What Book Are You Reading?

[abcdefz]

Yeah -- I've heard that one's good.

It may be a little while. I feel kinda burned by this one, frankly. I plowed through it dutifully
when my instincts were screaming at me to toss it out.

[Waus]

I feel kinda burned by this one, frankly. I plowed through it dutifully
when my instincts were screaming at me to toss it out.

Wow. You make reading a book sound like leading trench warfare. (y)

[MC Moot]

Wow. You make reading a book sound like leading trench warfare. (y)

Speaking of which I just finished Timothy Findley's "The War"...:eek:

[abcdefz]

Wow. You make reading a book sound like leading trench warfare. (y)


I just really really hate wasting my time on something that's not productive when I could be getting drunk or masturbating or something instead.

[Waus]

Yes, all bachelorhood reading value must be weighed against the opportunity cost of alcohol and masturbation.

[abcdefz]

*nods deeply*

[na§tee]

now i am reading bitchfest: ten years of cultural criticism from the pages of 'bitch' magazine. good stuff. i think i'll rotate between fiction/non-fiction now.
still making my way through that book - excellent. last chapter was on female jealousy. very interesting. i'll post some semblance of review when i'm done with it all.

but my friend who i am house-sitting for left a book for me to read she thought i might like - the know-it-all: one man's humble quest to become the smartest person in the world. by a.j. jacobs. haha, oh man. for those who don't know, this guy decided to read the entire encylopedia britannica. the author and i are still only at 'A' but it's good stuff.

i totally didn't follow my new rule of fiction/non-fiction. woops.

[abcdefz]

still making my way through that book - excellent. last chapter was on female jealousy.




Must be one helluva long chapter.

[na§tee]

well, it's not the last chapter if you know what i mean. or are you making a comment on the complexity of female jealousy? ; )

[abcdefz]

well, it's not the last chapter if you know what i mean. or are you making a comment on the complexity of female jealousy? ; )



"Complexity" is a kind, kind word for it.

[beastieangel01]

I just finished Love in the Time of Cholera and I'm not sure whether I love it or hate it.

It WAS very well-written, though.

[MC Moot]

I just finished Love in the Time of Cholera and I'm not sure whether I love it or hate it.

It WAS very well-written, though.

I have a deep affection for that book...(y)..."100 Years of Solitude" receives the most praise but "Love In the Time" is my fave of Gabe's...along with "No One Writes to the Colonel","Chronicle of a Death Foretold","Love and Other Demons" and "Memories of My Melancholy Whores"...brilliant stuff...historical,political,dead romantic...Columbia's most important legal export...(y)

[MC Moot]

I'm about 150 pages into "The Wrong Boy" by Willy Russell...it's quite fun...especially if you have any knowledge or experience with Morrisey people...:D

http://www.amazon.co.uk/Wrong-Boy-Willy-Russell/dp/0385406967

[roosta]

"The Year of Living Biblically"

AJ Jacob's account of his year of trying to live the Bible as literally as possible. Its pretty interesting. I thought it was going to be an exposé of the bible as being this out-dated, contradictory mess, but he's quite complimentary of it.

[na§tee]

but my friend who i am house-sitting for left a book for me to read she thought i might like - the know-it-all: one man's humble quest to become the smartest person in the world. by a.j. jacobs. haha, oh man. for those who don't know, this guy decided to read the entire encylopedia britannica. the author and i are still only at 'A' but it's good stuff.

"The Year of Living Biblically"

AJ Jacob's account of his year of trying to live the Bible as literally as possible. Its pretty interesting. I thought it was going to be an exposé of the bible as being this out-dated, contradictory mess, but he's quite complimentary of it.
!!!!

that sounds quite interesting indeed, ha! same dude, i'm assuming. excellent. well done. you have just added that to my list of books to read.

[MC Moot]

"The Year of Living Biblically"

AJ Jacob's account of his year of trying to live the Bible as literally as possible. Its pretty interesting. I thought it was going to be an exposé of the bible as being this out-dated, contradictory mess, but he's quite complimentary of it.

I thought the same...I 've been compiling a list of my fave fiction/religion based reads and it's included...(y)

Tom Robbins "Another Roadside Attraction" and "Skinny Legs and All"

Chritopher Moore "Lamb"

Tomothy Findley "Not Wanted on the Voyage"

Shalom Auslander "Beware of God:Stories"

Jeanette Winterson "Oranges Are Not the Only Fruit"

Tom Perrotta "The Abstinence Teacher"

[roosta]

!!!!

that sounds quite interesting indeed, ha! same dude, i'm assuming. excellent. well done. you have just added that to my list of books to read.

ha! yes, it is the same dude. :)

[MC Moot]

I'm about 2/3 through the most recent,post mortem Black Sparrow release of Charles Bukowski poems...some of them are amazing some not so much,the vault of unpublished material must be near empty by now,as they release about one a year...but what's pissing me off is they're re-publishing poems allready released in earlier compilations...so,like 30% I've already read and I recognize or are vaguely familiar but unmemorable,very annoying...I guess your supposed to watch for the "New" stamp in the title...(n)

[abcdefz]

Alas, Babylon by Pat Frank.

Post-nuke living, written during the cold war. I'm only about 30 pages in or so, but I like the way the guy writes.

[Junker]

Lord of the Rings again. :p

[icy manipulator]

still cracking away at War and Peace. really thinking i should've just watched the movie

[MC Moot]

Over the weekend I read Sherman Alexie’s “The Absolutely True Diary of a Part-Time Indian’, practically a graphic novel, but really sharp, sad and clever…he’s the brightest voice in aboriginal American literature ,without doubt…Authour of the screenplay’s for “Smoke Signals” and the "Business of Fancy Dancing" as well…I firmly recommend anything of his aside from “Indian Killer”…(y)(y)(y)

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sherman_Alexie

[abcdefz]

Alas, Babylon by Pat Frank.

Post-nuke living, written during the cold war. I'm only about 30 pages in or so, but I like the way the guy writes.



Oh, shit. The dialogue is awful. :(

[MC Moot]

I started "American Gangster: And Other Tales of New York" by Mark Jacobson this weekend,I'm 2 stories in,the first being "The Return Of Superfly" about Frank Lucas who was the king of the Harlem drug trade,recently potrayed by Denzel in the movie of same title as the book...seems Frank was/is a hell of alot less dapper than Denzel did him...I liked "Teenage Hipster" (collection of articles) and loved "Gojiro" (Boy meeets Godzilla like creature,they become bestest of pals)...he's at the top of New York paper/magazine hacks,better than Breslin,funnier than Sedaris,smarter than Klosterman..a perfect fit to pen an official B-Boys Bio or day in the life of/tour journal...of all the authors around he'd be the one...(y)

[AceFace]

i'm on the play reading committe at the theatre so i've been reading a BUNCH of plays lately.

this week was:

Noises Off!
5 Women Wearing the Same Dress
Barefoot in the Park

[na§tee]

the know-it-all: one man's humble quest to become the smartest person in the world. by a.j. jacobs. haha, oh man. for those who don't know, this guy decided to read the entire encylopedia britannica. the author and i are still only at 'A' but it's good stuff.
finished Z a wee while ago.

excellent, lots of curious factoids in amongst a bit of a memoir about his wife and their attempts to have a baby. his use of (brackets) to squeeze small facts in when obviously he couldn't be bothered dedicating an entire paragraph to them got a bit annoying on occasion, but eh.

i learnt some neato things. like, the fact that descartes had a fetish for cross-eyed women. that roosevelt renovated the second floor of the white house to make rooms for his children's exotic pets - including raccoons, snakes, a badger and a bear. that oysters can change sex. that scrabble is available in braille. that horace mann advised his students in his last speech to "be ashamed to die until you have won some victory for humanity." that lsd is derived from the ergot fungus on grain, particularly rye, and can be absorbed from any mucosal surface, even the ear (?!) that mormons were the first settlers in vegas. that the film 8½ got its name from the number of films fellini had directed at that point (seven features and three shorts!) all good pub quiz ammo.

another book i stole from my friend's house while looking after it: now i am just about to start middlesex by jeffrey eugenides. i read the virgin suicides when the movie came out in 1999 (god, nearly 10 years? christ) and was a bit.. bleh, but by all accounts i've heard this book is meant to be pretty outstanding. so i'll give his sophomore effort a shot. yipyip.

[b-grrrlie]

Everett True - Hey Ho Let's go The Story of the Ramones (http://www.amazon.ca/Ramones-Biography-Everett-True/dp/0711991081)

[HEIRESS]

Currently

"revolutionary suicide (http://www.amazon.com/Revolutionary-Suicide-Huey-P-Newton/dp/0863163262)" by Huey P Newton

really good. especially about his interactions with the police force and his time in solitary in prison.


and in the past month...

"Down and out in Paris and London (http://www.amazon.com/Paris-London-Penguin-Modern-Classics/dp/0141187360/ref=pd_bbs_sr_2?ie=UTF8&s=books&qid=1210706037&sr=8-2)" George Orwell

a classic. I really enjoyed it.

"selling olga (http://www.amazon.co.uk/Selling-Olga-Stories-Trafficking-Resistance/dp/0753822067)" by Louisa Waugh

really good. though as soon as she starts rattling too many stats I kinda lost my focus when reading

[MC Moot]

^If you're not all Huey'd out,this one is worth owning:

http://www.amazon.com/Huey-P-Newton-Reader/dp/158322467X

(y)

[Waus]

"The Revolution: A Manifesto" by Ron Paul.


