Halfway through the fifth part.

That was the first one I read. Loved it, Survivor, and Fight Club.

there was a time when i read up on just about everything i could find about my favorite artists. but after a while i realized that a lot of the people whose music i adored were actually people i'd probably have great contempt for under normal circumstances. you know, like if they weren't writing and performing songs that changed my life. so i stopped reading anything about the people behind the music i loved. i just let the music speak for itself. and even though bowie in berlin isn't as deep as a lot of the tripe i used to consume, i just had to read it because it covers a remarkable period. since i haven't read a whole lot about bowie, the citations to interviews and books were totally new to me. i could see how a bowie fanatic wouldn't get much new from this, but i learned a lot.

my one gripe was that the author pushed way too hard on letting the reader know how bad things were for bowie in the years preceding berlin. a few references to his diet of peppers and milk, the sub-100lb weight, and the constant cocaine usage are plenty to alert even a bowie novice to how bad it was. and i think most people reading the book are aware of the concept of great artists who self-destruct and then rebound with astounding professional output.

but i'll probably never hear low, "heroes" or lodger the same way again. the same probably goes for the idiot and lust for life. i had no idea how much input bowie had with those records. pretty amazing how everything he touched in those years, with the possible exception of lodger, is classic now.

I'm hoping I'll be a good gal and read it all since I got it as a gift. It's probably the largest book I've bothered trying to read in a while, which doesn't include entire comic book series. That's probably the bulk of what I read. I've read a lot about Oppenheimer on the internet before and he was interesting.

Just getting to this guy. Quite good. Even the early stories cast their spell. Any aficionados here?

Not exactly an aficionado, but definitely check out At The Mountains of Madness as soon as possible. Brilliant work.

That's what I hear. John Carpenter made a film in the mid 1990s. See it? I'm told that volume has all the Lovecraft anyone needs...

The Statement of Randolph Carter
The Outsider
The Music of Erich Zann
Herbert West--Reanimator
The Lurking Fear
The Rats in the Walls
The Shunned House
The Horror at Red Hook
He
Cool Air
The Call of Cthulhu
Pickman's Model
The Case of Charles Dexter Ward
The Colour Out of Space
The Dunwich Horror
The Whisperer in Darkness
At the Mountains of Madness
The Shadow Over Innsmouth
The Dreams in the Witch House
The Thing on the Doorstep
The Shadow Out of Time
The Haunter of the Dark

Indeed, that list is pretty comprehensive. I might have to pick that up. Has all the so-called Great Texts: The Call of Cthulhu, The Colour Out of Space, The Dunwich Horror, The Whisperer in the Shadows, At the Mountains of Madness, The Dreams in the Witch-House, The Shadow Over Innsmouth, The Shadow Out of Time.

You should also check out the Michel Houellebecq essay about Lovecraft (which I have quoted in my signature). Really good read. There's a published version of it that may have some revisions, or you can read an early version here.

Haven't seen the John Carpenter film, but from what I understand it's less an adaptation of Lovecraft's writing and more just a tribute to it.

On a camping trip this weekend, I finally finished


Blood Meridian. Pretty staggering stuff. I loved the imagery of the Judge wandering through the desert with two rifles, a parasol and the imbecile behind him

and


Coronado which was far from a sunny little collection of short stories. But, the title story, about a tragic almost dance between a young man, just released from prison, and his murderous evil father, as well as the one that's more psychological thriller about the guy being tailed by a mysterious assassin, who just moves into a hospital, drifting from room to room.

Just started this yesterday.

I've started this book twice already... just couldn't get going with it. Loved No Country and The Road, so I assume I'll like this one, but...


Yeah, this was a great collection. I love LeHane. I've read all his stuff, except his newest book with rivals Moby Dick in size. I know I'll read it one day, but just have a lot of other stuff stacked up I need to get to first.

I know I'm not supposed to like it because it's trendy, but I completely enjoyed every minute I spent reading that book.


Just finished (relatively quickly, too!), Little Children by Tom Perrotta. I loved the movie adaptation, but I like this even more. The ending makes a lot more sense, feels more realistic than the film ending. I also liked the additional insights into some of the more tangential characters that the movie glossed over: the pedophile's mother, the other bitchy woman at the playground, the pedophile's date, the spouses.

Next up, because I finally found it


The ending of the second story, 'Apache Medicine', is awesome and needs to be adapted STAT.

Regressing back to my childhood again, but this time concentrating on obtaining the original text versions, which were longer and better than those blue spines I have.

It's an incredibly entertaining story - very little not to like about that book.

I dug Heartbreaking Work as well. Those who haven't should check out Eggers' You Shall Know Our Velocity. Phenomenal book. Better than Heartbreaking. Be sure to get the hardcover version, though. The paperback edition adds around 50 pages near the end (called An Interruption) that completely changes the reality of the book for the worse. If you get the paperback, completely ignore this section. Or come back to it after you\'ve finished the book and had it sit with you for awhile. This Interruption is Eggers being far too clever and ruining the impact of the original story.

Good.

Bad.

Finished White Noise by Don Delillo last week. Brilliant, life changer.

Fuck, I love White Noise. Absolutely brilliant book. Chapter 37 is mindblowing, devastating.

