Topic: What are you reading?

[gainesvillegreen]

Thomas Pynchon Against The Day
Graham Greene The Comedians

[Hicks]

yup.

but he's worthwhile imo just for writing "A Christmas Carol"

I guess, since it was the inspiration for Scrooged!   

[sophist]

well when the lesbians rip your dick off for being an "oppressive" male, we'll see who is right

edit: faux I think your confusing lesbians with coke sluts, and "naughty" college girls, which I would love to tango with

[converse29]

Thomas Pynchon Against The Day
Graham Greene The Comedians

How much Pynchon have you read?

[gainesvillegreen]

This is my maiden voyage into Pynchon.  I honestly can't get into books that are more than 350 or 400 pages, but, this is an important author, so I'm diving in head first. 

Just finished Pamuk's My Name Is Red 4-6 weeks ago, just before the announcement.  It was WAY too long for the purpose...

[birdman]

   I just finished "Acts of Faith" by Philip Caputo....

          "The ghosts of literary heavyweights are never far from the page in Philip Caputo's unflinching, dust-swept African odyssey, Acts of Faith. This cautionary tale about a modern-day group of well-intentioned pilots, missionaries and dreamers who attempt to alleviate the suffering in war-torn Sudan covers all the morally rocky ground we love in Melville and Conrad. Three very different love-in-the-trenches subplots recall the shell-shocked assignations of Hemingway. And the brutally honest, two-fisted prose reminds us yet again why Caputo, along with Jim Harrison and Peter Matthiessen, may be the last of the big cats in our literary jungle."

    Pretty interesting and topical subject. Not as good as his Rumor of War, his reportings from his tours in Vietnam, which he won a Pulitzer for. But pretty amazing none-the-less.
   
   Now reading Touching my Fathers Soul by Amling Tenzing Norgay.  Written by the late Everst Sherpa, Tenzing Norgay, son. Quite interesting so far...


On the topic of books, my alltime favorite read was Geek Love by Katherine Dunn...fromwiki..."Geek Love is a novel by Katherine Dunn and first published in 1989. It's the story of a traveling circus run by Aloysius "Al" Binewski and his wife, "Crystal" Lil. When Al's circus begins to fail, the couple devise an idea to breed their own freak show, using various drugs and radioactive material to alter the genes of their children. Who emerges are Arturo ("Arty"), a boy with flippers for hands and feet; Electra ("Elly") and Iphigenia ("Iphy") the Siamese Twins; Olympia ("Oly") the hunchback albino dwarf; and Fortunato ("Chick"), the normal looking telekinetic baby of the family -- as well as a number of still-borns kept preserved in jars in a special wing of the freak show. The story is told by Oly in the form of a novel written for her daughter Miranda.

   READ THIS BOOK, you will not be disappointed.
I am a voracious reader so any and all recomendations are extremely welcome..

[jedifunk]

how do you people have time for reading........  seriously

[sophist]

well i choose to read instead of watching TV.  I also like to listen to music while I read, so I knock out 2 birds with one stone. 

[jedifunk]

well, i don't have time to watch tv either... or play video games....

luckily listening to music is something i can do while doing almost anything...

about the only thing i have time for is the paug

[sophist]

5000+ posts
I'm calling bullshit, your never here 

[birdman]

how do you people have time for reading........  seriously

I just got laid off for the next 3 months Cant install Swimming pools in the winter
Enjoy your jobs, Suckers

[gimmetela]

right now i'm reading A Walk in the Woods by Bill Bryson.  It's hilarious!

admittedly it takes me twice as long to get thru a book than it used to p.m. (pre-motherhood) but i definitely take time to read.  gotsa keep me sharp!

the last book i read was In Cold Blood by Truman Capote.  It was good, albeit a bit slow.  But it was nice to see how his book kicked off murder/mayhem/chaos into the reading by pop culture.  

a great toilet read... An Underground Education by Richard Zacks...full of small articles with odd facts, like the time Winston Churchill was flogged, the tools used by early gynecologists (which gave me chills.), research on severed heads...you know, fun stuff.

[kellerb]

I'm about to take a maiden dive into Pynchon, depending on whether anyone buys me that Gravity's Rainbow that's on my xmas list.  Although, from what I've read about him, its pretty dense stuff.  We will see.  "Ulysses" is still up on my bookshelf, taunting me for never getting through it.

Edit:  it keeps telling me replies have been posted.  It is clear we are all killing the last 1/2 hour or so at work right now.

[sophist]

or studying 
I have two finals tomorrow and I need to study but I just don't want to right now. 

[gainesvillegreen]

kellerb - Google Books has a "preview" of Pynchon's Gravity's Rainbow available.  You can get a head start - if you just type in Google Books Pynchon it should come up for you.

tela - Walk In The Woods was the first of Bryson's that I read.  I still laugh over that section, I think prior to setting out, where he talks about what one should do if approached or attacked by a bear - anything but be calm since you are about to be eaten!  I read three of four of his other works, but none were as good.
His Notes from a Small Island would be good if you want to fall asleep on the potty