What Did You Read Today?

[StevenRichardsRules]

From Lovecraft himself!

Definitely worth the extra cash.

[AnnIQ Edison]

While looking for a cheaper option for some sweet, sweet Lovecraft I came across this collection for e-readers

http://cthulhuchick.com/free-complete-lovecraft-ebook-nook-kindle/

It looks pretty comprehensive and it's free so yay.

[EWB's Best Poster.]

Literary giant ray bradbury dead at 91.

[Hagen]

I just finished Women by Charles Bukowski. I think I just got a new favourite book.

I'm about half-way through Naked Lunch and I agree with what's been said previously in this thread. Burroughs is, in my opinion, way way too descriptive and crass for the sake of being crass. I know it's meant that way to be provocative, but still. Naked Lunch seems like a book you either hate or love, no middle ground. And I'm not a fan. Usually I really like beat litterature, but Naked Lunch is just too much. The last time I really had to force myself to read a book was when I was reading Blood Meridian by Cormac McCarthy, but that was primarily because of the writing style. Once I finally got through it, it really paid off at the end. Naked Lunch just doesn't seem to have the same "pay-off"

At the same time I'm currently reading through Hitch-22 a memoir by Christopher Hitchens. The language is, at times, really really pretentious and it seems that Hitchens could say things in a simpler manner by just chooses to write it in a fancier language. Nonetheless it's a really interresting book and I'm having a hard time putting it down

[Skummy]

Yeah, Naked Lunch - and the vast majority of Burroughs' work to be honest - definitely doesn't have anything in the way of a "pay-off".

I can't remember who it was, but someone once said that reading Burroughs never quite makes sense until you've heard a voice. He's one of very few writers who I find it impossible to read without imagining him saying it.

I'm currently reading "The Hero With A Thousand Faces"; it's basically a psychological analysis of mythology, applying dream interpretation to myths to prove a common psychological source for myths and traditions from a wide range of cultures. As with a lot of psychology - specifically when dealing with dream interpretation and whatnot - it does seem to stretch its logic pretty thin in places, but mostly it's absolutely fascinating. Brilliant stuff.

[Hagen]

I agreee completely. Burroughs makes way more sense to me when I hear his readings, whereas just reading his prose does nothing for me. Bukowski is exactly the opposite, I love his prose. But I've never really been a fan of his readings. I guess it's ironic in some way since Bukowski is often lumped in with the beat writers but he himself hated Ginsberg and Burroughs.

Edited June 9, 2012 by Hagen

[Skummy]

I've never actually been a huge fan of Bukowski...Post Office bored me to tears, and I struggled through a couple of other bits, and only enjoyed the tiniest part of "...Dirty Old Man".

That said, "Bluebird" is hands down my favourite poem of all time.

[Hagen]

Bukowski is my favourite writer. That being said, I find that his poetry is hit and miss most of the time. I'd much rather read Ginsberg or even Kerouac for that matter. It's hard to pin-point what exactly the appeal of Bukowski is. He's really one of those writers where you really like him or not at all.

Edited August 19, 2012 by Hagen

[TGC]

Finished The Girl With The Dragon Tattoo yesterday and quite enjoyed it. Now moving onto The Girl Who Played With Fire.

[METALMAN]

I finished jpod by Douglas Couplans yesterday and it was...okay I guess, but not as clever as it thinks it is and nowhere near as funny as I thought it was going to be.

I' have now begun the Maltese Falcon which seems very nice so far - I like that time period. Juggling that alongside Thomas Asbury's book on the crusades, which is brilliant. It offers quite a lot of new and interesting points of view.

I've also been having a great time delving into my law books. I couldn't bear the sight of them just a month ago when I was still studying but now I find them fascinating. Isn't that typical.

You know what else? Needing something to pass the time in London, I bought Tony Adams' autobiog from a charity shop on the strength of a recommendation from someone I don't really know, made a long time ago. And you know what? It's enthralling. Kept me occupied for the bulk of the day.

[Meacon Keaton]

Finished the second book of The Hunger Games trilogy. Enjoyed it quite a bit, though I think I liked the first one more. Going to start the third one when the kid goes down for her nap.

[Guest mr. potato head]

I finished jpod by Douglas Couplans yesterday and it was...okay I guess, but not as clever as it thinks it is and nowhere near as funny as I thought it was going to be.

