sandboox: anybody reading anything?

the glove stuff in American Pastoral

they are digressions--to think they are not is to miss the point of what Melville does in the book

Melville's whale stuff ruled. Anyways, that's apples and oranges: some of that stuff in Moby Dick is intentionally wrong, and is supposed to characterize Ishmael the narrator as a well-read layman for whom Ahab's mania is gathering universal implications. Whereas I doubt Chabon would ever risk looking stupid like that.

Anyway my point is. . .writers with and without MFA's flaunt their smarts all the time, it's a "thing" that writers do.

I am reading Malone Dies

some of that stuff in Moby Dick is intentionally wrong, and is supposed to characterize Ishmael the narrator as a well-read layman for whom Ahab's mania is gathering universal implications.

otm

flexidisc, if I step away from what Melville achieves rhetorically in the novel with those "digressions," they still work as explanations of shipping and whaling culture.

yah but my point which you are not seeing is, he (Melville, not Ahab) is flaunting his erudition with them.

oops i mean Melville not Ishmael

and you have provided 0% evidence that MFAers do this sort of thing

i'm reading the second coming of steve jobs

Just finished

Joan Didion, Where I Was From
Charles Willeford, Miami Blues
L.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.

and you have provided 0% evidence that MFAers do this sort of thing

and you have provided 0% evidence for taking a remark on a message board so seriously

1Q84 was the first Murakami book I was able to get halfway through. Finished it within a week or two and really enjoyed it.

still working on 1Q84, i the part where fuka-eri says:

"the poor gilyaks!"

...paragraph...

"the wonderful gilyaks!"

was very cute

i thought the part**

also possibly the first time fuka-eri exclaimed anything?

* 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

Just finished

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

there are lots of sloppy things abt the way tengo 'reports' her reactions, like what it means to not answer a qn.

1Q84 was the first Murakami book I was able to get halfway through. Finished it within a week or two and really enjoyed it.

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

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.

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

fwiw: http://www.nytimes.com/2011/12/11/books/10-best-books-of-2011.html?_r=1&hpw

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

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.

http://www.readersread.com/pics/swamplandia_cover.jpg

^^^ may be an HBO miniseries?

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

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.

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

'art of fielding' was just actual garbage tho

1Q84 gets worse and worse in my mind as more time passes since i read it, it's approaching "freedom" levels of disgust now

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

http://literarytransgressions.files.wordpress.com/2011/07/fitzparadise.jpg

^^ 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

Anybody read Ten Thousand Saints? That sounded amazing...

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."

lamp you remind me of f scott fitzgerald

ummmm????

yeah, i posted abt it on real ilx i think, i liked it a fair bit (xxp)

its true you have a very similar writing style! & content even

yeah ten thousand saints did sound good, would read

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.

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

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

swamplandia! also had a story. i like stories.

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

me too

Are we including history and biographies too? I'd be down for ILXers doing it.

Yah, I'm in for a best books of 2011 balloting. (Mine might be YA heavy, but then's the breaks).

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).

copyright

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.