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Thread: Top 10 Books First Read in 2014

  1. #26
    Whole Sick Crew Benny Profane's Avatar
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    1. Steve Jobs - Walter Isaacson
    2. Bleeding Edge - Thomas Pynchon
    3. The Last Picture Show - Larry McMurtry
    4. The Right Stuff - Tom Wolfe
    5. The Road to Los Angeles - John Fante
    6. The Art of War - Sun Tzu
    7. Looking for Alaska - John Green
    Now reading: The Master Switch by Tim Wu

  2. #27
    What is best in life? D_Davis's Avatar
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    Quote Quoting Benny Profane (view post)
    3. The Last Picture Show - Larry McMurtry
    Utterly amazing. One of my all-time favorites.

  3. #28
    Whole Sick Crew Benny Profane's Avatar
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    Jacy Farrow is an evil bitch.
    Agreed. Amazing book.
    Now reading: The Master Switch by Tim Wu

  4. #29
    What is best in life? D_Davis's Avatar
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    Quote Quoting Benny Profane (view post)
    Jacy Farrow is an evil bitch.
    Agreed. Amazing book.
    Sam the Lion. Love that guy.

    Some of the most petty and selfish characters I've encountered.

  5. #30
    1. A Confederacy of Dunces (1980, John Kennedy Toole)
    2. The Tin Drum (1959, Günter Grass)
    3. Room (2010, Emma Donoghue)
    4. Madame Bovary (1856, Gustave Flaubert)
    5. The Big Sleep (1939, Raymond Chandler)
    6. Ferdydurke (1937, Witold Gombrowicz)
    7. Out Stealing Horses (2003, Per Petterson)
    8. The Dead Father (1975, Donald Barthelme)

  6. #31
    Whole Sick Crew Benny Profane's Avatar
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    Quote Quoting D_Davis (view post)
    Sam the Lion. Love that guy.

    Some of the most petty and selfish characters I've encountered.

    Bored people obsessed with sex. Very convincingly told.
    Now reading: The Master Switch by Tim Wu

  7. #32
    What is best in life? D_Davis's Avatar
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    I really want to get around to reading the follow ups, just to see how these characters progressed through their lives.

    And I want to read the follow up to Terms of Endearment.

    Basically, I just want to read everything McMurtry has done eventually.

  8. #33
    Moderator Dead & Messed Up's Avatar
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    I really need to get on the ball.

    Fiction
    1. Robopocalypse (Daniel H. Wilson, 2011)

    Non-Fiction
    1. Zombie Makers (Rebecca Johnson, 2013)

    Comics
    1. The Hard Goodbye (Frank Miller, 1992)
    2. Batman: Mad Love and others (Dini et al, 1994)
    3. Batman: The Man Who Laughs (Brubaker et al, 2005)
    4. The Death of Superman (Jurgens et al, 1992)

  9. #34
    Not a praying man Melville's Avatar
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    1. Sisters by a River (Barbara Comyns, 1954) - 9
    2. Three Men in a Boat (Jerome K Jerome, 1889) - 8.5
    3. The Vet's Daughter (Barbara Comyns, 1959) - 8.5
    4. Austerlitz (WG Sebald, 2001) - 7
    5. Who was Changed and Who was Dead (Barbara Comyns, 1954) - 6.5
    6. Some Prefer Nettles (Junichiro Tanizaki, 1928) - 6.5
    I am impatient of all misery in others that is not mad. Thou should'st go mad, blacksmith; say, why dost thou not go mad? How can'st thou endure without being mad? Do the heavens yet hate thee, that thou can'st not go mad?

    lists and reviews

  10. #35
    Quote Quoting Benny Profane (view post)
    Bored people obsessed with sex. Very convincingly told.
    Otherwise known as teenagers. And :cringe: widowers?

    I've never read the book, but the movie kind of changed my life when I watched it back in the day. I may try this out after I finish the behemoth that is Infinite Jest.

    So far (and I wish I had more time to read, but oh well):

    Fiction
    1. Howard's End by E.M. Foster
    2. The Brief and Wondrous Life of Oscar Wao by Junot Diaz

    Non-Fiction
    1. Amazing Grace by Jonathan Kozol
    2. Thinking, Fast and Slow by David Kahneman
    3. Why Are All the Black Kids Sitting Together in the Cafeteria by Beverly Tatum
    4. Community by Peter Block
    5. NurtureShock by Po Bronson

    [
    ]
    Stuff I've Watched out of *****

    The Last Duel - ***
    Only Murders in the Building: **
    Squid Games: **.5

  11. #36
    Best Boy Our Aurora's Avatar
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    1. Nobody Move - Denis Johnson
    2. The Crazed - Ha Jin
    3. The Goldfinch - Donna Tartt
    4. Native Speaker - Chang-Rae Lee

