Just found the book I'm Thinking Of Ending Things by Iain Reid while shelving. Looked interesting and aparently its coming to netflix. Read the first 3 pages and i want to read more (im pretty sure my "to-read" pile is cursing me right now)
The 2020 Halloween Horror Short Story contest entries, of course! Spoiler Too cheezy of a plug? Yeah, I thought so too, but here we are.
Keep your liquid intake down and set a timer to remind yourself to use the facilities and you should be fine.
Not reading it now... But definitely adding to my "to read" pile. Dracula, Motherf**ker by Alex de Campi. It says its a graphic novel based on Dracula that takes place in '70s L.A. Looks fun
There There by Tommy Orange. Jury is still out on this one. Ain't exactly grabbing me but it ain't exactly a grabby book. It's about a bunch of Indians living in Oakland California on the way to a Native Dance Festival... one of those Really Important Books that won a buttload of awards, and I just read a popcorn book, so I feel I need to go literary to keep my chops up.
It was a novel about build-up and somewhat about self-discovery. Build-up to what you might ask? I read the book and I'm still waiting to find out... It was...alright. It is highly inaccessible and I had to spend twice as long on it than I would have spent on any 152 page book. It's very busy. I'm still deciding if that's a good thing. Complexity for complexity's sake with no reward, signaling a point that I'm still deciphering. It's a bit frustrating. I won't be recommending The Crying of Lot 49 to anyone but those who are interested in a challenge.
Gravity's Rainbow clocks in at 760, and Mason & Dixon at 800. M&D has no dialogue attributions at all. Mount f**king Everest, I think I lost some toes reading that damn thing and remember next to nothing of it.
Any suggestions for a Dostoevsky fanboy? Probably the wrong topic but no book has changed my life like Crime & Punishment and the rest. Tried to find the recommend book topic.
I've read just about everything by him at this point. I feel like nobody will touch on psychological elements so ruthlessly/endearingly since. I loved that book aside from the elongated court case at the end (however necessary it was for him to prove his writing ability) and somehow preferred Demons. That book (demons) was just him in pure ruthless mode.
@Malum I've been really enjoying Anthony Trollope lately; his novels are so full of life. It's like life in miniature, I really think it is.
Just finished reading 'The Sound of Thunder' which is the sequel to 'When the Lion Feeds.' These books are authored by Wilbur Smith. As a South African I like how he weaves historical events of the country into his novels.
You have ignited my interest. Very specific indeed, I have often found description to be mostly needless in a lot of what I've read. I tend to collect Everymans' editions these days, hopefully there are some versions I can collect...
Fathers and Sons by Ivan Turgenev? I'm not much into the Russians but that one blew my mind when I was 16-17 years old.
I nearly came to the conclusion that was the same author as Oblomov. I'm interested in those insights to the human condition like the funeral wake meal in Crime & Punishment. So embarassingly depressing. I'll delve soon enough.
I'm sure Everyman has Trollope--if not they need to fix that right now. I prefer annotated editions for myself; I think they're helpful, for me at least, and probably for anyone not intimately familiar with Victorian England.
I'm currently reading "Legion," the sequel, also by Blatty. It's about the minor characters from the first book, Detective Kinderman mostly. In "The "Exorcist," he was emphasized much more in the book than in the movie. He's the main character of Legion. The original family is nowhere to be seen. So it's a new story, kind of. It's a little like Se7en. Of course, Legion came first but you know what I mean. It's the supernatural vs. the detective. Tonally, "Legion" falls neatly between "The Exorcist" and "The Ninth Configuration." I didn't much like Blatty's "The Ninth Configuration" though. It was okay. It was a little like "Catch-22" combined with "One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest," but not as good as either. Anyway, I'm liking "Legion" even though I know how it's going to end. I've seen the George C Scott movie and it follows the book closely. (The studio interference in the movie is glaringly obvious.) If you read Legion, you better really like sarcastic Jewish humor. There's a lot of it. I have a Jewish uncle who dishes this out nonstop. He's like a movie stereotype (purposely), so I don't think much of it. The stuff he says is just deliberately outrageous, and the humor isn't in what's said but just the fact that he dared to say it. So the words should offend, but they don't, and that's the joke. He was a college professor and for the life of me, I don't understand how he avoided lawsuits. I'm sure this type of thing happened in class.
So.... a satire narrated by a schizophrenic? A ww2 bomber squad in a looney bin? Major Major Major meets Martini? Sounds promising either way.
Kind of, really. It's about a military hospital for insane enlisted men. The problem is that they all run about bonkers and nothing makes much sense. It's just too zany. It's supposed to be funny, and very small parts are, but you can never really contrast it against any sort of norm. Some people like it though. Catch-22 did that too (nobody in there was completely normal) but it succeeded. One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest is an excellent book, btw. The movie made a few cinematic adjustments (mainly in the narrator's POV), but it matches the book really well. The book never gets mentioned much, but man, it nails the period. It really has something to say and it's pretty entertaining up to the end. I compare that to Catcher in the Rye, which gets WAY too much attention (it's mediocre at best), and spends its time hammering one single (phony) message, and it makes me sad. I wish I made the rules. Every school would teach the Cuckoo's Nest and The Hellbound Heart. The PTA would be enraged. Seriously though. . . Catcher in the Rye should be retired and replaced with The Nickel Boys. There's a lot of language in it, but its depth and characters and imagery are near perfect. I guess I rambled about a lot of books instead of just one, sorry! haha
Leaning on the edge of derailing the thread, I entirely agree with you on Catcher. Okay, that's a rabbit hole that could honestly a huge new thread: what books should be taught in schools at different levels. Catcher needs to retire.
I like Catcher in the Rye. I don't know if it deserves to be taught in schools but I will contest @Seven Crown's assertion that it is mediocre.
