What are you reading?

Finally did I finish The Soft Machine; probably not the best Burroughs to start off with.

In the meantime I attempted to read two others without success:

Ancient Evenings by Norman Mailer
This may not be the best Mailer book to start out with, either. Set in Ancient Egypt where all of Mythology is real, it seems that Mailer was mostly interested in offending your sense of good taste, which he does quite well. Here are graphic depictions of sex: homo, hetero and incestuous; necrophilic and scatological. It is vulgar and distasteful, but the language used has its moments of beauty. After page 233, I decided that the book really has nothing else to offer and was quickly placed back on the shelf.

The Diviners, by Rick Moody
Moody wrote The Ice Storm, which was adapted by Ang Lee in the 90s and was pretty good.
Perhaps its the close proximity of themes with House of Sand and Fog, but I found this to be mostly unreadable and boring, especially in comparison to the beautiful other. Honestly, I can't say much because I couldn't read much, but what I did read involved 20 pages of the morning sun stretching across the earth, followed by an octogenarian on the toilet taking a massive and painful bloody dump.
Not what I call entertaining.

However, I have finished:

Jack Frusciante has left the band, by Enrico Brizzi
Entertaining, but not what I expected. I'm still not sure why the name was changed. I'm aware that it was intentional, but I don't know if it was artistic or legal. Either way, I found this book randomly in the library, and found myself reading of the comparisons to Salinger, and most notably Catcher in the Rye. I really wish people wouldn't throw that name and title around as if it didn't mean anything. To say the least, the comparison is not apt. While the book is entertaining, it does not, in ANY way, equal Salinger or Catcher (which, I guess, should be expected). Of course, there could always be something lost in translation.
The movie adaptation looks pretty silly, too.

And I'm currently reading:

savage.jpg

Here's my recommendation for you all. I'm half way through and this one book makes up for all the above. Beautiful language and style, and the passion for literature and poetry is palpable, through the characters and the author. Lovely lovely lovely.
 
Bunnet said:
I really enjoy that book that one of Clive Barkers best books and the writing is just excellent, I really like how Mr. B Gone tries to do evil things and they just happen to look silly to me or when he explain how he was going to torture someone and the reader, that great

Yes it was really good. I admit I was alittle scared at the end when Mr.B was counting down the pages I was reading. I that that was awesome. If anyone doesnt mind a quick read Mr.B Gone is pretty damn interesting.

Since then I have read Star Wars Death Troopers by Joe Schreiber. I thought this book was pretty good I didnt mind that no jedi were in it and it was easy to read making it a page turner for me.

I also just finished The Lightning Thief. So far the best book I have read out of the 3 since I really like the greek gods and mythos of it all. I found it to have the right ammount of commedy and action and it being in a modern setting and me and the main charecter both being from NYC was pretty cool made me feel somethen right away for the charecter. For a young adult/childrens book its awesome I would recomend this.
 

Oburi

All praise Grail
Got some manga to read. Mu Shi Shi and Tetragrammation Labyrinth. Anyone heard of them? they look interesting. Also reading Lovely Bones that my friend let me borrow.
 

Walter

Administrator
Staff member
I got this for Christmas: http://www.amazon.com/When-Game-Ours-Larry-Bird/dp/0547225474/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&s=books&qid=1262021486&sr=8-1

And so far it's been great. I've only read about 40 pages though. It's very cool to hear Bird and Magic's side of the story during this era of basketball. My wife asked me "why did you want a book about basketball...? You don't even watch it." Well, it's different with these guys. They were something very special to the game, and their partnership/rivalry was the stuff of legends. So it's great to read about their perspective on this.
 
Just finished The Sea of Monsters, secound book in The Lightning Thief series. Really like this series cant say it enough. I just started the 3rd book I am kinda sad tho I am running outta books to read. I have 2 more left. The 4th book in the series and another called Leviathan by Scott Westerfeld which is alternat history on WW1 I believe.
 
I just finished Matter by Iain M. Banks. I felt that the story was moving too slow for most of the book and too fast at the end. Not a bad book, but not brilliant either, in my opinion.
 

Begemot

STOP UNDRESSING ME WITH YOUR EYES!
I just finished reading Thomas Pynchon's V.

I have never read anything that could be so disturbing, yet downright hilarious at the same time.
 
For the Christmas, my girlfriend bought me Kerouac's The Dharma Bums, to which I was pretty appreciative (and was finished shortly after). Before the gifting, I had started Henry Miller's Tropic of Cancer, which I just finished today and I'm about to begin (as soon as I get back to work) Werner Herzog's Conquest of the Useless, his "reflections on the making of Fitzcarraldo," which I'm pretty excited about.

