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ions
02-18-2008, 08:19 AM
Those of you who enjoy Dan Brown should give Umberto Eco a shot. Foucault's Pendulum by Eco runs through the plot of The Da Vinci Code in a much better way.

Any fans of post-modernism here?

scorpio
02-18-2008, 11:14 AM
Deception Point, by Dan Brown. Just as good as the others.

PuertoRicanPinup
02-18-2008, 03:22 PM
The Alchemist is amazing, actually anything by Paulo Coelho. The Zahir is another good one from him.

OdysseusNJ
02-18-2008, 08:55 PM
I recently acquired, for the second time, Delta of Venus by Anais Nin. This time I hope to finish it, I lost my old copy. I didn't realize what her attitude was towards the stories the first time.

I was thinking of reading some Nin. Why didn't you finish them the first time?


Those of you who enjoy Dan Brown should give Umberto Eco a shot. Foucault's Pendulum by Eco runs through the plot of The Da Vinci Code in a much better way.

Any fans of post-modernism here?

Depends on who you count as postmodern. Eco strikes me as pompous. I dig on Kundera, Vonnegut... Roth and even some Le Guin if you count them.

ions
02-18-2008, 09:09 PM
I agree, I would not consider Eco post-modern. At least not Foucault's Pendulum or The Name of the Rose, but The Mysterious Flame of Queen Loanna and The Island of the Day Before certainly have post-modern inclinations. For post-modernism I was thinking more in the line of Gaddis, Pynchon, Gass, Dellilo and etc. Roth I consider too close to realism to call post-modern.

How is Eco pompous? Please please please do not say his vocabulary.

OdysseusNJ
02-18-2008, 09:42 PM
It was a while ago when I read him so I can't remember my reasons exactly. As far as vocabulary, expansive diction is great and all but it should be used tastefully.

I think I liked Pynchon when I read him but once again my memory on it is hazy. I'm reading Underworld right now by Delillo (actually it's on hold) but I wouldn't consider that particular book very postmodern, certainly it's closer to realism than some of Roth - for instance Portnoy's Complaint. However I haven't read any other Delillo.

AmazingKat
02-18-2008, 10:16 PM
I'm usually reading several books at a time at any given moment; one for school, one for my own intellectual development and one to serve as a distraction from the first two. Here's a few of the later:

Cosmic Banditos by A.C. Weisbecker was a recent read of mine that I found witty, fresh, void of romantic bullshit, and just plane fun to read. Drug running banditos + quantum physics = ftw!

http://www.amazon.com/Cosmic-Banditos-C-Weisbecker/dp/0451203062

Battle Royale by[/URL] Koushun Takami is a quick paced, controversial novel about Japanese students left on a island by the government and forced to kill each other off until one remains.

http://www.amazon.com/Battle-Royale-Koushun-Takami/dp/156931778X/ref=pd_bbs_sr_1?ie=UTF8&s=books&qid=1203397754&sr=1-1 (http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/search-handle-url/102-0685322-8016103?%5Fencoding=UTF8&search-type=ss&index=books&field-author=Koushun%20Takami)


I ordered a copy of Guns, Germs and Steel by Jared Diamond today. I'll be reading that next followed by the Feminine Mystique. [url]http://www.amazon.com/Guns-Germs-Steel-Fates-Societies/dp/0393061310/ref=pd_bbs_sr_1?ie=UTF8&s=books&qid=1203397929&sr=1-1

scarlett_vancouver
02-18-2008, 10:25 PM
The Alchemist is amazing, actually anything by Paulo Coelho. The Zahir is another good one from him.

I thought the Alchemist was mediocre at best. I'm going to try another Coelho book before I write him off entirely though.

I'm still reading Hyperion. Hehe, it's been a slow reading-month for me.

OdysseusNJ
02-18-2008, 10:26 PM
I ordered a copy of Guns, Germs and Steel by Jared Diamond today. I'll be reading that next followed by the Feminine Mystique.

I hope you enjoy GG&S, I thought it was a good read. He's fairly concise despite the length of the book and really he has *a lot* of knowledge at his fingertips - and it shows in this book!

ions
02-19-2008, 05:01 PM
Put me down as a fan of Guns, Germs and Steel! Great book.