It's pretty entertaining, and sometimes enlightening for people like me who are generally politically apathetic.

[Brass_Munkey]

Just started Into the Wild by Jon Krakauer

[roosta]

Just started Into the Wild by Jon Krakauer

great book.


I finished "Year of Living Biblically". Pretty good.

Now reading "The Universe In A Single Atom" by HH The Dalai Lama. A discourse on science and spirituality.

[na§tee]

another book i stole from my friend's house while looking after it: now i am just about to start middlesex by jeffrey eugenides. i read the virgin suicides when the movie came out in 1999 (god, nearly 10 years? christ) and was a bit.. bleh, but by all accounts i've heard this book is meant to be pretty outstanding. so i'll give his sophomore effort a shot. yipyip.
wow. what a fantastic book. really astonishing. i loved it. totally immersive. i was sneakily reading the last hundred or so pages at my desk when people weren't looking.

on the same family/america theme i've just bought the corrections by jonathan franzen. reading up on it i've come across a lot of people comparing it to middlesex and franzen to eugenides as contemporaries, so i'm thinking this is a good thing. and by happy coincidence, it also happens to be the book at the beginning of this whole thread : )

[abcdefz]

A Separate Peace.


It's good. I didn't know it was going to be such a bromance, but it captures that sort of age pretty well. I'm about 3/4ths the way through it.

[abcdefz]

That was a pretty good book.


Now I'm reading Mrs. Bridge. I read it a long time ago and forgot just how well-written, observant, and compact it is.

Paul Newman directed a movie with Joanne based on this book and the sequel.

I should put that in my queue -- I don't remember it well.

[desert_rain]

I'm a big fan of Jane Austen, therefore, EMMA is my favorite book, and I am reading that.

[SobaViolence]

Zen & The Art of Motorcycle Maintenance

and after that i want to re-read and properly understand Judith Butler's Bodies that Matter. (post-structuralist feminist theory on discourse)

[afronaut]

I just finished The Doors of Perception by Aldous Huxley. Now I'm just about finished with Slaugherhouse Five by Vonnegut. After that, I'm going to finish Lolita by Nabakov. I think from there I'll go on to Ada, also by Nabakov.

[cookiepuss]

well thanks to MC Moot, I'm reading Coke Machine Glow by Gordon Downie. it's a book of poetry and lyrics by the front man of the Tragically Hip.
I'm completely enamored with the entire text. Gord is genius!

<3 :cool:

[roosta]

Zen & The Art of Motorcycle Maintenance


I read that last year. Its quite good. In parts its genius, it really connected with me. Some of the longer parts dealing with his opinions on academia got a bit tough going, but overall a very satisfying book.

I think I might tackle Lila (the sequel) or give it a re-reading some day.

[taquitos]

eastman and laird's teenage mutant ninja turtles vol. 2

[MC Moot]

I'm reading "Deadwood" by Pete Dexter...I guess the HBO series was based on this…never cared for “western” novels at all…it's kind of annoying because it's 70% biographical and 30% fiction,hard to tell what's what...not a good format...I'm about 50 pages in…as is my rule of thumb I’ll give it till page 70 to grab me or I’ll toss it…:rolleyes:

[na§tee]

on the same family/america theme i've just bought the corrections by jonathan franzen. reading up on it i've come across a lot of people comparing it to middlesex and franzen to eugenides as contemporaries, so i'm thinking this is a good thing. and by happy coincidence, it also happens to be the book at the beginning of this whole thread : )
just finished it last night. wowowowow. what a brilliant book. i feel i've been terribly lucky with my reading choices lately.

it took me a while to read because i kept on returning to sentences and paragraphs and reading them again, they were just so effective and simple. doing dorky things like making an expression he described that is just so spot on and accurate i have to demonstrate it. haha.

great great book. all the characters were each in their own way terribly depressed yet it still made for humorous reading. i loved it.

on the funny tip, now i am reading down under by bill bryson 8 or so years after i originally read it in preparation for scooting off to melbourne soon, hoorah. i remember funny sections on cricket and box jellyfish (not together, although that would be interesting). so i'm looking forward to reading it again. yay bill!

[silence7]

Lawrence Lessig's - Free Culture

"There has never been a time in history when more of our 'culture' was as 'owned' as it is now. And yet there has never been a time when the concentration of power to control the uses of culture has been as unquestioningly accepted as it is now."

You can download the book in various formats here (http://www.free-culture.cc/remixes/)

S7

[MC Moot]

John Fante's "Ask the Dust" can't say enough,sweet heart,so cruel...fantastic,a must read in period American lit,I've had the Fante reader for years but "Ask the Dust" is a MUST...in this edition the intro's by Bukowski as well...I suppose I'll have to rent this...even though the the 2 leads bare no resemblance to Arturo or Camilla,gonna be painful,me thinks... http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0384814/

[P of R]

I recently finished reading Iain Banks' "The Wasp Factory."

Disturbing but a very good book.

[hpdrifter]

just finished it last night. wowowowow. what a brilliant book. i feel i've been terribly lucky with my reading choices lately.

it took me a while to read because i kept on returning to sentences and paragraphs and reading them again, they were just so effective and simple. doing dorky things like making an expression he described that is just so spot on and accurate i have to demonstrate it. haha.

great great book. all the characters were each in their own way terribly depressed yet it still made for humorous reading. i loved it.

on the funny tip, now i am reading down under by bill bryson 8 or so years after i originally read it in preparation for scooting off to melbourne soon, hoorah. i remember funny sections on cricket and box jellyfish (not together, although that would be interesting). so i'm looking forward to reading it again. yay bill!

I might check it out now. I had been boycotting it because of his comments about Oprah's audience not being able to understand it. Whatever, hate if you must but I found that offensive.

Anyway, we'll see.

[hpdrifter]

John Fante's "Ask the Dust" can't say enough,sweet heart,so cruel...fantastic,a must read in period American lit,I've had the Fante reader for years but "Ask the Dust" is a MUST...in this edition the intro's by Bukowski as well...I suppose I'll have to rent this...even though the the 2 leads bare no resemblance to Arturo or Camilla,gonna be painful,me thinks... http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0384814/

Lemme know how this movie is. I may read the book too. Too many good suggestions in this damn thread. Its going to take me the rest of the year to finish War and Peace so at least this is a record of the good suggestions I will jump into when I have conquered that great lumbering beast.

[ToucanSpam]

The Return of the King- J.R.R. Tolkein


Second read through. I find myself digging through the Appendix when I'm not willing to read pages and pages of description.

I was thinking of picking up The Once and Future King again since I dropped it years ago.

I'm also strongly considering picking up Chrichton's Jurassic Park again. So much more stuff in the book than the movie but even still both are phenomenal. Props to Wikipedia for having JP as the featured article.

[MC Moot]

Lemme know how this movie is. I may read the book too. Too many good suggestions in this damn thread. Its going to take me the rest of the year to finish War and Peace so at least this is a record of the good suggestions I will jump into when I have conquered that great lumbering beast.

I'll tell ya what,I think I saw a dog eared copy awhile back at my second hand bookstore,if it's there I'll snag and post it 2 ya...I'm just that big on it...without this book there is no "East of Eden",no "On the Road' no "Post Office"...(y)

[hpdrifter]

Sweet, works for me. I'll read it in between plowing through chapter after chapter of beautiful but turgid russian.

[na§tee]

I might check it out now. I had been boycotting it because of his comments about Oprah's audience not being able to understand it. Whatever, hate if you must but I found that offensive.

Anyway, we'll see.
nah, i would find that offensive too. i heard about that but didn't see any specific comments he made. i was under the impression that he was a bit pissed from then on his book would have been printed with the oprah insignia on it, so it would be like sort of claiming ownership. more "oprah's the corrections" than "jonathan franzen's the corrections". there are some themes in the book about ownership, sinister faceless big business, american culture, money etc. postmodernism yadda yadda.. so i could have predicted he'd interpret his own product's association with oprah like that. maybe. dunno. as i say, haven't heard much about it.

ooh, i found these couple of pars on the guardian about the whole ordeal:

Franzen was soon being pummelled all over America for his "ingratitude". He had committed perhaps the worst American sin, elitism; and the second worst American sin, a lack of proper respect for the forces of commerce. He duly apologised for claiming his book as high art, and told newspapers that he and Winfrey were actually united in the great joint jihad of eliminating distinctions between high and low novels. The media beast, duly mollified, moved on to anthrax.

But one sympathised with Franzen's dilemma. Indeed, the sight of a novelist acting in this rebellious, stubborn, difficult, old-fashioned manner was cheering. Franzen was right to identify commercial forces such as Winfrey for what they are - forces that may actually be antithetical to literature, for all that they come dressed as literature's helpmeet. Winfrey's "book club", after all, has made a great contribution to American literacy, but has very little to do with American literature.

And one sympathised with Franzen's own literary status - anxiety; his novel may not be Tolstoy, but it does indeed belong to high literature. Franzen may himself be a little confused on this score. Five years ago, he wrote: "I resist the notion of literature as a noble calling because elitism doesn't sit well with my American nature, and because... my belief in manners would make it difficult for me to explain to my brother, who is a fan of Michael Crichton, that the work I'm doing is simply better than Crichton's." Eh? Franzen doesn't want to tell his brother that he is better than Crichton, for fear of offence; but he is sure he is better than Crichton anyway! Such is the modern, populist anxiety of a serious, talented, highbrow writer - an anxiety now made infinitely more acute by wild commercial success.
interesting!

