Hey, Books

[lehorne]

a wife, not figuratively, blowing the head off her husband while on African hunting safari? Didn’t do much for me. Sometimes women are better left at base camp.

[Alchemy]

What!? That is such a fantastic story (and not because the wife shoots her husband - though that is icing on the cake).

[RageAgainstTheAoki]

Just finished Nabokov's Pale Fire. I can see why Larry McCaffery gave it the top spot in his Greatest Hits: 100 English Language Books of Fiction list, which he compiled in response to the Modern Library's top 100. I probably wouldn't give it the same ranking, but I really enjoyed it. It's quite unlike anything I've read. If Pnin gave us the unreliable narrator, then Pale Fire gives us the delusional and probably criminally insane narrator. It's great fun (you can tell that Nabokov took enormous pleasure in writing this one) and a wonderful little puzzle that's fairly easy to solve because our narrator is, well, a nutcase. A really, really gay nutcase, too -- in case you're into that kind of thing.

Bottom line, if you enjoyed Pnin, I think you'll really like this book. Speaking of Professor Pnin, he does make the briefest blink-and-you'll-miss-it appearance, but you won't learn anything new about him. The book would be a great achievement for any writer, but considering that English was Nabokov's third language, it's a wonder. The man was clearly a genius. I'll definitely be reading more Nabokov after this, but next I'm on to A Confederacy of Dunces.

[Hannahrain]

I don't know that English was exactly his "third" language - I'm pretty sure he was raised in a multilingual household and grew up speaking it. Not that I'm saying the book isn't impressive. It really is.

[RageAgainstTheAoki]

Appears you're right, Hannah. Silly assumption, I suppose. It appears he was triilingual from an early age.

[cosmia]

Currently reading Breakfast with Socrates and Bitch: In Praise of Difficult Women.

[Alchemy]

I've been reading The Wind-Up Bird Chronicle. It's amazing.

[hippityhip]

I'm on a Bukowski binge right now. Currently reading Factotum.

[bmack86]

I've read some winners recently. In the last month I tore thru Lamb by Christopher Moore (Fantastic, laugh out loud novel about Jesus), The Year of Magical Thinking by Joan Didion (Incredibly stark and agonized telling of the year after Didion's husband died, most of which their adult daughter spent in intensive care) and Pulphead by John Jeremiah Sullivan (One of the best things I've ever read, a spectacular collection of essays by a great new voice.) I'm currently reading Satantango by Laszlo Krasznahorkai. I just reached the end of the first half, was just blown absolutely away by the last chapter. In ones past, it's focused on one or two narrators building towards a common goal of meeting at the bar to wait for some arriving people. In the last chapter, the narrator swirls from one person to the next in a fevered pitch as they wait for the arriving folk in common. The constant motion is done very deftly, considering this is a translation, and I really highly recommend tracking this down already. Can't wait for the second half.

Oh, and look up Pulphead by John Jeremiah Sullivan. It's great. Like really great.

[ods..]

Lamb is a fucking riot. The best Christopher Moore novel by far.

[bmack86]

I read it on a plane, and people were looking at me because I was laughing so much.

But seriously everyone, read Pulphead. It's a fantastic collection of essays that start as completely random but start to link into a loose story about how we digest information and how little we actually understand about what's happening around us. I loved each essay, and the way they're arranged makes for a fantastic larger statement on the idea of how we look at our world currently. As a bonus, the essays are frequently hilarious and always on creatively captivating topics. Most memorable were the ones on the Christian Rock fest, the profile of Axl Rose and the one where he goes with archaelogoists/anthropologists through underground caves in Tennessee(?) where ancient native american tribes painted some really wild and amazing tribal art. You like reading? You'll like this.

[juloxx]

Was thinking of picking up "The Illuminatus" trilogy today. Is this recommended? Have any of you read it?

[zircona1]

I'm reading Blood Meridian. I really like the writing and the descriptions of the brutality, but I'm having trouble keeping track of the characters and how many of them are in the party besides Toadvine, the kid, the judge, etc.

One great thing about e-readers (or at least the Nook) is that if there's a word you don't know, you can just highlight it and press a button that brings up its definition. I've been doing it quite a bit with BM.

[Alchemy]

I had the same problem with Blood Meridian. It took me a while, but eventually I got the hang of who everybody was. It's a great book. It's crazy, because despite all the ongoing brutality and violence, there were still later parts in the book that made me feel terrible. It doesn't allow you to become numb.

[lehorne]

Bukowski binge

How apropos. Drank from his cup a few years ago.

And bought that book you guys were raving up a few pages back. ‘Confederacy of Dunces’ and it better be fucking funny. Or I’m suing GV.

[guedita]

I'm on a Bukowski binge right now. Currently reading Factotum.

