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Michael Chabon's The Yiddish Policemen's Union - I'd been trying to get a hold of this for a while and finally got a copy from the library the other day. Fantastic book and well worth the wait. The stuff I've read by Chabon has been hit-and-miss so far (loved Kavalier and Clay as well as The Final Solution, didn't really dig Mysteries of Pittsburgh or Summerland) - but he definitely hit the mark with this one.
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Jun 12, 2008 22:24
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A Hungarian Nabob by Mor (or Maurus) Jokai (the 1898 tranlation by R. Nisbet Bain). I ran across a NY Times list of 100 "summer reads" published in 1898-9, and I took it as a challenge...especially since almost all of them are available online. Nabob was the first on the virtual stack, since I let somebody else pick my first victim (or victimizer). It was perfectly reasonable, but I was more than a little disappointed when I realized the rollicking jollity of the early chapters were prelude for the story of a too-pure-for-this-world heroine's search for happiness and redemption, whose story hijacked the last half of the book and metaphorically flew it to Cuba. Dig this: at one point she thought she was damned for reading a note from a fresh guy hidden in a bouquet of flowers. And all he said was "Leave your garden gate open if you're interested." It wasn't even a double entendre. I still found those parts somewhat entertaining, although probably not for the reasons the author intended. Translator Bain cut the original by one-third, which makes me wonder if he blue penciled the stuff I would've enjoyed in favor of the sentimental stuff Victorians ate up with a spoon. The guy who picked the book, on the other hand, was disappointed that Nabob (at least in the edition I went with) wasn't one of those spirit-breaking Victorian double-deckers... Oh, and because I'm a despicable person, I'm blogging about the list and my experiences with it (with spoiler-laden recaps as I go; this is your only warning). May God have mercy on my soul.
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Jun 12, 2008 23:37
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I've finished a few since last posting in here. Lord Of The Flies by William Golding - Honestly, I didn't like it at all. Boring, reasonably pointless, kinda contrived, and generally not enjoyable. I also don't understand the part with the actual Lord Of The Flies whatsoever. I'm kinda surprised I finished it, to be honest. It's probably just because it was so short. The Shame Of The Nation by Jonathan Kozol - This one was pretty good. For anybody who hasn't read it, it's a non-fiction book about the recent failures of the education system and how, in a lot of the USA, we're returning to a very segregated system. It was my bedside book for a few months, because I read it in really short increments before falling asleep, but I enjoyed it a lot. It certainly made me question how well the school system is holding up in the poorer areas in the country, and makes me want to look further into the issues that it brings up. I feel like I'm forgetting something, but I think that's it.
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Jun 13, 2008 04:27
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Finally finished 100 Years of Solitude after reading it on and off for a while. I think it's one of my favorite things ever. I guess it helps that I love magic realism, folklore, and history--the Buendias and Macondo have that in spades.
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Jun 13, 2008 08:25
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On the Beach by Nevil Shute. Depressing book about people in Australia waiting for radiation from a nuclear war that wiped out the northern hemisphere to reach them.
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Jun 13, 2008 15:26
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Time Must Have a Stop by Aldous Huxley. I enjoyed some of the wit and dark comedy but the overall read was almost a chore to get through and I'm still trying to figure out why some people think it's a better book than Brave New World.
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Jun 13, 2008 23:41
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The Dark Tower (II): The Drawing of the Three. (Actually I read the revised edition of The Gunslinger before this, after having posted about finishing the old one a while ago. If you missed it, this is my first time through The Dark Tower). Roland continues his journey, and this time, at least to me, it felt a lot better paced, with much better action sequences than the previous outing. He is apparently really tired from his acid trip with The Man In Black. So tired, in fact, that he collapses asleep on the shore of the beach, fucks up his ammunition, and a lobstrosity comes a crawlin. Machina kicks in, and his amazing almost supernatural reflexes and awareness are on vacation. He gets his poo poo hosed up, and needs some medicine. Honestly, nothing really happens in the book that I didn't read on the back cover, but it was still a hell of a fun ride. Bonus points for all the hilarious things Detta says about Roland and Eddie jerking each other off. I liked Part I better than this, but not by a lot.
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Jun 13, 2008 23:50
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The Stand by Stephen King. Boy is that an awesome book, really enjoyed it. Felt the start was a little slow and the ending done a little too fast, but anyway, it was great. About to start Catch-22 by Joseph Heller now.
