Hey, Books

[ods..]

Right now I go to the New School University in New York and i'm trying to get my undergrad in writing. I was just accepted to USD in San Diego, so I'm moving to California for the fall semester. I'm so fucking excited. Manhattan has taken a lot of out of me. I came from the West Coast, so the weather/people/general vibe really messed with me.

Good look on the social group, Alchemy! I'm glad there is some interest for a little workshop group. I'm way down, I wanna read everyone's work.

[ods..]

Ah! well my short story is definitely too long for the forum haha. About 28,000 characters too long for one post hahaha. Even if I posted it in sections, it would be 28 sections. So until I find a place to post/host it and link you guys, the short story will have to wait. In a bit i'll throw up some poems, though. Those are all short

[Alchemy]

Right now I go to the New School University in New York and i'm trying to get my undergrad in writing. I was just accepted to USD in San Diego, so I'm moving to California for the fall semester. I'm so fucking excited. Manhattan has taken a lot of out of me. I came from the West Coast, so the weather/people/general vibe really messed with me.

Good look on the social group, Alchemy! I'm glad there is some interest for a little workshop group. I'm way down, I wanna read everyone's work.

Are you for serious!? I am graduating from the New School's MFA Creative Writing (Fiction) Program this month. I love Manhattan, but I can dig what you're saying. I do look forward to going back to Texas this summer - though, I've made many great friends in New York, and I hate to leave when I feel that I've been doing really good for myself in this city... but finances...

[ods..]

Wow!! That's so tight that you go to New School! Yeah I'm in Eugene Lang now. I'm more geared towards poetry but this year I tried to write some fiction and drama also. New School is great. I think the faculty here are some of the best I've worked with. I've made some good friends, but nothing like my best friends from home..

Also (of course) finances. I cannot afford to live in NY... I can't justify paying exorbitant rent, when I could pay less, and live in a bigger/better/more beautiful house/apt. My rent for my fucking apt is more than most mortgages. It's just too much haha.

I'd love to read some of your work though!!

[samiksha]

I would like to get in on some group action. I can't promise I will have much to contribute but I do like to talk shop.

[Hannahrain]

My mother is raving about Steve Earle's freshly released novel. Granted, she's the same mother who excitedly sent me Water for Elephants, but I'm intrigued. Hey Tom, what are your thoughts on Steve Earle tackling magical realism and home abortions in prose? I have an Amazon credit burning a hole in my sternum.

[TomAz]

so when Earle wrote Doghouse Roses, a short story collection, 10 years ago, I ran out and got it and couldn't even get through half of it. It was not very good.

Now I have read reviews stating that the novel is quite good -- Patti Smith has been quoted -- but I'm still skeptical. I also have never seen The Wire so I haven't seen him act, either. I like him just fine as a really great singer songwriter, I guess.

[SoulDischarge]

You should probably watch The Wire. It's the best epic novel you'll ever watch.

[TomAz]

I don't even have HBO.

[Hannahrain]

One of your kids can probably show you how to stream it illegally.

[Hannahrain]

Fuck, one of my kids can probably show you how to stream it illegally.

[SoulDischarge]

I don't even have HBO.

You're getting on in years, and if you go quietly into that black night without having watched it, you're really going to hate yourself for it.

[J~$$$$]

I bought Demetri Martin's This Is A Book yesterday because NPR told me too.

[Hannahrain]

He's cute in standup specials. He's worn himself a little thin with expansion beyond that.

[Courtney]

I bought Sarah Vowell's Unfamiliar Fishes last week because PRI told me to.

[Hannahrain]

I love Sarah Vowell, and I really like her approach to history. Good purchase. Have you read Assassination Vacation?

[chiapet]

I don't write anymore, but I'm glad to heckle give feedback to others when I have time.

[samiksha]

Has anyone read The History of Love? I'm reading it for class and it makes me cry like a baby. Parts of it are too clever for my taste though. I haven't got it all figured out yet but every ones connected somehow and I just... ugh.

[Premium Roast]

Wrapping up the supposed classic 'The Confessions of Zeno' (pfft) and will be starting Hemingway's 'Across the River and Into the Trees' in preparation for Venice this summer.

[chiapet]

No one's reading anymore?

I still haven't finished Fool (Christopher Moore), which is my first of his stories, came highly recommended by many friends, and has possibly put me off reading anything more he's written. (I had the same reaction to Palahniuk, so maybe I just don't like the sort of literature my friends like, or pick the wrong book to read first). Have like 80 pages left and I'm determined to just be done with it this weekend.

On the way to a festival last week, I started reading Céline's Journey to the End of the Night, while drunk on airplanes. Apparently I didn't know the premise of the book before taking it on my trip or I likely would have selected something else. Was enjoying it well enough, but I've been in such a dark mood for the past week that I've not been able to continue it.

Hoping to get to the library after the gym, in order to pick up The Red Queen, I'm on this awful historical fiction/romance bent right now. At least the books are light and easily digestible. And it gives me a sense of accomplishment to be able to finish a book in a day or in a weekend.

