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Dr. Futurity by Philip K. Dick, found it in a bookstore and it's one of the last on my list of his work that I haven't read yet. Morbid and intriguing, but that's PKD for you. Also finished The Left Hand of Darkness by Ursula Le Guin, was curious after reading her Dispossessed; this one takes an interesting approach to sexuality.MetricLeft posted:I just finished Neuromancer by William Gibson. Great cyberpunk read. For the two of you who just finished the Count of Monte Cristo, did either of you see the movie? I didn't actually read Dumas til after having seen the movie, and I found that I enjoyed them for very different reasons...
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Nov 16, 2006 19:51
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Lawlita posted:For the two of you who just finished the Count of Monte Cristo, did either of you see the movie? I didn't actually read Dumas til after having seen the movie, and I found that I enjoyed them for very different reasons... I was suprised that out of all the adaptations of the count of monte cristo I've seen, the anime where he's a space elf with space cancer and all the duels are fought in giant robots was the most faithful to the book. And if you're talking about the 2002 movie it was fine while I watched it but in retrospect, and after reading the book, I really hate it. The old man teaches him fighting instead of science and history and languages? Instead of smugglers he finds pirates who make him fight jacopo to the death, who he spares, and makes his slave? His actual slave doesn't appear. Haidee was completely absent, benedetto (and betruccio) was completely absent... oh and they had to make albert his illegitimate son and he gets back together with mercedes to try to dig out a happy ending without any redemption. The movie, with hindsight, was ham fisted as gently caress all and I am glad I read the book.
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Nov 16, 2006 20:01
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God Bless You, Mr. Rosewater by Kurt Vonnegut. I didn't like it as much as I did Slaughterhouse V or Cat's Cradle, but it was definitely a fun read 
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Nov 16, 2006 20:22
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Lastnight I read Flow my Tears, the Policeman Said by PK Dick, and before that I read The Power Broker by Robert Caro, which was terribly fascinating for me to read. I highly reccomend anyone who has the time and interest to check out his three-part biography of Lyndon Johnson, which is inarguably the greatest work of biography I've ever encountered. I've also been going through the collected works of Allen Ginsberg. Was quite amused to hear a poem he wrote concerning loving boys who go to Naropa, where I take classes. Lawlita posted:Also finished The Left Hand of Darkness by Ursula Le Guin, was curious after reading her Dispossessed; this one takes an interesting approach to sexuality. Left Hand is one of my favourite sci-fi book of all time, at least in terms of basic likability. I'd say it takes an entirely unique approach to sexuality, and one of the things I find so stunning is that Le Guin wrote that book in '69, when concepts such as 'transgendered' barely existed in any form at all. It's ultimately flawed, due to plotting and pronoun issues, but from the point when Estraven and Ai escape together to the end of the book, it's just incredible. Somebody fucked around with this message at 19:44 on Nov 26, 2006 |
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Nov 16, 2006 20:42
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I just finished Pure Dynamite. It’s the best wrestling book I’ve read, just edging out the Foley books.
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Nov 16, 2006 20:53
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I just finnished On The Road by Kerouac like half an hour ago, and it was really amazing, i felt Dean Mortiarty's beat, of that generation, and I can definetly see how it's called The Bible of the Beat Generation. I'm really enjoying Kerouac, next my best friends gunna let me borrow his copy of Naked Lunch. 
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Nov 16, 2006 21:01
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Jon Krakauer's Under the Banner of Heaven. First of his books I've read, and I'll be picking up the rest. It's the story of the fundamentalist (i.e. still practicing polygamy) Mormon sects and how they're keeping up the tradition of holding tight to church practices that Joseph Smith and Brigham Young and other church founders all just kinda made up.
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Nov 16, 2006 21:37
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I just finished Vladimir Nabokov's The Defense. I've never read Nabokov before this and I really enjoyed it - I look forward to reading more of his stuff.
