i'm a nerd so i love books

[schnozzle]

My current fave is A Handful of Dust by Evelyn Waugh. The Loved One is also quite good and essential reading for those of us who live in Los Angeles.

Red Sky At Morning by Richard Bradford (there are several books by this name...this one takes place in WW2-era New Mexico) is somewhat along the same lines as Catcher In The Rye, but I prefer it...it's totally obscure but shouldn't be.

[comfortstarr]

I read both of Rand's big books. I think I got through them because they were amusing and highly plotted. Basically, they're pulp fiction with one--morally bankrupt--philosophical ideal that's rammed home over, and over, and over, and over, and over, and... I actually found them pretty hysterical and would recommend them to anyone.

[xonlocust]

Devil in the White City - Erik Larson

http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/tg/de ... s&n=507846

serial killings, worlds fair, chicago in the old days... awesome read.

by the way - for lots more geeking out on books, check out www.wrybrarian.com

[bigskydrinkwine]

'moon palace'- Paul Auster

'Leaves of grass'- Walt Whitman

'The dharma bums'- Jack Kerouac

'Heroin'- Charlie Smith

B

[junokane]

Re: Ayn Rand: I dig The Fountainhead because I thought she bore out her philosphy pretty well in her writing _- i.e., it was well-written and engaging, and she obviously was passionate about her subject matter.

THEN I tucked into Atlas Shrugged and it was the most suffering I've ever done to get all the way through a book. How a writer could gleefully repeat herself so obviously and with such little difference from a previous book just amazes me. Not to mention the 50-page monologue mentioned in a previous post. I got 15 pages into that thing, thumbed ahead another 35 pages (!) and skipped it. Needless to say, I lost nothing in terms of keeping up with the plot, etc., by missing it. I swore I'd finish it (read: masochist) and did, after which I wanted to soak it in kerosene and happily watch it burn. However, burning books, I realized, was against my principles, so I settled. The studio apartment I had at the time had a gas stove that I'd never had connected, so I just stuck it in the broiler and left it there. I moved out and I hope it's still there, or maybe it got incinerated the next time somebody thought they'd preheat it for a salmon bake. I HATED it. Still think The Fountainhead is decent, but I lost all respect for Rand and her cultish following afterwards.

I can't believe that, although there are a number of SF fans and otherwise prudent lovers of lit on this post, that there has been no glaring reference to Kurt Vonnegut (who was for the longest time relegated to the Sci-Fi ghetto when he was first published). Read EVERYTHING. It's all good, and his non-fiction collections of essays and speeches are godhead. Imagine having the darkly fatalistic Kurt deliver your commencement address. It's certainly not "go forth and prosper, make $, make the world a better place" kind of stuff, but it's fucking hilarious and rather apt for these (or any) times. His reportage on the '68 Democratic convention could serve as a fresh treatise on current politics, just change the names and dates. The guy is timeless. I swear.

Others I dig:

H.S. Thompson is one of the most entertaining and biting social critics (and semi-fiction writers) in American literature.

William S. Burroughs, a man whose biography is stranger than his fiction. Read Naked Lunch and try not to do it in terms of figuring out a plotline or anything. Just read the words, even if you don't have a clue what's going on, and monitor the physical reactions you have during the experience. It's like a damn psychedelic odyssey. Paraphrased, he said once that it was his goal to write something that, once read, would cause the reader to go insane. Plenty of biographies and such, too, and very entertaining stuff. If we could all live 1/10 as full a range of life experiences...

Philip K. Dick -- Love him, one of the few Sci-Fi writers I can get into, because he doesn't construct entire new universes (too much work for me), he is based in some version of present or near-future reality that is easier for me to read, easier for anybody who doesn't want to bother remembering entirely new monetary, time measurement, and species systems. Also very philosophical and entertaining.

Bukowski -- unrepentantly misogynistic (while at the same time a lover of women), so if you can't handle it, don't bother, but there's a lot of humanity there, too, as well as struggle with demons. And he's funny as hell. And he made me feel much less intimdated about getting into reading poetry.

For music stuff:

Jon Savage, "England's Dreaming" the definitive history of UK punk
Clinton Heylin, "From the Velvets to the VoidoidS", same for US punk
Legs McNeil & Gillian McCain, "Please Kill Me", oral history of NY punk
Greil Marcus, "Lipstick Traces", academic analysis of punk and it's relation to other "anarchistic" art/social movements
Peter Guralnick's work, specifically his 2-volume bio of Elvis
the two Lester Bangs anthologies, Bangs being the Hunter S. Thompson of rock critics

