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Forum namePass The Popcorn Archives
Topic subject2007 reading list: leave no author unturned, no book unrecommended
Topic URLhttp://board.okayplayer.com/okp.php?az=show_topic&forum=23&topic_id=104217
104217, 2007 reading list: leave no author unturned, no book unrecommended
Posted by Darryl_Licke, Wed Dec-27-06 08:35 PM
Right. Since I've given up cable now for close to 6 months if not a little more I've got A LOT of free time. I need to read. So I need suggestions to read to give my brain a break from all the techinical programming reading I'm going to have to do this year as well. Somethings I've already planned:

all the books the author of freakonomics wrote.
octavia butler RIP
finish the speak for the dead series
all of Robert Greene's books (starting with the art of seduction cause my dick is dry <--- that was humor)

and your suggestions. so give em to me...as many as you can.
104218, I'll recommend Cloud Atlas before janey has the chance.
Posted by okaycomputer, Wed Dec-27-06 08:49 PM
If you haven't read it, do so quickly, you won't be sorry.
104219, gotta co-sign this
Posted by jasonprague, Thu Dec-28-06 07:18 AM
the story structure is unorthodox but once you get into it you really get into it. how that didnt win the Booker amazes me...


PEACE
104220, for the sports peeps: The Blind Side by Michael Lewis
Posted by bshelly, Thu Dec-28-06 07:38 AM
Really well done take on the development and critical importance of the left tackle position in football juxtaposed with the inspiring but somewhat disturbing tale of how a inner city Memphis kid was adopted by rich white family and became a five star prospect.
104221, You're not joking at all, huh? Is it actually good? Don't lie.
Posted by celery77, Fri Dec-29-06 02:28 AM
sidenote -- have you ever read the David Foster Wallace essay "How Tracy Austin Broke My Heart" about sports writing? I found it in his last essay collection, Consider the Lobster. Anyway, it wasn't just a good summary of why sports writing sucks, it's actually one of the more interesting insights I've seen into the psychology of athletes. Ever since I read it, I've (1) been wary of any and all writing by athletes and (2) thought about it all the time when I think about sports.

You should check it if you haven't.
104222, i like the book a lot
Posted by bshelly, Sun Dec-31-06 09:06 AM
but i liked moneyball a lot too. if you didn't like that michael lewis probably isn't for you. he gets a little carried away, and subtlty isn't his strong point. but it's a page turner and it is informative.

then again, i hate david foster wallace with a passion(1) so we may not agree on his

(1) David Foster Wallace sucks, and the footnote thing is incredibly, incredibly retarded.
104223, You should really read "How Tracy Austin Broke My Heart"
Posted by celery77, Sun Dec-31-06 12:38 PM
its light on footnotes if I remember and its rather brief. Next time youre in a bookstore, just pick up a copy of Consider the Lobster and read it real quick. I dunno, maybe youll find the comment on sports psychology flat, but I thought it was interesting (it relates to winning and the necessary mindset to handle pressure).
104224, Have you read the tennis essay in
Posted by janey, Sun Dec-31-06 02:16 PM
A Supposedly Fun Thing I'll Never Do Again?

That's probably, in some respects, the precursor. And that's a great essay collection. I love Consider the Lobster, but I think A Supposely Fun Thing is even better.
104225, Yeah, I agree about the collection, but...
Posted by celery77, Sun Dec-31-06 07:22 PM
the tennis essay in that one didn't seem to be so much about sports to me, as it was about the misconception that you can learn, study, and control the world you live in.

Bah -- I'm too lazy to type out a real coherent thing right now, but yeah -- that collection is better, but as a sports fan, I think bshelly would like the Tracy Austin essay whether he liked DFW or not.
104226, chrue
Posted by janey, Wed Jan-03-07 05:35 PM
I thought his essay on the effect of television on American fiction was excellent.

But I'm such a big fan of his. I read Shipping Out* when it appeared in Harpers, long before I knew who he was, and I was halfway through Infinite Jest before I realized that they were written by the same guy.

And that essay in Consider the Lobster about the porn convention just had me in stitches.

*the title on original publication of the essay we know as A Supposedly Fun Thing I'll Never Do Again
104227, my resolution is to read more
Posted by dro, Thu Dec-28-06 08:13 AM
instead of spending my time dicking around on the internet.

but i took a short story class this past semester, and think i kind of prefer those (sometimes) to novels, so i think i'm gonna go to barnes and noble and use up my giftcard i got for xmas on Borges' "Ficciones" and Donald Barthalme's "40 stories." I had never heard of Barthalme before, but his story "the school" that we read seemed so ahead of its time in diction, structure, content, etc. (he wrote most of his good stuff between 1950s-70s, i think) that when our professor didn't tell us who the author was at first, i was going to guess dave eggers, who ironically is the editor of 40 stories, i think.

i also plan to cop hunter s. thompson's "the great shark hunt," a collection of a lot of his journalism.
104228, For short stories:
Posted by janey, Thu Dec-28-06 04:34 PM
Andre Dubus (sr.)
Amy Hempel
Julie Orringer
Richard Yates

^^^strongly recommended
104229, I just bought ZZ Packer
Posted by 2nd2Nun, Fri Dec-29-06 09:05 AM
Another great set of short stories.
104230, I think Stephen Levitt is a great big fraud
Posted by janey, Thu Dec-28-06 02:19 PM
If you like that stuff, try A Mathematician Reads The Newspaper, instead.

You can also run a search for my name as author and you'll get a lot of book threads.

Here are my all time favorites, but there are other worthy books out there, too, like this one I'm reading now, Man Gone Down....


Fiction

The Goldbug Variations, by Richard Powers (or maybe Plowing the Dark)

What's great about Powers is that he always takes more than one story line, usually seemingly unconnected, and ultimately binds them together really strongly and deeply. His first book, Three Farmers On Their Way To A Dance, is a good example of this. So is Plowing the Dark.

Sometimes it's not directly two different story lines but different times in the same story, but times so far removed that they seem irreconcilable. Gold Bug Variations is a good example of this.

Sometimes he takes the same story and emphasizes different aspects of it. Well, okay, here I'm thinking of The Time of Our Singing and the themes of music and race, but this one could also fall into either of the preceding categories.

So he makes you see how disparate ideas and seemingly unconnected stories all work together.

I sometimes feel as though reading his work enriches my life because he gives words to intuitions that I've had that I haven't had words for. Sometimes I think he has identified emotions or responses that I felt but couldn't articulate. So I actually believe that I am a more whole person emotionally than I was before I started reading his writing, and that is an extremely unusual experience for me with respect to a novelist. I think mostly what I get from books is recognizable and known emotion, or imparted intelligence/knowledge. I don't think any other writer has actually enriched my life in this way.

