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[Apple Sauce]

attractive covers.

I take it you're not from the UK? What are your covers like?

Josh Kirby was synonymous with Discworld, the books declined in quality after he died

 

[Fjordson]

I'm enjoying it a lot. A hell of a lot. It's kind of surprising because the first 100 pages or so were pretty slow for me and I found the prose to be a bit dry. But wow does it pick up after that. I'm blowing through it now and am loving every page. So much so that I've already purchased the omnibus edition of the next three Black Company books. It begins as mostly rudimentary military fantasy about this mercenary company, but Cooke quickly starts to twist things around and makes it much more interesting. I love all the Taken characters and their various abilities. Really cool idea there.

 

[Vanillalite]

 

[Dresden]

Finished Dragon's Path. Excellent stuff, can't wait for more.

 

[coldvein]

I take it you're not from the UK? What are your covers like?

Josh Kirby was synonymous with Discworld, the books declined in quality after he died

i'm not sure what america discworld covers look like, but i remember them being colorful as well.. perhaps the same. it's just a treat to see good fantasy book cover art.

 

[Kawl_USC]

i'm not sure what america discworld covers look like, but i remember them being colorful as well.. perhaps the same. it's just a treat to see good fantasy book cover art.

That's the cover my version of Guards, Guards! had at least. Noticeably inferior to the UK covers, imo.

 

[Qwomo]

versus

 

[ramyeon]

Just started reading this. Did I make a mistake seeing the movie first? So far it seems to mirror the book completely, including dialogue.

 

[Mgoblue201]

Just finished 1984, but I haven't decided what to read next. I might choose between This Time Is Different and The Right Stuff.

 

[coldvein]

okay, so the usa discworld covers suck in comparison to the euro counterpart. shock, horror. why do we always get the shittiest covers?

 

[Kawl_USC]

okay, so the usa discworld covers suck in comparison to the euro counterpart. shock, horror. why do we always get the shittiest covers?

Cause we are filthy barbarians, dropping perfectly good u's from words. This is our punishment!

Spoiler

(Well its probably also punishment because of our superior dental hygiene. I kid, I kid!)

 

[Edmond Dantès]

Started last month, but damn the book is LONG. About halfway there.

Lovely.

 

[HiroProtagonist]

How are people already reading The Dragon's Path? I went to pick it up today and they said it wasn't due out until the 7th. On Amazon it has a publication date of April 7th, but also says that if I order it today with one day shipping I can have it by April 2nd. *confused*

 

[Dresden]

How are people already reading The Dragon's Path? I went to pick it up today and they said it wasn't due out until the 7th. On Amazon it has a publication date of April 7th, but also says that if I order it today with one day shipping I can have it by April 2nd. *confused*

They shipped early.

 

[HiroProtagonist]

They shipped early.

Thanks. I was looking everywhere for that damn book.

/ordered

 

[beelzebozo]

You can tell Toole was heavily influenced by Flanner O'Connor, since there's a lot of resemblance between Ignatius, the quasi-religious charlatan and social apostate, and Hazel Motes and Enoch Emery from Wise Blood. And in both the picaresque narrative seems to be a kind of extension of the characters. If you like this book you should read some of Charles Portis' work if you haven't. Start with Dog of the South. It's the best comic novel written by an American, IMO, just hedging out Confederacy of Dunces.

thank you! i'm going to read DOG OF THE SOUTH right after i finish this collection of creative nonfiction i've been tearing through.

 

[ultron87]

Still making up my mind between Altered Carbon and A Fire Upon the Deep.

Haven't had time to read both samples yet.

 

[DesertEater]

Right now I'm reading Extremely Loud and Incredibly Close by Jonathan Safran Foer. I'm pages away from finishing it and I love it. I don't usually like children as leading characters, but Oskar( the protagonist) is so funny and witty.
A good fun book to read.

Anyway, could someone recommend me a good Kurt Vonnegut book to start with?

Also has anyone here read One Hundred Years of Solitude?
I'm thinking of either picking it up or getting A Confederacy of Dunces.

 

[beelzebozo]

Also has anyone here read One Hundred Years of Solitude?
I'm thinking of either picking it up or getting A Confederacy of Dunces.

both of these are excellent books. it just depends on what sort of mood you're in. they should have equal placement on your "to read before i am killed by a bus much sooner than i expected" list.

my suggestion would be to read DUNCES then SOLITUDE; i think coming off the very plot-centric garcia marquez and dovetailing into DUNCES, which focuses less on plot and more on zany character behavior (not a negative thing) you might be disappointed at how aimless it is. again, this is not an indictment of either. both are classics.

