Books Thread

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Clams
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Re: Books Thread

Post by Clams »

The 80 Books Every Man Should Read (from Esquire)

http://www.esquire.com/the-side/feature ... fb#slide-1
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Re: Books Thread

Post by Zip City »

Clams wrote:The 80 Books Every Man Should Read (from Esquire)

http://www.esquire.com/the-side/feature ... fb#slide-1


7 out of 80 ain't bad :?
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Re: Books Thread

Post by Flea »

Clams wrote:The 80 Books Every Man Should Read (from Esquire)

http://www.esquire.com/the-side/feature ... fb#slide-1



9/80. In my defense, however, I unequivocally state that any "must read" list which includes Moby Dick is automatically suspect of pretentiousness.
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Re: Books Thread

Post by John A Arkansawyer »

20/80. Should've been at least twenty-two, because I've read just about every novel by Tolstoy and Greene except the two they picked.

It's a perfectly good list for the Esquire Man. Normal people should consider snickering behind its back at the pretentious macho bullshit. (Lotta reduncancy in three little words there, huh?) Trust me on this--much as I love Moby-Dick, the book from that era every man should read is Leaves of Grass. Lots more reward for a lot less work. Plus James Dickey was one of the most gifted poets of the day but not all that as an fiction writer, in my opinion. And call me crazy, but I think men are well advised to read at least one book by a woman sometime during their lives. I've read several, and that habit has served me well over the years.

Fun facts about ME department: I'm slightly acquainted with a character (thinly disguised) from one of those books and knew the brother and nephew of another of another of those books' authors pretty well. I've long wondered if my nickname reverse osmosed itself into a character from one of his books. Almost certainly not, but it was still weird to read.

UPDATE: Had I posted this before? Darned if I remember:

Q: How many male novelists does it take to screw in a lightbulb?
A: He lit a cigarette. His glass of whiskey lit a cigarette too. “I can only truly love my best friend,” he said, “but not in a gay way. Women wouldn’t understand it. They’re too gay.” Both of the cigarettes agreed.
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Re: Books Thread

Post by beantownbubba »

After years n years of discussion, I've concluded that whether one thinks Moby Dick is a great book or cruel & unusual punishment is solely dependent on the teacher you had for it. I had a great teacher.

The purpose of the list seemed to be to provide the author w/ a vehicle to come up w/ a bunch of epigrams and cute comments. A lot of them were good, so I guess I can't complain.

I thought it was like most lists: Not bad but not the one I would have come up with. Gotta agree w/ JohnA: I loved Deliverance but a top 80 must read? I don't think so. Any list of mostly American books that doesn't include To Kill a Mockingbird is immediately suspect to me, but as JohnA points out, apparently women are suspect to the author. If I had to pick between Hamett and Chandler I'd choose Chandler every time but I guess that's a matter of taste. I liked most or all of his non-fiction choices (can't remember them all at the moment) but it seems even harder to pick some but not others on that side of the bookshelf. In particular, The Power Broker by Robert Caro's gotta be on any list like this along w/ at least one of the several great histories of the Civil War (though he does have some Civil War fiction on there).

I didn't think of counting until i was too far into the list and didn't feel like going back; maybe i will tomw.
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Re: Books Thread

Post by John A Arkansawyer »

beantownbubba wrote:After years n years of discussion, I've concluded that whether one thinks Moby Dick is a great book or cruel & unusual punishment is solely dependent on the teacher you had for it. I had a great teacher.


I am one lucky motherfucker, because I don't believe I ever had to read Melville for a class. I just read something by him--probably "Bartelby, the Scrivener", and I guess that might've been for a class, but I'd think I'd remember which one--and decided I wanted to read more. And then I read quite a bit more, and then I was done for now.
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Re: Books Thread

Post by Blammo »

Just finished:

Hollywood - Charles Bukowski
Hocus Pocus - Kurt Vonnegut
Trinity: A Graphic History of the Atomic Bomb - Jonathan Fetter-Vorm
The Book of Duels - Michael Garriga (look it up, it is amazing. 3 separate fictionalized eye-witness accounts for each duel, from the beginning of time, to the end of time. Sounds weird but it is a great read. I got it from the Onion offices in Chicago when we stopped by for our Onion AV performance. They had a shelf of stuff anyone could take, and I picked this up as well as the final season of "Burn Notice". hahaha. )

Currently working on:

Sirens of Titan - Kurt Vonnegut
Collected Stories - Raymond Carver (holy shit, I am reading this on my wife's recommendation and it is fantastic, but I have to read Vonnegut concurrently or I'll descend too far into the darkness and maybe not come back)
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Re: Books Thread

Post by beantownbubba »

Clams wrote:The 80 Books Every Man Should Read (from Esquire)

http://www.esquire.com/the-side/feature ... fb#slide-1


31 +/- 2 (i kinda lost count). That includes at least 2 that I know I've read but can't tell you a damn thing about (Augie March; Winesburg oh) but doesn't include the several where I've read the author but not the listed books (Fitzgerald, Faulkner, Roth).
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StormandStatic
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Re: Books Thread

Post by StormandStatic »

Flea wrote:
Clams wrote:The 80 Books Every Man Should Read (from Esquire)

http://www.esquire.com/the-side/feature ... fb#slide-1



9/80. In my defense, however, I unequivocally state that any "must read" list which includes Moby Dick is automatically suspect of pretentiousness.

