Reading thread

[dan138zig]



These are good.

Alternatively, go to your local bookstore, go the mystery section, and pick up the most interesting books with Scandinavian authors.

thanks, seems like you know a lot about this stuff.

For a very long time, short stories were seen as the artistic side of prose, and novels were considered fluff. Grapes of Wrath is a good example where most of the character-driven chapters are just disguised short fiction and can be read independently. If you've never read Junot Diaz he'd be a good place to start for some newer stuff. His pulitzer winning novel is a good place to start...

ok, I just bought this oscar wao book. I've always perceived it as just another coming of age novel, but let's see now.

I also bought gone girl and raymond chandler's lady in the lake. anyone has opinion about them?

 

[Exdeath]

So I've been reading How The Other Half Lives.


Jesus, was everyone in the 19th century this racist as all hell?

 

[LonerMatt]

Finished re-reading the Watchmen.

Everything is great about that novel. Everything. It's such a triumph of excellence. If you disagree you confuse me.

Also - the incredibly picky person who asked for recommendations then ignored everyone's is a silly man. Also, Name of the Wind is a fantasy novel about wizards and dragons, not a self-help book.

 

[Working Stiff]

I read David Markson"s Ballad of Dingus Magee in an afternoon a few days ago & it's a great page-turner.
now going to go pick up vol 2 of Knausgaard's My Struggle

 

[dan138zig]



Finished re-reading the Watchmen.

Everything is great about that novel. Everything. It's such a triumph of excellence. If you disagree you confuse me.

Also - the incredibly picky person who asked for recommendations then ignored everyone's is a silly man. Also, Name of the Wind is a fantasy novel about wizards and dragons, not a self-help book.

Errr no, I bought oscar wao and the terror based on the recommendations here. And I took the time to read some reviews and quotes from name of the wind

 

[LonerMatt]

Review of Captains Courageous

Ruyard Kipling tells a relatively predictable story of a young spoiled man finding himself on a working class boat without a chance of escape. Luckily he grows up. So much 1900s sea-faring prose that it's basically a story of sailors talking **** bookended by a boy losing then re-uniting with his family. This summary is more interesting than the story.

That being said: Kipling's rare, in this text, moments of reckless abandon with his prose are glorious - an example:

"The sea round them clouded and darkened, and then frizzed up in showers of tiny silver fish, and over a space of five or six acres the cod began to leap ike trout in May; while, behind the cod, three or four broad grey-black backs broke the water into boils. Then everybody shouted and tried to haul up his anchor to get among the school, and fouled up his neighbour's line and said what was in his heart, and dipped furiously ith his dip-net, and shrieked cautions and advice to his companions while he deep fizzed like freshly-opened soda-water, and cod, men, and whalestogether flung in upon the luckless bait."

 

[GraphicNovelty]

Finished Ana Karenina

This book was awesome. Tolstoy nails human emotions and characterization so well--ideas like "screw this intellectual life, I'll just be a farmer or something that'll be so simple", or "dammit someone at my leftovers" or just generally feeling awkward and socially anxious when making small talk make the book seem super modern even though it takes place in 1870's Russia. You'll often find yourself going "yeah I totally know someone like that" or "oh man i've totally been there".

The other interesting thing about the book is that it's about two very different characters (Levin and Anna) who share a social circle but otherwise don't really interact. The two tangent but not really intersecting narratives do a good job of break up the monotony of a really long book (both main characters are not the most likeable people, so it's nice to take a break from each of them).

 

[wogbog]



"oh man i've totally been there".

I got a ton of that out of Anna Karanina too. Tolstoy puts plausible feelings into simple language like no other.

 

[dan138zig]

how many here can finish at least one book a month?

 

[iroq]

^ pretty easily. I take public transportation to and from work everyday. Each trip takes me 35mins.
So my daily read is about an hour 10 mins. And weekends I spend a little longer.

Im done with most mid length books with that.

Im re-reading 1Q84 now, that takes a little more than a month

 

[momentoftruth]

I read about a book per week, up from 10-12/year a couple of years ago. Coincidentally, that corresponds to me dropping cable and making an effort to read more. It's not that though once you get in the rhythm

 

[dan138zig]

man, I'm jealous. might have something to do with my ADD though..

 

[fireflygrave]

If work doesn't get too busy, 2-3 a month. I've been lazy lately though, still reading Savage Detectives

 

[GraphicNovelty]

I used to average a book a month but then I read Gravity's Rainbow and followed it up with Ana Karenina. (I take the subway everywhere and will always have my kindle on me. At least an hour of commuting a day.)

If i'm reading creative nonfiction or something I usually will scarf that down in like 2-3 weeks.

 

[momentoftruth]

How are you liking it? I thought it was a "better" book than 2666 but I gotta say I enjoyed reading the latter much more (despite the grisly murder victim descriptions). His shorter novels are great too. Really liked Distant Star