The Sparrow, by Mary Doria Russell

Russell is an anthropologist and a cradle Catholic who converted to Judaism. She wanted to write about the meeting of two cultures that have nothing in common and the role of faith in such a meeting and the only way she could do this is to set her book in the future and include space travel, because every culture on Earth is permeated by Gap and Starbucks. So she brings her anthropology background and her thoughtful exploration of faith to this, her first (and best) novel. The story is fun (including the idea that the only organization with the will and the funds to undertake space exploration is the Society of Jesus (the Jesuits), who have a long and dark history of exploration already, lol) and compelling (and beautiful and ugly and sad and uplifting and a lot of things), but what's really going on here is the question of the role of God in one's life, and what does it mean to your faith if you feel as though you have been abandoned by God. It's a kind of modern day Dark Night of the Soul, but it completely sneaks up on you.

The Names of the Dead, by Stewart O'Nan

This is the first book I ever read that made me think that Vietnam War lit would have anything to add to my life. This is the story of a man in search of himself, a man struggling to be a good man and a whole man and a good father and so forth, and also struggling to assimilate or work through his experiences in Vietnam. It also has aspects of thriller/mystery, which keeps the plot moving along.

The Human Stain, by Philip Roth

I could never quite get why people raved so much about Roth until I read The Human Stain. It has passages of some of the best writing I've read in recent years, and it's sad and it's thought-provoking and it's funny. The film could never match the book because of the nature of film. The book is written from a particular point of view -- the perennial Zuckerman, who looks at Coleman Silk and thinks about how Silk's life happened to move in the paths that it did. This is a FAR cry from just telling Silk's story, which the film more or less purports to do. In the book Zuckerman is always saying to himself things like: So I thought about what it would have been like or what would have motivated him.... And that makes it very moving in a really quiet and lovely way. But there are also just hysterically funny passages. And the characters are drawn so vividly. There are other books of Roth's that I like a lot, but to my mind nothing measures up to this.

Cloud Atlas, by David Mitchell

This book is like those Russian nested dolls. You open one and there's another, and you open that, and there's another one. Cloud Atlas is six nested stories, all different genres, all very lightly connected thematically. Story A begins and abruptly stops in the middle, and then Story B begins and, again, abruptly stops halfway through. Same with C, D and E. Then you get all of Story F, then the last half of Stories E, D, C, B, and A. Sounds gimmicky and very complicated. And yes, it's a gimmick, but it works. And yes, it's complicated but the stories are so different that they're easy to keep track of.

So then, past the structure, the substance of the book is really remarkable. It's about bondage and freedom and how we bind ourselves and how others enslave us and where true freedom lies. And there are portions of it that are really so beautiful and sad that you'll cry. There aren't a whole lot of books that make me cry, although I think every one that exists is on this list.

The Last Samurai, by Helen DeWitt

Not about Japan and only about samurais in the respect that the son uses Seven Samurai as a model for searching for his father.

It's about what makes a worthwhile life or a life worth living.

And it's about the value of granting an individual autonomy over his/her own existence and what, if anything, we can responsibly do to aid a person who is in distress without compromising their autonomy.

And it's about what it means to look for your father, and who is a father, and what is it to have a father.

And it's about brilliance and the limitations of brilliance.

The Known World, by Edward P. Jones

Again, a book with interwoven plot lines and shifting times. Apparently this structure works for me. The writing is magnificent and the story is heartbreaking. It's a family saga, but it's not like any you have ever read before. In part because the story deals with Black families who owned slaves around the time of the Civil War. It is haunting and beautiful and dreamlike and razor-sharp.

The Secret History, by Donna Tartt

This one is strange. I don't exactly know how it fits into this list. I'm not even sure exactly what it is that makes me love this book so much. Maybe it's because it evokes the environment of my own college experience so well even if the events are so dramatically different. If you read this and like it, I also recommend Bret Easton Ellis's book The Rules of Attraction. There are a lot of connections between the two, including some rather direct allusions in The Rules of Attraction to people and events in The Secret History, and there is some thought that Ellis helped Tartt write her book much in the way that Capote helped Harper Lee. Tartt of course denies this vehemently, but I still believe it.

The Map of Love, by Ahdaf Soueif

This is another book that tells more than one story and winds it together perfectly. Here, it's two love stories that take place years apart in Egypt. One is the story of a British woman at the turn of the century and the Egyptian man she falls in love with, and the other is the story of her great-granddaughter, a New Yorker, who falls in love with an Egyptian man in about the late 1990s. They're tied together by a third woman, Egyptian, who is observer and narrator and translator, and whose life we see in part as well. The backdrop of the love stories is the political climate in Egypt and the various difficulties of the Middle East vs. the West, especially as reflected in interpersonal relationships.


Non Fiction

Causing Death and Saving Lives, by Jonathon Glover

Glover is a moral philosopher with excellent credentials. This book raises the question, first, whether we can consciously and intentionally create a coherent moral philosophy about killing. In other words, is morality rational? and Is it possible to have a non-contradictory moral philosophy on this question?

Then he discusses how such a philosophy would be grounded. Like, do we object to killing on the basis of "sanctity of life"? on a sense that killing is *always* inherently wrong? on a belief that killing is wrong but can be outweighed by other principles (and if so, what would those principles be?) or on the basis of a general principle that it is better to increase happiness in the world? or on other principles?

Then he applies the question to various issues surrounding killing, ranging from: war, assassination, capital punishment, abortion, contraception, infanticide, euthanasia, suicide, you name it.

It is mind blowing. And engaging. And completely accessible. I STRONGLY recommend it. Not because he tells you what to think, not at ALL. He just describes ways of thinking and then tests them for contradictions and for utility.

And these issues are very important. It's true that most of us don't have to come face to face with many of the practical questions he raises, like for instance, I don't have to myself wonder whether I should be a conscientious objector if drafted to serve in a war. On the other hand, we all hold opinions on all of these questions, and it is good for us, as human beings, to think through all of our opinions to see where they lead and how strongly we hold them.

Mountains Beyond Mountains, by Tracy Kidder

The biography of Paul Farmer. Farmer is a doctor (specialist in infectious diseases) and anthropologist who has undertaken the treatment of AIDS in Haiti and multi-drug resistant tuberculosis in Russia (and elsewhere), and who looks at disease as social/cultural ill and poverty as the single most significant factor in healthcare issues. He makes a powerful case in his own writings for a radically new picture of the politics of health and the allocation of resources, and this book is a great introduction to him and his writings, because he tends to disappear in his own books. His own story is very much worth reading. He scoffs at the idea of "sustainable" programs (i.e., AIDS prevention to the detriment of AIDS treatment) and just tackles what is in front of him with all his force and determination. In the offices of his non-profit org, one of his co-workers has a little sign posted that says "If Paul is the model, we're fucked." And that's a good reminder. I mean, this book could totally inspire you or it could make you throw your hands in the air and think that if you can't give everything, the way the Farmer does, there's no point in trying. But Farmer, via Kidder, would say with Gandhi that everything you do will be insignificant, but it is very important that you do it.

