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80-90% off at borders the other day: Charles Baxter - Gryphon Roberto Bolano - Between Parentheses Michael Chabon - Gentlemen of the Road Dennis Cooper - Ugly Man Dennis Cooper - Smothered in Hugs Stephen Dixon - What Is All This? Percival Everett - I Am Not Sidney Poitier Matthew Gallaway - The Metropolis Case Jaimy Gordon - Lord of Misrule Mermann Hesse - Siddhartha Kazuo Ishiguro - An Artist of the Floating World Mat Johnson - Pym William Kennedy - Ironweed Rick Moody - The Four Fingers of Death Lorrie Moore - Who Will Run the Frog Hospital? Herta Muller - The Appointment Yishai Sarid - Limassol Sir Gawain and the Green Knight (Norton Critical) Jim Shepard - You Think That's Bad? 32 bucks. WoG fucked around with this message at 18:06 on Nov 3, 2011 |
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Sep 12, 2011 21:23
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Barnes and Noble had a one day sale on best sellers and one of the books that has been highly talked about was marked down to $13. So I went to the the B&N website to check the the price of the E-book and sure enough, they were the same price. So I picked up The Art of Fielding by Chad Harbach for $13. Not a bad deal.
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Sep 13, 2011 17:45
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BarryMantlesnorks posted:About 250 pages into The Corrections. My god, Franzen's a beautiful writer. This is a wonderful book from start to finish. If it weren't so long, and my backlog wasn't so large, O would read this in a heartbeat. So good. I hope Freedom is just as good. That is going to be what I tackle at the end of semester.
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Sep 14, 2011 07:48
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xcheopis posted:The Mother Tongue: English and how it got that way. I'd recommend any Crystal you can find over Bryson. The Stories of English would be a good starter. Bryson's a good writer, but he's not a linguist, and it shows in his propagation of linguistic old wives' tales. The Mother Tongue does have some good stuff, but most of it has to be taken with a grain of salt.
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Sep 14, 2011 15:38
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Dorepoll posted:This is a wonderful book from start to finish. If it weren't so long, and my backlog wasn't so large, O would read this in a heartbeat. So good. I hope Freedom is just as good. That is going to be what I tackle at the end of semester. I'm currently reading The Twenty-Seventh City, his first novel. While it's no Corrections or Freedom, it's pretty solid. There's a lot of political conspiracy that he's okay with, but the best part is definitely the hosed-up family dynamics that his later novels do so well.
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Sep 14, 2011 16:52
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I just read A Man Without A Country, by Vonnegut. Very short, finished it in two days, probably an hour and a half of reading overall. Oh god the depression.  The sheet bitter hopelessness.
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Sep 14, 2011 18:30
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Just got a decent-sized delivery from Amazon: Michael Marshall - The Lonely Dead Michael Marshall - Blood of Angels Philip K. Dick - A Scanner Darkly Philip K. Dick - Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep Jeff Noon - Vurt Jeff Noon - Pollen Jeff Noon - Nymphomation Jeff Noon - Automated Alice Stainslaw Lem - The Futurological Congress Iain M. Banks - Use Of Weapons
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Sep 14, 2011 19:28
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Currently reading George R.R. Martin's A Storm of Swords 2: Blood and Gold. It's much more exciting than the first part. Much more bloody too.
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Sep 15, 2011 10:47
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Just started Rutger Hauer's All Those Moments. Looking forward to the Blade Runner bits.
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Sep 16, 2011 12:42
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Got some new stuff delivered from Amazon: Matthew Collin - This Is Serbia Calling: Rock'n'Roll Radio and Belgrade's Underground Resistance Mihailo Crnobrnja - The Yugoslav Drama Noel Malcolm - Kosovo: A Short History Also picked up some books in Italian from some girl who moved away and couldn't be bothered to take everything with her: Niccolò Ammaniti - Come Dio comanda Andrea Camilleri - Voi non sapete Ken Follett - Mondo senza fine Roberto Saviano - Gomorra Antonio Tabucchi - Si sta facendo sempre più tardi
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Sep 16, 2011 12:45
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So, I just finished James Ellroys american tabloid and its sequel The Cold Six Thousand and really enjoyed them both. I can't remember if there ever was an ellroy thread but I really dig his style. I'm sure the third book Bloods a Rover is just as good but I wanted to see if anyone else has read it, or could suggest something else by him besides the black dahlia.
