Author Topic: Fave Books / Currently Reading  (Read 947204 times)

Kublakhan61

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Re: Fave Books / Currently Reading
« Reply #1365 on: July 28, 2010, 01:48:15 PM »
Recently I've read: Lolita (fantastic, I really should give it a second read)

Can't think of a single book I've read so many times as that one. Just gets more beautiful and more sad every time.

Just finished Eldridge Cleaver's Soul on Ice. He was brilliant in his own crazy way, but I could barely finish this one. Anyone who's read it might understand.

Blurb from the cover of my edition never seemed quite right:
"The only convincing love story of our century" - Vanity Fair

It's a book about an insane man who loves a child. What?! Did Vanity Fair even read the book? Humbert is very disturbed - I'll give you that Nabokov's texts operate on many levels but you cannot overlook that the man is sick... For shame!

I'm currently reading though McSweeny's 25 (I'm addicted to these things) and Ware's Jimmy Corrigan.

Shaggy 2 Grote

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Re: Fave Books / Currently Reading
« Reply #1366 on: July 28, 2010, 03:12:26 PM »
Recently I've read: Lolita (fantastic, I really should give it a second read)

Can't think of a single book I've read so many times as that one. Just gets more beautiful and more sad every time.

Just finished Eldridge Cleaver's Soul on Ice. He was brilliant in his own crazy way, but I could barely finish this one. Anyone who's read it might understand.

Blurb from the cover of my edition never seemed quite right:
"The only convincing love story of our century" - Vanity Fair

It's a book about an insane man who loves a child. What?! Did Vanity Fair even read the book? Humbert is very disturbed - I'll give you that Nabokov's texts operate on many levels but you cannot overlook that the man is sick... For shame!

I'm currently reading though McSweeny's 25 (I'm addicted to these things) and Ware's Jimmy Corrigan.

Well, I don't think they were talking about the pedophilia part.  I think they were talking about the general messiness of their relationship, and the fact that Humbert is so demented by lust that he can't see what's right in front of him.  So you could say that the VF blurb is cynical about relationships, but not necessarily shameful.
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Emily

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Re: Fave Books / Currently Reading
« Reply #1367 on: July 29, 2010, 12:00:00 PM »

Well, I don't think they were talking about the pedophilia part.  I think they were talking about the general messiness of their relationship, and the fact that Humbert is so demented by lust that he can't see what's right in front of him.  So you could say that the VF blurb is cynical about relationships, but not necessarily shameful.

Wouldn't that make it "the most convincing lust story of our century" ..?

Kublakhan61

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Re: Fave Books / Currently Reading
« Reply #1368 on: July 30, 2010, 08:44:14 AM »

Well, I don't think they were talking about the pedophilia part.  I think they were talking about the general messiness of their relationship, and the fact that Humbert is so demented by lust that he can't see what's right in front of him.  So you could say that the VF blurb is cynical about relationships, but not necessarily shameful.

Wouldn't that make it "the most convincing lust story of our century" ..?

I'd agree with that.
Also, to say that the VF blurb is cynical may be fair but consider where it is and what it's function is - it exists to convince 'on-the-fence' readers to make the purchase. In this sense it's a very misleading statement.

snogrog

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Re: Fave Books / Currently Reading
« Reply #1369 on: August 12, 2010, 09:25:35 AM »
Currently finishing up Frank Miller's Daredevil run.

And trying to get back into the Dark Tower series and finishing up The Stand.
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fonpr

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Re: Fave Books / Currently Reading
« Reply #1370 on: August 12, 2010, 11:06:44 AM »
Just starting From Cliche to Archetype by Marshall McLuhan.

