What Are You Reading Now?

[New Mexican Disaster]

Tonight I finished listening to Atlas Shrugged. 68 hours of torture like prose, rising up like a crescendoed knife, only to descend and cut me as I listened, again, and again, in a dance of pain, and culminating in a weariness, a weariness of too many words, and too many sentences cascading through my bleeding ears begging for relief, finding out that I was only half done, and that the journey would never end, for there was never really an ending.

Some might say I'm a hero, but I think I'm just a sucker who wanted value from a $12 audible book.

Worst book I have ever read narrowly edging out Les Miserables.

[creekster]

What's a crescendoed knife?

[Topper]

Worst book I have ever read narrowly edging out Les Miserables.

If you curse Les Miserables, then you either have bad taste or haven't read very many books. Les Miserables is much better than the play or movie. And IIRC you read French.

Atlas Shrugged is tolerable, but I have read many worse books. Jane Eyre? Her books are intolerable.

[falafel]

Mystic River.

[PaloAltoCougar]

Jane Eyre? Her books are intolerable.

Not to mention nonexistent!

[thesaint258]

I read S. by JJ Abrams and Doug Dorst. It's a pretty interesting concept. The book itself looks like a library book. It's a book written by a mysterious author, and the story is pretty interesting in itself. What really adds to the book are the notes in the margins. The book belongs to a former student, and it's found by a current student. They communicate with each other through notes written in the book's margins. The book also has a lot of inserts that are used to tell the story in the margins. The story told in the margins is convoluted. There are four distinct time periods distinguished by the color of ink used to write the notes. As the story unfolds, things get mysterious, and if you're so inclined, there are codes and puzzles to solve.

It was an interesting book. I liked both stories, though the story told in the margin is pretty disjointed and tough to follow if you don't read it right. It's a pretty cool concept, though. It's a unique work of fiction that makes for a good distraction at the end of the day.

[SteelBlue]

Between the World and Me by Ta-Nehisi Coates. Written in the form of a letter to his son, this is so far a brilliant and uncomfortable read.

[SteelBlue]

Just finished Franzen's new novel Purity. Among other things, I thought it was an interesting look at the idealism of youth and what that becomes as we age. It's a bit of a behemoth at nearly 600 pages, but honestly, it reads like 300 and that is largely due to Franzen's facility with the dialogue. I don't know if anyone here ever pays attention to my recommendations, but in case someone does, I should note that this one would be rated a hard R if we were talking in movie terms. So, you've been warned.

[SeattleUte]

Just finished Franzen's new novel Purity. Among other things, I thought it was an interesting look at the idealism of youth and what that becomes as we age. It's a bit of a behemoth at nearly 600 pages, but honestly, it reads like 300 and that is largely due to Franzen's facility with the dialogue. I don't know if anyone here ever pays attention to my recommendations, but in case someone does, I should note that this one would be rated a hard R if we were talking in movie terms. So, you've been warned.

I have read the New Yorker short story that he carved out of it; I enjoyed the story, and I have started the book. Colm Toiben reviewed the book I think for the NY Times, and he noted that the writing is very plain and not Franzen's usual level of literary pretense. So far I have to agree. I noticed it didn't make the NBA long list, but I don't give that any weight.

[HuskyFreeNorthwest]

Steel just for the record I note many of your reviews on here or GoodReads. Sadly I'm not very smart and also lazy so I give up on many books that are probably above my grades reading level. I'm also glad you haven't been robbed or murdered at the library recently.

[SteelBlue]

I have read the New Yorker short story that he carved out of it; I enjoyed the story, and I have started the book. Colm Toiben reviewed the book I think for the NY Times, and he noted that the writing is very plain and not Franzen's usual level of literary pretense. So far I have to agree. I noticed it didn't make the NBA long list, but I don't give that any weight.

Yes, the plain style is a big part of the reason it reads like a shorter novel than it is. There are moments where he can't hold it back though, and I particularly enjoyed this paragraph about Bay Area fog:

image.jpg

Please let me know your thoughts when you finish the book, I've been eager to talk with someone about it.

Steel just for the record I note many of your reviews on here or GoodReads. Sadly I'm not very smart and also lazy so I give up on many books that are probably above my grades reading level. I'm also glad you haven't been robbed or murdered at the library recently.

You're a hell of a lot smarter than I am, I'm just easily entertained. I did call the cops on my way to the library yesterday as two transients were beating on a third transient. But, it was a couple blocks away so it doesn't count as a library related crime and stays off of my Facebook page.

[old_gregg]

franzen is a dick

[SteelBlue]

franzen is a dick

I think even he would agree with that statement.

[SteelBlue]

The Man Booker Prize went to Marlon James yesterday for A Brief History of Seven Killings.

Also, the 2015 National Book Awards finalists were announced this morning:

Fiction:

-Karen E. Bender, Refund: Stories

•Angela Flournoy, The Turner House

•Lauren Groff, Fates and Furies

• Adam Johnson, Fortune Smiles: Stories

• Hanya Yanagihara, A Little Life


Non-Fiction:

-Ta-Nehisi Coates, Between the World and Me

• Sally Mann, Hold Still

• Sy Montgomery, The Soul of an Octopus

•Carla Power, If the Oceans Were Ink: An Unlikely Friendship and a Journey to the Heart of the Quran

• Tracy K. Smith, Ordinary Light


The National Book Awards finalists have provided me some of my favorite new reads over the years. Of this year's finalists I've only read one from each so far, Flournoy's Turner House and Coates' Between the World and Me. Both were excellent. I'm looking forward to Adam Johnson's book. I know several here read his Orphan Master's Son, has anyone read this new one?

[happyone]

Just finished McCullough's The Wright Brothers. It's not a great book, but it's still a fun, quick (at least by McCullough standards, weighing in at around 270 pages) and interesting read. It gives one a much stronger appreciation for the Wright Brothers--the Wright family, actually--and how unassuming they were despite their celebrity. Perhaps the greatest compliment I can give the book is that it makes me want to visit Dayton (I am not making this up) as there are a few things there I'd now like to see.

I just finished this one - I liked it. rather short and not as in depth as I would have liked. I gave it 4 stars on Good Reads. I haven't typed up my thoughts yet.