October 16, 200718 yr Author I'm about halfway through The Watchmen. Funny you say that... Im halfway through also, have to read it for class... I actually have to come up with a thesis about the book and then write a paper about it... Been thinking about it for days... cant seem to come up with something I can write a solid 10 pgs about.. You have Bentley-Baker. He talks about your class all the time. I can't imagine him assigning a 10 page assignment. Watchmen is great. A little overrated but great.
October 16, 200718 yr I need to find my copy of the Phantom Tollbooth and reread that. That is a great book.
October 16, 200718 yr I just finished The Raw Shark Texts, it was a book that was getting a lot of hype, but I didn't think it was that great. The second half was really cliche and kind of boring. Next up is I,Lucifer thanks to a recommendation in the chat thread by I think the Bobs? Like others in this thread, I read way too much. What did you think of Lucifer?
October 16, 200718 yr I just finished The Raw Shark Texts, it was a book that was getting a lot of hype, but I didn't think it was that great. The second half was really cliche and kind of boring. Next up is I,Lucifer thanks to a recommendation in the chat thread by I think the Bobs? Like others in this thread, I read way too much. What did you think of Lucifer? I got about a chapter through, and to be honest it was just not my cup of tea at the moment. I might have to revisit it at another time. This thread did get a much needed bump though, as I just finished The Brothers Karamazov and I can now truly say that that book plus Fyodor Dostoevsky is >>>>>> Than everything else in anything else. I am truly convinced that Dostoevsky was a prophet and his writings are higher than any human could ever accomplish. (I am depressed though now because I felt this even while reading it), I'll never encounter a work of art as in depth and perfect as this again. No book, song, movie will ever compare. What's the point? I've yet to find the perfect movie, but I found the perfect book. ??. And I seem to have such strength in me now, that I think I could stand anything, any suffering, only to be able to say and repeat to myself every moment, ?I exist.? In thousands of agonies?I exist. I?m tormented on the rack?but I exist! Though I sit alone on a pillar?I exist! I see the sun, and if I don?t see the sun, I know it?s there. And there?s a whole life in that, in knowing that the sun is there. Alyosha, my angel, all these philosophies are the death of me. Damn them!?
October 16, 200718 yr I recently finished Good Omens: The Nice and Accurate Prophecies of Agnes Nutter, Witch. Great book, extremely funny read. I'm working my way through Fortress of Solitude by Johnathan Lethem, a brilliant story about two kids growing up in brooklyn in the 70's. I'm about halfway through, and it's beautifully written. Captures childhood perfectly. My bathroom book is IV by Chuck Klosterman, a series of essays and interviews he's done over the last 10 years. My break book (for when I want to read, but don't want either) is About A Boy by Nick Hornby. One of the most underrated films of the decade, and one of the better books of the last few years as well.
October 16, 200718 yr I've been getting back into some classics recently. Tale of Two Cities, The Old Man and the Sea, Catcher in the Rye, and I just started Les Miserables.
October 17, 200718 yr I'm about halfway through The Watchmen. Funny you say that... Im halfway through also, have to read it for class... I actually have to come up with a thesis about the book and then write a paper about it... Been thinking about it for days... cant seem to come up with something I can write a solid 10 pgs about.. You have Bentley-Baker. He talks about your class all the time. I can't imagine him assigning a 10 page assignment. Watchmen is great. A little overrated but great. Yea I have him, 2nd time Ive taken him... Not sure what to write about...
October 17, 200718 yr I've been getting back into some classics recently. Tale of Two Cities, The Old Man and the Sea, Catcher in the Rye, and I just started Les Miserables. So basically you used my 9th grade English syllabus to find some reading material.
October 17, 200718 yr about halfway through "Hard-Boiled Wonderland and The End of the World" by Murikami. love it.
