The Joke ftmfw

<3 Kundera

9/2/2008 1:25:55 PM

just bought:
-invisible monsters by chuck palaniuk
-watchmen by alan moore/dave gibbons

annndddddd



yay!

9/2/2008 2:19:22 PM

9/2/2008 4:02:29 PM

I just bought Twilight by Stephanie Meyers, apparently they are really good vampire books that are being made into a movie .. any opinions

9/2/2008 6:43:22 PM

9/2/2008 6:54:31 PM

^^ My girlfriend hated it. But she's a literary snob, so take that for what you will.

9/2/2008 11:00:30 PM

^ I applaud her, then

9/2/2008 11:00:54 PM

Been very busy lately, but I'm trying to knock out the following before I have to return them to the library:

Burroughs - Naked Lunch
Burgess - A Clockwork Orange

Also, recently borrowed Ender's Game because so many people think it's the shit. I thought it was meh, but I'm gonna give Speaker for the Dead a shot.

Also, a book of Bukowski poetry that I like to read with a glass of rum (an ongoing thing) -- I'm almost done with that.

9/2/2008 11:21:51 PM

You thought EG was meh?

9/3/2008 8:09:33 AM

boy, I sure do hate Bukowski.

9/3/2008 8:25:13 AM

I've almost finished all the published Dresden Files books. I just started Small Favor (book 10). I've enjoyed the series. It's fun.

9/3/2008 8:26:15 AM

[Edited on September 3, 2008 at 1:15 PM. Reason : a]

9/3/2008 1:10:34 PM

What with it being election season, I just finished Obama's second book:



Better than I expected, actually. Regardless of your take on his politics, his writing is pretty good. Perhaps he had help, but either way, enjoyed it.

Wanted a page-turner as a change of pace, so I started:



I've read a couple of the other books in the Arkady Renko series, and I found this one (and Gorky Park for that matter) for cheap at a thrift store. Entertaining so far.

[Edited on September 3, 2008 at 4:45 PM. Reason : f]

9/3/2008 4:44:46 PM

That was probably one of the most disturbing things I've ever read (and I read a lot). It's one wild trip, I'll give it that. Next, I'm going after a copy of The Garden of Last Days by Andre Dubus III.

9/6/2008 9:23:17 PM

damn

nice first post.

9/7/2008 11:17:07 AM

reading jack Kerouac the subterraneans currently.

9/7/2008 6:50:19 PM

Just finished Sarah Vowell's Take the Cannoli and started on Rant by Chuck Palahniuk.

9/8/2008 10:09:15 AM

i didn't enjoy rant

9/8/2008 10:24:36 AM

terry goodkind's 12/13-book series (i can't remember what it is)

and finally getting around to reading thoreau's walden (which i've always wanted to read, but never have)

9/8/2008 11:06:39 AM

^first 4-5 books are amazing .... then it's downhill from there

9/8/2008 11:29:56 AM

^ kinda like wheel of time? it's been a while (i read the series when there were only 9 books), but i distinctly remember being really impressed at first and then getting a bit bored...either way, i'm on book two and am really enjoying it

not like martin's song of ice and fire, though

9/8/2008 2:02:17 PM

As far as long fantasy series go, I'd highly recommend Margaret Weis & Tracy Hickman's Death Gate cycle. Very, very impressive series in 7 books. If you're a fantasy reader you need to check it out.

9/8/2008 3:50:15 PM

you know, i read the dragons of series by weis and hickman...they really are a very good team - descriptive, well-written, and consistent

dragons of was on the far end of fantasy that i've read, but i really enjoyed it...i've seen the boatloads of recommendations for death gate, so maybe i'll pick that up next...thanks for the suggestions

[Edited on September 8, 2008 at 4:45 PM. Reason : .]

9/8/2008 4:44:58 PM

ugh, gso library has very few of the books yall are recommending, that's a shame, I have some spare time and wanted to read some good books

9/11/2008 11:38:43 AM

^you can order books through the library system and they'll show up at your library

9/11/2008 12:03:23 PM

Iodine by NC State alum Haven Kimmel

damn, this woman is an incredible writer. And her main character is fifty kinds of fucked up.

