Reading Pile 2006

[vesper]

since we have piles for all the other consistent list threads...

even though i'm only taking 10 hours this semester, at least 6 of them have ridiculous reading loads: a seminar on experimental theatre & performance and an independent study on the situationist internat'l. it's a reading load i don't mind though, because all of the work ties directly into what i'll be doing in grad school.

many plays by maria irene fornes, amiri baraka and luis valdez
a couple plays by adrienne kennedy and suzan lori-parks
harry elam's taking it to the streets: the social protest theatre of amiri baraka and luis valdez
greil marcus' lipstick traces
guy debord's society of the spectacle
2 situationist anthologies
raoul vaneigm's the revolution of everyday life

some stuff i'm trying to supplement the two courses with --

derek walcott's dream on monkey mtn
marx's a contribution to the critique of political economy
thomas frank's the conquest of cool (re-reading)

-edit-

bad grammar happens at 6 in the morning.

[Miss Tasty Princess]

I'm still slowly working on The Five Books of Moses: A Translation with Commentary by Robert Alter. It's interesting but very slow reading as there are more footnotes than actual Biblical text!

The other day, I finished volume 2 of the complete Peanuts collection. Schultz was a genius.

[tinobeat]

right now I'm reading two collections of Phillip K. Dick short stories.

[Miss Tasty Princess]

I hope you got the five volume set of all of them!

[tinobeat]

no, I only have the two, one called The Short Happy Life of the Brown Oxford and one called Second Variety. Are you thinking of the same series? with the light blue trim on the covers? I should get the rest.

While we're on PKD, I've read these novels by him:

Do Androids Dream...
The Man in the High Castle
VALIS
Ubik
Flow My Tears, The Policeman Said
Radio Free Albemuth

There's so many others I don't always know where to start, so any suggestions as to ones I haven't read that are more essential?

[maroonwalrus]

I'm still slowly working on The Five Books of Moses: A Translation with Commentary by Robert Alter. It's interesting but very slow reading as there are more footnotes than actual Biblical text!

Woah, interesting that you mention that...a good friend of mine just had Mr. Alter as a professor at Berkeley for a Comparative Literature class on "The Biblical Tradition in Western Literature." Apparently a brilliant guy, although I admittedly haven't read any of his critical work.

My reading pile as of late:
-- Woody Allen, Side Effects
-- Walt Whitman, Leaves of Grass (an odd non-year-specific edition as cobbled together by a professor's colleague)
-- Vladimir Nabokov, The Real Life of Sebastian Knight

[Miss Tasty Princess]

-- Woody Allen, Side EffectsIs that the one with "What If the Impressionists Had Been Dentists?" All his book are hilarious but that's my favorite piece.

[maroonwalrus]

Is that the one with "What If the Impressionists Had Been Dentists?" All his book are hilarious but that's my favorite piece.

That's actually in Without Feathers.

[Salman]

I started The Brothers Karamazov by Dostoevsky earlier in the month, and I'm actually three quarters of the way through it. Quite a good read so far.

[Keith]

I'm reading Amasterdem by Ian Mcewan, although i some how menged to get red Wine stained over the back so it's kinda the worse for ware.

[johansen smith]

I'm reading Amasterdem by Ian Mcewan, although i some how menged to get red Wine stained over the back so it's kinda the worse for ware.
it's almost like you're baiting Mr. HCI with this post.

[japanese_moon]

I just finished Dead Babies by Martin Amis. A big "Thank you" to whoever posted that.

Now I'm on a Vonnegut rampage...

[johansen smith]

I just finished Dead Babies by Martin Amis. A big "Thank you" to whoever posted that.
it was me.

[SkagNBone]

The Eagle's Shadow: Why America Fascinates and Infuriates the World - Mark Hertsgaard

The Dante Club - Matthew Pearl

I Am Charlotte Simmons - Tom Wolfe

[Moon Pix]

At the moment its The Virgin Suicides by Jeffrey Eugenides. After that I have no idea what it'll be.

[Keith]

I've read most of that, it's good i love the Film. I've got his secord Novel Middlesex and am about ready to make a start is it anygood anyone? The Dead Babie is not the one which went on to become a very dull film is it?

[johansen smith]

The Dead Babie is not the one which went on to become a very dull film is it?
it is, but the novel is unfilmable so that the movie version failed is no big surprise.

[Keith]

Yes and i guess it was northing like it on screen. I remember the big screen version. I consider this one of the worse films in recent memorie. Alothough i haven't read the book theres no trace of even a half decent sceen play.

[Thor]

PKD - There's so many others I don't always know where to start, so any suggestions as to ones I haven't read that are more essential?
UBIK is such an amazing book. You should read the rest of the VALIS series, which is The Divine Invasion and The Transmigration of Timothy Archer. Also completley fucking unmissable:

- Lies, Inc
- The Three Stigmata of Palmer Eldritch
- Eye in the Sky
- Time out of Joint

I went through a period last year where I read about 10 PKD books in a row. I started to feel seriously unhinged.

I'm currently reading a William Blake biography "Blake", by Peter Ackroyd.

