Its August and I am reading...

Ah yes but you and your accelerated, Huck Finn reading brain could grow up to be president... those kids that read contempory fiction as their summer reading probably won't... in fact, THEY may wind up being waffle waitresses.

The Never Enders by fellow cultie, Michael Sonbert.

Ooooo, that's one of my favorite dystopia stories.

Finished Watchmen today. Incredible stuff, that. Might dig into some more graphic novels/comic books/whatever the kids call them these days.

For now, picked up Mrs Dalloway by the wonderful Mrs Woolf.

You fuckin'...The Dying Animal made me want stand up, kick the chair under me, punch the wall and scream-growl from within my deepest inner-psych monsters. It was hot.

There are some REALLY good recommendation threads for that here somewhere.

The Dying Animal is a great book, too.

I am a copy cat, Alecia. I am reading The Game.
And I realized some guys used those lines and techniques on me. Heeee.
It didn't work for me FYI, because when they "neg" me, I moved on to other guys who were just nice through out.

just started kiss me Judas

Yay, I'm glad another girl I know is reading it! I agree, that whole "neg" thing doesn't work. Or maybe it does on really young women, but I don't think that flies with those of us who're a little more sophisticated. Some of the other stuff, though...yep, I've seen it action. Yeesh...

Love and hate are cropped in the same orchard, samurai.

...

Just finished Black Hawk Down, great book, its gonna be a hard one to top, now I have no idea what I wanna read next, any recommendations???

As for The Game... The book isn't an instruction manual. It's more of an account of Neil Strauss' experience. It just gives basic definitions of everything that he learned.

I would never consider myself a "PUA" but I have read a lot about it. And I have used some of the techniques.

If you knew you were getting "negged," then they weren't doing it right. The whole purpose of them is to - talk to the whole group of girls (let's say there are 3). Giving all of them attention and the one you really want just a little less. She is used to guys walking right up to her because she's the hot one in the group. So it kind of starves her for attention. When she tries to make up for it by seeking attention you sort of tease her "Gosh! You don't get out much do you? Does she always act like this?" And laugh it off. It's not meant to be an insult. It's meant to be a risky tease. She's not used to guys not playing it safe with her.

Another example is if you're talking to the group and she touches you to get your attention you say: "Hands of the merchandise! You have to buy me a drink before I let you get all intimate/frisky/whatever with me." And laugh because it's not an insult - it's just having fun.

A girl should never feel like she's being insulted, or manipulated, or played. That's not the point. The point of it is to be able to get a chance from a girl who is used to shutting everybody down.

And I'm only writing this to clarify. I'm not a PUA. lol.

The Game was a really good book though. Regardless of the subject matter. I remember I couldn't put it down when I read it.

Yeah, me neither. I'd actually like to read Strauss' new book, This Book Will Save Your Life (I'm pretty sure that's the title) because he's such a good story teller.

P.S. I live in Birmingham, AL. You can bet your ass they weren't doing it right! teehee

Birmingham is supposedly about as dangerous as Detroit.

Well, technically, I don't live in Birmingham. But nobody's ever heard of Moody, which is in the burbs, about 20 minutes from B'ham, and in the adjacent county.

But yeah, you won't see me hanging out in the city by myself.

just started jPod by Douglas Coupland

The best part is if you read more comics, you'll get even more of the depth of Watchmen on a re-read.

Did you know they adapted that into a TV series on Canadian television? That was one bazaar series.

just finished it and I thought it was very good. That's a really terrifying vision of the future, though I am extremely doubtful anything like that will ever happen.

just started Slaughterhouse Five, and so far I'm enjoying it more than Cat's Cradle..

That's a really beautiful story, Mrs Dalloway. The language though I felt sometimes was a bit too advanced for me and I had to reread certain parts to understand what was going on. English is not my first language...

She definitely has a really remarkable way of painting pictures.

I really want to read either his Marilyn Manson book or his Motley Crue book as my next book by him.

The Stranger by Albert Camus
i likes

RE: The Game

I went to Phoenix with someone who was trying all these "tips" or at least telling my wife and I about them. So finally my wife said why don't you go try it, so he goes up to a group of guys and starts talking...a little sad. Then he tries some "Game" with the waitress at Pink Taco (best restaurant name ever) so I just start flirting with her as well, I'm pretty sure she would have came home with me over him, you know provided I wasn't married.

