What Did You Read Today?

[fr34k]

American Gods by Neil Gaiman right? I'll buy that soon. I'm in love with the Sandman comics (haven't finished them yet) and if his novels are as good as his comics, it's going to be awesome.

[therockbox]

Yea, I don't really read comics and haven't read any of his other novels so this is the first thing of his I've read, but on another forum a load of people were recommending it.

[caucasianheat]

I'm reading Craig Castleman's "Getting Up" right now, it's all about subway graffiti culture in New York. For anyone that's seen the Style Wars documentary, the book includes some of the writers featured in the film and a lot of Henry Chalfant's original photographs. The first chapter is great, it's a transcribed interview of Lee from the Fabulous Five and he talks a lot about doing the first 10-car train and following that train the next day before the MTA split all the cars up.

I've been tearing through the university library this summer, realizing maybe that I only have one more semester of access to all those books.

[Damian WayLNKe]

Just finished up The Men Who Stare at Goats by Jon Ronson. It wasn't what I was expecting after seeing the movie, but it was still an interesting read. It focused a lot on what currently is happening in psychological warfare instead of the past. 7.5/10

I'm currently reading The Prestige by Christopher Priest. I'm about 50 pages in now and it goes into a lot more stuff than the movie did. The first part of the novel is set in present day and it focuses on the great-grandson of Alfred Borden (Christian Bale's character).

I'm not sure what's next. I have a pretty lengthy Howard Hughes biography or I could go for a Stephen King novel. I've only read The Stand so far and loved it. I noticed some people mentioning some Palahniuk books. I have been going through his books chronologically and I got to Haunted and that was the first one that I didn't care for at all. Lullaby was my favorite up to that, by far, outside of Fight Club.

[ROC]

Been scanning through my Chuck Klosterman collection upon the realization that I don't have much to read these days. Fargo Rock City and Eating the Dinosaur respectively, and I think I have more of an enjoyment of Fargo. It feels like the passion of someone clearly excited about the subject matter in a cool, cohesive way, whereas by the time we get to Eating, the words he's saying are still interesting, but they are guilty of his "is he making the argument for the sake of the argument?" problem. I love the man, but it kind of proves Fargo to be better, although, the Cobain/David Koresh essay is extremely inspired.

[AnnIQ Edison]

Just finished "The Book of Joby" by Mark J. Ferrari. 9/10. Absolutley brilliant book that chronicles the life of a guy from child hood to adulthood and basically has the premise that God and The Devil make bets on a person every century or so to see if they turn to "the light" or "the dark". This book is written great and for anyone with knowledge of The Book of Job, King Arthur and anyone who just enjoys a great story with some fantasy aspects then this is a perfect, witty, and intelligent book that I would recommend to anyone.

After finishing The Book of Joby I read "The Game" by Neil Strauss just because it was recommended by a friend. 6.5/10. It was funny and informative and a great insight into the world of a pick up artist.

[Liam]

I tend to read more non-fiction than fiction, and have just finished reading 'The Black Swan'. It was a little too complex in places, but was interesting enough. Not exactly one that is easy to recommend though.

Will be moving on to any number of potential books, as I seem to have been on a buying spree. Either 'The God Delusion' by Richard Dawkins, 'Akward Situations For Men' by Danny Wallace, 'The Bad Book Club' by someone I can't remember, or a book on Greek Mythology I picked up.

[GA!]

In the past six weeks, I've read:

Yevgeny Zamyatin's 'We'. The prototype of the dystopian genre. I've read more satisfactory dystopias, but it oozes of moments that would later influence others, especially 'Nineteen Eighty-Four'.

Anthony Burgess' 'A Clockwork Orange'. I want to save full judgment until I've seen the film. I found it very enjoyable and funny in places. Not sure if the redemptive/assimilative nature of the end considering what the character does in the first few chapters is a good thing or bad thing. Depends if the film portrays rape as anti-establishment as the book does, or if it's treat like good old fashioned rape.

William S Burroughs' 'The Last Words of Dutch Schultz'. Didn't enjoy it. It's a closet screenplay, so a script intended for the written page, but the actual formatting is fucked about so much that it's barely readable. I didn't notice several things afterwards until I read back about it on Wikipedia afterwards because it requires you to take in action and dialgoue simultaneously.

Oliver Hurley's '101 Strangest Wrestling Matches'. Some choices are obvious, some are obscure, some make up the numbers (Christian vs. William Regal from Breaking Point 09 was chosen because Matt Striker wedged in a million Smiths references). Decently written.

Currently reading Ray Bradbury's 'Something Wicked This Way Comes'. I found it hard to get into at first, but fairly satisfying after that stage. I'm about half way through it.

[fr34k]

A Clockwork Orange is great. Both the book and the movie. Definitely one of my favorites (Y)

I haven't read that one by Burroughs, but I really enjoyed Junky. Naked Lunch was pretty cool too, also pretty difficult to read at times, due to it's cut-up nature. Especially for a non-native speaker.Still, Burroughs is awesome.

Oh, and I finished Post Office. Awesome! But I did not expect anything less by Bukowski. Will start on Survivor by Palahniuk today probably.

[Ace]

OK, since moving into my new house I've read...

Percy Jackson Series (All 5 Books) - Pretty good read, though not very long. Labyrinth was the best IMHO.

The Belgariad and Sparhawk Series - Fantastic Series. Absolutely amazing even after my 10th - 20th read through. I love me some Eddings.

Are You Ready? the Unofficial DX Book - Half real, half faked, but a good read. Not overly long, it was intriguing hearing about how it started from HBK and HHH's points of view.

