Books, are you reading any? Options

[EvilSpork]

Right now I'm reading Extremely Loud and Incredibly Close for my English course. It's pretty good and I think it deserves at least looking into.

Speaking of which, Nov, I've been meaning to read House of Leaves but I haven't gotten around to buying it. I'd have to order it, which is upsetting.

[elphaba2]

Reading "Acid House"--short stories by Irvine Welsh (god, we should start a fan club you guys) and "Deep Economy" by Bill McKibbons, and a Jostein Gaarder book that I keep forgetting the title of.

Oh, and the home stretch of The Fountainhead. I've got like sixty pages to go.

Wahoo for reading.

[voices_in_my_hea...]

Finished reading Night by Elle Weisel...

Very sad, but it gives an amazing image of what it was like for Holocaust victims. Once I get a chance, I'd really, really like to read the rest of the series.

[-TheKasbah-]

Americas Secret War, it is pretty interesting because it tells you a lot of information about how the American government was partly responsible for Al Qaeda and other things like that. Plus it gives some backround to the cold war which is what I am studying for a history course.

[elphaba2]

Tess of the D'Urbervilles, for English. I actually found myself liking it, until Thomas Hardy was DUMB and ended it stupid-abruptly. But it's good to have it over.

Also--What A Blow That Phantom Gave Me!, which is a strange book from the seventies. It's by Edmund Carter, this anthropologist who was really interested in preliterate people's responses to different types of media and the things that can be inferred about society's reaction to the same. It was interesting and pocket-sized.

[PsychWardMike]

I just got Steven Colbert's "I Am America (And So Can You!)" and I'm very entertained thus far. Is there anything that man can't do?

(Aside from, apparently, run for president?)

[Mata]

'If Chins Could Kill: Confessions of a B-movie actor' by Bruce Campbell. It's the story of the Evil Dead's star and his 'career' through Hollywood. I'm rather enjoying it. He's got an easy going writing style that trots along quite fast through the anecdotes.

[snooodlysnoosnoo...]

I'm reading Middlesex by Jeffery Eugenides, it's really good but it is totally screwing with my head and interfering with my dreams.

[Pikasyuu]

american gods, second or third time around.
has anyone read neil gaiman's stardust? i bought that as well when I was getting a new AG copy, and i haven't started it yet since i can be a little xenophobic towards new books.

..which would explain why i've read memoirs of a geisha about thirty times.

[I_am_the_best]

Not exactly literary genius but I'm working through Death Note, Bleach and Fruits Basket.

[voices_in_my_hea...]

Reading The Chosen for school. Which is horrible and I don't suggest to anyone, ever.

Of my own accord I'm reading 1984, which is amazing and I suggest to everyone.

[Moosh]

I'm currently reading something that's cool enough that I'll admit to reading it here. Fragile Things by Neil Gaiman. It's a collection of his short stories, and I never knew he was so good at them. Definitely reccomended.

[Hyperion]

Guilty to admit... Just finished Courtney Love by Poppy Z., which was (surprisingly) not terrible, but nothing Brite does is, now is it?

Now that I've confessed that one..

Just bought Ginsberg's Collected Poems and am love-love-loving them. And I sit around unshowered and smelly and read Sarte, but yanno, that's halfassed for a class (taking PHI 201 and trying to prove EXACTLY how much of a smart ass I really am).

[gothictheysay]

syuukakes, Stardust is nice. It's the only Gaiman I've read so far, actually. It's a little simple plotwise, perhaps, but it's very sweet. I couldn't imagine it inspiring hatred in anyone or anything.

Right now it is A Prayer for Owen Meany for English and Lullaby by Chuck Palahniuk on my own. See, I know several people who really don't like it, and I think it's Novander that really does... I'm curious to see if I'll like it. Right now it's maybe slightly annoying but other than that I think I like it. I've read Fight Club, Haunted, and Survivor so far, and plan on reading more. Just not in a row. Someone a while ago said you can't really read Palahniuk books one after the other, and I think that's kinda true. I do have Neverwhere by Neil Gaiman to read afterwards, as well as a couple Philip K. Dick novels because I love him so.

oh, and my english teacher saw me reading Lullaby and said "I love Chuck Palahniuk, but it's out of character for you". I'm thinking there's a side of me she doesn't really know. muahahaha.

[Novander]

Lullaby by Chuck Palahniuk on my own. See, I know several people who really don't like it, and I think it's Novander that really does...

Yeah, I've also read Fight Club, Invisible Monsters and Diary, and I'd say Lullaby is my favourite of his. Could be because it was the first of his I'd read and his style doesn't vary massively. I know I've asked you this before, but where's a good place to start with Philip K. Dick?

I recently finished China Miéville's Perdido Street Station, which I thought was pretty excellent. I'm still trying to work my way through the Wheel of Time for what must be the third time now. I'm on the Fires of Heaven, and when I'm done with that I've got the second in Scott Lynch's Gentleman Bastards series - Red Seas Under Red Skies - to read.

And House of Leaves. Always there. Always watching. Always waiting.

[Mata]

I've been meaning to read House Of Leaves again some time. I enjoyed it a lot, although occasionally the layout was more annoying than interesting. It's a big book to be turning around constantly.

has anyone read neil gaiman's stardust? i bought that as well when I was getting a new AG copy, and i haven't started it yet since i can be a little xenophobic towards new books.

