin writers. Ariana Harwicz’s Die My Love is great. Everything is about 200pg or less.

Also, Mario Levrero is a Uruguayan author about to have his second book translated into English.

[matty_c]

Praise and 1988 are seminal works and for the good of shared experiences I wanna send these two to somebody that will send them to another member when they done reading

Let’s turn this shit into a kind of book club but only one person gets the copy at a time just one big fucked up web?

[Kumiko]

Someone a few pages back asked about Latin American author recommendations and you should look at Charco Press publishing. They are a Scottish based publisher of contemporary Latin writers. Ariana Harwicz’s Die My Love is great. Everything is about 200pg or less.

Also, Mario Levrero is a Uruguayan author about to have his second book translated into English.

Woah, just started Die, My Love yesterday. Backing this post. Also have Dead Girls by Selva Almada and Fish Soup by Margarita Garcia Robayo on deck from Charco.

Besides those I've also been reading The Collected Stories of Lydia Davis. They're solid flash fiction, but I'm not falling in love with her writing. It's worth checking out, but not heading into the whole collection. Of what I've read so far, the stories from "Samuel Johnson Is Indignant" have been the most enjoyable to me.

[childhood]

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shout out to whomever recommended The Big Goodbye and You Can't Win.

Working through those two now

[close]

I just downloaded You Can't Win cause it was referenced a few times in that opium book I just read. I love books about crimes & drugs, and that sounds like a good one.

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Started reading The Fire Next Time on recommendation from @Deputy Wendell on this very page. It's good. Short too, I'm almost finished. Makes me feel like a braniac. Also picked up Confederacy of Dunces but it's way longer than I expected. I'll give it an honest try. Picked up a compilation of Groucho Marx letters, that one I'm really looking forward to.

[close]

Confederacy of Dunces is funny cause if Ignatius was born in the 90s and skated, he would totally post on Slap.

[close]

I thought the same about Confederacy of Dunces, not necessarily about being a Slap Pal, but he reminded me of disillusioned skaters from my generation.

[close]

This is a bit of an older post but I thought I’d respond nonetheless. I read CoD a couple times in college, and actually got the chance to go to New Orleans on this “research grant” to look at Toole’s old haunts and sort of connect Ignatius’ experiences to the actual city. After that, and reading some
biographies about the author (which is an interesting story in and of itself, not to mention the convoluted process of getting CoD published) the book got a lot sadder for me. Almost like the tears of a clown, if that makes sense—using irony as a way to really mask a lot of discontent or Weltschmerz.

On another note, after almost four months of reading, I’m down to the last fifty pages of the last volume of In Remembrance of Things Past. My god had it been a journey of a book. I feel like Proust has just totally hijacked my brain and revamped my thinking and the general structure of my thoughts. That being said, I already know I’m going to have to give it another perusal in a couple years; there’s just so much going on, so many things throughout the book that connect seemingly innocuous yet intricate ways. Anyone read Proust and have any takeaways from their experience? I’m keen to hear what other people got out of it.

I recently read the first book that Toole wrote, The Neon Bible, and the forward to it has a description of all that his mom had to go through to get his writings published posthumously. Considering that he was only 15 when he wrote TNB, it's really impressive. Basically about a weirdo loner teenager who was mostly raised by his eccentric aunt and kinda-crazy mom, I'm assuming a lot of it was semi-autobiographical.


Other stuff I've read & enjoyed this past month:


Maniac: The Bath School Disaster and the Birth of the Modern Mass Killer

Harold Schechter's latest true crime book, about the Bath, Michigan school bombing in the late 1920s:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bath_School_disaster
The thesis of the book is essentially that this incident is both weirdly forgotten in modern times, but also oddly prescient to our current world. Couldn't find an online copy yet.


Foe
https://1lib.us/book/5031065/3c14fa
Iain Reid's follow up to I'm Thinking of Ending Things. Like IToET, it deals with issues of memory & identity, but this time within the framework of a SF story. I stayed up stupid late reading it, cause I didn't wanna go to sleep before I figured out what happened in it.


The Philosophy of the Coen Brothers
https://1lib.us/book/733790/99ce43
A collection of essays by different writers (mainly academics) analyzing the themes and messages of Coen bros movies. For example, one is about the role of shame in Fargo & another looks at No Country for Old Men as "The Coen's Tragic Western".

