book thread, slight return

Post by **Liesbeth** » Thu Feb 17, 2005 1:12 am

too lazy to look for the old book thread, but I just wanna say I'm reading Dave Eggers' A Heartbreaking Work of Staggering Genius, and it totally lives up to your praise, and then some.
got it from the library, but I will buy it. which is my highest praise.

LoveSickJerk · Post by **LoveSickJerk** » Thu Feb 17, 2005 6:24 am

When I give my interview as a published and well liked writer of comic books, I will say Dave Eggers & AHWOSG made me want to stick to writing with an immediacy only 2 other books ever have. Cat's Cradle by Vonnegut and Catch 22 by Heller. I am thrilled you're enjoying it so much!

mildlyrestarted · Post by **mildlyrestarted** » Thu Feb 17, 2005 11:19 am

oh, dave. he is a blessing on this earth. he wrote me a cute little note when i gave him a mix cd.

he is something wonderful.

i am currently obsessing over this book, Encyclopedia of an Ordinary Life by Amy Krouse Rosenthal. it reads like eggers, and i can't put it down. i have been laughing out loud and reading in the bathtub. check out the website: http://encyclopediaofanordinarylife.com
i think you will be intrigued, & i promise you will love it if you pick it up.

Betty Felon · Post by **Betty Felon** » Thu Feb 17, 2005 2:20 pm

Wow, Amy Krouse Rosenthal.... I almost went to a reading by her just because it was by my house. Now I will check her book out and love it and regret that I didn't go. Ah, life....so many regrets.

I need a suggestion for a juicy ficiton story page turner. Something completely absorbing and long -- roughly 400-500 pgs...a good long story. One of those books that when you are reading and your friends call, you make up lame excuses to get off the phone/not go out/etc so that you can keep reading....yeah. one of those kind of books. Any one read any lately?

chelsea · Post by **chelsea** » Thu Feb 17, 2005 11:58 pm

i just finished "sex, drugs, and cocoa puffs: a low culture manifesto" by chuck klosterman. good stuff if you grew up in the 80s.

i'm now going to try to find a copy of "encyclopedia of an ordinary life."

mildlyrestarted · Post by **mildlyrestarted** » Fri Feb 18, 2005 12:41 am

Betty Felon wrote:Wow, Amy Krouse Rosenthal.... I almost went to a reading by her just because it was by my house. Now I will check her book out and love it and regret that I didn't go. Ah, life....so many regrets.

I need a suggestion for a juicy ficiton story page turner. Something completely absorbing and long -- roughly 400-500 pgs...a good long story. One of those books that when you are reading and your friends call, you make up lame excuses to get off the phone/not go out/etc so that you can keep reading....yeah. one of those kind of books. Any one read any lately?

the crimson petal and the white! by michel faber! SO GOOD! smutty and literate at the same time. meow.

also, chelsea, you can get it at my barnes and noble downtown. i will be there all weekend too! :)

aj · Post by aj » Fri Feb 18, 2005 7:54 am

I am reading A Tree Grows In Brooklyn by Betty Smith. It is not the best thing I've ever read, but has a lot of sentimental value for me. I love it.

other recent reads:
The Caucasian Chalk Circle, Bertolt Brecht (play)
Jeff Galloway's book on running (I'm running a half marathon with a friend!)
Women Runners, edited by Irene Reti & Bettianne Shoney Sien (loved it. short stories mostly. all levels and degrees of "runner")

Squid · Post by **Squid** » Sat Feb 19, 2005 2:45 pm

like i said in the "where the hell are you people?" thread...I am 370 pages into Harry Potter #5. 500 to go, and then i'm in good shape for the release of Half Blood Prince this summer.

In preparation for my liberation from HP and the Order of the Phoenix, I have broken down and purchased the new McSweeney's, which features short stories from the one place i want to go but have yet to visit: Iceland!

(yeah, i know, i'm a total sucker for contemporary compilations. first it was new zealand, then china, now iceland...what can i say?)

LoveSickJerk · Post by **LoveSickJerk** » Sun Feb 20, 2005 2:52 pm

I finished that Kafka goodness, and now I'm moving on to Faulkner's The Sound And The Fury, which I have not read before. Once I finish that, however, its on to some re reading of Jaques Vallee.

Ryan · Post by **Ryan** » Sun Feb 20, 2005 4:20 pm

My trying to read between the lines has only caused me more grief, and gotten me nowhere.

So I'm working on "Smokestack Lightening" by Lolis Eric Elie (w/ photographs by Frank Stewart) in the afternoons. Just before bed is spent with any number of Stephen Dunn books - currently "Riffs & Reciprocities."

Like_a_zero · Post by **Like_a_zero** » Mon Feb 21, 2005 3:00 am

I have just today finished reading Benjamin Nugent's Elliott Smith and the ballad of big nothing, I found it to be an enlightening, inspiring and just a really interesting read, I only ever read it on trains so it took me a while, a tragic tale of pure genius.

Maybe now I can jump on the eggers wagon, though ive read A heartbreaking tale of staggering genius
Though I highly reccommend "The curious incident of the dog in the night time" by Mark Haddon, it took me a day to read, i was engrossed (and its quite a small book) its written from the perspective of a young boy with aspergers syndrome.

c-dog · Post by **c-dog** » Mon Feb 21, 2005 3:25 pm

Like_a_zero wrote:Though I highly reccommend "The curious incident of the dog in the night time" by Mark Haddon, it took me a day to read, i was engrossed (and its quite a small book) its written from the perspective of a young boy with aspergers syndrome.

I just started reading this also. I am quite impressed and already telling people that I am giving it to them to read when I am finished.

Squid · Post by **Squid** » Mon Feb 21, 2005 8:25 pm

this seems the most appropriate place to say:

R.I.P., Hunter S. Thompson.

ugh. it just sucks.

Like_a_zero · Post by **Like_a_zero** » Tue Feb 22, 2005 1:06 am

Yeah man, that guy was the best, my mate told me that once (one of the mant times he was on LSD) he thought there was a bear in his garden so he got his gun (obsessed with guns) and shot his assistant in the leg whilst she was running away, cos he thought there was a bear, classic!
No but seriously he wrote some interesting articles and he he was a big fan of american football, plus we wouldn't have fear and loathing in LV if it wasnt for him. U know his lawyer in real life is actually missing.

LoveSickJerk · Post by **LoveSickJerk** » Tue Feb 22, 2005 5:39 am

I think the official word on that story is that there WAS a bear, and Thompson simply missed. But here's to legend!

Post by **John** » Tue Feb 22, 2005 11:49 am

It was me. I was in Thompson's yard. And he didn't miss.

Ryan · Post by **Ryan** » Tue Feb 22, 2005 1:12 pm

If you've seen John's beard lately, you understand why Thompson thought he was shooting at a bear. And I guess that explains the limp.

Forrest · Post by **Forrest** » Tue Feb 22, 2005 6:36 pm

It takes a special kind of guy with a special kind of beard to earn the title of CHICK MAGNET.

Post by **Liesbeth** » Wed Feb 23, 2005 11:08 am

I thought he just bought that hat!

Moni · Post by **Moni** » Wed Feb 23, 2005 12:23 pm

Squid wrote:the one place i want to go but have yet to visit: Iceland!

Iceland is currently on top of my must-visit list, too!

As for reading, I'm about to re-read R. Heinlein's Stranger in a Strange Land which I had to read for High School, and did so quite sloppily. (Heinlein's Farmers in the Sky used o be my favorite Sci-Fi book as a teenager, despite the cheesy title)

The Long Winters

book thread, slight return

book thread, slight return

hunter s