July- Summer is here and I am reading...

Hooray, July!

I picked up On Killing by Lt. Col. Dave Grossman again. Not a book you just easily read through, but very interesting.

Trouble with Strangers by Terry Eagleton.

Werewolves in their Youth - Michael Chabon - tis very good.

'fear and loathing in las vegas', which is good. and i started 'pillars of the earth' and i remember from the first line that i tried to read this book when i was 14 or 15 but i never finished it. 'the boys showed up early to the hanging' or something like that. that line's always stuck with me.

Just started City of Thieves - David Benioff - wrote 25th hour as well

But just finished World War Z - exceeded my expectations - similar to Rant with the Oral History thing and the epidemic thing - I wonder which was written first?

Also just finished Jesus' Son - great stuff, but not as good as I thought it would be - don't get me wrong DJ is fast becoming one of my favorites - Nobody Move is a classic, and Tree of Smoke was epic imho. His writing is so refreshing and humorous, in a weird kind of way.

After City of Thieves I am going to either go with Underworld - Delillo or try and finish Serena by Ron Rash - I attempted to start this, but got stuck about a third of the way in.

Fear and Loathing = masterpiece, and Pillars is fun - hard to put down.

Jesus' Son isn't about the stories. It's about the writing. I've read that book so many times. It just has this feel of some guy just telling you his stories - not writing them.

I've put Tours of the Black Clock on hold until I finish reading The Sociopath Nextdoor. It's fascinating. I grabbed it on a whim and haven't been able to put it down.

You think if they make that World War Z movie everyone's going to be saying how it ripped off Rant like they did when Secret Window came out and they said it ripped off fight club, even though King wrote it like 10 years before fight club?

I am current reading When You Are Engulfed In Flames by David Sedaris, he takes the normal an mundane and makes it funny, also relatable.

I so am going to read that book again sometime soon. Best impulse buy ever.

yeah while i'm reading FnL i have to keep forgetting the movie and remembering that it was written in the 60s and 70s and this stuff actually happened. it makes the book a lot funnier and more interesting.

Currently reading "The Mexican Revolution: A People's History" by Adolfo Gilly. I plan on reading Thomas Pynchon's "The Crying of Lot 49" and Irvine Welsh's "Filth" this month.

Picked up Rules of Attraction by Bee

Also got V for Vendetta for summer reading. I think that it's pretty cool that a school put a graphic novel on their curriculum.

thorni52, My school actually offers an entire class on graphic novels. I'm taking it this coming semester and am very excited about it.

my 'to be read' pile keeps having gravity issues.
i think it may be time to break it up into a few piles.

First 52 issues of DC's "Trinity."

The Lovers by John Connolly!

you gotta do it like giggan does... The John Connolly!

or JConn.

Kingdom and Exile by Albert Camus.

The Seven Pillars of Wisdom, by TE Lawrence, better known as Lawrence of Arabia.
Very detailed story of his involvement in the Arab Revolt that took place during WW1. The British encouraged a patriotic movement of the Arab tribes to defeat the Turks, allied of Germany and of the Austo-Hungarian Empire, in the Middle East. The book uses all the resources of geography, geology, military strategy, ethnography and natural history to help us penetrate this land and its richness, and descipher the paradoxes of a very foreign culture, that of the nomad Arabs. It is also the testimony of a reluctant man of action, torn between his ideals and the brutal realities of war.
Highly recommended, especially if you are interested in the background of the current Middle East events.

Exile and Kingdom.

I picked up a few Raymond Chandler books from the library, read The Little Sister so far and it's one of my favourite yet.

Just bought a few Jeff Noon books, got Needle In A Goove and impulse bought Cobralingus for twenty five quid because that's the cheapest I've ever seen it.

Last Exit to Brooklyn - Hubert Selby Jr

anyone read that? over rated?

Nope, it's not overrated. It's fantastic.

