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Sir John Feelgood posted:I read Norwegian Wood by Haruki Murakami, and I really liked it. Now I'm reading his book Kafka on the Shore and liking it a lot less. It's not the magical stuff. I'm worried this is going to be one of those cases where I read one book by an author, love it, then read some more by him and just find samey stories littered with the author's fixations -- things I didn't know were fixations until they started reappearing. In Murakami's case (seemingly): introvert boy meets extrovert girl, one character relating to the narrator the long story of another character's traumatic past, Greek plays, college protests, mini book reviews from the narrator... This happened to me with John Irving (wrestling, sex with an older woman) and Paul Auster (Columbia University, 19th c. American lit, mini book/movie reviews). The only trope you seemed to have missed is jazz. I personally think that yeah Murakami is writing the same book over and over. The Wind-up Bird Chronicles is worth checking out because he executes his style most effectively there. But yeah, I'm not that into him.
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Jul 27, 2012 06:52
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Well yeah I have some bad news for you about Murakami... He's definitely the sort of writer who is interested in exploring the permutations of his idiosyncratic interests. I wouldn't go so far as to say he's writing the same book over and over, but there's a certain homogeneity to his characters that I think jives very well with the intentional blandness of his style. Like ShutteredIn said, Wind-Up Bird is the book where everyone generally agrees he's at the top of his game, so if you want to discuss him with random folks in the future that's probably the one to work your way through, though for what it's worth, Kafka is personally my favorite novel of his.
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Jul 27, 2012 13:04
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ShutteredIn posted:The only trope you seemed to have missed is jazz.  Hell, I've only read Wind-Up Bird and two books of 1Q84 so far and I'm getting the same feeling. I don't mind the repetition so much, though. Speaking of 1Q84: I spent more than half of the second book dreading a reveal where all of the Aomame chapters were just Freaky Friend Fiction (allriiiiight~!) written by Tengo as his novel that he's working on. Did anybody else get this feeling? My worries have been somewhat lessened now, but that's a pretty lame twist if it's true.  Tell me it isn't so.
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Jul 27, 2012 16:51
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edit: ^^^^ It isn't so. 1Q84 was Murakami at his most bloated and repetitive. I still kinda liked it, but nothing about it really stood above his other work. Norwegian Wood, Hardboiled Wonderland and the End of the World, and The Wind-Up Bird Chronicle are the three Murakami I generally recommend.
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Jul 27, 2012 17:55
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Hey, I saw Spook County by William Gibson on sale at my library's bookstore. I'm not too big of a reader (I've glazed thru most of the short stories in The Simple Art of Murder by Raymond Chandler), but I loved reading Neuromancer back in my Sci-Fi lit class. How is Spook County? Money's not the question but I'd like to know if it's worth my time.
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Jul 30, 2012 05:42
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Benny the Snake posted:Hey, I saw Spook County by William Gibson on sale at my library's bookstore. I'm not too big of a reader (I've glazed thru most of the short stories in The Simple Art of Murder by Raymond Chandler), but I loved reading Neuromancer back in my Sci-Fi lit class. How is Spook County? Money's not the question but I'd like to know if it's worth my time. It's near-future stuff, day after tomorrow type sci-fi. Not at all as far flung as Neuromancer. I like it, but you should be aware that it's the second book in a trilogy (starting & ending with Pattern Recognition & Zero History respectively). The second & third books tie into each other more, with Pattern Recognition being more stand-alone, but I recommend reading them in order.
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Aug 2, 2012 11:04
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Not sure if I'm in the right place, but I need some help purchasing a book, Tolstoy's Anna Karenina. I started reading it on e-book but ended up selling my reader some time ago. Reading on the computer is no fun so I thought I'd continue the novel on paper. Pevear & Volokhonsky's translation is highly praised and I dislike paperback so this edition (link) is exactly what I'm looking for. Problem is, the book is ridiculously expensive. Prices on Amazon UK start at 105£, on Amazon FR at 96€... All the used ones have some form of damage or markings/notes (big no-no) and would be imported from the US which would almost double the listed price. Every other site I tried is out of stock or doesn't even sell this particular edition. Living in a non-English speaking country, the chances of me finding the book in a local library are very close to zero, I'm stuck with online shops. I did found a good deal on Amazon DE, book in 'like new' condition for 9.50€. Perfect, except the seller restricted shipping to Germany and is being quite uncooperative. He doesn't seem to mind shipping to other countries but he also doesn't seem to give a poo poo about actually selling the book, I don't see this ending well. I'm confused, how can a classic be so drat expensive? This edition was published in 2001, I'm not looking for some long lost relic here.
