Definitely next on my list of stuff to read but All the Pretty horses has been a real pain in the ass to find at my library. I think i'm gonna have to bite the bullet and buy it if I want to read it any time soon.

Does your library do inner-library loan? My library is great about finding pretty much anything I want, even if they have to borrow it from another library. Its worth checking into.

I'm reading a biography of henry rollins right now...just got to the part where he went to L.A. with Ian Mcaye and the Teen Idles...

Start at the beginning and read them all in order. It will be a rewarding experience.

If you end up having to buy, you might want to take a look at this: #7 on the list. It's the entire trilogy in one massive volume, and that price is a steal.

http://www.amazon.com/b?ie=UTF8&node=70450

Blood Meridian is probably my favorite book and Cormac McCarthy probably my favorite author. I've read all of his books except The Border Trilogy, which I'm reading right now. Brilliant writer.

After Blood, I'd recommend blowing through some of his shorter books, Child of God and Outer Dark (which I think is one his greater works), and then slowing down and taking your time with the absolutely brilliant Suttree, one of the funniest and most heartbreaking books I've ever read.

Yes, excellent book. It was my first McCarthy novel as well.

Thanks for the suggestions Ogawa. I was wondering where to go from there.

The Best American Short Stories: 2008

Jess jsut got a "kindle", so we will be probably be reading everythign under the sun now. The other day I jsut started Tom Sawyer instantly. This kindle thing is like a fucking I-pod for your mind.

I just finished this and was gripped by it the whole way through. I haven't seen the movie version yet (have to read the book before watching the movie, always) but it is now at the top of my queue.

I'm curious if anyone else has read this book or has thoughts about it.

Spoiler/NSFW: click to show/hide

I'm really interested in why the doctor's wife sleeps with the girl with dark glasses? That part didn't really make sense to me. Was it just that they were turning into animals and he didn't care? Not sure.

Also, why do you think they got their eyesight back?

I read The Road in a couple short sittings last week. As a father of twin sons almost three years old, I can definitely say it was an unpleasant experience. Great book, no doubt. But I wish I hadn't read it. Haven't been able to shake the deep sense of dread and instability for days.

I got to that one part in The Road, where the guy and the kid find the bunker full of food, and are happy just eating regular meals and taking baths, and I didn't go back to the book for almost a month because I knew the ending wouldn't be nearly that happy and I couldn't handle something bad happening to one, or both of them.

Totally did this too. I was like, "JUST STAY THERE AND BE HAPPY FOR THE LOVE OF GOD!!!"

I'll never understood why people find The Road depressing. Graphic, sure. However, the book is a meditation on the idea that when stripped of all civilization and left to your own devices, love is still as instinctual as survival itself. That's a pretty powerful and uplifting concept, cannibalism be damned. It's almost an existential reasoning for love.

Do you have kids?

Furthering my theory on fiction that women are more capable of detailing quality protagonists of the opposite sex than men are, yet no such advantage exists for detailing 3-dimensional villains of the opposite sex.

This is a fun read. But I'm kind of on a historical fiction kick right now.

I have a dad. I bought us Twins/Sox tickets upon completion.


EDIT: Wait a minute, we had this discussion about a year ago, no?

i want to read good non-fiction political books. doesn't matter what type. recommend me some? please?

Though dated, I like Joe McGinness' The Selling of the President 1968, which is about how Nixon was marketed into the Oval Office;how his team learned from the media-savvy Kennedy campaign and made the conservative wing of the GOP palatable again. Both the Kennedy-Nixon and the Nixon-Humphrey campaigns ushered in most of what we now take as standard practice in Presidential runs. A good read.

And then why not follow up with Hunter Thompson's Fear and Loathing: On the Campaign Trail '72 which, for all its gonzo freakshow vibe, contains some truly astute political writing.

No, I just finished it. I just know that the book would have had a much different effect on me before I had sons.

the shock doctrine by naomi klein.

If you're into religon and politics, I love God's Politics by Jim Wallis.

thanks for all the recommendations. will check them out soon.

I bought Infinite Jest a week or so ago and it is just staring me down and making me tremble.

Reading some reviews on this looks pretty intimidating but yet intriguing at the same time. If you ever get around to finishing it tell me how it was.

