Holy shit, this is fucking great.

I own it, i have yet to start it

i bought it after i read No Country

Dude, you will blow through it in a day or two.

Dammit, now I might have to read this.

Just finished this (burnt through it in 4 days and really stirred me):



and going to read this next:

Amitav Ghosh's The Shadow Lines is fantastic.

Most of his books have gross moments that make me cringe and look away from the page for a few seconds, but this one takes the cake. The first story about Saint Gut-Free almost made me toss my cookies.

I think I'm going to read The Road next too. After we are all done we can meet at Hummingbird's place to discuss over tea and cake. I'll make the cake. I don't trust you dudes.

Holy shit is this a magnificent novel. I'm only 30 pages in and can tell this is gonna blow me away. Why have I waited this long to read this guy?

"Vitamins" is fantastic

Making Money - Terry Pratchett

Almost finished:


About to start:

literature noble prize winner jose saramago's 1995 novel Blindness was terrific. a mass epidemic of blindness takes over an entire country - society & order rapidly come unhinged. its rare that an author who comes up with a good premise has the talent to successfully explore all aspects of that breakdown. quite disgusting, violent, sickening, depressing, yet ultimately hopeful.

there's a movie version coming out in August with Julianne Moore and Mark Ruffalo. how they manage to adapt the story to film should be interesting. get reading so you know the book before you see the flick.

Phenomenal book.

I guess the ending was a bit underwhelming.

Still.

Fuck you.

For someone incapable of tolerating a mate burping, I don't see how in hell you could get through this. I can't read stuff like this at all. It's totally gratuitous and irredeemable.

From the director of City Of God/Constant Gardner.

That's sort of why I haven't finished it yet. A lot of Palahniuk's books are like this, but this one is way the fuck out there.

oh man this is one of my favorite books
we read it last year in english class, something like 4 other people liked it
the part where he explains his travels is one of the best parts of any book i've read

the movie was a huge letdown. bill murray tried to make it into a comedy

holy crap. just... so... awesome. i'm about 2/3 of the way through

I loved this book. Very interesting writing style but most of the people I had read it afterwards did not agree.


Anyone read the sequel, "Seeing"?

Born Standing Up, Steve Martin

not yet -- i might start it after i finish Omnivore's Dilemma. i take it you haven't read it either?

mb, Born Standing Up is terrific.

this book is pissing me off no end, i mean even the cover is tarded. O LOOK A BOOK ON A BOOK
i hope all the congolese get fed up w/ the family's horrible racism and just murderize the lot, with exception of Adah the crippled daughter who would make a great warlord to help the Congo take over neighboring countries
JUST SAYIN'

Not yet. It's on my list, though. Unfortunately, my list has a few very long books in line before I get to it.

The Areas of My Expertise - John Hodgman

So very, very hilarious.

i liked it, but i got tired of some of the shtick by the end of the book.

I've been listening to the book on tape every once in a while, which is pretty damn funny.

I was laughing during the early stories about his family. But then he starts writing about living in France & I'm like this is some of the most annoying shit I've ever read.

I could picture some of that book being funnier spoken than read, indeed. Perhaps in a Tom Bodett (Motel 6) or Jack Handey ("Deep Thoughts" on SNL) dry but sincere style. <voice-nerd>

For a long time I had trouble deciding whether Chuck was funny or gratuitous and shitty. This book made me realize it's the latter.

every chuck p. book seems great for about 50 pages
i've only finished two, but one of those was that newest one (rant), which i thought was great

Chuck P. is like David Foster Wallace crossed with R.L. Stine.

Yep, just finished it. I'm not even the biggest Steve Martin fan, but it was interesting to hear how his act developed, all the obstacles, etc. Plus it's a quick read.

I recommend Survivor as my favorite Chuck book, and I've read quite a few.

For me, Rant fell into the good for 50 pages category. Loved some of his ideas (as usual), but the oral biography format got tedious and [spoiler]the party crashers didn't hold my interest and are the focus for the last half of the book. The best parts were Buster's early childhood pranks and all of the stuff about the poisonous bites.[/spoiler]

That's a good one. I also liked Lullaby and Invisible Monsters. Diary was lame and I haven't read Rant yet.

I'm having a really hard time finishing Haunted. I've been thinking about just skipping forward and reading all of the characters' short stories because the stuff about the writers is irritating me.

Haunted was horrible. Very awful novel.

Rant was ok. I agree with mouthbreather.

The rest I liked. I think Invisible Monsters was my favorite.

Loved Lullaby and Survivor. Started Choke twice and couldn't get past the first couple of chapters...someday I'll try again.

Haunted is the only one I didn't finish/enjoy.

So we all basically agree Haunted sucks.

I'm now reading this instead:

I bought this and thought it actually contained a bunch of the 331/3 books in their entirety, rather than excerpts.

Yeah, it would be much better if they just piled 6-8 of the books in their entirety. Although it gives you a taste of several, so now I can decide which writers actually take an interesting angle on analyzing the album. It will most likely prompt me to pick up a few of the full length books.



I've never read McCarthy. What's a good first book?

Someone else will have to answer that question. I've only read No Country For Old Men which was really good. A friend of mine has been preaching the greatness of Blood Meridian for years and scolded me a couple of weeks ago for not reading it yet. So that's why I decided to read that one before The Road which somb seems to really like. I guess you can't go wrong no matter what you start with.

While we are at it, has any one read All the Pretty Horses?

Jeez--from Haunted to Blood Meridian? You sure do know how to lay on the gas when it comes to reading. While Haunted is gratuitous garbage and not worth reading, Blood M is viciously violent, unbearably violent, but with an artistic end in mind. My favorite of his books, though it's the most Faulkner-esque. A credit maybe, but it feels kind of cribbed at times. I'll be curious to hear your report on it.

Could never get much into All the Pretty Horses. I'd say it's okay.

All The Pretty Horses is great (actually I read it around ten years ago so...) if memory serves.

Blood Meridian was the book that hooked me on the guy. It's his darkest and most violent, also the hardest to get through. The writing is much more dense and descriptive than his later work.

If you're starting out I'd suggest reading No Country. It's a breeze to finish, the story is absolutely riveting, and you get the gist of McCarthy's tone.

Now Reading (more like now grazing)

Yeah. This is one of my favorites of all time. It's been a while, I need to read it again.

I agree with this. I started to read The Road first and found his style and lack of using quotation marks a little disconcerting. I put it down and read No Country because I had seen the movie and had it as a reference. It got me used to the way he writes and as soon as I was done I started The Road again and had no problem with it.

As far as what I am reading...



Never been into fantasy books but I read the first book in this series about 6 months ago and really liked it. So, I decided it's time for book 2 of the series.

50 or so pages in, this is the best he's done in a long while.

These two sentences pretty much sum up Sedaris' career.