[Deep_Sea_Rain]

"Rain Of Gold" by Victor Villesenor. It came highly recommended by one of my professors. I'm only a few pages into it, but I can already tell it's going to be one of those books that stays with you forever. It details the life of a Mexican family...definitely give it a look.

[trailerprincess]

No Country for Old Men - it's grimmer than the film.

[MC Moot]

I’m reading Daniel Wallace’s “Mr Sebastian and the Negro Magician”….about 50 pages in,fantastic folk lit…Daniel Wallace is rewriting the South for me and I dig it…"Big Fish" and “The Watermelon King” are all snap as well…(pass on “Ray in Reverse”)…he’s like Mark Twain meeting Ray Bradbury…(y)

http://www.danielwallace.org/

[MC Moot]

This summer I read:

David Sedaris's "When You are Engulfed in Flames" ...which I found to be his best to date,very funny,observational stuff,great wit...the bit on his smoking cessation is the best...(y)

"Nobody's Angel" by Thomas McGuane...this is a tuff read,kinda sorta cowboy poetry if written by Hemingway...pretty sad...

"Beardless Warriors" by Richard Mattheson...WWII novel,mistakingly compared to the "Red Badge of Courage"...(n)

"What I Talk About When I Talk About Running" by Haruki Murakami...an essential for fans of Murakami or anyone who runs casually or seriously...kind of a travelogue/diary,made me wanna try and run the N.Y.C Marathon...(y)

[na§tee]

i finished down under at the start of this week. australia is pretty interesting, mate.

now i have started when you are engulfed in flames by david sedaris, too! only three chapters in but you think it's his best so far eh, moot? dress your family.. is still my favourite thus far but we'll see how it goes!

[rirv]

Down and out in Paris and London by George Orwell.

A fairly diverting read, interesting social interactions. Never convinces because you know that Orwell could always just go home whereas the people he meets have nowhere else to go. Why be poor just for the sake of it?

[Waus]

East of Eden by Steinbeck.

It was a book on CD, and I have to do a lot of driving for a while. I liked the whole allegory aspect of the book.

[cookiepuss]

Eleven Minutes by Paulo Coelho (http://books.google.com/books?id=5YHsw6V-wr8C&dq=eleven+minutes&pg=PP1&ots=S1ZjUuyL1k&sig=gDt6b8jdENp2L2t3Lc5O_YuXjvI&hl=en&sa=X&oi=book_result&resnum=1&ct=result)

this book is pretty different from his others, but it's still has a bit of his signature optimisim and spirituality. This book had a profound effect on me and gave me a lot of insight on how I could be happier if I didn't try to hold on to things, especially people, so tightly.

this text is erotic...which is not the normal subject matter for Coelho. the text dabbles in some S&M and is sexy, ultimately romantic, but also spiritual and dark.

I highly, highly recommend it.(y)

[MC Moot]

I'm a little better than half way through Cormac McCarthy's “No Country for Old Men”…I usually don’t care for reading a book after the movie but this is a blast…It may be the best book to film adaptation I’ve read slight changes or omissions…I think only “Sin City” is as faithful…it’s trick…and as I read it I hear the actors voices as my internal audio…great pulp…can't wait to see how it wraps up...(y)

[abcdefz]

Winesberg Ohio.

Still good, but not as good as I remember. Pretty gloomy,too.

[MC Moot]

I finished "A Long Way Gone" by Ishmael Beah...a memoir of his time as a child soldier in Sierra Leone...it reads as being slightly unbelievable,or simple,which makes it all the more horrifying...

http://www.alongwaygone.com/

[ToucanSpam]

The Sun Also Rises by Hemingway


A classic modernist novel. The love square/pentagon situation is sort of funny.

[MC Moot]

The Sun Also Rises by Hemingway...

Viva Espana,viva Ernesto...(y)

[p-branez]

Bobos in Paradise
David Brooks.

read it. it's fantastic.

[abcdefz]

Chandler's Farewell My Lovely.

Pretty good, but I still like The Long Goodbye best.

[MC Moot]

About 1/2 way through "Reach for the Sun: Selected Letters, 1978-1994" by Bukowski...it's the first collections of letters I've read from him...namely cause I've exhausted everything else...it's interesting,his style in corespondence comes through as clearly as his prose,flashes of brillance...It's post-"Barfly" and during the period when he was writing "Hollywood" as well as dieing from cancer...ton's of names droping from the bard...like how Penn and Madonna invited him out to dinner and stiffed him with the bill…they didn’t speak for years cause Bukowski took it really personally…and then Penn wrote him a series of letters and sent bizarre gifts until reconcilliation….anyway’s Penn apparently has the rights to “Women…(y)

[HEIRESS]

I havent been very good at updating this thread. I missed all the books I read this summer...

anyways, what Im reading presently

Jokes my father never taught me by Rain Pryor (http://www.amazon.com/Jokes-My-Father-Never-Taught/dp/0061195421)

its amazing how people are functional after the fucked up childhoods they endured.

I just bought my mom Growing up Poor: A Literary Anthology (http://www.amazon.com/Growing-Up-Poor-Literary-Anthology/dp/1565846230)for her birfday. she likes "lite" reading just like me...

[paul jones]

I just started Howard Marks 'Senor Nice'

I just finished Peter Bagge's 'Buddy Does Seattle'

[QueenAdrock]

*Very Special Agents, a history of the ATF by Richard Moore
*Audacity of Hope by Barack Obama

I haven't been getting very far with them, though. :(

[Fern]

Illiteracy: A Reader’s Guide by; None of your god damn business!

Nuwk, nuwk, nuwk

[MC Moot]

I read Yannick Murphy's "Here They Come" this weekend...it's amazing...really can't say enough...I first came across Yannick's stuff in the McSweeney's digests,short stories,poems and prose style...she's so sharp,relentless...this is my new fave N.Y.C story without doubt...pick it up I urge you to...now I have to read everything she's done...(y)

http://www.yannickmurphy.com/

http://www.mcsweeneys.net/

[HEIRESS]

I think Ill check that out!

[Gareth]

yiddish policeman's union - michael chabon

[Audio.]

How To Please A Woman With An Apple - Megg Steinback

[MC Moot]

I think Ill check that out!

I KNOW you'll love it...if you read it and don't I will send you "And the Angel Saw the Ass" by Mr Bad Seed,Nick Cave cause those are 2 titles that I specifically thought you'd love...(y)

http://www.amazon.com/Ass-Saw-Angel-Nick-Cave/dp/1880985721

[easy 3]

I've almost finished In the Country of Last Things by Paul Auster - It's pretty grim but I've really enjoyed it

[HEIRESS]

I KNOW you'll love it...if you read it and don't I will send you "And the Angel Saw the Ass" by Mr Bad Seed,Nick Cave cause those are 2 titles that I specifically thought you'd love...(y)

http://www.amazon.com/Ass-Saw-Angel-Nick-Cave/dp/1880985721


now thats a nutty looking book!
thanks for the thought!

[ToucanSpam]

The 'Conquest' of Acadia, 1710: Imperial, Colonial, and Aboriginal Constructions


Written/Edited by John G. Reid, Maurice Basque, Elizabeth Mancke, Barry Moody, Geoffrey Plank, and William Wicken.


For one of my classes.

[MC Moot]

I finished Yannick Murphy's "Signed: Mata Hari" ...I've always have a passing knowledge of the Mata Hari story from a cultural/historical perspective...but this was a fascinating take on it...essentially a fictional memoir...I'll have to read a little on the real deal...tough stuff,sad,sad...so time for a Yannick break and i'm gonna start the new Chuck Klosterman's "Downtown Owl" which is his first novel,I'm very interested to get into it...

[BangkokB]

i got tired of reading Reefer Men ~ Tony Thompson so I started on Everything's Eventual and that story is a must read

[ScarySquirrel]

I've been on a Dean Koontz kick lately... Right now I am reading From the Corner of His Eye by Dean Koontz. So far it's pretty good but, like most of his books, it takes a while for it to really get swinging into the story.

Actually, now that I think about it, that might be why I like his writing so much...

[BangkokB]

So I was in a library and I asked the guy next to me~ Hey whatcha reading? And he says to me Are You Serious I'm Homeless--Coo Coo Ca Choo I am the Eggman

And I am the Walrus

Imagine that....

[MC Moot]

I finished Chuck Klosterman’s “Downtown Owl”…it was great…not a particularly happy read though, some black humour,some twisted shit…if you are familiar with his writing style you’ll be familiar with the style his first crack at a novel takes…it’s basically narrated through 4 characters in a small North Dakota town in late 1983 into 1984…Klosterman and I are around the same age so culturally I can soooooo relate…especially having lived in a prairie town for 2 years at around the time he’s set the novel…good read,check it out hipsters…(y)


http://www.simonsays.com/content/book.cfm?tab=1&pid=625851&er=9781416544180

[MC Moot]

I'm about half way through Neil Gaimans "Fragile Things" which is a great fall/October read of really well written spooky stuff...and the introduction features a little note from Neil about the individual stories,what influenced them etc...tributes to Ray Bradbury,Harlan Ellison and Peter Straub...(y)

[AceFace]

Phillipa Gregory's The Virgin's Lover. i love stories about Queen Elizabeth for some reason.