There's another book I really liked in the same series, that's on Charlie Kaufman's movies:
https://1lib.us/book/1196749/2f63d9

[birdplops]

Someone a few pages back asked about Latin American author recommendations and you should look at Charco Press publishing. They are a Scottish based publisher of contemporary Latin writers. Ariana Harwicz’s Die My Love is great. Everything is about 200pg or less.

Also, Mario Levrero is a Uruguayan author about to have his second book translated into English.

The Charco books are great- really smashable. I've also read Trout, Belly Up and The President's Room from them and am pleased to see there are loads more available now.

I recently read Dracula, which was fun but what a mess. Could have done with a bloody good edit. I've also just finished Algorithms to Live By, which explores the thinking behind efficient sorting, optimal stopping, randomness and a bunch of other computer science malarkey. I've read a few stats and computer science books and this is head and shoulders the most accessible and rewarding of the bunch.

[Hinna]

my fav literary excerpt. from the island of dr moreau

...i fell indeed into a morbid state, deep and enduring, and alien to fear, which has left permanent scars upon my mind. i must confess that i lost my faith in the sanity of the world when i saw it suffering the painful disorder of this island. a blind fate, a vast pitiless mechanism, seemed to cut and shape the fabric of existence and i, moreau (by his passion for research), montgomery (by his passion for drink), the beast people with their instincts and mental restrictions, were torn and crushed, ruthlessly, inevitably, amid the infinite complexity of its incessant wheels...

[childhood]

The Once Upon a Time in Hollywood novelization that QT wrote just came out
https://1lib.us/book/16577854/3c296c

[notmikerusczyk]

Just picking up reading again for the first time since high school. What are some must-reads? For the record I always loved fantasy books but I'm open to reading anything

[Deputy Wendell]

i'm 2 chapters into my dissertation--in the area of "literary and cultural studies"--and this is the first time i've ever even entered this thread, which i think says a lot about the negative side of researching, writing about, and teaching literature. i usually teach a 1 or 2 "composition" courses each semester, and 1 literature course, so combined with my diss work, i have to go out of my way to make simply reading a book a leisurely/relaxing experience.

anyway, this is the last story that we're tussling with in the "World Masterpieces 2" course i'm teaching this insane semester (we have 3 class meeting left on Zoom), and i've never read it before, and it's incredible, and a little intimidating to teach:



i'm sure it's been mentioned in here before, but i highly recommend...

edit: wow, sorry about the hugeness of the image, but i'll leave it because it's a cool cover...

apologies for quoting myself (again), but i just finished teaching a 10-week summer lit course, and we ended with Exit West again, and i continue to be blown away by what an incredible story this is and how directly it speaks to our current world...it continues to excite the most reluctant students in my courses and i highly recommend it...

[birdplops]

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i'm 2 chapters into my dissertation--in the area of "literary and cultural studies"--and this is the first time i've ever even entered this thread, which i think says a lot about the negative side of researching, writing about, and teaching literature. i usually teach a 1 or 2 "composition" courses each semester, and 1 literature course, so combined with my diss work, i have to go out of my way to make simply reading a book a leisurely/relaxing experience.

anyway, this is the last story that we're tussling with in the "World Masterpieces 2" course i'm teaching this insane semester (we have 3 class meeting left on Zoom), and i've never read it before, and it's incredible, and a little intimidating to teach:



i'm sure it's been mentioned in here before, but i highly recommend...

edit: wow, sorry about the hugeness of the image, but i'll leave it because it's a cool cover...

[close]

apologies for quoting myself (again), but i just finished teaching a 10-week summer lit course, and we ended with Exit West again, and i continue to be blown away by what an incredible story this is and how directly it speaks to our current world...it continues to excite the most reluctant students in my courses and i highly recommend it...

Some of the reviews on good reads are pretty full on, but I'm tempted to add it to my pile under the nightstand. Funnily, one reviewer suggests that it's the same story as Monsters Inc.

I'm having a run of tremendous books at the moment: The great Railway Bazaar by Paul Theroux was exceptional. I'm just wrapping up The Moth and the Mountain, which is truly gripping and the Lonely Londoners was described to me as a book that sings and I completely agree- it has an inescapable timbre.

