What Are You Currently Reading?

[The Bookie]

On 12/10/2016 at 9:35 PM, GLASSJAW said:

https://newrepublic.com/minutes/137755/heres-fun-rumor-nobel-prize-literature

 

not sure there's any weight to this, but a slight "rumour" (joke?) that DeLilo and Roth will BOTH be awarded the Nobel prize for literature tomorrow.

 

i've never read anything by DeLillo, but I love Roth. as indifferent as I am to the Nobel prize, I think it would be cool to see him win. 

Read a couple be Delillo a ways back, Jones Street and White Noise, but I didn't get the hype. They were alright but no motivation to read any more. If I were to try another probably Underworld, that's the one I've heard the most praise for.

 

 

Currently I'm reading the Souther Reach trilogy - weird, too weird to try to explain, but from the  New Yorker review:

 

Quote

 

The Southern Reach novels take place in a landscape that combines the marshes of Florida with the islands of Vancouver. There, decades ago, an inexplicable environmental change occurred. A large swath of land and sea, encompassing a town, an island, and two lighthouses, was sealed behind an invisible and largely impenetrable barrier. The authorities called the enclosed territory Area X. Inside it, nature shifted. It grew wild and pristine, dense and fertile—improbably pure, as though nature had said “Enough!” and reclaimed itself.

Teams of explorers are sent into Area X. They find that the nature there is strange. The purple thistles seem unnaturally eager. The sky is too full of birds; the long grass is teeming with little red grasshoppers. Everything is too alive. The explorers feel watched by things—plants, the sky—that can’t actually watch; in a paranoid moment, one of them suggests that all of Area X could be camouflage for a single, diffuse living process or thing. Over the course of many expeditions, it becomes clear that Area X is, in a subtle way, wrong. And, also, that it has an effect on people: it alienates them from themselves and, eventually, kills or transforms them. No one knows how; the few researchers to return from Area X remember almost nothing about it. But everyone who travels there feels the potential for change. 

 

 

[GLASSJAW]

25 minutes ago, The Bookie said:

Read a couple be Delillo a ways back, Jones Street and White Noise, but I didn't get the hype. They were alright but no motivation to read any more. If I were to try another probably Underworld, that's the one I've heard the most praise for.

I haven't read a page of DeLillo that I remember, and that's because almost every person I know who has basically says what you're saying here. So I just never bothered. I remember this one dude I knew loved White Noise, but he was ridiculously good looking so I just assumed his judgment was poor, as an excessively good looking person's judgment often is

[Svengali]

Finished reading The Sound and the Fury last night after putting it down for a few weeks. Without a doubt the greatest book I have ever disliked.
It's actually a two-in-one with As I Lay Dying being the second half of the book, but I need a break from Southern depression for at least a few months.

 

Now doing the usual dance between multiple books until one grabs me and I stick with it. One of them is by Mordecai Richler who I've never read before, possibly in for some Quebec Jewish depression. Does anyone here like him? And GJ, I also picked up Introduction to Scientology Ethics, sounds like a fantastic idea.

[GLASSJAW]

18 hours ago, Svengali said:

Finished reading The Sound and the Fury last night after putting it down for a few weeks. Without a doubt the greatest book I have ever disliked.
It's actually a two-in-one with As I Lay Dying being the second half of the book, but I need a break from Southern depression for at least a few months.

 

Now doing the usual dance between multiple books until one grabs me and I stick with it. One of them is by Mordecai Richler who I've never read before, possibly in for some Quebec Jewish depression. Does anyone here like him? And GJ, I also picked up Introduction to Scientology Ethics, sounds like a fantastic idea.

never read any Richler myself, but the movie adaptation of Barney's Version was pretty damn good, IIRC. worth checking out if you want some Jewish depression in cinematic form

 

I put down the Alan Moore book, which remains bitterly disappointing, and picked up a quick halloween read: CHELSEA HORROR HOTEL by... Dee Dee Ramone.