[MC Moot]

I’m about ½ way through Ethan Coens ”Gates of Eden” ( http://www.amazon.com/Gates-Eden-Ethan-Coen/dp/0385334389 )…it reads pretty much like his movies…pulp fiction/noir,dark humor: short stories about boxers,detectives,wanna be mineapolis dago gangsters,observations from a young jewish kid,a radio play that kinda thing…not particularily well crafted but solidly entertaining…as you read each story you totally picture which Coen bros player would be cast in the screenplay…(y)

[beastiegirrl101]

Rant by Chuck Palahniuk....I got about 75% through and I came to a blah point...I was all into it and there's this lull and I'm like wtf...I hate when that happends. I hope it picks up.

[hpdrifter]

I have to bump this thread, I am going to the bookstore today.

[paul jones]

I have to bump this thread, I am going to the bookstore today.

what for?

[little j]

i just finished a lion among men by gregory maguire (3rd book in the wicked series or whatever) it was good.

he needs to write on on Nor's life, but alas... maybe next.

need a new book.... maybe i'll re-read something i already have...

[Waus]

"The Robots of Dawn" by Isaac Asimov

[jennyb]

"How to Make Love Like a Porn Star: A Cautionary Tale" by Jenna Jameson

[paul jones]

"How to Make Love Like a Porn Star: A Cautionary Tale" by Jenna Jameson

she doesn't take it up the butt

[Schmeltz]

Peter Carey, True History of the Kelly Gang. Absolutely fabulous.

[MC Moot]

This weekend I tore through John Hodgmans "The Areas of my Expertise" (http://www.areasofmyexpertise.com/)…you may know him as the PC guy from adverts or as a Daily Show correspondent…he does some pretty funny shit on NPR as well...anyway’s, I was waiting on his new one to arrive so I took the first one out and it was pretty twisted and funny, alot of charts that don’t make alot of sense, but hilarious schtick on Hoboes and werewolves,alternate history and such…a perfect read for a plane trip…out of all the Daily show books to be sprung I’d say it places 3rd behind Lewis Black’s but better than Colberts…

[MC Moot]

I'm about 1/2 way through Kurt Vonnegut's "Armageddon in Retrospect" the first title published post mortem...it's fantastic,devastatinf musing on war and peace,past and present...reflects on the ultimate weakness in our human condition...begins with an intro from his son and is followed immediately by the first letter with which he was able to let his family know he was alive after the destruction of Dresden…I’m riveted to it…but I keep making myself put it down least I eat to fast…check it out...(y)

[roosta]

The Essential Alan Watts, by Alan Watts.

Excellent. I recommend Watts to everyone.

[na§tee]

Peter Carey, True History of the Kelly Gang. Absolutely fabulous.
oooh. when i went to australia i was going to read this to get into the antipodean ZONE. i may do it now.

instead of that book i got.. unreliable memoirs by clive james! i finished it today. fabulous book. mostly about his oh so massive intelligence in a sort of EXTREMELY thinly veiled humility. and mutual masturbation as a kid. infact, it's mostly about how brainy and horny he was when he was a bub, haha. great though. funny guy.

[taquitos]

Richard Feynman's Surely You're Joking, Mr. Feynman

[AceFace]

The Other Boleyn Girl - Philippa Gregory

[Gareth]

drown - junot diaz.
i like his style (based on oscar wao).

[Dharma]

"I hope they serve beer in hell"

Personally ... I think this goon is completey full of shit. Its a memior about his sexcapades... Yeah ....ok.

Its funny, unbelievable funny.

[hpdrifter]

A Separate Peace.


It's good. I didn't know it was going to be such a bromance, but it captures that sort of age pretty well. I'm about 3/4ths the way through it.

I'm kind of surprised you like this book. Many people I've come in contact with find the themes too obvious (sort of like if Crash were this book). I might have to read it again, I remember liking it a lot but its been so long since I last read it.

[hpdrifter]

I'll tell ya what,I think I saw a dog eared copy awhile back at my second hand bookstore,if it's there I'll snag and post it 2 ya...I'm just that big on it...without this book there is no "East of Eden",no "On the Road' no "Post Office"...(y)

No dog eared copy? :(

I got Signed, Mata Hari and Brotherhood of the Grape from the library today. They didnt have Ask the Dust. My neighborhood library kind of sucks. They had tons of romance novels, John Grisham, James Patterson kind of things and almost none of the things I went in there looking for.

[Schmeltz]

I just finished Shalimar the Clown by Salman Rushdie the other day and it is superb, even better than Midnight's Children. If you only ever read one Rushdie novel in your life make it this one. Heartwrenching, provocative, sublime, entertaining.

Naturally after that I need something more lighthearted so I'm currently checking out Two for the Lions by Lindsey Davis - detective fiction set in ancient Rome. I read another such historical whodunnit by another author while I was in Sydney a few weeks ago. Good fun, though naturally a little light on substance, but who cares?

[MC Moot]

No dog eared copy? :(

I got Signed, Mata Hari and Brotherhood of the Grape from the library today. They didnt have Ask the Dust. My neighborhood library kind of sucks. They had tons of romance novels, John Grisham, James Patterson kind of things and almost none of the things I went in there looking for.

You’ll have to let me know how you like Mata Hari…I’ll totally swing into to books on 4th tomorrow and snag you sumthin,sumthin good just cause you asked so nicely and remembered!…;)

[abcdefz]

The Black Dahlia by James Ellroy.

It's pretty sad when I've only got 50 pages to go in a 350 page book and I don't even care to finish it.

It started off okay, then the "obsession" angle started kicking in with these two characters and if this boxer policeman dude's legs go
weak one more time I'm gonna poo.

So far: C-

[AceFace]

going through the Philippa Gregory books pretty quickly. i love some Royal Historical Fiction.

now reading The Queen's Fool.

[b i o n i c]

"Don't Get Too Comfortable (http://www.amazon.com/Dont-Get-Too-Comfortable-Indignities/dp/0385510365)" by David Rakoff

[hpdrifter]

You’ll have to let me know how you like Mata Hari…I’ll totally swing into to books on 4th tomorrow and snag you sumthin,sumthin good just cause you asked so nicely and remembered!…;)

I liked Mata Hari. Murphy really has a way with prose, its almost like reading someone retelling a dream they had. Dialogue is not noted with quotes and is almost always left slightly incomplete.

I also finished Brotherhood of the Grape. I am not sure how I feel about it. It was hard to read in some ways. How dysfunctional this family is and how miserable they all seem with their lives.

[hpdrifter]

...and now I'm on to The Road.

[SobaViolence]

God: A Biography - Jack Miles

treats the tanakh (old testament) as a story with God as the protagonist.
really good.

[beastieboysbaby]

new moon....of course lol :o

[MC Moot]

God: A Biography - Jack Miles

treats the tanakh (old testament) as a story with God as the protagonist.
really good.

That sounds interesting...you may really like this ( http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Not_Wanted_on_the_Voyage) it’s fantastic…(y)

[MC Moot]

Murphy really has a way with prose, its almost like reading someone retelling a dream they had. Dialogue is not noted with quotes and is almost always left slightly incomplete..

Damn that's accurate and astute,nice!...(y)

[hpdrifter]

Oh you.

I did enjoy the story, though its so sad. She seems to take all of the injustices she endured with perseverance. You get glimpses of her being affected by them but the overall thrust is that she just moved on. A singularly strong woman.

[MC Moot]

Oh you.

I did enjoy the story, though its so sad. She seems to take all of the injustices she endured with perseverance. You get glimpses of her being affected by them but the overall thrust is that she just moved on. A singularly strong woman.

You'll love "Here They Come" if and when you come across it...pssssst I snagged a book to send you!

[hpdrifter]

Your PM box is full...

:(

[MC Moot]

Your PM box is full...

:(

I done gone and fixed it!...;)

[MC Moot]

1. hpdrifter has exceeded their stored private messages quota and can not accept further messages until they clear some space.

:rolleyes:

[roosta]

Alan Watts - The Wisdom of Uncertainty

Really liking it. The Essential Alan Watts is great, but was more of a collection of essays, this is a complete work.

[Schmeltz]

Just got through The Constant Gardener by John le Carre. It's a good plot but it gets tiresomely preachy at the expense of the pacing, and the tragic love story is overwrought by the lack of redemption granted to the much-abused protagonists. Not le Carre's best, unfortunately.

I started Desolation Island by Patrick O'Brian yesterday, but I got drunk and lost it somewhere. :( Now I have to see if I can find it.

[hpdrifter]

1. hpdrifter has exceeded their stored private messages quota and can not accept further messages until they clear some space.

:rolleyes:

Hehe, fixed. :o

[hpdrifter]

Just finished The Road.

I don't know what to say.

[abcdefz]

^

Too bleak for even me. Couldn't finish it.


The Metamorphisis.

It's still good, though the apple-chucking plot device still seems awkward.

[beastiegirrl101]

I'm embarrassed to admit it but I am reading Twilight. If you take all the movie hype out it's actually a pretty good love story.

[b-grrrlie]

Kent : texter om Sveriges största rockband (http://www.sonicmagazine.com/index.php?option=com_content&task=view&id=1681&Itemid=145)

[hpdrifter]

I'll probably read Twlight at some point. Right now I'm in Crime and Punishment. Its a penguin translation I got at the library and its really stilted. Its supposed to be the most "accessible" translation but I find it really awkward going. Oh well, whatever, it was free.

Next on the list are:

The Corrections
the book Moot is sending me
Here they Come
the book my secret santa is sending me
A Separate Peace (a-z inspired me to read it again, its been too long)

There's this one thing in "The Road" that I'll never be able to get out of my head. I can't even say its horrifying. It numbed me.

