that is how i always post
my prose is placid, like lake michigan

does cormac mccarthy write dialogue without quotation marks on purpose?
you sound like a snob


anyways, my point was that these more sparse, dialogue heavy works, like ncfom and the road, kind of signal the end of the line for mccarthy. here is a writer at the top of his game, creating two cinematic masterpieces in a year or two after pouring as much literary detail as possible into stuff like the border trilogy.

it's obvious the guy doesn't want to spend ten years writing another novel

this is the logical conclusion to his career, the guy is 75, has three movies in the pipeline, and might never write another novel. his legacy is now firmly established. if you can't enjoy his last two books, chances are he's never going to write anything that you truly enjoy again. as far as going back and reading his older works, yes that is always a good idea. i am talking more about his future output.


i mean just look at the career of the author he resembles the most, william faulkner. by the end of his career, he was writing novels like this one, that were written in a completely different style than his most acclaimed novels, and infinitely more readable for the average american:


http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Reivers

Read Tracey Scott Wilson's The Story today. It's an alright play, with a good ending.

If I was a snob I would have been more accusatory. Instead, I asked a question. I actually wasn't sure if that post was some sort of subtle tribute.

yeah i didn't know how to react because i usually only encounter you in the sports threads

i just finished Shutter Island this morning

Whoa....
the whole time i was finding myself curious of what to believe. Especially when Teddy is given all these doubts from the various people

in the room, when Teddy talks to the black guy and asks what side he will take, if he ever had a partner, etc, and the black guy tells him where to run... what was that about? Was he against doing this experiment? and felt sympathy?

The greatest fantasy series I've read since LOTR:

Hmm...serious question, how does it compare to Harry Potter, or Pullman's His Dark Materials?

This is so much better than both of those series. The magic is all dark and used sparingly, pretty much every primary character is a serial killer with a disfigured face and there are more swear words per page than a Mamet play. The best part is the plot and action sequences though. As a friend of mine put it, "I haven't yelled "Fuck Yeah!" out loud while reading a book in ages and this one caused me to do it a couple times."

Do fantasy buffs even like Harry Potter? The ones I've spoken to say it's made up entirely of spare parts.

It kind of is, but that doesn't stop it from being fun. I doubt many would agree, but I enjoyed them more when they were in the lighter, fun beginnings. My two least favorite books in the series would definitely be Phoenix and Hallows- the former hardly even feels like Rowling wrote it, and is nearly a bore, and the latter, despite great segments, spends too much time in places it shouldn't have gone and has an ultimately unsatisfying conclusion. As a matter of fact, I'm the likely extreme minority of people who more or less can't stand the last book.

The Blade Itself sounds like a good read, surprised I've missed it.

Picked up a couple new books today and was forced to re-buy one that was just too damn compelling to let stay as a lost book:

Re-bought


Bought:

I've been meaning to start in on the Culture books for sometime now. While we're talking sci-fi, I'd also recommend Eifelheim by Michael Flynn. It's a first contact tale set in the middle ages. Good times.

Such an amazing novel. The way he writes the violence, the landscapes & the dialog is phenomenal. In fact, the 15 pages on how the Judge came to join the Glanton Gang are the best 15 pages of a novel I have read in a year.

"Piss, men! Piss for your very souls!"

finished the new murakami book (memoir about running and writing), which was pretty great, today. then started this book called the last chicken in america about russian jewish imigrants in my old neighborhood. it's a decent first sort-of novel, but not as good as i'd like it to be. i'm about halfway through, and i'll definitely finish it off this weekend. but i'm looking for something great. have two random novels to choose from, one is brand new and called travel writing, the other slightly less new and titled spaceman blues. choices.

I wish I didn't finish Don Quixote. I doubt I'll ever find a book as good and that makes me sad. Even just finishing it and saying farewell to the adventures of Don Quixote and Sancho Panza was sad.

I am going to Spain in a couple of weeks and I want to go see La Mancha. Even though there is nothing much there. I want to go to Zaragosa, as he was going to do before deciding not to mirror the false history of him and to go to Barcelona.

That book gets into peoples' imaginations, just like all those books on chivalry that Cervantes damns so much.

[/quote]


shit, I loved this book, I'm going back to Graceland Cemetary w/flowers for Daniel Burnham.
I've always had a soft spot for Louis Sullivan too. I learned so much from this dumb book than I thought I would. Amazing.
At the risk of sounding stupid, I feel, as a native chicagoan, we owe so much to these guys, the original architechs. They made this
town what it is.

I'm half-way through this now...this past weekend, I just had to put it down. Gorgeous summer day - didn't want to spend time in that worlld. Thats some bleak shit. The story doesn't seem to be progessing much, is it all about the prose?

Several things:

1)Devil in the White City was one of the most poorly written books I think I've ever read. The imagery, pacing, everything takes such a wild, desperate grope at trying to be grand when the author just doesn't have that writing ability. Larson took two incredibly interesting subjects and made them unbearable. I would like to read about just about anything detailed in that book but fuck if I ever have to look at that awful book again.

