What are you reading when your not reading House of Leaves?

[DaethisJain]

what have you read lately?

This week, I'm reading Bukowski's posthumous 'Sifting Through the Madness for the Word, the Line, the Way', which has some good poems, but overall isn't his best work.

Though it is the best available, recently-published, previously-unpublished writing you can get from any dead beat writer. You should at least pick it up in the store and read the first poem, titled 'so you want to be a writer?'

I also just finished a book called Raven's End. I was disappointed with one weak link in the plot and the ending seemed somewhat weak, but I am a harsh judge of book endings. The writing in it was excellent, and the story was mostly very strong.

Anyway, I'm looking for something new to read. Anyone have any suggestions?

[pwhite]

Reading at the moment:
Lanark by Alastair Gray, on the back of recommendations from here (I think). Like a cross between Flann O' Brien and Rab C. Nesbitt. Excellent.
G by John Berger. Not sure about this, I've just started it. Anyone read it?
The Invention of Solitude by Paul Auster. Autobiographical musings. Best thing I've read in a long time. His latest novel (Oracle Night is out in the US, I hear. Have any of you Yanks read it yet? Books within books, disappearing manuscipts, blind prophets, footnotes that overwhelm the main text. Sounds interesting.

Read recently:
The Third Policeman by Flann O' Brien. Like a cross between Alastair Gray and Father Ted.
First Love, Last Rites by Ian McEwan (short-story collection). If you've never read anything by him, do so immediately.
Atomised, Platform, Whatever by Michel Houellebecq. Insipid, styleless, soulless, pessimistic, racist, misogynistic hate-filled rants and idiotic social critiques from a wannabe philosopher. Why can't we write novels like this in the English-speaking world? Recommended.
Habitus by James Flint (if it was good enough for Claro, it's good enough for you). Engrossing.
Vice City Players' Guide. I've got the helicopter!

quote:

---

Originally posted by DaethisJain:

Though it is the best available, recently-published, previously-unpublished writing you can get from any dead beat writer.

---

Was that deliberate? If so,
[img]images/smiles/icon_biggrin.gif[/img] Either way, I'm using it.

[ass_shaped_smile]

For some reason I went my entire childhood without reading The Adventures of Tom Sawyer, so I'm reading that now. The only other book I'm reading right now is a book of short stories by Stephen Crane. Maggie: The Girl of the Streets is probably the best short story I have ever read. And I also just finished re-reading Atlas Shrugged and Nietzsche's The Antichrist.

[WhenNothingWas]

In the past couple of weeks:
On the Road - Jack Kerouac
Pale Fire - Vladmir Nabokov
Cat's Cradle - Kurt Vonnegut

The following two are collections of short stories that I have been reading off and on:
Song of the Silent Snow - Hubert Selby, Jr
Collected Stories - Franz Kafka

Currently:
Lullaby - Chuck Palahniuk

[JuggaloStatix]

the portrait of dorian gray and skimming through the bible every so often...what...it passes the time...

[malakite]

right now:
the day of the triffids by john wyndham
titus groan, by mervyn peake
something wicked this way comes by ray bradbury
the most recent Onion collection

in the last year(a long list... so i only include really good ones)
diary by chuck palahniuk
farenheit 451 by ray bradbury
bushwhacked by molly ivins(if you're into that sort of thing...)
battle royale by koushun takami(the novel. i don't know about the comic)
microserfs by douglas coupland
fugitive days by bill ayers
the neverending story by michael ende(i believe i am the last person on the board to read this, but it's good, so i will mention it just in case.)

[fearful_syzygy]

Right now: Ulysses by James Joyce.
Just finished: Middlesex by Jeffrey Eugenides, very good, although I did prefer The Virgin Suicides.
And a few that I read before that:
Fight Club by Palahniuk, which I didn't think much of.
The Island of the Day Before by Umberto Eco, which I didn't like nearly as much as his first two.
Dirty Havana Trilogy by Pedro Juan Gutiérrez. Don't know why I bothered, really.
The New York Trilogy by Paul Auster. Good but not overwhelming. The Locked Room was definitely the best.
The Informers by Brett Easton-Ellis. Excellent.
House of Leaves by this guy Danielewski. Dunno if you will have heard of it. A bit crap to be honest.

