OT: What book are you currently reading?

[thebuzzardman]

I like any of Discworld, but I have to be in the mood for them and probably can't read more than 2 of them back to back

[CJackson]

I'd agree with this. Neil Gaiman is one of my favorites, and I enjoyed the book, but not blown away. It started interestingly and I liked the concept overall, but I recall it dragging at time.

Interesting they'll do a TV show on it, it could translate. "The Almighty Johnsons" seems to take some of the ideas, broadly, from it.

The book was way too average.
Burroughs' Naked Lunch is fantastic though.

Possibly. Probably. It's hard for me to critique books. I either like them, or not, and then I jump right to great if it was great. I liked it, hard to tell.

Naked Lunch is really good, read it several times, at the same time it's sort of pretentious boho heroin crap. I think it's reputation and place in counter culture history outstrips it's actual level of greatness, but it's really really good nonetheless.


I enjoyed "Stardust" and "Good Omens" (Gaiman\Pratchett) a LOT more than "American Gods"

The Cronenburg movie of Naked Lunch is weird as hell. I saw it in the theater when it was released and I walked out of the theater in a fugue and walked for miles trying to get that feeling out of my system. It is hard for me to say it is a very good movie, but it certainly had an effect on me, but that probably describes most of Cronenburg's movies. They aim to disturb.

[thebuzzardman]

Just finished this, very enjoyable:

The Lisle Letters (Six Volume Set)

"The Lisle Letters consist of the personal, official, and business correspondence of the household of Arthur Plantagenet, Viscount Lisle, the illegitimate but acknowledged son of Edward IV, during the years 1533 to 1540 when he was Lord Deputy of Calais. These seven critical years in English history were marked by the rise, ascendency, and fall of Thomas Cromwell and the letters reflect the mixture of passion, terror, and politics that was the court of Henry VIII. They also present the everyday concerns of the Lisle household. No other source provides such an abundance of detail about daily life - marriage, child rearing, education, clothing, food, and furnishing. The Lisle Letters are the Tudor world in microcosm."

[CJackson]

Just finished this, very enjoyable:

The Lisle Letters (Six Volume Set)

"The Lisle Letters consist of the personal, official, and business correspondence of the household of Arthur Plantagenet, Viscount Lisle, the illegitimate but acknowledged son of Edward IV, during the years 1533 to 1540 when he was Lord Deputy of Calais. These seven critical years in English history were marked by the rise, ascendency, and fall of Thomas Cromwell and the letters reflect the mixture of passion, terror, and politics that was the court of Henry VIII. They also present the everyday concerns of the Lisle household. No other source provides such an abundance of detail about daily life - marriage, child rearing, education, clothing, food, and furnishing. The Lisle Letters are the Tudor world in microcosm."

You are a man of letters Buzz.

Pop Quiz:

Where on the table setting do you place the salad fork?

(designate Tudor or current Continental fashion)

[thebuzzardman]

Just finished this, very enjoyable:

The Lisle Letters (Six Volume Set)

"The Lisle Letters consist of the personal, official, and business correspondence of the household of Arthur Plantagenet, Viscount Lisle, the illegitimate but acknowledged son of Edward IV, during the years 1533 to 1540 when he was Lord Deputy of Calais. These seven critical years in English history were marked by the rise, ascendency, and fall of Thomas Cromwell and the letters reflect the mixture of passion, terror, and politics that was the court of Henry VIII. They also present the everyday concerns of the Lisle household. No other source provides such an abundance of detail about daily life - marriage, child rearing, education, clothing, food, and furnishing. The Lisle Letters are the Tudor world in microcosm."

You are a man of letters Buzz.

Pop Quiz:

Where on the table setting do you place the salad fork?

(designate Tudor or current Continental fashion)

Ha - I'm just busting chops. I didn't read this, but my father did, in it's entirety. He reads all kind of stuff like this, like "Entire Goddam History of the English Navy, Since Forever" and "Every Little Nugget of Western Civilization" and "Rome, The Rise, The Fall And Every Detail In Between"

The house I grew up is filled with the multi volume hardcover book series.

