|
juliuspringle posted:How are you reading House of Leaves? I ask because reading it from beginning to end isn't working for me and I'm wondering if there is some trick to getting through it. For the record I'm stuck on the introduction. Actually, you're doing it just right. Getting through the introduction is the most difficult part of reading House of Leaves. That is, it doesn't become the book you're expecting it to be until you get through all the "  I'm Johnny Truant, total badass. Here's some badass poo poo I totally did."Once you get to the house itself, you're going to have a tough time putting it down. Johnny Truant is an unbearable douche that you're going to have to deal with in spurts the entire time, but the documentary sections (almost?) make up for it.
|
#
?
Feb 20, 2011 18:40
|
|
|
|
| # ? May 31, 2024 22:01 |
|
|
juliuspringle posted:How are you reading House of Leaves? I ask because reading it from beginning to end isn't working for me and I'm wondering if there is some trick to getting through it. For the record I'm stuck on the introduction. I dunno, I read it just like a traditional book and got through it okay. I will admit though that I didn't read the entire giant list of architectural features (you'll know what I'm talking about when you get there).
|
|
#
?
Feb 20, 2011 22:52
|
|
|
Quickly burning through Ubik. Planning on moving to either 2666 or Wonder Boys.
|
|
#
?
Feb 22, 2011 00:20
|
|
|
MillionsV posted:Actually, you're doing it just right. I just started House of Leaves myself and have to agree with "Johnny is a douche", but at the same time I think he contributes to the story. How exactly I'm not sure, but I figure it'll become clear eventually. If nothing else he's an interesting comparison for Zampanò. That and people love to read about assholes. Why else would I Hope They Serve Beer In Hell sell well? Or anything by Tucker Max for that matter? The man is a certified cum-stain. I mean gently caress, it has a movie adaptation.
|
|
#
?
Feb 22, 2011 05:31
|
|
|
"Pleasure of my company" Steve Martin ( yah, the actor) I read this on holiday and then lost it. It's pretty dang cheap on amazon at the moment. I don't remember a whole lot about it (I read it about 7 years ago now) but it's written from the perspective of a strange obsessive person. ... It's a lot better than it sounds.
|
|
#
?
Feb 22, 2011 10:00
|
|
|
Gerrins posted:"Pleasure of my company" Steve Martin ( yah, the actor) So the last book you just begun/bought was 7 years ago?  On a less silly note, I made a start on Cinderella's Sisters by D. Ko last night. It's a feminist revisionary history on Chinese footbinding, which makes a nice change since the majority of people who write on this subject are men. Her style is very readerly and she is sympathetic to the Western reader who might not be aware of many Chinese customs and philosophies. She also doesn't approach the subject from the 'look how horrible men treated women' viewpoint, which I always find to be a terribly misinformed and offensive mindset to write about 1000 years of history. I got pretty excited by talk of there being a Chinese fiction thread and jumped right back into my obsession of footbinding.
|
|
#
?
Feb 22, 2011 10:54
|
|
|
I just started The Secret History by Donna Tartt. Reminds me a lot of Hitchcock's Rope.
|
|
#
?
Feb 22, 2011 19:09
|
|
|
Dr Scoofles posted:On a less silly note, I made a start on Cinderella's Sisters by D. Ko last night. It's a feminist revisionary history on Chinese footbinding, which makes a nice change since the majority of people who write on this subject are men. Her style is very readerly and she is sympathetic to the Western reader who might not be aware of many Chinese customs and philosophies. She also doesn't approach the subject from the 'look how horrible men treated women' viewpoint, which I always find to be a terribly misinformed and offensive mindset to write about 1000 years of history. While I understand that it was a cultural phenomenon and that it's important to understand the history and everything behind it, you have to admit it's a pretty horrible practice. But it does sound like an interesting read that I might have to check out.
|
|
#
?
Feb 23, 2011 00:54
|
|
|
Footbinding is one of those things where even thinking about it makes me cringe horribly. I can't read anything about it without feeling really uncomfortable and semi-ill.
|
|
#
?
Feb 23, 2011 01:20
|
|
|
LevelC posted:While I understand that it was a cultural phenomenon and that it's important to understand the history and everything behind it, you have to admit it's a pretty horrible practice. But it does sound like an interesting read that I might have to check out. I get that 'morbid fascination' thing too, it's like when someone tells you not to look at something really gross and you just have to see it. Happened to me with the "I got a surprise in my Orange Juice NMS!!!" thread on GBS.
|
|
#
?
