what are you reading today?

[redX]

just finished the stranger by camus

interesting to say the least but i was confused during the 2nd part of the book. a very absurd book

[rgray]

anyone read A People's History by Howard Zinn. Worth the time?

[pepper davies]

Anyone want to sell me some Murakami? Amazon prices are too much...

[bfan]

check out half.com, some other sites for cheap books have also been mentioned but I don't remember what they're called

[pepper davies]

Thanks for the link mate. I'm well on the road to hipsterdom now.

[Baeyer-Drewson]

hello v5. before/during the downtime:

[rgray]

have you read the Hitchens book yet, Baeyer?

[bfan]

love that intro to slow learner where he says "that most useful substance"

[ke1]

Anyone here know their pages/hour ratio, or something of that sort?

Spent all of last night and this morning fervently trying to finish 2 books and became increasingly frustrated at how slow I read. I'm talking each page averaging 600 words and actually trying to fully understand and retain the information to later write a paper on.

Edited November 29, 2011 by ke1

[jyoni]

anyone read A People's History by Howard Zinn. Worth the time?

It's good reading. I haven't read it for a long time but I'd guess it would feel a bit proto-historian these days. He's the first big-time historian I recall encountering who was able to deftly wrap arcane parallels into convergence, working way out of the box. That's become more of a basic expectation.

I've also been reading Consider the Lobster, starting with the McCain campaign essay. Christ that guy had a breakneck, staccato intelligence.

[Magsåvningsreserven]

stretching the threads remit - are there any audiobooks you guys would heartily recommend?

i find them a better accompaniment to exercise lately, i'm starting with world war z but it's kind of drab..

[rgray]

just finished

and

wasn't really taken back by Brave New World, not sure what all the fuss is about to be honest.

However, I found Island to be incredible.

Starting this right away.

[Guest lottiboi]

Great philosophy in a small span of pages

[jbanger]

just about to start the steve jobs bio

[tweeds]

Has anyone read any of the serialization in Paris Review? I can't remember the last time I was this excited for a novel. I think this could be right up there with The Savage Detectives and 2666, and it's a much shorter read for those who are time poor.

I used to have a subscription but let's be honest, the Paris Review is pretty bogus. You don't have a copy of this yet, do you? And that's a good looking edition.

Lot's of good stuff coming out in the next few months. This, The Flame Alphabet by Ben Marcus, Leve's Autoportrait.

Just saw this - was at McNally & J for the launch of the spring issue, the first issue of the serialisation, and the translator Natasha Wimmer had some interesting things to say. Some of which were covered in her piece at the end of The Savage Detectives. But if you can get hold of a transcript, do that (and let me know!)

Anyway, the Third Reich is a little rough around the edges, but incredibly skillful. I would say it's been the best part of the Paris Review over the past year, although I've fallen behind and have yet to get their fall issue.

Next to the Bolano, my favourite bits of the Review have got to be their extended interviews with writers - and their archive that's available online is just such a treasure trove. Which means, I guess, that I'll not be buying the Review after the winter edition...

Edited December 6, 2011 by tweeds

[tweeds]

Doing that thing where I bounce around five or six books, but this was the most recent thing:

Absolutely magnificent in its clarity & ambition.

Edited December 6, 2011 by tweeds

[fruitbrute]

Resorting to posting school reading in order to bump this thread. I have to be able to explain any given word from this book in french by tomorrow. What happened to all this time i had?

[jackg]

Edited December 11, 2011 by jackg

[dl7]

[jackg]

[Chauncey Gardiner]

title="CrashJGBallard by thewalrus4, on Flickr"><img src="http://farm8.staticflickr.com/7003/6498693193_24f83fb088_m.jpg" width="157" height="240" alt="CrashJGBallard"></a> Edited December 12, 2011 by Chauncey Gardiner

[Chauncey Gardiner]

[concealed]

just finished, similar to Da Vinci Code, but set at Princeton, B-

Very funny, well written book about Salomon Brothers and its "Big Swinging Dicks" A-

[BxC]

It's all downhill from there.

[broneck]

About 50 pages into Franny and Zooey. The only other Salinger I've read was Catcher in the Rye. Not gonna lie - feelin' some character parallels here.

[NESK]

Sup yallz. Been a while. I just came in hear to tell you that if you're not fucking with letham's the ecstasy of influence, you're fucking up big time. Especially since I know slot of you are Pomo lit nerds like me and don't know how to explain yourselves to classicists. The depth and scope of these pieces is way more impressive than anything else that is fun to read. His ability to literally mashup - and the term literal mashup is probably a 2x entendre I'm only able to compose because where this book has my head at - quotations from every pocket of lit/music/pop culture I've been cosuming for the past decade is like having someone make a condensed meal-bar that'll sustain you for weeks out of your favorite foods. This book is infinity books all at the same time and all in every single page. Letham was one of my favorite contemporary novelists and I've just decided he's a better cultural theorist than a fiction writer. Seriously, this thing is a monster.

[NESK]

Also, Nelson George wrote a novel about illuminati hip hop conspiracy shit that suggests PAC was killed because he might have set off a civil rights revolution redux. It's so ducking naive and adorable that I'm buying every white person I know a copy for Christmas. If that sounds like your thing, check out the plot against hip hop. I found it at a radical black feminist bookstore Nd the clerk almost didn't sell it to me. That's how "real" shit is.

[pieiskewl]

this book is mindblowing everyone should read this book as soon as possible

[sawyer]

i'm okay with the message but the tone and style of the writing is unbearable at times

this book is mindblowing everyone should read this book as soon as possible

i dunno, i've always been skeptical and less enthusiastic about this whole idea of singularity. as it stands a whole 1/4th of the world still doesn't have electricity, about 40% don't have a phone and even less have access to the internet

the singularity is at best a rich person's fantasy IMHO

[NESK]

I had to put down the coming insurrection before finishing the first page. Mayb the translation was off, but that shit was needlessly malopropist.

I just made that word up, kind of.