Chris's bookshelves

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Chris is currently reading

	07/31 Chris is currently reading: The Book of Disquiet (Penguin Classics) by Fernando Pessoa bookshelves: currently-reading	my rating:
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	07/29 Chris is currently reading: Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas: A Savage Journey to the Heart of the American Dream (Paperback) by Hunter S. Thompson bookshelves: currently-reading	my rating:
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	07/24 Chris is currently reading: I Hope They Serve Beer In Hell (Paperback) by Tucker Max bookshelves: currently-reading	my rating:
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Chris's recent updates (rss)

August 14

New comment on Sara's review of The Fourth Bear (Nursery Crime, Book 2)

Chris wrote: "Whoa, I didn't know there was a second Nursery Crime Book!

I'm all over it, although creating a...more "

reply to this comment

Chris made a comment in the group Outhouse of Uncool—I am not cool topic:

Chris wrote: "The fantasy football element is the flimsiest, so you're probably safe. Hell, from what I know about...more "

August 09

New comment on Chris's review of Slaughterhouse-Five

Chris wrote: "Rob: It's only SH5 that I don't like. After reading this I haven't bothered with any more of Vonneg...more "

(see all 11 comments)

August 04

New comment on Chris's review of Fahrenheit 451

Chris wrote: ""I saw VC Andrews' rape and incest filled crap left on the library bookshelves, while Catcher i...more "

(see all 2 comments)

Chris read and liked Tyler 's review of Arrowsmith:

"What a premise for a book: A young man falls in love, not just with a young woman, but with a quest. This is the passion that infuses Arrowsmith. How the author was able to put blood into such an idea explains in part the Pulitzer prize.

Th...more What a premise for a book: A young man falls in love, not just with a young woman, but with a quest. This is the passion that infuses Arrowsmith. How the author was able to put blood into such an idea explains in part the Pulitzer prize.

The other part that explains the award is that the book is a good read. Covering the nearly 20 years during which a student (and later researcher) learns to embrace his life's calling, the plot never stalls. The constant motion guides us along with Martin Arrowsmith as he follows the thread leading him out of a labyrinth of false promises, and up upon his own personal road less traveled by.

During my reading, I couldn't help comparing the book to The Fountainhead, a book with a similar moral and strikingly similar plot elements. The notion of man as a hero who overcomes constant adversity drives the action in both stories. But Arrowsmith, published some 20 years before, is the better book. One difference is that the later book presents us with a young hero having a fully developed moral sense to start with, and with our book here we see, to better effect, how a man becomes a heroic figure in the first place -- how he learns which choices really matter. Another point of contrast lies in the role of capitalism, which helps the protagonist in The Fountainhead but hampers Martin in his own search for creative freedom. Either way, the effective status of the free market plays a crucial role in both books.

In further contrast, one finds in Martin a callow lad vulnerable to poor judgment, a flaw that elicits an indulgent sympathy. This high-strung fellow with a slightly nerdy disposition, black hair on pale skin and "dreamy" eyes, yaps away with an impossible "awe shucks" Midwestern affectation. His voice sometimes hits an jarringly piercing note; at other points his brusque rudeness abrades. Testy frustration at times pushes him to overwrought tears. And does his own self-discovery, in the end, arrive at the expense of a family member? Proneness to error makes up the bread and butter of the plot.

Rare for a novel, the scientific method is a theme, for Martin's self-actualization depends on it. The necessity of controls in a solid experiment and the need for uninterrupted research factor into the story. The corrupting power of commerce and personal popularity is a danger in which the young doctor finds himself entangled again and again. Like him, we find ourselves even today grappling with the effect that the profit motive exerts on clinical research.

Let's not think that a man turned so inward ends up entirely alone. But again, we find Martin's affections becoming psychological, possibly even at the expense of the sexual and familial. For such as he, the attraction of the mental bond two people can forge is a discovery that sets his psychic makeup apart from the crowd.

To this book, with its distinctive Midwestern tang, I gave a high rating. I recommend it for readers who are looking for an unlikely subject and an unusual hero, a protagonist pushing against a riptide toward unexpected contentment....less "

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New comment on Tyler 's review of Arrowsmith

Chris wrote: "You've done it again; another review that inspires me to read a book I'd otherwise completely neglec...more "

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August 02

Chris added a quote:
"The good writers touch life often. The mediocre ones run a quick hand over her. The bad ones rape her and leave her for the flies." — Ray Bradbury

add this quote »

Chris gave

to:
Fahrenheit 451 (Paperback)
by Ray Bradbury

my rating:

read in July, 2008

Chris said: "It’s time to do it, isn’t it? You know it is. We’ve all done it before, no sense in resisting the temptation to do it yet again. The sun has set, the skies have turned a sensational shade of indigo, the interior lighting is seductively dimme...more "

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Chris read and liked Rob's review of Cosmos:

"A gorgeous book in every possible way. From the lush illustration and clever diagrams clear through to Sagan's lyrical and at times whimsical narrative, this is the science book for non-scientists. (And if you are a scientist, may this be a ...more "

5 comments

July 31

Chris gave

to:
The Catcher in the Rye (Mass Market Paperback)
by J.D. Salinger

my rating:

recommended to Chris by: some crumby teacher
read in June, 2008

Chris said: "**Included on Time’s List of 100 Best Fiction of the 20th Century**

If you really want to hear about it, the first thing you’ll probably want to know is what I thought about “The Catcher In the Rye”, and my reasons for liking it or disliki...more **Included on Time’s List of 100 Best Fiction of the 20th Century**

If you really want to hear about it, the first thing you’ll probably want to know is what I thought about “The Catcher In the Rye”, and my reasons for liking it or disliking it, and possibly even how I felt about the work each of the four times I’ve wasted my time reading it, and all that 'Mein Kampf' kind of crap, but I don’t feel like going into it, if you want to know the truth. Also, I’d probably have to take the time to learn how to italicize things on GoodReads, which would probably be worthwhile, but my computer skills could easily be outshone by a resuscitated troglodyte fresh from an ice-block. Added to that, I don’t know how long I could go on trying to poorly mimic the book without wanting to puke, I mean, not only is it a crumby thing to do to, but it’s also phony as hell.

So what do I think about the madman exploits of old Holden Caufield, perhaps one of the most acclaimed protagonists in all of American literature? No terribly much, as a matter of fact: each time I’ve read this book I wanted to kill myself. Holden’s always saying things like that, I mean, if you were to wear one blue sock and one red sock, and maybe slowly skin your shrivelfig under the comforting cotton of a green sock, he’d say something like, “God how I hate how that guy messes around with his socks, it makes me want to kill myself.” In that case, you’d better hope you’re at least in possession of a decent valise, lest that bastard Caulfield spread some more wrath upon you for your clearly inferior luggage. That guy, he really cracks me up.

I never really understood why this book is so universally adored; sure, Holden is a slacker, the type of clown that every distraught kid envisions themselves to be, some gem in the rough with all the talent, but lacking the ambition to make a notable mark on the world which holds them back. But you grow up, if only to acknowledge you have no talents and still have no ambition, and instead of grabbing for that golden ring, you waste your time writing shitty reviews on shitty books here on goodreads on a ball-dampeningly warm Sunday afternoon. Come to think of it, that’s probably why so many appreciate this bumbling tale; like Holden, they probably equate themselves to that misshapen hunk of precious metal hidden beneath a untilled mound of Nebraskan soil, laying in wait for someone to unearth their sparkling brilliance for all the world to admire. Of course, when you realize Tucker Max probably felt the same way you immediately bathe in bromine and shave what remains of your flesh completely bald to scour the scourge as thoroughly as humanly possible. Perhaps it may be slightly more promising to delude yourself than resigning your life to the contemplation of just how lame you actually are.

So here’s a quick glimpse of what’s inspired so many lifelong laughingstocks. Here’s Holden fruitlessly swimming against the current, a complete nincompoop (let’s remember he’s Irish) who gets kicked out of school for being a moron and talks hard yet winds up getting the shit mercilessly beaten out of him by a crumby snob named Stradlater (a book about Studly Strad would have been far better) and a pimp named Maurice. Holden also feels the need to denounce everyone as a phony, though I find myself at a loss to imagine anything phonier than a wimpy, big-mouthed mick mollycoddled by daddy’s fat bankroll while attending prep school along with his stunning array of hand-crafted, Italian leather luggage. Let’s not gloss over the fact that Holden is probably impotent, as evidenced by his inability to lay the wood to Sally, Jane, or even a prostitute, perhaps his crowning disgrace. Either that or he’s queer, seeing as he duped poor Antolini by presenting his former mentor with the ultimate fantasy of a drunken, sexually-inexperienced youth with ‘no place to go’ and then, afraid that further action might expose his impotence, he felt the need to flee into the night, acting all startled about what just transpired. Let’s face it, Holden himself claims that similar ‘perverty’ stuff happened to him a lot as a kid, and then feigns shock when Antolini comes in to take a juicy bite of the bare bottom he so masterfully baited. All this weirdness coming from an awkward geek with a fondness for children ought to be enough to sway any who remain unconvinced thus far. You’re STILL not seeing the light?!? Seriously? Ok, last clue Caulfield is a deviant: the kid aspires to be a “catcher”. And this ‘catcher’ fantasy involves children. If you need further explanation I’ll be required to rent a jackhammer to pound the obvious into your skull.

