What Are You Reading Now?

[Art Vandelay]

Strangely, I had twice seen Jay Mohr's book Gasping For Airtime referenced within the past month, so I decided to pick it up. Surpsinging to me, it's excellent. It talks about his 2 years on SNL* while battling a panic disorder.

*For anyone who is even the least bit interested in SNL, "Live From New York" is a must read.

[SteelBlue]

Wrapping up "My Struggle" Book 2. I've enjoyed this one, but not as much as I did the first. I'll probably continue with the series even though it's difficult for me to express why I've enjoyed the first two books as much as I have.

[TripletDaddy]

Wrapping up "My Struggle" Book 2. I've enjoyed this one, but not as much as I did the first. I'll probably continue with the series even though it's difficult for me to express why I've enjoyed the first two books as much as I have.

Is this the Hitler book?

[Jeff Lebowski]

Is this the Hitler book?

Yep. Mein Kampf Zwei. He heard about the Harper Lee thing and came out of retirement from his hut in Argentina and signed a book deal.

[TripletDaddy]

Yep. Mein Kampf Zwei. He heard about the Harper Lee thing and came out of retirement from his hut in Argentina and signed a book deal.

After the success of the first one you knew there was going to be a sequel.

[SteelBlue]

After the success of the first one you knew there was going to be a sequel.

Ha!

I have a feeling you'd like the series. I've often thought while reading his stuff that he's kind of like a Norwegian DDD. He's our age, so the cultural references seem to take on a deeper meaning.

[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'm on the waiting list for this one, as of this moment #54, should be able to start it about Thanksgiving

Some books I've read recently that might be of some interest

Erik Larson's Dead Wake - the story of the Lusitania in WW I

My Thoughts

https://www.goodreads.com/review/show/1216886029?book_show_action=false

Stephen Talty's The Illustrious Dead - about Napoleons Invasion of Russia and that Typhus not cold destoried it

My thoughts

https://www.goodreads.com/review/show/790627593?book_show_action=false

Ian Knight's Zulu Rising - a look at the battles of Isandlwana and Rouke's Drift. I found it very even handed

My thoughts

https://www.goodreads.com/review/show/790627593?book_show_action=false

I haven't written down my thoughts on the following, but I thought they were pretty good

Is There Life After Football

http://www.amazon.com/There-Life-Aft...after+football

A look at the post football life of NFL players. George Koonce, a 9 yr NFL LB, is a co author and appearently conducted many of the interviews

The Professor and the President

http://www.amazon.com/Professor-Pres...+the+president

A look at how the token democrat in Pres. Nixon's first adminstration, Pat Moynehan, was able to steer Nixon's domestic policy

[SteelBlue]

Anyone else (I'm looking at you oldgregg) excited to see "The End of the Tour"? Yeah, I know, wrong thread, but I think it works here. I was really looking forward to seeing it tonight then realized one must live in NYC or LA to do so. I know people (myself included) mocked the casting of Jason Segel as DFW, but everything I'm reading seems to indicate that his performance is incredible. I can't find any information about the wider release date.

One review:
http://www.nytimes.com/2015/07/31/mo...vids.html?_r=0

[fusnik]

Anyone else (I'm looking at you oldgregg) excited to see "The End of the Tour"? Yeah, I know, wrong thread, but I think it works here. I was really looking forward to seeing it tonight then realized one must live in NYC or LA to do so. I know people (myself included) mocked the casting of Jason Segel as DFW, but everything I'm reading seems to indicate that his performance is incredible. I can't find any information about the wider release date.

One review:
http://www.nytimes.com/2015/07/31/mo...vids.html?_r=0

This must have popped up on NPR or Zyte today because my wide brought it up to me.

I just want to know WTH I read when I read Infinite Jest, we chatted for 30 minutes about it today and I'm still freakish baffled at what it was.

[old_gregg]

Anyone else (I'm looking at you oldgregg) excited to see "The End of the Tour"? Yeah, I know, wrong thread, but I think it works here. I was really looking forward to seeing it tonight then realized one must live in NYC or LA to do so. I know people (myself included) mocked the casting of Jason Segel as DFW, but everything I'm reading seems to indicate that his performance is incredible. I can't find any information about the wider release date.

One review: a
http://www.nytimes.com/2015/07/31/mo...vids.html?_r=0

i actually read the book earlier this year and thought it was great. not sure there was a better interview than dfw. i'll definitely see it.

[old_gregg]

This must have popped up on NPR or Zyte today because my wide brought it up to me.

I just want to know WTH I read when I read Infinite Jest, we chatted for 30 minutes about it today and I'm still freakish baffled at what it was.

the greatest novel of our generation is what it was (is)

[fusnik]

the greatest novel of our generation is what it was (is)

Lol, yeah AFR, super smart storyline. Loved the agent that was like a quadruple double crosser.

Lol, so dumb.

[SteelBlue]

Lol, yeah AFR, super smart storyline. Loved the agent that was like a quadruple double crosser.

Lol, so dumb.

DFW wrote some of the most difficult fiction I've ever read. I'm definitely not the one to tell you wth you read. I will say that for me there were enough moments of brilliance to make the experience worthwhile, but I certainly struggled and I think there are likely many intelligent people who would opine that it just isn't the master work that many feel it is. I give you props for having read it; I swear that the majority of DFW fans haven't gotten around to it. I don't say this to rip those people either, it wasn't until this year that I read it.

While I've read 2 of his 3 main works of fiction, I have always been a bigger fan of his interviews. As oldgregg said, there just isn't a better interview out there. If you're ever bored, watch a few on YouTube, listen to his beautiful commencement speech delivered at Kenyon. The guy was brilliant, and this film being based on one such interview means that it will likely be well worth seeing.

[SteelBlue]

Finally reading Moby Dick. One thing that has surprised me is how funny the first 100 pages were. Ishmael reminded me a lot of Ulysses Everett McGill in those sections.

[clackamascoug]

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.