Book recommendations

[Giuseppe Zangara 0]

I feel confident in saying Gaddis can fuck off.

[snuffbox 0]

I rarely stop reading a book when first starting with a particular author. One that does come to mind was John Irving. Maybe I should try again?

[Giuseppe Zangara 0]

The second and third times I tried with White Noise were due to being assigned other Delillo books for class, Mao II and Libra. I liked both quite a bit, but I couldn't get into White Noise at all. Too snide and oh so clever.

[snuffbox 0]

Have you given Tom Robbins a shot yet, Inc?

[Giuseppe Zangara 0]

No go on the Robbins, but I haven't made a decision as to what I'm going to read after I finish/give up this Bellow, so we'll see.

[vivalaultra 0]

Does nobody read no more? I figure this thread should be bumped. I have recently read Tess of the d'Urbervilles by Thomas Hardy and Play It as It Lays by Joan Didion. The first was wonderful, the second was not so wonderful, but ok. I started reading something by Cormac McCarthy, but he's rather dry, so I stopped reading it and today I got the new Townes Van Zandt biography.

[Giuseppe Zangara 0]

Dry? Cormac McCarthy is one of my favorite writers, you fuck. And I think it's great that Oprah picked his most recent book for her book club.

[Giuseppe Zangara 0]

I totally gave up on that Bellow, btw.

[Guest Vitamin X]

The Road was featured on Oprah's Book Club? I feel surprised by that for some reason.

[vivalaultra 0]

Don't call me a 'fuck'. That's just rude. I didn't mean dry as in bad; I meant dry as in...dense and desert-like. I love Cormac McCarthy, too, I just have to be in a certain mood to read him. I read All the Pretty Horses for an English class a couple years ago, and ripped through it in a day or so. The book of his that I was referring to is The Crossing , which is a great book, but it just takes a bit to get into, what with all drawn-out wolf capturing and all, but, when the story gets going it's excellent. I've read everything by him except The Road, which I'm waiting for in paperback or at least till I get my points accrued on my Borders' card. I actually saw him speak at my college a couple years back, too.

[Giuseppe Zangara 0]

The Road came out in paperback this week. It wasn't supposed to be out until September, but they bumped up the publication date so Random House would sell even more copies, what with the Oprah endorsement and all.

 

As for Oprah and this book, yeah, it's an intense, gruesome book at times (though nowhere near as much as say Child of God or Blood Meridian or whatnot), but it's arguably McCarthy's most accessible work to date. And in spite of the gloominess of the story, it's filled with hope.

 

Also, I'm surprised to hear he spoke at your school. What'd he talk about?

[vivalaultra 0]

I was surprised, too. The professor that I had that assigned All the Pretty Horses is like...president of his fan club or something like that. She's written lots and lots of scholarly pieces about his various works and, when we were doing AtPH, he was just...there one day in class and he stayed for about 15 minutes or so and talked about the book and various theme elements and he seemed generally uncomfortable and then he left. It was a very interesting talk, but he seemed annoyed by the whole thing. However, it wasn't as nearly surprising to see McCarthy as it was when the Grad level class had Thomas Pychon and J.D. Salinger come talk in their class.

[Giuseppe Zangara 0]

Oh, so you were pulling my leg with the McCarthy thing. Okay.

[vivalaultra 0]

Oh, no. I was serious about that. I was joking about the Salinger and Pynchon thing, though.

[Giuseppe Zangara 0]

Have you read that interview he did with the New York Times around when ATPH came out? He seems like an interesting guy to talk to, as long as, ya know, you don't bring up his books.

[Giuseppe Zangara 0]

Related: I'm looking forward to the Coen Brothers's adaptation of No Country for Old Men. Composer Carter Burwell talks a bit about working on the score for it on his website.

 

The film is the quietest I've worked on. Often there is no sound but wind and boots on hard caliche or stocking feet on concrete. Then again there are shootouts involving an unknown number of shooters with shotguns and automatic weapons. It was unclear for a while what kind of score could possibly accompany this film without intruding on this raw quiet. I spoke with the Coens about either an all-percussion score or a melange of sustained tones which would blend in with the sound effects. We went the latter route.

