What Book Are You Reading?

[enree erzweglle]

In a post yesterday, I mentioned that we need a thread like this. After that, several of you sent PMs and email saying that this topic used to exist in its own thread but that it doesn't now and that it should, so here it is again.

I'm reading The Corrections (by Jonathan Franzen).

I was a late adopter wrt this book for a lot of reasons initially--then Oprah put it on her list and that was the last nail in the coffin for me and Franzen. However, two close friends loved the book and talked about it for a long time after they finished it. Then ms.peachy mentioned it here, so I got a copy last week.

I'm reading it intentionally slowly because I know that I'll miss the characters when they're gone.

There have been several passages that I've stopped to read again because they were delivered so perfectly--they created or punctuated a mood in a way that made me pause and take notice. Which sometimes isn't a good thing (when a book draws you out of its mood because you notice the words). In this case, it was okay because what lured me away from the story was noticing the effectiveness and eloquence of his writing, and the beauty and depth of his characters. I was able to get back in easily.

Chip's father could have been modelled after someone that I knew in real life from a few years ago. This book takes me right back to him. That's a little bonus for me.

[scotty]

I've just got a new, beautiful hard-cover copy of the Lord of the Rings. The books are quite big, dimensions wise, and have all these awesome pictures.

The Fellowship have just entered Moria.......

[Yorkshire~Rose]

The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Nighttime

I am really enjoying it, for it's story, it's main character and for all the fun litle factotems it carries throughout it's pages.

I loved this book Aimee (y)

I always read two books at the same time :o

Currently reading 'Salems Lot by Stephen King and i've just started Perfume by Patrick Suskind.

[Parkey]

I'm reading Kafka On The Shore by Haruki Murakami.

A lovely book. Get it read.

[HEIRESS]

100 cigarettes and a bottle of vodka by Arthur Schaller

The Tin Drum by Gunter Grass

and some boring ass text book for becoming a BC certified assayer. My boss wants me to become one but I dont, so Im just playing along and acting like Im studying
:/
seriously, get me the fuck out the mining industry

[ms.peachy]

Before the Frost, Henning Mankell

I'm reading it for my book club. It's crime fiction, which isn't really a genre I generally get into, but part of the point in being in a book club is to read things I might not otherwise normally, so that's cool.

I amnot that far into it, but so far it seems pretty good. What I find myself noticing most so far is how the author gets across all the things the characters don't say to eachother, and how this is reflected in their actions.

[TAL]

I finished American Psycho on Monday, started with Survivor same day. Finished it today and now already halfway through Rules Of Attraction.

Yep, I need more visitors to the gallery, running out of books.

[Yorkshire~Rose]

I finished American Psycho on Monday, started with Survivor same day. Finished it today and now already halfway through Rules Of Attraction.

Yep, I need more visitors to the gallery, running out of books.

I have a feeling this thread could become one of my favourites :)

American Psycho and Rules of Attraction - <3 'em!!

[TAL]

American Psycho and Rules of Attraction - <3 'em!!
Glamorama is next :)

[adam_f]

Make Love* *The Bruce Campbell Way- again.

[Yorkshire~Rose]

Glamorama is next :)

I need to read that. Have you read The Informers? I enjoyed that too. (y)

[TAL]

It will be next next :)

[Nuzzolese]

I loved American Psycho! "because trying to fuck you is like trying to french kiss a small, angry...gerbil.....with braces?"

I just started Bright Lights, Big City by Jay McInerney. I sort of see McInerney as being like Ellis, only his characters are less pretensious, although equally as fucked up. BLBC is great, it manages to capture a certain feel of late 20th century but with a romanticism evoking Fitzgerald who truly portrays that kind of American dream of idealism. It paints a picture of promising youth headed for burn out, only it isn't a detached voyeurism of a third person deconstruction, instead he assaults you in the second person, you are the character. It's sort of reminiscent of Holden Caufield and Jay Gatsby, and he creates a genuine human being on the page, throwing you into the scene.

[Parkey]

I need to read that. Have you read The Informers? I enjoyed that too. (y)
Ooooh. I think Glamourama is his best (y)

[ms.peachy]

I loved American Psycho! "because trying to fuck you is like trying to french kiss a small, angry...gerbil.....with braces?"

I just started Bright Lights, Big City by Jay McInerney. I sort of see McInerney as being like Ellis, only his characters are less pretensious, although equally as fucked up. BLBC is great, it manages to capture a certain feel of late 20th century but with a romanticism evoking Fitzgerald who truly portrays that kind of American dream of idealism. It paints a picture of promising youth headed for burn out, only it isn't a detached voyeurism of a third person deconstruction, instead he assaults you in the second person, you are the character. It's sort of reminiscent of Holden Caufield and Jay Gatsby, and he creates a genuine human being on the page, throwing you into the scene.
I dunno. I've never seen the appeal of either Ellis or McInerney really. "Less Than Zero" was kind of an okay book. Same with "BLBC." They didn't suck or anything, but I didn't think they were brilliant. And honestly, until that "DaVinci Code" piece of crap took over the world last year, I reckoned that "American Psycho" was about the most overhyped book I'd ever read. (To be fair, AP is a far better book than the DVC, but then, so is just about every other book ever written in all of history.)

[wavin_goodbye]

i just finished Bertrand Russell's History of Western Philosophy... I'm either going to read Chomsky's Fateful Triangle or War and Peace next.

[Nuzzolese]

I dunno. I've never seen the appeal of either Ellis or McInerney really. "Less Than Zero" was kind of an okay book. Same with "BLBC." They didn't suck or anything, but I didn't think they were brilliant. And honestly, until that "DaVinci Code" piece of crap took over the world last year, I reckoned that "American Psycho" was about the most overhyped book I'd ever read. (To be fair, AP is a far better book than the DVC, but then, so is just about every other book ever written in all of history.)

I think it speaks in a specifically modern idiom and has a certain 80s taste to it so that's one thing, and like I said before it has these characters and idealism that relate to a collective American subconscious similar to Fitzgerald's Gatsy. The narrative and prose are unusual, certainly distinct. I didn't think AP was overhyped so maybe I went into it expecting less than you did. I must have read it after the hype died down, or like many cultural attitudes I was totally oblivious to it. I'd say they're great books. They show great style and humor.

[b-grrrlie]

My friends kids forgot a book here last weekend, so I'm reading it right now.
It's Real Stories About Escapes by Paul Downswell.
Also there's a Ramones (http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/tg/detail/-/0711991081/103-9807161-9730204?v=glance) biography waiting in line.

[bigblu89]

Currently reading GEA's Relations book.

[Kid Presentable]

Bill Bryson- A Short History of Nearly Everything.

(y)

[ms.peachy]

I think it speaks in a specifically modern idiom and has a certain 80s taste to it so that's one thing, and like I said before it has these characters and idealism that relate to a collective American subconscious similar to Fitzgerald's Gatsy. The narrative and prose are unusual, certainly distinct. I didn't think AP was overhyped so maybe I went into it expecting less than you did. I must have read it after the hype died down, or like many cultural attitudes I was totally oblivious to it. I'd say they're great books. They show great style and humor.
I read all of those books at the time they first came out (not Gatsby, obviously...) and as I say, I was unimpressed. But perhaps in reading them now, Ellis and McInerney were more prescient with their assessment of contemporary culture than it appeared to me at the time, and maybe I am shortchanging them. However, I can't honestly say I'm inclined to go back and reread any of them in order to test that theory.

I am not a huge Gatsby fan either though. Again - don't hate it, but not overly taken with it either. If you did like it though, as it would seem you did, you might want to consider giving Evelyn Waugh's Vile Bodies a read, as it is something of a companion piece - occurs pretty much contemporarily with Gatsby, but is set amongst the 'bright young things' of interwar London.

[Documad]

That bums me out about The Corrections. I read it and I remember liking it, but I can't remember anything about it. :o I suck at fiction, I really do. I loved the Curious Incident, but I think it's because I have a lot in common with the kid, and it really took me inside his head. I have a friend with a kid like him but worse and I know there is a lot going on inside her head but you can't ever be sure what.


I am always reading at least 5 books at once. I start reading about something the interests me and it mentions something else I didn't know about, and it splits off in all kinds of directions and I am compulsive about chasing down everything. And the more I read, the more I realize I don't know, and the more I read.

I'm reading German history because I'm planning a trip there and I know next to nothing pre-WWI. I am half way through Faust's Metropolis but it's getting to the world wars so I might stop.

I have been reading the Bible for a long time. I am reading a heavily annotated one which explains who the Oxford people think wrote what and why. And I read various other Bible commentary books alongside. I finally got to the NT and ran out of gas. I keep meaning to get back to that. I put it in my book bag two days ago, which means I'm really serious! I am also reading a lot of Christian history and I'm almost finished with one on the Reformation.

I just finished Kenneth Ackerman's new book Boss Tweed. It was fascinating to me to read about how corrupt the government and courts were and how the NY Times and a cartoonist from Harpers did more than his political opponents to take Tweed down. I have also read a lot lately about how biased all the newspapers were and while it's clear that the NY Times was doing the lord's work against Tweed, they basically made stuff up too. I also read Ackerman's book on President Garfield (called Dark Horse), which I think was better, and I just started his book on The Gold Ring (I don't think it's going to be as good and it has more typos in it than any published work I've ever read). An interesting thing in the Garfield book is how the assassin's bullet might not have killed him, but his doctor surely did.

