What are you reading?

moniker

Since the last one got past the point of no more posting here's a new one.

I'm starting up on Kevin Lynch's Image of the City. It's going to be used as a kind of textbook for my design class so figured I could get it out of the way before the semester beings. Plus I'm interested in Urban Planning so I might as well read up on it some more.

RenegadeDrizzt

Just finished Oracle Night.

Oh man, Paul Auster's Oracle Night is so good. Auster's writing style is so simple, yet the story itself is so complex. The main character, Sid, is recovering from a pretty bad accident (fell down a flight of stairs). He has the urge to write again after purchasing a blue notebook. The story not only follows Sid, but the story Sid creates. The problems Sid face occur almost parallel to the problems the main character of Sid's novel faces. It's a sort of existentialist piece (it is described as a babushka doll of stories). Oracle Night explores the power of the written word, and ultimately love.

I'm currently reading Hermann Hesse's Siddhartha and Vladimir Nabokov's Lolita. I'll post my thoughts when I'm finished.

chitowncowboy

Oh, thoughts... well I just finished Slaughterhouse Five and it has to be one of my favorites. I liked reading about this Kilgore Trout guy, who cant really write well, but has good ideas (they great, actually).

For anyone who has read the book, am I the only one who feels the whole stuff with Tralfalmadore didnt happpen?

stilist

Agile Web Development with Rails, Second Edition

Not exactly traditional material for these threads, but it still counts.

RenegadeDrizzt

chitowncowboy wrote:

Oh, thoughts... well I just finished Slaughterhouse Five and it has to be one of my favorites. I liked reading about this Kilgore Trout guy, who cant really write well, but has good ideas (they great, actually).

For anyone who has read the book, am I the only one who feels the whole stuff with Tralfalmadore didnt happpen?

A lot of people feel that Billy Pilgrim suffered from combat fatigue. If you liked Kilgore, read Breakfast of Champions.

chitowncowboy

Everyone keeps telling me thats the winner of Vonnegut's work. Ill add it to my reading list.

EDIT: hey, thats pretty neat how all his covers are almost identical.

RenegadeDrizzt

chitowncowboy wrote:

Everyone keeps telling me thats the winner of Vonnegut's work. Ill add it to my reading list.

Pick up Cat's Cradle, too. You can't go wrong with any Vonnegut, really.

Aroused Bull

The King in Yellow, by Robert Chambers. I keep getting deja vu throughout the book so far, though I know I've never read it before.

nexuscrawler

The funny thing is Kilgore Trout is Kurt Vonneguut. Think aqbout it: Great ideas, not so great writing skills and insanely prolific.

Especially in Breakfast of Champions Trout is Vonnegut's direct voice

RenegadeDrizzt

nexuscrawler wrote:

The funny thing is Kilgore Trout is Kurt Vonneguut. Think aqbout it: Great ideas, not so great writing skills and insanely prolific.

Especially in Breakfast of Champions Trout is Vonnegut's direct voice

the last scene in breakfast of champions is classic

Zonkytonkman

Full Facts Book of Cold Reading, by Ian Rowland
it's great, the author is this huge cynic who almost hates people who get their fortune told, but that's how he makes his living, so after he relates every topic he's like "and i magically know something they've already told me, and the idiots give me the credit for it.. etc"

stilist

Bennet Cerf's The Sound of Laughter

Not quite as good as his older compilations, but still pretty decent. Then again, it's from the 70s, rather than the 40s like the others I've read.

chitowncowboy

WTF, Kilgore Trout isnt real?

/mental collapse

Aroused Bull

chitowncowboy wrote:

WTF, Kilgore Trout isnt real?

/mental collapse

I picked this up in a second-hand bookstore recently.

Dublo7

Next I think I'm going to read;
The Long Hard Road Out of Hell - Marilyn Manson
The Brothers Karamazov - Fyodor Dostoevsky

RenegadeDrizzt

Red Berry Blue wrote:

chitowncowboy wrote:

WTF, Kilgore Trout isnt real?

/mental collapse

I picked this up in a second-hand bookstore recently.

WHAT

moniker

Red Berry Blue wrote:

chitowncowboy wrote:

WTF, Kilgore Trout isnt real?

/mental collapse

I picked this up in a second-hand bookstore recently.

:shock:
I must own this. I also need to read more Vonnegut.

poo-tee-weet

Regina Fong

I really think I need to read Breakfast of Champions. Someone on another forum posted a short excerpt from it, I think it was like a description of a dog or something. It was just amazing.

Shinto

I've lost interest in Joseph Campbell halfway through his book on Occidental Mythology.

Guns, Germs and Steel next. If I read it, people will stop insisting that I read it.

Rydark

I started reading Atlas Shrugged by Ayn Rand.

I'm into chapter 5 now, pretty interesting book to read.

"Who is John Galt?"

chitowncowboy

Rydark wrote:

I started reading Atlas Shrugged by Ayn Rand.

I'm into chapter 5 now, pretty interesting book to read.

"Who is John Galt?"

Could you explain that to me, I couldnt grasp the presmise from the book description.

Regina Fong

Rydark wrote:

I started reading Atlas Shrugged by Ayn Rand.

I'm into chapter 5 now, pretty interesting book to read.

"Who is John Galt?"

You know what's even better than Atlas Shrugged? The condensed version:




It saves hours and hours and it has the bonus of not being complete shit.

