What Are You Reading? - Page 97

Apathy's_Child · 10-06-2009, 01:55 PM

Doctor Sax by Kerouac. It's actually pretty good - I'm really not crazy about him generally, but my girlfriend was reading it so I've made it my official bathroom reading, and I think I'm kind of into it.

DRM · 10-10-2009, 06:02 PM

"Why I'm not a Christian"

Saya · 10-10-2009, 07:15 PM

Almost done The Brothers Karamazov, but today I picked up Darkly Dreaming Dexter and an issue of Bust magazine, since Isa Chandra Moskowitz has a new column in it, and has a good looking vegan candy corn recipe in it. Also an interview with Tommy Wiseau. Its a pretty good magazine on the whole.

And Alia Shawkat was in it too and talked a bit about the Arrested Development movie, yay!

Despanan · 10-10-2009, 08:25 PM

The Gothic.net forums.

EEEELLLLL
OOOHHHH
EEELLLLLL!!!11oneI.

NightNGaleX3x · 10-10-2009, 09:56 PM

"The Picture of Dorian Gray" by Oscar Wilde
and
"Edgar Cayce: An American Prophet" by Sidney D. Kirkpatrick

ForestMist · 10-10-2009, 11:38 PM

Fyodor Mikhailovich Dostoevsky - Crime and Punishment

JCC · 10-11-2009, 10:04 AM

Just read 'Candide'.

DRM · 10-11-2009, 11:31 AM

"Dead Zone"

Tiphareth · 10-11-2009, 02:58 PM

PANDAEMONIUM by Christopher Brookmyre...kind of Tom Sharpe meets Mary Shelley

SweetJane · 10-13-2009, 03:19 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Apathy's_Child

Doctor Sax by Kerouac. It's actually pretty good - I'm really not crazy about him generally, but my girlfriend was reading it so I've made it my official bathroom reading, and I think I'm kind of into it.

I'm reading Satori in Paris.

Next week is either Kerouac's birthday or death anniversary. I can't remember which.

Apathy's_Child · 10-13-2009, 06:58 AM

I think it's death, but I'm not sure either.

To be honest, I've learned in recent years that (as is the case with many authors) his life is so much more interesting than his work, and the work BECOMES more interesting as a result. (I didn't really like On the Road that much, and some of his poetry is frankly ridiculous, but I wonder sometimes if I would now knowing more about the guy.) A good biography makes you realise that the dude was so obscenely fucked up and riddled with self-loathing neuroses, his choices were basically narrowed down to becoming a serial killer or spawning the most influential American subculture of the century. I think that's why Big Sur was the only novel of his I ever really thought was anything special - although I didn't realise it at the time, it was the most brutally honest piece of work I've ever read by him. Most of his work is so suffused with a desperate determination to wring some beauty out of the world, it just comes across a little hollow. (Though probably more understandable in the original OtR where the stricken drug references have finally been published.)

However Doctor Sax was satisfying, and I liked it. Next up is Cities of the Red Night by William Burroughs.

SweetJane · 10-13-2009, 11:59 AM

I find that most poets usually have a few poems that they think are brilliant, but make the rest of the world go... "Ok... I haven't done THAT, so I'm going to take your word for it, but that doesn't mean I have to like your piece. How fucked up were you when you wrote that?"

I'm really enjoying Satori, and it makes me look forward to my semester in Europe this January. It's sort of a story about tracing his roots in France, and I'll be going to Hungary to meet my cousins during the break from school in Austria, so I hope my experience in Europe will be comperably as interesting (and involve as much sex with beautiful women) as the experience Kerouac had.

I've also been trying to read more American authors before the trip, because we do have interesting literature, and I'd like to be able to explain some of the American nuance the way my friend from Dublin can go on and on about the cultural relevence of Oscar Wild or James Joyce, or Sanja talks about Tolstoy and Dostoyevsky.

Pineapple_Juice · 10-13-2009, 10:36 PM

Reading It again. I abhor clowns and fear them with an ungodly terror.

The situation's always the same. I pick up the book, start reading, and when I get to Georgie Denborough with his arm getting ripped off by the clown standing in the sewage drain I freak. End up spending a week with the lights on and end up looking over my shoulder.

Then when I feel better I pick it back up and read until about the time where Ben Hanscom sees the clown in the field with the mummy's face and the balloons that fly the wrong way in the wind I freak out again, and...repeat.

Don't know why I read this trash.

Come to think of it-why haven't I ever posted this in the scary book thread?

carakitty · 10-15-2009, 11:47 AM

I am currently plodding through A Echo In The Bone. Not as good of the rest of the series. At least this one doesn't have to be returned to the library.

Saya · 10-15-2009, 02:07 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Pineapple_Juice

Reading It again. I abhor clowns and fear them with an ungodly terror.

The situation's always the same. I pick up the book, start reading, and when I get to Georgie Denborough with his arm getting ripped off by the clown standing in the sewage drain I freak. End up spending a week with the lights on and end up looking over my shoulder.