I have been reading about the American Civil War. I just finished Tom Carhart's new one Lost Triumph, about Lee's strategy at Gettysburg. It wasn't all military-strategic but it explained the way West Point studied battles of the past and how they may have influenced Lee. It brought together a lot of my other reading nicely. I am supposed to start another one on the First Minnesota.

I am almost finished with a book on the history of the US Supreme Court, but it's made me want to read a lot of the actual court opinions (in law school, we read a lot of heavily edited ones). So I read the Dred Scott decision (which pretty much started the Civil War) and it was about 150 pages long, but what a mind blower.

I am just starting Russell Means' autobiography.

[Documad]

Evelyn Waugh's Vile Bodies
I'm such a sucker for English stuff of that era. :o

[enree erzweglle]

That bums me out about The Corrections. I read it and I remember liking it, but I can't remember anything about it. :o

This happens to me an awful lot. Mostly, I look over the tables of books and I get this dim sort of hint of a memory of knowing particular themes or characters from them. When that doesn't happen--when I've gotten no cues that I know the book--I get it and then if I did read it before, it usually comes back to me when I'm reading it and in a very slow way, like a dream coming back in the morning. I hate it when I can go to my book shelves and find my own copy of that book. It's not so bad when it's just a waste of a trip to the library or just a matter of returning the book to a friend. But when I've actually paid for it twice is when I think I've got to start thinking about getting a book on ginkgo supplements. :o

[beastiegirrl101]

Haunted-Chuck Palanhiuk

[Documad]

It's not so bad when it's just a waste of a trip to the library or just a matter of returning the book to a friend. But when I've actually paid for it twice is when I think I've got to start thinking about getting a book on ginkgo supplements. :o
I once got on an airplane with a paperback mystery, read five pages, and realized I'd read it before. Plus it had a gimmicky murderer so it wouldn't be fun to read again. Then I was stuck with nothing to read. Since then I always bring two books on the plane.

There are really very few fiction books I remember lots about--like Confederacy of Dunces. But with some I have a clear memory of really liking it.

I'm almost as bad with history. I remember the tidbits that interested me (like when they operated on President Garfield the doctors were about a foot away from the bullet), but even right afterwards, if my smartypants friend asks a specific question I can't answer it--like the names of his Democratic opponent in the election. :rolleyes:

I can remember everything about my job though. Apparently I store information on a need to know basis.

[enree erzweglle]

I can remember everything about my job though. Apparently I store information on a need to know basis.

A friend of mine says that stuff is stuck in his head that has no right to be there and he hates that it doesn't give way to stuff that's more deserving of prime real-estate. We all feel that but he said he wants to defragment his brain.

Nerd.

So did you read the in-flight magazine and do that really bad puzzle on your flight, Documad? :)

[Documad]

A friend of mine says that stuff is stuck in his head that has no right to be there and he hates that it doesn't give way to stuff that's more deserving of prime real-estate. We all feel that but he said he wants to defragment his brain.

Nerd.

So did you read the in-flight magazine and do that really bad puzzle on your flight, Documad? :)
I don't remember how I got through the first leg. But I had a short layover before the long flight and this was ages ago when they didn't sell as many books in airports. I remember buying Shelley Winters' autobiography during the layover because it was the only thing I hadn't read yet. It wasn't all that bad either. The growing up Jewish in NYC during the Holocaust and hearing rumors part I remember. And all the guys she slept with. :rolleyes:

[avignon]

By The Light Of My Father's Smile by Alice Walker

Excellent story about difficult bonds between a women and all the people she loves. It's passionate and tender and deals with some difficult emotional issues that women from every culture and race deal with.

Pigs In Heaven by Barbara Kingsolver

Deals with The Indian Child Welfare Act and people's lives that such policies effect. Touches on some very delicate issues about races and tribes surviving in this society as well as the bonds of "motherhood" and family and child abuse and dislocation. Very moving.

[ms.peachy]

Pigs In Heaven by Barbara Kingsolver

I haven't read this one yet, but I've read all of her other books. She's amazing.

[avignon]

I haven't read this one yet, but I've read all of her other books. She's amazing.
I know! I loved Prodigal Summer. I'm a Kentuckian. A lot of what she described in that one really struck a chord in me.

[beastiegirrl101]

any Wally Lamb fans here?

[kll]

John Adams -all 3 billion pages of it... I am on page 12

[wavin_goodbye]

Bill Bryson- A Short History of Nearly Everything.

(y)

i've been trying to find that in libraries for ages... it's always out. send it over when you're done :D

[beastiegirrl101]

Shes come undone was great.

I know this much is true was good too.

does he have others.

I have read both as well...thought they were great...I know this much is true id probably the longest book I have ever read...I think he has only 2 out...

[avignon]

Haunted-Chuck Palanhiuk
I haven't gotten to that one yet, but I recently read Survivor and Lullaby. I loved Lullaby. The way he describes things in that one is awesome. (y)

[avignon]

any Wally Lamb fans here?
He's on my "to-read" list. Where should I start?

[Documad]

i've been trying to find that in libraries for ages... it's always out. send it over when you're done :D
I've been on the reserve list, then it comes and it's too darn big, so I send it back and reserve it again and again. I need to just buy it. :mad:

[abcdefz]

I'm reading The Scarlet Letter. Much more readable than I'd though when I was in school. Probably because there's no gun to my head. :D


I finished The Lovely Bones and moved on to a collection of Alice Munro's (sp?) stories (Runaway), but other than the title track, I wasn't that crazy about the stories.

[beastiegirrl101]

He's on my "to-read" list. Where should I start?

She's Come Undone

[beastiegirrl101]

All of Chucks early books are amazing...he seems to be popping them out all the time now so I feel they arent as good. My favs are Survivor, Invisable Monsters and Fight Club

[enree erzweglle]

Bill Bryson- A Short History of Nearly Everything.

(y)
I've liked every one of his books.

[Lindsey_1535]

Charlie and the Chocolate Factory, cause Im a dork who reads kids books. And the movie made me wanna read it agian.YAEEAEEAEA!!

[ms.peachy]

I've liked every one of his books.
I read Notes from a Small Island just after I moved to England, and thought it was great. I recently read it again, after living here for five+ years and I can't even tell you how much funnier it is to me now :D

If I read it again in another 5 years, I'll probably go into a coma from laughing.

[Documad]

Charlie and the Chocolate Factory, cause Im a dork who reads kids books. And the movie made me wanna read it agian.YAEEAEEAEA!!
I read kids books a lot when I travel. I reread Charlie a few years ago. I love the illustrations on my old copy.

I reread most of the Little House books a few years ago too. I sure read them with a whole new perspective. Pa was kind of a dumbass sometimes. I swear they were lucky they didn't starve.

[avignon]

Charlie and the Chocolate Factory, cause Im a dork who reads kids books. And the movie made me wanna read it agian.YAEEAEEAEA!!
I bought a beautiful copy of it the other day. It has Charley and the Glass Elevator in it too. <3

[Documad]

If you ever get a chance to go to a Bill Bryson reading, DO IT!

I read too many of his back to back and got tired of him. But I reread the Australian one before my trip and it was a lot better than I remembered. Notes from a Small Island was my first and my favorite. Also the Walk in the Woods or whatever it's called.

[wavin_goodbye]

Charlie and the Chocolate Factory, cause Im a dork who reads kids books. And the movie made me wanna read it agian.YAEEAEEAEA!!

cool.. that was one of the first books that i read. i was looking for my copy (it also had the 2nd book of the series) but my mum gave it away :(

[wavin_goodbye]

I bought a beautiful copy of it the other day. It has Charley and the Glass Elevator in it too. <3


was the cover blue?

[yeahwho]

Just finished Blink (http://messagebuilders.com/Bibliography/BookNotes/2005/07/blink-power-of-thinking-without.htm)....usually not my cup o tea, but it mentions some of the studies a friend of mine's involved in at the UW.

Now starting these two books by Davis Miller (http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/tg/detail/-/0099429527/ref%3Dpd%5Fsl%5Faw%5Falx-jeb-7-1%5Fbook%5F2498901%5F1/104-0412758-1713508).

Mainly I'm a media junky, but somehow I can read 3 to 4 books a month too.

[wavin_goodbye]

Eats, Shoots & Leaves

good pick.. i liked it a lot

[Yorkshire~Rose]

If you ever get a chance to go to a Bill Bryson reading, DO IT!

I read too many of his back to back and got tired of him. But I reread the Australian one before my trip and it was a lot better than I remembered. Notes from a Small Island was my first and my favorite. Also the Walk in the Woods or whatever it's called.

Ohhh Bill Bryson made me guffaw like never before with a book. :)

I've read and loved all of his books but in particular Notes from a Small Island and Neither Here nor There - his books make me want grab my hiking boots* and rucksack and explore deepest darkest Poland or something.


*I would need to buy some first :/

[hpdrifter]

I'm not as cultured as the people in this thread but i stop by anyway.

Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix.

[avignon]

was the cover blue?
No actually it's chocolate colored.

[avignon]

I'm not as cultured as the people in this thread but i stop by anyway.

Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix.
My Pop bought it for me. I'm trying to get through my library books before i start it though, so nobody give anything away!

[wavin_goodbye]

No actually it's chocolate colored.

either way, i want to read both of those again! :D

[hpdrifter]

Just finished Blink (http://messagebuilders.com/Bibliography/BookNotes/2005/07/blink-power-of-thinking-without.htm)....usually not my cup o tea, but it mentions some of the studies a friend of mine's involved in at the UW.

Now starting these two books by Davis Miller (http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/tg/detail/-/0099429527/ref%3Dpd%5Fsl%5Faw%5Falx-jeb-7-1%5Fbook%5F2498901%5F1/104-0412758-1713508).

