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⫸STICKY⫷ Books - Authors & Books Discussion

RareForm said:
mm. Baudelaire. makes me quiver with delight. heheh.

i'm still working on the grand inquisitor by dostoevsky. it's not long, but my days run into each other.
Haven't read grand inquisitor yet., but I've just ifnished Brotehrs karamatzov. Among the best books i've ever read.
 
I'm sorry to interject, although I'm a big fan of Dostoevsky (sp?), have so far only read crime and punishment to which I thought was excellent. So..


Who here has read the works of Daniel Quinn? Ishmael was his springboard to an agonizingly real and true theory we've all somehow forgotten, to which he goes into further lengths in his followup novels. They are in fact written as novels, not simple philosophical regurgitation, and some of the most gripping prose I've ever read!

Anyone in here who has read Ishmael, the Story of B, the Holy, or anything else by him please chime in so we can discuss!
 
Just realized no one mentioned Hunter Thompson in this thread, so to those of you who have read one or more of the following:

1)The Rum Diaries
2)The Great Shark Hunt
3)The Curse of Lono
4)Songs of the Doomed
5)Kingdom of Fear
6)Hey Rube
7)Better Than Sex
8.)Generation of Swine
9)The Proud Highway
10)Fear and Loathing in America
11)Screwjack, or
12)Anything read in any of his published articles.

To those of you who have, give me your feelings.
To those of you who have not, start with the Great Shark Hunt, Then Songs of The Doomed. After that you can read Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas (which I deliberately left off this list).

:)2c
 
As far as Hunter T. goes, The Rum Diaries, Hell's Angels, and of course Fear and Loathing are all classic. So much style and originality...

Has anyone mentioned Huxley yet? A brilliant scribe with the titles

Island
The Doors of Perception
Brave New World
Ape and Essence
Heaven and Hell
Perennial Philosophy
Jesting Pilate
 
sam manson420 said:
As far as Hunter T. goes, The Rum Diaries, Hell's Angels, and of course Fear and Loathing are all classic. So much style and originality...

Has anyone mentioned Huxley yet? A brilliant scribe with the titles

Island
The Doors of Perception
Brave New World
Ape and Essence
Heaven and Hell
Perennial Philosophy
Jesting Pilate

I actually started up an Aldous Huxley appreciation thread 3 months ago, it didn't really go too far which surprised me (figured everyone in here to at least be a fan).

I read the doors of perception age 13 and haven't looked back ever since, brilliant man and the book ISLAND is beautiful beyond words.
 
I've been reading Frank O'Hara's Collected Poems.
 
Right now I'm reading Mason & Dixon by Thomas Pynchon, and so far I'm digging it. I'm only a mere 140 pages into the 800 that it contains, but so far it feels rather episodic. Every other chapter seems to take place in another surreal location of the world, and the flesh content has mostly been descriptions of these locations' peculiar personalities and the different forms of madness that live inside them. The language is also very fun to ride.

I'm also close to finishing Transmigration of Timothy Archer by Philip K Dick. This is the only book of his other than VALIS that I've read. VALIS is one of my favorites. Transmigration contains many interesting ideas and dynamics -- the twisty mind-heavy stuff you might expect from him, but there's a heavy focus on depressive angst that kind of repels me. I'm hoping its brought together well enough...

By the way -- it was a few months ago but it's still on my mind -- have any of you checked out Only Revolutions by Mark Z Danielewski? I've never read anything quite like it. It's as playful as it is haunting, not to mention the fact that the book is basically a literary ouroboros -- pick it up the next time your at the store, glance at the text and you'll see what I mean. Anyway, I recommend that one.
 
Ahh, Vonnegut. "Breakfast of Champions" was the first novel I read of his. Liked it alot, but then I read "Slaughter-House 5" which completely blew me away. I read it from beginning to end nonstop. Only put it down to use the bathroom. Then it was onto "The Sirens of Titan" which is my personal favorite.

Big fan of Kafka too. "The Metamorphisis" is classic.

"Prometheus Rising" by Robert Anton Wilson is also a very interesting read.
 
My favourite Kafka story is The Great Wall of China.
 
I've started reading again after quite some time. Having absolutely no internet at work has made me a bookworm once again ;) Also, I find that there are months when I watch TV before bed, and after that, I cannot wait to bury myself into some good books before I sleep. Now is that time.

I am reading three books at the same time ... (two at work which I alternate, and one before I sleep!) ...yes, I am that way ;) And the three books cannot be more different from each other :

The Jungle by Upton Sinclair ~ fascinating and brutally honest..I prefer to read only a few pages a day, as I do not wish to end my enjoyment of it so soon

The Buddha of Suburbia by Hanif Kureishi ~ wildly funny and unputdownable coming of age story set in 1970s suburban London that I am enjoying thoroughly

A Tree Grows in Brooklyn by Betty Smith ~ i've always been curious about this novel and when I finally procured a copy, I read about a hundred pages the first night haha. I read it before bed. It's quite lovely.
 
2c-buoyant said:
I'm sorry to interject, although I'm a big fan of Dostoevsky (sp?), have so far only read crime and punishment to which I thought was excellent. So..


Who here has read the works of Daniel Quinn? Ishmael was his springboard to an agonizingly real and true theory we've all somehow forgotten, to which he goes into further lengths in his followup novels. They are in fact written as novels, not simple philosophical regurgitation, and some of the most gripping prose I've ever read!

Anyone in here who has read Ishmael, the Story of B, the Holy, or anything else by him please chime in so we can discuss!


Read One Day in the Life of Ivan Denisovich
 
socko said:
Haven't read grand inquisitor yet., but I've just ifnished Brotehrs karamatzov. Among the best books i've ever read.

afaik the grand inquistor was a chapter in bros. karamazov.
great book all the same - especially that translation by richard pervear & larissa volohksky (?)

i've taken up 2c-bouyant's rec. on 'Ishmael'. undecided as yet...only 85 pages in.
 
I loved A Tree Grows in Brooklyn but its been years since I read it.

I should add it to the re-read list.

Right now I'm reading White Oleander - by Janet Fitch

I was very intrigued by the movie and knew I'd love the book, and I was right.
I love it, it flows like water, descriptive, poetic, raw, and beautiful.

She inspires me, she is the type of writer I want to be.
 
365 Tao by Deng Ming Dao.

It's an entirely different experience than Tao Te Ching, and it's taking me a couple days to get through.

Also, Children of Dune by Frank Herbert.

Dune to excite the mind, Tao to calm it.
 
For Whom the Bell Tolls - Hemingway, followed by The Old Man and the Sea.
 
I'm reading After Dark by Haruki Murakami.
I'm not sure if I like the translation, I mean, I don't speak Japanese, it just reads a little odd in places. For example:

Through the eyes of a high-flying night bird, we take in the scene from midair. In our broad sweep, the city looks like a single gigantic creature-or more like a single collective entity created by many intertwining organisms.

A bit static, as you can see. Mostly finished though and it's definitely worth reading. Will move on to Money by Martin Amis next.
 
Apocalypse Culture is a really weird book, it's a collection of articles on the most fringe topics of the current age.

Good weird stories-- City of Glass by Paul Auster (metaphysical, postmodern, nihilistic detective story), Adventures in the Skin Trade by Dylan Thomas (very strange, 1940s), Song of Kali by Dan Simmons (excellent trippy horror novel)
 
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