Next on my list: The Wind-up Bird Chronicle by Murakami and Hr. Alheimur (Mr. Universe) by Hallgrímur Helgason, a book pretending to be a film in which all the characters have the names of the actors playing them in brackets after their name on their first appearance. The first line, roughly translated, reads: "God (Marlon Brando) was on the phone".



[ January 27, 2004: Message edited by: fearful_syzygy ]

[Angelhaunt]

Recently finished To The Lighthouse by Virginia Woolf, Anthem by Ayn Rand, and Kazan: The Master Director Discusses His Films (A book of interviews with Elia Kazan by Jeff Young). Am currently about a third the way into Plutarch's Lives.

[John B.]

quote:

---

Originally posted by pwhite:
His latest novel (Oracle Night is out in the US, I hear. Have any of you Yanks read it yet? Books within books, disappearing manuscipts, blind prophets, footnotes that overwhelm the main text. Sounds interesting.

---

I started reading Oracle Night in the bookstore the week it came out. It's engrossing from the get-go. I didn't buy it because of my, um, lack of liquidity. But I do want to own it and finish it.

Right now, I'm reading Jazz by Toni Morrison. It's one of those books that is good on its own terms but disappointing when compared to her best work (Beloved, in case you're wondering). I recently bought Steven Pinker's The Language Instinct as part of a New Year's resolution to read something other than student essays that is also outside my discipline. So, that one is next. Also, I plan to join a reading group that some of my colleagues will be starting up.

[Ra-ra]

I am currently reading Oliver Twist, which is brilliant...

Books I have read (re-read) recently include:

The Subtle Knife
Northern Lights
The Water Babies
The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe
Alice in Wonderland
Peter Pan
The Hobbit
A Room of Ones own
Jane Eyre
Great Expectations

[circus]

quote:

---

Originally posted by fearful_syzygy:
Next on my list: The Wind-up Bird Chronicle by Murakami

---

Fantastic choice! Murakami is an utter genius.

As for me: currently reading Perdido Street Station by China Mieville.

Most recently finished:
The New Brain by Richard Restak
Sputnik Sweetheart by Haruki Murakami
Me Talk Pretty One Day by David Sedaris
after the quake by Haruki Murakami
Edison's Eve by Gaby Wood
Pattern Recognition by William Gibson
(among others)

[WhenNothingWas]

quote:

---

Originally posted by fearful_syzygy:
Fight Club by Palahniuk, which I didn't think much of.

---

Are you a Palahniuk fan? I have read Choke and I am just finishing Lullaby. In those two books he has failed to impress me. Too often does his style of writing pull me out of the text rather than keep me in.

[fearful_syzygy]

I've only read Fight Club, which as I say didn't do much for me. I wouldn't mind reading something that I haven't seen the film of, though. So I might give Survivor a go. But I have to finish Ulysses first though...

[pwhite]

quote:

---

Originally posted by John B.:


I started reading Oracle Night in the bookstore the week it came out. It's engrossing from the get-go. I didn't buy it because of my, um, lack of liquidity. But I do want to own it and finish it.

---

From what I've read it's met with a somewhat lukewarm reception. The consensus seems to be that it's a bit 'Auster-by-numbers'. Still, I'm looking forward to reading it when it does eventually come out on this side of the pond.

quote:

---

Originally posted by John B.:
I recently bought Steven Pinker's The Language Instinct

---

Very readable and a lot of fun; it gets to the heart of the matter without making it seem like hard work, unlike a lot of popular science writing. His cognitive psychology book How the mind works is also worth reading. It's interesting, but a little simplistic at times, especially when he tries to explain art and aesthetics using the evolutionary-psychology model.

quote:

---

Originally posted by Circus:
Fantastic choice! Murakami is an utter genius.

---

I'm not so sure. I enjoyed reading The Wind-up Bird Chronicle, but since then I've been unable to get into anything else of his. I usually give up after a couple of chapters. I think I was all Murakami'd-out after reading the Chronicle, which is a little overlong, you must admit. It's difficult to take so much metaphysical bizarreness when the style of writing is so flat (although perhaps the translation is to blame for this). You get the impression that he's not really saying anything important, just going through the motions. The sections set in Manchuria/China were definitely the best parts of the book.