One of my favorite quotes of his, taken from Tales of Ordinary Madness

I had this suicide complex and these heavy depressive fits and I couldn't stand crowds of people and, especially, I couldn't bear standing in a long line waiting for anything. And that's all society is becoming: long lines and waiting for something.

[RageAgainstTheAoki]

How apropos. Drank from his cup a few years ago.
And bought that book you guys were raving up a few pages back. ‘Confederacy of Dunces’ and it better be fucking funny. Or I’m suing GV.

Reading it right now, actually. I was equally skeptical because just about everyone I know over 7 raves about it. That always makes me a tad suspicious. They're right, though. I'm only 1/3 of the way through and it is just pure joy. Stayed up way past my bedtime last night devouring chapter after chapter. You'd have to be a total clod not to enjoy it.

[lehorne]

Well, well, what a coinkidink.

Other things are lined up now, so think I’m going to save it for air travel this summer. Some light, cheery fare to pass the time as I am generally not very comfortable on planes*. Commercial Aircraft, shitholes with wings.

*Unless I get fed drinks. Hey, there’s Part II of the plan!

[ods..]

All this talk about Confederacy of Dunces has me wanting to read it again. I'll pick it up sometime this summer, once finals are over. Most hilarious book I've ever read... Disgusting and out there and everything I like in literature.

[RageAgainstTheAoki]

Have the Confederacy of Dunces fans on here also read Neon Bible?

[ods..]

Yep. Also good, but not nearly as polished. Understandable since he wrote Neon when he was like 16 I believe?

[Hatinisbad]

Just finished reading The Lean Startup. It was OK, some good ideas on creating a successful startup but not one of my top 10 business books.
Just started reading A Game of Thrones, pretty good so far

[Hatinisbad]

I'm reading some crazy fantasy epic by Stephen R Donaldson about a leper. I think it's called Lord Foul's Bane. I hate the book, but my husband loves the damn series so much that I should probably at least finish the first book in the series.

I read these in college. One of my favorites series. But because of a terrible scene near the beginning of the book between the main character and a young girl I can't recommend it.

[hippityhip]

One of my favorite quotes of his, taken from Tales of Ordinary Madness "I had this suicide complex and these heavy depressive fits and I couldn't stand crowds of people and, especially, I couldn't bear standing in a long line waiting for anything. And that's all society is becoming: long lines and waiting for something."

So damn good.

[RageAgainstTheAoki]

Loved Confederacy of Dunces. Everything you guys said was true. Though I did think the last 1/5th of the book kind of floundered. I just started The White Tiger by Aravind Adiga, which won him the Booker prize a couple of years ago. Enjoying it so far. Appears to be a wicked, funny and unflinching look at lower class life in modern day India.

On Thursday I was dragged to a reading of the Aloud series at the LA Central Library. Firstly, feel like such a fool, but I had no idea the library was that big. We just kept walking and waking until we were much deeper in the building than I'd ever been. I guess I just visit the front desk and the main fiction/lit section on the top floor. Was wondering why a major city's library seemed so small. Anyway, the author being interviewed was graphic novelist and cartoonist Alison Bechdel. I have no interest in comic culture nor have i read a graphic novel, but the experience changed my mind. She was funny, insightful and almost awkwardly earnest. The discussion focused on her new book which is about her relationship with her mother, but her first book Fun Home sounds really interesting. It's a graphic memoir about her father's double-life as a closeted gay man who committed suicide after she came out as a lesbian. She showed slides from both books and it was really interesting to see how she left some things unsaid and let the images continue the story.

[zircona1]

I found a used copy of Johnny Cash's Man in Black at a record store not too long ago. Since it was only $5 and out of print, I bought it. I'll probably be reading that next.

[Alchemy]

This will probably do better here than with its own thread:

IT'S RAINING DIPLOMATIC MEXICAN WRITERS

Goodbye, Carlos Fuentes...

Carlos Fuentes, The Art of Fiction No. 68

[caeden]

This will probably do better here than with its own thread:

IT'S RAINING DIPLOMATIC MEXICAN WRITERS

Goodbye, Carlos Fuentes...

Carlos Fuentes, The Art of Fiction No. 68

not gonna lie... i thought he was already dead

[Jman4321]

Just finished Nabokov's Pale Fire.

I find Pale Fire astounding. The fact that he wrote the poem in the beginning as well, which is really fucking good, is always something that impresses me. Go for Speak, Memory next. It's an autobiography that works with the same kind of unpacking of memory and unreliability that Pale Fire does.

[algunz]

This will probably do better here than with its own thread:

IT'S RAINING DIPLOMATIC MEXICAN WRITERS

Goodbye, Carlos Fuentes...

Carlos Fuentes, The Art of Fiction No. 68

I was surprised there hadn't been any mention of this yet. I should have known to come here first. RIP