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Jun 14, 2008 03:12
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Over a year later, I've finally finished David Copperfield. I enjoyed it, but by about the 3/4 mark, it was starting to more closely resemble a chore rather than pleasure reading. Currently reading The Secret History, and so far, I'm still falling for it.
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Jun 14, 2008 06:37
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Odd Hours, the fourth in Dean Koontz's Odd Thomas series. It's the second best in the series, after the original novel.
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Jun 14, 2008 13:16
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The Dead Zone by Stephen King. It was a pretty slow book, but the ending was one of the best endings I've ever read in a book. I highly recomend this, as well as King's other works.
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Jun 14, 2008 14:18
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I read Animal Farm yesterday for the first time. It amazes me how many people describe the thing as "cute." There's nothing "cute" about the Russian Revolution and the descent of the Soviet Union into totalitarianism. Maybe if they saw the edition illustrated by Ralph Steadman, they'd get it. As for me, I fuckin' loved it. Better than 1984 even. The imagery was much more vivid, and the metaphor fit perfectly. pill for your ills fucked around with this message at 15:21 on Jun 14, 2008 |
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Jun 14, 2008 15:19
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pill for your ills posted:I read Animal Farm yesterday for the first time. It amazes me how many people describe the thing as "cute." There's nothing "cute" about the Russian Revolution and the descent of the Soviet Union into totalitarianism. Maybe if they saw the edition illustrated by Ralph Steadman, they'd get it. You really liked it more than 1984? I always saw Animal Farm as a reasonably boring and obvious metaphor, whereas I recently read 1984 and thought it was brilliant.
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Jun 14, 2008 19:47
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wlokos posted:You really liked it more than 1984? I always saw Animal Farm as a reasonably boring and obvious metaphor, whereas I recently read 1984 and thought it was brilliant. Well, currently. I'm going to reread 1984 after I'm done with The Road, so my opinion may change. But I did thoroughly enjoy it.
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Jun 14, 2008 20:39
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Pet Semetary, Stephen King I shotgunned the last half of this in past couple days. It was fun, but it kind of annoys me how King seems to leave everything unknown, as opposed to Carrie where he provides at least a pseudo-scientific explanation.
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Jun 14, 2008 21:37
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It's taken me some months but I'vew finally trudged through till the end of Umberto Eco's Name of the Rose. It's a drat interesting read, but goddamn, it's practically Dante with it's constant references to medieval religious politics and Pope-drama. Still it turned out to be quite interesting overall. That said, 10 old men arguing over whether Jesus was poor shouldn't take more than 3 pages in a book, let alone more than 3 chapters.
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Jun 14, 2008 23:02
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Neverwhere by Neil Gaimen. I remember seeing the BBC miniseries a long time ago so I bought it on a whim. Gaimen's one of those authors that runs sort of hot and cold for me. This was pretty good though, fast-paced and well-written with just enough wit to be entertaining without bogging it down with attempts at being funny. A good light read. The Raw Shark Texts by Steven Hall. Fished this out of the bargain bin at B&N for about six bucks. Mostly bought it because of the cover art. (I'm a sucker for good graphic design). Interesting premise, executed well. It draws its theme and style heavily from Murakami, and it suffers a little (perhaps unjustly) in the inevitable comparison. There's some House of Leaves style typographical tricks here, too, but more understated; it never quite reaches the same level of obnoxiousness that HoL did. All in all a very good read, highly recommended for fans of Murakami or postmodernist style novels. I don't know how universal B&N's bargain books are, but the hardbound edition I picked up is an absolute steal at six dollars, too. Baby Babbeh fucked around with this message at 23:47 on Jun 15, 2008 |
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Jun 15, 2008 23:30
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Generation of Swine by Hunter S. Thompson. It's the second installment of the Gonzo papers. Pretty much covers 1984 to 1989. Lots of interesting stuff about Khadafy, Pat Buchanan, Nixon. If you're interested in reading HST I would not start this one. The Gonzo Papers aren't really a fluid read, more like maniacal midnight scribblings. Children of Men by P.D. James. I saw the movie and loved it. I've read distopian novels before (The Iron Heel) etc. and never heard of this one before the film. It's divided into two section Alpha,which is a history of the story, and Omega which picks up at current day. If you saw the movie you will like Omega more (as I did) but Alpha will explain a lot more about Theo.