Then when I feel better I pick it back up and read until about the time where Ben Hanscom sees the clown in the field with the mummy's face and the balloons that fly the wrong way in the wind I freak out again, and...repeat.

Don't know why I read this trash.

Come to think of it-why haven't I ever posted this in the scary book thread?

I used to find IT scary until I watched the movie. I couldn't finish it because I'd just picture the movie after that and laugh.

I'm reading Making A Killing: The Political Economy of Animal Rights by Bob Torres. Its about how the left, particularly anarchists and marxists should be concerned about animal rights.

Ophelia's Snorkel · 10-15-2009, 02:15 PM

I am reading *shudder* Dan Brown's Angels and Demons, at a friend's request. It is utter drivel, and I hate it. I am only finishing it because then I can say, "Yes, yes, I did read it all. No, it did not get better. I gave it all the chance a person possibly could, but the man is an idiot and a hack. A wealthy, published hack. God damn it all, why does the public eat up this tripe?"

Actually, I will probably buckle and simply say that commercial fiction is not usually what I read, so this was, er, an experience. Then I will hang my head in shame.

Saya · 10-15-2009, 02:47 PM

YOU WILL HATE THE ENDING.

It was a shitty book but the ending was just a kick in the nuts while you're down.

Tiphareth · 10-15-2009, 03:46 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Ophelia's Snorkel

I am reading *shudder* Dan Brown's Angels and Demons, at a friend's request. It is utter drivel, and I hate it. I am only finishing it because then I can say, "Yes, yes, I did read it all. No, it did not get better. I gave it all the chance a person possibly could, but the man is an idiot and a hack. A wealthy, published hack. God damn it all, why does the public eat up this tripe?"

Actually, I will probably buckle and simply say that commercial fiction is not usually what I read, so this was, er, an experience. Then I will hang my head in shame.

I refuse to read that damned man out of principle.
All that furore over the Da Vinci Code, regurgitating an idea that had actually been floating around for two decades since The Holy Blood and the Holy Grail, and suddenly he's considered some sort of esoteric genius.
I understand that his latest effort had to be re-written by editors to make it even vaguely readable.

And yep...the public gobbles up tripe because they can't get their heads around anything that actually requires them to think. Baigent, Leigh and Lincoln is hardly what you might call scholarship but you can pretty well guarantee that of those that gobbled up da Vinci probably less than 0.00001% went on to read the Holy Blood.

Saya · 10-15-2009, 04:23 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Tiphareth

I refuse to read that damned man out of principle.
All that furore over the Da Vinci Code, regurgitating an idea that had actually been floating around for two decades since The Holy Blood and the Holy Grail, and suddenly he's considered some sort of esoteric genius.
I understand that his latest effort had to be re-written by editors to make it even vaguely readable.

And yep...the public gobbles up tripe because they can't get their heads around anything that actually requires them to think. Baigent, Leigh and Lincoln is hardly what you might call scholarship but you can pretty well guarantee that of those that gobbled up da Vinci probably less than 0.00001% went on to read the Holy Blood.

And Holy Blood has long been debunked. Even the third Gabriel Knight game at least had fun with it and threw shit like VAMPIRES into the mix.

Gabriel Knight has something in common with IT, someone tie it together ^_^

Saya · 10-18-2009, 08:34 PM

Finished Making A Killing: The Political Economy Of Animal Rights. Good shit and gave me a lot to think about. Its one of those books where you read two pages and then take a break to mull over what you just read. And you wake up thinking about it the next day.

I also always kinda struggled while reading Marx since I have trouble understanding economic matters, but Torres really explains Marxism (and capitalism of course) in a pretty accessible way, halfway through the book something just clicked and it all made sense to me. I can now go back and reread Capital and The Communist Manifesto and appreciate it better.

Now onto Introduction To Animal Rights: Your Child Or The Dog? by Gary Francione.

Anima_Severem · 10-18-2009, 10:16 PM

Halfway through my third read of H.G. Wells' The Time Machine.

the-nihilist · 10-19-2009, 12:12 AM

I loved that book.

Right now I'm reading "The Invisible Man"

Apathy's_Child · 10-19-2009, 02:08 AM

Ellison's Invisible Man? If so, awesomeness.

I'm reading Will You Please Be Quiet, Please? by Raymond Carver.

Tiphareth · 10-19-2009, 05:36 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Apathy's_Child

Ellison's Invisible Man? If so, awesomeness.

I'm reading Will You Please Be Quiet, Please? by Raymond Carver.

'How to win friends and influence people'

I'm sending it to creature6 after i've finished it

Ophelia's Snorkel · 10-19-2009, 05:47 AM

Rebecca, by DuMaurier. I've read it every few years since I was 12, and it's been interesting to see how my perspective and sympathies have changed as I have grown older. I'm not so fond of most of her other novels, but this one is so well-written, so vivid, and such a brilliant combination of introspection and suspense, that I consider it a perfect, perfect thing.