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01. The Stranger - Albert Camus 02. The Disaster Artist: My Life Inside The Room, The Greatest Bad Movie Ever Made - Greg Sestero Tommy Wiseau is loving crazy. 03. Hard-Boiled Wonderland and the End of the World - Haruki Murakami Very different than what I had expected but I really enjoyed it. The first 50 pages were super confusing but it got better. DannyTanner fucked around with this message at 17:17 on Jul 25, 2014 |
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Jan 12, 2014 16:13
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1. Blue is the Warmest Color by Julie Maroh - Was an okay graphic novel. At times rather touching, but more often than not, cliche and overly melodramatic. 2. The Basketball Diaries by Jim Carroll - Wow, what a great book. I love everything about this. I'd recommend this to anyone who doesn't mind darker material. The often irreverent way the heavy material was handled made for an interesting read. Off to a better start than I would've guessed, even if they are easy reads. Now I can't read for fun anymore, what with so much reading for school. Oh well, that was fun while it lasted. Anne Frankenstein fucked around with this message at 16:20 on Jan 12, 2014 |
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Jan 12, 2014 16:18
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Sign me up for 30. Last year I completely stopped paying attention, updating my Goodreads, or posting in the old thread... but I got back into reading in a big way in the past few months, and I managed 50 books in 2011, so I'm confident I can hit 30 now, even with a full-time job. Profile: https://www.goodreads.com/user/show/4697566-liz So far: 1. Winterdance by Gary Paulsen Basically everyone read Hatchet in school, right? Well, did you know that the author of Hatchet is also a complete maniac with a suicidal disregard for his own life who decided to run the Iditarod and almost died literally dozens of times while training for it and competing in it? And then he wrote a pretty great book about it. Recommended. Even if you hated Hatchet. I'm currently working on The Best of Dorothy Parker: Folio Society Edition and Master and Commander aka "hey you wanna know the difference between a maintopmast staysail and a mizzen topgallant staysail? Too loving bad I'm telling you anyway."
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Jan 12, 2014 20:15
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2. Tampa by Alissa Nutting. It's basically a fictionalized version of all those "female teacher fucks her middle school students" told from the perspective of the teacher, who is into barely teenage boys and always has been. It was a really hard book to read and normally I don't have problems plowing through fiction with reprehensible main characters or controversial subject matter but nothing about this book worked. It's like the author read a bunch of news stories and Lolita at the same time and decided she'd combine the two and the result is poo poo and I hate myself for having finished it.
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Jan 12, 2014 21:37
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Tulalip Tulips posted:2. Tampa by Alissa Nutting. Interesting, I read this book too and had the complete opposite reaction - I think it's the nature of this type of book to be extremely polarizing. Not sure if you're familiar with the author's other works but she's a bizarro fiction writer with feminist leanings. I read Tampa as a reaction to the weird double standard that society has of romanticizing older woman, young boy relationships, removing as much of the 'glamor' associated with the act, and showing it in the most repugnant light possible.
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Jan 13, 2014 03:44
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7. Jimmy The Kid - Donald Westlake Another Dortmunder heist novel, except in this case the heist was in the form of a kidnap. More comedic crime hijinx, but probably the weakest of the Dortmunder books. Seeking some levity amid books on Psychopaths, pop brain psychology, and the next book. 8. Give Me Everything You Have by James Lasdun A book that is supposed to be a memoir of being stalked by a crazy turns into an academic's efforts to prove how smart and humble he is, while telling the story about how he was harassed on the internet by an Iranian woman. In between discussions of stuff that is a little interesting, are long, drawn out essays about the literary themes of Sir Gawain and the Green Knight, D.H. Lawrences' barely sexual pasttimes, and jewish people. Then he compares himself to God at the end. Decent prose from a pompous rear end.
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Jan 13, 2014 04:24
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Poutling posted:Interesting, I read this book too and had the complete opposite reaction - I think it's the nature of this type of book to be extremely polarizing. Not sure if you're familiar with the author's other works but she's a bizarro fiction writer with feminist leanings. I read Tampa as a reaction to the weird double standard that society has of romanticizing older woman, young boy relationships, removing as much of the 'glamor' associated with the act, and showing it in the most repugnant light possible. I wanted to like it because the subject matter is interesting and I wanted to see how someone would write about a Mary Kay Letourneau but the way it was written was really off putting to me. I'm not looking for lovingly lurid descriptions of a grown woman loving teenage boys but it comes off as so robotic and technical that it just really came off less as a story and more as writing exercise. I'll probably try reading it again since I usually like to go back to read stuff I didn't like and, to be honest, I did actually appreciate the ending. Plus Nutting others stories look interesting and I think I'd probably get into her as a short story writer.
