Now reading...

[jazzbo]

Tessa B. Dick, "The Owl in Daylight."

Edited May 7, 2009 by jazzbo

[Niko]

HP Lovecraft - The Case of Charles Dexter Ward

[porcy62]

Did anybody here read Stieg Larsson's trilogy?

"The Girl With The Dragon Tattoo", "The Girl Who Played With Fire", "The Girl Who Kicked the Hornets' Nest"/"Castles in the Sky", not sure about the last title.

[BruceH]

Tessa B. Dick, "The Owl in Daylight."

You just can't get enought Dick, can you? Wait, that came out wrong...

[Jazzmoose]

More chazza shop fare:

Albert Camus - "The Fall".

I've got to try some more Camus some time, just to see if I still like his work if nothing else. I think I completely wore out my copy of The Stranger, and The Fall wasn't in much better shape. But then, that was in my teens and early twenties.

HP Lovecraft - The Case of Charles Dexter Ward

Another author I haven't read in decades. But then, I don't wonder if I'm missing as much with Lovecraft...

[Niko]

More chazza shop fare:

Albert Camus - "The Fall".

I've got to try some more Camus some time, just to see if I still like his work if nothing else. I think I completely wore out my copy of The Stranger, and The Fall wasn't in much better shape. But then, that was in my teens and early twenties.

HP Lovecraft - The Case of Charles Dexter Ward

Another author I haven't read in decades. But then, I don't wonder if I'm missing as much with Lovecraft...

so far i don't feel much like going back to camus which i read as a teenager... i can understand anyone who says "the case of dexter ward" is a badly written novel - but i enjoy it a lot

going back to something else from my early teens now - just started my fifth round through the lord of the rings (but for the first time in english)

[BillF]

Samuel Johnson: The Struggle is a fascinating new narrative of Johnson's Life which includes information suppressed by Boswell and new revelations about the great man's masochism. His whole life was a struggle for balance and he was never satisfied with himself either. Johnson had never done enough and he lived in constant fear of damnation Unlike many, Johnson's wisdom was hard won and unflinching. He loved the poor and was a champion of the underdog. He despised cant. Socially, his poor hygiene and various tics, his wolfen voracity at dinner and his satirical bent made him unpopular among many, yet the force of his intellect and the goodness of his heart won him many loyal and devoted friends. If you enjoyed Boswell's Life of Johnson, this is an excellent supplement to experiencing one of the most fascinating men who ever lived.

Very interesting man, Johnson. I once read Boswell's Life of Johnson. I had it as a bedside book and it took me two years to get through! A single paragraph used to have the same effect as a blow to the head with a blunt instrument. A wonderful sleep inducer!

[BillF]

Now reading J G Ballard, The Unlimited Dream Company. Surpassed by its immediate predecessors, Crash, Concrete Island and High Rise, but still pretty good!

[BruceH]

Very interesting man, Johnson. I once read Boswell's Life of Johnson. I had it as a bedside book and it took me two years to get through! A single paragraph used to have the same effect as a blow to the head with a blunt instrument. A wonderful sleep inducer!

High praise indeed!

[tkeith]

On a Raymond Chandler kick, so I'm reading the Phillip Marlowe series. Also reading Ross McDonald's Lew Archer series, and I have Stanley Dance's THE WORLD OF DUKE ELLINGTON going, as well.

[7/4]

Brad Warner - Zen Wrapped in Karma, Dipped in Chocolate.

[Chuck Nessa]

Never mind.

[medjuck]

Did anybody here read Stieg Larsson's trilogy?

"The Girl With The Dragon Tattoo", "The Girl Who Played With Fire", "The Girl Who Kicked the Hornets' Nest"/"Castles in the Sky", not sure about the last title.

I think only the first one is available in the US. Second one now out in UK. Don't know about the third one.

I've read the first two. I like them but I think because he died before they were published nobody edited them. (Or at least they read that way to me.)

[medjuck]

Carlos Ruiz Zafon: Shadow Of The Wind

I had a strange experience with that one. Bought it before I went to Barcelona but didn't read it until afterwards. Big mistake. One of the characters lived exactly where we were staying. Would have been fun to know that in advance.

[jazzbo]

I'm a big Henry Miller fan, I think his writing is important to American literature.

I like the Sexus/Plexus/Nexus trilogy better than the two Tropics.

I really like two posthumous releases, Moloch, and Crazy Cock.

I'm also a big fan of less "fictional" more "opinionated" works like The Books in my Life, The Colossus of Marousi, and The Air Conditioned Nigthtmare.

Edited May 10, 2009 by jazzbo

[Matthew]

I had some time to read on my recent trip, and so I read Handling Sin by Michael Malone. It is a wonderful book that is about life and death, family and isolation, God and religion, father and son, what it means to belong to a family, about friendship, about how we shut down in life, about handling sin in our lives -- in other words, about life. The characters are people that you care about, and you don't want the trip that is at the center of the book to ever end. Highly recommended.

[poetrylover3]

I had some time to read on my recent trip, and so I read Handling Sin by Michael Malone. It is a wonderful book that is about life and death, family and isolation, God and religion, father and son, what it means to belong to a family, about friendship, about how we shut down in life, about handling sin in our lives -- in other words, about life. The characters are people that you care about, and you don't want the trip that is at the center of the book to ever end. Highly recommended.

