Books what you is reading: Page 9 - The Arsenal discussion community: One More in the Tolly

Books what you is reading

Burnwinter

A Suitable Boy
War and Peace
In Search of Lost Time
Infinite Jest

Pop back in when you've knocked those off and I'll think up a couple more.

Klaus

If you're going to read War and Peace, make sure you get the Pevear/Volokhonsky translation.

Burnwinter

😆

I was actually taking the piss, Klaus, I think I just recommended about 3,000,000 words of reading 😃 (sorry Ron). Erm, yes, the Pevear-Volokhonsky translation is mandatory though.

Klaus

😆 I know you were. But still. It's an amazing piece of literature.

Burnwinter

I've only read one and three on that list 🙂 Will have to give Tolstoy a go one of these days …

Anyway, Ron, if you're looking for something I'd recommend anyone, I reckon William Gibson's three most recent books are excellent now-as-in-right-now techno-thrillers. Very cool.

RonBurgundy

Ha! Thanks y va and Burnsy.

Timbob

What you in to Ronny?

RonBurgundy

Hmm, nothing specific really. Anything good. Love a good (auto)biography, particularly sports ones. In terms of novels, maybe mystery/suspense.

Klaus

I finally got around to finish House of Leaves. I've been reading it on and off for a year or so. Brilliant book but it really needs your full attention. Interesting experiment with structure and content nonetheless. The standard book layout breaks down completely after a while and the text starts to behave irrationally; usually to reflect what's happening in the story. Here's an example of when the different narrators clash with eachother:

Surprisingly there's a pretty logic structure to it. It makes more sense than you'd think it does just by looking at it. For instance, the protagonist climbs up a long shaft at some point in the story and the text column becomes narrow and has to be read from bottom to top.

Timbob

Sounds like an absolute pain in the arse.

Klaus

I thought so too but it's really not. It's pretentious for sure, but in a good way. Best thing about it is that it was written by someone who was smart enough to pull the whole thing off.

Burnwinter

Danielewski's pretty hilarious OkCupid letter:

http://htmlgiant.com/random/okcupid-letter/

Pepe LeFrits

Class.

Coombs

That is awesome.

RocktheCasbah

Having waded through the Dudley Smith Trio (The Big Nowhere was a bit... out there, LA Confidential runs American Tabloid very close as my favourite Ellroy and White Jazz was also excellent), I've gone for something a bit lighter.

The Art of Fielding, by Chad Hardbach. It's a novel about baseball and friendship. Despite knowning fuck all about baseball and the terminology involved, it's a really good read. Mainly, I suppose because of the friendships detailed in it!

Rex

My 11 year old was between books about a week and a half ago and couldn't really come up with something he wanted to read. Naturally I started to go through all my teen books that I have carefully saved in boxes throughout my adult life to, when the time is right, pass onto my own kids. (Neither of my kids have shown very much interest in those boxes before).

Anyway, going through one of the boxes I came across "The Dark is rising" by Susan Cooper. In a flash I remembered how I absolutely loved those books as a kid. Wasn't sure if 11 was too young though, so I figured I'd read 25 pages or so. A week and a half later I have a few pages left of the fifth and final book in the series... 🙂

Captain

That's why you don't have time for computer games.

Rex

Heh. You have a point. Saw "The Neverending story" in that box as well...

Burnwinter

The Dark Is Rising books were absolutely fucking brilliant when I was about 10. Loved 'em. I tried to re-read the second book a couple of years ago and was a bit disappointed by kid-centric it was, as they seemed rather grown up when I was young.

Coombs

Had exactly the same experience with Dark is Rising. Thankfully, I didn't continue with my re-read and just left them in my head as they were when I was young. Better that way.

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