I need to read an AMAZING book ASAPN.

Luckily you replied fast! Mount Zion is relatively safe, although a landslide has resulted in a vast drop in altitude, resulting in WHAT I'M SAYING MIRKA IS I ONLY SLICED HALF MY PENIS OFF, DON'T WORRY!

You're a kook!

Hey, I read a Roth book and really like it! The Human Stain. Weren't you or your penis babbling about it?

Yes, although Phil liked that one a bit more than me. Still excellent though. I prefer American Pastoral, Operation Shylock and Sabbath's Theatre. Those'd be my three biggies.

I am reading American Pastoral right now! It starts off much faster than The Human Stain which took 51 pages before I became interested in it. I really loved it once it took off, though.

Yeah it does start off faster. And christ does it heat up at points. There's a lot of anger in that book.

Sabbath's Theatre is pretty great.

Last Days by Brian Evenson
Twilight by William Gay

These are the best two (newish) books I've read in quite a while. Last Days might not be for everybody here but I'm pretty sure most people would enjoy Twilight.

Well, I love William Gay (Twilight, especially) so I will check out the Evenson, thanks!

Edit: If I may, let me recommend to you 'No Prayer for the Dying' by Stewart O’Nan.

Well, that was incredibly sad! The book I mean. Wow. Yeah, there's a lot of anger it. I mostly felt extremely sad. The last part (the end*) was especially good. I was kind of amazed by how much was going on and how wonderfully it was presented.

I don't like Zuckerman at all. I wish he weren't in these books! Why can't Roth just write the books (well, the two that I've read recently) as a book and not as a writer writing a book. It really bugs me.

I have to admit I was very bored at parts and skimmed. I do like tangents but some of these were boring to me. John Irving writes in the same way and I usually like all his asides and background and tangents.

*The ending left me a little upset because of course I wanted to know more about Merry, but I respect Roth's decision to end the book the way he did. What a wonderfully complicated book.

A Prayer for the Dying added to Amazon wishlist and placed in 'high' priority. Thanks.

yeah, I added it to mine last night when I was told it was in second-person. Looking forward to it.

Something about second person drives me nuts. I can never get into it.

The only exception, and I shit you not, is that short you wrote about the rock star. I didn't mind the second person so much.

Stop!

You're making a motherfucker blush!

I still want to develop tha story, I just haven't worked out how to yet. Talk about character spaces--that bastard felt a little too at home in his filthy apartment. Am I right?

Too at home is all relative, I suppose. Dirty fucking bastard that he is.

this is great. i hope you find what you're looking for. i imagine you will with all these people helping:)

I'm going to recommend The Delivery Man by Joe McGinniss Jr to everyone. Especially Bret Easton Ellis fans.

Cool, Brendan recently mentioned that book to me and I ordered it it from Amazon.

it's sitting on my shelf. has been for months now. i can't remember why i odered it. i think Goutis told me about it or something. i'll have to bump it up a bit if you thought it was good, Lizard. you've got pretty good taste so i'm gonna go ahead and believe you when you say it's good.

Oh, boo, Pete!

You know damn well I've already bought a good two piles of books based on your recs anyway. And besides, I'm pretty sure I bought this one originally because of you, like I said. It's just it's been sitting there for ages and I forgot why I bought it in the first place, but now a few people are popping up an saying good things about it, so there! Stop making me feel bad, Pete!

Recommend me something new Now!

Have you read Rich's book yet?

I triple dog dare anyone to read this. Go ahead. ain't got the scrotes, do ya? I thought so!

The four horsemen. or Diary of a Wallflower

hahaha. how the hell did i get mine before you. i'm on the other side of the world. i've already read it and written out about 1000 words of discussion points. ha!

but i did order a paperback. that came super quick. my S/L is still on the boat.

I hope they didn't mess my address up or something.

If I don't get it today - I'm supposed to let Richard know.

i think you're really gonna like it, Pete. It's good, and definitely worth some hefty discussion.

I didnt get mine either. I thought the more expensive special one would be out first. I mean isnt that half the point of paying more?

yeah, it kind of is, huh? shame they didn't send the limited editions out a month before the paperback release. kind of like an exclusive thing, and a pat on the back for paying like 60 bucks for a book.

ahh, it's all in the name of helping out a cultie, so it's all good.

I know Richard quiet well and hes a cool guy. I just think when its a new publisher trying to win people over then they should do things the right way. I mean next time Im ordering a book and the copy thats half the price will be there two weeks before the other one, I guess I will order the cheaper copy.

yeah, i couldn't agree more, with everything you said. Richard is a fucking great guy, and this books-coming-late situation isn't his fault. and yeah, you'd think the new press would be trying a little harder to get the book into the peoples hands that paid for it months ago.

This is something that Richard and I have talked about extensively, both on the phone and through e-mails--not just because I myself ordered the book, but also because I'm on the same label and the obvious concern is that the same stuff is going to happen to me.

New presses make mistakes and have a sort of "learn as you go" experience to a degree. Lynn (the publisher) knows the business, but there's a difference between knowing something in theory and applying that knowledge. So yeah, things have started out a little rocky, but I've been assured that it should be a lot smoother from now on now that the problematic areas of the process have been identified. The unfortunate part is that Richard has taken the brunt of this being the debut author for this new press. It could've been a lot worse, but still, he's a good guy and I want only the best for him.

Things will get better book by book. Believe me, for every thing that doesn't go just right, there's a group of authors addressing the issue directly to ensure it doesn't happen again. The late arrival of the S/L editions is defintely part of that.

I couldn't put down 10,000 Sorrows. It's memoirs though, so if you want fiction I guess that wouldn't be it.

Ham On Rye or Post Office by Charles Bukowski. Short and perfect.

Anna Karenina by Leo Tolstoy. Very surprised at how much I loved that book, and for a month I couldn't get into other books because I couldn't stop thinking about that one.

Dead-Eye Dick by Kurt Vonnegut. Another surprise that I loved. In fact so fantastic that it got me reading all of his books. I love that man.

A Clockwork Orange by Anthony Burgess

Planet of The Apes. I could not believe how much I liked it.

The Things They Carried and Going After Cacciato by Tim O'Brien.

A Million Little Pieces by James Frey. If you can get past him being a liar, and all that jazz. It's a really good book. I mean I was able to get past him lying. It just turns his memoirs into fiction, and as fiction it's good.