 

[DesertEater]

both of these are excellent books. it just depends on what sort of mood you're in. they should have equal placement on your "to read before i am killed by a bus much sooner than i expected" list.

my suggestion would be to read DUNCES then SOLITUDE; i think coming off the very plot-centric garcia marquez and dovetailing into DUNCES, which focuses less on plot and more on zany character behavior (not a negative thing) you might be disappointed at how aimless it is. again, this is not an indictment of either. both are classics.

Thanks man. I ll get Dunces today as soon as I finish Extremely Loud and Incredibly Close

 

[Anticitizen One]

 

[Speschal K]

Anyway, could someone recommend me a good Kurt Vonnegut book to start with?

I've been exposed to Slaugterhouse-Five but I haven't read enough of it to recommend - that always seems to be the intro Vonnegut recommendation. I did read the Sirens of Titan a few months back and really enjoyed it, so I'd recommend that. It was quick, easy and entertaining.

 

[Dresden]

Anyway, could someone recommend me a good Kurt Vonnegut book to start with?

Breakfast of Champions.

Then hit up Cat's Cradle or Slaughterhouse.

After that read whatever you want and save Bluebeard for last.

 

[sixteen-bit]

wind-up bird chronicle by murakami

 

[angelkimne]

Yup, ditto (though unfortunately my version has a worse cover).

So far; SO GOOD.

 

[bathala]

soooo good reading at night before going to sleep

 

[shuyin_]

Today i finished Ender's Game. Damn, what a great book. I feel sorry for the Ender's Game game devved by Chair being canceled.
I'll start Speaker for the dead pretty soon.

Still making up my mind between Altered Carbon and A Fire Upon the Deep.

Haven't had time to read both samples yet.

I read about two thirds of A Fire Upon the Deep and i got bored with it. I really didn't enjoy it; it's well written but i feel like something's missing.

 

[8BitsAtATime]

I've had to put Robertson's Lost Languages on the backburner, despite it being a fantastic book. In the meantime, I've picked up some lighter lit that I've been meaning to re-read.

God those covers are amazing. Im going to try to find them on ebay.

I just picked up Dance Dance Dance to read this weekend

So far Ive read Norwegian Wood, After Dark and Sputnik Sweetheart by Murakami. What so i pick up next from him

 

[VGChampion]

Finished up Stranger in a Strange Land about a week ago. Been meaning to post about it in the book club thread but I fail at keeping up in threads and once again forgot to post. Still a great book. I liked the second half better this time but still find the beginning to be my favorite part of the book.

I'm reading The Name of the Wind as well. I didn't think I would like it based on what I heard on the Internet but my friend kept recommending it so I finally gave it a go and found it pretty enjoyable. I'll probably finish it up tomorrow.

Yup, ditto (though unfortunately my version has a worse cover).

So far; SO GOOD.

Now I'm curious. I have the same one that's posted above and didn't really like it.

 

[Timber]

Someone fucking kill me... Victorian serialized novels really are the worst maybe with the exception of Dickens.
600 pages to go and I'm sick to death of 8 line sentences filled with purple prose.

You're going to read every word in every sentence on ever single one of those 600 pages and you're going to enjoy it even if you die trying.

And yeah Eliot was verbose even for 19th century standards. Would never dare to call her prose purple though. Just about every word she wrote was exactly right.

edit: And I like serialized stuff. Nice for when you want to read a chapter or two a day.

 

[DanDeschain]

Second time through this one. Slow reread of the series before the show. After I finish Feast, I'm gonna give Name of the Wind a shot.

 

[Snowman Prophet of Doom]

So I've read two William Faulkner books this semester - Light in August and Absalom! Absalom!, and based on these two books, I would have to conclude that Faulkner was something of an overrated writer - greatly so. While he has a sense for the beauty of words on a purely aural level, his characterization tends to be pretty shallow and cliche. I'd also make the argument that stream-of-consciousness writing, as Faulkner conceived it and as it's been replicated in future attempts, is not a particularly accurate characterization of human thought, but that's a secondary concern to the fact that the worlds that he created tended to be pretty two-dimensional in nature. I'll be reading The Sound and The Fury in the fall for another class and learn whether or not some of his more "known" works perhaps live more fully up to their reputations. As it stands, though, I am less than impressed, which is a shame, as I was excited to finally read somebody of such billing.

