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submission by houllebecq. pretty lol.

  On 12/31/2016 at 6:59 PM, keanu reeves said:

submission by houllebecq. pretty lol.

You seem to dislike most of the things you talk about

 10/10

^^^ fantastic book

love the Marlowe stories

Gotta re-read that soon, great novel.

Can't really remember what I read last year that came out that year, so I'll just say Jerusalem was the best book I read in 2016.

Just finished White Noise, didn't like it much on first read but at the same time I feel like giving it a second try to pick up stuff I missed. I feel like I didnt fully get it. Felt kinda like a fiction essay instead of like a novel, if that makes sense

Give Libra a shot if you're still curious about Delillo.

Will read Delillo this year, I'm looking forward to it.

Finished Midnight's Children, super good book. Also finished a short story by Sam Delany called the Star Pit (at Spiral's urging) and it's also super good. Will have to check out some of his novels (need to top up my sci-fi reserves).

  On 1/1/2017 at 10:50 PM, doublename said:

doublename,%

oh my reply got botched... anyway

  On 1/1/2017 at 10:50 PM, doublename said:

Give Libra a shot if you're still curious about Delillo.

Found WHite Noise to be really bleak and depressing, how does Libra and the rest of his work compare in that aspect?

Speaking of, afte White Noise left me in a sour mood I thought of reading something more lighthearted but grabbed Saramago's "Blindness" instead, which is shaping up to be another 300 pages of despair

If you want to cheer yourself up Span, read The Depressed Person by DFW. Very uplifting.

  On 1/7/2017 at 1:17 AM, span said:

oh my reply got botched... anyway

 

  On 1/1/2017 at 10:50 PM, doublename said:

Give Libra a shot if you're still curious about Delillo.

Found WHite Noise to be really bleak and depressing, how does Libra and the rest of his work compare in that aspect?

 

Speaking of, afte White Noise left me in a sour mood I thought of reading something more lighthearted but grabbed Saramago's "Blindness" instead, which is shaping up to be another 300 pages of despair

 

Libra is maybe slightly less depressing than White Noise, and definitely has less of the 'essay' feel than most of his novels. It's one of the few with a real plot, and has easily the most memorable characters. I'd even say it reads like a psychological crime/espionage thriller in places. 

I kind of think of his career as having 3 phases: the PoMo-ish (darkly) comedic stuff up to and including White Noise, a couple of huge (and mostly successful) cuts at writing the Great American Novel in Libra and Underworld, and his late career super spare, elliptical stuff like Point Omega and Zero K. His recent work is good, but facking soul crushing tbqh. Duder is easily my favorite American writer. 

edit:  Am I wrong in thinking that Blindness is ~50% rape scenes? It's been ages since I read it, but that's what I think of when ever it comes up. 

i really liked the delillo stuff i read. immersive in a lot of ways. i like his writing. 

Only read White Noise and Underworld. I loved Underworld. I kinda felt the same way as Span about White Noise.

Went to the bookstore for the first time in a while, got some stuff I'm excited about, starting out the year with Station Eleven by Emily St. John Mandel.

I enjoyed reading Underworld, but didn't quite know what to make of it when it was finished. Libra was really good though, only other thing of his I've read.

Reading The Epigenetics Revolution  by Nessa Carey as research, pretty good so far and exactly what I need. Recommendations on other good books relating to epigenetics, normal genetics and similar material are welcome.

The Sellout by Paul Beatty - it's hilarious, but it seems too 'inside baseball' to have won a Booker.

Infomocracy by Malka Older - Risking all credibility and saying I like this more than Pattern Recognition.

Dark Money by Jane Mayer

here you go watmm i got you a book

lol

lol

recently read:

Our Friends From Frolix 8 - PKD

White Line Fever (a Lemmy Autobiography)

Now reading:

The Left Hand Of Darkness - Ursula Le Guin

lol @ keanu

lol good thing I'm clever or else my constant cynicism might be seen as a vice instead of a virtue lol