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Aug 4, 2012 02:16
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seravid posted:Not sure if I'm in the right place, but I need some help purchasing a book, Tolstoy's Anna Karenina. Pevear & Volokhonsky's translation is highly praised and I dislike paperback so this edition (link) is exactly what I'm looking for. Problem is, the book is ridiculously expensive. It looks like it's sold in the UK under the Penguin Classics imprint, and is available inexpensively on Amazon.co.uk and Amazon.fr. Not sure why there's a difference between there and the US, but there are at least two possible explanations. It was selected for the Oprah Book Club in the US, and most of the covers are sort of harlequin romance covers as a result. Bizarre, I know, and wouldn't make much sense to non-US audiences. Also, I've noticed that "Penguin Classics" in the US rarely feature modern translations. The Pevear & Volokhonsky books are often issued under a different imprint, even if by the same company.
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Aug 4, 2012 03:32
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SgtSanity posted:It looks like it's sold in the UK under the Penguin Classics imprint, and is available inexpensively on Amazon.co.uk and Amazon.fr. Yes, but that one isn't available in hardcover. It seems like the only Pevear & Volokhonsky translation in hardcover is the one I linked n my previous post, published in 2001 by Viking Books. Others are either the right translation but in paperback (like the one you suggested) or hardcover but translated by some other people. If there's really no other choice, I guess I'll bite the bullet, but a 800 page paperback will probably self-destruct in my hands (I really don't like paperback).
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Aug 4, 2012 03:54
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seravid posted:I'm confused, how can a classic be so drat expensive? This edition was published in 2001, I'm not looking for some long lost relic here. Well, it's because the hardcover is out of print, which always drives prices up. Have you tried using BookFinder? You can search through ISBN, so you can find the edition you want. If you're okay with paperback, The Book Depository has the Penguin Classics Deluxe Edition (which usually have nicer bindings than their regular editions) for $17 with free worldwide shipping. Alternately, you could try asking if your library could get it from another library.
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Aug 4, 2012 04:25
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Maude translations of Tolstoy are good too, and you can get a hardcover edition of that translation here.
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Aug 4, 2012 06:00
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seravid posted:Yes, but that one isn't available in hardcover. It seems like the only Pevear & Volokhonsky translation in hardcover is the one I linked n my previous post, published in 2001 by Viking Books. Others are either the right translation but in paperback (like the one you suggested) or hardcover but translated by some other people.
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Aug 4, 2012 12:13
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Gorn Myson posted:Uh, you're really going to pay a huge premium just to read it in hardback? Its only £7 as a paperback. What exactly do you do to your paperbacks to make them fall apart anyway? I'm asking about it here precisely because I don't want to pay an (unwarranted) premium. It's mostly a preference thing, though, I like hardcover and I don't like paperback. They look and feel cheap and the binding is usually crap, I can't dare opening the book too wide (the bigger the book, the worse it is and Anna Karenina is pretty big). That said, I don't know anything about these "deluxe" editions, they might be nice enough to satisfy my elitist tastes. Sir John Feelgood posted:Maude translations of Tolstoy are good too, and you can get a hardcover edition of that translation here. Or I can buy that.
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Aug 4, 2012 15:32
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seravid posted:I'm asking about it here precisely because I don't want to pay an (unwarranted) premium. It's mostly a preference thing, though, I like hardcover and I don't like paperback. They look and feel cheap and the binding is usually crap, I can't dare opening the book too wide (the bigger the book, the worse it is and Anna Karenina is pretty big). It's not really unwarranted if it's been out of print for a decade and probably didn't have a massive print run to begin with. Especially over in your area of the world.
