Books Part V, featuring Benny Profane and the Whole Sick Crew

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Because I hate watching movies for books I haven't read, I've finally read The Giver for the first time. I enjoyed it, can see why so many other people have as well. Wish I had read it when I was younger, probably would've blown my mind, or something. As it is, I found it to be a very good young adult sci-fi/dystopia novel and I am terrified of this movie coming out.
 
Speaking of movies and books, I just finished reading The Bonfire of the Vanities, a good book that led to a pretty bad film. It was quite a bit better than I expected. Wolfe has a distinct voice and the writing is often energetic, which I didn't really expect from a page-turner like this, even if his style gets a repetitive after a while. The subject matter - 1980s New York class warfare, basically - was quite interesting, though, and matched his gritty approach to the subject. I generally prefer authors that love their characters, but Wolfe seems to despite all of his characters equally, which was somewhat charming.
 
Because I hate watching movies for books I haven't read, I've finally read The Giver for the first time. I enjoyed it, can see why so many other people have as well. Wish I had read it when I was younger, probably would've blown my mind, or something. As it is, I found it to be a very good young adult sci-fi/dystopia novel and I am terrified of this movie coming out.


We read this book for my 8th grade class, and we were all mind blown by it. Even the kids who hated reading and usually goofed off in class got into the book. Shows that Lois Lowry did something right!
 
I'll fully confess that I never read that book as a kid because of the cover. Yeah, yeah, I know. But maybe sometimes when you write a book that takes place in some crazy future universe, you shouldn't give it cover art that makes it look like the touching story of a young boy who befriends a dying old man.

In other news, I've give up on Les Miserables for now. Back to House of Leaves.
 
Because I hate watching movies for books I haven't read, I've finally read The Giver for the first time. I enjoyed it, can see why so many other people have as well. Wish I had read it when I was younger, probably would've blown my mind, or something. As it is, I found it to be a very good young adult sci-fi/dystopia novel and I am terrified of this movie coming out.

That's one book I would rather not like to see as a movie. Which is neither here nor there, since I'm sure I'll never see it anyway. There are books I've read in the last five years that were so forgettable I can't remember more than the basic plot, whereas I last read that in 4th grade and remember practically everything.
 
Better brace yourself; you are not prepared for what's about to happen.

Yeah well shit, I wasn't prepared. I'm not sure I know what happened. I have already gone back and read the first 17 pages again though and already clarified a number of things.
 
It probably hasn't got super weird/scary yet. But believe me, when it does, you are going to freak.

It's already pretty unsettling. But, no, it's not super scary yet, the house is just getting bigger. Maybe.

That's one book I would rather not like to see as a movie. Which is neither here nor there, since I'm sure I'll never see it anyway. There are books I've read in the last five years that were so forgettable I can't remember more than the basic plot, whereas I last read that in 4th grade and remember practically everything.

I saw a lot of people on the IMDb board kind of saying the same thing: After Ender's Game, it's just impossible to hope that any good YA adaptation is ever going to happen again. It didn't help that the trailer for this film was in full color. No one can make sense of that, as it does say in the tech specs that it will be in both B&W and color. So the question is, now, whether the trailer was a bait & switch.
 
Yeah well shit, I wasn't prepared. I'm not sure I know what happened. I have already gone back and read the first 17 pages again though and already clarified a number of things.

There was a rumor that because the book was so long, the editor asked him to whittle it down, and instead he just hacked off 100 pages or so from the end of the book.

Can't find the source on that though.

It's funny because after finishing it I went to a withdrawal of sorts, having become addicted to a book about addiction, with no closer. An ironic trick.

So what are your final thoughts?
 
There was a rumor that because the book was so long, the editor asked him to whittle it down, and instead he just hacked off 100 pages or so from the end of the book.

Can't find the source on that though.

It's funny because after finishing it I went to a withdrawal of sorts, having become addicted to a book about addiction, with no closer. An ironic trick.

So what are your final thoughts?

The meta-addiction angle certainly applies to me too. There's a reason I just bought four more of his books immediately nearing the end of this one. It also started off really slowly for me, then after a certain point I couldn't put it down or think of much else in the meantime. A great novel of contradictions - it's remarkably intellectual and unafraid to hide just how full of knowledge and just general stuff, minutiae it is, and yet completely down to earth, readable and unpretentious in its prose and form. Also seemingly completely free-flowing stream-of-consciousness, put together after the fact and yet feels 100% deliberate in its construction. I'm almost 100% on board with the ending now, especially in regard to how it almost immediately invites you to start over and the "Year of Glad" reveals itself to be a lucid epilogue stuck back on to the beginning. Really beguiling mobius strip structure that ultimately leaves me pretty satisfied, despite how many threads are left dangling, though that was never really the novel's main drive.
 
