Author Topic: Fave Books / Currently Reading  (Read 947405 times)

bruce

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Re: Fave Books / Currently Reading
« Reply #300 on: April 02, 2008, 10:49:50 AM »
I am currently captivated by "Death of a Citizen". More soon. Still waiting on the library to re-send the copies of Handling Sin and The Adventures of Hucklebarry Finn that they so cruelly recalled from me afore Iza finished withum.
Glad your liking it Dave

Julie

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Re: Fave Books / Currently Reading
« Reply #301 on: April 03, 2008, 01:21:16 PM »
I read Death of Vishnu by Manil Suri a few years ago and I really loved it. Does anyone know when his next book will be released?
I have a long history of booing

Susannah

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Re: Fave Books / Currently Reading
« Reply #302 on: April 04, 2008, 06:36:30 AM »
I read "The Sheltering Sky" by Paul Bowles recently.  Now I have a better understanding of that Police song "Tea in the Sahara," but that alone didn't make it worth the read.

A much BETTER book was JM Coetzee's "Elizabeth Costello," which I read in about two hours and found to be incredibly, astonishingly brilliant.  I wasn't on board with Coetzee before--I thought "Disgrace" was pretty awful, actually--but "Elizabeth Costello" is amazing.  Highly recommended to all of you vegetarian types, too!

Now I'm reading Thackeray's "Vanity Fair," which is great if you have patience for satirizing and moralizing simultaneously.

Spoony

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Re: Fave Books / Currently Reading
« Reply #303 on: April 04, 2008, 08:45:53 AM »
Enjoy The Sheltering Sky, but avoid the movie like it was made of spiders. It stars Debra Winger and John Malkovich's unkept, brown genitalia. Sex was never so unattractive to me.

samir

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Re: Fave Books / Currently Reading
« Reply #304 on: April 04, 2008, 10:53:09 AM »
Now I'm reading Thackeray's "Vanity Fair," which is great if you have patience for satirizing and moralizing simultaneously.

I like it. And thought Mira Nair's movie version was also solid.
If this makes me a girly-man, so be it.
"Son, there's a thin line between crazed and rabid"


Sarah

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Re: Fave Books / Currently Reading
« Reply #305 on: April 04, 2008, 11:04:39 AM »
The book is funnier, though.  The movie is more sentimental. 

Shaggy 2 Grote

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Re: Fave Books / Currently Reading
« Reply #306 on: April 06, 2008, 02:00:43 AM »
General applause for JM Coetzee and Mira Nair.
Oh, good heavens. I didn’t realize. I send my condolences out to the rest of the O’Connor family.

SJK

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Re: Fave Books / Currently Reading
« Reply #307 on: April 06, 2008, 01:13:21 PM »
The Great War for Civilisation by Robert Fisk. A foreign correspondent for the The Independent, he writes in vivid detail about his career covering all sorts of troubled hotspots throughout the world, mainly the middle east. He managed to interview Osama Bin Laden a few times, his description of those encounters is amazing. It's a big book, I'm still working my way through it.

Shaggy 2 Grote

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Re: Fave Books / Currently Reading
« Reply #308 on: April 06, 2008, 11:59:27 PM »
Some more applause for Robert Fisk.
Oh, good heavens. I didn’t realize. I send my condolences out to the rest of the O’Connor family.

ericluxury

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Re: Fave Books / Currently Reading
« Reply #309 on: April 24, 2008, 05:28:18 PM »
Just finished Carl Wilson's 33 1/3 book about Celine Dion and the subjectivity/objectivity of taste. It was a pretty good read, especially for a 33 1/3 book.
Anyone else read it? Like it? Hate it?

namethebats

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Re: Fave Books / Currently Reading
« Reply #310 on: April 24, 2008, 05:38:18 PM »
Floating Off The Page: The Best Stories from The Wall Street Journal's "Middle Column"

I'm really liking this so far. When it's been slow at work I've taken to typing some of them out in hopes the writing skill will stick subconsciously.



Sarah

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Re: Fave Books / Currently Reading
« Reply #311 on: April 25, 2008, 07:27:16 AM »
I'm reading Red Dwarf:  Infinity Welcomes Careful Drivers.  Pretty foncy, huh?

dave from knoxville

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Re: Fave Books / Currently Reading
« Reply #312 on: April 26, 2008, 04:55:50 PM »
I am still slogging my way through Huckleberry Finn. Is this really the greatest American novel, Mr Saunders? Really?

JonFromMaplewood

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Re: Fave Books / Currently Reading
« Reply #313 on: April 26, 2008, 05:10:21 PM »
I am still slogging my way through Huckleberry Finn. Is this really the greatest American novel, Mr Saunders? Really?

I re-read Huck Finn last year, and it certainly didn't change my life. I sense that one had to live in the time of Twain to be floored by it.  But then again, I didn't live through the Dust Bowl, and the Grapes of Wrath floored me. 

Too bad that the characters in Achewood didn't really go back in time to chat with Twain...they could've given him some good ideas:

http://achewood.com/index.php?date=09042003
"I'm riding the silence like John Cage up in this piece." -Tom Scharpling

Spoony

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Re: Fave Books / Currently Reading
« Reply #314 on: April 27, 2008, 09:12:31 AM »
I'm reading Red Dwarf:  Infinity Welcomes Careful Drivers.  Pretty foncy, huh?

Ha! That was a great follow-up to the show. Let me know if you ever find the sequels.