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Aug 5, 2012 09:58
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Am I justified in getting a Kindle just because I can't stand it when a series of books don't match? I've been reading John Le Carré and I've just got Tinker, Tailor, Soldier, Spy and found it isn't Penguin Classics but another imprint that is emulating the style. It looks just different enough to just look like a knock off.
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Aug 8, 2012 00:09
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Handsome Dead posted:Am I justified in getting a Kindle just because I can't stand it when a series of books don't match? I've been reading John Le Carré and I've just got Tinker, Tailor, Soldier, Spy and found it isn't Penguin Classics but another imprint that is emulating the style. It looks just different enough to just look like a knock off. I suppose that mostly depends if you're a person that keeps most books after reading them (which I assume you are, since appearance on a shelf is an issue). If your prime concern is along the lines of "this looks nice (or doesn't look bad since it's in a device) and I can read it whenever I like later", then you can't go far wrong with an e-reader. If you don't care to read many of them again after one go-through, I'd recommend just sticking with physical copies if you have a nice used book store or library nearby. I bought a Kindle last year thinking it would save me money but nine times out of ten it's been cheaper just to buy the paperback off of amazon and then hock it later if I'm not particularly attached to it. Space is an issue, though. It seems like a strange justification, yes, but ultimately it's your call. Tempura Wizard fucked around with this message at 15:20 on Aug 9, 2012 |
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Aug 9, 2012 14:45
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I just finished Catch-22 and I think it's phenomenal. It was my second try reading it but once I figured out the style, I was hooked. I think it might be one of my favourite novels I've read. And of course, I want to read more from Heller, but I'm worried about running into the same situation Sir John Feelgood is with Murakami. Where the author basically sets into his style and themes and the repetition of it cheapens the impact of both books. Is this the case with Heller? If it is, I was thinking about reading either Les Mis or Crime and Punishment instead. Les Mis because I'm currently re-learning French and thought it would be relevant (I'll read the English version), or Crime and Punishment because Raskolnikov's Dream was mentioned in Catch-22. stratdax fucked around with this message at 09:48 on Aug 11, 2012 |
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Aug 11, 2012 09:32
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Handsome Dead posted:Am I justified in getting a Kindle just because I can't stand it when a series of books don't match? I've been reading John Le Carré and I've just got Tinker, Tailor, Soldier, Spy and found it isn't Penguin Classics but another imprint that is emulating the style. It looks just different enough to just look like a knock off. Well if the appearance is important, getting an e-book is kindof self-defeating. I usually try to get the same editions when I order used books, but if I can't then I don't really bother.
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Aug 11, 2012 09:47
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I'm trying to think of a word, and it's driving me crazy. It arose, of all things, from watching an episode of Dragon Ball Z on TV this morning. I got to talking to my friend about how DBZ is the...inspiration, or forerunner of all modern shounen or young boys manga in Japan. Sort of like Superman is for modern American comic books. But I can't think of the exact word that I want to use to describe it. I believe it's a literary term that originated with the Greek epics. It essentially means the inspiration, the originator, of a genre. It set the precedent for all those that followed it, and contains tropes that find their way into those that follow. I want to say it begins with the letter F, but I can't be sure. Goons, help me out before I go insane trying to remember this word!
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Aug 11, 2012 17:37
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Archetype? If it's drawn from ancient Greek, the chances of it starting with an f are a bit slim.
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Aug 11, 2012 18:02
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Since I just looked it up this morning, is the term you're looking for "Ur-" ?
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Aug 11, 2012 18:13
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inktvis posted:Archetype? If it's drawn from ancient Greek, the chances of it starting with an f are a bit slim. Yes! Thanks so much. Man, I was way off with the F. I don't know how I forgot the word. I used to use it all the time. I'm a goddamn English major. I hate getting old. 
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Aug 11, 2012 18:51
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AreYouStillThere posted:I'm not sure if this is it but maybe Staffer's Book Review?
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Aug 13, 2012 23:13
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stratdax posted:I just finished Catch-22 and I think it's phenomenal. It was my second try reading it but once I figured out the style, I was hooked. I think it might be one of my favourite novels I've read. Catch-22 is also one of my favourite novels, but I've never been able to make much headway into Heller's other works. I've never encountered anybody who has recommended them, and none of them seem to have received a fraction of the attention shown to Catch-22. Crime and Punishment is also a great book, but Howard Jacobson is right when he says that Dostoyevsky is the most clumsily integrated of Heller's influences. Yossarian's nightmare flight through the city is very much A Reference In Big Freaking Capital Letters. Have you read any Kafka?
