Books

reading Moby Dick for the first time

surprising thing is how many people tell me they have read it multiple times

Julian, wrote:

K8teebug wrote:
My favorite book of last year was The Goldfinch.  Loved it.  One of the best books I've read in a while.

I just finished this two days ago. Hadn't heard of it until it won the Pulitzer. Really good.

Enon by Paul Harding was my fav 2013 work of fiction, but they'll never award consecutive Pulitzers to a fiction author. 

Thanks for this, got a vacation coming up in a week and am stockpiling reading material.  Just ordered this.

Seth wrote:
reading Moby Dick for the first time

surprising thing is how many people tell me they have read it multiple times

fifty pages of great story and three hundred pages of whaling technique minutiae. I have no idea why anyone would read it multiple times.

There are certain classics I will read every other year or so, such as Great Gatsby, Sun Also Rises and Motley Crue's The Dirt.

Relaxer wrote:
, Sun Also Rises

yes


although i find hemingways portrayal of cohn a bit disturbing (is it anti-jewish? i am still not sure)

i mean to find the account by the guy hemingway based cohn on..its out there but its rare and expensive to get

Seth wrote:
reading Moby Dick for the first time

surprising thing is how many people tell me they have read it multiple times

I got 200 pages in and gave up. Overrated.

Relaxer wrote:
There are certain classics I will read every other year or so, such as Great Gatsby, Sun Also Rises and Motley Crue's The Dirt.

Tried reading Sun Also Rises numerous times.  Never have gotten more than have way through.  Boring people not doing anything.  Great Gatsby is good but not my favorite Fitzgerald book.

atomic wrote:
Great Gatsby is good but not my favorite Fitzgerald book.

The Beautiful  & Damned?

One of the reasons I like Sun Also Rises is because it doesn't have the big drama of Farewell to Arms or Whom the Bell Tolls but just kinda describes day-to-day life in a historic era, Paris in the 20s. I feel similarly about Gatsby, in that it's a vivid snapshot into how certain people lived and talked and acted back then.

I also love the spare writing style of Sun. To me, it evokes a lot with very few words.

Farewell to Arms was a bit of a chore to get through for me…

For whom the bell tolls forget about it…. I doubt I will ever make it to the end

The Sun Also Rises is my favorite by him by a stretch though its probably his short stories where he shines the most…

Julian, wrote:

atomic wrote:
Great Gatsby is good but not my favorite Fitzgerald book.

The Beautiful  & Damned?

This side of Paradise.

ggw wrote:

Starting this:

I just finished that along with Zealot. Both great.

Anyone have any current fiction recommendations?

Julian, wrote:

ggw wrote:

Starting this:

I just finished that along with Zealot. Both great.

Anyone have any current fiction recommendations?

Eleanor and Park by Rainbow Rowell.

Julian, wrote:

ggw wrote:

Starting this:

I just finished that along with Zealot. Both great.

Anyone have any current fiction recommendations?

Reading Boy, Snow, Bird and liking it so far.  I also enjoyed Beautiful Ruins, but really cannot recommend The Goldfinch enough.

Goldfinch was great. Totally deserving of that Pulitzer. I was a little thrown by the anachronisms throughout, the time frame of the entire book doesn't really make sense.

I was talking to someone about it last week and they made some offhand comment that whoever the illustrator was that did the picture of the bird on the opening page did a poor job and it was hard to believe such a crappy picture would be priceless. I then, with my snarkiest grin, informed them the titular painting exists in real life (albeit is at The Hague, not MOMA) and that's a photocopy. They were speechless.

If you like Goldfinch, you'll probably like the The Secret History.

I may have preferred Special Topics in Calamity Physics.  Same premise as Secret History but a bit younger and hipper.

ggw wrote:
If you like Goldfinch, you'll probably like the The Secret History.

I may have preferred Special Topics in Calamity Physics.  Same premise as Secret History but a bit younger and hipper.

Hey, thanks!

Has anyone read the Chabon book (Telegraph Avenue?) that came out last year? Any good?

Julian, wrote:

ggw wrote:
If you like Goldfinch, you'll probably like the The Secret History.

I may have preferred Special Topics in Calamity Physics.  Same premise as Secret History but a bit younger and hipper.

Hey, thanks!

Has anyone read the Chabon book (Telegraph Avenue?) that came out last year? Any good?

Meh.  It's Chabon, but definitely a weaker Chabon.

ggw wrote:

Julian, wrote:

ggw wrote:
If you like Goldfinch, you'll probably like the The Secret History.

I may have preferred Special Topics in Calamity Physics.  Same premise as Secret History but a bit younger and hipper.

Hey, thanks!

Has anyone read the Chabon book (Telegraph Avenue?) that came out last year? Any good?

Meh.  It's Chabon, but definitely a weaker Chabon.

Yiddish Policeman level bad? That was the one I discarded halfway thru.

Julian, wrote:

ggw wrote:

Julian, wrote:

ggw wrote:
If you like Goldfinch, you'll probably like the The Secret History.

I may have preferred Special Topics in Calamity Physics.  Same premise as Secret History but a bit younger and hipper.

Hey, thanks!

Has anyone read the Chabon book (Telegraph Avenue?) that came out last year? Any good?

Meh.  It's Chabon, but definitely a weaker Chabon.

Yiddish Policeman level bad? That was the one I discarded halfway thru.

Yiddish Policemen's Union is far superior to Telegraph Avenue.