Really excellent Science Fiction. Never really read much sci-fi outside of the Hitchiker's guide, but this wasted no time in hooking me.

I have read No Country for Old Men, The Road, All the Pretty Horses, and am reading Blood Meridian right now.

Start with Blood Meridian.

I liked All the Pretty Horses a great deal. It is thematically similar to his other work, but the story is very straightforward. The prose is very beautiful, with a somewhat romanticized tone in points, but overall a very bleak point of view and outlook.

I have it in an anthology with the rest of the border trilogy, but decided I wanted to read some of the earlier novels before finishing that up.

Loved that book. I just wish I could make it through her family's non-fiction book about vegetables.

Here's a hint, though. The Colin Meloy book on the Replacements "Let It Be" sucks. I have a few copies available to prove that.

lol WUT?!
It's an Oprah's Book Club book, it's like an automatic suck sticker on front. for middle aged white wimmenz w/ white guilt only.

Finished re-reading Klosterman's IV today. Can't wait for his novel to drop this year.



Picked this up tonight. Might even read it.

andyrooo, WEIRD!

i was going to ask about this book. i jsut read about it on the chicagoist. nd i do believe id love it.

i know nothing of "The Poisonwood Bible" and would likely avoid it due to the name if nothing else, but in regards to the Oprah Book Club, well, she's actually picked quite a few winners in her time. iirc, there has been Tolstoy's Anna Karenina, McCarthy's The Road, some Faulkner, and maybe some other good ones too (i've never actually seen a full list to know). i'm sure most of the books on her list are pretty lol choices, but i certainly wouldn't dismiss a book just because it got an Oprah nod. As tempting as that would be.

I enjoyed Wally Lamb's "I Know This Much Is True" despite its Oprah branding. What's anyone's take on Franzen's "The Corrections" that she also trumpeted?

I loved it. Iirc, Franzen rejected the branding. I also loved both Lamb books.

Against the Day - Thomas Pynchon

finally reading this

when you finish it next year, let me know how it is.

Just picked this up, and liking it a lot so for (70 pp. into it).

I've decided to try some Science Fiction writers out for a change

Did you finish?

What do you think?

I am still reading it. It's very dense in parts, and I have found myself re-reading several passages and chapters a couple times, but this book is kicking my ass. Really great.

I finished No Country a couple weeks ago, and I picked up The Road and took it down in like 4 days.

I've been checking out Cities on the plain or whatever. Doesn't seem half as interesting

That is the third part of the border trilogy, which is pretty much his most conventional work.

If you like No Country for Old Men or The Road, I would suggest you read Blood Merridian.

I just finished this. It's a fun read, as none of the stories are more than a few pages long, so it's easy to pick up and put down whenever.
It's a compilation of stories collected by the StoryCorps, whom you may have heard about on NPR. Regular people can really be so fascinating.

just started.

I'm reading No Country right now. About 110 pages in. Just amazing to read that dialog & realize how brilliant McCarthy is. I mean, he basically handed the Cohen's an Oscar worthy film on a silver platter.

The Road was stunning too.

The film adaptation of The Road is set to be directed by John Hillcoat. Based on the The Proposition, I am expecting nothing but greatness.

It actually started out as a screenplay.

Wow. In the back of my mind I was always wondering why he set it in the 80s when it would work in so many other time frames.


ps, he sat on that story for 20 years? wtf?

I'm still reading too. I've been working like a dog the last two weeks and have had little time for reading. Anyhow, it started a little slow for me, but once it kicks in it's great. I think it's just a matter of getting used to his writing style in this book. It's not quite as easy to read as No Country was. I've had to re-read a passage here and there too.

I'll be reading The Road next. I'm hooked on McCarthy.

I read this yesterday. Probably the first time I ever read a 400 page book in one day. No, not because it was so good I couldn't put it down (i mean it was very good...) I just needed to have it read for a class this week.

This is one of the greatest works of art that I've ever encountered.

I'm glad I read No Country for Old Men and The Road before this, because while they are still great, great, great, great novels, they would have been let downs to a certain degree after something like this.

Working my through the Gossip Girl book series. Up to book 9 in the series, Only in Your Dreams.



SPOILERS:







Serena is like my idea of a perfect woman, but even I find it a stretch she would be in the Breakfast at Tiffany's remake. I mean, honestly now.

i must admit, i've been toying with the idea of starting the gossip girl series, pretty good?

Yeah, they're fun. The first few books are really great at involving you in the girl's world. Ziegesar nails all the little details of their privileged lives in the Upper East Side. Plotting is pretty trivial as is to be expected. The characters are the real drive of the series. So you have to love them to keep reading by the 6th book or so. Quality begins to dip around there and is all over the place afterward.

They are all brisk reads.

RIYL; Fashion, The Hills and backstabbing bitches.

I had no idea there were books. Damo, you are a snooty teenage girl stuck in a man's body and I love you for it.

Starting at the beginning.

WTF was I thinking here?

I totally missed the point of the entire novel the first time I read it. LOL @ me.

lulz. for college

Read the first couple chapters this morning. Spellbinding, beautiful, and thoroughly depressing.

Been trying to get back into reading since my kids were born almost two years ago. And I finally picked up the perfect book to do it. Shutter Island by Dennis Lehane. Couldn't put it down, and read it in three sittings. Definitely makes me want to check out his other books. I heard that the main characters in Gone Baby Gone (I'm assuming it's Michele Monoghan and Affleck's characters) appear in a few of his novels.

Yeah, his first five novels are Patrick and Angela stories. I would start with A Drink Before the War, and go from there.

Mystic River is my favorite of his. My wife is up on this guy, and thinks the Patrick and Angela stuff was the best.

We both agree that Shutter Island was enjoyable, but it was far from our favorite.

I haven't read Gone Baby Gone or Mystic River, but it's a little hard to believe that those stories were created by the same guy sho did Shutter Island. Those are both so damn heavy, and Shutter Island felt like a summer beach read. Extremely enjoyable, but not exactly Pulitzer-worthy. Might make for a good movie though.

He agrees.

That's what makes it so promising. And the casting seems pretty perfect as well. I can definitely see Ben Kingsley as the doctor. And Ruffalo as Chuck? Very nice.

and

I'm about a third of the way through this. It's wonderful. It tells the true story of the Everleigh sisters, who ran an infamous bordello in Chicago around the turn of the century. Great read.

This is probably my second favorite of his. The description of the caves still gives me goosbumps just thinking about it.

I think this is the most overlooked aspect of McCarthy's genius. There is much discussion on symbolism, themes, and his use of dialect, but his descriptive passages are some of the best ever written. Just stunning. Particularly in these early novels. Some of the most beautiful stuff I've ever read.

What is your favorite?

Out of the ones I've read (keep in mind that I would place all of these in the top 15% of literature that I've read):

Blood Meridean
Outer Dark
The Road
All the Pretty Horses (my appreciation of this novel has grown exponentially as my understanding of McCarthy grows)
Child Of God
No Country for Old Men
The Orchard Keeper

I got this for my birthday.
I'm pretty sure this guy must have worked where I do.
Anyway, it's pretty funny.

Think Martha Stewart on acid--a goofy coffee-table book of manners, crafts, pantyhose, parties and housewife-from-hell recipes.