44
by kenoki_Archive
yay books. i agree with whoever on the fall. after reading the stranger a few years ago, having avoided camus my entire life, i decided he was my new favorite writer and that i would enjoy all he had to offer. except then i immediately read the fall, well half, and wanted to chuck that shit in the garbage. the idea was there, i guess... to write only from one person's perspective... not even, but from one person's side of a conversation... except that in conversation you don't repeat what the other person says every time he says it to clarify to you, he, and everyone around who may not have heard, what he said or what they intend to do every moment of the way. "oh we should turn left here? and head to the bridge? oh you just kicked a piece of gravel now four paces behind us?" groundbreaking at the time, i'm sure but damn... i just can't get with it. the book got totally lost in the concept.
someone also mentioned bros karamazov -- which i love!!! although, to be fair i still have a nice 200 pages left to read (and have, since 4 years ago when i started it)... but considering the size and my small brain, i'd say that's pretty good!!! the first time i gave it a good try, several years after reading notes from the underground (an obvious favorite), it read like the bible to me... way too many names. but once i got use to it those names served significance... dostoevsky just had a really neat way of making everyone both the antagonist and protagonist, without losing sight of the details that make it all so human and real, in the most insufferable climates. i dunnnooo... blah blah but i second the emotion on this book.
a book i feel the same about, on a TOTALLY DIFFERENT TOKEN with a much, much more tender tone, is Steve Martin's The Pleasure of My Company. I had no idea i'd be able to enjoy a book so much written by a) a comic (you know, but also one of my top 3 favorites ever of all time) and b) in millenium number 2. i recently found it at borders in the budget section for like 5 bucks -- but don't let that fool you (or the hideous 1992-style beverly hills cover, which only makes sense once you read the book)... if you can find it for 5 bucks (or even regular price) and want a short, fun, sad and rather thought provoking read -- i highly suggest this one. a friend of mine who just finished it recently said that with this one it's like, you don't brush over any paragraphs like with some books. you want to read every sentance. maybe someone else here has read it?
200 pages into harry potter now (had that shit on reserve!!)... total quick read, entertaining, etc. so, maybe not the most intellectual read in the universe, it's still highly engaging and 100% fun. really easy to dismiss due to its popularity among all people but, at the very least, it'd be worth reading to the kids if and when the universal you get some.
i could go on and on... and will?
favorite books in high school that have carried over to adulthood:
-franny and zooey (duh)
-beautiful losers by leonard cohen (although i think i just loved it because he talked about his lady's one inch nipple a lot and i totally never knew what was going on, and it was the first time i saw a writer refer to a major character in a book by first initial only - which for some reason seemed bizarre to me then)
-on the road! pretty much all kerouac! as inspired by watching too much dobie gillis as a kid and deciding i wanted to be a "beatnik"! doh!
-aldous huxley! cause he's weird beard!
-my friend and yours, kurt vonnegut!
books i am vehemently opposed to:
-ishmael, period.
authors i pretty much don't like what so ever though i've read a shit ton of their books:
-BUKOWSKI!
-HENRY MILLER! and that slut anais!
book that once accompanied ishmael on the most hated list until i accidentally read it 6 months ago and it turned out to be pretty fucking good:
-the shipping news
best book ever, or at least a book i think everyone in their right mind should try to devour because it is spectacular in every sense of the word:
-the silmarillion by jrr tolkien
beneath the underdog by mingus is really great too... mfk fischer's food essays are all pretty nice and really interesting (from i think the 1920s to the 1960s)... she references collette and the way collete had described melting chocolate on the end of a hair pin over a fire (in the early claudine books) as a special treat... just a nice read for even non-food heads. hm... so many books... i like to read recommendations and other thoughts. this is a pretty good thread to me! but i have lost the will to italicize. sorry so long! ttfn! kit!