What's Monstro Reading
Am reading:
Henderson the Rain King (rereading 2x)
Against the Day (still)
Heart of Darkness (rereading 4x)
Just got done reading:
Symbols of Ideal Life
Pride and Prejudice (oh man, did that suck)
Henderson the Rain King (rereading 2x)
Against the Day (still)
Heart of Darkness (rereading 4x)
Just got done reading:
Symbols of Ideal Life
Pride and Prejudice (oh man, did that suck)
posted by Monstro D. Whale at
12:40 PM
9 Comments:
I like labels on posts, and have considered adding them to mine, but haven't made the jump yet.
What PH is Reading:
* ATD (still... seriously, I'm not sure 30 pp/week is a great pace)
* Atlas Shrugged (clocking in at around 300 pp/week).
* Wicked (on audio -- 3 CDs to go out of 17. Also have Son of a Witch on CD, but heard it wasn't as great. Still, I listen to audio books while jogging, so I may as well give it a shot.)
* Shadows of Forgotten Ancestors (Sagan nonfic: been on my nightstand for a while)
On deck:
* The Fountainhead (should have read before Atlas Shrugged)
* a PK Dick book I picked up at a Goodwill (the one Blade Runner was based on, I think -- androids/electric sheep).
* also picked up a few other Pynchon works lately at a book sale (Vineland, Mason & Dixon, and GR). Which would you recommend as a follow-up to ATD? I'm thinking Vineland, then MD, and THEN GR.
* also picked up a hardback copy of Barth's Letters novel last week for a buck, but it may have to wait a while.
As you can see, I'm a book sale junkie.
As far as Pynchon is concerned, V. is hard to read as a novel. It's great if you think of it as short stories, but they don't go together as far as I'm concerned.
Gravity's Rainbow should be read either last, or when you have a lot of time to kill. The problem is that I wouldn't stop in the middle of its fifty page sections. Even if you don't stop, it's easy to get lost. You can't read GR twenty pages a day. You'll lose it.
Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep is incredibly good. I can't comment on Anne Raynd. I've never read her.
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What Plug is reading:
An Heartbreaking Work of
* Staggering Genius (almost finished - reading it cover to cover)
* Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix (2nd reading)
* Child Rights & Remedies: How the U.S. Legal System Affects Children (work related)
* The Bass Wore Scales (goofball noir church choir/detective novel)
Oh yeah, also a book sale junkie. Have just finished packing up most of my books though. So many books ...
I'm a used book store whore. That's no lie. I once went on a book buying orgy in San Francisco area that required two nights in a hotel. I swear. We went to buy books and that's all we did. I probably came home with eight hundred dollars worth of used books.
Between me and the Mrs., we're clocked in at around three thousand volumes.
Also, I'm a book snob. Hard cover and best translations. When I open a book flat and it doesn't try to shut....ohh...
I am in awe.
I bought a book last summer that is all about storing and displaying your books, with pictures of some of the most fabulous personal libraries ... [plug swoons]
I, too, like to have hardbacks (though I'll settle for a trade paperback if it's a book I really want & it's a good deal). Actually, any book I read, I kind of like to own as well, which is a problem for things I check out of the library in either book or audiobook form. In those cases when the library book was good, I usually have this urge to go out and buy the book -- just in case I need to refer back to it at some point for something. And, I hate lending people books.
Every year since I was 20 or so (which would mean 18 years runnign now), the same thing happens at least 5 times per year: My family and I all go to a used book store together... We split up and go about our own interests... Two hours later, someone finds me crouched under some giant stack in some corner somewhere. "We've all bee LOOKING for you for an HOUR!!!" See, other people get hungry, apparently. Not me... all bodily functions, except the brain, shut down in the presence of books. Proudly, I can claim to be the last one ready to go during any bookstore visit. That trip to SF sounded awesome!
(But, yeah, my wife & I have accumulated a ton as well. Maybe I'll post photos sometime of our libraries. I spent a month building an enormous home for our books. Turned out to be too small, so I've been expanding.)
Ah, the hallowed dusty yellow pages of the used book. May you smell them always and may they have hard covers that have not been chewed on by dogs. May you caress their brittle pages with tender mercy as you dog-ear the corners to mark your progress through the ancient tome.
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