Mainly I'm a media junky, but somehow I can read 3 to 4 books a month too.

You liar, you PMed me that you were rereading confessions of an heiress while taking a bubble bath.

[GetYourWarOn]

i just got the italian secretary (http://search.barnesandnoble.com/booksearch/isbninquiry.asp?pwb=1&ean=9780786715480) in the mail yesteraday, and after that i'm going to read the historian (http://search.barnesandnoble.com/booksearch/isbnInquiry.asp?userid=i76nOhtB75&isbn=0316011770&itm=1) next.

[CrankItUp!]

A pinball machine manual. :)

[BGirl]

Naked by David Sedaris - <3

Also, we just visited Emily Dickinson's house (<3) and I thought it would be a good place to buy a nice hardcover volume of all her poems (one version each - it's a "reading edition") and I've enjoyed paging through that just about every day since. Check out this great one I just found, browsing through with the idea of sharing one of her poems in this post


Answer July
Where is the Bee -
Where is the Blush -
Where is the Hay?

Ah, said July -
Where is the Seed -
Where is the Bud -
Where is the May -

Nay - said the May -
Show me the Snow -
Show me the Bells -
Show me the Jay!

Quibbled the Jay -
Where be the Maize -
Where be the Haze -
Where be the Bur?
Here - said the Year -





By the way, we learned from the guestbook at the B&B down the road from Emily's place that all (?) of her poems can be sung to Yellow Rose of Texas. Someone else wrote that they sang Emily Dickinson songs at Mount Holyoke College (where Emily Dickinson attended school for one year).

Also, since we just visited Maine, I'm reading the relevant parts of the Maine Compass Guide. They are the best travel guides and our collection of them continues to grow steadily.

[Documad]

Also, if you can see David Sedaris read his stuff, DO IT!

I'm planning a trip to Germany and I keep thinking of the stuff he said about Germany. And monkeys.

[BGirl]

I don't remember what he said about Germany... but I'm sure it was funny. :D

Yeah, I'll have to try to hit a reading. We hear him on the radio all the time. We're big fans of him and his sister Amy... was supposed to see a play they did together but hubby got sick.. sad memories. :( (He's fine and everything, temporary illness, just sad to miss the show.. doesn't come around every day.)

[Documad]

I saw David Sedaris the day after the 2004 election. (I missed Beastie Boys in Madison and caught them the next night in Chicago instead. :)) Anyhow, it was a very NPR-type crowd as you can imagine. He started out talking about the election, and how he woke up thinking that maybe blood would be running in the streets, but things were pretty good. It was only about 5 minutes but we really needed it.

He read some published things (about his brother having the baby from the newest book) but also things from his daily journal (the monkey stuff). He also read the story that was later in the New Yorker about when his partner had to lance his boil. Ewww! But funny. And he stopped to take notes when we laughed because it was still in progress at that point.

[ToucanSpam]

I am reading the Da Vinci Code.

[BGirl]

I saw David Sedaris the day after the 2004 election. (I missed Beastie Boys in Madison and caught them the next night in Chicago instead. :)) Anyhow, it was a very NPR-type crowd as you can imagine. He started out talking about the election, and how he woke up thinking that maybe blood would be running in the streets, but things were pretty good. It was only about 5 minutes but we really needed it.

He read some published things (about his brother having the baby from the newest book) but also things from his daily journal (the monkey stuff). He also read the story that was later in the New Yorker about when his partner had to lance his boil. Ewww! But funny. And he stopped to take notes when we laughed because it was still in progress at that point.

Awesome. I'm so glad I posted so I could read this. I just <3, <3, <3 David Sedaris (who doesn't, right?). I just read that story in the new book about his brother... laughing just thinking about it. Now in Naked, that brother is a baby. I finished the latest book and wanted more so I picked up Naked which it turned out I hadn't read before. An unread Sedaris book on my shelf all these years! :eek: So I'm rectifying that now. It seems to be the densest of his books.

Also, this is taken from the blurbs on the back of the books... see if you notice a trend


Barrel Fever:

"... suggesting a caustic mix of J.D. Salinger and John Waters." - Publisher's Weekly

Naked:

"... loopy humor that might have resulted if Dorothy Parker and James Thurber had a love child." - Entertainment Weekly

Me Talk Pretty One Day:

"... in much the manner Mark Twain used humor as a lens through which to view humanity." - John Foyston, Portland Oregonian



Seems to me the comparisons get more and more flattering as he goes, until finally he's compared to the big poppa, Mark Twain (on the jacket of the latest book as well). (y)

[steve-onpoint]

i'm reading The Power of Myth with Bill Moyers by Joseph Campbell

[Documad]

im reading Genius by Patrick Dennis,is very cool.
:eek:

Where did you find it? I can't find any of his stuff.
I drove to another county to check out a book that was about him. :)

[Documad]

I just read that story in the new book about his brother... laughing just thinking about it.
My friends hadn't read the new book yet and they died when he read that one.

It was also nice being surrounded by NPR people after the election. I ran into two of my old professors! Sedaris referenced MN being a liberal oasis.

One year, as part of everyone's Christmas package, I gave my family the tiny Holidays on Ice book. My brothers were very puzzled. I think the department store elf story is my favorite of all of his. Screw my family!

[GetYourWarOn]

im reading Genius by Patrick Dennis,is very cool.



i wanted to read it but i've red a lot of opinions and everyone says that is all fantasy,that almost nothing on that book is true.


it's called fiction, and a book can still be good if it falls into that category.

[GreenEarthAl]

I've been reading How to Care About HUmans (the autobiography of me) with my coworker at work. (We're not going to get to finish it before I leave *sad*) But anyway, last weekend we were reading the part where my mother died. I had not read that in about a year. It was very, very difficult to read. I had forgotten the writing. It was strong writing, I'd say, but it seemed like it was particularly adept at affecting me personally. As though the author was writting it in a way that would specifically affect me the most.

Bastard.


Yeah, so anyway. Tomorrow the new Heather (Birdie) should be in town to check out author house to see if she wants to stay here with me and Jesse. I think we are going to read Relations (my novel) on the way to Opus because after Opus it will be time to write Relations2. I so insanely excited to write this book I feel like I'm going to explode. I don't think I can move my fingers fast enough. Never been so excited to write something in my life.

Freakin out!

[ms.peachy]

i wanted to read it but i've red a lot of opinions and everyone says that is all fantasy,that almost nothing on that book is true.
Plus it's just shitty writing. Terrible, cliched, hack stuff.

Do yourself a favour and skip it. Read a real history book instead.

[Documad]

Plus it's just shitty writing. Terrible, cliched, hack stuff.

Do yourself a favour and skip it. Read a real history book instead.
I thought that the first third of it was one of the best modern page-turners I'd read. Then I got bored and then I started actively disliking it. But I thought the initial set up, with every chapter ending with a cliff-hanger, was kind of cool.

With most popular modern thrillers, I quit at about page 50.

At about the same time, I read a pulp-y nonfiction book on the Masons that was better overall. :p

[hardnox71]

I am reading this (http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/ASIN/0449005828/qid=1122564248/sr=2-1/ref=pd_bbs_b_2_1/102-7916503-4235316) .

Kinda dry and slow in some parts. I've been reading it for the last month and a half. Usually I chew through a really good book in couple of days.

I'm also reading A Raisin in the Sun.

[Ferdinand_2]

Singing in the shower--Humoristic music book :o

[icy manipulator]

Hannibal by Thomas Harris. i dont know why they made the movie so different

[Documad]

Coal (http://search.barnesandnoble.com/booksearch/isbnInquiry.asp?userid=aa7YaZuBPN&isbn=0142000981&itm=1): A Human History, by Barbara Freese. I sort of know her so I'm embarrassed that it's taken me so long to read it. (At least I bought it right away)

It's a lean little book. The first half on the history of coal has been interesting. I had never heard that 4000 Londoners died over five days in 1952 because of "black fog"--50 bodies in one small park alone. But I knew that the first time my dad visited London, before environmental laws, the coal pollution was amazing.

Barb used to fight air pollution for a living so I can tell where it's going in the second half. :)

[FooBoy]

Recently finished The Talisman by Stephen King and Peter Straub, I thought that was shit, and also The Long Walk by King (writing as Richard Bachman), which was good.

I'm currently reading On The Road by Jack Kerouac and the new Harry Potter, as well as Easy Riders, Raging Bulls by Peter Biskind.

[Yorkshire~Rose]

Recently finished The Talisman by Stephen King and Peter Straub, I thought that was shit, and also The Long Walk by King (writing as Richard Bachman), which was good.

I'm currently reading On The Road by Jack Kerouac and the new Harry Potter, as well as Easy Riders, Raging Bulls by Peter Biskind.

Another multiple book reader (y) :)

I recently bought another King/Straub collaboration - Black House. Not started it yet - have you read it?

[FooBoy]

I haven't read Black House, no. It's a loose sequel to The Talisman, though I don't think it's necessary to have read the first book. I thought The Talisman was poorly written, it had bad characterisation and seemed quite corny in parts, but I hear Black House is quite different and a little better, so I'll probably give it a go some time.

[Yorkshire~Rose]

^ thanks. I'm sure i'll get round to reading it eventually. I have a "queue" of books waiting to be read - most of which i got for christmas last year. :rolleyes: :)

[FooBoy]

Yeah, I've got two-in-one books of Jack Sawyer/Huckleberry Finn and Alice In Wonderland/Through The Looking Glass waiting for me to read, as well as some more King books, plus I have a list of other things to read too. I don't read books nearly as fast as I used to since I have other distractions these days, so I'll be kept busy for a while.

