Book recommendations

[Guest My Pal, the Tortoise]

I, too, got Anna Karenina today. I was hoping we could do like a TSM Book Club thing, but I guess Byron is already like 600 pages in. I also bought Naked Lunch.

 

Also at the bookstore today was Erotic Manga: How to Draw Like the Experts. I didn't open it, trust me.

[Jingus 0]

Oh, there's worse out there, even in "high-class" bookstores. I worked at a Borders for a little while, and some of the employees had this running joke about one book entitled Extended MASSIVE Orgasm. Yes, the word MASSIVE was in all caps, in a bigger font than the other words.

 

Have you ever had one of those experiences where you've read most or all of an author's catelog, and then got the best surprise possible by stumbling onto a book of theirs which you hadn't read? I just had this happen today with a random novel I thought I'd read but never had. It was by Terry Pratchett, who considering the recent reports of his alzheimers, probably isn't going to be cranking out many more Discworld books. (Personally, I thought it sort of showed in his last book Making Money, which I thought was noticeably repetitive and below Pratchett's usual standards.) It was a weird feeling, cracking open a book that I was sure I'd read, and after the first twenty pages or so suddenly realizing otherwise.

[PUT THAT DICK IN MY MOUTH! 0]

I, too, got Anna Karenina today. I was hoping we could do like a TSM Book Club thing, but I guess Byron is already like 600 pages in.

 

Actually I read that shit like three years ago.

 

Also, I started War & Peace last night. Holding that thing is hell on my weak, girlish hands.

[snuffbox 0]

Czech, let me know what you think of Naked Lunch.

 

I'm reading Ian Hamilton's 'biography' of Salinger, among other books, at the moment. Now, I'm as intrigued as the next guy by the reclusive Salinger but this book is just annoying so far. Just leave the weirdo alone & write a bio without including your own story on every page.

[Giuseppe Zangara 0]

At the behest of my comic-loving friend, I am reading Watchmen. It's good, but I doubt it's going to lead to me taking comics more seriously, which I think is what he was hoping.

[Guest My Pal, the Tortoise]

Oh, I'll never do that.

[MrRant 0]

A friend got me The Princess Bride and it's actually an interesting read in comparison to the movie and is pretty funny in it's own right. It's a tough call on whether I prefer the movie to the book though.

[Giuseppe Zangara 0]

Oh, I'll never do that.

Enough's been written about how Watchmen was a groundbreaking work in the comic/graphic novel medium. I don't doubt that's true, but much of what made it so revoluntionary—the complex narrative; its metafictive qualities, etc.—was nothing new in either films or novels. I've said as much to that friend of mine, but I don't think he's listening. He keeps telling me how I should go about reading the book. Telling me I should read all of it straight through. ("Really? All of it? You mean I can't skip around like I do with regular books?") That I, once finished, should read another book and then come back to Watchmen again, so I can pick up what I missed the first time. Hey, it's kinda cute that he's so excited about me reading it, but I get the impression that he wasn't aware things like foreshadowing and symbolism existed outside of or prior to this book.

[Guest Vitamin X]

I picked up the Absolute Watchmen from the library, and it's a fun read, but I agree that it's nothing special. I have about three days before it's due and I don't think I'm going to get through it because I just haven't gotten all that into it.

 

I wonder if they have something like Netflix, but for books. And if you like it, you could keep it and they send you the next one. I guess that's just similar to a book club, though.

[Edwin MacPhisto 0]

A very large part of Watchmen's appeal is its visual composition and organization, which is some of the best I've seen. I think that's what most fans' references to "it's even better the second time" are; once you have the story digested, you can get more out of the absurd levels of detail in the individual panels. And that's definitely not on everyone's priority list.

[Giuseppe Zangara 0]

I liked Watchmen a lot up until the last couple of chapters, for reasons I explained in the thread about the upcoming film version.

 

I'm rereading The Road right now. As much as I liked it the first time, I find myself loving it this second time. It's up there with Blood Meridian as far as McCarthy's best works go.

[King Kamala 0]

I'm reading the hilariously titled Loose Balls by Terry Pluto, which is an oral history of the ABA. Really entertaining read that I'd give the highest recommendation to any basketball fan.

 

 

After that I'm going to read Homicide: A Year on The Killing Streets by David Simon (Creator of The Wire and Homicide: Life on The Street which is loosely based on the book). Actually both his TV series' are loosely based on the book so I'm looking forward to it. If he's even half as good of a journalist as he is a television writer than this should be a compelling

[Jingus 0]

Homicide's a great read. Depressing sometimes, since it's all real life stories directly from the people who deal with the worst shit in the world, but very compelling stuff. They took several of the cases on the Homicide TV series directly from the book, and loosely based a few of the characters off some real cops.

 

...the same guy made The Wire? Damn it, now I've got to watch another TV show from start to finish on DVD. I'd heard from a lot of people that it's awesome, but that's the last straw.

[justsoyouknow 0]

I liked Watchmen a lot up until the last couple of chapters, for reasons I explained in the thread about the upcoming film version.

 

I'm rereading The Road right now. As much as I liked it the first time, I find myself loving it this second time. It's up there with Blood Meridian as far as McCarthy's best works go.

 

I started to re-read The Road, then decided to move to a different McCarthy novel, so I dusted off my copy of All the Pretty Horses that I never got around to reading.

