The Book Discussion Thread

[lovejuice]

the building blocks for people of the book are fine. i only wish it were better written. in fact i wish it were much much better written. brooks's style is heavily influenced by movies and sitcoms. the jokes are lame, dialogues uninspired, characters straight from the shelves, and romance forced.

i'm only one sixth through though, so it might imprive. i plan on finishing this since as said, there is a great book hidden somewhere here.

[Kurosawa Fan]

I finished Florence of Arabia today. A very fast, funny satire about American politics (or should I say meddling) in the Middle East. Not only is it funny, but it's also tense and dramatic, and was impossible to put down. Wrapped up a bit too nicely, especially considering the subject, and some of the pokes and jabs were a bit too easy along the way, but it's hard to hold it against such a compulsively readable book. Really looking forward to reading more Buckley.

[Benny Profane]

When I picked up Retail Anarchy I thought I was getting a book by a brilliant, subversive consumer who would have an interesting slant on assembly-line produced garbage and lousy customer service in America. What I got instead were meandering anecdotes by an immature, pompous, and shitty writer. The few moments of insight were quickly balanced by pointless tales of how he filled up his car with soy sauce and only paid $2 for it. Way to beat the system!

Interesting topic, poorly handled.

[Benny Profane]

Now reading Closing Time, which is a memoir by Joe Queenan.

[ledfloyd]

i finished only revolutions. i enjoyed it. not as affecting as house of leaves but the construction is kind of awe-inspiring.

diving into more auster with oracle night. i'm addicted. i'll get back to gravity's rainbow soon enough.

[lovejuice]

i change my mind about finishing people of the book. a foundation as strong as seven rome's put together cannot hold such a drivel. brooks writes in a style that i really can't stand. (the best of such is by michael chabon, and the worse is dan brown. neil gaiman is in between.) it's a style that, imo, is heavily influenced by movies than books.

when she stereotypically describes MIT nerds, i realize this book and i are not going to have a good time together. (i graduated from a tech school. i sure as fuck know what a nerd looks like.) then there is sitcom bickering between a successful single mom and her strong-headed daughter. i am ready now to mooch the book away.

[Sycophant]

Now that I have BSG out of the way, I'm going to try to read more. Gonna dive back into No god but God.

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Also, I now have the most recent post in ever single subforum. Yes!

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[lovejuice]

Gonna dive back into No god but God.

the book is very good. although it deals mostly with ancient islamic history, and almost nothing at all about recent conflict. in case, that's what you're looking for.

[Kurosawa Fan]

I started reading Tortilla Flat by Steinbeck last night.

[EvilShoe]

I started About a Boy (needed some light reading after Kafka's The Castle). It's fun stuff, but so far nearly identical to the movie.

[Kurosawa Fan]

I started About a Boy (needed some light reading after Kafka's The Castle). It's fun stuff, but so far nearly identical to the movie.

It's pretty close, but the slight differences are what made it a better book than film (though I love the film as well).

[EvilShoe]

It's pretty close, but the slight differences are what made it a better book than film (though I love the film as well).

I've heard the biggest differences occur in the third act.
(Something about Nirvana? Don't tell me though, as I'm still reading.)

It's a good film, yes. Hugh Grant was perfect casting, surprisingly.

[Hugh_Grant]

I've heard the biggest differences occur in the third act.
(Something about Nirvana? Don't tell me though, as I'm still reading.)

It's a good film, yes. Hugh Grant was perfect casting, surprisingly.

Yes, the third act is where book and movie diverge. When you're done, we can compare notes.

[Ezee E]

I'll get back to 2666 again, and probably start over with Book 3 which seemed like many snippets of stories, but all worth reading.

Now I'm reading The Last Men Out. We'll see if books about firefighters are as crappy as the movies about firefighters. I'm hoping not, but the prologue does the same thing that the movies are responsible for.

[D_Davis]

The Kindle DX

Too big?

Too Expensive?

[lovejuice]

plundering through one fifth of this side of paradise, and unless anyone comes in here and insists, i probably leave it at that. the book reads more like a distant cousin of, not the great gatsby, but brideshead revisited.

this first book's as one might expects: a semi-autobiography of a guy who later on wrote the great gatsby. i just 've never like autobiography. (or princeton. that school rejected me twice!)

[jesse]

plundering through one fifth of this side of paradise, and unless anyone comes in here and insists, i probably leave it at that. the book reads more like a distant cousin of, not the great gatsby, but brideshead revisited.

I'm actually revisiting it right now--it was one of my favorites in early college. I've actually been curiously indifferent to the first quarter, but if I'm remembering correctly, it becomes more resonant as it goes along and Amory matures and becomes less irritating. The ending was the most transcendent I had ever experienced at that time.

That said, even at the time I most loved it I don't know if I'd had argued it's essential reading...

[lovejuice]

thank. i'm now in the middle of naipaul's "guerilla." 'll perhaps revisit it again later on.

[Benny Profane]

Started JR.

Um, does this book have no chapters?

[Duncan]

Started JR.

Um, does this book have no chapters?

No chapters. The scenes can change really quick on you. It's also almost 99% dialogue, and he never explicitly tells you who's speaking. Sometimes a whole week will go by from one line of dialogue to the next, and you won't figure it out until halfway through the page. It's great. If you're looking for points to put the book down, you'll get pretty good at judging when he's about to move on to something totally unrelated, so you won't have to stop mid-conversation.

[EvilShoe]

Benny reading a book called Closing Time, reminds me of the sequel to Catch-22 (which carries the same title).

Has anyone read that one? It sounds like a really bad idea. Catch-22 is one of my favs, too.

[D_Davis]

If anyone is interested in getting into the short fiction of J.G. Ballard, there is a complete collection (1200+ pages) being published soon.

You can pre-order it at Amazon.

He's my favorite short story author, and totally worthy of your time.

[lovejuice]

starting the inheritance of loss today. it has potential. i really wish i could like it. finally there's a modern, female, indian voice i can relate too. (sorry roy, sorry lahiri.)

[thefourthwall]

If anyone is interested in getting into the short fiction of J.G. Ballard, there is a complete collection (1200+ pages) being published soon.

You can pre-order it at Amazon.

He's my favorite short story author, and totally worthy of your time.

I really need to finish my dissertation chapter on him; he's about to be literary criticism gold.

[trotchky]

Pygmy (which I finished today) is more thematically solid than most of Palahniuk's recent output, but the trade-off is that it's turgid and barely readable. He switches up his prose style for the first time in his career, but he does so by writing in a thirteen-year-old's broken English. Oh, Palahniuk!