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What Are You Currently Reading?


dank.sinatra

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"For about a hundred years I kept wondering what old Holden Caulfield was up to. Old Holden. Old sport. So I picked The Catcher in the Rye back up and I goddam finished it. I didn't feel like it did a whole lot for me though. And wasting all that time sure didn't feel too gorgeous. I know I'll never read it again. I swear to God I won't. That old Holden though. He kills me. He really does."

Didn't care for that one, but I'm really enjoying The Defense by Nabokov so far. Amazingly well written and flows so nicely.

Also this Men Without Women by Hemingway ... never quite know how I feel about old Papa Ernest. Seem to enjoy his short story collections but end up annoyed by his novels. Can only take him in small doses, I guess. Does anyone here really like him?

 

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7 hours ago, Svengali said:

Also this Men Without Women by Hemingway ... never quite know how I feel about old Papa Ernest. Seem to enjoy his short story collections but end up annoyed by his novels. Can only take him in small doses, I guess. Does anyone here really like him?

 

he's not exactly fashionable these days, but The Sun Also Rises is probably my all-time fav. novel

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The Lock Artist by Steve Hamilton. I think I have seven chapters left.

I've enjoyed it for the most part, but some of the chapters have been kinda slow. It does this thing where it jumps between the main character's near present life and then jumps back to his teen years in the next chapter. It's done that the entire book and the teen years haven't been as interesting.

 

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22 hours ago, Svengali said:

"For about a hundred years I kept wondering what old Holden Caulfield was up to. Old Holden. Old sport. So I picked The Catcher in the Rye back up and I goddam finished it. I didn't feel like it did a whole lot for me though. And wasting all that time sure didn't feel too gorgeous. I know I'll never read it again. I swear to God I won't. That old Holden though. He kills me. He really does."

Didn't care for that one, but I'm really enjoying The Defense by Nabokov so far. Amazingly well written and flows so nicely.

Also this Men Without Women by Hemingway ... never quite know how I feel about old Papa Ernest. Seem to enjoy his short story collections but end up annoyed by his novels. Can only take him in small doses, I guess. Does anyone here really like him?

 

A Farewell To Arms is a damn fine read. Have you enjoyed much Steinbeck? East Of Eden is likely my all-time fav...

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17 hours ago, GLASSJAW said:

he's not exactly fashionable these days, but The Sun Also Rises is probably my all-time fav. novel

You really like The Catcher in the Rye and The Sun Also Rises is probably your all-time favourite. I now know that you enjoy going out to the countryside and spending the entire time wishing you were the hell back in the city.

 

 

3 hours ago, Nuxfanabroad said:

A Farewell To Arms is a damn fine read. Have you enjoyed much Steinbeck? East Of Eden is likely my all-time fav...

Have yet to read East of Eden but I've heard nothing but love for it. Cannery Row is one of my favourites. Really like Steinbeck's style even though I've only read his short ones (Cannery/ Thursday/ The Pearl/ Red Pony/ Of Mice and Men) so far.

 

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32 minutes ago, Svengali said:

You really like The Catcher in the Rye and The Sun Also Rises is probably your all-time favourite. I now know that you enjoy going out to the countryside and spending the entire time wishing you were the hell back in the city.

 

 

Have yet to read East of Eden but I've heard nothing but love for it. Cannery Row is one of my favourites. Really like Steinbeck's style even though I've only read his short ones (Cannery/ Thursday/ The Pearl/ Red Pony/ Of Mice and Men) so far.

 

Always interested in the parallels between California's & Van's cultural/national ascendence. The novel tells us what's in store. It's set at the advent of WW1, so also matches the feel of what's in that unfortunate pipeline..Then there's the societal comparisons with changing worlds(EOE is newly car-based; ours is tech).

Lastly there's the examination of evil personified & human-weakness, in the form of a beautiful woman. Critics of the day(mid 20th C) were shocked JS would choose a beautiful young mother as the story's malevolent villain. Steinbeck apparently replied to appreciate/understand beauty & innocence, we had to get up close & contemplate the opposite extreme.