[snuffbox 0]

I just read The Pill versus the Springhill Mine Disaster again. Over the past year or so, Richard Brautigan has become my second-favorite American writer.

[Turbo Lion 0]

If you're into Sci-Fi, Peter David's New Frontier stuff is pretty good. I like his approach to the Trek universe better than most of the official continuity.

[snuffbox 0]

Edmund Morris' Dutch is the most frustrating biography I have ever read. He said he couldn't figure out Ronald Reagan so he created a fictional character to narrate the biography (and devoted at least a quarter of the book to him). This isn't really a recommendation at all.

 

[tominator89 0]

I finally got around to reading Michael Lewis' The Blind Side.

 

The first chapter was excellent, but the rest of the book was loaded with bias regarding the Michael Oher situation. I was hoping for more information regarding the evolution of the left tackle position, but the book was probably 70-75% about this Michael Oher and his shady adopted family.

 

Thumbs down.

[snuffbox 0]

Reading Sometimes A Great Notion again. Never gets old.

[Angel_Grace_Blue 0]

Since I'm far too cheap to spend $8 on a paperback that might suck, I've been hitting up the local thrift store for awesome $0.50 deals. Grabbed some Ken Follett books because he's pretty kick ass, along with Neil Gaiman's American Gods, which is also kick ass and The Smartest Guys in the Room, about Enron. It's also a good read, especially if you want to see exactly how they fucked up (Hint: It wasn't just massive amounts of greed. There was also some enormous fucking stupidity, too).

 

So, yeah, I recommend those, and anything by James Clavell (I have a feeling I've brought his name up before, but I'm too lazy to check).

[... 0]

If you're into some truly hilarious and bizarre writing, I cannot recommend Mark Leyner's Et Tu, Babe? and The Tetherballs of Bougainville highly enough.

[Big Ol' Smitty 0]

Just finished Germinal by Emile Zola and it's probably the most depressing thing I've read in my life.

[RavishingRickRudo 0]

Finished Hitchhikers Guide to the Galaxy (all 5) and overall I loved it. I should note that I read the book which had all 5 parts in it, as I guess there are different interpretations of the story. The ending felt a bit abrupt, as there were a lot of loose ends they could have tried to tie up

(infact, the entire storyline with Fenny...)

, but it certainly didn't defeat my enjoyment of the series. It is the funniest book I have read, and one that left me with a good feeling everytime I put it down. I will be honest in saying that I wouldn't have been mad had they ended it with the end of Krikit (Life, the Universe, and Everything), though I thoroughly enjoyed So Long and Thanks for All the Fish. The final book, Mostly Harmless, is a bit of a departure from the rest of the series and felt sort-of tacked on, more of an obligation than anything.

 

I had seen the film version first and what a really bad adaptation that was. Still, it helped with visualizing the characters and hearing Alan Rickmans voice when speaking Marvins dialogue had me on the floor.

[snuffbox 0]

Recent purchases:

 

Richard Dawkins - The God Delusion

Susan Vreeland - The Forest Lover (novel based on the life of artist Emily Carr)

Robert Sherrill/Harry Ernst - The Drugstore Liberal: Hubert Humphrey in Politics

Jack Kerouac - Mexico City Blues

Ignazio Silone - Bread and Wine

E. Jean Carroll - Hunter: The Strabge and Savage Life of Hunter S Thompson

Lou Cannon - Governor Reagan

Jeff Shesol - Mutual Contempt (LBJ and RFK)

[Corey_Lazarus 0]

I just started reading the bit about Day of the Dead in Kim Paffenroth's Gospel of the Living Dead. It's just one big analysis of Romero's original Dead trilogy (Night, Dawn, and Day), and most of it says nothing new to fans of the series, although his analysis is quite spot on. He also takes the time to talk about post-Romero zombie films, specifically Dawn '04 and Shaun of the Dead, though those are only side-notes inserted mid-sentence to further emphasize his points regarding the original Romero works.

 

I'm in the mood to re-read World War Z again, though. I turned two friends of mine onto it, so whenever we hang out we inevitably end up talking about it, so I'd like to have the material fresh in my mind again, especially since the film version is due out sometime this year (though nothing new has been posted on its imdb.com page for quite some time, now).

[Red Baron 0]

Recent purchases:

 

Richard Dawkins - The God Delusion

 

 

Was this a gift/free or is it going to be used for kindling?

[PUT THAT DICK IN MY MOUTH! 0]

Having recently re-read it for a class, I've come to the conclusion that Lolita is pretty much the best novel ever written in the English language.

[snuffbox 0]

Recent purchases:

 

Richard Dawkins - The God Delusion

 

 

Was this a gift/free or is it going to be used for kindling?

 

Bought it and enjoyed it, much like his other books. Going to hell, though, and such.

[Tommy 0]

Wow! There's so many great recommendations in this thread. But if you really like to read--and I mean really like to read--you should check out my thread in the ChoCo... area of this board. I wrote this neat little spy story and sort of wove some board stuff and some music stuff and stuff into it. Tell me what you guys think, ya hear?

[Nighthawk 0]

 

 

Also, has anyone read The Torture Garden by Octave Mirbeau?

 

I've read a lot of sick lit, but I've heard this one hyped recently as the most sickening work of art of the 19th century.

 

I know how hype can be, though.