Who else was going to open the November book thread?

Took a sidetrack in my reading. Just picked up Ishmael by Daniel Quinn.

Today I read The Orchard Keeper by Cormac McCarthy.

Im reading Darkness Visible by Willaim Styron.

if anybody else read books by saramago aside from blindness, say what's good.

Replace the King book with "Beloved" by Toni Morrison, and that's the three books I hated the most from high school list.

back to reading American Psycho.

ap, such an amazing book. it has a much stronger affect when read in the fewest possible sittings. but it is kind of a monster. more than three times the word count of fight club. i couldnt even finish it in under three sittings.

Time's arrow-by Martin Amis

About half way through The Wind-up Bird Chronicle by Haruki Murakami.

schoolings taking up most of my reading time. lots of psychological babbling and neuroscience bafoonery. anywho, THE HAUNTING OF HILL HOUSE by shirley jackson this weekend. also for school.

I'm reading Reflections in a Golden Eye by Carson McCullers. The characters are as hysterical and weird as you'd expect; it's rad. Lots of horses and nudity.

I bought American Wife yesterday because Clem mentioned it in another thread and posted a picture of the very cool cover. My copy has a different cover which is also very nice. I can't decide which one I like best!

I hate to say that it didn't live up to the cover, although it was pleasant enough. I've been meaning to pick up Revolutionary Road since you mentioned it and posted a pic of the cover!

The bike cover, mos def.

I finished Gatsby and loved it! I couldn't put it down. Haven't read the Morrison book you're talking about. Skipped out on Faulkner and bought The Crying of Lot 49...

I despise the Great Gatsby. Gigg and I end up repeating this every time someone mentions it in this forum.

gatsby is one of those fucking greats, hands down. i didnt read it in school. in fact, hell, i didnt read in school. couldnt at that time learn through my dyslexia enough to manipulate it. i read it during the chuck workshop first year because chuck said it was absolutely important, imperative to one of the essays or something. said he reads it once a year and always finds something else with each new read.

i read it in 2004 and gave a second reading in 05, and that's been enough for me. i mean, that dude's read a fuckin-lot of books and i started way late so i cant continue to reread ALL of the books i read. i only at this time reread cormac novels and chuck and clev and baer. a few randoms here and there, but when i get done with a book, i try to pull a new one from the shelf. definitely, though, gatsby was an incredible experience.
-kabol

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Currently Reading:
Before Night Falls by Reinaldo Arenas
The Shock Doctrine by Naomi Klein

Albert Camus - The Stranger
- The Plague

in persuasion nation by george saunders

What a coincide dance. I just finished 'The Tyranny of Good Intentions' and started 'The Crying of Lot 49'. T of GI was a great analysis of the flaws of our current CJ system, but was less about good intentions and more about cops and prosecutors doing bad stuff. The fact that it opened by asserting Jeremy Bentham's railing of William Blackstone's work is what caused the problems was the reason they gave it that really cool title.

I'm halfway through Non-Violent Resistance and tabling it until I read The Kingdom of God is Within You, since that inspired it. I also just got a copy of The World's First Anarchist Manifesto by some french dude in the 1800s, and since its only 40 pages I'll probably speed through that this week.

Hello..

Jup.. Exams coming up soon... Got to study, study, study... Looking forward to christmas and freedom at last...

Trying to finish Crime and Punishment by Dostoyevsky.

Have also been reading The Misanthrope by Moliere, Candide by Voltaire, Phaedra by Jean Racine, Lysistrata by Aristophanes, King Oidipus by Sophocles, Faust by Goethe, Madame Bovary by Gustave Flaubert, Ghosts by Henrik Ibsen, Hamlet by Shakespeare, The Iliad and the Odyssey by Homer...

I have been occupied, one could say...

Shouts...

worst book title ever?

Lots of well-read people hate it...so I'd say it is definitely not "hands down."

Fair enough.

I read Peyton Place. It was a bit crap.

Now I'm reading American Pastoral by Philip Roth; it's intriguing so far. I like this guy!

I enjoyed the two Philip Roth books I read, though I have to say...his Jewish self-loathing gets a bit irritating.

