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Post by bookboy007 on Jul 9, 2015 17:55:12 GMT
Why is it a problem? One of the two I mentioned above is history (nonfiction). Now, if someone has an unrelenting passion for books on woodworking, that might be a problem.... I just buzzed through a History of Power Saws. I wouldn't recommend it, though. It was a complete hack job.  I saw that at the circulating library, but I'm banned, someone threw a block of wood at me, and I reciprocated. |
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Post by Deleted on Jul 19, 2015 21:16:30 GMT
But they're great writing and almost surreal. . You weren't kidding. "...for your life to be worth anything, you must sooner or later face the possibility of terrible, searing regret. Though you also must manage to avoid it, or your life will be ruined." What a fucking line. |
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Post by bookboy007 on Jul 20, 2015 0:49:33 GMT
No. No, I was not.
If you want break from Frank, you could read Rock Springs. Great stories.
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Post by sobchack on Jul 20, 2015 3:29:35 GMT
I have a lot of writer friends who love McCarthy. No idea why he's never landed with me. I keep thinking I should try again with The Road (baby-eating? I'm in!), but I get to the point of grabbing my wife's copy and I look at the big movie tie-in cover with Aragorn on the cover and think "maybe there's some experimental nonsense I could read instead." There's no good reason for this. Lay of the Land is the third book in the Bascombe trilogy. In some ways, it's my favorite. McCarthy is very divisive with readers. Put me in the worship column. Blood Meridian has permanently etched a hole in my psyche. I just wish they'd leave some of his stuff alone when it comes to film, especially that one. I'm a filmmaker. A few years ago, my manager approached me with a shot to adapt Meridian with James Franco; I was like "This will NEVER translate. Don't even try it. This isn't No Country For Old Men." Franco is still obsessed with it, but I doubt it'll ever get made. Right now, I'm just having a great time with A.M. Sperber's "Murrow: His Life and Times." Doing a lot of research on the Cold War for a project and zipping through a lot of great reads, fiction and non. |
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Post by jmwalters on Jul 20, 2015 4:34:59 GMT
Just getting into Manstein's "Lost Victories" for all you WWII buffs out there
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Post by Deleted on Jul 20, 2015 12:11:08 GMT
I have a lot of writer friends who love McCarthy. No idea why he's never landed with me. I keep thinking I should try again with The Road (baby-eating? I'm in!), but I get to the point of grabbing my wife's copy and I look at the big movie tie-in cover with Aragorn on the cover and think "maybe there's some experimental nonsense I could read instead." There's no good reason for this. Lay of the Land is the third book in the Bascombe trilogy. In some ways, it's my favorite. McCarthy is very divisive with readers. Put me in the worship column. Blood Meridian has permanently etched a hole in my psyche. I just wish they'd leave some of his stuff alone when it comes to film, especially that one. I'm a filmmaker. A few years ago, my manager approached me with a shot to adapt Meridian with James Franco; I was like "This will NEVER translate. Don't even try it. This isn't No Country For Old Men." Franco is still obsessed with it, but I doubt it'll ever get made. Right now, I'm just having a great time with A.M. Sperber's "Murrow: His Life and Times." Doing a lot of research on the Cold War for a project and zipping through a lot of great reads, fiction and non. That would be an X rated movie. The opening scene is the Judge accusing a revival tent preacher of being a child molester during a tent meeting then brutally murdering him, and the ending scene (SPOILERS) is the the Kid getting murdered in an outhouse followed by the Judge dancing naked playing the violin among a group of fawning prostitutes. The middle is worse. "Blood Meridian" gave me nightmares. How many books can do that to someone? The sense of place is so bleak that after reading it before going to sleep, I felt relieved to be in my bed. I can't say enough about how much I love that book. |
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Post by bookboy007 on Jul 20, 2015 12:24:47 GMT
Fine, dammit, I'll read fucking Blood Meridian!!
