It's Time For Another "What Are You Reading?" Thread

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re: that jonathon richman bio. Definitely the worst music biography I have ever read. Boring and repetitive, yes. And, given that the author appears never to have talked to the subject, unsurprisingly lacking in insight. Hell, even lacking in interest in the subject, I thought. I only finished it 'cause I was very jetlagged at the time.

― pauls00, Tuesday, 3 June 2003 21:05 (twenty-one years ago) link

I'm reading Ambient Century, which stinks, unfortunately, and Will You Still Miss Me When I'm Gone?, which I'm enjoying. Finished DeLillo's White Noise last week & loved it.

― Mark (MarkR), Wednesday, 4 June 2003 01:38 (twenty-one years ago) link

I´m reading this book about the Surrealists talking about Sex, very funny and interesting.

― Jens (brighter), Wednesday, 4 June 2003 04:15 (twenty-one years ago) link

Jose Saramago: Blindness
Ken Saro-Wiwa: Sozaboy
Kawabata's Palm-of-the-Hand Stories
Mark Leyner: The Tetherballs of Bougainville (again)

just finished James Lincoln Collier's two young adult novels from '67 and '75 again: The Teddy Bear Habit and Rich and Famous. He was a crap jazz writer but George Stable is a great character. Loved them books when I was a lad.

Oh, and waiting for Emma to finish Lemony Snicket #7 so I can read it. Dude is the best prose writer in the U.S.A., no question.

― Neudonym, Wednesday, 4 June 2003 04:47 (twenty-one years ago) link

I'm currently reading The Russian Debutante's Handbook the frequently funny, picaresque debut novel by Gary Shteyngart. I discovered Shteyngart through a short story and an article about T.a.T.u. in the New Yorker. He also has a colorful travelogue about Montreal online at Slate.

― o. nate (onate), Wednesday, 4 June 2003 14:37 (twenty-one years ago) link

two months pass...

"The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-time" by Mark Haddon.

I'm loving this book about 1/3 into it. It's a murder mystery written from the perspective of a 15-year old autistic boy. Very entertaining with some math and logic bits thrown in for flavor. All chapters must be prime numbers!

― Dale the Titled (cprek), Monday, 18 August 2003 14:42 (twenty years ago) link

I'm now reading "Invisible Frontier: Exploring the Tunnels, Ruins, and Rooftops of Hidden New York" by L. B. Deyo and David Leibowitz.

― Alex in NYC (vassifer), Monday, 18 August 2003 15:04 (twenty years ago) link

Alex, I got that exact same book with my Amazon order for the afforementioned book. I'm looking forward to reading that next.

― Dale the Titled (cprek), Monday, 18 August 2003 15:11 (twenty years ago) link

I'm only ankle-deep into it, but it's cool so far.

― Alex in NYC (vassifer), Monday, 18 August 2003 15:11 (twenty years ago) link

I just finished Tom Robbins' Villa Incognito which was hella fun and fulfilling, and am cautiously delving into a very strange and ridiculous piece of print called Teach Yourself Fucking whose author's name I can't remember and has photos of his fully exposed (and aroused) genitals on the cover, the majority of which's content is goofy scribbles.

― nickalicious (nickalicious), Monday, 18 August 2003 15:23 (twenty years ago) link

"miami" by joan didion, the new lester bands anthology, "necropolis railway" by andrew martin, an orwell anthology, and "love signs." i will always be reading "love signs."

― lauren (laurenp), Monday, 18 August 2003 16:20 (twenty years ago) link

Just finished Aleksander Hemon's Nowhere Man, which I really liked. About to finish ZZ Packer's Drinking Coffee Elsewhere, which I'm really liking. I'd been meaning to read both those books forever. Also the Believer, Entertainment Weekly, and the New Yorker. Oh, and Classic Material: the Hip-Hop Album Guide, which mostly sucks, but I paid 16 bucks for it on impulse so I might as well read it.

