Books: What are you reading tonight?

[nick604]

I'll be reading Scarlett Thomas' "The end of Mr Y" this evening. It's probably the prettiest looking book I've ever bought - red and gold gilt cover with black edged pages, but unfortunately that's where the positive stuff ends.

It has props from Philip Pullman and Douglas Coupland on the sleeve, but tbh reviews from Elle/Cosmo would be more appropriate, as (admittedly only 60 pages through), it's reading like a slice of high end chick lit so far.

Also, the characters are ludicrously 2-dimensional. And the novel's theme? Metaphysics and the 4th dimension. Oh, the irony...

[SoloAJ]

Trying to work my way back into involvement here. Time to reply to threads, duh.

I will be rereading Catcher in the Rye over the next few days. I read it a couple years ago, but have forgotten most details of it. Unfortunately, it was assigned for my Adolescence Lit class, so I will be going through it again.

I definitely need to get into the swing of school with reading more and interneting less (all while Loungeing more)!

[Blarg]

Heh yeah you definitely need to operate at a higher level when school's in session.

Hope you enjoy your reread of Catcher in the Rye. I read it twice too, and really loved it both times, but it's been a long time. I'd be surprised if I didn't get a real kick out of it the next time I read it too.

[John Cole]

This is one of the resources I often turn to for looking at some of the basic assumptions of postmodern lit:

John Lye's Explanation



Foremost, I think, is the notion that postmodern lit is self-relexive, that is, lit. that's aware of itself as a construct, a work of fiction rather than as a mirror of reality or an imitation of reality. A good example of this in short form is John Barth's story "Lost in the Funhouse" from his collection by the same name. And, believe it or not, its fun to read.

Here's a link to the story. The first two paragraphs will give you the general idea.

Lost
If you get through part of the story, you will also notice the references to Joyce's Ulysses along with Barth's parody of Joyce's style, another feature of postmodern texts.

[KilgoreTrout]

Catcher in the Rye is among my favorite books. I should dig up my well-worn copy (the pages fall out from time to time). Now that I'm older and a true phony I should have a very different perspective.

[bonds]

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A Walk in the Woods by Bill Bryson last week and I loved it. It was very funny and I enjoyed the tales of the Appalachian Trail.

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I also read this recently and enjoyed it. I think it may well be his best work - I liked In A Sunburned Country, thought I'm a Stranger Here Myself was meh and considered his African Diary largely a waste of time.

Today's random selection is David Shalleck's Mediterranean Summer: A Season on France's Cote d'Azur and Italy's Costa Bella. Since I've already read the collected works of Peter Mayle, I have to broaden my horizons... [img]/images/graemlins/tongue.gif[/img]

I read a lot. Thank goodness for the interlibrary loan system!

[Blarg]

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Catcher in the Rye is among my favorite books. I should dig up my well-worn copy (the pages fall out from time to time). Now that I'm older and a true phony I should have a very different perspective.

[/ QUOTE ]

Heheh, that reminds me of a great article once I read called "The Dog is Us." It was about how so many of this gal's friends gave up smoking dope as they got older. It said that when you're young and first start smoking dope, you see things in a new light. You see how artificial and absurd and phony everything is, and that makes everything funny. You see how high a stake people have in nonsense and how scared and uptight we are about having everything just exactly our way. You see how contrived, constrained, arbitrary and therefore basically funny so many of those preconceptions, ideas and ways of behaving we valued so highly and unquestioningly are, and even the dog just walking into the room is funny. The whole room can sit around sharing a laugh at the sheer ridiculousness of the dog. Then we grow older, and start making choices of our own that we may not like that much and that can last a lifetime, make moral compromises that at least some part of us knows aren't all that great, and lock ourselves into lifestyles that may not really suit us, and into ever-tighter habits and routines that we cling to as if we had a great stake in them despite their absurdity, as if they were saving us from drowning.

And then we realize that the dog is us ... AND IT'S NOT FUNNY. And that's when nobody smokes dope anymore.

[TomE.]

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I'm With the Band. -- I don't know what it is about, it has a star on my list.

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This is a autobiography by Pam Des Barres, who was a groupie in the 60's-70's and made infamous in the song "We're an American Band" ("..these fine ladies, they had a plan, they were out to meet the boys in the band") by Grand Funk RR. It isn't as titillating as I'd hoped but still a good read.

I'm reading "Don't Try This at Home" by Dave Navarro and Neil Strauss. It covers a year in the life of Dave Navarro (guitarist extraordinaire in Jane's Addiction), a year he is shooting coke and heroin almost non-stop. It's a sad and wild story, and he bags Carmen Electra at the end of the book FTW!

[TheDudeAbides]

I just picked up IV by Klosterman. So far I've only read a couple of essays, but I'm not that impressed. It just seems like he's trying to hard to find meaning in issues/events that are meaningless. I'll finish it though.

I finished Little Green Men by Christopher Buckley a couple days ago and I loved it. Really witty and well-written.

[J.A.K.]

Reading Nine Stories by Salinger right now and it's wonderful.

Also Koontz's Forever Odd (out of sequence). I'm finding it meh...good but not great.

I am not very well read at all. I am lazy and tend towards short stories- Hawthorne being my favorite. Steinbeck's The Winter Of Our Discontent was the last novel I read and thoroughly enjoyed.