[paul jones]

' life of pi ' - yann martell

[P of R]

Garden of Rama by Arthur C. Clarke.

[p-branez]

sieze the day
by saul bellow

native son
by richard wright

i have to read books for school. i probably won't get it all done in time.

i read the new harry potter book, too.
and it sucked.
it was 650 pages of nothing.

[wavin_goodbye]

just read a book on the october crisis and another on confederation

started war and peace today

[P.T.B.A.I.]

Desert Flower by Waris Dirie. (y)

[avignon]

Last week--
Big Fish by Daniel Wallace
The Tatooed Girl by Joyce Carol Oates (I highly recommend this one)
Holes by Louis Sachar

just finished--
She's Come Undone by Wally Lamb (I read it because of recommendations in this thread (y) )
Shoot The Moon by Billie Letts

starting--
Ghost Country by Sara Paretsky
The Education of Little Tree by Forrest Carter

[yeahwho]

Hiding the Elephant (http://www.livejournal.com/users/essentialsaltes/111081.html): a really fascinating history of stage illusions. It is, in fact, done with mirrors, but the number of different changes that can be rung on the original idea is amazing. [Link has bonus review of Gargantua and Pantagruel.]

Nerds Like Me, Baby we were Born to Trick

[wavin_goodbye]

avignon: how was big fish? i loved the movie and have tried real hard to find the book .. with no luck

[avignon]

I really enjoyed it. I watched the movie first of corse which I wish I hadn't, but oh well. The book wasn't as linear. It was just separate unrelated stories that his father had told him. There wasn't any real thread tying it all together. Which is cool in a way because life isn't like that. Also, the father wasn't as perfect as he was in the movie. There were stories about things that he did that were pretty wrong, no matter how romanticized you try to make it. The whole thing was less than two hundred pages long. If you can find it, it's worth an afternoon. I picked it up at my library.

[abcdefz]

I'm about five stories into a collection by Rohinton Mistry called Swimming Lessons. So far -- good stuff. The stories all take place in one large apartment (housing?) complex, and they're just slice-of-life stories, which is a form I dig.

Supposedly, Mistry's book A Fine Balance is really the novel to read, but I was just rolling through the library looking for a book that grabbed me, and it was this one. (y)

[icy manipulator]

the master and margarita by Mikhail Bulgakov. this is prolly my favourite book ever

[abcdefz]

the master and margarita by Mikhail Bulgakov. this is prolly my favourite book ever



Details..?

[Lex Diamonds]

The Mill on the Floss by George Eliot. I'm just under half-way and I'm supposed to have read it for college over the summer. I go back tomorrow.

It's seriously the most boring thing I've ever read. Fair enough it is well-written and she makes some good social commentary but DAMN it is boring.

[icy manipulator]

Details..?
oh, here we go

The book starts off with 2 guys, Mikhail Alexandrovich and Ivan Nikolayevich sitting around talking about the proofs that god doesn't exist, then they're joined by a foreign tourist, Woland, who talks about a 7th proof with involves a lot do with Pontius Pilot. Woland then tells Mikhail Alexandrovich that he's going to die on his walk home by being decapitated by a tram. this freaks him out so he leaves and surely enough he gets decapitated and this freaks Ivan Nikolaiyevich out. So Ivan goes mad running thru the streets of Moscow trying to find Woland and ends up in an insane asylum.

In the asylum he meets a man who calls himself the master, who explains to ivan that the man Woland he saw was actually the Devil. The master also tells of his lost love Margarita and how he was writting a novel about Pontius Pilot and how writting the novel drove him crazy so he thought he was unfit to be with her and checked himself into the asylum. Meanwhile, Woland plays a number of tricks on the Muscovites and causes mass hysteria.

Second part of the book, Woland's minions approach Margarita saying that the devil is in moscow to host his annual ball and he needs a lady named Margarita to be the hostest. She has no idea what happened to the Master so when Azzezelo promises to deliver the master she agrees to be the hostess. So they have the ball and when it's all over the devil grants her one wish in which she chooses to be with the master again. the master doesn't want this at first because he believes he's still sick and also because he burnt his novel too, so the devil makes the novel reappear, fills in someo of the gaps, feels better and the master and margarita fall in love again.

Finally the devils and his minions cause a bit more havoc on Moscow and disappear back to hell leaving the muscovites more paranoid than ever.


This was banned for 45 year because is what written in the Stalin era, and the censors believed that Bulgakov was representing Stalin was the devil.

good author tho. bulgakov one of the best Russian authors ever, and prolly the best in the Soviet times

[Funky Pepp]

I read two books at the moment: I started reading the Physician by
Noah Gordon a while ago. And then I got Paul's Boutique a while ago
and had to start it at once. So, now I'm stuck with the two books and
every time I want to read, I can't decide what to finish first...

That really sucks! :o

[Caribou]

Nick Hornby - About A Boy

It's better than the film.

[Waus]

Just finished The Screwtape Letters.

- almost done with 9 Stories by J.D. Salinger.

[skra75]

Herzog - Saul Bellow (yes I've been reading this all summer, I know)
The Game - Neil Strauss
Busting Vegas - Ben Mezrich

[icy manipulator]

Busting Vegas - Ben Mezrich
it that the one about the MIT poker team?

[abcdefz]

oh, here we go

The book starts off with 2 guys, Mikhail Alexandrovich and Ivan Nikolayevich sitting around talking about the proofs that god doesn't exist, then they're joined by a foreign tourist, Woland, who talks about a 7th proof with involves a lot do with Pontius Pilot. Woland then tells Mikhail Alexandrovich that he's going to die on his walk home by being decapitated by a tram. this freaks him out so he leaves and surely enough he gets decapitated and this freaks Ivan Nikolaiyevich out. So Ivan goes mad running thru the streets of Moscow trying to find Woland and ends up in an insane asylum.

In the asylum he meets a man who calls himself the master, who explains to ivan that the man Woland he saw was actually the Devil. The master also tells of his lost love Margarita and how he was writting a novel about Pontius Pilot and how writting the novel drove him crazy so he thought he was unfit to be with her and checked himself into the asylum. Meanwhile, Woland plays a number of tricks on the Muscovites and causes mass hysteria.

Second part of the book, Woland's minions approach Margarita saying that the devil is in moscow to host his annual ball and he needs a lady named Margarita to be the hostest. She has no idea what happened to the Master so when Azzezelo promises to deliver the master she agrees to be the hostess. So they have the ball and when it's all over the devil grants her one wish in which she chooses to be with the master again. the master doesn't want this at first because he believes he's still sick and also because he burnt his novel too, so the devil makes the novel reappear, fills in someo of the gaps, feels better and the master and margarita fall in love again.

Finally the devils and his minions cause a bit more havoc on Moscow and disappear back to hell leaving the muscovites more paranoid than ever.


This was banned for 45 year because is what written in the Stalin era, and the censors believed that Bulgakov was representing Stalin was the devil.

good author tho. bulgakov one of the best Russian authors ever, and prolly the best in the Soviet times



Thanks. I'll have to check this one out.

[abcdefz]

Just finished The Screwtape Letters.

- almost done with 9 Stories by J.D. Salinger.



Any thoughts?

I'm big on The Screwtape Letters, and Salinger's a favorite, though there are a couple of clunkers in Nine Stories, I think. He had some other stuff already published at that point which could've gone in but didn't ("The Young Ones," "A Girl in 1941 with No Waist at All" [?], etc.).

[skra75]

it that the one about the MIT poker team?

yep - just finished it. it was really good, a fast read though.

[icy manipulator]

yep - just finished it. it was really good, a fast read though.
yeah i saw a documentary on it a while ago. seemed pretty interesting. pity casino's use card shufflers now tho. i wish i was 10 years older and had a chance to gamble when they didn't have them. it's actually not too hard to count cards with a little practice

[Waus]

Any thoughts?

I'm big on The Screwtape Letters, and Salinger's a favorite, though there are a couple of clunkers in Nine Stories, I think. He had some other stuff already published at that point which could've gone in but didn't ("The Young Ones," "A Girl in 1941 with No Waist at All" [?], etc.).

Yeah, Screwtape Letters is now one of my favorite books. C.S. Lewis offers so much insight into human nature in it - both informative and convicting. He takes ideas that seem like they should be obvious, and makes them new and illuminating. I learned a lot about myself reading it, and became much more aware of a lot of my faults. I've been trying to write some studies around some of the ideas he presents in it.

I was really just reading 9 Stories because I got it used at the same time I bought The Catcher in the Rye and Franny and Zooey. 9 Stories has been my least favorite, but I liked "The Laughing Man," "Bananafish," and parts of certain other ones so far. The only thing that held some of the 'conversation' stories together (for me) was scrutinizing the characters to find traces of Holden, Zooey, or really any of the Salinger archetypes under whatever names he's given them - all living in New York of course.

[skra75]

yeah i saw a documentary on it a while ago. seemed pretty interesting. pity casino's use card shufflers now tho. i wish i was 10 years older and had a chance to gamble when they didn't have them. it's actually not too hard to count cards with a little practice

It's not really card counting, it's sequencing. It's a wierd technique. It takes a lot of practice and you have to have a really strong visual/associative memory

[icy manipulator]

It's not really card counting, it's sequencing. It's a wierd technique. It takes a lot of practice and you have to have a really strong visual/associative memory
yeah i know what you mean. making certain bets when certain cards are still in the deck etc. But yeah, card counting and working out simple mathematics very fast in my head is something i'm ridiculously good at so i'm pissed casino's used shufflers nowdays :mad:

[abcdefz]

Yeah, Screwtape Letters is now one of my favorite books. C.S. Lewis offers so much insight into human nature in it - both informative and convicting. He takes ideas that seem like they should be obvious, and makes them new and illuminating. I learned a lot about myself reading it, and became much more aware of a lot of my faults. I've been trying to write some studies around some of the ideas he presents in it.

