Book Thread

So far this is right up my ally.

We've been reading a lot of the same books recently. I'm oping to pluck up the courage to tackle Ulysses eventually, I swear.

I've been meaning to get around the Portrait of... for a long time. I finished 2666 a long time ago and it kicked ass. I can't recommend it enough.

Lately I've been reading a lot of Kafka. Like a lot. Like I'm going deep cuts and reading his Diaries and Letters type shit.

Soma wrote:We've been reading a lot of the same books recently. I'm oping to pluck up the courage to tackle Ulysses eventually, I swear.

Are you reading the "easy" Joyce now as well? I'm loving Joyce's utilization of an age-aligned narrator with Stephen, and I think it adds a lot of weight to his naïvety as a Clongowes student. I've got Ulysses, The Recognitions, The Tunnel, and 2666 all staring at me from the shelf, I've burned through all of my sub-600 pagers, and I want to give each of them their respective deserved attention.

But probably reading Kissinger's On China next.

I spent some time in Philadelphia, recently, and stumbled across this while digging around in the bins at the Philadelphia Record Exchange.

C-poots wrote:
Are you reading the "easy" Joyce now as well? .

It's actually been almost a year since I read it, come to think of it. Kept thinking Joyce would probably be my favourite writer if I ventured any further into his bibliography, but I've kept putting it off in order to read much shorter books.

Portrait of the Artist was fantastic, I really enjoyed it. The espousal of Stephen's esthetics and the surrounding final chapter is something I'd like to read again, to analyze further and get to the bottom of what Joyce is doing here. The novel becomes more and more dense as you go along and is surprisingly long for a book of maybe 250 pages.

Pictured WP as the titular Young Man at a few points, which is both a complement and an insult.

Reading this now:

I picked up my copy of On the Road yesterday and started reading. I got halfway through and realized that I had never actually finished the whole thing when I was in high school. I zipped through in two days and now I'm buzzing with thought and desire. What a fucking thrill ride of a book.

I need to find a job so that I can make enough money to get my ass down to Salinas, California this summer. I know some people who live nearby that could help me find a job in a field or something. Just anything where I can make enough money to keep some sort of roof over my head, food in my stomach, and tequila and lime flowing through my tastebuds.

Fuck the bullshit! WP64's vision quest is only just beginning y'all! I'm going to kiss the face of God-himself before this thing is all over.

Read The Sirens of Titan this week. Had not read it for maybe 10 years and yes it is still a damn fine book.

I started In Search of Lost Time and I'm 50 pgs in. The goal is to finish it by the time my daughter is 5.

Lem's "The Star Diaries." Very good.

Just finished Phil Klay - Redeployment. Incredible selection of short stories about the wars in Iraq/Afghanistan.

Finally read some Tolkein - The Hobbit, specifically. He's a really funny writer, but a bit boring at times. Also, the stereotypes in his world feel really outdated and hamfisted compared to much of the other fantasy I've been reading.

phixed wrote:Finally read some Tolkein - The Hobbit, specifically. He's a really funny writer, but a bit boring at times. Also, the stereotypes in his world feel really outdated and hamfisted compared to much of the other fantasy I've been reading.

Read "Lord of the Rings." The Hobbit is child's play. LOTR is a serious and richly nuanced novel.

I'm planning on it. Up next, however, are some graphic novels and the magicians trilogy which i've been meaning to get to for a year now.

I read that first Magicians book and it is a real pile of garbage.

I have an exciting commitment to this book (collection of novels that follow on from one another).

Maybe some David Mitchell first, actually. Cloud Atlas looks promising.

It took me three years to finish 1Q84.
These are the books that basically killed reading for me.

I've kind of been struggling with reading more than I'd like recently. I assumed those would be good books to get me back into the swing of it, but apparently not?

I bet David Mitchell would be a good choice. Haven't read it.

1Q84 started strong and then flamed out. Three books was two too many and it was obvious that Murakami doesn't give a shit about second drafts or editors anymore.

Some really weird rape stuff too.

Has anyone read Shakey, the Neil Young bio? It is 700 pages but I am in a reading slump and just want something I can take in casually on the morning commute without having to concentrate too hard.