[formula420]

Currently reading the lost secret by dan brown (the davinci code guy). First book ive read for pleasure in a decade. Im digging it.

[oyolar]

Just picking up reading again for the first time since high school. What are some must-reads? For the record I always loved fantasy books but I'm open to reading anything

Fantasy or sci-fi esque, you can’t go wrong with Vonnegut’s science fiction novels. Slaughterhouse-Five and Cat’s Cradle are classics but The Sirens of Titan is good but a little different from his other stuff because it’s early in his career. I liked Galápagos. For non-fantasy, I like Mother Night and Bluebeard.

I feel like Dune is the sci-fi/fantasy book of the moment though.

[SLAPASONIC]

Been reading quite a lot this year, this year I’ve read

• Snow Country - Yasunari Kawabata
  The Nickel Boys - Colson Whitehead
  Kokoro - Natsume Soseki
  A Little History of Economics - Niall Kishitainy
  The Paper Menagerie - Ken Liu
  Mindset - Carole S Dweck
  A Fire Next Time - James Baldwin
  The Stranger - Albert Camus

Currently reading The Sympathizer and another called Thinking Fast and Slow.

Kokoro was a brutal read for me going through a breakup after a serious relationship, also Paper Menagerie is an amazing book of short stories, especially the self titled short story hit me hard.
[/list]

[oyolar]

I bought The Sympathizer a few years ago but still haven’t gotten to it. Is it as good as people have said?

[Peter Zagreus]

I bought The Sympathizer a few years ago but still haven’t gotten to it. Is it as good as people have said?

I read it around the time it came out, and it was pretty damned good. Don't know that I'd pick it up again, though.
I'm sure the following book has come up several times in the thread already, but...

I'm about 450 pages in, and it's very good/a breeze to read, despite the brutality of the 4th book. I'm very impressed with the way Bolano renders the various nationalities of his characters, playing them off against each other for contrast. His vision of the Mexico/US border is tragically beautiful.
I'm not sure why all his characters need to make love for 3-6 hours, though. Are there really people out there who fuck like that? Maybe I'm not trying hard enough...

[lazer69]

Been having trouble sleeping before 3:00am . Looking at a screen at screen aint helping, thus ordered myself a book with the title of "Animal Farm" as my bedtime story.

[childhood]

Cairo Foster's top 3 books from 411vm Issue 46 (2001)

The Lucifer Principle: A Scientific Expedition into the Forces of History

https://1lib.us/book/5255867/c8d45b
A book about "why people act the way they do"

Siddhartha

https://1lib.us/book/824872/a5b83f
"kinda tells about Buddha...gives good insight about life"

The Chomsky Reader

https://1lib.us/book/1653433/2ef520
"tells you how the government (inaudible) itself"

[DaleSr]

Just finished Poisoner in Chief by Stephen Kinzer. Super terrifying how much power one man had and how many lives he's responsible for ruining and ending. Book is about Sidney Gottlieb who ran the CIA's chemical research program. He ran MK Ultra and MK Naomi

[Kaiju Foster]

Revisited ‘Songs of a Dead Dreamer’ and ‘Grimescribe’ by Thomas Ligotti recently, fantastic reads. ‘Pale Fire’ by Nabokov, some really good Clark Ashton Smith compilations (The End Of The Story, The Door to Saturn, etc. named after some of his short stories), also revisiting all of the great old Clive Barker stuff I haven’t sat down with in awhile, like ‘Books of Blood’, ‘The Hellbound Heart’, ‘The Damnation Game’, ‘Scarlet Gospels’, all of that stuff.

Nothing too obscure, I suppose, but all highly suggested if you haven’t had a chance to read them.

[oyolar]

Just finished Poisoner in Chief by Stephen Kinzer. Super terrifying how much power one man had and how many lives he's responsible for ruining and ending. Book is about Sidney Gottlieb who ran the CIA's chemical research program. He ran MK Ultra and MK Naomi

Sounds interesting - just added it to my audiobook wish list!

Alexandra Kleeman's new novel Something New Under the Sun was released yesterday so I've been diving into that. About 90 pages in and it's very fun. I love her other stuff, so I'm excited to see how this one develops. Although it is markedly different from You Too Can Have a Body Like Mine, there's still the core that feels distinctly like Kleeman so if like her other stuff, you'll like this too if you keep that it mind.