I was really just reading 9 Stories because I got it used at the same time I bought The Catcher in the Rye and Franny and Zooey. 9 Stories has been my least favorite, but I liked "The Laughing Man," "Bananafish," and parts of certain other ones so far. The only thing that held some of the 'conversation' stories together (for me) was scrutinizing the characters to find traces of Holden, Zooey, or really any of the Salinger archetypes under whatever names he's given them - all living in New York of course.



Yeah -- Lewis was really observant with Screwtape Letters. Eye-opening.

I'm glad you like "The Laughing Man." That's a great story.

There were a couple of earlier Holden Caufield stories published which would make you cringe if you read them. I think one was in the Saturday Eveing Post and one was in Cosmopolitan or something. He still hadn't really found Holden's voice yet, and so it read like bad Hollywood kid-dialogue, etc.

In another story, a Caulfield had lost his older brother, Holden, in the war. That was a little weird to read.

Believe it or not, they squeezed a movie out of that one story... Uncle Wiggly in Connecticut (I think). The one with the two old friends drinking. I never saw it, but it's what made Salinger determined that Hollywood wouldn't geta crack at any of his work ever again.

[Nuzzolese]

The Piano Shop on the Left Bank: Discovering a Forgotten Passion in a Paris Atelier by Thad Carhart.

I just started it and it's fantastic so far. It's about a secret world of pianos, and the mysterious people who love them.

[Documad]

William Gibson -- Pattern Recognition. It started out really strong and I was interested for a long time, but I had a difficult time slugging through the last 1/4 of it.

I stumbled into a bookstore on vacation that I thought was a normal bookstore but it was all religion and new-agey books. I bought a few books so it will be quite interesting to see if I can read them.

[chrisd]

is crawl space a dis against metamorfosis by kavke?

[guerillaGardner]

In between books on PHP and MySQL I'm reading Wildlife of Scotland; Red Deer Behaviour & Ecology and The AA Book of the British Countryside.

[trailerprincess]

I have just finished Dog Eat Dog by Edward Bunker. Pretty good after a slow start.

[cosmo105]

i liked 9 stories, but i agree that there were some "eh" moments in it.

i'm still in the middle of Survivor (Palahniuk), which says a lot - it got pretty boring, so i put it down a month or so back and haven't cared to pick it back up. usually i down one of his works in no more than a week.

[Documad]

i liked 9 stories, but i agree that there were some "eh" moments in it.

i'm still in the middle of Survivor (Palahniuk), which says a lot - it got pretty boring, so i put it down a month or so back and haven't cared to pick it back up. usually i down one of his works in no more than a week.
I liked it, but the funny thing was that I had no idea what it was about, and I brought it to read on the airplane trip to Australia.

[ggirlballa]

this book is more of a magazine cuz its got glossy pages & a LOT of pics of artists & their previous SPIN magazine covers & SPIN articles from the past & kind of a mini-bio on the artists from the past 20 years

my favorite sections are the b-boys,public enemy ,run dmc, nirvana tupac,biggie, & their indie hip hop section & thier MTV diss section haha

SPIN; 20 Years of Alternative Music


i'm addicted to this book......:cool: (y)

[chrisd]

i read a little bible every evening

[Bob]

the last book i read (well it was a play) was "no exit", by sartre. it's the play that the quote "hell is other people" comes from.

i gotta say, knowing it was coming ahead of time kind of lessened the impact of it but i guess i still liked it. not as much as i thought i would though.

sometimes i wonder if i'm getting bad translations and not realizing it

[ggirlballa]

sometimes i wonder if i'm getting bad translations and not realizing it

yea i often wonder that too

[scotty]

Plants in Action: Adaptation in Nature, Performance in Cultivation - Atwell et al.

Not by choice.

[miss soul fire]

Man are from Mars, Women are from Venus.
Hihihihihi!:D

[paul jones]

'Margrave of The Marshes(His Autobiogaphy) ' - John Peel

[Nuzzolese]

the last book i read (well it was a play) was "no exit", by sartre. it's the play that the quote "hell is other people" comes from.

i gotta say, knowing it was coming ahead of time kind of lessened the impact of it but i guess i still liked it. not as much as i thought i would though.

sometimes i wonder if i'm getting bad translations and not realizing it

I saw that play performed by a college drama troupe a few years ago, not knowing of it previously, and thinking it was an original play that these kids wrote. I was floored and for the next few weeks I was gushing about their play and how amazing they were and how for college kids I thought they really had futures. I was their biggest fan and they were all so happy that I had enjoyed their play. I said "you're so SMART and clever! I LOVED it!" Then someone told me, none too discretely or sensitively, that it was by Jean Paul Sarte, famous French philosopher, writer....duh. I still feel bad about how the actors must have felt when I suddenly stopped showering them with praise.

[avignon]

Just finished Everything is Illuminated and I am the Cheese.
Gonna start Cold Mountain.

Anybody have suggestions for ghost stories or horror stories? That's what I'm in the mood for. Something modern, i've read all the classics.

[cosmo105]

I liked it, but the funny thing was that I had no idea what it was about, and I brought it to read on the airplane trip to Australia.
hah!

[Documad]

I read a book called First In Thirst. It was about the history of Gatorade. I had no idea that there was some kind of science at the root of it.

I love non-fiction books on very specific subjects.

[Gareth]

William Gibson -- Pattern Recognition. It started out really strong and I was interested for a long time, but I had a difficult time slugging through the last 1/4 of it.

i actually didnt mind pattern recognition
it cracked me up how a message board was actually quite crucial to the story
yeh...i really don't like idoru
i'm reading july's people - nadine gordimer

[HEIRESS]

Oh the Glory of it All (http://www.amazon.com/Oh-Glory-All-Sean-Wilsey/dp/0143036912/sr=8-1/qid=1158516114/ref=pd_bbs_1/102-3474332-5331342?ie=UTF8&s=books)

A Tree Grows in Brooklyn (http://www.amazon.com/Tree-Grows-Brooklyn-P-S/dp/0061120073/sr=8-3/qid=1158516387/ref=pd_bbs_3/102-3474332-5331342?ie=UTF8&s=books)

coincidental juxtoposition LOL

[yooooo]

john grisham - his classic, the firm.

he got old but i like his books

[fucktopgirl]

JUles Verne "the mysterious island"

[jabumbo]

haha, first time i can participate in this thread....


i am reading "sandlot seasons: sport in black pittsburgh" for one of my classes. it was written by the guy who teaches the class, rob ruck. after this one, i have to read another book by him called "the tropic of baseball" and then some other book i haven't checked out yet about the history of women in sports.


5th year of college and this is the first class where i have had to read books for class....its so weird

[ToucanSpam]

Rising Tide: The Great Mississippi Flood of 1927 and How it Changed America by John M. Barry

[Otis Driftwood]

Ha, I'm reading Pauls Boutique now.
Plus Savage Season by Joe R. Lansdale and the Buddha manga.

[icy manipulator]

Vodka by Boris Starling

[na§tee]

female chauvinist pigs by ariel levy. i got it ages ago but delayed starting it. great book.
next i will read framing the south: hollywood, television and race during the civil rights struggle by allison graham. it's in the area i am thinking of doing a masters in (american south, black sexuality) so should be interesting.

[TAL]

I'm gonna start reading JPod by Douglas Coupland in about 15 minutes.

[AdRockGRL]

"Modern Italian History" for an exam at the University....

[Videodrome]

The Rum Diary - Hunter S. Thompson

It's my first HST book.

[instigator7022]

The Oedipus Cycle

[Otis Driftwood]

Anybody have suggestions for ghost stories or horror stories? That's what I'm in the mood for. Something modern, i've read all the classics.
Ghost Stories of an Antiquary by M. R. James

[abcdefz]

Man are from Mars, Women are from Venus.
Hihihihihi!:D


One of my sane friends said he really got a lot out of this book.

The example he's used in my life repeatedly is that when men and women come to an agreement, men think it's settled; women think they've reached a landing platform for continued negotiation.

I think there's some truth in that.

Have you found anything in there you liked, MSF?

[abcdefz]

Rising Tide: The Great Mississippi Flood of 1927 and How it Changed America by John M. Barry

It's not Mississippi, but still -- see if it sounds familiar:



"Louisana 1927"
Randy Newman

What has happened down here is the wind have changed
Clouds roll in from the north and it started to rain
Rained real hard and rained for a real long time
Six feet of water in the streets of Evangeline

The river rose all day
The river rose all night
Some people got lost in the flood
Some people got away alright
The river have busted through cleard down to Plaquemines
Six feet of water in the streets of Evangelne

CHORUS
Louisiana, Louisiana
They're tyrin' to wash us away
They're tryin' to wash us away
Louisiana, Louisiana
They're tryin' to wash us away
They're tryin' to wash us away

President Coolidge came down in a railroad train
With a little fat man with a note-pad in his hand
The President say, "Little fat man isn't it a shame what the river has
done
To this poor cracker's land."

CHORUS

[miss soul fire]

One of my sane friends said he really got a lot out of this book.

The example he's used in my life repeatedly is that when men and women come to an agreement, men think it's settled; women think they've reached a landing platform for continued negotiation.

