oops i mean Melville not Ishmael
― flexidisc, Thursday, 1 December 2011 18:29 (twelve years ago) link
and you have provided 0% evidence that MFAers do this sort of thing
i'm reading the second coming of steve jobs
― your voice of treason, Thursday, 1 December 2011 18:31 (twelve years ago) link
Just finished
Joan Didion, Where I Was From Charles Willeford, Miami BluesL.P. Davies, Twilight Journey
I had a big Murakami binge recently, so I need a break before starting 1Q84, but I am looking forward to it -- glad to hear there are plenty of cooking and eating scenes.
― Brad C., Thursday, 1 December 2011 18:32 (twelve years ago) link
and you have provided 0% evidence for taking a remark on a message board so seriously
― Lord Sotosyn, Thursday, 1 December 2011 18:32 (twelve years ago) link
1Q84 was the first Murakami book I was able to get halfway through. Finished it within a week or two and really enjoyed it.
― calstars, Thursday, 1 December 2011 19:25 (twelve years ago) link
still working on 1Q84, i the part where fuka-eri says:
"the poor gilyaks!"
...paragraph...
"the wonderful gilyaks!"
was very cute
― diamonddaze85 (ok), Thursday, 1 December 2011 19:37 (twelve years ago) link
i thought the part**
also possibly the first time fuka-eri exclaimed anything?
― diamonddaze85 (ok), Thursday, 1 December 2011 19:38 (twelve years ago) link
* 1Q84 spoiler alert * in book 3 tengo misses the way her voice goes up at the end of a sentence when she asks a question, which kinda pisses on how we think she asks a question prior to that hitting that line
― farah ferrigno, Thursday, 1 December 2011 21:30 (twelve years ago) link
Joan Didion, Where I Was From
how was this? i always put it back on the shelf sorta (i know, terrible) thinking OLD TIMES, BORRRRRING, but my friend was enthusing about it recently. it's essays, right? family essays. i finally got around to ordering political fictions, so that's next, but could use further endorsement of WIWF
― Never translate German (schlump), Thursday, 1 December 2011 21:39 (twelve years ago) link
there are lots of sloppy things abt the way tengo 'reports' her reactions, like what it means to not answer a qn.
yeah im not really a big fan of his but i found this one super readable too, even if it was p repetitive and conceptually sloppy i just wanted to spend time w/ the characters, gather more hints. i sorta wish he hadnt squished any kind of suspense or mystery or drama w/ all the explanation and heavy foreshadowing tho
― є(٥_ ٥)э, Thursday, 1 December 2011 21:41 (twelve years ago) link
xp
I liked WIWF. It's sort of disguised as a family memoir, and there is plenty about old times in it, but it's mainly about California, and the Californian state of mind, crashing and burning.
― Brad C., Thursday, 1 December 2011 21:45 (twelve years ago) link
her piece on californian water pressure in the white album is one of my favs, & probably bodes well in terms of suggesting i'll be interested even if the premise doesn't sound gripping. TY
― Never translate German (schlump), Thursday, 1 December 2011 22:01 (twelve years ago) link
fwiw: http://www.nytimes.com/2011/12/11/books/10-best-books-of-2011.html?_r=1&hpw
― є(٥_ ٥)э, Thursday, 1 December 2011 22:02 (twelve years ago) link
i've been reading this albert einstein biography and i just realized it's by the same guy who wrote the big steve jobs bio with all the crazy quotes
― n/a, Thursday, 1 December 2011 22:06 (twelve years ago) link
nytimes, what a stoopit list. but swamplandia is p. neat. I think it's a dark, funny, beautifully written book that is also... forceably odd? not always very good? but super entertaining, too.
― remy bean in exile, Thursday, 1 December 2011 22:07 (twelve years ago) link
http://www.readersread.com/pics/swamplandia_cover.jpg
^^^ may be an HBO miniseries?
― remy bean in exile, Thursday, 1 December 2011 22:08 (twelve years ago) link
of the ones i read, swamplandia! was pretty great, art of fielding was pretty terrible, and 11/22/63 was solid but doesn't deserve to be in a best of 2011 list
― n/a, Thursday, 1 December 2011 22:08 (twelve years ago) link
if you're going to read a large, numerically-titled sci fi-tinged novel about alternate worlds by an acclaimed novelist who's past his prime, i'd definitely go with 11/22/63 over 1Q84.
― n/a, Thursday, 1 December 2011 22:09 (twelve years ago) link
feel to logey/dim to really organize my thoughts but swamplandia! was just too precious/considered/crafts-y for me
it is a p funny list non-fiction wise but im looking fwd to the new stephen king
― є(٥_ ٥)э, Thursday, 1 December 2011 22:09 (twelve years ago) link
'art of fielding' was just actual garbage tho
― є(٥_ ٥)э, Thursday, 1 December 2011 22:10 (twelve years ago) link
1Q84 gets worse and worse in my mind as more time passes since i read it, it's approaching "freedom" levels of disgust now
― n/a, Thursday, 1 December 2011 22:10 (twelve years ago) link
swamplandia! had some "modern literary fiction" problems but at least had an interesting setting and unusual characters and an unpredictable plot, unlike art of fielding, with its precocious students and troubled headmaster at a small new england college
― n/a, Thursday, 1 December 2011 22:12 (twelve years ago) link
http://literarytransgressions.files.wordpress.com/2011/07/fitzparadise.jpg
― wil smif, Thursday, 1 December 2011 22:13 (twelve years ago) link
^^ i think thats my fave of his
the idea that ppl dont read 'the art of fielding' filled with disgust for everyone involved makes me so angry
― є(٥_ ٥)э, Thursday, 1 December 2011 22:21 (twelve years ago) link
Anybody read Ten Thousand Saints? That sounded amazing...
