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blue squares posted:Huh. This is the first I have heard of this book. I am going to read it and City on Fire back to back after Christmas. It will be a total of 1600 pages between two books. Pray for Mel. I also realized Fates and Furies might actually be book of the year based on critical praise as well
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Dec 9, 2015 15:31
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Probably read City on Fire second, as there is quite a bit of plot and excitement, and the other one seems, from that review, to be a lot slower.
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Dec 9, 2015 16:32
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The new Vollman book is supposed to be cool and it's also almost 1400 pages long if you want a lot of pages.
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Dec 10, 2015 00:29
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A human heart posted:The new Vollman book is supposed to be cool and it's also almost 1400 pages long if you want a lot of pages. I wanted to get that but it costs $55 at my local bookstore
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Dec 10, 2015 00:37
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Dec 10, 2015 00:59
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so whats his SA username
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Dec 10, 2015 01:04
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i liked europe central and rainbow stories, I don't really get why people hate him so much
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Dec 10, 2015 01:09
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I'm about to finish A Visit From the Goon Squad, it's good. Should I read Europe Central next? I have never read Vollman and have wanted to for a long time.
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Dec 10, 2015 01:10
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blue squares posted:I'm about to finish A Visit From the Goon Squad, it's good. Should I read Europe Central next? I have never read Vollman and have wanted to for a long time. From what I have heard Europe Central is an amazing 400 page book in 800 pages
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Dec 10, 2015 01:20
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Its a series of somewhat-related stories some of which are the length of a novella and there are quite a lot of them. Some are better than others. They are about a number of different historical figures, a mix of artists and military leaders, but several of them are about Dmitri Shostakovich and those are very good. The one about Paulus was pretty good too.
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Dec 10, 2015 01:24
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Earwicker posted:Its a series of somewhat-related stories some of which are the length of a novella and there are quite a lot of them. Some are better than others. They are about a number of different historical figures, a mix of artists and military leaders, but several of them are about Dmitri Shostakovich and those are very good. The one about Paulus was pretty good too. Ugh that sounds unappealing. I prefer novels to be cohesive works in which most everything is connected and has a central plot or two. Visit From the Goon Squad is really disconnected (so far), but it's short enough that I don't mind. For 800 pages, I think I would struggle to finish.
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Dec 10, 2015 01:26
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I am seriously considering dedicating next year to giant loving books I have never read. So far I got Tree of Smoke by Denis Johnson Gravity's Rainbow Parallel Stories by Peter Nadas The Luminaries by Elizabeth Catton A little life by Hanya Yanigahara City on Fire by Garth Hallberg The Neapolitan series by Elena Ferrante The Naked and the Dead by Norman Mailer The Golden Notebook by Doris Lessing Wind-Up Bird Chronicles by Haruki Murakami Might as well toss Europe Central on there as well
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Dec 10, 2015 01:27
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blue squares posted:Ugh that sounds unappealing. I prefer novels to be cohesive works in which most everything is connected and has a central plot or two. Well everything is connected through the war itself, and it focuses on Shostakovich more than anyone else, but includes a number of other figures. It's certainly cohesive. The problem with it is more that some of the other stories are kind of boring and needlessly long.
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Dec 10, 2015 01:28
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blue squares posted:Ugh that sounds unappealing. I prefer novels to be cohesive works in which most everything is connected and has a central plot or two. Visit From the Goon Squad is really disconnected (so far), but it's short enough that I don't mind. For 800 pages, I think I would struggle to finish. I really liked Visit from the Goon Squad but I also thought it had the most obnoxious ending I have read in a long time
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Dec 10, 2015 01:28
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I got put off Jennifer Egan by Look At Me which I thought was really quite crap aside from some moments of lucidity. How do the two compare?
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Dec 10, 2015 01:29
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Mel Mudkiper posted:I am seriously considering dedicating next year to giant loving books I have never read. Have you read any Gaddis? You could throw the Recognitions or JR on there and say goodbye to a month. I'm going to read Women and Men by Joseph McElroy next year because my girlfriend can get it from her university library. City on Fire as well but that's easier to find.
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Dec 10, 2015 01:37
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J_RBG posted:I got put off Jennifer Egan by Look At Me which I thought was really quite crap aside from some moments of lucidity. How do the two compare? I've only read the first half of Goon Squad, but it's great. Funny, very distinct voices for each of the characters, and it jumps around a LOT from character to character and decade to decade, which is working a lot better than that might sound. It's a quick read, and very sympathetic to all of its characters, even the ones that at first you find yourself really disliking; you then might jump to their POV twenty years earlier and get a whole new perspective on them. The writing itself is great, too, although much simpler than the last book I read, City on Fire, in which every other sentence has this grand, weighty feel of a proclamation that could end up in a list of quotes somewhere.
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Dec 10, 2015 01:39
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BTW, if anyone is looking from shorter crisper reads I read three recently that are really fantastic imho In the Language of Miracles by Rajia Hassib All the Followed by Gabriel Urza The Turner House by Angela Flournoy
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Dec 10, 2015 01:43
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Mel Mudkiper posted:I am seriously considering dedicating next year to giant loving books I have never read. You should chuck Miss Macintosh, My Darling on there.