Feb 23, 2011 02:50
|
|
|
It does make for uncomfortable reading, and yes it is a facinating and reactionary subject. I just get annoyed when I research it online and am bombarded with websites telling me how all those millions of women where nothing but disfigured and worthless cripples who hated thier feet. That simply wasn't true and it's a narrow minded and insulting view to hold. It's a bit of a derail here though, I did mini review of a footbinding novel in the Chinese Lit thread if yall are interested.
|
|
#
?
Feb 23, 2011 16:41
|
|
|
Space Harrier posted:I just bought And the Band Played On by Randy Shilts. I had wanted to pick it up a long time ago, but it isn't the easiest book to find for some reason. I recently picked up an e-reader and was able to buy it online. In addition to being a book that I really wanted to read, I am also getting some class credit for it, as I am a nursing student. I read it long ago after seeing the HBO mini-series of the same name and found it so-so. That said I would recommend My Own Country by Dr. Abraham Verghese. It is a great memoir about a doctor dealing with the early cases (1985- +) of AIDS in a small city in the South (Johnson City, TN). I did spend a large part of my youth in that area and later went to college in the area (ETSU) so I found it very interesting. Still I think most would find it interesting to see the early reactions to AIDS in the Appalachians (where the attitude was only gay people get it). Funny because Johnson City is sort of liberal in comparison to other parts of that area (outside of Ashville, NC which might be the most liberal city in the South). nate fisher fucked around with this message at 17:05 on Feb 23, 2011 |
|
#
?
Feb 23, 2011 17:02
|
|
|
33 A.D. It's a novel about vampires hunting Jesus. I had to get it 
|
|
#
?
Feb 24, 2011 02:32
|
|
|
The Crossing by Cormac McCarthy. I love this mans writing, but I seem to be comparing all of his books to how they compare to Blood Meridian and so far they are found wanting, just a bit. Nevertheless, it is quite good so far and I can't wait for the next one.
|
|
#
?
Feb 24, 2011 03:38
|
|
|
juliuspringle posted:How are you reading House of Leaves? I ask because reading it from beginning to end isn't working for me and I'm wondering if there is some trick to getting through it. For the record I'm stuck on the introduction. I'm just getting up to the point where the formatting gets strange. I have to say, its one of the stranger reading experiences I've had. Not just the inherent weirdness of the book, but rather that I'm not really interested in the story, just fascinated by it. Sounds kind of strange and I'm not sure I'm conveying the sense I get from it, but take from that what you will.
|
|
#
?
Feb 27, 2011 00:01
|
|
|
Just started my advance copy of Embassytown by China Miéville, pretty much dropping everything else for this! I am so excited. This is Miéville's first out-and-out sci-fi novel, and I want to see how he toys with this genre as he has done with many others in the past.
|
|
#
?
Mar 2, 2011 09:33
|
|
|
I was literally completely and utterly estatic when I found, in a local charity store, Dr. Adder by K.W. Jeter. That book is loving hard to find, and virtually all online stores sell it for £15+ pretty much. Got it for 20 pence, excellent condition aswell. The moral of the story? Charity/Thrift stores are amazing for several reasons. The book itself is pretty drat good as far as pulpy sci-fi goes.. It was very much a precursor to a lot of the cyberpunk themes, and Philip K. Dick (a good friend of Jeter) said that if it wasn't delayed so badly due to content it would have held the title of the first Cyberpunk novel. Rush Limbo fucked around with this message at 16:32 on Mar 2, 2011 |
|
#
?
Mar 2, 2011 16:24
|
|
|
I've just started Mutineer's Moon by David Weber. So far it's hard to suspend disbelief the moon is a giant spaceship, seriously?? but I think I'll try to just roll with it anyway. Also I'd like to thank Baen Books for making the ebook free (even if I end up not liking it). I just got a nook and I really enjoy having so much free content out there available without having to drive to the library. nelson fucked around with this message at 05:10 on Mar 3, 2011 |
|
#
?
Mar 2, 2011 16:59
|
|
|
Currently reading: White Noise, Don DeLillo. I've already read it, many years ago. Bought it now because I had the feeling I hadn't quite "get" it the first time around. Honestly, I'm not actually "getting" it now. Post-modernist works like this are (for me) very hit and miss and this one is a huge miss. Just bought: Naked Lunch - The Restored Text, William S. Burroughs. It's basically the original Naked Lunch, but with a few modifications. I'll save it for when I'm feeling psychotropic enough to handle it. Surface Detail, Iain M. Banks. I usually like his sci-fi books, even though I'm not a big fan of space operas. Dune, Children of Dune and Dune Messiah, Frank Herbert. I've read these, but didn't actually had a copy of my own. The City & the City, China Miéville. Bought it after reading somewhere it had won the 2010 Hugo Award for Best Novel (I used to be a huge sci-fi fan during my teen years, but didn't had much access to books written after the 70's, trying to fill that void now). I don't even have the faintest idea what it's about. The Face of Another, Kobo Abe. Someone (in the Japanese Literature thread) described this writer as a niponic Franz Kafka, which made me curious enough to buy it. Freedom, Jonathan Franzen. I loved "The Corrections". Will love this one too, I'm sure.
|
|
#
?
