Book Thread

It's a heavy book, for sure. But no Finnegan's Wake.

Not a common opinion you have there but good to know it regardless. I've already read Portrait of the Artist which I loved, and have skimmed through some of Dubliners which I also enjoy. I'm sure I'll get to Finny's Wake n' Bake at some point.

Oh, I meant only that it's nowhere near as difficult. Light reading, by comparison. I thought Ulysses was quite readable and, for the most part, only as "difficult" as I wanted it to be. Finnegan's Wake is just a motherfucker from start to finish, and a book I'm still not sure has any value. It's either one of the most brilliant things I've ever read or a bad joke without a punchline. Highly recommended, either way!

Ah yeah that does sound a little more like what I've heard. My miscomprehension of simple message board English has me doubting I should even bother with The Dubliners at this point.

I believe in you. Finish it. Great stuff. I prefer it to Portrait, though your mileage may, of course, vary.

I picked up Ulysses while in Milan because I wanted to read some fiction and it was the only English novel I could find that was compelling. I got through the first chapters of the first part (if that is the proper way to break it down) and didn't have a problem. Then I just suddenly jumped into some rambling monologue and wasn't even entirely confident who the narrator was anymore or what the fuck was going on.

"The Dead" at the end of DUBLINERS is my favorite piece of Joyce. That whole book is brilliant, imo.

I had a teacher my freshman year of high school who had us read "The Dead." I remember thinking it was awesome but I probably had no fucking clue.

gonna try to read "My Struggle Book 1" while riding my bicycle across Iowa next week.

That seems ill-advised. Being in Iowa, I mean.

currently reading Giles Goat Boy by John Barth, which I'm really enjoying.  I was a bit worried at first that the university/Cold War allegory would be distractingly heavy-handed but I've been pleasantly swept up in the carnival of lunacy and bad taste.

I re-read Albert Angelo a couple of weeks back and it had a much bigger impact on me that when I read it a decade ago...partly because I could relate to AA's age/situation a lot more but mostly because the various devices/meta-twists seemed a lot less gimmicky to me this time...despite knowing what was coming

Spoiler:

Finally got around to starting The Recognitions. Thus far I don't know why so many people believed Pynchon to have been a Gaddis pseudonym ; the writing style or voice feels quiet different to me, at least based on the first 65 pages of the book and my knowledge of Pynchon via Gravity's Rainbow and Against The Day. The writing in this one is dense though -- I am taking my time, and in doing so I'm already finding myself chuckling at the subtle allusions and enjoying the character development, but also spending more time than I might otherwise spend looking up Latin and Spanish translations, esoteric religious concepts, biblical names, etc.

This book is great, highly recommended at around 20% in.

Getting back into books with PKD's The Man in the High Castle.

Just got off the uptown train after meeting the cutest Indian American girl who was reading David Foster Wallace, and talked about Pynchon and Marquez and Franzen, Rushdie and Gaddis, and then talked about all sorts of other things. Happy to be with my girlfriend, but one of those brief moments where my jealousy of the single guy was totally justifiable.

Felt like it belonged here more than White Girls thread too.

I started reading that Salt: History of the World book that was pretty big a few years ago. It's probably going to take me longer to read than the library is willing to let me keep it, so I'll either end up buying it or never finishing it.

hugely enjoying this densely referenced fever-dream rumination on metropoli...

Bought this little number from a street hustler yesterday. I probably should have expected a dissertation to be reasonably verbose but this is verbose to the point of joylessness. I can already tell that this is going to be a very tedious read.

I'm not sure if I can get through 192 pages of:

'The pioneering and novel union of portable equipment with self-effacing, classically cinematic continuity facilitated, but did not circumscribe, direct cinema's transitory intellectual flowering'.

The writing mostly seems really ugly, idk.

Just got The Rap Yearbook delivered!

Let us know how you enjoy that. I'm thinking about adding it to my Christmas list!

Been spending more time reading again, though I had to abandon The Recognitions around page 500 because I couldn't fit it in any suitcases and my carry on bags were full...

Been reading short stories from Fitzgerald and Bolaño.

Ҩ wrote:Let us know how you enjoy that. I'm thinking about adding it to my Christmas list!

The Rap Yearbook is seriously so much fun to read. I've got 5 years left to go and am sad that it has to end. Each chapter has been a mix of interesting history, funny backstory and amazing footnotes and illustrations.

It's also like the perfect coffee table book / shitter book if you are into that. It's got me into a deep 90s hip hop listening binge too.

I called up my brother last night demanding he give me all my old rap CDs he stole from me when I moved out and he got all defensive about it.