Senjutsu

chitowncowboy wrote:

Rydark wrote:

I started reading Atlas Shrugged by Ayn Rand.

I'm into chapter 5 now, pretty interesting book to read.

"Who is John Galt?"

Could you explain that to me, I couldnt grasp the presmise from the book description.

The premise is essentially that Ayn Rand hits you over the head with shitty prose while her characters make long speeches at each other about how awesome Ayn Rand is and how nobody should ever help anyone else.

Adrenaline

A Scanner Darkly and then The Scar are on the menu.

Regina Fong

Adrenaline wrote:

A Scanner Darkly and then The Scar are on the menu.

I really enjoyed The Scar, but everyone else seems to think it was inferior to Perdido Street Station.

And I guess in some ways it was. But I greatly prefered the ending to The Scar.

chitowncowboy

Adrenaline wrote:

A Scanner Darkly

OMG, thats a novel?!

This thread is blowing my mind man. Its a wild scene.

Senjutsu

chitowncowboy wrote:

Adrenaline wrote:

A Scanner Darkly

OMG, thats a novel?!

.

.

.

:?

chitowncowboy

Senjutsu wrote:

chitowncowboy wrote:

Adrenaline wrote:

A Scanner Darkly

OMG, thats a novel?!

.

.

.

:?

Your point? I never heard of it, big deal.

nexuscrawler

jeepguy wrote:

Adrenaline wrote:

A Scanner Darkly and then The Scar are on the menu.

I really enjoyed The Scar, but everyone else seems to think it was inferior to Perdido Street Station.

And I guess in some ways it was. But I greatly prefered the ending to The Scar.

I'm surprised at that. The Scar was like Perdito Street Station but superior in every way. I did think Iron Council was horribly preachy and lousy in general as well.

Dynagrip

I liked The Scar better as well, though I did read it before the others. I'm not sure if that influenced my opinion. I also preferred the nautical setting to New Crobuzon or whatever.

Shadowen

Looking for a goddamn hard copy of The Man Who Was Thursday. Can't fucking find it anywhere, and I hate reading novel-length stuff online.

Just got a couple D&D books. Scanning the prose and digesting the crunchy bits.

Will probably get some Terry Pratchett tomorrow.

Elki

Shinto wrote:

Guns, Germs and Steel next. If I read it, people will stop insisting that I read it.

You too?!

It's an epidemic.

Adrenaline

chitowncowboy wrote:

Senjutsu wrote:

chitowncowboy wrote:

Adrenaline wrote:

A Scanner Darkly

OMG, thats a novel?!

.

.

.

:?

Your point? I never heard of it, big deal.

PKD, man.

The Cheese

My dad ordered Perdido Street Station, The Scar and Iron Council totally out of the blue. I guess he heard good things about them too. I'll be starting Perdido Street Station as soon as he's finished, which should be tomorrow or so.

Adrenaline

The_Cheese wrote:

My dad ordered Perdido Street Station, The Scar and Iron Council totally out of the blue. I guess he heard good things about them too. I'll be starting Perdido Street Station as soon as he's finished, which should be tomorrow or so.

I know you, you'll love it.

KalTorak

On my way through "Good Omens" by Neil Gaiman and Terry Pratchett. I'm trying to work my way through all of Gaiman this summer since i just discovered him, and this is my first experience w/ Pratchett. I love the book so far - it's reminiscent of Douglas Adams style and hilarious.

Gnasty

I wasn't a big fan of Perdido. It was too long for an action novel with little to no twists/surprises that whole deal. For a 600 page novel it was surprisingly linear and lacking in complexity (yeah lots of cool characters, but no twists/overlapping plotlines). I remember thinking that the entire Glasshouse section was unnecessary.

EDIT:

KalTorak wrote:

On my way through "Good Omens" by Neil Gaiman and Terry Pratchett. I'm trying to work my way through all of Gaiman this summer since i just discovered him, and this is my first experience w/ Pratchett. I love the book so far - it's reminiscent of Douglas Adams style and hilarious.

Pratchett is incredibly awesome. Pick up some Discworld stuff if you liked Good Omens.

Amphetamine

Picking up the Dark Tower where I left off a year ago- Wizard and Glass.

Target Practice

Uh

I've been reading a collection of science essays by Isaac Asimov.

And also a collection of limericks, half by Asimov, half by John Ciardi.

I should probably read something by someone else soon.

Proto

Just finished up Neal Stephenson's Baroque Cycle. Sprawling and complex, it ranges from being about the rise of science and technology, to economics, to politics, to pirates, etc. If it happened in the late 17th to early 18th century, it's probably featured in the book in some way. He takes his own characters and story and neatly meshes them with real people and events from the time period. Great read.


Reading Umberto Eco's Baudolino right now.

yakul

I'll agree that the Glasshouse was the worst section of Perdido.

Otherwise I'm pretty much finished with Naked Lunch. Eh... I'd say about 60% of the book was entertaining. Some parts were pretty thoughtful. You can definitely see how this influenced HST's writings. Though whereas HST glamorized drug abuse, this book really puts you off. Some descriptions of heroin use had me cringing. Plus ten odd pages of intricate anal sex descriptions probably could have been shorter.

I also just finished As You Like It which was delightful, though definitely one of Shakespeare's simpler plays. Though it would be a good primer to his works which makes me wonder why schools don't start with that instead of having kids jump headlong into Macbeth or Hamlet.

And I also finished Game of Thrones and I hope Jon and Ayra hook up one day.