Hey its January 2011 where Sarah lives and I am reading..

Whores for Gloria by William T. Vollmann. Picked this up last night before bed and strolled through about half of it. I wasn't too keen on it at first. But then I got it. Ingot sucked into the character and his dreams and fantasies and motivations. Loving this one. There was one line that I couldn't stop laughing at due to its overt vulgarity:

...but the whore never looked back, and Jimmy smacked his fist into his palm thinking that bitch is no different than a tampon, they're both stuck up cunts...

Still reading shorts out of the two lovely collections too.

Sputnik Sweetheart by Haruki Murakami.

Im reading 3 books:

Coin Locker Babies by Ryu Murikami
Cognitive Behaviour Therapy by some doctor dude
and Buddism by some enlightened dude.

Too Big to Fail : Inside the battle to save Wall Street (Andrew Ross Sorkin)

haha. Sorry to disappoint, it's a typo. I must've typed that out on my phone. Omit the 'n' and replace it with a space and you get "I got".

Ingot would be a pretty sweet name for a character though.

Joyce Carol Oates - Give Me Your Heart. A book of short stories.

Seriously, this book, Whores for Gloria is something else. It's like this winding dream sequence set in the dirty streets of the Tenderloin District, San Francisco. The protagonist, Jimmy is so questionable. The narrative is a blur of dreams, fantasies and the stark reality of his situation, while he attempts to hunt down the glorious street-whore, Gloria that is seemingly nothing more than an apparition, brought on by Jimmy's perpetual loneliness.

Snowdrops by AD Miller.

Gulliver's Travels by Jonathan Swift

Snap. I added it aswell.

The Story of my Baldness by Arnon Grunberg (Marek van der Jagt)

Tom Robbins - Jitterbug Perfume

Jack Kerouac - Wake up (A life of the Buddha)

Maybe I should get a job writing blurbs for authors. Does that exist? Imagine that. What a great job. All you'd do is read books all day and then spend a little time when you're finished writing a silly little synopsis for it. Not that's the kind of job I could handle.

Christmas Humphries?

A lot of the books on my list are free on Kindle, so that is very convenient.

I know, huh!

/facepalm

I know that you're kidding so I'm not even going to bother getting disappointed by what you just said.

I've decided I'm going to read the Phineas Poe trilogy again. Baer really inspires me and gets me in the mood to type and I'm writing a couple of pulpy noir stories at the moment for a pulp-themed publication, so it just makes sense. And I've been reading a few of his shorts lately, which always makes me want to get into the trilogy again. Damn, Baer. I wish something new would come out. Not even Godspeed, just anything.

So, Whores for Gloria was pretty damn good. Only 150 pages. But the ending didn't quite rock. I didn't really like how he wrapped it up. And there seemed to be a few loose ends, or not so much loose ends but just unexplored areas. For instance, without giving away anything much, two undercover dicks appear on the second page, and you're thinking, yeah, this will develop. But it doesn't. They just pop up every now and then. And another thing I wasn't too keen on, which is part of the reason why I wasn't into the ending, is the perspective shifts. It's in third person. And I kind of like limited third. But it wasn't. And I could handle that, but it doesn't shift regularly. It focuses on Jimmy, the protagonist for ages and then all of a sudden it shifts to someone else.

Anyway. I still say read it. If not for some of the dreamy, drugged long-winding sentences that seem to go on for pages. It was a really cool book. Just wish the ending was hit for a six, not a single.

Started reading Bukowski's only non-Chinaski narrated novel, Pulp, on the loo when I got in from work. It's a good time. The guy's a genius.

Probably hit the trilogy after that.

are you talking to me or nate?

Nate.

okay, just checking.

The Crossing by McCarthy

Sharp Objects by Gillian Flynn.

Yeah, started Kiss me, Judas again. Wish it was the first time all over again. But, still, it amazes me.

Glamorama by Bret Easton Ellis.

For the third time. I was watching an interview of his, and he said if he had a gun to his head, he'd probably pick that as his favourite. The first time I read it--think it was the second of his that I'd read--I was completely puzzled so I go back and read it again, enjoy it, understand it more. Now, after reading all of his books over and over, I've come back to it again because I'm getting a bit sick of Clay and Patrick and fictional Ellis so thought I'd give Victor another try (spare me). I like it but it isn't my favourite. I'm not far into it; I'm getting through the first third where it's all celebrity names.

I've just ordered some Delillo so I'll give them a read when they get here. I've never read any of his but I've seen him named on Chuck's books by Ellis and on the back of Glamorama by Arena...

I recently had a look at some Bukowski again, in a golden-hearted attempt at giving him another go. Nope. Still crap. Still moronic, talentless, ignorable.

If only I could like his work. Certain people for whom I have great respect love Bukowski. But when I read his work all I can think is — who the fuck enjoys this? Who finds this either moving or hilarious? Where is the appeal?

I remember in high school I read Pulp, which I found somewhat amusing at times but generally poor. Then I read some of his letters — which were the most interesting aspect of his writing, if you ask me — and by now too much of his poetry. Nothing doing. Sometimes it's kind-of-but-not-really-interesting; sometimes it's absolute trash.

I was going to go into particulars but I'm boring even myself with this. It's like WCB here at the Cult — rave about him all you want, he's not going to get any more readable.

I finished The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo which got lovely and twisty about half way through. I'm keen to read the next two in the series when I get my hands on them.

I've just started Super Sad True Love Story (THANKS DEREK! ).

Just started reading this. Unlike a lot of history books it isn't too dry.

Lanark by Alasdair Gray.

I read a book by a Catalan writer yesterday that was good. Look Me In THe Eye by Silvia Soler.

Gonna check it out.

This Much I Know Is True by Wally Lamb. It's 900 pages of schizophrenia, good so far.

I LOVE this book! I heard mixed reports about his second novel, She's Come Undone. Have you read it?

I've actually never heard of him but my friend recommended that book because my brother has tourette's and she thought i could relate to it. It's a really good book though, i'll probably read more of his stuff.

Also, my praises have been sung!

http://sabotagereviews.com/2011/01/03/end-of-the-year-round-up-michael-h...

Check out the final paragraph, the final sentence of which mentions our very own ME.

I know, I know. Better late than never

This Magellan book is really awesome. Needs to be an epic movie.

I bought Aesop's Fables which is a collection of the famous fables like tortoise and the hare. It's not heavy reading or anything but I'm really enjoying it. Sadly I'm even learning new words from it and the illustrations are pretty cool.

(Look at me I'm reading a picture book!)

I have that on my kindle! I wonder if there are pictures... somehow I doubt it. I've found myself wishing Gulliver had the pictures with it.

I'm reading — not for pleasure, believe you me — an updated translation of the preface to Hegel's Phenomenology of Spirit.

It's an interesting experiment — the translator is brutal in trying to show that Hegel is NOT incomprehensible. So he cuts up the sentences to make them shorter and more to the point, and the bottom half of every page is a running commentary on the text. A great resource, but probably not something I would have enough patience to do myself even if I did understand Hegel sufficiently well.

I have to start reading for school and am actually excited about it. First up, Mediesosiologi. (Media sociology)

The Black Dahlia by James Ellroy