Mar 3, 2011 18:31
|
|
|
Zsa Zsa Gabor posted:The Face of Another, Kobo Abe. Someone (in the Japanese Literature thread) described this writer as a niponic Franz Kafka, which made me curious enough to buy it. The Face of Another is a really interesting, existential novel. If you're looking for more Kafka-esque (heh) you might try Woman in the Dunes. Abe is a really interesting author, though, so I hope you enjoy it.
|
|
#
?
Mar 4, 2011 00:39
|
|
|
Used book store in town was having a sale so I picked up a few books: Faulkner's The Sound and the Fury and Go Down, Moses, Richard Russo's The Risk Pool and one I'd never heard of: The Family Mashber by Der Nister. It's sounds like an interesting read and it's a New York Review of Books edition, so I figured I'll give it a shot.
|
|
#
?
Mar 4, 2011 05:44
|
|
|
I'm currently almost done with Tokyo Vice and I just started Shopgirl last night. Tokyo Vice is great and I personally know the author so it's an added kick that all these things happened to someone I know. (He's a really friendly guy) Shopgirl is good so far. What can't Steve do??
|
|
#
?
Mar 4, 2011 17:27
|
|
|
I just bought like one thousand kindle books because I have a shopping problem. No, what really happened is I had bought a whole lot of random stuff, then I read The Wise Man's Fear and realized that I just HAD to read more fantasy, so then I went overboard queuing (this word looks misspelled) myself up for fantasy. So the first crop was mostly stuff that I could find that looked interesting: Looking for Jake: Stories - China Mieville (for reading on my phone's kindle app) World War Z: An Oral History of the Zombie War - Max Brooks Naked Lunch - William S Burroughs Switched - Amanda Hocking (now that I know more about this series/author I probably won't read it) Favorite - Karen McQuestion The Lost Books of the Odyssey - Zachary Mason And then the second crop is more fantasy (and one sci fi). I just wanted more epics: The Warded Man - Peter V Brett Gardens of the Moon: Book One of The Malzan Book of the Fallen - Steven Erikson Under Heaven - Guy Gavriel Kay The Blade Itself - Joe Abercrombie Hyperion - Dan Simmons So yeah. All that is ahead of me. I decided to start with The Warded Man and will probably move on to Malzan next because I've heard that they're both really good epic fantasies. I'll probably read them in order from there. edit: reformatted hello clarice fucked around with this message at 22:31 on Mar 5, 2011 |
|
#
?
Mar 5, 2011 22:07
|
|
|
hello clarice posted:Gardens of the Moon: Book One of The Malzan Book of the Fallen - Steven Erikson Re-reading Erikson myself - I've only read the first 4 books in the series and I told myself I'd finally get around to reading the whole series in one go now that hopefully the final book is out or will be out soon. You'll hear this from a lot of other people, but Gardens of the Moon can be pretty tough to get into since Erikson intentionally drops you right into the middle of the story and fills in a lot of the blanks as you go along - which is effective, I admit. It's a solid series and Erikson's got a really good hand with creating a massive epic feel while also creating a lot of really good characters. Encryptic fucked around with this message at 07:15 on Mar 6, 2011 |
|
#
?
Mar 6, 2011 07:13
|
|
|
Encryptic posted:Re-reading Erikson myself - I've only read the first 4 books in the series and I told myself I'd finally get around to reading the whole series in one go now that hopefully the final book is out or will be out soon. That's ok with me, just as long as I can get my bearings eventually. I really like massive epic stuff and I'm looking forward to immersing myself in a giant series.
|
|
#
?
Mar 6, 2011 21:47
|
|
|
Neither begun or bought, but from my local library I got this 18-CD, unabridged audiobook of Dune by Frank Herbert. It's recorded by a full cast and has won awards for audiobook production! It looks super cool and I can't wait to start listening to it at the gym.
|
|
#
?
Mar 8, 2011 08:30
|
|
|
A Game of Thrones. God help me. Just finished the First Law trilogy by Joe Abercrombie. Decided to get a taste of Martin before going back to Joe's 2 standalone follow-up novels.
|
|
#
?
Mar 14, 2011 03:42
|
|
|
Nuitari posted:A Game of Thrones. God help me. HAAAAHAHhahahahahahahahahahahahahahaha You are loving DOOOOOOOMED! The first book was fantastic though.
|
|
#
?
