I did finally finish Cryptonomicon. Fucking A.

Then I read the Guided by Voices Brief History.

Then I read Anthony Kiedis' Scar Tissue.

Now I'm reading Cruddy.

Peripatetic wrote:Then I read the Guided by Voices Brief History.

What'd you think of this? I love the classic-period songs (and am fact am listening to Alien Lanes right now), which led me to flip around in the book in the bookstore. My impression from reading in it a bit is that Greer is just awful damned pleased with himself for being privy to all the inside jokes and the GBV mythos, as it were, but I found his writing style (sub-David Foster Wallace interjections and whatnot) to get insufferable pretty quickly.

So would you say I'm being unfair and should give the book more of a chance, or would you say Greer's authorial moves are indeed that way pretty much all the way through?

Maurice wrote:

Peripatetic wrote:Then I read the Guided by Voices Brief History.

What'd you think of this? I love the classic-period songs (and am fact am listening to Alien Lanes right now), which led me to flip around in the book in the bookstore. My impression from reading in it a bit is that Greer is just awful damned pleased with himself for being privy to all the inside jokes and the GBV mythos, as it were, but I found his writing style (sub-David Foster Wallace interjections and whatnot) to get insufferable pretty quickly.

So would you say I'm being unfair and should give the book more of a chance, or would you say Greer's authorial moves are indeed that way pretty much all the way through?

You are so exactly right, it's not even funny. The book is chockablock full of sentences that are like 2 and a half paragraphs long. You read them, and reread them, turn the TV down and read them again, only to realize that all he is saying is that Bob in fact does like beer.

That shouldn't stop you from reading it though. If you're a fan of the band, it's worth your time. I had a blast with it.

Wanted to resurrect this thread as there were many great suggestions in it that I actually followed up on (Kite Runner , Fat City , some Slavoj Zizek stuff). Anyway, what has been catching your eyes, reading wise, lately?

Myself:

Watchmen - Alan Moore, Dave Gibbons

Crossing The Rubicon - Michael C. Ruppert (clocker bob?)

Gold Coast - Kim Stanley Robinson

-Jeremy

Just finished Oryx & Crake - Margaret Atwood, and I'm getting ready to read Robber Bride. Anyone?

Every time I read one of her books I always end up reading another one right away. Her writing is addictive.

rachael wrote:Just finished Oryx & Crake - Margaret Atwood, and I'm getting ready to read Robber Bride. Anyone?

Every time I read one of her books I always end up reading another one right away. Her writing is addictive.

I've read The Blind Assassin, which I loved. The ending made me feel very soppy in a dark sort of way.

oucheh wrote:
Watchmen - Alan Moore, Dave Gibbons

Crossing The Rubicon - Michael C. Ruppert (clocker bob?)

Gold Coast - Kim Stanley Robinson

-Jeremy

I've been jumping all around on Crossing The Rubicon. I think Ruppert is better at collecting data than he is at presenting it in an orderly fashion. Whether 'peak oil' is really here or the 'peak oil as an excuse for enormous oil profiteering' is really here, I can't decide. It's kind of like the avian flu of geo-politics, this nebulous ominous presence, sort of like 'oil in euros'.

On my personal fiction list, in preparation for keeping my sense of humor during the coming depression, a major Orwell re-read binge:

1984, Down and Out In Paris And London, Road to Wigan Pier

glad you liked Kite Runner, Jeremy. It's a quick read, but still pretty great.

oucheh wrote:Watchmen - Alan Moore, Dave Gibbons

-Jeremy

I just finished V for Vendetta by Alan Moore and David Lloyd.

really good, but I think I'd like to read it again before I decide if I think it's great or not. Watchmen is a pretty high bar, but I thought V was similarly interesting, but in a different way. the washed out watercolor art looks great, I haven't seen a comic book that has a similar palette.

I've also devoured a couple of Stephen King's short story Collections. Skeleton Crew has two that are really great ("the Mist" and "the Jaunt") and a few others that are solid. Night Shift, however is pretty spectacular as far as low-grade summer reading goes. I actually got some great mp3's of some of the Night Shift stories that were a blast to whittle through and then I read the rest. Far superior to Skeleton Crew. The last one in Night Shift gave me the heebie-jeebies something fierce.

I've been digging some of Lovecraft's shorts, too. I bought The Thing on the Doorstep and other weird tales, and it's pretty good. "Pickman's Model" and the Music of Erich Zann" are both stellar. The former makes me really uneasy.

and also, I highly recommend some other short story collections (which is all i've had the time to invest in):

the Complete Roald Dahl Short Stories (rereading) and the Interpreter of Maladies (have read twice) by Jhumpa Lahiri. Both worth the price of admission and nice to kinda chisel through at your own pace.


mmm....short.

sparky wrote:

rachael wrote:Just finished Oryx & Crake - Margaret Atwood, and I'm getting ready to read Robber Bride. Anyone?

Every time I read one of her books I always end up reading another one right away. Her writing is addictive.

I've read The Blind Assassin, which I loved. The ending made me feel very soppy in a dark sort of way.

I have a big problem with Blind Assassin. I've tried to read it four times and I just get bored after about page 75, even though I don't find the story matter boring at all. Maybe it's something to do with the pacing of the interconnected stories.

is there any reason at all I should try again? I spent several years reading through Booker Prize books (I think I've read maybe 10 and have at least six more on my shelf), but this is the only one I can't get into, let alone not finish.


if I may inquire, what's appealling about it (without divulging too much of the plot)?

I just finished No Country For Old Men by Cormac McCarthy

Anyone interested in Lovecraft and/or "weird fiction" please search out the work of Kelly Link, her two short story books Stranger Things Happen and Magic For Beginners are two of my favorite books in a good long time. Sort of strange, odd "horror" and "fantasy" stories, really great