Started yesterday.

quote:

Originally posted by Moongoose Both are great, though a world of caution, if you watched starship troopers the movie...its nothing like the book.

Yea I've heard there is a lot more focus on the ideology/politics.
I'll look into Anathem

Received a bunch in the mail today.

Anna Karenina,
War & Peace by Tolstoy
The Sound & the Fury by Faulkner
After Dark by Murakami
Dubliners,
Portrait of an Artist as a Young Man by Joyce

Almost finished with Infinite Jest, I have less than 200 pages left. I think I'll start with Faulkner after that.

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When a wise man gives thee better counsel, give me mine again: I would have none but knaves follow it, since a fool gives it.

Just finished Gravity's Rainbow. Checked out The Bell Jar.

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Mixed Genre Mixes [50s, 60s, 70s, 80s, 90s, 00s]:
MGM 6 /
MGM 5 / MGM 4 /
MGM 3 / MGM 2 / MGM 1


Electronic Dance Music Mixes:
EDM 7

Let me know if the Bell Jar succeeds in being more interesting than its author. I mean, she did stick her head in the oven with her kids in the next room

___________________
When a wise man gives thee better counsel, give me mine again: I would have none but knaves follow it, since a fool gives it.

quote:

Originally posted by couch-potato Let me know if the Bell Jar succeeds in being more interesting than its author. I mean, she did stick her head in the oven with her kids in the next room

what could possibly be more interesting than that????

quote:

Originally posted by couch-potato Let me know if the Bell Jar succeeds in being more interesting than its author. I mean, she did stick her head in the oven with her kids in the next room

And she was a looker too.

___________________


Mixed Genre Mixes [50s, 60s, 70s, 80s, 90s, 00s]:
MGM 6 /
MGM 5 / MGM 4 /
MGM 3 / MGM 2 / MGM 1


Electronic Dance Music Mixes:
EDM 7

quote:

Originally posted by couch-potato Received a bunch in the mail today. Anna Karenina, War & Peace by Tolstoy The Sound & the Fury by Faulkner After Dark by Murakami Dubliners, Portrait of an Artist as a Young Man by Joyce Almost finished with Infinite Jest, I have less than 200 pages left. I think I'll start with Faulkner after that.

nice! how do you like infinite jest? i've been meaning to reread that... i've been rereading a lot of his stories and essays lately. there are certain stories in brief interviews that i've probably read a dozen or more time.

that's a great list of books. gonna have to give yourself some time to get through it. i'd say read portrait of the artist next. it's (relatively) short and something i love reading on planes or while traveling. Dubliners was okay.

I used to be huge on Faulkner - the only author I can thing of whose prose I enjoy more than Faulkners is Nabokov. Then again, they're quite different styles - Faulkner is more visceral and tactile. I think the general rule of thumb with Faulkner is to jump from Sound and Fury into As I Lay Dying. I'd recommend Absalom, Absalom above the latter, though. Either way, do yourself a favor and pick up his Collected Short Stories. So many gems in there.

And, god, Murakami is so addicting. After Dark is nowhere near his best but it really resonated with me, being myself a bit of an insomniac and certainly someone who enjoys the world after dark, when most others are sleeping.

currently reading catch-22. pretty entertaining.

quote:

Originally posted by LAdazeNYnights nice! how do you like infinite jest? i've been meaning to reread that... i've been rereading a lot of his stories and essays lately. there are certain stories in brief interviews that i've probably read a dozen or more time. that's a great list of books. gonna have to give yourself some time to get through it. i'd say read portrait of the artist next. it's (relatively) short and something i love reading on planes or while traveling. Dubliners was okay. I used to be huge on Faulkner - the only author I can thing of whose prose I enjoy more than Faulkners is Nabokov. Then again, they're quite different styles - Faulkner is more visceral and tactile. I think the general rule of thumb with Faulkner is to jump from Sound and Fury into As I Lay Dying. I'd recommend Absalom, Absalom above the latter, though. Either way, do yourself a favor and pick up his Collected Short Stories. So many gems in there. And, god, Murakami is so addicting. After Dark is nowhere near his best but it really resonated with me, being myself a bit of an insomniac and certainly someone who enjoys the world after dark, when most others are sleeping.

I finished Infinite Jest last night. The whole thing is bittersweet. Its central theme is addiction to entertainment and the different forms it takes, and what happens to the people involved with it... It's funny, the ending leaves no resolution whatsoever (not really a spoiler since it's not your traditional narrative), so you're just sitting there suddenly cut off from something that's so goddamned big you kind of expected it to last forever (at least in my case) and has been a part of your life for months and months and then it just fades away. And then...you want more

On the surface, it's a funny book. But often after I had finished laughing I felt this profound sadness for the people going through their withdrawal/addiction/existential crisis/etc., literally taking life one breathe at a time, constantly feeling as if they're underwater and every cell in their body is screaming for air but it never comes, even if they can overcome their personal struggles and find themselves a fucking hero for going through such agony...the people walking next to them on the sidewalk will almost certainly never know nor care. Whether they die or live in torment or get better the world just goes on. It all seems like a big joke (an infinite jest )

I'll go through Dubliners before I read Portrait to keep it in chronological order. I have the first two Faulkner books you mentioned, and also Nabokov's Lolita, which I'll get to eventually (I've read the first few pages and I agree his prose is something fierce). I have seven books from Murakami sitting on my shelf, waiting to be read, bought in a frenzy after I stumbled upon a short story of his and was awestruck. I have a feeling in my gut that once I read Murakami I won't want to read anything else for a while, so I'm purposely putting it off for now while I finish other stuff.

Buuut before any of that there's nonfiction I'll plow through. Stuff like How to Read Literature Like a Professor; Psychoanalysis, Creativity, & Literature; and The Seven Basic Plots, which hopefully won't be tripe.

___________________
When a wise man gives thee better counsel, give me mine again: I would have none but knaves follow it, since a fool gives it.

quote:

Originally posted by couch-potato Let me know if the Bell Jar succeeds in being more interesting than its author. I mean, she did stick her head in the oven with her kids in the next room

It's a pretty fucking depressing story.