Denny's comments (member since Oct 22, 2007)

Denny's comments from the GigPosters Book-Nerders group.

I'm also reading a bio of Francis Bacon (the painter, not the philosopher or whatev LOL!). It's written by a friend of his, and it's pretty amazing.

Does it have a commentary?

I just started "The Names" by Don DeLilo. I loved "White Noise" SO MUUUUUUCH, and now (of course) "The Names" isn't living up to my expectations. However, I'm less than 100 pages in. I mean, it hasn't really even started yet.

I also picked up Thomas Pynchon's "Gravity's Rainbow" the other day. I'm kind of intimidated by that one. We'll see. I might switch to that one instead.

I've been meaning to read this one.
I got kind of behind in January, so I'm working on it.

And for some reason I've been really skeptical about this book, and Eggers in general.
I don't really know why, other than he's all perfet or whatever.

mmmmmK.
I'm not quite finished yet, but let me say this.
As an expectant father, expecting a little BOY no less, all I can say is SCREW YOU LUNA! DANG. this book is BRU-TAL. I love it. I'm about 50 pages from the end (I think) and I can't imagine it going too well. So whatever. I'll probably finish it this weekend.

All I can say is this...

If I weren't afraid of basements, I WOULD BE NOW.

OH, AND, I let myself read a bit of the wikipedia entry for this book (I was sort of afraid to at first, thinking it may color the way I read it now, but it didn't really), and there is mention of how it has been interpreted as a "satire of academic criticism." That is really coming to light, as we're in more of an analysis-phase post-exploration. I can't even see a footnote now in any other context without freaking out a bit.

One more thing... I'd be interested to check out the companion piece, The Whalestoe Letters (ISBN 0-375-71441-3). This obviously deals with Johnny's mom. I say obviously like there is much that's obvious about this story. SPEAKING OF WHICH, Jay Ryan *really did* read this in 24 hours, which is frightening in it's own way, but I need to ask him "how" he read it. He mentioned NOT having read the letters from Johnny's mom yet. That's a pretty big chunk of pages. ???







Anyway... post some thoughts BOOK-NERDERS.

Yes Dustiey. Do it.
Heck, many of the pages (as you may know by now) have literally one word on them.



I'm on like... page 400-something. It's slowed down quite a bit, but like Suité Francaise, it seems like a natural part of the ebb and flow of the story or whatever. There was the hugely intriguing parts concerning the various explorations, and now is the analysis. But there are constant hints as to what is ahead. It's obvious that something horrible happens, and maybe I'm too dumb to realize what it is in particular, but I like not REALLY knowing what it is yet.


----- Response to Mike's thoughts that could be interpreted as spoilish -----


























I have a hard time thinking of Johnny and Zamporó as the same guy. Even metaphorically. I mean, that's kind of "too easy," you know? BUT, I was inclined to wonder about Johnny's mom and Zampanó. Something there? Maybe. Maybe not. I dunno.

I got kind of bored reading the lengthy-ish section that kind of revolved around Karen. I'm sure there's something there that's interesting, perhaps under the surface or whatever, but she just seems kind of shallow and/or non-interesting in most ways.

Dang it. I wrote up this really long post with a whole bunch of topics I was curious about, but it didn't post for some reason or another, and now I don't remember most of it.

OH, what is with this alleged "First Edition" that circulated around via the internet? Is that remotely true, or is that part of the folklore created by Daneilewski? I almost prefer that it's NOT true. I'm still totally into this book. It's requiring a bit more patience at this point, but only because now we're dealing with things only slightly less dramatic than a staircase that magically expands to depths greater than the diameter of the earth.

AH, THAT'S what I was going to write.
I have to confess to being somewhat confused by the matter-of-fact blandness with which Zamporó addresses the details of the house's shrinking and growing, not to mention the appearance of NEW CLOSETS etc. It seems like everyone in the story is all,"Huh. That's odd, but NO BIG DEAL."
I think I'd be at least a little bit more freaked out than that. But again, I suppose that's just part of the deal.

Very insightful.

Alright y'all.
I'm sure some of you are further along than I am, I'm only on about page 100 or so. But I'm going to post a bit about what I've read so far. And yes, the "letters section" IS heartbreaking, but also a very distinct kind of creeeeepy.

I'm totally into what's going on here, but I can't help but get kind of frustrated every once-in-a-while about the fact that these totally bizarre things are happening in this house, and no one is freaking out about it like someone WOULD when a mysterious hallway or whatever shows up out of nowhere. I mean sure he calls up his brother, he calls up the dude in the wheelchair, and then the team of explorers or whatever, but nobody is saying,"HEY WTF?!!?"

Anyway, I'm still utterly fascinated by the physical characteristics of the book. I can't wait to get to some of the totally F'd up pages (besides the "letters").

Oh, and I was telling my brother-in-law about this book, and he was immediately convinced to go out and buy it himself and he's since joined the book-club. So everyone, let's welcome NOAH to the group.

word up.
the second half was much less compelling. But it was bound to be.
EVACUATION! vs. domesticity. right? yeah.

ok... this part is about the ending of the book, so don't read this if you haven't totally finished the book...






ok?











ok.



















seriously.


















alright. So, I'm no literature expert by any stretch of the imagination, but what's with the way books end? This has happened to me a few times, where I thought there was going to be this rad explosion of an ending where I just read it and sit there slack-jawed for an hour or so TRYING to assimilate what I just read. But not so much. They left. Ok. The dude that killed the German dude just... got away with it? Left town? Whatserface was just bummed... and that's it? The senile old lady just went back to being old and rich and bitchy? WTF? NOTHING HAPPENED!? Don't get me wrong... I loved this book ESPECIALLY considering the context of its actual writing, but mazn. Kind of a let down. Right?

Likewise.
I'm totally excited to read it, but it may take more than a month. Not the 24 hours that it took Jay Ryan.

I hope I'm not jumping the gun here, but I've been charged with the task of selecting the next book for our little secret-society Book Klüb.

Having been inspired by Jay Ryan's post over at GP, I chose thusly:

"House of Leaves" by Mark Z. Danielewski

Only one of us has already that I know of, so I thought this might be a fun one. And if you don't like it you can jump in the proverbial lake.

Hugs,
Denny

I'm too dumb to keep everybody straight, like which family is which, which person is married to which POW, etc. But I'm hanging in there. Or whatever. I'm in part 2 also.
So F'ing amazing considering the circumstances surrounding the actual writing of the book. That's all I can think about when I'm reading.

I like this book. Corte seems like a pretty cool dude.
I find it refreshing to read about people who are as filthy rich as I am. I get so tired of reading about poor people all the time.

Alright!!!

Barber shop? well, that's a good sign.
I'm a slow reader. I guess I shouldn't have read that spoiler. I thought I was further along than I was. OOPS!

Oh, and is it just me, or am I getting spammed by a bunch of dooshbag-spam-fake-accounts on here or what? It's worse than myspace!

I picked it up and started reading this weekend. I was kind of worried that it would be... I don't know, too intense? Too thick? Too FRENCH?

But it's awesome so far. So casually and sophisticatedly written.
Oh, and bookcover by Chip Kidd. :)

Dear Sirs:

And I quoteth:

"You guys/girls can do what you will."

&

"Of course, you could forgo any of my advice and read the entire thing today."

Byte me.

:)

***SPOILER WARNING***
you ain't the boss of me.

I picked it up and started reading this weekend. I was kind of worried that it would be... I don't know, too intense? Too thick? Too FRENCH?

But it's awesome so far. So casually and sophisticatedly written.
Oh, and bookcover by Chip Kidd. :)