Lemme know how Underworld goes Odysseus, it's here on my shelf awaiting me. I enjoyed White Noise quite a bit hoping I'll enjoy the rest of his.

cameron_keys
02-19-2008, 05:15 PM
I'm in the mood for some new True crime stories. Real crime books...any recommendations?

britt244
02-19-2008, 05:17 PM
if anyone likes chick lit, right now i'm reading Room for Love by Andrea Meyer. i really like it!

OdysseusNJ
02-19-2008, 08:30 PM
Put me down as a fan of Guns, Germs and Steel! Great book.

Lemme know how Underworld goes Odysseus, it's here on my shelf awaiting me. I enjoyed White Noise quite a bit hoping I'll enjoy the rest of his.

It might be awhile, a bunch of other books have leapfrogged it in the queue. However the portion I read was quite good. I have a questionable habit of hopping back and forth from book to book a lot, even with good ones. Your shelf sounds like a fun bookshelf; post if you wind up finishing UW before me!

cameron_keys
02-19-2008, 11:06 PM
Thanks! I'll look for it!

stangboy124
02-20-2008, 10:34 AM
I'm a voracious reader myself, although not as much these days. I mainly stick to the political and social science sections, but read pretty much anything. Some faves:

Whitley Streiber's Majestic
A (supposedly) fictionalized account of the Roswell UFO crash and subsequent government actions. It's simply a beautiful story about the experiences of people involved in the event.

Neil Strauss' The Game
Yeah, it's a lightweight in the literature department, but it's also completely fascinating and oddly compelling. If you're one of the three people in the world who doesn't know what this book is about, The Game describes the author's quest to transform himself from nerdy, socially-stunted journalist into a charismatic and confident pickup artist.

James Bovard's Lost Rights
Like his later Terrorism and Tyrrany, it's pretty much a catalog of government abuses and excesses. Good stuff, and guaranteed to piss you off before election day.

mollyzmoon
02-20-2008, 04:18 PM
I thought the Alchemist was mediocre at best. I'm going to try another Coelho book before I write him off entirely though.

I'm still reading Hyperion. Hehe, it's been a slow reading-month for me.

Ditto. Coelho loses me. I'm too much of a self-righteous atheist for his books.

My recent reads:

"Cannery Row" by Steinbeck (awsome book...way more enjoyable than "Grapes of Wrath"...Very quick, very vignette-styled...really a fun read.)

"The Time Traveler's Wife" by Audrey Niffenegger (another good read, but a romancey type book...not an awsome portrait of literature, but an original, engaging story. I look forward to the movie with Rachel McAdams and Eric Bana).

"The Road" by Cormac McCarthy (spooky, spooky...and amazing. I picked it up after it was suggested by several SW readers. What a book. )

"Diary" by Chuck Palahniuk (I've yet to read anything by him that I haven't enjoyed. He's the best kind of nihilistic, absurdist writer. His books are so funny, so unique, but also disturbing, just a tad).

"The Gum Thief" by Douglas Coupland (I liked this book better than Jpod, actually. There's a very lovely moment involving Johnny Depp. If I could make any book into a movie, this would be the one).

ions
02-22-2008, 07:55 AM
"The Road" by Cormac McCarthy (spooky, spooky...and amazing. I picked it up after it was suggested by several SW readers. What a book. )

"The Gum Thief" by Douglas Coupland (I liked this book better than Jpod, actually. There's a very lovely moment involving Johnny Depp. If I could make any book into a movie, this would be the one).

I loved The Road. Turned me onto McCarthy which has become a fantastic find for me. I used to like Coupland but JPod disappointed me so greatly I'm wary of him now. I read my first William Gaddis yesterday and it won't be the last. Agapē Agape. What a fantastic book on art its mortality and our own. Dense though.

RoseLeigh
02-22-2008, 08:06 AM
This thread made me look up 'postmodern literature'. ;D As best I can tell, it's not my bag, but you learn something new everyday!

I'm not reading much other than school reading:'(, but thankfully one of my assigned books is "The Great Mortality" by John Kelly. It's great if you are interested in the bubonic plague (Black Death) outbreak in the 14th century.

PrettyCurlieQ
02-24-2008, 03:41 PM
I used to love Steinbeck. Check out Tortilla Flat. I read it a long time ago, but I remember it was really good and short like Cannery Row.

