hey estela guess what

oh hey can we just make this the all-purpose sandbox book thread

i started reading "the toughest show on earth" at the bar last night and it is really poorly written (even with a ghost writer/helper dude).

um ital not quotes lol

that is great, ruby, oh! you married well.

the sandbox needed a book thread
except i haven't really been reading lately
except these two verrrrry slowwwwwly
http://chroniclebooks.com/images/items/1568982/1568982836/1568982836_large.jpghttp://media.us.macmillan.com/jackets/500H/9780312423636.jpg

first one i started a loooooong time ago and i should be done soon, i just have to bring it back and check it out again because i ran out of renewals
second one is ok though author is a journalist and i can get tired of her style sometimes. i just like books about neo-nazis and stuff.

i am reading 'after leaving mr. mackenzie' by jean rhys.

and 'friend of my youth' by alice munro.

this is not a "book" so much but the lorrie moore story in this weeks nyer was really nice outside of some sort of iffy dialogue and almost made me cry on the subway today, although im feverish

i am taking a break from gravitys rainbow which is beginning to drag for me a little bit and i just finished bolanos nazi literature which was interesting and beautifully written but im not really sure how i felt about it (tho the last story was a++++) and am currently in the first half of aleksander hemons the lazarus project which is really great so far kind of a sebald + nabokov steez which is like catnip to me

i'm about 600 (out of 800) pages into yoshihiro tatsumi's A Drifting Life. i'm not gonna finish it now though cuz i don't want to take it on the train today. too heavy. it's a graphic novel, autobiographical, about this dude's life making manga. i'm surprised how much i like it, since it meanders so much. "...and then i edited shadow number 11...then i switched publishers...then i remembered how much i missed making full-length manga." beautifully drawn though.

i juat finished jamaica kincaid's A Small Place, her personal history of growing up in Antigua and hating the british. lotsa spite for such a thin book.

i wish lxy would post on this thread but i bet she won't. she has phases where she reads a trashy mystery a day

oh lol i was just getting ready to post but maybe i shouldn't now so you're not proven wrong?

i should try lorrie moore again - i read 'birds of america' awhile ago, but it was right after i'd read alice munro's 'open secrets' so i think it just couldn't live up to that.

(estela that carver book is limited to a 1000 copies! also, it has really cool prints)

i'm on a a.m. homes kick right now and about to start 'the safety of objects', and also joan didion's 'democracy'.

ytth tries every 2nd day to get me to read a graphic novel but so far i've resisted.

i want to know what lxy is reading

this thread probably!

i never tried these books by people like lorrie moore. maybe i should but not right now. still stuck in the 19th c. as far as fiction goes :o
intrigued by trashy mysteries though, because i like to watch trashy crime shows on the tv

;)

estela how do feel about janet frame

saw 'owls do cry' in the bookstore and felt nostalgic so i bought it

cmon lx

yeahh lxy it's ok to post about trashy novels

i willingly admit i have read and ENJOYED
the da vinci code and other d.brown books
TWILIGHT - not just one but the WHOLE trilogy!

altho 'enjoy' isn't really the right word for twilight.... that shit is on some other level. i was totally conscious the whole time i was reading all 3 books that the writing was terrible, the storyline predictable, the characters boring and one-dimensional, yet i was totally compelled to read them

oh, in no way am i embarrassed about my reading choices.

i had a funny moment with a book an hour ago.  i must have read about it on ILB's best of the 00's and then read the back and it sounded good. Andre Aciman's 'Call me by Your Name.'. i started in on this summer love story in 1st person and it all seemed fine until the third page. that's when i had my "wait, this is a dude talking about another dude" moment. whoops. no indication on the back cover, whatever i'd read about it hadn't mentioned man-on-man love. ha, i guess i'll give it to kyle. not that he finishes books, but he'll get further than i will.