― iagree (henrietta lacks), Thursday, 1 December 2011 22:24 (twelve years ago) link
xxxxps
Parts of Where I Was From put the water management systems described in that White Album essay into a broader historical context.
Warning, it is a depressing book. Didion summarizes the history of the state in the words of Virginia Reed, survivor of the Donner party: "Never take no cut-offs and hurry along as fast as you can."
― Brad C., Thursday, 1 December 2011 22:25 (twelve years ago) link
lamp you remind me of f scott fitzgerald
― wil smif, Thursday, 1 December 2011 22:25 (twelve years ago) link
ummmm????
yeah, i posted abt it on real ilx i think, i liked it a fair bit (xxp)
― є(٥_ ٥)э, Thursday, 1 December 2011 22:26 (twelve years ago) link
its true you have a very similar writing style! & content even
― wil smif, Thursday, 1 December 2011 22:27 (twelve years ago) link
yeah ten thousand saints did sound good, would read
― Never translate German (schlump), Thursday, 1 December 2011 22:36 (twelve years ago) link
I finished Blue Nights before Thanksgiving -- not as affecting as its predecessor, almost thin in places. When she does her trick of repeating images like motifs it's quite moving: serving fried chicken on nice china, Quintana's rather eerie childhood self-possession, ordering room service when on assignment.
― Lord Sotosyn, Thursday, 1 December 2011 22:43 (twelve years ago) link
yes, this is exactly how i felt. but i was never ... bored? strangely, i seem to have read the same three (art of fielding, 11/22/63, and swamplandia!) as the rest of you. i wanted to read the tea ohbret book, but it was NPRed to death and I lost interest. maybe over the holidays. best nf book i read this year was 'warmth of other suns' but i guess that came out in 2010
― remy bean in exile, Thursday, 1 December 2011 22:47 (twelve years ago) link
swamplandia! also had a story. i like stories.
― n/a, Thursday, 1 December 2011 22:48 (twelve years ago) link
Lamp idk if ur interested at all in that kind thing but I'd love to read a list of yr top books of the year
― iagree (henrietta lacks), Friday, 2 December 2011 00:19 (twelve years ago) link
me too
― your voice of treason, Friday, 2 December 2011 00:25 (twelve years ago) link
Are we including history and biographies too? I'd be down for ILXers doing it.
― Lord Sotosyn, Friday, 2 December 2011 01:56 (twelve years ago) link
Yah, I'm in for a best books of 2011 balloting. (Mine might be YA heavy, but then's the breaks).
― remy bean in exile, Friday, 2 December 2011 02:12 (twelve years ago) link
a number of us seem to have the same reading list...and I did see that nytimes 10 best list as well.
I enjoyed art of fielding, but couldn't get through more than 20 pages of swamplandia. I have ten thousand saints on reserve at the library (it's actually 'e-reserve' -- apparently they only have 7 e-copies of it -- which seems absurd in the e-era).
― calstars, Friday, 2 December 2011 02:36 (twelve years ago) link
copyright
― flexidisc, Friday, 2 December 2011 02:37 (twelve years ago) link
bro
A new biography of acclaimed American author Kurt Vonnegut, beloved by fans worldwide for his work's warm humour and homespun Midwestern wisdom, has shocked many with a portrayal of a bitter, angry man prone to depression and fits of temper.
http://m.guardian.co.uk/books/2011/dec/03/kurt-vonnegut-biography?cat=books&type=article
Have these many who have been shocked ever read any Vonnegut.
― Fizzles, Sunday, 4 December 2011 09:20 (twelve years ago) link
started Stephenson's Reamde and enjoying it more than I expected to. If you are a gamer or every have been, you will be amused.
― calstars, Sunday, 4 December 2011 11:41 (twelve years ago) link
just finished Reamde - totally will make a great Hollywood movie, which was annoying in the final pages (to an NS fan) but afterwards I realize is an excellent development.
haven't read yet stack:http://farm8.staticflickr.com/7149/6452963715_597be5981a.jpg
― Zoroastrian Mingle, Sunday, 4 December 2011 15:54 (twelve years ago) link
haha reamde is in the pile of stuff i want to get to eventually... it just seemed so daunting atm
id have to think abt but i love making lists of things
― є(٥_ ٥)э, Monday, 5 December 2011 18:22 (twelve years ago) link
started pictures @ a revolution yesterday which i think i recall lord soto & maybe others recommending -- it is really great@!
― j crunchwrap supreme, Monday, 5 December 2011 19:00 (twelve years ago) link
This History of Histories by John Burrow really is excellent. His summing-up of the main features of classical history, at the end of having dealt with the main classical historians in turn, is superb.
He really starts enjoying himself with the dark ages/early medieval chroniclers, becomes quite relaxed in fact, too relaxed even? But no, it's discursive, but not too discursive, and fun to read. Sometimes it feels more descriptive of what's in the histories than the introduction led me to think, but I don't particular mind this - as well as being historiography, it's a very handy prism with which to view specific case studies in history as well.
― Fizzles, Monday, 5 December 2011 21:15 (twelve years ago) link
just finished A Visit From the Goon Squad (loved) and started on Death of Bunny Munro by Nick Cave. before that Murakami's Kafka on the Shore (didn't like it much)
― sandbox dmr, Tuesday, 6 December 2011 19:54 (twelve years ago) link
**
― uhh (ok), Wednesday, 7 December 2011 15:39 (twelve years ago) link