What are you reading today/book club

[b4my]

I got about halfway through a really academic book on dub music and then it was overdue at the library so I just returned it. Usually I love dissecting and analyzing music but sometimes you just have to let good tunes be good tunes, you know?

In keeping with all the Gibson talk, I read his Distrust That Particular Flavor, his essay collection, recently as well. I like reading his thoughts on real-world subjects, though the writing is a little rougher than his fiction. I think he's one of my favorite writers just for the worlds he imagines but I definitely understand people's issues with him.

[charybdis]

unwashed If you haven't read Lolita, you should definitely do that. On the Road is considered a classic too.

I dunno, I'm weird in that I like a lot of modern contemporary literature—stuff that hasn't been so canonized that after I absorb a book I can sort of read all the reviews and agree and disagree with them and there isn't some kind of monolithic opinion.

[rjbman]

Going on vacation starting tomorrow, and due to space I think I'm just going to get a few books on Kindle.

Thinking Pattern Recognition, not sure yet if I'll marathon through the trilogy or try for something else. Big fan of the Culture novels, so maybe one of those that I've not read.

Three books from a "best of scifi" list for this year that I'm also considering: , , and .

Also open to suggestions!

[Mippipopolous]

Just stared The Blind Assassin by Margaret Atwood, it's really excellent so far, still got a ways to go. So many things I wanna read, man I love break.

[hot coffee]

Reading through a collection of short stories by Thomas Mann.

It's great bc I have a very short attention span.

[prawnzee]

Just finished The Grapes of Wrath. Reality is too depressing, I feel sad and empty. Now I need something light to read

[bels]

Grapes of wrath is debatably realistic. Never studied it but I recall hearing that it was a heavily politically motivated book and didn't always stay hard to the facts.

Still reading the Avignon quintet

[rjbman]

Just finished Pattern Recognition. Was good, but I found Gibson's tendency to use fragments started to get on my nerves. Cayce's wardrobe: A+, looking for a pair of black 501s now.

Also, grail status:

[eufemism]

I've been reading The Sparrow by Maria Doria Russell.

And by reading I mean reading one chapter every couple of days. I'm having a tough time just focusing on reading.

[purkinje]

Starting hunter s Thompson's the great shark hunt and David foster Wallace's a supposedly fun thing I'll never do again, which Ryce sent me in my care package. Driving down to Florida for two days and I'm gonna try to knock them both off my list.

[LandslideBaby]

After I finished The Idiot I decided to read Anna Karenina. I'm enjoying it except when Levin rants about agriculture, especially since I'm reading it in english and most of the words are unfamiliar to me (than you Kobo for the dictionary). I'm also halfway through some books, I should start reading more.

[thug]

Just picked up Dune, hope it's everything I wished it would be.

[sunblam]

Today I'm hoping to get through The Great Divorce and Joe the Barbarian. Both are short, so it should be do-able (?)

[odradek]

just picked up the arabian nights for like, 7 bucks at barnes and noble. it's the burton trnaslation which has its fans and detractors but this particular copy seems to lack his footnotes which apparently make up a lot of the fun.

[RycePooding]

Just downloaded lots of books for my kindle!

His Dark Materials trilogy (thanks Mippi)
Never Let Me Go
Night Soldiers (thanks ben)
and The Name of the Wind

Very excited.

[Capt]

Been getting back into short stories myself. Some Faulkner and Kafka mainly. I wouldn't mind picking up a collection of Tolstoy's short stories as well.

[AmericanPie]

Been slowly plodding through Gravity's Rainbow. Need something less dense to read at the moment.

[wax]

For some reason I'm finding slaughterhouse 5 a real slog to get through. really enjoyed cat's cradle but this one just hasn't grabbed me at all.
so it goes.

[rjbman]

Capt look into . It's got all the stories turned into movies except "Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep?".

[eli7]

just finishing up a pretty cool take on scifi/fantasy 'the orange eats creeps'. now starting 'cyclonopedia' by reza negarestani, which is an absolute trip.

[rublev]

I'm reading a few things at the same time just now. I'm finishing the Orhan Pamuk book called Istanbul which i really love. Kind of a delicate autobiography but at the same time a homage to Istanbul. If you like long descriptions of people and things you'll probably like this. A very calming book! I've also started reading the New Yorker a lot... dunno if that's cool or not. I'd never bought it before but got it when i needed something for a long train journey. I really like the writing and there are some very interesting stories and articles.

I also got this beautiful book of pots for christmas! I have a thing for pots / ceramics so this was the perfect present. Quite big. Thick like a reference book.

[smiles]

currently on some postmodern stuff

david mitchell, ghostwritten. campy – intentionally so

Jose Saramago, Death with Interruptions. magical

[ramseames]

Smiles you're the one who wrote that essay on preme with references to Sontag right?

[smiles]

yep. It was for a course

[nucktux]

Just finished The Pale King, now on to Pale Fire. Nothing to do with the titles - I was motivated to get PF by a really good conversation about it on the Wallace-l listhost.

Rublev, interesting to see you're enjoying Pamuk's Istanbul - it's actually the only book I put down in 2013 without finishing. I'd picked it up to read while I was studying in Istanbul and just couldn't get along with Pamuk's narrative voice. On the other hand, I then lent it to a girl in the study group who loved it, so I guess it's polarizing. Definitely was more a matter of my literary palate not agreeing with him.

[rublev]

Pale Fire is one of my fave books! A real treat to read, so have fun. I love how it reveals things to you quite slyly. You need to keep your wits about you, too.

Yeah, Pamuk's Istanbul has taken a while..., i put it down for longer than i intended to. I have read other polarising reviews of his work, not just this piece. But when i'm in the mood i find it a gorgeous book to read.

[hunnish]

Funny you're starting Pale Fire now; my parents got me a hard copy for xmas.

They also got me Gaiman's The Ocean at the End of the Lane and The Tao of Pooh. I started The Ocean at the End of the Lane this evening and just now finished it. It dealt with a lot of themes that other Gaiman novels do: the subtlety and delicacy of memories, loss of innocence, etc. but he kept it all quite brief (no surprise considering it began as a novella). The ending's tone was a lot more somber that I expected, but I suppose it was intended to be comforting it its zen. Reminded me a lot of one of my favorites, John Connolly's The Book of Lost Things, which I highly recommend checking out if you're into either Gaiman's adult or children's stories.

I'm gonna read the Winnie the Pooh stories (got the big hardcover Complete Winnie the Pooh at home and my hardcover early editions of the 4 novellas at school) to refresh before I read The Tao of Pooh.

[spicedreams]

Started reading The Elegance of the Hedgehog after someone recommended it to me, not really sure how I feel about it so far.

[areo]

Rublev, if you liked 'Istanbul' then you might also like Orhan Pamuk's 'The Naive and Sentimental Novelist' - it's a collection of lectures about reading and writing. I found it in a charity shop and thought it was great... I actually prefer it to Istanbul and My Name Is Red, both of which I found kinda hard to finish too.

[ballast]

been reading shadow and claw by gene wolfe. somewhat dense reading as i seem to have to look up a reference every few pages or so, and the words he uses are generally unfamiliar to me. anyone read the book of the new sun and can help me unravel? so far it's been quite good though.