Φ Reading List: June-October, 2012

Stuff I've finished:

Fiction

The Stranger Albert Camus
Shoplifting from American Apparel Tao Lin
The Plague Albert Camus
Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep? Philip Dick
Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas Hunter Thompson
Less than Zero Bret Ellis
The Man in the High Castle Philip Dick
Cosmopolis Don DeLillo
The Broom of the System David Wallace
American Psycho Bret Ellis
every published Sherlock Holmes story Arthur Doyle
a handful of Poe's short stories
a small Kafka collection

Nonfiction/Essays

Mathematics: A Very Short Introduction
The Trial and Death of Socrates Plato, et al.
Letter to a Christian Nation Sam Harris
The Myth of Sisyphus Albert Camus
The Coming Insurrection some goofy French terrorists with pretensions to eloquence/profundity
How to Be an Existentialist Gary Cox
Anarchism: A Very Short Introduction
Nietzsche: A Very Short Introduction
Foucault: A Very Short Introduction

Stuff I own, but have yet to finish/am too lazy to begin/can't get into atm but still wish to read in full:

Fiction

The Magicians Lev Grossman (unfinished)
Infinite Jest David Wallace (unfinished)
The Magus John Fowles (unfinished)
Neuromancer William Gibson (unfinished)
Gravity's Rainbow Thomas Pynchon (unopened)
No Country for Old Men Cormac McCarthy (unfinished)

Nonfiction/Essays

Consciousness Explained Daniel Dennett (unfinished)
Madness and Civilization Michel Foucault (unfinished)
The Concept of Mind Gilbert Ryle (unfinished)
Lies My Teacher Told Me James Loewen (unfinished)
Discipline and Punish Michel Foucault (unopened)
Walden and Civil Disobedience Henry Thoreau (unfinished)
Probability: A Very Short Introduction (unfinished)

 

Good list I have wanted to read infinate jest for awhile now but never seem to find the time. Also if you like Hunter Thompson I really recommend fear and loathing on the campaign trail 72.

 

Good list I have wanted to read infinate jest for awhile now but never seem to find the time.

IMO, it's probably best to wait for a veritable nuclear bomb of free time to fall into your lap before attempting Infinite Jest - I've been "reading" this brick for almost a year, mostly in fits and starts. It's not so much the quality of the narrative nor a crippling defect in my attention span; it's probably the, I dunno, inherent 'hyperopia' of Wallace's writing style, coupled with the daunting length of ~1000 pages (excluding the inevitable fuckrack of disruptive footnotes) that keeps me from seriously committing myself to the story and finally finishing it. However, my own woeful pace notwithstanding, it certainly deserves the literary hype (so far, at least - I'm only 1/3 of the way through; I've heard that the ending, or, more properly, the lack thereof, is pretty disappointing).