Sonic, if you can enjoy some Bryson, I reckon I need to give Danielewski another chance.

Ok, not a direct parallel, but my heart's in the right place.

Finally reading The Watchmen after not reading comics since I was 14 - and I was a HUGE comic freak...

Wow, what a return to what feels like home...

I'm only two chapters (issues?) in and this has got me hooked by the gills.



Great comic related weekend as well cause my girlfriend got me this shirt because I guess I like to get high about the Secret Wars or Infinity Gauntlet a lot:

That's a hilarious poster. I've only read two comic books/graphic novels (not including Sin City, which I skimmed through). When I saw the previews for this film, I knew I had to read the book first. One of the best stories I have ever read. A LOT better than what I expected. The ending is out of control. Get ready. I didn't see it coming, but when I realized it, I just went nuts. My buddy is reading it right now and he is getting pretty excited about it. Good stuff. Really curious to see how well Billy Crudup plays Dr. Manhattan. He's a great actor, I just can't see him pulling it off. Either way, great read.

If you hated HoL, you will DESPISE Only Revolutions.

Well, I've been wrong before. Once. In 1978. When I was 11.

Completely disagree. Not only does the book have an entirely different feel, but the style of writing seems to have no similarities (other than the structure). I can definitely see someone disliking House of Leaves, yet enjoying Only Revolutions and vice versa.

I am about 100 pages into 2666.

I don't know what to think about it, but I know that I am enjoying it as much, if not more than "The Savage Detecitves." (which is probably the best book I read since Flanagan's Gould's Book of Fish ) Maybe that is because I now know how to read Bolano, or if his writing is that much better in this novel, either way, this man has become one of my favorite writers.

this book is epic in every way. it tries the patience, but it's also probably the easiest time i've had with bolano yet. and by easy, i mean readable and richly, tangibly rewarding. the first and last segments of the book are the best, but there's never a moment where you distrust where he is going with the story.

edit: and i gotta say, phil, my respect for you has skyrocketed as a result of the above post. i was talking about books over the weekend with a couple sharp friends (one of which is currently studying fiction) and neither had ever heard of bolano. it made me sad to think that most people, unless they follow new fiction closely, have any inkling about the man. he is a giant.

Any Philip Roth recommendations? I've only read The Dying Animal (an odd place to start, I know). I recently received Portnoy's Complaint and American Pastoral for gifts. And I just purchased a copy of Sabbath's Theater. Should I start with any of those? Is there another one I should buy and read first?

Odd, I think Bolano was pretty much one of the hottest and most discussed authors of the last few years. But that might just be because I do follow new fiction quite a bit, and some of my best friends were all about "The Savage Detectives," so maybe I felt like the book had more exposure than it really did.
I totally agree with you on the idea that this book (so far) is really readable. Whereas, I cannot think of a more trying section of literature than the middle part of "The Savage Detectives." It would be brilliant for a few pages, and then a little boring for the next few and so on. I think that was intended, but that doesn't mean I have to like it.


I've only read "American Pastoral," and I think that it is worthy of all of the praise it has received. Totally fantastic book.

I need to get this. Someone talked about it a while back in this thread and I wrote it down to pick it up. Unfortunately, I couldn't find it at my library. I'll have to dig deeper and find this novel. Sounds epic.

Hard to go wrong with Roth. I recommend his first, Goodbye Coumbus, as well as The Human Stain and any of his books featuring writer Nathan Zucherman. And Portnoy's Complaint was really great.

i made it about halfway through the savage detectives this past spring and i really liked parts, i went too slow and lost track of what i was reading exactly. bolano has the habit of introducing too many characters at once and just kinda letting you sink or swim with them. it's admirable, but makes for some rough patches of reading. my friends hadn't heard of him, largely because they're in school and don't do much non-required reading. still, no excuse considering his literary ubiquity for the past year and change.


as for roth, i'd start with portnoy (better than goodbye, columbus), move to american pastoral or any of that trilogy, read some of his lesser work, like the breast, to break the seriousness, move to operation shylock, which is, for me, roth's magnum opus, and then catch up on the rest. his past few have been inessential, but compulsively readable, some of his older work is trying, but rewarding. the cream of the crop, though, are portnoy, pastoral-human stain, shylock and sabbath.

