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I’ve been interested in The Dying Grass by Vollman but I imagine I would get sick of the format long before I read all the 1000 pages
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Jun 17, 2021 18:28
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blue squares posted:I’ve been interested in The Dying Grass by Vollman but I imagine I would get sick of the format long before I read all the 1000 pages I love Vollmann but that one is hard work to read. Lucky Star is pretty good, as is Royal Family. His nonfiction is much better though. Edit: of course I should mention You Bright and Risen Angels, which I think is as good a debut novel as any in postwar lit mdemone fucked around with this message at 20:08 on Jun 17, 2021 |
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Jun 17, 2021 18:32
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Bilirubin posted:https://www.mcsweeneys.net/articles/how-to-celebrate-bloomsday-without-having-to-read-ulysses I love when McSweeneys is funny which is why it's such a rare treat.
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Jun 17, 2021 22:26
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Mokelumne Trekka posted:Solaris is badass. I like its anti-anthropomorphic approach to alien life. Extraterrestrials would not necessarily be four-limbed, two-eyed beings like us despite how overdone such a thing is in sci-fi and pop culture. What is cool about Solaris is that the ocean must take decades to understand because it is unlike anything known in the universe. fiasco by lem, eden by lem, the invincible by lem, basically half of what he wrote does that kind of thing. fiasco is cool because it's like solaris mixed with dr strangelove. it has a priest character that i liked too i don't like lovecraft though. lovecraft is a dead end and i don't think he's very similar to lem. lem is more like pynchon or melville or something
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Jun 18, 2021 00:04
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i got a big book of medoruma shun stories that im reading in japanese. it's slow going because i read japanese at toddler speed but the stories are short and good. i really think he's a great author and should be read more but even in japan nobody ever knows who he is when i mention him
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Jun 18, 2021 00:08
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I got a copy of A Moveable Feast for a song but I’ve never read Hemingway. How similar is it to Down and Out in Paris and London? I liked that one and a less “holy poo poo this guy is poor” version sounds like a good read to me.
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Jun 24, 2021 22:44
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Any recommendations for Murakami? I’d like to read about 3 or so books to get a good feel for his writing to see if I connect. I’ve heard Norwegian Wood mentioned in this thread.
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Jun 25, 2021 05:00
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sorry but i have to quote this whenever murakami is mentionedderp posted:She thought of Ayumi Nakano, the lonely policewoman who, one August night, wound up in a hotel room in Shibuya, handcuffed, strangled with a bathrobe belt. A troubled young woman walking toward the abyss of destruction. She had had beautiful breasts as well. Aomame mourned the deaths of these two friends deeply. It saddened her to think that these women were forever gone from the world. And she mourned their lovely breasts—breasts that had vanished without a trace.
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Jun 25, 2021 05:04
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George R.R. Murakami.
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Jun 25, 2021 05:07
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to actually answer your question, i've only read two. avoid 1Q84 (where that quote was from, and also contains child sex as a major plotline) Hardboiled Wonderland was okay
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Jun 25, 2021 05:16
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A few novels by women I've read in the last 12 months, so that this thread has some books by women in it
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Jun 25, 2021 05:34
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The North Tower posted:Any recommendations for Murakami? I’d like to read about 3 or so books to get a good feel for his writing to see if I connect. I’ve heard Norwegian Wood mentioned in this thread. His non-fic is good, especially Underground, a book based around interviews with victims of the Tokyo sarin attack. I liked his running book too, but I was VERY MUCH into running at the time. To get a taste of his style, I would say The Wind-Up Bird Chronicle is the fully evolved Murakami novel with all the elements that make people love or hate him. It’s also an attempt to deal with Japan’s right wing politics, but a clumsy one, with all the sex weirdness and stuff. But I’d agree with derp, Hard-Boiled Wonderland stands up on its own as probably the best. e: I’ve also seen Kafka On the Shore as a stage play. My wife complained about the boy loving his mother in the play, so I made a mental note to bring someone else to the Greek tragedy festival. Take the plunge! Okay! fucked around with this message at 06:31 on Jun 25, 2021 |
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Jun 25, 2021 06:22
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Rolo posted:I got a copy of A Moveable Feast for a song but I’ve never read Hemingway. I haven't read Down & Out, but Moveable Feast has a top notch anecdote about F. Scott Fitzgeralds dick
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Jun 25, 2021 11:00
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Just started The Adversary by Carrere and boy howdy. derp posted:sorry but i have to quote this whenever murakami is mentioned Listen, man. Everyone mourns differently.
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Jun 25, 2021 14:05
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Carthag Tuek posted:I haven't read Down & Out, but Moveable Feast has a top notch anecdote about F. Scott Fitzgeralds dick I’ll let you know when I get to that part.
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Jun 25, 2021 14:27
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Rolo posted:I’ll let you know when I get to that part. Please do. There's a bunch of other excellent stuff in there, but that one really stayed with me lol
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Jun 25, 2021 18:14
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Ok cool, I guess my other question was a general “is this worth reading” and the answer seems to be yes. I’m on a weekend trip in the mountains with some friends but I’ll have afternoons to myself so reading this on the porch with a glass of whisky sounds nice.
