Hey, Books

[ods..]

Anyone jumped into The Instructions by Adam Levin yet? It's a huge novel about a 10 year old Jewish-American super-genius with a messianic complex and (what seems to me) some severe anger issues. I started it yesterday and have had a hard time putting it down. The kid never comes across as a kid, which is a bit distracting, but I'm really enjoying the story and the characters so far. Delightfully odd.

Hate. Happens way too often in fiction.

[bmack86]

Honestly, I don't think the kid is supposed to in this instance though. The way the character is written, he is supposed to be a hyper-aware kid who is (at very least convinced that he might be) an extremely developed jewish scholar.

[roberto73]

Just finished Jennifer Egan's A Visit from the Goon Squad, which is quite possibly the best book I've read in the last ten years. The book jacket summary makes it sound like it's all about music, which is what originally hooked me, but it's not really about music at all, at least not to the extent that the press implies. Instead, it takes two characters – a record exec and his assistant – and proceeds to tell their stories, as well as the stories of various people associated with them.

It's a lot of fun structurally. Each chapter focuses on a particular character, and then the next chapter deals with a different character from the previous chapter. It cuts back and forth in time, occasionally touching base with the two main characters, but the beauty of the book is that its trajectory is completely unpredictable. It actually resembles a series of loosely-connected short stories more than a traditional novel.

Attempting to summarize the book makes it sound sort of confusing, and by not getting into the details of the stories themselves it probably doesn't sound particularly interesting. But it's great, and the cumulative power of the individual threads – and seeing how they come together in the end – is pretty impressive.

[RageAgainstTheAoki]

Just finished Jennifer Egan's A Visit from the Goon Squad, which is quite possibly the best book I've read in the last ten years. The book jacket summary makes it sound like it's all about music, which is what originally hooked me, but it's not really about music at all, at least not to the extent that the press implies. Instead, it takes two characters – a record exec and his assistant – and proceeds to tell their stories, as well as the stories of various people associated with them.

It's a lot of fun structurally. Each chapter focuses on a particular character, and then the next chapter deals with a different character from the previous chapter. It cuts back and forth in time, occasionally touching base with the two main characters, but the beauty of the book is that its trajectory is completely unpredictable. It actually resembles a series of loosely-connected short stories more than a traditional novel.

Attempting to summarize the book makes it sound sort of confusing, and by not getting into the details of the stories themselves it probably doesn't sound particularly interesting. But it's great, and the cumulative power of the individual threads – and seeing how they come together in the end – is pretty impressive.

Nice. This one's on my list. I was looking for some light reading, so I'm starting Joan Didion's The Year of Magical Thinking today.

[Alchemy]

I just got that Jennifer Egan book for free when I went to Barns and Noble to pick up Murakami's The Wind-Up Bird Chronicle and Karen Russel's Swamplandia. I heard Russel read the beginning of her book last year, and it seemed like it's pretty great - although, I've heard from some friends that it kind of drops off as you go further.

I'm still only about a fourth done with Ulysses though, so I still need to do that before I do anything else.

[PotVsKtl]

IQ84? Anybody? Nobody?

[zircona1]

I'm currently reading this, I saw it at a book sale for $0.50 and thought, "hmmm, this looks interesting."

[Premium Roast]

about to start 'A Hundred Camel Fuckers in the Courtyard' by Paul Bowles

[JClemy]

I'm probably late to the party on this one but I've been reading Russel Brand's "My Booky Wook". He's actually quite intelligent and stupid at the same time. It's amazing what drug addicts can do when they put their minds to it.

It's quite funny. I definitely recommend checking it out.

[frizzlefry]

Mudbound is a good read for anybody who enjoyed Grapes of Wrath. Had to read that for my War Lit class. It might be an unfair and crass comparison, they are written in different formats and concern rather different parts of American history. A bunch of the characters in Mudbound is like a darker and more flawed version of Grapes set during and after WWII. The characters are just as rich and more realistic as they are set against the macro effects of WWII on the home front. Oh, and racism is a theme in this too. Just wanted to advertise one of the better reads from my semester

[MissingPerson]

I'm probably late to the party on this one but I've been reading Russel Brand's "My Booky Wook". He's actually quite intelligent and stupid at the same time. It's amazing what drug addicts can do when they put their minds to it.

It's quite funny. I definitely recommend checking it out.

It is, it's great. He's got a marvellous turn of phrase, I almost cried laughing more than once.