YOUR FACE

YOUR FACE YOUR FACE YOUR FACE !

youre right, there are many well read people who could never like it. the same can easily be said for catcher. but that doesnt detract from the fact that many more well read people have coined both of those reads as classic and top notch. gatsby never achieved success in fitzgerald's lifetime, but has certainly been heralded since then to be one of the greatest reads in the english language. i mean, i see what youre saying: that a book that is good "hands down" is a book that every person with enjoy hands down. but really, flavor varies too much to match any books that way. but there is a greater chance of a reader enjoying gatsby and for whom the bell tolls far more than most english language books. when a book gets that kind of attention, that is "hands down" to me. and then again, your face!

=D

-kabol

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id like to say that anything dostoevsky is hands down one of the best things youll ever read in your entire life.

That's crazy, I thought you'd love Peyton Place. It's very Americana.

I thought I'd love it too but oof it was so tiring.

Gatsby and Catcher are books that people who don't read anything beyond what they're assigned in school always seem to love. They're like the literary equivalent of "Stairway to Heaven" and "Enter Sandman." They always come in at the top of the countdowns and people who don't know any better think they're amazing, but real music fans know there are waaaaaaaaaaaaay better Zeppelin and Metallica songs.

Now, I give Culties more credit than the average person when it comes to literature. So I'm not belittling your reasons for liking the book, which I suspect are very different and more sophisticated than whatever reasons the average person has. But I do not think the popularity of the books, or their critical acclaim, are proof that they are good books.

What I'm saying isn't that a book that is good "hands down" is a book that every person will enjoy hands down. I don't think there are any "hands down" good books. That seems to imply there is something indisputable about the goodness of the book, and that any opinions to the contrary are irrelevant.

That's all, really

Fight Club or gtfo.

J/k, I'm sure there's some Fight Club detractors here.

Here's one.

but he also hates baer. i have a friend (a writer as well) who cant stand reading judas. yeah, opinions definitely vary. but gatsby is revered as one of the best american novels to come out. same with sound and the fury. there has to be a logical, relevant reason for that....

oh. and i fucking hate sandman. i have always felt the odd point out. no one agreed. now i feel better, though

Sandman, the comic book one?

no. enter sandman. clearly

Back on topic for a moment...

I'm now reading Kiss Me, Judas by Will Christopher Baer...and I'm loving it. It's definitely a page turner and I'm getting through it pretty quickly.

Night of the 12th, finished The Anarchist Manifesto by Anselme Bellegarrigue. Great ideological read. Started Siddhartha the next morning. Finished it that night, amazing book. Glad I wasn't given it to read in high school cause I wouldn't have appreciated it then. I'm now onto Tolstoy's The Kingdom of God is Within You.

finished Americna Psycho. loved it. didnt expect it to be as funny as it was.

now Im going to start Tree of Smoke.

Just finished Kiss Me, Judas by Will Christopher Baer, and loved it.

Now reading the second part of the trilogy, Penny Dreadful.

I finished Wind-Up Bird Chronicle, which I really liked. I want to read some more by Murakami, I read Kakfa on the Shore a while ago, can anyone suggest what book by him would be best to read next?

I just started reading This Book Will Save Your Life by A.M. Homes.

This book will make you crave donuts. Do you have Krispy Kreme in NZ?

I'm reading Let the Right One In by John Ajvide Lindqvist (on Alex's recommendation) - it's a very different vampire novel, it's really good so far.

I recently finished the Wind-Up Bird Chronicle as well, it was my first Murakami. I was impressed, it was interesting and had some profound thoughts to get you thinking. There was a good mixture of humor and surrealism. I will definitely read some more of his books.

I've been reading Candide by Voltaire, and it's pretty intriguing. Anyone else read it?

Also, I'm reading James Lee Burke off and on. And comics. Constantly reading comics.

Oh my god Clem! It's true! I craved them so bad. And even my bloke craved them, just from seeing the cover. We havn't got Krispy Kreme, and no Dunk'n Donuts in my town, but we ended up buying 6 donuts from the supermarket on saturday and we ate them all by Sunday night.

But I finished reading it, donuts = good reading stamina.

I just started reading Last Exit to Brooklyn by Hubert Selby, Jr.

man.. fuck yaw. now i gotta go and get some donuts. i havent had donuts this year and dont even like em, but now i have to go and get some of the filthily sugary, grainy little shites

The donut effect is spreading! I had to go to Krispy Kreme and get some when I was reading that book.

I just started reading Atonement by Ian McEwan.