Book Thread

This is blowing me away. I also got hold of the audio book which is adding an extra dimension; I'm reading about 50 pages a day and listening to a few chapters each day on my travels...they really enhance each other. Its like listening to a hybrid of a gritty Radio 4 play an HBO crime epic. The patois gets in your head too which helps the reading process.

What's everyone reading?

I think I'm gonna start John Updike's Rabbit Angstrom novels next.

I'm about 100 pages into Wittgenstein's Mistress and I love it. Having been listening to lots of philosophy podcasts recently, and reading much of the material my girlfriend has been covering in her courses on Post Modernism, and The Role of The Author in literature, the book is a perfect compliment.

Funny, insightful, and can be read at whatever pace and depth level one might want. Pretty much fantastic.

Started reading the Steve Jobs book too that everyone bought a few years ago.

Been reading some HP Lovecraft short stories. Not that scary or even creepy just bizarre for the period they were written in I guess. I've had some fucked up dreams though since I started!

Read some Lovecraft comic books a few years ago, that was generally my impression.

halfway through, this is even better than I thought it would be



it tells the story using vignettes instead of a narrative, which I think is very successful

Rereading Hunter S. Thompson's Fear and Loathing: On the Campaign Trail '72.

I forgot how brilliantly he balanced the drug story rants with outstanding political analysis throughout this book. It's mind blowing to think of a guy like that covering an election and talking to Richard Nixon about football. I can't think what today's equivalent would be.

Probably some Vice bullshit.

RIP Umberto Eco and Harper Lee. Damn.

Heavy.

Picked up today:

Tom McCarthy - Satin Island
Marlon James - A Brief History of Seven Killings
Pauline Kael - I Lost It at the Movies
Mark E. Smith - Renegade: The Lives and Tales of Mark E. Smith

I'd like to think that this represents a healthy balance of Man Booker Prize nominated novels, stellar film criticism and complete and utter dribble.

Recently finished reading the Steve Jobs biography from Walter Isaacson which was entertaining if U R interested in Jobs as a character.

I finished Wittgenstein's Mistress which was more of a theoretically entertaining book but it practice it dragged. I'm very happy I read it as it is a great catalyst book 4 discussion on art, philosophy, the limitations of language, etc. I was reminded a bit of the Good Soldier who used to act as our mascot in that the structure of the book included the reader directly, without concern 4 concision or the need to say anything meaningful all the time. The text is rambling, facts R made up and quotes misattributed, but its to make the reader feel just as unsteady and ultimately alone as Kate the protagonist. I'd actually recommend it but feel free to skip some pages!

I read Drieser's Sister Carrie which felt like a somber, less enthusiastic Fitzgerald story. I didn't love it.

Now reading Treasure Islands, all about offshore banking, and will soon be starting Wild Swans and re-reading Freud's Civilization and its Discontent. If anyone wants to have a book chat let me know Im cool!

HG Wells' Men Like Gods had me hooked after 5 pages so I read the first 100 last night before going to sleep.

Summer is approaching and I've been compiling a reading list 4 myself since I won't really have much else to do. 4 the most part I am going to be reading a lot of esoteric critical theory and expansive history books but I also wanna get back into reading some light fiction.

I've tackled (and mostly failed) at reading some of the hard, late 20th century tomes. I have no interest in trying to read Gaddis or Pynchon in this frame of mind. I'm thinking about picking up some of Dideon's earlier stuff. Maybe Eugenides or George Saunders too? I've also always wanted to explore more African-American literature but don't really know where to start.

If any of U guys have some solid suggestions that would be great.

George Saunders has been one of my favorites over the last 10 years or so. I liked CivilWarLand in Bad Decline and Pastoralia very much; parts of them R excellent. 10th of December is, soup to nuts, both a truly pleasurable read and intellectually compelling. And funny as shit too. One of the books I'm likely to recommend to irl friends, even lend a copy of.

Just read The Orange Girl by Jostein Gaarder. Light, but not simple. Some big LIFE shit in the storyline. A highly enjoyable 1-2 day leisurely read. Has inspired me to check out his other stuff sometime soon.

Michael K. wrote:10th of December is, soup to nuts, both a truly pleasurable read and intellectually compelling. And funny as shit too. One of the books I'm likely to recommend to irl friends, even lend a copy of.

I also enjoyed this a lot. Short story format is underrated 4 this kind of darkly humorous storytelling.

Currently reading a Naked Singularity by Sergio de la Pava. Prose reminds me of DFW a bit...I like it so far but I'm not sure where the story is going.

Michael K. wrote:George Saunders has been one of my favorites over the last 10 years or so. I liked CivilWarLand in Bad Decline and Pastoralia very much; parts of them R excellent. 10th of December is, soup to nuts, both a truly pleasurable read and intellectually compelling. And funny as shit too. One of the books I'm likely to recommend to irl friends, even lend a copy of.

Slightly Younger WP64 wrote:I had the privilege of seeing George Saunders tonight

When I saw him four years ago, he read the first story of 10th of December out loud. I barely remember the story but I remember it being disturbingly humorous. He is an extraordinarily calming presence.

I grabbed Invisible Man off my bookshelf yesterday and I'm pretty hooked. Ellison is a lot funnier than I thought he would be.

Read that one last year, great book! Convinced myself Young Thug's recent press photos R channeling Ras the Exhorter but that's probably just wishful thinking.

petey wrote:Currently reading a Naked Singularity by Sergio de la Pava.  Prose reminds me of DFW a bit...I like it so far but I'm not sure where the story is going.

I totally missed this post the first time around but have been meaning to pick this up. How did you end up liking it, assuming you finished it?

I just finished reading The Fall from Camus and was surprised at how engaged I was while reading it. Reading The Stranger back in high school did not leave me with a great impression of Camus, but I was enjoying stuff from guys like Palahniuk at that time, so perhaps I was simply slow to get it. Regardless, as The Fall progresses it gets heavier and more engaging and by the end wraps up the themes and messages so effectively I wanted to start it over immediately so that I could read it with a better understanding from the onset.

Recently purchased Gaddis's JR and Sartre's Nausea but not sure which one to start with. I really enjoyed the work I've read from both previously so it may simply come down to mood.

It was an enjoyable read. Like I said earlier, the prose is DFW-like/lite, and some passages are pretty fun to read. It's kinda long and I ended up slogging through many passages but I would recommend it

https://www.nybooks.com/articles/2016/12/22/on-optimism-and-despair/

Really beautiful, moving speech. I've never read any of her work. I should change that.

I don't have anything to say about these books yet because I haven't started any of them, but here's my latest charity shop haul

Philip Roth - American Pastoral
Vladimir Nabokov - Lolita
Solomon Northup - 12 Years a Slave
Saul Bellow - Collected Stories
Hermann Hesse - The Glass Bead Game
William Faulkner - The Sound and the Fury
Saul Bellow - Henderson the Rain King
E.M. Forster - A Room with a View
Graham Greene - Our Man in Havana

I always thought I'd be better read by now. Never too late!