 

[Timber]

We're through.

 

[Snowman Prophet of Doom]

We're through.

Sorry, man.

We'll always have the film thread!

 

[V_Arnold]

Towers of Midnight (Robert Jordan, Brandon Sanderson).

Well, it starts to get really scary from now on.

 

[LProtag]

Multitasking for school:

Gotta finish them all for the end of the week. Then probably start on 2 or so more books for next week.

 

[Smithy C]

Just finished reading this. It was pretty good, but I'm still a little confused about most of it. About to start reading Slaughterhouse 5 by Vonnegut next, exciting times ahead.

 

[LProtag]

I just picked up Dance Dance Dance to read this weekend

So far Ive read Norwegian Wood, After Dark and Sputnik Sweetheart by Murakami. What so i pick up next from him

Just to let you know, Dance Dance Dance is the sequel to Wild Sheep Chase. You might want to read that one first, though they're not very direct. There's just going to be a lot of references to characters that show up again.

 

[Timber]

Sorry, man.

We'll always have the film thread!

Not if you keep badmouthing the best part of Singin' in the Rain.

I haven't actually read Absalom and August so I can't really respond to your criticisms when it comes to those books. But I gotta say that Yoknapatawpha is the principal character of Faulkner's body of work and the Sartorises and Compsons and the like extensions of it. All the places, families, people that carried over from book to book make it so that you'll get a much clearer picture of the character(s) the more of his work you read. Faulkner was very prolific and volume certainly worked in his favour.

One of the most striking things about his writing is how he got his themes across in stylistic terms. The stream of consciousness is not just something he used to describe the workings of the mind; even when he did the third person omniscient thing he wrote very frenetically (some would say sloppily) with great pile-ups of words and an obstinate refusal to end sentences. So he described events and places much like how he described the thoughts of a character. And given that almost all his works concerned the effect geographical location and history have on the people within them, in terms both sociologically and emotionally, his style of stream of consciousness (which might be a bit of a misnomer but I'll run with it) is very effective. To Faulkner, the founding and construction of a city, for instance, happened with and within the same chaos as a single person's mental degradation, because they're linked to each other. You always need to look at his characters while keeping in mind the overarching history of Yoknapatawpha. That way there's NO WAY it all comes off less than three-dimensional.

OH and it has to be said that many of his characters aren't exactly mentally stable. John Doe's mind may not work so jerkily, but Quention Compson's does.

GAF is acting up so I hope this makes it through.

 

[Snowman Prophet of Doom]

Not if you keep badmouthing the best part of Singin' in the Rain.

I haven't actually read Absalom and August so I can't really respond to your criticisms when it comes to those books. But I gotta say that Yoknapatawpha is the principal character of Faulkner's body of work and the Sartorises and Compsons and the like extensions of it. All the places, families, people that carried over from book to book make it so that you'll get a much clearer picture of the character(s) the more of his work you read. Faulkner was very prolific and volume certainly worked in his favour.

One of the most striking things about his writing is how he got his themes across in stylistic terms. The stream of consciousness is not just something he used to describe the workings of the mind; even when he did the third person omniscient thing he wrote very frenetically (some would say sloppily) with great pile-ups of words and an obstinate refusal to end sentences. So he described events and places much like how he described the thoughts of a character. And given that almost all his works concerned the effect geographical location and history have on the people within them, in terms both sociologically and emotionally, his style of stream of consciousness (which might be a bit of a misnomer but I'll run with it) is very effective. To Faulkner, the founding and construction of a city, for instance, happened with and within the same chaos as a single person's mental degradation, because they're linked to each other. You always need to look at his characters while keeping in mind the overarching history of Yoknapatawpha. That way there's NO WAY it all comes off less than three-dimensional.

OH and it has to be said that many of his characters aren't exactly mentally stable. John Doe's mind may not work so jerkily, but Quention Compson's does.

GAF is acting up so I hope this makes it through.

The problem with much of this, though, is that something has to work as a self-contained piece of work before one can start arguing how the full body of work of an author/artist/etc. adds up into a whole. It may be the case that there start to build some interesting parallels, but if the characters in a single book aren't more than two-dimensional, the fact that we see a bit more of them in another book and maybe get a slightly different perspective on them doesn't change the fact that the first book ends up failing as a standalone effort.

