Hey, Books

[amyzzz]

I'm reading another new (to me) anthology of sci-fi stories from The Year's Best Science Ficton: The Twenty-Second Annual Collection (2004). My current story is called "The Voluntary State" by Christopher Rowe.

[KarliCucumber]

I really liked the style of Fight Club. Better than the movied I'd say.

[Alchemy]

I really liked the style of Fight Club. Better than the movied I'd say.

Agreed.

[Hannahrain]

Has anyone picked up Zimbardo's "The Lucifer Effect" yet?

[TomAz]

I recently finished Borkmann's Point by Håkan Nesser. It was pretty good as far as murder mysteries go. It was lean and logical rather than all poofed up like most of them. And, give the author credit, I had the murderer figured out early in the book but then several red herrings caused me to change my mind and I wound up being surprised at the end after all.

[thelastgreatman]

Sorry, but saying that the Fight Club book was better than the movie is blasphemous. That one was of the best adaptations (and improvements) in the history of film. Chuck was novel at first, Survivor was pretty good, Choke's alright, but frankly he needs to cut down on the new paragraph gimmicks.

Pick up anything by Richard Russo if you grew up in a small town.

[Mr.Nipples]

Reading Jailbird by kurt vonnegut at the moment...

[Hannahrain]

Just started timequake today. So far it's good, but then I got to wondering about the SPExp and figured maybe I had better bump this thread.

[gaypalmsprings]

[somahead]

I just did my "pick a random title from the NY Times list" and ended up with Running With Scissors. Funny book although I should have at least researched the author a bit before jumping into the novel. The content was a bit unexpected.

[mob roulette]

Every living American should read Chris Ware. DO it.

[Hannahrain]

Pulitzer prize winner David Halberstam died in a car crash near Menlo Park today.

[atom heart]

I just finished Dirk Gently's Holistic Detective Agency and Catch-22. Surprisingly, Catch-22 was way more zany than Dirk Gently. I think that was the most sober Douglas Adams book I have ever read.

I saw pictures of that crash this morning. It was really gnarly.

[ewiggy]

but frankly he needs to cut down on the new paragraph gimmicks.

yes. i couldn't agree more.

I just did my "pick a random title from the NY Times list" and ended up with Running With Scissors. Funny book although I should have at least researched the author a bit before jumping into the novel. The content was a bit unexpected.

oh? i just saw this movie and was thinking about picking up the book. what do you mean 'unexpected'? is it like, graphic or something?

[CuervoPH]

I just finished "The Unconsoled" by Kazuo Ishiguro. After reading "The Remains Of The Day" and being amazed by it, I've been reading his other novels in order of publication. The writing in "The Unconsoled" is again brilliant, but also confusing, at least to me. In other Ishiguro novels, the narrator tended to remember the past a bit differently than it actually happened, and that comes out as the book progresses. In this book, the narrator not only seems to be seeing things differently than the reader sees them, but also seems to be living in an artificial reality of his creation, so it's difficult to tell which of the events in the book are at least somewhat real and which are totally a product of the narrator's alternate reality. Still, even when I have no idea what in the hell is going on, I love Ishiguro's writing.

Next up for me is "Hard-Boiled Wonderland And The End Of The World" by Haruki Murakami. I know very little about this book, other than what the synopsis on Amazon states, but it was in several recommended lists by people who liked "The Unconsoled". (I also have "When We Were Orphans" by Ishiguro to read, but wanted to mix things up a bit.)

[TomAz]

just finished 'The Return' by Håkan Nesser, so now I've read both his books that have been translated and published in the US so far. He's a light read but not dumb like most light reads are, which is nice.

Before that I read Uncertainty: Einstein, Bohr, Heisenberg and the Struggle for the Soul of Science by David Lindley. This is one of the best lay person's books on relativity and quantum mechanics I've read (and I've read several, I have to admit). The personal stories and ego clashes are what makes the book worth reading though.

[unbeliever]

Just finished Insomnia by Stephen King. I read this once, years and years ago, and didn't much care for it. This time around though, I rather enjoyed it. It was like a dirty rock crumbling open to reveal a glimmering, gleaming core.

Next up is the second trilogy in Stephen R. Donaldson's The Chronicles of Thomas Covenant the Unbeliever. I might also start re-reading Still Life with Woodpecker by Tom Robbins. Good stuff.

[dedzilla]

I just finished 100 Years of Solitude. I'm not really a fan but then again, this book was translated. *shrug*

[menikmati]

I'm still reading that new Nirvana book.

[mountmccabe]

I am nearing where I finish The System of the World by Stephenson and then I borrowed Mort by Terry Pratchett to try so those've gotta go before I start reading some Judy Budnitz short stories.

[Courtney]

I keep thinking this thread is going to be about the band The Books.

I am currently reading Philosophy in a Time of Terror (post-9/11 interviews with Habermas & Derrida) for work and Oh the Glory of It All by Sean Wilsey for fun.

[mob roulette]

I keep thinking this thread is going to be about the band The Books.

I am currently reading Philosophy in a Time of Terror (post-9/11 interviews with Habermas & Derrida) for work and Oh the Glory of It All by Sean Wilsey for fun.

do the russians miss the young folks?

[blakely]

The Velveteen Rabbit By Margery Williams

[CuervoPH]

I am nearing where I finish The System of the World by Stephenson

What did you think of this one? All I've read by him is "Cryptonomicon". That whole baroque cycle looks a bit daunting.

[mountmccabe]

What did you think of this one? All I've read by him is "Cryptonomicon". That whole baroque cycle looks a bit daunting.

There is no need to fear this book cycle, Trey. Yeah it's ~2700 pages but if you dug Cryptonomicon you'll dig this too. It's possibly a little easier to read that the earlier novel and it's often absolutely hilarious.

The eight novels (published in three volumes) of the Baroque Cycle is a set of sequels to Cryptonomicon so there'll be Shaftoes, Waterhouses, Comstocks and other recognizable families. And Enoch Root, of course.

I'd also recommend trying to read them one after the other or at least not with two years in between like I did. I mean I still know what's going on and there are some reminders but yeah.

[ewiggy]

i just picked up running with scissors today. based on the first few pages, i like it.

[MonsoonSeason]

The Portrait of an Artist as a Young Man by James Joyce

[ewiggy]

ugh, REALLY? that book is one sentence stretched across like 200 pages.

[mountmccabe]

That book is wonderfulness incarnate.

[ewiggy]

yay!