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Jun 16, 2008 01:40
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On Writing by Stephen King: More a memoir of the author's life than a how-to guide about how to write. I condensed all the tips on actual writing that I got out of it into a single handwritten page of notes. I didn't mind reading through all of it though, it was interesting enough. I'll pick up the oft-recommended Elements of Style (it even gets plugged by King in the book) later for some more focused guidance.
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Jun 16, 2008 11:29
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American Gods by Neil Gaiman I really liked this one. If you liked the Sandman comics he did then you should enjoy ths. Highly recommended. The Time Traveler's Wife by Audrey Niffenegger. Crappy romance novel. The time traveler comes across as mostly a creep and sometimes a jerk. The wife just waits around for him doing nothing. As a couple they are annoying. Avoid this.
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Jun 16, 2008 14:30
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I just finished rereading Watchmen. What a superb comic book.
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Jun 16, 2008 15:35
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Redemption of Althalus I don't know why I put off reading David Eddings' books, they're always fantastic. Guess I'll have to go pick up some of his other series now, especially since I've read the Belgariad/Mallorean and Eleni/Tamuli books to death.
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Jun 16, 2008 18:34
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ErikTheRed posted:Working on Cryptonomicon by Neal Stephenson. It's a little daunting at first just due to jumping around between the different characters and their storylines, something I also struggled with in A Song of Ice and Fire. But similarly, once you get your bearings the book really pulls you in. This is my favorite sci-fi (if you can even call it that) book of all time, and in fact I'm re-reading it for the first time since early highschool right now. I LOVE THIS BOOK. One of the few books that can make you laugh out loud one minute, then rack your brain to comprehend some mathematical concept the next, and bite your nails in agony at a suspenseful situation the minute after that. Amazing book - Stephenson's best, in my opinion. gently caress, I'm on page 907 right now, let's see if I can finish before I have to go to work in an hour!
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Jun 16, 2008 22:44
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I just finished rereading Battle Royale, great book. Now I am wondering if I can get my hands on the movie they made out of it gwaarrk fucked around with this message at 03:41 on Jun 17, 2008 |
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Jun 17, 2008 03:38
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I just finished my two day read of Puppet by Joy Fielding. It was an interesting read, and parts of it I truly despised. But this author did a good job of ending the book in a satisfying way. It is very open for a sequel, maybe she even wrote one.. I don't know. Pick it up if you have a long plane ride for a business trip.
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Jun 17, 2008 04:41
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Just finished The Brothers Karamazov. I feel like a lot of it went over my head, but I really enjoyed it anyways. By far my favorite Dostoyevsky. I also just started The Rebel, and Camus goes over some interesting points about Ivan that I had missed.
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Jun 17, 2008 14:01
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Amerika by Franz Kafka. It was lighter than other Kafka works, but it's still written in his distinct style. One sentence summary: A 16 year old is sent to America after impregnating his family's servant. I saw shades of Kafka in the protagonist, but he's less of a proxy than other characters. I only have one complaint about the book. While the last chapter is somewhat conclusive, Max Brod left out two untitled fragments that skipped alot of information that related to how the final chapter tied up with the rest of the work.
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Jun 17, 2008 14:29
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pill for your ills posted:I read Animal Farm yesterday for the first time. It amazes me how many people describe the thing as "cute." There's nothing "cute" about the Russian Revolution and the descent of the Soviet Union into totalitarianism. Maybe if they saw the edition illustrated by Ralph Steadman, they'd get it. I finished nineteen eighty-four a couple of days ago, and it's probably the best book I've ever read. After finishing it I couldn't do anything for the rest of the day - it was just running around in my mind like crazy. If Animal Farm is anywhere near as thought-provocative, I'm hauling rear end down to Prague to get it at the first opportunity...
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Jun 17, 2008 18:27
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Over the weekend I read Matt Taibbi's The Great Derangement. I enjoyed a lot of what Taibbi had to say, even if he is a bit too cynical for my tastes. The chapters pertaining to his fake membership in Hagee's church are especially interesting, in that I constantly had to remind myself that I wasn't reading fiction. It's absolutely mind-boggling and heartbreaking just how utterly insane a large percentage of the population in America is. The chapters about how the government really works are downright depressing. My only complaint is that the book just kind of fizzles to an end, as though either Taibbi got tired of working on the book or his publisher's patience wore out, or both. I also finished Justina Robson's Natural History over the weekend. I thought it was a decent read, but not very substantial. I think she was trying to comment on free will and self-determination, but it wasn't fleshed out very much. Also, she did the one thing that annoys me more than anything in scifi: she uses vague or made-up words and names to add an air of sci-fi, but doesn't explain what many of them mean. Gaiaform Asevenday Kincaid? What the gently caress does that mean? Still, a short and entertaining read, so I'll let it go.