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Dec 10, 2015 01:48
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I'm drinking turpentine à la Autumn of the Patriarch until I forget how to read, so I can rediscover the joy of reading afresh. Wish me luck. In the mean time, I am reading Kierkegaard.
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Dec 10, 2015 02:06
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blue squares posted:so whats his SA username C'est moi
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Dec 10, 2015 02:08
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Tree Goat posted:I'm drinking turpentine à la Autumn of the Patriarch until I forget how to read, so I can rediscover the joy of reading afresh. Wish me luck. In the mean time, I am reading Kierkegaard. Kierkegaard is the official Tbb philosopher, and everyone loves him.
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Dec 10, 2015 02:10
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CestMoi posted:Kierkegaard is the official Tbb philosopher, and everyone loves him. I thought the official tbb philosopher was terry goodkind
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Dec 10, 2015 02:13
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Kierkegaard is a dork with a big boner for Abraham, the worst father of all time. He also thought the aesthetic life was doomed to lead to despair, which is just dumb. Karl Ove is the better K-gaard
blue squares fucked around with this message at 02:31 on Dec 10, 2015 |
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Dec 10, 2015 02:28
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Mel Mudkiper posted:I am seriously considering dedicating next year to giant loving books I have never read. The Recognitions and JR by Gaddis The Tunnel by Gass The Man Without Qualities by Musil À la Recherche du Temps Perdu Assuming you haven't ready any of those.
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Dec 10, 2015 14:04
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I just realized I should add doing Bible cover to cover in there as well
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Dec 10, 2015 14:14
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Mel Mudkiper posted:I just realized I should add doing Bible cover to cover in there as well I've been doing that for like this entire year and I'm only just finishing up PSalms lol.
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Dec 10, 2015 14:29
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blue squares posted:I've only read the first half of Goon Squad, but it's great. Cool, looks like I judged her on juvenilia. I'll give it a shot sometime. blue squares posted:Karl Ove is the better K-gaard Uuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuu then again...
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Dec 10, 2015 14:52
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blue squares posted:Kierkegaard is a dork with a big boner for Abraham, the worst father of all time. He also thought the aesthetic life was doomed to lead to despair, which is just dumb. Karl Ove is the better K-gaard He thought all life was doomed to despair because he was cool and Abraham was also good.
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Dec 10, 2015 15:02
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Mel Mudkiper posted:I just realized I should add doing Bible cover to cover in there as well
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Dec 10, 2015 15:35
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Lunchmeat Larry posted:I did that when I was younger to prove some kind of arcane point to myself and it wasn't really worth it I feel like at least from a cultural standpoint I am gonna have to do it at some point. The Koran was way easier, its like a quarter as long and better written imho
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Dec 10, 2015 15:45
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Mel Mudkiper posted:I feel like at least from a cultural standpoint I am gonna have to do it at some point. Even so I'm not really sure reading it "cover to cover" is really necessary it would be better IMO to focus on some of the more culturally influential parts and read those as well as hermeneutics and relevant later history and criticism etc.
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Dec 10, 2015 16:00
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Earwicker posted:it would be better IMO to focus on some of the more culturally influential parts and read those as well as hermeneutics and relevant later history and criticism etc. I don't really much care about Christianity as a faith or social institution, I just kind of want to see an original source for Western cultural mythology
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Dec 10, 2015 17:02
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Earwicker posted:Even so I'm not really sure reading it "cover to cover" is really necessary it would be better IMO to focus on some of the more culturally influential parts and read those as well as hermeneutics and relevant later history and criticism etc. As an idiot who's doing the thing you said, do this thing instead. Read the books of Moses in order probably then jump around the rest of the old testament and skip the ones that are LAST WEEK IN THE BIBLE then move onto the new testament. Then read Kierkegaard.
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Dec 10, 2015 17:07
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CestMoi posted:. Then read Kierkegaard. I once was roommates for a year with three philosophy majors. Even hearing the name Kierkegaard gives me 'Nam flashbacks. Once had to sit through a two hour Kant vs. Hegel fight.
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Dec 10, 2015 17:11
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Mel Mudkiper posted:I once was roommates for a year with three philosophy majors. I initially thought this post was going to be a limerick.
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Dec 10, 2015 17:16
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CestMoi posted:I initially thought this post was going to be a limerick. how about a haiku Philosophers are Worthless loving dilettantes I hope they all die
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Dec 10, 2015 17:20
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I finished Goon Squad and I take back most of the good things I said about that book. It was a fun ride, I guess, but I think Jennifer Egan had a hard deadline and just gave them what she had and moved on. So many interesting things are brought up and then just disappear. No closure. Felt like half a book.
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Dec 10, 2015 17:21
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blue squares posted:I finished Goon Squad and I take back most of the good things I said about that book. It was a fun ride, I guess, but I think Jennifer Egan had a hard deadline and just gave them what she had and moved on. So many interesting things are brought up and then just disappear. No closure. Felt like half a book. Was that ending loving obnoxious or what jesus WAY TO GO WAMPA!! posted:Is that the one that has the powerpoint slides in the last chapter? Second to last chapter. I actually thought that part was surprisingly well done. Mel Mudkiper fucked around with this message at 17:26 on Dec 10, 2015 |
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Dec 10, 2015 17:22
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Is that the one that has the powerpoint slides in the last chapter?
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Dec 10, 2015 17:24
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