GirlsAloudFan
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Continue talking about books.
It's what Rory would have wanted...
It's what Rory would have wanted...
Reading is Sexy: Books Part II
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If you have answers, please help by responding to the unanswered posts.
If you have answers, please help by responding to the unanswered posts.
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lazarus
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Have you read any other Salinger, NSW? Because Catcher is probably the least impressive of his works.
No spoken words
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Dalton
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I liked (not loved) Franny and Zooey. What else did you like, Laz?
lazarus
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9 Stories is one of the best short fiction collections I've ever read. It's staggering.
If you liked Franny & Zooey, you'd probably like Raise High the Roof Beams Carpenters/Seymour (An Introduction). It's pretty much the same Glass family stuff.
If you liked Franny & Zooey, you'd probably like Raise High the Roof Beams Carpenters/Seymour (An Introduction). It's pretty much the same Glass family stuff.
VintagePunk
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Rory's shirt. 
I read Catcher after Lennon was shot. I was young at the time, maybe too young to get it (I doubt it though, I was a fairly precocious reader as a kid) but it didn't leave any impact on me at all, and now, I barely remember it. My daughter is much the same, she didn't like it and thinks that Holden is a whiner. She read it again a few years later to give it another chance, and couldn't get through it. She also said that she imagines that On The Road could have been narrated by an adult Holden, and feels the same way about it.
Maybe the attraction to the book is a guy thing?
I read Catcher after Lennon was shot. I was young at the time, maybe too young to get it (I doubt it though, I was a fairly precocious reader as a kid) but it didn't leave any impact on me at all, and now, I barely remember it. My daughter is much the same, she didn't like it and thinks that Holden is a whiner. She read it again a few years later to give it another chance, and couldn't get through it. She also said that she imagines that On The Road could have been narrated by an adult Holden, and feels the same way about it.
Maybe the attraction to the book is a guy thing?
lazarus
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Perhaps. I know many girls that LOVE Franny & Zooey and 9 Stories, though.
No one liked the joke?
No one liked the joke?
OP
OP
GirlsAloudFan
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Seymour: An Introduction is a crazy read and I love it. Along with Nine Stories and F and Z. My favorite in Nine Stories is easily "A Perfect Day for Bananafish"
But Catcher will always be my favorite. I seriously can flip to any page of that book and find something that will make me either smile or laugh out loud.
But Catcher will always be my favorite. I seriously can flip to any page of that book and find something that will make me either smile or laugh out loud.
meegannie
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I did. I thought it was only okay. I really prefered the atmosphere in The Secret History, and I thought it was a tighter work. I see a copy of The Little Friend in every charity shop I walk into (I bought my copy in one as well), so I guess a lot of people were disappointed in it.
I almost put American Gods on my list, but I have some reservations about Neil Gaiman. I love his ideas and I really like him as a person, but I don't like his writing style most of the time. It's a bit like the writing in the Stephen King I've read. I think the Sandman comics are the only time when he is perfect for me, and that's probably because he has fewer words to work with. I'm reading The Graveyard Book now, though, and enjoying it so far, so maybe I also prefer him as a children's author.
No spoken words
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Yeah, I like Gaiman a lot...but not enough to crack the Top Ten. Top 25, he'd be there....probably for the Sandman Comics. I guess that with writers like King or Gaiman, their imagination trumps what they might lack in traditional writing skill.....for me, at least.
I had heard that The Little Friend was disappointing, but wanted to hear what you thought.
I had heard that The Little Friend was disappointing, but wanted to hear what you thought.
LarryMullen's POPAngel
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I feel exactly the same way as your daughter. I couldn't stand Holden because I generally hate the "disenfranchised upper middle class white youth" meme that is so prevalent in the book. I just couldn't relate to it at all. But I didn't mind Salinger's literary style as much as Kerouac's. On the Road was 10x worse for me, and I found nothing likeable about the book at all.
zuropa_fit
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I've totally forgotten 'Perfect Day for a Bananafish' but know I absolutely adored it when I read it. I think I need to get it off the shelf and read it again.
Zoots
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Just wanted to say that I love the title of this thread! Good job, GAF! 
Sorry I don't have anything else to contribute. Wish I read more. 
Sorry I don't have anything else to contribute. Wish I read more. 
Thora
Blue Crack Supplier
Rory's shirt.
I have that shirt - I get compliments every time I wear it!
I'm just catching up on magazines right now, and have 3 books waiting for me to start reading on Sunday. Didn't want to start anything new with so little time left before I leave.
corianderstem
Blue Crack Distributor
I'd heard The Little Friend was disappointing when it came out, so I didn't read it until a year or so ago.
I don't know what people found disappointing about it, so maybe it was good to wait!
I don't know what people found disappointing about it, so maybe it was good to wait!
lazarus
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That one is great, of course (they all are, really), but the one that hit me the hardest is For Esmé - with Love and Squalor. Where the shellshock soldier meets the little girl in the choir and her brother. My god, what a beautiful story.
Dalton
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Have any of you read "The Brief Wondrous Life of Oscar Wao"? I think I am going to read this next.
powerhour24
ONE love, blood, life
I like the thread title, RIP old books thread.
Dalton
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The old thread didn't die. It reached its peak and was taken up to heave. Like Enoch.
UberBeaver
Breakdancing Soul Pilgrim
THANK YOU! NSW mentioned that his junk was writing an autobiography, but I wasn't sure what it was called.
No spoken words
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It puked?
Dalton
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I was so damn excited to drop some bible knowledge on your heathen asses, I forgot the 'n'.
Have any of you read: The Brief Wondrous Life of Oscar Wao
Have any of you read: The Brief Wondrous Life of Oscar Wao
corianderstem
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No, but I've heard it's excellent.
powerhour24
ONE love, blood, life
Currently reading Don Delillo's Falling Man, just started, the structure is a bit strange but the writing is impeccable.
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lazarus
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I haven't read any post-Underworld DeLillo, been trying to go back and finish off all the older ones. So far I've gone through White Noise, End Game, The Names, and Mao II (probably my favorite of his). Ratner's Star looks pretty imposing, but I own it. Maybe I'll try Players next?
powerhour24
ONE love, blood, life
White Noise is next on my list for him, I'm quite interested in Underworld but I doubt I'll find the time to tackle it in the near future.
VintagePunk
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I almost put American Gods on my list, but I have some reservations about Neil Gaiman. I love his ideas and I really like him as a person, but I don't like his writing style most of the time. It's a bit like the writing in the Stephen King I've read. I think the Sandman comics are the only time when he is perfect for me, and that's probably because he has fewer words to work with. I'm reading The Graveyard Book now, though, and enjoying it so far, so maybe I also prefer him as a children's author.
I think NSW's point is key for me. Compelling plot and characterization almost always trumps writing style for me. With King, maybe it's because I've been reading him for so long, since I was a kid (I think I came across Carrie when I was 10 or 11), there's almost something familiar and comforting about reading him, almost like conversing with a dear friend. Also, I've found that I have very limited tolerance for supposedly brilliant writing that fails to hold my attention by being what I view as an almost masturbatory exercise in language usage without telling a compelling story. In the past year alone I've read and would place Ulysses, Mrs. Dalloway, and Tropic of Cancer into this category.
Very good point. Maybe back when they were published, the whole "disenfranchised upper middle class white [male]" thing wasn't as prevalent as it is today, so they gained some sort of mythic popularity that's been perpetuated since.
lazarus
Blue Crack Supplier
If Joyce, Woolf, and Miller are simply masturbatory, then, uhh...get me a kleenex.
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