Author Topic: Fave Books / Currently Reading  (Read 947216 times)

Shaggy 2 Grote

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Re: Fave Books / Currently Reading
« Reply #270 on: February 18, 2008, 10:22:40 PM »
I'm still reading Origin of the fucking Species.
Oh, good heavens. I didn’t realize. I send my condolences out to the rest of the O’Connor family.

kray

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Re: Fave Books / Currently Reading
« Reply #271 on: February 18, 2008, 11:23:33 PM »
just started thomas pynchon's against the day.

Gregory

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Re: Fave Books / Currently Reading
« Reply #272 on: February 19, 2008, 03:01:46 AM »
I read the Story of the Eye by Georges Bataille for class.

that was a fun one!

zonny the nun

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Re: Fave Books / Currently Reading
« Reply #273 on: February 19, 2008, 07:13:21 AM »
I read the Story of the Eye by Georges Bataille for class.

Filth class?

Pat K

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Re: Fave Books / Currently Reading
« Reply #274 on: February 19, 2008, 12:30:15 PM »
Quote
I've been slogging through Denis Johnson's Tree of Smoke


I've been interested to hear people's experiences with this. I absolutely loved Jesus' Son when I read it years ago, and then this year realized that I hadn't delved any deeper into his catalog, so I picked up Angels, which I think is one of his earlier books. It was good but not great, but similar to Jesus' Son in kind of an unsettling way that made me wonder if the langorous, poetic feeling of Jesus' Son that I loved so much might just be sort of his "schtick".

Then I started reading all of these rave reviews of Tree Of Smoke with a grain of suspicion, and eventually saw a really excoriating review of it The Atlantic which kind of confirmed my fears and convinced me not to read it. That was my main worry, that the style from Jesus' Son that was so dreamy and poetic transposed to such a gigantic length would turn out to be, like you put it, "aimless and wearying". I think I made the right choice.

Also, I have kind of an innate suspicion that nobody can really do Vietnam better than Tim O'Brien.
I'm warning you with peace and love.

Spoony

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Re: Fave Books / Currently Reading
« Reply #275 on: February 28, 2008, 11:47:06 AM »
I am currently reading "The Terror" by Dan Simmons and a biography on Genesis P-Orridge called "Painful but Fabulous." "The Terror" is great for the sea-faring research that went into it, as well as an aknowledgement that whoever is reading it is probably listening to The Pogues and wants to hear about how high they stack the corpses below deck. (I do.) The Gen P-O bio is also fascinating, but I have to stop periodically and call my mother to tell her that I love her.

Dostoevsky is great and very rewarding, Dave. It may take a while to get through it, but his work changed how I viewed some things. You can also re-read his work and discover something different every time. I love that degenerate gambler.

dave from knoxville

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Re: Fave Books / Currently Reading
« Reply #276 on: February 28, 2008, 02:26:02 PM »
I finished Summerland (fun! especially the incident that sets the stage for "Ragged Rock" (read as Ragnarok)). I have moved on to another George Singleton collection, Drowning in Gruel. Yet again I highly recommend Why Dogs Chase Cars.

Satchmo Mask

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Re: Fave Books / Currently Reading
« Reply #277 on: February 28, 2008, 03:37:20 PM »
just started thomas pynchon's against the day.

I need to pick that up again and attempt a reread. I only gave it up because the library has these stupid constraints!

That and I only attempted to read it when inebriated, which kind of made it hard to continue to read the same 3 pages repeatedly, when the book called for more than 3 pages. It looked really promising though.

Quote
For some bizarro reason, I am always confusing him with Tom Robbins.

I think this was the only mention of Robbins, assuming my 5-page skimming and quick searching haven't failed me. But yeah, I really enjoyed Skinny Legs and All, the most out of the few I've read by him. It hit on many levels that happened to match my literary interests I guess. In my quick list poorly-thought ranking, I'd put Jitterbug Perfume second. Skinny Legs Jr. Kind of.

