|
Guy A. Person posted:Guys I have been reading "The Master and Margarita and boy has it been great. Get your giant cat to sic 'em.
|
# ¿ Jul 12, 2014 01:19 |
|
|
# ¿ May 16, 2024 18:38 |
|
Burning Rain posted:you should all follow kobe bryant on goodreads drat, Kobe is a well-read dude. Who knew? His reviews are great too.
|
# ¿ Jun 7, 2015 23:15 |
|
Wraith of J.O.I. posted:Any Ferrante fans here looking forward to final Neapolitan novel coming out next week? Kinda sad to see it end, but I know I'll devour in a couple days. Absolutely. I tore through the first three in about a week each before realizing I'd have to wait for the final one to come out. Have it on preorder at the local book store, will be heading down there as soon as I get the chance. Really don't know what to expect from it apart from another brilliant book.
|
# ¿ Aug 28, 2015 08:33 |
|
Fellwenner posted:Yes! Wallace Stegner is probably my favorite American author. The settings of his books are western and he does generational novels really well, as so few authors seem to do. The prose isn't perfect, but his characters are. I once found Angle of Repose at a bar and took it home. It sits on my bookshelf unread. Perhaps this will give me the motivation to try it out. Didnt realize he was an author with any sort of prestige. On another note, has anyone made it through the new Ferrante novel? I'm about 2/3 in and it is utterly devastating. I've wanted to alternately scream and cry the entire way through. Here's hoping for some happy resolution (yeah right)
|
# ¿ Sep 7, 2015 18:29 |
|
Flattened Spoon posted:So I finished the Neapolitan series by Farrente. It makes Germinal seem tame in comparison and the revenge in The Count of Monte Cristo seem like child's play. There's so much Italian history and politics that I didn't know about, and it was well integrated in the story between Elena and Lila and a huge host of other characters. You really see the best and worst in almost all of them. I just finished it this morning too. This book broke me. I don't know what to think of anything or anyone. I really can't resign myself to anything, that this book is over, or anything. The series elides description, both its style and its content, but it was certainly brilliant and livelier and fuller than any book I remember reading. What a sadness to have it be over.
|
# ¿ Sep 9, 2015 22:28 |
|
ulvir posted:It looks like she's mostly writing serialised fiction? unless I'm mistaken. any specific book you recommend? Read the Neapolitan series, which starts with "My Brilliant Friend." Absolutely fantastic in every way. Where do you get the impression she's writing serialised fiction? Unless it's from the intentionally pulpy covers of all of her books.
|
# ¿ Sep 20, 2015 23:27 |
|
Mel Mudkiper posted:Name a book where that happens Stoner, by John Williams. Super depressing. Read it.
|
# ¿ Nov 2, 2015 18:25 |
|
Hey can anyone recommend some good poetry books not by white dudes? I just looked at my bookshelf and all my poetry books are by white dudes (plus one Sylvia Plath). Anything is fine, as long as it's good I'll take a look at it.
|
# ¿ Nov 12, 2015 18:22 |
|
Swagger Dagger posted:I just checked out City On Fire for my long book I'm going to read like a third of over winter break Report back on how this is please.
|
# ¿ Dec 14, 2015 02:44 |
|
WAY TO GO WAMPA!! posted:War All the Time and A Brief History of Seven Killings! I got Brief History also, as well as Journey by Moonlight by Antal Szerb (anyone read this??). And also Gamelife by Michael Clune, which was a pretty cool read about video games and childhood, but was occasionally insufferable and disturbing. Clune is friends with Ben Lerner () so that might explain something.
|
# ¿ Dec 26, 2015 18:55 |
|
blue squares posted:I hated Underworld. White Noise is a terrible introduction to DeLillo because it fools you into thinking he is funny and writes madcap stories like the Airborne Toxic Event. Then you read any of his other books and they are humorless and annoying. I really dislike all the DeLillo I have read outside of White Noise, which I loved. Mao II and End Zone were pretty good. Looking forward to reading Libra one day also. I agree re: Underworld though, too much going on without any sort of coherence. Bo-ring.
|
# ¿ Feb 10, 2016 20:16 |
|
Looking to read The Odyssey for the first time (probably The Iliad and the Aeneid too), what's a good poetic translation? I have the Rieu translation but it's in prose, so that's not exactly what I want.