Also try The Red Pony.

I currently have Steinbeck's The Wayward Bus next to my bed, but i'm really bad about making time to read.
Man I HATE Steinbeck. Because his work was famous classic literature, I forced myself to read a few novels, but every time, I felt I'd rather chew my own arm off and beat myself with it than read another page... I love reading, even assigned reading in school, but I will never even attempt Steinbeck again. Yuck.

rooster470
02-24-2008, 04:25 PM
I feel the same way about J.D. Salinger and Catcher and the Rye. I've read it 3 times and I still don't see why everyone thinks it's so great. Every couple years I reread it to see if it will affect me differently and I'm always left thinking, what's so special about this book that I don't get?

scarlett_vancouver
02-24-2008, 04:31 PM
^ you have to read it when you're 13 and feeling all alienated ;)

Djoser
02-24-2008, 05:34 PM
LOL!

It's been a long time, but one of the most interesting books I ever read was an explanation of tthe whole scene of bullfighting, by Ernest Hemingway. It was quite detailed, and well-written, of course. Our long-departed Zaza took it back to Utrecht with her, I forget the title. i hate bullfighting but it made sense the way he explained it.

Sorry, Odysseus, I missed your question. I lost the copy I had before. I want to get other stuff by her too, though, she was apparently writing that in a caricature style to make money, and was more impressed with other stuff she wrote.

Any recommendations for some more Nin?

OdysseusNJ
02-24-2008, 06:05 PM
LOL!

It's been a long time, but one of the most interesting books I ever read was an explanation of tthe whole scene of bullfighting, by Ernest Hemingway. It was quite detailed, and well-written, of course. Our long-departed Zaza took it back to Utrecht with her, I forget the title. i hate bullfighting but it made sense the way he explained it.

Sorry, Odysseus, I missed your question. I lost the copy I had before. I want to get other stuff by her too, though, she was apparently writing that in a caricature style to make money, and was more impressed with other stuff she wrote.

Any recommendations for some more Nin?

It was probably Death in the Afternoon by Hemingway. He wrote a lot of stories that involved bullfighting but I think that was his novel about it. Yeah if anyone has Nin recommendations, make with them. I haven't read her but was meaning to. She had a lot of journal type writings published that looked interesting.

PrettyCurlieQ
02-24-2008, 08:53 PM
I feel the same way about J.D. Salinger and Catcher and the Rye. I've read it 3 times and I still don't see why everyone thinks it's so great. Every couple years I reread it to see if it will affect me differently and I'm always left thinking, what's so special about this book that I don't get?
Well I'm glad it's not just me! If something is a great moving work of genius that's been getting raves for centuries or whatever, I always feel retarded that I don't get it. To each his own, I guess.

Djoser
02-25-2008, 01:23 PM
Yeah, Odysseus, that's the one! Only it's non-fiction, which made it even better in my mind. I mean Hemingway was a great writer of novels, etc.--but this was a fascinating and realistic view of the entire sport, the breeding and upbringing of the bulls (truly vicious animals, BTW, not that killing them in horrible ways is necessarily justifiable because of this), the training and mental states of the matadors, etc.

A novel wouldn't have been as convincing as to the justification of the cruel nature of the sport, that was my impression.

I'm not sure if they still use horses in the beginning when they weaken the bull, but they used to get disemboweled on a regular basis--now I think they use protective gear on the belly of the horse, but it is still extremely painful. Hemingway felt sorry for the horses.


As far as Nin goes, I would suspect the journals might be better reading than Delta of Venus. It was entertaining, what I read of it, but not as thoroughly erotic--the characters were a bit on the strange side. I'm all for some kink now and then, but what I read was more in the nature of erotic comedy. But I didn't read enough of it to judge the entire collection.



Well I'm glad it's not just me! If something is a great moving work of genius that's been getting raves for centuries or whatever, I always feel retarded that I don't get it. To each his own, I guess.

No need to feel bad about that--no one likes everything they read, no matter how good it is. It's supposed to be an enjoyable activity, after all, lol!

OdysseusNJ
05-03-2008, 11:45 AM
Thread, rise from the grave...