Love Thy Neighbor, by Peter Maas

I'd already been reading about genocide when I ran across an essay by Maas in The New Killing Fields, and I was so shaken by some of the things he wrote that I immediately sought out and read this one. It ranks among the most moving accounts of current issues, right up there with We Wish To Inform You That Tomorrow We Will Be Killed With Our Families.

War Is A Force That Gives Us Meaning, by Chris Hedges

Hedges is a really interesting guy. He did most of a theology graduate degree at Harvard Divinity School and then became completely disillusioned and became a war correspondent. So he thinks and writes about issues from a perspective that most war correspondents don't have. This short book helps frame the issue that my cat Boo keeps asking about: Why is there war?

White Like Me, by Tim Wise

Wise is a hero of mine and his columns (available at www.timwise.org and his recent article on PETA at http://www.lipmagazine.org/~timwise/animalwhites.html ) are incredibly smart, sharp and insightful. His thinking is really clear and he articulates his message powerfully even while he writes in a remarkably accessible manner. White Like Me crystallized a lot of my own thinking and put concepts into words for me in ways that I can get my arms around. I think this is one of the best books on white privilege out there (and there are more and more every day, thank God). He writes about his own history and that of his family and he doesn't pull any punches on any of them. I think it's really important for white people to know that there are in fact other white people who are committed to social change and to have someone like Wise as a role model.
104231, my favorite books of 2006
Posted by janey, Thu Dec-28-06 03:29 PM
The Zero, by Jess Walter

The Echo Maker, by Richard Powers

Black Swan Green, by David Mitchell

Cross-X, by Joe Mitchell

Everyman, by Philip Roth

Saturday, by Ian McEwan

What Is The What, by Dave Eggers & Valentino Achak Deng

The Omnivore's Dilemma, by Michael Pollen

104232, fuck
Posted by janey, Thu Dec-28-06 04:38 PM
Cross X is by Joe MILLER not Joe Mitchell, sorry kids
104233, i always feel in over my head with the readers on here but...
Posted by WhiteNotion, Thu Dec-28-06 06:43 PM
in the past few months, i can recommend a few that i really enjoyed.

Non-Fiction

The First American: The Life and Times of Benjamin Franklin by H.M. Brand - this was the first biography that i had read in a long time and i really enjoyed it. it's definitely an in depth look at franklin, but with a figure like franklin, even a seemingly in depth look only scratches the surface. it is written very well and reads fairly easily.

Blink by Malcolm Gladwell - it took me a while to get around to reading this, but i'm glad i finally did. i didn't enjoy it in the same way that i enjoyed the tipping point. i really enjoy how gladwell brings academia to the everyman. it's an easy weekend read, but even better for the toilet.

Housekeeping vs. The Dirt by Nick Hornby - this is the second set of his writings in Believer. i enjoy hornby's fiction, but i like his non-fiction even better. there is something endearing about him that makes me like him, even if i disagree with him. also, his non-fiction makes me like his fiction even more. as an added bonus, all of the articles are about what hornby has been reading, so you'll probably come out of it with at least a few more additions to your "to read" list.

Fiction

Manhattan Loverboy by Arthur Nersesian - i had read a few other things by nersesian (most notably, the fuck-up) and i really enjoyed them. all of his tales seem to be about the old new york hip and how they are dealing with the effects of gentrification. this is good, but read "the fuck-up" first if you're not familiar with his work. it's a little less fantastic, which is a good thing.

i'm always a bit intimidated by the ptp book posts, mostly because janey is the most well-read person i semi-know about, but i can recommend all of these books. also, we should start one of those book shipping clubs. the type where you send a book to the next person on the list and what not. that way we can recommend new books to people and have someone to talk with about them afterwards.

http://www.audioscrobbler.com/user/whitenotion/
http://www.myspace.com/flowtron
http://mynameisshaun.blogspot.com
104234, did you read The Polysyllabic Spree?
Posted by janey, Thu Dec-28-06 07:05 PM
I think I like that better than Housekeeping vs. the Dirt. I felt like I learned about more Must Read Books in the PS than in the second one.

From The Polysyllabic Spree I got Random Family and How To Breathe Underwater, both of which were stunning.

From H vs the D, I only got one or two, none of which were so great, although he did mention Citizen Vince after I'd read it, and that's a great great book.

You?
104235, i totally agree...
Posted by WhiteNotion, Thu Dec-28-06 11:14 PM
i actually read david copperfield after reading the excerpt in ps. i had only read 'tale of two cities' in grade school and hated it, but decided a non-academic approach to dickens might do me better. it definitely did. i kind of felt as though hornby was reaching in 'h.v.d.,' as if he felt he had something to prove. his critiques were much critic-ier as opposed to the everyday approach of ps. i'm not exactly sure why that happened. maybe his success as a non-fiction writer began to rise at that time, i'm not really sure. but i have to agree with you on liking ps better than h.v.d. do you know if he wrote more articles in the believer after that? will there be another volume?

also, i know you don't mean to be intimidating. believe me, you are far from pretentious. you're just well-read, which is something i can respect. if anything, it makes me want to read more, just so i can hold my own. i've got nothing but love.

http://www.audioscrobbler.com/user/whitenotion/
http://www.myspace.com/flowtron
http://mynameisshaun.blogspot.com
104236, xxoo
Posted by janey, Fri Dec-29-06 11:59 AM
He continues to write the column, and you can often or usually access the whole thing monthly on the Believer website if you don't want to spring for the mag. I like The Believer SO much better than McSweeney's. I actually read parts of it, lol. There was a great analysis of the photos from Abu Ghraib a year or so ago, that NEVER would have been published by McSweeney's. Also, there was an interview with China Mieville at one point that is directly responsible for me reading Perdido Street Station, which is amazing (although I'm not as crazy about the two that follow).