[ January 27, 2004: Message edited by: pwhite ]

[circus]

quote:

---

Originally posted by pwhite:
I'm not so sure. I enjoyed reading The Wind-up Bird Chronicle, but since then I've been unable to get into anything else of his. I usually give up after a couple of chapters. I think I was all Murakami'd-out after reading the Chronicle, which is a little overlong, you must admit. It's difficult to take so much metaphysical bizzareness when the style of writing is so flat (although perhaps the translation is to blame for this). You get the impression that he's not really saying anything important, just going through the motions. The sections set in Manchuria/China were definitely the best parts of the book.

---

I'm not sure if it's the translation as much as the problem that nothing ever fully translates, regardless of the skill of the translator. I have a feeling that there are many nuances that are impossible to understand without either being Japanese or having an intimate knowledge of the language and culture.

I disagree that his writing is "flat"; i think it's a conscious choice on his part, an approach he chose because the subject matter is so bizarre. This is something one finds elsewhere in modern Japanese storytelling--if you've ever seen Spirited Away, you'll find a similar "flat" response to very strange events and metaphysical ideas.

Personally, i think many contemporary and popular American writers have a very grating tendency to weigh every word down with some sort of drama or oozing meaningfulness--and it's sometimes overwhelming.

Though i do agree that the China/Manchuria bits were excellent.

[Arielle]

recently:

Fight Club
Griffin and Sabine
The Museum at Purgatory
Alice in Wonderland

Now: The Dante Club by Matthew Pearl

[DaethisJain]

quote:
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Originally posted by DaethisJain:

Though it is the best available, recently-published, previously-unpublished writing you can get from any dead beat writer.
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Was that deliberate? If so,
Either way, I'm using it.

Yes.

[Agrimorfee]

Rereading Stephen King's Dark Tower 2, 3 & 4 (sorry malakite, deal with it), so I can jump into #5 that I got for Christmas and still haven't cracked open beyond the first 50 pages.

Working on The Golden Compass (finishing off Pullman's trilogy...damn, Subtle Knife was just too dark, and reeked of 'The Empire Strikes Back'...hope this is better)

[malakite]

quote:

---

Originally posted by agrimorfee:
Rereading Stephen King's Dark Tower 2, 3 & 4 (sorry malakite, deal with it), so I can jump into #5 that I got for Christmas and still haven't cracked open beyond the first 50 pages.

---

hey, i don't care what you read, just don't try and convince me to read that crap. [img]images/smiles/icon_razz.gif[/img]

[JuggaloStatix]

quote:

---

Originally posted by malakite:


hey, i don't care what you read, just don't try and convince me to read that crap. [img]images/smiles/icon_razz.gif[/img]

---

although i dont think it will interfere with anyone here i must say A-fucking-Men...i know how some people get up tight and shit...

[Selim]

mostly Sf

Frank Herbert: Dune (all 6 and the new ones from Brian Herbert and Kevin J. Anderson)
Isaac Asimov: Foundation, Robotcity...
Some Starwars shit
Jean M. Auel: Earth's Children
Robbin Hobb: ...
Tolkien: Lord of the rings
...

[circus]

quote:

---

Originally posted by agrimorfee:
Working on The Golden Compass (finishing off Pullman's trilogy...damn, Subtle Knife was just too dark, and reeked of 'The Empire Strikes Back'...hope this is better)

---

I'm very interested in hearing your opinion of the last two once you finish.

Personally, i loved the first book but really disliked the last two. I've heard that the series is supposed to be a sort of retort to the Christian allegory found in the Narnia series, but i didn't like the way Pullman did it--it went from being a wonderful story to being a religio-political rant, which, given the context, really turned me off.

[Agrimorfee]

quote:

---

Originally posted by Circus:


I'm very interested in hearing your opinion of the last two once you finish.

heard that the series is supposed to be a sort of retort to the Christian allegory found in the Narnia series, but i didn't like the way Pullman did it--it went from being a wonderful story to being a religio-political rant, which, given the context, really turned me off.

---

And it's supposedly for younger readers--teens anyway--but delves into shit like the origins of the castrati singers of Italy, which unsettles me.

[Ra-ra]

quote:

---

Originally posted by Circus:


I'm very interested in hearing your opinion of the last two once you finish.

