Author Topic: Fave Books / Currently Reading  (Read 947211 times)

TL

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Re: Fave Books / Currently Reading
« Reply #150 on: November 07, 2007, 05:29:46 PM »
My favorite current books are C.J. Sansom's Shardlake mysteries.

I'm completely obsessed with these!!  I bought the first one based on the blurbs by PD James and Colin Dexter, and was HOOKED!  I blazed through the other two as well, and am now waiting with baited breath for the fourth...
Now write me a receipt so I can tip on outta here...

masterofsparks

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Re: Fave Books / Currently Reading
« Reply #151 on: November 07, 2007, 07:06:10 PM »
Current: I'm obsessed with Continuum's 33 1/3 series. For those unfamiliar with the series, each pocket-sized volume concerns itself with a classic album. There are about 40 or 50 them and I've probably read about 20. I've run across a few duds so far (the volumes about the debut Ramones LP and U2's Achtung Baby were disappointing), but most of them are good to great.

Favorites: I don't know that I can give a definitive list of all-time favorites, but if I were to try, it would probably include these:

1. The Long Goodbye - Raymond Chandler
2. Light in August - William Faulkner
3. In the Hand of Dante - Nick Tosches
4. Last Exit to Brooklyn - Hubert Selby Jr.
5. The Sweet Forever - George Pelecanos
6. When the Sacred Ginmill Closes - Lawrence Block
7. The Secret Diary of Adrian Mole, Aged 13 3/4 - Sue Townsend
8. American Tabloid - James Ellroy
9. The Road - Cormac McCarthy

That's all I can come up with right now.
I'll probably go into the wee hours.

Susannah

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Re: Fave Books / Currently Reading
« Reply #152 on: November 07, 2007, 10:17:46 PM »
Long live Adrian Mole, Pandora, Nigel, Bert, Pauline and "Dog!"  I love those books.

masterofsparks

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Re: Fave Books / Currently Reading
« Reply #153 on: November 07, 2007, 11:14:38 PM »
Although, looking back at that list now, the Adrian Mole book does seem hilariously out of place among the McCarthys, Selbys, and Ellroys.
I'll probably go into the wee hours.

Denim Gremlin

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Re: Fave Books / Currently Reading
« Reply #154 on: November 08, 2007, 12:33:56 AM »
Although, looking back at that list now, the Adrian Mole book does seem hilariously out of place among the McCarthys, Selbys, and Ellroys.

Adrian Mole is one of my favorites ever too. I'm reading The Road right now and it's knocking me out.
I was the first guy in hardcore to whip people with his belt.

Laurie

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Re: Fave Books / Currently Reading
« Reply #155 on: November 08, 2007, 08:04:27 AM »
Current: I'm obsessed with Continuum's 33 1/3 series. For those unfamiliar with the series, each pocket-sized volume concerns itself with a classic album. There are about 40 or 50 them and I've probably read about 20. I've run across a few duds so far (the volumes about the debut Ramones LP and U2's Achtung Baby were disappointing), but most of them are good to great.

Read Mike McGonigal's one on My Bloody Valentine's Loveless. Mike McGonigal is a nice man.

Shaggy 2 Grote

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Re: Fave Books / Currently Reading
« Reply #156 on: November 08, 2007, 12:59:42 PM »
Current: I'm obsessed with Continuum's 33 1/3 series. For those unfamiliar with the series, each pocket-sized volume concerns itself with a classic album. There are about 40 or 50 them and I've probably read about 20. I've run across a few duds so far (the volumes about the debut Ramones LP and U2's Achtung Baby were disappointing), but most of them are good to great.

Read Mike McGonigal's one on My Bloody Valentine's Loveless. Mike McGonigal is a nice man.

Laurie, you know Yeti Mike too?  The world shrinks yet again.  I'd also recommend Kim Cooper and Douglas Wolk's 33 1/3 books.
Oh, good heavens. I didn’t realize. I send my condolences out to the rest of the O’Connor family.

