books

[lazarus]

I hope everyone here has seen The Squid and The Whale.

This could get sticky.

 

[beegee]

Come on man, it's the book thread...pretend you're in a library.

Shhh!

 

[No spoken words]

Shhh!

Yes'm.

 

[u2popmofo]

 

[lazarus]

How many exes do you have on this forum, NSW?

 

[powerhour24]

I hope you do, and that you enjoy it.....and I've always found that when I revisit books I read due to mandates, I end up with a completely different take than I originally had....sometimes for the better, sometimes for worse. I know people that refuse to re-read books and I cannot really understand that at all. I'm not a big fan of The Pearl, either, by the way.

I'm sure I'd get a different take on books that I originally read in school as well, I guess I just haven't gone back to many of the ones that aggravated me as I did genuinely love some of the required reading, so in comparison the ones that bothered me stuck out, if that makes sense. Its late and I don't think I did a good job of explaining what I meant, but I am officially adding East of Eden to my reading list for the summer, and everyone that has heard me talk about books before will be mightily confused haha.

 

[Pearl]

Finally finished "Boom!" by Tom Brokaw, a book about the Sixties. It was good, a little boring in some areas. Some parts seemed to go on and on, but other areas - the ones about the feminist movement, civil rights, drugs, and music - were interesting to read.

Now I am reading another Brokaw book - "The Greatest Generation". I'm hoping this one would be better than "Boom!"

 

[corianderstem]

#37 The Curious Incident of the Dog In the Night-Time

Teenaged autistic boy in England tries to investigate who killed his neighbor's dog ... and along the way, he learns something about himself, and about love!

Okay, not really, that part after the ellipses was a complete lie. But he does unearth some truths about his family.

It was pretty good. Not what I was expecting, but it had languished on my bookshelves long enough.

 

[BonoIsMyMuse]

I read The Collected Poems of Lynda Hull on my trip. I'd read all three of her collections individually, but it was great to get to read them all back to back, and I'm thrilled that her work is back in print. She would've ended up being one of the most influential poets of her generation had she not died so young. In fact, I'd argue that her work will have a lasting importance even though she only published three books. Tough, lyrical, brutally honest and sometimes downright challenging--but she's always worth the effort. Highly recommended.

Yesterday I read Diana Abu Jaber's debut novel Arabian Jazz. Yeah, I was bored. It was a very good family saga. She handled a lot of heavy themes by balancing them with light, accessible prose. The two sisters were both very vividly developed and contrasted one another in a very believable way, and I liked the way the book flowed. Truthfully, I thought her use of jazz felt a bit generic and cliched; I think she uses food as an extended metaphor much more convincingly in her other novel Crescent (which I highly recommend), but the jazz references were used sparingly.

I'm not sure what I'm going to read next. I'm leaning toward Zadie Smith's novel White Teeth, or The Collected Stories of John Cheever.

 

[powerhour24]

So I've been on a tear, last night I finished Midnight in the Garden of Good and Evil, something like my 7th book in a couple weeks, and I picked up four more books from the library:

-Miracle at St. Anna by James McBride (very curious but hoping this doesn't spoil my movie going experience as Spike Lee's adaptation looks amazing) 70 pages in.
-East of Eden by John Steinbeck, taking the plunge thanks to Interference.
-The Coma - by Alex Garland, heard negative things but Garland is interesting and it seems a unique narrative.
-American Psycho - by Bret Easton Ellis, having been a former reader, but never a real fan of Ellis I decided to take on his most respected book, then I'll rewatch the movie and complain a lot haha.

That's what I'll be doing for the next week.

 

[BonoIsMyMuse]

I took the Collected Stories of John Cheever off my shelf today and realized it's over 600 pages. I may read at least some of it, though. That's what I like about story collections--you can read a few here and a few there and move on to something else.

 

[powerhour24]

Word. I'm always on the hunt for more short story collections. I recently ordered a collection of Richard Yates work, his writing is so bleak or melancholy, but sometimes it helps to look at the world that way and Yates is a top notch writer.

 

[Thora]

I've been reading "Russka" and "The Rebels of Ireland: The Dublin Saga" (both by Edward Rutherfurd) for quite some time now, and am enjoying them both. It took a little bit to get into the stories, but I'm definitely hooked.

Since two massive historical novels weren't enough lol, I've just started reading "The First Man in Rome," by Colleen McCullough. I had been talking with a co-worker the other day, and we discovered a mutual love of reading, so we've done a book swap. This book is the one she's lent me. I've read just a few pages, and am enjoying it so far.

