December 2010 and I am Reading...

Residence on Earth by Pablo Neruda and finishing A Feast for Crows by George RR Martin.

The Brothers Karamazov by Dostojevskij.

Great characters in that book!

Still reading The Contortionist's Handbook, it'll probably take me awhile. It's really good.

The Contortionists Handbook as well.

The Contortionist's Handbook shouldn't take anyone a while to read, it's a pretty easy read.

Reading The Year of the Flood by Margaret Atwood, sucked in pretty quick, but then again I read the "prequel" Oryx and Crake

I'm reading "A Million Miles in a Thousand Years: What I Learned While Editing My Life".

A friend bought it for me as a birthday present because he didn't know what to get me and it's his favorite book.

The author is kind of a dillweed. I would consider him intelligent but not smart. He realized his life was boring so he starts living his life like a character in an interesting story. The prose is nothing to sneeze at either. Nonfiction sometimes has this issue though.

If it sounds like I don't like it, well, I kind of do like it. I appreciate what the author is trying to get at.

The Possessed aka Demons by Dostoevsky.
Queer by William Burroughs.

Demons is a monster size of a book. That's I'm reading Queer too, something short and quick, and Burroughs kicked off his "Routines" in this book. Definitely see where Naked Lunch came from. And how he transitioned out of Junk's straight narrative. I enjoyed the line that sums up Burroughs' difficulty writing the book; the straight narrative was holding the writing back. There is WAY TOO MUCH to Demons to discuss in a thread, and I'm only 150 pages in (this translation is 780 pages; the Penguin one).

The last post I made in one of does threads was before I read The Contortionists' Handbook. It was good.

Now reading: Confessíons of an Eco-Nomic Hit Man

Falling Man by Don DeLillo

It's not taking me awhile because it's a hard read, I'm just taking my time.

It's worth savoring and taking notice of all the little nuances in the prose. Clevenger worked really hard at making that prose as tight as it is, so I think it's nice to read his books slowly, taking in every little detail. He took this to a whole other level in Dermaphoria.

I was gonna pick up Queer one of these days, tell me if it's worth it.

I'm reading Moby Dick again. It's like spending a night with an ex-lover and trying to remember why the two of you broke up in the first place.

'The Killer Inside Me' by Jim Thompson, and I highly recommend it.

I just finished Cutters Island: Caesar in Captivity,by Vincent Panella. Which I very much enjoyed up until the last paragraph. Then I felt sad that so much could be ruined so quickly in a few parting words.

I just began reading Snow Falling on Ceaders, by David Guterson. Three chapters in and so far it is excellent.

Also Masochism: A Jungian View, by Lyn Cowan. This one I picked up for a dollar because the title intriuged me, so far it is interesting. It seems to be about the deeper psycological aspects and forms of masochism that go beyond the sexual, the ways we crave our own humiliation in life. I don't know anything about the author or whether I should be taking her seriously.

And The Collector of Hearts: New Tales of the Grotesque, by Joyce Carol Oates. Some of the stories are very poignant and graceful but over all it is taking me a while to finish and I'm not sure I care for Ms. Oates style.

edit: Oh, The bridge Across forever, Richard Bach. I'm halfway through it, I don't know if I am going to finish this one though, I keep picking it up then getting annoyed. Of the three other books of his I have read I thouroughly enjoyed two and flat out hated the third, it is looking like this one plain sucks too.

This is the first Jim Thompson I read and my favourite along with Pop 1280.

Thanks, I'll read this one next.

Yeah, Pop. 1280 was fucking legit. Great book. It's the only one of his I've read, but I can't wait to read more from him. He does noir how it's meant to be done.

The Alchemist by Paulo Coelho
[Graphic Novel]

Jesus Interrupted, by Bart Ehrman and Interpreter of Maladies, by Jhumpa Lahiri. Both I would describe so far as, "Interesting, but meh."

Was that post on some sort of Super Troopers-esque dare to see how many words you can use that start with "inter?" If so, well done.

Now let's all do it: Internet; internal; interrogate.

Interrobang!

finally picked up a copy of The Contortionist's Handbook (used, for $6.50. Yay!), so I guess I'll be starting that!

VIPER teams, the new TSA units that they have pop up at random places like bus stops stands for Visible Intermodal Protective and Response sumthing bullshit sumthing.

wrong thread?

I'm finally going to start reading House of Leaves.

Candy by Main Mian.

^like^

The Strand, where I got it from actually had two used copies for that price, I was going to buy the second one to give to someone else but the cover was a bit bashed, so I didn't. But if anyone in New York is looking for a cheap copy, it's probably still there!

If you liked school, you'll love work by Irvine Welsh.

Yeah, I need to do this soon, too. I've got this metafiction-y type story rolling around in my mind at the moment, so I think it could be good for me to see how wonderfully Danielwski pulls it off.

Gone Baby Gone by Dennis LeHane.

This is actually rather excellent. I loved that whole series with those two main characters. Dennis LeHane is awesome.

I just finished Filthy Rich, by Brian Azzerelo. Was ok.

Reading Contortionist's Handbook because I found my copy under my car seat.

Next on the list is House of Leaves.

Looks like we may have a HoL revival on our hands.

I should get around to this as well.

Mine's been sitting on my fucking bedside table for, like, a year, maybe more.

I'm reading Cell by Stephen King. It's OK. I'm about 300 pages in and it's kind of starting to drag a bit, but I'm going to keep going at it. Hopefully it will pay off.

Next I think I'm going to re-read Dermaphoria. All the talk of Craig Clevenger around here has made me want to go back and enjoy his books again. I liked Dermaphoria better so I'll start with that.

I still need to read dermaphoria.

I'm jealous of you all getting to read HOL for the first time. makes me want to re-read it again.

You really do.

I'm not a big Stephen King fan, but I did really enjoy Cell. Perhaps it's just because I think zombies are interesting, but reading it is worth it, I think.

I just started Maus by Art Spiegelman, and I'm choosing to read it very slowly to savor it.

Glue by Irvine Welsh

Never Let Me Go - Kazuo Ishiguro

It's about to be ruined by Keira Knightley and Carey Mulligan (seriously can these annoying actresses f-off already?)

Really liked the book, enjoy it.

HoL is terrific so far. I'll probably find my way to one of the old HoL-threads and discuss it when I'm finished. Feel free to do the same when you're done as well

I think I'm going to go ahead and start on the Walking Dead series.
To hell with AMC and having to wait a year before I get to see anymore of it!

I don't particularly like the two of them either, but I watched the trailer for this and I thought it looked ok.