 

it is, quite possibly, the worst novel I have ever read. 

[Master 112]

Moonwalking with Einstein. It's a book about memory and memory training. It's written by a guy who won the US memory championship or something and follows his path to the achievement. It sounds super gimmicky/self-helpish, but it's quite well researched and shows exactly how people develop their memories to compete in these competitions. If anyone has a free weekend, I'd give it a read. It's neat.

[SaintPatrick33]

11 hours ago, One one two said:

Moonwalking with Einstein. It's a book about memory and memory training. It's written by a guy who won the US memory championship or something and follows his path to the achievement. It sounds super gimmicky/self-helpish, but it's quite well researched and shows exactly how people develop their memories to compete in these competitions. If anyone has a free weekend, I'd give it a read. It's neat.

 

In real life, you are probably a genius. You are a student of many great philosophers and now you provide this example. 

 

Just wondering why you do not have a pic of Hannah Arendtt anymore

[Master 112]

12 hours ago, SaintPatrick33 said:

 

In real life, you are probably a genius. You are a student of many great philosophers and now you provide this example. 

 

Just wondering why you do not have a pic of Hannah Arendtt anymore

I agree.

 

And I still have an avatar of Hannah Arendtt. She's just hidden behind a curtain in a barely-lit room.

[Kragar]

On 10/22/2016 at 7:04 PM, One one two said:

Moonwalking with Einstein. It's a book about memory and memory training. It's written by a guy who won the US memory championship or something and follows his path to the achievement. It sounds super gimmicky/self-helpish, but it's quite well researched and shows exactly how people develop their memories to compete in these competitions. If anyone has a free weekend, I'd give it a read. It's neat.

I poked my virtual head in here a couple days ago, and saw your post.  Sounded interesting, and I have the book out from the library.  Only just started, but the topic is intriguing, and I look forward to reading this.  Thanks for the recommendation.

 

Maybe the book addresses this, but I wonder if there is any irony to be found, since Einstein has been attributed with saying something to the effect of not memorizing something you can easily look up.

 

I remember seeing something on late night TV years ago, that was teaching people to square and cube roots in your head.  Mental gymnastic stuff like this always appealed to me.

[Moonshinefe]

1984! We're already half way there guys.

[Svengali]

Nice lazy day with some nice lazy characters:

 

 

(bonus naked thumb action)

[GLASSJAW]

i read that 'portrait of the artist as a young dog' by dylan thomas. it was pretty good, but not really my thing. 

[Svengali]

31 minutes ago, GLASSJAW said:

i read that 'portrait of the artist as a young dog' by dylan thomas. it was pretty good, but not really my thing. 

Hmm, I recently bought "Adventures in the Skin Trade" by Thomas but haven't read it yet. Have you?

The title alone deserves another pic of my naked thumb when I start it.

Edited November 22, 2016 by Svengali

[GLASSJAW]

4 minutes ago, Svengali said:

Hmm, I recently bought "Adventures in the Skin Trade" by Thomas but haven't read it yet. Have you?

The title alone deserves another pic of my naked thumb when I start it.

(also prefer Charlie and Linus to Thelonious)

i'm not familiar with Thomas at all, minus Young Dog and maybe 2 or 3 poems I had to read forever ago. I was really hoping I'd love it, but his style just seems a little too dense with virtually no pay off for me.

 

I have no idea what Skin Trade is, but it sounds sorta sexy

 

Edited November 22, 2016 by GLASSJAW

[Svengali]

I'm not familiar with him either. It's a collection of short stories plus an unfinished novel (which is where the title comes from). From a quick little peak it seems pretty funny.

(and you quoted me right before the edit, ha. Oh well, what I erased is the truth, just seemed unnecessary to say it in this thread or something ...)

