Juliet, Naked Nick Hornby
Reminds me of what I suspect a few of y'all are like...

I have this one on hold at my local library.
Finishing up: Greg Mortenson's "Three Cups of Tea"
On deck: "Never Eat Alone" by Keith Ferrazzi

PLEASE recommend me some amazing books ASAP. I'm within walking distance of Powell's. I'm an under-reader, and I need to remedy this. I bought a book on Zappa today and Midnight's Children by Salman Rushdie.

I like Tom Robbins, and books on Semiotics. Like Roland Barthes. And stuff like Dostoevsky I guess. Heady or witty reads. Please recommend something new!

A really, really great read.

Finished Bunts by George Will, his short baseball articles from circa 1977-1997. It has some great writing and some pieces are very solid and prescient. His anti-steroid piece from the early 90s is great, and the fact that he predicted the HR record would be broken (and then broken again) a few years ahead of time impressed me.

Finished A Farewell To Arms by Ernest Hemmingway. Good read, probably one of the better books I've read with a wartime setting. (*Spoiler* - I knew almost right away this book would come to a sad end, and Hemmingway did not disappoint)

Now I'm reading Cool Hand Luke by Donn Pearce and I'm loving it. I saw the movie about 15 years ago.

Just ordered this from Amazon:

The Castle of Otranto by Horace Walpole

I've heard that it's pretty cheezy. But, seeing as how I have actually been IN the Castle at Otranto, I don't see how I can go through the rest of my life without reading this!

Picked this up in Denver airport last week to have something on the plane back to Tampa, because it was about the only thing I saw that didn't look like a Harlequin romance novel, and because I hadn't read anything by him up to that point.

With about 20 pages left, I have to say that if this is representative of his other work, I can do without seeking any more out.

Summary, as I perceive it:

After some unspecified global catastrophe, man and kid try to survive and not be eaten by bad guys.

At the opening, everything is either grey or on fire. The two are hungry.
The next day- well, just reread the first day. Nothing changes except, occasionally, they find food. It snows some, too. Just keep rereading the opening maybe 72 times.

Also, dude never heard of quotation marks for dialogue, which is REALLY irritating for me. And the fact that neither man nor kid ever gets named, the use of "he" to describe them gets a bit hard to follow at times.

Not much there there.

You're certainly entitled to your own opinion, but this book is far deeper than you've explained here. It's about a father and son's relationship. It's about responsibility. It's about thinking about someone or something other than yourself. It's about self-reliance. It's about faith. It's desolate for sure, but in the end, do names really matter? I get that you may not like his writing style, but the absence of names didn't really affect my opinion one way or the other.

I found it to be a really, really good book.

well said

Even I, Mr. "Take everything literal/eschews literary analogy" thought this book was pretty much fucking amazing.

i read this on the plane down to miami last week, and while it's probably not the best thing to start off a guys weekend, i definitely couldn't put it down and enjoyed it. i will be searching out more mccarthy now...any suggestions from those familiar with him? i'm thinking of going with the border trilogy.

I've read a lot of his stuff. The first two in the border trilogy are two of my favorites. I don't think you can go wrong with "All the Pretty Horses" if you want to get a good sense of what he's about.

"No Country For Old Men" is really good too but it's a bit of stylistic departure from most of his stuff.

I'd say the Road is the largest departure from his usual style.

I'd recommend Blood Meridian next.

Roberto Bolano. Just finished "2666" -- very impressive.

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Pet Sematary - Stephen King

One of the only early King books I've never read. Mostly due to the fact that I've seen the movie several times over the years. I've read King's books a lot and I have a pretty high opinion of him, tempered with the realization that he does have his flaws. He's extremely good with characters, but sometimes not so good with his plot structure. I think he writes a lot of his stuff with little idea of where the story will take him. Because of this, he can often have books with very weak endings. Still, Pet Sematary is very good and I'm glad I finally found time to read it.

Heart Shaped Box - Joe Hill

Picked this up after seeing that it was one of the best-reviewed horror novels of the past few years. It's a ghost story centered around a man who buys a spirit off eBay. Well drawn characteers and good pacing. Reminded me of Stephen King. Turns out the guy is Kings's son, writing under a psuedonym. Kinda wish I didn't find that out until I finished the book.

I switched to this after aborting my third attempt at reading All the Pretty Horses. I feel like I'm being too lazy.

on order: The Diaries of Kenneth Tynan.

I really miss having time to read.

I'll second that, go with All the Pretty Horses first.
After reading The Road, I got interested in what The Santa Fe Institute is working on, since apparently McCarthy hangs out there with some very bright people working on a million ideas.

Oh, and I am reading this

just ordered the border trilogy. got a couple long plane rides coming up here in a few weeks....

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You must be done by now. It's only 5 sentences long.

great insight and exploration of the dangerous bullshit that is Mormonism


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