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David Wong is a pseudonym but its nothing super weird or anything like that. He's also the muscles like this! fucked around with this message at 23:55 on Nov 10, 2010 |
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Nov 10, 2010 23:53
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Evfedu posted:John Dies At The End by David Wong. I don't think so, but he's editor in chief of Cracked.com. He's writing a sequel, as well as helping out with a movie adaptation which will have Paul Giamatti and Clancy Brown in it. e;f,b
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Nov 11, 2010 00:05
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Just started Karl Marlantes's Matterhorn and holy poo poo, that first chapter is not something you want to read on a lunch break. 
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Nov 11, 2010 22:19
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Been on a history kick lately, just recently got back into fiction/literature. My interest between the two seems to switch every few months, sometimes pretty rapidly. I skipped out halfway through a history of Japan to read David Foster Wallace's A supposedly Fun Thing I'll Never Do Again and Consider the Lobster. I love Infinite Jest and his short fiction and I found his nonfiction just as compelling. His essay on David Lynch in particular was incredible and insightful, as was the title piece in ASFTINDA and the piece about the porn awards in CTL. What's most impressive, though, is his ability to burrow into any subject and find its human interest or conflict, even pro tennis and grammar wars, which would usually bore me to tears. CON: The last essay in CTL about conservative talk radio really pushes the boundaries of how much one can abuse footnotes. I like DFW's style of sortof using footnotes to take the reader down a different path that may not get explored otherwise, but it's so gratuitous here that it just kills the essay's momentum. Right now I'm about halfway through Gabriel Garcia Marquez's One Hundred Years of Solitude and loving loving it so far. It's somehow managing to feel like a microcosm of human history and a great story about really complex, believable characters at the same time. I haven't been a fan of some "magical realism" I've read but Marquez's use of surreal elements feels really natural and fun, as well.
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Nov 12, 2010 07:38
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Starting Ender's Game on the recommendation of pretty much everybody, including the clerk at the desk when I bought it. It was getting to the point where I'm reading it just so that I can say I've read it and no one will recommend it to me. It's not bad so far, though I'm kind of losing interest.
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Nov 12, 2010 20:30
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Ninja_Orca posted:Starting Ender's Game on the recommendation of pretty much everybody, including the clerk at the desk when I bought it. It was getting to the point where I'm reading it just so that I can say I've read it and no one will recommend it to me. It's not bad so far, though I'm kind of losing interest. The problem with this book is that it's pretty obvious what's going on. I got the feeling the ending was meant to be a big twist. And maybe it would have been if I read it at age 12. But as an adult, I just wasn't surprised by it. I still liked the book, and do recommend it to people. But it isn't quite as MIND BLOWING as people make it out to be. Red Pyramid posted:Right now I'm about halfway through Gabriel Garcia Marquez's One Hundred Years of Solitude and loving loving it so far. It's somehow managing to feel like a microcosm of human history and a great story about really complex, believable characters at the same time. I haven't been a fan of some "magical realism" I've read but Marquez's use of surreal elements feels really natural and fun, as well. I really liked that one. It was a little hit or miss for me at parts. Some stuff I thought was great, other bits were just boring or silly. But on the whole, a great book. Simultaneously made me want to be an author, and realize that I shouldn't even try. Wyatt fucked around with this message at 21:25 on Nov 12, 2010 |
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Nov 12, 2010 21:22
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Red Pyramid posted:CON: The last essay in CTL about conservative talk radio really pushes the boundaries of how much one can abuse footnotes. I like DFW's style of sortof using footnotes to take the reader down a different path that may not get explored otherwise, but it's so gratuitous here that it just kills the essay's momentum. Well, it was meant to be read online, I think. I certainly works a lot better in that format and I actually wonder sometimes why more people haven't tried it.
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Nov 13, 2010 03:37
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barkingclam posted:Well, it was meant to be read online, I think. I certainly works a lot better in that format and I actually wonder sometimes why more people haven't tried it. Ah, that's interesting. That's definitely alot tidier than cramming big cubes of text everywhere on page ala House of Leaves. Wyatt posted:I really liked that one. It was a little hit or miss for me at parts. Some stuff I thought was great, other bits were just boring or silly. But on the whole, a great book. Simultaneously made me want to be an author, and realize that I shouldn't even try. I think the silly bits are pretty much what make the book for me. Some of the weird moments so far have been brilliant (the whole bulletless assassination and subsequent winding pool of blood being a prime example) and they throw the more somber or brutal moments into sharp relief. I guess that's maybe not the best example of "silly", but it's one of the many examples of the way Marquez uses surreal elements in really cool subtle ways. Red Pyramid fucked around with this message at 04:35 on Nov 13, 2010 |
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Nov 13, 2010 04:26
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Chamberk posted:Just started Karl Marlantes's Matterhorn and holy poo poo, that first chapter is not something you want to read on a lunch break. ha, you're right. good loving book, though.
