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Going for 45 this year, since the past two have been pretty drat easy at 30. I know that I'm friends with most of you goons, but here's my goodreads account anyway. https://www.goodreads.com/user/show/5153430-jarrett Aethersphere posted:I failed super hard and only read 20 books last year. Sad times. You didn't fail. 20 books is more than the average person reads in an year.
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Jan 2, 2015 00:19
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Aphra Bane posted:The Virgin Suicides was brilliant, but I've noticed I came away with a pretty different interpretation of the story compared to other people that loved it too. It seems to partly come down to how creepy you found the obsessive viewpoint characters, and how nostalgic you found the setting to be. I didn't find it nostalgic and I thought the viewpoint characters were creepy in the extreme so for me the whole thing came off as a critique of the mysterious dead girl trope and not some ode to old days passed. The Virgin Suicides was probably one of my favorite books that read in 2013. I was surprised by how easy it was to read and loved the fact that the entire story was told by a bunch of different narrators, which is something that everyone doesn't pick up on. I'm trying desperately to read The Marriage Plot, but it's hard to get into it.
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Jan 29, 2015 05:49
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January! 1) The Best American Travel Writing 2014 Edited by Paul Theroux: This edition was kind of a throw back to those adventure travel stories of the yesteryear. Some of the stories where interesting, while others where flat. 3.78/5 2) The Best American Short Stories 2014 Edited by Jennifer Egan: Unlike most of these collections, this as the first on that I felt had a recurring theme. Egan found a bunch of stories that had the concept finding a home after something bad happen. Like the Travel Writing collection, some of the stories were good, while others fell flat. 3.87/5 3) Special Deluxe: A Memoir of Life and Cars by Neil Young: Neil Young loves three things: Music, Dogs, and Cars. This book cover the cars aspect. Everything that he's ever driven, from Mort the hearse that inspired Long May You Run, to the Lincvolt, Neil Young's crazy experiment in making a electric car. It was an interesting read if your a car guy or just a fan of Neil in general. 4.75/5 Currently Reading: Live From New York: The Uncensored History of Saturday Night Live With the 40th anniversary special coming up in a couple of weeks, I figured that I would read this one. I thought that it was going to be a fast read, but I was wrong. This one will be read till the middle of next week.
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Jan 29, 2015 22:36
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screenwritersblues posted:3) Special Deluxe: A Memoir of Life and Cars by Neil Young 4) Live From New York: The Uncensored History of Saturday Night Live by Tom Shales and James Andrew Miller: Just in time for the end of the month and also three weeks before the 40th anniversary special, I finished the book that really wanted to read before I watch it. This was an interesting read that gave the entire history of Saturday Night Live. From the early days when anything could happen to today where everything runs like clock work. A major read for anyone who is a fan of the show. 4/45
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Feb 1, 2015 04:17
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screenwritersblues posted:3) Special Deluxe: A Memoir of Life and Cars by Neil Young End of January -February 4) Live From New York: The Uncensored History of Saturday Night Live by Tom Shales and James Andrew Miller: I was waiting for this one to come out in paper back for years now, but when I heard that it as going to be updated for the 40th anniversary (the special could have been a lot better) that was coming up late last year, I decided to bite the bullet and buy it. It was a solid read from start to finish and told you everything that you wanted to know about the show. 5/5 5) Inherent Vice by Thomas Pynchon: I like this book and it was a good book to get into Pynchon. Bring on the others. 4.65/5 6) The Marriage Plot by Jeffery Eugenides: I really liked The Virgin Suicides when I read it last year, but this one was missing something and felt a little too long at times. Granted, Eugenides is known for big a very descriptive writer, but at times, if felt too long. 3.76/5 6/45 Currently reading: Welcome to Paradise Now Go To Hell: A True Story of Violence, Corruption, and the Soul of Surfing by Chas Smith: So far it's excellent. I'm liking it and it's really interesting.