[beastieboysbaby]

new moon (L)

[MC Moot]

I started Christopher Moore’s “The Stupidest Angel: A Heartwarming Tale of Christmas Terror” (http://www.chrismoore.com/stupidest_angel.html) it’s O.K…just silly fun, not even near the level of sharp wit or caliber of “Lamb” or “A Dirty Job” but it’s got some chuckles and reoccurring characters from his Pine Cove setting…it’s the only title of his I have yet to get to…good seasonal, dumb it down fun…

[MC Moot]

I finished Lewis Blacks "Me of Little Faith"...meh...in a time when so many great books are being written about religion this is pretty weak...interesting to read at this time of year though...but I wanna call bullshit on him not addressing his thoughts on Islam and trying to make light of the exclusion...trust me Mr Black you are no Salman Rushdie so let the rant fly...anyway's just because he's found fame and fortune on the other side of fifty doesn't mean he should keep hacking books out...I hope Stewart is catching a cut...(n)

[na§tee]

Next on the list are:

The Corrections
fantastic book. do it.

the book my secret santa is sending me
so is that ;)

speaking of jonathan franzen i got a few more of his books for christmas and am now about 1/4 of the way through how to be alone. suffice to say some of the subject matter in the essays is depressing but it is damn sure thought provoking: many sleepless nights have been had.

[Waus]

Catch 22.


Seemed like a good idea, it's been on my shelf.

[jabumbo]

catch-22 is my favorite book ever. i hardly enjoy reading much so i don't know what that says for how you will like it though....


i have slaughterhouse five still in my bag unpacked from getting home on the 19th (and actually getting the book on the 13th). maybe i should actually start to read the thing.

[MC Moot]

i have slaughterhouse five still in my bag unpacked from getting home on the 19th (and actually getting the book on the 13th). maybe i should actually start to read the thing.

yes,you really should...actually everyone should read everything K.V ever wrote with the exception of "Wampeters,Foma and Granfalloons" me thinks...:cool:(y)

[kleptomaniac]

fight club ~ after watching the movie so many times already, i'm finally reading the book! yay me

next up...haunted

[Rock]

I started Christopher Moore’s “The Stupidest Angel: A Heartwarming Tale of Christmas Terror” (http://www.chrismoore.com/stupidest_angel.html) it’s O.K…just silly fun, not even near the level of sharp wit or caliber of “Lamb” or “A Dirty Job” but it’s got some chuckles and reoccurring characters from his Pine Cove setting…it’s the only title of his I have yet to get to…good seasonal, dumb it down fun…

Didn't even know about that one (The Stupidest Angel). I'm not really one who reads many books (which I'm trying to change) but within the past year I got into Christopher Moore. Loved all of his books until the end of them. they always seem very rushed to me and I think I've only enjoyed the end of Lamb, the others were just ... meh to me. But I still can't stop reading his books...because whatever the endings of the books lack...the rest of the book makes up for....tenfold.

Next on the list in People Funny Boy. Cause Scratch is insane. And reminds me of my grandmother cause he is so tiny and out of this world.

[ScarySquirrel]

Right now I'm reading The Count of Monte Cristo by Alexandre Dumas. It's one of those classics that I've never read... and, although I usually don't enjoy "classics" for some reason, I really am liking this one. Good tale!

[Gareth]

I'm embarrassed to admit it but I am reading Twilight. If you take all the movie hype out it's actually a pretty good love story.

i'm reading it too.
no shame in my game.

[Schmeltz]

Hmm, I see some people recently read The Road, which I just finished the other day. "Bleak" is hardly sufficient to describe that one, and I'm pretty sure I know exactly what scene hpdrifter is referring to. Pretty good stuff, but definitely a bit of a downer.

Another of my recent conquests is Ham on Rye by Charles Bukowski, chronologically the first of the semi-autobiographical Henry Chinaski novels. It's visceral, hard-hitting, and unsparing while still properly evocative of the author's loneliness and alienation, and maybe the best thing about it is that although Chinaski grows from a child to a young man over the course of the book, with a concurrent change in the narration's voice and language, the tone manages to stay the same throughout. Really good - reminds you again of just how much of a pussy Holden Caulfield really is.

Right now I'm working on The Glass Palace by Amitav Ghosh on a fellow traveller's recommendation. It definitely has its moments but I wouldn't call it anything spectacular.

[MC Moot]

Another of my recent conquests is Ham on Rye by Charles Bukowski, chronologically the first of the semi-autobiographical Henry Chinaski novels. It's visceral, hard-hitting, and unsparing while still properly evocative of the author's loneliness and alienation, and maybe the best thing about it is that although Chinaski grows from a child to a young man over the course of the book, with a concurrent change in the narration's voice and language, the tone manages to stay the same throughout. Really good - reminds you again of just how much of a pussy Holden Caulfield really is..

Oh man,visceral,I'll say...the descriptions of him going to the hospital in his teens to have those horribly painful boils lanced...repeatedly...and walking home with the L.A sun beating down on him...with pus and blood seeping through his shirt...it's an ugly read...his relationship with his father in particular…definetley one of the toughest of his books to stomach...only thing he wrote that was harder was “Women”…(y)

[RoryMC]

I'll probably read Twlight at some point. Right now I'm in Crime and Punishment. Its a penguin translation I got at the library and its really stilted. Its supposed to be the most "accessible" translation but I find it really awkward going. Oh well, whatever, it was free.

My favourite book. I also hail it as possibly the finest book ever written. I have never been so immersed in a story as the one of Raskolnikov.

I recommend The Gambler by Dostoevsky, too. It may be a lot shorter than C&P but it's even more difficult to read. It's worth it, though.

[Gareth]

twilight was actually quite enjoyable.
i read it in 2 sittings.

[kleptomaniac]

a book by paul ekman called "telling lies" (i'm actually reading it for FUN and not a class!)

AND his research is what "lie to me" is based on! which is really how i got interested in learning more about it myself...but it's fascinating! (y)

[Pres Zount]

I started War and Peace, and I only have about 900 pages to go. It is surprisingly interesting considering the very boring subject material it is dealing with at this early stage; Russian elites enjoying dinner parties and speaking French.

[Drederick Tatum]

Daniel Yergin - The Prize - The Epic Quest for Oil, Money, & Power (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/index.html?curid=1230648) it was made in to a tv series so you know it's good.

[trailerprincess]

Bruce Parry's book 'Tribe' which is based on the tv series so you know it's good.

[jackrock]

Foundation by Asimov.

[MC Moot]

I read about 100 pages of Denis Leary’s “Why We Suck”…and that’s enough of that…like with his stand up,after 30 minutes it’s exhausted…bunk…and just nasty and mean spirited without any real insight or outcome…he should have written a pure autobiography,cause the stories of him coming up were the only part that held any interest…(n)

[kleptomaniac]

a mind is a terrible thing to read (http://www.amazon.com/Psych-Mind-Terrible-Thing-Read/dp/0451226356)

great mystery, perfect dialogue (i literally lol'd at certain parts), and overall amazing, just like the show!! <3 :o

[Nuzzolese]

Great Short Works of Leo Tolstoy

[ToucanSpam]

Like eight different books on labor history and unions, none of which are interesting. if I could recommend a book to people, it would be Nine Stories by J.D. Salinger. Most of you are probably familiar with Catcher in the Rye, this book has lots of other neat stories.

[MC Moot]

I read "Sway" by Zacahary Lazar (http://www.hachettebookgroup.com/books_9780316113113.htm)...(y)...the HEIRESS would dig this one me thinks...and anyone who has interest in the early Stones,Brian Jones fate,Altamont,the Manson murders,the end of the "peace and love" era...fictional,factual,fun...(y)

[roosta]

The Design of Everyday Things by Don Norman

Genius

[Freebasser]

The Zombie Survival Guide and Charlie Brooker's Screen Burn.

[jennyb]

Magnificent Mind at Any Age - by Daniel G. Amen

[MC Moot]

"Good Omens" by Neil Gaiman and Terry Pratchett...for the 2nd time,for comic relief...on the jacket sleeve one of the critic quotes describes it as "A direct descendant of Hitchhikers Guide to the Galaxy."...which is pretty bang on...(y)

"Self" by Yann Martel (Life of Pi)...no thanks...(n)


"The Boy Who Was Raised As a Dog: And Other Stories from a Child Psychiatrist's Notebook: What Traumatized Children Can Teach Us About Loss, Love and Healing" by Bruce D. Perry...this book is tearing me apart,brilliant,tragic and yet resiliant...I've seen Dr Perry speak on several occasions,the mans a genius...(y)

[Deep_Sea_Rain]

I'm half-way through Michael Blake's "The Holy Road". It's the sequel to his other novel "Dances With Wolves". As a child I loved the film, and it remains in my top 5 of all-time to this day. I read the novel, and it was fantastic. So far the follow-up is just as good. Definitely check it out. (y)

[roosta]

Everyday Zen

by Charlotte Joko Beck.

[MC Moot]

I finally finished "All the Pretty Horses" by Cormac McCarthy,I'd had a go at it last year but put it down,didn't grab me at the time...but I enjoyed it this time...raw americana meets mexicana meets the end of the true cowboy era...good stuff,I thought it was much better than "The Road" or "No Country For Old Men"...I think I have to have a look at the movie again...and now I'm reading "Long Way Down: An African Adventure" by Ewan McGregor and Charley Boorman...solid travel/adventure writing I'm enjoying it much more than I did the actual show and they've improved their writing since "Long Way Around"...lots of great pics as well...(y)

[HEIRESS]

Madame Bovary by Gustave Flaubert

I don't know why I forced myself through it. I only enjoyed the first bit and as soon as it was told mainly from Madame B's point of view I despised every line of it.