[Keith]

Just Started Middlesex. I was speaking of the dreamcatcher before by the way.

[Patrick]

By chance, I just walked by William Blake's rambling house on the edge of Hampstead Heath, called "Wyldes".

He used to sit out in the nude in the garden with his wife, drinking tea.

Patrick

[Thor]

By chance, I just walked by William Blake's rambling house on the edge of Hampstead Heath, called "Wyldes".

He used to sit out in the nude in the garden with his wife, drinking tea.
weird, I was just reading about that and looking at a picture of the house this morning!

[Patrick]

It was lovely! Adam and I stumbled on it by accident.... he was showing me the old twisty medieval parts of Hampstead, then I dragged him onto the highway and across the muddy "Heath Extension" so we could see the turn of the century Hampstead Garden Suburb.

It was en route that we happened onto the Wyldes by chance.

Bringing this back to reading, I just finished 'Prep' by Curtis Sittenfeld. And am reading 'The Brothers K' by Dostoevsky (apologies if I already posted this - it's been ongoing).

Patrick

[Dean]

And am reading 'The Brothers K' by Dostoevsky (apologies if I already posted this - it's been ongoing).

Patrick

Me too. I had read an excerpt from it before, the whole "grand inquisitor" bit. It piqued my interest, and I found a cheap modern library copy of it at the strand a week or so ago. Not exactly perfect for subway reading, but I'm really liking it. The only other Dostoevsky I'd read was Notes From The Underground, which I hadn't liked so much. This book has a MUCH different tone.

[Fiona]

Just finished 'Personality' by Andrew O'Hagan. The guy has a real way with prose, so natural, sensitive and elegant at the right times. I didn't feel this was up to the same standard as 'Our Fathers', though there are some parallels in the underlying topics. Too many characters with their own stories vying for the reader's attention blurs the focus imo.

[Fiona]

'The Dead School' by Patrick McCabe. Don't think I can top one of the cover quotes: "death on a laugh support machine". Twisted.

[Lukas]

the 100 most challenged books in the US

Daddy’s Roommate by Michael Willhoite
I Know Why the Caged Bird Sings by Maya Angelou
The Chocolate War by Robert Cormier
The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn by Mark Twain
Of Mice and Men by John Steinbeck
Harry Potter (Series) by J.K. Rowling
Forever by Judy Blume
Bridge to Terabithia by Katherine Paterson
Alice (Series) by Phyllis Reynolds Naylor
Heather Has Two Mommies by Leslea Newman
My Brother Sam is Dead by James Lincoln Collier and Christopher Collier
The Catcher in the Rye by J.D. Salinger
The Giver by Lois Lowry
It’s Perfectly Normal by Robie Harris
Goosebumps (Series) by R.L. Stine
A Day No Pigs Would Die by Robert Newton Peck
The Color Purple by Alice Walker
Sex by Madonna
Earth’s Children (Series) by Jean M. Auel
The Great Gilly Hopkins by Katherine Paterson
A Wrinkle in Time by Madeleine L’Engle
Go Ask Alice by Anonymous
Fallen Angels by Walter Dean Myers
In the Night Kitchen by Maurice Sendak
The Stupids (Series) by Harry Allard
The Witches by Roald Dahl
The New Joy of Gay Sex by Charles Silverstein
Anastasia Krupnik (Series) by Lois Lowry
The Goats by Brock Cole
Kaffir Boy by Mark Mathabane
Blubber by Judy Blume
Killing Mr. Griffin by Lois Duncan
Halloween ABC by Eve Merriam
We All Fall Down by Robert Cormier
Final Exit by Derek Humphry
The Handmaid’s Tale by Margaret Atwood
Julie of the Wolves by Jean Craighead George
The Bluest Eye by Toni Morrison
What’s Happening to my Body? Book for Girls: A Growing-Up Guide for Parents & Daughters by Lynda Madaras
To Kill a Mockingbird by Harper Lee
Beloved by Toni Morrison
The Outsiders by S.E. Hinton
The Pigman by Paul Zindel
Bumps in the Night by Harry Allard
Deenie by Judy Blume
Flowers for Algernon by Daniel Keyes
Annie on my Mind by Nancy Garden
The Boy Who Lost His Face by Louis Sachar
Cross Your Fingers, Spit in Your Hat by Alvin Schwartz
A Light in the Attic by Shel Silverstein
Brave New World by Aldous Huxley
Sleeping Beauty Trilogy by A.N. Roquelaure (Anne Rice)
Asking About Sex and Growing Up by Joanna Cole
Cujo by Stephen King
James and the Giant Peach by Roald Dahl
The Anarchist Cookbook by William Powell
Boys and Sex by Wardell Pomeroy
Ordinary People by Judith Guest
American Psycho by Bret Easton Ellis
What’s Happening to my Body? Book for Boys: A Growing-Up Guide for Parents & Sons by Lynda Madaras
Are You There, God? It’s Me, Margaret by Judy Blume
Crazy Lady by Jane Conly
Athletic Shorts by Chris Crutcher
Fade by Robert Cormier
Guess What? by Mem Fox
The House of Spirits by Isabel Allende
The Face on the Milk Carton by Caroline Cooney
Slaughterhouse-Five by Kurt Vonnegut
Lord of the Flies by William Golding
Native Son by Richard Wright
Women on Top: How Real Life Has Changed Women’s Fantasies by Nancy Friday
Curses, Hexes and Spells by Daniel Cohen
Jack by A.M. Homes
Bless Me, Ultima by Rudolfo A. Anaya
Where Did I Come From? by Peter Mayle
Carrie by Stephen King
Tiger Eyes by Judy Blume
On My Honor by Marion Dane Bauer
Arizona Kid by Ron Koertge
Family Secrets by Norma Klein
Mommy Laid An Egg by Babette Cole
The Dead Zone by Stephen King
The Adventures of Tom Sawyer by Mark Twain
Song of Solomon by Toni Morrison
Always Running by Luis Rodriguez
Private Parts by Howard Stern
Where’s Waldo? by Martin Hanford
Summer of My German Soldier by Bette Greene
Little Black Sambo by Helen Bannerman
Pillars of the Earth by Ken Follett
Running Loose by Chris Crutcher
Sex Education by Jenny Davis
The Drowning of Stephen Jones by Bette Greene
Girls and Sex by Wardell Pomeroy
How to Eat Fried Worms by Thomas Rockwell
View from the Cherry Tree by Willo Davis Roberts
The Headless Cupid by Zilpha Keatley Snyder
The Terrorist by Caroline Cooney
Jump Ship to Freedom by James Lincoln Collier and Christopher Collier