I think there's some truth in that.

Have you found anything in there you liked, MSF?
Oh yes, definitely! I found out what I knew already! That most men SUCK! Hahaha, just kidding. Not so much...but anyway, there are lots of interesting stuff in this book. They explain a lot about the real functions of the male and the female brain. Why do women think in a certain way and men don't. And they also talk about the reason why people are homossexuals and why some of them are effeminate or others aren't.

I recommend this book!

[kleptomaniac]

i gotta finish reading the awakening by monday :/
and this book about global warming i need to do a report on....books used to be fun to read before they turned into assignments & grades and junk :(

i just like books where i don't have to think too much and it's just fun to read :o
but not just picture books...i mean, ones with words.

if there are any books out there that aren't depressing or nothing, i'm up for it.

[vickista]

the tin princess - Phillip Pullman. 4th book in the sally lockheart series.

very good(y)

[abcdefz]

I just finished The Picture of Dorain Gray by Oscar Wilde. It was okay -- not as good nor as bad as I would've hoped.

The author sticking his observations in the mouths of a couple of characters -- one guy, in particular -- gets pretty old, and the plot doesn't really play out in as satisfying way as I would've liked. Wilde also wants to have his cake and eat it, too -- criticising and celebrating hedonism and, finally, making neither one as convincing as it could've been. F. Scott and Ollie Stone would be proud.

C+.

[Otis Driftwood]

That Wilde guy DID have a way with words though... Like Hesse.

[abcdefz]

That Wilde guy DID have a way with words though... Like Hesse.



Sometimes. He's not quite as smooth as Fitzgerald was about it. Fitzgerald, man... that guy could write. -- which, of course, doesn't mean he could think. But sometimes, I'd get, like, a full paragraph down the line before I'd go, "WAIT A SECOND!" and back up and re-read some really beautiful line and then realize the observation behind it was just crap.

Wilde's stuff... much easier to spot as bad thinking straight off the bat. But harder to tell, at times, if he believed it or if it's just something he wanted his character to believe.

Hesse I still have to check out. What did you like?

[Otis Driftwood]

Thinking, thinking, thinking!!! Always with your thinking! ;-)

Narziss & Goldmund, I have no idea how it's called in English and hard to describe. But there's a certain quality to it, that is not necessarily inherent in it's morals.
Steppenwolf of course, but there are those special times in your life where you will like that book so much more than normally. Like when your girl just left you or your sick of the people around you.
Haven't read Siddartha yet...

[abcdefz]

I just feel the disconnect so strongly if I'm applauding along with a reprehensible message, you know? Not that the stuff itself can't be reprehensible, just so long as there's a proper context for it.

Like the Coens' Fargo, for example, or Lagerkvist's The Dwarf. Holy smokes!

[Otis Driftwood]

Jeez, Jerry Lundegard. Fargo = (y)

I take it "Suspension of Disbelief" is not among your strong suits, then?

[abcdefz]

Jeez, Jerry Lundegard. Fargo = (y)

I take it "Suspension of Disbelief" is not among your strong suits, then?



"Suspension of disbelief" and "falling hook, line, and sinker" are two different things. Make the story worthwhile and humane, and I'm very, very big on "Suspension of disbelief." But I'm not going to get sold a bill of goods just because the package is pretty.

[Otis Driftwood]

"Suspension of disbelief" and "falling hook, line, and sinker" are two different things. Make the story worthwhile and humane, and I'm very, very big on "Suspension of disbelief." But I'm not going to get sold a bill of goods just because the package is pretty.
What can I say, I'm a sucker. Ordered Lost just cause I liked the "all in one setting" idea. Like Twin Peaks or something.
With Dorian Gray, well I gave that book as a present to impress my ex. Later, I read it myself and was surprised it wasn't as "filthy" and Doorian Gay as I expected. The "flowery" language was actually very pleasing and a breeze to read...My reason for choosing this book at the time was the Oscar Wilde character in the brilliant Cerebus comic books.

[abcdefz]

What can I say, I'm a sucker. Ordered Lost just cause I liked the "all in one setting" idea. Like Twin Peaks or something.
With Dorian Gray, well I gave that book as a present to impress my ex. Later, I read it myself and was surprised it wasn't as "filthy" and Doorian Gay as I expected. The "flowery" language was actually very pleasing and a breeze to read...My reason for choosing this book at the time was the Oscar Wilde character in the brilliant Cerebus comic books.



There's some pretty "gay" stuff in there that kind of made me wince. I don't know if it's more blatant now than it was then or if it was supposed to be subtext or subterfuge or what, but I don't know how many straight men admire another man's rose, curved lips or silken complexion or whatever. They could definietly wax pretty damned poetic about Dorian's beauty for paragraphs at a time, with the artist devoting his "genius" to the "genius" of Dorian's beauty and youth, etc. I'm not sure a straight man could've come up with this story, which is fine, but it just gives it a certain odor... sometimes that helped the narrative, and sometimes it just confused things.

[Otis Driftwood]

Hehe, I know what you mean. I suspected the Metrosexual Irresistible Womanizer DG version, not the greek love slave one. Musta seen too many modern movies, heh.

[jabumbo]

i started reading 'the last shot' by darcy frey yesterday for class, and it is really an amazing read. he describes everything so clearly and you really feel like you are living the lives that these kids are going through

[abcdefz]

i started reading 'the last shot' by darcy frey yesterday for class, and it is really an amazing read. he describes everything so clearly and you really feel like you are living the lives that these kids are going through



...I haven't heard of this. Can you describe more?

[Waus]

eh, since I realized it belongs here and not in the new thread.

"Ink: The More Than Just Skin-Deep Guide to Getting a Tattoo" by Terisa Green.

I don't really have any intention of getting a tattoo though.

[icy manipulator]

Khrushchev by Edward Crankshaw

[Schmeltz]

One Hundred Years of Solitude - Gabriel Garcia Marquez

[jabumbo]

...I haven't heard of this. Can you describe more?


the author actually follows around a group of 3 seniors at lincoln high school on coney island. they all play for the basketball team, and the story starts with them winning the city title as juniors.

basically, it talks about how they work hard in the game so they can get a college scholarship and get out of such a terrible neighborhood. its a really interesting story, and even though this is about a couple specific kids, its sort of talking about the area as a whole.

there was a short documentary recently made about sebastian telfair, that is sort of the same general idea. he ends up getting drafted into the NBA though, so its a little different of a story.

[abcdefz]

the author actually follows around a group of 3 seniors at lincoln high school on coney island. they all play for the basketball team, and the story starts with them winning the city title as juniors.

basically, it talks about how they work hard in the game so they can get a college scholarship and get out of such a terrible neighborhood. its a really interesting story, and even though this is about a couple specific kids, its sort of talking about the area as a whole.

there was a short documentary recently made about sebastian telfair, that is sort of the same general idea. he ends up getting drafted into the NBA though, so its a little different of a story.



...did you ever see Hoop Dreams?

[abcdefz]

I just finished reading A Simple Plan by Scott Smith. Very good book. Maybe you've seen the movie. Either way, it's still a good read: well-written and it just flies by.

Two brothers and one of the brother's friend find a downed airplane in the Ohio woods. Inside is a dead pilot and a bag with almost $4.5 million in it. A plan is hatched to keep the money, and things go from there.

Yeah, it's kind of an old Treasure of the Sierra Madre sort of riff, crossed with a bit of Fargo's inevitable doom. Good stuff.

B+.

[fucktopgirl]

I am reading a book of Bruce Lee " pensees". Its is a philosphique approach to life, reallly good.

Then i am in part two of "the mysterious island" by Verne.

And i after i want to attack " The time machine" by HG Well, i did read that before, long time ago....

[HEIRESS]

will start sometime this week

Papillon (http://www.powells.com/biblio?isbn=0061120669)

anddd

dream boogie (http://www.amazon.com/Dream-Boogie-Triumph-Sam-Cooke/dp/0316377945)

sam cooke <3

I thought I could go with a friend to a bookstore to help her pick out books to give to my brother (her boyfriend) for xmas and not buy anything for myself

*punches kidney*

[Randetica]

i read it before but a book about glam rock

[monkey]

the unabridged journals of sylvia plath and wonder boys.

[icy manipulator]

just started reading Crime and Punishment

[enree erzweglle]

Banker to the Poor, Microlending and the Battle Against World Poverty by Muhammad Yunus

"What is your name?" I asked.
"Sufiya Begum."
"How old are you?"
"Twenty-one."
"Do you own this bamboo?" I asked.
"Yes."
"How do you get it?"
"I buy it."
"How much does the bamboo cost you?"
"Five taka." At that time, this was about twenty-two cents.
"Do you have five taka?"
"No, I borrow it from the paikars."
"The middlemen? What is your arrangement with them?"
"I must sell my bamboo stools back to them at the end of the day as repayment for my loan."
"How much do you sell a stool for?"
"Five taka and fifty poysha."
"So you make fifty poysha profit?"
She nodded. That came to a profit of two cents.
"And could you borrow the cash from the moneylender and buy your own raw material?"
"Yes, but the moneylender would demand a lot. People who deal with them only get poorer."
"How much does the moneylender charge?"
"It depends. Sometimes he charges 10 percent per week. But I have one neighbor who is paying 10 percent per day."
"And that is all you earn from making these beautiful bamboo stools, fifty poysha?"
"Yes."

How would her children break the cycle of poverty she had started? How could they go to school when the income Sufiya earned was barely enough to feed her, let alone shelter her family and clothe them properly? It seemed hopeless to imagine that her babies would one day escape this misery.

