|
A supposedly fun thing I'll never do again by DFW. I liked the essay he wrote on tennis that some goon linked in the essay thread a lot so I picked it up cheap online. Only a quarter of the way in. Not bad, nothing I've liked as much as his tennis essay but dude seemed like a pretty interesting guy. Haven't read any of his other stuff but will probably end up reading some of his shorter stuff. I'd like to try Infinite Jest but I'm not sure if it would actually be enjoyable or if it's just a book hipsters like to say they read as a badge of honor.
|
#
?
Mar 30, 2016 02:20
|
|
|
|
| # ? Apr 28, 2024 23:35 |
|
|
I really dig DFW's non-fiction (wait 'til you get to "Shipping Out") and enjoyed some of his short stories, but Infinite Jest is just a straight-up brick wall for me.
|
|
#
?
Mar 30, 2016 12:05
|
|
|
SilkyP posted:A supposedly fun thing I'll never do again by DFW. I liked the essay he wrote on tennis that some goon linked in the essay thread a lot so I picked it up cheap online. Only a quarter of the way in. Not bad, nothing I've liked as much as his tennis essay but dude seemed like a pretty interesting guy. Haven't read any of his other stuff but will probably end up reading some of his shorter stuff. I'd like to try Infinite Jest but I'm not sure if it would actually be enjoyable or if it's just a book hipsters like to say they read as a badge of honor. I'm about as far from a hipster as you can get (fat 40-year old dork who works at a classic rock radio station), but I enjoyed it... I'm reading Things Fall Apart by Chinua Achebe, and it's pretty great so far. It's part of my goal to read more diverse fiction this year.
|
|
#
?
Mar 30, 2016 17:03
|
|
|
Just finished Annihilation by Jeff Vandermeer and am reading Authority, then will finish with Acceptance. These three make up the Southern Reach Trilogy, and Alex Gardener (Ex Machina) is making a film on the first book. It's gotten me into the world of weird fiction, which may be my newest favorite genre.
|
|
#
?
Mar 30, 2016 19:02
|
|
|
SilkyP posted:A supposedly fun thing I'll never do again by DFW. I liked the essay he wrote on tennis that some goon linked in the essay thread a lot so I picked it up cheap online. Only a quarter of the way in. Not bad, nothing I've liked as much as his tennis essay but dude seemed like a pretty interesting guy. Haven't read any of his other stuff but will probably end up reading some of his shorter stuff. I'd like to try Infinite Jest but I'm not sure if it would actually be enjoyable or if it's just a book hipsters like to say they read as a badge of honor. 'A supposedly fun thing' is glorious essay writing. If its hipster to read DFW then strap me down, curl my moustache and pass me the corncob pipe  I'm actually reading DFW's The Girl with the Curious Hair. I'm about halfway through and super into it. The wide array of voices he uses establishes him as a master of the craft imo.
|
|
#
?
Apr 3, 2016 01:53
|
|
|
Most recent book acquisition was Bryce Courtenay's The Potato Factory. I was looking for something non-fiction about Australia and instead found this historical fiction trilogy about Ikey Solomon instead. About a third of the way though so far and it's pretty good, the writer does a good job at making you want to root for some really awful people. 3.141592653 posted:Lolita. Lolita is one of my favourites. If you like Nabokov's train of though style and the surreal humour he interposes into his writing, definitely take a look into Pale Fire next if you find yourself craving for something else of that ilk after you're finished Lolita.
|
|
#
?
Apr 5, 2016 06:01
|
|
|
Just picked up The Vorrh, by Brian Catling, based on synopsis and a glowing Terry Gilliam recommendation and I'm really glad I did. After wrapping up Book of the new sun I needed more intelligently written crazy bullshit and this is delivering.
|
|
#
?
Apr 24, 2016 06:29
|
|
|
s7indicate3 posted:'A supposedly fun thing' is glorious essay writing. If its hipster to read DFW then strap me down, curl my moustache and pass me the corncob pipe Man, there are so many good stories in GIRL WITH THE CURIOUS HAIR. That opening story is just perfect. When the novella wraps everything up, it's just perfect. DFW's short fiction is painfully ignored among his body of work. WESTWARD... and INCARNATIONS OF BURNED CHILDREN deserve as much attention as JEST. As for pickups, I grabbed ZERO K by Don DeLillo, because I love Don DeLillo but I hate myself. Also have a whole bunch of poetry recommended by numerous professors and I need leisure reading between textbooks about maths I don't understand.
|
|
#
?
May 11, 2016 02:33
|
|
|
Endurance. 70 pages in and I have a sneaking suspicion that I'm going to be in for a real doozy.
|
|
#
?
May 12, 2016 05:41
|
|
|
Bloopsy posted:Endurance. 70 pages in and I have a sneaking suspicion that I'm going to be in for a real doozy. Do you mean this? https://www.amazon.co.uk/dp/B00IC8VF10/ref=dp-kindle-redirect?_encoding=UTF8&btkr=1 I read it a couple of years ago and liked it a lot. I didn't even realise I owned it until someone here mentioned reading it, but it was a nice surprise.
|
|
#
?