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Jun 17, 2008 21:07
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Mao II by Don DeLillo - A look at the power of images and words and how they affect mass thought, as told through the story of a reclusive writer who is asked to meet with the leader of a terrorist group in the Middle East. As usual, DeLillo's style takes some getting used to, but what he has to say is very interesting and thought-provoking. The Ghost by Robert Harris - Harris' latest effort moves away from historical fiction and takes place in the present day. A professional ghostwriter is asked to help complete the memoirs of a disgraced former British prime minister after the previous ghostwriter mysteriously dies, which naturally leads to dark secrets being uncovered. Fairly predictable but interesting enough to keep me reading. The Nautical Chart by Arturo Perez-Reverte - On the surface(heh), it's a pretty standard treasure hunt story: A sailor meets a mysterious woman searching for the location of a sunken ship that sank off the coast of Spain in the late 1700s, but they have to contend with an unscrupulous treasure hunter and his goons who are also looking for the ship. The character development and prose is top-notch and I particularly liked how they fleshed out the story of how the ship came to sink in the first place - but the pacing is rather slow at points. Encryptic fucked around with this message at 22:35 on Jun 20, 2008 |
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Jun 18, 2008 04:28
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Over the last week I read The Revolt of the Cockroach People by Oscar 'Zeta' Acosta. This book is a true story based on Zeta's perspective beginning when he comes to Los Angeles in the 60s and takes on the banner of the Chicano civil rights movement. As a lawyer he works to fight the overt racism in the justice system of southern california through multiple trials over the course of several years. You may recognize Acosta as the fat lawyer from Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas. You can expect a similar writing style, and lots of drugs and sex. Hunter S. Thompson actually wrote the foreward for this book.
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Jun 18, 2008 14:10
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BIG CRACKER posted:The Dark Tower (II): The Drawing of the Three. (Actually I read the revised edition of The Gunslinger before this, after having posted about finishing the old one a while ago. If you missed it, this is my first time through The Dark Tower). The Dark Tower (III): The Wastelands by Stephen King if you've been living under a rock. So far my absolute favorite of the novels. Huge fuckoff bears, a cute raccoon-dog-thing, dead baby jokes, and a Little Rascals reference. Lots of action this time around, and lots of character development as well. The ka-tet is getting closer to the Tower, and now they've finally found how to actually get there. And they kill poo poo on the way. A++ would read again.
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Jun 18, 2008 18:09
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Been a while since I posted in this thread ... In order, starting with the one I finished longest ago: Blood Meridian left me breathless. Utterly brutal, unrelenting, and "difficult" at times. One of the few books, having read it, that immediately made me want to start over at page 1 again and read it all over again. I thought I'd read something "easy", or "fun" and people had spoken well of Koontz's Velocity (against my better judgment). Perhaps it was because it had the misfortune of following Meridian, but I put this loving piece of poo poo down after the first sentence of the third chapter. <lit_snob>What dreck.</lit_snob> Having now decided I was incapable of reading trash (and I used to read a fair amount of trash) I went out and purchased more "big el literature". I read Lolita which was everything that people made it out to be. I don't know one lick of French, however, which detracted from my enjoyment somewhat. I'm thinking of picking up the annotated edition to see just how much went over my head (I'm guessing a lot of it did). I did feel, however, that much of "Part II" somewhat drug on. After Lolita, I read Faulkner's As I Lay Dying and absolutely loved it. I liked this more than Lolita, in fact. I had given up on The Unvanquished previously, but will probably revisit it. The Sound and the Fury is up next on my list, or perhaps The Raw Shark Texts. I'm currently about a third of the way through Blindness and enjoying it a good deal. I question the plausibility of any modern government quarantining a group of people without virtually any aid, and their general practice of "shoot first, never ask any questions" also seems to be absurd, but whatever. It is fiction, after all.. So far, the Book Barn HoF hasn't let me down.
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Jun 18, 2008 20:46
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idhindsight posted:I'm currently about a third of the way through Blindness and enjoying it a good deal. I question the plausibility of any modern government quarantining a group of people without virtually any aid, and their general practice of "shoot first, never ask any questions" also seems to be absurd, but whatever. It is fiction, after all.. None of this is without historical precedent, though.
