Author Topic: Fave Books / Currently Reading  (Read 947137 times)

John Junk

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Re: Fave Books / Currently Reading
« Reply #90 on: June 27, 2007, 06:24:38 PM »
"No One Belongs Here More Than You : Stories" by Miranda July is my new favorite book.

I love it so much because it is funny and also because her story telling is so unique.

Just check it out!

I got this e-mail one day:

"hello again!
Miranda and the artist group Jan Family are doing a special project for
Another Magazine. Jan Family has given Miranda instructions for a
portrait. These were their instructions:

>>> 'Gather as many people as you can that look like you and stand closely
together'

We don't know anyone who looks like Miranda, so....

OPEN CALL: MIRANDA JULY LOOK-ALIKES! MEET US AT 4PM, THIS SATURDAY JUNE
23, IN ELYSIAN PARK IN LOS ANGELES! WEAR WHAT YOU THINK MIRANDA MIGHT
WEAR! COME STAND CLOSELY TOGETHER! MEET YOUR SISTERS!

For details, visit myspace.com/mirandajuly on Friday.

sincerely,
the secretary

PS: Jan Family is an artist collective based in London, they make really
great videos and photos. The picture on the UK edition of Miranda's short
story collection is by Jan Family:"

--and thus my like affair with the works of Miranda July drew to a close.


Laurie

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Re: Fave Books / Currently Reading
« Reply #91 on: June 27, 2007, 06:37:40 PM »
I'm currently reading Henry Darger: Disasters of War, which features several excerpts from his "Vivian Girls" epic. I wanted to read it after viewing a Henry Darger painting at the Walker Art Center in Minneapolis. I've fallen in love with it. I can see myself getting obsessed with him in the same way I was completely infatuated with Anaïs Nin. How can I get my hands on a complete edition of The Story of the Vivian Girls, in What Is Known as the Realms of the Unreal, of the Glandeco-Angelinnian War Storm, Caused by the Child Slave Rebellion? Yes, I realize this book was never completed... But still! I want to read all of it.

Josh

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Re: Fave Books / Currently Reading
« Reply #92 on: June 27, 2007, 08:27:58 PM »
AFAIK it's out of print and pretty expensive ($400+).
"Alright, well, for the sake of this conversation, let's say the book does not exist."

John Junk

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Re: Fave Books / Currently Reading
« Reply #93 on: June 27, 2007, 08:38:34 PM »
I'm currently reading Henry Darger: Disasters of War, which features several excerpts from his "Vivian Girls" epic. I wanted to read it after viewing a Henry Darger painting at the Walker Art Center in Minneapolis. I've fallen in love with it. I can see myself getting obsessed with him in the same way I was completely infatuated with Anaïs Nin. How can I get my hands on a complete edition of The Story of the Vivian Girls, in What Is Known as the Realms of the Unreal, of the Glandeco-Angelinnian War Storm, Caused by the Child Slave Rebellion? Yes, I realize this book was never completed... But still! I want to read all of it.

Isn't that book supposed to be like 4,000 pages long?  I bet in like 15 years Taschen will put out an edition of like 200 of those for 2 grand a pop or something.  Until then, I am pretty sure that exerpts are all you'll be able to get your hands on for a while.

Laurie

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Re: Fave Books / Currently Reading
« Reply #94 on: June 28, 2007, 10:47:00 AM »
Isn't that book supposed to be like 4,000 pages long?

Something like that. He wasn't quite right in the head.

Susannah

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Re: Fave Books / Currently Reading
« Reply #95 on: July 02, 2007, 12:35:36 PM »
I am currently slogging my way through "Natasha's Dance: A Cultural History of Russia," but I want to recommend the fun book I read before that.  It's called "But Enough About Me: A Jersey Girl's Unlikely Adventures Among the Absurdly Famous," by Rolling Stone writer/former MTV2 VJ Jancee Dunn. I read it in about 2 hours in Barnes & Noble while waiting for some friends, so it's a really light, entertaining book. Dunn grew up in Chatham, NJ and details her career as a Rolling Stone writer, and later as a correspondent for Good Morning America...lots of funny gossip about various celebrities without being malicious. The first concert she attended was THE HOOTERS, which she describes in a suitably awed tone. There's also a great part where she relates what her first time on Ecstasy was like...she spent it expounding upon her theory of Charlotte Bronte's death to her date. As a complete dork, I loved it.

