Eeeeeeeeeeeeets March already and I am reading...
It's a non-inappropriate coincidence.
I started reading Dark Places by Gillian Flynn and I can't stop.
haahaha, yes! Because Pete texted me from a book store and I recommended it, but he didn't like the cover and wasn't impressed by the first page...now he's set aside HAMMETT to read it. It is such a great, great read.
I'm rereading 'Super Sad True Love Story' because I miss it.
I'm really digging all these South American books I've read this year.
Next up is a special book by a special writer I can't mention right now.
I'm rereading 'Super Sad True Love Story' because I miss it.
I hadn't read one of your recommendations in a while.
And I was in a bit of a slump.
As good as the book is so far - I still think that both of those books have terrible covers. They look like they should be in the young adult section or something.
Killer Tease by Danny Hogan. Published by relatively new indie press Pulp Press UK. They're a pretty cool press. Putting out pulp novellas with cool covers, old-school style.
For anyone that rocks a Kindle, they've put all their titles (about 6-8 books, so far) on sale for $0.99 for the electronic versions. Might be worth picking a couple up.
The Piano Cemetery by Jose Luis Peixoto.
Well, I read it a while ago, but my grandma just read Every Dead Thing by John Connolly which Derek sent to me, and she said it was the goriest thing she'd ever read, but she couldn't put it down. She finished it in two days.
Just thought you might like to know that your one book made two quite satisfied readers, Derek. 
Are you stoned, man?
"A celibate clergy is an especially good idea, because it tends to suppress any hereditary propensity toward fanaticism." -Carl Sagan
"Am I cruel? Probably. Is she an idiot? Yes." -jane s.
hahaha, no. It was 11:30 at night, and I was really tired.
Just thought you might like to know that your one book made two quite satisfied readers, Derek. :D
Awesome! I'm quite proud of my friendship with him.
The Restaurant at the End of the Universe by Douglas Adams.
"A celibate clergy is an especially good idea, because it tends to suppress any hereditary propensity toward fanaticism." -Carl Sagan
"Am I cruel? Probably. Is she an idiot? Yes." -jane s.
The special book by a special author was Hit and Run by Mike Monkey Gonzalez and it was awesome. Different to Angel Falls but equally as good. I was delighted to get my hands on this.
I LOVE that you posted this, man. This is why I love reading. This is why I love books. This is why I want to be an author.
I want to start making little videos now. You're killing it.
I want to read that book so badly now. I've read two Murakami books (Hardboiled Wonderland...; Dance, Dance, Dance) and they were pretty damn good.
Last year, in one of my creative writing classes, my teacher read a Murakami short, and it was fun and funny and really damn good. He was a massive fan of his work. The story was The Second Bakery Attack, which was originally published in Playboy and appears in the collection The Elephant Vanishes.
The one thing I wonder with Murakami, and any other international, non-English speaking author, is how true to the original the translation is. It worries me to think that I'm reading something that might not be exactly how the author intended it to be.
Anyway, great video, Chris. Salinger's Franny & Zooey did this same thing to me. I wouldn't say I'm a slow reader, at all, but with F&Z I slowed right down. It's only a small book, but it took me weeks to read. Maybe about three. I found myself savoring it and re-reading it and just really taking it in. Like, really taking it in.
Kiss me, Judas did the same thing for me. And not many other books have done that. It wasn't ever about reaching the end or the climax or the a-ha moment. It was just about the words on the page, and how every single damn one of them meant more to me than anything else at the time.
Chabon's Manhood for Amateurs, a collection of his columns for Details about parenting and husbandry, etc., whose anecdotes are mainly used as jumping-off points for larger insights into the human condition. Love it.
The Second Bakery Attack was pretty good, but I read it just after reading On seeing the 100% perfect girl one beautiful April morning And I'll be goddamned if that didn't punch me in the gut when I read it. The romantic in me loved that story so freaking hard.
Just started The Cypress House by Michael Koryta. Never heard if the guy before but he's supposed to be a mix of King and Straub so I will give it a go.
The Coma by Alex Garland
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Latest update - What The Eyes Behold by Mike Frounfelter.
How was this? I enjoy Lawrence a lot, but I haven't read that one.
I just restarted reading Stoner by John Williams, I had picked it up a few times last year but always got distracted by something else. Really well written, though pretty depressing so far.
How was this? I enjoy Lawrence a lot, but I haven't read that one.
I just restarted reading Stoner by John Williams, I had picked it up a few times last year but always got distracted by something else. Really well written, though pretty depressing so far.