And the fact that the omniscient narration and the thoughts of his characters are all in that rambling, Faulknerian style (since you're averse to it, I'll avoid using stream-of-consciousness) is actually a rather major problem, at least in the two works of his that I've read. It A) leads to a lack of differentiation between characters, leading the cast to become something of a formless blob, and B) prevents the audience from ever truly getting to know any of them on a level deeper than the surface. We see where they function in the plot, but what depth they have all come from Faulkner's attempts to wax philosophic on them and their place in the world, which sometime yielded something of interest but which most of the time showed him to have something of a one-track mind and little sense for the human as a three-dimensional animal. He may have had a sense for the world as an interconnected place, but in the two books that I've read, Yoknapatawpha was merely made bigger, not deeper.

And I would agree that the two works that I read definitely cover the themes of how a person's geographical location affects them, but from what I could discern in these two books, the fact that he harped so much on that theme exposes some rather vast limitations in him as a writer, for his thoughts on the issue were rather limited yet were repeated ad nauseum. That's not to say that he didn't have his moments of profundity, but they are so far and few between, separated by thousands of pointless words and caricatured characters, that it really doesn't save him.

As for the last point: it's the very fact that his writing is NOT jerky that is the problem! Thought is punctual, fleeting, varied, not a formless mass of word soup. Whether they are meant to be the character's thoughts or Faulkner's interpretations of the character's thoughts does not really matter in that regard, for either way, it's a poor representation, and sounding pretty when read aloud (which his prose does, I will grant) cannot fix that.

 

[BenjaminBirdie]

The ridiculous awesomeness of pretty much every page brings new heartbreak. Ceaselessly entertaining but probably the hardest thing I've ever had to read. Each new great thing in it reminds you that there's no more where that came from.

 

[Hayvic]

Just finished this:

Haven't seen the movie yet, but the book didn't really click with me. It was mostly the main character Mattie. Couldn't stand her. The whole time I was rooting for her to die. Arrogant little know-it-all brat. The other two protagonists were hardly developed. Nothing really screams 'classic', but it was still a fun to read story.

 

[coldvein]

that looks like an actual card on the cover. i'm assuming it's not, but still, rad cover.

 

[Timber]

As for the last point: it's the very fact that his writing is NOT jerky that is the problem! Thought is punctual, fleeting, varied, not a formless mass of word soup. Whether they are meant to be the character's thoughts or Faulkner's interpretations of the character's thoughts does not really matter in that regard, for either way, it's a poor representation, and sounding pretty when read aloud (which his prose does, I will grant) cannot fix that.

I don't think I can say much more about the quality of his characters since there is no overlap between the books you and I have read. But if The Sound and the Fury is next on your list then you'll see what I mean by jerky. Quentin (same guy from Absalom) in S&F is a good example of being a totally ace believable character while at the same time a part of the larger picture (Yokna, the south & its history and traditions and morals). Really though, every character from that book is pretty unforgettable even if you haven't read a thing else of Faulkner's. But that's how I feel about basically every character from every book of his I've read so obviously your mileage may vary.

Really need to read Absalom and August since many people rank them among his best. Though that might not bode too well for your future experiences with this great great great writer who is certainly not overrated.

 

[BenjaminBirdie]

that looks like an actual card on the cover. i'm assuming it's not, but still, rad cover.

No, it's not.

Wallace's widow did the art for it.

 

[choodi]

bought this because of all the recommendations on GAF.

Finding it really hard to get into, it just seems so dry.

Am I doing it wrong?

 

[Goody]

I'm hoping back and forth between stories from all of these at the moment. My goal this month is to read nothing but short fiction. One part because as a writer of short fiction, I sure don't read enough. Another is that there is too little emphasis on short fiction. I heard a really good interview with Barry Hannah and Larry Brown, part of which regarding how few novels there are that really shouldn't even be novels. (Which you can find here) I really want to get a hold of some of Barry Hannah's collections. I may end up getting Long, Last, Happy. But I'd rather get my hands on something besides what is essentially a "best-of" collection with a few posthumous works.

Here's a story of his for you: "Water Liars."

And for those you that have been reading Toole and Percy, those two I'm planning to get to very, very soon.

 

[LProtag]

Carver is one of my favorite writers of short stories. Granted, his ambiguous style of ending stories right before where you would expect a conclusion does get somewhat tired after reading an entire collection of his work straight.

 

[brianjones]

funny shit

 

[Fjordson]

^Fucking brilliant book. MES is the man.