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Jan 13, 2014 05:33
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I wonder- for the people who did this last year, could you say what your favorite book of 2013 was? It would help me (and maybe others) to choose books for the 2014 lineup. Mine was probably Endurance: Shackleton's Incredible Voyage by Alfred Lansing. The most gripping nonfiction book I've ever read, I think. I was on the edge of my seat the whole way through.
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Jan 13, 2014 17:08
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1. Starship Troopers by Robert Heinlein [286 pgs] Much much better than the movie (which was much much better than it had any right to be). A little dated in some of it's lingo but it's look into the future was pretty awesome. I thoroughly enjoyed it. 286/25000
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Jan 13, 2014 17:48
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showbiz_liz posted:I wonder- for the people who did this last year, could you say what your favorite book of 2013 was? It would help me (and maybe others) to choose books for the 2014 lineup. Mine was probably Endurance: Shackleton's Incredible Voyage by Alfred Lansing. The most gripping nonfiction book I've ever read, I think. I was on the edge of my seat the whole way through. I didn't do it last year, but my favorite book I read in 2013 was The Day of the Triffids (it was also September's TBB book of the month). It has an interesting take on how the end of the world occurs for an apocalypse novel. Also, I really liked Wyndham's prose.
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Jan 13, 2014 18:13
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showbiz_liz posted:I wonder- for the people who did this last year, could you say what your favorite book of 2013 was? It would help me (and maybe others) to choose books for the 2014 lineup. Mine was probably Endurance: Shackleton's Incredible Voyage by Alfred Lansing. The most gripping nonfiction book I've ever read, I think. I was on the edge of my seat the whole way through. Probably Moby Dick, and I also found that I'm a complete sucker for Tennessee Williams.
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Jan 13, 2014 18:36
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1. One Million Tiny Plays about Britain, Craig Taylor - "Everyone is stupid and predjudiced, also 'One Million' sounds better than 'Ninety-Seven'." 2. The Earth Hums in B Flat, Mari Strachan - a very languid novel that just unfolds as you read it. Really liked it, and it made an unintentional contrast between female/rural and male/urban with: 3. Mortal Engines, Philip Reeve - Always thought this was a cool premise but for whatever reason I never picked it up around the time it came out. Please consider Transformers nerds before you call your villain Magnus, it is very distracting.  I would say my favourite book from last year was Beyond Black by Hilary Mantel. Not something I'd normally read but I ended up really liking it. It's very British if that's a plus/minus at all for you.
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Jan 13, 2014 18:57
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showbiz_liz posted:I wonder- for the people who did this last year, could you say what your favorite book of 2013 was? It would help me (and maybe others) to choose books for the 2014 lineup. Mine was probably Endurance: Shackleton's Incredible Voyage by Alfred Lansing. The most gripping nonfiction book I've ever read, I think. I was on the edge of my seat the whole way through. If you take a look at the end of the 2013 thread, often times people will post their year end reading list and bold their 5 or 10 favorite titles. I always find those lists interesting to look at. My favorites were Generation Loss by Elizabeth Hand, If On a Winter's Night a Traveler by Italo Calvino, and Code Name Verity, which has a scene that still makes me tear up just thinking about it, by Elizabeth Wein. Also I should really read Endurance again, I remember loving it when I read it but it's been 10 or 15 years.
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Jan 13, 2014 20:01
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Top 5 books of past year I'd say:
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Jan 13, 2014 20:58
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I"m doing 150 this year as I failed at my 200 goal last year
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Jan 13, 2014 21:17
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showbiz_liz posted:I wonder- for the people who did this last year, could you say what your favorite book of 2013 was? It would help me (and maybe others) to choose books for the 2014 lineup. Mine was probably Endurance: Shackleton's Incredible Voyage by Alfred Lansing. The most gripping nonfiction book I've ever read, I think. I was on the edge of my seat the whole way through. My favorite of 2013 was Believing Women in Islam: Unreading Patriarchal Interpretations of the Qur'an by Asma Barlas. But I understand that may be of limited interest to most, so I'll second your recommendation of Endurance.