October 17, 200718 yr currently reading: "Post Office" by Bukowski next up: "Hard-Boiled Wonderland and the End of the World" by Murakami hahahahaha. i just saw i posed this 5 months ago. took a bit longer to get to this than i thought. in between i got to "Millennium" by Sinclair, "Getting Even" by Woody Allen, and most of "Our Band Could Be Your Life"
October 20, 200718 yr I'm working my way through Fortress of Solitude by Johnathan Lethem, a brilliant story about two kids growing up in brooklyn in the 70's. I'm about halfway through, and it's beautifully written. Captures childhood perfectly. And it really falls off once it gets out childhood. But man, the first 300 pages or so are f***ing incredible. Hopefully it'll pick back up
October 22, 200718 yr I've been getting back into some classics recently. Tale of Two Cities, The Old Man and the Sea, Catcher in the Rye, and I just started Les Miserables. So basically you used my 9th grade English syllabus to find some reading material. Yeah, I'm pretty sure almost everyone here has read most of these at one point or another, particularly in middle school but I've been throughly enjoying reading them again now that I can appreciate them for what they are.
October 23, 200718 yr I'm working my way through Fortress of Solitude by Johnathan Lethem, a brilliant story about two kids growing up in brooklyn in the 70's. I'm about halfway through, and it's beautifully written. Captures childhood perfectly. And it really falls off once it gets out childhood. But man, the first 300 pages or so are f***ing incredible. Hopefully it'll pick back up I've read two of Lethem's earlier books, Gun, With Occasional Music and Amnesia Moon...I may have mentioned the first earlier in this thread but I don't feel like checking. Both are sort of dystopia sci-fi novels (which would probably surprise you more than anyone, as I've heard that Fortress of Solitude and Motherless Brooklyn, Lethem's most popular books, are 180 degrees different, and why I haven't chosen to read them). I really liked Gun a lot, it's basically a detective novel that in an off-hand way describes a future where your freedom is entirely at the will of the government, who can give or take away "karma points" at any time, where questions of any sort are completely forbidden, and where drug use is encouraged as a way of erasing your memory. Amnesia Moon was just a bit too...out there. It was written earlier and a couple of the same concepts of the future seem to come up here as well, but the story itself seemed to be a bit aimless and the book just seemed to end without only the slightest bit of explanation and no real resolution. Sure it's keeping in tone with the rest of the novel, but it ended up being a little frustrating. I'm about to start reading Day Watch by Sergei Lukyanenko, the second book in a four-part series about warring groups of vampires (while technically there is a "light" and a "dark" side, both are morally ambiguous...in fact, in personal philosophy I probably would agree with the views of the "dark" side more.) There are movies based on the series as well...in Russian, subtitled or dubbed in English...though it's a bit confusing because each book contains multiple connected stories, and while the first book is called Night Watch, the movie contains only a portion of the book. The second movie is called Day Watch like the second book, even though the plot of the movie is actually also a story from the first book. (I hope that made sense).
October 23, 200718 yr I'm working my way through Fortress of Solitude by Johnathan Lethem, a brilliant story about two kids growing up in brooklyn in the 70's. I'm about halfway through, and it's beautifully written. Captures childhood perfectly. And it really falls off once it gets out childhood. But man, the first 300 pages or so are f***ing incredible. Hopefully it'll pick back up I've read two of Lethem's earlier books, Gun, With Occasional Music and Amnesia Moon...I may have mentioned the first earlier in this thread but I don't feel like checking. Both are sort of dystopia sci-fi novels (which would probably surprise you more than anyone, as I've heard that Fortress of Solitude and Motherless Brooklyn, Lethem's most popular books, are 180 degrees different, and why I haven't chosen to read them). I really liked Gun a lot, it's basically a detective novel that in an off-hand way describes a future where your freedom is entirely at the will of the government, who can give or take away "karma points" at any time, where questions of any sort are completely forbidden, and where drug use is encouraged as a way of erasing your memory. Amnesia Moon was just a bit too...out there. It was written earlier and a couple of the same concepts of the future seem to come up here as well, but the story itself seemed to be a bit aimless and the book just seemed to end without only the slightest bit of explanation and no real resolution. Sure it's keeping in tone with the rest of the novel, but it ended up being a little frustrating. Actually, it's not too surprising. Fortress has some sci-fi fantasy elements, including his father working as a sci fi novel illustrator, and the main character becoming a superhero.