started SWAY: the irresistible pull of irrational behavior. it's y'know nonfiction 

are you saying you dumped a book when you realized it was about gays

about gays FUCKING

new info about jergins life: started book about dudes doing it, couldnt finish

oh god that's awful! xp

that must have been the irresistible pull of irrational behavior

^_^

kyle might finish that one. xp.

xp also: is it about the musical artist SWAY?

cuz i would be surprised if you read a book about that guy.

okay people, here it is:

Illicit, Moisés Naím
Maisie Dobbs, Jacqueline Winspear << there's your trashy mystery
Leaving Tangier, Tahar Ben Jelloun
The Day of the Owl, Leonard Sciascia

that's the last 4 books i read.

it took me months to read illicit because i suck at reading non-fiction. so instead of reading, i was doing crossword puzzles.

the winspear i read in about 6 minutes, that's how trashy it is. i chose it to remind myself that i can actually read more than 10 pages in a day. it's true, i do <3 trashy mysteries. mainly british ones.

jergins gave me leaving tangier. he bought it but then didn't read it, i guess on account of it is about the gay. (it's also about a lot of other stuff, btw.)

the sciascia is reportedly the first fictional account of the sicilian mafia. written in 1961. even though it's a murder mystery, it doesn't count as trashy because of its historical significance.

that enough for now?

the day of the owl looks like i would like it as long as no gays are fucking

does mary higgins clark count as trashy mysteries? i used to be into her after a bunch of her books were at this beach condo we rented, but it's been years.

no gays fucking, nor straights fucking either. at least not yet. only 12 pages left, so i doubt it'll come this late in the game. xp.

dunno, t, i've never read her. i always had the idea that they were sort of supernatural phenomena based? maybe not correct?

the only one i remember well was about a girl with multiple personalities that i think was murdering people and also did a lot of weird sex things maybe?

haha and ai yi yi! i think i have been wise to avoid mary higgins clark!

oooh for good and not-that-trashy mysteries you should try maeve binchy

i read one by her a long time ago but i don't remember it as a mystery, more like a romance?

oh no way, defintely psychological thriller styles

ok u are right i just checked wiki

i must be confusing here with someone else??

hmm, wonder who you're thinking of

the writer i'm thinking had a lot of her thrillers turned into mini series and she's british. goddamnit i can't remember any of the titles!!

was ordered to come to this thread. I just finished Alice In Wonderland and am like 5 pages into Through the Looking Glass. I've been boring lately and have also been re-reading my favorite bits of Calvino's Cosmicomics instead of seeking out trashy summer thrillers like I should be doing.

i started reading that janet frame book today but couldn't get into so instead i'm gonna read another a.m. homes

oh lxy you might like muriel sparks??

xp: thank you, unr. i'm sorry i didn't say please, i meant to but then i had to go make a drink.

thanks for the rec., ruby!

something about reading unreg's post made me choke and then i spit wine everywhere which was not so classy but kinda trashy so maybe it fits.
anyway, i was gonna say i should read those this summer, unreg. why bc <3 them.

you're drinking spitz!

hey estela guess what

macintosh toffees!!!!!!!!!!!

estela i am reading "summer of hate" by chris kraus. i think i might actually finish this. it's good!

aw thx <3

estela, i made FIVE rice/bean/veg salads from that cookbook tonight, for ytth's lunches this week... hope they taste good!!

aw<3 so do i, it would be woeful if you effed them up.

ruby, so, so glad to hear your sis is doing better <3

i am too, it is a great relief. <3 you.

thank you, my dear<3s

she is hello-kitty diehard so i ordered a bunch of hk junk off amazon for her, to cheer her up

it is truly amazing, the weird selection of objects in the hello kitty theme (including a dehumidifier)

hugs to you, j and glad to know your sis is improving. There's no object that can't be upped a notch by some hello kitty and you are a wonderful sister.

apparently my sister is convinced that ytth and i visited her already?!? and that she also went for a ride in a helicopter.