The website is www.believermag.com -- that "mag" is so important. Leave it out and all you get are religious websites, lol.
104237, i'll have to check it out.
Posted by WhiteNotion, Fri Dec-29-06 05:15 PM
i've only picked up mcsweeney's once and could not muster the strength to get through it. there's something about it that screams, "read this and you will lose your childhood." i may be an old child, but i refuse to lose it to mcsweeney.

http://www.audioscrobbler.com/user/whitenotion/
http://www.myspace.com/flowtron
http://mynameisshaun.blogspot.com
104238, lmao
Posted by janey, Fri Dec-29-06 06:30 PM
I always think it screams "Look how SMART we are!" That's actually one of the charms of Hornby's What I've Been Reading column -- all those pseudo-snarky remarks about the Spree and their bizarre rituals. Living in the town that houses Eggers & Co., at 826 Valencia, I'm prone to believing in the literal existence of the 48 -- or is it 84? -- veiled banshees wailing SYLVIA PLAAAAAAATH at morning ablutions....
104239, i think his introduction to 'hvd' is meant for them as well.
Posted by WhiteNotion, Fri Dec-29-06 08:02 PM
he seems to blast the literary elite (possibly in defense of his own work?) for their attitude towards "lesser" fiction. does this make him the equivalent of a literary hipster? is the bestseller list the new hip?

http://www.audioscrobbler.com/user/whitenotion/
http://www.myspace.com/flowtron
http://mynameisshaun.blogspot.com
104240, and p.s.
Posted by janey, Thu Dec-28-06 08:46 PM
I don't mean to be intimidating on book posts, not at all. I like it if I know enough about the books that people post about to be able to engage with them about the books, and yeah, I read a lot, but I'm NOT trying to show off or pretend to be smart. I just like chattering about the books.
104241, I'm going to up this but since janey said search her name
Posted by Darryl_Licke, Thu Dec-28-06 08:00 PM
I'm going to and make my own damn list. One you should read too.
104242, Pick up some Raymond Carver
Posted by crow, Fri Dec-29-06 02:18 AM
I love his work.
104243, I just started reading Joan Didion again, I wish more people would
Posted by celery77, Fri Dec-29-06 02:33 AM
I seriously haven't met a single person in real life who's read Didion without me forcing it on them. The fuck is wrong with people?

Read Slouching Towards Bethlehem, a collection of essays from the 1960s. It's blindingly brilliant. I'm finally getting to some of her fiction, and all her talent is still there, but it's really her non-fiction that I'm in love with. So yeah, read that shit yo.
104244, lol fuck you I was reading Didion before you were born
Posted by janey, Fri Dec-29-06 12:01 PM
lol

I spent the entire summer of 1979 reading Play It As It Lays over and over and over, lol
104245, Yeah well why'd you let everyone else stop reading it?
Posted by celery77, Fri Dec-29-06 06:47 PM
Ain't nobody told me to READ this shit, I had to fucking FIND it.

So FUCK your mute ass, spread the love!
104246, My favorite is actually The Book of Common Prayer
Posted by janey, Fri Dec-29-06 08:05 PM
although you can't beat her essays, I admit that. But one thing we need to acknowledge about her is that she's very ethnocentric and class-centric without realizing it, so she just isn't going to speak to every reader. That's especially evident in Where I Was From, I think, but a number of readers here really felt hit over the head with it in The Year of Magical Thinking, which to my mind is incredible, but to other people, not so much.

104247, Yeah, I can see that -- some of her stuff is transcendent though
Posted by celery77, Sat Dec-30-06 03:17 PM
I mean about the ethnocentrism and classism and stuff, yeah, that's definitely true, but some of the stuff she wrote in her essays are emblematic of a certain experience, and everyone would learn and be exposed to something very real and very true if they read it.
104248, i'm reading posts on OKP
Posted by Galatasaray, Fri Dec-29-06 09:23 AM
that's about it
104249, i know, write!
Posted by WhiteNotion, Fri Dec-29-06 09:25 AM
i don't need no book. them for suckers.

http://www.audioscrobbler.com/user/whitenotion/
http://www.myspace.com/flowtron
http://mynameisshaun.blogspot.com
104250, damn, i need to read A LOT more.
Posted by Commie, Fri Dec-29-06 09:35 AM
especially some of these newer books.
for the past 2 years or so, I've been reading for school only.
cept the two Chuck Klosterman books that came out since then,
which is going to be my recommendation.

"IV" and "Killing Yourself to Live"- chuck klosterman.
104251, and nick hornby
Posted by Darryl_Licke, Fri Dec-29-06 12:03 PM
or whoever wrote high fidelity....all his books.
104252, that's him
Posted by janey, Fri Dec-29-06 03:38 PM
About A Boy and High Fidelity are way better than How To Be Good. A Long Way Down is somewhere between -- better than How To Be Good, not as good as the first two.
104253, his non-fiction too!
Posted by WhiteNotion, Fri Dec-29-06 05:19 PM
songbook
fever pitch
the polysyllabic spree
housekeeping vs. dirt

the latter two are for the hornby junkies, but the former are great for any taste.

http://www.audioscrobbler.com/user/whitenotion/
http://www.myspace.com/flowtron
http://mynameisshaun.blogspot.com
104254, fever pitch didn't do a whole lot for me
Posted by janey, Fri Dec-29-06 06:27 PM
I thought after reading About A Boy that he could keep my interest in soccer, but....

but that's okay! :-)
104255, i must seem like a fanboy.
Posted by WhiteNotion, Fri Dec-29-06 07:54 PM
maybe i am. i think i owe it all to my experience with hornby. i read high fidelity a long, long time ago. this was probably right around the time that about a boy came out. i enjoyed it, but wasn't exactly a "reader" at that time, so i didn't bother to pick up about a boy. then, out of the blue, i picked up high fidelity again years later and realized how much i enjoyed it. i subsequently read everything i could get my hands on. this was right before long way down came out, so it was pretty much his entire current catalogue. i think he's got the type of voice that you appreciate no matter what he writes if you really get used to it. so when you read him in large quantities, you really start to enjoy it. this may be true with all authors, i'm not sure, but i think that's largely the reason why i liked fever pitch so much. moreover, for being a book about a sport that i don't watch, it far surpassed expectations.

http://www.audioscrobbler.com/user/whitenotion/
http://www.myspace.com/flowtron
http://mynameisshaun.blogspot.com
104256, yeah, you know, he's one of those conversational writers
Posted by janey, Fri Dec-29-06 08:07 PM
I don't know if you saw me mention The Omnivore's Dilemma, and I don't mean to compare Pollan and Hornby *exactly*, but one of the best things about Ominivore was that it was like having a conversation with some interesting friend who just suddenly became slightly fascinated with food production. It's incredibly readable.
104257, i'll definitely add that to my list.
Posted by WhiteNotion, Fri Dec-29-06 08:13 PM
i've been on a huge non-fiction kick lately and that style makes it go down much easier. it's especially useful with normally difficult topics. the first thing that comes to mind is richard rhodes's the making of the atomic bomb. his infatuation with the topic and conversational voice combined to make even the most difficult of physics seem like child's play, and that's coming from someone who hasn't taken a science class in several years.

http://www.audioscrobbler.com/user/whitenotion/
http://www.myspace.com/flowtron
http://mynameisshaun.blogspot.com
104258, I know! It's like for 40 years I ONLY read fiction
Posted by janey, Fri Dec-29-06 08:32 PM
and now I can't stop reading non fiction. lol

I'm a huge fan of Mark Dow & David Dow (they're brothers) because they write about really important topics and do it in an accessible and engaging way.