Wow. Only Revolutions is seriously blowing me away. Such a great book. I always have a highlighter or a pen at my side when I read books, underlining or circling phrases or lines of dialogue I enjoy. For this book, I seem to be underlining at least one thing per page. It really is a spectacular piece of art. It's a mesmerizing love story combined with a very appealing, dazzling, and enthralling road novel. The whole thing is exhilarating. This is really unlike anything else I have ever read. I just didn't focus on it hard enough or understand it well enough the first time I read it two years ago. It wasn't what I expected then so I took it the wrong way. This time around, though, it's spectacular. Danielewski is definitely one of my favorite authors.

fags die

So nice to be done with classes and heavy heavy textbook reading.

Just finished this:


It was better than I had anticipated.

Started this:


Not having known it existed prior to browsing the stores with gift cards.
But it's actually pretty decent.

I feel like reading some short stories, any worthy compilations that anyone would suggest?

No joke, the Tales of Beedle the Bard is really fun.

Any short story collection of Donald Barthelme's.
Sixty Stories might be a good one to start with.

shalom auslander's beware of god or naked pueblos by mark jude poirier are some good contempo choices. older stuff... i'm too drunk to recall.

Denis Johnson's "Jesus' Son." Also, check out "Gates of Eden" by Ethan Coen (the guy who did The Big Lebowski, Fargo, No Country, Burn After Reading, etc). Those are really awesome short stories. Both of which I frequent quite often.

thats not a 'habit' of bolanos, thats the fuckkin storytelling technique of the book u bozo

savage detectives is one of the best books ive ever read -- def cant wait to crack 2666

eh, matter of semantics, deej. i appreciate his "storytelling technique" and that he forces you to swim in it. it just can make it a little difficult to get through, depending on the reader (me)'s preoccupations. i look forward to revisiting all three of the books of his i've read (at least partially). and reading his others.

thanks for the help

Has anyone read this? It intrigues me.

i thumbed through it and wasn't impressed enough to buy it. it just seemed like a bunch of people writing "i was there" and it didn't mean anything to me because, you know, i have my own concert experiences that meant a lot to me.

Stephen King--any story compilation.
Kurt Vonnegut, Welcome To The Monkey House.

Yeah, it's totally Oprah's Book Club (particularly after page 100), but it's compelling. It's simply a woman's story of her life--dysfunctional family, rebelliousness, eating disorders, finding her true self, etc.-- from age 11 in the early 60s and onwards. It's almost hard to believe this was written by a guy (I liked his I Know This Much Is True, and his recent The Hour I First Believed looks good, too).

Just read this stuff upthread, and TIME's review of 2666...sounds totally awesome. Thanks for bringing this Bolano up to my attention.

i'm never reading just one book.

also, just finished:

(the best thing i've read in 2008)

just finished:


Now Reading:



Gonna try and post in this thread more in the new year.

Finishing up what few Cormac books I've yet to read. Read The Stonemason yesterday. It's a play but it reads pretty much like any of Cormac's other work. Really wonderful and sad.

Now I'm into Outer Dark, which appears to have some of Cormac's best writing. Here's Cormac describing the crying of a newborn baby: "It howled execration upon the dim camarine world of its nativity wail on wail while he lay there gibbering with palsied jawhasps, his hands putting back the night like some witless paraclete beleaguered with all limbo's clamor." Genius! As soon as I'm done with this, I'll be moving on to The Border Trilogy. And then I'll be done. And all that will be left is to reread his work endlessly and hope he continues to write great books til he's well past 100.