I liked Half-Asleep in Frog Pajamas, but not as much as the others. Still interesting.

I need to read more.
"I LOVE HONEY BUNCHES AND OATS,BUT THE LAST THREE TIMES I WAS EATING IT,T EXSPIRIENCED SEVERE ABDOMINAL PAIN AND ACID REFLEX PROBLEMS.SO THIS CEREAL IS OF MY GROCERY LIST" - Monika54

Amplituden

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Re: Fave Books / Currently Reading
« Reply #278 on: February 29, 2008, 11:48:37 AM »
I am reading Portrait of the Aritist as a Young Man by James Joyce.

I always have avoided reading Joyce because it seems like a hot shot move, but I am really enjoying it.
A poor man's Bronson Pinchot.

bruce

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Re: Fave Books / Currently Reading
« Reply #279 on: March 02, 2008, 01:24:08 PM »
Just finished THE AMATEUR SPY - Dan Fesperman: a truly great post 9/11 thriller where you don't know who is playing who.

Shaggy 2 Grote

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Re: Fave Books / Currently Reading
« Reply #280 on: March 02, 2008, 06:54:06 PM »
I promised myself I wouldn't buy any more books this year, but I just bought Luc Sante's Kill All Your Darlings.  It's going right to the top of my list, along with The World Without Us, On Bullshit, and Rip It Up and Start Again.
Oh, good heavens. I didn’t realize. I send my condolences out to the rest of the O’Connor family.

andrew in philadelphia

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Re: Fave Books / Currently Reading
« Reply #281 on: March 03, 2008, 03:15:46 AM »
"hunger" by knut hamsun - a horrifying book about a starving jerk.

"flowers for algernon" by daniel keyes - reread the non-condensed/censored/catholic grade school texbook version in my early 20s and was pleasantly surprised. charlie was a mediocre genius, but as a janitor, he will always be tops with me.

anything by raymond chandler. why? cause nice folks don't drink gin - that's why.

"women" and "post office" by charles bukowski. if you don't find him repulsive, untalented, or commonplace - you'll likely laugh yourself silly. that guy was hi-larious - funny too.

- the 1st weird, NJ book.

- anything by george anastasia (philadelphia true crime writer.)

- any script adapted by roydon ziegler III.

- anything by hagar the horrible. by that i mean any lyrics from the post-roth van halen era.


andrew in philadelphia

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Re: Fave Books / Currently Reading
« Reply #282 on: March 03, 2008, 03:26:22 AM »
also - "agent of evolution" by kevin booth and michael bertin - all-encompassing bio of comedian b_ll hicks co-written by his lifelong friend booth. if you're wondering why i wrote bill's name like that - it's because every time i tried to submit his full name - it showed up on the message board as "benny hill: agent of evolution." not that benny wasn't, but still..

observe: Benny Hill was born in valdosta, GA.

see what i mean?!?

if this is some sort of joke - i don't like it.

i love it.

Rainer

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Re: Fave Books / Currently Reading
« Reply #283 on: March 04, 2008, 04:22:25 PM »
Quote
I am reading Portrait of the Aritist as a Young Man by James Joyce.

"There, by reason of the great number of the damned, the prisoners are heaped together in their awful prison, the walls of which are said to be four thousand miles thick: and the damned are so utterly bound and helpless that, as a blessed saint, saint Anselm, writes in his book on similitudes, they are not even able to remove from the eye a worm that gnaws it."

Joyce's architectural specs for The Hate Pit.

Susannah

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Re: Fave Books / Currently Reading
« Reply #284 on: March 04, 2008, 07:26:57 PM »
Reading "Breaking the Spell" by Daniel Dennett, which is one of those anti-religion books in vogue these days and "Special Topics in Calamity Physics" by Marisha Pessl, which is annoying yet entertaining.

I am *almost* done torturing my 9th graders with "The Odyssey."