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Re: What are you currently reading?

Mon May 14, 2018 9:52 pm

tragabigzanda wrote:Quick and dirty, so a few would probably change if I really thought about it. The top five are definite, the bottom five are off-the-cuff:

To Kill A Mockingbird Harper Lee
Tortilla Flat John Steinbeck
The Right Stuff Tom Wolfe
Sometimes A Great Notion Ken Kesey
All The Pretty Horses Cormac McCarthy
Blood Meridian Cormac McCarthy
Live From New York: An Uncensored History of Saturday Night Live James A. Miller and Tom Shales
'Salem's Lot Stephen King
Born Standing Up Steve Martin
Silver Screen Fiend Patton Oswalt

Outstanding. Thank you. I'll add these to the list.

Re: What are you currently reading?

Tue May 15, 2018 1:03 am

Not in any order

1984 by George Orwell
What It Takes: The Way to the White House by Richard Ben Cramer
On the Road by Jack Kerouac
Cat's Cradle by Kurt Vonnegut
The Road by Cormac McCarthy
The Professional by W.C. Heinz
The Universal Baseball Assocation, Inc., J. Henry Waugh, Prop. by Robert Coover
Billy Phelan's Greatest Game by William Kennedy
White Noise by Don DeLillo
Cannery Row by John Steinbeck

and I could easily sub out any number of alternate Vonnegut, Kennedy, or Steinbeck titles for the one I actually chose for each of them. Only one non-fiction on the list. And all white male authors, and almost totally American

Re: What are you currently reading?

Tue May 15, 2018 1:10 am

Currently reading:

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and

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Re: What are you currently reading?

Tue May 15, 2018 4:03 pm

RIP Tom Wolfe. Ranking the works I've read:

The Right Stuff
A Man In Full
Hooking Up
The Bonfire of the Vanities
The Electric Kool-Aid Acid Test
From Bauhaus to Our House
I Am Charlotte Simmons
Back to Blood

Re: What are you currently reading?

Tue May 15, 2018 4:47 pm

RIP :peace:

Hate that I've still never read his work.

Re: What are you currently reading?

Tue May 15, 2018 4:55 pm

durdencommatyler wrote:RIP :peace:

Hate that I've still never read his work.

The WaPo obit hits the nail on the head:

In almost everything he wrote, Mr. Wolfe examined what he called “status details” — the finer points of behavior, trends, fashion and the pursuit of prestige that, in his view, shaped the American social order. Sullen teenagers, Southern good old boys, arty urbanites, elite test pilots — all measured themselves by what their peers thought of them.


It's where he shined, and what makes his sweeping works of fiction so enjoyable. I know that The Bonfire of the Vanities is oft-cited as his strongest work, but I think that A Man In Full did a better job of weaving together an entertaining (and hysterical) pastiche that connected the dots from the poor, to the middle-class, to the 1%; from blacks to latinos to whites; from men to women; from young to old.

Re: What are you currently reading?

Tue May 15, 2018 5:17 pm

Looks like A Man in Full will be the first one, then. Added to the list.

Re: What are you currently reading?

Tue May 15, 2018 5:23 pm

:hooray:

Re: What are you currently reading?

Wed May 16, 2018 4:03 am

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Re: What are you currently reading?

Wed May 16, 2018 4:10 am

I dont think I've read that one. I was thinking about him just the other day.

Re: What are you currently reading?

Wed May 16, 2018 12:08 pm

durdencommatyler wrote:Do you guys/gals have a top 10 favorite books list?


Making this list gave me anxiety. Only one book from each author to keep things interesting:

Top 10:

Moby-Dick
2666
Infinite Jest
Blood Meridian
Hopscotch
Ulysses
Henry IV, Part I
The Plague
The Tenth of December
Pale Fire

Ten More:

Tropic of Orange
Swamplandia!
Personal Days
Train Dreams
White Noise
The Brothers Karamazov
The Corrections
The Portable Veblen
Middlesex
100 Years of Solitude

Re: What are you currently reading?

Wed May 16, 2018 1:14 pm

Excellent! There ate far too many on that list that I haven't read. :(

Re: What are you currently reading?

Wed May 16, 2018 9:09 pm

The Argonaut wrote:Not in any order

1984 by George Orwell
What It Takes: The Way to the White House by Richard Ben Cramer
On the Road by Jack Kerouac
Cat's Cradle by Kurt Vonnegut
The Road by Cormac McCarthy
The Professional by W.C. Heinz
The Universal Baseball Assocation, Inc., J. Henry Waugh, Prop. by Robert Coover
Billy Phelan's Greatest Game by William Kennedy
White Noise by Don DeLillo
Cannery Row by John Steinbeck

and I could easily sub out any number of alternate Vonnegut, Kennedy, or Steinbeck titles for the one I actually chose for each of them. Only one non-fiction on the list. And all white male authors, and almost totally American

Cannery Row would be on my list.

Re: What are you currently reading?

Wed May 16, 2018 9:24 pm

Was just thinning out the bookshelf last night so this is fresh in my mind:

Salvation on Sand Mountain: Snake Handling and Redemption in Southern Appalachia (Dennis Covington)
Under the Banner of Heaven (John Krakauer)
Population: 485 (Mike Perry)
Blankets (Craig Thompson)
Blood Meridian (Cormac McCarthy)
Drop City (TC Boyle)
Plainsong (Kent Haruf)
Driftless (David Rhodes)
Naked (David Sedaris)
Norwegian Wood (Murakami) (sentimental pick...I gave it to my wife when we first met because I thought it would make me look deep and sensitive)

Re: What are you currently reading?

Wed May 16, 2018 9:51 pm

Tortilla Flat > Cannery Row.

Re: What are you currently reading?

Wed May 16, 2018 9:59 pm

tragabigzanda wrote:Tortilla Flat > Cannery Row.


You're all overthinking it: it's Of Mice and Men.

This is like when people try to argue about the best Radiohead album and forget OK Computer exists. The answer is right in front of your face!

Re: What are you currently reading?

Wed May 16, 2018 10:00 pm

Simple Torture wrote:
tragabigzanda wrote:Tortilla Flat > Cannery Row.


You're all overthinking it: it's Of Mice and Men.

This is like when people try to argue about the best Radiohead album and forget OK Computer exists. The answer is right in front of your face!

You spelled Grapes of Wrath wrong.

Re: What are you currently reading?

Wed May 16, 2018 10:06 pm

not sure if you guys have not read tortilla Flat or what, but in case not:

it's the first book in the series set in cannery row, and it is a simpler and m more profound parable then cannery row, which is more of a character driven narrative. I don't understand why people are picking cannery row when, if they enjoy that story, tortilla flat basically delivers on the same vibe more effectively

Re: What are you currently reading?

Wed May 16, 2018 10:12 pm

I've only read Grapes of Wrath, Of Mice and Men, and East of Eden.

Re: What are you currently reading?

Wed May 16, 2018 10:13 pm

i've never done east of eden :-(
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