[mixtapegrrl]

books i've recently finished are another bullshit night in suck city by nick flynn, which is a memoir, and elliot smith and the big nothing by benjanim nugent. both were good, but the book about elliot smith kind of dragged at points. i just hate those unwanted details, like what color house so and so grew up in and what their father did for a living. i mean seriously, who cares? my boyfriend has loaned me andy greenwald's nothing feels good which is cool so far, but is also giving me a total head trip back to my freshman year of highschool. that wasn't so good of a time. yikes.

[9000]

the brooklyn follies by paul auster

[the Pawnbroker]

And am reading 'The Brothers K' by Dostoevsky (apologies if I already posted this - it's been ongoing).

Hope you are reading the translation by Pevear and Volokonsky, which won a National Book Award or something for translation.

[Keith]

Conversatins with Fellini by Costanzo Costantini

[mixtapegrrl]

i just read how soon is never by mark spitz and it had me laughing out loud..i heard there is a movie version of it coming out soon, too. i'll look foward to that.

[Keith]

Virginia Woolf - To the lighthouse
Julie Myerson - Something Might Happen

[9000]

clockers - richard price

[Keith]

Tracy Chevalier - Falling Angels

[Maximo]

just finished pride and prejudice again. great book.

[japanese_moon]

The Dark Half - Stephen King

[the Pawnbroker]

Vino Italiano by Joe Bastianich & David Lynch

Damn is Italian wine complicated.

[Keith]

Is that the David Lynch? i never knew that. Was aware of it but not that he was involved. Ofcouse Pride and Prejudice is one of the classic storys of any era, the think the Elizabeth charactor is such a strong female figure for those times espacially. The recent film was quite interesting better than i expected taken from a different prospective. I've heard a great deal about the four hour Television version which i've yet to see.

[the Pawnbroker]

Is that the David Lynch? i never knew that. Was aware of it but not that he was involved. Ofcouse Pride and Prejudice is one of the classic storys of any era, the think the Elizabeth charactor is such a strong female figure for those times espacially. The recent film was quite interesting better than i expected taken from a different prospective. I've heard a great deal about the four hour Television version which i've yet to see.

Different Lynch, unless he's in charge of wine at Babbo in addition to directing and painting.

[9000]

Damn is Italian wine complicated.

for real. btw-there is an italian wine showcase at the puck building in a few weeks.

[the Pawnbroker]

for real. btw-there is an italian wine showcase at the puck building in a few weeks.

Date and time? Couldn't find anything on the Internets.

[9000]

Date and time? Couldn't find anything on the Internets.

the 14th from 5-8pm.

[Keith]

Am now Reading Natural Flights of the Human Mind a new noval by Clare Morrall. Having just moved to a seaside town it's quite a good read for me.

[Paul Thek]

Anybody ever read The Ogre by Michel Tournier? I just finished reading that...I'm pretty blown away by it. A really interesting book about morality and perception that doesn't molly coddle the reader. Tournier really allows uncomfortable, unresolvable situations to remain as such.

Just started reading Francis Bacon by Giles Dilueze.

[earl grey]

not having a pile of schoolwork awaiting me every night has me really psyched to read books again.

currently:

simon reynolds - rip it up and start again: postpunk 1978-1984. halfway through this and i like it a lot. it's a little disjointed, which makes it better read in small chunks IMO, but he covers so many different bands + scenes that it works fine. it's got me curious about many bands i only knew by name before.

up next:

robert caro - the power broker: robert moses and the fall of new york. excited for this but goddamn it's long.

