Last book you read?

1776 by David McCullough. Strangely, for someone who's as into history as I am, very rarely have I read historical non-fiction....damn you, Internet. Anyway, started reading this on a total whim as it'd been given to me as a gift sometime ago by some person, because I wanted to 'prep' myself for Mason & Dixon. Since I hadn't read anything longer than a short story or play in awhile, and the way I saw it both dealt with eighteenth-century America [and there's where the comparisons end.]

Regardless, I was surprised how quickly I took to and was able to get through it, to the point I actually set it aside so as not to finish it too quickly. Was extremely interesting to learn more about Washington's performance in the early years of the revolution, especially the number of battles he lost, and generally filling in more detail than any of my history classes ever did. Just regret that it was focused, more or less, on a single year...

 

I'm on a biiiiiiiiiiiiiig Pynchon kick, let me know how Mason & Dixon is, I hear a lot of people say it's his best. (Also, you fool, it's near impossible to prepare yourself for Pynchon, trust me I tried.)

 

Which one are you in right now [or which was your last, if you're not in one at the moment?] So far I've been enjoying it pretty well, typographic and grammatical issues aside, and just got into the second section 'America' today. Ashamed to say this, hopefully, be only my second completed Pynchon...

Oh, of course (Haha.) Not so much a prep for him, per se, as the context of this novel and getting back to reading a full-length book in general.

 

Right now I'm reading How Music Works by David Byrne, but every other book is usually a Pynchon one, last one was V. and before that I read Bleeding Edge, The Crying of Lot 49 and Inherent Vice.

I've attempted Gravity's Rainbow several times but just couldn't wrap my head around it, so I started reading his other books and I fell massively in love. I'll get back to it someday.

 

What'd you make of Bleeding Edge? Am tempted to get it soon, if possible, admittedly for the opportunity to get one of his works in a brand-new hardcover....I'm a slight bibliowhore if it hasn't been apparent.

Recently, in talking with someone on another site about M&D and Pynchon a bit more generally, they told me that GR is really only difficult for the first hundred pages or so, but becomes easier to handle after that. Actually made me a little more eager to dive into it.

 

The Shining by Stephen King

Sooooooo fuckin gooood

 

Lord of the Flies by William Golding. I'll be looking for another book after this one, but I can't find one...

 

Haha, you are in the company of another bibliowhore, so no worries there. Bleeding Edge actually might my favourite I've read by him so far. I just found it immensely enjoyable from start to finish and there's some genuinely sweet moments in there that he manages to pull off without seeming out of place.

I've heard that about GR many times and I always manage to start it when I'm super busy and don't have the brain power to absorb a twilight book, let alone an insane postmodern masterpiece that introduces 100 characters in 100 pages.

 

Will take that as a good sign, considering the ones you've read so far. Kind of interested to read it, if only to see his take on the general subject/timeperiod compared with DeLillo's Falling Man.

Twilight book? Yeah, I understand the feeling. It's why I'd failed to complete both Against the Day and Mason & Dixon in the past... Had enough trouble trying to digest Faulkner, at first, before I let my mind relax and just focus on absorbing what I read naturally. TP is a whole other case in deed, it seems...

 

The House of Hades by Rick Riordan. Wonderful book. I love the Percy Jackson series along with Heroes of Olympus. Nico is my favorite character and I just absolutely love his storyline. I relate extremely well.

I am currently reading The Tenth Circle by Jodi Picoult.

 

His grasp of that time period and the internet and just general pop culture shocked me. I mean not that I should be surprised that he is more knowledgeable and smarter than I am but at the same time he's in his 70's and I feel like I should know more about the last decade's zeitgeist than he does, alas it was not such.

I could never really get into Faulkner myself, his characters always left me a little cold and I found myself drifting off without actually reading anything. I have the same issue with Cormac McCarthy actually, but there's a few of his I really like, namely Blood Meridian.

 

Wouldn't be surprised by that either 'cause of the way he seems to absorb historical and cultural information, but also because I have a tenuous relationship with the 'zeitgeist' at any given time (Haha.)

Hmm, while I'd say that Faulkner's protagonists have a spectral quality to them, in that they seem either distant and/or haunted, I've never found them cold. Though I believe I understand what you're saying. More-or-less the same applied to McCarthy, however I much prefer the former's work. Still need to get around to Meridian at some point...

 

is that like Shakespeare or something?

 

Yeah, distant is a better way to describe it. McCarthy definitely does this as well, however in the books I do like by him Suttree and Blood Meridian I find those are the ones with his liveliest and colourful characters. (Of course it's Cormac McCarthy so when I say colourful I probably am taking about how weirdly they go about murder.)

I find it hard to describe what I look for in Characters or why Faulkner doesn't work for me but Steinbeck is one of my favourite authors. I don't necessarily understand my own taste in books.

 

Yes, he's definitely got a darker edge to his work, to say the least. Will be interesting to see how those two compare with what I've read so far.

Likewise, I can't even answer the question, "What do you like to read?" that everyone seems to ask whenever they find one likes to do so... As you sort of imply, my 'tastes' just go more-or-less along with which authors I click with. It cannot be explained... :eusa_shhh

 

How come? :lol:

 

Infinite Jest-David Foster Wallace
JFK Death of a President

 

I just finished Insurgent and I'm currently reading a book that one of my friends wrote for the Nanowrimo thing and The Book Thief by Markus Zusak