May 13, 2016 18:47
|
|
|
I'm currently reading The Blade Artist by Irvine Welsh. It's basically a character deconstruction of Begby from Trainspotting and other previous books of his. surprised by how good and enjoyable it is so far.
|
|
#
?
Jun 18, 2016 16:57
|
|
|
Sword of Destiny by Andrzej Sapkowski. Pretty good, I may read the rest and play the Witcher 3.
|
|
#
?
Jun 23, 2016 05:50
|
|
|
Started The Girl With All The Gifts by M.R. Carey a couple of days ago--tried to get out in front of the movie trailer so as not to spoil anything. So far, it's a great read. Interesting take on a zombie novel.
|
|
#
?
Jun 23, 2016 15:54
|
|
|
The Girl in the Spider's Web by David Lagercrantz. I was getting a bit burned out on reading Infinite Jest at work so I wanted to blast through a thriller for something different.
|
|
#
?
Jun 24, 2016 13:00
|
|
|
At work you should be working!
|
|
#
?
Jun 24, 2016 13:09
|
|
|
Mr. Squishy posted:At work you should be working! Working is for chumps! Actually I drive dump trucks in a mine and we get periods of sitting still time. And because I'm a fast reader it's more than enough time
|
|
#
?
Jun 24, 2016 13:12
|
|
|
Just got a package I ordered about a month ago, there was some trouble with one of the books that caused a delay. I had totally forgotten about it and was a bit surprised to find: Beasts Royal: Twelve Tales of Adventure by Patrick O'Brian (short slices of life/death from various exotic animals), Collected Folk Tales by Alan Garner, and Rogues edited by George R. R. Martin and Gardner Dozois ("anthology of stories concerning rogues, cads, scalawags, con men, thieves, and scoundrels of all descriptions") I guess I wanted short stories, and plenty of 'em (to read on the shitter?)? Finished Beasts Royal so far, and am eager to get into the folk tales. ovenboy fucked around with this message at 14:02 on Jun 28, 2016 |
|
#
?
Jun 28, 2016 13:54
|
|
|
One Hundred Years of Solitude, Infinite Jest, and Books 4 and 5 of Knausgaard's My Struggle. Knausgaard could write four hundred pages of what he ate for dinner the past year and I'd probably read it.
|
|
#
?
Jun 29, 2016 01:22
|
|
|
Started The Fireman by Joe Hill. Let's see if someone from the Stephen King lineage can stick an ending...
|
|
#
?
Jun 29, 2016 15:43
|
|
|
Speaking of King, I'm reading Thomas Olde Heuvelt's Hex and it's reminding me a lot of his old, good stuff.
|
|
#
?
Jun 30, 2016 00:00
|
|
|
Started The Pale King a few days ago and I look forward to DFW's descriptions of life as an IRS tax agent
|
|
#
?
Jun 30, 2016 00:07
|
|
|
Shift by Hugh Howey Second part of the 'Wool' books. Definitely seems better written than the first part which started out as short stories as I understand it. Being familiar with the world already and the revelations from the previous book it's actually quite compelling to learn more of the history through this narrative split between two timelines. That being said I think it's a little blunt, i.e. a Southern Senator who lives a long time named Thurman. I liked the 20th century technology in a far future post apocalypse setting from the first book, so I'm skeptical about all these more fantastic sci-fi elements that the 2nd part introduces like nanorobot warfare and cryostasis.
|
|
#
?
Jul 8, 2016 01:49
|
|
|
Just bought The Sword of Destiny and The Swallow's Tower - both of which being parts of the Witcher series. (Well, TSoD is a collection of short stories taking part before the main series) Looking forward to reading through those, after I finish the last few chapters of For Valour by Andy McNab.
|
|
#
?
Jul 18, 2016 01:44
|
|
|
I've made it a point lately to read more female authors, after realizing that nearly all of the books in my shelves are by male writers. So at the moment I'm binging through Virginia Woolf, currently reading her semiautobiographical To the Lighthouse. I've also got some Moa Martinsson and Karin Boye lined up after her, and am particularly looking forward to the latter's Kallocain, as I've heard many good things about it.
|
|
#
?
Sep 18, 2016 17:14
|
|
|
I recently picked up Infinite Jest by DFW because I've had an interest in dystopian themes since high school, but never bothered to look into them until recently. I also picked up the Pevear & Volokhonsky translation of Tolstoy's War and Peace because it's apparently a life-changing book to a few people I've spoken to. I keep gravitating towards IJ more though, so I'll probably stick to that before I move onto W & P.
|
|
#
?
Oct 21, 2016 15:45
|
|
|
A friend loaned me Killshot by Elmore Leonard so I've started reading that
|
|
#
?
Oct 22, 2016 05:04
|
|
|
Been going round new-to-me second hand bookshops and picked up a whole bunch of stuff including a Machado de Assis put out by the OUP which I'm really looking forward to.
|
|
#
?
Nov 16, 2016 03:28
|
|
|
Just started Dreamland. It's a book about the origins of opiate usage and the spread of heroin throughout the United States, mainly in middle-class white areas.
|
|
#
?