I had wondered if it was only me who's like that. I know that if I enjoy a novel then massive amounts of my free time are going to be eaten by it until I've finished reading it, so I need to be careful. I don't mind picking up and putting down old novels, so I feel safer reading them.

Stardust... Hm. Tricky. Like a lot of Gaiman's prose output, I was left with a sense that it was a whimsy that had been built up too far. I felt the same about American Gods too. Stardust is a fairy story, so in content completely different from American Gods, but both novels gave me the sense that it was Gaiman showing me how clever he could be. American Gods in particular felt like a collection of footnotes without the accompanying text; each god was hinted about with details but his game was to hide who they were just in case the reader might know the myths about them, so rather than actually telling a story with them all he made a big pile of puzzle boxes and strung them together with something that seemed to be pulled from a Sandman story he never got around to writing.

Neverwhere was enjoyable in an easy-going sort of way, and I think that's my favourite of his novels. He's a good writer of short stories, and a truly phenomenal writer of comic books, but I've never been very comfortable with his prose work, so it's just as well for him that we've all got different tastes in books

Currently I'm reading the His Dark Materials trilogy by Philip Pullman (approximately five years after everyone else). I'm approaching halfway through the last book and it's all going a bit Lord Of The Rings-ish, which may or may not work well in the end. I haven't felt that the previous two parts made particularly satisfying books by themselves, but then the books are supposed to be one story in three volumes. I've been told that the last book is the best, so I look forward to seeing how he pulls it all together.

Oh, and I really enjoyed the Stardust film, but then I think I love Claire Danes in everything she's been in. It's also got Dexter Fletcher in it, which wins points with most British people of a certain age.

[gothictheysay]

Currently I'm reading the His Dark Materials trilogy by Philip Pullman (approximately five years after everyone else).

Uh, yeah, I keep meaning to pick it up... but haven't.

And Nov, I ended up starting with his short stories, which are wonderful. However, you could probably pick up Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep? and start there. He's pretty prolific. Probably the only one I can think of now that I don't like is Confessions of a Crap Artist, but I think it's rare enough you won't stumble into it.

[EvilSpork]

Currently I'm reading the His Dark Materials trilogy by Philip Pullman (approximately five years after everyone else).

Uh, yeah, I keep meaning to pick it up... but haven't.

And Nov, I ended up starting with his short stories, which are wonderful. However, you could probably pick up Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep? and start there. He's pretty prolific. Probably the only one I can think of now that I don't like is Confessions of a Crap Artist, but I think it's rare enough you won't stumble into it.

I picked up Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep? last week at a thrift store. It's a tasty read, and I'd say it's a decent place to start.

[elphaba2]

Just bought Ginsberg's Collected Poems and am love-love-loving them. And I sit around unshowered and smelly and read Sarte, but yanno, that's halfassed for a class (taking PHI 201 and trying to prove EXACTLY how much of a smart ass I really am).

Ginsberg! He's my friend! We like the same type of guys and being barefoot and mexico and beards. Shame about the being-dead thing. Try Reality Sandwiches; it's a great selection of stuff and very small.

I just returned a pile of books to the library and put an equal-sized pile on hold. I love being able to do that online. I poked Joyce Carol Oates, not sure I like her yet ("Beasts"), read the amazing "Interpreter of Maladies" by Jhumpa Lahiri which should be read by anyone who likes beautifully made short stories, and tried out "The Melancholy of Anatomy," which is by this girl who went to Berkeley and Brown and Stanford and all these prestigious places to study writing, but whose writing makes me want to throw up. It's deliberately visceral, like Chuck Palahniuk, but my experience with that guy have given me even less patience for that style of writing. I didn't read past the second story. Grah.

Upcoming: Mencken, I Feel Bad About My Neck, The Man Who Ate Everything and Miranda July's new stories. Can't wait!

[I_am_the_best]

I read a biography of Thomas Edison today. I never knew he was deaf, it's slightly ironic.

[Pikasyuu]

I just finished 1984. ..someone should have told me to read it while I didn't have the crazy.

*shudders from the extreme and thorough mindf*ck*

also, sarah, I read lullaby myself and it was easily my second favorite Palahniuk book. fight club is first, obviously.. some of the imagery is a little horrifying, but I found myself enjoying it quite a lot more than a lot of his other stuff.

just bought Gaiman's smoke and mirrors. I meant to get another fight club copy, but they were out. blasphemy!

[MisterJ]

I just finished reading Stormbreaker. It's pretty good and I intend to read the rest of the series.

[Novander]

I'm currently reading James Lovegrove's Gig. It's two short novellas, Mik and Kim, which are two different character's takes on the same story. It's riddled with palindromes and seems to be pretty good.

An amazon parcel arrived for me this morning containing J.D Salinger's The Catcher In The Rye, Stephen Chbosky's The Perks Of Being A Wallflower, Chuck Klosterman's Sex, Drugs and Cocoa Puffs: A Low Culture Manifesto and Michael Marshall Smith's Only Forward.

Should keep me going for a while.

[Daria]

I was seriously unimpressed with A Catcher In The Rye and think that perhaps I just found it out of date.

[Pikasyuu]

I felt the same about Catcher in the Rye. I had an english teacher that was positive I would identify with Holden's struggle and his feelings about the world, but I just didn't understand about it what was so moving and all encompassing. It made me slightly apathetic towards all critically acclaimed books, including 1984 - sadly, that one did make an extreme impression. I might re-read Catcher eventually by myself just to see if I missed anything during the course where every last ounce of symbolism was squeezed out of it.