2)Last week I finished Confederacy of Dunces. I stated in a post uptopic that I didn't think I could stand Igantius J. for that entire book. Somehow I did, and I loved every second of it. The author really managed to make such a wacky supporting cast seem very real without spending too much time on any one character. That in and of itself is quite an achievement, considering the winding journey that this book takes.

3)I finished Sirens of Titan yesterday. I had read Slaughterhouse Five back in 6th grade so it had been a long time since I had read Vonnegut. I reread that a few weeks ago and it was fantastic. This was even better and may be up there with my alltime favorite books. I'm reading One Flew Over The Cuckoo's Nest now but I plan on reading another Vonnegut when I'm done with that, any suggestions?

Everything Vonnegut is worth a once over, but Breakfast Of Champions and Welcome To The Monkeyhouse (a short story collection) have permanent places on my bookshelf. You should also enjoy Cat's Cradle and God Bless You Mr. Rosewater, but there's a lot to choose from. It's easy to digest Vonnegut usually anyway, because his writing is often clipped into bite-sized profound morsels of human observation (usually under the guise of the alter ego Kilgore Trout) that are often more important to savor than the plotlines.

->





Wow. I wouldn't say its better than The Watchmen (only other graphic novel I've read) but damn is it amazing. At first I didn't like the middle volumes that seemed so divergent and random, but by the end when they all came together it was great. I cried. That said, I think the Corinthian is going to give me nightmares.

I've looked at the Watchmen thread, but other than that, any suggestions for graphic novels to read?

If you liked Watchmen then you should check out pretty much anything else by Alan Moore. From Hell, especially, which I believe to be his masterpiece. Right now I'm reading through his League of Extraordinary Gentlemen books, which are lots of fun.

If you're into the more literary side of things, maybe pick up a copy of Chris Ware's brilliant Jimmy Corrigan.

I started reading V for Vendetta a couple months back (after reading Watchmen), but couldn't get into it.

into the more literary side of things?
like, books without pictures? get outta here.

as for that, I'm currently reading Pastwatch: The Redemption of Christopher Columbus by Orson Scott Card. I love the whole idea of time travel/messing with time and the consequences involved

re: alan moore

i finally read lost girls this summer and was absolutely stunned. i rushed through the first book because it was so good, and forced myself to slow down for the second two. i don't really have the patience or attention span for most of his late-era work (especially not the latest league of extraordinary gentlemen book), but lost girls is a major exception. the tone is perfect, pretentious enough to make you skeptical, then sad enough to let you appreciate it. the book teeters on the simple-simplified line, but never crosses it. and it justifies in a really human way, the enjoyment of pornography and art and stories, but more so deviant tendencies and sexual behavior as a whole. i really recommend it, as long as you aren't put off by some really graphic material. speaking of which, i read portions of this at work (a library) and i kept having to turn the page, because whenever one of my more religious co-workers would walk by there would be a full-page depiction of a gay orgy or some sort of close up of alice or dorothy's vaginas.

but seriously, this book is good. the closest thing i can think of in terms of overall tone and impact is fun home by alison bechtel. i think that's her name, at least. that's another comic you should read, not entirely unlike an american lesbian version of an alan moore book. which i suppose is pretty unlike to begin with.

god am i high.

I've had Lost Girls sitting on my book shelf for the better part of a year now. I started the first book and was really enjoying it, but then I got distracted by other things and never finished it. Looks like that's the next thing I'm reading.

for the last couple of years i've been meaning to start a movement that would involve responding to asshole (ish) posts with a *.
seems the time has never really been right though. anyway, now reading
The Oxford Book of Death chosen and edited by D.J. Enright

go for it, but take your time with it. the three book format kind of stops the momentum, which helps distract you from the episodic structure and general repetition of the book. none of that is meant of any criticism, because it works, incredibly so, but i feel like to truck through it might be less rewarding.

have you ever read charles burns' black hole? i'm assuming so, but if that's also been sitting on your shelf waiting, i'm fucking jealous. there are a lot of books that i feel like i should read, but very few left on the list which feel entirely new. sophie's choice was actually probably the last book that did that to me. some tell great stories, and some have beautiful prose, but there's nothing like reading one of your favorite books for the first time.

and if anyone who knows me in real life reads that last paragraph, i will never hear the end of it.

I read and loved Black Hole. Fantastic book. The artwork is gorgeous, such clean lines. I read somewhere that David Fincher is attached to adapt it to film. Of course, he's been attached to a great many things over the years that have never come to be. Seems like a good marriage of director and source material, though.

I wish I could read Blood Meridian again for the first time.

I second that...it's the only graphic novel I own currently.

A little gem that bears re-rereading every now and then.

I picked this book up after this post. It's a very enjoyable page-turner, but the twists kind of reminded me of something written by Donald Kaufman from Adaptation. The tragic elements in the end really saved it for me, the same way I think The Six Sense is still a good movie despite the fact that the twist comes from a mile away.