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Post by sobchack on Jul 21, 2015 3:07:53 GMT
McCarthy is very divisive with readers. Put me in the worship column. Blood Meridian has permanently etched a hole in my psyche. I just wish they'd leave some of his stuff alone when it comes to film, especially that one. I'm a filmmaker. A few years ago, my manager approached me with a shot to adapt Meridian with James Franco; I was like "This will NEVER translate. Don't even try it. This isn't No Country For Old Men." Franco is still obsessed with it, but I doubt it'll ever get made. Right now, I'm just having a great time with A.M. Sperber's "Murrow: His Life and Times." Doing a lot of research on the Cold War for a project and zipping through a lot of great reads, fiction and non. That would be an X rated movie. The opening scene is the Judge accusing a revival tent preacher of being a child molester during a tent meeting then brutally murdering him, and the ending scene (SPOILERS) is the the Kid getting murdered in an outhouse followed by the Judge dancing naked playing the violin among a group of fawning prostitutes. The middle is worse. "Blood Meridian" gave me nightmares. How many books can do that to someone? The sense of place is so bleak that after reading it before going to sleep, I felt relieved to be in my bed. I can't say enough about how much I love that book. That's pretty much the deal. It's grim, bleak, sobering, violent, but an astounding achievement. Almost Biblical in its aesthetic.(heck, all his stuff). It kept me up nights, but it also strangely reaffirmed my search for optimism in the world because he has the courage to write "here we are; this, too, is man's nature; I dare you to look away from it…" |
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Post by bookboy007 on Jul 21, 2015 3:11:05 GMT
Listen, if it is half as violent and unflinching as Ellroy's Underworld USA trilogy, I might not eat chips while reading it.
Really, it should be something like "I don't eat Spaghetti-Os with my hands while reading it" just for the brain texture thing....
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Post by Deleted on Jul 22, 2015 0:35:40 GMT
That would be an X rated movie. The opening scene is the Judge accusing a revival tent preacher of being a child molester during a tent meeting then brutally murdering him, and the ending scene (SPOILERS) is the the Kid getting murdered in an outhouse followed by the Judge dancing naked playing the violin among a group of fawning prostitutes. The middle is worse. "Blood Meridian" gave me nightmares. How many books can do that to someone? The sense of place is so bleak that after reading it before going to sleep, I felt relieved to be in my bed. I can't say enough about how much I love that book. That's pretty much the deal. It's grim, bleak, sobering, violent, but an astounding achievement. Almost Biblical in its aesthetic.(heck, all his stuff). It kept me up nights, but it also strangely reaffirmed my search for optimism in the world because he has the courage to write "here we are; this, too, is man's nature; I dare you to look away from it…" I just got "Cities of the Plain" with a birthday gift card. Gotta love his writing style-the declarative sentences of Hemingway, the description and narrative of Faulkner, the scope of Homer but the dialogue of a spaghetti western. Have you heard any rumblings about a new book from him? He's still got a lot of good years left and hasn't come out with a book in a long time. |
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Post by Deleted on Jul 22, 2015 0:39:16 GMT
Listen, if it is half as violent and unflinching as Ellroy's Underworld USA trilogy, I might not eat chips while reading it. Really, it should be something like "I don't eat Spaghetti-Os with my hands while reading it" just for the brain texture thing.... I've been meaning to check out his stuff and Don Winslow forever. |
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Post by jmwalters on Jul 22, 2015 13:05:28 GMT
To all you WWII buffs:
I find it very interesting that both in Manstein's and Guderian's memoirs they go out of their way to convey to their readers how they ignored the infamous 1941 Commissar Order. One is telling the truth, the other is bullshiting. Do you know which one?
