What Are You Reading Right Now? - Page 7

goldustsongbird · #91 02-21-2010, 11:14 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by carrie721

hahaha. i've kind of broken up with nabokov, although i did promise marissa i'd read pale fire.

mccarthy is pretty much the anti-nabokov.

We'll get along fine.

David · #92 02-21-2010, 11:32 PM

I'm just getting around to reading "Clash of Civilizations" by Sammy Huntington.

Plus, I'm reading a Judge Judy book in the john.

Zombie · #93 02-22-2010, 12:16 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by goldustsongbird

Finished both books, now I'm reading the second part again.

Maus is amazing.

Quote:

Originally Posted by carrie721

just a little light reading?

i just finished cormac mccarthy's the road. i loved all the pretty horses and i loved this book too, although it is probably the darkest fiction i've ever read. gonna devour everything CM has written in the next couple months.

If you thought The Road was dark, wait'll you get to Blood Meridian: or the Evening Redness in the West and Child of God.

When Oprah put The Road on her reading list, I laughed my ass off, thinking of a bunch of suburban housewives reading it, and then going, "Wow, that was really good!" and picking up Child of God or Blood Meridian next, thinking they'd get the same thing. Yeah...no. The Road is probably one of his tamest books.

And you could've knocked me over with a feather when he actually did an INTERVIEW. On the TEEVEE. With OPRAH. He never does interviews. I was astounded.

(you might be able to tell he's one of my all-time fav authors.)

Quote:

Originally Posted by goldustsongbird

Right now, if it isn't required reading, I'm not looking at it, but I guess I should pick up some McCarthy when I get the chance?

yes. yes. yes. yes. yesyesyes.

Meowi · #94 02-22-2010, 01:10 AM

I am reading Wuthering Heights in English (We get to choose what) we read individually)

Before I go to bed I am reading Alice's Adventures in Wonderland.

LiamMcConville · #95 02-22-2010, 02:51 AM

Year of the Flood by Margaret Atwood

ButterCookie · #96 02-22-2010, 05:42 AM

Just Kids by Patti Smith.

It's fantastic and her descriptions of her house with Robert Mapplethorpe, New York in the late 60's/ early 70's are divine. I'd reccomend it to you all, even if you're not a big Patti fan.

goldustsongbird · #97 02-22-2010, 09:17 PM

^
This thread is great because I'm always looking for something to read. I'm not one of those people who can go grab a random library book and start reading it; I like specific recommendations. So thanks for the titles.

Zombie · #98 02-23-2010, 12:47 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by goldustsongbird

^
This thread is great because I'm always looking for something to read. I'm not one of those people who can go grab a random library book and start reading it; I like specific recommendations. So thanks for the titles.

Welp, if you decide to try McCarthy, I suggest starting with The Road or No Country for Old Men. Those are probably his most accessible works (hence Oprah and the movies and whatnot), but they are good ways to get introduced to his style before you move on to the others.

I love McCarthy so hard. He's such a damn poet that I have entire passages memorized - something I only do occasionally unless it's song lyrics or poems - multiple ones from multiple novels. Shoot, even just the title of No Country for Old Men is a poem on its own.

Check out this passage from the opening of Suttree:

Dear friend now in the dusty clockless hours of the town when the streets lie black and steaming in the wake of the watertrucks and now when the drunk and the homeless have washed up in the lee of walls in alleys or abandoned lots and cats go forth highshouldered and lean in the grim perimeters about, now in these sootblacked brick or cobbled corridors where lightwire shadows make a gothic harp of cellar doors no soul shall walk save you.

I adore that. One day, I'll take the last bit of it and have it tattooed on my ankle or foot - "no soul shall walk save you." It'll go with my other planned McCarthy tattoo, "There is no God and we are his prophets," which is from The Road.

Another beauty from The Road:

"He knew only that his child was his warrant. He said: If he is not the word of God God never spoke."

Man, I love that guy. Loooooooove.

Oops, sorry for the ramble. I am passionate about McCarthy.

iamnotafraid · #99 02-25-2010, 07:56 AM

Computer manuals....sweet.

GypsySorcerer · #**100** 05-12-2010, 03:20 PM

Thought I'd bump this. So bibliophiles, what's on your nightstand? (Or Kindle?)

My recent reads:

The Bell Jar - I'm not sure how I managed to get a degree in English without having read this, but I did. I would have absolutely loved this book had I read it at 18. I still quite enjoyed it. While some of the specifics are dated, the themes are still relevant.

The English Patient - Beautiful writing, no doubt. I thought the passages pertaining to the desert and some regarding the Almasy/Katharine relationship were exquisite. The end was sort of....anticlimactic to me.

Next up: 100 Years of Solitude.

ButterCookie · #**101** 05-12-2010, 03:26 PM

I just finished studying The Great Gatsby, which I loved and just finished CAH's Storms

daniellaaarisen · #**102** 05-12-2010, 05:38 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by GypsySorcerer

The English Patient - Beautiful writing, no doubt. I thought the passages pertaining to the desert and some regarding the Almasy/Katharine relationship were exquisite. The end was sort of....anticlimactic to me.

YAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAY! (in case you can't tell, I really really really really REALLY love that novel)

One of my tattoos is a quote from this book. It's perfect. The ending... I know what you're talking about. That novel kinda wove those four characters' lives back together and then the end of the book was like.... "there's a couple stray strings. Now what do we do?!"

Everything else is perfect though.

Just finished reading The Woman Warrior by Maxine Kingston. Interesting novel... more interesting than I thought it would be. But the feminist in me naturally grabbed a hold of this book and ran with it, so I could deal with having the Mulan soundtrack stuck in my head the entire time.

Before that, I read James Joyce's Dubliners for the 240968246290095th time. Never gets old.

LikeAWillow · #**103** 05-12-2010, 07:12 PM

I'm currently rereading the Jack and Jackie Kennedy biography- Grace and Power.

StreetAngel95 · #**104** 05-12-2010, 07:19 PM

Just Finished Much Ado About Nothing, and started Things Fall Apart, by Chinua Achebe

Zombie · #**105** 05-12-2010, 09:15 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by GypsySorcerer

Thought I'd bumps this. So bibliophiles, what's on your nightstand? (Or Kindle?)

Next up: 100 Years of Solitude.

I love Marquez. I recommend Memories of My Melancholy Whores.

Quote:

Originally Posted by StreetAngel95

Just Finished Much Ado About Nothing, and started Things Fall Apart, by Chinua Achebe

I really enjoyed the Achebe book when we were assigned it in high school. It provoked a lot of interesting class discussions. And by "interesting class discussions," I mean "a bunch of kids unaware of how to check their privilege at the door and ranting about nonsense," but hey!

I just finished The Red Tree by Caitlin R. Kiernan (on my Kindle). Quite good, but then, she usually is.

I am currently re-reading the entire Dark Tower series (on actual paper), because it is wondermous and I like to re-read the whole thing at least once every other year.