Obligatory February Reading Thread: Brought Unto You Via The Knights Templar
So pat your head, rub your stomach and let your fingers tell me what your eyes are doing this month.
Is that the one about the guy who was born without a scent?
Yes. Without a scent and with an excellent sense of smell in grimy, immoral, corrupt, stench-ridden Paris in the 17th century.
It's certainly an original premise, and quite a strange style so far. I like it.
Sounds like one to pick up.
I'm reading Still Life with Woodpecker by Tom Robbins and a book on Crime in Cinema to research some essays I'm writing.
I've finally started on Baer's 'Phineas Poe trilogy', loving it so far, unsurprisingly really .
That and Anthony Bourdain's 'Les Halles Cookbook: Strategies, Recipes, and Techniques of Classic Bistro Cooking'
I am just 21 pages into Don Delillo's Underworld. We're still sitting at the ball game, only 800 pages to go.
[SIGPIC][IMG]http://i61.photobucket.com/albums/h53/McMuddle/song-of-south.jpg[/IMG][/SIGPIC]
I am [I]still[/I] reading "Infinite Jest".. I've posted this in the december and january threads... please note that I have read several books inbetween.. IJ is longwinded, though the ingenious humour -- which seems unfortunately rare -- keeps me going.. i fee like i'm searching for the good parts, but what's good is good enough to keep searching.. if that makes sense.
[QUOTE=Underscore]I am [I]still[/I] reading "Infinite Jest".. I've posted this in the december and january threads... please note that I have read several books inbetween.. IJ is longwinded, though the ingenious humour -- which seems unfortunately rare -- keeps me going.. i fee like i'm searching for the good parts, but what's good is good enough to keep searching.. if that makes sense.[/QUOTE]
I know you PMed me about a million years ago asking me about it. And I never got back to you. Because I suck. Questions so far?
PS: It took me about 2 1/2 months to read and I can usually polish off a book in 3 days. So don't feel bad.
Right now I'm reading "The Confederacy of Dunces" by Toole. It [i]rocks[/i]. It makes me sad that the guy shot himself though, and this was the only thing that he left for us.
There is hope, but not for us.
[QUOTE=jane s.]
Right now I'm reading "The Confederacy of Dunces" by Toole. It [i]rocks[/i]. It makes me sad that the guy shot himself though, and this was the only thing that he left for us.[/QUOTE]
jkt also wrote "the neon bible" when he was 16. so i think this is the only other book of his, unless im mistaken.
[FONT="Arial Black"]rock over london, rock on chicago[/FONT]
im currently trawling through "climbing mount improbable" by richard dawkins
[FONT="Arial Black"]rock over london, rock on chicago[/FONT]
I came home and finished the last chapter of [I]The World According to Garp[/I]. Also read the script for a musical called "Promises, Promises" (which is somehow related to a movie called "The Apartment," apparently). Am still (somewhat) in the process of reading "Three Men in a Boat." Yes, the reading is still slow. The play should be pretty good if directed well, I think.
[QUOTE=jane s.]I know you PMed me about a million years ago asking me about it. And I never got back to you. Because I suck. Questions so far?
PS: It took me about 2 1/2 months to read and I can usually polish off a book in 3 days. So don't feel bad.
Right now I'm reading "The Confederacy of Dunces" by Toole. It [i]rocks[/i]. It makes me sad that the guy shot himself though, and this was the only thing that he left for us.[/QUOTE]
im going through this as well as stephen kings Cell, knut hamsun's Hunger, henry millers wisodm of the heart
all at various states of progress
I'm reading Max Barry's [I]Company[/I], hilarious so far, definitely up to snuff with jennifer governemnt and even syrup.
Ten pages left to finish McEwan's THE CHILD IN TIME. After that, it's all a gamble.
[QUOTE=Riddlegimp]My fingers lie, constantly. So I shall type with my toes:
I'm reading:
Perfume by Patrick Suskind
So far so deliciously disgusting.[/QUOTE]
It came highly recommended to me.
I'm reading Pride and Prejudice. It was great to start with but now it's kind of hard-going, I think it's because I know the story so well from the film and the TV serial and the other film, movies done ruined my reading experience!
