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What are you reading? (August 09)

I

ItAintEasyBeinCheesy

it's 4th of July in my asshole
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So i have finally finished The Dragon Keeper by Robin Hobb. Was ok, but it just seems to be a build up to the next book with nothing major going on throughout it, i think thats due to the fact that it was originally meant to be 1 book but got split into 2 due to size. I'd say if your a Hobb fan wait for the next book to come out (sometime in 2010) and then read it, otherwise your going to completely going to forget everything like i probly will.

Onto this sucka now
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S

Space Cadet

Banned
Still trying to finish Mao II by DeLillo from last month. It's excellent, but for some reason I don't have the desire to finish it. Also reading Handbook for Writers by Troyka, as I am teaching Prep English in the fall at a community college.

Going to pick up Inherent Vice by Thomas Pynchon. I cannot fucking wait for this, he is my favorite author and the book is getting great reviews.

Starting a Masters in Lit on the 24th, so there goes my leisure reading. :(
 
H

Hark

Member
Just finished Klosterman's Downtown Owl. He has an amazing way with dialog but the ending felt fairly forced.

Just started Wolfe's The Bonfire of The Vanities and am really enjoying it.
 
B

BenjaminBirdie

Banned
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p. 523

It's really amazing me, even though it's the second time I'm reading it, how compulsively readable it is. Unless I hit the end of a section on the train I'm literally reading it until I get to the elevator.

I've started probably 700,000% more books than I've finished but this is definitely the best book I've ever read and probably the one I'll always think of when people use the term "Great American Novel". At least America as it stands today. It's so much about contemporary America, and speaks about it so eloquently and hilariously (seriously, this book is so fucking funny) and poignantly.

Just incredible.
 
H

hamchan

Member
Same thing I was reading last week, Dark Tower 3 and Game of Thrones.
Will probably start Wheel of Time soon.
 
C

Cerebral Assassin

Member
Just finished Infinite Jest, it made it into my favourite books list( Catch-22, Cryptonominom & Infinite Jest are my top recommendations) so have just started reading Consider the Lobster also by D.F Wallace(collection of some of his articles/essays) while I wait for my copy of The Broom of the System to turn up( if it doesn't arrive soon though will have to read one of my backlog, either Return of the Crimson Guard by Ian Esselmont or ABC[Ajax, Barcelona Cryuff] of dutch football).
 
S

Space Cadet

Banned
The Broom of the System is excellent, it's just one huge communication problem and funny as well. Wait for it.

I loved Cryptonomicom as well.
 
B

BenjaminBirdie

Banned
Space Cadet said:
The Broom of the System is excellent, it's just one huge communication problem and funny as well. Wait for it.

I loved Cryptonomicom as well.
Click to expand...

Yeah, Broom is great. Way more of just a straight up Tom Robbins style comedy.
 
C

Cerebral Assassin

Member
Space Cadet said:
The Broom of the System is excellent, it's just one huge communication problem and funny as well. Wait for it.

I loved Cryptonomicom as well.
Click to expand...


Oh I'm definitely going to read it, its just I need to read on my commute or I get extremely bored, I'm looking forward to it even more with all the recommendations now. :D
 
F

Falch

Member
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Currently re-reading A Scanner Darkly. I'm enjoying it even more this time. Very little SF really, primarily a book about drug use.

I'm not sure what to read next. I'll probably buy some new books this weekend based on GAF recommendations.
 
Z

Zhuk

Banned
51BN2RC9BKL._SL500_AA240_.jpg


Excellent book for those who are interested about the technology that goes into Formula 1 cars and how it has advanced over the past 50 years.
 
H

Hark

Member
I should pick up a copy of The Corner. I've heard nothing but good about it and I loved The Wire.
 
W

Wes

venison crêpe
Was desperate for a book so picked this one up on a whim:

Miller_-_The_Innocent_Mage_Coverart.png


I also got my hands on Ship of Magic by Robin Hobb. I have a question though. Do I need to/should I read the far seer trilogy before starting it?
 
C

Cerebral Assassin

Member
Wes said:
I also got my hands on Ship of Magic by Robin Hobb. I have a question though. Do I need to/should I read the far seer trilogy before starting it?
Click to expand...

You don't need to but would recommend it as if you are gonna read the Farseer Trilogy after it will spoil some of the plot for you.
 
S

Space Cadet

Banned
Cheshire said:
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Still early in so I'm refraining from making judgement.
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I have tried to read that book three fucking times, all my undergrad professors love it, but it never connected with me. Her prose is marvelous, and it is fragmented which I love, but I never felt like it went anywhere. I only made it to around page 60 though so you don't have to listen to me.
 
S

sparky2112

Member
Space Cadet said:
The Broom of the System is excellent, it's just one huge communication problem and funny as well. Wait for it.

I loved Cryptonomicom as well.
Click to expand...

Man, we're ALL on the same page it seems. :D I have always thought there was a strong Wallace-Stephenson cross-over appeal.

Broom is certainly good, but I read it after IJ, and it just reminded me of a starting pitcher throwing really well in the warm-up/bullpen (Broom) before going out and pitching a perfect game (IJ). That's probably why I've been so slow to read The Girl With Curious Hair; latter Wallace is so freakin' awesome, it's hard to work your way backwards. I absolutely cannot wait for The Pale King to come out next year...
 
