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david crosby posted:"The sky is the color of a uhhh... tv. a dead tv. the future is hosed up." What's impressive is that TV wasn't even invented when that line was written. Gee, Gibson sure was a prophet. To be honest I don't put too much stock in opening lines. It seems to me to be one of those truisms spouted as wisdom by the likes of Gruff Knowledgeable Writer Types who know this sort of thing. What annoys me is when a writer seems to have spent far more effort in a snappy, memorable opening at the expense of, you know, the rest of the book.
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Mar 20, 2015 23:21
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J_RBG posted:What annoys me is when a writer seems to have spent far more effort in a snappy, memorable opening at the expense of, you know, the rest of the book. I somehow doubt this happens often.
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Mar 20, 2015 23:33
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Pynchon spent like a year coming up with "a screaming comes across the sky" or whatever and basically just winged the rest of Gravity's Rainbow.
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Mar 20, 2015 23:38
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Ras Het posted:I somehow doubt this happens often. Ian McEwan is infuriating for this. Especially Enduring Love.
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Mar 20, 2015 23:55
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Well dont read past the opening chapter of EL, problem solved.
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Mar 20, 2015 23:58
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Mel Mudkiper posted:Honestly I always thought Fitzgerald was a really bad writer and his fascination with the rich was tedious and without value What are you're thoughts on John O'Hara?
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Mar 21, 2015 23:21
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Borneo Jimmy posted:What are you're thoughts on John O'Hara? Never read him honestly. What do you think about him?
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Mar 21, 2015 23:29
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J_RBG posted:Ian McEwan is infuriating for this. Especially Enduring Love. I've tried to read so many of McEwan's novels but can never get more than a couple chapters in before I get too annoyed to continue by something. The only one I managed to read to completion was The Cement Garden, which was not worth the effort. I won't say he is overhyped or anything, but he and I clearly have different taste in writing. Come at me, thread!
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Mar 22, 2015 01:20
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Mel Mudkiper posted:The man in black fled across the desert and seven poo poo novels followed i read this goddamn series all the way through when the last book came out in 10th grade and i've had trust issues ever since i also swore off stephen king books for life
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Mar 22, 2015 01:51
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Tim Burns Effect posted:i also swore off stephen king books for life I know you are all proud of yourself but it seriously took you 7 books to realize this
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Mar 22, 2015 03:15
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Mel Mudkiper posted:I know you are all proud of yourself but it seriously took you 7 books to realize this The important thing is he finally learned, learning is good
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Mar 22, 2015 03:43
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Rabbit Hill posted:I've tried to read so many of McEwan's novels but can never get more than a couple chapters in before I get too annoyed to continue by something. The only one I managed to read to completion was The Cement Garden, which was not worth the effort. I'm riding right along with you, flipping the bird to ppl that like Atonement, even though i've never read an Ian McEwan Novel.
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Mar 22, 2015 04:27
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I liked the banana party at the beginning of Gravity's Rainbow.
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Mar 22, 2015 04:35
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I've never made it through an entire Ian McEwan novel either. Has anyone ever made it through an entire Ian McEwan novel. Are the last 100 pages just lorem ipsum because he knows we'll never read them.
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Mar 22, 2015 05:45
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Ive read atonement & saturday. They wrre both decent but very artificial in the hollywood movie sense, lacking only sad string music in some parts. Really, there are tons of better and more fun writers. Maybe in 80s & 90s his stuff was new and interesting, but not now.
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Mar 22, 2015 07:44
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Burning Rain posted:Ive read atonement & saturday. They wrre both decent but very artificial in the hollywood movie sense, lacking only sad string music in some parts. Really, there are tons of better and more fun writers. Maybe in 80s & 90s his stuff was new and interesting, but not now. I think in the 80s and 90s his stuff was cool because he hadn't yet recognized that he could make lots of money by churning out middle-brow crap for people to read on holiday.
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Mar 22, 2015 11:01
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Rabbit Hill posted:I've tried to read so many of McEwan's novels but can never get more than a couple chapters in before I get too annoyed to continue by something. The only one I managed to read to completion was The Cement Garden, which was not worth the effort. Oh he really is absolutely overhyped. He comes up with interesting ideas for stories and has strong moments but forgets to be interesting beyond general middle class dinner party blather. Everything wrong with British fiction nowadays can be embodied by him.
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Mar 22, 2015 17:26
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I've honestly never even bothered to read him because he seems Oprah book club-esque
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Mar 22, 2015 18:48
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Mel Mudkiper posted:I've honestly never even bothered to read him because he seems Oprah book club-esque same, except Tolstoy
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Mar 22, 2015 19:20
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Mel Mudkiper posted:I know you are all proud of yourself but it seriously took you 7 books to realize this well it REALLY hit me in book 5 but by that point i was like "well i've spent this much time on this i might as well finish it, SURELY it will get better" the horseback-riding doctor dooms armed with lightsabers and exploding harry potter snitches should have been a dead giveaway so i have no one to blame but myself, really
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Mar 22, 2015 21:50
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Mel Mudkiper posted:I've honestly never even bothered to read him because he seems Oprah book club-esque The covers of his books are too smooth and colorful.