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Nov 17, 2006 06:21
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gurntsville posted:I just finished Vladimir Nabokov's The Defense. I've never read Nabokov before this and I really enjoyed it - I look forward to reading more of his stuff. Pick up Lolita, Pale Fire, and if you're feeling like shorter stuff, try his big fat collection of short stories.
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Nov 17, 2006 06:25
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Sloth Socks posted:Pick up Lolita, Pale Fire, and if you're feeling like shorter stuff, try his big fat collection of short stories. Someone told me that his true talent was in short stories - I look forward to them a lot because I really liked The Defense.
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Nov 17, 2006 06:27
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Just finished The Electric Kool-Aid Acid Test. Tomorrow I'll be starting Acid Dreams: The Complete Social History of LSD. You might be able to tell that my interests lie in history...and acid. As for Electric Kool-Aid Acid Test. It felt like Hunter S. Thompson's early works with a lot less tequila and a lot more acid. The book has a lot of pages that are really just Tom Wolfe blathering about bullshit that people tell him. In it's entirety it's really a perfect counter-point to Leary, his philosophies, and his books.
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Nov 17, 2006 06:46
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Just finished The Sun Also Rises by Ernest Hemingway. I personally didn't understand why everyone gushes over this novel, it is rather mundane. I understand it's all about the feels of a man with no penis, but that still didn't make the story interesting.
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Nov 17, 2006 07:12
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Residence on Earth by Neruda. Awesome.
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Nov 17, 2006 07:13
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I also just finished God Bless You Mr. Rosewater by Kurt Vonnegut. I loved it. Hilarious and even more true to-day than when he wrote it.
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Nov 17, 2006 07:39
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Finished Chuck Klosterman VI a few weeks ago. It was pretty good, although the fiction piece at the end was a little weak.
Bullet Ant fucked around with this message at 05:07 on Nov 18, 2006 |
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Nov 17, 2006 07:59
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Just finished Ray Bradbury's The Cat's Pajamas. I liked it about as much as his other collection of short stories, One More for the Road. There were one or two phenomenal stories, and slightly more pieces that revolved around batshit insane time travel schemes where everyone spoke rapidly (if you've read a collection of Bradbury's short stories, you'll know what I'm talking about). Overall, it was a solid read, and I'd recommend it just for "A Careful Man Dies", which is the only story that I have re-read the moment I finished it.
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Nov 17, 2006 08:20
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Make Love! The Bruce Campbell Way by, you guessed it, Bruce Campbell. I thought it was hilarious, and a great followup to If Chins Could Kill, even though that was a straight autobiography and Make Love! is fiction. If you're a huge Bruce fan like I am, well, you've probably read it already. If not, then it might not be the book for you. What kind of bugged me about it was the font. I never realized how rare sans serif fonts are in novels until I read this one.
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Nov 17, 2006 08:32
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For such a well referenced book I finished the metamorphosis in a couple hours. Maybe doug stanhope poisoned the well for me but I didn't see why you would attach so much literary interpretation to it. I tried to find somewhere to explain why it's so famous for being famous but all I found was a write-your-termpapers website with a sample page, and a wiki blurb mentioning that there are entire books that discuss the metamorphisis in length.
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Nov 17, 2006 14:39
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Mystery Opponent posted:I've also read Johnny Got His Gun and The House of God over the summer. I remember loving JGHG in college. Big recommendation right there.
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Nov 17, 2006 15:16
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uh zip zoom posted:really? That's too bad. That's my favorite work by Vonnegut. Mostly because of the ending, though. edit: parademaker! posted:I also just finished God Bless You Mr. Rosewater by Kurt Vonnegut. I loved it. Hilarious and even more true to-day than when he wrote it. that's better.
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Nov 17, 2006 15:31
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double post, sorry
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Nov 17, 2006 15:32
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Inversions by Iain Banks
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Nov 17, 2006 15:44
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Traitor's Knot by Janny Wurts.