My dad never spent in minute in college.

[CJackson]

Just finished this, very enjoyable:

The Lisle Letters (Six Volume Set)

"The Lisle Letters consist of the personal, official, and business correspondence of the household of Arthur Plantagenet, Viscount Lisle, the illegitimate but acknowledged son of Edward IV, during the years 1533 to 1540 when he was Lord Deputy of Calais. These seven critical years in English history were marked by the rise, ascendency, and fall of Thomas Cromwell and the letters reflect the mixture of passion, terror, and politics that was the court of Henry VIII. They also present the everyday concerns of the Lisle household. No other source provides such an abundance of detail about daily life - marriage, child rearing, education, clothing, food, and furnishing. The Lisle Letters are the Tudor world in microcosm."

You are a man of letters Buzz.

Pop Quiz:

Where on the table setting do you place the salad fork?

(designate Tudor or current Continental fashion)

Ha - I'm just busting chops. I didn't read this, but my father did, in it's entirety. He reads all kind of stuff like this, like "Entire Goddam History of the English Navy, Since Forever" and "Every Little Nugget of Western Civilization" and "Rome, The Rise, The Fall And Every Detail In Between"

The house I grew up is filled with the multi volume hardcover book series.

My dad never spent in minute in college.

So no Lytton Strachey for you then? Piffle! Poppycock!

I never did get around to reading Will Durant's history series, but I just might if you push me

My dad was like that too. No college, but read a lot of the Modern Library series and always used the local library.

Speaking of british piffle, I've always loved this Mad TV clip:

Watch on YouTube

[thebuzzardman]

You are a man of letters Buzz.

Pop Quiz:

Where on the table setting do you place the salad fork?

(designate Tudor or current Continental fashion)

Ha - I'm just busting chops. I didn't read this, but my father did, in it's entirety. He reads all kind of stuff like this, like "Entire Goddam History of the English Navy, Since Forever" and "Every Little Nugget of Western Civilization" and "Rome, The Rise, The Fall And Every Detail In Between"

The house I grew up is filled with the multi volume hardcover book series.

My dad never spent in minute in college.

So no Lytton Strachey for you then? Piffle! Poppycock!

I never did get around to reading Will Durant's history series, but I just might if you push me

My dad was like that too. No college, but read a lot of the Modern Library series and always used the local library.

Speaking of british piffle, I've always loved this Mad TV clip:

Watch on YouTube

It's the difference, mainly, between their generation and ours and than that of our children, or people in that age. Reading going downhill. I read a good amount, but far less than my dad. My son reads an ok amount, but less than me. I walk the line of encouraging it and being a pain in the ass where he tunes it out and then never reads.

[WesleyExChiFan]

The Dictator's Handbook. Very interesting and brutally honest take on the politics of power.

[CJackson]

Ha - I'm just busting chops. I didn't read this, but my father did, in it's entirety. He reads all kind of stuff like this, like "Entire Goddam History of the English Navy, Since Forever" and "Every Little Nugget of Western Civilization" and "Rome, The Rise, The Fall And Every Detail In Between"

The house I grew up is filled with the multi volume hardcover book series.

My dad never spent in minute in college.

So no Lytton Strachey for you then? Piffle! Poppycock!

I never did get around to reading Will Durant's history series, but I just might if you push me

My dad was like that too. No college, but read a lot of the Modern Library series and always used the local library.

Speaking of british piffle, I've always loved this Mad TV clip:

Watch on YouTube

It's the difference, mainly, between their generation and ours and than that of our children, or people in that age. Reading going downhill. I read a good amount, but far less than my dad. My son reads an ok amount, but less than me. I walk the line of encouraging it and being a pain in the ass where he tunes it out and then never reads.

