Reading thread

[GraphicNovelty]

I loved Oscar wao. After you should read This is how you lose her.

Just started the Yiddish policeman's union and I'm enjoying it immensely. This thread really is in line with my tastes

 

[LonerMatt]

I loved Oscar wao. After you should read This is how you lose her.

Just started the Yiddish policeman's union and I'm enjoying it immensely. This thread really is in line with my tastes

Yes.

 

[pickpackpockpuck]

I read Kavalier and Clay after reading this Chabon essay in the New Yorker back in 2008. I thought Kavalier and Clay was ok, but the essay is still a favorite. Seriously, check it out. It's so good.
http://michaelchabon.blogspot.com/2008/12/secret-skin-essay-in-unitard-theory.html?m=1

 

[Portland Dry Goods]

Starting the Wizard & The Glass (or the fourth installment of the Dark Tower series, for those more familliar with numbers than names).


Also picked up this gem which is begging me to revisit an old favorite:

 

[artishard116]

that might be my fav dark tower installment. you're in for a treat.

 

[LonerMatt]

Here's some thoughts I have about 'Rainbows End', which I finished earlier in the week: a novel about a former poet (Robert) who suffers from alzeihmer's disease. A cure is invented and he is restored - but he now has to try and navigate a world he barely understands that doesn't care about his art, his reputation or his value.

Unfortunately, this excellent premise for a story is muddled up by an overbearing, somewhat ridiculous doomsday scenario involving intelligence services, ghost-in-the-shell type personality manipulation and general bullshit. I am thoroughly pissed off that what promised (and started) as an amazing book with near infinite potential to genuinely create something beautiful turned into a schizophrenic mess of plot holes, tangents, sloppy characters and dis-interesting technological bollocks.

This writing just isn't grown up enough for his own thematic genius.

Frown. Town.

 

[ManofKent]

Standing in Another Man's Grave - Ian Rankin

Not his best Rebus novel, but I'm glad he's brought him out of retirement. The Fox books weren't bad, but Rebus is a much stronger character.

 

[Im Twelve]

I am currently reading "Deng Xiaoping and the Transformation of China". It's a great biography so far, I would definitely recommend it to anyone interested in East Asia or 20th century history.

 

[feinschmecker]

http://imageshack.us/photo/my-images/22/12b3.jpg/

Paris in the 1920s – dizzy and decadent. Where a young man can make a fortune with his wits … unless he is led into temptation. Cocaine’s dandified hero Tito Arnaudi invents lurid scandals and gruesome deaths, and sells these stories to the newspapers. But his own life becomes even more outrageous than his press reports when he acquires three demanding mistresses. Elegant, witty and wicked, Pitigrilli’s classic novel was first published in Italian in 1921 and charts the comedy and tragedy of a young man’s downfall and the lure of a bygone era. The novel’s descriptions of sex and drug use prompted church authorities to place it on a list of forbidden books, while appealing to filmmaker Rainer Werner Fassbinder who wrote a script based on the tale. Cocaine retains its venom even today.

newvesselpress.com/books/cocaine/



 

[feinschmecker]

Here's a great novel that's been out of print for some time:

Paris in the 1920s – dizzy and decadent. Where a young man can make a fortune with his wits … unless he is led into temptation. Cocaine’s dandified hero Tito Arnaudi invents lurid scandals and gruesome deaths, and sells these stories to the newspapers. But his own life becomes even more outrageous than his press reports when he acquires three demanding mistresses. Elegant, witty and wicked, Pitigrilli’s classic novel was first published in Italian in 1921 and charts the comedy and tragedy of a young man’s downfall and the lure of a bygone era. The novel’s descriptions of sex and drug use prompted church authorities to place it on a list of forbidden books, while appealing to filmmaker Rainer Werner Fassbinder who wrote a script based on the tale. Cocaine retains its venom even today.

newvesselpress.com/books/cocaine/

 

[kashmir]

finally... finished The Great Gatsby. really... why do people insist on adapting this book into cinema format...?

 

[Distorbiant]

finally... finished The Great Gatsby. really... why do people insist on adapting this book into cinema format...?

$

 

[mer6]

Snow Crash was great.

I'm a hundred pages in and it's halted my progress A Storm of Swords. They're both fantastic (but everyone seems to be in agreeal that the ASOIAF books are great and they're so popular right now that they don't need another testimonial).

Anyways, it's incredible to see how Stephenson has portrayed technology in his dystopian future compared to how it is (it was published in 1993 for reference). I chuckled a little when there was some character salivation about screens that were 2k pixels wide. That's roughly the standard now.

 

[chinesealpha]

Anathem was good too. ****, everything he writes is entertaining.

 

[LonerMatt]

Stephenson is great. Diamond Age was highly entertaining, as was Cryptonomicon (but it's HUGE).