I could go on and on, but I'll finish up with a book I'm reading right now, haven't even finished yet, by James McManus, called "Positively Fifth Street", really a memoir. He is in his fities, and has been playing poker since he was nine. He became a writer. He teaches at the School of the Art Institute of Chicago, including a class on "The Literature and Science of Poker". He got an assignment from Harper's to cover the Las Vegas trial about the murder of one of the family that owns the Horseshoe, the last family-owned casino in the country and the birthplace of the World Series of Poker Championship. The trial and the final tournament took place in Vegas at the same time in 2000. He covered the trial and used his advance and expense check to buy into a satellite poker game that won him a spot in the WSOP big tournament, his first tournament ever, and he ended up placing fucking 4th out of 512 entrants. It's got mystery, intrigue, murder, the mafia, and biography, along with play-by-play action on his winning his way from a 1000-dollar buy-in to a little side game that ended up snagging him $250,000 in winnings, while playing against pros he'd been following for decades. And trying to keep up with the trial at the same time. Riveting. I mean, the most entertaining book, bar none, I've read in years. I actually got on the Net just now, not to post this, but to Google him so I could write him a fan email, which I've only done one other time in my life.

OK, enough, thanks for the chance to praise some of my faves.

[jakeao]

I'm reading a book titled "Fingerprints of the Gods'. I forget the authors name. it's about how so many ofl the ancient civilization in the world, have all these common themes running through them, and how it maybe points to a long forgotten, and highly advanced society that existed 10,000-15,000 years ago. It's non-fiction, and gets a bit long at times, but so far it's an absolutly amazing book. I recommend it to anyone.

[foley]

This thread is by far one of the most entertaining ever. If there is ever a tapeop message board anthology (now that would be good reading) this thread is in.

With that said, I recommend Unbearable Lightness of Being by Milan Kundera, the Lord of the Rings trilogy (remember when that used to be obscure?), the Bible (I'm not kidding), Hugo's Les Miserables, and a sweet little book I read last year called Absolutely Fifth Street, which is about a prof from the Art Institute who makes it to the final table at the World Series of Poker. Good stuff.

[joeysimms]

1) Mad magazine
2) Cereal boxes
3) Ingredients

[bobbydj]

1. My rights
2. Spam
3. Genesis P. Orridge's sleeve notes to Leather Nun's Slow Death E.P.

[Bear]

1) Mad magazine
2) Cereal boxes
3) Ingredients

I always read the damn cereal boxes. I never know why. And then I'll catch myself re-reading them, even though they weren't interesting to begin with.

Ingredients are cool, though.

[thenumber]

i contest that no one has ever finished reading atlas shrugged. anyone who claims to have, is a LIAR

Dune, The Night's Dawn Trilogy (in the USA its a TRIOLOGY of trilogies), carl sagan. Phillip K Dick is the man.

Marilyn Manson's autobiography is a really quick read. And entertaining. Smart guy. Got a copy in the studio Even though its some 400 pages, every member of the band im recording has read through it already

[bobbydj]

D. Cooper - Period

[Rigsby]

William S. Burroughs, a man whose biography is stranger than his fiction. Read Naked Lunch and try not to do it in terms of figuring out a plotline or anything. Just read the words, even if you don't have a clue what's going on, and monitor the physical reactions you have during the experience. It's like a damn psychedelic odyssey. Paraphrased, he said once that it was his goal to write something that, once read, would cause the reader to go insane. Plenty of biographies and such, too, and very entertaining stuff. If we could all live 1/10 as full a range of life experiences...

You know, i was reading Naked lunch for the second or third time about five years ago on the tube on the way back from work and was right in the middle of the stuff that we'd probably now call racist and homophobic and i looked around and wondered who on the train had read this book and/or knew it's contents. Okay, so i had taken some things that day (it was that kind of a job environment) so i may have been a bit edgy, but it made me feel a little uncomfortable, my association with what i was reading. I got pretty tense to be honest, wanted to have a different cover around the book so people would think i was reading something a little more pleasant. there's a whole lot of hate in that book. Don't get me wrong, it's a great read, but jesus... i guess i got pretty involved in what i was reading, and what with the things in my system etc.

On another topic, year or so ago my missus got me to read 'Garp' and i'm really glad she did, great book, that christmas four or five of my family and friends got that book from me. I'd recommend it.

[joeysimms]

...stuff that we'd probably now call racist and homophobic and

Where? Burroughs was gay. He may've done some caricature of bozo's he's had to deal with at some point or another, but I never got a racist or homophobic vibe from it. It's sick slapstick routines for a sick society. But then I'm dumb so maybe I missed it...

[Rigsby]

Yeah, Burroughs was gay, but seemed to loathe himself for it and then (perhaps) got off on the loathing and the fact that it was then deemed 'wrong'. I can't find my copy, think it's probably in storage as i'd read it too much and had to pack so much stuff away so we could fit in this flat, so i can't quote a passage, but i distinctly remember some abusive references to 'black boys' in that book, both sexually and in the narration. It was that more than the 'gay things' that made me feel uncomfortable that day on the tube, i really didn't want anyone reading that stuff over my shoulder, not in the state i was in.