9/11/2008 8:24:14 PM

Geek Love

9/11/2008 10:24:56 PM

got my copy in the mail today

9/11/2008 11:36:09 PM

^Is that new? I've been waiting for him to come out with a new book since he finished up the Baroque Cycle...

(though I've not read the Diamond Age or those two books he co-authored that originally came out under a pseudonym...need to check those out too)

9/12/2008 3:15:13 PM

i was going to start the unbearable lightness of being today

but i think i'll read the little prince instead

9/12/2008 3:44:00 PM

no, read Kundera

9/12/2008 3:46:56 PM

the little prince is like 90 pages

i get home from work at 7:30 and i'll be done by 9:15

then kundera

9/12/2008 3:50:20 PM

k

9/12/2008 4:19:54 PM

woopty woop

9/12/2008 9:45:54 PM

Quote :

"You thought EG was meh?"

I liked it fine...just didn't like it nearly as much as the people who recommended it did. I am giving the sequel a shot.

Quote :

"boy, I sure do hate Bukowski."

you blasphemer, you

Quote :

"ugh, gso library has very few of the books yall are recommending, that's a shame, I have some spare time and wanted to read some good books"

GSO as in Greensboro? Which one do you go to? I go to the one on Church St. and have been slightly disappointed by their selection as well.

[Edited on September 12, 2008 at 10:11 PM. Reason : ]

9/12/2008 10:04:49 PM

Quote :

"Centralized and Distributed Operating Systems (Hardcover) by Gary J. Nutt (Author) "

9/12/2008 11:59:01 PM

Quote :

"you blasphemer, you"

I concede this battle to WillemJoel: Bukowski really does suck.

9/13/2008 2:11:34 PM

look, I get it. He doesn't give a shit. He doesn't even attempt to use any literary devices.

But not giving a shit, and subsequently writing shock shit doesn't make you a good writer--at all. his stuff pretty much just bores me after a half dozen pages. sex, booze, knife fights, yeah yeah yeah. at least Palahniuk is a good writer.

fuck him.

9/13/2008 4:58:48 PM

Quote :

"though I've not read the Diamond Age or those two books he co-authored that originally came out under a pseudonym...need to check those out too"

FWIW, I thought Diamond Age was better than Snow Crash.

9/13/2008 10:24:16 PM

Quote :

"GSO as in Greensboro? Which one do you go to? I go to the one on Church St. and have been slightly disappointed by their selection as well."

yeah, greensboro

I go to the central library down town

And it took me until just now to realize that I can have them deliver any books I want to the benjamin parkway branch, which is much closer to my house, woohoo

9/13/2008 11:42:37 PM

Quote :

"at least Palahniuk is a good writer"

eh

I put him, Bukowski and Bret Easton Ellis all in the same category

shock just isn't interesting to me at all

9/15/2008 1:41:40 PM

Palahniuk is not someone who jumps to mind when I think of good writers.

9/15/2008 1:49:17 PM

ditto

9/15/2008 2:17:00 PM

For my Human Factors/Ergonomics class:


After that, it's Catch-22, which I've always wanted to read but haven't.

9/15/2008 3:14:13 PM

Picking up New Brunswick, New Jersey, Goodbye: Bands, Dirty Basements, and the Search for Self ASAP. Ive had several people suggest this to me IRL, on forums, etc. based on my jaded/washed out view of a music scene I was dripping in passion for for years, and the fact that my current view depresses me haha. its like a paradise I can never get back to, and only get farther from every year.

its gotten great reviews on any site ive checked too.

[Edited on September 15, 2008 at 5:25 PM. Reason : ]

9/15/2008 5:24:48 PM

9/15/2008 6:49:47 PM

^ not the book's fault, of course, but MOST CREATIVE COVER BLURB EVER

9/15/2008 6:58:03 PM

9/15/2008 10:54:52 PM

i like at least one Palahniuk work. my point was that Palahniuk has a much better grasp of the damn language and its usage and devices than Bukowski. Bukowski reminds me of a disgusting 14 year old who writes D papers.

(I was merely arguing on a relative stance)

[Edited on September 16, 2008 at 8:32 AM. Reason : safldaskfdas]

9/16/2008 8:31:47 AM

haha, didn't realize Bukowski was so polemic

I agree that citing Chuck P. to say Bukowski sucks is, well, probably not the best example.

9/16/2008 7:23:03 PM