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

[altars of radness]

I liked Vineland just fine but from what I gather no other Pynchon is really like that one?

That's true. The rest of Pynchon's stuff is actually good. I liked Tom Robbins a lot when I was in high school.

[father of lies]

I loved Villa Incognito.

[badgevvrecker]

First In: An Insider’s Account of How the CIA Spearheaded the War on Terror in Afghanistan

https://www.cia.gov/library/center-for- ... rror_9.htm

don't fuck with the cia.

[solidaritywithfruit]

The Cold 6000
10

[Necrometer]

The Illustrated Man 7/10 This would have been much higher if some of the shit stories had been omitted. The Cement Mixer was near-nonsense and interminable.

[altars of radness]

Henry Miller - Black Spring

Most of this is funny and strikingly imaginative, but a good portion of it is just a feverish brain spill. I actually read this soon after finishing Gravity's Rainbow and was kinda surprised by how similar I found Miller and Pynchon to be, in some aspects anyway. I don't think I've ever heard Miller mentioned as an influence on Pynchon.

Not as good as either of the Tropics, but you still get the full-on Miller: seas of vivid, bizarre images and an intensity that makes you question the sincerity of any conviction you've ever held. 7.3/10

[altars of radness]

He's fucking hilarious. I don't know if people who only know a little bit about Miller realize that.

[featherboa]

Inner Work: Using Dreams and Active Imagination for Personal Growth - Robert A. Johnson 7 or 8 ?

[This Means War]

Douglas Adams - The Hitchhiker's Trilogy 8/10

[altars of radness]

Was it in Black Spring where he talked about his father's job being basically ironing the farts out of old men's pants?

I don't know...I always considered Miller to be hilarious, but it comes from the way he viewed the world...not some overt attempt to be funny or whatever. Rabelaisian. There's that scene in Under the Roofs of Paris with the midget fucking, the dog...good lord...

He writes a lot about his dad, but mostly about how miserable he was, how much he drank and the awesome rivalry he had with a customer who never paid his bill. I don't remember the fart line specifically, but it could well be in there.



Patrick White - The Solid Mandala

I came across White by accident. I had no idea who he was, but since he had been awarded the Nobel I thought I'd give him a chance. The back cover compared him to Dostoevsky, and said he writes about "the maelstrom of the soul", but it's some pretty dry, post-Faulkner/Dos Passos shit. It got better as it went along and shifted perspective, but the entire first half is just an onslaught of bitterness and procrastination -- which I can relate to -- but it just got monotonous after a while. The ending has some heft to it, though, so it wasn't a complete write-off. If this is supposed to be his best novel, it'll be the last one I read. 6.1

[Chigurh]

If this is supposed to be his best novel, it'll be the last one I read. 6.1

I've never heard that cited as his best. Voss or The Tree of Man, far more likely

[NANOplague]

Finishing Headhunter by Michael Slade for the 3rd time - 9
Starting Olympos by Dan Simmons - I'll get back to yas/10

[Gay for Cock]

On the Road - Kerouac 8.5
The Revolution: A Manifesto -Ron Paul- 7.5
We- Yevgeny Zamyatin - 8

[Fuck...I'm Dave]

Winter of the World - Ken Follet 8.5

Sequel to Fall of Giants, 2nd book in a trilogy. Takes place during WWII, characters are involved in politics/warfare on all fronts. Great book overall but this is fourth or fifth book I've read by Follet and I'm starting to see a formula to how his books play out. Not really a bad thing but it takes away from some of the plot twists.

[Admiral Dick Fart]

Philip K. Dick - Ubik - 9/10

Definitely up there with Flow My Tears, Valis and Confessions of A Crap Artist as far as favorite PKD books go. Probably at the point now where I can start delving into his lesser-known works.

[father of lies]

John Mumford - Ecstasy Through Tantra - 6.5

Extremely cursory, but it's a pretty short, quick read, so I can't really complain too much. Not bad for a random used book store find, I guess. I have all the books by Swami Satyananda Saraswati it references, so there isn't a whole lot here for me.