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Post by bookboy007 on Jul 22, 2015 18:11:56 GMT
Listen, if it is half as violent and unflinching as Ellroy's Underworld USA trilogy, I might not eat chips while reading it. Really, it should be something like "I don't eat Spaghetti-Os with my hands while reading it" just for the brain texture thing.... I've been meaning to check out his stuff and Don Winslow forever. I went through the three Underworld USA books in succession and I think I may now be so desensitized to violence and hate speech that I can't distinguish Tarantino from Teletubbies. Harrowing. And the staccato style doesn't give you any place to breathe, either - and there's no room for euphemisms or talking around things. Very interesting experience, reading those books. Well worth doing. |
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Post by Deleted on Jul 22, 2015 22:37:23 GMT
I've been meaning to check out his stuff and Don Winslow forever. I went through the three Underworld USA books in succession and I think I may now be so desensitized to violence and hate speech that I can't distinguish Tarantino from Teletubbies. Harrowing. And the staccato style doesn't give you any place to breathe, either - and there's no room for euphemisms or talking around things. Very interesting experience, reading those books. Well worth doing. With all the great books out there, I struggle to see how people become so invested in these hour long tv shows...especially during hockey season and well, life. Nick Hornby has a great rant in one of his non-fiction books about books being the almighty medium in a 12 round boxing match. A great line was "Even if The White Album could land a lucky right hook on 'Rabbit Run'..." |
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Post by badhabitude on Jul 22, 2015 23:03:28 GMT
Yikes. Things have kicked a few notches out of my range now. I think Polybius...is Um. I like books. (running back to the Bruins Board) And how about Euripidese? Then you pay for these! Hey Fletch, wait up! Right behind ya! |
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Post by badhabitude on Jul 23, 2015 0:23:53 GMT
Former english major, I tend to stay away from fiction now.
Also, not really "reading", but always am listening to a book on the ipod.
McCarthy - the road, no country for old men, blood meridian
(the better WW2 stuff)
With the old breed
The Sledge patrol
A higher Call
The long walk (although it's fiction after all)
Escape from camp 14 (escape from n. korea)
Sole survivor (the Poon Lim story)
The Darkest Jungle (Darien expidition)
The Killer of little shepherds (birth of forensic science)
Mob boss (true crime)
Everything Bryson wrote
Empire of the summer moon
The Lost city of Z
The professor and the madman
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Post by Deleted on Jul 23, 2015 12:11:49 GMT
With all the great books out there, I struggle to see how people become so invested in these hour long tv shows...especially during hockey season and well, life. With all the great things to be doing outdoors.............I struggle to see how people become so invested in reading books. |
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Post by Deleted on Jul 23, 2015 12:17:34 GMT
With all the great books out there, I struggle to see how people become so invested in these hour long tv shows...especially during hockey season and well, life. With all the great things to be doing outdoors.............I struggle to see how people become so invested in reading books. What outdoors? LOL. I'm in South Florida. |
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Post by jmwalters on Jul 24, 2015 20:35:42 GMT
With all the great books out there, I struggle to see how people become so invested in these hour long tv shows...especially during hockey season and well, life. With all the great things to be doing outdoors.............I struggle to see how people become so invested in reading books. read a book outdoors...the best of both worlds |
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Post by islamorada on Jul 26, 2015 14:34:27 GMT
It would be interesting to have some of you post your top ten books read, I would but they are all history (nonfiction). I love history. I read lots of other stuff but a decent amount of my books are history and historical fiction. Here's a few I've read recently. Washington’s Spies by Alexander Rose
The Girls of Atomic City by Denise Kiernan
Dead Wake by Erik Larson Bunker Hill by Nathaniel Philbrick
I'm going up to Maine for a week soon and I have Monuments Men by Robert Edsel ( I think) and The Wright Brothers by David McCullough already packed. Anything by McCullough is anywhere from very good to great.
