finished off y: the last man. definitely in the all-time comics pantheon. read the last book twice and it made me cry both times. that ending, holy shit is it perfect.

and the part with ampersand and the snowy forest is one of the

Spoiler/NSFW: click to show/hide

saddest, and most touching

moments of pop entertainment i've ever encountered.

I read Y: The Last Man about 6 months ago. In 24 hours.

good 24 hours. and feelings?

i had to wait for my turn in the library line, which is why it's taken me this long.

I thought the fact that I read like 70 issues of a comic book in 24 hours pretty clearly laid out how I felt about it.

I'm reading Zen and the Art of Motorcycle Maintenance, it feels too much like a lecture in philosophy sometimes, and Catch 22, which is really entertaining.

Waiting for The Wasp Factory, anyone know this one?

I read that back in high school. I remember liking it. It's rather bizarre, though.

The quote from Platform made me want to read Houellbecq, the one in your signature not so much. What book is that from?

That's from his rather brilliant essay on H.P. Lovecraft, Against the World, Against Life. You should check out The Elementary Particles if you're interested in his work, though Platform might be a better place to start.

One of the few books I couldn't get through, just too repetitive.

Just got my Amazon order today, got Traveling Music by Neil Peart. Basically, it's a book about what he listened/listens to in the car and how it influences and inspires him.

Also got Season 2 of Frisky Dingo on DVD, but that's for another thread...

this book was responsible for the one of the most vitriolic outbursts i've ever put on paper. it was for a college literature class where this was required reading. terrible book.

Currently jumping between.







(which I have left on the tube )





Increasingly short attention span.

Oh my gosh, Bret Easton Ellis is so amazing. So disturbing and wonderful. Have you read Less Than Zero? Its his first (and IMO best) but all of his books are great. What I find amazing about him is the way we weaves characters from other books into each of his new books. I believe each of his books have had some characters from others. I feel like The Hold Steady's Craig Finn took note of this when he started writing their songs.


Currently I'm reading:







These are all pretty huge ass books, so its taking me sometime to get through them.

Oh, and for a lighter, funnier read, I'm reading:

It's really just a long discussion on what Quality is. And it's not really engaging, no. Could be interesting if you're into that kind of stuff, though. Too little Zen for my taste.

Finished Platform, read Exile and the Kingdom by Camus, and just finished Three One-Act Plays by Woody Allen. All good reads. Platform solidifies Houellebecq as one of my favorite working authors. The Camus shorts were really good, though my mind tended to wander more than with his longer works. Probably worth a few rereads in the future. And the Woody Allen one-acts were all hilarious.

Now I'm reading A High Wind in Jamaica, by Richard Hughes. Good so far.

Great book.

Just started that book last week. Didn't get to far into it yet but sure has a lot of promise already. There making it into a motion picture that is going to come out sometime this year.

Ugh. Who is directing?

The director of the brilliant western, The Proposition. It's in good hands.

John Updike - Early Stories: 1953 - 1975

I read most every book of Updike's collected short fiction in one massive Summer-long binge 4.5 years ago. Reading the Rabbit novels earlier that year introduced me to the world of John Updike. He changed almost everything I thought I knew or understood about the way fiction is/was/can be written. His short fiction made an even deeper impression, if that's at all possible. My parents are only a few years younger than Updike was when he died last week. They were very much of the same generation. Reading his stories about the meltdown of nuclear families in the years following Kennedy's assassination touched me - helped explain a world I grew into in the early - mid 1970s. These stories are, oddly, comfort reading. I picked this up again two days before Updike died; I've been immersed in them ever since. I have no way of quantifying the loss and grief I feel at his passing. Whether his reputation will survive and endure in the coming decades is an open question, and one I do not worry about much. He endures with me.

Finished A High Wind in Jamaica, which was just amazing. Now digging into some Vladimir Nabokov, starting with Pnin.

Stephen Fry - Moab Is My Washpot

Of interest primarily to Anglophiles and Fry's loyal cultists, who will have already read it, probably. Fry, host of BBC TV's QI, former comedic partner of Hugh Laurie, actor and director (Bright Young Things, Wilde) details the first 20 years of his life in this hilarious, sometimes heartbreaking, unflinchingly honest autobio. A true rennaisance man and raconteur, Fry examines the British institutions to which he was subjected (public school, etc) and offers insightful and amusing commentary on their effect, impact and lasting cultural place in English life. Never dull, unless you don't care for him. In which case, you're probably not even reading.

I think this will be a great movie. The book was great and as No Country for Old Man showed, if done right, McCarthy's books can make for wonderful films.

The film version of The Road is completed. It was held back from a Christmas release due at least in part to financial insecurity on the part of its producers, The Weinstein Company. Viggo Mortensen plays the Father. Robert Duvall and Charlize Theron co-star, briefly.

As long as educated WASPS roam the earth Updike will have an audience.

How really insightful. You'll fit right in here.

Now that I'm finally out of school, I'm trying to read all those books I avoided for the past 10 or so years. For someone who got an English degree, there are way too many classics that I've never picked up.

