chekhov, short stories.

Giving this a shot after reading and loving 'Shipping Out'
Thanks to whichever SOMBie recommended that to me

Pretty essential reading.

hang in there...what a world to explore; women with power and where is it all going?...I'm at book 11.

<img src="http://ec1.images-amazon.com/images/I/31V+hsYo6FL._AA240_.jpg">

For being written in 1953 Wyndham caught exactly the kind of "Little "Ice Age" that would be caused by crushing & releasing the Arctic & Antarctic ice sheets as a series of small icebergs, but he seriously overestimated the amount the water levels would rise.

have any of you ever read the life of pi or any of the books about the whaling ship Essex? thoughts?

god i hated that book

which one?

dorian grey

sorry, there was only one there originally

It's a love it or hate it book to be sure.

oh for sure, for sure

yeah I figure this is one of those things that people should read, so, here we go.

never read kerouac. should check him out sometime.

can't beleive someone woudn't like "portrait of dorian gray". one of my favourite books ever. one incredible thought after another. wilde's unstoppable in his wit.

there's a really good biography on wilde, which sort of written in an autobiographical tone. it's by the same guy who wrote a similar stilisized biography on william blake, but i can't remember the author's name right now. i think he's british. it's a very interesting read.

"republic" is obviously great too. "allegory of the cave" is my kind of stuff. loved reading it for my political thought class. i'll definitely revisit it sometime on my own.

"Plato's Cave" is all to dead on the mark for today's "tuned to channel normal" sheeple. Add to that his thoughts on "culture creation" and you have a blueprint for control.

I checked out the audiobook. It's a nice survival novel with whims of fantasy.

i think at least half of bertolucci's "conformist" was based on it, which i found pretty cool, and definitely in tune with ideas of control and such.

i couldn't stand it, it was a boring read for me.

can't wait to start reading these.
could someone explain to me the meaning of mingus's autobiography title? "beaneath the underdog"?

awesome book.

god damn i'm having fun reading this.

I am loving this.

two chapters in

Auster is one of my 5 favs, and that book is great.

The hardest since Camus.

is that george simenon? i thought he was a detective story writer. no?

Wow. This was awesome. I'll need to own this one day.

Correct. He also wrote a small number of what John Banville calls his "hard novels."

This is some heavy, heeeeavy noir, mang.

Yeah, I was very impressed with that book.

Chuck Palahniuk - Rant: An Oral Biography of Buster Casey

How is this? It's currently on deck.

Another excellent entry in the series.

I'm like 10 pages in, and sort of annoyed.

If you're going to make a book that is supposed to be an Oral Biography. A Real Oral Biography, you wouldn't pull any of the chicanery that Chuck usually pulls.

So I am reading this on the train this morning, and there is reference to Simenon that helps Multabano unravel the mystery.

I was afraid of this.

I think I'll still enjoy the story and the writing, but I don't agree with this attempt at making it seem like a real Oral History. It stinks of someone making a mockumentary, only because they ran out of other ideas.

Too early for me to say. I'm only about 40 pages in, so I'm to getting used to the jumping around between characters.
Kind of dig it so far though.

this book is so cool. i really like the way he makes you think beyond usual reality.
i'll confess that i'm about 50/50 on understanding what he's talking about. some of the more scientific/mathematical things are a bit difficult to me. but i'm taking notes while reading it, and i think i'll have to reread it a few more times.

Started this yesterday. I'm enjoying a great deal. Far more than Haunted. The Oral History is a little forced, but I can deal with it.

[spoiler]The Goth kids with Rabies. LOL.[/spoiler]

Do you have an idea of when the story takes place?
I got to a section where my opinion has changed.

I'm reading like it is the present, but I could see there being something up with time perceptions because of the passages relating to making time stand still and the discussion of contemporary stuff being found like they are fossils.

after finishing my exams, i'm on a reading binge now. crazy. i've read 4 books, which were rather short, within a week or so.

"breakfast at tiffany's" was great. i loved capote's writing style. loved his characters and the way he described some people. and the story itself was pretty interesting.
"animal farm" was boring propaganda. but i'm glad that i've read it. at least i know what's the deal with that book.
"things fall apart" was ok. reminded me of "brave new world", particularly with its ending.
carver's short stories were very interesting too. he's got some sort of ultimate realism thing going on or whatever. good stuff.

Like all of his books, laugh out loud funny in numerous spots. Unfortunately, like most of his books, the last half sort of goes nowhere.

this is kind of boring. after 50 pages of it, i think i'm gonna drop it.