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Jan 13, 2014 21:47
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Florida Betty posted:My favorite of 2013 was Believing Women in Islam: Unreading Patriarchal Interpretations of the Qur'an by Asma Barlas. That actually sounds really interesting! And I love the negative reviews. "She is coming from a biased perspective of the history of the relationships between women and men. The perspective that women have always been oppressed through out history."
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Jan 13, 2014 21:59
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showbiz_liz posted:I wonder- for the people who did this last year, could you say what your favorite book of 2013 was? It would help me (and maybe others) to choose books for the 2014 lineup. Mine was probably Endurance: Shackleton's Incredible Voyage by Alfred Lansing. The most gripping nonfiction book I've ever read, I think. I was on the edge of my seat the whole way through. Mine was probably How to Paint a Dead man by Sarah Hall.
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Jan 13, 2014 22:14
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1) Worm - wildbow. Well, that took a long time. This is going to sound weird, but it reminded me very slightly of Arthurian mythology. The impossibility of living up to a heroic ideal, the inevitability of failure. Le Morte De Taylor? (Le Not-Quite-Morte De Taylor? It seems the tiniest bit like wildbow just couldn't bring himself to kill her off, but I don't think I could have either.)
attackbunny fucked around with this message at 22:56 on Jan 13, 2014 |
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Jan 13, 2014 22:51
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showbiz_liz posted:I wonder- for the people who did this last year, could you say what your favorite book of 2013 was? It would help me (and maybe others) to choose books for the 2014 lineup. Mine was probably Endurance: Shackleton's Incredible Voyage by Alfred Lansing. The most gripping nonfiction book I've ever read, I think. I was on the edge of my seat the whole way through. I read that one too, well more like listened to it. Top 3 from last year. Stephen King - Joyland. Doctor Sleep was okay, but Joyland really seemed to speak to me. It was a story about people, and personalities and human beings, and King does that really well. Summer of Night - Dan Simmons I suppose you can say it was like "IT" but for the midwest. The perfect blend of creepy horror and childhood nostaliga. Lost At Sea: The Jon Ronson Mysteries: by Jon Ronson A bunch of 'investigative journalism' pieces on stuff that seems a little strange, but is actually quite fascianting. Phoenix Jones the real life superhero, people dissapearing on ocean liners, Kubrick's obsession with detail and the mounds of stuff he left behind.
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Jan 14, 2014 03:29
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showbiz_liz posted:I wonder- for the people who did this last year, could you say what your favorite book of 2013 was? Loath Letters by Christy Leigh Stewart. If you're looking for the Kindle version it's listed as Loath Letter for some reason. I also really enjoyed The Count of Monte Cristo by Alexandre Dumas and The Poison Eaters and Other Stories by Holly Black.
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Jan 14, 2014 03:39
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Tiggum posted:Loath Letters by Christy Leigh Stewart. If you're looking for the Kindle version it's listed as Loath Letter for some reason. The single negative review says this book is "literature with some of the basest, most disgusting, soul-destroying human acts." Sign me the gently caress up!
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Jan 14, 2014 04:44
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showbiz_liz posted:I wonder- for the people who did this last year, could you say what your favorite book of 2013 was? It would help me (and maybe others) to choose books for the 2014 lineup. Mine was probably Endurance: Shackleton's Incredible Voyage by Alfred Lansing. The most gripping nonfiction book I've ever read, I think. I was on the edge of my seat the whole way through. This was a great book and if anyone in the thread hasn't read it you should.
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Jan 14, 2014 12:10
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showbiz_liz posted:Master and Commander aka "hey you wanna know the difference between a maintopmast staysail and a mizzen topgallant staysail? Too loving bad I'm telling you anyway."
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Jan 14, 2014 18:08
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showbiz_liz posted:That actually sounds really interesting! And I love the negative reviews. "She is coming from a biased perspective of the history of the relationships between women and men. The perspective that women have always been oppressed through out history." I must have missed that one. I should read negative reviews more.
