What You Reading yo? March '05

found a copy of [I]burning bright [/I] by Stienbeck in an old Jean coat. So I'm looking forward to getting into that.

also, the [I]dog of the marriage [/I] by Hempel

and I'm still trying to get a bootleg copy of [I]haunted[/I].

to. history

Reading: The Wilderness by Karen Novak. Would have finished by now, but have had too much going on and This Easter was a pain in my ass; and my woman is also a grump because the weekend has been terrible. We're drinking tonight. A lot.
kabol

The Cult. AhahahAHHA!

South of the Border, West of the Sun by Haruki Murakami turned out to be excellent. I liked this book a lot. Has anybody else read it?

I started reading Almost Transparent Blue by Ryu Murakami last night. I was a little drunk though, so I'm contemplating if I should start over...

[QUOTE=PGoutis01]South of the Border, West of the Sun by Haruki Murakami turned out to be excellent. I liked this book a lot. Has anybody else read it?
[/QUOTE]

Read it last year and loved it. Hajime I think was a great character, despite Murakami probably getting most creativity from a Casablanca knock-off. One of the best parts is when Shimamoto walks into one of Hajime's clubs, takes out a cig and asks for a light and Hajime almost feels that his betrayal has healed. Great book.

[QUOTE=Mr. Brown]The Cult. AhahahAHHA![/QUOTE]

Tough crowd.

[QUOTE=sara faye]But I also have borrowed a professor's hardback copy of Tom Wolfe's [U]I Am Charlotte Simmons[/U]. I guess that comes second, because I have to give it back to her before I go home for the summer. It's a huuuge book, so I don't know how long it'll take me...[/QUOTE]

I posted this earlier, but if you find a Waldenbooks, look for the book there; I got my copy for half off there. Want to make it our summer reading book, and we can compare notes and whatnot as we go along?

[QUOTE=Jeebus]Read it last year and loved it. Hajime I think was a great character, despite Murakami probably getting most creativity from a Casablanca knock-off. One of the best parts is when Shimamoto walks into one of Hajime's clubs, takes out a cig and asks for a light and Hajime almost feels that his betrayal has healed. Great book.[/QUOTE]
I love the way he described things. His metaphors were always perfect and dead on.

I also liked how time flowed in the book. Sometimes he would spend pages on an hour. Another time a page could cover a span of 6 months or more. This book was really, really good. That's all I can say.

finished up tobias wolff's "old school." (excellent). i thought he kinda mucked up the ending a bit, and seemed to add an entirely different sub-plot in that boggled the mind. still a wonderful read.

next up is "motherless brooklyn" by jonathan lethem. i've been meaning to get to this for years.

i'm thinking both of these will end up on the OCBC cult classics reading list w/in the next 6 months

[QUOTE=sara faye]Yes please. :D[/QUOTE]

*Burns voice* Excellent.

The Necronomicon, which is a demonology book with incantations and other weird stuff..( i'm not a satanist, just interested)

also The Halo Effect. It seems good (2 chp into) so far but not my style . its the kind of book that someone who reads mystery or romance novels would like. my girlfriend got it for my birthday so i'll read it just to say i did.

finally, Tolkiens Silmarillian. If you're a fan of LOTR i don't even have to tell u to read this, because you probably already did. So far it doesn't read like the other stories. Its written like the bible, where the events are just kind of relayed to you rather than described to you.

[QUOTE=JKabol]Reading: The Wilderness by Karen Novak. Would have finished by now, but have had too much going on and This Easter was a pain in my ass; and my woman is also a grump because the weekend has been terrible. We're drinking tonight. A lot.
kabol[/QUOTE]You should go talk to her in whatever thread it is she was posting in.

[QUOTE=Jeebus]Read it last year and loved it. Hajime I think was a great character, despite Murakami probably getting most creativity from a Casablanca knock-off. One of the best parts is when Shimamoto walks into one of Hajime's clubs, takes out a cig and asks for a light and Hajime almost feels that his betrayal has healed. Great book.[/QUOTE]Most of it was based on his own experience having owned Jazz Clubs before he was a writer.

Price's THE BREAKS so far is fuckin' good. That's my review so far.

Finished Almost Transparent Blue yesterday.
Started Slaughtermatic by Steve Aylett.

[QUOTE=PGoutis01]
Started Slaughtermatic by Steve Aylett.[/QUOTE]
That's a tricky book, read carefully.

Just read Amnesiascope by Steve Erickson and The Room by Hubert Selby. Loved the former, didn't really care for the latter.