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Aug 13, 2012 23:37
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Yeah I had to look up what "Raskolnikov's Dream" was referring to once I came across those words in Catch-22. Once I read what it was about, the walk through the nightmare city seemed a little on the nose. I've only read The Metamorphosis from Kafka in school. I have a somewhat vague understanding of what "Kafkaesque" means - once Nately's Whore started dropping in and out of the story near the end seemingly at whim, I just kept thinking "is this what 'Kafkaesque' refers to?" There was a sense of doom that could come without any logic. Did I have the right idea?
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Aug 15, 2012 06:55
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This post may be caused by me fasting. Have you guys ever read fictional books that make you feel absolutely hungry? Maybe books with excellent descriptions of food, beautiful scenes of royal feast or just extra-salivating cooking processes? I mean, 'hungry' is one of the basic instincts, surely there are novels where this instinct is so carefully triggered. I never felt these from reading fiction, but then again I'm not an avid reader.
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Aug 15, 2012 08:21
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James Bond novels have a ridiculous focus on food for some reason, you could check those out.
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Aug 15, 2012 13:18
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stratdax posted:I just finished Catch-22 and I think it's phenomenal. It was my second try reading it but once I figured out the style, I was hooked. I think it might be one of my favourite novels I've read. Lobster Henry posted:Catch-22 is also one of my favourite novels, but I've never been able to make much headway into Heller's other works. I've never encountered anybody who has recommended them, and none of them seem to have received a fraction of the attention shown to Catch-22. Thanks for this, guys. I just read Catch-22 for the first time earlier this year and absolutely loved it, but when I did some basic research on Heller's other work, I had the same feeling. Good to see I'm not alone.
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Aug 15, 2012 15:06
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stratdax posted:Yeah I had to look up what "Raskolnikov's Dream" was referring to once I came across those words in Catch-22. Once I read what it was about, the walk through the nightmare city seemed a little on the nose. There's a kind of creeping elasticity to time and space in Kafka, where the prose will convey a sense that a couple of minutes have passed, only for a character to subsequently declare that night has fallen. It's a revelation after the fact that plunges you into uncertainty. To me, Nately's whore is more abrupt - more of an evil punchline - but you're bang-on about the sense of doom without logic. quote:The case against Clevinger was open and shut. The only thing missing was something to charge him with. That could more or less be ripped directly from The Trial. For much of Catch-22, Heller is sort of rewriting Kafka and emphasising the comedy, until of course it turns very, very sinister in the second half. In terms of Snowden and the ending, Catch-22 is both more hopeless (because of its atheism) than Kafka, and more hopeful - Kafka's Catch-22 would probably end with Yossarian being court-martialled and executed just after he hears an unconfirmed rumour that Orr may or may not be Sweden. Bottom line: If you liked Heller's circular/horrifying/very funny non-logic, you'll like The Trial. Lobster Henry fucked around with this message at 20:34 on Aug 15, 2012 |
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Aug 15, 2012 20:24
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toanoradian posted:surely there are novels where this instinct is so carefully triggered The main example I can think of is Poppy Brite's Liquor series, about a couple of dudes who start an alcohol themed restaurant. It's basically food porn, and I'd find it hard to believe it exists in a vacuum. Psalmanazar posted:James Bond novels have a ridiculous focus on food for some reason, you could check those out. Yeah Bond is good for this but then again Fleming just loved describing any sort of sensuality.
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Aug 16, 2012 12:50
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toanoradian posted:This post may be caused by me fasting. A Christmas Carol, every time...
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Aug 16, 2012 22:19
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toanoradian posted:This post may be caused by me fasting. A.J. Liebling's Between Meals has some of my favorite food writing and deals almost exclusively with French food and Paris of the first half of the 20th century.