Such a great book. Took me forever to dive into it. I would go in spurts. 100 pages here, 100 pages there. The thing that sucks is you finish 100 pages of this beast (which is like 200 for any other book) and you're like "Great, I'm not even 10% done). But after like 300, the book just soars. From that point on, I read it until the end in a few weeks. Such a great book. I want to read it again, but it's one hell of a work out. I want to read the rest of his shit first. Especially "Brief Interviews With Hideous Men" because John Krasinsky is apparently directing a movie on it. That should be interesting. Anyone ever check out Wallace's Commencement Address? It's really amazing. The man was brilliant.

http://www.marginalia.org/dfw_kenyon_commencement.html

A couple of things on Wallace:

1. I recently read Oblivion: Stories based on a recomendation from a friend.

2. It was a great collection, but good Lord it was a work out to read.

3. Planning on reading Brief Interviews next.

4. I had no clue that Wallace committed suicede. Bummer.

5. Dave Eggers has a great interview with Wallace here.

Gonzo: The Life of Hunter S. Thompson

Pretty good. A biography/oral history, its only real flaw is having Rolling Stone publisher Jann Wenner as both author and participant: His recurring assertions that Thompson was only good when writing for Stone sound increasingly self-serving as the book progresses. In fact, if I had to fault the bok for anything else, it is the lack of real attention paid to the writing, itself. Obviously, Thompson's life and lifestyle sells books, but the main thing that keeps me a fan is the quality of his prose. A little more insight into the proccess of creating that prose would have been nice.

The Gonzo Way: A Celebration of Dr. Hunter S. Thompson

Not sure what to make of this. After Anita Thompson, Hunter's widow, pulled out of the oral history-bio, she penned this slim volume which seeks to make Thompson's Gonzo philosophy an almost New Age approach for living. It reminds me of Zen and the Art of Motorcycle Maintenance - both books work best when using their subject as an example and worst when they return to commentary by the author. My copy is signed - someday it might be worth five bucks.

Anyone heard about this/thinking about reading it? I realize I've never been interested in Austen until zombies were put in the picture.


Or this wonder, for that matter

I bought Infinite Jest for my mother last Xmas. I'll probably read it when I finish with:

Sylvia Plath - The Bell Jar

I'm not getting as much out of this as the first chapter made me think I would. It's kind of fallen apart since it became a document of Esther's descent into depression. I should finish it tomorrow anyway.

I havne't heard of this, but it sounds pretty cool. If and when you read it, let me know if its worth my time.

Been reading a mishmash of whatever's around:


An impulse buy 4 years ago. Unconvincing, is the best thing I can say about it.


A childhood fave, required reading every 10 years.


Tried to finish this the past couple of years but now that Obama's in office felt OK about abandoning it. It was more a recounting of bad behavior/policy than a refutation of bad "science," I'd been hoping for the latter.


Picked this up from my laundry room's book exchange shelf, having read & enjoyed The Accidental Tourist a zillion years ago. There's something disingenuous and grating about Tyler's writing in this...I felt as if it was written for the kind of person who blindly forwards those stupid email warnings without checking them first at snopes.


Have to say, the brilliant ending salvages everything. I was pretty skeptical until the last couple of chapters.

Just finished this and thought it was pretty amazing. A well written book that kept me tunring the page that delves into an important topic. Looking forward to watching the film version on Netflix watch instantly tomorrow.

Cracked my 4th Chabon book in a row last night - Gentlemen of the Road. Finished Yiddish Policemen's Union a few weeks back (and it was really good, Brobee & Loblaw) and mentioned to my folks during a visit to their place that I liked it. My old man made a face, disappeared for a few moments & came back with, I think, every other book Chabon has published. "Here," he grumbled, "take these - I think he's terrible but people keep giving them to me" So I plowed through Wonder Boys (totally entertaining) and Werewolves in their Youth (coupla' great shorties in there) and now this. For better or worse I think there are still two or three unread 'gifted' books of his stuffed on the shelves but I may need a vacation from him for a bit after this.