  12. #37
    Quote Quoting baby doll (view post)
    • Jane Eyre (Charlotte Brontë, 1847)
    • The Scarlet Letter (Nathaniel Hawthorne, 1850)
    • The Mayor of Casterbridge (Thomas Hardy, 1886)
    • Strait Is the Gate (André Gide, 1909)
    • Pnin (Vladimir Nabokov, 1957)
    • Raise High the Roof Beam, Carpenters and Seymour—An Introduction (J.D. Salinger, 1963)
    • Arrow of God (Chinua Achebe, 1964/74)
    • Camera Lucida (Roland Barthes, 1980)
    • Narration in the Fiction Film (David Bordwell, 1985)
    • The Love of a Good Woman (Alice Munro, 1998)
    Updated for the end of April.
    Just because...
    The Fabelmans (Steven Spielberg, 2022) mild
    Petite maman (Céline Sciamma, 2021) mild
    The Banshees of Inisherin (Martin McDonagh, 2022) mild

    The last book I read was...
    The Complete Short Stories by Mark Twain


    The (New) World

  13. #38
    I've read ten books!

    1. A Confederacy of Dunces (1980, John Kennedy Toole)
    2. The Tin Drum (1959, Günter Grass)
    3. Room (2010, Emma Donoghue)
    4. Ironweed (1983, William Kennedy)
    5. Madame Bovary (1856, Gustave Flaubert)
    6. The Big Sleep (1939, Raymond Chandler)
    7. The Elementary Particles (1998, Michel Houellebecq)
    8. Ferdydurke (1937, Witold Gombrowicz)
    9. Out Stealing Horses (2003, Per Petterson)
    10. The Dead Father (1975, Donald Barthelme)

    I'm keeping a pretty good pace for the year, despite some longer books. I'm starting Catch-22 now.

  14. #39
    Whole Sick Crew Benny Profane's Avatar
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    Quote Quoting Isaac (view post)

    1. A Confederacy of Dunces (1980, John Kennedy Toole)

    Damn right.
    Now reading: The Master Switch by Tim Wu

  15. #40
    Whole Sick Crew Benny Profane's Avatar
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    1. Steve Jobs - Walter Isaacson
    2. Bleeding Edge - Thomas Pynchon
    3. The Last Picture Show - Larry McMurtry
    4. Consider the Lobster - David Foster Wallace
    5. The Right Stuff - Tom Wolfe
    6. The Road to Los Angeles - John Fante
    7. The Art of War - Sun Tzu
    8. Looking for Alaska - John Green
    Now reading: The Master Switch by Tim Wu

  16. #41
    Super Moderator dreamdead's Avatar
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    1. Sherman Alexie’s The Absolutely True Diary of a Part-Time Indian
    2. Amy Waldman’s The Submission
    3. Alice Munro’s Friend of my Youth: Stories
    4. Mohsen Hamid’s The Reluctant Fundamentalist
    5. Alice Munro’s Open Secrets: Stories
    6. John Green’s The Fault in Our Stars
    7. Alice Munro’s Too Much Happiness: Stories
    8. Thomas Pynchon’s Bleeding Edge
    9. Teju Cole’s Open City
    10. Maria Semple’s Where’d You Go, Bernadette
    [
    ]
    The Boat People - 9
    The Power of the Dog - 7.5
    The King of Pigs - 7

  17. #42
    Moderator Dead & Messed Up's Avatar
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    Fiction
    1. Robopocalypse (Daniel H. Wilson, 2011)

    Non-Fiction
    1. Zombie Makers (Rebecca Johnson, 2013)

    Comics
    1. Sin City: The Hard Goodbye (Frank Miller, 1992)
    2. Sin City: That Yellow Bastard (Frank Miller, 1996)
    3. Batman: Mad Love and others (Dini et al, 1994)
    4. Sin City: The Big Fat Kill (Frank Miller, 1995)
    5. Batman: The Man Who Laughs (Brubaker et al, 2005)
    6. Hellboy: Strange Places (Mike Mignola, 2002)
    7. The Death of Superman (Jurgens et al, 1992)
    8. Sin City: Family Values (Frank Miller, 1997)

  18. #43
    I'm in the milk... Mara's Avatar
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    1. The Girl Who Circumnavigated Fairyland in a Ship of Her Own Making by Catherynne M. Valente
    2. The Signal and the Noise by Nate Silver
    3. Night Film by Marisha Pessl
    4. The Gambler by Fyodor Dostoyevsky
    5. The Moonstone by Wilkie Collins
    6. Hyperbole and a Half by Allie Brosh
    7. The Dream Thieves by Maggie Stiefvater
    8. Vicious by V. E. Schwab
    9. Anya's Ghost by Vera Brosgol (graphic novel)
    10. Midwinterblood by Marcus Sedgwick


    The Rest:
    [
    ]
    ...and the milk's in me.

  19. #44
    Super Moderator dreamdead's Avatar
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    Mara, have you read Marie Lu's Legend, or, for that matter, any teen fiction by Asian American writers that you found especially good? I'm not the biggest fan of the more pedestrian and derivative works of teen dystopia, but I'd be interested in learning about fiction that approaches concepts of race and ethnicity within the wide umbrella if interesting things are being done with it.