And then, for example, I love and respect Lewis Lapham and godDAMN if I can't read a single paragraph of his without kind of blurring out, lol.
104259, when i was in high school...
Posted by WhiteNotion, Fri Dec-29-06 08:38 PM
i used to smoke a lot. and after taking ap biology, i thought it would be a good idea to try and read the origin of species. i guess what i'm getting at is, i understand this blurriness you speak of.

http://www.audioscrobbler.com/user/whitenotion/
http://www.myspace.com/flowtron
http://mynameisshaun.blogspot.com
104260, for the people:
Posted by two, Sat Dec-30-06 04:39 PM
the year of magical thinking - joan didion
black swan green - david mitchell
beasts of no nation - uzodinma iweala
grief - andrew holleran
the complexities of intimacy - mary caponegro
one hundred years of solitude - gabriel garcia marquez
you shall know our velocity - dave eggers

ƒ«ƒ«ƒ«ƒ«ƒ«ƒ«ƒ«ƒ«ƒ«ƒ«ƒ«ƒ«ƒ«ƒ«ƒ«ƒ«ƒƒ«ƒ«ƒ«ƒ«ƒ«ƒ«ƒ«ƒ«ƒ«ƒ«ƒ«ƒ

do it.
104261, what be this?
Posted by smutsboy, Wed Jan-03-07 01:24 PM
>beasts of no nation - uzodinma iweala
104262, oh!
Posted by two, Sat Dec-30-06 04:42 PM
the children's hospital - chris adrian

ƒ«ƒ«ƒ«ƒ«ƒ«ƒ«ƒ«ƒ«ƒ«ƒ«ƒ«ƒ«ƒ«ƒ«ƒ«ƒ«ƒƒ«ƒ«ƒ«ƒ«ƒ«ƒ«ƒ«ƒ«ƒ«ƒ«ƒ

do it.
104263, Haruki Murakami
Posted by JayPeah, Sun Dec-31-06 03:38 AM
Some pretty weird stuff, great stories if you ask me.
104264, I was able to attend his first and (probably) last press conference
Posted by jasonprague, Wed Jan-03-07 03:43 AM
when he was in town to pick up an award. very quiet unassuming and very private guy. he writes some amazing books. just got his newest short stories for Christmas. looking forward to it.

PEACE
104265, The Road, by Cormac McCarthy
Posted by 6FeetDeepInThought, Sun Dec-31-06 03:56 AM
I'm only halfway through myself, but hey, post-apocalyptic cannibalism? Hellz yeah.
104266, RE: 2007 reading list: leave no author unturned, no book unrecommended
Posted by ovBismarck, Sun Dec-31-06 04:42 AM
Why I Write--George Orwell
Love in the Time of Cholera--Marquez
A Confederacy of Dunces--Toole
Whose Bible Is It?--Pelikan
a subscription to The American Scholar
Letters from Earth--Mark Twain
The New American Militarism--Bacevich
The American Political Tradition...--Hofstadter
Active Liberty--Breyer
The Master and Margarita--Bulgakov

104267, Anything by Christopher Moore
Posted by YardBird33, Sun Dec-31-06 10:52 AM
Granted, I've only read 2 of his books so far this past year; but I bought both based on the jacket synopsis alone and they were both GREAT reads. I just got 5 more of his books for x-mas, so 2007 gonna be a busy reading year.

Peace-Like Stylee,
J-Bird

"Nobody light-skinned reppin' harder since Ice-T"

"Where does a platypus learn a word like hodgepodge?"
104268, Just picked up The Last Samurai and Cloud Atlas
Posted by HiKwelity, Sun Dec-31-06 06:55 PM
Thanks to PTP of course, otherwise I wouldn't know any of these books. I plan on getting to them once I am finished with Dostoevsky's The Idiot, which I finally started and pleasantly surprised with. Not only is it much easier to read than I expected, I am actually enjoying.

Due to my interest in The Wire and also seeing his name mentioned here, I picked up Right as Rain by George Pelecanos...also because it was cheap.

I was also working on Parable Of The Talents, but I pretty much quit about a third of the way through. I enjoyed Parable of the Sower but am having trouble with the second book.

Anything else I read will be strictly basketball-related.


-----------------

www.scholarballer.org
104269, I heartily approve, lol
Posted by janey, Tue Jan-02-07 11:50 AM
I'm also a big Pelecanos fan, and Right As Rain is my favorite of his.
104270, I'm reading Drama City right now
Posted by dr invisible, Tue Jan-02-07 12:14 PM
so much of his dialogue seems forced and doesnt seem very real at all. It bugs me. But i've heard a lot of good things about him. Does he get better?
104271, I liked Drama City but he hit a groove with Right As Rain
Posted by janey, Tue Jan-02-07 12:21 PM
and a couple of others right around the same time, that I don't think he's quite hit again, although I liked The Night Gardener.
104272, I read a few more chapters at lunch
Posted by dr invisible, Tue Jan-02-07 04:35 PM
I guess its just one of the main characters I think he struggles with as far as dialogue/voice. I am warming to his storytelling though.
104273, is this your first Pelecanos?
Posted by janey, Tue Jan-02-07 05:49 PM
Have you read any Dennis Lehane or Richard Price?

Also, in that genre, I have to recommend once again my new favorite, Jess Walter. The Zero and Citizen Vince are astounding.
104274, I've read some Lehane
Posted by dr invisible, Tue Jan-02-07 10:28 PM
I like him and dislike him because he writes from my city. Its a tough standard to uphold for me but I'm fair.

Nothing on Price yet. I chose to read Pelecanos first and yeah, this is the first time I've read him. I think I'll read Price next. Suggestion? Or Right as Rain then Price.
104275, Samaritan
Posted by janey, Wed Jan-03-07 12:09 PM
I think that's the place to start with Price.
104276, I concur. n/m
Posted by kurlyswirl, Mon Jan-08-07 07:30 PM

~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~

It's about the blanket.

kurly's Super-Duper Awesome DVD Collection:
http://www.dvdaficionado.com/dvds.html?cat=1&id=kurlyswirl
104277, I thought Drama City was great...
Posted by kurlyswirl, Mon Jan-08-07 07:32 PM
...but you probably should've started with Right as Rain (Derek Strange series) or A Firing Offense (Nick Stefanos series).

~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~

It's about the blanket.

kurly's Super-Duper Awesome DVD Collection:
http://www.dvdaficionado.com/dvds.html?cat=1&id=kurlyswirl
104278, I really like the Charlie Huston trilogy of
Posted by KingMonte, Tue Jan-02-07 12:00 PM
Caught Stealing, Six Bad Things and A Dangerous Man.

Everybody Smokes In Hell and A Conversation with the Mann: A Novel by John Ridley are also great reads.