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Mar 23, 2015 00:58
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Smoking Crow posted:I think that the Book of John has a good opening line for real, it's the best line in the bible, and the bible has some good lines
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Mar 23, 2015 10:10
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Cannery Row has one of the best openings imo quote:“Cannery Row in Monterey in California is a poem, a stink, a grating noise, a quality of light, a tone, a habit, a nostalgia, a dream. Cannery Row is the gathered and scattered, tin and iron and rust and splintered wood, chipped pavement and weedy lots and junk heaps, sardine canneries of corrugated iron, honky tonks, restaurants and whore houses, and little crowded groceries, and laboratories and flophouses. Its inhabitant are, as the man once said, “whores, pimps, gambler and sons of bitches,” by which he meant Everybody. Had the man looked through another peephole he might have said, “Saints and angels and martyrs and holymen” and he would have meant the same thing.” Speaking of which, I need to read more Steinbeck. Travels with Charley sounds like the sort of book I would love.
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Mar 23, 2015 10:30
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So I'm giving Remarque a second chance with Three Comrades after giving up on Arch of Triumph last year, and I still cant get into his writing. Do his characters ever do anything other than drink?
Mr.48 fucked around with this message at 13:09 on Mar 23, 2015 |
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Mar 23, 2015 13:07
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Mr.48 posted:So I'm giving Remarque a second chance with Three Comrades after giving up on Arch of Triumph last year, and I still cant get into his writing. Do his characters ever do anything other than drink? He's a early 20th Century author so probably not
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Mar 23, 2015 14:09
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Anyone ever read David Vann? His new book is coming out this week and I am kinda surprised he flew under my radar.
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Mar 23, 2015 15:04
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Mel Mudkiper posted:Never read him honestly. What do you think about him? Appointment in Samarra and BUtterfield 8 are excellent sociological portraits of upper class Americans at the beginning of the depression and I highly recommend them. His later door stop novels I can't however
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Mar 24, 2015 01:10
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i'm reading inherent vice now, and I kinda regret this not being my first pynchon book. I'm only 1/4th in, but it feels a lot better than the crying of lot 49. not that the latter's bad, just if things continue as they do, a lesser book than inherent vice
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Mar 24, 2015 09:49
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Mar 24, 2015 22:22
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Moby dick update: I got to the part where starbuck tries to chew out ahab for being obsessed about a big dumb animal and then i lost my kindle and decided to read The Getaway God: a Sandman Slim novel by Richard Kadrey. In conclusion, i enjoyed the bromance and the whaling recruiter talking about how whaling was noble work because all the kings get their heads annointed by their sperm. 3.5/5 stars. Normal Adult Human fucked around with this message at 14:47 on Mar 25, 2015 |
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Mar 25, 2015 14:44
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You haven't really read Moby-Dick until you get to the part about turning a whale dick into a vest
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Mar 25, 2015 15:55
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Go to a library or a bookstore with an hour or so to kill and read the last three chapters. Call it good.
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Mar 25, 2015 16:31
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quote:I hope you don’t have friends who recommend Ayn Rand to you. The fiction of Ayn Rand is as low as you can get re fiction. I hope you picked it up off the floor of the subway and threw it in the nearest garbage pail. She makes Mickey Spillane look like Dostoevsky. http://electricliterature.com/flannery-oconnor-throwing-shade-at-ayn-rand-in-1960/
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Mar 25, 2015 20:36
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Query for this thread: Is Robert Burns a good poet or baby tier level bullshit
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Mar 27, 2015 19:45
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They're alright, but I wouldn't say they're that great compared to most other poets I've read. My opinion might be slightly coloured by having to read his poems in primary school, however. As an aside, I'm about halfway through If on a winter's night a traveler, by Italo Calvino, and I'm loving it so far. I'm probably going to get Invisible Cities once I'm done.
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Mar 27, 2015 20:22
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invisible cities is boss
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Mar 27, 2015 22:46
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Has anyone read Elena Ferrante's Neapolitan books? I heard them compared to the My Struggle series and it's piqued my interest.
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Mar 28, 2015 01:31
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ulvir posted:invisible cities is boss Both Invisible Cities and If on a winter's night a traveler are rad, it's true (but Invisible Cities has some gorgeous loving prose).
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Mar 28, 2015 07:14
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Wraith of J.O.I. posted:Has anyone read Elena Ferrante's Neapolitan books? I heard them compared to the My Struggle series and it's piqued my interest. I just read The Days of Abandonment, and I thought it lived up to the recent hype
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Mar 28, 2015 07:25
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Smoking Crow posted:Query for this thread: maybe you should grow out of your "baby tier level" mindset and just read his poems and decide for yourself if you like them or not?
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Mar 28, 2015 17:39
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