Now Reading

I just finished "The Wasp Factory" by Scottish author Iain Banks. Quite good, if a little short. Unexpected direction just by going off the description on the back cover. I received it as a gift.

I am still trying to finish Cormac McCarthy's The Road

  On 7/7/2009 at 5:29 AM, beatfanatic said:

I am still trying to finish Cormac McCarthy's The Road

I let a friend borrow my copy and he took forever to finish it, saying it was too depressing to read at times. But that book has nothing on Blood Meridian, that's probably one of the most nihilistic books I've ever read.

  On 7/7/2009 at 5:29 AM, beatfanatic said:

I am still trying to finish Cormac McCarthy's The Road

Trying to finish? I read it in one night, I couldn't put it down!

  On 7/7/2009 at 5:40 AM, takeshi said:

I let a friend borrow my copy and he took forever to finish it, saying it was too depressing to read at times. But that book has nothing on Blood Meridian, that's probably one of the most nihilistic books I've ever read.

Definitely... those are the only two McCarthy novels I've read though; I've been meaning to get around to reading more but it hasn't happened yet.

Currently reading Death in the Afternoon by Ernest Hemingway. Amazingly, Hemingway manages to make bullfighting sound interesting and fun. I enjoyed it as a backdrop to The Sun Also Rises, but this book proves exactly how much Papa loved bullfighting. Which was a lot.

  On 7/7/2009 at 5:10 AM, Rabid said:

That has to be his most boring work. I've read most of his novels and they're great, but that one I did not enjoy.

interesting opinion. it was the first of his i read and i loved it, got me hooked to reading all his others. whilst not his best its one of my favorites because of that fact. i started rereading it but got distracted by another book.

a bunch of douglas coupland - jpod, life after god, hey nostradamus!, all families are psychotic. there's something about his style i really love - it's simple and direct, but it manages to be very funny and dry and dark and sad. i often forget how dark it is because of the breezy writing style. then again, he does manage to make a 60-year-old mother with AIDS pretty funny. weird guy. i think life after god is the most artful one i've read so far.

love and rockets - gilbert hernandez. i started somewhere in the middle with one of the books on palomar. it's adorable.

the russian debutante's handbook - gary shteyngart. also a strange comedic novel in a totally different, russian-y style. the story didn't do much for me, but i think it's worth reading just for the crazy careless energy i got whenever i would put it down. the main character is a fraud and a weirdo but he doesn't give a shit and kind of figures things out as he goes.

just finished the botany of desire by michael pollan. good read about how plants (4 plants specifically [apples, tulips, marijuana and potatoes]) have come to be used in the society, what's happening with these plants now and how they will change in the near future. fairly insightful, the author knows his stuff and is very good at explaining things in a simple, concise manner.

recently finished lullaby by chuck palahniuk. i haven't read any of his books before, only seen fight club and choke in movie form but i may have to read those books now. his writing style is interestingly ambiguous, very straightforward and easy to read. i'm annoyed at his seemingly optional quotation marks when there is dialogue, since sometimes you're not sure if what is written was said or simply thought by the protagonist, but that kind of plays into the whole ambiguity of the book. i finished this one in like 3 days.

not so recently finished matter and conciousness by paul churchland. it's like 25 years old but it's basically a modern philosophy book. the first section goes into dualism vs materialism, then there is a interesting but dated section on AI, then neuroscience. while the breakthroughs noted in the book are common knowledge to most AI programmers and neuroscience professionals, churchland bands them together into wide ideas about how the brain works. it's a good introduction to that sort of stuff if that's what you're into.

several weeks ago i read into the wild by jon krakauer after falling in love with the movie. some good philosophy in there. chris mccandless was a pretty interesting individual, it's too bad he was so ill-prepared for his alaska trip (or was he!?). reading the book and reflecting on it, it seems like there's something in all of us that just wants to get away. from society, from work, from cable news, even from other people. krakauer discusses other people in history that would have otherwise been successful in society that choose to live off the land, travelling about and answering to no one but themselves. this book makes me want to go camping.

