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Pit Book/Discussion Thread

I hated Slaughterhouse Five the first time I read it. Read it again a few years later and I really liked it. Possibly because I read a few others by Vonnegut in between and had a better handle on his sense of humor? I don’t know.

The Electric Kool-Aid Acid Test is a fun one too.

I, however, cannot read 2 or 3 books at once. I haven’t been reading much lately, but I did pick up Mo Metta Blues by Questlove. Philly pride.
 
Ha I got Mo Betta Blues for the gf's mom for xmas. She was pumped.

Here are 5 forthcoming books to keep an eye out for in 2014 (sent to me by a book blogger friend):

Glow - Ned Beauman
Man v Nature - Diane Cook
My Biggest Lie - Luke Brown
Black Cloud -Juliet Escoria
Eat My Heart Out - Zoe Pilger
 
Re-read Slaughterhouse Five this weekend and it made me a little sad but so it goes. Hadn't read it since middle school, when it effed me up. Now I recognize what an amazing book it is. Maybe the best anti-war novel ever?

Read it this summer and loved it. I think I agree about the anti-war novel bit, but what are some others that are in the discussion? Slaughterhouse definitely sticks out for its zany, borderline absurdity (much like war?) as opposed to other war books which beat you over the skull with violence and gore (much like war?).
 
Catch 22 is probably the biggest rival. I would say any book about war satirizing it or with the intent of showing its truest brutality may qualify (my own completely arbitrary definition).

Off the top of my head:

Cat's Cradle
A Farewell to Arms
All Quiet on the Western Front

ETA: Maybe For Whom the Bell Tolls?
 
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I'm trying to wrack my brain and think of some English, French, German, or Russian stuff.

Maybe we should just qualify it as Greatest American Anti-War Novel?
 
Catch 22 is probably the biggest rival. I would say any book about war satirizing it or with the intent of showing its truest brutality may qualify (my own completely arbitrary definition).

Off the top of my head:

Cat's Cradle
A Farewell to Arms
All Quiet on the Western Front

ETA: Maybe For Whom the Bell Tolls?

I was going to post All Quiet on the Western Front.
 
I'm trying to wrack my brain and think of some English, French, German, or Russian stuff.

Maybe we should just qualify it as Greatest American Anti-War Novel?

All Quiet on the Western Front is def the best to come out of Germany IMHO.
 
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Where is wakephan09?

I have a bone to pick. Evelyn Waugh is boring as shit. Or maybe I started with the wrong book with Brideshead Revisited. But I'm seriously struggling to keep turning pages here.

I read my first Raymond Chandler book, The Big Sleep. It could be that the hilarious, terse prose of Chandler is making me despise the flowery, vague, boring descriptions in Waugh.
 
Where is wakephan09?

I have a bone to pick. Evelyn Waugh is boring as shit. Or maybe I started with the wrong book with Brideshead Revisited. But I'm seriously struggling to keep turning pages here.

I read my first Raymond Chandler book, The Big Sleep. It could be that the hilarious, terse prose of Chandler is making me despise the flowery, vague, boring descriptions in Waugh.

suum cuique: it doesn't particularly bother me that you dislike it -- I suppose I must enjoy reading 'flowery, vague, boring' prose. While I do think that Brideshead is his best, all of his other novels are very different in tone, genre, and scope. Still flowery and vague though.

I like Raymond Chandler too. Love the film adaptation of The Big Sleep.
 
I hated Slaughterhouse Five the first time I read it. Read it again a few years later and I really liked it. Possibly because I read a few others by Vonnegut in between and had a better handle on his sense of humor? I don’t know.

I just read Breakfast of Champions and hated it at first but really started to like it at the end. May pick up Slaughterhouse Five soon
 
http://www.listchallenges.com/kaunismina-bbc-6-books-challenge?ref=share

49 for me. the fact BBC figures most folks have only read 6 of these is really sad/disappointing... i knocked that out with just the first 6 listed.

there were several duplicates on that list, but yea the 6 estimate is sad

also fuck the lovely bones

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so i came here to post my thoughts about Their Eyes Were Watching God because i just finished it and i'm not a student of English anymore but i would like to talk about it

so here is my thinking

i enjoyed the storytelling. the language was funny, easy to read, conversational, etc.

and in terms of a feminist book, it's a massive improvement on the late 19th century trope of "oh you're a lady? better kill yourself. only way out of man-pression." the lead character is very, very strong.

however, she's also super flighty. she leaves her first husband to chase after true love, and finds someone she thinks she's happy with, finds happiness, but quickly becomes unhappy, leaves him looking for REAL REAL happiness, finds it, and then the last male depiction in the book is LITERALLY RABID. he gets bitten by a rabid dog and is foaming at the mouth. kind of heavy handed. and then she gets vindicated by white ladies and it all works out.

idk, like i said, i dig it from the feminist lens, she takes her happiness into her own hands and doesn't accept her role or place. but then beyond that, the male characters in the book are all either aloof, stupid, downright evil, insane, or rabid.
 
the complete works of shakespeare? the entire bible?


'the chronicles of narnia' and ALSO 'lion witch/wardrobe'? amateur hour

got 39
 
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Last 100 pages of Anna Karenina to go. Do like, but hard to sympathize with any of the rich-ass characters with their Society problems. Tolstoy has the human condition on lock, tho.
 
Just read The Crying of Lot 49 and Inherent Vice back to back, and despite coming from completely different periods of Pynchon's career, they felt really complementary to each other. He does a better job of transporting you to a time and place, especially in Inherent Vice, than any other author I've come across. I feel simpatico with the guy. But damn, does he use a lot of characters.
 
I'm about 2/3 of the way through Conspiracy of Fools which I try to re- read along with Barbarians at the Gates every few years. Both just incredible books.
 
Working through Pirsig's Zen and the Art of Motorcycle Maintenance. Really digging the narrative style.
 
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