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Nov 14, 2010 03:06
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I've broken a nine month long smorgasbord of fantasy/sci-fi for Ghost Wars by Steve Coll, an account of the Afghan-Soviet War and the rise of the Taliban based on interviews of first-hand participants. It touches on the war itself only generally, and rather focuses on the development of jihadism as a cultural force and the institutional response of the US government (mainly the CIA) to it.
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Nov 14, 2010 06:01
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The Master and Margarita. This book is really surreal and different from the other russian literature I've read. So far I don't really know where he's going with it, but after the first chapter I was hooked.
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Nov 14, 2010 11:29
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funkybottoms posted:ha, you're right. good loving book, though. Matterhorn is my favorite book since Oryx and Crake, but I am a sucker for good war liteature (Naked and the Dead, Fields of Fire, The Things They Carried, etc.).
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Nov 14, 2010 16:25
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Shark Mafia posted:The Master and Margarita. This book is really surreal and different from the other russian literature I've read. So far I don't really know where he's going with it, but after the first chapter I was hooked.
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Nov 14, 2010 18:18
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nate fisher posted:Matterhorn is my favorite book since Oryx and Crake, but I am a sucker for good war liteature (Naked and the Dead, Fields of Fire, The Things They Carried, etc.). TNATD + likable characters = Matterhorn. it's also a nice companion to joe haldeman's excellent The Forever War. am about to start peter bognanni's The House of Tomorrow. haven't heard anything about it, but the publisher sent us a copy, so...
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Nov 16, 2010 02:36
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Just started The Supermale by Alfred Jarry. I was a huge fan of the (admittedly/purposely immature) Ubu plays, so I figured I would give his long-form works a shot. Loving it so far.
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Nov 16, 2010 03:45
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As some people here I also liked a lot American Gods. I think too that Neverwhere was a very enjoyable "trip". I just bought Moon Called, perhaps because I just finished the second book (The Fall) on the The Strain series. I confess that I expect a terrible book, even with the good reviews on Amazon. Hopefully it will be good.
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Nov 21, 2010 05:00
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I just bought these yesterday.  juliuspringle fucked around with this message at 20:20 on Nov 26, 2010 |
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Nov 21, 2010 16:00
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Just started Full Dark, No Stars by Stephen King. I've finished the first story in the book and enjoyed it very much. I hope the rest of the stories are just as good.
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Nov 26, 2010 17:31
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I just received all 13 of the used books I ordered myself for Christmas: The Very Persistent Gappers of Frip by George Saunders The Braindead Megaphone to complete my George Saunders collection. Heat and Other Stories by Joyce Carol Oates Soon I Will Be Invincible by Austin Grossman The Toughest Indian in the World by Sherman Alexie Reservation Blues, also by Sherman Alexie A Practical Guide to Racism by C.H. Dalton (recommended to me by Amazon; looks pretty funny) Your Next-Door Neighbor is a Dragon by the great Zach Parsons John Dies at the End by the great David Wong Where I'm Calling From by Raymond Carver Infinte Jest by David Foster Wallace (I was shocked by how HUGE this book was. When it was delivered, I thought it was one of my textbooks) Oblivion by David Foster Wallace (I always read an author's short stories after I read their "breakthrough" novel) and one more, which I can't remember right now for the life of me.
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Nov 26, 2010 21:33
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Just picked up Painkillers by Jerry Stahl off the bargain table at Chapters
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Nov 28, 2010 03:16
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Started The Brothers Karamazov yesterday. Really like it so far (~80 pages) and drat it, I'll try my best to finish before Christmas. Moneyball and The Blind Side are on their way to my college mailroom soon, which I'm also very excited about.
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Nov 29, 2010 06:58
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The Darkness that Comes Before by R. Scott Bakker. So far (50 pages) I like all of the setup. Kellus seems like a badass, and I'm glad he's not the viewpoint of ever chapter.
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Nov 29, 2010 21:56
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MillionsV posted:I just received all 13 of the used books I ordered myself for Christmas: I adore George Sauders. I sort of want to buy everyone I hold in high regard a copy of The Brief and Frightening Reign of Phil and then withhold nourishment until they read it. I put it on par with Flatland as two of the shortest, most imaginative, most hilarious satires I've read. I enjoy all of Saunders short stories as well, but Phil is my favorite of anything he's written. I think you'll be pleased with Braindead Megaphone, his essays are very funny and wonderfully candid. Anyway, just started Mating by Norman Rush. Not sure if I'll like it, looks like its gotten a lot of mixed reviews. Vicious Owl fucked around with this message at 01:19 on Nov 30, 2010 |
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Nov 30, 2010 01:13
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I'm halfways through Interworld by Neil Gaiman and Michael Reaves. While I prefer Gaiman's other stuff way more, it still has a pretty interesting concept. Also, Gravity's Rainbow waiting for me after this one wah! e: I can't spell >_<
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Nov 30, 2010 03:58
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Went on a zombie kick. Finished up the Morningstar strain (Z.A. Recht) and Rise Again ( Ben Tripp ). Both were pretty good, but I enjoyed Morningstar strain a little moreso than Rise again. RA was mostly about a single character and her search for her sister, while MS was about a few different people and how hosed up the planet got. Still, worth a read. Started the Mistborn trilogy by Sanderson, and after that it's going back to zombies with City of the Dead, etc 
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Nov 30, 2010 04:08
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Starting in on the last of the Baroque Cycle by Neal Stephenson, and I am really, really enjoying it. Glad I made myself get through those first fifty pages of book one.
