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Pit Book/Discussion Thread

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Link - http://www.amazon.com/Umbrella-Will-Self/dp/0802120725

I just started this book last night, and jesus it's a real mindfuck. Very much in the style of Joyce and Proust, it's a stream of consciousness narration that jumps between characters and time periods and places and description and dialog. I can't recommend it entirely just yet, but wow.
 
Haha I like how the writeup calls his stuff "sometimes unreadable."
 
Finished Infinite Jest again. It's perhaps the best book that has been written in my lifetime.
 
Anyone read "Emotional Intelligence" by Daniel Goleman?

Reading for work for professional development. Only 4 chapters in so far, but quite interesting.
 
Reading PiHKAL: A Chemical Love Story by Alexander and Ann Shulgin now. Must-read for any chemists/pharmacologists/druggies out there. Terrific scientific literature.
 
I decided to give Crime and Punishment another read before coming back to the contemporary. After that I think I'll do Inherent Vice or Gravity's Rainbow (again). As challenging as it is, I think most 1000+ page books need to be read more than once. Moby Dick is a 2014 reread, i thinking. What are some other contemporary epics, besides Cloud Atlas, Infinite Jest, Gravity's Rainbow, and 1Q84?
 
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Man I love Moby Dick. So good.

I am currently reading a bio of Capone. I have always been super interested in him.
 
Picked up "Empty Mansions" an apparently intriguing book about the life and fortune of Huguette Clark and "Tender is the Night" by Fitzgerald for my vacation next week. Will report back.
 
So Crime and Punishment was pretty good. I loved it for about 3/4 of it, and then was felt with a "so what" after so many pages, and so much character/plot development. The epilogue was kind of redeeming, to that end, but ultimately, I'm not sure I understand much about Raskolnikov's real "punishment." It made me think, but not as much as other recent books I've read.

After that, I read Poisonwood Bible for the first time, and it was absolutely one of the best books I've ever read. Certainly one of the best books of the 90s. The narrative technique is really unique and innovative (I guess a bit like Faulkner, but easier to follow). The storytelling is utterly perfect. Maybe some could find it preachy, but I think that gets underscored by the emotional aspects of the story. I laughed and cried more than any book in recent memory. It's really a gripping novel, not from a suspenseful standpoint, but just one that takes you in and makes you feel and think a lot. There's a lot to consider beyond the geopolitical and family stuff; it's really a book about life and death in the end. Fantastic read.

Now I'm on two books, This Side of Paradise by F Scott Fitzgerald, and Oryx and Crake by Margaret Atwood. The former is pretty classic Fitzgerald so far. Mostly rich people with rich people problems and not much plot but somehow still tremendous writing. The latter is CRAZY. No idea what to think so far, but I am definitely on board for the whole trilogy. Someone at work said if I like the trilogy, to check out Swamplandia. Anybody read that?
 
Beat me to Oryx and Crane, Townie. That has been on my list for awhile.
 
Amazon has The Son by Phillip Meyer as kindle deal today. That was an excellent book. It's on just about every best book of the year list I've seen. It's about 900 pages, but I finished it in less than a week. One of those books I couldn't put down.
 
I enjoyed Swamplandia. It was a pretty quick read that was very beautifully written. The book is almost worth it for the prose alone. There's a pretty interesting dichotomy between the crazy/fantastical world she weaves and the plot, which is mired in downright depressing circumstances for the main characters, that makes the book a lot easier to get through. I'm hoping to pick up Karen R's short story collection that just came out sometime soon; I imagine her talent will really shine in that format.

I picked up Signifying Rappers by DFW and Mark Costello at the airport on the way home this weekend. About halfway through, and it's not nearly as dated as I'd imagine it to be. I'd definitely recommend it to any rap fans in the house.
 
I skipped reading The Poisonwood Bible in 12th grade (it was on a list of books we could choose from to read for the summer and I chose Catch 42 instead), but definitely would like to go back and re-read it now. Only 2 people in our AP class that year read it, and they both raved about it... so I should have known it was good.
 
read "the orphan master's son" while i was in thailand. really interesting book.
 
Poisonwood Bible. One of my favorites. I will never forget the missionaries absolutely determined to baptize the natives .....in the croc-filled river.
 
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?
 
Now on to (EDITED from Sometimes a Great Notion, which after 50 pages, I've realized I've read within the past 2 years) The Electric Kool-Aid Acid Test, which I have never finished.

I also hope to finish up This Side of Paradise this week and move on to Year of the Flood, the follow-up in the Oryx and Crake series.

I really enjoy reading 2 or 3 books at once.
 
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