Hero, I think allowing him to escape was part of the experiment. I think they were just hoping Teddy wouldn't take it as far as he did.

I just finished Heart-Shaped Box.

I liked it. I like his writing style a lot.

I suppose I'll have to read back and see what others thought.

No need. ..
I finished it, but I lost heart after the big reveal about Craddock was given. It just didn't have the dramatic impact that it should have. He also reminded me a bit too much of "Richard Bachman" at times. But he has quite a future ahead of him, based on this first novel.

I just finished his 20th Century Ghosts short stories collection, and he blew me away with some of it.

i like chabon, but these characters are lacking any redeeming quality. making this book difficult to get through.

I'm in the middle of the Oxbow Incident right now, I saw the movie for the first time a couple months back

wha-wha-wha!!!? it's a total first-time novel, but it's magnificent. bear in mind that i am a native yinzer.

Awesome, glad you enjoyed it too

cant believe he blew up the doc's car! that threw him for a loop.

Man...Mother Night is so damn good!

Kurt Vonnegut - you are now my new favorite author.

Warning...his humor gets increasingly sardonic and cynical the older he gets (I could barely finish Hocus Pocus, it was sooo dark). Enjoy the ride.

I finally finished Scott McClelland's book. I really struggled with it because despite my interest in the topic, he's such an incredibly boring storyteller. Plus, the first several chapters are about his childhood, how his mom was mayor of Austin, yadda yadda yadda. It's like he thought people would be reading the book to find out more about Scott McClelland, and not about the inner workings of the Bush Administration and how they so royally screwed things up. He really needed a better editor. Once he got into the stuff people (meaning, me) wanted to hear about it was better, but he's very long winded. He really had an axe to grind with Condi. And Rumsfeld. And Libby.

just re-read this one. Neal Stephenson is one of my favorite authors, and this is one of his more under-appreciated works

EDIT: apparently under-appreciated was just in my head. I just read that it won the Hugo Award and the Sci-fi channel and George Cloony are making a mini-series out of it.

Cryptonomicon was great, so was Snow Crash...couldn't get into his on-going series about the Alchemists...the Old English argot was hurting my brain.

I'm going on vacation in like, two hours and I just realized I have no book. Don't have time to read through ten pages here so, suggestions anyone? I can swing by the library on the way. Raddest way to start to a vacation.

Dennis Lehane's Shutter Island.

It was certainly an orgy, though they wouldn’t have called it one at the time. Not that they were completely unaware of what they were participating in. They knew. Of course, they knew. But the word itself brought to mind too many connotations they weren’t entirely comfortable with. But still, it was what it was and what could you call it besides? Which is not to say they didn't develop in their guilty little minds entire dictionaries of euphemisms to label the act. They did, with most of the definitions involving the word experimentation, and with that they justified it. They were all being youthful, exuberant, unashamedly adventurous bohemians. They were setting the world on fire. They were saying "fuck you" to the establishment and the puritanical ideals that held their government in a stranglehold. Yes, they were fucking their way to a new society. A society not smothered by religious oppression and sexual guilt, but liberated by touching and feeling, nudity and orgasms, and love, love, love.

But to call it an orgy? No, they couldn't do that. For one, the word brings to mind the Romans most immediately and when one thinks of the Romans, one thinks of their imperialism and the coliseums and their decadence and--oh my god--it just so happens they killed Jesus Christ. By engaging in an orgy they were, in some way, supporting murder for entertainment and the murder of God. And no one wants to support that. Of course, it’s not like any of the participants actually believed in Jesus. There were a few “faithful,” sure, but they were primarily the product of intensive indoctrination and none of them took it too seriously. The rest were non-believers. Which is fine. No one says, or rather many say (evangelical types, you know), but no objective source states (unless you count the religious texts themselves) that you have to believe in God or a god or any sort of philosophical set of moral regulations in order to be a good person. There have been before and there will be in the future good atheists and evil theists, and vice versa and all the shades of gray in between. People are people and people are flawed. That’s fine. This is, of course, all very fortunate for the orgy-goers. Were they living in a less-forgiving universe then the majority of them would be well on their way to going straight to hell. Regardless, though, the stigma was there and whether or not any of them actually believed in the divine is irrelevant. They didn’t like the association such a classification would bring and so they rejected the orgy label.

i had a hard time at first with the Baroque Cycle, but after you get past the first part of Daniel's story it really takes off. And once I was in to the story, I began to really like the ten page asides about the mechanics of silver mining, French etiquette, Asian trade routes, etc. If you have the time I would definitely recommend giving it another shot.

totally agree.

I posted a few weeks back on this book. I was pretty "meh" on it then, and now I'd say that it is just a boring book. Totally skippable in the Chabon cannon.

first people hating on spiders. now people hating of mysteries of pittsburgh. how do i reach these keeds?


but seriously, i bike past the place that cover photo was taken (the cloud factory) on a semi-daily basis.never fails to get me.

Oh, so you tapped into Sausage's diary? ( )