books to read

[botefdunn]

or The Pension Grillparzer for brevity.

[brycickle]

Or, his royal dudness, if you're not into the brevity thing.

[botefdunn]

Or, his royal dudness, if you're not into the brevity thing.

v nice

[easymoneysniper]

reading The Alchemist right now. per request from my therapist because of my current transitional phase of life between college kid and responsible adult. i'm really enjoying it. unfortunately my attention span is pretty slim at the moment due to phone addiction & constant stimulation, but i still try to read and force myself. it can be really pleasurable when in the right headspace and the book is engaging.

i read The Metamorphosis a couple weeks ago. took me forever and ended up being a chore. which is embarrassing because i chose it due to its critical acclaim + low page count. it took a hazy IPA and a sunny day to thug it out and finish. life seems a little less bleak one Hazy down

[botefdunn]

reading The Alchemist right now. per request from my therapist because of my current transitional phase of life between college kid and responsible adult. i'm really enjoying it. unfortunately my attention span is pretty slim at the moment due to phone addiction & constant stimulation, but i still try to read and force myself. it can be really pleasurable when in the right headspace and the book is engaging.

i read The Metamorphosis a couple weeks ago. took me forever and ended up being a chore. which is embarrassing because i chose it due to its critical acclaim + low page count. it took a hazy IPA and a sunny day to thug it out and finish. life seems a little less bleak one Hazy down

For what it's worth, I don't find the metamorphosis that engaging either, i think its just an easier story of kafka's to summarize in large terms and therefore gets referenced a lot. But good for you for finishing, that's awesome and shows resolve. It aint easy reading in this day and age like you said.

[MichaelJacksonsGhost]

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reading The Alchemist right now. per request from my therapist because of my current transitional phase of life between college kid and responsible adult. i'm really enjoying it. unfortunately my attention span is pretty slim at the moment due to phone addiction & constant stimulation, but i still try to read and force myself. it can be really pleasurable when in the right headspace and the book is engaging.

i read The Metamorphosis a couple weeks ago. took me forever and ended up being a chore. which is embarrassing because i chose it due to its critical acclaim + low page count. it took a hazy IPA and a sunny day to thug it out and finish. life seems a little less bleak one Hazy down

[close]

For what it's worth, I don't find the metamorphosis that engaging either, i think its just an easier story of kafka's to summarize in large terms and therefore gets referenced a lot. But good for you for finishing, that's awesome and shows resolve. It aint easy reading in this day and age like you said.

The Castle is his best work, imo. But you’re always gonna get some sort of bureaucratic stuff with Kafka, and it’s almost always a drag when he gets too into it.

[Shapelessness]

For obvious reasons.

[Blind Fisherman]

A friend of mine let me borrow a first edition paperback The Godfather by Mario Puzo a week ago. I loved the first two movies and have wanted to read the novel since I first watched them. It's exceeding my expectations and I'm only about 1/3 of the way through.
Next is Fitzcarraldo by Werner Herzog, then The Idiot by Dostoevsky.

[RCB3]

A friend of mine let me borrow a first edition paperback The Godfather by Mario Puzo a week ago. I loved the first two movies and have wanted to read the novel since I first watched them. It's exceeding my expectations and I'm only about 1/3 of the way through.
Next is Fitzcarraldo by Werner Herzog, then The Idiot by Dostoevsky.

If you're reading The Godfather, I'd highly recommend reading Leave The Gun, Take the Cannoli after. It's a behind the scenes of the making of The Godfather and it's such a fun read. It's unbelievable some of the things that happened along the way.

[Blind Fisherman]

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A friend of mine let me borrow a first edition paperback The Godfather by Mario Puzo a week ago. I loved the first two movies and have wanted to read the novel since I first watched them. It's exceeding my expectations and I'm only about 1/3 of the way through.
Next is Fitzcarraldo by Werner Herzog, then The Idiot by Dostoevsky.

[close]

If you're reading The Godfather, I'd highly recommend reading Leave The Gun, Take the Cannoli after. It's a behind the scenes of the making of The Godfather and it's such a fun read. It's unbelievable some of the things that happened along the way.

Thank you for the recommendation! That will be next on my list. I've read a good bit on how the film was made, but it would be awesome to get more in-depth knowledge about it.

[GaryDahLegend]

Went in not knowing anything beyond the name Ahab and "From Hell's heart I stab at thee", got it for $6. Not sure what I was expecting, but it certainly wasn't that. Amazing. I haven't looked into any learned examination of it and I'm sure a ton of stuff went over my head, but what I did glean easily puts it up as the best written book I've ever read.