[Paul]

simon reynolds - rip it up and start again: postpunk 1978-1984. halfway through this and i like it a lot. it's a little disjointed, which makes it better read in small chunks IMO, but he covers so many different bands + scenes that it works fine. it's got me curious about many bands i only knew by name before.I found out after buying the US version (which I actually haven't even started reading yet) that some of the content from the original UK version was edited out. America sucks.

[Fiona]

I found out after buying the US version (which I actually haven't even started reading yet) that some of the content from the original UK version was edited out. America sucks.
I think there's about 200 pages in the difference. Ouch.

[Miss Tasty Princess]

200 pages gone? That sounds like one for the WTF? thread.

[9000]

up next:

robert caro - the power broker: robert moses and the fall of new york. excited for this but goddamn it's long.

before i'm dead, i'll read this. hopefully, it won't take my entire life to complete.

currently:
oldman's guide to outsmarting wine by mark oldman
atonement by ian mcewan

[earl grey]

I think there's about 200 pages in the difference. Ouch.

oh man, that's ridiculous.

i wonder what they took out - was it "nah, americans don't care about bands X, Y, and Z" or "who really needs to know that much about gang of four"? it's a shame either way...

[Fiona]

9000, how are you finding Atonement? I like it more than other books of his I've read, but have never been able to say I've enjoyed any of his work despite holding them in high regard. That many of his characters aren't wholly likeable and the uncomfortable atmosphere he creates, leave a bitter taste. I've Saturday sitting in a pile waiting to be read.

I'm getting into The Line of Beauty by Alan Hollinghurst at the moment.

[9000]

9000, how are you finding Atonement?

put me to sleep two nights and counting. i'm hopeful that the next two-thirds will keep my attention a bit more. have heard great things about it.

[vesper]

how much is rip it up and start again running and where are you getting it? i saw a copy in mondo kim's long ago, around the time when the UK version came out, with a high tag. that really is a shame to hear about the page count.

maybe no one can answer this question yet, but i'm also curious how it measures up to/addresses the arguments that greil marcus makes in lipstick traces?

[Salman]

Started "Dreamland" by Kevin Baker last weekend. I think someone here hyped it up, which I'm glad they did. I'm really enjoying it right now.

[earl grey]

how much is rip it up and start again running and where are you getting it? i saw a copy in mondo kim's long ago, around the time when the UK version came out, with a high tag. that really is a shame to hear about the page count.


i got my copy gratis from a friend that works at penguin, but it's only $10.40 at amazon right now...

[rhoops]

Crime and Punishment - Constance Garnett translation
Bird: The Legend of Charlie Parker - Robert George Reisner

[Moon Pix]

maybe no one can answer this question yet, but i'm also curious how it measures up to/addresses the arguments that greil marcus makes in lipstick traces?

How the hell did you ever understand that book? I found it to be pretentious and I threw in the towel when Greil started writing that arty farty cobblers about Quatermass.

He's as bad as Paul Morley (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Paul_Morley) for pretention.

[vesper]

for shame! first you are down on crass and now you go after marcus!?

besides, the book isn't very hard to understand. i can see how his whacky sense of history is a little off-putting, but it's also one of the most fun reads i've had in awhile. as for how i 'got it,' i did an independent study in my last semester of college on the group he refers to the most, the Situationists (guy debord, raoul vaneigem, et al), so i read most of the texts that he references in the book.

and as for the accusations: handling dense and complex material does not make one pretentious.

[Moon Pix]

as for how i 'got it,' i did an independent study in my last semester of college on the group he refers to the most, the Situationists (guy debord, raoul vaneigem, et al), so i read most of the texts that he references in the book.

Thats probably it. Its like when I tried reading The Myth of Sissyphus by Albert Camus. I didnt understand a word and then I figured out you probably need to go to college or uni to get a good grounding in the base material before taking on a read like that.

Im going to stick with my current reading material which is The Heart Is A Lonely Hunter by Carson McCullers. I can understand that.:)

[yovan]

"Love Me, Hate Me" by Jeff Pearlman

Originally bought this since he's a fellow University of Delaware grad. Gotta support the Blue Hens. Anyhow, if you're wondering just how much of an @ss Barry Bonds really is - read this book!

"Guests of the Ayatollah" by Mark Bowden

Fascinating, literary account of the Embassy/Iran hostage situation in '79-80'.

[the Pawnbroker]

up next:

robert caro - the power broker: robert moses and the fall of new york. excited for this but goddamn it's long.

It's long, but it is so, so good. It changes the whole way you look at the city.

[Moon Pix]

simon reynolds - rip it up and start again: postpunk 1978-1984. halfway through this and i like it a lot. it's a little disjointed, which makes it better read in small chunks IMO, but he covers so many different bands + scenes that it works fine. it's got me curious about many bands i only knew by name before.

http://media.libsyn.com/media/tsoya/tsoya040806.mp3

[Fiona]

Finished The Line Of Beauty - it was one of those books which makes me reluctant to pick up another, in case reading something else would make me forget the enjoyment I got from it.
Well, got over that, and then read The Family Tree by Carole Cadwalladr (which I liked a lot) and currently reading The Bay Of Noon by Shirley Hazzard.