[Gay for Cock]

Common Sense - Thomas Paine - 10

[Admiral Dick Fart]

Philip K. Dick - Ubik - 9/10

Definitely up there with Flow My Tears, Valis and Confessions of A Crap Artist as far as favorite PKD books go. Probably at the point now where I can start delving into his lesser-known works.

Have you read Lies, Inc? Its a pretty good lesser-known work. There is a part in the middle where the main character gets hit with an LSD dart. Its a 100 page Acid Trip written into the book. At first, its pretty entertaining just based off the shit he is saying. Then it gets real weird and makes no sense. However, I think that may have been the point?

Confessions of a Crap Artist used to be on sale for like a penny on Amazon Used, but something always deterred me from buying it. I forget what it was.

That sounds like it's right up my alley. Confessions is great, he makes really interesting use of differing perspectives and an unreliable narrator.

I also really dug "In Milton Lumky Territory" which is much more conventional than most of Dick's writing, but in that disorienting, nothing-is-as-it-seems style he does so well.

[Friendly Goatus]

Lord of the Rings - 9

fuck. I tried reading this a few times before but couldn't get past the first chapter. I tried again and it clicked. It clicked hard.

[father of lies]

I think ALL PKD = mandatory. If a lesser thing isn't entertaining on its own it'll shed some light on the major works. Just a great writer...

Yes. Obviously VALIS is the pinnacle of PKD, but I ALWAYS tell people to read at least a few of his other books first. I've read almost 20 of his novels, and a bit short story comp, and not a single bit of it has been a waste of time. Some are better than others, of course, and a lot of the short stories feel a bit unpolished or undeveloped (the novels do, too, to me, but that's what happens when you do big piles of amphetamines and shit out a book every ten minutes), but it has all been worthwhile, and enriches understanding of the whole.

[james]

Common Sense - Thomas Paine - 10

probably the library of work that I hold in the highest esteem

I think its awesome how selective everyone is about their celebration of everything that guy said

even in his own life

[featherboa]

throw that guy in solitary

[Gay for Cock]

Common Sense - Thomas Paine - 10

probably the library of work that I hold in the highest esteem

I think its awesome how selective everyone is about their celebration of everything that guy said

even in his own life

I started Rights of Man and it's great so far. I really enjoy reading Thomas Paine, just as much as I enjoy Thoreau's political essays. Good stuff.


Has anyone read this book ? The Shield of Achilles: War, Peace and the Course of History by Philip Bobbitt ? http://www.amazon.com/The-Shield-Achill ... roduct_top

[altars of radness]

Daniel Kahneman - Thinking Fast and Slow

This was an airport purchase, but it bordered on being fascinating for the most part. Kahneman's spent his life studying how people make usually flawed decisions, from a rational/statistical standpoint, and how the rational models for making decisions aren't adequate for explaining the choices humans make, mostly because of the massive intuitive component of our decision making process. There's also some good shit about memory vs the experiencing self. 7.9

[Necrometer]

Kafka's The Trial 9/10 This book was an unforgettable trip into a land of anguish, dread, and hubris. Point of for it not sustaining the intensity from the first part (or maybe I just adjusted to the nightmare-world?) and for things that stem from it being unfinished.

For those who have read it:

SPOILERSPOILER_SHOW

Do you think he was innocent? A lot of summaries describe K as such, but as the story went on I became more and more convinced that he'd done something really terrible. It's something about his personality... the way K misreads social situations makes me think he could do something dreadful and instantly justify it somehow.

I didn't really enjoy the amount of info we got about the workings (or not) of the court, though I guess that was worth it to set up his relationship with the lawyer.

I also didn't like the ending - it's too concrete for a story like this. It sort of forces me to decide if I feel sympathy for an unjust victim of capital punishment, or if he had it coming. I liked the ongoing ambiguity.

I think I'll do a bunch of his shorts next, and follow up with The Castle.