Just finished off [URL=http://www.akashicbooks.com/wideeyed.htm]Trinie Dalton's Wide Eyed[/URL] ~ she has such a fabu style, and her stories are mega-short (Not Amy Hemple short, but short nonetheless). Drags a bit by the end, because you want her to write a story that doesn't rely on her as the main character; but some of the stories employ truly thought-provoking metaphors that make you want to take 3rd or 4th reads through it.
-------------------------------
"She broke my heart, so now I have to write about her forever." ~Michelle Tea
I finished Pride and Prejudice, it was great but I really wish I'd gone to it without any prior knowledge of the story. Now I'm reading The Color Purple by Alice Walker, as I'm reading little security devices that say Thank You for Shopping at Waterstones on them keep falling out from between the pages, this title must be a popular shoplifters' choice!
I'm reading The Working Poor by David K. Shipler. It's another extra credit book. I'm sort of missing reading for fun...
Trainspotting by Irving Welsh
Requiem for a Dream and Last Exit to Brooklyn by Hubert Selby Jr.
I wish my life was a nonstop hollywood movie show
A fantasy world of celluloid villans and heroes
Cause celluloid heroes never feel any pain
And celluloid heroes never really die
~The Kinks - Celluloid Heroes
Since I last posted I finished The Color Purple, which I rather enjoyed despite some embarrassing references to the narrator's 'little button,' it was a very quick read.
I also finished Play it as it Lays by Joan Didion, which was rather superb. The writing style really evoked the landscape of the settings, spare prose, dry and a little disturbing and another quick read.
I can't decide what to read next. I've started Killing Orders by Sara Paretsky but I'm not really enjoying it. I've also started Lolita but haven't felt moved to pick it up again.
So I'm thinking I'm just gonna quit with [I]Three Men in a Boat[/I] for now cause it's really not doing it for me, and re-read [I]Eleanor Rigby[/I].
I'm reading Naked Lunch, and I find it really hard to get through. I probably won't be done till, like, April.
[QUOTE=Underscore]I am [I]still[/I] reading "Infinite Jest".. I've posted this in the december and january threads... please note that I have read several books inbetween.. IJ is longwinded, though the ingenious humour -- which seems unfortunately rare -- keeps me going.. i fee like i'm searching for the good parts, but what's good is good enough to keep searching.. if that makes sense.[/QUOTE]
Could be my favorite book ever. Wherever there isn't ingenious humour, there's ingenious insight or dialogue or story. Wheelchair assassins from Quebec? America experialising the upper states to Canada and catapulting trash into them? Genius. Check out his short stories they're equally brilliant, but don't feel like such an endless journey.
Me? I'm still working on Murakami's "Wind-up Bird Chronicle" Translated books are hard to get into, but the story is so good.
[I]Fuck not with Rocketman [/I]
I'm reading "Huckleberry Finn" right now. About three quarters done so far, I am enjoying it very much. Probably going to start "The Ginger Man" or "Jarhead" next.
Just finished Stephen King's [I]colorado kid[I][/I][/I] didn't really care for it.
Toole's book is fantastic. I have read it a few times and still love it. I love the characters.
Chesai[FONT="Comic Sans MS"][SIZE="2"][COLOR="Red"][/COLOR][/SIZE][/FONT]
[IMG]http://www.chuckpalahniuk.net/fan/workshop/topdogs/apprentice_Chesai.gif[IMG]
I just finished reading [i]Tomcat in Love[/i] by Tim O'Brien last night, and it had a lot of the same feel to it as [i]Confederacy of Dunces[/i]. Equally intelligent but dim-witted main character, screwy high-jinx, and women that make men's lives miserable.
There is hope, but not for us.
A Feast For Crows by George R. Martin.
It's pretty bad, but I've been sucked into the series.
Okay, I've found something I could dig, finally! Started on The Harlem Cycle volume 1 by Chester Himes. Don't know if I'll read the whole thing or just the first book and come back to the others later but I really like it, it's a nice spin on the hard boiled novels I like to read in that it's set entirely in the black community (so far) and on the East Coast, I'm usually tempted by the glitz and glamour of the L.A. and Hollywood settings.
[B]just finished [/B]
"running with scissors" by austen burroughs. this goes a little way to proving my theory of "tenuous logic" that psychologists are generally more fucked up than their patients because they pursue this profession to nullify their own ills. either that or its just a lot easier being an m.d. to get high strength narcotics than chancing it with "juan" the local chilean "posh" dealer.
