Anybody read a good book lately?

Wingspan · December 06, 2007, 08:21:42 AM

Quote from: Diomedes on December 06, 2007, 07:41:51 AM
Four books I haven't finished of late:

QuoteAnybody read a good book lately?

rjs246 · December 06, 2007, 08:36:31 AM

Jesus, if I tried to list the books I've started and not finished for some reason it would take me a month. The one's I plan on going back to are: The Moor's Last Sigh by Salman Rushdie (because I loved The Satanic Verses), The Man In the High Castle by Philip K. Dick and Fast Food Nation by Eric Schlosser.

Cerevant · December 06, 2007, 11:35:12 AM

In the brain candy aisle, check out The Golden Compass by Philip Pullman. There's been a bunch of fundies all upset about this "Harry Potter"-ish trilogy, including a threat to ban the book in an Ontario Catholic school district, so I had to read it. I think it is actually a good commentary of the potential clash between technology and morality, and it is a bit heavy for the Potter pre-teen market. I found it entertaining and less cliche ridden than other low-end fantasy I've read.

Zanshin · December 06, 2007, 12:01:15 PM

Quote from: Diomedes on December 06, 2007, 07:41:51 AM
Four books I haven't finished of late:

[We Were The Mulvaneys - Joyce Carol Oates.

There may be another book or two in the past year or two that I haven't finished...but I can't recall. A few non-fiction books, but that's normal. I'm a fiction guy and every time I try to read non-fiction I am reminded as much. The authors of late who I have been enjoying are Somerset Maugham, Dasheil Hammett, Raymond Chandler...

By the way, if you like Oates and Chandler, you'd probably be interested in the essay Oates wrote about Chandler, assuming you haven't seen it already.

Rome · December 06, 2007, 12:18:26 PM

Quote from: Sgt PSN on December 05, 2007, 06:17:35 PM
Be sure to take a porn mag with you so you can cut out some pictures and randomly place them in your hotel room's bible.

And charred babies.

Diomedes · December 06, 2007, 01:21:08 PM

Wingnut, I see what you did there. How clever. And hilarious. You sir are clever and hilarious.

Quote from: rjs246 on December 06, 2007, 08:36:31 AM
Jesus, if I tried to list the books I've started and not finished for some reason it would take me a month.

I can't stand to put a book down..makes me think I'm a quitter. But some books I just can't finish..so it becomes a drawn out thing where I force myself to read, accomplishing less and less as time goes by until I finally just give up, feeling defeated. I would like to be cavalier about it, but it's a hang up. What can I say.

I forgot to say Graham Greene in what I've read lately and like. Love actually. Love his work.

Quote from: Zanshin on December 06, 2007, 12:01:15 PMBy the way, if you like Oates and Chandler, you'd probably be interested in the essay Oates wrote about Chandler, assuming you haven't seen it already.

Thanks for the tip Z. I did not know she wrote something about Chandler.

ice grillin you · December 06, 2007, 01:32:03 PM

I can't stand to put a book down..makes me think I'm a quitter.

is suicide a form of quitting....if it isnt please proceed

Diomedes · December 06, 2007, 01:39:13 PM

suicide is a brave triumph.

ice grillin you · December 06, 2007, 01:47:46 PM

i stopped a movie halfway thru the other night....i feel like such a failure

SunMo · December 06, 2007, 01:50:25 PM

what movie

ice grillin you · December 06, 2007, 01:51:53 PM

300

SunMo · December 06, 2007, 01:52:38 PM

ha

rjs246 · February 04, 2008, 11:16:30 AM

Gravity's Rainbow. So, I finally finished this tome. I fluctuated between "It's great and I want to have filthy sex with it" and "Why are there so many words and characters? My eyes are bleeding." On the plus side, I was surprised by how funny it was. People tend to talk about the shockingly graphic sex but I thought that Pynchon's sense of humor was far more noteworthy. On the down side, it's cumbersome and I agree with a lot of the general criticisms that I've read about it being overwritten. I wasn't sure what to think of it initially, but the story is absolutely fascinating and Pynchon is a genius so overall I ended up really liking it.

My one complaint is that Pynchon felt the need to stray so far outside of the developed storyline during the last chapter to pull together his message. He made it fairly clear throughout that the science of building the rocket and the universal obsession with and paranoia about the rocket had reached religious levels, but to veer off and specifically point out that man is designed to destroy and the rocket represents the perfect achievement in the field of destruction, making it God-like, was unnecessary I thought.

Next up I'll be finishing The Interpreter of Maladies and starting The Quiet American.

phattymatty · February 04, 2008, 11:26:20 AM

interpreter of maladies is good, especially if you're boning an indian girl.

PhillyPhanInDC · February 04, 2008, 11:37:28 AM

Currently about 75% through Legacy of Ashes by Tim Weiner. It's a history of the CIA. It uses a lot of very recently declassified material, and tons of interviews and excerpts from other, older interviews of persons either once in the Agency or in charge of it, and those who had to deal with them to build a history.

It would be farging hilarious if it were not true. Terrifying and sad that it is though. Some of what I've been reading is startling and shameful. Failed coups, covered up deaths of hundreds, if not thousands of volunteers and/or revolutionaries, fixed elections, drug testing on innocents, etc. farging amazing the blind audacity and pride they have displayed, without ever being made to answer for the failures.

Amazingly good book.