Cheating Life, Stealing Death: The Eddie Guerrero Story - THIS was a fantastic read. It was moving, indepth, and I truly loved this book so very very much. its up there with Have a Nice Day, Foley is Good, and To Be The man as essential Wrestling Autobiographies to read. I wanna get Y2J's next, and maybe Edge's too, but this book was fantastic.

Jack and Jill by James Patterson - A good solid read, a nice twist, and a happy ending. Alex Cross at its best.

And now I'm reading...

Battle Royale - Ordered this last October. Read it 5 times since then. Just a fantastic book, and not just a way for me to get ready for the next BR, I promise.

[Australian of the Moment]

I finished the Percy Jackson series last week. Have just started on 'Escobar' a biography on Pablo Escobar written by his brother Roberto Escobar. Currently about 50 pages in and am loving it, the life this man had is just crazy.

Edited August 5, 2010 by Australian of the Year

[AnnIQ Edison]

I'm nearing the end of reading "My Life Outside the Ring" by Hogan. While its not very long and I haven't read any other biography on the man, this book gives a very in depth look into Hogan's personal life from his view and, from what I gathered, how that witch of a wife treated him. Gives a great perspective on the behind-behind-the-scenes of the wrestling world. I did like how he skips over the actual wrestling as well. It focuses on his actual life.

Next up is a biography on Houdini

I Highly reccomend Jericho's book to the person above who was gonna read it. it's the best biography I've read. Is Flair's worth reading?

[Timmoru Suzuki]

Yes, Flair's book is well worth it. It also contains little inserts written by other people (mainly other wrestlers) who were around at the time to offer their take on whatever Flair is talking about. It is a very good wrestling book, even if Flair does seem to use the last quarter or so of it to have a go at people he doesn't like.

And I agree that Jericho's book is ace. His second book is due out next year.

[ROC]

Yes, Flair's book is well worth it. It also contains little inserts written by other people (mainly other wrestlers) who were around at the time to offer their take on whatever Flair is talking about. It is a very good wrestling book, even if Flair does seem to use the last quarter or so of it to have a go at people he doesn't like.

And I agree that Jericho's book is ace. His second book is due out next year.

Flair's book was great, although, I remember that Flair later criticized how it turned out in lieu of his comments about Foley (which I think was semi-resolved in their brief feud in 2006) and I don't think he liked that he felt like a co-dependent mess throughout most of the story, even if this was the case. Still, I didn't know a lot about Flair's backstory, so it certainly worked in that capacity.

And I finished reading Jericho's book a month ago. Really funny, really interesting in general. I don't know if I want to dig in another wrestling book so soon after his, but it was pretty awesome.

[Skummy]

This might not come as much surprise to some people, but I adore William S. Burroughs. I enjoyed Junky, but I prefer his later work when, frankly, it's like exploring his deranged fucking mind - and it's so much better after you've heard his voice. Listen to a ton of his spoken word stuff, and suddenly his writing makes so much more sense when you're reading it in that pained, Southern gentleman junky drawl. Beautiful stuff. Actually just picked up The Soft Machine, The Ticket That Exploded and The Place Of Dead Roads today, which pretty much completes my collection. All for £4 each. Bargain.

Burroughs Jr. is worth a read too, though some of it's pretty harrowing stuff. Not exactly laugh a minute.

Currently I seem to be taking forever to read through Jon Savage's biography of the Sex Pistols. It's brilliant stuff, but it's bloody long, and I don't get nearly as much time to just sit and read as I used to, so it's taking me a while. Really enjoying it, but I get into this weird frame of mind when I'm more than halfway through a book I've been reading for a while, wherein I know I've got a mountain of books to read when I finish this one, so rather than just focus on enjoying what I'm reading, I'm dwelling on what I'm going to read next, and almost wishing I could just get the current read out of the way, rather than letting myself enjoy the rest of it.

[fr34k]

I just finished "Survivor" by Chuck Palahniuk. Not as good as Fight Club, but a nice read nonetheless. The characters were pretty interesting and the form in which the story was told was fantastic. Definitely something to check out if you haven't read it yet.

Next is "The Picture of Dorian Gray" by Oscar Wilde. I'm looking forward to it, having only read "The Importance of Being Earnest" as well as a couple of short stories by him, but enjoying them immensely.

[Timmoru Suzuki]

Dorian Gray is a great book, sans the chapter in the middle where you get about 18 pages detailing about how Dorian spent several years collecting fabric. You can go right ahead and skip that.

But beyond that incredibly tedious part, it's a great book.

I grew a bit bored of "The Age of Zeus" and am now deciding what to read next.

[Guest jocky]

Read Frankie Boyles book which was funny. And Push by Sapphire. My god that book was harrowing. Moving on to the life of pi next

[GA!]

I was reading 'No Country For Old Men' by Cormac McCarthy, but stopped 100 pages in as I felt disconnected from it due to taking too long to read on. Going to finish my John Swartzwelder collection this weekend with 'Earth vs. Everybody'.

Since I'm in the reading thread - does anyone here own a Kindle? Are they any good?

[fr34k]

I don't own one myself, but I've heard good things. I thought about buying one myself, but I'd rather buy real books instead I just enjoy it more than reading on an electronic screen, regardless of how awesome the quality might be.

On topic, I've finished "The Picture of Dorian Gray" and have to agree with the above. That one chapter really drags on, but otherwise it's fantastic. The story and characters are great and there are so many quotable lines it's unreal. Really, really well written.

Next up for me is "invisible Monsters", continuing my reading through Chuck Palahniuks stuff. After that, I probably try to finish "Dracula" by Bram Stoker. I started it once and enjoyed it quite a bit, but somehow never managed to finish reading it.