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reading
Jan 21, 2006 23:52:07 GMT -5
Post by brendanblarsen on Jan 21, 2006 23:52:07 GMT -5
so i finally got around to h.p lovecraft after a few years of wondering what all the cthulu references were about in various things i've seen on the internet since i was about 16 years old.
i really love the language, it's so over-the-top that he probably couldn't get away with it any later than he did.
yukio mishima still makes me sigh. i finished the tetralogy and i've been reading The Sound of Waves on lunch break at work instead of eating food.
something about suicidal gay bodybuilders really does it for me i guess.
i read bataille's Story of the Eye and by the end i was bored. it could have been five pages long and then maybe it would have saved itself some face/shock value.
- - - - -
another unrelated thread, sorry, but i think the xiuxiu:nonxiuxiu ratio is still pretty favorable, and it's always nice to have a bigger list of reccomendations to resort to.
i am sort of curious as to what xiu xiu fans read (besides the obvious like dennis cooper)
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reading
Jan 21, 2006 23:58:01 GMT -5
Post by liontails on Jan 21, 2006 23:58:01 GMT -5
The Elephant Vanishes : Stories
by Haruki Murakami
from amazon:
"This collection of 15 stories from a popular Japanese writer, perhaps best known in this country for A Wild Sheep Chase ( LJ 11/15/89), gives a nice idea of his breadth of style. The work maintains the matter-of-fact tone reminiscent of American detective fiction, balancing itself somewhere between the spare realism of Raymond Carver and the surrealism of Kobo Abe. These are not the sort of stories that one thinks of as "Japanese"; the intentionally Westernized style and well-placed reference to pop culture gives them a contemporary and universal feel. Engaging, thought-provoking, humorous, and slyly profound, these skillful stories will easily appeal to American readers but must present something of a challenge to the Japanese cultural establishment. At their best, however, they serve to dispel cultural stereotypes and reveal a common humanity. Recommended for libraries with an interest in contemporary fiction.
- Mark Woodhouse, Elmira Coll. Lib., N.Y."
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reading
Jan 22, 2006 0:02:40 GMT -5
Post by Animals! So Weird on Jan 22, 2006 0:02:40 GMT -5
the celestine prophecy - james redfield (currently reading)
be here now - ram dass (all-time favorite)
long hard road out of hell - marilyn manson (best autobiography i've ever read, but then again im a manson fan so I'm biased)
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Jan 22, 2006 0:26:23 GMT -5
Post by recordrelapse on Jan 22, 2006 0:26:23 GMT -5
"The Maimed" by Hermann Ungar -- ugly, sad, unsettling story about a banker with severe anxiety and his diseased, rotting friend, both of whom are crippled in their own way.
"I Hate To See that Evening Sun Go Down" by William Gay -- a collection of Southern Gothic novels, like Flannery O'Conner or Cormac McCarthy
"Conspiracy to Murder: the Rwandan Genocide" by Linda Melvern -- "We Wish To Inform You That Tomorrow We Will be Killed With Our Familes" sparked my interest, so this book is a follow up to learn more. (but I still haven't seen "Hotel Rwanda" yet, so I'm still behind the times)
"Hell" by Henri Barbusse -- solipistic novel about a man seeing the world's evils through a hole in his wall. Just got this one, haven't started it.
Yeah, I'm a booook doooooork
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byronhulcher
Go Away
and I'm waiting for him to arrive.
Posts: 482
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reading
Jan 22, 2006 0:40:03 GMT -5
Post by byronhulcher on Jan 22, 2006 0:40:03 GMT -5
Lovecraft is great, I love the one about teh Deep Ones the best, its just so haunting to me as he realizes that he's going to eventually turn into one.
I don't know if its reading, but I suggest everyone here pick up the current Infinite Crisis going on with DC comics, as a new follow up to Crisis on Infinite, and more important than that Zero Hour nonsense (we still love you hal!). Its a great read, especially if you love your comics.
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Jan 22, 2006 0:49:12 GMT -5
Post by brendanblarsen on Jan 22, 2006 0:49:12 GMT -5
shit. i love comic books so much.
what else do you like? i can't get over junji ito. i read his entire output in two weeks (thanks amazon) and i'm sitting around waiting for something new. he gets better and better.