WTL the list above has a couple I own and want to read. Larson's Dead Wake is considered to be better than the Devil in the White City. A must read once I uncover my books from my move. Narrative history like McCullough's works are great. I liked David Halberstam's Summer of 49' or The fifties are similar. The best history I have read has to be Why the west rules--for now by Ian Morris. Some on here won't like his use of metrics to understand the study he used to measure civilizations both in the East and West but his views are a nice turn from the specific time period studies. It is the reason I like Jared Diamond's book Collapse. Again he researched the environmental collapses of certain civilizations with a certain panaramic view of history. Once I do finish building my bookcase/library with all the historical books within sight I will revise and make full account of my very best. Thanks for posting the other works. I will look to purchase down the road. |
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Post by MrHulot on Aug 4, 2015 3:37:49 GMT
To all you WWII buffs: I find it very interesting that both in Manstein's and Guderian's memoirs they go out of their way to convey to their readers how they ignored the infamous 1941 Commissar Order. One is telling the truth, the other is bullshiting. Do you know which one? AFAIK they both lied about it. Didn't read their memoirs, though. |
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Post by walktheline on Aug 5, 2015 14:28:46 GMT
To all you WWII buffs: I find it very interesting that both in Manstein's and Guderian's memoirs they go out of their way to convey to their readers how they ignored the infamous 1941 Commissar Order. One is telling the truth, the other is bullshiting. Do you know which one? Both generals typically engaged in some serious image scrubbing in their memoirs and both were most likely lying sacks of Nazi bullshit. Manstein passed the order down to subordinates and possibly left it at that, well aware that the order might be carried out but without a directive from him. He was well aware that the order was in violation of international law and he was smart enough to insulate himself as best as he could without defying Adolph. He was probably well aware that captured commies, including commissars were handed off behind the lines to the SS where the Einsatzgruppen would shoot them and he did nothing to circumvent that. I believe there were some Generals who verbally agreed to not carry out the order and even went as far as to create false reports to make it appear that they were complying with herr hitler, but I don't think Manstein was among them. Guderian may have been, though and showed a willingness to defy hitler in other instances. He denied having received the order at all but historians have found evidence to the contrary but I think he may have not directly enforced the order.
Is this right? That's what I recall from some research I read up on some years ago.
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Post by bookboy007 on Aug 10, 2015 21:34:11 GMT
Update on fucking Blood Meridian....
I've written a lot of book reviews, and a lot of the time, when I read a book that would be worth reviewing, I can't help thinking about the paper I'd write. In this case....
McCarthy's working within a very specific American tradition here, and I don't mean "the western". There's a very long and very strong tradition of the grotesque in American writing, and one of the sources from which a lot of it derives is the tradition of humour writing in the southwest, particularly from around the time that Blood Meridian represents. Writers like Augustus Baldwin Longstreet, George Washington Harris and Johnson Jones Hooper wrote tall tales of outsized Western characters and their exaggerated feats/behaviour. There's a lot of ridiculous hunts, violence, racism, violence, etc. and certain "types" recur (similar to the kid, the judge, the VanDiemenlander). One of the characteristic "grotesque" elements of that fiction is how often it plays the destruction of the human body for laughs - camp fights, hunts etc. Life is cheap and catastrophic injuries and damage to the body plays like watching a machine break down - there's a conflict between the humour of the story and the horror of what's supposed to be happening to the people involved that is characteristically "grotesque".
Twain, Faulkner, Crews and a lot of others draw on that tradition, but the other lineage I see in the book is less obviously in that line, and it's Melville's last novel, The Confidence Man: His Masquerade. It's a completely different take in that most of the "action" is characters - again, types and representatives of certain kinds of idea current in Melville's America, including mouthpieces for Thoreau and Emerson - talking about ideas. The Melville book is really about two conflicting values: living by the Christian virtues of faith, hope and charity vs. living with an American skepticism and not getting fleeced. Essentially, encounters with avatars of "The" confidence man throw a series of characters into one of three categories - those who truly believe in what they say they believe, but who slip because they're fallible and human; those who are hypocrites and may believe what they say, but don't act on their beliefs; and those who are predators, exploiting belief for their own gain. Charity is sort of the touchstone - if you give money to the confidence man because you believe in being charitable, and it turns out he's richer than you and duped you out of your money, what do you do the next time someone asks for alms? But the book runs a lot of other pieces of American thought through the same sort of wringer. All of this takes place on a steamboat journey through the south and it draws a lot on the character types of the southwestern grotesque tall tales.
Which brings me back to Blood Meridian. The same sort of narrative economy seems to be operating as in Melville, but at the opposite end of the moral scale and operating only - or almost only - through action as a marker of internal character. Similar typology of characters with personae like the judge and Glanton being drawn from similar cloth as Melville's characters, but with less statment of belief.