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Mar 1, 2015 16:58
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screenwritersblues posted:6) The Marriage Plot by Jeffery Eugenides Holy no update Batman. It's been so long since I've posted an update that I totally forgot about this thread. So here's the update. 7) Welcome to Paradise, Now Go To Hell: A True Story of Violence, Corruption, and The Soul of Surfing by Chas Smith: I really had high hopes for this book. But as it turned out, it was one of those books that wasn't what I thought it was. While it did focus of surf culture in Hawaii, it got lost by jumping around and also the fact that the author was total Bro who pretty much deserved to get his rear end kicked didn't help the book either. However, the parts about surfing did save it. 4.50/5 8) The Last Pirate: A Father, His Son, and the Golden Age of Marijuana by Tony Dokoupil: A really, really great memoir about growing up not knowing what your father did for a living, but getting everything you wanted. This was probably one of my top 10 books of the year. It goes from New Jersey to Miami and makes the high of marijuana trafficing seem tame compared to what it is today. 5/5 9) Chasing the Scream: The First and Last Days of the War on Drugs by Johann Hari: A cool look into what the author calls the end of the drug war. While it goes world wide, I personally felt that if her focused on America a little more, it would have been a lot better. 4.65/5 10) Easy Street: The Hard Way by Ron Pearlman: If you like Hellboy, Sons of Anarchy or Beauty and the Beast for that matter, by all means, read this. Pearlman is the kind of guy that you want to grab a drink with so that you can hear all of his stories. My only gripe is that I wish there were more stories. 4.87/5 11) The Art of Racing in the Rain by Garth Stein: I heard about this book years ago, but could never remember the name of it to save my life. When I finally remembered the title, I grabbed it. I really enjoyed it, mainly because of the way that the book was narrated. It wasn't told from the POV of a human, but a dog. Yes, a dog is telling the story. Also, if you don't see the ending coming, then there's something wrong with you. 4.90/5 12) The Fortune Cookie Chronicles: Adventures in the World of Chinese Food by Jennifer 8. Lee: This one caught my eye when the author announced that she was doing a documentary of the same name. While the book started out strong, telling the story of a bunch of people who won the mega millions by taking the number off of a fortune cookie, it ended on a low note that it couldn't recover from. 3.50/5 13) Mosquitoland by David Arnold: It's finally good to see that YA is going away from distopia and into more realistic, relateable characters. It was a sold book, but it just felt too short. 4.60/5 14) The Devil in the White City: Murder, Magic, and Madness at the Fair That Changed America by Erik Larson: Another book I could never remember the title of, but thanks to a Facebook group that I'm involved with, they remind me about it. It was a solid read, but a little long for my liking. 4.60/5 15) The Martain by Andy Weir: Castaway in space? Yeah, pretty much. Still a solid read though. 4.85/5 16) Stranger Than Fiction by Chuck Palahniuk: I've had this once for a while now and really haven't had the chance to read it, so now that his new book, Make Something Up is out, I decided that it was time to read it. It was good, but a little strange at times. 4.95/5 16/45 Currently reading: The Beautiful Indifference by Sarah Hall: A Strand Book Store Staff pick from the events director. She says that it's one of her favorite short story collections and it was her staff pick for a while.
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Jun 28, 2015 16:45
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So when's the new thread going up?
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Nov 25, 2015 06:27
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Stravinsky posted:Years not up yet, plus someone else can be booklord or something because I'm going to be super busy for the foreseeable future I'll take on next year's if you like. I'll even use your challenge if you like or we can go back to the old way of just pick a number and read that many books for the year.
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Nov 26, 2015 04:35
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Corrode posted:I liked the challenge. Even if some of my selections weren't super clever it got me to stretch a bit in what I was reading which was cool. Mahlertov Cocktail posted:Let's do a similar challenge but you could mix it up a bit and create some of your own categories. Sure that I can do. I'll look at what Stravinsky posted and see what I can take from it. Mr. Squishy posted:Change all the challenges apart from reading A Blind Owl. Mahlertov Cocktail posted:Not that The Blind Owl doesn't warrant a reread, but I would personally prefer that, if there's another "read this specific book" part, it's a different book. Not big on rereading stuff like a year after I first read it most of the time. I'll think of something else that's long like Infiniate Jest or The Portriat of an Artist as a Young Man or something like that. ulvir posted:I liked the challenges, but I wouldn't mind swapping some of them out for next year (absurdist, dealing with space, etc) for something equally challenging and creative. I had a really fun time trying to pin down the unreal one The Berzerker posted:Yeah I liked the ones that were vague ("the color red" led me to read a book on color theory that I likely would never have touched otherwise). The categories helped me stretch out a bit from my usual stuff which I really liked. I'll post my update this weekend but I finished the Booklord challenge about 2 weeks ago by finishing off A Confederacy of Dunces for the first time, which was a hilarious book. I'll fix some of the vagueness and see if I can tweak them or replace them. If anyone has any suggestions, feel free to leave them here.
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Nov 27, 2015 03:12
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ulvir posted:please keep some vagueness to them, figuring out what book would fit/constitute as what was really enjoyable and practically half the fun (apart from reading good books). I only meant I'd love for something similar, but with newer categories, to keep it fresh The vagueness will be kept to let you choose what you want. I might choose a certain book like the last book lord did, but I'm not sure. Currently deciding between two long ones, but not as long as Blind Owl.