|
# ¿ Mar 31, 2016 16:17 |
|
WatermelonGun posted:I've only read Blindness but it rules. gently caress yes. The Little Red Chairs is so good. Picked it up the day it came out in NA and read it in about two. The book is fantastic. I don't really want to say anything else because I don't want to spoil it for you but post when you're done and I'll talk about it. Also Saramago rules. Read Blindness last month and have Seeing on the pile. How does it stack up (ha ha)?
|
# ¿ Apr 28, 2016 21:28 |
|
Reading Petals of Blood by Ngũgĩ wa Thiong'o. Whoever said Kenyan lit was hype was right on. Just read a scene where African students at Cambridge organized a strike because the headmaster wanted them to bury his dead dog.. So great.
|
# ¿ May 9, 2016 08:12 |
|
david crosby posted:Glad yo;u liked it. Read Alvaro Enrigue's Hypothermia. Weird depraved Mexican author. Book features orgies, infidelity, being struck by lightning, and reality TV cooking show embarrassment. It's super cool.
|
# ¿ May 16, 2016 20:11 |
|
My barber (who recommended me Bolano and Ferrante before they were "cool") also told me about Alejandro Zambra, so I will check it out. In other news, I'm reading Taipei by Tao Lin and I seriously can't tell if this is satire or in earnest. Please help. Also he is not as good of a writer as he thinks he is.
|
# ¿ May 18, 2016 18:19 |
|
Mel Mudkiper posted:The Good Lieutenant Is this the sequel to The Good Soldier where he gets promoted? Realtalk: I'm reading Boy Snow Bird by Helen Oyeyemi right now but I am tempted to reread Infinite Jest again cause I was a baby when I read it the first time. Also I have Hypothermia by Alvaro Enrigue on the stack right now. Too many books! thehoodie fucked around with this message at 21:04 on Jun 3, 2016 |
# ¿ Jun 3, 2016 21:02 |
|
Cloks posted:Been Down So Long It Looks Like Up To Me Yeah this book is real cool. The author, Richard Farina was Thomas Pynchon's best friend in college and died in a motorcycle accident like a week before/after (I forget) after this book was published. Pretty awesome. Cool poo poo in the book too.
|
# ¿ Jun 10, 2016 01:48 |
|
I'm reading a book called Sudden Death by Alvaro Enrique. It's about a tennis match between the painter Caravaggio and the poet Quevedo to settle a duel over a drunken argument neither of them remember, played with a tennis ball made out of the hair of Anne Boleyn. It's pretty cool.
|
# ¿ Jun 18, 2016 15:35 |
|
I'm going to the bookstore today. I can afford one book. What should I get?
|
# ¿ Aug 4, 2016 18:10 |
|
I'm reading The Golden Notebook. It's rad. Anyone else read it?
|
# ¿ Aug 12, 2016 17:21 |
|
blue squares posted:I'm learning Spanish and it's coming along quite quickly (I have four semesters of college Spanish, and can have a decent conversation, but my still limited vocab is the #1 problem... but anyway). I want to start reading primarily latin american lit. The only truly well known book I've read is One Hundred Years of Solitude. What would be the best way to go about exploring latin american literture? I want to stay pretty recent. Should I pick a country and read a few books from there or should I bounce around? Is there a good list out there I can follow? I recommend Zambra and Bolano and Fuentes and Alvaro Enrigue, but I would also like to know some more good Latin America authors because all those guys are rad. Since they're all guys, maybe some women Latin American authors??
|
# ¿ Aug 12, 2016 22:49 |
|
blue squares posted:Congratulations for not wasting any more time on it Get out. That book is amazing
|
# ¿ Sep 2, 2016 00:52 |
|
Anyone here read Gyula Krudy? He's a Hungarian writer and pretty weird. For instance, I am reading The Adventures of Sinbad and in the second story Sinbad has a dream he is a King, wakes up and goes to find an ex-lover who turned out to have been watching him since they were apart, then he dies and becomes a piece of mistletoe hanging in the room of another ex-lover. Anyway, it's pretty rad.
|
# ¿ Sep 14, 2016 16:25 |
|
Ugh I just started reading Aquarium and I got to the part where the police confront the old man in the aquarium and it turns out to be Caitlin's grandfather and I am broken. This book is breaking me and I'm not even halfway through. But I can't stop reading!