Sufiya Begum eared two cents a day.

It was this knowledge that shocked me. In my university courses, I theorized about sums in the millions of dollars, but here before my eyes, the problems of life and death were posed in terms of pennies. Something was wrong. Why did my university courses not reflect the reality of Sufiya's life? I was angry, angry at myself, angry at my economics department and the thousands of intelligent professors who had not tried to address this problem and solve it.

It seemed to me that the existing economic system made it absolutely certain that Sufiya's income would be kept perpetually at such a low level that she would never save a penny and would never invest in expanding her economic base. Her children were condemned to live a life of penury, of hand-to-mouth survival, just as she had lived it before them, and as her parents did before her. I had never heard of anyone suffering for the lack of twenty-two cents.

...Usurious rates have become so standardized and socially acceptable in Third World countries that the borrower rarely realizes how oppressive a contract is. Exploitation comes in many guises. In rural Bangladesh, one maund (~37 kilograms) of husked rice borrowed at the beginning of the planting season has to be repaid with two maunds at harvest time. When land is used as security, it is placed at the disposal of the creditor, who enjoys ownership rights over it until the total amount is repaid. In many cases, a formal document establishes the right of the creditor [...] who usually refuses to accept any partial payment of the loan. After the expiration of a certain period, the agreement also allows the creditor to "buy" the land at predetermined prices that are below the market rate.

The next day, I called Maimuna, a university student who collected data for me, and asked her to help me make a list of people in Jobra [the village], like Sufiya, who were dependent on traders. Within one week, we had a list prepared. It named forty-two people who borrowed a total of 856 taka--less than 27 dollars.

My God, my God. All this misery in all these families all for the lack of twenty-seven dollars!"

Maimuna stood there without saying a word. We were both sickened by the reality of it.

My mind would not let the problem die. I wanted to help these forty-two able-bodied, hard-working people. I kept going around and around the problem. People like Sufiya were poor not be cause they were stupid or lazy. They worked all day long, doing complex physical tasks. They were poor because the financial institutions in the country did not help them widen their economic base. No
formal financial structure was available to cater to the credit needs of the poor. This credit market, by default of the formal institutions, had been taken over by the local moneylenders. It was an efficient vehicle; it created a heavy rush of one-way traffic on the road to poverty.

But if I could just lend the Jobra villagers the twenty-seven dollars, they could sell their products to anyone. They would then get the highest possible return for their labor and would not be limited by the usurious practices of the traders and moneylenders.

It was all so easy. I handed Maimuna the twenty-seven dollars and told her, "Here, lend this money to the forty-two villagers on our list. They can repay the traders what they owe them and sell their products at a good price."

"When should they repay you?" she asked.

"Whenever they can," I said. "Whenever it is advantageous for them to sell their products. They don't have to pay interest. I am not in the money business."

[Waus]

Just finished "The Sorrows of Young Werther" by Goethe




Great stuff.

[abcdefz]

I'm reading The Known World (http://www.amazon.com/Known-World-Edward-P-Jones/dp/0060557559/sr=8-1/qid=1165786201/ref=pd_bbs_1/104-0452562-3796734?ie=UTF8&s=books) by Edward P. Jones.


This was a serious score. Our library has booksales once a month where, for five dollars, you can pick out a grocery bagful of books. So I'm likely to take a chance on stuff I've never heard of, and this was one I threw in.

This is a book about a county in Virginia before the civil war, in a weird period where (often freed) blacks could own slaves. The book has a fantastic narrative and chronological sprawl, so it feels epic without being overlong or overwritten; it's tight and evocative writing.

Man, it's good so far. 60 pages in. (y)

[BroomHead]

The Metamorphasis by Kafka.

[Caribou]

Recently finished Mark Haddon's 'Curious incident of the dog in the night-time' and I'm now about to read Oscar Wilde's 'Picture of Dorian Gray'.
I have to read it to get into university, so I should start pretty soon.

[Otis Driftwood]

I currently read: Geeks, Gangsters and the Birth of the american Comic Book

Great stuff!

[Lyman Zerga]

i stopped reading after 5 pages cause a lil later i found out my 25 year old tv still works (y)

[Otis Driftwood]

Did you read the TV guide?

[Lyman Zerga]

no but i read your posts :rolleyes:

[Otis Driftwood]

no but i read your posts :rolleyes:
All five pages of them? :eek: You MUST have the hots for me... :rolleyes:

[Waus]

I started reading "A Separate Peace" now.


Soon I'll have read everything that the average 60 year old was forced to read when he was in school.

[Lyman Zerga]

All five pages of them? :eek: You MUST have the hots for me... :rolleyes:

yeah..totally..:rolleyes: :rolleyes: :rolleyes:

[abcdefz]

Recently finished Mark Haddon's 'Curious incident of the dog in the night-time' and I'm now about to read Oscar Wilde's 'Picture of Dorian Gray'.
I have to read it to get into university, so I should start pretty soon.


I just read that for the first time a month or so ago. It's okay, but I was disappointed, overall.

[GetYourWarOn]

Fear and Loathing in America : The Brutal Odyssey of an Outlaw Journalist by Hunter S. Thompson

[Waus]

I started reading "A Separate Peace" now.


Turned out good, but not as good as I'd hoped.

[Otis Driftwood]

Seven by Twin Peaks co-author Mark Frost
It's got Arthur Doyle (before he was a Sir) being chased by cultists and mummies. Great stuff! 1€ offa ebay...

[monkey]

the boy gave me his copy of michael crichton's next. im basically finished with it, but it lost me early. it's like science for dummies, and that bugged me. there's better ways to explain these topics without dumbing it down so...

[Praying Mantis]

Reading some light reading....
Harlon Coban's...Myron Bolitar series. Really good but very easy and mindless reading.

Next book however is

"Martini Man" all about greatest crooner Dean Martin.

[p-branez]

Oh the Glory of it All (http://www.amazon.com/Oh-Glory-All-Sean-Wilsey/dp/0143036912/sr=8-1/qid=1158516114/ref=pd_bbs_1/102-3474332-5331342?ie=UTF8&s=books)



yes! i really really liked that book.

still reading midnight's children by salman rushdie

and even better: Calculus: single variable

[icy manipulator]

currently reading Gorbachev's Perestroika

and also Bret Easton Ellis's Lunar Park. Has anyone read this before? i'm really enjoying it, and it's killing to me to know what in the book is real and what isn't

[beastiegirrl101]

East of Eden, John Steinbeck.

anyone read it? It's frickin massive and I kinda got conned into reading it.

[ToucanSpam]

Hegemony or Survival: America's Quest for Global Dominance by Noam Chomsky
Armageddon: The Battle for Germany 1944-1945 by Max Hastings
The Republic by Plato (a re-read....<nerd>)


P.S.- John Steinbeck rules, and so do you for reading it.

EDIT: Britons: Forging the Nation 1707-1837 by Linda Colley too. That one's for a class.

[cookiepuss]

I'm reading two books:

Cash by Johnny Cash
Hells Angels by Hunter S. Thompson

[icy manipulator]

i have mixed opinions on the republic, it's definitely an interesting read tho

[ToucanSpam]

i have mixed opinions on the republic, it's definitely an interesting read tho
The Republic is deathly boring, no jokes. But it definately serves as a good little read, sometimes even inspiring. I love the idea of the 'chief good', its partly the basis of my own religious/spiritual belief.

[icy manipulator]

yeah, you make a very good point. one question that is constantly on my mind is was Plato purely Socrates muse, or did he have any opinions of his own?

[ToucanSpam]

I think it's kind of wierd how Plato gets all the credit, the whole damn book is based entirely on a dialogue Socrates has with his students! Unfortunetly its too hard to find out due to a lack of sources whether or not Socrates or Plato had differing opinions on more issues. We can thank the burning of libraries in the middle ages by Germanic tribes for that.:mad:

[GreenEarthAl]

Yeah, so anyway. Tomorrow the new Heather (Birdie) should be in town to check out author house to see if she wants to stay here with me and Jesse. I think we are going to read Relations (my novel) on the way to Opus because after Opus it will be time to write Relations2. I so insanely excited to write this book I feel like I'm going to explode. I don't think I can move my fingers fast enough. Never been so excited to write something in my life.

Freakin out!

:D Good times. The excitement was warrented too. Book turned out really good. Reading it again presently with the old Heather.

[enree erzweglle]

"The Quark and the Jaguar" by Murray Gell-Mann

[enree erzweglle]

I'm reading Supersymmetry by Gordon Kane.

[Schmeltz]

East of Eden, John Steinbeck.

anyone read it? It's frickin massive and I kinda got conned into reading it.

I started this two days ago and I'm already 150 pages in. It's really good so far. I kind of got tricked into it too; I traded my sister 100 Years of Solitude for anything she recommended and she gave me East of Eden.

[HEIRESS]

"Mean Boy" by Lynn Coady (http://www.amazon.com/Mean-Boy-Lynn-Coady/dp/038565975X)

first book in awhile thats been LOL worthy and requires me to read passages out loud to whoever is near by because I find them so enjoyable

I also picked up james brown's memoir
and I got a biography about van morrison for xmas that im almost ready to dive into

[Waus]

"Gimme Danger" the 'definitive' biography of Iggy Pop by Joe Ambrose.

Not bad at all. Although the author did throw in a few snips of his own opinion about a lot of things.

[marsdaddy]

I haven't had the energy or desire to dig into a book, lately. It probably means something.

[Caribou]

J.D. Salinger - Catcher In The Rye

For my uni exams. First I thought 'oh nooo, old book, boooring!' but it's very modern. Yeah, I like it.