Agreed. A very funny novel.

Besides the fascinating Samuel Johnson: The Struggle, I picked up Baseball Prospectus 2009, which to me is always a stimulating read. Like most baseball junkies I enjoy new perspectives on baseball players and the unique skill sets that separate the star from the scrub. I also use it to draft for Fantasy Baseball and to evaluate trade proposals.

[jeffcrom]

Samuel Johnson: The Struggle is a fascinating new narrative of Johnson's Life which includes information suppressed by Boswell and new revelations about the great man's masochism. His whole life was a struggle for balance and he was never satisfied with himself either. Johnson had never done enough and he lived in constant fear of damnation Unlike many, Johnson's wisdom was hard won and unflinching. He loved the poor and was a champion of the underdog. He despised cant. Socially, his poor hygiene and various tics, his wolfen voracity at dinner and his satirical bent made him unpopular among many, yet the force of his intellect and the goodness of his heart won him many loyal and devoted friends. If you enjoyed Boswell's Life of Johnson, this is an excellent supplement to experiencing one of the most fascinating men who ever lived.

Very interesting man, Johnson. I once read Boswell's Life of Johnson. I had it as a bedside book and it took me two years to get through! A single paragraph used to have the same effect as a blow to the head with a blunt instrument. A wonderful sleep inducer!

I have loved Johnson ever since picking up a collection of his letters at a book sale years ago. By chance, I opened the book to the page containing his famous letter to Lord Chesterfield - a masterful dismissal of someone much higher than Johnson on the social scale. I love Johnson, warts and all, and enjoyed Meyers' Samuel Johnson: The Struggle very much. It sent me back to Boswell's biography, which I'm reading for the second, and probably last time. I find it fascinating for the most part, but it puts in mind on Johnson's line about Paradise Lost: "No man ever wished it longer."

Edited May 10, 2009 by jeffcrom

[Bright Moments]

Carlos Ruiz Zafon: Shadow Of The Wind

an EXCELLENT read!!!

i am reading "the life of pi" at the moment

[Joe]

Lewis Hyde, TRICKSTER MAKES THIS WORLD: MISCHIEF, MYTH AND ART

[BillF]

Samuel Johnson: The Struggle is a fascinating new narrative of Johnson's Life which includes information suppressed by Boswell and new revelations about the great man's masochism. His whole life was a struggle for balance and he was never satisfied with himself either. Johnson had never done enough and he lived in constant fear of damnation Unlike many, Johnson's wisdom was hard won and unflinching. He loved the poor and was a champion of the underdog. He despised cant. Socially, his poor hygiene and various tics, his wolfen voracity at dinner and his satirical bent made him unpopular among many, yet the force of his intellect and the goodness of his heart won him many loyal and devoted friends. If you enjoyed Boswell's Life of Johnson, this is an excellent supplement to experiencing one of the most fascinating men who ever lived.

Very interesting man, Johnson. I once read Boswell's Life of Johnson. I had it as a bedside book and it took me two years to get through! A single paragraph used to have the same effect as a blow to the head with a blunt instrument. A wonderful sleep inducer!

I have loved Johnson ever since picking up a collection of his letters at a book sale years ago. By chance, I opened the book to the page containing his famous letter to Lord Chesterfield - a masterful dismissal of someone much higher than Johnson on the social scale. I love Johnson, warts and all, and enjoyed Meyers' Samuel Johnson: The Struggle very much. It sent me back to Boswell's biography, which I'm reading for the second, and probably last time. I find it fascinating for the most part, but it puts in mind on Johnson's line about Paradise Lost: "No man ever wished it longer."

Yes, length was the problem - 1,200 pages in the 2 vol edition I read. Much closer to "a good read" were Johnson's Journey to the Western Islands of Scotland and Boswell's Journal of a Tour to the Hebrides and his London Journal.

[porcy62]

Did anybody here read Stieg Larsson's trilogy?

"The Girl With The Dragon Tattoo", "The Girl Who Played With Fire", "The Girl Who Kicked the Hornets' Nest"/"Castles in the Sky", not sure about the last title.

I think only the first one is available in the US. Second one now out in UK. Don't know about the third one.

I've read the first two. I like them but I think because he died before they were published nobody edited them. (Or at least they read that way to me.)

My thought too, a wise editing would have made them better.

[ejp626]

Been reading academic things. Most not interesting, though Immigration and Integration in Urban Communities was pretty readable for an academic book. Anyway, now that the reviews are wrapping up, I can get back to some fiction.

I'm finally going to finish The Savage Detectives (a bit of a chore at this point -- I never really warmed up to it).

I also am dipping into A.N. Wilson's A Watch in the Night, which seems pretty good so far.

Not sure after those two. Most likely Gibson's Spook Country.

On the other hand, I've been on a bit of a Japanese kick, esp. the cinema. I just reread Soseki Natsume's Ten Nights of Dream and picked up used copies of his Kokoro and I Am a Cat. I might try to read one of those before too long.

Edited May 12, 2009 by ejp626

[sal]

"The Echo Maker" by Richard Powers

[paul secor]

Arthur Phillips novel, Prague

Early 20's American yups in Budapest in the very early 1990's. The only interesting character in the book is somewhat of a cliche - an elderly female jazz pianist/singer who tells some great stories. It turns out that her stories probably are lies, but they're good stories, nonetheless.