Latest Gene Wolfe book you read (1-10 scale)

[Gay for Cock]

Catcher in the Rye - J.D. Salinger
7/10

Fuck, what a bummer of a book. I read it not knowing anything about it, just that it was considered a classic. There were just too many similarities between Holden's thinking and mine for me to not be uncomfortable while reading it. I didn't realize I was that negative until I saw it in print and realized how stupid it sounds. The part where his sister accused Holden of hating everything, then challenged him to name one thing he TRULY enjoyed and he wasn't able to come up with an answer floored me. Fuck.

I think I just read this book at the wrong time in my life. Had I read it as a teenager I would have been all "Fuck yeah, people suck!". Reading it as a 32 year old I thought, "Fuck - do I really sound like that?!". I've been bummed all week while reading it. I'm glad I'm done with it now. Maybe I can start smiling again soon?

[Gay for Cock]

The Catcher in the Rye - 9/10

Finally getting around to reading - An Economic Interpretation of the Constitution of the United States by Charles A. Beard So far /10

http://www.amazon.com/Economic-Interpre ... 730&sr=8-1

[12 Months of Mao]

World Made By Hand - 1/10
Total crap. Can't even remember the author's name. Don't think I even bothered trying to learn it because the book got so boring so fast. Not sure why I even bothered finishing it. Found out afterward that the author was a former journalist, which would explain why he was good at explaining the particulars of a situation without having anything that was actually interesting or compelling going on.

I'll never get the Catcher in the Rye love. Tried reading it in college and absolutely despised Holden to the point that I didn't even finish. I should give it another go, seeing as it's sitting here on the shelf and I've re-read other books from that period and gotten different things out of them, but I feel like age will just have sharpened my loathing for Holden.

[Phritz]

now i have only 40 pages left of "moby dick" and not even once did that stupid whale show up.
those last few pages better be mighty epic!

[father of lies]

I finished the The Restaurant at the End of the Universe, Life, The Universe, And Everything, So Long and Thanks For All The Fish, and Mostly Harmless today. Mostly Harmless is by far the worst.

I was interested to know that Krikkit was originally a Doctor Who idea.

[Phritz]

moby dick - 5/10
first i have to say, i did enjoy reading it. but i like the sea, its creatures, ancient crafts and generally the literature from that aera. although i enjoyed it and it seems to be well-written (i read it in english, not german) allover i have to say, i don't think it's a good book.
-way too much filler. there is one chapter about every single body part of the whale and every piece of string on deck.
-there are no ups and downs in the story. all goes on and on until the sudden end. sometimes i felt like reading a seaman's manual
-what's with the narrator? at first it is told from a real person's view (real within the book). up until he boards the ship, after that he seems to evolve into a imaginary narrator. also all stories about queequeg stop.
-almost no character development at all. except from ahab, but even his is a little generic. or queequeg. but this goes completely nowhere, since he pretty much stops writing about him.

it would be nice to hear, if you disagree with any of that. because as i said, i read the original version, not the german translation, so it's very much possible that i didn't get certain things.

[Idget Child]

The Fixer by Bernard Malamud - 8/10

I finally got around to reading this book and, besides one hiatus in the middle of the week, this was a book where I would push my bedtime back another hour just to continue reading. In summary, a poor, Jewish "fixer" is wrongfully arrested for the murder of a 12-year-old trial in an anti-Semetic Russia. The fixer, Yakov Bok, becomes a would-be martyr for the Jewish people for his suffering. The writing style was very fluid and marked with wonderful metaphors and vivid imagery, especially in all of the later scenes involving Yakov's treatment in isolation. Prejudice, religion, and human suffering are all themes in this bleak novel.

[father of lies]

Confessions of an Economic Hitman - John Perkins - 7

There really wasn't anything I didn't know in here, but I think that was largely because he left out most of the specific projects he opened up. It was reasonably well written, if a little cliche and prosaic at times. I DID get a little worked up when he talked about the CIA's assassinations in Latin America.

[father of lies]

No Country For Old Men - Cormac McCarthy - 8
It lost a half point for the sheriff stuff at the end being sort of rambly. What should I read next? The Road?

[Admiral Dick Fart]

American Psycho - 8/10 - loses a point for it's occasional rambliness, but it's some effective, hilarious, mind-numbing satire. The fact that Bateman is an unreliable narrator makes the twists and turns towards the book's end quite shocking and thought-provoking.

[ibn Horowitz]

Water for Elephants - Sara Gruen: 4/10
Well-researched and it bounced along, but pretty much no characterization.

Savage Night - Jim Thompson: 8/10
Still processing the ending on this one. Hard-boiled as fuck. The Killer Inside Me is next.

[Grendel]

The sun and the Moon by Matthew Goodman - 8/10 non-fiction book about a newspaper in New York in the 1830s that successfully convinced a ton of people that scientists had discovered life on the moon


Currently reading - Singularity's Ring by Paul Melko

Up next - The Urban Hermit by Sam MacDonald

[milkmandan]

Chuck Klosterman - Killing yourself to live 8/10

[ibn Horowitz]

The Killer Inside Me - Jim Thompson: 9.5/10
Really excellent stuff. Stanley Kubrick's favorite tale of murderous psychopathology told from a first-person perspective, so, you know, there you go. I guess. Women get beaten up but good.

[ibn Horowitz]

Red Harvest - Dashiell Hammett: 8.5/10
Basis for Yojimbo/Fistful of Dollars.../Last Man Standing. Violent as fuck and doesn't let up the pace, however its not realistic at all, though it wasn't meant to be.

Fahrenheit 451 - Ray Bradbury: 7.5/10
Took entirely too long getting to this. Needed to be longer, I think, and I wish the chase wasn't so easily foiled. Also the first bit was slow, but these dystopian-future books need that. Very much an 'idea' book, better than Brave New World in that regard.

I hope I haven't killed this thread.

[car ramrod]

1/3 through Jailbird by Kurt Vonnegut... so far so good...

[anfo666]

The God Delusion by Richard Dawkins 8/10

Alarmist at times, but usually pretty witty.

His explanation for the evolution of reality and its infinite possibilities was fascinating and well put

[father of lies]

Count Zero - William Gibson - 7

It's no Neuromancer, but it was still good.

[doubleblumpkin]

I haven't finished an entire book in 4 years. I've started many, then I realize that I hate to read.

[The Schwartz]

Count Zero - William Gibson - 7

It's no Neuromancer, but it was still good.

have you read Pattern Recognition and Spook Country I have heard good things about Spook Country but I wanted to read the former first because they had connecting characters

[father of lies]

So you're a moron, then? Get out of my thread.

[father of lies]

Count Zero - William Gibson - 7

It's no Neuromancer, but it was still good.

have you read Pattern Recognition and Spook Country I have heard good things about Spook Country but I wanted to read the former first because they had connecting characters

Not yet. I've only read those two so far.

I'll have some 10s for The Jungle and Confederacy of Dunces any day now...

[NANOplague]

Reading The rising again. I need new books.
Just got a buttload of audio books, but t'aint the same.

[12 Months of Mao]

Child of God - C. McCarthy - 7.5
Better than Outer Dark, but not as good as Blood Meridian or No Country...

Halfway through Barabbas by Par Lagerkvist and liking it very much so far.

[bloodybloodlicker]

I am reading this (it is very good):



It's nonfiction-- about a Polish couple, zookeepers, who use the bombed-out zoo to smuggle/hide Polish Jews in WWII Warsaw, just outside the ghetto.