hey max, the fifth woman was pretty rad, gonna take a break with something totally different tho before i read the next one. super unusual style of writing: short precise sentences, few adjectives, lots of minute detail... but it all works, somehow.
― smoove operator, Monday, 12 July 2010 06:06 (thirteen years ago) link
sweet, glad you liked it--it takes a bit getting used to the prose style, which is weirdly... i dunno autistic? it seems very disconnected but also quite direct, focused on odd things. but its worth it, imo. love those crazy scandos.
― max max max max, Monday, 12 July 2010 06:31 (thirteen years ago) link
i am reading black boy by richard wright. it's very very good.
― spite n ease (harbl), Monday, 12 July 2010 12:32 (thirteen years ago) link
xp i just read the other one i got, 'sidetracked', which was good too, but written differently - more 'flowery' in comparison.
so i am at comic con for the next couple of days bc i am a good wifey - so i spent about 4 hours today in the middle of the convention at a table, guarding about 100lbs of books for ytth so he could go off and get shit signed and come back and leave it with me. so i took along the alice adams collection i just got, and it is GREAT, estela!
― smoove operator, Friday, 23 July 2010 22:41 (thirteen years ago) link
pretty sure i was the only person there with an actual book containing words
― smoove operator, Friday, 23 July 2010 22:42 (thirteen years ago) link
:D i'm glad you like her, ruby!
― estela, Thursday, 29 July 2010 10:14 (thirteen years ago) link
hey estela, i finished two books this weekend, and i started crash by j.g. ballard! i can't decide if i like it. all this boring sex crap. i'll finish it though. i finished a nabokov book that made me cry.
― spite n ease (harbl), Wednesday, 13 October 2010 00:59 (thirteen years ago) link
did you finish crash.
i like your condemnation of boring sex crap, i condemn it also.
― estela, Tuesday, 16 November 2010 11:11 (thirteen years ago) link
oh i didn't even remember writing that. i have like 40 more pages of crash. i don't think i'll finish it, i kinda hate it. but i should just to do it. i am now reading "the warmth of other suns." it's about the great migration. i heard about it on npr. lol. it's very good!
― spite n ease (harbl), Tuesday, 16 November 2010 22:37 (thirteen years ago) link
HEY GUESS WHAT ILY
― lxy, Thursday, 9 December 2010 22:01 (thirteen years ago) link
i read 200 pages of the warmth of other suns and i couldn't renew it because it was on hold at the library. need to reserve it again. i didn't finish crash still. i started bleak house but i'm too tired to read so i've read 14 pages in 4 days.
― spite n ease (harbl), Friday, 10 December 2010 12:40 (thirteen years ago) link
ily too
oh lordy, bleak house. it took me forever to read that. in two sessions separated by a year. i dragged that tome over the ocean and never opened it once.
― lxy, Friday, 10 December 2010 15:58 (thirteen years ago) link
ilyboth
― estela, Saturday, 11 December 2010 23:13 (thirteen years ago) link
i like bleak house a lot so far but i wonder if i have the endurance to read 900+ pages when i read so little during the week. i had a nice time reading in bed the last 2 mornings and got to page 65 or so.
― spite n ease (harbl), Monday, 13 December 2010 01:11 (thirteen years ago) link
i have been on an amy bloom kick and just read the last of her books. i do this, i find an author i really like and then read all their stuff in quick succession and then get really bummed when there is no more left to read. i did this with siri hustvedt and jane smiley also. the only person i didn't do this with was alice munro, who i paced myself on for like 3 years but i finally just finished the last one ;_;
now i'm obsessed with jonathan dee.
― smoove operator, Monday, 13 December 2010 04:29 (thirteen years ago) link
i am never goign to finish a book, i just read parts of multiple books. i'm back to the warmth of other suns. only 190 pages to go. i have a borders gift card, what should i buy?
― spite n ease (harbl), Saturday, 1 January 2011 19:31 (thirteen years ago) link
an itty bitty book light and a tin of mints.
― estela, Saturday, 1 January 2011 21:47 (thirteen years ago) link
lol. i randomly selected 3 of those nyrb books.
― spite n ease (harbl), Saturday, 1 January 2011 22:30 (thirteen years ago) link
never you read books?
― lxy, Sunday, 2 January 2011 20:43 (thirteen years ago) link
new york review of books! there is a thread on them http://ilxor.com/ILX/ThreadSelectedControllerServlet?boardid=55&threadid=74055#unreadi wonder if i will succeed at finishing more than 12 books this year. i've already finished the warmth of other suns, that's one for 2011. and a couple i read almost all of in 2010 and never did. i can do that. i'm just too tired most of the time.
