books

[suziebobbie]

I read Invisible Monsters by Palahniuk and loved it, and then I read Fight Club and was like, alright, OK, better than the movie, but both where really good. Im trying to read Diary, but really I want to burn it because I hate it. Ive heard Choke is really good though.

Dairy gets better. No matter where you are through it. It gets better. I liked it merely because you were supposed to be the guy in the coma sealing all the peoples summer homes' rooms. It was quirky enough to sound like something I would do.

ha. I will finish it. I mean I bought the book, I should at least finish it. I really hop it gets better.

[SweetpeaAeryn02]

Probably one of the best books I've ever read is Timeline by Michael Crichton. It was a fantastic book but an unfortunate movie.

[Tony Wonder]

Timeline was an AWESOME book.

If you're into Math/Science stuff and are looking for a little humor try Stess Analysis for a Strapless Nightgown some fun intellectual humor there.

[novel idea]

I just bought this book called After the Hole by Guy Burt for a character study paper I'm supposed to write. It's getting pretty interesting. Has anyone else read it and have any insights?

[MrsGOB]

Hello! First-time poster here.

The Dark Tower series by Stephen King is my favorite ever. It's 7 books total, started in 1970's, the final volume came out last september.

Other than that, Harry Potter is pretty cool. Definitely looking forward to the new one this summer

Amy

[Pink Princess]

I'm a big Philip Roth fan, particularly American Pastoral and The Human Stain. Sabbath's Theater is sooooo excellent, I Married a Communist is pretty good too. His newest, The Plot Against America is a for fans only book.

Fans of David Sedaris will like Sarah Vowell as well, probably her "my crazy family" stories are best in Take the Cannolli, but she really moves into some mature themes, patriotism and history, in The Partly Cloudy Patriot. Her new book Assassination Vacation is a real departure for her, and it is so excellent I want to explode. (She's touring to support the book. I met her when she came through Chicago. She's a big AD fan, and a friend of David Cross.)

Props to the people who brought up the His Dark Materials trilogy. I loved that to death. I think I finished all three in a week. So good.

Currently I'm studying for a standardized test, but I was reading The Fountainhead before I started my insane vocab exercises. To paraphrase the Gilmore Girls, "Ayn Rand may be a political nutcase, but no one could write a 40 page monologue like she could." (And I like how in her later book, Capitalism: The Unknown Ideal, she quotes her own novels to support her ideas about the evils of altuism and Christianity. She was crazy, that Ayn Rand.) I'll probably go back to that after I take my test. (May 21. Pray for me.)

I love love love Ron Chernow's Alexander Hamilton from last year. Sarah Vowell recommended Dark Horse if you read her new book and find yourself totally facinated by the 1880 Republican Convention and the James Garfield Presidency. (I haven't read the book yet, but her description of James Garfield's political life sounds pretty interesting in Assassination Vacation.)

That is all. Sorry about the long post, but I love books.

[the secular flesh]

nobody likes eggers?

well, besides all the classics like 1984, catcher in the rye, etc...

recommended:

a heartbreaking work of staggering genius - dave eggers
you shall know our velocity - dave eggers

tishomingo blues - elmore leonard
out of sight - elmore leonard
(btw, be cool may have been a bad movie, but it was a good book.)

the stranger - albert camus

choke - chuck palahniuk
lullaby - chuck palahniuk

song of solomon - toni morrison

BEST SHORT STORIES EVER:

john updike - the early stories (this book is a proud and prized possession of mine)
raymond carver - cathedral

oh, look what comes out on october 5th. if you spend 95 dollars on one book, make it this one...

[kilgore trout]

pretty much all I read now is Kurt Vonnegut.
Cat's Cradle
BlueBeard
Jailbird
Slaughterhouse-Five
Breakfast of Champions
God Bless You Dr.Kevorkian
and I'm currently reading Galapagos.
Any other Vonnegut fans out there?

[Casinote]

Any other Vonnegut fans out there?

Vonnegut is probably my favourite modern (?) author. Cat's cradle is my personal fav!

I really haven't read a whole lot of books from the past 50 years though.

[reggiethecat]

i, myself, am also a big chuck palahniuk fan. i can't wait till the movie version of invisible monsters comes out. i loved that book so much. i really hope the movie version does the book justice.

also i like some bret easton ellis. american psycho and rules of attraction to be exact. however never watch the movie versions of them. i think they're absolutely terrible. awful, awful, awful.

also, some other books i really dug were the perks of being a wallflower by stephen chbosky, the hotel new hampshire by john irving, and other classics like 1984, catcher in the rye, a farewell to arms, etc. etc. etc.

also, i don't know if any of you are bruce campbell fans, but his autobiography entitled if chins could kill: confessions from a b-movie actor is amazing. i absolutely loved that book. he has a new book coming out in june entitled make love the bruce campbell way. i'd suggest picking both up, even if you have no clue who bruce campbell is. you'll still love it, and possibly want to learn more about this wonderful, yet, i feel, underrated actor.

[kilgore trout]

Any other Vonnegut fans out there?

Vonnegut is probably my favourite modern (?) author. Cat's cradle is my personal fav!

I really haven't read a whole lot of books from the past 50 years though.

I love Cat's Cradle, that was the first Vonnegut book I
read! Have you read Breakfast of Champions?

[Pink Princess]

nobody likes eggers?

I love Eggers. In addition to his fun books, he's just a cool guy all around. I've never read Vonnegut, but I don't know anyone in who has either. It just never crossed my mind to read Cat's Cradle.

(That's a poor excuse, I know. 1) One should try, at least, to read everything, and 2) I don't know anyone else who loves Philip Roth, but that's never stopped me.)

[Kiarnit]

I've never read Vonnegut, but I don't know anyone in who has either. It just never crossed my mind to read Cat's Cradle.

Well, we've swapped e-mail, so if that counts as knowing me, you now know someone who's read a little Vonnegut. Give Cat's Cradle a whirl. It's won't take you long, it's a really interesting book, and it'll introduce you to the concept of a karass, which I have found to be enormously helpful in understanding how my life has unfolded. (No, seriously.) I've also read Slaughterhouse Five, which I thought was very good, but I didn't find it quite as absorbing, in spite of my strong interest in Vonnegut's perspective on the bombing of Dresden.

[CBA79]

Also, Chuck Palahniuk is a really good writer. The book of fight club is sooooo much better than the movie. Survivor is one of my favorite books ever about the survivor of a heavens gate kinda cult that becomes a religeous celebrity. Hmm what else has he done; Diary was really good i actually have a quote from it I wrote down cause I thought it was funny.

"Just for the record waking up on drugs with your pubic hair shaved and something plastic stuck in your vagina doesn't nescessarily make you a real artist."
-Chuck

He is THE best. I just finished his latest, Haunted, and loved it.

I have also really enjoyed Neal Stephenson's recent series of books. They are very long, but the payoff is worth it.

Also, I suggest House of Leaves, by Mark Z. Danielewski. It is so weird it's good. But be ready for a lot of head-scratching and re-reading. Again, it can be tedious, but well worth the effort.

[gambit]

La Bumpa.

It's nice to see that people actually turn off their TV's sometimes and read.

JD Salinger and Vonnegut are two of my fav's. I've started reading the "His Dark Materials" series. Just finished "The Kite Runner" and am currently plowing my way through "The Rule of Four". Great brain candy.