Omar

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Re: Fave Books / Currently Reading
« Reply #157 on: November 08, 2007, 01:07:31 PM »
Three more good 33.3333s:

- Michael T. Fournier's Double Nickels on the Dime

- Eric Weisbard's Use Your Illusion I and II 

- Marc Woodworth's Bee Thousand
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Laurie

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Re: Fave Books / Currently Reading
« Reply #158 on: November 08, 2007, 01:39:49 PM »
Current: I'm obsessed with Continuum's 33 1/3 series. For those unfamiliar with the series, each pocket-sized volume concerns itself with a classic album. There are about 40 or 50 them and I've probably read about 20. I've run across a few duds so far (the volumes about the debut Ramones LP and U2's Achtung Baby were disappointing), but most of them are good to great.

Read Mike McGonigal's one on My Bloody Valentine's Loveless. Mike McGonigal is a nice man.

Laurie, you know Yeti Mike too?  The world shrinks yet again.

It's a small world afterall.

Beth

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Re: Fave Books / Currently Reading
« Reply #159 on: November 08, 2007, 03:15:41 PM »
I'm reading George Eliot's Daniel Deronda right now. It's for class but it's seriously amazing.
Speaking of older books, I find that I have a neverending problem finding good novels that were recently written. It's really difficult to weed out the crappy stuff. Does anyone have any recommendations for good recent books? I'm attempting to stay up on things. I think the last few newer books I enjoyed were Jonathan Safron Foer's "Everything is Illuminated" and Ruth Ozeki's "My Year of Meats".

Shaggy 2 Grote

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Re: Fave Books / Currently Reading
« Reply #160 on: November 08, 2007, 04:32:42 PM »
Beth, here are some recent (as in, in the last decade) books you might like:

Jonathan Lethem's Motherless Brooklyn, You Don't Love Me Yet, Fortress of Solitude, and Men and Cartoons
Jonathan Franzen's The Corrections
Michael Chabon's The Amazing Adventures of Kavalier and Clay
Nathan Englander's The Ministry of Special Cases
Alice Munro's Hateship, Friendship, Courtship, Loveship, Marriage
Haruki Murakami's The Wind-Up Bird Chronicle
Shelley Jackson's Half-Life
Jhumpa Lahiri's Interpreter of Maladies
Whatever that recent collection of 3 Rick Moody novellas is called

They've also been around for a while, but Philip Roth, Luc Sante, Don DeLillo, and Thomas Pynchon are all still writing interesting stuff.

Personally, I've really been into semi-forgotten obscure and/or experimental writers lately: David Markson, Frederic Tuten, Stanley Elkin, Flann O'Brien, Leonard Michaels, Roberto Bolano.  And Donald Barthelme, though he's kind of famous and obscure at the same time.  Some of these guys might be on the weird side, depending on your tastes.

Oh, and if you like sci-fi, Octavia E. Butler's work is amazing and terrifying.
Oh, good heavens. I didn’t realize. I send my condolences out to the rest of the O’Connor family.

buffcoat

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Re: Fave Books / Currently Reading
« Reply #161 on: November 08, 2007, 05:46:54 PM »
Love the Barthelme, although, I very often don't know what the hell he's talking about.

I always recommend Fred Exley's "A Fan's Notes."  Great book by a guy who had exactly one book in him (and wrote three).


Is Bee Thousand the source material for Bee Movie?
I really don't appreciate your sarcastic, anti-comedy tone, Bro!

Shaggy 2 Grote

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Re: Fave Books / Currently Reading
« Reply #162 on: November 08, 2007, 07:00:08 PM »
Is Bee Thousand the source material for Bee Movie?

Seinfeld totally stole that role out from under Robert Pollard.
Oh, good heavens. I didn’t realize. I send my condolences out to the rest of the O’Connor family.

Martin

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Re: Fave Books / Currently Reading
« Reply #163 on: November 08, 2007, 07:26:08 PM »
Actually, speaking of that (not to derail), I vaguely remember hearing about Bee Movie a couple of years ago; there were some ruckus in Swedish papers about a couple of Swedish screenwriters who claimed they pitched the idea to Spielberg and Seinfeld way back when, who then allegedly stole it and et cetera. Never heard more about that - guess they're taken care of.

I'm reading I Am America (and So Can You!). I like it.

Jason

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Re: Fave Books / Currently Reading
« Reply #164 on: November 08, 2007, 09:13:42 PM »