Books

[Iorek]

[bass_culture]

So many good recommendations in this thread already...

An absolute must: Oscar Wilde - The Picture of Dorian Gray

lady chatterlys lover! so much more than 20s erotica

Birdsong by Sebastian Faulks which I highly recommend.

Dubliners - James Joyce is a good un too.

I'm just finishing of Wolf Hall by Hillary Mantel which one the Man Booker Prize in 09. Its about Thomas Cromwell and Henry VIII around the time of Henry seeking a divorce from Katherine of Aragon. A long read but really well written, very vivid and gripping at times.

[autobot]

100 years of solitude
Life of pi
To kill a mockingbird

Those are my favourite books.

Been reading a lot of Niel Gaiman at the mo, and thoroughly enjoying his stuff

[slothrop]

Neil Gaiman is good, yeah, esp American Gods and Anansi Boys.

Also, this:

[Shum]

Uncle Petros and Goldbach's Conjecture by Apostolos Doxiadis

[leebass]

Geek Love by Katherine Dunn

[firky]

There's a class reading thread somewhere.

Currently reading Snow Crash (again) and The Coming Insurrection.

The Coming Insurrection is a French work (although it has become extremely influential in the North American anarchist scene) that hypothesizes the "imminent collapse of capitalist culture". Written by The Invisible Committee, an anonymous group of contributors (attributed to the Tarnac Nine by the French police), the book was first published in 2007 by French company La Fabrique.

[bright maroon]

Just Finished Lovecrafts Call of the Cthulu and Other Strange Stories

Just started Thus Spake Zarathustra and a J.G. Ballard Short Story Compendium
- because he's being drummed up fairly constantly here.

I'm going to sort of shift back and forth based on my mood..

I already read The Cloud Sculptors of Coral D because the title pulled me in - it was fantastic.

Just watched a documentary on I.M.Pei

and the movie Blue Valentine - was a swan song to a failing hipster relationship in that pseudo indy/urban cowboy way
- was very well done albeit contemptable in subject matter.
Very similar to the film Angela by Rebecca Miller

also watched Downtown 81, Catfish, and Capote - was pleased with all 3.

[jrosellie]

aldous huxley's island
aldous huxley's brave new world
irvine welsh's trainspotting (which i haven't finished yet)
malcom gladwell's blink
ned vizinni's it's kind of a funny story

[AllNightDayDream]

[HamCrescendo]

irvine welsh's stuff is good fun if you want something modern. Reccomend Glue and Trainspotting.

i was obsessed with irvine welsh when i was 18/19 read nearly everything by him.

have to say that 'porno' was my favourite, its actually a proper novel, instead of just weird disconnected short stories.

kind of prefer his short stories... dont think hes all that good at writing an overarching story, just always liked the language and yeah when youre 18 stories of pills and acid and cutting dogs legs off are the one.

I need to read more. I primarily seem to read to procrastinate from reading other more important things.

[bassrael]

brave new world - aldus huxley

Kill Your Friends by John Niven

also

Rant - Chuck Palahniuk
Post Office - Charles Bukowski
A Long Way Down - Nick Hornby
The Lord of the Rings - JRR Tolkien (honestly the books are great!)

and some
Arnaldur Indriðason & Henning Mankell

[slothrop]

Oh yeah, and I'm quite into Pynchon (hence my forum name...)

V. and The Crying of Lot 49 are classic, comparatively readable and comparatively short, Mason & Dixon is long, mental, intermittently boring and pretty full on but is also an all-action bodice-ripping romp in a postmodern deconstruction of formal narrative sort of way (ie it's fantastic but maybe not a good taster if you don't know whether you like his style), Gravity's Rainbow is the daddy: it's massive, brilliant and a total headfuck. I'm on my second run through it at the moment and it just keeps getting better. Inherent Vice is his most recent novel and is deliberately written to read more like a conventional thriller - it's pretty cool but it actually isn't as funny as the heavier early stuff. Vineland and Against the Day I haven't read.

The uncyclopedia article on Gravity's Rainbow is surprisingly accurate:
http://uncyclopedia.wikia.com/wiki/Gravity%27s_Rainbow

[64hz]

the town and the city. . . .
srsly jack jeroauc knew. . . .he had to write the orthodox great america novel before he could manifest his own genius.

[64hz]

the best writers are those you feel as true companions. same as music

[64hz]

i meNT kEROUAC

[64hz]

ffs U KNOW WHAT I MEANT

[64hz]

other way round

[knell]

[dubduck]

Salman Rushdie - Midnight's Children, The Satanic Verses

Joseph Conrad - Heart of Darkness

David Foster Wallace - Oblivion

Phillip Pullman - His Dark Materials