[B]just started [/B]
"the great gatsby" f.s.k.fitzgerald
[B]the book that is next to my toilet[/B]
the kingsize paperweight that is - "the complete short stories" jg ballard
[FONT="Arial Black"]rock over london, rock on chicago[/FONT]
Not much reading being done this month. It's still winter you know! You guys should be spending your evenings wrapped in blankets and propped up by pillows only your hands (for book-holding) and face (for sticking nose into said book) visible.
Since I last posted I finished A Rage in Harlem. It was great, super-cool and finished with all loose ends tied up. It got a bit boring in the middle but it's a short book and the boredom soon passed.
I also finished Violet and Claire by Francesca Lia Block. Cheesy but poetic and enjoyable YA fiction.
Now I'm reading Killing Orders by Sara Paretsky, it was boring at first but that might say more about my current state of mind than the book. Now it's picking up a bit, murders, (sex!!), acid flying hither and yon, good stuff. Nice to read on the bus.
Funny title because I just finished two books dealing with said title.
I recomend everyone read 'The Templars' by Piers Paul Reid. Its a non fiction look at the true history of the Knights. Nice thing is , this guy can write and its not a boring history book. He is the same guy the wrote 'Alive' about the Andes survivors.
The second book I read was...... drumroll....... The DaVinci Code. Yes I know im a little behing the times. I loved this book. Not so much for the writing style, but the plot was great. That and I have had an extreme interest in Grail lore for some time. I cant wait for the movie.
Last month I finshed 'American Psycho', I know , behind the times again.
But I HIGHLY recomend 'The Templars' for any of you interested in the Knights, and for that matter, and history of that timne period because the book also deals with the crusades, Saladin, and the The Inquisition.
[QUOTE=GoddessofSnark]Trainspotting by Irving Welsh
Requiem for a Dream and Last Exit to Brooklyn by Hubert Selby Jr.[/QUOTE]
Last Exit, what a book. Read it last month in two and half days, jusy couldn't putit down. His other works are on my ever increasing reading list. Porno, the sequel to Trainspoting is a good read too. Convoluted plot, but stil a good yarn.
I had BEE's 'The Informers' drop on my mat this morning so I'll be starting that tonight, and hopefully the Phineas Poe trilogy, or the Denis Johnson book I ordered, or Haunted would have been delivered by the time I finish that, so i'm prety booked up for a fortnight or so!
This month I have read:
The Kite Runner - Khaled Hosseini
Life of Pi - Yann Martel
and I just ordered
The Beach
Crash
Perfume
and Currently Reading
The Zombie Survival Guide: Complete Protection from the Living Dead - Max Brooks
Kurt Vonnegut - Deadeye Dick
reading now
A Confederacy of Dunces - John Kennedy Toole
Remember To Blink - Jason M. Heim
after those i'm going through
Chinese Takeout - Arthur Nerseisan
Minority Report & other Collected Short stories - Philip K. Dick
I just started The Life of Pi, but put it down to read Choke (no one talk about being behind the times till you talk to me). Truth is I'm just getting into Chuck's books, not that I haven't been told a few dozen times by friends that I respect to start reading his books. I definitely enjoy this site and the many suggestions I find just browsing the posts.
Thomas
stupid [U]Infinte Jest [/U]by David Foster Wallace.
GAH! so boring! so long!
must....finish...book.
[QUOTE=bchordjam]I just started The Life of Pi, but put it down to read Choke (no one talk about being behind the times till you talk to me). Truth is I'm just getting into Chuck's books, not that I haven't been told a few dozen times by friends that I respect to start reading his books. I definitely enjoy this site and the many suggestions I find just browsing the posts.
Thomas[/QUOTE]
I thought[I] Life of Pi [/I]was one of the best books I've read in the last five years. I can't believe you put it down! Well, I guess I can believe it, it starts off a little slow.
Welcome to the cult. I hope you enjoy [I]Choke[/I].
[QUOTE=the midas touch]stupid [U]Infinte Jest [/U]by David Foster Wallace.
GAH! so boring! so long!
must....finish...book.[/QUOTE]
THIS is why [I]Infinite Jest[/I] will forever be the ultimate poseur book. Nobody enjoys reading it, yet they force themselves to finish... why torture yourself? DFW's got so much out there that's actually fun to read!
My fingers lie, constantly. So I shall type with my toes:
I'm reading:
Perfume by Patrick Suskind
So far so deliciously disgusting.