[botefdunn]

been making my way through this series, it does not disappoint. I can't quite explain the writing style, it's kind of ethical and unethical at the same time, serious and gratuitous. The author seems like one of the realest. Unfortunately not available in translation.

[DaleSr]

Shall we start a book recommendation list?
There are just the cream of the crop, books that blew my mind in one way or another.

Feminism
Bell Hooks: The Will To Change~ Written especially for dudes, and how feminism is also beneficial for them

I pulled this from the Leftist thread, but i just started this book at work and I'm gonna have to stop until i get home because it was extremely emotional for me to listen to and examine things going on inside myself and my relationship with my father. I'm only in the first chapter and it's incredibly powerful

[smellsdead]

i love how when i pop in here like once every three months bola񯠩s brought up.




exactly the dose of sardonic comedy you need to understand how fucked consumerism truly is. bright, loud, vulgar, annoying in your face. funny and witty, and ultimately pulls back the veil on how we livin biggie smalls. can be a bit all over the place but hey we now have the attention span of a goldfish so who am i to talk?

[childhood]

I used to love Sedaris' stuff when I was younger, but yeah pretty sure a lot of it is heavily embellished. I think that's why they don't run his stuff on NPR anymore.

Revisited ‘Songs of a Dead Dreamer’ and ‘Grimescribe’ by Thomas Ligotti recently, fantastic reads. ‘Pale Fire’ by Nabokov, some really good Clark Ashton Smith compilations (The End Of The Story, The Door to Saturn, etc. named after some of his short stories), also revisiting all of the great old Clive Barker stuff I haven’t sat down with in awhile, like ‘Books of Blood’, ‘The Hellbound Heart’, ‘The Damnation Game’, ‘Scarlet Gospels’, all of that stuff.

Nothing too obscure, I suppose, but all highly suggested if you haven’t had a chance to read them.

I finished Dead Dreamer... recently, you read his book Conspiracy Against the Human Race? I've been meaning to read that for awhile.


Recently got really into Daniel Ray Pollock, and read all of his books last month (he only has two novels and a short story collection). Netflix made an adaptation of one of them (it was the semi-recent movie where RPatz plays a sleazy preacher) that I thought was okay, but I loved the book. They kinda remind me of Cormac McCarthy's books about dark & fucked up rural characters, like Outer Dark & Child of God.

[Blue Fescue]

If you like scifi I thought this was good

[TerryFunk]

[oyolar]

Revisited ‘Songs of a Dead Dreamer’ and ‘Grimescribe’ by Thomas Ligotti recently, fantastic reads. ‘Pale Fire’ by Nabokov, some really good Clark Ashton Smith compilations (The End Of The Story, The Door to Saturn, etc. named after some of his short stories), also revisiting all of the great old Clive Barker stuff I haven’t sat down with in awhile, like ‘Books of Blood’, ‘The Hellbound Heart’, ‘The Damnation Game’, ‘Scarlet Gospels’, all of that stuff.

Nothing too obscure, I suppose, but all highly suggested if you haven’t had a chance to read them.

I don't know how I missed this but Pale Fire is insane. I love Nabokov - I've read all of his novels and he's probably my favorite author. I read it on my own in high school, then twice in college for two different classes (one focused on a range of Nabokov novels, one focused just on Pale Fire). It's not my favorite of his works but technically and artistically speaking, it is very, very hard to beat.

[MichaelJacksonsGhost]

I’m a sucker for Japanese Lit. I moved In with this guy who’s been on like a six month murukami binge, and he recommended me a book called “N.P.” by banana Yoshimoto. I wouldn’t say the book itself is such a standout, but it definitely includes a bunch of Japanese literary elements, like suicide and the “I” narrator. All of the Japanese books I’ve read seem to really prioritize atmosphere over plot or characterization (a reductive generalization, but still), something I’ve really come to appreciate in a novel. N.P. Has an ending I thought emotionally worthwhile

Similarly, I recently read “repetition” by Peter Handke. I know he’s got a lot of issues around his Nobel Prize and general sociological ideology, but this book did a good job of sketching a concrete atmosphere or feel and does a good job of carrying it through the whole novel. I’ve not read any of his other works, but if you like a postmodern, character based, more-or-less plotless novels (with some seemingly deep linguistic discourse present), I’d recommend.

[superleftswipebby]