What Are You Reading?

[sozamora]

Working my way through Infinite Jest. I'm about a third in. No opinion on the whole yet, but some of the individual sections are quite beautifully written.

[Monte Smith]

The Counselor, by Cormac McCarthy. Wow. You can't read one of these books and feel normal out on the streets. Es muy peligroso en las calles. This is written as a screenplay but it is McCarthy, same black vein as all McCarthy. Terrific stuff. The most terrifying thing about the story is there are whole chunks of the puzzle, or caper, that are left unexplained so that the reader knows he does not get the full significance of what is happening, and the veiled bits point toward considerable horror. Whee!

Don't know how the movie of this (out now) is going to be. I don't plan on seeing it until it's out on DVD or streaming.

[sozamora]

I finished Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep--thanks, sozamora--and have decided that I like Dick's ideas better than his writing style.

This is a common enough opinion. His writing skill does vary, but I thought Electric Sheep was pretty representative, so I'm not sure how you'd feel about other books.

[walto]

I finished Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep--thanks, sozamora--and have decided that I like Dick's ideas better than his writing style.

This is a common enough opinion. His writing skill does vary, but I thought Electric Sheep was pretty representative, so I'm not sure how you'd feel about other books.

Agree completely. A literary stylist, he warn't.

[uli]

[walto]

Four the roughly four minutes it takes to read each installment, I'm catching a novella by Douglas Coupland being serialized in the Boston Metro.

About 94% snark, it's like a long tweet.

[Mr. Met]

Stephen King's "Apt Pupil" and "Rita Hayworth and Shawshank Redemption."

Apt Pupil is scarier than the movie. "Misery" was more grotesque than the movie, although both were excellent.

It's probably not the best thing to compare movies with the books they're based on.

[Dr Dave]

Read this many decades ago. Better now that ever.

"The poor man has two fine ways of dying in this world, either through the complete indifference of his fellow men in time of peace or by the homicidal fury of these same fellow men when war comes."

and:

"I tell you, worthy little people, life's riffraff, forever beaten, fleeced, and sweating, I warn you that when the great people of this world start loving you, it means that they are going to make sausage meat of you."

[Dr Dave]

The Counselor, by Cormac McCarthy. Wow. You can't read one of these books and feel normal out on the streets. Es muy peligroso en las calles. This is written as a screenplay but it is McCarthy, same black vein as all McCarthy. Terrific stuff. The most terrifying thing about the story is there are whole chunks of the puzzle, or caper, that are left unexplained so that the reader knows he does not get the full significance of what is happening, and the veiled bits point toward considerable horror. Whee!

Don't know how the movie of this (out now) is going to be. I don't plan on seeing it until it's out on DVD or streaming.

I would advise not seeing the movie. As an American male of a certain age, I have seen several thousand gallons of fake blood spilled on the big silver screen, but this, so far, takes the cake. It's really creepy, probably because the various violent, very bloody deaths are interspersed with various violent criminals talking about the inevitability of fate. Scott and McCarthy sort of anesthetize you with dialogue and then sucker-punch you with various unspeakable activities.

[Jazzooo]

Robot Visions, Asimov and another writer. Short stories from the '60s mostly. Love them, even though the 'twist' is almost always not a complete surprise to me.

[Monte Smith]

The Counselor, by Cormac McCarthy. Wow. You can't read one of these books and feel normal out on the streets. Es muy peligroso en las calles. This is written as a screenplay but it is McCarthy, same black vein as all McCarthy. Terrific stuff. The most terrifying thing about the story is there are whole chunks of the puzzle, or caper, that are left unexplained so that the reader knows he does not get the full significance of what is happening, and the veiled bits point toward considerable horror. Whee!

Don't know how the movie of this (out now) is going to be. I don't plan on seeing it until it's out on DVD or streaming.

I would advise not seeing the movie. As an American male of a certain age, I have seen several thousand gallons of fake blood spilled on the big silver screen, but this, so far, takes the cake. It's really creepy, probably because the various violent, very bloody deaths are interspersed with various violent criminals talking about the inevitability of fate. Scott and McCarthy sort of anesthetize you with dialogue and then sucker-punch you with various unspeakable activities.

I will take your advise, Dave. The screenplay is all the dialogue and none of the filmed violence, so it comes across as a rather majestic meditation on the page. I can easily see how it would not work in a morally flat Hollywood celeb vehicle. McCarthy gestures at unspeakable violence; I'd guess the director didn't halt at a gesture.

