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Post by solitude on Feb 21, 2011 11:52:34 GMT -5
Anyone else reading while hibernating?
I am trying to finish Into Thin Air & Under The Banner of Heaven by Jon Krakauer. Under. . .is pretty disturbing, so I can only absorb small bits at a time.
Hoping to start Water for Elephants tonight.
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Post by Montage on Feb 21, 2011 12:11:22 GMT -5
I'm working my way through
Naked Lunch (Burroughs) On the Road (Kerouac) The Sound of Waves (Mishima) 'Tis Pity She's a Whore (Ford)
I recently finished The Windup Bird Chronicles/Kafka on the Shore (Murakami) and plan to re-read Fifth Business (Davies) when I get through some of what I've started. I read Into the Wild by Krakauer and quite liked it. It was a very enduring story and I've been meaning to check out his other work.
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Post by frauleinkül on Feb 21, 2011 13:14:02 GMT -5
I'm working my way through On the Road (Kerouac) Brilliant book! I read it last year and was quite captivated by his effortless, poetic, poignant, and at times pretentious prose. Currently reading Dharma Bums (Kerouac), but I'm not loving it as much yet... Lots and lots of comics/graphic novels/(some other fancy term for the same thing) - that Master Thesis of Doom doesn't read or write itself
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Post by barriers on Feb 21, 2011 13:44:26 GMT -5
I'm in the middle of Absalom, Absalom! by William Faulker who I enjoy reading though I find his writing challenging to read and I'm frequently re-reading sections. I spent several months last year reading (& re-reading) the Sound and the Fury. Both those books share common characters even though the stories generally take place in different centuries which I was not aware of when I started. Good Southern Gothic.
After that I'm planning on reading Ulysses by James Joyce and Wise Blood by Flannery O'Connor. As for a recommendation I've always enjoyed Generation X: Tales for an Accelerated Culture by Douglas Coupland.
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Post by solitude on Feb 21, 2011 15:11:59 GMT -5
I read Into the Wild by Krakauer and quite liked it. It was a very enduring story and I've been meaning to check out his other work. We are reading Into the Wild in English, which inspired me to read his other 2. I listened to Into Thin Air, which was read by the author, at least 10 years ago. I remember it was very moving, so now I want to experience it written. Into the Wild is able to reach most of our students, who tend to be mostly rural hillbillies who don't enjoy reading or engaging in higher level thinking. But they like to argue about how crazy Chris McCandless was because it makes them feel more normal. And it gets them to open up about what they are passionate about. So many of them would rather sleep through class, but this is a character they can somewhat relate to and get a bit fired up about. So we try to build their vocabulary and develop their writing skills without them realizing it. Plus they know if they are able to get through this novel, they can sit and veg through the movie for a few days. And the movie has such high caliber actors--Emile Hirsch, Vince Vaughn, Catherine Keener. . . I look forward to watching it with them this week.
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Post by Montage on Feb 21, 2011 15:55:24 GMT -5
I quite like On the Road. I get all frustrated when I read reviews of it online that completely trash it. It's an adventure, and it's written as such. The text flows nonstop and it never drags to talk about things mundane and not in-the-moment. Kerouac is not the best writer, but he has captured an energy and idea with that novel that is lacked in modern times and that most people will never get to experience anymore. Similar to Into the Wild. We all read the story and most people think Chris was stupid, but he was on an adventure too. Maybe he was in over his head by the end, which was unfortunate, but he did things most of us would only dream of (and then go sit on our couches and watch TV instead). Anything by Coupland is quite good. A personal favourite. Generation X: Tales for an Accelerated Culture by Douglas Coupland I'm also halfway through Joyce's Portrait..., but it might forever stay that way at the rate I'm going.
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Post by Grumpella on Feb 21, 2011 16:09:20 GMT -5
I need to give On the Road another try. I started to read it quite a while back and got deeply annoyed by what I perceived as the "oh-God-isn't-he-so-cool" attitude towards Dean Moriarty who struck me as just a lazy self-centered prick. It didn't help that I'd already read "The Electric Kool-Aid Acid Test" so I knew Neal Cassady ended up a gibbering speed freak. But a friend of mine told me I needed to keep reading cuz by the end of the book the hero worship was long over, so maybe I'll go to the library and give it another go. Right now I'm just amusing myself by re-reading Joe Orton's plays. Brilliant, twisted stuff.
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Post by siner on Feb 22, 2011 11:07:36 GMT -5
Right now I'm getting into DBC Pierre's Lights out in Wonderland, good stuff so far
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Post by Lungsey on Feb 22, 2011 12:15:49 GMT -5
Finally, FINALLY, reading A Prayer for Owen Meany by John Irving.
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Post by Montage on Feb 22, 2011 16:53:42 GMT -5
Finally, FINALLY, reading A Prayer for Owen Meany by John Irving. I despised this book. Not because I had to read it for English class, or because it was so fucking long, but because Owen was such a whiny-assed character and that really got no sympathy from me.
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Post by Lungsey on Feb 22, 2011 18:05:04 GMT -5
Thanks for that - you gave away the plot.... hahahahahaha!