Currently reading this,But having a hard time getting through it.So far it's not doing anything for me.

Finished Pnin, which was just wonderful. Nabokov is an impossibly good writer. The book was extremely funny at times and really sad and really wonderfully and strangely structured, playing with expectations of genre, and twisting and contorting narrative convention right up to the very last sentence. Great book. Will move onto Pale Fire next, but first this. Existentialism and Human Emotions, by Jean-Paul Sartre. The Existentialism thread made me aware of this book and I figured a lighter introduction to Sartre's strictly philosophical texts would be helpful before I start to read Being and Nothingness sometime this year.

Every one of these short stories are brilliant. Hell of a writer. Anyone else ever plunged into Borges' mind?

I have this beautiful thing, which I've yet to plow through. What little I've read, though, has been great. Book of Sand is a great story.

Yeah, "La Muerte y La Brujula" (The Death and the Compass) is fantastic. As is "El Sur" (The South). So elegantly written. I anticipate reading more.

Such an over rated book, IMO. I can honestly say that I hated it.

I loved it, despite the fact I was forced to read it.

I'm pretty glad I was forced to read so much stuff in school. Left to my own devices, I can be a lazy reader and get in a genre-fiction rut after awhile. School not only got to me read stuff like Hardy and James and Wharton, but helped me understand and more fully appreciate it. Kinda miss English classes.

Books I was forced to read in high school that I loved:
Fahrenheit 541
Brave New World
To Kill a Mocking Bird
1984
The Grapes of Wrath
The Old Man and the Sea
The Pearl
The Red Badge of Courage
Slaughterhouse-Five
Of Mice and Men (the first book ever to make me cry)


Books I was forced to read in high school and HATED:
The Great Gatsby
The Crucible
Beuwolf
The Joy Luck Club (the worst book in all of literature, as far as I'm concerned.)


10:4 is a pretty good ratio. Some of the books I loved are still some of my favorites of all time.

And these are some more of those classics I've never read. Like Gatsby, I was actually supposed to read The Grapes of Wrath, but skipped it entirely. That was college though. I've been meaning to get to it after I re-read Of Mice and Men this past summer.

Gosh, I need to try and remember all the books I had to read in school and what I thought of them...

In the meantime, my Gatsby mission was halted and restarted after I got distracted by these two...

Just finished:



Now reading:



Dedicated myself to reading science fiction exclusively since discovering Delany. Never been happier.

If I'm gonna read a DeLillo book(haven't read before), do I go White Noise or Underworld?

White Noise. Amazing book. Very funny and incredibly moving.

Underworld. Probably the only book I've read that didn't make any conscious, logical sense yet didn't detract from it. His writing is so strong, so close to perfect I got drunk on it.

for first delillo, go for white noise. more compact, more immediately satisfying. the opening seventy some page segment of underworld is probably one of my favorite pieces of fiction, and the rest of the book is great and close to my heart, but starting off on that is probably not a good idea.

I'm crossing page 500 on The Given Day right now. Lehane's really good at being well-researched with his history yet on target for keeping a fast pace. This is definitely a page turner. It's 700 pages, but if I was unemployed or had no distractions I'd probably finish it in 2 days.

Honestly, I picked this up from the library but had to turn it back in before starting it. I'm reading like 5 books right now and just couldn't commit to starting this one. But, I can't wait to read it. LeHane is so awesome.

Its entertaining and insightful, but somehow his books always leave me feeling like a schmuck.

A book called Two Of Us about a father and son who bond over their interest in the Beatles. Its better than it sounds...

Not a bad book. An enjoyable read. I really appreciated the introduction and it made me anticipate the rest of the book. Still prefer Blink over the rest of his stuff. That was a great book.



I read The Road last week in one day. One of the best books I have ever read. The first (and only) McCarthy book I have read. As a result, I went out and picked up Blood Meridian and I just started it. Finished the first chapter and holy shit. Such a great, badass opening. I'm going to have to check out the rest of his work, but McCarthy might be a competitor for my favorite author. What should I read after this by him? Child of God sounds awesome. Also, has anyone read his play The Sunset Limited? It looks really interesting and I want to check it out.

The Road was so freaking awesome. My wife was pregnant with our first (and only, so far) son while I was reading it. It was truly heart breaking for me to read as a father-to-be. Truly amazing piece of literature.

The only other McCarthy book I've read is No Counrty for Old Men. Its pretty great too. Luckly I was able to read it before seeing the movie (doing it the other way around is the worst). I've got Blood Meridian on hold at my library, so I'm planning on reading it next.

The book definitly has a bigger impact if you have children, I read it when my son was about 8 months old and the book really hit me hard. At this point it's easily one of my favorite books.

I'm very much in love with The Border Trilogy: All The Pretty Horses, The Crossing and Cities of the Plain. Billy Bob Thornton made a crap movie of the first book, but that shouldn't deter you. All three deal with the end of the wild, wide-open days of Texas as the 20th Century heats up post-WWI.