Uhmm. I don't know, still haven't read that one (I don't know why). I'd say start with The Sun Also Rises or The Old Man and the Sea

Great read. The title makes it appear interesting to most folks, and the inside is filled with evolutionary, physiological, and cultural anthropological information that I find fascinating.

Plus it is written at a level that you don't need a background in science to read.



I think my next trip to boarders will involve me picking up a fiction book of sorts, I think the past two years have been just text books, scientific books, and historical books. It is time to mix it up and get a book that is story driven.

got it from the library today

good book

finished
very easy read

hemingway's got a very interesting writing style. it's very minimalistic. and nothing really happens. at least in "fiesta: the sun also rises". i suppose he leaves it to the reader to "feel" the character as opposed to describing characters feelings and making it all phylosophical and such.

i really liked the part at the very end where Jake is on his own staying at the hotel. and how he goes to the beach. sits at the cafe. i really liked that. hemingway is kind of giving actions behind the emotions without describing emotions. and he does it in such a way that you really feel them, i think.

not sure if i want to read more hemingway next though. but i'll definitely get some more of his books some time later.

would anyone recommend reading Toni Morrisson?

Yeah, he really shows his journalistic background and tends to stay factual.

that doesn't sound too interesting. journalism...

need to pick something to read.

Beloved is practically a necessity for cultural literacy . . . and a really good read!

I've also read Song of Solomon, and would recommend that as well.

I've had several people who know me well, including two ex-girlfriends, say that they immediately thought of me while reading this book. I'm three chapters in and mesmerized:

so, yeah, i went to the library to check out "beloved" and on the title it said: "now, with a movie version, starring, oprah whinfrey"

Just started this, but man, this takes me back.

Got home from school last night and this was waiting for me.

Haven't had a chance to test any recipes (obviously), but it is a beautiful book, full of lovely photos and illustrations.
Lots of essays and reflections from Jacques, as well. Any fan should pick it up.

That's generally the kiss of death, but it's still an interesting book. God, I hate it when Oprah and I like the same thing, though.

Hard Case Crime Series

Good stuff.

I read the Westlake, King and one other.

about to finish reading this one. not enjoing it as much as i thought i would, cos he spends most of the time talking about his work in theatre. and i don't care much about his theatre. i was hoping for some isights into his films, interesting stories about shootings and actors. but he's very limitted on that sort of information. he writes a lot about his childhood and his parents, which gives you a certain insight into his films, but i got most of it from an interview i watched with him, which was on "wild strawberries" criterion dvd as an extra feature.

and, man, these artist people and thier wives! it's like they go through 48 marriages and have 78 kids in a time span of 7 years. crazy. but i suppose that's how their "world" works.

and i also got a book of essays and criticism on Bergman's films.

i have always wanted to read this as an adult. I mean I sort of enjoyed it during middle school, but i wonder how good it is, now that I am out of my "angsty" phase.

most of my friends who read it for the first time as adults, hated it. i could see that happening.

finished it.
can't say i hated it. what's the reason to hate it, anyway? it was a failry easy and enjoyable read.

i thought it was gonna be more challenging existential type read, but it turned out into a story about a little dumb kid. kind of reminded me of "lord of the flies", in a way that i'm not particulalry impressed by the way these "big" issues like alienation and social unacceptance are placed into the heads of these little kids. it doesn't achieve the desired effect in this way, i think.

I read this first in high school, and of course thought it was practically speaking to me. Yeah, you think, all adults are phonies and I'm a confued little fuck too.

But then like 5 or 6 years ago, George Will wrote a column for Newsweek that marked an anniversary for the book. He wrote about how, a little like The Graduate, the character had not aged well over time. So sure enough, I pick it up again, and for 200-some pages I'm saying, "Stop whining you little shit. You've got your whole life ahead of you."

It really is just a simple story of a kid growing up, and missing his dead little brother, and being a clever little smartass.

What really sucks about Catcher is that Mark David Chapman was trying to live out the book in the time leading up to his murder of John Lennon. I've never been able to read the damn thing because of that.

Reading it as an adult you can see that Holden is not supposed to be a very likeable character. Taken that way it's still great. Salinger pioneered and codified a sort of whiny woe-is-me adolescence that's still around. Read Salinger's Nine Stories. It's brilliant.