A perfectly good example is being here instead of reading a book

[thebuzzardman]

So no Lytton Strachey for you then? Piffle! Poppycock!

I never did get around to reading Will Durant's history series, but I just might if you push me

My dad was like that too. No college, but read a lot of the Modern Library series and always used the local library.

Speaking of british piffle, I've always loved this Mad TV clip:

Watch on YouTube

It's the difference, mainly, between their generation and ours and than that of our children, or people in that age. Reading going downhill. I read a good amount, but far less than my dad. My son reads an ok amount, but less than me. I walk the line of encouraging it and being a pain in the ass where he tunes it out and then never reads.

A perfectly good example is being here instead of reading a book

True, in part. At least it's a form of reading.

[BKlutch]

I'm reading "The Promise," a sequel to "The Chosen," by Chaim Potok. Something I missed reading when I was younger and I'm now reading to discuss with a youngster.

[Carl_Karlson]

I'm halfway through Junot Diaz's Drown. Incredible **** right there. I'm a big fan on his work

[CoolKids]

I just finished Infinite Jest. Yeesh. Took a long time. anyone else read it and care to explain the point? Feel like I wasted the last couple of weeks

[King of Canada]

I'm currently about 15 books into the Wild Card series. I read these in between other books. Some are great, others are slow. It's a shared world series edited by GRRM, and is actually being developed as a TV series. Great characters like Croyd Crenson and the Great and Powerful Turtle.

[CJackson]

I just finished Infinite Jest. Yeesh. Took a long time. anyone else read it and care to explain the point? Feel like I wasted the last couple of weeks

It sounds like your experience mirrored the title

[CoolKids]

I just finished Infinite Jest. Yeesh. Took a long time. anyone else read it and care to explain the point? Feel like I wasted the last couple of weeks

It sounds like your experience mirrored the title

thats very true

[CJackson]

I just finished Infinite Jest. Yeesh. Took a long time. anyone else read it and care to explain the point? Feel like I wasted the last couple of weeks

It sounds like your experience mirrored the title

thats very true

It may not be fair to say DFW is not a writer, but his game with the footnotes ultimately became simply his own genre of writing. He bailed on the writer's mission to condense complex subjects into readable narratives. I understand his premise since I have a similarly tangential and discursive mind, but I write to order my mind whereas DFW seemed to write to download it without fully processing it. And I don't really feel it is the reader's job to sift through his mind which is not going to be any more knowable anyway for having been spewed into textual form. I don't really hold him in high esteem as a writer because of this approach, though I still to intend to read some of the shorter pieces someday because he did have ideas.

[CoolKids]

It sounds like your experience mirrored the title

thats very true

It may not be fair to say DFW is not a writer, but his game with the footnotes ultimately became simply his own genre of writing. He bailed on the writer's mission to condense complex subjects into readable narratives. I understand his premise since I have a similarly tangential and discursive mind, but I write to order my mind whereas DFW seemed to write to download it without fully processing it. And I don't really feel it is the reader's job to sift through his mind which is not going to be any more knowable anyway for having been spewed into textual form. I don't really hold him in high esteem as a writer because of this approach, though I still to intend to read some of the shorter pieces someday because he did have ideas.

Yea I didn't read much of the footnotes. The story was 1000 pages with another 200 pages of footnotes. I definitely give him credit for fleshing out so much of this future he envisioned but overall I felt the book dragged pretty badly until the last 200 pages or so. His writing style is kind of chaotic like you mentioned so it was a tough read. Proud of myslef for getting through though.People looked at me like I was crazy when they saw the book which was more of a tome Onto "Shoe Dog"

[NYKAL]

Been reading Bulfinch's mythology. Love both Greek and North mythology. Not comic stories but, the actual myths.

[thebuzzardman]

Been reading Bulfinch's mythology. Love both Greek and North mythology. Not comic stories but, the actual myths.

That's a classic. I know I got assigned it in HS or College, but I don't recall which. Liked it a lot.