[SobaViolence]

Beyond God The Father by Mary Daly

[jeepgirl]

Dune by Frank Patrick Herbert

[GreenEarthAl]

Currently reading Frankenstein by Mary Shelley, a wholly remarkable author.

[yeahwho]

reading Crazy Busy (http://www.amazon.com/CrazyBusy-Overstretched-Overbooked-Strategies-Coping/dp/0345482433)....xmas present, it's a fun read with some very good insights into the way folks behave (myself included) in todays hyper society.

[Otis Driftwood]

Siddarta by Hermann Hesse
and
Its a long way down - Nick Hornby...

[mikizee]

the dirt by motley crue

[abcdefz]

Sixty-six by Barry Levinson.

I got this for dirt cheap at a library book sale many months back just because it's Levinson, but I wasn't expecting anything of it, because he's turned into a sort of a hack, really. But this is the Baltimore series which is hit (Diner, Avalon) and miss (Tin Men, Liberty Heights).

Well, last night I woke up in the middle of the night and was kind of restless, so I looked for something to read and snagged this.

Well, it ain't great, but it's pretty darned good. Not too many false steps, even though one of his characters is An Eccentric. Pretty entertaining, kind of anecdotal survey of roughly '66-'68 in America. Vietnam, hippies flowering, British Invasion, etc.

I read about 170 pages last night and ate up about 50 more on the bus this morning. Good stuff. (y)

[MC Moot]

just finished:

"You Suck" Christopher Moore (y)

"A Man With No Country" Kurt Vonnegut (y)

"Scanner Darkly" (Graphic Novel) Philip K Dick (y)

currently:

"Lamb: The Gospel According to Biff Christ's Childhood Pal" Chritopher Moore :)

"We Want Freedom: A Life in the Black Panther Party" Mumia Abu Jamal :eek:

"1602" (Graphic Novel) Neil Gaiman

[paul jones]

'Bigger than Hitler, Better than Christ' = The Rik Mayall

[ScarySquirrel]

I've recently gotten into Stephen King's Dark Tower series. I'm on the sixth book (Susannah's Song) out of the seven... I should be starting the last one within the next day or so...

[yeahwho]

Do pamphlets count?

[QueenAdrock]

"Lamb: The Gospel According to Biff Christ's Childhood Pal" Chritopher Moore :)


I thought my brother was the only one dorky enough to own this book. :p

[GetYourWarOn]

the best of hp lovecraft: bloodcurdling tales of horror and the macabre

i'm about to start love is a mixtape by rob sheffield

[JesusChrist]

The Da Vinci Code

[Junker]

^^ I thought you were reading the bible.

[MC Moot]

I thought my brother was the only one dorky enough to own this book. :p

It's Tom Robbins for the impatient.....(y)

[MC Moot]

East of Eden, John Steinbeck.

anyone read it? It's frickin massive and I kinda got conned into reading it.

Steinbeck makes me taste dirt and watery coffee drank from an old tomato can.....but it's mandatory along with "The Grapes of Wrath".....I prefer "Ironweed" which was totally influenced by Steinbecks style.....

[MC Moot]

Siddarta by Hermann Hesse
and
Its a long way down - Nick Hornby...


Both very good books,Hornby's a guilty pleasure for sure.....I think a new edition of Siddharta was recently publidhed including footnotes and diary excerpts.....(y)

[MC Moot]

One Hundred Years of Solitude - Gabriel Garcia Marquez

Billy Clinton's fave book....I deeply love the man.....Gabriel not Billy.....the best translation of a latin author ever......"Love In the Time of Cholera" is the greatest "love story" ever written in my humble opinion....and ""Memory's of My Melancholy Whore" is,well,it's just unreal......(y) :)

[abcdefz]

Why is Hornby a guilty pleasure? I've read two of his books, and they're witty and well-written.

[MC Moot]

Wayback there someone said they were reading the James Brown Auto Bio....it's called "I Feel Good"??.....I've been putting that off for months....any good?

[MC Moot]

Why is Hornby a guilty pleasure? I've read two of his books, and they're witty and well-written.


I find he's really at heart a pulp writer,not a great novelist in any means but good fun just the same......I should stop moving within this literary illuminati circle....;)

[abcdefz]

Pfft. It's not like he's Danielle Steele or something.

[MC Moot]

Pfft. It's not like he's Danielle Steele or something.

yeah he lacks romantic finese....much closer to an Elmore Leonard,Michael Crichton or Tom Clancy....terribly common and often found left on airplanes....

[camo]

It's a graphic novel but meh, 'supermarket'

[abcdefz]

yeah he lacks romantic finese....much closer to an Elmore Leonard,Michael Crichton or Tom Clancy....terribly common and often found left on airplanes....



Sorry to insist, but you should take a look at his stuff again. If you think it's airport reading just because it reads quickly, you're missing something.

Elmore Leonard is pretty good, but Crichton and Clancy just write potboiler stuff.

[MC Moot]

Sorry to insist, but you should take a look at his stuff again. If you think it's airport reading just because it reads quickly, you're missing something.

Elmore Leonard is pretty good, but Crichton and Clancy just write potboiler stuff.

No need to be sorry,you're missing my jive jackson......:D

[abcdefz]

Ah. Good. I was gonna say!

-- actually, I did say.

But it'd be like if you thought Ring Lardner and Erma Bombeck were interchangeable.

[Junker]

How you guys have time to read if you spend the whole day here at the boards???

[abcdefz]

I read on the bus or at night or on weekends. Or if I wake up and can't get back to sleep.

[Junker]

^^ Ok...fair enough

[abcdefz]

...plus, once you learn to stop mouthing the words and drooling it goes a lot faster. :D

[beastiegirrl101]

The Secret.

has anyone heard about all the crap surrounding this book? It is also a movie. ...

[abcdefz]

Yeah, I read about it in Newsweek.

[MC Moot]

The Secret.

has anyone heard about all the crap surrounding this book? It is also a movie. ...


Seems to me to be more soft cult or take my seminar stuff ala "The Celestine Prophecy" or a Tony Robbins like take on life....

[MC Moot]

...plus, once you learn to stop mouthing the words and drooling it goes a lot faster. :D

elitist!....I suppose you don't require pictures or pop ups to maintain attention span either.....

[abcdefz]

Not since I was thirty. (y)

[Johnny Railroad]

Mein Kampf - Adolf Hitler ....(y) ;)

in real i read Issac Asimov and actually Geliebter Roboter / Earth IS ROOM ENOUGH (y) from 1957 a collection of weird future Robot Storys (y)

so I like SF stuff from this Ära , especial the SF Propaganda stuff from teh WW2 and from the Cold War !

and I mean real SF not Pulp Fiction like Star Wars / Trek ...... ( ok i like it too , but only on TV )

[MC Moot]

How you guys have time to read if you spend the whole day here at the boards???

For me reading is required part of a healthy mental fitness regiment,you have to work that cerebral cortex out....I like to have 1 piece of fiction,1 graphic novel and usually an auto-biography on the go....and then theres mags and local and art papers....and especially as I have to read very little in the way of academia since graduation (outside of professional journals),I have renewed enthusiasm.....it’s my healthiest addiction/obsession…..(y)

[Waus]

Can anyone recommend me a good "Coming-of-Age" story?

Some of my favorites:

The Perks of Being a Wallflower
Catcher in the Rye
A Separate Peace

[abcdefz]

Can anyone recommend me a good "Coming-of-Age" story?




Willa Cather's One of Ours is a good read. A lot of it's kind of rough, in a George Bailey sort of way.

Michael Chambon's Wonder Boys is pretty terrific.

Fitzgerald's collection of The Basil and Josephine stories is way underrated.

[MC Moot]

Can anyone recommend me a good "Coming-of-Age" story?


Off the top of my head some favorites include “Dharma Bums” or “On the Road” by Kerouac….or “Caramba: A Tale told in the Turn of the Cards” by Nina Marie Martinez or even “The Red Badge of Courage” by Steven Crane or “All Quiet on the Western Front” by Erich Maria Remarque and “A Farewell to Arms” by Hemingway......

[JobDDT]

"Hardcore Diaries" by Mick Foley.

[Adolf Hitler]

Mein Kampf - Adolf Hitler ....(y) ;)


Its good somebody still understands my ideology.

[Drederick Tatum]

Robert Fisk's The Great War for Civilisation, still. it's big and full of death. makes for great big time reading. ugggh.

[p-branez]

A Supposedly Fun Thing I'll Never Do Again
david foster wallace

funny and wierd. i skip the wierd stories and read the funny ones.

[hardnox71]

http://www.amazon.com/Makes-Me-Wanna-Holler-America/dp/0679740708/ref=pd_bbs_1/105-0072515-2202864?ie=UTF8&s=books&qid=1173228351&sr=1-1
Non-fiction.


I just finished:

http://www.amazon.com/Manchild-Promised-Land-Claude-Brown/dp/0684864185/ref=pd_bbs_2/105-0072515-2202864?ie=UTF8&s=books&qid=1173228424&sr=1-2
Non-fiction about Claude Brown's childhood in the Harlem streets and upstate New York reform schools from the 1940's thru the 1960's. My favorite book. I've been reading this over and over since I first picked it up twenty years ago.

http://www.amazon.com/Random-Family-Adrian-Nicole-LeBlanc/dp/0007163436/ref=pd_bbs_sr_1/105-0072515-2202864?ie=UTF8&s=books&qid=1173228812&sr=1-1
Non-fiction. A sociological study/story about a 'random family' in the Bronx whose lives were recorded step by step for ten years.