Author Topic: Fave Books / Currently Reading  (Read 947284 times)

Oogie

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Re: Fave Books / Currently Reading
« Reply #360 on: May 28, 2008, 01:51:02 PM »
Ontogeny recapitulates phylogeny!
Ernst Haeckel


Shaggy 2 Grote

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Re: Fave Books / Currently Reading
« Reply #361 on: May 28, 2008, 03:08:53 PM »
Oh, good heavens. I didn’t realize. I send my condolences out to the rest of the O’Connor family.

Oogie

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Re: Fave Books / Currently Reading
« Reply #362 on: May 28, 2008, 04:27:02 PM »


How respectful is it?

let's just say that non-meaties get polemicized AND tenderized, brutally, while, ironically, meat itself is treated like so much offal.
Ontogeny recapitulates phylogeny!
Ernst Haeckel


harris

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Re: Fave Books / Currently Reading
« Reply #363 on: June 11, 2008, 12:21:14 AM »
im currently reading what is the what by dave eggers. this is really interesting, does anyone else like it? also has anyone read the new david sedaris?

iAmBaronVonTito

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Re: Fave Books / Currently Reading
« Reply #364 on: June 11, 2008, 12:37:28 AM »
im currently reading what is the what by dave eggers. this is really interesting, does anyone else like it? also has anyone read the new david sedaris?

i wish i could get into dave eggers, but the first (and only) eggers book ive read is "...staggering genius" and i stomped through only (maybe) six chapters before setting it down.  ive tried reading it more than once and finally i gave up with an exasperated, "who cares about dave eggers...except the real dave eggers!" 

i know thats not what you were asking but i couldnt pass up this opportunity to spout my loathing opinion.  but no, im sorry, cant say ive read it to like it.



new sedaris came out last week.  to expensive to buy now...must wait.   

harris

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Re: Fave Books / Currently Reading
« Reply #365 on: June 11, 2008, 12:47:28 AM »
i loved staggering work. i liked how he is such a great writer yet doesnt by any chance, at least growing up, fit the writing type cliche. i mean this guy has so much life experience that alot of new writers dont have. plus the whole format of what is the what is very cool.
as far as the noone cares sentiment  i understand where you are coming from but i really love hyperpersonal stuff like the music of loudon wainwright and the films of ross mcelvee. i guess i get tired of people trying to make everything objective. his other novel we shall know our velocity is good too.

iAmBaronVonTito

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Re: Fave Books / Currently Reading
« Reply #366 on: June 11, 2008, 12:55:28 AM »
i'll admit, i WANT to read dave eggers.  i only hear good things.  but the other author who does the same thing to me is David Foster Wallace, who is foot-note CRAZY...picked up Infinite Jest, was overwhelmed by foot-notes and wrote him off.  meanwhile, ive got friends begging me to join the Eggers, Wallace, and Palahniuk book club.

instead, im going to take your word for it, harris.

harris

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Re: Fave Books / Currently Reading
« Reply #367 on: June 11, 2008, 01:04:50 AM »
well i think palahanuik is a crummy writer, and i also was defeated by infinite jest. i did read some of his essays and short stories and i only thought they were alright. have you read any william t vollmann?

jbissell

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Re: Fave Books / Currently Reading
« Reply #368 on: June 11, 2008, 01:24:03 AM »
im currently reading what is the what by dave eggers. this is really interesting, does anyone else like it? also has anyone read the new david sedaris?

Just picked up the new Sedaris tonight but I'm saving it for a long trip at the end of the month, although I have read several of the pieces included that were previously published in the New Yorker.

Here's the ones included in the book that I could find online (about 25% of what's in the book):
http://www.newyorker.com/reporting/2007/07/09/070709fa_fact_sedaris
http://www.newyorker.com/archive/2006/09/18/060918sh_shouts
http://www.newyorker.com/archive/2006/06/26/060626fa_fact
http://www.newyorker.com/archive/2005/08/01/050801sh_shouts
http://www.newyorker.com/archive/2004/11/29/041129fa_fact1

jbissell

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Re: Fave Books / Currently Reading
« Reply #369 on: June 11, 2008, 01:29:58 AM »
well i think palahanuik is a crummy writer, and i also was defeated by infinite jest. i did read some of his essays and short stories and i only thought they were alright. have you read any william t vollmann?

Palahniuk has always been hit or miss for me. Survivor, Choke and Stranger Than Fiction (his non-fiction compilation) are probably my favorites. His new book about the world's largest gangbang sounds like the most unappealing read ever.  Regarding Wallace, Infinite Jest is definitely a daunting read, I think it took me a couple months to get through.  I really enjoyed his most recent essay collection, Consider the Lobster, and I have Brief Interviews with Hideous Men on my to-read shelf.

dave from knoxville

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Re: Fave Books / Currently Reading
« Reply #370 on: June 11, 2008, 05:25:37 AM »
well i think palahanuik is a crummy writer, and i also was defeated by infinite jest. i did read some of his essays and short stories and i only thought they were alright. have you read any william t vollmann?

I finished Infinite Jest while I was convalescing from a bad car wreck 10 years ago. What do I win? Of course, there was a lot of hydrocodone coursing through the system back then.

noise.light

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Re: Fave Books / Currently Reading
« Reply #371 on: June 11, 2008, 08:13:30 AM »
I am re-reading The Watchmen.  Over the years I have owned maybe 4 copies of this book but I always give it away.

I wanted to buy a copy before the movie came out and all the books have Frodo on the cover.  Or Scarlett Johansen or Billy Zane or whoever is going to be in that movie.

bruce

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Re: Fave Books / Currently Reading
« Reply #372 on: June 11, 2008, 08:21:43 AM »
well i think palahanuik is a crummy writer, and i also was defeated by infinite jest. i did read some of his essays and short stories and i only thought they were alright. have you read any william t vollmann?

Talk about a trifecta of writers I hate, at least Palahniuk you can finish in like an hour or so. But Vollmann needs to learn not every little thought about a subject needs to be a chapter in a book. Or even made into a never ending series of books that never seem to get completed.

samir

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Re: Fave Books / Currently Reading
« Reply #373 on: June 11, 2008, 09:09:31 AM »
I just downloaded the audiobook for the new Sedaris, will get to it when I'm done with U.S.! which is pretty good so far. Its primary idea is that Upton Sinclair keeps getting reanimated, and due to his muckrakin' ways, keeps getting assassinated. I'm enjoying it - it's a pretty easy read.
"Son, there's a thin line between crazed and rabid"


harris

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Re: Fave Books / Currently Reading
« Reply #374 on: June 11, 2008, 10:16:28 AM »
well i think palahanuik is a crummy writer, and i also was defeated by infinite jest. i did read some of his essays and short stories and i only thought they were alright. have you read any william t vollmann?

Talk about a trifecta of writers I hate, at least Palahniuk you can finish in like an hour or so. But Vollmann needs to learn not every little thought about a subject needs to be a chapter in a book. Or even made into a never ending series of books that never seem to get completed.

i like rainbow stories, the atlas and 13 stories and 13 epitaphs. those three are pretty tame and stick to some sort of narrative in the stories. i made it like 10 pages into argall and gave up. his historical stuff is sort of impressive i guess the idea of it , but totally unreadable to anyone other than the literary jerk who 'creams over words.' what do you like bruce?