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Jan 15, 2014 03:39
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Roydrowsy posted:#3: Brilliance by Marcus Sakey - a bit of a twist on the superhero novel. It reads like an action movie. It can be a little predictable, a little cheezy at times, It's pretty entertaining and it's approach on having superpowers is different and refreshing. No flying, no hand blasts, powers are much more subtle than that. Perhaps like that Alphas show, which I've only seen the pilot of. Side note: I read At The City's Edge by Sakey a few years ago and left thinking, well that really wasnt that good but I was entertained and it should probably be a movie starring Mark Wahlberg. Sometimes I need to watch a dumb action flick. Sakey seems like the literary version of this. #1. Siddhartha - 4.5/5 Why havent I read this before I was 29? Because Im an illiterate heathen. I honestly think it was being saved for the time I needed it most. Ive been searching and I may not have found the answer but I think I have found the path.
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Jan 15, 2014 04:56
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Groke posted:Both of these were not terribly long books so now I just started on this big fat fantasy thing Blood Song by Anthony Ryan because a bunch of goons were singing its praises. Less than 10% in, seems pretty decent so far. Finished that while waiting in the hospital for my wife to give birth to our #3 son. Was drat fine, rated it 5 (both the book and the baby). So now the list is: 1. Beyond the Rift by Peter Watts. 2. Komarr by Lois McMaster Bujold. 3. Blood Song by Anthony Ryan. Next up: A Princess of Mars by Edgar Rice Burroughs. Because it's a genre-defining classic I've never actually read, because it's short and snappish (which fits well with taking care of a newborn), and because the combination of a Kindle and free books from Project Gutenberg brings much joy.
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Jan 16, 2014 09:39
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While I didn't make it more than a third of the way through my 26 book target last year I did get rid of a few albatross books that'd been hanging around for too long so it's not a complete loss. I'll aim for the same 26 this year using the books I didn't finish last year as a base. So far all I've finished is The Crossing by Cormac McCarthy. It was a good read that I mostly enjoyed but it's also pretty depressing at times really. I'm looking forward to seeing how it ends when I get around to Cities of the Plain but in the mean time I'm going to grind out some more Proust because I need to finish it sooner rather than later for my own sanity if nothing else. Here's a link to my goodreads shelf for this year for those interested https://www.goodreads.com/review/list/10120125-ben?shelf=2014
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Jan 16, 2014 09:44
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1. Winterdance by Gary Paulsen 2. Master and Commander by Patrick O'Brien - ok, so for the first 100-150 pages I was in total agreement with this: Whalley posted:Choosing this as an early-year book was a horrible idea for me because holy poo poo I do not care the difference between a ten pound rope and a seven pound rope and there was several loving paragraphs about how to climb up a mast and get into the crow's nest without looking like a sea poser and man, this is not what I was expecting but I'm going to finish it anyway because Jack's weird fuckin' crush on Steven Maturin is super engaging. ...and then it somehow shifts into being really super good and exciting! The second two-thirds of this book were "I can't put this down" caliber. I'm not convinced the many, many pages of "WELL, doctor, you see that's a mizzenforetopthingy" were actually necessary, but eh. Super cool naval battles! Jack being a social embarrassment! Stephen casually cutting his food with an unwashed dissecting knife! I love the fact that these two characters are great, likable men who are skilled in their professions, and also totally awkward weirdos. I actually read the first chapter of the next one, which is yet another jarring tonal shift. It's as if someone decided to write Master and Commander/Pride and Prejudice fanfiction. I still plan to read it, but I may pick up something else in between.
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Jan 16, 2014 17:24
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Florida Betty posted:I must have missed that one. I should read negative reviews more. I find negative reviews at least as useful as positive ones. People often inadvertently wind up writing negative reviews that, for me, are functionally positive reviews. "This book is obscene," "this book is feminazi propaganda," and "this book has too many big fancy words" are all signs that I'm probably gonna like it.
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Jan 16, 2014 17:30
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Setting myself a goal of 26. I will be travelling quite a bit so I think this will be achievable. Some meta goals:
 https://www.goodreads.com/Rockybar Completed 1. No Country for Old Men - Cormac McCarthy
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Jan 16, 2014 18:07
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Just finished Sign of Four... I'm slacking on my reading ... time to pick up the pace. 
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Jan 16, 2014 21:01
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Juggling four books can be really exhausting. 2. Choose Yourself! - James Altucher I wrote a review for this on my Goodreads, but I loved this. I'm a sucker for self-help books already, however, so YMMV. Link to GoodReads profile, feel free to add me.
