what are you reading today?

[redX]

what are good books for reading while on the can? i was reading less than zero and rules of attraction because they have short 'chapters' and are pretty easy reading.

any recs?

[broneck]

Anything by hemmingway or camus.

Also: School and travel fucked up my reading of the Pale King, and I'm at that awkward point where I don't want to start it again because I'll just be irritated at re-reading all the shit I read a month ago, so I think I'm just gonna try and read inifite jest for a second time.

(Ultimate goal: adaptation for HBO series. *holds breath)

[NESK]

i cant imagine that going well unless they really fucked up the structure of what a tv show should be

[bfan]

[OAS1S]

nesk i completely agree with you about dfw's abilities when it comes to short stories. i haven't read pale king yet. i read an excerpt a while ago and remember thinking i'd have to steel myself to read it, though that's probably a ridiculous notion.

a tv adaptation of infinite jest would not go well.

[broneck]

why do you say that nesk/oasis?

it's totally non-linear, which is why when I hear people talk about the Infinite Jest movie I cringe and my teeth start to hurt a little bit. The format of something like an HBO (or, in all likelihood IFC or something) series would allow so much more flexibility, each episode being like a vignette for each character and their journey.

every major event (and i mean this in the sense of importance to the themes and journeys, not to advancement of the plot) could be an episode, and ultimately the episodes' stories would twist together in the same way they do in the novel. I hate to use "Lost" as a baseline for the way I've always envisioned it, but it's an effective similie.

edit - fuck lost, Samurai Jack is the analogy I'm looking for.

[NESK]

99% of the novels meat is in the narrative content. Which would be hard to work into dialogue given the sentences could go on for pages in the novel. Also, if you employed voiceover, it would detract from the brilliance of the prose because you'd be mentally juggling image and that stream of consciousness 'from every where at once' type of obsessive rambling and it would confuse way too many people. I doubt IJ ever worked even as an audio book for the simple fact that every other sentence requires a reread just to make sure your getting it right.

[broneck]

yeah, it would require a lot of heavy narration. I never said it would be perfect, but it would be an interesting exercise.

also I've given way too much thought to this idea, to the point of discussing it with TV producers and filmmakers that I know and beginning to investigate how ludicrously expensive the rights to option the story would be. i even started to storyboard a sizzle. (0)

(first attempt at writing something for a screen and it's adapting IJ for a series, i acknoweldge the retardedness of this)

[Hocus Pocus]

Read this over the weekend. Essential for anyone interested in film in a serious way.

And will start this tonight:

[ericdw]

anyone into this yet?

[NESK]

i will be once the internet tells me to be, so FUCK YEAH!

[ktothe]

what are good books for reading while on the can? i was reading less than zero and rules of attraction because they have short 'chapters' and are pretty easy reading.

any recs?

Bukowski collections are good to keep near the toilet. Thats no slick jab, its good toilet reading

[Baeyer-Drewson]

anyone into this yet?

Waiting for mine in the mail I'm re-reading this whilst I wait.

[ktothe]

Baeyer-Drewson: Did you listen to any of those speeches/interviews I sent you?

[Baeyer-Drewson]

^Nah, not yet man. Work kicking my ass. I'm halfway through Email to the Universe and remembering how much of a rationalist and genius RAW is. Kind of like Noam Chomsky, if Noam did more acid and was much more eccentric.

I'll get back to you once I have a few hours to sink into his interviews, audiobooks, and DVD.

[TheNorthern]

[KidSqueaky]

A Farewell to Arms by Earnest Hemmingway!

[whizkit]

[gramps]

While I wait for Between Parentheses to be restocked.

[broneck]

everyone should read this

amazing book

[haploid]

luv it. reading do androids dream of electric sheep next.

[Baeyer-Drewson]

^Said it before in this thread, will say it again in this thread: my fave PKD novel. It's just such a damn fun read. Androids is also awesome. Man in the High Castle has a great premise but loses its way (as many of PKDs novels do). Can recommend virtually all his short stories.

Can anyone suggest what PKD I should read next? Havealmost all his novels, have read only about 1/3 of them.

This has been on my reading list since forever. Hard to say no at $2.40 shipped:

http://www.bookdepository.com/Candide-Voltaire/9780486266893

Can anyone comment on these Dover Thrift edns? Obviously budget printings, but will they hold up to a reading or will they fall apart before I get to the back cover? A lot of great, classic lit for <$4 to your door :)

[Hocus Pocus]

Yeah, they are pretty good. I don't imagine that they'll last 100 years, but they'll probably last long enough for you to read the book several times, especially if it's something shorter like Candide.

[bfan]

baeyer in case you haven't already read it ubik by philip k dick is really good.

I finished this yesterday, Farina writes pretty much like you'd expect Pynchon's best friend from Cornell to write. I loved everything but the ending which I thought was a bit too rushed.

gonna re-read this later and think about how we all live in the biopolitical panopticon

[NESK]

Whoa whoa whoa, who's this farina cat and school me up quick.

[destructodisk]

Baeyer-Drewson - read VALIS if you haven't already, I think it's one of my favorites of his and I've read Scanner & Androids as well.

[lsinner]

Going to start reading Tale of Two cities today.

Just the last few days I read The Last Lecture (Ransy Pausch), Siddartha( Herman Hesse) and Five People you meet in heaven (Mitch Albom).

Last Lecture was very good

[bfan]

Whoa whoa whoa, who's this farina cat and school me up quick.

He only wrote that one book because he was killed in a motorcycle accident like two days after it was published . it's based on his time at cornell and his travels in revolutionary cuba and around the united states. apparently he was also a talented folk singer. pynchon dedicated gravity's rainbow to him.

[broneck]

Finally read No Country for Old Men. Easier to read than Blood Meridian, but harder to stomach. Hit me harder than the movie, but it makes you appreciate how incredible the film really was.

[Baeyer-Drewson]

^I'm slightly in love with McCarthy at the moment.

One of the greatest living writers. Which books have you read, Clopek? I've read Blood Meridian, No Country, The Road, probably going to read All The Pretty Horses next.

"He thought that in the beauty of the world were hid a secret. He thought the world's heart beat at some terrible cost and that the world's pain and its beauty moved in a relationship of diverging equity and that in this headlong deficit the blood of multitudes might ultimately be exacted for the vision of a single flower."

Maybe The Sunset Limited, too, because it's so short. Was presented as a play here, recently, but I missed it