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 Picked up Wonder Boys last week. I had a borders coupon and some free time, so I wandered with only some longshot ideas (which they didn't have), but the last Chabon novel I haven't read in an edition without Michael Douglas' mug on the cover caught my eye.
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Apr 21, 2009 16:51
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 Bought a while ago, but just started. Man, I don't know why I put off Vollmann this long (only previous experience is an excerpt from Rising Up and Rising Down); it's excellent so far.
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May 26, 2009 15:41
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Birthday haul yesterday: Kim Cooper - 33 1/3: In the Aeroplane Over the Sea. If you're not familiar with the series, 33 1/3 are ~100 page booklets each tracing the story behind an influential album. Already finished this one -- it was decent, but a little underwhelming. Mangum himself wasn't interviewed, so the material's all second hand and barely covers his subsequent withdrawal into obscurity. Pynchon - The Crying of Lot 49. Already read GR and M&D; this probably fits next in my bizarre best-to-worst order. Starting shortly. Richard Powers - The Gold Bug Variations. I'm behind the game on Powers, but given all the DFW/Vollmann comparisons, my expectations are high. Eugenie Samuel Reich - Plastic Fantastic. The rise and fall of Jan Hendrik Schon, infamous scientific fraud.
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Jun 12, 2009 19:20
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Just started reading: Perec, Life: A User's Manual, which was on my shelf for a while. ~100 pages in, not bad so far. Still adapting to skim a little through sections of nothing but furniture and knick-knack description. As much 'writing exercise' as novel, it's hard to gauge along traditional criteria, but the story peeking through the cracks is pretty fascinating. Currently listening (long commute): When the Sacred Gin Mill Closes, Lawrence Block. Gritty detective stuff, fun and gripping. The audio format (with appropriate reader) lends itself well. Just bought: Gaddis, The Recognitions. I've wanted to pick it up for a while, but the penguin classics edition (all I've seen around here) is on far shittier paper than I'm willing to deal with for 950 pages. I finally looked around, and for less than a buck more, got the (gorgeous) Atlantic edition flown in from across the pond at bookdepository.
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Sep 28, 2009 17:13
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Glancing at the first page just reminded me that when this thread started, cover pics were s.o.p. So, this year's christmas haul:       The Klosterman, by virtue of being the shortest, got knocked out in a few hours xmas day. I'm quite looking forward to (probably) M&M next, but not until I finish off the last half of Celine's Journey to the End of the Night. (For lynx users, or in the interest of legibility, the pictured are: Pynchon/V.; Bulgakov/The Master and Margarita; Bely/Petersburg; Hornby/Juliet, Naked; Vonnegut/Look at the Birdie; Klosterman/Eating the Dinosaur.)
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Dec 27, 2009 06:35
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In addition to the handful from under the tree, I added to the christmas stack (via a b&n gift card) with David Mitchell's Cloud Atlas. Just starting: The Master and Margarita. The first chapter was intriguing, haven't gotten further.
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Jan 2, 2010 05:51
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juliuspringle posted:I just got Crime and Punishment today. Is it any good? WoG fucked around with this message at 05:25 on Mar 2, 2010 |
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Mar 2, 2010 05:23
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nate fisher posted:I love reading Vietnam War novels (my favorites are Fields of Fire and The Things They Carried). I just ordered this based on your post. I have a full plate at the moment, but I definitely intend to grab Matterhorn at some point.
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Apr 6, 2010 19:40
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Abnegatus posted:I was hoping some PROUST readers here would be able to help me. Here are some excerpts for comparison; it's up to you if the penguin edition is worth the extra effort.
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Aug 16, 2010 21:25
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z0331 posted:Just stared DeLillo's Underworld and am really enjoying it so far, though I'm not even through the prologue yet. Not to scare you, but the common criticism is that 'Pafko at the Wall' is utterly gorgeous and essentially stand-alone, while the rest of the book starts to drag.
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Jun 14, 2011 15:32
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pkd3001 posted:This might be a tangent, but where are the centrists in America anymore. It's like I have to choose between the "Tea Party," who are sometimes just apologists for corporations, and their greedy ways, and "progressives" who don't seem to recognize that overall a free market works better than a planned economy. Come to think of it, I don't know what you're looking for at all. Pro free market and anti corporate 'greed' is, at best, an unclear, and at worst, contradictory position to begin with. To get back on topic, my last purchases are: Double-wide: The Collected Fiction of Michael Martone --totally unfamiliar with this guy, but he writes a lot of experimentalist short/short-short fiction, his name cropped up in relation to some respectable names, and it was cheap on amazon. Sounds right up my alley. Citrus County, John Brandon --I liked his first book a lot, and for some reason amazon has the hardcover listed for $4.18. No brainer. Manhood for Amateurs, Michael Chabon --holy poo poo, the bargain rack at B&N actually had something good. Big fan, already read everything else (save maybe a children's book or two), and I think his fiction style will lend itself well to personal essays. Day of the Oprichnik, Vladimir Sorokin --I'm not usually a big futurist/scifi fan, but I keep hearing good things, and I've been meaning to read some russian fiction that postdates the stalin era.