[Fiona]

Maybe I'm missing something, but I found 'The Bay Of Noon' to be one of the dreariest books I've ever read. The characters never came to life for me, they were all pitiful and soulless, in contrast to what friends had to say. Even at under 300 pages it felt drawn out.

Ian McEwan's 'Saturday' provoked quite the opposite reaction. This one just completely clicked. In Henry Perowne, he's created such a human character. It's probably the first book by McEwan that I can say I truly like, rather than respect.

Other reading:
Hilary Mantel - 'Beyond Black'
Ali Smith - 'The Accidental'

[Patrick]

It's long, but it is so, so good. It changes the whole way you look at the city.

Yes. Absolutely one of the best books written about urban planning - but also about political power in general. I'd love to read his multi-volume bio of LBJ if I had a decade or two to spare.

Patrick

[Moon Pix]

Big Star: The Story of Rock's Forgotten Band by Rob Jovanovic.

[vesper]

i'm going through these in my own time, which is less and less, but hey. i'm actually only on the first book right now, but it is a quick read and the others are on my bedside windowsill.

wayne koestenbaum, opera, homosexuality, and the mystery of desire
james baldwin, go tell it on the mountain
ralph ellison, invisible man

-edit-

also, i just looked up that robert caro book at the strand and i bet i would love it. i'll have to mark it for winter reading.

[Fiona]

james baldwin, go tell it on the mountain

Oh, I was looking at this at over lunch, the Penguin Modern Classics edition - didn't realise that the introduction was by Andrew O'Hagan. That's bumped it right up the list now, just after O'Hagan's new novel, 'Be Near Me'.

[9000]

benjamin kunkel, indecision
john burdett, bangkok 8

[jef]

I loved that Big Star book..

Right Now I'm reading "Trouble is my Business" by Raymond Chandler.

Next up is "Catch a Wave: The Rise, Fall, and Redemption of the Beach Boys' Brian Wilson" by Peter Ames Carlin

[Moon Pix]

I loved that Big Star book..

Yeah, it is good. Surprised me to be honest cause the author has a literary rap sheet a mile long according to many readers.

[jef]

It was a huge surprise for me too... I wasn't expecting much from it at all, after reading parts of his Pavement book.

[9000]

could really use something hilarious at the moment. recommendations?

[pizzagratis]

could really use something hilarious at the moment. recommendations?

Masters of Atlantis

[9000]

Masters of Atlantis

okay, i'm going to pick this up. just finished wake up, sir! by jonathan ames. hilarious.

[pizzagratis]

okay, i'm going to pick this up. just finished wake up, sir! by jonathan ames. hilarious.

very cool...looking forward to what youse have to say. one o' my favorites.

[Moon Pix]

Naomi Klein - No Logo.
Brian Hinton - South By Southwest.

[Patrick]

Arthur Ransome - Coot Camp
Jessica Mitford - Hons and Rebels
Jessica Mitford - Poison Penmanship
Jessica Mitford - The American Way Of Death
Jeffrey Brown - Unlikely
Yoshihiro Tatsumi - Abandon The Old In Tokyo (http://www.drawnandquarterly.com/shopCatalogLong.php?item=a4433d35e67e99)
Frederick Rolfe - The Desire and Pursuit of The Whole

Patrick

[Fiona]

Patrick, how does Jessica Mitford's writing compare to Nancy's? Nancy is the only one of the Mitford sisters whose work I'm familiar with.

[Patrick]

Fiona -

It's wonderful. Hilarious. Jessica was a bit different from Nancy in that she was political - she was the second-youngest and most left-wing of the sisters, being a committed Socialist in her childhood against her Fascist loving sisters Unity and Diana. She ended up moving to America in the '40s and became a journalist dedicated to exposing industry scams, most famously with funeral industry ('The American Way of Death.')

So she had more scruples than the apolitical Nancy did, and slightly less imagination, but came from the same twisted background and had a similarly dry take on life.

'Hons and Rebels' is Jessica's autobiographical account of her insane family and upbringing, and provides an alternative perspective to Nancy's thinly disguised fictions, 'The Pursuit of Love' and 'Love In a Cold Climate.'

Patrick

[Moon Pix]

Brian Hinton - South By Southwest.

Having now read the bulk of this (220 pages out of about 300) I can honestly say its by far one of the single worst books Ive ever read. Its suppossedly a book about the effects of American imagery, values and attitudes on modern music (the subtitle is A Road Map to Alternative Country but in truth most of the artists mentioned in the book have little if anything to do with that non-genre).