Want to read it again..it's been twenty yrs.

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^ Seems to have had quite the effect on you if it's been 20 years since you last read it. Interesting about the beautiful young mother. Certainly sounds deeper than The Pearl and The Red Pony, haha. Will definitely check it out one of these days soon.

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4 hours ago, Svengali said:

You really like The Catcher in the Rye and The Sun Also Rises is probably your all-time favourite. I now know that you enjoy going out to the countryside and spending the entire time wishing you were the hell back in the city.

 

haha, maybe. but to be fair, i haven't read Catcher in the Rye for ages and ages, and probably only read it once or twice. Sun Also Rises I've probably gone through a bunch of times over the years

i do like my country boi books too tho. mccarthy and faulkner are definitely up there

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currently reading The Goldfinch by Donna Tartt, which won the Pulitzer a couple years ago. IMO it's a very very good book but not a great one. Interesting story, fully realized characters, but it doesn't have that deep human insight quality that I expect from a book with such a pedigree. Well, still have 100 pgs left (but out of 750 total) so it could still surprise me, but I'm not expecting too much.

before this I finally got around to reading Christopher Priest's The Prestige - surprise surprise, better than the movie Nolan made out of it ten years ago. It's got a darker gothic tone, very reminiscent of Frankenstein and Dracula. Oh and the movie it turns out is just the story within the story - the book starts in modern day and looks at how the old feud has impacted the subsequent generations of the two magicians' families. A+ for the creepy cliffhanger ending.

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I've been trying to read Solitude Creek by Jeffery Deaver over the last month or few. Don't read it. If anything his books are generally easy to read, but this one is so awkwardly paced, and the tangential storylines running beside the main one don't work. I'm sure they'll tie in later, but I can't keep track, or care enough. If the book's weakest points are when it's relaying the story from the villain's POV, any kind of resolution of him being tracked down and taken care of will probably not be worth it.

The idea of trying to figure out why someone fake a fire emergency at a theatre after locking the doors is a very cool one, so I may force myself to start from the beginning and read it with some increased focus, but like I said it shouldn't be this hard. I've even read the entire series from which this stems, so there's no lack of familiarity that's holding me back.

 

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This thread reminds me that I really need to pick up on my reading. The book I'm currently reading (even though I haven't opened it in a while) is The Way of Kings by Brandon Sanderson. I'm a huge fantasy fan and I love epic, big, brick like books, which Sanderson always deliver.

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1 hour ago, ilovewinona said:

This thread reminds me that I really need to pick up on my reading. The book I'm currently reading (even though I haven't opened it in a while) is The Way of Kings by Brandon Sanderson. I'm a huge fantasy fan and I love epic, big, brick like books, which Sanderson always deliver.

This book was recommended to me.  Is it not part of a series?

 

how do you feel about it so far?

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5 hours ago, The Bookie said:

before this I finally got around to reading Christopher Priest's The Prestige - surprise surprise, better than the movie Nolan made out of it ten years ago. It's got a darker gothic tone, very reminiscent of Frankenstein and Dracula. Oh and the movie it turns out is just the story within the story - the book starts in modern day and looks at how the old feud has impacted the subsequent generations of the two magicians' families. A+ for the creepy cliffhanger ending.

i actually wasn't super big on Frankenstein OR Dracula as books (as movies or "ideas" i sure like them). just found them a bit too dry or something. i couldn't disassociate my preconceptions with what i was reading, maybe.

but again, i really liked the idea of them. the setting and tone - so maybe i should check this out

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6 hours ago, riffraff said:

This book was recommended to me.  Is it not part of a series?

 

how do you feel about it so far?

Yes, It is the fist part in the Storm Light Archive series. I have only read about 250 pages so I have a long way to go, but I really do like it. Brandon Sanderson is, in my opinion, one of the best world builders in the fantasy genre and he always comes up with unique systems of how magic is used.

If you like epic fantasy I highly recommend The Way of Kings (Sanderson as an author as well).

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