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Jun 25, 2021 18:55
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oh yeah no rush for my sake, im drinking whiskey right now & probably wont check in over the weekend anyway
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Jun 25, 2021 19:22
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Rolo posted:I’m on a weekend trip in the mountains with some friends but I’ll have afternoons to myself so reading this on the porch with a glass of whisky sounds nice. I'm also about to go on a mountain trip. Bringing along An Episode in the Life of a Landscape Painter and The Peregrine  snailshell posted:[*] Rebecca by Daphne du Maurier: horny and shuddering with agonized inward turmoil, in that early 20s way. Wish I had read this 5 years ago. Suspenseful and gothic in a way few 20th-century authors seem to be able to nail I read her short story collection which included The Birds* and Don't Look Now. Both were good. However, everything else was unmemorable. In retrospect I would've just gone with Rebecca, though I may check it out in the future. *this may have been a rip-off of an earlier story, actually.
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Jun 25, 2021 19:41
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The North Tower posted:Any recommendations for Murakami? I’d like to read about 3 or so books to get a good feel for his writing to see if I connect. I’ve heard Norwegian Wood mentioned in this thread. Instead of reading Norwegian Wood, read the books that he takes from to cobble together Norwegian Wood. The Magic Mountain, Beneath the Wheel, The Great Gatsby, Catcher in the Rye, probably a few others I'm forgetting. You'll be better off, they are better books.
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Jun 25, 2021 20:34
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Mokelumne Trekka posted:I read her short story collection which included The Birds* and Don't Look Now. Both were good. However, everything else was unmemorable. In retrospect I would've just gone with Rebecca, though I may check it out in the future. *this may have been a rip-off of an earlier story, actually.
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Jun 25, 2021 21:11
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My Murakami knowledge is limited, but I enjoyed Pinball, 1973 in college, and that's just novella-length if you want to try his stuff out without a full book commitment. Comedy option: accidentally buy a Ryu Murakami instead and have a weird one
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Jun 26, 2021 01:16
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I finished Homer's Iliad and it was good. Is Virgil's Aeneid the next step? Should i jump forward to Herodotus? Maybe take a break from Classics and read Cormac McCarthy? Also curious about the Iliad's impact on culture through the ages. If there are any good nonfiction books y'all like on that subject shout em out. I also want to read Hearing Homer's Song about Milman Perry but i dunno if it's any good. Seems a interesting chap though
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Jun 26, 2021 15:46
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I read Lolita. The second part went in many directions that I didn't all find compelling. I did appreciate the book as a glimpse of life in postwar America, though the author speaks of such reading as "childish" in the afterword. The dialogues from the school head master were incredibly hilarious, though they do feel a little out of place.
FPyat fucked around with this message at 16:10 on Jun 26, 2021 |
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Jun 26, 2021 16:05
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FPyat posted:I read Lolita. The second part went in many directions that I didn't all find compelling. I did appreciate the book as a glimpse of life in postwar America, though the author speaks of such reading as "childish" in the afterword. The dialogues from the school head master were incredibly hilarious, though they do feel a little out of place. It is highly amusing to imagine Nabokov's reactions to reader critiques. I love that he just flat insulted you in the afterword; he is big smart author and you are little dumb reader, just ask him!
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Jun 26, 2021 17:06
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Duck Rodgers posted:Instead of reading Norwegian Wood, read the books that he takes from to cobble together Norwegian Wood. The Magic Mountain, Beneath the Wheel, The Great Gatsby, Catcher in the Rye, probably a few others I'm forgetting. You'll be better off, they are better books. Thanks—I couldn’t find Beneath the Wheel but I got The Magic Mountain instead. Have read the other 2 in high school. Also got: the African Trilogy (had only read Things Fall Apart before, but it was cheaper to buy a 1 volume version than the other 2, and I’ll donate TFA to save space), Tokarczuk’s Flights, James’s The Book of Night Women, Atwood’s Surfacing, Dewitt’s Some Trick, some Karen Russell books, Whitehead’s The Nickel Boys, Solstad’s Novel 11 Book 18, and my last unread Saunders: Reign of Phil. Feeling like a kid at Christmas. Just noticed that The Book of Night Women and Chamoiseau’s Texaco have the same painting on the covers. The North Tower fucked around with this message at 21:28 on Jun 26, 2021 |
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Jun 26, 2021 21:17
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apophenium posted:I finished Homer's Iliad and it was good. Is Virgil's Aeneid the next step? Should i jump forward to Herodotus? Maybe take a break from Classics and read Cormac McCarthy?
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Jun 27, 2021 12:58
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I was going to suggest the Odyssey; the Aeneid was written ~800ish years later and is a product of Rome rather than Greece. So the Odyssey, maybe the Cypria, little Iliad or Oresteia ( the Aeschylus plays Agamemnon, Eumenides, and The Libation Bearers) if it's Greek accounts of the war and its aftermath you're after.
