Vinyl Me Please (store, exclusives, swaps, etc)

Lord Diaper Baby said:
David Foster Wallace's Infinite Jest
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One of my favorites. He grew up and taught in Central Illinois (where I am from). It took me a couple of attempts to get into Infinite Jest but once it got going I could not put it down. I think my finger was permanently creased from flipping back and forth to the footnotes. I loved his essay collections; Supposedly Fun Things I’ll Never Do Again and Consider The Lobster, I frequently pick those up and reread certain essays.
 
TenderLovingKiller® said:
One of my favorites. He grew up and taught in Central Illinois (where I am from). It took me a couple of attempts to get into Infinite Jest but once it got going I could not put it down. I think my finger was permanently creased from flipping back and forth to the footnotes. I loved his essay collections; Supposedly Fun Things I’ll Never Do Again and Consider The Lobster, I frequently pick those up and reread certain essays.
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I am a big, big fan of DFW. You may enjoy the book he cowrote with Mark Costello, Signifying Rappers, where they deconstruct 80s and 90s rap and hip-hop. Some of it is pretty dated but if you like dFW's writing, it's a nice, quick read. Have you seen the Decemberists video where they re-enact the Eschaton game from Infinite jest?
 
As I’m getting older I’m struggling to read as much as I used too..can’t read in bed anymore , just fall asleep, ..and I blame the internet and iPads for losing loads of time (ironically as I type this)...However if I’m away on holiday I can blast thru a book a day ...one of my looking forward to do things in retirement...read more ..whilst listening to more records!
 
TenderLovingKiller® said:
One of my favorites. He grew up and taught in Central Illinois (where I am from). It took me a couple of attempts to get into Infinite Jest but once it got going I could not put it down. I think my finger was permanently creased from flipping back and forth to the footnotes. I loved his essay collections; Supposedly Fun Things I’ll Never Do Again and Consider The Lobster, I frequently pick those up and reread certain essays.
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I tried to read this, and just when I got going on the first couple chapters, my dog ate them. :LOL: It was a library copy too. I haven't managed buy or check out another copy that includes the first 50-100 pages or so.
 
TenderLovingKiller® said:
One of my favorites. He grew up and taught in Central Illinois (where I am from). It took me a couple of attempts to get into Infinite Jest but once it got going I could not put it down. I think my finger was permanently creased from flipping back and forth to the footnotes. I loved his essay collections; Supposedly Fun Things I’ll Never Do Again and Consider The Lobster, I frequently pick those up and reread certain essays.
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I'm not familiar with him. Where do I start?
 
NewsFedora said:
Apologies for interrupting book chat:


Anyways the only Murakami I’ve read is Hard-Boiled Wonderland, and that’s because one of my all-time favorite anime was heavily inspired by it.
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Which anime?

Hard-Boiled Wonderland is strange, but Murakami strange.....so normal? I appreciate the thread music - especially jazz - has in his writing.

I loved this passage, so much so that I have a picture of it in my phone. It's toward the end (in the Hard-Boiled Wonderland) and between The Narrator and, I believe, The Librarian:

"As a whole, humanity doesn't lend itself to generalizations. But as I see it, there are two types of people: the comprehensive-vision type and the limited-perspective type. Me, I seem to be the latter. Not that I ever had much problem justifying my limits. A person has to draw the line somewhere."

"But most people who think that way keeping pushing their limits, don't they?"

"Not me. There's no reason why everyone has to listen to records in hi-fi. Having the violins on the left and the bass on the right doesn't make the music more profound. It's just a more complex way of stimulating a bored imagination."

"Aren't you being a tad dogmatic?"
 
Lord Diaper Baby said:
Same thoughts on Naked Lunch - one of the few books I didn't slog through because I wasn't enjoying it.

Gravity's Rainbow - yes, it's difficult. And I read it after The Crying of Lot 49, which was a very enjoyable read.

It also reminds me of Ulysses. Joyce's short stories are accessible and "easy" (I don't mean that as a pejorative, but relative). I was reading Ulysses while traveling abroad and I ran into a Dubliner (we weren't in Ireland). who asked me why I would read that book. It's been about 15 years since I read it and I can't recall much of the "plot". Yet, I can recall the major points of Hemingway, Tom Robbins, Vonnegut, etc. books that I read 20+ years ago in my teens - there's an economy to that writing.

Don't even get me started on David Foster Wallace's Infinite Jest - intimidating and remarkable at the same time.

Murakami is interesting - I read Hard-Boiled Wonderland last year after not having read any Murakami in maybe 10 or so years. I actually picked up - and became familiar w/ him through - Kafka on the Shore because of a book review clipping my mother sent me. The review mentioned Prince and, of course, "Kafka" in the title hooked me. I've read that people have read that book dozens of times to unwrap everything. I like Murakami, but....ain't nobody got time for that.
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You got the plot for Ulysses. Nothing really happens. It just presents a version of the human thought process. Pages of ideas rushing through the characters heads while shaving, eating breakfast or taking a stroll.
 
Lord Diaper Baby said:
Which anime?

Hard-Boiled Wonderland is strange, but Murakami strange.....so normal? I appreciate the thread music - especially jazz - has in his writing.

I loved this passage, so much so that I have a picture of it in my phone. It's toward the end (in the Hard-Boiled Wonderland) and between The Narrator and, I believe, The Librarian:

"As a whole, humanity doesn't lend itself to generalizations. But as I see it, there are two types of people: the comprehensive-vision type and the limited-perspective type. Me, I seem to be the latter. Not that I ever had much problem justifying my limits. A person has to draw the line somewhere."

"But most people who think that way keeping pushing their limits, don't they?"

"Not me. There's no reason why everyone has to listen to records in hi-fi. Having the violins on the left and the bass on the right doesn't make the music more profound. It's just a more complex way of stimulating a bored imagination."

"Aren't you being a tad dogmatic?"
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Haibane Renmei. A now mostly-forgotten early 2000s seres by Yoshitoshi ABe of Serial Experiments Lain fame. No idea if it's on streaming or available on DVD/BD any more but it's such an enchanting little series I still often think back to it. It's not an adaptation of Hard-Boiled Wonderland or anything like that, but the setting is very clearly inspired by the End of the World with its walled-off, seemingly idyllic village with something more ominous that's lurking underneath the surface.

It also features kawaii anime angel girls. uWu

 
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If part of your fear of picking up a book is length then let me recommend a fantastic award winning series of of novellas. The Binti Series by Nnedi Okorafor. She also tweeted this summer that literally all of her writings have been optioned for either tv or movies. You can get in on the ground floor!

The Binti series - Nnedi Okorafor

Winner of the Hugo and Nebula Awards for Best Novella. Knowledge comes at a cost, one that Binti is willing to pay, but her journey will not be easy.
nnedi.com
 
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JonnyH said:
If part of your fear of picking up a book is length then let me recommend a fantastic award winning series of of novellas. The Binti Series by Nnedi Okorafor. She also tweeted this summer that literally all of her writings have been optioned for either tv or movies. You can get in on the ground floor!

The Binti series - Nnedi Okorafor

Winner of the Hugo and Nebula Awards for Best Novella. Knowledge comes at a cost, one that Binti is willing to pay, but her journey will not be easy.
nnedi.com
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Second this rec. Binti is amazing.
 
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