I love Stubb; the way he thinks his way through a negation of being disrespected and his humor to stoke out his boat instead of yelling at them. He goes ham in The Doubloon, kills the most whales, and has zero regret or fear about anything in the end.

The Mat-Maker chapter, Ishmael's contemplation of a person's free will being held within applied boundaries.

"Fedallah was calmly eyeing the right-whale's head, and ever and anon glancing from the deep wrinkles there to the lines in his own hand. And Ahab chanced so to stand, that the Parsee occupied his shadow; while, if the Parsee's shadow was there at all it seemed only to blend with, and lengthen Ahab's."
It's weird that nobody reads books anymore. How could you express that better in any way?

Dude had that Mad Max vibe down 200 years ago.

[Atiba Applebum]

A friend of mine let me borrow a first edition paperback The Godfather by Mario Puzo a week ago. I loved the first two movies and have wanted to read the novel since I first watched them. It's exceeding my expectations and I'm only about 1/3 of the way through.
Next is Fitzcarraldo by Werner Herzog, then The Idiot by Dostoevsky.

Surprised it’s good - always heard Coppola shaped it into the much better movie and wisely cut out all the weird Sonny’s penis stuff

[mindfuzz]

Project Hail Mary was a fun and easy read, ripped right through it.

About halfway through Children of Time now, pretty fast paced with lots of time jumps but I'm enjoying how it's handled so far. Was really drawn in by the concept and it's been worth the read.

[SwitchBenihana]

Man I might be the only person that hates Tchaikovsky he cannot develop a character to save his life.

I just finished the Bobiverse series and would highly recommend. I'm trying to read Seveneves but really struggling.

[GnarAlarm]

Man I'm trying to read The Turn of the Screw and holy shit Henry James had to have been getting paid by the word cause that book could be 6 pages long.

"She went to work" becomes "She, and not she alone but many before her, many with her now and many into the foreseeable future after she is long since perished, mourned by but a small few whomst adored her, from city skyscrapers to rural fields, bustle, ambition flows but lo insecurity as well, for, to succeed and prove thine best, not for others but to oneself, went to work".

People love it but I'm finding it exhausting. I'm having to read almost every paragraph twice because by the time I get to the end of it I've forgotten what we were talking about in the first place.

[mindfuzz]

Man I might be the only person that hates Tchaikovsky he cannot develop a character to save his life.

I just finished the Bobiverse series and would highly recommend. I'm trying to read Seveneves but really struggling.

It's a fair criticism, the characters are super thin but I'm enjoying how fast the plot is moving and the world building is super interesting. I'm way more invested in the Portia evolution plotline so far.

I've only ever read Snow Crash by Stephenson, been meaning to read more of his work since I really enjoyed it.

[gringo_viejo]

Hell yeah, the Deliverator.... Snow Crash is so damn good.

Zodiac is the other one of his that lives in my brain because it's so quotable. There are other Stephenson books that are more literary, but none more fun.

[Atiba Applebum]

Loved Seveneves!   Made me an instant fan.   Need to go back and read Zodiac and Snow Crash and the Quicksilver seriesi

[MichaelJacksonsGhost]

Just finished reading William H. Gass’ The Tunnel. 700 pages, and took me almost two months to read, but my god was the denouement so worth it. Tragic and rewarding all at the same time, and brought so many seemingly disparate themes and narratives strands together. Fucking awesome book.

[oyolar]

I randomly saw that pop up on IG and was really interested in it. Had never heard of it before but it sounded very interesting. Glad it lived up to it!

I’m in a big reading slump. I finished a book I want to write something on but haven’t written it yet and am falling off hard. About to start Rent Boy by Gary Indiana for my book club and Fascist Yoga by Stewart Home so I’m excited for those. 

[Alan]

Do you read something easy when in a slump? I find it helps jump start my desire to read.

Has anyone read William Gibson's Agency? I bought it a couple of years ago but have never got past the first few pages. It's not an albatross around my neck but I am annoyed that I can't get into it.

[mindfuzz]

Do you read something easy when in a slump? I find it helps jump start my desire to read.

Has anyone read William Gibson's Agency? I bought it a couple of years ago but have never got past the first few pages. It's not an albatross around my neck but I am annoyed that I can't get into it.

I'll usually reread something if I'm struggling. Love to not only just get in the groove of something familiar but it's always great to pick up on things you didn't fully catch the first time around.

