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connor wrote:Reading David Eggers' A Heartbreaking Work of Staggering Genius. Goofy stuff. Good, but goofy in a kind of nerdy way. And a little sentimental. But I'm digging it.

Connor

I just finished this a couple weeks ago. I loved it. I annoyed the piss out of my roommate and fiancee by reading half the book aloud to them. Plenty of laugh out loud funny parts...

Breadvan wrote:I'd rest my head inside a refrigerator for five minutes to avoid reading a Harry Potter book.

I do not argue that it is not easy reading of little literary importance, but it is not a terrible chore either. The plot is (overall) stronger than the execution, and this book seems to me to be the best of the lot. You can burn thru it in 6 hours or so, and keep culturally literate.

~I demand you read this book!~



~=lies in inline tags.

I just finished Jonathan Strange and Mr. Norrell, and it was very good. Currently reading The Snow Fox, which is decent, so far. Recently read The Eight, which was plenty of fun, and reminiscent of The Da Vinci Code, only several steps better, but still a few steps shy of being really good. About to start the new Harry Potter, and pretty excited about it. Also recently read: Stephenson's The Confusion (great), the first "Ranma 1/2" (meh), the first "Akiko" (so-so), the first of Stephen King's "Dark Tower" series (good), How the Irish Saved Civilization (very good), and one of the first (maybe the first of the) "Star Wars" novels (fun).

Of these I would most highly recommend Jonathan Strange and The Confusion, but I would only recommend the latter after you first read Cryptonomicon (to see if you like Neal Stephenson) and then read Quicksilver (because it's first in the trilogy, before The Confusion).

that damned fly wrote:i just read "the man in the high castle" by philip k. dick and i love it. it's very easily one of my new favorite books. i reccommend it to anyone with 1/2 to 3/4 of a brain.

I guess I and my 7/8 of a brain will stay away then.

Johnny 13 wrote: You can burn thru it in 6 hours or so,.

I would give anything to "burn thru [a book] in 6 hours or so". I'm such a slow reader.

NOTE: What I'm about to ask is the dumbest question in the history of the EA forum, and possibly the world.

I'm not an idiot (I swear), so what can I do to increase my reading speed? That's part of the reason I've let Cryptonimicon sit on my shelf so long. I knew once I started it, it would be a month or more before I finished it.

Yeah, I just finished "Brittany and Kevin: Chaotic The Book" by Cralvis Bunchacunts. It was full of pictures.

I just started Haunted by Chuck Palahniuk.


I too wish I could read faster. Apparantly they key to speed reading is to understand the words without saying them in your head. When I try this I just dont take any of it in.

I just finished HAUNTED.

I love Chuck Pahlaniuk.

I am now reading THE PERIODIC TABLE by Primo Levi.

It's my first Primo Levi, and I didn't know where to start. So I just chose whichever one Colosseum had in stock, which was this one.

Anyone have any Levi suggestions?

I'm about halfway through Ayn Rand's Atlas Shrugged....not sure what I think yet.

Before that I read The Fall by Camus and I think I need to read it again.

Before that I read Of Human Bondage by Somerset Maugham and that is easily one of the best books I've ever read. I read it while I was traveling in Europe so that was kind of cool and you just can't help identifying with the characters.

I read the Fall by Camus and had no clue what the hell was going on. I only remember something about a Lawyer in a car crash.

Camus' non-fiction is even tougher... Tried to read the Rebel and can not get past the first 3 pages.

I wish I was more intelligent.

speaking of Camus i'm reading The Plague right now...after reading Gravity's Rainbow (as mentioned in that other, older, longer thread about books you're currently reading) i decided to read a string of really or pretty short books...so it was A Personal Matter by Kenzaburo Oe, Elective Affinities by Goethe, Trout Fishing in America by Brautigan, and now the book i'm currently reading that i already mentioned...one swift swoop or something...i'll probably continue with the relative shortness for a little while...