Reading thread

[Portland Dry Goods]

Just wrapped this up on a nice summer day - not sure this is the right author for a beach read but the "theoretical" dialogues between the main character and his colleagues on murder towards the end are so absurd and scary they're almost funny. Might pick up Libra for the winter.

 

[wogbog]

Started Patrick Rothfuss' The Name of the Wind but it was awful so I only made it 17 pages. Now reading The Song of Solomon by Toni Morrison and liking it.

 

[rjbman]

Awful? Sorry to hear you disliked it, it's one of my favorites (picked it up at a book sale on a whim, and it ended up being really freaking good).

Currently kinda between books at the moment, marathoned The Mongoliad (the first 3 anyways) for a book reading competition at work that I still ended up losing (dude read 11 full length novels in July, wtf). It was okay, not fantastic or anything, but I enjoyed it far more for the setting and fight scenes more than the official "plot".

 

[noob in 89]

No worries, you read eleven books in a month, you probably win something bigger than a contest. (Unless there were dollars involved. Always reap the dollars).

A thumbs-up for Whjte Noise reminds me that DeLillo's collection is one of the best things I read the last year. A mishmash of sorts, spanning decades of magazine publications, I was hesitant, I feared underwhelment, I sensed non-commitment from the author, greed from his publisher -- but, well, no. Not at all. DeLillo really excels at the genre. The stories are light but heavy, and his prose was ******* epic right out of the gate.

(Just, like, in case anyone else was hesitant or something)...

Currently mired in Gass's The Tunnel (anyone read this? thoughts?) and fearing his most gargantuan bid for eternity, thirty years in the making, is also his worst.

 

[eluther]



A thumbs-up for Whjte Noise reminds me that DeLillo's collection is one of the best things I read the last year. A mishmash of sorts, spanning decades of magazine publications, I was hesitant, I feared underwhelment, I sensed non-commitment from the author, greed from his publisher -- but, well, no. Not at all. DeLillo really excels at the genre. The stories are light but heavy, and his prose was ******* epic right out of the gate.

Currently mired in Gass's The Tunnel (anyone read this? thoughts?) and fearing his most gargantuan bid for eternity, thirty years in the making, is also his worst.

DeLillo's a favorite of mine. White Noise is amazing. One of my top 5 recommendations to anyone interested in reading. Thirded to not hesitate reading anything of his.

I haven't read The Tunnel, but I've heard nothing but praise for it – usually mentioned in the same breath as Gaddis and Pynchon, which is high praise. It sounded to me like it was more inaccessible (purposefully) and psychologically oriented, but that's just inference. Good on you for picking it up; you'll have to let us know how it's coming along.

 

[noob in 89]

It's unfortunately one of those books that's put me off reading for a couple weeks. You know the kind: you promised you'd finish it, you just can't get into it after a long day, you make forays into short stories, but nothing longer (that would be cheating).... I've watched a lot of TV this past month. I'm watching Re-animator right now (also not as good as they say!).

Anyway, The Tunnel is all those things you said, that's true....but I think it's the *way* that it is those things that bothers me. His other books are just perfection all around. The Tunnel is more like a super-conscious effort to write himself into the pantheon when he was sort of already there. Somewhere in it is a perfect book, even a big, messy sprawling masterpiece -- if only he would have cut like 30-40%. And I say this as a fan of huge books.

It doesn't help that the protagonist is pretty awful, either. Probably more awful by today's standards; there are a lot of text blocks devoted to the hatred of his wife, her expanding waistline, how he used to love effing her, now he doesn't love effing her, he is an old man now, yet he still prefers younger women, oh noes -- like Updike crawled into the wrong book and got really drunk and started making an ass of himself.

It's hard to explain, but it's like a really boring book polished almost to perfection. It's really a shame, because when he's on, he's really on.

For new readers, I'd probably recommend it before Omensetter. Much more wow factor that way.

 

[eluther]



It doesn't help that the protagonist is pretty awful, either. Probably more awful by today's standards; there are a lot of text blocks devoted to the hatred of his wife, her expanding waistline, how he used to love effing her, now he doesn't love effing her, he is an old man now, yet he still prefers younger women, oh noes -- like Updike crawled into the wrong book and got really drunk and started making an ass of himself.

The English teacher in me wants to talk about how difficult it is to make a loathsome protagonist and what that does...but I will defer to your assessment that it's kind of boring. Nothing I'm going to pick up soon anyway.

 

[LonerMatt]

Appreciating something doesn't mean enjoying it, though.

Yes, it's hard, yes that might mean there's an element of respect for the author, but damn some stuff is just dull and disinteresting - even if it's hard.

*cough* much of Moby Dick *cough*

 

[Journeyman]

I love Marquez, and if you're into Magic realism Llagos Vosa (Peruvian writer, sorry if my spelling was incorrect) wrote a little known book "The real life of Alesandro Mayata" (again, spelling may be off) - which is my favourite magic realist work.

Mario Vargas Llosa?

Yes, I really enjoy his works, too. "A Conversation in the Cathedral" was my gateway drug into South American magical realism.

 

[rjbman]

No worries, you read eleven books in a month, you probably win something bigger than a contest. (Unless there were dollars involved. Always reap the dollars).

A thumbs-up for Whjte Noise reminds me that DeLillo's collection is one of the best things I read the last year. A mishmash of sorts, spanning decades of magazine publications, I was hesitant, I feared underwhelment, I sensed non-commitment from the author, greed from his publisher -- but, well, no. Not at all. DeLillo really excels at the genre. The stories are light but heavy, and his prose was ******* epic right out of the gate.

(Just, like, in case anyone else was hesitant or something)...

Currently mired in Gass's The Tunnel (anyone read this? thoughts?) and fearing his most gargantuan bid for eternity, thirty years in the making, is also his worst.

He won a $25 Amazon gift card. Thank god I found the Mongoliad for $2 a book, otherwise probably would have spent at least that much trying to win

 

[LonerMatt]

Mario Vargas Llosa?

Yes, I really enjoy his works, too. "A Conversation in the Cathedral" was my gateway drug into South American magical realism.

I never really got into that one - just like War at the End of the World is was a bit too tome-like for me.

 

[The Ernesto]



Also one of my all time faves.

Underworld is also a panoramic epic for me.

 

[wogbog]

Finished Beckett's Molloy. It had a consistent unique thing going on but was a bit of a slog. Gonna read Martin Amis' The Information before I go on with the trilogy.

 

[eluther]



Finished Beckett's Molloy. It had a consistent unique thing going on but was a bit of a slog. Gonna read Martin Amis' The Information before I go on with the trilogy.

worthless post but god damn I love Beckett

 

[greenmachine]

The Unnamable is an all-timer