[vivalaultra 0]

I haven't read the Times interview, but I have read a couple interviews and the impression I get is that he's not fond of it. When he talked to my class, it was obvious that he didn't enjoy talking about his work or talking to groups of people in general. He didn't take questions, took many sips of water, and left quickly and rather abruptly.

 

I'm lookin' forward to the movie, too, cautioulsy. I hope they can pull off all the themes of the book and the nuances of McCarthy's prose and dialouge better than did 'All the Pretty Horses' did.

[Hank Kingsley 0]

The Sound and the Fury was so incredible. Certainly worth the confusion of the first two sections, and once I knew what was going on, I did not hesitate to re-read everything. The overattention to detail, where even the smallest anecdote in the stream-of-consciousness style means something, is astounding. I need more Faulkner, now. I have As I Lay Dying at home but I'll have to wait until the summer to get started on it.

 

Now I'm on Pale Fire, up through the poem itself. Inc, you're right, I'm loving it so far. Kinbote is a wonderful prick.

[Edwin MacPhisto 0]

Reading Dave Eggers' What is the What, a fictionalized autobiography of a real-life Sudanese refugee he befriended. Really good so far through the first third. I also love the book design, which is worth checking out if you're in a bookstore--no dust jacket, with the cover art embossed directly onto the book. Dig it.

[Giuseppe Zangara 0]

Cormac McCarthy to appear on Oprah.

 

Wow. I'll have to watch this.

[Garth 0]

I read Picture of Dorian Gray - Oscar Wilde recently. It was fantastic, Wilde has a way with words like no other I've read before. I started reading this book over a year ago, a now ex-girlfriend leant her copy to me. I was in the middle of reading it when we had a really messy break up. I couldn't bring myself to carry on reading it at the time as I associated it with her. I finally got around to picking up my own copy last month and boy am I glad I did.

[Copper Feel 0]

Reading Bryan Magee's The Story Of Philosophy, it is a good introduction for those who know little of the field. However by comparison to Sophie's World Magee devotes too much space to matters irrelavant to the Philosophy in question, such as the Philosopher's other intellectual intrests (mathematics, music, encyclopedias) and he can occasionally fall into a reccesion of "this Philosopher was also blessed with some of the best writing abilites ever", however for those adverse to what on the surface appears to be child orientated story telling this is a better starting point.

[Giuseppe Zangara 0]

This:

 

 

I like it well enough, but reading more than two stories at a time can be trying; Andersen, for all his lyrical gifts, was fond of repetition. Overuse of phrases like "Oh, it was wonderful!" and "Oh, it was very lovely!" and "Oh, it was simply dreadful!" I need something to break up the monotony; I'm leaning towards an essay collection, but nothing particular in mind, outside of maybe something by John McPhee.

[Giuseppe Zangara 0]

True story: the ending of his "The Little Mermaid"—his being the original—made me a little misty-eyed.

[Guest Vitamin X]

speaking of children's tales, have you ever read any of Jasper Fforde's work? I'm thinking in particular here about The Big Over Easy and The Fourth Bear.

 

Mystery/Thriller meets classic fairy/children's tales.

[Giuseppe Zangara 0]

No, I haven't, but I notice him whenever I pass by the F's in the fiction section.

[Edwin MacPhisto 0]

My mom likes him a lot.

[Giuseppe Zangara 0]

I checked out The John McPhee Reader from the library; this should give me an overview of what book I should start with, given the vast array of subjects McPhee has written about in his decades-long career.

[Copper Feel 0]

Re reading Sir Arthur Conan Doyle's The Hound Of The Baskervilles, The Adventures Of Sherlock Holmes and The Memoirs Of Sherlock Holmes, all are incredible novels: Doyle was blessed with some of the most subliminal technical writing abilites in the history of written word. A friend of mine has in the past dismissed these novels as meer "kiddy literature", it saddens me that such labels would be applied to something this well written and aesthetically pleasing.

[snuffbox 0]

I read Gatsby for the first time since high school. I actually got it this time around.