Tony, how stoned is Billy Joel in your Avatar picture? He looks like he's gone completely wall eyed and his expression was caught just as he went from the shocked realization that he's pissed himself & giving over to the pleasure of finally taking that piss.

That's the cover of the 1973 major label debut. Typical West Coast early 1970s laid back groove I guess.

If it came out today...

some people here were recommending Pynchon. so i got that. and i also decided to read some more Hemingway. these 2 books look rather short.


[ <--- me after reading the 1st chapter of "crying of lot 49"]

HAHA!

Pynchon is fucking crazy! He's also amazing.

crying of lot 49 is the only pynchon i've ever had the nerve to read (other than slow learner), and it's great from start to finish.

i mean how many other books could get away with having a character who developed drugs for the nazis named dr. hilarius?

love it.
just finished fargo rock city and i fucking love him.
fargo was a disappiontment but i still loved it.



how is this? will it save my life?

I read the first ten pages or so in the bookstore and was hooked.


reunited at long last with the master.

I'm going to see if I can find this tomorrow. I'll be spending over eight hours on planes between Tuesday and Thursday, and though I have many unread books, this sounds pretty amazing. Seems like the local Barnes and Noble stores are out... I'll have to venture into Borders territory for this one, mayhaps.

I love the return to these old pulpy Paperback covers, the art was about the scariest I knew as a Teen:

There was one that I'm not finding that gave me the Heebie Jeebies, it was of a Man's bald head with the skin gone blue, the lower half of the face torn off & the skin hanging down in ragged tatters that diddn't quite cover the upper teeth & jaw, the eyes rolled back into the head and the whole thing topped with a crown of jagged broken glass. I'll post it if I ever find it.

I picked up The People of Paper and this:



I've read a fantastic baseball book on each of my last two flight-heavy trips, so this looks to continue that trend. I didn't want to pop the cash on yet another book (I have plenty still unread), but I kept skimming through it and the stuff is really fascinating.

Lovecraft has an LOA edition which is supposed to be the best single volume of his best work:

oh yeah, that edition is fantastic! my library has it.

He's one of my favorite authors to read before going to sleep; the largely nocturnal and dreamlike settings coupled with his one of a kind verboseness puts me in slumber land. Many dismiss his work as dated but they are missing the point, his strangely winded tone is part of the appeal for me. It adds to the overall grotesqueness of the stories.

Yet another selection for my History of Russia Since 1917 class (one of the best classes I have taken)



Hey Artem, what are your thoughts on Lot 49? Are you a fan?

i'm finishing it
and still hella confused. but it's good. i do hope though that there's some sort of explanation to the way it's written in the end. sort of like with "brekfast for champions". although i think it was explain in the begining. maybe. can't remember now.


(never read anything by solzhenicin in my life. i feel like he's much more popular outside of russia)

by the way, if you're interested in russian history, you should definitely try to find some stuff out about the pre soviet stuff. all the monarchs and such. i like it much better. even though i studied it in the us

For a class, of course, but I'm charmed.
I think he may be one of my favorite men.

Throw this one at your Prof and then Laugh:"Pravda nyet Ivestia, Ivestia nyet Pravda."

To get the clauses right pronounce it this way 'V pravedeh' nyetu Isvestia ee V'Isevste'eh nyetu Pravda'

finished this
maybe i need to find some info on it other than the wikipedia stuff, but to me it felt like pynchon's writing style here was tricky for the sake of being tricky. and they say that it's his easiest novel?!

they mention faulkener and vonnegut next to pynchon name, but i think when you read theirs "puzzling" writing, there's some kind of reason behind it. and i didn't feel that reason with pynchon. to me it was just a fairly amusing detective-like story with an interesting history twist to it. it was rather funny in parts though.

maybe i'm not that big on post-modernist writing.


on to hemingway

Just got a shitload of books.






and



which I think I'm going to return for this:

By the way....saw this guy do a reading from this book last night in Milwaukee.

He's in Chicago tomorrow night. Highly recommended.

Just finished this last night. Awesome.


Then I find out today as OF Today that it's now an Oprah Book? Crazy.

rather liked this one.
i thought the whole man/sea juxtaposition was gonna be a overdramatic, but it really played out well particulalry in the end of the book.


anybody wanna suggest me a book to read next?