All suggestions are fun - nothing that would require a highlighter.
104279, the people of paper by salvador plascenscia and
Posted by spivak, Tue Jan-02-07 12:21 PM
the translation of dr. apelles: a love story by david treuer

on the classic tip: thomas mann's death in venice. morrison's sula.
104280, RE: the people of paper by salvador plascenscia
Posted by JBoogs, Wed Jan-03-07 02:47 AM
good one

***************
www.myspace.com/angoleiro
www.myspace.com/manjingaparty
104281, a book a week...
Posted by Morehouse, Tue Jan-02-07 01:36 PM
in '07

week 1: Jan. 1-6
Saul Bellow : Herzog


on the horizon:

Gladwell : Blink and The Tipping point
Eggers : What is the What
Pynchon : Gravity's Rainbow, V
Kennedy : Nigger
Thompson : The Rum Diary


***********************************

myself is sculptor of
your body’s idiom:
the musician of your wrists;
the poet who is afraid
only to mistranslate
a rhythm in your hair...
-E.E. Cummings
104282, I just ordered that Randall Kennedy book
Posted by janey, Tue Jan-02-07 01:56 PM
after reading an essay by Emily Bernard collected in Best American Essays 2006, called "Teaching the N Word." I've kind of been resisting, but I think Kennedy is deliberately fucking with me on that one. For many and varied reasons, asking for it in the bookstore was extremely uncomfortable, which I think was part of Kennedy's intent, and it's certainly not a book that I can carry in public. But I trust him.
104283, if you read Gravity's Rainbow in a week, you're a beast
Posted by JBoogs, Wed Jan-03-07 02:49 AM

***************
www.myspace.com/angoleiro
www.myspace.com/manjingaparty
104284, I'm reading 'Sex, Drugs and Cocoa Puffs' right now
Posted by okaycomputer, Tue Jan-02-07 05:23 PM
by Chuck Klosterman

It's hilarious most of the time, but sometimes it is just too much.

Luckily it is all 5-6 page essays, so it stays fresh.
It helps to have a general knowlege/enjoyment of each of his topics...not that that's difficult, it's entirely pop culture.

104285, just finished Lunar Park thanks to my 3 day binge
Posted by Deebot, Wed Jan-03-07 03:10 AM
this is literally impossible to put down in certain chunks. The surface of the book is brilliant imo...some of the creepiest and most intriguing shit i've ever read...some of it borders on being cheesy but that's part of the fun, and it still manages to keep its serious tone, while still managing good humor in parts. I'm not really sure what to think about the deeper meaning of the book though..I don't even know if it's entirely clear to me yet. Janey, and others who have read it, what did you think?
104286, honestly, I'm at a point
Posted by janey, Wed Jan-03-07 01:02 PM
where I read Ellis for his writing, not his meaning. If there was a big message in that book, say, about father/son relationships or love or family connections or whatever, it slipped past me.

What I loved about it (when I loved it) were some of his offhand comments about parenting or life in general.

I did NOT like the ghost part. That just didn't work for me. But that's okay. I'm actually kind of resigned to his endings falling flat or flattish. See, e.g., Glamorama. Which should have ended at least a hundred pages before it did. lol
104287, RE: honestly, I'm at a point
Posted by Deebot, Wed Jan-03-07 05:28 PM
>where I read Ellis for his writing, not his meaning. If
>there was a big message in that book, say, about father/son
>relationships or love or family connections or whatever, it
>slipped past me.

right. thats coo

>What I loved about it (when I loved it) were some of his
>offhand comments about parenting or life in general.

yeah, those are fun. I still like his humor and offhand comments more than anything, but this book didn't have TOO much room for it.

>I did NOT like the ghost part. That just didn't work for me.
>But that's okay. I'm actually kind of resigned to his endings
>falling flat or flattish.

I was more impressed with his specific scenes than the layout of the ghost story. That's what kept me turning the pages. And the creepy parts/assumptions at the beginning or middle of the book were definitely better than toward the end, where it's then beaten over your head. But all in all for me....very enjoyable.

>See, e.g., Glamorama. Which should
>have ended at least a hundred pages before it did. lol

i don't know if i have any interest in reading this. But i am planning on finally reading Rules of Attraction (which I heard is Ellis' favorite book).....then after that, I'll prolly be your servant and read a bunch of your recs, because I have absolutely no knowledge of authors whatsoever..haha.
104288, I like Rules of Attraction a lot
Posted by janey, Wed Jan-03-07 05:33 PM
but my favorite is American Psycho. It's great. The whole thing is off hand commentary. It's like mutterings from inside the mind of the American Psycho. Excellent. :-)
104289, and i'll definitely be rereading that
Posted by Deebot, Wed Jan-03-07 05:55 PM
i own it, so....shouldn't be too hard. I want to pay a little more attention to it because I heard there are valid arguments that all the gruesome scenes in the book are just fantasies....but the first time through I took everything for being real, lol. But yeah...the book's a riot...you can tell Ellis was in a fun, weird place when he was writing this, haha.
104290, this is funny
Posted by janey, Wed Jan-03-07 05:57 PM
because every conversation about the book starts with the question "Is the violence real?"

You know what? It's a novel. None of it is real. For me, that's a pretty major starting point.

American Psycho is one of the three funniest books I've ever read.
104291, i think i might seriously go through and highlight certain lines that i love
Posted by Deebot, Wed Jan-03-07 06:04 PM
for like quick reference of comedy....lol.

>American Psycho is one of the three funniest books I've ever
>read.
104292, Chapter titles alone can keep me in stitches
Posted by janey, Wed Jan-03-07 06:08 PM
lol
104293, oh? Like......"Brings Uzi to Gym"? Lol
Posted by Deebot, Wed Jan-03-07 06:12 PM
and the running joke of the Patti Winters Show is fucking hilarious
104294, or "Tries to Cook and Eat Girl"
Posted by janey, Wed Jan-03-07 06:30 PM
lmao
104295, I'm telling ya'll "Beasts Of No Nation"
Posted by jasonprague, Wed Jan-03-07 03:51 AM
written from the perspective of a child soldier in an unknown part of Africa.

to further prove my point let me throw down this passage I had to write down:

"If it is day, I am sitting and staring at the sun like it is the only thing to look at in this world. I am watching how sometime it is bright and other time it is like it is just struggling too much to be shining and I am wanting to ask it why it is even thinking to shine on this world. If I am sun, I will be finding another place to be shining where people are not using my light to be doing terrible terrible thing."

just one of many - powerful stuff.

PEACE
104296, alright janey...
Posted by eternalist 25, Wed Jan-03-07 11:32 AM
i read pullman's trilogy...not bad

gimme some other sci fi fantasy books you think i should check out
104297, Perdido Street Station, by China Mieville
Posted by janey, Wed Jan-03-07 12:11 PM
also, Someone Comes To Town, Someone Leaves Town, by Cory Doctorow.

