Just finished:



and



Both of which mined familiar territory, were not groundbreaking, but enjoyable in their own way.

Now on to:



and

to finish:

I dare you to finish that Halberstam.

Is Richard Wolfe a decent writer?

That book is fucking bitch. Well written, but fucking DENSE...

The Wolffe book is actually pretty good. I wanted to sort of get a new grip on Barry's Regime, without having to read his books to do it I started it this morning and am about 1/3 of the way through it.

Lean times at Konstantimansions.

Whenever I can't afford any new books I delve into this.



At 1,500 pages its always there for me.

Still:

Anyone picked this up yet? Anyone read any of his previous work?




[quote]Part noir, part psychedelic romp, all Thomas Pynchon— private eye Doc Sportello comes, occasionally, out of a marijuana haze to watch the end of an era as free love slips away and paranoia creeps in with the L.A. fog.
It’s been awhile since Doc Sportello has seen his ex-girlfriend. Suddenly out of nowhere she shows up with a story about a plot to kidnap a billionaire land developer whom she just happens to be in love with. Easy for her to say. It’s the tail end of the psychedelic sixties in L.A., and Doc knows that “loveâ€

Yeah I seriously don't know how I read and absorbed it. It's the kind of book though that if it were 300 pages shorter I would read again.

[quote="Rick Derris"]Anyone picked this up yet? Anyone read any of his previous work?




[quote]Part noir, part psychedelic romp, all Thomas Pynchon— private eye Doc Sportello comes, occasionally, out of a marijuana haze to watch the end of an era as free love slips away and paranoia creeps in with the L.A. fog.
It’s been awhile since Doc Sportello has seen his ex-girlfriend. Suddenly out of nowhere she shows up with a story about a plot to kidnap a billionaire land developer whom she just happens to be in love with. Easy for her to say. It’s the tail end of the psychedelic sixties in L.A., and Doc knows that “loveâ€

Why are you putting yourself through this? Anything that says "surprisingly readable" on the cover should be shunned.

That said, I'm reading this:



its translated by Pevear and Volokhonsky, whose translation of The Brothers Karamazov was incredible. I tried reading W&P once before, with little success... but this new translation is so good, I've been flying through it as if I was reading Bernard Cornwell or something.

[quote="Rick Derris"]Anyone picked this up yet? Anyone read any of his previous work?




[quote]Part noir, part psychedelic romp, all Thomas Pynchon— private eye Doc Sportello comes, occasionally, out of a marijuana haze to watch the end of an era as free love slips away and paranoia creeps in with the L.A. fog.
It’s been awhile since Doc Sportello has seen his ex-girlfriend. Suddenly out of nowhere she shows up with a story about a plot to kidnap a billionaire land developer whom she just happens to be in love with. Easy for her to say. It’s the tail end of the psychedelic sixties in L.A., and Doc knows that “loveâ€

[img][329:500]http://images.barnesandnoble.com/images/12000000/12006630.jpg[/img]

self-study




shop talk




late night guilty pleasure

I need to see if this is in paperback. Really want to read it, but hate reading hardbacks if I don't have to.

Haven't actually started it yet, but it's at the front of the queue:

mines hardcover. what do you have against hardcover?

I was a little nervous when I saw that quote, but 820 pages in I don't regret in the least picking this book up, or wish it was over. Highly recommended.

I'm re-reading this again.

I always find them too balky for reading in bed, or lying on a couch. This one might not be too bad because its slimmer. You ever try to read some epic tome in hardcover in bed? Not easy to get situated.

That and they usually cost $10 more if you buy them new. Granted, 9/10 books I buy are used, but still.

i thin it's a reassuring quote for a book with a reputation of being difficult.

[quote="Flying Rabbit"][quote="Rick Derris"]Anyone picked this up yet? Anyone read any of his previous work?




[quote]Part noir, part psychedelic romp, all Thomas Pynchon— private eye Doc Sportello comes, occasionally, out of a marijuana haze to watch the end of an era as free love slips away and paranoia creeps in with the L.A. fog.
It’s been awhile since Doc Sportello has seen his ex-girlfriend. Suddenly out of nowhere she shows up with a story about a plot to kidnap a billionaire land developer whom she just happens to be in love with. Easy for her to say. It’s the tail end of the psychedelic sixties in L.A., and Doc knows that “loveâ€

[img][331:500]http://www.mchenrycountyblog.com/uploaded_images/Great-Lakes-Water-Wars-719203.jpg[/img]

Finishing this up since an abundance of fresh water is about the only competitive economic edge my home state still has left, a fact that scares the shit out of me. In the next five years I expect a lot more western pols to pull a Bill Richardson and hint not so subtly that "You guys don't REALLY need all that to yourself, right?"




First read about this guy in a chapter in "Freakonomics" and the more I read about/by him the more brilliant he becomes. Gets into urban sociology with a fearlessness you rarely see in the field and lays it all out in a really compelling way. The first book of his I've read, but definitely not the last.




I started reading one of his later books - "Collapse: How Societies Choose to Fail or Succeed" - a couple years ago and it seemed a little thick for me. This is just as academic but tells the earlier frame story of human history and development and seems easier for a novice like me to grasp. Guy has an incredible background to frame this study and comes at things from multiple angles and arguments.




Another Michigan-centric book. This one about the never-solved drowning death of a black teen from a poor city (Benton Harbor) while he was at a club in a tony white city across the bridge (St. Joseph). Wanders at times, but does a respectable job of exploring the racial dynamics of the case, a pile of other less intense incidents in both cities and the lingering hostility between the two communities. Read this in one long sitting last weekend.

[img][333:500]http://images.barnesandnoble.com/images/34330000/34332202.jpg[/img]

Yeah...I know...nerd alert...