 

 

[GLASSJAW]

hehe

[Svengali]

10 minutes ago, GLASSJAW said:

hehe

 

 

[Svengali]

On 2016-11-21 at 4:29 PM, GLASSJAW said:

i'm not familiar with Thomas at all, minus Young Dog and maybe 2 or 3 poems I had to read forever ago. I was really hoping I'd love it, but his style just seems a little too dense with virtually no pay off for me.

 

I have no idea what Skin Trade is, but it sounds sorta sexy

 

 

Hey, so I kind of ended up liking that Skin Trade so much that I got myself a big ol' stack of ten more Dylan Thomas books/collections and have been reading that fat bastard every night for the past month. If you do give him another shot, go with Under Milk Wood, it's his funniest one, has a lot of really nice lyrical language mixed with old-school British humour. It's hilarious. All of his screenplays, scripts, radio plays were consistently good.
(I also liked his earlier darker intense short stories, many of them are so vivid and bizarre, nightmarish, disturbing, beautiful ... in fact one was the most disturbing short story I've ever read ... but overall it's been a nice little journey into his nutty Welsh mind, though his obsession with breasts and nipply nips was unexpected)

 

There are like thirty more poets I want to read and there's so much of it to eat up ... last week a friend suggested I "go straight to the best, Billy Shakespeare", but of course like most who have not read him I'm imagining a lot of horrifying pantaloons and frilly collars and tonnes of dost thou speaketh upon mine nips style dialogue.

 

[GLASSJAW]

13 minutes ago, Svengali said:

 

Hey, so I kind of ended up liking that Skin Trade so much that I got myself a big ol' stack of ten more Dylan Thomas books/collections and have been reading that fat bastard every night for the past month. If you do give him another shot, go with Under Milk Wood, it's his funniest one, has a lot of really nice lyrical language mixed with old-school British humour. It's hilarious. All of his screenplays, scripts, radio plays were consistently good.
(I also liked his earlier darker intense short stories, many of them are so vivid and bizarre, nightmarish, disturbing, beautiful ... in fact one was the most disturbing short story I've ever read ... but overall it's been a nice little journey into his nutty Welsh mind, though his obsession with breasts and nipply nips was unexpected)

 

There are like thirty more poets I want to read and there's so much of it to eat up ... last week a friend suggested I "go straight to the best, Billy Shakespeare", but of course like most who have not read him I'm imagining a lot of horrifying pantaloons and frilly collars and tonnes of dost thou speaketh upon mine nips style dialogue.

 

Did you read a Child's Christmas in Wales or w/e to usher in the season? i bought that for a friend of mine as a gift, but idk if it's good or not.

 

Shakespeare is good, boi. Like, the best of all time good. People hate because he's force-fed in schools at a young age, but that's prob for a good reason. 

[Svengali]

18 minutes ago, GLASSJAW said:

Did you read a Child's Christmas in Wales or w/e to usher in the season? i bought that for a friend of mine as a gift, but idk if it's good or not.

 

Shakespeare is good, boi. Like, the best of all time good. People hate because he's force-fed in schools at a young age, but that's prob for a good reason. 

 

Ha, yeah I did, that's a nice one. And a nice gift as well. (mine was in a collection, it's so short I take it your gift was an illustrated book?)

And yeah I'll try Willy. I have a copy of The Taming of the Shrew (sounds so naughty) in my to-read pile that is indeed from a school ... every page is filled with notes and underlined sentences, it might be far too distracting. Hmmm, or maybe super helpful, haha.

(I'm still kind of in "Celtic mode" and want to try out more Yeats before I attempt Willy though ... I'll do the same thing again, one book of collected poems/stories and if I like it go get a huge stack and dig in, it was a neat way to do it)

 

[riffraff]

Just started the new Bruce Springsteen book.

 

just finished pullitzer prize winning

 

"Barbarian Days: a Surfing Life"

 

by William Finnegan.

 

very entertaining and engaging travel story sprinkled with social and political commentary.

 

dont have to be a surfing enthusiast to enjoy this book at all.