Personally, i loved the first book but really disliked the last two. I've heard that the series is supposed to be a sort of retort to the Christian allegory found in the Narnia series, but i didn't like the way Pullman did it--it went from being a wonderful story to being a religio-political rant, which, given the context, really turned me off.

---

Yes, His Dark Materials was intended as a re-writing of Paradise Lost, as the epigraph in the first of the trilogy suggests. The transition from possessing a daemon which changes shape to one which is fixed represents the change from innocence to experience... the fall of man. If you look through you will also find many correlations to The lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe and even The Hobbit. Personally, I adored Northern Lights (The Golden Compass) but didn't enjoy The Subtle Knife nearly as much...

[Bender]

The latest Daethis Jaen vampire novel, or perhaps one of Angelhaunt's delightfully haunting works.

[malakite]

im currently about halfway through 'the davinci code' and i must say, im not sure what all the fuss is about. the story is interesting enough to keep me reading, but the characters aren't great, and Brown seems to know only one single literary device, and unfortunately for him, he doesn't do that one very well.

the characters: the main character, 'langdon,' is not very bright. he has a difficult time figuring out what another character(sophie, who will likely become a romantic interest before the book is over) is doing, which would be forgivable if not for A) the author frequently refers to how intelligent langdon is reputed to be and B) i seem to be able to stay several steps ahead of both characters, and with a characters like these, it seems like they should be smarter than me, not the other way around.

browns favorite literary device: brown loves to have a character discover a peice of vital information in one chapter, then reveal that information to the reader in a later chapter. in fact, the majority of the chapters i have read so far (35, about) have had one or the other of these features, sometimes both. now, this device, when used effectively, can be very effective in making the reader want to read more. however, brown does not, i feel, use this device effectively. aside from its excessive use, everytime i encounter it it feels clumsy. the key to something like this would seem to be either cutting off the chapter abruptly for some reason, or having a very good reason why the information can't be revealed to the reader at that time(for example, if the book is first person, then it could be another character that finds out, but can't tell the information to the central character right away). brown, however, only occasionally manages either of these things.

aside from that, there are numerous little things that detract from my enjoyment of the book. for example, having taken 3 years of french, i already know most of the trivia about the louvre and paris in general, as well as being able to understand what characters are saying in french, which occasionally takes away from the suspense. same with latin. similar things happen with some of the cryptology stuff and mathematics stuff. but things like that can't really be held agains the author, since he can't be expected to write to compliment my specific body of knowledge. still, it seems odd that he and i would know so many of the same things...

anyway, as i said, nothing is so bad that i can't stand to finish the book, and the story is, so far, fairly interesting. this book just doesn't seem to be living up to the hype surrounding it.

[Ellimist]

Malakite: well done. You understand all that just from that one book. I didn't really catch it until the middle of the second one.

And you are right... he does do all that.

The big deal with Da Vinci is that christians think it contradicts their beliefs or that it attacks their religion. It doesn't. All it does is mention something they have never thought of before. And another reason the book is good is because it is fast-paced. I have read all of his books and they are all similar to the point of absurdity. I may pick up and read his next one, but not buy it if it is the same repetitiveness as the others...

[malakite]

quote:

---

Originally posted by fatwoul:
I guess that's because you are a fucking genius.

---

no, no, thats the problem. im most definitely not a genius. i've got the gpa and test scores to prove it. and yet the book still fails to surprise me.

[member #5556]

That's the problem with standardized education. Everyone thinks different, so to assume that a test will tell you how smart you are in comparison to other people taking the same test is preposterous. If you gave John Wayne Gacy a spelling test, you'd probably think he got stuck in pre-K, but if you asked me to hide bodies, I'd get caught in a week! I'm a fucking genius, I won't lie, but some things are not as far up in the repertoire for my classification of 'Fucking Genius' as say, Sam Walton.

DAMN THE MAN!!!

[whiskeyjack]

hello.

finished Fierce Invalids Home From Hot Climates by Tom Robbins, Bukowski's South Of No North, Asleep by Banana Yoshimoto, and into Gravity's Rainbow. LOST, in Gravity's Rainbow. Can anyone help me? do i need an annotated edition, or should i get a bachelor's first? hell, i don't know.