[gbsuey]

Just this week i decided i'm gonna find time to start reading books again. I got two of my Sandman books back from a friend, am bidding on ebay for the two that are missing from my collection and also all of Neil Gaimans novels, and have started on the first book. Musta read them so many times in the last (roughly) fifteen years but no matter-i'm sucked in again allready.
I also need to re-read Watchmen before i see the film. It's a good fifteen years since i last read it so feel a need to re-acquaint myself with it.
And Dark knight returns-i'm getting the comic book bug again.

[trailerprincess]

Just finished The Brutal Art by Jesse Kellerman. It was very good.

[funk63]

Kiriniyaga

[hitmonlee]

i've just finished a book called "how to be idle" and i swear it is my new bible.
all about taking life slower, going back to a way where we didnt have to work 9-5, 5 days a week (y)

http://www.idler.co.uk

[trailerprincess]

i've just finished a book called "how to be idle" and i swear it is my new bible.
all about taking life slower, going back to a way where we didnt have to work 9-5, 5 days a week (y)

http://www.idler.co.uk

I wonder if that's off the back of The Idler magazines/books?

[hitmonlee]

i believe it to be the same yes. (y)

[trailerprincess]

Cool. I very much like those book-type things. I'm not sure what to call them really.

[roosta]

i've just finished a book called "how to be idle" and i swear it is my new bible.
all about taking life slower, going back to a way where we didnt have to work 9-5, 5 days a week (y)

http://www.idler.co.uk

The sequel "How To Be Free" also looks quite good. (http://idler.co.uk/books/how-to-be-free/)

Think i'll check them out.

[MC Moot]

"Freakonomics: A Rogue Economist Explores the Hidden Side of Everything" by Steven Levitt...really,really interesting...thought provoking...a great book to discuss with friend or foe...kinda sorta economics meets pop culture...(y)

Chapter 1: Discovering cheating as applied to teachers and sumo wrestlers.

Chapter 2: Information control as applied to the Ku Klux Klan and real-estate agents.

Chapter 3: The economics of drug dealing, including the surprisingly low earnings and abject working conditions of crack cocaine dealers.

Chapter 4: The controversial role legalized abortion has played in reducing crime.

Chapter 5: The negligible effects of good parenting on education.

Chapter 6: The socioeconomic patterns of naming children

[checkyourprez]

collapse-jared diamond

why a number of old civilizations have collapsed and what we can learn from it. his theory for these collapses were environmental changes brought on mostly by human action and some natural occurrences.

[checkyourprez]

^quite a good read.

very interesting, a history lesson and a bit of an outline on how to save the world all in one.

[taquitos]

saddle club
(http://www.amazon.com/Horse-Crazy-Saddle-Club-R/dp/0553484028/ref=pd_sim_b_5)

[Dorothy Wood]

shit, my liberry book is overdue. I'm reading Andersonville http://www.amazon.com/Andersonville-Plume-MacKinlay-Kantor/dp/0452269563

it's completely gorgeous, but also 750 pages long or something and it doesn't use quotation marks for speech. it also changes points of view all the time. anyway, it's heavy so I get tired of lugging it around and leave it at home a lot instead of reading it on the bus/train.

ima read it now.

[HEIRESS]

^ that's looks like something I'd enjoy.

"The tenant of wildfell hall (http://www.amazon.com/Tenant-Wildfell-Oxford-Worlds-Classics/dp/0192834622)" Anne Bronte

pretty great. Im enjoying the passages describing her husband's drunken escapades.

next it is going to be "wuthering heights" by Emily Bronte.

Bronte all up in hurr.

[Dorothy Wood]

My coworker and I were talking about the Bronte girls a couple weeks ago. I can't remember what book she was telling me about first off, but she explained the whole damn thing, then we talked about Wuthering Heights for like an hour. that book is single-handedly responsible for my fear of moors.

[HEIRESS]

^ hah, sweet work convo.

I do believe I shall avoid moors at all costs after reading that book now too.

"Germinal" Emile Zola (http://www.amazon.com/Germinal-Penguin-Classics-%C3%89mile-Zola/dp/0140447423)

good so far, but I gotta read something a lil more up-beat next...

[kleptomaniac]

zen and the art of motorcycle maintenance

[HEIRESS]

^
I haven't read this below book but it looks like it might also be a good read if you enjoy zen and the art...
http://www.amazon.com/Zen-Now-Robert-Motorcycle-Maintenance/dp/0307269701/ref=sr_1_2?ie=UTF8&s=books&qid=1239042351&sr=1-2

I just started "Memoirs of a Coxcomb (http://www.amazon.com/Memoirs-Coxcomb-Broadview-John-Cleland/dp/1551115689/ref=sr_1_2?ie=UTF8&s=books&qid=1239042435&sr=1-2)" by John Cleland.

:o:o:o

[AceFace]

whee! 3 books at one time!

The Boleyn Inheritance by Phillippa Gregory
http://www.amazon.com/Boleyn-Inheritance-Philippa-Gregory/dp/1439124671/ref=pd_bbs_sr_1?ie=UTF8&s=books&qid=1239043338&sr=8-1

The New Square Foot Gardening
http://www.amazon.com/All-New-Square-Foot-Gardening/dp/1591862027/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&s=books&qid=1239043408&sr=1-1

Christopher Durang Expalins it All (i'm preparing to audition for two of his one acts)
http://www.amazon.com/Christopher-Durang-Explains-All-You/dp/0802132324/ref=sr_1_2?ie=UTF8&s=books&qid=1239043457&sr=1-2

[nodanaonlyzuul]

I'm trying to decide if I want to start Pride and Prejudice and Zombies first, or Born Standing Up.

[HEIRESS]

I wanna read that P&P&Z!
let me know how it is!

[ciaobellaOX]

Angels and Demons

[yeahwho]

I'm not even sure of the title, it's about that guy who has asperger's syndrome... "look me in the eye" I think.

He made all the cool pyro-technic's for KISS and was a tour sound tech extraordinaire.

Great Book anyway

[Deep_Sea_Rain]

Occupied America: A History of Chicanos by Rodolfo Acuña.

(y)

[gbsuey]

have just started Lunar Park-Brett Easton Ellis. Am imagining it's gonna be fairly dark if A.Psycho and Glamorama are anything to go by. Even the prologue (or the bits i could be bothered to read) were unsettling.

[Matt]

He's A Rebel - Phil Spector, Rock & Roll's Legendary Producer by Mark Ribowsky

[roosta]

Slaughterhouse 5

Amazing.

[hardnox71]

I just finished American Skin by Don DeGrazia not too long ago. It's a fictional story about some skinheads on the north side of Chicago set in a neighborhood I used to live in .

http://www.borders.com/online/store/TitleDetail?sku=0684862220

It was so-so.

I am in the middle of Life Is So Good by George Dawson

http://www.borders.com/online/store/TitleDetail?sku=0141001682

Excellent book!!

And eventually I am going to get to :

http://www.borders.com/online/store/TitleDetail?sku=0385511477

http://www.borders.com/online/store/TitleDetail?sku=0307275922

http://www.borders.com/online/store/TitleDetail?sku=0060744871

http://www.borders.com/online/store/TitleDetail?sku=0375713719

http://www.borders.com/online/store/TitleDetail?sku=1592402496

http://www.borders.com/online/store/TitleDetail?sku=159448192X

http://www.borders.com/online/store/TitleDetail?sku=0385265565

Some of these I've read years ago but when a book is just that good I'll read again every few years.

[cookiepuss]

just finished Breakfast at Tiffany's by Trueman Capote (y) darker than the movie, but great.

Now I'm reading Emotions Revealed by Dr. Paul Ekman...his work is what that new show "Lie to Me" is based on. He's an authority on facial expressions and how they relate to emotions. it's fascinating, I'm super excited about it. (y)

[Videodrome]

the 25th hour

[hpdrifter]

I finally broke down and bought Twilight as I was traveling. The writing is terrible, the dialogue awful and the story arc a bit strange. I'm trying to figure out why it is nearly impossible for me to tear myself away.

[Drederick Tatum]

Ragtime by E.L Doctorow (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ragtime_(novel)). I like his style.

[MC Moot]

The Beat Collection… (http://www.amazon.com/Beat-Collection-Barry-Miles/dp/1852272643)it’s a mediocre collection of the essential and few lesser known,or recognized, beat writers…broken down by era…New York scene to San Francisco scene…Barry Miles spent a lot of time around alot of the key bard’s…his personal observations are the only outstanding points in it, really…

[hpdrifter]

I just finished Always Unreliable by Clive James (courtesy of the wonderful, how-could-he-know-that-I'd-like-this-so-much, Pres Zount).

They are memoirs of a person I've never heard of from a different country and culture and yet I was completely engaged.

This guy has the most fluid creative writing style I've ever seen. He words things in ways that are so perfect yet so unexpected. If I were as good a writer as he is I could do his work some justice. Unfortunately I am not in the same solar system so y'alls just gonna have to check it out for yourself.

[Nuzzolese]

I'm in the middle of Little Women and the Library just called to tell me that Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets is waiting for me there. Yeah I'm reading a little below my "level" but I never was a very good English Major anyway.