|
# ¿ Sep 30, 2016 18:37 |
|
Mel Mudkiper posted:Oh buddy you are at like 10% I just spent the rest of the day so far reading and finishing it, and boy you are not kidding here. I think I need to spend the weekend curled up on my couch. Definitely one of the best books I have ever read.
|
# ¿ Sep 30, 2016 22:05 |
|
Mel Mudkiper posted:So what are thoughts about the guy claiming to have unmasked Ferrante? As someone somewhere (I think my FB) said, attempts to reveal the identity of someone who said they'll stop writing if their identity revealed seem like nothing other than attempts to get them to stop writing.
|
# ¿ Oct 4, 2016 05:37 |
|
Just started reading At Swim-Two-Birds. This poo poo is hilarious and I have no idea what is happening.
|
# ¿ Oct 8, 2016 21:47 |
|
Fun fact: Bob Dylan and Thomas Pynchon probably hung out once or twice in college.
|
# ¿ Oct 13, 2016 15:06 |
|
Franchescanado posted:Bob Dylan barely stayed in college for a year and in Minnesota? How would he hang out with Pynchon in Cornell in the 50's if he didn't even go to New York until the early 60's, when Pynchon was working for Boeing in Seattle? Sorry it was after college. Blame Farina.
|
# ¿ Oct 13, 2016 15:22 |
|
What do you call a Nobel Laureate made of corn? Cob Dylan
|
# ¿ Oct 13, 2016 16:53 |
|
Finished At Swim-Two-Birds. What a rad book. Probably gonna read Paul Beatty's White Boy Shuffle, or Andrey Kurkov's Death and the Penguin next. Anyone read either of those and have opinions?
|
# ¿ Oct 14, 2016 17:32 |
|
Mel Mudkiper posted:So, a somewhat obscure writer I like, Steven Sherrill, has a new book out. I loved this book and am very glad it has a sequel. Hopefully it's good. Please report back if you read it.
|
# ¿ Oct 19, 2016 17:27 |
|
J_RBG posted:The Sellout has won the Booker if anyone's interested Nice! I'm reading Beatty's first book The White Boy Shuffle, right now and its pretty good. I'll have to check out this book, will be interesting to see how he's developed.
|
# ¿ Oct 25, 2016 23:19 |
|
Foul Fowl posted:i really couldn't get into all that man is but i only read the first chapter with the two dorks reading henry james and ~living on the edge~, does it get better? Yeah I think so, I think that first chapter is like making fun of pretentious youth who think that kind of poo poo. But I found the book kind of frustrating because all the stories are about (presumably, though I guess it isn't explicitly stated) the struggle of white men, which is like all of literature ever, but it's really well written so I read it anyway.
|
# ¿ Jan 6, 2017 17:44 |
|
ulvir posted:this year will be the year that I read krasznahorkai He is good. I read Seiobo, There Below which is about depressed middle aged men who have no solace apart from art. Also each story is told without periods which is very enrapturing. I am going to read War & War here sometime soon, after I finish Laurus by Eugene Vodolazkin (has anyone here read that? it's about a Russian doctor except way better than Zhivago (which is also good)). On another note, I am embarking upon a journey to read a book by an author from every country in the world. Anyone have any recommendations for authors from some of the smaller countries like Tuvalu and Nauru?
|
# ¿ Jan 6, 2017 21:35 |
|
fridge corn posted:that guy thinks American Gods was really good and clever I think it's a lady. But anyway, I already found that website, just wondering if goons have any particular recommendations.
|
# ¿ Jan 6, 2017 23:45 |
|
A human heart posted:there's a lot of affluent american authors from new york with names like dave, jonathan, garth, and bombo, and they're all extremely stupid Don't forget Ben
|
# ¿ Jan 27, 2017 06:22 |
|
Sleng Teng posted:I read the Vann book and it was Not Good. I read this post and it was Not Good. For content: I just read Wittgenstein's Mistress which is about a woman who thinks she is the only person in the world and makes a bunch of allusions to authors and artists she hung out with, like the time when her cat sat on William Gaddis's lap. It was weird but also I think I liked it.
|
# ¿ Mar 21, 2017 19:56 |
|
|
# ¿ May 16, 2024 18:38 |
|
Holy ugh, this article makes me mad. The Rising Tide of Educated Aliteracy. I don't even want to post any part of it. Summary: "educated" and "intelligent" people glorifying not reading.
|
# ¿ Mar 24, 2017 20:18 |