This will hopefully be the last time that I read “The Catcher in the Rye”, as I’ve given it too many chances and always walked away completely disappointed. I will give Salinger's opus two stars, however, simply for the entertainment of laughing at it.
...less "

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Chris's favorite quotes

"The good writers touch life often. The mediocre ones run a quick hand over her. The bad ones rape her and leave her for the flies."
— Ray Bradbury (Fahrenheit 451)

5 people liked it

"In my prison cell i sit
With my britches full of $hit
and my balls are bouncing gently on the floor
and i see the bloody snag
when she bit me in the bag
oh, i'll never f--- a polack any more"
— Kurt Vonnegut

2 people liked it

"Before i'd touch a square bitch's slit,
I'd suck a thousand clappy pricks and swim through liquid shit,
They got green puke bewtween their rotten toes,
And snot runs from their funky nose,
I hope square bitches become syphiliitic wrecks,
I hope they fall through their own assholes and break their mother-f#cking necks"
— Iceberg Slim (Pimp: The Story of My Life)

2 people liked it

"People sometimes talk about man's 'bestial' cruelty, but that is being terribly unjust and offensive to the beasts; a beast can never be as cruel as a human being, so artistically, so picturesquely cruel"
— Fyodor Dostoevsky (The Brothers Karamazov (Signet Classics))

2 people liked it

"They haven't any spirit in them - no proud dreams and no proud lusts; and a man who hasn't one or the other-Lord! What is he but funk and precautions."
— H.G. Wells (War of the Worlds)

1 person liked it

see all of Chris's favorite quotes »

Chris's writing

The Land Of Pussy & Ice (Romance)

1 chapters — updated 06/23/2008 05:28PM

description: I haven't posted any 'writing' on here yet, and figured what the hell. Seeing as I don't do any writing, I'm just going to type the lyrics to a song I wrote back when I was a punk-ass bitch, jamming with a band called Accretion Disc around the turn of the millennium. That whole endeavor went to shit in a spectacular and horrific wreckage which is still spoken of in hushed whispers in the jit-drenched back alleys of dive bars scattered amidst the suburbs of Chicago. Our lead singer, perhaps the most narcissistic bag of shit I've ever met, abruptly decided the band was a vehicle for his own self-serving motives after a New Years Eve show, in which he mind-bogglingly saw himself as a new rock messiah preaching to a tremendous crowd of about 60 loyal and zealous acolytes. Rumor has it that his new band is playing the Warped Tour this year, and I checked out their myspace page to see if this unholy abortion would really be given stage-time, and sure enough, my friend-turned-nemesis was indeed given a chance at the meteoric rise he'd been masturbating over for so long, while looking at his reflection in the mirror dressed as a woman. While I can only weep that someone would promote his untalented ass, it is pretty funny that this poor, unscrupulous spritz of salamander sperm has been reduced to a mascara-wearing androgynous piece of fuck-bait. The song was a response to the aforementioned asshole’s displeasure that any time he asked me for songwriting input I gave him certifiable garbage, inane and diddling rooster shit that even brain-damaged gluesniffers wouldn’t bother with. So, the bassist and I showed our genuine appreciation for his constructive criticism by laying this one down loud and true on the long-gone Tascam 4-track. The bassist overlaid the guitar as well and sang this silly shit and I took care of the drums and the backing vocals, as my singing voice has been unfavorably compared to the mating call of a wildebeest getting an indian-burn on its sack. Get your lighter at the ready.....

Chris's groups (recent posts)

50 Books 2008 — 604 members — last activity 48 minutes ago
This group is for people who want to be challenged in 2008 by reading 50 books.

Start the challenge by creating a post with the title of your chal...more

Outhouse of Uncool — 35 members — last activity 1 day ago, 12:21PM
To discuss everything uncool, crappy, useless and futile. To discuss how much cool sucks and how uncool is the new cool. Other topics: pez head dispen...more

Chris's friend comments

showing 1-4 of 4. (add a comment | view all)

from Becky

07/13/2008 05:39PM

i finally saw your message from January! fearing that sauerkraut would be somehow resurrected from the dead, I added a lot of books I read, and what I'm currently reading. you should read the one by Tucker Max. Hilarious drunk stories.

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from ShellBell

06/28/2008 06:14AM

You should definitely join the Outhouse of Uncool. I mean, are those swim goggles you're wearing in your photo? But that's beside the point. The point is, you talked about joining the Outhouse of Uncool, but you did not join, which means you are SO uncool you didn't follow through. It's like you just passed the Uncool test.

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from ShellBell

06/25/2008 06:56PM

I'm sure your time will come, Chris. Keep those fishnets and stilettos handy. And review some more books, already!

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from Marianne

05/10/2008 02:38PM

Thanks for adding me, Chris! I think I might take that 50 book challenge... dunno when, though. :D

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	Rob 592 books 65 friends
	ShellBell 413 books 58 friends
	Clackamas 1338 books, 12 friends Friend details Through Goodreads "We are both too long winded to fit the story of how we met in the given space. You'll all just have to wonder about it. "
	Fogus 961 books 19 friends
	Tyler 69 books 11 friends
	Becky 31 books 5 friends
	Sara 13 books 2 friends
	Erin 61 books 8 friends
	Kelly 39 books 8 friends
	Don 4 books 1 friend

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