[HEIRESS]

The Beat Collection… (http://www.amazon.com/Beat-Collection-Barry-Miles/dp/1852272643)it’s a mediocre collection of the essential and few lesser known,or recognized, beat writers…broken down by era…New York scene to San Francisco scene…Barry Miles spent a lot of time around alot of the key bard’s…his personal observations are the only outstanding points in it, really…

I've eyed that up before. not worth the read eh?

Steppenwolf - Hermann Hesse
(http://www.fantasticfiction.co.uk/images/n4/n21635.jpg)

too early to judge yet...

[MC Moot]

I've eyed that up before. not worth the read eh?...

I'd read it but I would not suggest buying it...This is my fave related collection… (http://www.amazon.com/Beat-Book-Writings-Generation/dp/1590304551)(y)

[HEIRESS]

excellent! thanks!

[MC Moot]

I read Tom Robbins "B is for Beer: A Children's book for grown ups or a grownup book for children"...after "Wild Ducks Flying Backwards" I was a little wary of the whole idea of this book...he's due for a full novel...anyway's it was charming...just lovely...full of Robbinesques...Seattleisms and the Pacific Northwest...a fantastic read for a lousy day...(y)

[hpdrifter]

I'll have to add that to my list.

[nodanaonlyzuul]

I just finished Born Standing Up a few days ago.

Such a fun read (y) I've only read this now and Shopgirl. I think I might try a few other Steve Martin books.

He rocks as a writer, but why can't he pick better comedic roles in movies? :mad:

[Matt]

I just finished Born Standing Up a few days ago.

Such a fun read (y) I've only read this now and Shopgirl. I think I might try a few other Steve Martin books.

He rocks as a writer, but why can't he pick better comedic roles in movies? :mad:

Such a great book. I never really liked Steve Martin as a stand-up comic until I read it. Once I got into his mindset and everything, he's become one of my favorite comics.

I'm finally reading Slaughterhouse-Five. I really don't know why I hadn't read it earlier in life. I finished Hocus Pocus earlier this week, and that opened my eyes to what a great writer Vonnegut is. I figure I'll have this done by friday, then I'll probably buy Cat's Cradle.

[MC Moot]

McSweeney’s #28… ( http://i183.photobucket.com/albums/x265/mcmoot/mcsweeneys28-1.jpg)they do it right everytime,the illustrations/graphics,the packaging,the incredible talent of the writers they draw…my fave publishing conglom for sure…(y)

[Waus]

I just finished Born Standing Up a few days ago.

Such a fun read (y) I've only read this now and Shopgirl. I think I might try a few other Steve Martin books.

He rocks as a writer, but why can't he pick better comedic roles in movies? :mad:

That was an awesome audiobook - he read it himself!

[Matt]

That was an awesome audiobook - he read it himself!

I love when the author reads for the audiobook. I own all of David Sedaris' audiobooks for this reason.

[beastiegirrl101]

Just finished Snuff by Chuck Palahniuk....eh


Just started Eat, Pray, Love by Elizabeth Gilbert, so far I really like it.

[destructo]

X-Rated Blood Suckers by Mario Acevedo

[MC Moot]

For some reason summer makes me read a bunch at once...anyway's I've started Ash Wednesday (http://www.amazon.com/Ash-Wednesday-Ethan-Hawke/dp/0375718850/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&s=books&qid=1245159506&sr=1-1) by Ethan Hawke...yep,that Ethan Hawke...I didn't realize he's hacked out a couple books...anyway's after I could detach his voice from my inner narrative,I began to enjoy it a little...not bad...lot's of angst...read a bit like a screenplay at first but has smoothed out...I think I'll finish it for sure...then I'm also reading "Coyote Blue"… (http://www.amazon.com/Coyote-Blue-Novel-Christopher-Moore/dp/1416558470/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&s=books&qid=1245159350&sr=1-1) by Christopher Moore,just a funny,zany simple read...the only thing of his I have yet to read...and thirdly I picked up Kinky Friedman's "Scuse Me While I Whip This Out:Reflections on Country Singers,Presidents,and Other Troublemakers"… (http://www.amazon.com/Scuse-While-Whip-This-Troublemakers/dp/0060539755)...sometimes Kinky workd for me and sometimes he don't...we'll see I guess...

[destructo]

The Undead Kama Sutra by Mario Acevedo

[hpdrifter]

Just started Eat, Pray, Love by Elizabeth Gilbert, so far I really like it.

My friend gave this to me, I've been afraid to start it because it starts with a marriage ending.

[Deep_Sea_Rain]

I just started "Through The Looking Glass."

[Bob]

motivated by my love of the wire, i'm reading homicide by david simon. it follows around a shift of baltimore homicide detectives as they do their work and provides a lot of interesting insight into the investigative process, police politics, the way detectives look at things, the court systems, the medical examiner's office, all that shit. he's a great writer, he really makes you feel like you're there with these people, even inside their heads at times.

i also learned that the main reason that people fall down when they're shot is not because of the impact of the bullet, but because we've been socially trained to believe that that's what we're supposed to do. if a bullet had enough force to knock a person down, then the laws of physics would require that the person shooting the gun should fall down too, but obviously that doesn't happen. so unless the bullet hits something vital that physically causes the person to lose control of their bodies, they only fall down because they "know" that's what they're supposed to do. whereas if you look at people who get shot without realizing it, or are too drunk/insane/trained to remember how they're supposed to act, you find that people can stay on their feet for considerable periods of time before succumbing to blood loss and exhaustion.

that's just one of the many facts in the book!

i've also got the corner by david simon sitting in the bullpen (a similar book, only it follows around a family of people that live in the ghetto of west baltimore), and i've got the first book in the song of ice and fire series waiting after that. could take a while though

[TAL]

motivated by my love of the wire, i'm reading homicide by david simon. it follows around a shift of baltimore homicide detectives as they do their work and provides a lot of interesting insight into the investigative process, police politics, the way detectives look at things, the court systems, the medical examiner's office, all that shit. he's a great writer, he really makes you feel like you're there with these people, even inside their heads at times.

I hope you know that they made a great tv-show from that.

[Bob]

I hope you know that they made a great tv-show from that.

indeed i do know that, but unfortunately it isn't available on hulu or netflix's instant watch (nor is the corner, which i understand was made into a tv show as well) so i don't have any convenient access to that

i have noticed, however, that richard belzer's character in that show is a bizarre recurring character across unrelated (as far as i know) series including law & order SVU, the wire (obviously), arrested development, and the x-files

[kleptomaniac]

i just spent most of the day reading "carrie" by stephen king, because i couldn't put it down! love the book, love the movie...not as big a fan of the 2002 version or the sequel...but they're not too bad either. (y)

[MC Moot]

I picked up another Charles Bukowski post mortem collection…”Portions From a Wine Stained Notebook: Uncollected Essays 1944-1990”… (http://www.citylights.com/book/?GCOI=87286100856720)it’s fantastic,what a genius…my fave American Author on most day’s…one day I’m gonna make a pilgrimage to City Lights (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/City_Lights_Bookstore)…

[HEIRESS]

The Guernsey Literary and Potato Peel Pie Society (http://www.amazon.ca/Guernsey-Literary-Potato-Peel-Society/dp/0385340990)

pretty engrossing so far...

[hpdrifter]

Eat Pray Love

I am enamoured of this book. It is breaking my heart and giving me hope at the same time, I see myself in every page. Better than any self-help book I've ever read.

[beastiegirrl101]

Eat Pray Love

I am enamoured of this book. It is breaking my heart and giving me hope at the same time, I see myself in every page. Better than any self-help book I've ever read.

Just finished Eat, Pray Love a few nights ago, great book...I was really into it. Where are you? Italy was my fav....


I am about to start The Time Travelers Wife, everyone I know that has read it said it was their fav book. I'm too lazy to search through these threads to see if it's been listed here. Has anyone read it? The author is actually a professor where I went to college.

[HEIRESS]

The Guernsey Literary and Potato Peel Pie Society (http://www.amazon.ca/Guernsey-Literary-Potato-Peel-Society/dp/0385340990)

pretty engrossing so far...

^ Best book Ive read in awhile

Im behind on my "current" reading. Too many 18th/19th century books in a row so I've been burning through some more recent books...

I just finished the Time Traveler's Wife. And yeah, totally sucked me in. The premise sounds gay but somehow it works like a hot damn.
Im stoked on their casting for the movie as well:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gu8lYr0kf7g

The Lovely Bones by Alice Sebold. It was ok. Good lakeside reading:
Also a movie coming out this year...

The Road by Cormac Mccarthy. Fucking Good. I devoured it in one day.
The movie looks like it will do it justice as well:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5GACx8We7Vo

Just Started The Shadow of the Wind by Carlos Zafon. (http://www.amazon.ca/Shadow-Wind-Carlos-Zafon/dp/0143034901)
Looks to be a goodie as well but it's borrowed from a friend that never lets me down book-wise.

She also lent me this which I will dip into starting this week
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Maus

[hpdrifter]

I just finished Italy last night. Such a wonderful trip! I too, studied Italian just for the beauty of it, I can so understand that. And her descriptions of the people just make me want to completely defect to that culture. Why oh why did my family emigrate? I could be there now. Of course I'd be in Sicily which, according to her, isn't as romantic.

Anyway, I'll check out that Time Traveler's Wife but next up for me is The Corrections.

