Almost Like Being in Love
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Thanks Marleen, you are very efficient. I'm on page 30, don't worry. I have already laughed a dozen times, although many references are lost to me.Hi Patrice, I'm Sara. Nice to meet you! :)
Post some of the references that you don't get, maybe we can help out.
Hi Marleen & Sara :-)Hi Patrice - I don't know you yet, so, a big Hello!
I just got the book, I will start to read it tonight. But I read very slow....
Hey Sara! Ack, she's on page 30, the pressure! Good to meet you, Yoshi. :)
Both Sara and Yoshi have private profiles, no worries. I hope mine is not private--will one of you try to access it and let me know if you can? Thanks. :P
Guess we'll all just have to be friends then...... just to see each other's profiles. I am on page 40 and I have to say I am glad I am reading this on paper. I tried the kindle sample, but it was a bit confusing. The typesetting makes everything much more clear and really adds something.
I can see Sara's problem with some of the references, some aren't all that clear to me either. Thank God we have Patrice, who actually grew up in the US! Not as a gay boy though... So she may not know who Smerko is either. Do you?
I have just started, and I was hoping that would become clear, 'cause I don't know. Dang, 1 out of 3 won't help! :P
Meh, of course. I remember that movie was mentioned, but I haven't seen it, so I didn't tie those things together. Yay, Marleen!
We're going to have to watch that movie, as often as it comes up in this book.
Patrice, I added you as friend, so you can see my profile. I can see yours, don't worry. :)I'm enjoying this book a bit too much.
Thanks to early-morning insomnia, I am about halfway through the book. I like it all very much...except for most of the baseball talk. Baseball, when not at a game drinking a beer and eating garlic fries, equals zzzzzzzzzz.
I am flying through this book too. 'Just one more little memo'...... I can't stop!I's sure I would get more out of it if I had my husband's brain full of baseball trivia, then the whole comparison between American History and baseball would make more sense. Maybe I'll let him read that bit and have him comment. I mean, he is reading Mind Fuck now, on his phone none the less, so something as non explicit as this should be peanuts.
The book is just full of favorite bits, but I have to say I really liked the 'Anatomy of a Fight' sequence, with the columns for 'What's said' and 'What isn't said'.
Patrice, I just added you, I didn't know that my profile is private. I just started the book, only 2%. I am asking myself what is it. It seems that I don't understand anything at all. :-(
At the point you're at, Yoshi, it's just the two guys in boarding school getting to know each other through a school drama production and helping each other with homework. The story is told through journal entries, homework assignments, converstations with roommates, etc.
Marleen wrote:"I mean, he is reading Mind Fuck now"Poor m/m-virgin. Tha first m/m would be Mind fuck? That should hurt a lot!
Marleen wrote: "The book is just full of favorite bits, but I have to say I really liked the 'Anatomy of a Fight' sequence, with the columns for 'What's said' and 'What isn't said'."
Priceless.
Poor m/m-virgin. Tha first m/m would be Mind fuck? That should hurt a lot! I warned him! I told him there was gay BDSM in the book, but that it wasn't just that. I guess he couldn't resist the pretty, pretty covers of the paperbacks I've been collecting. And hey, I started with Mind Fuck......
Yes, and look at where we're at now..... Vampires? Meh.
Anyway, I'm loving this book. This is the kind of irony that makes me fall off the chair and laugh like Santa Claus.
I still didn't get to the point where the book can hold my interest.....
Where are you at, Yoshi?
I would rather read this book five times, twice out loud, than write a one-ish page paper on cataloging standards methods and principles. *stabs self*
Really? That paper sounds so.... fascinating.
Marleen wrote: "Where are you at, Yoshi?"They were going to see I wanna hold your hand.
This book seems to be about the journey, not the destination. I assumed it would be the other way around, so I'm at chapter 10, and the suspense is killing me!
I want Travis as my best friend.
I have enough of my own neuroses, having to deal with Travis' too would drive me over the edge. I'll take Clayton instead. :P
*chuckles* Yes, I can understand that, but I won't take Clayton as a 'friend'... :p
Hehehe, understood!
Aaaah, I finished it! I want more. Tell me when all of you are done, so we can talk about it.
I think I might like to hang out with Gordo. I am on page 295, the suspense is driving me up the wall and I am going to save the last bit until I know I won't be interrupted every two paragraphs. I want to savor it!
I think I am not in the right mind/mood to read this book at the moment :-(
Marleen, I've looked for www.gordostud, but it doesn't exist. What a pity. Oh, I'm sorry Yoshi. But you really should try it when you think you're in the right mood.