"'That's what it comes down to in the end,' he said. 'A person spends his life saying good-bye to other people. How does he say good-bye to himself?'"

Yeah that line got me at the soul.

how is it^ ?

we read the short story in my creative writing class. pretty good, not my cup of tea but still good.

Finished A Farewell to Arms. Now reading Orlando: A Biography by Virginia Woolf.

I have the paperback but it's been a while so I can't even remember the end really. When I re-read it I'll take your advice though.

Really enjoying them both. Hard going though, so I'm reading Tori Amos - Piece By Piece as well, although that hasn't exactly turned out to be an easy read.

I finished reading Everyman by Philip Roth today. I found it to be a wonderfully compelling portrait of an almost dead man seeking absolution. Is Roth an atheist? He certainly represents atheism very well in Everyman's nameless protagonist. I suppose that he's a good enough author that he can find empathy in virtually any character he writes about though, so maybe I'm just jumping to false conclusions.

I think that I would rank this above The Plot Against America but below Sabbath's Theater in terms of the Roth novels that I've read.

I was given The Satanic Verses, Saturday and The Road for my birthday. I'm hyper excited for all of these.

THE WAY OF THE PEACEFUL WARRIOR


a book that changes lives

I'm wrapping up my reading of this. It sat on my shelves for about 6 months because it seemed like it was going to be a 'horrors of the meat industry' Fast Food Nation type book that was going to argue by inducing fear and disgust in its audience. After a few friends practically begged me to read it, I found it to be fair-minded, insightful, logical, and more or less mind-blowing. I'd reccommend anyone read it that hasn't read it already. I'm probably going to buy this book as a gift for 7-10 people in the next year.

I'm trying to read as much as I can of the new novels I'll be teaching next year (or that I think I want to teach), so early this week i knocked out:

and
(both of this are definites for next year, and it goes without saying, that Invisible Man is maybe, one of the best books ever written. Shockingly fast read, I started it three days ago and couldn't put it down)

and I just started this today and am at least 80% sure I'll be teaching it:


For fun (and during my upcoming plane rides I'll be reading this, along with hopefully finishing 2666) I am going to read:


Flanagan's Gould's Book of Fish is by far, my favorite book of this decade, but his last one, The Unknown Terrorist, was good, but so small in scale and style when compared to Gould's. I have have high hopes for this one though, after reading some reviews and plot descriptions.

I've had Gould's Book of Fish sitting on my shelf for around 7 years now. Probably about time I got around to reading it.

That'd be a really good idea.

oscar wao




i'm ~1/2 way through and i really enjoy it. the slan/jargon gets a bit tiresome after a while (ok, we get it, this is a multicultural, urban book. cool), but i'm a sucker for devices like multiple narrators, plots that span generations/a family's bloodline, pseudo-flowery/magical realism-esque/suspension of disbelief turns, etc.

The Powers That Be: Theology for a New Millennium. Just re-read one of my favorite non-fiction books of all time. Wink beautifully discusses the progressive Christian view of the myth of redemptive violence. A must read for those interested in progressive Christianity (read: not thick-headed, right-wing wackos). This book helped shape my political views on war, torture, human rights, etc.

Just finished Beloved. Yep, definitely going to teach it. I think the first 200 pages are simply stunning, but the novel becomes a little repetitive for the last 50 pages. Nonetheless that first section is just fantastic.

Now, it is time for fun summer reading!

Finally finished Haruki Murakami's 'What I Talk About When I Talk About Running'. On the jacket, it's purported to be equal parts about running and writing, but it's really mostly about running. It's still really interesting and fun. It'll also make you feel like shit for sitting in a lawn chair reading it while he's talking about participating in decathlons and ultra-marathons. Or else it'll motivate you to start running. I havent yet, but...you know.

Just finishing up this amazing piece of non-fiction. It tackles this issue of illegal immigration and boarder crossing in a real and unbiased way. The topic is told via the story of a 2001, 21-person boarder crossing that went terribly wrong. Its thought-provoking and depressing.

Stories by Kelly Link.

I just read the script and it was out of control. Can't wait to see this blood bath.


EDIT: Currently reading this again:

Is the movie based on a book? Or did you just read the screen play?

Screenplay. It's loosely based off an older film was the same title, only spelled correctly. Screenplay was fucking awesome.

Pretty great.

Pretty sure this guy can write.

No doubt, though The Body Artist did absolutely nothing for me.

No, I didn't care for the protagonist which made it a tough read but stylistically it was interesting. Taking a break before I tackle White Noise. Have you read Underworld? Libra?

No, those are in my to-read stack. I haven't read as much DeLillo as I would like. White Noise is brilliant. You'll definitely enjoy that.

The Prologue to Underworld is, all by itself, one of the most compelling things I have ever read. Not sure the rest of the novel always delivers, but I couldn't stop reading it, and when I was done I wanted to start over and do it again.

The first 30 or so pages of Bleak House features some of the most satisfying and beautiful prose ever written in the English language. A marvelous, powerful work.

It's supposed to be his greatest work. It's really a shame that the two Dickens novels most people read in high school (A Tale of Two Cities, Oliver Twist) are among his worst.

reading:

the rest is noise

long book about 20th century music

fascinating. about 100 pages in and enjoying it immensely.