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Jun 18, 2008 23:55
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idhindsight posted:
I had the same problem the first time I read it. I mean it still became my favorite book right away but I didn't like the second half nearly as much as the first. Do get the annotated version though, I think it clears up a lot of poo poo and a second reading really reveals more about what is actually happening in the second half of the book. And the annotations for when he is not speaking in French are even more helpful. Consider reading Nabokov's other works.
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Jun 19, 2008 00:00
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Lyz posted:Redemption of Althalus I really liked Althalus, but did feel it felt a bit rushed, like Eddings was trying to cram 3-4 books worth of story into one. But that said, very few authors are as good at writing likable characters as he is. I just reread both the Belgariad and Malloreon last week, and can't say enough good of them.
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Jun 19, 2008 00:53
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Liquid Communism posted:I really liked Althalus, but did feel it felt a bit rushed, like Eddings was trying to cram 3-4 books worth of story into one. But that said, very few authors are as good at writing likable characters as he is. I dunno, man, he's an old favorite from when I was a kid, but picking him back up as an adult it's pretty obvious that he's only got four or five different characters that he slaps new coats of paint on. And exactly one plot: a party of heroes who love each other very much travel across a magical land, making sure to visit each and every part of it along the way, to fight the greatest evil, or to find the magical stone (every loving time with the magical blue stone) that will allow them to fight the greatest evil. There's still a lot to like in his stuff, I just wish he had a bit more variety. Make that a lot more variety.
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Jun 19, 2008 17:17
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I just finished Eco's Baudolino, and I can easily say it was as good, but not better than his other stuff I've read. The thing I like about this guy's work is that it's so very dense with allusions and historical references, yet at the same time, it's incredibly easy to read for mere entertainment. That being said, I really enjoyed the novel's theme of history. "Telling a little lie to preserve the greater truth" truly sums up our approach to history and how we record it. I also liked that while Baudolino is the epitome of the unreliable narrator, you still find yourself wishing everything he said was the truth. In the end, you're left asking the question, "but what then did Baudolino and his companions do for all those years?"
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Jun 19, 2008 21:11
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I've been on a summer tear lately. Remainder by Tom McCarthy. I admit, I only picked it up because it was listed as The Believer's book of the year for '07. I was ready to dislike it since alot of the McSweeney's/Believer stuff sounds similar and oh so postmodern and blah blah blah. This book charmed me though. It's about an English guy who gets hit on the head by something and gets a huge settlement. He becomes obsessed with human movement and what it means to be "true." He tries to discover truth/happiness by hiring people to re-enact bits of his memories over and over. Then he starts re-enacting things that happen to him in the present, then murders he hears about, and on and on. It's a weird, quirky little book that gets a little dark at the end but still pulls that off well. It's out in paperback now so it's only $14 or so.
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Jun 19, 2008 22:09
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The Count of Monte Cristo (1844, 2003 Translation) By Alexander Dumas - Sweet Jesus is this a long book; even after setting a goal of 100 pages a day, it still took me two weeks to read. But I can now say (with a permissable amount of lying) that I've read this book twice, even though the first time around was with a stodgy, mid-19th Century English translation which I later found out was abridged (don't ever trust the words "enhanced classic"). So why did I decide to read this behemoth twice? Because it's just so damned awesome. And, after finding out about a recent re-translation with all of the juicy bits intact, there was no other sane option. The story of Monte Cristo is simple: dude gets wrongly accused and put into jail, then breaks out and executes elaborate revenge plots on all those who've wronged him. What makes the story great is the insane amount of fleshing out Dumas does to this relatively simple premise; there are so many different stories intertwining that you could probably make 7 or 8 separate novels if you assembled the individual threads into their own separate narratives. And everything works, even if the payoff is a little lacking in comparison to the extremely protracted build-up; after all, the story is so epic because it was being published serially and Dumas, like any sane man, wanted lots of money. But aside from a few tolerable jaunts into relatively unrelated territory--Dumas sometimes likes to explore the complete backgrounds of characters we barely see--everything feels like it fits into the grand scheme that is this novel and the Count's own revenge. Reading The Count of Monte Cristo is a huge investment, but it may give you the greatest satisfaction you'll ever get from finishing a book--and not because you won't have to hold the damned thing up anymore. Whatever you do, make sure you grab the Penguin Classics version, which has a great translation and includes concepts once excised for the benefit of wimpy Victorian England audiences, like lesbians and drug trips.
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Jun 19, 2008 23:28
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