Shawn > Recent Status Updates

That dinner scene was one heck of a pay off. Woolf's protagonist hire, Mrs. Ramsay is mercurial to a fault. I like Lily the best.

so far it's a wonderfully melty novel. everything swirling about and chaotic, perspectives shifting, quite messy really. and some really really long acrobatic sentences.

I think when I become a train hopping hobo this will be one of the things I carry with me

So many things must have been inspired by this. I admittedly am becoming inspired too.

At first this came off as simple and obvious and wondered why people praise it, but I get it, it's totally practical advice backed up with historical anecdotes. I get it, if you weren't smart enough to pick up on this stuff before I could see how it would be a mind blower especially if you aren't well read to begin with.

I totally get it now, it's just fan fiction for the Bible. Still charming though I think I can guess how it ends.

This is charming, a simple fable for dullards. No wonder it was so popular back in the day.

That whole beginning with the aphid infestation HAS to be the inspiration for the movie "Bug" with Michael Shannon and Ashley Judd. Has to be. Writing is fairly immersive albeit a bit cartoon-y, most likely not an accident.

Grim, but morally and philosophically freeing in a way. If anything makes me want to read up more on Buddhism.

ah good old Chuck, after getting through Mann, I think me old bean deserves a rest

The philosophy will continue until moral improves.

A whole lotta biology and and whole lot of bad french I struggled to comprehend. I keep listening to the Blonde Redhead song about this book and wonder if it would seem stilted if I start referring to people in the third person.

I am beginning to realize a new trend regarding plots in some of the books I've read. This whole fascination where a person is disposed towards some sort of sickness that separates him from the rest of the world. I saw it in Lanark, I see it here, and it's been in tons of other stuff. Just a passing thought. My qualms with the translation have subsided. The book didn't hit its stride till like page 150 or so.

Way too early to make any judgments here, but so far I guess the dialogue doesn't translate well at all. It comes across as really clunky and extra.

I really can't get over how lush the prose is. Something about US Southern American authors really does it for me. Stellar characterization, insightful story, and mostly entertaining thus far.

I like the writing style, though a chunk of it here or there smacks me as a little too flowery and indulgent. I thought the metaphor of that feeling of unknowing when faced with an event that could change your life is hard to describe but Warren, you kind of nailed it in the first ten lines I don't think you needed the other twenty. The characters are well formed and distinct, and I look forward to reading more

A book composed of Amis' drink recipes and columns about drinking makes for an entertaining and informative read. If you like drinking that is. Very funny but also repetitive.

damn helicopters all over the place. paranoia, searching for some perfect junction between technology and humanity, humanity blending into surrounding structures of sky coral ash sand. it's a gritty life for Ballard, for sure.

okay I see where this is going now and honestly I can't decide if I love it or hate it. It has a very unique style, a good rhythm that fits the theme of the plot. It might be one of the most perfectly written novels I have ever read. But a lot can happen in the last half of a book so I'll be here to report what I find

dude, I have no clue what is going on in this book. I mean I get it, the narrative is smashed to pieces and under the microscope like the wrecks and injuries of the people involved, but seriously, what is happening. The new notes at the end of each chapter sort of help, but many seem to be to be purposely cryptic and misleading. Oh and if I picture Naders pudendum again, I'm hunting Ballard down and giving him shit

I need some people to help me watch the perimeter

Watch the perimeter, and don't go acting like a nancy boy. Stay true to your gang, esse

Two brothers from different fathers grow up through separate but in the authors mind, linked, hellish childhoods of loneliness, meaningless, and unflagging desire. Dark, humorous, and occasionally a little too close to home.

Calvino is a weird dude. But it takes a brilliant and slightly mad architect to construct something as labyrinthian as this novel here. An modern Scehezerade tries to keep the reader hooked and for what reason? Dunno yet.

reading this book is like free falling seemingly without end until you hit something soft but firm beneath you that gives way to your weight but doesn't break. It feels like a trampoline, but as the fall reverses itself and you feel launched upwards you realize it is actually a giant springy spider net and you are going to be pulled down and up for a while and don't know what will be waiting for you at the end

Well just as I was really starting to dig the surreal/abstract world Lanark found himself in, the novel shifts time dramatically. So to make that make sense, this book is split into four smaller ones, and the third book is first, then a prologue, then the first book. The first book is wildly different than the first, being more of biographic type novel. In it, the character Thaw tells his coming of age story. Hmm

Weird and wild I am struck by the simple style of the prose, the apathetic actions of the characters and the bizarre imagery. This all conjures up the work of filmmaker Godard and I can't help but see this story carry on before my eyes in a palette of black white and grey

wow I am still being blown away by the depths of this book. Sci Fi Chaucer, with each story within a story revealing another tantalizing piece of the puzzle. Some of the dialogue is clumsy, but the imagination and world building on display here are excellent