Undeniable literary classic = food for snobs?

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Re: Books Thread

Post by Penny Lane »

Has anyone read this? It's giving me nightmares but it's really good.

Image
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Re: Books Thread

Post by John A Arkansawyer »

StormandStatic wrote:
Flea wrote:
Clams wrote:The 80 Books Every Man Should Read (from Esquire)

http://www.esquire.com/the-side/feature ... fb#slide-1



9/80. In my defense, however, I unequivocally state that any "must read" list which includes Moby Dick is automatically suspect of pretentiousness.

Undeniable literary classic = food for snobs?


Being a snob myself, let me put forth the proposition that Fredrick Exley's A Fan's Notes is an undeniable literary classic. That should be enough chum in the water to get this trolling session going.
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Re: Books Thread

Post by dogstar »

Penny Lane wrote:Has anyone read this? It's giving me nightmares but it's really good.

Image


I read it when it first came out - victim of the hype. Can't remember a thing about it.

Just about to start this

Image
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Re: Books Thread

Post by Flea »

StormandStatic wrote:
Flea wrote:
Clams wrote:The 80 Books Every Man Should Read (from Esquire)

http://www.esquire.com/the-side/feature ... fb#slide-1



9/80. In my defense, however, I unequivocally state that any "must read" list which includes Moby Dick is automatically suspect of pretentiousness.

Undeniable literary classic = food for snobs?



You say to-may-to, I say to-mah-to. It may be a "classic" by many definitions, but I'd honestly rather try to tackle Joyce's Ulysses again than slog through 10 pages of white whale hunting. Good prescription for insomnia, though.
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Re: Books Thread

Post by RolanK »

Only 8. But I watched a lot of the movies :lol:
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Re: Books Thread

Post by LBRod »

RolanK wrote:Only 8. But I watched a lot of the movies :lol:

This, but 9.
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Re: Books Thread

Post by Clams »

FINALLY finished Blood Meridian. That's three months of Cormac McCarthy, time to move on!
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Re: Books Thread

Post by one belt loop »

Worked a trade show last week...came home with close to 40 galleys and advances. So greedy of me. May need to quit my job to catch up.
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Re: Books Thread

Post by Penny Lane »

Clams wrote:The 80 Books Every Man Should Read (from Esquire)

http://www.esquire.com/the-side/feature ... fb#slide-1


I've read 19. Not sure what that says about me..
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Re: Books Thread

Post by beantownbubba »

Penny Lane wrote:
Clams wrote:The 80 Books Every Man Should Read (from Esquire)

http://www.esquire.com/the-side/feature ... fb#slide-1


I've read 19. Not sure what that says about me..


Probably that you watch fewer movies than RolanK.

Moving right along, A Sport and a Pastime by James Salter - As long as I was at the library anyway, I figured I'd take a crack at that Esquire list. I'd call the first attempt a home run, except the book's not actually about baseball or any sport other than that most universal pursuit. I'd never heard of this book or the author and now, having read the book, I can't understand how that's possible. The writing is jaw droppingly good, the descriptions of various areas or cultural aspects of France are pretty much perfect and the writing is infused w/ an eroticism that seems to me pretty unique in it's depth, breadth and electricity w/out descending into clinical porn or boring "art". The narrator's obsession w/ the 2 other main characters is a little creepy and I wonder whether that's inherent in the book or more of a reflection of 21st century paranoia. It's an interesting case of what the reader brings to the book being a very obvious factor.

2 sentences from the author's introduction to the edition I read:

"My ambition was to write a book every page of which could seduce, a book that was flagrant but assured, of imperishable images and obsessions, and above all a book which contrasted the ordinary with - however illicit it might be - the divine."

" [The book] was, in its way, a hymn - to the small towns and villages, to Paris, architecture, days passed, the byways of France and, of course, to the most incandescent of all earthly pleasures.

