I can’t read anything recommended by oprah. It just seems so wrong.
His Dark Materials
Anathem
YOU: The Owners Manual
Himora22, I own a Kindle, just got it for my B-day and love it. Have already read 4 books on it in a month, about as many as I’d read in the past 6…it’s amazingly convenient to carry everywhere and you have as many books/magazines/newspapers as you want to carry. If anyone else is looking into getting one, I can answer any questions you might have…
My recommendations:
Fiction: The Dark Tower series (7 books in all by Stephen King, written over the course of his 30+ year career, not your typical King), Watchmen (do graphic novels count?), Ender’s Game
Non-fiction: The World is Flat and Hot, Flat, and Crowded (both by Thomas Friedman), John Adams, and Team of Rivals
Looking forward to getting Blood Meridian after ordering it from Amazon…unfortunately it’s not a book that’s made it to Kindle yet…
[quote]IvanDmitritch wrote:
Wrel wrote:
IvanDmitritch wrote:
xXSeraphimXx wrote:
I also read “The Road” a while back and though it was good I do not think it is the literary masterpiece many people make it out to be.
In my opinion, the only literary masterpiece McCarthy has written is Blood Meridian. Compared to it, The Road is 5th rate. If not for Opera’s endorsement, I doubt The Road would be so praised.
I can’t speak highly enough of Blood Meridian. I first heard about it a number of years ago while watching an interview with literary critic Herold Bloom. He said the following about the novel:
"…if you read your way into the cosmos of the
book, then you are rewarded. You get an extraordinary landscape. You get an extraordinary visionary intensity of personality and character.
You get a great vision, a frightening vision of what is indeed something very deeply embedded in the American spirit, in the American psyche. And the more you read the book, I find, the more you will be
able to read the book.
It is–it’s as close, I think, to being the American prose epic as one can find, more perhaps even than Faulkner, though there are individual books by Faulkner like “As I Lay Dying,” which are perhaps of even higher aesthetic quality and originality than “Blood Meridian.”
But I think you would have to go back to “Moby Dick” for an American epic that fully compares to “Blood Meridian.”
Every time this topic comes up, I say the same thing, but if you haven’t yet, read Blood Meridian – it is one of the best American novels ever written.
Here, here.
How fucked up is the bit where they take over the ferry crossing?
Seriously. And how 'bout the part right after that? When Glanton returns to the ferry and finds the Judge doing his best Brando-Apocalypse-Now impersonation. The naked Mexican girl running around with a rawhide collar on, the doctor gone nuts and mumbling to hinself, and the idot (remember that creepy bastard) drunk and dancing. All the while the Judge strolling around in a flowing robe, naked underneath. [/quote]
No shit. I was actually thinking that Glanton had a soul and might actually redeem himself at some point - and then they take over the ferry crossing…
[quote]VanderLaan wrote:
IvanDmitritch wrote:
Wrel wrote:
IvanDmitritch wrote:
xXSeraphimXx wrote:
I also read “The Road” a while back and though it was good I do not think it is the literary masterpiece many people make it out to be.
In my opinion, the only literary masterpiece McCarthy has written is Blood Meridian. Compared to it, The Road is 5th rate. If not for Opera’s endorsement, I doubt The Road would be so praised.
I can’t speak highly enough of Blood Meridian. I first heard about it a number of years ago while watching an interview with literary critic Herold Bloom. He said the following about the novel:
"…if you read your way into the cosmos of the
book, then you are rewarded. You get an extraordinary landscape. You get an extraordinary visionary intensity of personality and character.
You get a great vision, a frightening vision of what is indeed something very deeply embedded in the American spirit, in the American psyche. And the more you read the book, I find, the more you will be
able to read the book.
It is–it’s as close, I think, to being the American prose epic as one can find, more perhaps even than Faulkner, though there are individual books by Faulkner like “As I Lay Dying,” which are perhaps of even higher aesthetic quality and originality than “Blood Meridian.”
But I think you would have to go back to “Moby Dick” for an American epic that fully compares to “Blood Meridian.”