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Jan 16, 2014 23:28
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First time trying to set a number, so I'll say So far... 1. Fame: A Novel in Nine Episodes by Daniel Kehlmann I wanted something that dealt with modern celebrity and fame, I Googled and got this. A fun book, but didn't quite scratch the itch I was after. 2. Affluenza: When Too Much is Never Enough by Clive Hamilton, Richard Denniss Definitely entertaining, and it was nice to read a sociological book where my country was the case study. It did make some pretty flippant, unsubstantiated comments here and there, but I found the chapters on downshifting (in simplest terms to give up money for time; consume less, work less) to be interesting. I've repeated one anecdote from the book a few times, about a couple who both worked in finance decided to downshift. The wife told the writer, that the most difficult adjustment had been to change their attitude, to where they could sit down for a cup of coffee at 11:30, on a Tuesday morning and not feel guilty that they should be doing something more productive. 3. The Vital Illusion by Jean Baudrillard I think that cloning has been shoved out of the way by transhumanism, since the book was written, as the leading method for humanity's pursuit of immortality. That said, you can still apply many of the arguments made to various areas outside of specifically cloning. A bit wordy throughout and I found myself scanning a lot of the paragraphs for the meaty bits. I still want to read "Simulacra and Simulation". 4. The Tombs of Atuan by Ursula K. Le Guin Le Guin created a strange little community to be drawn into here - claustrophobic compared to the openness of archipelago in the first book. I liked it! Detailed characters, some intrigue, solid writing - good holiday reading. 5. Pastoralia by George Saunders This here's my jam. Funny, poignant, weird. Its far from a perfect collection and I don't remember about half of the stories, but there is magic in there. One story of a young boy who is constantly told he is worthless has stuck with me for a few weeks. 6. Kafka On The Shore by Haruki Murakami A book about an elderly, mentally handicapped man who can chat with cats and goes on a quest across Japan with the aid of helpful strangers to... well he's not really sure. Oh and I guess there are some chapters with some whiney kid who is trying to find and/or bang his mother or some poo poo? Did I tell you about the rad old dude who can talk to cats? 
Hocus Pocus fucked around with this message at 00:24 on Jan 18, 2014 |
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Jan 17, 2014 04:46
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Dr. Garbanzo posted:So far all I've finished is The Crossing by Cormac McCarthy. It was a good read that I mostly enjoyed but it's also pretty depressing at times really. I'm looking forward to seeing how it ends when I get around to Cities of the Plain but in the mean time I'm going to grind out some more Proust because I need to finish it sooner rather than later for my own sanity if nothing else. I personally found The Crossing to be the high point of the Border Trilogy. I found Cities of the Plain less engaging, less enjoyable, and more depressing. Let me know how it goes, though, I'm interested in what you think.
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Jan 17, 2014 07:04
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Hocus Pocus posted:First time trying to set a number, so I'll say 26 but if that's too easy I'll probably bump it up. Since you read 6 books already I would really recommend a higher goal rather than one you will easily pass even if your reading rate drops to 1/3 of what it was so far. There's no shame when you don't meet your goal, so take one that challenges yourself and see if you can surprise yourself!
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Jan 17, 2014 11:33
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Hocus Pocus posted:6. Kafka On The Shore by Haruki Murakami Almost exactly how I felt about that book.
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Jan 17, 2014 12:22
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5. Neuromancer by William Gibson. Was super fun and transcended its plot flaws to become an amazing piece of existentialism, depravity, and Rastafarian with a shotgun. But I really need to kick into a few lighthearted books to break my "everything is poo poo" bender.
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Jan 17, 2014 17:13
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Butch Cassidy posted:5. Neuromancer by William Gibson. Was super fun and transcended its plot flaws to become an amazing piece of existentialism, depravity, and Rastafarian with a shotgun. But I really need to kick into a few lighthearted books to break my "everything is poo poo" bender. Post what you come up with for lighthearted books. I don't prefer lighthearted books, but I always go through runs of 4-5 books that need to be broken up before I start another depressing look at mankind.
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Jan 17, 2014 17:42
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The Tao of Pooh and then either The Long Dark tea-Time of the Soul or Sewer, Gas and Electric before moving back into the darker stuff for a while.
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Jan 17, 2014 17:58
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