[sozamora]

Richard Stark (Donald Westlake) - The Hunter



The first Parker novel is a quick, fun read. I've seen both movie versions (Point Blank with Lee Marvin and Payback with Mel Gibson), and neither quite conveys what an unmitigated, unfeeling asshole Parker is. Even when his actions are justified. Very different from Westlake's other recurring protagonist Dortmunder, who seems to have more loyalty and is not a sociopath. I suppose the appeal of this character is the vicariousness thrill of doing bad things.

[Dr Dave]

Alas, prizes and mention on the NYT "notable books" list are no longer any guarantee of quality:



Man-Booker Prize winner. Piece of shit. Absolutely unreadable.



Praised to the skies; called a "miracle of literature" blah-blah-blah. A workman-like potboiler with a stinky, pandering-to-least-common-denominator ending.

[jwaggs]

Read Jeff Guinn's biography of Charles Manson, and I am now in the middle of Walter Isaacson's biography of Steve Jobs. Struck with the similarities of Manson and Jobs. Both were leaders of cults and were expert at manipulation and abuse. The main difference was that if Manson didn't get what he wanted from you, he'd try to get someone to kill you. Jobs would just cry.

[sozamora]

A few books I've finished recently:

Aliette De Bordad - On a Red Station Drifting

Robert Stone - Dog Soldiers

Raymond Queneau - Exercises in Style

John Gardner - Grendel

Neil Gaiman - The Sandman, vol 1

[Dr Dave]

A few books I've finished recently:

Aliette De Bordad - On a Red Station Drifting

Robert Stone - Dog Soldiers

Raymond Queneau - Exercises in Style

John Gardner - Grendel

Neil Gaiman - The Sandman, vol 1

Dog Soldiers was my introduction to Stone. If you like this, read "A Flag For Sunrise," which I think is probably his best. "Children Of Light" is also right up there. I liked "Damascus Gate" but it is mostly a political thriller, complete with twisty ending.

It's been a long time, but Grendel was the only Gardner book I was willing to read more than once. "The Sunlight Dialogs" got lots of press, but it didn't do anything for me.

[walto]

I used to like John Gardner a lot, and when he came to give a talk at Ithaca College once, I went to see him. He rode his motorcycle there and had very long white hair. He talked/mumbled and acted like a James Dean (or maybe now James Franco) character. I kind of wish I hadn't gone.

[Monte Smith]

Never meet your heroes!

I'm in the middle of a Judge Dredd collection I got for Christmas, Dredd v the Fatties. Praise the Lard! In this future dystopia, there is rationing after the Apocalypse Wars. Despite food shortages, some bored citizens insist on competing in Heavyweight Eating Competitions. When a citizen exceeds 300 kilos, it's time the law steps in. Dredd is judge, jury, and dietician.

[sozamora]

Dog Soldiers was my introduction to Stone. If you like this, read "A Flag For Sunrise," which I think is probably his best. "Children Of Light" is also right up there. I liked "Damascus Gate" but it is mostly a political thriller, complete with twisty ending.

I did like Dog Soldiers, though one has to get used to Stone's choppy Hemingway-esque journalistic style. I'll add A Flag For Sunrise to my to-read

It's been a long time, but Grendel was the only Gardner book I was willing to read more than once. "The Sunlight Dialogs" got lots of press, but it didn't do anything for me.

The only other Gardner I've read is October Light, which I really liked, though I don't know that I feel compelled to read it more than once.

[sozamora]

Dredd v the Fatties.

That sounds like the name of a duelling dub selector album. Or the story of a rastaman in a room full of blunts.

[jwaggs]

I enjoyed Stone's Outerbridge Reach.

[walto]

I remember liking Gardner's Nickel Mountain as well as Grendel.

[steve(thelil)]

Just finishing Tune In by Mark Lewisohn, volume 1 of a planned 3 part bio of the Beatles The first volume is close to 1000 pages I think (I have a kindle version, so not sure what it is in real book form) and it only goes through 1962!!! Amazingly detailed and researched AND a fun read. 5 Montes.

[walto]

First Trollope in a couple of years, since my group has been reading all the (six) Palliser novels in order, and I didn't feel like rereading those. Thankfully, they're done. Trollope wrote about 50 novels, and, while I love nearly all of them, I have to admit my goal of getting through all the Woody Allen movies takes a lot less time to fulfill.

[Monte Smith]

Trollope wrote about 50 novels....

Hardly surprising, since he apparently wrote three of just this one.