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Nov 17, 2006 15:48
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Monsoon, by Wilbur Smith (second book of a series beginning with Birds of Prey). Birds of prey was hands down the most fun book to read I have ever come across. If you like action and adventure, this series is proving to be the ultimate tale of 1600's life and war in the seas surrounding South Africa.
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Nov 17, 2006 17:08
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Just finished Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas. It was a fun to read as the movie. I've never done drugs, and never will, but his descriptions are just fantastic.
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Nov 17, 2006 20:20
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I was halfway through a book of Peter S. Beagle's stories, Lila the Werewolf and The Last Unicorn, when my friend lent me State of Denial by Bob Woodward.
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Nov 17, 2006 20:22
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I just finished Through the Looking Glass which is of course the sequel to Alice in Wonderland. I enjoyed Alice more but this was certainly entertaining. Also, shouldn't this thread be stickied or something, so we don't have people saying, "I just finsihed this! What do you think of it?" Or maybe I just have an alterior motive. 
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Nov 18, 2006 22:28
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Fiasco-The American Military Adventure in Iraq by Thomas Ricks
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Nov 19, 2006 03:29
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Licensed to Kill: Hired Guns in the War on Terror by Robert Young Pelton. Already established as the man with the most 'sack in North America, he interviews the new PMC lords (notably Erik Prince and Tim Spicer) and rides shotgun with Blackwater contractors along the deadly Route Irish. An excellent blend of travelogue and journalism, it was informative and more than a little entertaining. The contractors he interviews don't fit the the blood-and-thunder image of mercenaries, but are mostly former cops and military men who wanted a job where their skill set could be useful.
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Nov 19, 2006 04:39
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Slappy Seal posted:next my best friends gunna let me borrow his copy of Naked Lunch. You know that this book was written using the "cut-up" technique, right? If you don't, then check out what I'm talking about on wikipedia. I'm not waving an intellectual dick around, I promise. When I first started trying to read Naked Lunch I had no idea about this, or even what the "cut up" technique was. I absolutely loving hated the book and dismissed it as this wandering, pointless, and crazy story. I thought the slang was really dated and I didn't understand enough about drugs to get it. When my friend recently explained the cutting thing to me, I was able to look at it with new eyes. So... heads up!
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Nov 19, 2006 04:47
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Just finished The Pinhoe Egg by Diana Wynne Jones, a complete joy as always. About to read the cartoon history of Karl Marx.
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Nov 19, 2006 05:42
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I just finished Snow Crash by Stephenson. It's a great book, but I have the same complaints about it that I do about Cryptonomicon. This guy kinda just phones in the ending after he's spend all his talent on writing an awesome story up until that point, and that either I have to look up the historical stuff he uses, or just let it be part of the story and not care about whether it is accurate or not. Oddly enough, Crypto was the reason I was ignoring The Da-Vinci Code, due to some historical stuff being thrown into a fiction story. After Snow Crash I just said "gently caress it" and bought DVC, but haven't started it. I'm also expecting to have the same complaints about The Diamond Age, which is sitting next to my bed waiting for me to start it.
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Nov 19, 2006 05:51
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Just finished "The Basic Eight" by Daniel Handler (who is also Lemony Snicket, and has a good reason for using a pseudonym for children's books because his adult books are hosed right the hell up). It was quite a ride. It's about a pretentious high school clique who call themselves the Basic Eight, who are the kind of kids that I loved to hate in high school, and how they deal with things like first loves, alcohol, and Satanic murder. Normally I'm not a big fan of high school lit, but I love Handler's style so much that if he wrote the phone book I'd read it and love it. I also recommend "Watch Your Mouth", Handler's second novel, which is written in the style of an opera and deals with such time-honored themes as incest and golems.