Now I am putting the finishing touches on All the Beautiful Sinners by Stephen Graham Jones, which is just as good as everyone at The Vevlet said it was.

[QUOTE=joeyjord]That's a tricky book, read carefully.[/QUOTE]
(about slaughtermatic)

agreed. i think ill need to give it another read to really get it. It bugged me the first time.

[QUOTE=joeyjord]That's a tricky book, read carefully.[/QUOTE]
I hear you there. I'm almost 100 pages into it and I am having a hard time with all the characters and what is real and what isn't. It's definately a book you have to read more than once to understand.

the Bible- has some great stories

[QUOTE=marte]the Bible- has some great stories[/QUOTE]

Oh yeah, who's it written by?

you know... the brothers: Matt, Mark, Luke, John, Baruch, Malachi... great stories-murder, whooores, fishing, drinking, giants, jews, romans...tis' great

this morning I did a J and read Dennis Johnson's 'Jesus' Son' on my porch in the sun. It's spring in Maine, beautiful. You prob have all read it tho....

If you havent, DO. Johnson is a master.

"I looked down into the great pity of a person's life on this earth. I don't mean that we all end up dead, that's not the great pity. I mean that he couldn't tell me what he was dreaming, and I couldn't tell him what was real"
-Jesus' Son

oh my god i got a literary semi.

[QUOTE=marte]you know... the brothers: Matt, Mark, Luke, John, Baruch, Malachi... great stories-murder, whooores, fishing, drinking, giants, jews, romans...tis' great[/QUOTE]

have you ever noticed that Acts is written like a sequal? i have. it just has this feeling like "hey - look at me! more cool characters! more super powers!"
maybe thats blasphemous or offensive. if blasphemous, i dont care. if it offends someone - sorry.

[QUOTE=reardensteel]this morning I did a J and read Dennis Johnson's 'Jesus' Son' on my porch in the sun. It's spring in Maine, beautiful. You prob have all read it tho....

If you havent, DO. Johnson is a master.

"I looked down into the great pity of a person's life on this earth. I don't mean that we all end up dead, that's not the great pity. I mean that he couldn't tell me what he was dreaming, and I couldn't tell him what was real"
-Jesus' Son

oh my god i got a literary semi.[/QUOTE]

fuckin awesome book. Currently reading fiskadaro. Its ok, but Name of the World and Already Dead are way better. I read Name of the World in one sitting and it was so ridiculously amazing. kicked me in the ass.

Ill ch ch check it out. Thanks for the tip.

A few days ago I finished reading Cormac McCarthys [I]Border Trilogy[/I]....three cheers for good wholesome american writing! No but seriously McCarthy rips.

(yeehaw)

[QUOTE=reardensteel]this morning I did a J and read Dennis Johnson's 'Jesus' Son' on my porch in the sun. It's spring in Maine, beautiful. You prob have all read it tho....

If you havent, DO. Johnson is a master.

"I looked down into the great pity of a person's life on this earth. I don't mean that we all end up dead, that's not the great pity. I mean that he couldn't tell me what he was dreaming, and I couldn't tell him what was real"
-Jesus' Son

oh my god i got a literary semi.[/QUOTE]
Everytime I read that book, I get chills and heartache. An amazing experience. Strong. And my woman's favorite movie.
kabol

[QUOTE=sacredchao23]fuckin awesome book. Currently reading fiskadaro. Its ok, but Name of the World and Already Dead are way better. I read Name of the World in one sitting and it was so ridiculously amazing. kicked me in the ass.[/QUOTE]Yes, I felt the same way about Name of the World: read it in one sitting and was utterly amazed.

While I was on break I read:

Ceremony-Leslie Marmon Silko --I really enjoyed this but it was a little hard to follow. I wasn't concentrating hard enough.
Tracks-Louise Erdrich --This one was really annoying, barely interesting but I got through it quick enough so I don't feel like it stole any of my valuable time.
Microserfs and Miss Wyoming-Douglas Coupland --I liked these fine but think a couple of his other works(Girlfriend in a Coma) have more substance, painted more colourful pictures and contained more fully developed characters.
I Should Have Stayed Home-Horace McCoy --I recommend any thirties/forties fiction labelled 'hard-boiled, Raymond Chandler and James M Cain are the ones I know the best.
On The Road- Jack Kerouac --Totally unmoved and disappointed by this. What a shower of wankers.

I've just finished The Turn of the Screw (again) by Henry James. For me it's the scariest written story ever - it's more dreadful than the whole Ringu-series and The Grudge together! A totally most read. AND I've read (again and again) Lullaby by CP..