What are we reading?

Started by edison, September 21, 2003, 11:20:03 PM

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Pedro

Quote from: aClockworkWalrus
Quote from: Pedro the Wombat
for the fifth time.

wau

I've heard some great stuff about this book...what's it about?
haha, good question.

let's try and explain this.  it tells two stories at once, both quite good.  one is told through footnotes and letters.

a combined summary is sort of like this:
a guy finds a book a blind man wrote on various scraps of paper.  when he tries to put them together, it starts to consume his life...

both the consumption and the actual book are included within

Ghostboy

House Of Leaves, if nothing else, is brilliant in its structure. I can't really judge the guy on his writing, since he changes styles so frequently throughout (which may be a plus or a minus), but it works very well in this context. The book scared the shit out of me. I was stuck in my apartment without a car or a job or anyone talk to and I read it in a few days and felt like I was going completely nuts. I had to give it to someone else afterwards because I didn't want it around anymore.

On the subject of Brave New World, I can see exactly where both SoNowThen and Godardian are coming from. It's far more entertaining than 1984, but it's definitely less complex and frequently awkward in its structure. It definitely does read like a movie, which is why it's a great read, but you'll find more substance in Orwell, or Bradbury, for that matter, with Farenheit 451. I wouldn't really say that Huxley was afraid of sex; coming from that time period, I imagine its purpose was to shock, and I think Huxley knew exactly what he was doing with that material. I think it's a valid piece of literature, though, at least as a precursor to 1984.

pete

I was pretty disappointed by house of leaves.  it begins really scary, then it doesn't pay off.  the ending was so lame.  and hoss's stories became pretty lame too.  but you're right, to tell an entire story via footnotes is pretty brilliant.

I'm reading The Man Who Was Thursday by CK Chesterton right now.  I'm a big fan of his mystery series, but this novel seems dated by like 100 years.  I hope it gets better.
I just finished several comicbooks, Ronin by Frank Miller, Dreamtoons (check it out at www.slowwave.com, it's pretty funny/ cool), and Black and White by Taiyo Matsumoto.  Black and White has to be one of the best things I've ever read.
Last month I finished Molly Ivin's new book, Bushwhacked.  That was good liberal literature, much more informative and "accurate" than Franken and Moore's new books, and it's argurably more relavent than Chomsky's new books too.
"Tragedy is a close-up; comedy, a long shot."
- Buster Keaton

bonanzataz

right now, i'm kind of reading the tao of pooh, confederacy of dunces, and heart of darkness, but i haven't gotten any pages done in a while. xmas season is busy busy busy.
The corpses all hang headless and limp bodies with no surprises and the blood drains down like devil's rain we'll bathe tonight I want your skulls I need your skulls I want your skulls I need your skulls Demon I am and face I peel to see your skin turned inside out, 'cause gotta have you on my wall gotta have you on my wall, 'cause I want your skulls I need your skulls I want your skulls I need your skulls collect the heads of little girls and put 'em on my wall hack the heads off little girls and put 'em on my wall I want your skulls I need your skulls I want your skulls I need your skulls

Slick Shoes

I had to put down Air Guitar for good after about forty pages. It just wasn't what I expected it to be. It read like a college textbook.

I just read Jokes Told In Heaven About Babies. It took about a half an hour. The book was pretty small -- 30 pages with illustrations on some of them. It was nice, though.

rustinglass

Quote from: RegularKarate

Good for you! but don't get any ideas... I am doing the film!!
"In Serbia a lot of people hate me because they want to westernise, not understanding that the western world is bipolar, with very good things and very bad things. Since they don't have experience of the west, they even believe that western shit is pie."
-Emir Kusturica

Gamblour.

I started Fight Club. It's pretty interesting to see how close the movie gets to the book, so far pretty goddamned close. The cold, sterile tone being used so far isn't very engaging, keeps you too distant. It was kinda hard reading the first three chapters, trying to tredge through all the stuff the movie covers in exactly the same way and trying to stay interesting in the disinterested tone of the narration. Hopefully it'll get better.
WWPTAD?

Ghostboy

I just tore through Scott Bradfield's 'The History Of Luminous Motion.' I picked it up at a friend's house on a whim, and at first thought it was an extremely well written character piece, a lyrical and slightly melancholy study of childhood. I was waayyy off.

Anyway, I'd definitely recommend it -- I have some quibbles, but any problems are certainly worth putting up with just to read Bradfield's prose, which is amazing. It comes with a plug from Michael Chabon on the cover, if that means anything to anyone (it did to me). The book I kept thinking of while I was reading this was 'Perfume.' Thus, I'd be interested in hearing what GT thinks of it, if it behooved him to read it.

ᾦɐļᵲʊʂ

I'm on my way to open up Choke by Palahniuk.  Mm-hmm good.
"As a matter of fact I only work with the feeling of something magical, something seemingly significant. And to keep it magical I don't want to know the story involved, I just want the hypnotic effect of it somehow seeming significant without knowing why." - Len Lye

myadopteddaughter



This book was suggested to me by a very dear friend of mine. I am excited to read it.
mmm, mmmm good

kotte

That avatar! I hate it! hate it! Go away!!!! :)


The Big Sleep.

Pubrick

under the paving stones.

Redlum

Quote from: myadopteddaughter

This book was suggested to me by a very dear friend of mine. I am excited to read it.

Great book. One of my favourites.

At the moment I'm reading - The Great Shark Hunt by Hunter Thompson.
\"I wanted to make a film for kids, something that would present them with a kind of elementary morality. Because nowadays nobody bothers to tell those kids, \'Hey, this is right and this is wrong\'.\"
  -  George Lucas

RegularKarate

Quote from: rustinglass
Quote from: RegularKarate

Good for you! but don't get any ideas... I am doing the film!!

Let's RACE!

I seriously doubt that our ideas would be similar for this film.  There are so many ways it could be done.  but mine would be the best

molly

Franzen: Corrections
will they make a movie out of it?