The meta-addiction angle certainly applies to me too. There's a reason I just bought four more of his books immediately nearing the end of this one. It also started off really slowly for me, then after a certain point I couldn't put it down or think of much else in the meantime. A great novel of contradictions - it's remarkably intellectual and unafraid to hide just how full of knowledge and just general stuff, minutiae it is, and yet completely down to earth, readable and unpretentious in its prose and form. Also seemingly completely free-flowing stream-of-consciousness, put together after the fact and yet feels 100% deliberate in its construction. I'm almost 100% on board with the ending now, especially in regard to how it almost immediately invites you to start over and the "Year of Glad" reveals itself to be a lucid epilogue stuck back on to the beginning. Really beguiling mobius strip structure that ultimately leaves me pretty satisfied, despite how many threads are left dangling, though that was never really the novel's main drive.

This is also an interesting interpretation of the ending (written by Aaron Swartz) and what happens between the first and final chapter:

What Happens at the End of Infinite Jest? (or, the Infinite Jest ending explained) (Aaron Swartz's Raw Thought)

I don't agree with every single conclusion made here, but it makes for a compelling wrap-up of the story.
 
Read that piece yesterday actually. I think it makes a lot of sense on the whole. And yeah obviously a lot of it is personal speculation, but the actual threads from the novel he ties together there are really quite revealing. The more I sit on this novel the more perfect I think it is at any rate.
 
My first attempt to read Kerouac was a mixed bag. I started with Big Sur because I found the premise really interesting (I know On the Road is where most people start) and I figured I wouldn't be Cobblering it because a lot of people consider it one of his best.

Anyway, I enjoyed parts and disliked others. No perceptible effort was put into editing this, which is the point I guess, but I can't help but feel his potential as a writer wasn't reached here. His hallucinations were vividly depicted and I thought Billie was a very interesting, tragic individual that we got some disconcerting glimpses of. I just had a hard time following many of his exhaustive musings and failed to be engaged by the plot, which seemed to shift around aimlessly. Furthermore, for a book about self-imposed isolation, there wasn't much in the way of self-reflection. He really let himself off the hook more than I'd like. But if you know how he died, you know why that is.

I'll try an earlier work at some point. I get the impression that he's capable of greatness, but the alcoholism was eating him alive by this point and he was incapable of writing a focused novel.
 
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RIP. I'm waiting to improve on my Spanish reading skills so I can delve into his work.

I'm reading 2666 now, along with Ulysses. It's weird enough that I actually find 2666 easier to read, despite the fact that my English is hundred times better than my Spanish.
 
I disliked "Love in the Time of Cholera" when I read it a few years ago. But when I said so in an older version of the books threads here, I got slammed for missing the point of the whole book. So I rented the movie to understand it, and also save time. I'm glad to say I bought a new copy of that book soon after :)

RIP
 
I got a copy of 100 years old solitude for my birthday about 15 years ago. I've still never read it.
 
About 100 pages into the Hunger Games.

Could someone explain to me why Katniss writes like a 40 year-old English major when she's a 16 year-old from Bumfuck, West Virginia (District 12)?
 
I've read both GGM's big books, but damned if I can remember anything about either. I need to read them again.
 
I started A Hundred Years of Solitude a while back and couldn't really get into it. Might be the time to give it another shot.

Just finished Americanah, the second Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie novel I've read this year (the first was The Thing Around Your Neck, her short story collection - probably a weird place to start but hey). Loved it. Now I gotta get onto Half of a Yellow Sun before the flick comes out.

About 100 pages into the Hunger Games.

Could someone explain to me why Katniss writes like a 40 year-old English major when she's a 16 year-old from Bumfuck, West Virginia (District 12)?

Because the future
 
Well, because it's the 75th anniversary this year, I finally decided to read The Grapes Of Wrath, seeing as how it's IMPORTANT and all.

No, I never had to read this for school, oddly enough. Or any of his work, come to think of it. But on my own I've read Cannery Row and its sequel Sweet Thursday, both which I liked a lot. This is heavier material obviously so I imagine it's going to be a big tougher going.
 
i hate that book, and you are a lucky bastard for not having to read it in school.
 
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