October 24, 200718 yr Do books on tape count? I've started listening to books on tape during my commute in and out of work every morning. It's WAY better than listening to crap radio. Right now, I'm on chapter 109 of "Angels and Demons." I have "I am America (and So can You)" lined up for my next book. I'm also reading something called "The 4 Hour Work Week" but the guy is basically an admitted BS artist. I'll have to read a little further, but so far I'm giving this thing a thumbs down.
November 5, 200718 yr Has Anyone here read No Country for Old Men by Cormac McCarthy? The Coen brothers made a movie adaptation of it that comes out soon that looks fantastic and I was wondering if anyone liked/knew the source material. I'm thinking of buying it off Amazon soon.
November 5, 200718 yr Author Has Anyone here read No Country for Old Men by Cormac McCarthy? The Coen brothers made a movie adaptation of it that comes out soon that looks fantastic and I was wondering if anyone liked/knew the source material. I'm thinking of buying it off Amazon soon. Finished it today. Some parts are excellent. Chigurh is a badass in the book (I heard he is equally as badass in the movie). I got chills reading some of the stuff he did. The Sheriff Bell character was a drag to read sometimes. It's a very fast read and I recommend it. Can't wait to see what the Coens do with this. The book in many ways feels like a movie. I'll let you judge that one by yourself. Money. Drugs. Deaths. Chigurh.
November 6, 200718 yr I just ordered it, I should have it done before I want to see the film. Thanks for your comments/recommendation. :thumbup
November 7, 200718 yr Has Anyone here read No Country for Old Men by Cormac McCarthy? The Coen brothers made a movie adaptation of it that comes out soon that looks fantastic and I was wondering if anyone liked/knew the source material. I'm thinking of buying it off Amazon soon. Finished it today. Some parts are excellent. Chigurh is a badass in the book (I heard he is equally as badass in the movie). I got chills reading some of the stuff he did. The Sheriff Bell character was a drag to read sometimes. It's a very fast read and I recommend it. Can't wait to see what the Coens do with this. The book in many ways feels like a movie. I'll let you judge that one by yourself. Money. Drugs. Deaths. Chigurh. It's excellent. Very fast, not quite as affecting as Blood Meridian turned out to be, but, still, great stuff. Ed Tom Bell was the moral center of the book and is THE vital character to the story. I guess we just interpreted it differently. It's something you can read a few times. I loved it.
November 7, 200718 yr Author Has Anyone here read No Country for Old Men by Cormac McCarthy? The Coen brothers made a movie adaptation of it that comes out soon that looks fantastic and I was wondering if anyone liked/knew the source material. I'm thinking of buying it off Amazon soon. Finished it today. Some parts are excellent. Chigurh is a badass in the book (I heard he is equally as badass in the movie). I got chills reading some of the stuff he did. The Sheriff Bell character was a drag to read sometimes. It's a very fast read and I recommend it. Can't wait to see what the Coens do with this. The book in many ways feels like a movie. I'll let you judge that one by yourself. Money. Drugs. Deaths. Chigurh. It's excellent. Very fast, not quite as affecting as Blood Meridian turned out to be, but, still, great stuff. Ed Tom Bell was the moral center of the book and is THE vital character to the story. I guess we just interpreted it differently. It's something you can read a few times. I loved it. » Click to show Spoiler - click again to hide... « You didn't feel that that dialogue towards Ed Tom and Ellis towards at the end felt a little forced? I could done without that chapter and still come out with the same conclusion. I don't know. I would have wanted more shoot 'em up action than the obligatory morality tale on our changing society.
December 2, 200718 yr I've been re-reading Chuck Palaniuk's disco Started with Survivor and just finished that today...my second favorite of his behind Fight Club. So much awesomely funny social commentary. Bill Hicks in a book. Next up: Choke :mischief It's too bad he really changed though, from Lullaby-up. I haven't read much of his latest material. But his first few novels man, awesome stuff.
December 3, 200718 yr Gomorrah by Roberto Saviano The guy's life is being threatened for writing this "Novel" on the organized crime in Naples. I saw it yesterday at Barnes and Noble, but I am waiting for my copy in italian to start reading it.
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