Both of those are very different from the Pullman trilogy, and very different from one another, but Perdido Street Station in particular will just blow your mind.
104298, cant go wrong with The Count Of Monte Cristo
Posted by JAESCOTT777, Wed Jan-03-07 12:13 PM
cant stop wont stop-Jeff Chang(best book written about hiphop)
Assata-Assata Shakur( every american should read that)
Decolonizing the Mind-Ngugi Wa'Thiongo
The Invisible Man- Ralph Ellison(My favorite of all time)
104299, just started two that are great so far...
Posted by okaycomputer, Mon Jan-08-07 07:25 PM
Garner by Kristin Allio

Takes place in my home state of New Hampshire in 1925. This, so far, has been a much more difficult read than I had expected. The narritive weaves in and out sort of bunching together thoughts, memoirs, notes and various other observations from the narrator. You have to kind of let everything brush by, it's very dreamlike. Extremely rewarding read so far.



the other is Kitchen Confidential by Anthony Bourdain

Finally picked this up, it's been pretty good so far. The man can do no wrong in my eyes though (well, maybe the sit-com being an exception).
104300, I've been thinking about buying the audiobook.
Posted by kurlyswirl, Mon Jan-08-07 07:44 PM
I've already read it (I think I may have been one who recommended it to you), but I want it because Bourdain narrates. He's such a good narrator for his show that I think it would be highly entertaining.

I also want to get the audiobook for Hard Revolution by George Pelecanos. (Already read that, too.) Lance Reddick (Daniels on The Wire) narrates.

>the other is Kitchen Confidential by Anthony Bourdain
>
>Finally picked this up, it's been pretty good so far. The man
>can do no wrong in my eyes though (well, maybe the sit-com
>being an exception).


~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~

It's about the blanket.

kurly's Super-Duper Awesome DVD Collection:
http://www.dvdaficionado.com/dvds.html?cat=1&id=kurlyswirl
104301, i've never listened to an audio book
Posted by okaycomputer, Mon Jan-08-07 07:54 PM
though I've always thought if I did, it would be a non-fiction/sociology type of book. I'm not sure why though, maybe because it'd at least seem like talk radio and therefor a little more natural.

I was thinking of getting Malcom Gladwell or a Klosterman book in audio form, but you're right Bourdain would without a doubt be great to listen to. Besides, I've since heard Klosterman on a talk show and his voice is incredibly annoying.
104302, Me neither, actually!
Posted by kurlyswirl, Mon Jan-08-07 08:05 PM
>though I've always thought if I did, it would be a
>non-fiction/sociology type of book. I'm not sure why though,
>maybe because it'd at least seem like talk radio and therefor
>a little more natural.

Yeah, makes sense. Kind of like listening to a feature on NPR news.


~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~

It's about the blanket.

kurly's Super-Duper Awesome DVD Collection:
http://www.dvdaficionado.com/dvds.html?cat=1&id=kurlyswirl
104303, If I hadn't already read it,
Posted by janey, Mon Jan-08-07 08:12 PM
I would get Adam Gopnik reading Through The Children's Gate.

But I had some great experiences listening to Steinbeck novels read by Gary Sinese back before there were mp3s. Sinese loves Steinbeck and it really shows in his reading.

Travels With Charley, unabridged, read by Gary Sinese. A great listening experience.

I've been trying to listen to Mark Kurlansky's NonViolence: 25 Lessons from a Radical Idea or something something and getting just nowhere with it. I'm finding it dull as dishwater, lol.
104304, I have the soundtrack for Hard Revolution if you want it
Posted by janey, Mon Jan-08-07 07:59 PM
not quite the same thing, lol
104305, Yeah, I already have that. Thanks, tho'. lol - n/m
Posted by kurlyswirl, Mon Jan-08-07 08:03 PM

~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~

It's about the blanket.

kurly's Super-Duper Awesome DVD Collection:
http://www.dvdaficionado.com/dvds.html?cat=1&id=kurlyswirl
104306, kitchen confidential is dope
Posted by UncleClimax, Tue Jun-05-07 07:01 PM
my brother got it for me for my bday...i havent had a chance to get into it too deep, but the first two chapters have been golden. dude is a really good writer (for a cook).
104307, so that damn book of best american essays
Posted by janey, Mon Jan-08-07 07:51 PM
I've bought three books already just because of mentions in the essays, and so far they're great.

I'm currently reading a biography of Kinsey. We all know he's my hero, and this biography is just great. And part of what makes it great is that the biographer is clearly writing for a British audience and so he'll do these little tangents that explain things about the US that are fucking hysterical. Of course there are a bunch on sexual mores, but the one that really cracked me up was this little scree on weather in Indiana. He's like, "Strangely, Americans don't seem to realize just how INTOLERABLE their weather is" and then goes on to describe it in detail, and even has a footnote about the fact that while he was in Indiana doing research in 95, 600 people died in Chicago that summer (remember that?). He doesn't mention that that was a once in a lifetime weather pattern, lol, but apparently is willing to let his readers think that Chicago loses 600 citizens to heat every summer.

But it's a great book. I am thoroughly enjoying it and my respect for Kinsey has only increased.
104308, is that the 'best non-required reading for 2006' thing?
Posted by okaycomputer, Mon Jan-08-07 08:02 PM
I've never read one of those, but was very close to buying it yesterday.
104309, No, although I have that as well
Posted by janey, Mon Jan-08-07 08:13 PM
The one I mean is one of the Best American _____ Series. They do short stories, travel writing, science writing, I don't know what all. And a friend gave me the Best American Essays 2006 along with Best American Non Required Reading for xmas. The first I'm reading. The second I'm more dipping into and out of at odd moments.
104310, 'The Professor's Daughter' - Emily Raboteau n/m
Posted by Meenameen, Tue Jan-09-07 09:41 AM
104311, I just ordered 'Love Is A Mix Tape' by Rob Sheffield
Posted by Melanism, Tue Jan-09-07 09:49 AM

-------------------
http://melanism.com
http://preptimeposse.blogspot.com
http://www.myspace.com/melanism
http://www.last.fm/user/Melanism/
104312, RE: 2007 reading list: leave no author unturned, no book unrecommended
Posted by Malachi_Constant, Wed Jan-10-07 03:44 AM
The Corrections by Jonathan Franzen
60 Stories + 40 Stories by Donald Barthelme
The Collected Stories of Richard Yates
Civilwarland in Bad Decline- George Saunders
A Small Place- Jamaica Kincaid
Self Help- Lorrie Moore
104313, Let us know what you think about Corrections
Posted by 2nd2Nun, Wed Jan-10-07 11:19 AM
Some people loved it, but for some reason I struggled to get through it.
104314, things i've read recently...
Posted by Lyva, Wed Jan-10-07 04:39 AM
george orwell - 1984
george orwell - burmese days
bertrand russell - why i'm not a christian

i read the 2 orwell books online. 1984 speaks for it's self. if you wanna understand power, i suggest you read it. burmese days takes place in india under british rule. it's really interesting on a number of levels, but if you're a lonely guy, you'll really connect with john flory, the main character. why i'm not a christian is a must read for atheist and skeptics. you can read a sample of the book at bn.com.
104315, 3 Nights in August - Buzz Billinger
Posted by dr invisible, Wed Jan-10-07 11:46 AM
Buzz follows around Tony LaRussa for a 3 game series with the Cubs. Pretty fun so far but Buzz has a man crush on Tony that can get annoying.

