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

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Re: Latest book you read (1-10 scale)

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I’m reading “Hard Boiled Wonderland At The End Of The World”, the first English translation was in 1991. One of the characters uses the phrase ‘infowars’ which was not a common vernacular at the time. Makes me think Alex Jones might be a secret weebo.
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Necrometer wrote: Thu Jun 17, 2021 7:42 pm Apologies if you already said this, but I can barely keep his books straight (and they’re not easy to search since sometimes two books are in a single book)…
1. Have you ready all the books in the series published before epiphany?
2. Is there any point where quality goes downhill?

I read the 4 New Sun books, and have been tempted to start the Long Sun.
Yes and Yes. The religious stuff is a bit much at times but the first two books are very decent. I've heard Short Sun is really good though, and that deals with many of the same characters so I'm looking forward to that.

His Latro in the Mist series is great imo, don't overlook those. Way better than the Long Sun stuff.
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Re: Latest book you read (1-10 scale)

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“Mason & Dixon” - Pynchon 7/10
“One Rainy Night” - Richard Laymon 7/10 ( pure trash, but a fun read. 470 pages but zips along. Felt like I was watching a much more mean spirited version of the movie “night of the creeps”)
“Hard Boiled Wonderland At The End Of The World” - Murakami 9/10
“The Divinity Student” - Michael Cisco 6/10 ( I wanted to like this more. It does have one of the greatest opening scenes ever. His use of language is amazing in some instances. He needs to give himself over completely to what he is trying to do with the bizarre and not be a genre writer )
“Post Office” - Bukowski 8/10
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“John The Posthumous” - Jason Schwartz 7/10
“Closer- ” Dennis Cooper 8.5/10
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“Seeing Red” - Lina Maruena 7.5/10
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I’ve been reading Thomas Bernhard’s “The Loser” inbetween other stuff after reading
“The Correction” last year. This guy really had sister issues.
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“Boy Parts” - Eliza Clark 8.9/10 I can hear Umesh screaming that I’m a fat incel and the book is the Poppy Z Brite/ Buzzfeed version of American Psycho.
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Desert - Anonymous :tup:
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Les Braunstien- A Lucky Monkey and the Soft White Underbelly

the author is flying

i would say good for the blue oyster cult fan, but also for fans or peter paul n mary
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Re: Latest book you read (1-10 scale)

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“Partial list Of People To Bleach” - Gari Lutz 5/10
“The Loser” - Thomas Bernhard 6.5/10
“A Tale Of A Tub” - Johnathan Swift 7/10
“Bad Behavior” - Mary Gaitskill 8/10
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Whee of the Dead wrote: Tue May 01, 2012 6:20 am Harlan Ellison's "I Have No Mouth And I Must Scream"
Great short story. Far more brutal than I expected. I love that Ellison was apparently a raging asshole for most of his life. I’m sure whoever wrote the script for the episode of Star Trek Voyager “The Thaw” read this.
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Re: Latest book you read (1-10 scale)

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“Johnny Got His Gun” - Dalton Trumbo 10/10
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Re: Latest book you read (1-10 scale)

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reading Dune so I can watch Villeneuve's version in a couple weeks

I love how he throws you completely into a fully formed world that is almost didactic in being metaphorical

journeyman prose with a world-making gloss

no wonder corny fagggot weirdo loser Jodorowsky wanted to defile it

at the same time, I don't have high expectations because Villeneuve bows to the prevailing feeling

there is something deeply insightful in the book, in spite of its workmanlike, page-filling prose. probably why it sits in some ethereal literary space
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Re: Latest book you read (1-10 scale)

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“ Wittgenstein's Mistress” - David Markson Umm/10

I can’t think of a number to rate this as it’s both brilliant and absolutely terrible. I can appreciate the concept of the conceit of the novel emerging from being buried inside all the factoids but I can also see why this was rejected 54 times before being published. Would have worked much better as a short story.
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“The Day Of The Owl” Leonardo Sciascia - 6.6/10

I had high hopes for this as the author is considered an important figure in Italian literature and history. It just didn’t resonate with me very much.
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featherboa wrote: Mon Jul 05, 2021 5:19 pm red rising - 7
The guy who recommended this to me thinks Ready Player One is better than Neuromancer so I was super skeptical going in but this was decent/fun.
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Honky Kong 64 wrote: Sun Aug 22, 2021 10:28 am
featherboa wrote: Mon Jul 05, 2021 5:19 pm red rising - 7
The guy who recommended this to me thinks Ready Player One is better than Neuromancer so I was super skeptical going in but this was decent/fun.
It's def fun. I got the rec from doad. I bet he got it from del muerte.

gonna start #2 soon after I finish some boring non fiction
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Foot Foot wrote: Sun Apr 12, 2020 2:22 pm The Atrocity Exhibition by J.G. Ballard - 10
I’m reading the annotated 20 years after original publication edition right now. Some of the stories Ballard tells are crazy in a Hunter S Thompson way, not sure if they are true, I have to dig more into this guys life. He talks about creating a live version full size installation of the themes from CRASH where he hired a woman to walk around nude amongst the rubble of destroyed cars but she refused and would “only go topless” when she found out what the exhibition represented but then she ended up getting raped by unruly spectators. The way it’s written though makes it vague if this is a real annotation or if it’s just interwoven as another layer of the story itself.
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Re: Latest book you read (1-10 scale)

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cxwx wrote: Tue Aug 24, 2021 2:27 pm I’m reading the annotated 20 years after original publication edition right now.
that's the version i have.
annotations definitely have a "jerking your chain" vibe.
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Re: Latest book you read (1-10 scale)

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“Blinding: Volume 1” - Mircea Cărtărescu 9/10
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La Medusa” - Vanessa Place 9/10
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Reading Joan Didion’s “The Year Of Magical Thinking” and Pet Semetary simultaneously because I want to be as depressed as possible.
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“The Mystery.doc”. - Matthew McIntosh 8/10
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“This Is Not A Novel” - David Markson
I would tend to agree/10

Oddly satisfying in a self hypnotic way, reading this seems to be about the equivalent of staring at a wall for 10 hours.

I may or may not come back to the rest of his “index card” novels.

I’ve been reading “The Age Of Wire And String” by Ben Marcus off and on. One of the strangest things I’ve read. Someone described it as humanity being observed by some intelligence that is completely alien to our reality that understands our grammar but it’s context for syntax is completely wrong. Doesn’t seem to have much other value other than being some linguistic experiment
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