Yeah Coupland wrote one or two books that captured the 1990s zeitgeist well and has been living off that success ever since. I read Generation A not that long ago, it starts out with some interesting points about today's society but then turns into something that's not really relevant to anything in the real world as far as I can tell.

[KONGO]

Cormac McCarthy's The Crossing. It was okay. Far too focused on forcing the philosophical on a winding narrative, but the parts surrounding the two big plot points are good. Will start on Cities on the Plain as soon as I get done with Lolita.

[KONGO]

Nabokov's Lolita. It was good. His prose is still a bit too dense for my taste but he certainly achieves an effect and a strong voice. A book about taboo, love, and despair, and I'm not sure if the combination can be done better than he did here.

[Hagen]

Nabokov's Lolita. It was good. His prose is still a bit too dense for my taste but he certainly achieves an effect and a strong voice. A book about taboo, love, and despair, and I'm not sure if the combination can be done better than he did here.

Lolita is a great book. I remember it as being kinda heavy at times too, but what I loved most about it is really the way Nabokov uses Humbert Humbert as an unrealible narrator who costantly tries to make himself seem sympathetic/justify his actions to the reader. Very well done indeed.

I finihsed Hitch-22: A Memoir By Christopher Hitchens. The last 50 pages or so was really a struggle. The book had some really interresting stories like going to Argentina to look for a famous political prisoner (I forgot who) and Hitchens hanging out with Ian McEwan, Salman Rushdie and Martin and Kingsley Amis in 1970's London. That being said though, you just really get fed up with the pretentiousness and level of detail Hitchens puts into his writing. A lot of people would probably enjoy it, but for me it could have been cut down quite a bit. I found myself almost constantly checking wikipedia because he just writes in a way where he expects you to understand all the names he mentions.

Finally today I finished Invisible Monsters by Chuck Palahniuk. Palahniuk does have a flair for quirky self-obssesed characters and interresting dialouge, but the story just seemed too scrambled. There were constantly twists and turns that kept taking the story in different directions, not that it's bad, but the main problem was that I pretty much guessed all of them before they happened and as such there was nothing really extraordinary about the book.

Edited July 3, 2012 by Hagen

[Timmoru Suzuki]

I've recently finished some more Scandinavian crime fiction - 1222 by Anne Holt and Stephen King's Cycle of the Werewolf.

No idea what to read next. I've just brought myself a collection of Poe after having watched a couple of the Rodger Corman film adaptations or I've still got Let the Right One in, an adaptation of The Odyssey and James Clavell's Shogun at the top of my reading pile.

But, after reading the books mentioned above, I was stumbling around for my next reading choice and found on my shelf the first volume of Alan Moore's League of Extraordinary Gentlemen (that I have NO recollection buying it must have been years) and I've started reading that. I've read the first two parts and I'm enjoying it a lot so far; so I'll probably be in the mood for reading one of the (numerous) Victorian adventures that have bypassed me so far.

Which brings me onto a question: Does anyone know what King Solomon's mines and/or 20,000 Leagues Under the Sea are like?

[Poneglyph]

I've just read The Great Gatsby after I found a really cheap edition. Well deserved fame, although the finish is kinda convoluted - the fact that all the factors are introduced in advance redeems that, though.

Before that, I read Yasunari Kawabata's The House of Sleeping Beauties. I have this weird thing with Japanese prose where I struggle to completely get it and I don't know if it's because of the translation or Japan's culture. I liked it nonetheless.

Speaking of Japanese prose, I'm starting 1Q84 now.

[Liam]

Didn't like The Great Gatsby, studied it at A-Level and just didn't work for me.

[GA!]

The Ladies' Paradise by Émile Zola. A very well written book that foreshadows the rise of big supermarkets squashing smaller businesses, and the psychological strategies implemented to create feverish consumerism. Admittedly I skipped over the last 75 pages as the mawkish love story took over and went into autopilot. Also, abandoning your roots and marrying a rich man is seen as the ultimate in female empowerment. It was a different time, I guess.

[Meacon Keaton]

Finished Mockingjay, the final book of The Hunger Games. Really enjoyed the series more than I expected.

Now I shall start Game of Thrones.