Every time this topic comes up, I say the same thing, but if you haven’t yet, read Blood Meridian – it is one of the best American novels ever written.
Here, here.
How fucked up is the bit where they take over the ferry crossing?
Seriously. And how 'bout the part right after that? When Glanton returns to the ferry and finds the Judge doing his best Brando-Apocalypse-Now impersonation. The naked Mexican girl running around with a rawhide collar on, the doctor gone nuts and mumbling to hinself, and the idot (remember that creepy bastard) drunk and dancing. All the while the Judge strolling around in a flowing robe, naked underneath.
No shit. I was actually thinking that Glanton had a soul and might actually redeem himself at some point - and then they take over the ferry crossing…[/quote]
Glanton seems to suggest, at some point, there might be redemption, or somekinda reconning (at least on a moral level). But as it turns out he’s another douche bag/turd sandwich also.
Like I was saying, just when you think it can’t get any worse … …
Am I right in remembering not long after they finish raping, killing and robbing (not necessarily in that order in a few disturbing cases) people, the survivors flee into the desert and The Kid ends up pretty much naked and sucking a pebble with only a pistol?
He’d have been better off collecting batshit in a cave, alone with the bat-shit crazy Preacher … …
Anyone read ‘American Tabloid’ by James Ellroy? It’s not as fucked up as McCarthy’s books, but it’s almost as seedy. Plus in his autobiography Ellroy owns up to breaking into womens houses, when he was homeless and sniffing their beds, if I am not mistaken he actually names one women.
(like having a roof over your head makes it anymore socially exceptable to sniff beds/bicycle seats … … Ok, ok, I just did it the once, will you just let it lie … …shesh, you sniff one bicycle seat and nobody ever lets you forget it … …)
Can anyone make any recommendations to any books similar in subject to “Gods Demon”?
[quote]Himora22 wrote:
Dont know if any of you have seen this but if you read a lot this would really come in handy and help conserve shelf space.
Its just $100-$150 north of what I would pay for it but I would still really like to have one. Could have used it last night when I finished reading my book and had nothing else to read.
[/quote]
when you’ve nothing to read.
http://www.baen.com/library/defaultTitles.htm
free sample chapters to read online, reviews, can purchase and download books to Palm, Psion, Window CE, html richtext, rocket ebook, etc…
[quote]Drizzt wrote:
Wrel wrote:
Drizzt wrote:
However my favorite series of all time, would def have to be “The legend of Drizzt” by R.A. Salvatore, yeah its where I got my name. If your a Lord of the Rings or fantasy junkie like me, then you’ll love Salvatores work.
Hey Drizzt, if you like fantasy fiction check out George RR Martins “Game of Thrones” books, a good read. Let me know what you think if you read them, chief.
I’ll look into it, thanks for the recommendation.[/quote]
Song of Ice and Fire is definitely the best series that I have ever read. I’m rereading all the books and I’m currently on Game of Thrones.
The only downside is that it is NOT a complete series. After you’re done the fourth book you’ll be left hungry to die. Amazon.com lists the 5th book to come out in 2013!! WTF
[quote]FormerlyTexasGuy wrote:
Lately I enjoyed Life of Pi.
I have not had much time for reading though.
The Dynamic Laws of Prosperity was interesting but gimmicky.
The Tipping Point. [/quote]
I really enjoyed “The Life of Pi”.
For anybody who has ever been a soldier (and everyone else): Spike Milligan’s war memoirs.
The most truthful books about the second world war, and I mean it.
[quote]sjoconn wrote:
FormerlyTexasGuy wrote:
Lately I enjoyed Life of Pi.
I have not had much time for reading though.
The Dynamic Laws of Prosperity was interesting but gimmicky.
The Tipping Point.
I really enjoyed “The Life of Pi”. [/quote]
I still sign in to hotels under ‘Richard Parker’ after reading “The Life of Pi” … …
[quote]Poetikaal wrote:
AN ARSONISTS GUIDE TO WRITERS HOMES IN NEW ENGLAND brock clarke. was a hilarious and poignant book
[/quote]
Seconded.