[Alchemy]

Amazon has paperbacks of James Joyce's Dubliners on the cheap. I bought four copies and it cost me $6. I'm going to give them out to some people on Christmas.

[jackstraw94086]

about to start 'A Hundred Camel Fuckers in the Courtyard' by Paul Bowles

you'd be wise to keep any insights you gain from this book to yourself.

[Premium Roast]

We’ll see. After a slow turd of a Hemingway in ‘Islands in the Stream’, I’m giving Mr. Bowles another round. Enjoyed ‘Let It Come Down’ and ‘Sheltering Sky’. Also interested in picking up his recently released autobiographic ‘Travels’ collection.

[Courtney]

Just finished Jennifer Egan's A Visit from the Goon Squad, which is quite possibly the best book I've read in the last ten years. The book jacket summary makes it sound like it's all about music, which is what originally hooked me, but it's not really about music at all, at least not to the extent that the press implies. Instead, it takes two characters – a record exec and his assistant – and proceeds to tell their stories, as well as the stories of various people associated with them.

It's a lot of fun structurally. Each chapter focuses on a particular character, and then the next chapter deals with a different character from the previous chapter. It cuts back and forth in time, occasionally touching base with the two main characters, but the beauty of the book is that its trajectory is completely unpredictable. It actually resembles a series of loosely-connected short stories more than a traditional novel.

Attempting to summarize the book makes it sound sort of confusing, and by not getting into the details of the stories themselves it probably doesn't sound particularly interesting. But it's great, and the cumulative power of the individual threads – and seeing how they come together in the end – is pretty impressive.

I also read this last month. I picked it up at an airport because it was the only thing on the table that didn't look totally inane, so I didn't have high expectations. But it's actually excellent. I enjoyed the playful exploration of different writing styles and formats, and also the way that you could read it and sort of half pay attention and enjoy it, or pay a lot of attention and get quite a bit more out of it.

[roberto73]

Courtney, I remember you chastising me eons ago when I was Board Member of the Week for not including any women in my list of favorite authors. Look at how much progress I've made in just five short years! From no authors to one book by one author. I'm a feminist icon.

[Courtney]

Ha! Did I really? I don't even remember that.

Why is your member title foof?

[roberto73]

Why is your member title foof?

You would have to ask someone in charge. It mysteriously changed and I'm still waiting for someone to explain the insult.

[Courtney]

Mysterious insults? I don't know who could possibly be behind that.

[RageAgainstTheAoki]

I'm reading The Year of Magical Thinking right now. Oh Lordy is Joan Didion making me grateful to have all of my loved ones alive and well.

[softbulletin]

Have you read any other Didion?

Slouching Towards Bethlehem is excellent as well.

[Starraven]

I'm trying to read the girl with the dragon tattoo before the move comes out.

[frizzlefry]

Amazon has paperbacks of James Joyce's Dubliners on the cheap. I bought four copies and it cost me $6. I'm going to give them out to some people on Christmas.

I wish you were my friend

[bmack86]

IQ84? Anybody? Nobody?

I'm going to read it over my winter break hopefully. I've got to finish The Instructions first.

[Alchemy]

I wish you were my friend

Haha. It's a cheap gift... or a priceless gift.

On a slightly bigger effort, I am going to give a close companion of mine a copy of The Crying of Lot 49. It will be delivered in a package envelope. The stamp will be a U.S. postal stamp with a black feather drawn in. The envelope will have written: REPORT ALL OBSCENE MAIL TO YOUR POTSMASTER. And, of course, inside will be a note, asking for sex (a threesome, preferred), and to get in touch with me through WASTE only.

-o-<]]

D.E.A.T.H.

[Courtney]

Why is this Kindle only $69? Is there something wrong with it?

[Hannahrain]

They're probably phasing out the keyboard model. That's the one I have, though, and I feel no need to upgrade to a new e-reader anytime soon even after checking out both the Touch and the Fire this past weekend (despite thinking the Fire is pretty cool as an entirely separate more-like-a-tablet thing).

[JustSteve]

it's also a refurb.

[chiapet]

Edit: I guess that's not exactly the one I have - I have the 3G one. No wi-fi. It's nice for travel but not so nice at home (I have to transfer stuff over via USB). I'd typed a long thing about it not working well with PDFs, charts/graphs, etc, too. Yea. I love it otherwise.

[zircona1]

My folks got me a Nook Tablet for my birthday.