thank you for participating jabba, no one else will. i got:
i am a fugitive from a georgia chain gang! by robert e. burns (no my mom didn't just find this, it was on my wish list lol)sherlock holmes selected storiesmiddlemarch
― spite n ease (harbl), Tuesday, 29 December 2009 05:22 (fourteen years ago) link
i don't think i got any books but i did get an envelope full of recipes.
― tehresa, Tuesday, 29 December 2009 05:51 (fourteen years ago) link
my mum sent me two of tove jansson's books for grown-ups (because i'm a grown-up)
― jabba, Tuesday, December 29, 2009 12:07 AM (6 hours ago) Bookmark Permalink
ari just read one of these, the one about the girl who cons the older woman, or something
― max max max max, Tuesday, 29 December 2009 11:32 (fourteen years ago) link
i got books i may or may not ever read
and books i have already read
i get books every xmas because my mom makes me ask for things (or will buy things i don't want if i don't) but it takes me 2-3 years to read them after i get them because i read other books i have or library books. so i'll read middlemarch in 2012 maybe
― spite n ease (harbl), Tuesday, 29 December 2009 15:16 (fourteen years ago) link
if the world doesn't end
reading 'portraits from an institution' by randall jarrel, it his actually, genuinely hilarious, i feel like i am reading a book by estela
― max max max max, Tuesday, 19 January 2010 11:28 (fourteen years ago) link
jarrell
started brothers karamazov again. i'll never really read this book, it's too long.
― spite n ease (harbl), Tuesday, 19 January 2010 15:01 (fourteen years ago) link
i am still on a jane smiley kick, but am taking a break to read neuromancer by william gibson (i hardly ever get round to reading sci-fi so it makes a nice change)
also i am pulling a sickie today, for maybe only the second time ever
― smoove operator, Tuesday, 19 January 2010 17:16 (fourteen years ago) link
<3 neuromancer
ive probably read it a dozen times
― max max max max, Tuesday, 19 January 2010 18:23 (fourteen years ago) link
i finished the piano teacher and i didn't think it was so great
― spite n ease (harbl), Tuesday, 19 January 2010 18:33 (fourteen years ago) link
the only other gibson i've read is burning chrome, which i liked a lot
― smoove operator, Tuesday, 19 January 2010 19:08 (fourteen years ago) link
yeah neuromancer is basically a 300-pg version of the burning chrome short story, but better
― max max max max, Tuesday, 19 January 2010 22:08 (fourteen years ago) link
will make you disappointed at how boring the internet turned out to be
― max max max max, Tuesday, 19 January 2010 22:09 (fourteen years ago) link
it's funny, but reading it (altho i'm not v far in), it doesn't seem as dated as i would have imagined
― smoove operator, Tuesday, 19 January 2010 22:17 (fourteen years ago) link
neuromancer so amazing and so prescient....doesn't he even anticipate poopsocking at one point??!
both the tove jansson books were really good, esp the short story collection 'a winter book'
― jabba, Wednesday, 20 January 2010 00:54 (fourteen years ago) link
poopsocking?????
― smoove operator, Wednesday, 20 January 2010 01:18 (fourteen years ago) link
u know.....poopsocking
― jabba, Wednesday, 20 January 2010 04:57 (fourteen years ago) link
yeah, poopsocking
― spite n ease (harbl), Friday, 12 February 2010 17:08 (fourteen years ago) link
― spite n ease (harbl), Tuesday, January 19, 2010 10:01 AM (3 weeks ago)
yeah i keep reading other books instead of this
― spite n ease (harbl), Friday, 12 February 2010 17:09 (fourteen years ago) link
i think i am gonna read all day. i have been watching movies all day every day this week due to unexpected winter vacation but today i will read, estela
― spite n ease (harbl), Friday, 12 February 2010 17:10 (fourteen years ago) link
I'm way farther into War and Peace than I've ever been - didn't make it past the first party last time. It's surprisingly engrossing.
― jaq, Friday, 12 February 2010 21:27 (fourteen years ago) link
i have that too and i know i would love it but i'm always afraid of long books
― spite n ease (harbl), Friday, 12 February 2010 21:47 (fourteen years ago) link
and now you can go - vendela vida. it was okay i guess. a quick read. not exactly remarkable, but sort of interesting. love invents us - amy bloom. i liked this. but this is the kind of stuff that most people i know, hate. it's very 'female' and emo but she's a really good writer. on the same lines as mary gaitskill.babel-17 - samuel r. delany. terrible writing but mindblowing ideas. really made me ~~think~~.girl with a dragon tattoo - steig larsson. not sure what all the fuss is about tbh.
have just bought a couple of henning mankell books on max's recommendation, since i felt like some more crime fiction after the larsson book.
― smoove operator, Saturday, 3 July 2010 18:55 (thirteen years ago) link
i was thinking about this thread!
― spite n ease (harbl), Saturday, 3 July 2010 19:29 (thirteen years ago) link
larsson sucks
which mankell did you buy smoove? i just read his most recent one--something abouta red ribbon? and it was terrible. the wallander series is pretty reliable but the rest of his stuff can be pretty ehhhhh
― max max max max, Sunday, 4 July 2010 21:09 (thirteen years ago) link
i'm reading the collected stories of alice adams, i think you might like her, ruby.
― estela, Sunday, 4 July 2010 21:54 (thirteen years ago) link
i prefer her short fiction to her novels, but i am pro short fiction as you know.
― estela, Sunday, 4 July 2010 21:55 (thirteen years ago) link
i got the fifth woman and sidetracked. yeah the larsson was just... average? i mean, it kept me turning the pages, but the writing itself wasn't particularly good. i really don't get why the series has become such a huge thing.
estela, i'll put alice adams on my book list! i'm on a bit of a search for new author with a decent back catalogue i can get into. oh, i meant to ask you (have i asked you this already??): have you read any fiona kidman? she's an amazing wellington writer, reminds me a little of alice munro.
― smoove operator, Monday, 5 July 2010 00:04 (thirteen years ago) link
i have, but it was so long ago i don't remember properly. but i know i liked her.
― estela, Monday, 5 July 2010 07:28 (thirteen years ago) link
have you read/heard the wellington poet kate camp? I like her.
― estela, Monday, 5 July 2010 08:43 (thirteen years ago) link
thinking about her [fiona kidman] made me decide to email her and ask if she'd be interested in publishing something small with us. i probably won't hear back, or at the most i'll get a polite 'no thanks' but i figured it was worth a shot.
i don't know kate camp, but i never really got into any nz poetry, i'll check her out.
― smoove operator, Monday, 5 July 2010 16:42 (thirteen years ago) link
oh, i also just read the curious incident of the dog in the nighttime. it was okay, but seemed pretty juvenile to me. the writing was very good, in that it at least seems to capture the voice of an autistic teenager pretty well, but the plot and the intent made it seem like it was an educational book for children to teach them about asperger's.
― smoove operator, Monday, 5 July 2010 22:39 (thirteen years ago) link
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