As far as Nin goes, I would suspect the journals might be better reading than Delta of Venus. It was entertaining, what I read of it, but not as thoroughly erotic--the characters were a bit on the strange side. I'm all for some kink now and then, but what I read was more in the nature of erotic comedy. But I didn't read enough of it to judge the entire collection.


I got one of the journals and wasn't terribly impressed. It seemed like it had a lot of potential to be interesting, but slipped into a kind of trite-clever-person-writing-self-indulgent-things mood too often.

I probably wouldn't have minded that except they don't publish the raw (or lightly edited for clarity) diaries. It seems there are two versions, the original release, which was pruned of the steamier material, and the "unexpurgated" version, which despite the claim, actually skips a lot of the stuff in the original release and also are manipulated to form a clear narrative about certain people in that subculture. So it came off as neither a bare look at a cool person's life, trite flaws and all, nor a well edited classy piece, but some hybrid.

That said, I might give it another change and a longer read, or try a different portion, since it had its moments.

london
05-03-2008, 01:37 PM
Door to December by Dean Koontz- one of my favorite fiction books of all time. About a little girl with strong psychic influence and a side story of a male psychiatrist who trained/brainwashed a woman into being submissive.

A Spell for Chameleon by Piers Anthony: an awesome fantasy genre that was as much of a joy for me to read as Da Vinci Code.

For true crime:
Little Lost Angel and Cruel Sacrifice involving a 1992 case of 4 female teenagers kidnapping, torturing, and burning a 12 year old girl to death.

There are two books on the Paul Bernardo/Karla Homolka case. A married couple who committed some of the worst murders in Canada's history. Karla was released from prison a few short years ago.

I'll have to fill in the titles later for the Canadian couple, but both of these true crime cases were what I read over a decade ago and yet they have stayed in the recesses of my brain ever since.

hardkandee
05-03-2008, 02:09 PM
^I'm reading Magical Thinking by Augusten Borroughs right now. ;)

I am forever convinced that truth is stranger than fiction.

TheTempest
05-03-2008, 02:10 PM
Here's a condensed version of my favorites (I have more if you want 'em)...

Fiction:
Breakfast of Champions, by Kurt Vonnegut
Slaughterhouse-Five, by Kurt Vonnegut
The Sirens of Titan, by Kurt Vonnegut
Cat's Cradle, by Kurt Vonnegut
Bagombo Snuff Box: Uncollected Short Fiction, by Kurt Vonnegut
Dharma Bums, by Jack Kerouac
On the Road, by Jack Kerouac
Factotum, by Charles Bukowski
Women, by Charles Bukowski
Pulp, by Charles Bukowski
Cities of the Red Night, by William S. Burroughs
Naked Lunch, by William S. Burroughs
Fight Club, by Chuck Palahniuk
Choke, by Chuck Palahniuk
Survivor, by Chuck Palahniuk
The Stranger, by Albert Camus
The Trial, by Franz Kafka
The Metamorphosis, by Franz Kafka
1984, by George Orwell
Brave New World, by Aldous Huxley
The Alchemist, by Paulo Coelho
Harry Potter (Series), by J.K. Rowling
The Hobbit, by J.R.R. Tolkien
The Lord of the Rings (Trilogy), by J.R.R. Tolkien
A Wrinkle in Time, by Madeleine L'Engle
Midnight's Children, by Salman Rushdie
The Satanic Verses, by Salman Rushdie
Imaginary Homelands, by Salman Rushdie
Shame, by Salman Rushdie
The Catcher in the Rye, by J.D. Salinger
The Bell Jar, by Sylvia Plath
The Sound and the Fury, by William Faulkner
Orlando, by Virginia Woolf
To the Lighthouse, by Virginia Woolf
A Passage to India, by E.M. Forster
Thus Spoke Zarathustra, by Friedrich Nietzsche
Ubik, by Philip K. Dick

Non-fiction:
Consider the Lobster, by David Foster Wallace
Naked, by David Sedaris
Dress Your Family in Corduroy and Denim, by David Sedaris
Running With Scissors, by Augusten Burroughs
Dry, by Augusten Burroughs
Freedom in Exile, by His Holiness the Dalai Lama

Have you read The Plague by Camus?

TheTempest
05-03-2008, 05:26 PM
^I loveeed that one. But I haven't read The Stranger yet.