House of Leaves was the perfect summer reading. Not the greatest book in the world, but the beginning scared the shit out of me--very captivating.

I listened to the book on tape. It was awesome.

I want to add that Danielewski wrote part of it during the time he dealt with his father's death...as did his sister known as Poe, whose Haunted album makes fleeting references to the novel.

More than references--I think the album was meant to be a companion to the novel

Extremely violent apocalyptic western. Like Peckinpah times 100.

And yeah, I'm about 100 pages into this:

Harry Potter and the Sorcerer's Stone

figured I'd finally read it.
good for a kids book.
i'm trying to figure out why these books in particular are so successful with all of the escapist literature out there. I have some theories, but I don't think that anything explains the sheer numbers behind these books besides extremely good luck with marketing and word of mouth.

i'm curious myself too. i've never read a single harry potter book. i only watched the very first film that was based on the very first book, i believe. and that was all harry potter i need in my life. i don't think i'd feel like there'd be something missing in my life if i didn't watch that movie either.

well. first potter flick is awful. first book is okay but hits none of the peaks later efforts do.

i think i started getting into it all around halfway through the third.

but even after the first one, it's most likely about magic capes and flying on broom sticks. no? are there very strong characters that readers get attached to?

the 3rd hp movie is incredible

Poe and MZD deny that there are strong ties to the novel and album, but do acknowledge that they carried over some of each other's ideas.Poe's album is way more direct about its purposes.

2nd film (and the second book, I would add) are the worst.

Strong characters indeed, yes...and many real life issues get examined, satirically and seriously, in a magical way (inlcuding the notion of "celebrity", journalism, racial prejudice, bureaucracy).

The worst thing I can say about the books is that Rowling does get a little trapped in delivering much of the story's plot from Harry's point of view. You get a lot of interior rhetorical thought dialogue, and quite a bit of plot resolution from second-hand narrative eyewitness accounts ("While you were fighting the dragon, Harry, Snape did this..."). But Rowling fills the books with great set pieces and wonderful action descriptions that pull you into it all.

So does this mean that I have to read three books before I get to the "good" parts? Should I just skip the second one?

No...the big reason being is that a big piece of the Voldemort history is there and you would be confused later...you do have to get through a lot to find out what it is, though. In fact, I would recommend you read the Chamber Of Secrets but pass by the movie.

saw it cheap and it was also in the routledge classics series that i like so i decided to get it, even though i know nothing about physics. don't think i'll get much out of it, but i'm just very curious to try and read it.

I'm reading The Time Traveler's Wife right now too. Almost 200 pages in and I absolutely love it. It's beginning to lose some of it's pull, but I imagine that something with the flow of time or time catching up to itself is going to totally suck me back in again.

I finished Kafka On The Shore yesterday. So fucking good.



A tad disappointing. Unless you are really, really interested in pirate radio. Because that's mostly what this dude (AMG writer, right?) talks about.

anyone checked this out yet?

goodreads, online social network for bookworms

my friends don't read they just like to play pool all the time.

I've been on a book-buying rampage. Some of these will have to wait until Christmas break/after graduaction.

As you can see, I have had three things on my mind as of late: 1. war and violence, 2. South Asia, 3. rock n roll.

Borders:

[already posted]
The Naked and the Dead, Norman Mailer
The Dangerous Summer, Ernest Hemingway

also, these two. I may end up reading these for classes in the fall.

Midnight's Children, Salman Rushdie


The Inheritance of Loss, Kiran Desai



and heyyyyy, Newberry Library Book Fair. All of these cost me almost nothing. Ammaaaazing.

I'm really really excited to read this one:
A Suitable Boy, Vikram Seth


[no image] an encyclopedia of rock and roll from 1969.

The Playboy Interviews With John Lennon and Yoko Ono


and tangentially,

Bleak House, Charles Dickens


Main Street, Sinclair Lewis

one of my indian flatmates has this book autographed by Rushdie.
good book. i read it last summer. all kinds of interesting things about India and indian people. although i was expecting a bit more from it, considering how much talk there's around this author.

I'm actually really looking forward to it. Incredible era to study, at least.

Gettin my postcolonializm on.

is that the concentration of your studies, feisty? uk colonialism/imperialism, or colonialism/imperialism in general?

British colonialism, w/a special interest in South Asia.

what do people do with that type of degree? scholarly type of work?

we'll find out!