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Nov 30, 2010 04:50
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tearing through John Vaillant's The Tiger. part crime procedural, part russian history, part manly-man love-fest, and all good.
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Nov 30, 2010 13:44
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I just started The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy. It's really to pretentiously smart-rear end and cynical for me, but I can't stop reading it. I'm on chapter 15 now...
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Nov 30, 2010 23:45
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I'm re-reading Charlotte Bronte's Villette because I first began it as part of an All-Austen-All-Bronte-Let's-Get-This-Over-With Thing, and I never finished it. It's completely wonderful. The novel was, supposedly, Bronte's most autobiographical work and, while I'm not so much interested in how the events in the novel mirror those in the author's real life, there's (what feels to me like) an immediate feeling of honesty and a doing-away-with of the postures and devices of Jane Eyre. To me, it feels less bleak, less limited, and more impressive to me than the more famous novel. There's a bit (very early in the novel, I'm not spoilering it) in which the main character/narrator is working for a sickly, old woman. She describes her feelings about her position, and there's something of Jane Eyre in her feelings, but there's a straightforwardness, and a self-criticism based on emotional/intellectual honesty that's not Jane's. Anyway, it felt very true to me, and I think this is a really good book. Charlotte Bronte's Villette, page 42 of the Penguin Classics edition posted:
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Dec 1, 2010 00:29
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Started Unbearable Lightness by Portia de Rossi a couple days ago. Sad in places, when she talks about how insecure about herself she was, but pretty engrossing so far.
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Dec 1, 2010 21:00
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I'm rereading 1984. This book in combination with political talk radio is frightening. 
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Dec 2, 2010 19:40
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Just started Pay Phone by Brandon Ford. Just a few pages in, but good so far.
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Dec 4, 2010 20:56
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Just bought American Pastoral at a used book store for 5 bucks. Haven't started it yet.
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Dec 6, 2010 18:00
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I just started The Landmark Herodotus: The Histories, edited by Robert B. Strassler. This is an amazing edition, with all sorts of maps showing EXACTLY which random Ionian city had which famous people living there, along with copious annotations. I tried to read Herodotus without any sort of annotations earlier and couldn't get past Book 1. I'm so glad I bought this book even though I already owned a 'traditional' copy (with no footnotes). I'm already deep into Book 2, and hope to finish it by the end of the year.
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Dec 6, 2010 19:59
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Stupid_Sexy_Flander posted:Went on a zombie kick. Finished up the Morningstar strain (Z.A. Recht) and Rise Again ( Ben Tripp ). Have you tried the David Wellington "Monster" (Monster Island, Monster Nation and Monster Planet) series? I like that it eschews the modern trope of trying to explain the plague scientifically with a virus or bacteria. It also has an interesting wrinkle in that his books have "smart" zombies who through design or happenstance keep their mental faculty. For myself I just started Fear and Loathing on the Campaign Trail which is the first time I've ever read Thompson and he's pretty drat good.
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Dec 9, 2010 00:34
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I'm about to start re-reading Murakami Ryu's Coin Locker Babies. I've read it once before and remember liking but I think that's more because it's a weird story with some really interesting imagery. I want to try again now that I'm a little older and can take my time. I also just started Kobo Abe's The Face of Another in Japanese and it's been really slow going but I'm enjoying it. I haven't read the English version, though I know the story. It's about a man who loses his face to a chemical fire in a lab. He comes to feel completely closed off from society and his wife because of it, and creates a new face out of plastic. I'm planning on watching the movie as well. Hiroshi Teshigahara directed 3 films based on Kobo Abe's books and I'd really like to see all of them.
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Dec 9, 2010 03:50
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Picked up a bunch of stuff at a book market over the weekend, including a book of Belinsky's criticism. He was the guy who 'discovered' Dostoevsky, and made and broke Gogol. It includes his letter to Gogol that supposedly led to the author throwing the last parts of Dead Souls in the fire: 'Why, if you had made an attempt on my life I could not have hated you more than I do for these disgraceful lines [...] Had you really been inspired by the truth of Christ and not by the teaching of the devil you would certainly have written something entirely different in your new book.' Ouch.
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Dec 9, 2010 08:11
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I'm currently on Deepness in the Sky by Vernor Vinge. The blurb in the back does nothing to sell me, but I got engrossed in it pretty quick.
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Dec 10, 2010 21:56
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  A friend of mine is a big, long-time Bond fan and gave me these spare copies of Casino Royale and Goldfinger he had around his house. They're pretty trim and so far they make great work reading.
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Dec 12, 2010 20:13
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Jockeying back and forth between Joseph Campbell's Occidental Mythology (part of the Masks of God trilogy), Jack Forbes' Columbus and other Cannibals and Heinlein's The Cat Who Walks Through Walls for fun.
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Dec 12, 2010 23:05
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