― Tom Breihan (Tom Breihan), Monday, 18 August 2003 17:00 (twenty years ago) link

Oh yeah, I finished the Shteyngart, which ended up being slightly disappointing - the second half didn't seem as funny as the first half. After that, I read Put Out More Flags by Evelyn Waugh, Moon Palace by Paul Auster, an autobiography of Nikola Tesla, and Sister Carrie by Theodore Dreiser - all of which were pretty good. Now I'm reading If On a Winter's Night a Traveler by Italo Calvino, which I've been meaning to read for years.

― o. nate (onate), Monday, 18 August 2003 17:09 (twenty years ago) link

Reading a novel for the first time in far too long - Twelve Bar Blues by Patrick Neate. It's OK.

― The Lex (The Lex), Monday, 18 August 2003 17:15 (twenty years ago) link

I just finished Bill Drummond's 45, and am about to read John Faheys How Bluesgrass Music Destroyed My Life and Haruki Murakami's The Wind-Up Bird Chronicle.

― T. Weiss (Timmy), Monday, 18 August 2003 20:09 (twenty years ago) link

I am reading Argall by William Vollmann, because I am dumb.

― Ess, Monday, 18 August 2003 20:13 (twenty years ago) link

~~auto~~biography of Nikola Tesla

― o. nate (onate), Monday, 18 August 2003 20:14 (twenty years ago) link

I'm reading Sense and Sensibility, and it's taking em AAAAGES. It's the grammar - I just don't get it. I'm on chepter 29 of 50. Getting there eventually.

I have a theory that Jane Austin is like porn. You have the cool dialogue every so often, and that bit's REALLY cool (like the sex), but then you have pages of annoying "then she went here, and then she did that, and found it most disagreeable" and it's boring as hell, just like the acting.

― Johnney B (Johnney B), Tuesday, 19 August 2003 10:43 (twenty years ago) link

Why don't you try something with less subtlety? And your theory is total crap mate.

It's Jane Austen (with an e) incidentally.

― Mikey G (Mikey G), Tuesday, 19 August 2003 13:21 (twenty years ago) link

I'm making my 10th(ish) attempt at "Gravity's Rainbow". I'll beat the fucker this time if it kills me.

― Jim Eaton-Terry (Jim E-T), Tuesday, 19 August 2003 13:53 (twenty years ago) link

Good luck w/ the Pychon, Jim. I've tried it quite a few times myself.... and failed each and every time. I know it's commercial, but i just finished "Seabiscuit" and was absolutely blown away. The horse-racing scenes make you feel like you're there.

― Chris Krewson, Tuesday, 19 August 2003 14:00 (twenty years ago) link

Julio Cortázar's Cronopios and Famas, which i'm enjoying immensely, and Gaddis's The Recognitions, which still feels like far too much work.

― summerslastsound, Tuesday, 19 August 2003 14:04 (twenty years ago) link

I just finished a one volume history of the US civil war called "Battle Cry of Freedom" by James McPherson.

I'm leaning towards starting up "High Rise" by JG Ballard, which I found at a libary sale a couple of months back. What is funny is that the copy of the Ballard book came out of the US Naval Observatory Libary in Chicago, which I found as rather strange.

― earlnash, Tuesday, 19 August 2003 14:14 (twenty years ago) link

I read a lot of essay collections (maybe I have a short attention span). Most recently, I re-read "Men, Women, and Other Anticlimaxes" by Anatole Broyard (my favorite writer). Also, "The Difficulty of Being" by Jean Cocteau, and "Nalda Said" by Stuart David (Looper/Belle & Sebastian).

― Kate Silver (Kate Silver), Tuesday, 19 August 2003 14:43 (twenty years ago) link

finished flann o'brien 'at swim two birds' this morning.

now PKD: The zap gun.

― Julio Desouza (jdesouza), Tuesday, 19 August 2003 15:03 (twenty years ago) link

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