― spite n ease (harbl), Sunday, 2 January 2011 21:24 (thirteen years ago) link
there are 5 books that i read about 80% of, including crash. i need to just suck it up and finish that awful thing.
― spite n ease (harbl), Sunday, 2 January 2011 21:26 (thirteen years ago) link
i wouldn't, i never force myself to finish books i don't want to read, it's a waste of reading time. reading time is finite and there are millions of books out there.
― estela, Monday, 3 January 2011 12:31 (thirteen years ago) link
i don't know why i have this hang up. i tried to get rid of it and tell myself that very same thing. but i feel like i wasted time reading most of it and the time would become unwasted if i would finish.
― spite n ease (harbl), Tuesday, 4 January 2011 23:10 (thirteen years ago) link
i'm with estela on this one. ditch it if you don't like it.
― lxy, Wednesday, 5 January 2011 01:17 (thirteen years ago) link
The 50 page rule rules.
― jaq, Wednesday, 5 January 2011 05:08 (thirteen years ago) link
ok ok ok
― spite n ease (harbl), Wednesday, 5 January 2011 11:55 (thirteen years ago) link
lol, did we browbeat you into abandoning all 5 unfinished books?
― lxy, Thursday, 6 January 2011 17:27 (thirteen years ago) link
not all 5. there is one i just re-borrowed. our library doesn't give enough time for slowpokes. i have like 100 pages left. i just finished the true deceiver by tove jansson!!!
― spite n ease (harbl), Monday, 17 January 2011 16:24 (thirteen years ago) link
i read the first kurt wallander book and the first martin beck book, they were ok
― spite n ease (harbl), Monday, 27 June 2011 11:07 (twelve years ago) link
ruby, i'm reading amy hempel's collected stories and finding her brilliant. if you have not read her i think you would like her.
― estela, Saturday, 19 May 2012 00:15 (eleven years ago) link
that is the one i have, too! i started reading it a while ago, but then i got distracted. i think i liked it??
― smoove operator, Saturday, 19 May 2012 02:09 (eleven years ago) link
i got a library card last weekend btw
― smoove operator, Saturday, 19 May 2012 03:01 (eleven years ago) link
i did that too-- started reading, liked it, got distracted, and now i'm loving it.
i bet you have a good library there.
― estela, Saturday, 19 May 2012 11:58 (eleven years ago) link
it's super tiny bc our city is super tiny. also i now officially live in contra costa county, not alameda county, so i guess i can't access berkeley's library with my card.
― smoove operator, Saturday, 19 May 2012 16:46 (eleven years ago) link
estela i am reading a novel right now, and the female protagonist's nemesis is the spitting (word) image of your 'friend' you told me about.
― smoove operator, Friday, 25 May 2012 02:43 (eleven years ago) link
how lovely
― estela, Friday, 25 May 2012 03:59 (eleven years ago) link
hey e-stale-a
― t. silaviver, Friday, 25 May 2012 06:28 (eleven years ago) link
hey estela and what
^^ a good thread for a parallel ILX was mentioned repeated ages agokinda like the when pato met estela thread but with a sharper foil
― t. silaviver, Friday, 25 May 2012 06:31 (eleven years ago) link
hey t.skilaviver<3
― estela, Friday, 25 May 2012 07:09 (eleven years ago) link
hey estela, have you read any mona simpson? i'm reading 'off keck road', it's pretty good.
― smoove operator, Wednesday, 20 June 2012 02:06 (eleven years ago) link
no i haven't read her but i always like to get a reccommendation from you.
― estela, Thursday, 21 June 2012 21:53 (eleven years ago) link
i was trying to figure out why her name was so familiar to me in this backwards province and it's because she's steve job's sister.
― estela, Thursday, 21 June 2012 21:56 (eleven years ago) link
omg
estela made a mistake <3
― mookieproof, Friday, 22 June 2012 01:38 (eleven years ago) link
are you referring to backwards because that was deliberate, this place is too sunny and sky blue and beachy for backwoods.
― estela, Friday, 22 June 2012 02:08 (eleven years ago) link
or are you querying how we spell recommendation around here<3
― estela, Friday, 22 June 2012 02:10 (eleven years ago) link
or is mona simpson not really steve job's sister.
???
― estela, Friday, 22 June 2012 02:11 (eleven years ago) link
steve jobs'
― smoove operator, Friday, 22 June 2012 03:51 (eleven years ago) link
or is it steve jobs's