[hpdrifter]

I kinda felt the same way about Lovely Bones. I didn't really enjoy The Road. Powerful but made me feel... bad.

[roosta]

The Book: On The Taboo Against Knowing Who You Are - Alan Watts

Classic Watts..probably one of the clearest and most powerful explanations of his worldview, this one concentrating on his ideas about the Western worlds concept of people being separate from the world, and the problems this causes.

Very easy to read, but also really thought-provoking.

[nodanaonlyzuul]

Bonk by Mary Roach

explores the science of sex, basically. I love it thus far. There are still a few things I was unaware of despite being well read on the subject. It's a little cringe worthy at moments (i.e. fitting certain sized things down certain penis holes, ACKACKACK) but still interesting. The way she writes makes it readable for all, so those who worry about the science aspect of the book should know that it's not a difficult read if you aren't familiar with scientific terms. She also cracks jokes a lot and I giggle at it sometimes.

Good shit. (y)

[roosta]

just finished Alan Watt's autobiography "In My Own Way"

most of it is really good, some of it amazing, some of it poor.

In the same breath he both kind of skimmed over parts of his life but was also brutally honest about his shortcomings as a father/husband. And he had a tendancy to go on a bit about about the details of his wide circle of friends in the 60s.

Still for the most part it was fascinating, and it ends very good too...very sudden, but appropriately.

Gonna get a biography of him next to balance it out i guess.

[ToucanSpam]

The Game by Ken Dryden. It's easy to forget he won so many Stanley Cups in a short career, it was the glory days of the Canadiens.

[jackrock]

The Book: On The Taboo Against Knowing Who You Are - Alan Watts

(y)


Count Zero - William Gibson
The Clergyman's Daughter - George Orwell
Under the Volcano - Malcolm Lowery
Ulysses - James Joyce

[trailerprincess]

The Girl Who Played with Fire - Stieg Larsson (sp). A swedish dude. It's rather good - better than the first one in fact.

[roosta]

gonna go back to a bit of fiction for a bit, to balance all the philosophy stuff i've been reading

thinking of "If On a Winters Night A Traveler"

supposed to be a complete head fuck

[hpdrifter]

I'm into the Time Traveler's Wife right now. I am really enjoying it.

Fucking loved The Corrections. Good post, Claire (still can't say your name right). It reminded me that every family has its challenges and I don't have to feel ashamed or guilty of mine.

I'll probably check out that potato book next.

[trailerprincess]

Just Started The Shadow of the Wind by Carlos Zafon. (http://www.amazon.ca/Shadow-Wind-Carlos-Zafon/dp/0143034901)
Looks to be a goodie as well but it's borrowed from a friend that never lets me down book-wise.




Never heard of this book until yesterday when my mum mentioned it she'd started it and then someone else was talking about it this morning at work.

[HEIRESS]

^I quite enjoyed it. Tom Hanks will surely be in the movie-version.

hp: definitely get the potatoe book!

I also finished that "Julie and Julia" book that's everywhere now. it was an ok read. Can't say I really took a liking to the author. I was dissappointed that there wasn't more about Julia Child in it.

now I'm onto "The House of Mirth" by Edith Warton.

I'm hoping to snag a copy of The Book of Negroes (http://www.amazon.ca/Book-Negroes-Lawrence-Hill/dp/1554681561) from a friend this week.

[MC Moot]

Beach books of 2009:

“The Regulators” by Richard Bachman…cheesy good fun…this guy reminds me a lot of Stephen King…:rolleyes:

“Nine Kinds of Naked”… (http://www.justacoupleofdays.com/) by Tony Vigorito…really sharp…I find it difficult to compare his style to any other author…incredible imagination and wit…”Just a Few Day’s” is a really great read as well…if pressed I’d say it’s in the style footsteps of Vonnegut and Douglas Adams…(y)

“Three Cups of Tea”… (http://www.threecupsoftea.com/)by Greg Mortenson and David Oliver Relin…what a stunner…really moving ,informative and full of adventure travel…(y)

“Horseradish: Bitter Truths You Can't Avoid”… (http://www.amazon.com/Horseradish-Bitter-Truths-Cant-Avoid/dp/0061240060) by Lemony Snicket…a collection of humorous and somewhat morbid truths and observations…simple,short and kinda sweet…

[beastiegirrl101]

I'm into the Time Traveler's Wife right now. I am really enjoying it.


You know I am about half way though and I think I'm the only person that is just, eh about it. Everyone I know raves about it...I just can't get into it. I think you just have to be like, "OK he time travels" I am enjoying all the Chicago references though.

[Freebasser]

How To Be a Graphic Designer Without Losing Your Soul :eek:

[mathcart]

Recently finished Chuck Klosterman's "Killing Yourself To Live" (http://www.amazon.com/Killing-Yourself-Live-True-Story/dp/0743264460/ref=sr_1_4?ie=UTF8&s=books&qid=1249691110&sr=8-4)

I liked it despite not really wanting to.

I'm in the middle of John Gregory Dunne's "Nothing Lost" (http://www.amazon.com/Nothing-Lost-John-Gregory-Dunne/dp/B001718OCM/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&s=books&qid=1249691276&sr=1-1)

Very good thus far!

Recommend 'em both.

[MC Moot]

Recently finished Chuck Klosterman's "Killing Yourself To Live" (http://www.amazon.com/Killing-Yourself-Live-True-Story/dp/0743264460/ref=sr_1_4?ie=UTF8&s=books&qid=1249691110&sr=8-4)

I'm a fan of Chuck's stuff...check out "Downtown Owl" his first "novel" so to speak...can't wait for "Eating the Dinosaur" to drop...(y)

[Kid Presentable]

The Tipping Point - Malcolm Gladwell

If you're not familiar, it's an exploration of what makes ideas catch on, or 'tip' - where people simply start to get it. He cites shit like Hush Puppies, Sesame Street, the New York crime rate pre-1994 and so on.

It's a good read, very non-academic but credible extension of my studies, I guess. While I'm enjoying it thoroughly, there is something unrewarding about reading what is essentially somebody else's thesis. I feel won't benefit as much from reading the book as Gladwell did from writing it - until I have a big idea, I spose.

[Kid Presentable]

Eat Pray Love

I am enamoured of this book. It is breaking my heart and giving me hope at the same time, I see myself in every page. Better than any self-help book I've ever read.

My wife loved it, but felt it would be better suited to single women.

[na§tee]

the lovely bones.

only two chapters in but oh man, fantastic.
made the mistake of watching the film trailer before starting it though. gaddammit.

[paul jones]

'After Dark' by Haruki Murakami

I haven't started it yet cos' I just bought Flight Of The Conchords season 2

[mathcart]

I'm a fan of Chuck's stuff...check out "Downtown Owl" his first "novel" so to speak...can't wait for "Eating the Dinosaur" to drop...(y)

Yeah, he's definitely on my list now. Theres a lot of hate for him out there- and in some ways its perfectly understandable as the pseudo hip ultra personal snarky memoir style is a an absurd cliche thanks to f'n dave eggers and his ilk, but... he's pretty good (and entertaining). Fuck it. Plus I've heard him on podcasts and hes a dead ringer for my college roommate.

Thanks for the suggestion though. I've heard I should read the Cocoa Puffs one too.

[roosta]

halfway through The Dharma Bums by Jack Kerouac.

Love it...his writing style is hypnotic.

gonna crack into On The Road after this I think.

[MC Moot]

Yeah, he's definitely on my list now. Theres a lot of hate for him out there- and in some ways its perfectly understandable as the pseudo hip ultra personal snarky memoir style is a an absurd cliche thanks to f'n dave eggers and his ilk, but... he's pretty good (and entertaining). Fuck it. Plus I've heard him on podcasts and hes a dead ringer for my college roommate.

Thanks for the suggestion though. I've heard I should read the Cocoa Puffs one too.

I prefer "Chuck Klosterman IV: A Decade of Curious People and Dangerous Ideas" to "Sex, Drugs, and Cocoa Puffs: A Low Culture Manifesto" but I own all his stuff and dig it all...I can realte to him very well...we're close in age,were both heavy metal kids,both spent some of puberty on the prairies and both wanted to be rock mag writers...I gained a grudging respect for him despite the hipster tag...particularily when I saw him host a tribute interview/Q and A with Stephen King a couple of years back...very clever cat...(y)

P.S: I frigin love Dave Eggers!...especially "What is the What?"(!)

[na§tee]

the lovely bones.

only two chapters in but oh man, fantastic.
made the mistake of watching the film trailer before starting it though. gaddammit.
finished it that night at 5am. oh man, haven't done that in a while, a book in a day. amazing amazing amazing. it was probably the lack of sleep but i texted some people telling them i loved them. barf. amazing book.

[abcdefz]

I liked that book, too. Can't remember if I didn't like the ending or if someone I was speaking with here didn't like it.


Me:

The Soul Thief by Charles Baxter.

The guy can definitely write, but this one appears to be falling apart at the end. We'll see if he can pull it off.

[Nuzzolese]

I just started The Poisonwood Bible and The Brothers Karamazov. Well, I didn't actually start them yet but I have them. I plan to start them, and to enjoy them very soon

I've just installed a new shelf over my favorite chair and I've started making a list of what books I'm going to keep on it. It's going to be my reading chair and I'm going to plow through the books on the shelf, keeping it updated constantly. Although I haven't actually started the list, I've been thinking about it, for serious. It's going to be a long list, too. Right now my first priority is to finally decide on the correct angle of the chair.