I suspect this book will make me rethink my bias against hackneyed writing.
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Shaggy 2 Grote

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Re: Fave Books / Currently Reading
« Reply #1371 on: August 12, 2010, 11:44:06 AM »
About 100 pages into Shakey and I'm finding it kinda boring.  Maybe I'm not obsessed enough with Neil Young?  Though he just met Stephen Stills so maybe things are about to get cooking.
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JonFromMaplewood

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Re: Fave Books / Currently Reading
« Reply #1372 on: August 12, 2010, 01:57:31 PM »
About 100 pages into Shakey and I'm finding it kinda boring.  Maybe I'm not obsessed enough with Neil Young?  Though he just met Stephen Stills so maybe things are about to get cooking.

My wife had the same experience.  She put it down around page 100.
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cavorting with nudists

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Re: Fave Books / Currently Reading
« Reply #1373 on: August 12, 2010, 06:15:43 PM »
The early parts of biographies are always boring though. I never give up on them until the subject starts really coming into his/her own. I suggest you stick it out, unless, well, maybe you really don't care that much about Neil Young.
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dave from knoxville

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Re: Fave Books / Currently Reading
« Reply #1374 on: August 12, 2010, 07:00:40 PM »
The early parts of biographies are always boring though. I never give up on them until the subject starts really coming into his/her own. I suggest you stick it out, unless, well, maybe you really don't care that much about Neil Young.

And if you don't care that much about Neil Young, question your entire life.

David

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Re: Fave Books / Currently Reading
« Reply #1375 on: August 12, 2010, 10:40:05 PM »
I'm currently reading The Left Hand of God, which is really good, but my all time favorites have to be Sister Outsider by Audre Lorde (non-fiction) and Sula by Toni Morrison.

Ike

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Re: Fave Books / Currently Reading
« Reply #1376 on: August 13, 2010, 09:10:13 AM »
The early parts of biographies are always boring though. I never give up on them until the subject starts really coming into his/her own. I suggest you stick it out, unless, well, maybe you really don't care that much about Neil Young.

And if you don't care that much about Neil Young, question your entire life.


HA!  I want to second this (with a grain of salt). I read that book three times, twice initially, and then once within the last year.   WHY?  No idea.  Honeyslides, I guess. 

JUST FINISHED:  Where Men Win Glory, by Krakauer.  It was a very, very frustrating read.  Incredibly detailed at times, totally superficial at others.  The ending (the very last pages) REALLY got under my skin.  I have always had a difficult time with the dude-li-ness/masculinity of Krakauer's work (Mormon book aside, which was just a hatestomp through and through), and this book literally ends with a very difficult little discussion of masculinity. 

Not sure how I feel about it. 

Finishing True Grit today.  It's cute! 

Next Up:  I want to read that new Capone book, but I'll probably read Jennifer Egan's new novel instead. 
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Steve of Bloomington

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Re: Fave Books / Currently Reading
« Reply #1377 on: August 13, 2010, 11:21:53 AM »
I tried to read 'People Funny Boy', the biography of Lee 'Scratch' Perry, but found it pretty rough sledding as the author took potentially interesting material and managed to make it tedious.

Matt

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Re: Fave Books / Currently Reading
« Reply #1378 on: August 13, 2010, 02:21:33 PM »
About 100 pages into Shakey and I'm finding it kinda boring.  Maybe I'm not obsessed enough with Neil Young?  Though he just met Stephen Stills so maybe things are about to get cooking.

Stick with it! It really starts to take off once he goes solo, although I like the first 100 pages for the insight it gives into Neil's mother Rassy, the Livia Soprano of rock-and-roll.
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JustNicole

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Re: Fave Books / Currently Reading
« Reply #1379 on: August 16, 2010, 10:12:02 AM »
I am about to finish a book called "The Walking Tour" by Kathryn Davis. Reading her has proved to be an exercise in sadomasochism. I read "The Thin Place" in only 2 and a half years, having to stop once and start over from the beginning BUT was rewarded exponentially. This book has almost taken me 2 years to finish, with one start over as well AND a major plot point nowhere near explained to point of understanding to me. I had no idea part of the plot was supposed to take place in [this is not a spoiler because you're supposed to know this] the aftermath of an apocalypse.

I know you have other books, Kathryn Davis, and I so want to read them but I so don't.
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