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Jul 6, 2011 17:01
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pkd3001 posted:There is not true, there are corporations out there who are not greedy. To generalize and say it is all corporations is not true. Also I studied history as an undergrad and communism has been a terribly greedy society, and violent with the purges, and the "cooking of the books," for greed. Also I don't think it is given at all, because I have friends who are Marxists and are really critical of the free market. I hear my friends espouse beliefs on planned economies all the time, but I am unsure of how they will work. All systems people live under will have problems. So right back at you buddy, what are you talking about? Sorry, I thought you were talking about viable political groups, not a couple of your friends. (Obviously, I can't speak to what a few people I've never met talk about.) Of course there are academics and historians and economists and cultural theorists who discuss planned economies in a theoretical sense, or even espouse them, but no party with even a chance in hell of hitting matching funds, much less putting people in office, would dare advance it as an issue. I think you're using 'greedy' in a subjective, pejorative sense, while I'm using it to refer to the basic motivator underlying free market capitalism. The shortest explanation of F.M.C. being that each actor--individual or corporation--acts strictly in their own self interest to maximize profit, with the net effect creating a stable equilibrium and maximizing efficiency, 'greed' isn't a character flaw, it's simply the mode of participation. I'm still not sure why you think a centrist position is nowhere to be found in America. Politics may seem to have become cripplingly partisan of late, but that may just be confirmation bias. What's clear is that neither of the fringe groups you describe have any political power whatsoever. In fact, many would argue it's to America's disadvantage that it's become so narrowly centrist. Listen, I'm sorry it upsets you that some of your friends can discuss marxism without choking up over what a bad man Stalin was, and yes, I'm sure their armchair theorizing is quite tiresome, but I think when you complain of reasonable positions being nonexistent "in America", you really mean "on your friend's couch", and I'll bet even they still vote democrat (the Democratic Party has >72 million registered voters; Communist Party USA has ~2500). Phlegmish posted:What it ultimately boils down to with all forms of Marxism, whether it is orthodox/economic marxism, cultural marxism or even only tangentially related schools of thought like poststructuralism, is that they think they are the only ones who truly understand the world...
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Jul 7, 2011 17:17
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Phlegmish posted:Uh, yes, that's why I described poststructuralism as 'an only tangentially related school of thought'. It's literally in the part of my post that you quoted.
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Jul 7, 2011 18:01
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screenwritersblues posted:Also what's everyone else doing about this? Taking advantage of the cheap books or just not thinking about it at all.
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Jul 22, 2011 17:57
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80-90% off at borders the other day: Charles Baxter - Gryphon Roberto Bolano - Between Parentheses Michael Chabon - Gentlemen of the Road Dennis Cooper - Ugly Man Dennis Cooper - Smothered in Hugs Stephen Dixon - What Is All This? Percival Everett - I Am Not Sidney Poitier Matthew Gallaway - The Metropolis Case Jaimy Gordon - Lord of Misrule Mermann Hesse - Siddhartha Kazuo Ishiguro - An Artist of the Floating World Mat Johnson - Pym William Kennedy - Ironweed Rick Moody - The Four Fingers of Death Lorrie Moore - Who Will Run the Frog Hospital? Herta Muller - The Appointment Yishai Sarid - Limassol Sir Gawain and the Green Knight (Norton Critical) Jim Shepard - You Think That's Bad? 32 bucks. WoG fucked around with this message at 18:06 on Nov 3, 2011 |
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Sep 12, 2011 21:23
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Unexpectedly encountered a library sale the other day, had to take a few minutes to browse. Totaling all of 8 bucks: Dr. Zhivago, Pasternak. Pantheon hardcover, solid shape, with that cool drawn dustjacket (not my pic) Something Happened, Heller. Gorgeous 1st ed. Jacketless, but the cover's nicer anyway. Light in August, Faulkner. Overly fancy collector's edition. A little gaudy, but I'm a sucker for nice paper stock. An Arsonist's Guide to Writers' Homes in New England, Brock Clarke. Library-wrapped-and-tagged, but clean shape. Expectations aren't sky high, but this caught my eye back when it was on b&n's new release wall. Amazon pickups that arrived a week or two ago: The Tetherballs of Bougainville, Mark Leyner. 'My Cousin' was delightful, and I see his first novel in a while is coming out in a few months; might as well dip into the back catalog a little. Warlock, Oakley Hall. I read very few westerns, but this one's good enough to get a NYRB reprint and Pynchon's rave review. Like new, signed, trade pb for <$5? Thank you, amazon used. WoG fucked around with this message at 05:41 on Feb 1, 2012 |
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Feb 1, 2012 05:38
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My preorder of De La Pava's A Naked Singularity arrived the other day, and I can't look directly at the cover.
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Apr 19, 2012 04:37
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funkybottoms posted:Yup. Throw Matterhorn in the mix, too! And Steven Wright's* Meditations in Green. Criminally underrated. *no, not the comedian
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Sep 23, 2013 21:16
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