I was just reading about that on his blog. Cool....

Back to the PUA tech stuff, I think if girls are looking for attention, it should work. So those who don't get attention regularly and those who enjoy attention, either beautiful or ugly, should fall for it. But those who like to be just entertained, negs are turn off. Cocky Funny works better for those (or on me). Ha.

This month :

I'm reading Pynchon's latest, Inherent Vice.

Here's the thing - I was trying to explain this as sensitively as possible.

When you're going up to a 10 - you can use more negs. She's used to guys drooling over her. And when you say - Oh I like your nails! Are they real? [no] Oh, I guess they're still nice... That totally throws her off because most guys go up to her and tell her she's beautiful, has nice eyes, hair, or ask her if they can buy her a drink. Mind the fact that you're not opening with that. You say that after you've already been talking. But these are statements to throw her off.

Like I said - You neg a 10 a lot.

A 7 or 8 - you might just throw one or two at.

6 or lower they are gonna take it the wrong way.

And it all makes sense because the 10 is used to being hit on wherever she goes. She can't fill her gas tank without some creep annoying her.

The 7 or 8's get hit on a lot at the bar.

And the 6's and lower will get the randoms at the bar.

Like I said - this is all the theory of negs. Not the way I feel. So don't lash out at me. I'm just trying to clarify that they aren't asshole comments made at the girls expense. They are just meant to throw her off and make her lower her guard when she realizes that you're not just some average guy. She wonders about you. If you can say something like that to her like you don't care and just laugh it off. You don't need her. You probably have plenty of girls. So now she is chasing you.

There's way more to it than that. And it really doesn't belong in this thread or forum. So I won't go into more detail. I just don't want people going around thinking that negs are insults to make girls feel like shit.

I want to get into some Eudora Welty.

I read Welty in my College English class. I loved it.

The book was better. The tv series had too many plot changes, and it took out a main character or two. Still though, jPod is a good read. One of my favourites.

I'm finally reading diary, and I have a few others that I want to get around to:

*1984 (already read it, but what with this news about the telescreens in the UK, I'll have to read it again)
*The Fountainhead (despite being an Ayn Rand book, I do think that socialized medicine is a good thing)
*I can't remember what it's called, but it's in the book club this month - it's about the two child molesters writing letters to each other.

It's End of Alice

Cockroach by Rawi Hage. Its freakin awesome.

I prefer his earlier books, I think Microserfs was better than jPod. I thought the TV series was alright but the production values were obviously pretty poor, Everything's Gone Green was better.

Just started Simon Gray's The Year of the Jouncer (from The Smoking Diaries series). I think this is my fifth Gray in the last 18 months. I can't get enough of this chap.

i actually entered that contest. i didn't win though and the three finalists he picked were not good at all. i mean, mine was ok and all but it wasn't half as bad as the finalists he picked. that book's gonna fail.

anyway, 'emergency' is a really interesting read, i wish i had the time and money to take all of the training neil took. especially the one where he learned urban survival and they dropped him off on one side of oklahoma city and he had to escape handcuffs and make it to the other side of oklahoma city without the 'bounty hunters' finding him. that was the best part of the book, i won't ruin it.

gotta say, it's so nice that that's even an option to read. I got shot down so fast for suggesting Lolita to my local book group you woulda thought I was a deer in open season. I've since abandoned them and started my own. Lame-asses... yeah, I'm pretty sure if Harvard calls it a classic you probably shouldn't turn your nose up at it until, oh I don't know, you've actually READ THE BOOK!!

As am I.

"Everything's Gone Green" was jPod with a few script changes. Still better than jPod (tv show), though.

I've gotta say, my favourite from Coupland was shampoo planet.

I don't know why I'm so much more willing to accept campy plot twists from jPod than I am from Chuck's last two books. Odd. I stopped reading "All Families Are Psychotic" because it got too camp for me, but I'm 1/4 into jPod and so far, so good.

Reading Choke, and I just bought The Time Traveler's Wife after being unable to put it down for 3 hours in the book store. Very good book.

Is it just me or is Pynchon turning into a little Stephen King here lately with a new book coming out every year nshit?

His last book came out three years ago. Before that, he hadn't released a book in like 9 years. What the hell are you talking about?