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Jun 27, 2021 17:46
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The North Tower posted:Any recommendations for Murakami? I’d like to read about 3 or so books to get a good feel for his writing to see if I connect. I’ve heard Norwegian Wood mentioned in this thread. murakami sucks but if you absolutely must read him i guess start with his first novel, hear the wind sing, which i thought was okay at the time
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Jun 29, 2021 14:34
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e: nevermind, already answered
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Jun 29, 2021 15:18
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I think I may have discovered what McCarthy was referencing in the opening line of Blood Meridian? It's from Margaret by Sylvester Judd, this incredibly verbose 1840s American transcendentalist novel that McCarthy may very well have read as research. Am I jumping to conclusions here?
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Jun 29, 2021 16:30
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I think the concept of looking at a child is probably a coincidence, but I want to read this book now.
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Jun 29, 2021 16:46
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Sham bam bamina! posted:I think the concept of looking at a child is probably a coincidence, but I want to read this book now. I thought the same thing. But remember that this book was written pretty much exactly when Blood Meridian is set and it seems like THE book that a writer like McCarthy would go to for obscure 19th century provincial jargon. Completely different part of the country, but still. Anyway, I'm only a few chapters in. We'll see how my theory holds up once I've finished it. But so far Judd's overwritten optimistic transcendentalism seems like the very thing McCarthy was subverting with his sparse, perverse gnosticism. As for the book, here you go, chief: https://www2.newpaltz.edu/~hathawar/margaret.html EDIT: Looks like that's just part 1. Whole thing is here (though I'm not sure it's the uncensored text.) https://archive.org/details/margaretatalere02juddgoog/page/n190/mode/2up Carly Gay Dead Son fucked around with this message at 17:25 on Jun 29, 2021 |
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Jun 29, 2021 17:07
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https://www.wordswithoutborders.org/article/three-stories-from-the-streets-of-koza i think i once posted a medoruma shun short story here in translation, here's a link to a few more. i really think he rules. the stories are short enough to read in like 5 minutes. what i like especially is that they're very sensual, all about detailed descriptions of specific feelings or substances, usually weird or hosed up ones, and usually contain some kind of sinister conclusion or mysterious event
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Jun 29, 2021 17:30
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he and his work are also of the "no bullshit" variety of postcolonial writing. no mysticism or spirituality, no fussing about one's narcissistic identity, just simple anger and confusion, expressed honestly and plainly
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Jun 29, 2021 17:37
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Carly Gay Dead Son posted:EDIT: Looks like that's just part 1. Whole thing is here (though I'm not sure it's the uncensored text.) https://archive.org/details/margaretatalere02juddgoog/page/n190/mode/2up
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Jun 29, 2021 17:46
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Shibawanko posted:https://www.wordswithoutborders.org/article/three-stories-from-the-streets-of-koza thanks! i remember you posted some before, they're great. very poetic prose  (and yeah, sisister)
Carthag Tuek fucked around with this message at 04:53 on Jun 30, 2021 |
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Jun 30, 2021 04:10
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Carthag Tuek posted:thanks! i remember you posted some before, they're great. very poetic prose of those stories i particularly like "flowers", just the image of a dog looking up (which they hardly ever do naturally) is unsettling
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Jun 30, 2021 08:50
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Found a cool bookstore with ton of cheap used books in Brooklyn called Human Relations; I've quickly accumulated an even larger pile of unread books that I had previously, since I haven't been reading consistently for awhile now. What book from list should I pick up first in my attempt at rekindle habit of reading? The Brothers Karamazov is my favorite book fyi.quote:Turgenev - Fathers & Sons / Smoke Also reconsidering trying to finally finish Don Quixote, or re-read The Brothers Karamazov with potentially 'better' translation/just for the fact I've only truly read it once over. As you can see fiction is what interests me, though some nonfiction stuff has recently piqued my interest. Stuff like biography of cocaine cowboy Jon Roberts "American Desperado," or CIA related/American history like 'The Devil's Chessboard: Allen Dulles, the CIA, and the Rise of America's Secret Government" by David Talbot. But I digress.
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Jul 5, 2021 23:03
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knox posted:Found a cool bookstore with ton of cheap used books in Brooklyn called Human Relations; I've quickly accumulated an even larger pile of unread books that I had previously, since I haven't been reading consistently for awhile now. What book from list should I pick up first in my attempt at rekindle habit of reading? The Brothers Karamazov is my favorite book fyi. Twenty Years Later un-cut is superbly boring. I don't think anything really happens until about four centimetres in. But if you like Dumas then go for it. e: I know Dumas isn't real literature by any stretch but since I wasn't the one who brought it up: I just started reading (I probably read it as a kid but that was over 30 years ago so I don't really remember much about it) the first Three Musketeers book and it's amazing how much less boring it is than the (official) sequel - things actually happen! It's like at some point in between the author just forgot how to write a story. 3D Megadoodoo fucked around with this message at 20:42 on Jul 16, 2021 |
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Jul 5, 2021 23:38
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