Book Club

[Guest nowbaking]

i would like to be apart of this, Clopek.

[broneck]

I think nesk and or baeyer drewson are in charge of this go-round. I'm not touching gravity's rainbow with a 10 foot clown pole until after i finish jest, and the corrections

[Servo2000]

I'm really enjoying Infinite Jest but this is also my fourth or fifth book by Wallace so I was pretty well prepared / 'used to' his style (which isn't to say that it's not full of surprises) and I personally love all the notes / extraneous feautres / etc... I just find him such a pleasure to read. That and it's also hilarious.

However, it is taxing. I find reading it most enjoyable when I do 100 - 200 pages and then take a break to read something else and come back to it.

[broneck]

Yeah, once you get through Eschaton you really should read a harry potter or something.

[Guest nowbaking]

haha fair enough. well whoevers in charge, stand up n tell me whats good

[NESK]

That eschaton chapter should be short story unto itself

[caid]

I'm looking for a new book to read so I would be interested in this too. I'm a little intimidated by Pynchon's rep but this seems like a good opportunity to get over that.

[Servo2000]

Yeah, once you get through Eschaton you really should read a harry potter or something.

like, i said, i love that stuff though. eschaton had me laughing aloud and taking notes.

I'm looking for a new book to read so I would be interested in this too. I'm a little intimidated by Pynchon's rep but this seems like a good opportunity to get over that.

I would definitely explore some other Pynchon before jumping into Gravity's Rainbow. I'm weird and would maybe even recommend something like Vineland which is decidedly one of his lesser acclaimed works but it gets you sort of briskly walking alongside the way he thinks and is a fun, relatively succinct read that is good in its own way so you don't have to hit the ground sprinting with Gravity's rainbow.

I'm also a Pynchon fanatic so take it with a grain of salt (I also say there's something about his writing that panders to southern californians a bit as well so perhaps im doubly biased), I think I've read everything except for Mason Dixon.

[broneck]

give crying of lot 49 a chance. it's still fairly dense, but you're really limited to 150 pages so how bad can it be if you hate it

[caid]

I would definitely explore some other Pynchon before jumping into Gravity's Rainbow. I'm weird and would maybe even recommend something like Vineland which is decidedly one of his lesser acclaimed works but it gets you sort of briskly walking alongside the way he thinks and is a fun, relatively succinct read that is good in its own way so you don't have to hit the ground sprinting with Gravity's rainbow.

I'm also a Pynchon fanatic so take it with a grain of salt (I also say there's something about his writing that panders to southern californians a bit as well so perhaps im doubly biased), I think I've read everything except for Mason Dixon.

I've also heard V is a good spot to start on Pynchon. Any thoughts on that? I'm going to head to the local shop tomorrow and see if I can find either of those.

[bfan]

I would recommend V over Vineland just because I think it's more similar to gravity's rainbow. in my opinion you can't really go wrong, gravity's rainbow is just dense and a little confusing at first.

servo I take it you've read against the day then? what did you think about it? I just finished mason and dixon and I set out like a year ago to read all of his books in chronological order so its next in line, but I have some other stuff I might want to read in between.

[Guest nowbaking]

my library and barnes n noble didnt have vineland so i grabbed inherent vice instead. anyone read it on here yet?

[Servo2000]

Not too surprisingly I read it and really enjoyed it but it's almost even more so-cal centric than vineland.

[Sugar Mountain]

I would recommend V over Vineland just because I think it's more similar to gravity's rainbow. in my opinion you can't really go wrong, gravity's rainbow is just dense and a little confusing at first.

I concur. I got more out of V than Vineland and it is more representative of the breadth of reference and style that you will find in Gravity's Rainbow. When I found out that Pynchon wrote V in his early 20s, it blew my mind that someone could simply know that much about so many different subjects (or be an ace researcher for his novels). Plus, in V you will also be introduced to characters such as Pig Bodine who later crop up in Gravity's Rainbow.

Interested to hear about Inherent Vice as well btw. Haven't made it to that one yet.

[Guest nowbaking]

found vineland today at a used book store, $4.98, not bad...

[broneck]

pynchon related post!

[Servo2000]

How about Super Sad True Love Story? Maybe ya'll have read it already but I'm just getting to it, probably still topical enough for a discussion as I was just talking with people from work who had read it on Tuesday.

[conqueror]

can we get this going again? i just made a group on goodreads.

https://www.goodreads.com/group/show/118757-sufu-book-club

[jackg]

up up up! 

 

I am in. anyone else???

[Lukenstein]

I am an avid reader and i am keen.

[CHINESEGOLD]

Yeah

[frasier oiseau]

I'm down like a clown

[DoubleD]

wrong thread

Edited February 3, 2014 by DoubleD

[jackg]

ok any suggestions for book 1?

[roundhouse]

im up for it, though i dunno how a book club works. checked the first few pages of this thread; it seems involved. i'm very malnourished in terms of literary consumption. we'll see how it goes

may i suggest 'in search of lost time' ? <- i've had 2 false starts with this, mainly because a dude going over the vagaries of insomnia and memory puts me, a self professed insomniac, to sleep.

or maybe, 'the corrections' (Franzen) ?

Edited February 4, 2014 by roundhouse

[roundhouse]

Do you like Franzen? A few months back he wrote a piece for National Geographic about the impact of unregulated bird hunting in parts of Europe/Egypt/Mid East. (If you'd like to read it: http://ngm.nationalgeographic.com/2013/07/songbird-migration/franzen-text )

i've not read any of his work. a trendy friend rec'd the book to me.

[Lukenstein]

The corrections , sounds pretty okay.

In search of lost time seems to be several volumes long.

[jackg]

I wouldn't mind some bukowski but I am not fussed where we begin, the corrections looks to be a good starting point. 

[Lukenstein]

Lets do it.

Edited February 10, 2014 by Lukenstein

[xerrox]

I'm interested in this as well.