what are you reading today?

[denimdestroyedmylife]

you guys should read The Castle by Kafka. that shit literally ends mid-sentence lol.

mount analogue, and denton welch's A Voice Through a Cloud, are two notable books that end on account of their authors' demise; the latter, which is excellent, and autobiographical (it describes the author's paralysis, and "recuperation", until the point of his death), is so much more poignant because of the circumstances of its abrupt end. mount analogue seems to end where it does by design, just as the explorers reach the base of the mountain that cannot be approached by mortals. M.A., incidentally, is the book that inspired the film Holy Mountain. good reads. purchase them, if you cannot find them at a free library, or through electronic methods.

[okonomi]

[Zig_Zagidy]

never heard of him

you can't really go wrong with either

maybe norwegian wood is the easiest intro to whoever you are talking about

thanks! i think im going to go with hard boiled

[into the rain]

come on dawgs. i thought no murakami.

[Baeyer-Drewson]

Hey I just discovered this thread and Haruki Murakami! Crazy late I know. I really want to pick up one of his books tomorrow and was wondering which would be the best to start with? The Wind-Up Bird Chronicle seems to be popular but ive read excerpts from both the The Wind-Up Bird Chronicle and Hard-Boiled Wonderland and the End of the World and found Hard Boiled slightly more captivating.... But if you guys could recommend a better Murakami to start with that would be amazing

Just pick up any of them. They're actually all the same book (pretty much). And I don't mean that with malice.

[denimdestroyedmylife]

come on dawgs. i thought no murakami.

beetlejuice! beetlejuice! beetlejuice!!!

(i think it is okay to talk about him as long as you don't mention him by name)

[NESK]

Henceforth, all murakami novels will be refferred to as "t shirts" or "that shit". Murakami will be known as "my friend Craig" and any sucker wearing a wire who dissappears after doing this wrong will be " "outta town for a bit". Feel me?

[pragmatics]

Just started Gravity's Rainbow. I'm only about 60 pages in. I'm already having doubts I'll make it all the way through without some sort of guide.

[denimdestroyedmylife]

^ a guide would bog you down

use an index card as a bookmark

and jot down each character's name as it pops up, along with the page they first appear, and a very brief description, add key notes as they reappear in the book

the book is funny and fairly friendly as long as you can keep track of the cast

don't get intimidated

[ktothe]

Question for the price enthusiast:

Has anyone ever asked him why he chooses to use the word "nigger" instead of "nigga". From what I can gather through context, or whatever, he probably has a problem with the word and wants its full effects to be felt. Which is all well and good but when I read two black guys referring to one another as nigger it sort of brings me out of the novel.

[NESK]

I don't remember clockers all that well but don't the cops use nigger whereas strikes crew use Nigga? If that's true it makes sense the cops character are kinda ignorant and racist but the street kids would use the appropriated version. I'm probably getting the film and novel confused, though.

[ktothe]

Yeah Im pretty sure that in the novel as well his other novels they use the "er" variant.

http://books.google.com/books?id=IPD9-4FIg6IC&printsec=frontcover&dq=richard+price+nigger&source=bl&ots=Zh_3dc9iDe&sig=6Ix-RvS9BTJvCRKYrUkm4DkgbBg&hl=en&ei=8MmLTdvLHYbQsAOEhuH5CA&sa=X&oi=book_result&ct=result&resnum=7&ved=0CC0Q6AEwBg#v=onepage&q=nigger&f=false

[ktothe]

While looking to see if he had a twitter, or something, so I could pose my question to the source, I found this NPR interview with him which is sort of interesting.

http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=1923152

[wayoutwest]

my girlfriend got me a years subscription to Lapham's Quarterly. I received my first issue a few days ago. Each issue has a theme, in this case "Work" or Jobs, and gives a historical view of the theme through writers, historians, scholars, artists, etc. Pretty cool. In this issue, there is work from Hesiod, Bronte, Marie Curie, David Mamet, Mike Judge, Marcus Aurelius, the list goes on. Lots of illustrations and diagrams, and is overall, well designed. Love the typography, too. Comes in at over 218 pages. I kind of can't contain my excitement.

[NESK]

k, i cant rep you, but thanks for putting up that price interview.

[duck sauce]

[Zig_Zagidy]

Just picked this up at recycled book SJ:

seriously cant wait to start:D

[Baeyer-Drewson]

^Let me know how that goes, please post frequently with updates. I've heard his stuff is pretty good (but I've never read any).

Anyway, should really post this in the comics thread, but I'm reading this to tie-in with a couple of DOOM shows next week.

[NESK]

yo what was that mf grimm/doom double album? i used to have it and that pic of the graphic novel is really making me want to go to my moms house and dig it out right about now. alls i remember is grimm on like a fire escape or something on the cover, all wheelchaired-out and shit.

[Futurian]

Did anyone read the House of Leaves? I heard its really good and its constructed beautifully

[gramps]

It's worth reading. I read when when I was bit more wide-eyed and willing to forgive its excesses (and there are a lot) but it's still a lot of fun.

[amor-de-cosmos]

The Last Days of Old Beijing: Life in the Backstreets of a City Transformed - Michael Meyer.

[gramps]

This is great.

[NESK]

whos a couple chapters into the pale king and wants to comment? i preordered on amazon and it got mailed to my moms house cause i forgot to change my shipping adress so i cant start it until sunday. im not asking for spoilers, just a brief reaction to it thus far.

[KidSqueaky]

A Farewell to Arms by Ernest Hemingway

Got it for $8 at Borders.

[Baeyer-Drewson]

Read this earlier today. It's like Bolano viewed at high speed. Stream of consciousness compressed noir novella.

[ericdw]

shipped two weeks early!

[ericdw]

whos a couple chapters into the pale king and wants to comment? i preordered on amazon and it got mailed to my moms house cause i forgot to change my shipping adress so i cant start it until sunday. im not asking for spoilers, just a brief reaction to it thus far.

just started last night. kakutani's review is accurate on so far.

[broneck]

i will read that. excite.

i just read this. confess: i didn't get it

[fruitbrute]

This is such a good read. Not in terms of being an 'easy' book or anything, but it just reads so smoothly. I'm surprised how many pages of a man and a boy eating canned food, freezing and avoiding the few people left on this earth I can read in one sitting, how fast and with what interest. McCarthy is truly a masterful storyteller.