It's September and I'm Septembreading...

Last week I read The Devil by Ken Bruen and The Reapers are the Angels by Alden Bell. Both were good.

Im trying to finish off Contagious by Scott Sigler. Its painfull. I loved his first book and this ones crap.

Finally starting Confederacy of Dunces.

All The Pretty Horses is very very good, you cockmouths.

Has anyone finished SUPER SAD LOVE STORY yet? The discussion is coming up..I am so enthralled with that book.

Norton was kind enough to send me an ARC of GREAT HOUSE by Nicole Krauss and I'm reading the hell out of it when I have a borrowed moment. (Life is extremely hectic right now, but in a good way.)

I'm getting a copy of Auster's new one soon, so I'm going to clear a couple of days for it. Excited!

Last month, woman!

I want an apparat now.

Nice!

(I'm finally getting an iPhone and I'm gonna tweak that 'sent from my iphone message to read: "sent from my apparat"! I hope people get it.

Most of the book - I was just thinking, "it's ok."

But now that's it's almost over I'm realizing that I really liked it. I got to know the characters. They grew on me. haha

i just finished duma key...i didn't hate it...some of it i actually enjoyed...but the end of it kinda was a let down...

thinking of starting life expectancy, dean koontz...anyone read it? is it worth it?

Started 9.99 by Frederic Beigbeder, its awesome.

I started Wuthering Heights a few days ago. I don't know why I put off reading it for so long.

I picked up Demon Theory a few minutes to see if I was in the mood to tackle it. Read a few pages, tough start. But I think I'm gonna read it.

Foucault's Discipline and Punishment. Again.

Does "tough start" mean slow and intentionally vague?

Someone loaned me a comic series called The Boys, by Garth Ennis, insisting I'd like it. (I know there's a thread for comics, but I rarely read them and don't follow.) So far, so good. Uber-violent, and it basically answers the question "Who watches the Watchmen?" A gang of dudes who keep those pansy-ass superheroes in line.

The Killer Inside Me by Jim Thompson

Lady of the South Wind - Javier Garcia Sanchez

Started Painkillers by Jerry Stahl.

Oh let us know how that one is Derek.

Also glad to see you plowing through books once again. Slowly getting back to your old self?

i'm about a third of the way through The People of Paper by Salvador Plascencia. It's pretty good so far. Quirky.

MY ABANDONMENT -- peter rock

Cows by Mathew Stokoe. I read 50 pages of Painkillers by Jerry Stahl then realised its a sequel so put it down until my copy of Plainclothes Naked arrives.

Requiem for a Dream by Hubert Selby Jr

Ecce Homo (Nietzsche)

Have you seen the film?

Dead unitl Dark by Charlaine Harris.

I enjoy watching True Blood, but I don't watch it consistently and I miss a whole bunch of stuff. So, I thought I'd give the books ago. Liking it so far.

I started As I Lay Dying and have seventy pages to go. If I hadn't gone out with friends I would have finished it today. There's just something about that I love, and it's difficult to put down.

Omg. You and I will have such discussions.

The Sound and the Fury came with it (two books in one). I read about ten pages of it and couldn't get into it. I think it's because the first narrator was the mentally retarded character. It caught me off guard. But after reading As I Lay Dying I'm going to give The Sound and the Fury a second chance. I really like Faulkner's writing.

Benjy (spelling?) is really hard to follow. He has no concept of time, so his narratives are all over the place. I used sparknotes when I got lost. lol.

But his part is a major part of the story, so you really have to follow what's going on with him.

Jane, I finished reading it at 4pm today. By 4.15 bloke and I left for the shops. I bought the next two books in the series.

It's great to get into reading a series again.
(The last one I read was Harry Potter!)

The TV series is pretty true to the book, what I've read so far. But there's no black bff.

Also, Intruder in the Dust is an interesting story, kind of a mystery novel except not really.

I will keep recommending The Unvanquished, too.

Thanks! When I have enough money I'm going to go book shopping. I have such a long list of books to buy, and I haven't even gotten through the not-yet-read books on my book shelf.

It starts to deviate from the books the farther both go along. There's like 8 books at this point and we're all into crazy shit like werepanthers and fairies now, it's ridiculous.

that sounds so incredibly good.

Also Phil, what do you think of the Snopes trilogy? I remember Chixulub (or however he spelled it) used to always rave about it.

I love that little dog! When he acts like he's flying an airplane? I die every time!

World War Z

This book is predicated upon showing the human element during the world's war effort against the undead. It's something specifically stated at the very beginning of the novel. Why this book fails is because it is a novel trying to accomplish a retelling of the war through stories, which, functionally-speaking, works quite well. "I'm sold" on the idea, so to speak. Regarding this supposed "human element," yes, I realize we're getting a myriad of stories from various people from around the globe, but this sort of works against itself when the quality vs. quantity phenomena is in effect.

What we have are hundreds of stories giving their personal experience of World War Z, ranging from the very beginning stages, to The Great Panic, to Turning the Tide, and beyond. However, because we're constantly shifting prospective, countries, and placement in political and social standing, we, as readers, never become invested in any of these "characters." There's also the added degree of difficulty the author sets for himself by having so many different locales, and therefore, cultural shifts throughout the book. I thought this would be a demand that author would rise to in order to create authenticity. Brooks, however, ignores country and continent. There is never a language barrier or a scent of broken English. The general in Japan sounds exactly the same as the Russian nurse and they sound just like the American corporal. It's lazy writing, and blatantly so.

Had Brooks spent half as much time on the cultural traits as he had the military jargon, he'd have a much better end product. At least this way, I'd have felt like I'd seen the world instead of simply told "this is [insert foreign country] but I'm going to Americanize it for you."

World War Z gets it's main point across: the war. I know what happened, how it happened, and how it ended. The problem is how that information was given to me, this sort of convoluted round-robin of interviews and stories. Brooks lets each of these interviews go on with very little interruption from the guy with the tape recorder, and with each of them being a crap shoot of good or not good or great or flat-out boring, the pacing can really fuck with you knowing it's ups and downs for 300+ pages.

This is the kind of novel that gives you the big picture through a series of pictures, and when you're finally done, you might feel as if some of those photos could have been deleted. They either didn't add to the story or served as a way of relaying military info that the author didn't have the good sense to cut.

To anyone who has read this, I ask: How much better could this novel had been with the same story, and around six or seven MAIN characters?

Bottom line: a great idea that truly sells me on the idea of waging war against the undead, however, the execution of "the human element" is DOA.

finished MY ABANDONMENT this morning. i will share my thoughts on it if people would like me to.

on to selections from CATHEDRAL, and an essay by Monica Drake for class.

Cathedral by Carver? Loved that collection.

Vitamins is probably one of my favourites from Cathedral. Carver truly is a master. Where I'm Calling From and the title story where both great too.

Aunt Julia and the Scriptwriter by Mario Vargas Llosa.

Up in the Air by Walter Kirn. Not far in, but liking it so far. ALso reading The Collected Stories of Amy Hempel,and can see why Chuck loves her writing. One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest (most depressing book I know of), and working through all of Kerouac's work. Getting everyone I know to read Fight Club as well, and Invisible Mosters. Goddamnit, I've got my work cut out for me at high school. Love the forum title as well.

Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde by Stevenson. I don't want to read anything else except Victorian Gothic novels ever again.