there was no school today so i spent today reading
marvin k mooney will you please go now
fox in socks
puppy roundup
and about a million pokemon stories.
i am starving for a good (grownup) book. anyone read any good fiction lately?
ps. by ‘grownup’ i don’t mean smut
pps. unless it’s good well written smut that’s attached to a story with an actual plot
Good intelligent fun, slightly bawdy and laugh-out-loud entertaining:
Louis de Bernieres’ trilogy, “The War of Don Emmanuel’s Nether Parts,” “Senor Vivo and the Coca Lord,” and “The Troublesome Offspring of Cardinal Guzman.” Vintage International division of Vintage Books division of Random House, Inc.
The bit about ‘Dolores’ Chicken of a True Man’ is worth the price of admission all by itself.
Dr. Watson
I’m wending my way through Joe Lansdale’s Hap and Leonard stories.
Cormac McCarthy Lite. But excellent.
Lansdale writes great dialogue, and I’m pretty sure these two guys are real.
Recently read volumes 6-9 of the history of middle earth. If you really like Lord of the Rings, these are fascinating. Christpher Tolkein, JRR’s son, goes through the earlier versions of the texts. While he is not a very good literary historian, and I would have preferred a slightly different approach to the presentation, the stuff is rather interesting. Characters that started differently, the way the plot developed, different versions of scenes. Quite interesting.
And definately a needed break from the the technical stuff I have to plow through at work…
If you like fantasy, try Steven Brust’s Jhereg series. And Robin Hobbs’s Farseer (Assassin) trilogy.
The Dead, by James Joyce.
Studi
When I grow up, I want to be the Minister of Silly Walks.
Phillip K Dick is an incredible writer, you really should read something by him. (the movies made from his works are all disappointing, don’t bother watching them)
Also Irvine Welsh is good, though it takes a bit of practice till you can understand his use of dialect without having to read the dialogue outloud.
And while I know that Nietzsche didn’t write fiction, I still feel the obligation to push his works, they’re incredible.
Any of the Lonesome Dove series (Lonesome Dove, Streets of Laredo or Comanche Moon, which I am currently in the middle of and loving every page) are incredible books. Even if you think you don’t like “cowboy stories” they are just wonderful.
One of my other favorites is A Prayer for Owen Meany by John Irving. Stick with it through the end - it’ll really affect you. And skip the movie version (Simon Birch) - it’s cute, but it loses the essence of the book.
Sucks to your assmar.
I recommend anything by Terry Pratchett. He’s very funny. Connie Willis is also an excellent writer. Her stories are full of believable characters that are well fleshed out and amazing concepts on time travel and chaos theory and things of that nature. Ray Bradbury is always a classic, and Sharon Shinn writes very entertaining books, especially her Archangel series.
When are you going to realize being normal isn’t necessarily a good thing?
Four Arguments for the Elimination of Television.
-Gerry Mander
melanietarrant, Fox in Socks - my absoLUTEly favoRITE Dr. Seuss book. Tongue twister.
I am large,
I contradict myself,
I contain multitudes.
~Walt Whitman
Crackwise,
Too funny I just read my son three DR.Suess books. He has them memorized unfornately at the age of four so I cant skip any words.
But I really like John Grisham, V.C. Andrews eventhough she writes the same stuff just different characters, and old Stephen King like the SHINING, THE STAND ect.
Today, I read Spalding Gray’s Morning, Noon & Night. Recommended to me by a friend…I didn’t realize that I already knew his work from his monologues on NPR and TV. Good stuff.
Ummm…other than that, I’ve read “Tickle, Tickle”, “Teletubbies Take A Nap”, “Po’s Magic Watering Can”, and “Goodnight Moon”.
I made it through a few articles in Parenting and Rolling Stone magazine the other day…not bad. I give them two stars each, but I don’t foresee any made-for-TV movies coming out of it.
“It’s okay. I wouldn’t remember me either.”
Currently reading:
Letters of the Marquis de Sade
Armand by Anne Rice
Flowers of Evil by Charles Baudelaire
The Anais Nin Reader
Van Gogh
Lakota Woman
Christianity & Archaeology
As I’m only mildly intelligent, I don’t remember most of the authors’ names. I’ll be sure to let you know how they turn out…but they’re all pretty good so far.
I have included a certain amount of filth to please the gentlemen of the press.
–Baudelaire
“The world is everything that is the case.” --Ludwig Wittgenstein
I’m re-reading the Lord of the Rings now. Also, I was thrilled to see The Cider House Rules may be up for awards. I haven’t seen it but love John Irving. Does the movie do the book justice?
If chickens could pee, they would be wet on the bottom.
Right now I’m reading The Selfish Gene by Richard Dawkins (okay, it’s not fiction, but it’s good), a collection of translated stories by Jorge Luis Borges and The Bell Jar by Sylvia Plath.
If you want literary smut, try Venus in Furs by Leopold von Sacher-Masoch or Lolita by Vladimir Nabokov…
``Beware of elaborate telescopic meat; it will find its way back to the forest.’’
– William S. Burroughs, Tom Waits
xekul - Lolita is the cleanest smutty book I’ve ever read.
I finally read it after the movie came out – the Jeremy Irons version (which I thought was excellent, except that it destroyed my romantic fantasies about Frank Langella) – and maybe I’m dense (or just a superficial reader), but my take was comedy-romance-satire-tragedy. Did I get it all wrong?
Have you seen Lo’s Diary by Pia Pera? It’s a retelling of Nabokov’s story from Lolita’s point of view.
As for a recommendation, try Thank You for Smoking by Christopher Buckley. Read it now and thank me later.
>>Being Chaotic Evil means never having to say your sorry…unless the other guy is bigger than you.<<
—The dragon observes
AuntiePam: Yeah, I thought the love scenes in Lolita were more humorous than erotic, and I’ve gotten into a few debates where I defended against it being pornographic, but I really haven’t read many sexier novels… at least until I find English translations of the works of the Marquis de Sade.
Captain Nemo: I’ve heard of it, but I haven’t read it, only excerpts posted on, if I remember correctly, Nabokov’s son’s web page… Maybe it was a bad translation, but what I’ve read was horrible compared to the original…
``Beware of elaborate telescopic meat; it will find its way back to the forest.’’
– William S. Burroughs, Tom Waits