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Pit Book/Discussion Thread

discdude said:
His grandson was my year at Wake, so there are some WFU ties which is cool.
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Did not know that - very interesting. Born in the US, I wonder? Found a biography of Coetzee that I might tackle soon. Have really gotten into him after those first two books.
 
inspectah said:
Did not know that - very interesting. Born in the US, I wonder? Found a biography of Coetzee that I might tackle soon. Have really gotten into him after those first two books.
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His PhD is from my department. We've got his archives too.
 
I was frustrated by John Dies at the End. It started out great and was super fun to read, but became repetitive and tedious about halfway through. I did like the movie (on Netflix) though, directed by the guy who made the Phantasm series.

Now about halfway through Seveneves by Neal Stephenson. I could do without all the descriptions of spacecraft maneuvers, but do find it compelling. I'd be interested in hearing what others think of his books (especially Cryptonomicon, Anathem and Reamde) if anyone here has read him before. His ideas have always sounded so interesting.
 
I thought it was just okay. But a lot of people rave about it :noidea:
 
Finished Carol Dweck's "Mindset" last week. Great non-fiction book on motivation and general, successful mindsets for anyone interested. I'm definitely working on incorporating a "growth mindset" in my day to day life. (It was written in 2006)

Currently reading "Super Intelligence" by Nick Bostrom. I've got a BS in Philosophy and a masters and computer science and I'm still plodding through it. It's kind of obnoxiously dense, but it definitely makes you think. If you don't already believe that we're living in a computer simulation, this book may persuade you. It's nuts.
 
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Paul Beatty wins the Man Booker for The Sellout. First American to do so.

The book is hysterical -- highly recommend.
 
TownieDeac said:
Finishing up A Fine Balance right now, a novel from 2001 about India in the 1970s and the "Emergency." It's pretty rough at times, gets called Dickensian by critics but it's bleaker than that. Good writing.

I also have The Goldfinch, Never Let Me Go, and A Short History of Tractors in Ukrainian on my nightstand. First two I've been putting off reading for whatever reason. Last one just looked interesting.
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Never Let Me Go is one of my favorites of all time.
 
If anyone here has a Kindle and a desire to read the Lanny Budd novels from Upton Sinclair (World's End, Between Two Worlds, and Dragon's Teeth), BookBub has the collection on sale for Kindle for $3.99 today.
 
I just finished Bob Dylan's Chronicles, vol. 1, which was excellent, just an absolute trip. He obviously talks about Woody Guthrie a lot, so I'm going to start in on Guthrie's own (partially fictionalized apparently) memoir Bound for Glory, and see if that grabs me at all.

Bob is the man.
 
I'm all about speculative fiction these days. I'm into the second half of The City & the City by China Miéville and really digging it. Its concept is that two eurasian city-states exist in the same physical location, with inhabitants of each willfully ignoring ("unseeing") the other. It's got some really good writing and feels so immersive that it almost doesn't matter to me how the plot will resolve.
 
JuiceCrewAllStar said:
It's good. Read it for a lit class at Wake. I really dig Ishiguro.
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You read The Buried Giant yet? I didn't love it, but several of my colleagues were big fans.

TownieDeac said:
sounds a little bit like invisible cities by calvino
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Invisible Cities is very much rewriting Marco Polo and the medieval travelogue genre -- and to be completely honest, the medieval ones aren't exactly any less "speculative". Kickball or Townie, if you liked the Calvino, you might really like Marco Polo or Gerald of Wales or Mandeville or a number of others.
 
Anyone read the Myron Bolitar books by Harlan Coben?
 
wakephan09 said:
You read The Buried Giant yet? I didn't love it, but several of my colleagues were big fans.



Invisible Cities is very much rewriting Marco Polo and the medieval travelogue genre -- and to be completely honest, the medieval ones aren't exactly any less "speculative". Kickball or Townie, if you liked the Calvino, you might really like Marco Polo or Gerald of Wales or Mandeville or a number of others.
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I didn't love The Buried Giant either. Remains of the Day and Never Let Me Go are great though.
 
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A good one for today.
 
Has anyone read the Longmire books? I just started the Netflix show, but saw that they are based on a 15 book series. Does the show go along book by book?
 
Currently reading "The Sellout." My initial reaction is that it is insanely smart...in that it is insane, and also very smart.
 
Demonwolverine said:
Currently reading "The Sellout." My initial reaction is that it is insanely smart...in that it is insane, and also very smart.
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Heard it was incredible from a couple of people -- biting and raw in a way they'd hoped Colson Whitehead's *The Underground Railroad* would be (though those people probably hadn't read Whitehead before). Heard one colleague say she threw it against the wall though because apparently Beatty is one of a group of bros who write these masculinist novels and this was no different. She didn't clarify, so take that with a grain of salt.
 
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