I have a lot of Chabon's books, but I haven't gotten around to reading most of them. I want to go chronologically. I just read his short story collection A Model World and I thought it was pretty tedious and uninspired, but that's his really early stuff. I read around 100 pages of Kavalier and Clay a couple years back (before stopping for some reason or another) and I really enjoyed that, so I'm sure I'll be more impressed with his other work when I get around to it.

mysteries of pittsburgh and wonder boys are my favorite chabon. yiddish policeman's, finn, isn't bad, just not his best. a little too high concept for my liking. but it ends strongly, which is more than can be said for some of his better books (kavalier and clay).

anyways, i'm reading a bunch of books right now, but i'm too fucked up on painkillers to remember what they are. i'll be back later with something epic.

I got a little bit deeper in to Yiddish Policeman's Union this time than I did last time, but still lost interest. Chabon is just a little to "Jewy" for me. Kavalier is still top ten all time for me though.

try reading his stuff from before k+c, less jewy as it were. i'm a big yid myself, but i don't much like this pigeonhole he's made for himself.

I got into K&C a month or so ago...it's HARD to stay with it for the 1st couple chapters, but once K&C get their comic book business going, it moves forward....reminds me of a less pretentious Pynchon (indeed, a bit of Gravit's Rainbow has a comic book scenario at times, but for much deeper reasons...)

The Possibility of an Island, by Michel Houellebecq. I love this guy.

"Turning round to grab the bottle of kirsch, I saw that she had spread her thighs, and it seemed in the darkness that her hand was thrust up under her skirt. A little later, I heard her panting. So, while observing the stars, Harry thought of Christ Omega; Robert the Beligian thought of I know not what, perhaps helium in fusion, or intestinal problems; as for Fadiah, she was masturbating. To each according to their character."

My first read of K&C I didn't make it past chapter 2, my second time through however I stuck out the early chapters and found that I couldn't put the book down and I was kicking myself for putting it down the first time. I've almost picked up Yiddish policeman's union a couple times but then I always see comments like "to "Jewy" for me" and I second guess. How bad is it really? Am I going to have to start googling Jewish culture just to follow the plot or what? I love alternate histories so it's definitly an intriguing book.

Oh, it's Jewy, all right. Take your everyday yids, right, then close one eye & imagine the diaspora winded up with the U.S. giving Jews a temporary settlement in Alaska. Yeah. Now, take that 'alternate history' and drop it into a '30s fedora hat 'just-the-facts-ma'am' hard boiled private dick yarn. Sprinkle in some red calfs, indigenous Americans, some shit about hanging strings all over the place to fool God and whammo - you're up until 1am because you can't put it down.

I think I'll have to read it after all.

Such a powerful book. First time reading. About halfway through and I am really enjoying it. The imagery and magical voice of the narrator is flawless. Truly a classic.



Rushdie's most recent novel. Absolutely dazzling. The characters and back stories are amazing. The style and format is great. I find myself underlining half of the book as I read it. So many quotable areas. The main character is also a terrific creation. Highly recommended.

I went through a big Chabon binge at the end of last year. I really liked The Yiddish Policeman’s Union up until the end, and then I found it a little disappointing. I followed that up with K&C, it took me a bit to get into but once I did I found it absolutely absorbing, defiantly one of the best books I’ve ever read. After then I read both Gentlemen of the Road and The Final Solution in one day. I also have Werewolves in Their Youth, which I dip into every now and again. I keep meaning to pick up some of his other books at some point.

Currently I’m reading The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo by Stieg Larsson, I’d heard great stuff about it but so far I’m finding it a bit of a chore to get into.

Something in me therefore knew, had always known, that I would end up finding love--I'm talking about reciprocated love, the only one that counts, the only one that can effectively lead us to a different order of perception, where individuality fissures, where the conditions of the world appear modified, and its continuation legitimate. I was not, however, naive; I knew that the majority of people are born, grow old, and die without having known love. Not long after the epidemic of "mad cow disease," new measures had been introduced to ensure that people knew where their beef had come from. In the meat section of supermarkets, in fast-food establishments, small labels appeared, generally worded thus: "Born and raised in France. Slaughtered in France." A simple life, in fact.

The Possibility of an Island, by Michel Houellebecq.

I've never seen the John Wayne movie, but after hearing that the Coen Bros are making their own version I thought I'd like to read the novel. Finished it in about four days because its a quick page turning Western. I liked it a lot and I'm anxious to see both film versions.

taking on Best American Short Stories 2008 and Platform by Michel Houellebecq currently, haven't put much of a dent in either yet though.