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eyeless
Pretty Girl
no formation
Posts: 81
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reading
Jan 22, 2006 13:34:31 GMT -5
Post by eyeless on Jan 22, 2006 13:34:31 GMT -5
the language of lovecraft, the whole process of thought, is wonderful. *nods* *nods* i quite agree.
i'm just starting on a thomas merton kick. i just finished his 'rain and the rhinocerus' essay and i'm starting into 'zen and the birds of appetite'. i've got to start scrounging through used book stores for some actual material however since i'm borrowing these...
i've got ionesco in my bag as well which i'll likely get to while i search for more merton.
recently though...
some early plays by harold pinter ['a slight ache' and 'the hothouse' were nice]
les fleur du mal by charles baudelaire
crazy amounts of scanlated manga....
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reading
Jan 22, 2006 16:25:49 GMT -5
Post by todd on Jan 22, 2006 16:25:49 GMT -5
i'm not a big reader; i mainly read what is suggested to me by my friends - and hipster classics.
right now i'm reading 'the heart is deceitful above all things' because i'm lazy and waited for my friend to buy it.
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eyeless
Pretty Girl
no formation
Posts: 81
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reading
Jan 23, 2006 0:05:07 GMT -5
Post by eyeless on Jan 23, 2006 0:05:07 GMT -5
over the fall i read through ten to fifteen romance novels from the late 70s and early 80s that i had found in someones recycling bin. they do make for interesting reads... but generally follow the same formula.
*spoiler* [hah]
female[independant and uninterested in sex/children] + male[aggressive, arrogant, and wealthy] = female[dependant and very interested in sex/children] + male[sensual, sensitive and wealthy]
still, it's good stuff.... i got kinda hooked after the first few and i'll prolly end up picking up more at a garage sale if i find them for 25-50 cents a pop....
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byronhulcher
Go Away
and I'm waiting for him to arrive.
Posts: 482
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reading
Jan 23, 2006 0:08:17 GMT -5
Post by byronhulcher on Jan 23, 2006 0:08:17 GMT -5
i'm not a big reader; i mainly read what is suggested to me by my friends - and hipster classics. right now i'm reading 'the heart is deceitful above all things' because i'm lazy and waited for my friend to buy it. alright, so hipster is a group of people who go with whatever is popular... and classics refer to past bestsellers So the top books fromt he amazon 100? |
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Jan 23, 2006 0:13:47 GMT -5
Post by todd on Jan 23, 2006 0:13:47 GMT -5
eh?
"hipster classics" would be beat literature, salinger, bret easton ellis, sylvia plath, and vonnegut jr.
that's how i generalize them.
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Jan 23, 2006 0:22:21 GMT -5
Post by booksoutloud on Jan 23, 2006 0:22:21 GMT -5
right now i'm in the middle off Joseph Heller's "Catch-22", "Cryptonomicon" by Neal Stephenson, and "Sex, Drugs, and Coco Puffs* (a low culture manifesto)" by Chuck Klosterman. I've also got a copy of "Naked Lunch" by William S. Boroughs that i really want to get started on, and "Idoru" by William Gibson.
on a side note. people think it's funny that i use a jesus fish car magnet as a bookmark.
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Jan 23, 2006 0:30:40 GMT -5
Post by todd on Jan 23, 2006 0:30:40 GMT -5
i started naked lunch after my friend found her copy. that was a few months ago.
i'm still working through 'american psycho' as well.
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Jan 23, 2006 17:20:45 GMT -5
Post by kevin on Jan 23, 2006 17:20:45 GMT -5
reading takes a lot of time so i dont get a chance to do it often. however in the past year i know ive re-read Me Talk Pretty One Day (David Sedaris) and The Sense of Being Stared At (Rupert Sheldrake).
bay far my favorite author is Vonnegut whose books i have read so many times i couldnt even count them if i tried (Breakfast of Champions is my favorite).
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Jan 23, 2006 18:50:46 GMT -5
Post by SINISTER FUNKHOUSE on Jan 23, 2006 18:50:46 GMT -5
sex, drugs and cocoa puffs is good. i liked that one a lot.
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