how is it compared to Bossypants?
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What are you reading? (November 2014)
- Thread starter Maklershed
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how is it compared to Bossypants?
Haven't read that yet :/
I'm reading V. by Thomas Pynchon and Babbitt by Sinclair Lewis.
V. is pleasure reading--I loved The Crying of Lot 49 (I read it and immediately flipped to the beginning and started again) and Gravity's Rainbow should be an fun challenge. Hopefully V. is a good transition between the two.
Babbitt is an easy read, but isn't that interesting so far. It's school reading.
Once I can get my hands on my preferred translations, I'm planning on working through the Western canon from start the end--beginning with the Greeks, the Romans, and so on. Aside from the obvious value of reading canonical literature in itself, this will hopefully help me with catching allusions in referential texts like Ulysses and Finnegans Wake.
V. is pleasure reading--I loved The Crying of Lot 49 (I read it and immediately flipped to the beginning and started again) and Gravity's Rainbow should be an fun challenge. Hopefully V. is a good transition between the two.
Babbitt is an easy read, but isn't that interesting so far. It's school reading.
Once I can get my hands on my preferred translations, I'm planning on working through the Western canon from start the end--beginning with the Greeks, the Romans, and so on. Aside from the obvious value of reading canonical literature in itself, this will hopefully help me with catching allusions in referential texts like Ulysses and Finnegans Wake.
Dandy Crocodile
Member
Yes Please focuses more on the comedy business and Amy's path to how she got there.
It's introspective and doesn't have as many laugh-out-loud moments like Tina's did.
It's still hilarious, but while Tina's felt like a lighter read, Amy's is darker, more serious, and I found myself caring about her backstory and the way she wanted to tell it more than I did when I read Bossypants.
AngmarsKing701
Member
Finally, after more than two months, wrapped up Joe Hill's NOS4A2 today. 2/5 stars. My review is here if you're interested.
Moving on to something a little shorter, and in the scifi category, with:
Moving on to something a little shorter, and in the scifi category, with:
Incandenza
Banned
Everyone else was doing it, so why not me:
The Southern Reach Trilogy by Jeff VanderMeer
Annihilation - Brilliant. One of the scariest books I've ever read.
Authority - Blech.
Acceptance - Better than Authority but still not on the same level as the first.
Not sure if I could recommend the series as a whole but I would have been totally satisfied just reading the first book and leaving it at that.
The Southern Reach Trilogy by Jeff VanderMeer
Annihilation - Brilliant. One of the scariest books I've ever read.
Authority - Blech.
Acceptance - Better than Authority but still not on the same level as the first.
Not sure if I could recommend the series as a whole but I would have been totally satisfied just reading the first book and leaving it at that.
Nappuccino
Member
Everyone else was doing it, so why not me:
The Southern Reach Trilogy by Jeff VanderMeer
Annihilation - Brilliant. One of the scariest books I've ever read.
Authority - Blech.
Acceptance - Better than Authority but still not on the same level as the first.
Not sure if I could recommend the series as a whole but I would have been totally satisfied just reading the first book and leaving it at that.
Why didn't you like Authority? I don't know if I'd say it ends satisfactorily (it seems to end about 40 pages before most of it's threads would have been resolved) but I quite liked its mood and overall build-up. Only thing I didn't care for were the odd fragments that were more distracting than character building (this because everything was 3rd person . . . so it didn't make a lot of sense to have that representation, to me).
I'd recommend you to jump around a bit chronologically. If not, you'll probably be bored and lose heart long before you get out of antiquity.
If you haven't already, you should read The Western Canon by Harold Bloom. It has an extensive list in the back of what he deems to be the canonical works. That list alone should provide many years of reading.
David Denby's Great Books is a pretty wonderful memoir along those lines.
Finished:
What a wonderful, poetic and philosophical book. I loved every second of it and when it ended I had gone on audible so fast the audible guy couldn't even finish telling me how he hoped I enjoyed that production. So now I listening to:
Only two hours in and I'm loving this even more. So I was really crestfallen when I discovered that there had been a third book planned that was never published and since the last information I could find about it was from 2012 I somewhat fear that it will never come out.
What a wonderful, poetic and philosophical book. I loved every second of it and when it ended I had gone on audible so fast the audible guy couldn't even finish telling me how he hoped I enjoyed that production. So now I listening to:
Only two hours in and I'm loving this even more. So I was really crestfallen when I discovered that there had been a third book planned that was never published and since the last information I could find about it was from 2012 I somewhat fear that it will never come out.
Maklershed
Member
Forgot to mention, in the audibook realm I put Battle Cry of Freedom to the side for now and started A Short History of Nearly Everything by Bill Bryson
A Short History of Nearly Everything by Bill Bryson
A Short History of Nearly Everything by Bill Bryson
The Invention of Murder: How the Victorians Revelled in Death and Detection and Created Modern Crime by Judith Flanders
Impeccably researched but a bit on the slog side with a few snarky comments here and there.
Perhaps more accurately less about murders and more about the gutter press really
Ranger Taffles
Member
Finished up After Dark By Haruki Murakami
I picked this up spontaneously since it was really cheap and I figured why not. This is my first Murakami read and well consider me intrigued for his other works. The mood and setting was really admirable but some parts of the storyline went far too hollow (maybe purposely) for my liking. The ending especially left the whole narrative in this vague closure that was just disappointing. What kept me going on was somewhat the development and interplay of dialogue between the characters, but that too felt short of being properly constructive in the tone that was set up. I guess I'd say it was an alright read, but good enough to have me check out his other acclaimed works.
I picked this up spontaneously since it was really cheap and I figured why not. This is my first Murakami read and well consider me intrigued for his other works. The mood and setting was really admirable but some parts of the storyline went far too hollow (maybe purposely) for my liking. The ending especially left the whole narrative in this vague closure that was just disappointing. What kept me going on was somewhat the development and interplay of dialogue between the characters, but that too felt short of being properly constructive in the tone that was set up. I guess I'd say it was an alright read, but good enough to have me check out his other acclaimed works.
Incandenza
Banned
It didn't have that oppressively hostile and creepy tone from Annihilation. VanderMeer's skill seems to be in crafting natural environments, not office spaces. Outside of one or two (admittedly very scary) scenes I don't think he captures the same sense of dread. Plus the pacing was far more tedious and Control was not as compelling a character as the biologist. I could nitpick a lot of things about it but mostly it was just frustrating because everything that Annihilation got right, Authority seemed to lack.
Forgot to mention, in the audibook realm I put Battle Cry of Freedom to the side for now and started A Short History of Nearly Everything by Bill Bryson
A Short History of Nearly Everything by Bill Bryson
I love a short history of nearly everything. I read it so much when it first came out that I haven't touched it for years to try and freshen it up for the next time I read it.
I'm currently trying to get through my backlog and have just finished Insomnia by Stephen King and now starting The Eyes Of The Dragon.
hardcastlemccormick
Banned
I found Authority more oppressive than Annihilation because I don't trust people in offices. Shifty, shady people.
Maklershed
Member
"God's Beard!"
Member
I went to the book store today and they had the Southern Reach trilogy so I picked it up. I'll let you know how it goes.
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