    Also, John Green's The Fault in Our Stars was lovely. I think I liked Rowell's Eleanor and Park more, but lovely all the same.
    The Boat People - 9
    The Power of the Dog - 7.5
    The King of Pigs - 7

  20. #45
    I'm in the milk... Mara's Avatar
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    Quote Quoting dreamdead (view post)
    Mara, have you read Marie Lu's Legend, or, for that matter, any teen fiction by Asian American writers that you found especially good? I'm not the biggest fan of the more pedestrian and derivative works of teen dystopia, but I'd be interested in learning about fiction that approaches concepts of race and ethnicity within the wide umbrella if interesting things are being done with it.
    Legend was stinking awful. "Pedestrian and derivative" would describe it perfectly, but you could add "unbelievable and ridiculous." Please don't bother.

    Off the top of my head, I can recommend Malinda Lo. The only book I've read by her is Adaptation, which was good fun, in a global-crisis, X-Files, government-conspiracy kind of way. She doesn't really dwell on race very much in the book (the heroine is white, one of her love interests is Asian) but Lo is homosexual and she delves deeply into sexual identity in the book. Her main character falls for people of both sexes during the course of the novel, and Lo doesn't shy away from examining that pretty minutely.

    She might have other books that deal with race more centrally.

    Also, John Green's The Fault in Our Stars was lovely. I think I liked Rowell's Eleanor and Park more, but lovely all the same.
    Agreed and agreed.
    ...and the milk's in me.

  21. #46
    Not a praying man Melville's Avatar
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    1. Phenomenology of Spirit (Hegel, 1807) - 9.5
    2. Sisters by a River (Barbara Comyns, 1954) - 9
    3. Three Men in a Boat (Jerome K Jerome, 1889) - 8.5
    4. The Vet's Daughter (Barbara Comyns, 1959) - 8.5
    5. Austerlitz (WG Sebald, 2001) - 7
    6. Rebecca (Daphne du Maurier, 1938) - 7
    7. Who was Changed and Who was Dead (Barbara Comyns, 1954) - 6.5
    8. Some Prefer Nettles (Junichiro Tanizaki, 1928) - 6.5
    9. Tintin in Tibet (Herge, 1959) [comic] - 3.5

    I've been reading the Hegel since the autumn of 2004. Even with all the needlessly obtuse prose, it was worth it.
    I am impatient of all misery in others that is not mad. Thou should'st go mad, blacksmith; say, why dost thou not go mad? How can'st thou endure without being mad? Do the heavens yet hate thee, that thou can'st not go mad?

    lists and reviews

  22. #47
    Quote Quoting baby doll (view post)
    • Jane Eyre (Charlotte Brontë, 1847)
    • The Scarlet Letter (Nathaniel Hawthorne, 1850)
    • A Tale of Two Cities (Charles Dickens, 1859)
    • The Mayor of Casterbridge (Thomas Hardy, 1886)
    • Strait Is the Gate (André Gide, 1909)
    • Farewell, My Lovely (Raymond Chandler, 1940)
    • Pnin (Vladimir Nabokov, 1957)
    • Arrow of God (Chinua Achebe, 1964/74)
    • Narration in the Fiction Film (David Bordwell, 1985)
    • The Love of a Good Woman (Alice Munro, 1998)
    Updated for the end of May. Total number of books read: Twelve.
    Just because...
    The Fabelmans (Steven Spielberg, 2022) mild
    Petite maman (Céline Sciamma, 2021) mild
    The Banshees of Inisherin (Martin McDonagh, 2022) mild

    The last book I read was...
    The Complete Short Stories by Mark Twain


    The (New) World

  23. #48
    And don't you know it ThePlashyBubbler's Avatar
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    Quote Quoting Melville (view post)
    9. Tintin in Tibet (Herge, 1959) [comic] - 3.5
    :evil:
    Writing things for A Horizontal Myth.


  24. #49
    Quote Quoting ThePlashyBubbler (view post)
    :evil:
    I'm not surprised, given that Melville considers Tibet to be part of China's historic territory.
    Just because...
    The Fabelmans (Steven Spielberg, 2022) mild
    Petite maman (Céline Sciamma, 2021) mild
    The Banshees of Inisherin (Martin McDonagh, 2022) mild

    The last book I read was...
    The Complete Short Stories by Mark Twain


    The (New) World

  25. #50
    Not a praying man Melville's Avatar
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    Quote Quoting ThePlashyBubbler (view post)
    :evil:
    Too much text for my taste. Also goofiness.

    Quote Quoting baby doll (view post)
    I'm not surprised, given that Melville considers Tibet to be part of China's historic territory.
    Haha.
    I am impatient of all misery in others that is not mad. Thou should'st go mad, blacksmith; say, why dost thou not go mad? How can'st thou endure without being mad? Do the heavens yet hate thee, that thou can'st not go mad?

    lists and reviews

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