The Bookhouse Boys discussion
What Else Are You Reading?
Hmmm. Let's see. I'm reading My So-Called Freelance Life: How to Survive and Thrive as a Creative Professional for Hire and will hand it off to Dave as soon as I finish it. I'm reading Dispatches from the Edge: A Memoir of War, Disasters, and Survival for my real-life book club. I'm on the second book of The Last Days of American Crime Book 2, a comic series that's taking me a while to get through for some reason. And when I walk by myself or go on long car rides alone, my current audiobook is The Tavern on Maple Street.
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I am just finishing and just beginning . I realize these titles should be underline, but my computer skills are limited.
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To underline/link a book, just click the "add book/author" link above the comment box. That will pop up a box where you can search for the book you're referencing, and it should do all the linking for you from there! You can even add author or cover images, like so:
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P.S. Hi, Mom! :)
Thank you for the tips. My book group also selected
for our next selection.
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Heather wrote: "I finished The Handmaid's Tale last night. At the end there was a chapter that at first glance I thought was an essay about the book, but turned out to be a fictional transcript of a l..."It's been a long time since I read "The Handmaid's Tale" but I didn't remember the transcript. After checking out my non-fancy 1985 printing, though, it's there at the end, so it's not just your version. I'm sorry to hear it ruined your experience, though; kind of like a movie that should have ended at the penultimate scene?
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Jason wrote: "I'm bringing American Gods to finally start. I've heard it's his best and I enjoyed Anansi Boys, so I'm looking forward to it."Interesting that you read ANANSI BOYS first - that's generally considered a sequel(ish) to AMERICAN GODS. But I like both books - though NEVERWHERE is my personal favorite :) What can I say, I read it a few months after falling in love with London and the whole story takes place in Tube stations and abandoned underground areas around the city.
I finally finished RAGTIME while Dave and I were on vacation, and I have also finished Lamb: The Gospel According to Biff, Christ's Childhood Pal for my real-life book club.
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Aw, shucks! : ^ )
That's nice of you! I'm starting the book today, too.
While I was camping this weekend an HS-teacher friend of mine told me about the John Francis TED Talk he used in his class: http://www.ted.com/talks/lang/eng/joh.... This man's story is so interesting that I'm going to have to go and get his book
Planetwalker: A Memoir of 22 Years of Walking and 17 Years of Silence.
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This book, in my experience, falls into the category of classic works that get referenced and alluded to more than they get read by modern audiences. I wonder if it would be a good BBoys read? Hmmm...
State of WonderI just finished State of Wonder by Ann Patchett. I think it might be her best book yet. I realize it is a best-seller,but that does not mean that it is of lesser "quality".
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Those are literally my two favorite manga series of all time...probably. LW&C definitely is.
Have fun. Look out for river sharks.
Picked up Grant Morrison's Supergods last week. Haven't started it yet, but I reeeeeeally wanna.No. No.
Gotta catch up on Affliction first.
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I'll be reading The Haunting of Hill House to celebrate my favorite holiday.
I welcome any Halloween lit suggestions (FYI: I've read Dracula, Frankenstein, and The Strange Case of Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde and Other Tales of Terror many times :)).
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Have you ever read Strange Eons by Robert Bloch? I have no idea if it holds up, but it is the book that scared me the most when I read it, many years ago. Basic premise: Lovecraft was on to something.
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Read it. Dug it. I like the psychology in that story.
Jason wrote: "How about At the Mountains of Madness? Oh, wait...
Have you ever read Strange Eons by Robert Bloch? I have no idea if it holds up, but it is the book that scared me the most when I read it, many..."
I have read some of Bloch's short stories, but haven't read Strange Eons. I will definitely check it out. Thanks!
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Maybe I'll make an effort to keep up with these from here on out. It's a neat idea.
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Matt wrote: "Has anyone read Baltimore, or, The Steadfast Tin Soldier and the Vampire? It seems like a good bet for one of my occasional genre reads."I read it a few years back. Didn't make much of an impression on me, though. A bit wordy, light on plot, but packed with portent and mood. I'd give it three stars, FWIW. You could definitely give it a shot.