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Nov 19, 2006 06:52
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Two books read for the first time, two not. Lord of Light by Roger Zelazny. It's that rarest of beasts: a science fiction novel that spends a significant amount of time referencing religion whilst not being about Christianity. The Hindu pantheon appear, in a novel in which revealing the plot would undermine the deliberated way in which it would unfurl. One of the earliest of the "Science Fiction Masterworks" series, and well deserved. Brideshead Revisited by Evelyn Waugh. As Waugh says in his introduction, this is very much a book of when it was written, the Second World War, rather than when it was set. English collegiate life is both accurately and inaccurately potrayed in equal measure, with the book after they go down being much more forlorn and melancholic in its nostalgia than anything else that Waugh wrote. Beyond Good and Evil by Freddy Nietzsche. One of the best ways to describe my relationship with this book, and indeed all of Nietzsche's works, is to refer to the first section of BG&E itself - "i Philosophy about the search for truth, and why should truth be valued - because whilst I disagree with the conclusions and arguments that Nietzsche puts forward, it is certainly interesting to read. Something Happened by Joseph Heller. This book is incredibly dense. From the start, you are bombarded with a vast wall of text upon an average american man; his musings on his chidren, his job prospects and his reminiscing about a girl he could have slept with when he was seventeen. As has been noted at length, this is not another Catch 22: the novel is both worse written and has a target less universal than Heller's piece apparantly upon war. Like American Psycho, the time of this book has, to some extent, past. Like American Psycho, I still found it interesting despite that.
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Nov 21, 2006 23:04
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Sloth Socks posted:Pick up Lolita, Pale Fire, and if you're feeling like shorter stuff, try his big fat collection of short stories. I just finished up with reading Pale Fire. Fantastic idea for a book, and I could read that beautiful prose for days.
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Nov 22, 2006 00:59
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The Descent - Jeff Long. Nothing to do with the movie. A vast underground cave system is discovered and exploited by humanity as the next fronteir. It is discovered to already be inhabited. Its inhabitants are the creatures mankind already knows as demons and its society as hell. I found it in the horror section but it could also just as easily have been placed in science fiction. I thought it was very good and pretty suspenseful. Anyone who enjoys religious thrillers like Da Vinci Code might want to look at it.
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Nov 22, 2006 01:04
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I finally got around to A Portrait of the Artist as a Young Man. I actually enjoyed, despite my misgivings based on what people have said in the past. I obviously didn't fully appreciate every level of it, but I devoted a fair amount of thought to it. Enjoyed Dubliners more, actually.
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Nov 22, 2006 02:51
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I've been keeping a list of stuff I read out of curiosity. Work and classes have been slow on and off so I've wrapped up a bunch of books this month. Here's the latest few: 27 OCT Coupland, Douglas. Microserfs. (Excellent. Neat insight into a small software start-up. Journal format.) 02 NOV Coupland, Douglas. jPod: A Novel. (Bleh. Don't bother. Read Microserfs again, instead.) 04 NOV Gibson, William. Pattern Recognition. (Fun. Some interesting characters.) 11 NOV Pynchon, Thomas. Gravity's Rainbow. (Too much hype. Not that amazing.) 14 NOV Gibson, William. Virtual Light. (Good book. I love Gibson, though, so I am biased.) 18 NOV Gibson, William. Burning Chrome. (Excellent.) 20 NOV Gaiman, Neil. American Gods. (Weird. Interesting writing style. Somewhat cliche comic-book-ish characters, but that's to be expected of Gaiman...) I just started A Fire Upon the Deep by Vernor Vinge on the recommendation of my roommate. Not too bad so far - but I've only just hit a hundred pages in or so. FreelanceSocialist fucked around with this message at 03:57 on Nov 22, 2006 |
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Nov 22, 2006 03:52
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"Wintersmith" by Terry Pratchett.
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Nov 22, 2006 04:00
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World War Z It's good if you want a feel good book about faith in the human race. With zombies.
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Nov 22, 2006 09:13
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