Drama City got better. I had some trouble with some of the ways he characterizes some of the lower levels of the drug game. Sometimes they didnt seem real.

Samaritan is next I believe thanks to Janey and Kurlyswirl.
104316, Up for the 6 month summer update
Posted by Darryl_Licke, Tue Jun-05-07 12:38 AM
por favor.
104317, I've read everything Octavia E. Butler has written. What's first of hers
Posted by earthseed, Tue Jun-05-07 11:43 AM
on your list?
104318, wild seed, dawn, adulthood rites
Posted by Darryl_Licke, Tue Jun-05-07 11:22 PM
I want to finish xenogenesis and read patternmaster from beginning to end.
104319, let me know what you think about them ...
Posted by earthseed, Wed Jun-06-07 07:15 AM
have you read Kindred and Parable of the Sower and Talents?
104320, RE: 2007 reading list: leave no author unturned, no book unrecommended
Posted by jane eyre, Tue Jun-05-07 07:08 PM
lord of the rings trilogy-- tolkien
the hours-- michael cunningham
the curious incident of the dog in night-time-- mark haddon
everything is illuminated-- jonathan safran foer
the singing neanderthal-- steven mitchen
death and the kings horseman-- wole soyinka
the tunnel: selected poems of russell edson-- russell edson

i wasn't a huge fan of everything is illuminated but i'm gonna read the rest of foers stuff. i liked the novel, but by the time i got to the end of it, i dunno. i felt like i'd read the book before. half way through, it started to feel like the kind of book that writers from my generation insist on cranking out. i blame dave eggers for opening the flood gates.

disclaimer: it's a matter of taste but i'm not all that crazy about eggers. i began to suspect an eggers influence pretty soon into foers novel. i thought that maybe foers liked eggers or knew him. well, come to find out foers is part of the mcsweeney crew and my suspicions weren't without merit:

http://www.amazon.com/Future-Dictionary-America-Jonathan-Safran/dp/1932416420

the funny thing is, it's the generational factor that makes me recommend everything is illuminated. i think it's pretty incredible to read the creative out-put of the talented twenty-somethings. i didn't have a clear sense of "a voice from our generation" in the book world until i read everything is illuminated. foer is just one voice but i think that generational quality is a distinct achievement of the novel. it's also creative, has some incredibly nice spots, and it's funny (ofcourse it has to be...especially the language games and mix-ups).

104321, have you read the archived thread on Everything is Illuminated?
Posted by janey, Tue Jun-05-07 07:22 PM
You might find it interesting.
104322, i didn't know there was one.
Posted by jane eyre, Wed Jun-06-07 11:19 AM
now i do. i'll find it.

i'm more on the fence than anything about eii. i know my post probably doesn't seem like it. the thread might help me get off the fence to one side or another.
104323, I re-read it yesterday
Posted by janey, Wed Jun-06-07 11:31 AM
and my prediction was wrong.

I predicted that his next book would be a book of short stories and that the one after that would be a novel really worth reading.

Well, he skipped the short stories and went straight into writing something really thoughtful and lovely.
104324, that was a good thread.
Posted by jane eyre, Wed Jun-06-07 09:18 PM
>Well, he skipped the short stories and went straight into
>writing something really thoughtful and lovely.

the reason i was interested in reading the rest of his stuff is because i hoped that the things that gave me qualms about the book would be ironed out. it's obviously a very good novel but he wrote in a way that made me want to consider why it missed the mark of being great. it's a damn good first novel. most of my issues with the book i attribute to the experience factor. talent matures in a funny way; obscurely. i personally think that there are some things going on with eei that maybe weren't possible for him to see. about the only thing that gels stuff for some writers is time and the mysterious movement of the writing powers that be. for that reason, i would have predicted a novel out of him, but i thought it could've just as easily have been a continuation-working-through of what he's got going on with eei, as it could've been a confident articulation of his offering to the table about the contemporary novel. i was curious to see how a mysterious process would play out, if at all, w/ foers. i was hopeful that he was the real deal. your comment about his next novel is encouraging.

when i was thinking about the book, i factored in the eggers-mcsweeney influence, too. and maybe that's unfair. i hear foers in the book and i like what i hear. his tinkering with technique/structure will catch up to the other stuff, i figure. maybe somehow things will click instead of going clunk. or maybe he'll drop some stuff. i have no idea. he's a writer i'll keep tabs on. i might be so far left field, but i think he's a generational voice. time will tell.

104325, I should clarify
Posted by janey, Thu Jun-07-07 11:09 AM
His second novel (3d book), Extremely Loud and Incredibly Close, was way better than could have been anticipated simply by reading Everything Is Illuminated. He matured a LOT as a writer and came up with something really beautiful.
104326, i almost
Posted by jane eyre, Thu Jun-07-07 03:41 PM
read extremely loud and incredibly close first.

the other thing about the archived post:

anytime people discuss eggers, i think of an email exchange/interview that he typed out with the harvard advocate. back when the genius book was hot. part of his response to the interviewer:

"I think criticism, more often than not, completely misses the point, yes. The critical impulse, demonstrated by the tone of many of your own questions, is to suspect, doubt, tear at, and to take something apart to see how it works. Which of course is completely the wrong thing to do to art....When we pick at and tear into artistic output of whatever kind, we really have to examine our motives for doing so. What is it about art that can make us so angry? ...To enjoy art one needs time, patience, and a generous heart, and criticism is done, by and large, by impatient people who have axes to grind. The worst sort of critics are (analogy coming) butterfly collectors - they chase something, ostensibly out of their search for beauty, then, once they get close, they catch that beautiful something, they kill it, they stick a pin through its abdomen, dissect it and label it....Just as no one wants to grow up to be an IRS agent, no one should want to grow up to maliciously dissect books. Are there fair and helpful book critics? Yes, of course. But by and large, the only book reviews that should be trusted are by those who have themselves written books. And the more successful and honored the writer, the less likely that writer is to demolish another writer. Which is further proof that criticism comes from a dark and dank place. What kind of person seeks to bring down another? Doesn't a normal person, with his own life and goals and work to do, simply let others live? Yes. We all know that to be true."