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Aug 16, 2012 23:15
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toanoradian posted:This post may be caused by me fasting. Like Water for Chocolate is the one that immediately comes to mind. There is also The Debt to Pleasure which actually won a Whitebread award and some literary food writing award. Haven't read it but have heard many good things about it and it's on my to-read list. Poutling fucked around with this message at 02:43 on Aug 17, 2012 |
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Aug 16, 2012 23:50
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Doom Goon posted:A Christmas Carol, every time... Article about the food. More food quotes (including one of my favorites): quote:A great deal of steam! The pudding was out of the copper. A smell like a washing-day! That was the cloth. A smell like an eating-house, and a pastry cook's next to each other, with a laundress's next door to that! That was the pudding. Aricle about Dickens's punch and other drinks, including a reference to a The Charles Dickens Cookbook.
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Aug 17, 2012 02:00
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stratdax posted:I've only read The Metamorphosis from Kafka in school. I have a somewhat vague understanding of what "Kafkaesque" means - once Nately's Whore started dropping in and out of the story near the end seemingly at whim, I just kept thinking "is this what 'Kafkaesque' refers to?" There was a sense of doom that could come without any logic. Did I have the right idea? Yeah, simply put Kafkaesque usually means either impending doom and/or impenetrable bureaucracy. Lobster Henry posted:Catch-22 is also one of my favourite novels, but I've never been able to make much headway into Heller's other works. I've never encountered anybody who has recommended them, and none of them seem to have received a fraction of the attention shown to Catch-22. I read Good as Gold & Something Happened some years ago and quite liked them (and Catch-22 is still next to my bed, waiting to be read  so I can't compare). Something Happened was exhausting and depressing, but was saved by the language and the ending. If it had been any grimmer I might not have made it through to those last redemptive pages. Good as Gold was hilarious; you could probably call it a Kafkaesque comedy.
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Aug 17, 2012 02:17
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Doom Goon posted:Aricle about Dickens's punch and other drinks, including a reference to a The Charles Dickens Cookbook. Ah yes, Dickens loves to describe eating/drinking: "in The Pickwick Papers (1835-6) there are 35 breakfasts, 32 dinners, 10 luncheons, and 249 separate references to drink (albeit, not all of it alcoholic)" I've been on a quest to make different Victorian/Dickensian historical drinks for the last few Christmas holidays. I have not been disappointed! Hot rum punch is definitely a fine way to kick back. I don't know if I made it wrong, but "egg flip" turned out sort of nasty. Wassail is a similarly acquired taste... The Redwood series by Brian Jacques has a lot of long, detailed, delicious sounding descriptions of feasts and food items. Thesaurus fucked around with this message at 17:27 on Aug 17, 2012 |
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Aug 17, 2012 17:24
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toanoradian posted:This post may be caused by me fasting. Brideshead Revisited is my favorite book for evoking the sensuous pleasures of life. It was written during the war and I think Waugh later said that the sumptuousness of the novel was a direct reaction to the privation of the wartime years (unless I'm thinking of Fitzgerald, who is also a good bet for this kind of thing).
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Aug 18, 2012 02:27
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Thesaurus posted:I've been on a quest to make different Victorian/Dickensian historical drinks for the last few Christmas holidays. I have not been disappointed! Hot rum punch is definitely a fine way to kick back. Had to look up "egg flip", that's hilarious. I love his descriptions but I'm rather cautious about the, uh, uniqueness of English cooking.
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Aug 18, 2012 03:01
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Sort of on the same vein as all the food talk, Jack London's "John Barleycorn" gives the best narratives about drinking, both the taste and the feeling, that I've ever encountered. (Note that by the end he denounces alcohol and was actually a proponent of prohibition.)
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Aug 18, 2012 04:25
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PatMarshall posted:Brideshead Revisited is my favorite book for evoking the sensuous pleasures of life. It was written during the war and I think Waugh later said that the sumptuousness of the novel was a direct reaction to the privation of the wartime years (unless I'm thinking of Fitzgerald, who is also a good bet for this kind of thing). I came here to post this. In particular, the scene where Rex Mottram and Ryder have lunch in a Parisian restaurant is pretty solid stuff. And, yes, you're right, Waugh did say that about Brideshead Revisited. I should re-read that book.
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Aug 18, 2012 06:50
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