  On 7/7/2009 at 5:16 PM, A/D said:

the russian debutante's handbook - gary shteyngart. also a strange comedic novel in a totally different, russian-y style. the story didn't do much for me, but i think it's worth reading just for the crazy careless energy i got whenever i would put it down. the main character is a fraud and a weirdo but he doesn't give a shit and kind of figures things out as he goes.

i read absurdistan by the same author, not sure if they're supposed to go together but sounds like the same kind of novel. the writing is really easy to read, very silly and the main character is a grotesquely obese d00d whose dad was made of $$. he tries to make something of himself but he's pretty simple and very naive. got a bunch of lols from this one though, just because so many things were so absurd. ;)

just read a million little pieces by james frey. probably one of the worst books i've ever read. i knew about the oprah/smoking gun debacle going in so i was treating it as a work of fiction and it failed completely. terrible less than zero style present tense writing (and i go and i do this and i do that and then i do this and then i'm not doing anything and i'm done), utter horseshit philosophizing about drug culture, 12 step programs, plus it's about four hundred pages too long. i don't know how anyone liked this as a memoir and i don't know how they'd like it as a work of semi-fiction. total fucking garbage.

  On 7/7/2009 at 5:23 AM, sneaksta303 said:

I just finished "The Wasp Factory" by Scottish author Iain Banks. Quite good, if a little short. Unexpected direction just by going off the description on the back cover. I received it as a gift.

That's like his first ever book. He's done about 20 more since, all great. He does regular books as Iain Banks and sci-fi as Iain M Banks. Only one of his I've read that sucked was Walking On Glass, I think his second novel... but yeah anything recent by him is tops.

the player of games is really good. that's the only one by him i've read. i've got matter sitting on my bookshelf but i'm intimidated by its size.

  On 7/7/2009 at 4:53 PM, Benedict Cumberbatch said:

interesting opinion. it was the first of his i read and i loved it, got me hooked to reading all his others. whilst not his best its one of my favorites because of that fact. i started rereading it but got distracted by another book.

I can totally understand that. "Sirens of Titan" is my favorite Vonnegut novel, even though few would call it his best.

I finished House of Leaves, it was great!

I'm now doing a daunting move of reading INFINITE JEST in a month. Yep. And English isn't my native language FIY. I don't know why I'm doing that. I think I need to !?...¿

omg it took me 15 minutes to get pass page 5. This is going to be a hard read, but rewarding ?! Each sentence I've read has been absolutely fabulous

good luck, there were words i didn't know on every other page and i am supposed to know english! you are a brave soul.

wonderful book though . . one of my favorites . . have fun!

theSUN - i see what you did there. is it worth the read? i found myself skimming a lot in the "Handbook". they do sound kind of similar . .

i'd say it was worth it, but reading that book is like watching a tv show you kind of like. it's not fantastic, but it's entertaining and something to do without being an overly intense read.

  On 7/8/2009 at 4:49 AM, analogue wings said:

That's like his first ever book. He's done about 20 more since, all great. He does regular books as Iain Banks and sci-fi as Iain M Banks. Only one of his I've read that sucked was Walking On Glass, I think his second novel... but yeah anything recent by him is tops.

walking on glass is my favourite iain banks. i've read them all i think except the last new one. ignore this fool.

any recent? he got worse yeah! go old with this guy and avoid the one about him driving around drinking whisky.

thomas pynchon - inherent vice

saw this at the bookstore. had to double take as the cover makes it look like a mystery novel by jimmy buffett. didn't realize he had a new one out so i bought it. it's ok, really slight reading compared to his other books. kind of pointless.

the yiddish policemen's union

beowulf (heaney translation)

just picked up the other day

Gravity's Rainbow

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gravity%27s_Rainbow

i'm trying to read it without the companion guide...wish me luck

  On 7/8/2009 at 5:17 AM, Philip Glass said:

I'm now doing a daunting move of reading INFINITE JEST in a month. Yep. And English isn't my native language FIY. I don't know why I'm doing that. I think I need to !?...¿

Well I wasn't able. It's just... too... exhausting. Changed to Bukowski' Post Office.

p.s.: Mr. Chinaski

The Unpleasant Profession of Jonathan Hoag - Robert Heinlein

Trying to get through "Sirens of Titan"

Fuck me

Dr. Adder