I only recently read Neuromancer and wanted to read more Gibson. I found that hard to get into but knew that I usually have a hard time with sci fi like that and just ripped through once I forced myself to get 1/4 of the way through. I think since the books are on the shorter side it's a bit easier to power through that initial apprehension.

Different genre but I just bailed on the second book of the Malazan Book of the Fallen, it was just so hard to focus. I get the appeal but I felt completely lost most of the time even through the first book.

[Kumiko]

Do you read something easy when in a slump? I find it helps jump start my desire to read.

Has anyone read William Gibson's Agency? I bought it a couple of years ago but have never got past the first few pages. It's not an albatross around my neck but I am annoyed that I can't get into it.

I haven't made it around to Agency yet, but I've read a decent amount of works from Gibson and even though I love them all - none were easy to get into. They all kind of start with seemingly random loose threads that slowly weave together to reveal the plot. I can't imagine he'd really change his writing style that much after all these years. Definitely have to want to get through it, but I've found the payoff is usually worth it.

[oyolar]

Do you read something easy when in a slump? I find it helps jump start my desire to read.

Usually I'll tear through a bunch of comics via the Marvel Unlimited app and that helps. But the current X-Men books have been so bad that it has made me mad at the entire company haha. I'll also double / triple up on an audiobook or two, but I paused those while I was laid off and looking for a job. Now that I'm working again, I'm doing Audible and Libro.fm again so I'm catching up.

I partly moved some of my reading energy to working on other literary-adjacent work. I actually put together a bibliography and some ideas for a long (like book-length) thing I want to write, so some of my reading energy went into that prep. And the book I recently read is for part of that. I just have to write my reflections down and then also get into the mindset of reading some of the articles and shorter pieces from that bibliography instead of full books.

[DirtyBurger]

There's a younger kid that works at a gas station I frequent and he tries to strike up a conversation about horror movies with me every time he's there. That's cool, I'm always down for a friendly how do you do type of interaction. He told me to check out some books he's been wanting to read and I saw one at a used bookstore recently.

It's a quick, shorter read. So I breezed through it in a couple days, but jeez Louise. It's called Cows by Mathew Stokoe. It felt like it was written by someone who just learned some bad words and is trying really hard to be edgy. definitely felt like I needed a fedora while reading it.

Anyways, there's a part where someone kills someone by pulling their teeth out with pliers, duct taping their mouth to his butthole, and pooping down their throat until they suffocate and die. Check it out if that's your type of deal

[botefdunn]

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Do you read something easy when in a slump? I find it helps jump start my desire to read.

[close]

Usually I'll tear through a bunch of comics via the Marvel Unlimited app and that helps. But the current X-Men books have been so bad that it has made me mad at the entire company haha. I'll also double / triple up on an audiobook or two, but I paused those while I was laid off and looking for a job. Now that I'm working again, I'm doing Audible and Libro.fm again so I'm catching up.

I partly moved some of my reading energy to working on other literary-adjacent work. I actually put together a bibliography and some ideas for a long (liek book-length) thing I want to write, so some of my reading energy went into that prep. And the book I recently read is for part of that. I just have to write my reflections down and then also get into the mindset of reading some of the articles and shorter pieces from that bibliography instead of full books.

piqued my interest with your project. If you ever want readers for your thing, send my way.

[oyolar]

@botefdunn Will do! Once I buckle down haha.

@DirtyBurger Oh you found one of those modern splatterpunk/extreme horror people in the wild, huh? That sort of shit is huge on Instagram, TikTok, YouTube, etc. It’s this specific niche of the book subcultures on there that are all “disturbing books,” but they generally choose books that seem specifically edgelord-style controversial and almost the torture porn/B-movie influenced type things than anything else. I’ve seen those lists and then read summaries of the books since I hadn’t heard of any and basically walked away with that impression and no desire to read them. I assume those were mostly engagement bait and not that people actually read them.

[Atiba Applebum]

Reading Clockers right now.   Obvious to see why The Wire had Richard Price as a writer and kinda funny to see him re-use a few jokes.   

[DirtyBurger]

@oyolar yea, definitely not my cup of tea. I also grabbed a few Anthony Bourdain titles I hadn't read yet. Reading Medium Raw right now and I forgot how honest he was with his personal addictions and problems. It's not something to be glad to read, but hopefully it can help people with similar issues.

[SmashtheState]

You can't win by Jack Black really really good book.