Actually, I'm thinking about a "5 stars" prize for it. But I'm still thinking. I need to talk about it with you all.
Yoshi, it is very, very American, much more so than most m/m. It is hard to get into it without knowledge about American history, baseball and 70's cultural phenomena.
Nah.. you can jump those parts, pretending you're understanding what's he/she's talking about, and you'll enjoy it the same.To be fair, Wikipedia helped a lot here and there...
FWIW, I have only a slight knowledge of Alexander Hamilton, and very-little-to-no knowledge of baseball, theater and the 70s cultural stuff they discuss. My eyes tend to read those parts...extra fast, hehe.
What Sarasaya said!
Marleen wrote: "Yoshi, it is very, very American, much more so than most m/m. It is hard to get into it without knowledge about American history, baseball and 70's cultural phenomena."I think it's really one of the reason why I cannot get into the book, as I don't know most of the names/places/plays. Norman Bates was the only name I am familiar with :-)
Sara, but I don't want to look up everything on Wiki while reading.....
Yes, but Norman Bates singing...Well, I only checked a couple of times and out of curiosity, but Yoshi, I can understand if you don't like reading something when you can't understand half of it, I mean, I AM the strange one.
OK, I finished! It was a loss of two-hours of prime homework time, but I needed a break. Now to write about database theory. *groan*
All of his Steve Kluger books are about baseball and 70's references. For those of us who like baseball and lived in the 70's, it was a fun ride.
Alright, I finished too. I wouldn't have minded a bit more mushiness at the end, it was a little anti-climactic, but overall very satisfying. I think I may have to buy this and reread when needed.
Ok, so everybody's done, right? Michael, I wish I could understand every references but I can assure you, I laughed enough, even with my almost non-existent knowledge of USA society in the 70's.
I was thinking: the end was a bit rushed, at first I found it very strange, because I though that the main goal of the book was to take us to the end to see what what would have happened there. Then I though that maybe it wasn't like that and the purpous of this story was the journey and not the arrival.
And even if the end may be considered predictable, in fact there is nothing predictable in this book. Characters in primis.
My critic: all the characters have the same sense of humor, even Gordon's father. But this lack of differentiation in the end is not annoying...
Memorable moments:
Travis tells Gordon that everything went well and soon after AJ tells Gordon that Travis is in jail.
Craig's mother tells her son about a strange thief who entered her studio and fixed her post it sorted by color.
Travis manages to lie to Clayton in the last moment and change the name of Craig in Crotty.
The Gordon's website.
The movie Travis creates in his mind about Clayton who becomes a priest.
Travis Jeans (size 28).
Travis. And Gordon.
The end was a tad rushed, but everyone was happy, so I guess I can't overly complain. Most romantic comedies (movies) bug me these days, due to their predictability and the formula so many of them follow. The endings can be direct, where the two main characters end up together after overcoming numerous obstacles on their pathway to true love and happiness. Then there is the false ending, like in this book. You figure it's a romantic comedy, these two will end up together. Then it looks like they won't...but at the 11th hour they do. I am not sure whether to be pissed at a fake ending or pleased that those two ended up together anyway. :PI'm torn between 3.5 and 4 stars. I didn't get most of the references, despite my nationality, and I think I would have preferred them to get together much earlier in the book. But then much of the tension would be gone. Hrm.
I don't mind the end result so much. I've done a break up with a long time boyfriend like that and thought it was realistically done. Craig just abandoning Clay to ride off into the sunset with Travis would have irked me in some way too. What I minded is that we don't actually get to see the ending, as much as we're getting a little flashback in the epilogue. I think we deserved to be more present in that process. We're there when they get together, I want to be there when they get back together. Not just be informed that they do. Another chapter or two wouldn't have killed the writer. I also was a little insulted that the author felt it was needed to point out that Travis was bringing all these people together. I noticed that all by myself, thank you.
I really liked the books setup with the notes, and memos and e-mails and such. Impossible to read on an e-reader, I think, but the sacrifice of trees was worth it.
One of highlights for me were Travis's test questions and his students' answers on the tests. 'Now you're acting dopey enough to be in love. Hit the road, Jack.'
I think I'll end up with 4 stars. It would have been 5 if the ending hadn't felt like a cop out.
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Patrice -----> Sara, Sara ------> Patrice.
Now post something and check out each other's profiles and maybe friend each other or, as intermediary, I'll be forced to provide all the gossip.
Four hours until the library opens and I can get my book and try to catch up.