Hinton's approach to informing the reader appears to be to simply name drop as many artists as possible (in fact you may as well just skip the fucking book altogether and go straight to the index), offering his own opinion on them which ranges from Life of Brian style sychophancy (Lucinda Williams) to cack handed dismissal (M Ward) and pulling the odd carefully selected quote from No Depression or Mojo to back up his opinions. The only thing I really learnt from the quotes was how pretentious rock critics tend to be, their tendancy to describe music in nothing less than the most poetic and flowery terms while actually saying very little. The book is little more than a barrage of names, places and album titles with so little information about any of them that you'll probably get to the end of the book and hardly remember anything. Its so lopsided and unbalanced that it reads as little more than an appreciation of certain artists and when you compare Wilco's own section to the two sentences that Hinton bestows upon Neko Case its obvious who he wants you to remember. Then when he somehow manages to bring Captain Beefheart in to the picture during the "Desert rock" section it just confirms the book as a hipsters name checking exercise (I have nothing against Beefheart but where exactly does he fit into the story of alternative country? Why not just mention Bongwater?)

As for the spelling and grammar its a joke. Theres that much bad writing and grammar in this book its like he started a sentence, had a sudden bout of amnesia and then just took it somewhere else beyond the realms of the sensical. The breaking point for me personally came when he claimed that Smog made his debut in 1995 with Wild Love (which is weird cause I have a cd of his called Julius Caesar from 2 years earlier) and when he claimed a few pages later that Will Oldham released an album called Master & Servant I didnt know wether to laugh or cry. Instead I just gave up.

Piss poor.

[Paul Thek]

Rip it Up and Start Again (the post-punk book), as well as On Beauty by Zadie Smith and the big DeKooning bio.

[Moon Pix]

Mervyn Cooke - Jazz
Johnathon Cott - Dylan on Dylan

[vesper]

i don't want to list off all the books that i read in school, but here are my two new bibles: parables for the virtual: movement, affect, sensastion by brian massumi and shame and its sisters: a silvan tomkins reader edited by eve kosofsky sedgwick and adam frank. i think at some point in this thread someone asked about science books? if so and if you, mystery poster, are still looking, read the massumi book! relatively new (2002) and very fun. mostly it is all about science being applied to cultural studies and political theory, but not in dry way.

also, if you want to read some crazy historical analysis on technology and medicine, read manuel de landa's war in the age of intelligent machines (1991) and jackie orr's panic diaries (2006). that's all i'll list for now.

[johansen smith]

anyone else planning to tackle all 1100 pages of Against the Day over Christmas break?

[9000]

anyone else planning to tackle all 1100 pages of Against the Day over Christmas break?

nah, i'll be too busy reading al goldstein's memoir (http://www.amazon.com/I-Goldstein-My-Screwed-Life/dp/1560258683/sr=1-1/qid=1163705476/ref=pd_bbs_sr_1/102-4649041-5612914?ie=UTF8&s=books)

[mac m]

george packer -- the assassin's gate
alan furst -- the world at night
kazuo ishiguro -- never let me go (no spoilers please, i'm still reading this!)

[vesper]

anyone else planning to tackle all 1100 pages of Against the Day over Christmas break?

each winter i tell myself that i'm going to either (1) finish william t. vollmann's you bright and risen angels or (2) read something by thomas pynchon. i doubt this winter will be any different on wish or follow through.

[the Pawnbroker]

each winter i tell myself that i'm going to either (1) finish william t. vollmann's you bright and risen angels or (2) read something by thomas pynchon. i doubt this winter will be any different on wish or follow through.

I'll vouch for The Crying of Lot 49, but I've tried several times to get through Gravity's Rainbow, and page 300 is the best I've done.

I'm finishing up Kitchen Confidential.

[Patrick]

I'm finishing up Kitchen Confidential.

And never again will you order seafood on the weekend or ask the waiter for recommendations!
Patrick

[Miss Tasty Princess]

I finally started reading "Wreckless" Eric Goulden's autobiography, A Dysfunctional Success, after seeing him for the second time a little over a week ago (I bought it probably a year ago).

[Salman]

Began reading We by Yevgeny Zamyatin.

[Miss Tasty Princess]

Began reading We by Yevgeny Zamyatin.I read that one for a sci-fi class in college. I seem to remember liking it.

[johansen smith]

Began reading We by Yevgeny Zamyatin.

this is in my reading pile

[Moon Pix]

Can anybody explain to me the reverence and respect that people have for Dylan Thomas?

Ive been reading some of his stuff and I don't think Ive ever been more confused in my life. Its just meaningless pretentious bollocks isnt it?

[johansen smith]

don't use the word "pretentious," it's what ignorant people throw around to belittle things of which they have no concept. that said, I don't much like Thomas either, but any look at a work of modern poetry theory (easily located at your local university library) should give you some idea as to what critics and scholars find (or don't find) in his or any other author's work.

[Moon Pix]

don't use the word "pretentious," it's what ignorant people throw around to belittle things of which they have no concept. that said, I don't much like Thomas either, but any look at a work of modern poetry theory (easily located at your local university library) should give you some idea as to what critics and scholars find (or don't find) in his or any other author's work.

My understanding of it, as cribbed from a google search, is something to do with him writing for the sound of words and not the meaning.

I still don't think thats any excuse though. Then again I probably arent in a position to say anything cause I don't know what some of Bob Dylan's '60s work is about and I still love that.