Mar 14, 2011 23:23
|
|
|
Today i picked up the following (for 23 bucks! Half-Price Books is my poo poo): People's History of the United States - Howard Zinn All The Pretty Horses - Cormac McCarthy The Crossing - Cormac McCarthy Giles Goat-Boy - John Barth super excited to start the Zinn book, but I'm starting Don Delillo's Underworld for a class, and i'm in the middle of Gravity's Rainbow, so I'm reluctant to split my attention in a third direction
|
|
#
?
Mar 15, 2011 03:30
|
|
|
I just got a copy of Mr. Shivers today. Does anyone remember if that was written by a goon?
|
|
#
?
Mar 15, 2011 21:27
|
|
|
juliuspringle posted:I just got a copy of Mr. Shivers today. Does anyone remember if that was written by a goon? Yup. It was written by Spiny Norman (who you may remember posting a number of hilarious and well-written stories in GBS).
|
|
#
?
Mar 15, 2011 21:30
|
|
|
Started Lolita this morning and I can already see why it was so controversial. Nabokov writes very convincingly about lusting after tween girls, and I can imagine, at the time, people making the worst kind of assumptions based upon the vigor of his prose.
|
|
#
?
Mar 15, 2011 21:34
|
|
|
Encryptic posted:Yup. It was written by Spiny Norman (who you may remember posting a number of hilarious and well-written stories in GBS). That's a relief, for a bit I was worried I got the wrong book. Having been written by Spiny Norman I have faith that it will be as good as the summary on it leads me to believe. I also got The Bell Jar, No Country For Old Men, On the Road and Nickel and Dimed today as well.
|
|
#
?
Mar 15, 2011 21:39
|
|
|
I'm someone who doesn't read too often because, although I love hearing a good story, I have a really bad problem with paying attention. Recently I was diagnosed with ADHD and given Focasil, and my doctor recommended that I pick up some books and try reading them while on the medication to see if there's a change. So I've picked up Thomas Pynchon's The Crying of Lot 49 and Gravity's Rainbow. Just about to begin The Crying of Lot 49.
|
|
#
?
Mar 16, 2011 01:58
|
|
|
I've been working on The Terror of Living. I read about it in a magazine and they said it was good, and the author lists No Country For Old Men in his acknowledgements. I'm really enjoying it, but it is so much like No Country it's insane.
|
|
#
?
Mar 16, 2011 03:00
|
|
|
I just bought The Strange Affair of Spring Heeled Jack and The Curious Case of the Clockwork Man both by Mark Hodder. They appear to be some kind of steampunk London stuff. I've never really been interested in steampunk, but something about these seemed very appealing. I'll be reading them soon.
|
|
#
?
Mar 16, 2011 03:53
|
|
|
Just picked up Tomato Red by Daniel Woodrell. Never heard of him until I watched Winter's Bone the other day, and I did some research on the writer. Sounds like he is right up my alley
|
|
#
?
Mar 16, 2011 04:04
|
|
|
UnL337 posted:I'm someone who doesn't read too often because, although I love hearing a good story, I have a really bad problem with paying attention. Recently I was diagnosed with ADHD and given Focasil, and my doctor recommended that I pick up some books and try reading them while on the medication to see if there's a change. i'm not sure if you've read any other pynchon, but if you haven't, the best advice i can give you is to just get all the way through. his novels overflow with information and stuff to think about, and you'll never get it all on the first time, especially since it can be hard to grasp who's doing what, and where the book is going. just read and try to hang on for the ride at first, then you can reread and figure out what he's really getting at.
|
|
#
?
Mar 16, 2011 07:08
|
|
|
Just ordered Anthony Burgess's Earthly Powers, about a writer and a priest. I've noticed an unfortunate tendency of mine to go for an author's one biggest hit (in this case, Clockwork Orange) and ignore the rest of their work. Unfortunately, a lot of these authors tend to have their stuff out of print - I can't find a cheap copy of a Erich Maria Remarque book that isn't All Quiet on the Western Front, nor anything reasonably priced by Robert Penn Warren besides All the King's Men. Annoying.
|
|
#
?
Mar 16, 2011 21:21
|
|
|
|
| # ? May 31, 2024 22:01 |
|
|
Wyatt posted:Started Lolita this morning and I can already see why it was so controversial. Nabokov writes very convincingly about lusting after tween girls, and I can imagine, at the time, people making the worst kind of assumptions based upon the vigor of his prose. What surprised me about Lolita when I read it for the first time a few months ago is how funny it is. I had a few genuine laugh out loud moments, Humbert Humbert is a very absurd character. I'm starting Nights at the Circus by Angela Carter. Certainly not what I expected, I love the female lead who is as large, buxom and loud as I imagine Lady Ramkin is.
|
|
#
?
Mar 16, 2011 23:14
|
|