aw<3 lol, the wee darling.

justin3, i know you don't especially care about rugby but tonight i am going to an all blacks/wallabies game in brisbane and i am so looking forward to it, the haka kills when i see it over here, and at games in brisbane half the fans are kiwis so it's like going home for a couple of hours.

upon reflection i think estela is too good to be real

she talks a good game, vin scully and all, but i demand to meet her in person

we haven't even gotten doggy pictures!

i can vouch that our estela is even better irl.

xp i don't much care about rugby, but i enjoy a big-deal all blacks game if the situation arises.

we are at a restaurant near the stadium surrounded by hordes of black-clad kiwis, all cheerful because we have already won every trophy going for this year: )

we by chance saw a haka on tv in nz. it was utterly thrilling.

mookieprof, our estela is too good AND she is true. another reason to move west: she will surely visit again some day (i hope!!!!).

ps. amazon is hiring.

i met a hologram of estela that insisted on calling me "sug"

maybe it wasn't really my hologram ;)

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pjsh2j7W6Bo

our busy hotel keeper looks like ruby. she's spent the morning rushing around helping people with coffee and wifi, which always concludes with an "et, voilá." kinda funny since we're in spain.

does that mean she looks young, fun and awesome? or frumpy, boring and grumpy?

pretty, sweet, helpful, smart, funny, young, fun and awesome <3

look who's smoove, now!! <3

ruby there's a woman ranting outside my office window who looks just like you. are you here?

i am a bit of a ranter but unfortunately (or fortunately??) it wasn't me!

i dedicated the cadbury caramello egg i just wolfed down to you, dearest ruby, if you had been outside my window i would have gladly handed it over.

hey estela guess what i heard about georgette

that i love her, is my guess. i was having a very sad weekend and then she suddenly appeared in my thoughts so then f. and i looked at some pictures of her (including a couple with ted) and they were a genuinely cheering sight. i like how when you look at her face you can recall her voice and also her ridiculous fluffy hairdos.

estela, we were in portland on saturday and we stayed at the inn at northrup station<3

yay, i <3 that place, i hope it was wonderful.

hey estela guess what

there is now jelly tip chocolate and biscuits!! my sis got me one of each, i get to try them out in 3 days

https://i.imgur.com/la0QbBf.png

I would think that the mound at Dodger Stadium right now is the loneliest place in the world.

http://www.salon.com/1999/10/12/scully_koufax

miss u

otm

congratulations to the brisbane bandits for claiming the claxton shield

hey

cheers to the good guys

the other day i was walking to the wine store and a little white dog was on the sidewalk running away from its owner and she said "can you catch her?" and i picked her up and she said she's 14 years old and going deaf whenever i call her she goes away from me and i gave her the dog and it reminded me of harry because it was small and white and a rotter

also i was like 1 foot taller than the owner

aw, harry is small and white and a rotter and also he is 14 and a little bit deaf now too:( but he is in good and sturdy spirits and he still runs around a lot and is greedy and cheerful so that is as much as we could wish for. i can't even imagine what sorrow lies ahead so i hardly ever let myself think about it.

some dog advice given to me by a dog lover:

when your dog is elderly, that's the time to bring a young pup home; sometimes having that youthful energy around will give more energy to the older dog and extend its life. and when your beloved eventually passes, you'll have another little creature that needs all that same love and care from you and will help you move on.

that is good advice, it must be very quiet and lonely to suddenly be living in a house with no noisy little animal charging around.

i Double Dog Dare estela to post a poll of her 50 favourite albums

mookie

sorry i cherish you and everything but you've been double dog dared

i am pretending to be very disappointed

but even so

i’m working on this at my own pace, having noted on dare day that no deadline was provided. any postdated changes end this dare immediately and disqualify any new ones. sorry i do make the rules

i am extremely patient, and indeed stipulated no deadline, and am certain that you are posting this interim notice in the best of faith(s) <3