[johansen smith]

don't be general. give specific examples of poems you don't like and why

[Moon Pix]

Well quite a number of them but to give good examples Id have to say "The Spire Cranes", "Why East Wind Chills" and "The Boys of Summer" and the general reason is that amongst all of the abstract imagery I can't divine any sort of meaning from them.

What pisses me off about this sort of thing is that Im into my poetry and Im not one of these people who thinks its preten.... erm, sentences strung together that reveal no greater meaning. Im into Dorothy Parker and to me thats poetry with something to say whereaes Thomas' work seems to be by and large intensely abstract and nonsensical and this exactly what Phillip Larkin railed against when he wrote his own poems, he wanted something that actually said something.

I think this is the sort of thing (Thomas' poetry that is) that gives poetry the reputation of being something you have to study at Oxford and if you're just a regular Joe then sorry but its not for you cause you're not educated enough. I think thats certainly true of Thomas' work (or at least a large portion of it) but its certainly not true of all poetry.

Basically the reason I don't like it is cause Im not educated enough to understand it.

[johansen smith]

I love Dorothy Parker, but not for her poetry. Moon Pix, you sound like the type of reader who would enjoy Billy Collins.

[Moon Pix]

I love Dorothy Parker, but not for her poetry. Moon Pix, you sound like the type of reader who would enjoy Billy Collins.

Thanks for the recommendation. Ill check him out. Would you say he's pretty straight up and vivid rather than being intensely abstract like Thomas?:)

[johansen smith]

I don't like him at all, but he is a lot more accessable.

[Moon Pix]

Ive just read his wikipedia entry and I see what you mean. The bit where it says that some of his work is "critical of poets writing only for other poets or academics" is what I feel Thomas was doing and and am sympathetic to what he's trying to do already without even having read a word of his work.

Ill check him I think the problem with trying to get into poetry by reading the "masters" (Plath, Thomas, Ginsberg etc) is problematic because the "masters" of any field are always appointed by others in that field, so it becomes a backslapping contest for the poetry community and reading this stuff becomes a display of intellect solely for its own sake and not a very enjoyable experience when you can't understand it and feel you should be able to cause you read that these were the masters of their craft.

[Patrick]

Moon Pix, I'm a big Philip Larkin fan. Also John Betjeman.

Patrick

[Moon Pix]

Moon Pix, I'm a big Philip Larkin fan. Also John Betjeman.

Patrick

I will check Betjeman. Thanks Pat, Im getting into poetry pretty much and am sort of feeling around for what I like so its always helpful to know what others like. My assumption was that as Im something of a yankophile (sorry if that offends anyone but there is no equivelent for anglophile and Im just so much into American music, prose and films) that I assumed I was just going to love all American poetry but it isnt so from what Ive read of it (Whitman, Pound, Plath).

As I say though, I love Dot Parker.:)

[rhoops]

I assumed I was just going to love all American poetry but it isnt so from what Ive read of it. . .

Bukowski perhaps? especially if you like your poetry to be more "straightforward". . .

[Moon Pix]

Bukowski perhaps? especially if you like your poetry to be more "straightforward". . .

Thanks. I will check him. I liked Post Office so Im certainly open to reading his poems.:)

[Miss Tasty Princess]

Raymond Carver may be a good one to check out. I'm not a poetry person but his short stories are pretty damn fantastic.

[Moon Pix]

I will check him too HCI. My library card will be busy thanks to you lot. Any recommendations for a particular Carver book to start with?:)

I don't know why personally but it seems to me that all the stuff I like is overwelmingly American. Probably out of every 10 cds I own 9 of them are by American artists and bands. I find the anglophilia that some Americans have to be mystefying considering the strong artistic legacy that your country has.

[Miss Tasty Princess]

I will check him too HCI. My library card will be busy thanks to you lot. Any recommendations for a particular Carver book to start with?:)They're all good, IMO, but my favorite book title is Would You Please Be Quiet Please. His stories are all very short little slices of life; some happy, many painful. Owen Ashworth of Casiotone for the Painfully Alone was quite pleased when I told him I felt CftPA was like Raymond Carver put to music.

I spent Wednesday morning from 3:30 until 5:30 a.m. finishing Wreckless Eric's autobiography even though I had to be at work at 9:30; it was totally worth the lack of sleep. I highly recommend it to anyone who is a fan of his music.

[R.Wilder]

anyone else planning to tackle all 1100 pages of Against the Day over Christmas break?

Yes. I'm starting it this weekend, and hope to finish it by New Years.

[Moon Pix]

Just wanted to add that having googled Ezra Pound over the last few days and done a bit of reading into him its no wonder that he baffles me.

[rhoops]

Just wanted to add that having googled Ezra Pound over the last few days and done a bit of reading into him its no wonder that he baffles me.

try this. . . (http://www.amazon.com/Collected-Early-Poems-Ezra-Pound/dp/0811208435)

Pound's best work is in there, IMO, and it's fairly accessible.

[Moon Pix]

try this. . . (http://www.amazon.com/Collected-Early-Poems-Ezra-Pound/dp/0811208435)

Pound's best work is in there, IMO, and it's fairly accessible.