My wife Kate recommends Ready Player One, especially for geeks who grew up in the '80's. If you owned an Atari 2600, you are the target audience. Kate is not a geek, but she enjoyed the book.
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I'm only on the first case, so far, but it's great fun
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Matt wrote: "Currently in the middle of The Call of the Wild. London's crisp, lean prose is a welcome break after Faulkner's dense, experimental writing. After this, I'll move on to Wuthering Heights. "Sweet! My son just read an abridged White Fang, and he was thrilled. I remember liking Call of the Wild in school, but I haven't read it since.
But I've reread Wuthering Heights a few times. Still one of my favorites.
Although, Kate Beaton makes a good point here.
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up to the top of my NF list. Never read him or knew much about him, so now seems like as good a time as any.
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Getting old is much better than the alternative!
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I disagree, sir!
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Other than that, the book is breezy, adventurous fun, so far, and it's just getting started.
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Can't wait to pick up another book and get this awful taste out of my mouth... ready for something, anything, that doesn't make my brain scream "FUCKING STOOOOOOPPPP!!!" the whole time I'm reading.
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Wow. I didn't love it, by any means, but don't remember it being painful, at all. Hast thou considered The Help? ;)
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At its absolute best, the book was as compelling as listening to the most boring stranger alive tell you stories at a 5-hour dinner party. That's at its absolute best.
The book jacket describes it as "darkly comic," but all I saw were a thousand missed opportunities for comedy. Like the hilarious scene where sad-sack Quoyle buys a boat off of a guy on the dock for $50. He thinks he got a great deal, but we as readers think, "Uh-oh! Bet there's something wrong with that boat!" And indeed there is.
So, how does Quoyle find out this information? Does he take the boat in the water and nearly drown himself after a series of mishaps? Does he leave it in the water overnight and come back to find it sunk? Nah. A guy kinda points out, "Hey, that's not a very good boat! Shabby workmanship, as detailed by the blah blah blahhhhhh for a long paragraph I didn't read because I was too busy pounding my face against the wall."
Combine that with the fact that the book is told in the sort of stilted prose that makes you think it was maybe translated through Google Voice by Robert Shaw as Quint in Jaws. Most paragraphs averaged one, maybe two complete sentences, and the rest were fragments. This includes not just the narrator, but all the characters as well. A sample paragraph, chosen completely at random:
“The hill tilting toward the water, the straggled pickets and then Dennis’s aquamarine house with a picture window toward the street. Quoyle pulled pens from his shirt, put them on the dashboard before he went in. For pens got in the way. The door opened into the kitchen. Quoyle stepped around and over children. In the living room, under a tinted photograph of two stout women lolling in ferns, Dennis slouched on leopard-print sofa cushions, watched the fishery news. On each side of him crocheted pillows in rainbows and squares. Carpenter at Home.”
There's some nice wordplay in there, some good imagery... but reading an entire novel written like that felt like listening to an 8-year-old hammering on a drum set, searching for a rhythm that never quite came to him.
The content itself wasn't offensive to my sensibilities, merely uninteresting on every level. Loser guy makes poor decisions, lives a pitiful life. That's pretty much the long and short of it. Any color or potential dazzle (such as Petal Bunny, for instance) gets killed off within 5 pages so good old Quoyle, who's about as interesting a character as a raw potato, can piss and moan about it for 200 more.
Basically, what I'm saying is that I'm not sure a novel intentionally written to irritate me could have done a better job.
The Bookhouse Boys
Books mentioned in this topic
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Naked Lunch: The Restored Text (other topics)
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Authors mentioned in this topic
Jim Thompson (other topics)Mike Carey (other topics)
Charles Willeford (other topics)
Italo Calvino (other topics)
David Grann (other topics)
In addition to our current group selection, I'm reading Deep, Dark and Dangerous: On the Bottom with the Northwest Salvage Divers. My wife bought this for me during our visit to the Columbia River Maritime Museum in Astoria. So far, it's a well-written look into the history of an incredibly perilous job that I find fascinating. A job that sounds like a nightmare for claustrophobe and aquaphobe alike.
I'm also starting the Oedipus Plays of Sophocles because I've never read them and love Classic Greek stuff. The translation by Roche seems to be a happy medium between accessibility and accurate recreation/equivalent of the source.