 

[corianderstem]

Thora, I had that McCullough book on my "to read" list for a while, then took it off when I realized I didn't want to read 1,000 pages of anything.

(Although I think I have a copy of the historical novel Sacagaweja, which is about that long and I'll probably never get around to reading it, but I remember my mom reading it when I was little and picked up a copy of my own for nostalgic reasons.)

 

[Thora]

Yeah - it's atrociously huge! All 3 books are around 1,000 pages each, so I've got lots of reading to do!

I'm hoping to be done them by the beginning of August, because I'm certainly NOT going to be taking those with me while I'm traveling. I've got a list going of some smaller-in-pages books, and will hopefully find used copies of those before I leave.

 

[No spoken words]

I actually love long books. Assuming they're good, of course. I see no difference between reading three 333 page books or one 1,000 page book.

 

[beegee]

I am currently reading The Historian by Elizabeth Kostova.

The paperback copy I have is 909 pages

 

[No spoken words]

I am currently reading The Historian by Elizabeth Kostova.

The paperback copy I have is 909 pages

That's awesome. Perhaps you, Beegee, by extension.....are awesome.

 

[beegee]

Well, thank you.

I try.

 

[corianderstem]

I like long books just fine. I'm just sayin' - 1,000 pages is a LOT of pages.

That's funny, though - I have a paperback copy of The Historian as well - I had no idea it was that long!

 

[beegee]

Have you read it?

Is it going to continue to be good?

 

[corianderstem]

I haven't read it - it's languishing on my shelves, with about 100 other books crying out to be read. I've heard mixed things about it, though.

As for my dissing of 1,000 page books, I guess I should have just said that I decided I wasn't interested enough in this first man in Rome to read 1,000 pages about him. I'll watch PBS' I, Claudius instead to get my Rome fix.

 

[beegee]

I like the fact that it's so heavily researched.

I'll let you know if it's worth reading when I finish it

 

[BonoIsMyMuse]

Word. I'm always on the hunt for more short story collections. I recently ordered a collection of Richard Yates work, his writing is so bleak or melancholy, but sometimes it helps to look at the world that way and Yates is a top notch writer.

I highly recommend Jhumpa Lahiri's first book, Interpreter of Maladies. It's a relatively short collection, but the writing is stunningly gorgeous without being too over the top. Some of the stories handle bleak subject matter, but do so in a way that leaves you glad that you've read it. She has a new collection out that I need to pick up. I liked her novel The Namesake, but I think she's more of a story writer.

 

[No spoken words]

I haven't read it - it's languishing on my shelves, with about 100 other books crying out to be read. I've heard mixed things about it, though.

As for my dissing of 1,000 page books, I guess I should have just said that I decided I wasn't interested enough in this first man in Rome to read 1,000 pages about him. I'll watch PBS' I, Claudius instead to get my Rome fix.

I read I, Claudius.

 

[corianderstem]

I used to have that book, but I realized I was never going to read it, so gave it back to the Goodwill from whence it came.

I've been wanting to watch the whole Masterpiece Theater series for years. I remember watching little pieces of it when I was a yung'un, as my parents watched it on TV.

It's in my Netflix queue; I may have to bump it up higher.

 

[lazarus]

Anyone read Infinite Jest? That was 1,000 pages well worth the trip.

Too bad David Foster Wallace hasn't written another novel since.

 

[powerhour24]

I highly recommend Jhumpa Lahiri's first book, Interpreter of Maladies. It's a relatively short collection, but the writing is stunningly gorgeous without being too over the top. Some of the stories handle bleak subject matter, but do so in a way that leaves you glad that you've read it. She has a new collection out that I need to pick up. I liked her novel The Namesake, but I think she's more of a story writer.

Thanks for the recommendation, I'll add it to my list.

 

[powerhour24]

I actually love long books. Assuming they're good, of course. I see no difference between reading three 333 page books or one 1,000 page book.

Not to say I've never read a long book that I appreciated, but often times the Bard really was right about brevity being the soul of wit, that and it seems there isn't a lot of editing going on with some of these authors haha. An epic length story that befits the amount of pages is rare, for a non-fiction book I can usually be more forgiving as long as its all compelling and not rambling at all.

 

[No spoken words]

Anyone read Infinite Jest? That was 1,000 pages well worth the trip.

Too bad David Foster Wallace hasn't written another novel since.

I own it and plan to get to it sooner than later. I did read Consider the Lobster.....some of which cracked me up, some of which I could have skipped.

Powerhour24, I agree that brevity can be the soul of wit. But it's not the soul of character development. Sometimes, a good long novel hits the spot. Other times, yes, you wish there were extra editors called in to cull things down a bit.