Nov 17, 2016 15:25
|
|
|
Blood Meridian
|
|
#
?
Nov 18, 2016 07:02
|
|
|
Delphi Complete Works of Plato This thing is like 7000 pages. Let's see if I make it even a seventh of the way though this tome.
|
|
#
?
Nov 21, 2016 06:39
|
|
|
I'm reading the fifth book of the Song of Ice and Fire series. A friend had given me the first book a few years ago, but I had no interest in the franchise or fantasy in general, so it sat there gathering dust until I picked it up and started reading it on a whim this summer. Now I'm hooked. It's pretty much a soap with all the cliffhangers and plot twists, but it works.
|
|
#
?
Nov 21, 2016 08:07
|
|
|
Annual United Way book sale, with hardcovers at $2 and soft covers at $1. The loot: -The Kauffman book is on complexity at different scales and how it is loving amazing. Probably best read with strong weed. -Cary Fagan's someone I know IRL so it was fun to email him to brag about the amazing deal I got  -Kerouac needs no introduction. -My wife is a big Montreal Canadiens fan and this copy is in better shape than the one she already had. I also picked up a cookbook.
|
|
#
?
Nov 25, 2016 23:20
|
|
|
I found Americana by Don DeLillo at a library sale the other day and can't put it down. DeLillo's prose is something to admire.
|
|
#
?
Nov 28, 2016 00:14
|
|
|
Just began (and finished) The Enchanted Castle by Edith Nesbit. Awesome underrated fantasy book.
|
|
#
?
Nov 28, 2016 14:15
|
|
|
Rebel Yell, about Stonewall Jackson in the Civil War
|
|
#
?
Nov 29, 2016 17:47
|
|
|
Amazon have a lot of the British Library Crime Classics- books from the golden age of (detective) fiction on kindle unlimited. There are a lot of classic books caught up in unknown copyright, not yet out of it, purgatory, and the British library has done some sort of witchcraft and is slowly getting them out there. list so far https://www.goodreads.com/list/show/90356.British_Library_Crime_Classics I am reading the books on this list.
|
|
#
?
Dec 1, 2016 09:57
|
|
|
I recently started No god but God by Reza Aslan to complement my recent readings about the history of the modern Middle East. What better way to help understand a region than to learn a bit more about its religions, I asked myself. Anyway, it's taught me more about pre-Islamic Arabia than I ever learned or bothered to learn in high school or college so that's a plus, and the events following Muhammad's death and the struggles to define the role of the Caliph are absolutely fascinating, especially if you're even slightly familiar with how it all turned out when you start reading. Next on the list is The Forever War by New York Times foreign correspondent Dexter Filkins about semi-recent to recent conflicts with Islamic extremism, from the rise of the Taliban to the war in Iraq and its aftermath.
|
|
#
?
Dec 2, 2016 21:58
|
|
|
Picked up a very early set of Dr. Eliot's Five Foot Shelf* for the tidy sum of $2.50 (.05/volume), grabbed The Autobiography of Benvenuto Cellini and dug in. Surprisingly readable, and it picks up steam once you begin to differentiate actual accomplishments from juvenile (and completely unnecessary) embellishments. Just when you think the tone has switched to even-handed humility, NOPE, gotta tell you about this random time I stared down some street thugs because my Perseus sculpture just isn't cool enough. *Eliot's choices and rationale can be second guessed forever by people who did not exist in 1909, but no one can say he didn't deliver five feet. I mean these things fill exactly two IKEA shelves with just the right amount of breathing room. http://harvardmagazine.com/2001/11/the-five-foot-shelf-reco.html Marv Hushman fucked around with this message at 07:06 on Dec 25, 2016 |
|
#
?
Dec 25, 2016 07:03
|
|
|
Regenesis by CJ Cherryh, the sequel to Cyteen - so far it's more Cyteen, no surprises, no gimmicks, just flatly more Cyteen as if that book had never ended. Which is good! I like more Cyteen. I am a little disappointed it's not jumping ahead a hundred years to dig into what the plan for shaping societies is about, but hey, I do like Ari 2 and Justin and so on. Also, as I got 'em for xmas, A Matter of Oaths - it's about an amnesiac starship pilot being ostracized by all the other pilots, and the conspiracy that'll come after him, supposedly. I like the characters so far! Not often you get an older lady as a main character, and while the amnesia thing is old as hell, I like it. The Dragon Never Sleeps - This book is Warhammer 40k in another jacket. There's a lot of powerful conservative space marines and powerful starships, there's an alien menace that embodies chaos, and there are people caught in the midst of it. I really, really like this, as while it's 40k-esque it's still its own beast, and the imagery the author writes is compelling.
|
|
#
?
Dec 25, 2016 09:56
|
|
|
|
| # ? Apr 28, 2024 23:35 |
|
|
Cobra Commander posted:Delphi Complete Works of Plato This thing is like 7000 pages. Let's see if I make it even a seventh of the way though this tome. I have fond memories of that huge Plato book. So many highlights.
|
|
#
?
Jan 7, 2017 16:04
|
|
