What Are YOU Reading?

[Bartwald]

I'm now reading Zadie Smith's "On Beauty" and it's a pleasant, quite funny read so far.

[LivingDeadGirl]

admin said:

It's certainly not a typical horror novel but - apart from King's playing with language - it's a typical King book, with many bits already familiar to everyone who has read "Misery", "Rose Madder", "The Dark Tower", "The Talisman" or "Bag of Bones".

I wonder what you'll say after you read it!

I've read all those...I'll let you know what I think about the new one. I should get around to it pretty soon.

[Pulpmariachi]

Recently finished:

The Knife Thrower and Other Stories -- by Steven Millhauser, pretty decent collection of stories overcoming the mundane. A couple aren't that great (like this one with a town with underground passages) but the good ones are stellar (an amusment park story, the titluar one, and one about flying carpets). B.

Memories of my Melancholy Whores -- disappointing Garcia Marquez, I mean, you see traces of him but its just not up to his usual excellence. Hopefully he writes something else before he dies to help remedy this. I mean, its good, funny, poignant, sad, but...it just falls short. B-.

Cosmicomics -- origin tales of the planet earth, all weird and bizarre and spacey. The first story's the best and a few others pop up around here and there, but a lot of Calvino's collection drags on and at times you feel like he's just feeling clever and silly, like naming a character G'd (N)to the Nth or something. The moon story, though, is brilliant. B-.

[Bartwald]

Alexander Dumas' ghost stories... I'm not sure what the exact Ebglish title of it would be. It's pretty good, has a Poe feeling all over it.

[Pulpmariachi]

Recently finished:

Lord of the Barnyard (Tristan Egolf) -- really funny, entertaining, sad, and fascinating story about a guy who grew up to do...something great. Seriously, you'll never disrespect your garbage man again. B.

The Road (Cormac McCarthy) -- I can only really describe this as devestatingly beautiful. Only the second books I've read of McCarthy after the disappoiting "No Country for Old Men", but everyone sez he's amazing so I tried again and man...this book is great. I think a lot of people here would actually like it. Terrifying, as well. A-.

Coraline (Neil Gaiman) -- Gaiman directs his focus to young adult literature and while it is fun and fascinating and imaginative I thought it was kinda strange that it felt like a 162-page book went on for so long. B.

I Am Not Myself These Days (Josh Kilmer-Purcell) -- actually read this just before "Gravity's Rainbow" but forgot about it. But how can you describe a story about a drag queen with fish-bowl breats whose boyfriend is a male escort service worker? Well, it's very entertaining at the very least. B.

Twelfth Night (Shakespeare) -- You can't really rate Shakespeare or compare him to anyone other than Shakespeare, so it's hard to say because I've only read a handful of his works (probably why I'm taking this class). It's a funny story and it gets a S, which is good Shakespeare (S+ being great Shakespeare and S- being weak Shakespeare).

[LivingDeadGirl]

Just got started on Lisey's Story, haven't read enough to give any opinion yet though.

[Pulpmariachi]

The Phantom Tollbooth (Norton Juster) -- one of the best books for children out there. I think this and "A Wrinkle in Time" were what I read over and over and over and over and over again as a kid. And there's plenty of humor that you get when you're older (see: the cart that goes without saying, the banquet where people eat their words, and on...), still though, with the charm to capivate a younger child. And it's just a great adventure anyway. A.

Ficciones (Jorge Luis Borges) -- Borges's most well-known collection of shorts and like nearly all short story collections, some of the stories are amazingly good ("The Library of Babel", "The Garden of Forking Paths", "The Secret Miracle" among others) some just are...meh. Borges is a talent, and if you read "House of Leaves" you'd see a lot of where that inspiration came from. The stories, when good, are capitvating. All-in-all though, I think I prefer Gabriel Garcia Marquez as the best writer in the Spanish language (even if I read it translated) since Cervantes, since Cervantes is like Shakespeare and you just can't touch him. A-.

Jesus' Son (Denis Johnson) -- another collection of short stories that are tied together to be a loose novel. I don't know...for some reasons the stories always start off good but end up rather flat. I tried reading it as a whole book then as a short story collection but to me none of it added up, which was a pity since its one of my most influential professor's favorites. Oh well, still, it has interesting bits and anything that takes its name from a Velvet Underground song called "Heroin" you would expect a certain...difference, which it does fulfill. There's a movie out from it too I think. B.

