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Pit Book/Discussion Thread

El Chupacabra said:
I was hanging in the meadow yesterday and my buddy was reading some choice passages from Annie Dillard stuff. Man, they really grabbed me. I loved her essay Total Eclipse which I read the other week before I knew a total eclipse was on the horizon -- has anyone read any? Pilgrim at Tinker Creek, An American Childhood, the collection Teaching a Stone to Talk? It all sounded good, I'm going after it after I read this Thomas Mann collection I'm into now.

PS -- Dharma Bums really fucked with me. My friend and I went on a hike yesterday to meditate and be in nature like Ray and Japhy -- he's prepping for doing some of the Muir Trail this summer and now I wish I was going.
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Been away from this thread for a few months. Dillard's one of my favorites. She's something of an acquired taste but if you like her in small doses you should like the rest. PATC is by far her best but the other books are worth the time.
 
I read Four Seasons in Rome by Doerr and it was fantastic. I figure "All the Light" is very good, too. Need to get to that one soon.
 
Ta-Nehisi Coates' book's release has been moved up to July from October or some shitty month way too far away from now because it got great reviews.
 
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probably not fodder for the ivory tower here but i'm almost done with The Way of Kings from the Stormlight fantasy series and it's pretty good. By the guy who wrote some of the Wheel of Time series.

Still swords and magic but not at all Tolkien style fantasy

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^I just finished the first book of the Mistborn trilogy by Sanderson a couple weeks ago. Despite a very strong start, the second half of the book dragged so much. I won't be investing time in the remaining books.
 
I'm finishing up IT. Like virtually everything Stephen King has written, it's bloated but the good parts are really really good. It's not my favorite of his, but it's up there in the top 5 of what I've read. I'm thinking that list (of his novels) looks something like:

1. The Shining
2. Misery
3. The Stand
4. It
5. Needful Things
 
KickballDeac said:
I'm finishing up IT. Like virtually everything Stephen King has written, it's bloated but the good parts are really really good. It's not my favorite of his, but it's up there in the top 5 of what I've read. I'm thinking that list (of his novels) looks something like:

1. The Shining
2. Misery
3. The Stand
4. It
5. Needful Things
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Man, I loved King back in the day... My top 5 (or 8)

1.) The Stand - still one of the most best books I have ever read (9th Grade) and really turned me onto King and just reading in general.
2.) The Shining
3.) Misery
4.) It
5.) The Green Mile, Pet Sematary, Christine, Cujo - All for different reasons and I'm a wuss on tie-breakers.
 
Finished Infinite Jest last night. It honestly has to go to the top of the list for my favorite books. Just unbelievably good. I'm contemplating re-reading the whole thing now, but I think I should hit some of his other works. Any suggestions on where to go?
 
TownieDeac said:
welcome to the club

infinite jest is his masterpiece and nothing else he wrote comes close to it in my opinion

however, his essay/article collections are good - consider the lobster is pretty quick and has some great stuff

the pale king could have been amazing if he'd finished it himself
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Thanks! Something quick sounds like a nice change of pace. Probably like most people reading Infinite Jest this year, I started because of The End of the Tour. Have you read the David Lipsky book that's based on? I was wondering if that's worth checking out.
 
I've read a couple of Eastern European/Slavic things semi-recently that might fit with that, but maybe not entirely. They came to mind however.

Victor Pelevin -- Omon Ra
Olga Tokarczuk -- Primeval and Other Times

Have you read Solaris?
 
TownieDeac said:
any Russian lit fans here?

i've worked through Tolstoy and Chekhov's major works now and have hit the main Dostoevsky stuff for the most part too

i thought through that i'd get into some truly dark shit, but it's not really there - some psychological trauma but nothing really all that existentially deep

is that all in Gogol or Bulgakov? is it worth going after?

i really enjoy the eastern european post-communist stuff i've read like Konwicky and Naum - political satire mixed with surrealism, pretty sweet - any more suggestions in that arena are appreciated too
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Anne Ramsey said:
I've read a couple of Eastern European/Slavic things semi-recently that might fit with that, but maybe not entirely. They came to mind however.

Victor Pelevin -- Omon Ra
Olga Tokarczuk -- Primeval and Other Times

Have you read Solaris?
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I second Pelevin, and I would recommend Buddha's Little Finger. Also, Lem is dope, but he is very dense in terms of scientific language. Finally, We by Zamyatin as it was part of the precursor to paranoid fiction.
 
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Just finished reading Underworld. Whoa, that was a read. Really enjoyed the Bronzini and Nick Shay sections.
 
TownieDeac said:
any Russian lit fans here?

i've worked through Tolstoy and Chekhov's major works now and have hit the main Dostoevsky stuff for the most part too

i thought through that i'd get into some truly dark shit, but it's not really there - some psychological trauma but nothing really all that existentially deep

is that all in Gogol or Bulgakov? is it worth going after?

i really enjoy the eastern european post-communist stuff i've read like Konwicky and Naum - political satire mixed with surrealism, pretty sweet - any more suggestions in that arena are appreciated too
Click to expand...

Read Vasily Grossman's letters to his mother.
 
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