Last Exit to Brooklyn - Hubert Selby Jr

anyone read that? over rated?

I'll second the fantastic description. It's really really good. If you get stuck in some places trying to figure out what it's saying, read it aloud.

I've not read any Chandler but I've seen him recommended on here a few times - worth picking up?

The Grass Arena by John Healy, a memoir and I'm really liking it so far.

Shopgirl by Steve Martin. Really good so far.

I quite enjoyed this... really thought I'd hate it since it generally sucks when people explore other areas. Ethan Hawke I'm looking in your direction here...
but I liked it.

I've wondered what Ethan Hawke's books are like - I take it not good?!

Have I mentioned Alex Pallix and I are going to see Ethan Hawke in a Chekhov play directed by Sam Mendes at the Old Vic? Well, WE ARE!

I saw him in an off-broadway show a few years ago with Parker Posey and Wallace Shawn. Frankly I forgot he was there... I kept staring at Parker Posey while Wallace Shawn's Princess Bride lines were going through my head. "Never go against a Ssscilian, when death is on the line!"

I haven't read his book or books as it were but check out the books I hated thread. I think Barca Boy read it for a radio contest... pretty hilarious.

I finally got my hands on American Psycho and I'm definitely enjoying it.

Genesis by Bernard Beckett, I started this gem of a book this morning while working, its 5pm and Ive go through 150 out of 180 pages, really nice thought provoking book.

Nuff said.

I have heard that it is so grim and twisted that no one wants to read it more than once, so I've been trying for nearly two years to find a copy in used book stores to no avail. Let me know how it is when you're done.

Ok let me get this right.

People dont read American Psycho more than once?
You live in Philadelphia?
and you've been looking for two years for a second hand copy to no avail?

Maybe you should stop looking for it in shoe shops?

HAHAHAHAHAHAHA!

I don't get it...

I was given a copy of Lush Life by Richard Price. Since it was a gift and not something I would normally pick up, I'm really determined to give it a shot. Reviews go on about Price's mastery of realism in dialogue - and that is certainly there - he absolutely captures the way people actually speak, but his characters don't really say anything very interesting ever. It's like eavesdropping on a boring conversation. And what's the point of that? Also, none of his characters are sympathetic, which isn't necessarily a bad thing all the time, but unsympathetic and dull characters don't make for a good read.

I'm going to keep at it for a while yet, but I haven't been able to get through page 100 yet.

I've read American Psycho twice and my brother has read it twice. It's gruesome, demented, troubling, and repulsive. But it's also some of the best writing out there.

I finished Midnight's Children by Salman Rushdie a few days ago. Brilliant and glorious. Read The Loved One by Evelyn Waugh a few days ago, too. Very funny stuff. Now, i'm about a third of the way through Father and Son by Larry Brown. Next up is either The Jungle Book, Tropic of Cancer, Tristram Shandy, or some Virginia Woolf. Or none of those. I've a big stack of books that needs some reading.

Which one?

EDIT: Never mind, i see the bold one now.
And, yeah, it's great. Loving it so far.

lol the one I bolded.

Father and Son by Larry Brown.

I read Father and Son by larry Brown after seeing a recomendation somewhere around here. Funny you should mention him, just today I was tempted to start Joe by him but I went for Goddess, a biography of Marilyn Monroe by Anthony Summers. So far its excellent but also disturbing.

Marabou Stork Nightmares by Irvine Welsh. I'm about 100 pages in and enjoying it so far.

I read it and there are a number of passages that are downright uncomfortable to read. But despite it all I think that I would read it again because, man, when Bret Easton Ellis breaks out the long paragraphs he's just amazing. Sometimes I read the last paragraph of the book just to remind myself what language can do. I know that sounds cheesy, but there's just something about how it meanders for a while and then just ends.

Norwegian Wood by Haruki Murakami.

I've also picked up the Graveyard Book by Gaiman, which I am sure to enjoy.

edit-double post