Thumbs are up all around.
 

Oburi

All praise Grail
I'm posting this here because my personal feelings about George Lucas aside, I'm interested in this book.

http://moviesblog.mtv.com/2010/01/06/television-is-goofy-and-fun-for-star-wars-creator-george-lucas/
 

Dar_Klink

Last Guardian when? - CyberKlink 20XX before dying
9780060853969.jpg

Almost done with it too, really awesome, hilarious, and easy to read book(I mean that it never gets boring, not that it's at a lower reading level :troll:)
 

Walter

Administrator
Staff member
I remember reading it in high school. It's a fun book, and you can tell the authors really had fun collaborating with it. But it sort of comes off as a book they wrote while drinking a lot of beer together over the keyboard. Kind of just mindless fun.
 
Once, while perusing thru Goodwill, I found a first edition Maltese Falcon (anyone know a wealthy buyer? :daiba:), and decided to give it a shot after finishing the wonderful Herzog journals, and found myself all wrapped up in it. I've yet to see either existing adaptation (though, that shall shortly be remedied), but I got to thinking about a more inspired cast if ever they were to remake this (which, in this day and age, is increasinly likely - though my chosen stars would not be):

Sam Spade, Private Eye = Woody Harrelson
Mr. "Gütman" = John Goodman

thinking in this way makes it more entertaining, and changes the tone slightly to make it potentially hilarious.
 
You can ignore that last post if you want, I'm okay with it.

Anyway, Waldenbooks is having a "going out of business" sale, which I couldn't be more happy about (the sale, not the business), with EVERYTHING being 50-70% off when I was there. :ubik:

Taking advantage of their plight, I picked up these three books, the last of which I am on now:

Murakami+After+Dark.jpg


n317417.jpg


2666.jpg
 
Wonderful thus far. I'm not that far into it yet (considering it's 900-page length), but I've no complaints. So far, it's similar to the basic plot of The Savage Detectives, in that there's a group of people looking for a mysterious author they've all become experts on and coming up with very little. That same passion for literature that I found so electric in ...Detectives is present here, and I can't wait to see where this book will lead.
It definitely feels EPIC. I'll be sure to give my closing remarks when I finish it (which, given my usual pace when I'm enjoying a book, shouldn't be too far off)
 
2666 was wonderful till the end, Aazie.

Thought I'd follow it up with more classic literature, I've just begun L'Assommoir by Emile Zola. I can't find the cover in proper res, and since it does incorporate one of my favorite paintings by one of my favorite painters, I'd thought I'd post that instead:

l%27absinthe.jpg
 

Oburi

All praise Grail
herethereeverywhere325.jpg


Got it for Christmas but hadn't started reading until the other night and now m blowing through it. Its a great read for any Beatles fan and really gives you perspective on how they worked in the studio.
 
Last few & the New:

Breakfast of Champions, Kurt Vonnegut

Repetition, Alain Robbe-Grillet

Dr. Sax, Kerouac

Les Enfants terribles, Jean Cocteau

The Hunting of the Snark
Sylvie & Bruno
" Concluded
, Lewis Carroll

Hunger, Knut Hamsun

Salt Seller (Marchand du sel), Marcel Duchamp
 

turkitage

ターク
reading Shingetsutan Tsukihime. So far so good awesome!

it's the manga version of Tsukihime which was a popular visual novel (I need to get it somehow, I heard it's translated too!)

I searched on this forum and the word Tsukihime didn't show up, can't believe it! It's a good manga.

melty blood (fighting game by type-moon), and kara no kyoukai got me into this awesome world that Kinoko nasu and takashi takeuchi created!

I have fate/stay night, but haven't seen it yet. But all their worlds are in the same world.. so it should be good!
 

Walter

Administrator
Staff member
Yeah, it's one of my favorite books. I splooged about it a few times in the thread, but it was here first: http://www.skullknight.net/forum/index.php?topic=5964.msg117912#msg117912

If you thought the first 100 pages were great, then you're in for a treat, because that's the slowest, driest portion of the book.
 

Aphasia

ALL MYSTERIES MUST BE SOLVED
316-1.jpg

hobbit.gif


Just finished these two classics. : D Both were a great read. I hadn't read the hobbit since I was a kid...hoping to start the 3rd in the space trilogy by CS. Lewis after school!

Jonathan Strange & Mr Norrell looks extremely interesting...but I'm a sucker for sweet covers.
 
Top Bottom