C

CiSTM

Banned
Spring Snow by Yukio Mishima. John Dunbar gave it a thumbs-up and he is always correct about everything so I decided to give it a try. Only 50 pages down but I like it so far.
 
M

movie_club

Junior Member
After getting bored with A game of thrones
ill try again someday!
, and being unable to get into a book in a long time im trying out these two, does anyone have any opinions on them?

Invisible_man_cover_art.jpg


200px-Littleprince.JPG
 
U

Ultima_5

Member
I'm about 150 pages into "A Thousand Splendid Suns" and so far I'm enjoying it. It's required reading for the college I'm attending in the fall by the way.
 
B

bjork

Member
Yesterday I read Alice's Adventures in Wonderland for the first time. Gonna read Through the Looking Glass today. Friend of mine is a big Alice buff and I've never seen the disney flick nor read the book, so I'm trying to get caught up.

After that, I think I'm gonna try and pick up those $5 classics at the bookstore, to read some stuff I should've read by now. All the books I've read have either been autobiographies or books about pirates. Wanna branch out a little.
 
F

Fritz

Member
Im working crazy hours at the law office right now and dont have time for proper summer holidays. I'm trying to make up for that by reading Marcel Pagnol

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Two books about his summer vacations in southern France when he was a kid. Very awesome. You can also watch the movies.
 
S

Space Cadet

Banned
sparky2112 said:
Man, we're ALL on the same page it seems. :D I have always thought there was a strong Wallace-Stephenson cross-over appeal.

That's probably why I've been so slow to read The Girl With Curious Hair; latter Wallace is so freakin' awesome, it's hard to work your way backwards. I absolutely cannot wait for The Pale King to come out next year...
Click to expand...


Wallace's short story collections are okay, the novels are so much better. His essays are fantastic though. A Supposedly Fun Thing I Will Never Do Again has some classics: the one about Lynch is epic, and the one on literary theory is pretty much essential for English majors, as puts some things in perspective. I wish I understood literary theory as much as Wallace. The guy was a fucking genius.

The Pale King cannot be released soon enough.
 
G

Gilgamesh

Member
8wmv5g.jpg


It's alright. I've read worse. I'm not enjoying it as much as the first one.

movie_club said:
After getting bored with A game of thrones
ill try again someday!
, and being unable to get into a book in a long time im trying out these two, does anyone have any opinions on them?
Click to expand...
Invisible Man is classic Wells. It's good stuff. Dunno about the other one, except that Mario Galaxy was inspired by it or something.
 
T

thomaser

Member
Reposting what I wrote yesterday in the July thread, just to get a foot inside this one:

Just finished Jane Austen's "Sense and Sensibility". Ok romance-story, but flawed. The main character, Elinor, is simply far too perfect to be believable. Irritatingly so. 19yo women don't behave like that, high class or not! Very elegantly written, though.

5172PFDE0EL._BO2,204,203,200_PIsitb-sticker-arrow-click,TopRight,35,-76_AA240_SH20_OU01_.jpg


Now, started on the first book in Cormac McCarthy's "Border" trilogy: "All the Pretty Horses". The shift in style from Sense and Sensibility is jarring to say the least. Austen is ultra refined, McCarthy is raw. But both are beautiful. Challenging to read, since you have to concentrate like a laser beam on his run on, comma-less sentences to make sense out of them.
 
B

besada

Banned
Hark said:
I should pick up a copy of The Corner. I've heard nothing but good about it and I loved The Wire.
Click to expand...

You should also pick up Homicide: A Year on The Killing Streets. It and The Corner are magnificent.

I'm currently reading:
romaeterna_2003.jpg
 
J

Jayge

Member
I'm going to go to Borders, pick up the entire Song of Ice and Fire collection that's out right now and power through it in a week.
 
B

BenjaminBirdie

Banned
sparky2112 said:
Man, we're ALL on the same page it seems. :D I have always thought there was a strong Wallace-Stephenson cross-over appeal.

Broom is certainly good, but I read it after IJ, and it just reminded me of a starting pitcher throwing really well in the warm-up/bullpen (Broom) before going out and pitching a perfect game (IJ). That's probably why I've been so slow to read The Girl With Curious Hair; latter Wallace is so freakin' awesome, it's hard to work your way backwards. I absolutely cannot wait for The Pale King to come out next year...
Click to expand...

Yeah, absolutely. Broom:IJ::Mariachi:Desperado. Certainly admirable and enjoyable, but Infinite Jest is him writing "with a budget", with a much more expanded skill set.

;D
 
W

Wes

venison crêpe
Cerebral Assassin said:
You don't need to but would recommend it as if you are gonna read the Farseer Trilogy after it will spoil some of the plot for you.
Click to expand...

Thanks for the tip. I think I'll have to get to around ordering them then :D
 
B

besada

Banned
subzero9285 said:
Just got this today, so I really can't wait to get stuck in.
Click to expand...

Love that cover. I have them in three separate volumes with much less attractive covers. Dense, but enjoyable.
 
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