Anyway...the point here is it's kind of interesting to see what McCarthy does with stuff that's closer in era to the world he's describing than the world he's writing out of. The Confidence Man was an unfinished novel, and by most evaluations not a great one, but that's comparing it to Moby Dick and if you liked Moby Dick, maybe you don't think Confidence Man is as interesting. I saw it the other way around - more to think about. But that unfinished-ness also has me wondering about where McCarthy's going to go - will the book have an ending or just a last page?
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Post by Fletcher on Aug 10, 2015 22:38:40 GMT
Update on fucking Blood Meridian.... I've written a lot of book reviews, and a lot of the time, when I read a book that would be worth reviewing, I can't help thinking about the paper I'd write. In this case.... McCarthy's working within a very specific American tradition here, and I don't mean "the western". There's a very long and very strong tradition of the grotesque in American writing, and one of the sources from which a lot of it derives is the tradition of humour writing in the southwest, particularly from around the time that Blood Meridian represents. Writers like Augustus Baldwin Longstreet, George Washington Harris and Johnson Jones Hooper wrote tall tales of outsized Western characters and their exaggerated feats/behaviour. There's a lot of ridiculous hunts, violence, racism, violence, etc. and certain "types" recur (similar to the kid, the judge, the VanDiemenlander). One of the characteristic "grotesque" elements of that fiction is how often it plays the destruction of the human body for laughs - camp fights, hunts etc. Life is cheap and catastrophic injuries and damage to the body plays like watching a machine break down - there's a conflict between the humour of the story and the horror of what's supposed to be happening to the people involved that is characteristically "grotesque". Twain, Faulkner, Crews and a lot of others draw on that tradition, but the other lineage I see in the book is less obviously in that line, and it's Melville's last novel, The Confidence Man: His Masquerade. It's a completely different take in that most of the "action" is characters - again, types and representatives of certain kinds of idea current in Melville's America, including mouthpieces for Thoreau and Emerson - talking about ideas. The Melville book is really about two conflicting values: living by the Christian virtues of faith, hope and charity vs. living with an American skepticism and not getting fleeced. Essentially, encounters with avatars of "The" confidence man throw a series of characters into one of three categories - those who truly believe in what they say they believe, but who slip because they're fallible and human; those who are hypocrites and may believe what they say, but don't act on their beliefs; and those who are predators, exploiting belief for their own gain. Charity is sort of the touchstone - if you give money to the confidence man because you believe in being charitable, and it turns out he's richer than you and duped you out of your money, what do you do the next time someone asks for alms? But the book runs a lot of other pieces of American thought through the same sort of wringer. All of this takes place on a steamboat journey through the south and it draws a lot on the character types of the southwestern grotesque tall tales. Which brings me back to Blood Meridian. The same sort of narrative economy seems to be operating as in Melville, but at the opposite end of the moral scale and operating only - or almost only - through action as a marker of internal character. Similar typology of characters with personae like the judge and Glanton being drawn from similar cloth as Melville's characters, but with less statment of belief. Anyway...the point here is it's kind of interesting to see what McCarthy does with stuff that's closer in era to the world he's describing than the world he's writing out of. The Confidence Man was an unfinished novel, and by most evaluations not a great one, but that's comparing it to Moby Dick and if you liked Moby Dick, maybe you don't think Confidence Man is as interesting. I saw it the other way around - more to think about. But that unfinished-ness also has me wondering about where McCarthy's going to go - will the book have an ending or just a last page? I sincerely hope you wrote this for some other audience and then just copied and pasted it here with a "what the hell" shrug. I just don't have the background knowledge in this subject matter to comment on your review, but I was thinking of reading the book based on the attention it's getting here. Should I read Blood Meridian? Yes/No? P.S. Did I tell you that I grew up 5 minutes from Arrowhead? That should give me some book cred... |
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Post by kelvana33 on Aug 10, 2015 23:42:39 GMT
This whole summer I've been reading about a guy named Cody Franson.
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