It's very good, I'm starting to like him more and more.
The Bird is Gone by Stephen Graham Jones. I just started, and while I like the writing, I'd be lying if I didn't admit to being lost. He loves doing that in medias res thing where he drops you right in and everything's written with the implication that you already know the characters and what's going on, so you have to file away all that info until you get a few chapters in and it makes sense, and then probably backtrack or start over. His more recent work has eased up on that density a little, and is thus easier to read.
More hospital reading :
finished Spade & Archer (Joe Gores)
read The Contortionist Handbook (by the other guy)
The Book of Illusions (Paul Auster)
finished Spade & Archer (Joe Gores)
read The Contortionist Handbook (by the other guy)
The Book of Illusions (Paul Auster)
What did you think if The Contortionists Handbook?
I wasn't gonna read it because i'm not into rock bios at all but i broke down and got Neil Strauss' "Everyone Loves You When You're Dead". It's a very interesting read so far; the part about Julian Casablancas rolling off in a wheelchair was hilarious.
Finished Cloud Atlas by David Mitchell, which was brilliant.
Now reading Cosmopolis by DeLillo.
finished Spade & Archer (Joe Gores)
read The Contortionist Handbook (by the other guy)
The Book of Illusions (Paul Auster)
What did you think if The Contortionists Handbook?
It was as good as one of the best of Chuck's (Survivor, Fight Club, Invisible Monsters), and quite in the same vein. The ending (starting with John meeting Keara) was disappointing. All in all an entertaining novel, but no masterpiece. 2 stars out of 5.
What did you think if The Contortionists Handbook?
It was as good as one of the best of Chuck's (Survivor, Fight Club, Invisible Monsters), and quite in the same vein. The ending (starting with John meeting Keara) was disappointing. All in all an entertaining novel, but no masterpiece. 2 stars out of 5.
I read it recently too, and I have to agree with Ludwig on this one. I thought the ending was really flat, I was a little disappointed considering how many people around here rave about it. Not a bad read, but it didn't get me particularly excited either.
I started Imperial Bedrooms last night and stayed up until I was done, and it was pretty much what I thought it would be. I found myself rolling my eyes a lot. I don't know why I'm totally underwhelmed by B.E.E., but I just don't think he's brilliant like so many others seem to think. Maybe because his stories seem to try too hard, I don't know.
BLACK HOLE - charles burns
i like the art, but the writing is weak, especially after the first third or so....
www.triplebeard.com
http://darkroomreview.blogspot.com
“...There are so many ways of being despicable it quite makes one's head spin. But the way to be really despicable is to be contemptuous of other people's pain. You ought to have some apprehension that the man you see before you was once even younger than you are now and arrived at his present wretchedness by imperceptible degrees.”
-James Baldwin
The Postman, by David Brin, because I inadvertently put it on my kindle when I downloaded a bunch of other stuff. It's ok, but I may not finish it. I have a lot of other really good stuff I want to read instead.
You are not alone.
"I'm glad I live in the GPS era. In a different century, I would've set off to visit the other side of the village and wandered off into the mountains and been eaten by a carnivorous plant. Or discovered the Americas."
-LaJessica
Marina by Carlos Ruiz Zafon.
The Dead Women of Juarez by Sam Hawken. Three chapters in and I love it.
i like the art, but the writing is weak, especially after the first third or so....
I read that a while back. I really wanted to like it - but it did nothing for me. It felt like a supernatural version of Stray Bullets. And Bullets is much better.
i like the art, but the writing is weak, especially after the first third or so....
I read that a while back. I really wanted to like it - but it did nothing for me. It felt like a supernatural version of Stray Bullets. And Bullets is much better.
i found it hard to write about it this morning. doing close readings of things that dont turn me on in any way is super hard for me. especially since in most classes no one wants you to say the book in question was stilted and weak.
www.triplebeard.com
http://darkroomreview.blogspot.com
“...There are so many ways of being despicable it quite makes one's head spin. But the way to be really despicable is to be contemptuous of other people's pain. You ought to have some apprehension that the man you see before you was once even younger than you are now and arrived at his present wretchedness by imperceptible degrees.”
-James Baldwin
I don't understand why out of all the books and graphic novels with similar themes - that one gets such great reviews.
I read it not that long ago. Wasn't that into the first story, though the first sentence is one of the great sentences. It dragged a lot through the second act, especially for a novella/small novel, the middle story was my favourite. Still not completely sold on Auster.
Dashiell Hammett, in the other hand, is pure genius.