This author's a pretty good critic of his own work :)
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Re: Books Thread

Post by Duke Silver »

Image

About 25% into it so far. I've tried - unsuccessfully - twice now to explain to my wife what it's about, so I'm not really gonna try here. A young man who is apparently handicapped or disabled in some way administrates a role playing game that people play through the mail. It's a very addicting game that attracts a certain type of obsessive. Apparently something very bad happened in the real world as a result of the game. His handicap is possibly related to that. I don't know. Really enjoying it so far. The writing is tight and there's something about a 200 page book that makes me much more forgiving of loose plotting than I would be in a 500+ pager.
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Re: Books Thread

Post by Clams »

Image
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Re: Books Thread

Post by Duke Silver »

Clams wrote:Image


Yes! A favorite.
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Re: Books Thread

Post by one belt loop »

I <3 John Darnielle.



I think I might have mentioned that before.
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Re: Books Thread

Post by StormandStatic »

Duke Silver wrote:Image

About 25% into it so far. I've tried - unsuccessfully - twice now to explain to my wife what it's about, so I'm not really gonna try here. A young man who is apparently handicapped or disabled in some way administrates a role playing game that people play through the mail. It's a very addicting game that attracts a certain type of obsessive. Apparently something very bad happened in the real world as a result of the game. His handicap is possibly related to that. I don't know. Really enjoying it so far. The writing is tight and there's something about a 200 page book that makes me much more forgiving of loose plotting than I would be in a 500+ pager.

I loved every page of this book. Intense and emotional but in a very detached way. Definitely one of the best books I've read in recent memory.
Also, finished Lila recently. I'd actually describe it as similar to Wolf, if only for the way it hops through time in a very naturalistic way to expand on a single character. Powerful stuff.

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Re: Books Thread

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Re: Books Thread

Post by beantownbubba »

John A Arkansawyer wrote:20/80. Should've been at least twenty-two, because I've read just about every novel by Tolstoy and Greene except the two they picked.

It's a perfectly good list for the Esquire Man. Normal people should consider snickering behind its back at the pretentious macho bullshit. (Lotta reduncancy in three little words there, huh?) Trust me on this--much as I love Moby-Dick, the book from that era every man should read is Leaves of Grass. Lots more reward for a lot less work. Plus James Dickey was one of the most gifted poets of the day but not all that as an fiction writer, in my opinion. And call me crazy, but I think men are well advised to read at least one book by a woman sometime during their lives. I've read several, and that habit has served me well over the years.

Fun facts about ME department: I'm slightly acquainted with a character (thinly disguised) from one of those books and knew the brother and nephew of another of another of those books' authors pretty well. I've long wondered if my nickname reverse osmosed itself into a character from one of his books. Almost certainly not, but it was still weird to read.

UPDATE: Had I posted this before? Darned if I remember:

Q: How many male novelists does it take to screw in a lightbulb?
A: He lit a cigarette. His glass of whiskey lit a cigarette too. “I can only truly love my best friend,” he said, “but not in a gay way. Women wouldn’t understand it. They’re too gay.” Both of the cigarettes agreed.


I missed it the first time through but Flannery O'Connor is a woman. One out of 80 isn't much better than none, but it's at least 1/80th better (which is not to excuse the general tenor of the list).
What used to be is gone and what ought to be ought not to be so hard

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Re: Books Thread

Post by John A Arkansawyer »

beantownbubba wrote:I missed it the first time through but Flannery O'Connor is a woman.


Good point! I should have noticed that--I dig her a lot!
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Re: Books Thread

Post by StormandStatic »

Picked up Gilead for 5 euro at a used bookstore. Consider my hatred of epistolary novels dead.

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Re: Books Thread

Post by beantownbubba »

Tana French has written 5 novels. It would be a mistake to call them mystery novels because they they overflow the limitations of the genre in all sorts of wonderful directions. IMHO, the first 2 are great and the next 2 are merely very, very good, suffering only by comparison to her own lofty standards. The latest, The Secret Place, is a "return to form" - as good as any she's written which is saying one hell of a lot. Fantastic stuff. Could use a little editing to tighten up a little too much repetition, but the writing, the characters and the plot put her books, very much including this one, in a class of their own. I can't decide if the "valley girl" dialog she gives to one set of the girls at the center of the story is a caricature or is meant to be taken at face value. As a caricature it's a bit over the top but pretty funny. I find it hard to believe that Irish high school girls talk like that, but she probably knows more about it than i do. In any case it's more amusing than distracting and only marginally detracts from a beautifully written well-conceived story that gets to the heart of the teen age experience while motoring along at full speed mystery pace.
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Re: Books Thread

Post by dogstar »

StormandStatic wrote:Picked up Gilead for 5 euro at a used bookstore. Consider my hatred of epistolary novels dead.


Good article on the trilogy in this weekends Guardian

http://www.theguardian.com/books/2014/n ... ion-gilead
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