Hell, I live in Oak Park. This is practially required reading around here. I've been to his home and studio, and I've been to the Cheney Mansion, home of his mistress. And even though I know how the story ends, I'm interested to see how they get there.
Frank Lloyd Wright was a genius. A cad and an adulterer, but a genius.

UPDATE. Upthread, I gave some props to Wally Lamb's She's Come Undone. In the end, totally meh. Starts devolving into a Lifetime Movie Event, with the heroine making stupid choice after stupid choice after stupid choice. I got so depressed and disgusted by p.355, I skipped ahead to the last 3 pages of this 450 page mess. Stick with Lamb's I Know This Much Is True, or his more recent and future works.

The Age of Reason, by Jean-Paul Sartre. I'm currently about 160 pages into this thing. Really good so far. I'm enjoying it a lot more than I did Nausea, even though the structure and themes of Nausea are more interesting to me.

Hopefully the book is as good as the movie.

Just picked it up on DVD-R from the MecoStore, which also has a bunch of dvds of old cereal and coca-cola commercials, etc., which I also picked up.

The White Tiger, Aravind Adiga...it's amazing so far, anyway.

And Brideshead Revisited, again.

Wouldn't that be Brideshead Revisited, Revisited?

watchmen... it's sad that i'm reading this right before the film (which i probably would never see anyway), but yeah. my first ever graphic novel. took a lot of convincing, but it's really great...

I finished the 33 1/3 volume on Reign in Blood last night and am just starting this. It's definitely a different animal--presented in the form of the diary of a teenage psych ward patient. Promises to be pretty interesting.

Finished The Age of Reason, which was great. Now back to another French author whom I adore, Michel Houellebecq. Whatever, or the much better French title Extension du domaine de la lutte (literally, "Extension of the field of the fight" or "broadening of the struggle") is Houellebecq's first book. So far I've read his Lovecraft essay and The Elementary Particles, both which I highly recommend.

It would be. haha.

Yes, I do like a bit of Waugh.

How is this so far? I thought the movie was great, though I wish it had ended about five minutes sooner (the shot from behind when she's standing at the window and then a cut to black and credits as soon as the blood starts to seep through the dress would've been perfect).

It is pretty great so far. Pretty true to the book, at least the first few chapters in.
I actually liked where they ended the movie. I'm curious if it's treated the same way in the book.

Finished Whatever. It was a quick, amusing read, and one can see the seeds of thought that would later blossom grandly in The Elementary Particles, but overall it's a less inspired work. Very interesting writing, though. Now I'm on to Platform, the book he wrote after The Elementary Particles and the one that (from the WIKI) led to charges from France's Human Rights League, the Mecca-based World Islamic League, and the mosques of Paris and Lyon for provoking racial hatred. He was eventually acquitted.

Here's a bit I just read:

"Usually, when I left the office, I'd take in a peepshow. It set me back fifty francs, maybe seventy if I was slow to ejaculate. Watching pussy in motion cleared my head. The contradictory trends of contemporary video art, balancing the conservation of national heritage with support for living creativity... all of that quickly evaporated before the facile magic of a moving pussy. I gently emptied my testicles. At the same moment, Cecilia was stuffing herself with chocolate cake in a patisserie near the ministry; our motives were much the same."

Jess got me "Dreams of my Father" and "Audacity of Hope" on CD - listened to them during my commute in about 2 weeks.

Wow, what a journey, Pres Obama has had. I highly recomend the books on CD. Obama reads them, he does voices, he swears, and he is brutally honest about his past.

Dreams of my Father is my favorite, because it has a stonger narrative, and an incredible personal message. I admired the man tremendously before the books, but now I'm basically in awe.

Frankly, America isn'tworthy...

Started on a borrowed copy of Twilight. Yeah, it's about what I expected, and I probably won't finish it. Meyer knows how to lay on a stylish disaffected teen plot straight outta The CW, but she doesn't know how to make her characters talk or think like real people.