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Sep 16, 2011 18:04
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meanolmrcloud posted:So, I just finished James Ellroys american tabloid and its sequel The Cold Six Thousand and really enjoyed them both. I can't remember if there ever was an ellroy thread but I really dig his style. I'm sure the third book Bloods a Rover is just as good but I wanted to see if anyone else has read it, or could suggest something else by him besides the black dahlia. Blood's A Rover was good, but not as good as the first two books. Too convoluted even for Ellroy but it's still got that punchy Ellroy style - bad men doing bad things. I think it also suffers a bit from not having much of a frame of reference in major historic events - there's no big build-up to an assassination like the first two books. The Big Nowhere is a must-read however, as are LA Confidential and White Jazz - I'd read them in that order since they're loosely connected with recurring characters and references to past events. Big Nowhere starts in 1950 and White Jazz ends around 1958, to give you a point of reference. They're loosely connected to Black Dahlia (a few characters from Black Dahlia show up). Edit: Just nabbed a handful of stuff from B&N: Killing Pablo by Mark Bowden - A non-fiction account of the manhunt for Pablo Escobar. Well into it now and it's excellent so far. The Killer Inside Me by Jim Thompson - Saw the recent adaptation with Casey Affleck and wanted to read the book since I've read some other stuff by Thompson that was really good (Roughneck, The Getaway) The Thousand Autumns of Jacob de Zoet by David Mitchell - Been a Mitchell fan for a while and I keep hearing good things about this. The Brief Wondrous Life of Oscar Wao by Junot Diaz - Keep hearing good things about this as well. Encryptic fucked around with this message at 15:14 on Sep 17, 2011 |
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Sep 16, 2011 19:29
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Along with all the books about China and all the Chinese literature: The Rediscovery of Man by Mr. Cordwainer Smith.
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Sep 20, 2011 02:43
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Just started The Magician King by Lev Grossman, I'm tearing through it, already 40% through. I just read the chapter featuring the return of Josh! I was so loving happy to see him, he's the best character 
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Sep 20, 2011 02:56
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BarryMantlesnorks posted:About 250 pages into The Corrections. My god, Franzen's a beautiful writer. I just bought this for 50 cents from Waldenbooks/Borders closing and am looking forward to starting it. Other book I bought and am currently reading is On Stranger Tides which was basically the base for the recent Pirates movie, but not really. I'm actually really enjoying it as its fun adventure story full of pirates and voodoo.
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Sep 21, 2011 06:32
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Just finished A Prayer for Owen Meany by John Irving and what a fantastic (and hilarious) book. Wouldn't have picked it up if it wasn't for my girlfriend forcing me to read it but really glad I did in the end. Started to read Abarat by Clive Barker and The Republic by Plato.
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Sep 21, 2011 15:28
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Just made a purchase on Amazon: Gaza in Crisis: Reflections on Israel's War Against the Palestinians by Noam Chomsky. I'm pretty excited for this one, I bought both the movie and book Miral, more because  Frieda Pinto than any other reason, and that re-sparked my interest in I/P issues. This will be the first non-fiction I read about it, but it seems pretty highly regarded. Shantaram by Gregory Davis Roberts: a semi-autobiographical fiction novel about an Australian criminal who flees to India and starts a new life there. I had been flirting with the idea of buying this book for years and kept putting it off because of the length, but nate fisher recently posted about it in the SA lit thread and that motivated me to actually pick it up. Pumped to start it, even though I won't be able to due to it's length for another week or two. The War After Armaggedon by Ralph Peters. Military fiction in the near-future where Israel is basically nuked off the face of the earth and America becomes a fascist Christian fundamentalist state in response to Islamic terrorists setting off devastating dirty bombs in several major US cities. The National Guard is reorganized as the Military Order of the Brothers in Christ and invades the ruins of Israel to try and take the Holy Land from both Jews and Muslims alike, and from what I've read in reviews and such it sounds like the MOBIC comes into conflict with the non-fascist regular Army troops as well. Sounds kinda crazy the way I typed it up, but I trust Peters to make it work, he's a very insightful author when it comes to things like this.
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Sep 21, 2011 21:54
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Journey To The West, most recent translation. Sounds like a cracking good read.
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Sep 21, 2011 23:42
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Picked up Gardens of the Moon at the library, the first book in the Malazan series, after reading a little bit of the thread about it and checking some reviews on Amazon. Sounds like it's right up my alley.
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Sep 22, 2011 20:54
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I've been on a real noir kick the past few months, reading a lot of Chandler, Hammett and Jim Thompson, so I decided to splurge a bit and ordered a copy of the Library of America's collection of crime novels.
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Sep 23, 2011 00:15
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Just started Starwater Strains by Gene Wolfe. Its a collection of short science fiction stories, and they are really interesting so far. He definitely knows how to write in distinct voices, its pretty crazy going from story to story and having each new character feel special immediately.
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Sep 23, 2011 06:59
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barkingclam posted:I've been on a real noir kick the past few months, reading a lot of Chandler, Hammett and Jim Thompson, so I decided to splurge a bit and ordered a copy of the Library of America's collection of crime novels. What've you read by Thompson that's good? I've only read The Getaway (which was good) and Roughneck (also good) and I just picked up The Killer Inside Me but haven't started it yet.
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Sep 23, 2011 10:51
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Recently? I just finished Thompson's Savage Night the other day. It's a short, violent and disturbing story which was pretty cool. I saw The Killing, a movie he wrote the screenplay for, a while back and liked it a lot, too.