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Post by angela on Feb 22, 2011 18:11:54 GMT -5
Anyone else reading while hibernating? I am trying to finish Into Thin Air & Under The Banner of Heaven by Jon Krakauer. Under. . .is pretty disturbing, so I can only absorb small bits at a time. I've been on a mountaineering literature spree since last summer (strictly arm chair interest). I read "Into Thin Air" and many others. Let me know if you are maybe looking for recommendations. Right now I'm reading "K2: Life and Death on the World's Most Dangerous Mountain" by Ed Viesturs. In parallel, I'm reading Keith Richard's autobiography, "Life".
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Post by grangerlang on Feb 23, 2011 0:35:05 GMT -5
If anyone likes art history/bio type books, I highly recommend 'The Private Lives of the Impressionists'. I generally find historical bios to be quite dry, but this one paints the people included with such vivid strokes that they really come alive.
And if you don't come out of it thinking that the Impressionists were punk as fuck, you need to do some serious thinking about your life.
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Post by Montage on Feb 23, 2011 1:05:52 GMT -5
Sounds interesting. I read Dada: Art and Anti-Art by Hans Richter last fall. Interesting first-hand perspective of how everything took off at the beginning of the 20th century.
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Post by grangerlang on Feb 23, 2011 1:27:50 GMT -5
Ooh, I'll definitely have to check that one out.
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Post by solitude on Feb 23, 2011 16:15:10 GMT -5
I've been on a mountaineering literature spree since last summer (strictly arm chair interest). I read "Into Thin Air" and many others. Let me know if you are maybe looking for recommendations. Right now I'm reading "K2: Life and Death on the World's Most Dangerous Mountain" by Ed Viesturs. In parallel, I'm reading Keith Richard's autobiography, "Life". Thanks. I am strictly arm chair as well--terrified of heights! Actually, I am obsessing over Krakauer's writing style. I have had that Richard's bio recommended to me by several people, but I am not much of a Stones fan. Lungs, I know I read Owen in a book club I was in, but I can't remember a damn thing about it! How scary is that?
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Post by Shoesh on Feb 23, 2011 18:45:59 GMT -5
early David Sedaris books if you haven't read them. and i'm collecting books related to the bbc program QI (quote books) The Amazing Adventures of Cavalier and Klay
I also stocked up on crappy dvd's to get me through winter: Hot Fuzz, Back To The Future and the simpsons season 20 heheh quality stuff!
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Post by angela on Feb 23, 2011 19:33:54 GMT -5
Actually, I am obsessing over Krakauer's writing style. Really? I must have another look at Krakauer. I though the writing was very matter-of-fact. My favorite writer in that genre so far has been Joe Simpson (of "Touching The Void" fame). He can paint equally vivid images of his interior as of the events around him and make you see things through his eyes.
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Post by solitude on Feb 23, 2011 20:49:08 GMT -5
I love the vocabulary he chooses to throw in here and there, and his style feels conversational to me. Maybe I am being too kind to Krakauer because we are in the midst of preparing for standardized testing, so I've been grading writing samples every night. I have been surrounded by fragments, run-ons, and rudimentary vocab. even after I have drilled and drilled and drilled. . . . I will have to check out Joe Simpson--his style sounds lovely.
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Post by Fields at Midnight on Feb 25, 2011 10:50:07 GMT -5
I'm reading 1776.
I just finished "The Card". It's a really dorky book about the 1909 T206 Honus Wagner card. I loved it.
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Post by angela on Feb 25, 2011 19:36:30 GMT -5
I love the vocabulary he chooses to throw in here and there, and his style feels conversational to me. Maybe I am being too kind to Krakauer because we are in the midst of preparing for standardized testing, so I've been grading writing samples every night. I have been surrounded by fragments, run-ons, and rudimentary vocab. even after I have drilled and drilled and drilled. . . . I will have to check out Joe Simpson--his style sounds lovely. Definitely conversational and very easy to follow. I was mostly trying to understand the events of the 1996 Everest season at the time, so I certainly didn't pay as much attention to the writing style as you did - LOL. I think I actually have another Krakauer book on my Amazon wish list.
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Post by solitude on Feb 25, 2011 23:49:56 GMT -5
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Post by beyondthepale on Feb 26, 2011 1:06:17 GMT -5
This looks like an amazing book. QOTSA and EODM are shown.
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Post by angela on Feb 26, 2011 19:04:42 GMT -5
Very observant I have already downloaded a sample to my Kindle. Btw, PBS has a Frontline web site with material relating to the events described in 'Into Thin Air'. I found that an interesting supplement.
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Post by analuisa on Mar 1, 2011 16:02:04 GMT -5
By chance, I found this: "Isobel Campbell is insanely pretty. Mark Lanegan is insanely tall. I may have been the sole person at our venue that he had an actual conversation with. They brought their own monitor engineer who had no idea what he was doing, so I sat back there babysitting him while reading Blood Meridian. Mark saw it and started talking to me about how it's his favorite book of all time, and told me to read Child of God next. Then he left out the backdoor to go to a Chicago Bulls preseason game. He only came back in time for their performance, and left the stage at the end of the night without having spoken a word to the audience." forums.hipinion.com/viewtopic.php?f=1&t=25762&start=180
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