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

[featherboa]

finally read Sam McPheeter's Mutations and if more books started with stuff from my hometown I'd read more books. this was great.

that's always fun. i wonder if there's a good way to lookup and find books by hometown references

[Geeheeb]

probably a lot more books about that area, but they are like pop punk or choppers or something

[featherboa]

I hate myself for doign it, but I typed the question into chatgpt and it does instantly come up with stuff for whatever area you type in

[cxwx]

I forgot to do March Of The Mammoths and am in the middle of a short book and want to read another short book first. But if I start a gigantic book in March it will probably be "A Naked Singularity" mainly because I like the art that reminds me of Pulse Demon.

[cxwx]

Plus - Joseph McElroy

Either 0 or a 10. Lots of eerie coincidences in the novel connected to my own existence that make me feel like it's a message from the universe that I should be dead or never have existed.

[cxwx]

Cabot Wright Begins - James Purdy 8.3/10

[cxwx]

Next Episode - Hubert Aquin 7/10

[Whee of the Dead]

finally read Sam McPheeter's Mutations and if more books started with stuff from my hometown I'd read more books. this was great.

that's always fun. i wonder if there's a good way to lookup and find books by hometown references

I remember reading an Elmore Leonard book and the characters ended up in Atlantic City and were travelling on roads I frequented. It was bizarre.

[cxwx]

The Bluest Eye - Toni Morrison 9/10
The Doloriad - Missouri Williams 8.5/10

[FVBTVS]

reading 2666 now. i know very little about it but i'm loving it. the slow spiraling sense of dread like being drawn into a black hole

[cxwx]

reading 2666 now. i know very little about it but i'm loving it. the slow spiraling sense of dread like being drawn into a black hole

So much emphasis is put on the Mexico/femicide portion but I find the last part the most fascinating. Feels like "V" era Pynchon if it was a Hemingway novel. Originally 2666 was supposed to published as individual novels but Belano decided to release it as one volume as he was basically on his deathbed at that point.

[FVBTVS]

i think they posthumously decided to ignore his wishes to split it up and did it as one thing because he really just wanted it to make as much money as possible for his family and one big book was better in their estimations

i do worry a little that its unfinishedness is going to start to bother me

[cxwx]

A lot of his work feels unfinished. And he basically wrote the same novel three times: The Savage Detectives / Woes Of The True Policeman ( literally unfinished )

[Geeheeb]

"Bears Discover Fire" by Terry Bisson - 11/10

Wikipedia says it best "The premise is that bears have discovered fire, and are having campfires on highway medians."

[featherboa]

"Bears Discover Fire" by Terry Bisson - 11/10

Wikipedia says it best "The premise is that bears have discovered fire, and are having campfires on highway medians."

*stops reading current book*

[cxwx]

A Naked Singularity - Sergio De La Pava 9.2/10

[featherboa]

3 body problem -
not sure
definitely not bad

[FVBTVS]

A lot of his work feels unfinished. And he basically wrote the same novel three times: The Savage Detectives / Woes Of The True Policeman ( literally unfinished )

Ive had to take up reading two other things while crawling through 'the part about the crimes' not sure i like it!

[featherboa]

embassy town

interesting
i'm not smart enough to know whatever philosophy of language stuff he's getting at
i don't think i agree though?

[cxwx]

Reading Jose Donoso "Curfew". Isn't really holding my interest like two of his other novels I've read.

[featherboa]

Molly - Butler 7

Kind of assumed someone here would have read it

[cxwx]

I'm trying to bum a copy of Butchers Crossing but all the Z library mirrors are flagged as websites that will give me AIDS now.

[cxwx]

Butchers Crossing - John Williams 10/10

[FVBTVS]

So much emphasis is put on the Mexico/femicide portion but I find the last part the most fascinating. Feels like "V" era Pynchon if it was a Hemingway novel.

yeah the last part and the amalfitano chapter were far and away my favorites. i took an insane amount of margin notes in those sections. i have to admit that the fourth section left me very cold and frustrated for the most part, it didnt actually do much for me except ultimately bore me. i understand the technical reason for its forensic-y detachment but in that though the actual characters between all the bodies were lost in a blur. like a miniature russian epic where your eyes glaze over at the sprawl of names. jose and pedro and pino instead of anna, victor and ivan

insane book though, i havent stopped thinking about it

[FVBTVS]

"Naturally in such a work there are boring passages, irrelevant passages, highly indulgent passages, places where you can clearly see Bolaño pushing his fiction writer’s confidence game too far; yet, the whole of 2666 is such a masterly and awe-inspiring performance that the reader settles into and clings to it as one settles for the world." - Vivek Narayanan, The Hindu