There are some spots that are a little hackneyed, but overall a great quick read for the summer.  Here's Amazon: http://www.amazon.com/But-Enough-About-Me-Adventures/dp/B000NNX1XW/ref=pd_bbs_sr_1/105-8358117-6816439?ie=UTF8&s=books&qid=1183394033&sr=8-1

dave from knoxville

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Re: Fave Books / Currently Reading
« Reply #96 on: July 02, 2007, 01:03:11 PM »
I would also strongly recommend A Confedeacy of Dunces.

This year I have read Mountains Beyond Mountains. Rudy Rucker's Mathematicians In Love (and started Frek and the Elixer, but got waylaid by my 14-year-old's summer reading list, which I will talk about in a minute,) and throughout the winter I got caught up in a John D McDonald fest, focusing on the Travis McGee novels.

When Vonnegut died, I went back and re-read Slapstick and Slaughterhouse Five.

My favorite books of all time are probably Catch-22, A Prayer For Owen Meany, Slaughterhouse 5, a collection of Raymond Carver short stories whose name doesn't come to me, and Raymond Smullyan's To Mock a Mockingbird. I will remember others as soon as I hit the send button.

Like I said, I decided to read my son's summer reading list (he's in Honors English at the high school sophomore level.) So far I have finished Ayn Rand's Anthem (yes, she's a fascist,) Kennedy's Profiles in Courage (more interesting than I remembered,) The Iliad (tougher to force myself to read than I remember,) Sophie's World, which I haven't started, and can't remember the author.

After that, I have agreed to give War and Peace another try; I have failed at that task twice before. I am also interested in getting back into some Philip K Dick, now that many of his concerns about privacy and individualism are increasingly hot topics.

I probably left out my favorite book; it'll come to me.

buffcoat

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Re: Fave Books / Currently Reading
« Reply #97 on: July 02, 2007, 01:54:26 PM »
Dave,

I think Ayn Rand is a hyper-individualist rather than a fascist.  She just considers modern-American style capitalism-lite to be close enough to socialism/communism/fascism that she decries it.

You can certainly argue that her ideas are bad and awful, but I don't think you can make the case for her being fascist in any sense but the knee-jerk World-Trade protester cry of "fascist!".  Sorry to nitpick, and for heaven's sake I don't want to start a debate where I have to take the uncomfortable role of defending Objectivism, which I don't actually believe in.

buffcoat
I really don't appreciate your sarcastic, anti-comedy tone, Bro!

bruce

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Re: Fave Books / Currently Reading
« Reply #98 on: July 02, 2007, 02:39:21 PM »
I got caught up in a John D McDonald fest, focusing on the Travis McGee novels.

About to finally delve into his work*. Got a stack of his stuff dirt cheap from one of the used places I go to. Including the book that would be made into Cape Fear.


*Purple Place For Dying

B_Buster

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Re: Fave Books / Currently Reading
« Reply #99 on: July 02, 2007, 05:31:19 PM »
A Prayer for Owen Meany?! Say it ain't so, Dave from Knoxville. This is very close to being one of my most hated books of all-time (recently dislodged from the top spot by Richard Ford's Independence Day). I hated that little brat from the moment he started spewing his platitudes in all caps. And the set-up for the big finale where Irving has to spend an entire page describing a bathroom was the worst (btw, I thought the mediocre Will Ferrell movie, Stranger Than Fiction, borrowed liberally from Irving for its "big" climax).
See God, Kai

dave from knoxville

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Re: Fave Books / Currently Reading
« Reply #100 on: July 02, 2007, 05:46:25 PM »
Sorry to disappoint, B_Buster, I'm sure you're a great d00d, but I gotta be true to myself, sappy or not. I don't know what's going to happen when Tom finds out I like both Zappa and Steely Dan.

Sarah

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Re: Fave Books / Currently Reading
« Reply #101 on: July 03, 2007, 06:31:58 AM »
I liked A Prayer for Owen Meany, too, Dave.  You know, you might like Handling Sin, by Michael Malone.  It's sweet, too.  And, I think, very funny.

LostInReno

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Re: Fave Books / Currently Reading
« Reply #102 on: July 06, 2007, 01:14:37 AM »
Choke by Chuck Palahniuk

Needs to be checked out. Its the story of the uncommon hero.
Wait... whuuuuuuuuuut?

Laurie

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Re: Fave Books / Currently Reading
« Reply #103 on: July 06, 2007, 08:02:14 AM »
Chuck Palahahahahniurgggggggghk is an FWD.

bruce

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Re: Fave Books / Currently Reading
« Reply #104 on: July 06, 2007, 08:37:56 AM »
Chuck Palahahahahniurgggggggghk is an FWD.
plus his books can be read in like one sitting (a little under two hours)