[ZapRowsdower]

Before the movie comes out (I know, I'm behind), Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix.

[Pulpmariachi]

Recently finished:

Leaf Storm (Gabriel Garcia Marquez) -- it was his first book and like many authors it's kind of evident, but there are plenty of hints at the genius that will be present later. Very Faulkner-esque and the ending kind of just...stops. But it is still pretty good and full of interesting characters. B.

If on a winter's night a traveler (Italo Calvino) -- I really liked part of this book but other parts were just tedious to get through. The main storyline about a reader (you) finding a book and going through a series of first chapters of other books is interesting in its own right, but then add it on to love affairs, international conspiracies, and mysteries it's a great read. Unfortunatley the first chapters do get kind of annoying and I'm probably missing what they have to do with the story, considering their titles are all the more important. B-.

Tales of the City (Armistead Maupin) -- the problem with serial novels is that they leave you wanting to read the other books in the series. Well, this is a story of San Francisco just as much as it about the characters, all at Barbary Lane. It was serialized in the "San Francisco Chronicle" so the chapters are short and make it a fairly easy read, but it's funny, sad, and completley compelling. B+.

A Streetcar Named Desire (Tennesse Williams) -- Wow, it took me awhile to pick up this one, but it really is one of the greatest American plays, if not one of the greatest (my personal favorite is "Angels in America" by Kushner). Amazing, iconic characters who address fading traditions, new times, and humanity. A-.

Measure for Measure (Shakespeare) -- not really a comedy or a tragedy and a pretty weak satire. It's interesting but you have to read it a certain way because there's not the belly laughs of . . . "Twelfth Night" or "Midsummer Night's Dream" . . . or the tragedies of "Macbeth" and "Hamlet". Still, well worth a look. (S-).

Othello (Shakespeare) -- one of his greatest tragedies with race relations and revenege. I mean . . . what's not to like? As with most of his tragedies, a superb couple of final acts, despite all the plotholes and really abrupt ending. No denying, Iago's one right bastard though. (S).

[Bartwald]

Joe Hill's "Heart-Shaped Box" - looks like it's going to be a great read.

[Pulpmariachi]

The Corrections (Jonathan Franzen) -- a novel that's kind of like "The Royal Tenenbaums" except no one's successfull. Great characters, situations, and interesting adventures throughout; however, the whole thing builds towards an explosive ending but nothing happens, which is sort of disappoiting. B.

The Autumn of the Patriarch (Gabriel Garcia Marquez) -- a book that's much more difficult to start reading than to actually read. Yes, each of the six segments are one large paragraph that have sentences that stretch for pages and are very reminisent of the last section of "Ulysses" but, man, do they deliver. It's the story of a Caribbean dictator and his life, all of his exploits, and the horrid things he's done. Garcia Marquez makes you feel compassion for the man but then suddenly hate him within a single sentence (but beware, they switch persepective at will) as he serves consipirators to his generals, kidnaps 2000 children who helped him rig the lottery, and banish Catholicism and Christianity from his land because the Church won't canonize his mother. Fascinating, humorous, strangely beautiful. A stunning portrait and my third favorite Garcia Marquez novel. Seriously, if you haven't checked out anything from him yet, you really should. A

The Great God Pan (Arthur Machen) -- a novella that starts out really interestingly with a scientist who tries to have his subjects see the god Pan through some brain surgery, but then it kinda falls into boredom with a mystery asking why are all these people dying and something about an evil face or woman or something. Kind of dull . . . a lot less shocking at the end than it should be, but I guess it could be worth a look. C+.

[Phoenix]

After loving the movie, I ended up buying In Her Shoes. Excellent book. A+

[LivingDeadGirl]

Finally finished up Lisey's Story...VERY slow beginning, but once the action got started, not too bad. Not one of my favorite King's though.
Now I've started on Burnt Bones by Slade. On a side note I read on a mb and then on Slade's official site that Head Hunter is being made into a movie which is supposed to come out sometime next year.

[frankenjohn]

Watership Down by Richard Adams
Night by Elie Wiesel

[Quorthon]

The last book I read was Anansi Boys by Neil Gaiman. Good, but not as good as American Gods.