But I've nothing selected to read that I can really get into. Suggestions? Nothing dark or depressing would work at the moment...

[zircona1]

Currently reading Outliers by Malcolm Gladwell. It's pretty interesting.

[ods..]

No one's reading anymore?

I still haven't finished Fool (Christopher Moore), which is my first of his stories, came highly recommended by many friends, and has possibly put me off reading anything more he's written. (I had the same reaction to Palahniuk, so maybe I just don't like the sort of literature my friends like, or pick the wrong book to read first). Have like 80 pages left and I'm determined to just be done with it this weekend.

On the way to a festival last week, I started reading Céline's Journey to the End of the Night, while drunk on airplanes. Apparently I didn't know the premise of the book before taking it on my trip or I likely would have selected something else. Was enjoying it well enough, but I've been in such a dark mood for the past week that I've not been able to continue it.

Hoping to get to the library after the gym, in order to pick up The Red Queen, I'm on this awful historical fiction/romance bent right now. At least the books are light and easily digestible. And it gives me a sense of accomplishment to be able to finish a book in a day or in a weekend.

But I've nothing selected to read that I can really get into. Suggestions? Nothing dark or depressing would work at the moment...

I don't know about Fool, but Christopher Moore's Lamb is great. Some of his stuff is really hit or miss, but I love Lamb a lot.

[bmack86]

A co-worker let me borrow On Chesil Beach, so I read it tonight. It was a quick read, but I thought it developed a really decent atmosphere. I wanted to step back and yell at the characters frequently, but I thought there was a decent amount of restraint shown by McEwan in keeping the characters to their time and place. I wouldn't run out to read anything else by him, but it's a fun, quick little book.

[juloxx]

What are you guys thoughts on The Doors of Perception? I tried reading that book in 10th grade and it just seemed way to complicated and too hard of a read. Was thinking bout buying it today and giving it another shot? Any worthwhile knowledge that can be taken from it?

[bmack86]

Today I read One Day in the Life of Ivan Denisovich by Alexander Solzhenitsyn. It's a fictional account of a prisoner's day in a 1950s Steppe Gulag. THe author had been imprisoned in a gulag and his experience shines through in the brutal depiction of the labor, the meager rations, the inhumane treatment and abysmal conditions that these people, who in many instances weren't even political dissidents, were forced to live through. It's a quick read and well worth the time.

[ods..]

What are you guys thoughts on The Doors of Perception? I tried reading that book in 10th grade and it just seemed way to complicated and too hard of a read. Was thinking bout buying it today and giving it another shot? Any worthwhile knowledge that can be taken from it?

Read it. One of my favorite books. Great for people into psychs.

[Premium Roast]

planning on reading Hemingway's death themed novel 'Across the River and Into the Trees' while in Venice next month. Not sure if it's a good idea or not. Argh, a drink at Harry's Bar can cure any life & art issues.

[chiapet]

I feel like I've gotten a little burnt out on reading. I *want* to read, but most things I've tried to start reading have been really uninteresting to me lately. At first, I thought maybe I was just choosing poorly, and put out a call for suggestions for reading material. A bunch of people answered with books that sounded pretty decent from reviews. Practically every person who made a suggestion is someone whose opinions I respect (there were like maybe 2 people whose tastes are suspect and I didn't even bother checking out what they recommended).

.... I hated everything except for 2 suggestions. Like, I couldn't even get 50 pages into these books. I just took a stack of very partially read books back to the library. I ALWAYS make myself finish books, even if they start out slow. I know of 4 books (other than course textbooks) that I've failed to finish reading... and even 2 of those I still plan to read.

What's wrong with me?? I went to the library this morning to get more books I won't read. And picked up a couple of terrible crap fiction books, that I probably will read.

[Hannahrain]

Well. I guess this is the first paragraph of The Maltese Falcon.

Samuel Spade’s jaw was long and bony, his chin a jutting v under the more flexible v of his mouth. His nostrils curved back to make another, smaller, v. His yellow-grey eyes were horizontal. The "v" motif was picked up again by thickish brows rising outward from twin creases above a hooked nose, and his pale brown hair grew down from high flat temples in a point on his forehead. He looked rather pleasantly like a blond Satan. He said to Effie Perine: “Yes, sweetheart?”

I should've gotten Chandler.

[Hannahrain]

Also: are any of you on Goodreads.com? I just joined and haven't filled much in yet besides preliminarily rating a few of the books in the little questionnaire at the beginning (to be re-rated more scrutinizingly later, I hope), but it seems like it could be a pretty awesome tool for this group of people, not just for reviews and ease of seeing what other people are reading/loving/disliking/abandoning but also for keeping track yourself of things you want to read at some point.

If anybody joins or already belongs, find and befriend me at www.goodreads.com/waywardscience. I'd much rather see opinions from people I actually know.