Author Topic: Fave Books / Currently Reading  (Read 947299 times)

Joe Rogaine

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Re: Fave Books / Currently Reading
« Reply #1740 on: November 20, 2011, 10:37:40 AM »


This lunged off the shelves at me on my most recent trip to the library.  I know nothing about it, but the Title, cover, and jacket copy convinced me.  Haven't started it yet.


Coming to theaters soon Paul Dano and Robert Deniro actually look pretty good in the trailer.

B_Buster

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Re: Fave Books / Currently Reading
« Reply #1741 on: November 27, 2011, 11:50:43 PM »
Too Loud a Solitude by Bohumil Hrabal just became one of my all-time favorite books. And it's only 98 pages long. Take that Stephen King!
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JamesfromSouthEastPa

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Re: Fave Books / Currently Reading
« Reply #1742 on: November 29, 2011, 08:04:07 PM »
Ben Franklin's autobiography.
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Key Loser

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Re: Fave Books / Currently Reading
« Reply #1743 on: November 30, 2011, 12:57:48 PM »
The Winter of Our Discontent

lastplaneout

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Re: Fave Books / Currently Reading
« Reply #1744 on: November 30, 2011, 01:24:43 PM »
The Master and Margarita

wood and iron

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Re: Fave Books / Currently Reading
« Reply #1745 on: November 30, 2011, 02:48:39 PM »
The Master and Margarita

How is it? I've had an old used copy on my shelf for a while.

The weird thing is that I think I picked it up because the band The Lawrence Arms made a reference or two to the book.

Cotton

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Re: Fave Books / Currently Reading
« Reply #1746 on: November 30, 2011, 02:49:45 PM »
Aside from the stack of comics and magazines sitting on my nightstand, I've been revisiting some John Swartswelder books, which have uniformly been hilarious (I haven't read his Western yet).

I'm actually a little shocked that his stuff isn't mentioned more on here, since I feel like there are a lot of shared sensibilities with the Best Show.

wenderric

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Re: Fave Books / Currently Reading
« Reply #1747 on: November 30, 2011, 03:49:34 PM »
Some favorite books: Well, the best book I've ever read has to be hands down The Book of Disquiet by Fernando Pessoa. It was a book someone insisted I read, I would have never picked it up for myself. I'm so glad, they told me I had to read it. It was amazing. I'd say ten more recommendations are 1) Alone Against Tomorrow by Harlan Ellison, 2)The Stranger by Albert Camus 3) Little, Big by John Crowley 4) The Chronicles of Thomas Covenant the Unbeliever by Stephen R. Donaldson 5)The Thursday Next series by Jasper Fforde, 6) The Collector by John Fowles, 7) Out by Natsuo Kirino, 8) Naomi by Junichiro Tanizaki, 9) The Amber series by Roger Zelazny, and 10) Gormenghast trilogy by Mervyn Peake.

Currently Reading: The World Treasury of Science Fiction and Full Dark, No Stars

JonFromMaplewood

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Re: Fave Books / Currently Reading
« Reply #1748 on: January 03, 2012, 12:57:15 PM »
A little something for the snobs, not the slobs, but I just finished When Nietzche Wept by Irvin D. Yalom and thought it a mighty, mighty book. A fictional encounter in Vienna between Friederich Nietzche and Josef Breuer, who was Freud's mentor and one of the forefathers of psychoanalysis.  Starts out as a doctor/patient relationship and turns into something much more reciprocal, as each has a wisdom the other needs.  Very moving and also a good primer on Nietzche's thinking, if you're looking for a not only painless but compelling way into that.

I read this in my graduate program and loved it.  Irvin Yalom is a remarkable guy and existential psychology just seems "right" to me.  Its view of human drives and needs makes more sense to me than traditional psychoanalysis.  When you accept its basic tenets and apply them to your life, you're on the path to mental health.
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Cotton

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Re: Fave Books / Currently Reading
« Reply #1749 on: January 05, 2012, 12:48:52 PM »
Recently picked up:
My Dead Dad Was in ZZ Top - Jon Glaser

Still finishing:
Supergods - Grant Morrison

wood and iron

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Re: Fave Books / Currently Reading
« Reply #1750 on: January 05, 2012, 05:48:28 PM »
Recently picked up:
My Dead Dad Was in ZZ Top - Jon Glaser

Still finishing:
Supergods - Grant Morrison

How is Morrison's book? I find his comics writing to be either great or just flat out incomprehensible. I appreciate what he's going for but stuff like The Invisibles never spoke to me.

Shaggy 2 Grote

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Re: Fave Books / Currently Reading
« Reply #1751 on: January 05, 2012, 06:56:49 PM »
I ate Supergods up, but I'm a fan.  It needed a better edit than it got -- it can be repetitive, and I'm glad I won't have to read the word "lysergic" again anytime soon.  And aside from the genuinely interesting memoir parts, there wasn't much that isn't already all over the web.  I did like it, though.

Just finished Europe Central.  Holy shit, William T. Vollman is amazing.  I started the 33 1/3 book on Love's Forever Changes, but lost steam about 20 pages in.  Now reading Solomon Volkov's possibly-faked memoir of Dmitri Shostakovich, Testimony.
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Joe Rogaine

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Re: Fave Books / Currently Reading
« Reply #1752 on: January 05, 2012, 10:12:52 PM »
Haven't got a chance to crack it open yet but i just got  The Stories of Breece D'J Pancake in the mail.

masterofsparks

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Re: Fave Books / Currently Reading
« Reply #1753 on: January 06, 2012, 10:43:25 AM »
Working my way through 11/22/63, the first King I've read since The Shining (which I read as a teen after seeing the Kubrick movie). It's good but a generous trim wouldn't hurt. I'm really interested to see how he handles the whole "Was it Oswald?" angle but he's taking his time with football games and love stories before getting to it.
I'll probably go into the wee hours.

Cotton

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Re: Fave Books / Currently Reading
« Reply #1754 on: January 06, 2012, 12:23:11 PM »
How is Morrison's book? I find his comics writing to be either great or just flat out incomprehensible. I appreciate what he's going for but stuff like The Invisibles never spoke to me.

I enjoyed it. It's sort of weird, because it goes back and forth between a pretty straightforward history of comics and a personal memoir. It's definitely interesting, and at times made me laugh out loud, but as Shaggy mentioned it's a little high minded (in all senses of the word). Morrison's weird brilliance helps it out a bunch, though. I'm on the last few pages now, and if I had to do it again I'd probably go for an audiobook.