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Sep 23, 2011 14:49
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barkingclam posted:Recently? I just finished Thompson's Savage Night the other day. It's a short, violent and disturbing story which was pretty cool. I saw The Killing, a movie he wrote the screenplay for, a while back and liked it a lot, too. Just found out Kubrick wrote The Killing with Thompson and directed, so naturally I had to add it to my Netflix queue... Thanks. 
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Sep 23, 2011 15:28
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Just started Abercrombies "The Blade Itself" trilogy on audio. Really enjoying it so far, I inadvertently read "The Heroes" first which apparently takes place in the same world a few years later but it doesn't seem to have spoiled too much so far other than realizing certain characters are going to live through etc.
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Sep 24, 2011 19:03
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I just started The Wise Man's Fear, I am very excited after reading The Name of the Wind!
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Sep 25, 2011 03:51
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Just bought two, The Sign, by Raymond Khoury. I read his "The Last Templar" and enjoyed it. He's apparently released a sequel, but it's been so long since I read Templar that I think it needs a re-read before I buy the follow up. The Road to Jerusalem, by Jan Guillou, a historical fiction about Templars, Sweden and the Crusades. Caught my eye, hope it keeps my attention.
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Sep 26, 2011 00:18
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Started on Moby Dick today because apparently it's good. So far I agree, though some of the more literary references are going over my head, so I'm hoping it's still going to be a bloody good story about a big gently caress-off whale.
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Sep 26, 2011 12:35
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Mustard Snobbery posted:Started on Moby Dick today because apparently it's good. So far I agree, though some of the more literary references are going over my head, so I'm hoping it's still going to be a bloody good story about a big gently caress-off whale. I got about halfway through and then just kind of lost interest. The narrative is very good, but it gets bogged down by encyclopedic passages about whales and boats. There's an entire chapter that just talks about the different kinds of whales and their characteristics, which is cool if that's what you're into, but I just found it to slow the pace of the book down to a crawl. I do intend to finish it though, it just got bumped down on my priority list. As for me, I just started Outer Dark by Cormac McCarthy, just finished Child of God from him, and was feeling some more dark, messed up stuff.
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Sep 26, 2011 16:56
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Along with starting Gardens of the Moon I also started Anthony Bourdain's latest book that came out a while ago, Medium Raw.
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Sep 27, 2011 03:07
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Mustard Snobbery posted:Started on Moby Dick today because apparently it's good. So far I agree, though some of the more literary references are going over my head, so I'm hoping it's still going to be a bloody good story about a big gently caress-off whale. If it gets to be too much for you, there's a few websites that have an annotated version that might help.
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Sep 27, 2011 03:30
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I just started rereading The Scar by China Miéville. This is like the 4th time, I think. It remains my favourite of his books, and my favourite genre fiction novel ever. I love it on so many levels: for my love of fantasy, my love of horror, my love of good prose, my love of the ocean, my love of biology... it offers so much. It's also where I got my SA username from 
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Sep 27, 2011 04:02
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drunkendonuts posted:Just bought two, Ah, tell me how The Sign is! I've read all his other ones (TLT as you mentioned, plus Sanctuary I think it was called, as well as Templar Salvation; the sequel to TLT. Not bad, but I don't think it was quite as good as I remember TLT to be, although it's been a fair while since I read it) and have been keeping an eye out for it, and just want to know whether it'd be worth amping up my search for it or not.
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Sep 27, 2011 04:13
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Holidays in Hell by P.J. O'Rourke. You can tell by the first few pages that the author is an insufferable rear end in a top hat.
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Sep 27, 2011 20:25
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I am reading a book called "Another Bullshit Night in Suck City" by Nick Flynn on the recommendation of my creative nonfiction teacher. It is about a guys father that is homeless and his own experience with that.
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Sep 28, 2011 00:47
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trip9 posted:I got about halfway through and then just kind of lost interest. The narrative is very good, but it gets bogged down by encyclopedic passages about whales and boats. There's an entire chapter that just talks about the different kinds of whales and their characteristics, which is cool if that's what you're into, but I just found it to slow the pace of the book down to a crawl. I do intend to finish it though, it just got bumped down on my priority list. I'm convinced those chapters are Melville trolling the reader. You'll enjoy the book a lot more if you skip every other chapter, sticking with the main narrative.
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Sep 28, 2011 01:21
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I read the sign a while back. Didn't really like it that much though. Can't really recall why, just that it didn't sit well with me. Might have to take a peek at it and figure out why that was again.
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Sep 28, 2011 03:29
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Picked up A Sport and a Pastime by James Salter and the oral history of The Simpsons today. Looking forward to Salter's book, it's one I've been interested in for a while.
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Sep 28, 2011 03:52
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Started Surface Detail by Iain M. Banks a few days ago, really enjoying it so far.
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Sep 28, 2011 21:41
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barkingclam posted:Picked up A Sport and a Pastime by James Salter and the oral history of The Simpsons today. Looking forward to Salter's book, it's one I've been interested in for a while. If you like it, be sure to check out Light Years, which is even better. I'm at the point now where I think Salter is better than Hemingway.
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Sep 28, 2011 22:46
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