The MFA I am in is zeroed in on genre fiction, so this may help explain it a bit more. I started the book last night but haven't made it too far yet. I do like the aesthetic of it already though!
The Reader’s Nook - The N&G Book Thread
- Thread starter Joe Mac
- Start date
Yay, the book thread!
I tend to go back and forth from non-fiction to fiction, and almost always have a book started. Sometimes I go a week or two without reading, life can distract. Also, I don't spin records and read at the same time.
I am currently reading (just underway actually) The Plot Against America by Philip Roth. I'm already shuddering at some of the parallels...
My last few were:
Let's Go (So We Can Get Back) - Jeff Tweedy
French Exit - Patrick DeWitt
Beastie Boys Book
The Right Stuff - Tom Wolfe
All time faves include:
Fierce Invalids Home from Hot Climates - Tom Robbins
East of Eden - Steinbeck
Anna Karenina - Tolstoy
Breakfast of Champions - Vonnegut
Wonderland Avenue - Danny Sugarman
Into Thin Air - Jon Krakauer
I tend to go back and forth from non-fiction to fiction, and almost always have a book started. Sometimes I go a week or two without reading, life can distract. Also, I don't spin records and read at the same time.
I am currently reading (just underway actually) The Plot Against America by Philip Roth. I'm already shuddering at some of the parallels...
My last few were:
Let's Go (So We Can Get Back) - Jeff Tweedy
French Exit - Patrick DeWitt
Beastie Boys Book
The Right Stuff - Tom Wolfe
All time faves include:
Fierce Invalids Home from Hot Climates - Tom Robbins
East of Eden - Steinbeck
Anna Karenina - Tolstoy
Breakfast of Champions - Vonnegut
Wonderland Avenue - Danny Sugarman
Into Thin Air - Jon Krakauer
trickyseven
Well-Known Member
I just started The Hike by Drew Magary today. Recently finished Broadcasting Happiness by Michelle Gielan, which was required reading for work.
BjorgenFjorgen
Well-Known Member
Yes, this book is so funny! A coworker recommended it to me a couple years ago and that summer, doing acid for the first time with my buddy, I couldn't stop saying "This is too vivid" for the first while. I've been meaning to read some of his others.
Hes one of my favorites. I highly recommend Still Life With Woodpecker, Jitterbug Perfume, and Even Cowgirls Get The Blues, but really all of his books are enjoyable.
"People of zee wurl, relax!"
I think my second favorite might be Skinny Legs and All, but Still Life and Jitterbug are up there too. There definitely isn't one I quit reading or didn't like.
plamtjeti
New Member
I really love this book... It's a quick and easy read, but there's actually a lot to it for as quick and easy as it is. I actually read straight through it twice in a row on a vacation last summer. Would love to hear your thoughts once you finish it!
plamtjeti
New Member
I've been trying to read Gaiman's Neverwhere for about three weeks now. Through a couple of busy work trips and a toddler who all of a sudden doesn't really want to go to sleep ever, I haven't been able to give it a whole lot of time or thought... I'm about half way through it and really enjoying it, but since I only get to read a handful of pages every few days it feels like I have probably missed a lot.
drabdrob
New Member
Loved this book!
This is the best book I've read this year, and maybe in the last 5-10. Highly recommended for fans of post-apocalyptic stories in the vein of Cormac McCarthy's The Road, albeit a MUCH more character-driven narrative. This is just a beautifully written book.
ayayrawn
Well-Known Member
I've been slacking hard on my Goodreads goal this year, but it's whatever, I read when I want.
Started a reread of One Hundred Years of Solitude (one of the best books ever written TBQH), and started Abaddon's Gate, the third book in The Expanse. I enjoy alternating between high lit, and really pulpy shit.
Started a reread of One Hundred Years of Solitude (one of the best books ever written TBQH), and started Abaddon's Gate, the third book in The Expanse. I enjoy alternating between high lit, and really pulpy shit.
LeSamourai
Well-Known Member
In grad school, I went to a Spanish lit conference at UT Austin and gave a presentation on the parallels between One Hundred Years of Solitude and Arrested Development (the TV show). Usually lit conference presentations are lucky to have more than three people in the audience, but this one glorious time I had a packed room of people. I even included a clip of the scene where George Michael and Maebe kiss and the floor starts collapsing, because both works use the physical decline of the house as a mirror of the family itself. Good times.
BoilerRhapsody
Active Member
Got any advice for 100 Years of Solitude? It's the only book I've ever given up on, really just felt like I didn't 'get' the whole magical realism thing, like not knowing what was real/true or not made nothing matter. The names are quite confusing too.
LeSamourai
Well-Known Member
The thing about magical realism is that it's all true in the world of the story- in magical realism, when a girl suddenly floats up to heaven, she really floats up to heaven. García Márquez took all the weird folklore of Colombia and a century of history, and put it all together, treating them as equal. I lived in rural South America for a couple of years and heard the stories people would tell about spirits and such, and some of it is a lot like what García Márquez puts in his novels. But magical realism in general sits in a weird place, messing with the usual reality/fantasy distinctions, which I think is why the English-speaking world has very few good examples of it, and it just honestly won't work for everyone.
If magical realism isn't your thing, several of the Latin American Boom authors wrote in a more realist way, while often being more adventurous with their style. Carlos Fuentes' The Death of Artemio Cruz is a good one, as are Mario Vargas Llosa's books, like The Feast of the Goat. Or, for some contemporary short stories that take elements of magical realism and employ them to add to the horror of stories that are already fairly disturbing, Mariana Enríquez's Things We Lost in the Fire is great.
I just finished Quiet: The Power of Introverts in a World That Can’t Stop Talking by Susan Cain and I’m currently about halfway through Brave New World by Aldous Huxley! Got a long reading list I’m excited to tackle this year!
syngts
New Member
Reading Infinite Jest at the moment. Halfway through, love every single page of it.
Started reading it 2 and a half years ago tho..
Started reading it 2 and a half years ago tho..
Psymon
Active Member
Agreed - you have to “let go” with Magical Realism. It’s also worth reading a bit about - MR has an interesting critical, political history, and even just browsing Wikipedia would be useful to get a handle on some of the genre and/or mode’s resistance to colonial and imperial ideologies.
Hey y'all, anyone got any good deep cut fantasy recommendations? Preferably something contemporary. No strong preference on subgenre, I like anything from grimdark to Sanderson. I've been reading Brian McClellans powder mage books and love them but I'm nearly done. Gotta get my swords and sorcery fix.
McGlam
Well-Known Member
I loved Marlon James' previous novel, A Brief History of Seven Killings and am excited to read this one even though I'm not really a fantasy fan. I heard he was writing something like that while I was reading Seven Killings and it totally made sense given the storytelling in that novel.
I was only able to get through half of it myself. Oof. That book. It will go down as one of the biggest literary regrets in my life if I don't finish it. It is such a large book, it sometimes hurts to lug around and is unwieldy to read! I would try to read it on my kindle but the footnotes aspect of it is hard to navigate in a non-paper format. Cheers to you for the persistence!
I got through IJ in college, that was the only time in my life that I could've done it. I tried to do a reread a couple years ago but yeah, I can't devote myself to something that enormous. I'm glad I did it though, definitely one of the best books I ever read, even if it feels like half finished at best.