Thanks. Is "The Ballad of Goodly Fere" in it? Theres something about his stuff that has made me keep going back to it and reading it even though I don't really understand. Don't know why though. Its probably the same experience everybody has with Trout Mask Replica.:)

[Fiona]

parables for the virtual: movement, affect, sensastion by brian massumi
I started my christmas book-buying buzz today and ordered this. I haven't read anything in the cultural studies field since college and am rather looking forward to it!

[vesper]

cool! i hope you like it. things get weird when he starts analyzing soccer games, but overall it's a blast.

[the Pawnbroker]

I'm 70 pages in to The Amazing Adventures of Kavalier and Clay. Absolutely love it so far.

[Joel]

I'm 160 pages into Thomas Pynchon's "Against the Day," which is excellent so far.

[Fiona]

cool! i hope you like it. things get weird when he starts analyzing soccer games, but overall it's a blast.
Oh, I'd no idea he broached football in it. All the more appealing now! Thanks for the rec.
Other stuff I've bought in preparation for the holidays:

James Baldwin - Go Tell It On The Mountain
Andrew O'Hagan - Be Near Me
Jessica Mitford - The American Way Of Death
Jessica Mitford - Hons and Rebels (thanks Patrick for the JM rec's)
JM Hyland - Carry Me Down

and on my "yes please" christmas list:
Tim Robinson - Connemara: Listening to the Wind
Iain Sinclair - London: City of Disappearances
Seamus Heaney - District and Circle

I'll be lucky to get through a quarter of these over the break, but there's nothing like a challenge. Anyway, I've found that getting older coupled with not having kids means progressively more time spent holed in a corner with books and bottles for company over christmas.

[Moon Pix]

Does anybody know if the Spacemen 3/Spiritualized book is any good?:)

[rhoops]

Thanks. Is "The Ballad of Goodly Fere" in it? Theres something about his stuff that has made me keep going back to it and reading it even though I don't really understand. Don't know why though. Its probably the same experience everybody has with Trout Mask Replica.:)

yeah, TBOGF is in that collection. it's his first six "books" as well as lots of misc. material. later pound may be considered as "dense" as TMR, but this early material really isn't that difficult to comprehend, most of it is fairly literal. I mean, if you start off reading T.S. Eliot, you're not just going to jump into The Wasteland, best to read some more accessible selections first and work your way towards that end.

[Moon Pix]

I know what you mean. Ive read some of Personae in the library this week which has much of the same material as the book you mentioned and I get a strong feeling of a theme from it, even though I don't know what a lot of it means. I think though that with a dictionary to hand I might get it a lot better (plus he tended to use a lot of arcane English) and even if I don't I just love his use of language so its aesthetically pleasing to me on its own anyway.

Sometimes I can enjoy poetry without understanding it too, but only if I enjoy the flow of it.:)

[9000]

dry - augusten burroughs
wine - hugh johnson ---> reading 1974 edition, which although woefully dated, provides interesting context of the wine world 30 years ago--clearly a bordeaux and burgundy dominant world.

[Patrick]

Dry is fucking un-put-downable. I preferred it to Running With Scissors (though I liked that book), and I think it's way better than his recent, light, short pieces.

Patrick

[Paul Thek]

no, I only have the two, one called The Short Happy Life of the Brown Oxford and one called Second Variety. Are you thinking of the same series? with the light blue trim on the covers? I should get the rest.

While we're on PKD, I've read these novels by him:

Do Androids Dream...
The Man in the High Castle
VALIS
Ubik
Flow My Tears, The Policeman Said
Radio Free Albemuth

There's so many others I don't always know where to start, so any suggestions as to ones I haven't read that are more essential?

I don't know if they're as essential as the ones you listed, but We Can Build You and The Galatic Pot Healer are both good reads. They might be a little more straight forward, or, at least as straight forward as a Dick book can be.

How was The Man in the High Castle. I never got around to reading it. The premise never really grabbed me when I was younger. Was it as good as Radio Free Albemuth (if it's possible to compare them.)?

[Miss Tasty Princess]

some more Dick recs:

The Broken Bubble -- one of his few non-scifi books and pretty darn great
Dr. Bloodmoney
Martian Time Slip
Our Friends from Frolix-8
A Scanner Darkly
The Three Stigmata of Palmer Eldritch -- referenced briefly in the movie eXistenZ, to the film's detriment
Time Out of Joint
The Zap Gun

I didn't particularly care for The Man in the High Castle, though I enjoyed it up until the ending, which left me cold.

And a bonus recommendation: The Mindwarpers by Eric Frank Russell, published in 1964. Russell is one third of my three favorite sci-fi authers (Samuel R. Delaney and PKD being the others) and this particular tome reads like a collaboration between Dick and crime novelist Jim Thompson.

[Paul Thek]

... and this particular tome reads like a collaboration between Dick and crime novelist Jim Thompson.


That sounds great. I got into Thompson right around the time I got into Dick and alternated between their novels. I will have to look for that book.