It's a history degree, technically.
I know more about India than most Americans, at least, which could be useuful somewhere.

and i also got this book about Pulp Fiction. never understood why this film gets so much praise. maybe the book will help. although, these bfi classics series look dodgy. they have a book on Independence Day.

Palomar: The Heartbreak Soup Stories, by Gilbert Hernandez

Seeing that made me want to recommend this novel to you, Feisty. A fascinating, funny, erotic (and educational) romance, social satire, travelogue, murder mystery and retranslation of the Kama Sutra as channeled through Philip Roth, John Barth and Lawrence Sterne.
by Lee Siegel.

I just finished my 3rd read of this today.

Now reading Chuck (impossible to spell without googling) Pahlaniuk's Rant. Interesting stuff so far...but I can already see what makes some writers great while Chuck is very good. He's very good at the ideas, but all of the characters' all seem to speak in the same "voice". (unless there is a reason for that that I hope you guys don't spoil for me...)

I can understand that criticism. The only distinctive character that I remember was the salesman, who was a very minor role in the book.

The book was full of great ideas near the beginning, but got tedious toward the end. (Don't want to say much, since I don't know how far you are.)

Charles Bukowski - Hollywood

Naked Lunch

Started and stopped about halfway through. Started off really well but I just became overwhelmed. Might pick it up again later. For now, I'll entertain myself with my new Tin House.

that's exactly my story with this book.

i haven't finished Chekhov's short stories book, because i received these in the mail and i want to read them right now:

I'm taking a break from Rushdie to read Harry Potter and the Deathly Hollows so I can resume going online, watching the news, and having conversations with loved ones. I was like 11 when I read the first one; it's acceptable.

Finished this shit. Started it a week ago, I think? It pwnz.

And I read the first one in second or third grade, I believe? Had it before it was bigger than Jesus. My mom read some article about in the "Books" section of the newspaper or some shit. I just remember that the second book came out shortly after I had read the first one, and that only one other girl in my class knew about the Potter series and had read both books. By the following school year, everyone was jizzing all over them and had their hands and jizz all over the third book. I was Harry Potter for halloween that year! I kicked ass. I was Edward Scissorhands the next year! Man, that was definitely the shit, right there.

Once again, Paves makes me feel old.

Going further along, I reiterate what I felt about Chuck based on Lullaby...he's definitely David Foster Wallace-lite. Anyone who digs Chuck's stuff should read DFW's stuff for a headier challenge. He's got the same sick humor and encylopedic trivia and gloomy world-view, but the difference is a masterful gift for dialogue and 1st person "voice". The bad side, however--he makes horrible endings, or no endings, to many of his novels and stories...and many folks get turned off by his metafictional tricks and the sheer enormity of his sentences (especially in Oblivion and Infinite Jest).





Tell ya what....I'll read more Chuck if you read more David.

so, would "Infinite Jest" be a good introduction to this writer? i don't think i ever read anything by him.

and i should probably mention for like the 10th time in this thread that i don't like palahnuik

"Broom of The System" would be a better intro (pictures above were not placed in any particular order...I didn't care much for Oblivion, incidentally...and I never said you liked Palahniuk.. )

thanks, i'll write it down in my little book list. hope the library has it.

So, um, how about Ayn Rand? Any thoughts? I hear she's pretty polarizing.

dfw is kind of irritating to me. every book i expect him to continue bragging about how he mastered the game of tennis at eight using the principles of physics or some other nonsense. everything and more went so far over my head that i can barely explain what it's about to people that ask except "5000 years of math."

i'm reading rant as well, and it is hilarious. my first palahnuik, and i think i'll be reading a lot more of him in the future.

Don't try reading Everything And More...it was supposed to be an everyman's fun and simple intro to the joy of physics, but sure didn't turn out that way. I can't wrap that one around me either....his "A Supposedly Fun Thing I'll Never Do Again" and "Consider The Lobster" are the non-fiction DFW books to enjoy (at least, when he's not boringly doing literary analyses).

Suuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuucks.

I liked The Fountainhead a lot.

My literature aficianado friends tend to dislike her, I guess. She has a very singular message so it's a little formulaic, but an exciting book that isn't very difficult to read.


I'm back on the Rushdie train (taking a break from Harry Potter now...I'll get to it), reading Midnight's Children, and JesusfuckingChrist.