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Nov 28, 2015 04:26
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I'm thinking about throwing the new thread up the Sunday after Christmas, this way everyone can finish their challenges/get their reading lists in order for next year. If you want I can put it up earlier, maybe the 20th at the earliest. It's up to you guys, I'm only the guy whose gonna be posting stuff.
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Dec 12, 2015 00:03
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I'll have the new thread up later tonight after I get home from work and also my final count for the year.
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Dec 27, 2015 17:45
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screenwritersblues posted:16) Stranger Than Fiction by Chuck Palahniuk I think that I'm pretty much done for this year. So here's the last batch. 17) The Beautiful Indifference by Sarah Hall: A wonderful short story collection that barely uses any dialogue. It's written in mostly action, which at first is very strange, but flows very nicely once you're into it. 4/5 18) Brooklyn Was Mine edited by Valerie Steiker and Chris Knutsen: A pretty great collection from writers who are from Brooklyn. Shows that there's more to it than hipsters. 4/5 19) Gone Bamboo by Anthony Bourdain: Not as solid as his regular writing, but still good. I felt he tried a little too hard to be like Elmore in this one. 3.56/5 20) More Curious by Sean Wilsey: More like more dull and boring. 2.56/5 21) In the Unlikely Event by Judy Blume: Who says Judy Blume can only write kids books. She did a great job on putting fictional characters in a real event. I had to read this for a book club, so sue me. 3.75/5 22) Dirty Daddy by Bob Saget: Danny Tanner writers pretty drat well. It isn't all Full House related stories (Although I pray to go that either he or someone else involved in the show writes one). He told a lot of good stories and also gave some advice about breaking into comedy. 4.9/5 23) The Vacationers by Emma Straub: I initially thought that this was going to be a Chick Lit book, but it was better than I expected and also a very quick read. 3.74/5 24) So We Read On: How The Great Gatsby Came to Be and Why it Endures by Maureen Corrigan: I swear, this book felt like an NPR radio program, but it was still a solid read. 3.1/5 25) New Jersey Noir edited by Joyce Carol Oates: Anything in NJ is good to me. This one shows the Darker side of NJ, which is one that many don't get to see. 4.6/5 26) How Evan Broke His Head and Other Secrets by Garth Stein: I really liked The Art of Racing in the Rain, which I read earlier this year, but this one was a bit of a let down.3.9/5 27) Brooklyn Noir 2: The Classics edited by Tim McLoughlin: I have a feeling that I should have read this series in order, but whatever. 3.74/5 28) Go Set a Watchmen by Harper Lee: Wow, this was a bad one. 2.36/5 29) We Don't Need Roads: The Making of the Back to the Future Trilogy by Caseen Gaines: If you a BTTF fan, read this. It's a great inside look into how the movie was made and even gives you a really good look into why Gale wanted the Delorian. 5/5 30) The Gods of Gotham by Lyndsey Faye: While I do miss that Old New York, I don't miss one that tries to be a mystery, but fails to use the mystery part. 2.36/5 31) American Sniper by Chris Kyle: I liked this better than the movie. If felt like that Chris Kyle was standing right there with you and he's pretty funny at times too. I really wish he got pulled over in the movie like he did in the book. 4.89/5 32) American Gun: A History of the US in Ten Guns by Chris Kyle: A very interesting look at the history of American in the form of guns. We're pretty much a gun crazy culture. 4.66/5 33) Jalopnik's Book of Car Facts and History That Even Gearheads Don't Even Know edited by Jalopnik: A pretty good collection of articles that were feature on the website. 4.86/5 34) Gonzo Girl by Cheryl Della Pietra: Hunter S. Thompson's former assistant writes a book based off her experiences with Dr. Gonzo. I'm pretty sure that all of it really happened and that Thompson estate told her that she could only base it off of what happened. 4/5 35) Modern Romance by Aziz Ansari: Aziz made me feel very lonely. 4.76/5 36) House of Thieves by Kaui Hart Hemmings: A collection of short stories. Some of them good, some of them decent. But the imagery of Hawaii not being the place that most people think it is, is there. 4.98/5 37- 38) The Best American Sports Writing, Travel Writing, and Short Stories edited by by various: This year wasn't too bad for all of them. But as normal, there were a few snoozers. 4.75/5 for travel writing and short stories and 4.65/5 for Sports Writing. 39) I Never Knew That About New York by Christopher Winn: A good look at the stuff you never knew about New York. 5/5 The New Thread is up: http://forums.somethingawful.com/showthread.php?threadid=3757723 screenwritersblues fucked around with this message at 02:20 on Dec 28, 2015 |
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Dec 28, 2015 01:53
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