Last Book You Read and Your Review of It

I tend to read about seven books at a time due to working in a book store and constantly picking new things up. The last book I actually completed was Vineland by Thomas Pynchon. It deals with the drug war and other atrocities of the Reagan era; stylistically it contains Pynchon's typical mix of highbrow and low-brow culture. It's typically regarded as one of his weaker outings, but Pynchon's worst is still considerably better than the best of 99% of the authors on the bestseller list, and frankly I'm at a loss to identify anything wrong with it.

Before that I read The Crying of Lot 49 and Gravity's Rainbow, both of which deserve every bit of praise they get. Gravity's Rainbow has easily worked its way into my top ten novels of all time; it's a difficult read (though not as difficult as, say, Finnegans Wake - though I suppose that varies depending on how much effort you put into reading it) but it's worth every iota of effort one puts into it. I'm currently reading V., Don DeLillo's Mao II and Libra, William Gaddis's The Recognitions, and James Ellroy's American Tabloid. Don't have anything to complain about with any of them. I'll review them in full after I finish them.

I'm not finished with any of these yet (the consequence of reading many things at a time) but I'm going through:

Zombie CSU by Jonathan Maberry - Fascinating so far, I like how he has an actual individual stance from Max Brooks (my other favorite zombie author) and Romero, who is the father of zombie culture. Need to read more to make a final verdict

Intimate Adventures of a London Call Girl by Belle de Jour - Yes, yes, yes. I'm trying not to gallop through the diary, because it's that good. It needs to last forever. I love Belle De Jour's writing.

After this, I still need to finish A Farewell to Arms because I keep skipping books or having to read texts for my Classical & Renaissance Tragedy course ('sup Sejanus) and then I'm going to read The Tale of Murasaki by Liza Dalby, because Huxley's mommy is a weeaboo just like me and let me borrow some books.

There was an article recently where Belle de Jour came out with her true identity, Rye. You might want to read that when you finish Adventures

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Originally Posted by rubah

There was an article recently where Belle de Jour came out with her true identity, Rye. You might want to read that when you finish Adventures

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The one in The Times? I actually saw it in the paper the day I got the book, it was a funny coincidence. I just LJ blagged about it, I love how it turns out that she's a pretty scientific researcher paying for her PhD, when people thought she was either 1) an amoral crackpot making it up or 2) a man. xD

I just finished The Book of Lost Things by John Connolly. I wasn't a huge fan of the writing style, it seemed too tame and bland. Anyone from anywhere could have written in the same fashion. But I still enjoyed the book. More towards the end than at the beginning or middle. There was a poignancy at the end that wasn't there for most of the book. And I like it when books tug at the heart. The book was written simply, almost like it was written for children, but then you have all this gruesome murder and violence and sexual overtones, all mixing in with fairy tales. The older ones that are gruesome rather than wholesome Disney ones. I love retelling of fairy tales so you'd think I would have liked this book more. It was just ok. Incredibly predictable.

Frankenstein was pretty good, I really liked the whole atmosphere and I rather read it as a philosophical book than a terror one. I seem unable to imagine the monster as a monster due to (SPOILER)his amazing manners! I would probably scream if he'd appear like he did with his neighbours but I fell in love with his journey :) and also with Viktor. The only think I felt was rushed was (SPOILER)Viktor's wedding with Elizabeth, though I enjoyed the scenes it was described quite fast :( Nonetheless it's a lovely book I highly recommend it.

Currently reading "Invisible" by Paul Auster and "The Shining" by Stephen King. I'm growing somehow tired of "the shining" perhaps due to the several ammount of pages. "Invisible" is going quite fast In 2 hours I reached the middle of it :) so by tomorrow I should have an opinion! ^^

I just got done with The Anthologist by Nicholson Baker. It was an interesting book on poetry, with a brief life story twisted into it. I was sometimes a bit bored with descriptions of everyday life, but I enjoyed the narrator, Paul Chowder, and his little oddities throughout the novel. He has some interesting ideas on what constitutes good poetry (especially haikus, that part was great) and he's a slightly over-weight, middle aged man with problems keeping everything together. Paul is obsessed with the idea of the "four-beat verse" being the "soul" of English poetry. He mentions Ogden Nash so I automatically liked him. It was a really good book for anyone who likes poetry and, because most of his terms are overly technical, I imagine it would still retain its ease of reading for those who have no interest in poems.

The Robber Bride by Margaret Atwood

Oh man, it was fantastic. I do feel like the actually story itself, rather than the flashbacks, was a tiny weak in comparison to the backstory, but I still loved it.

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Originally Posted by Quin

I always thought Holden was a whiny little bitch who needed to grow the smurf up, and the book really annoyed me.

Though it certainly is well written and worth a look.

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That's certainly what I thought when I had to read and anaylse it for my English Literature GCSE, that and he said "goddamn" too many times! I've had the urge to read it again ever since though, strangely enough.

urrm the last book I read was Jeanette Winterson's - 'Oranges are not the only Fruit' and it probably would make a good read but I was made to completely anaylse it and it became so boring that I have no motivation whatsoever to even read to the end of it. (That's bad that, I'm sitting an exam on a book I haven't read to the end of!). It's very politcal, focusing on social obstacles such as religion and conflicting sexualities, but it's done humorously (I geuss, sorta).

A Time of Legend novel: Malekith, by Gav Thorpe

:D

Awesome book about Warhammer Fantasy. Although there was action, it was not action heavy. It involved a lot of talking and interaction between characters, politiking and espionage type stuff. :D I liked very much

I finished American Tabloid. It starts off like this:

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America was never innocent. We popped our cherry on the boat over and looked back with no regrets. You can't ascribe our fall from grace to any single event or set of circumstances. You can't lose what you lacked at conception.

Mass-market nostalgia gets you hopped up for a past that never existed. Hagiography sanctifies shuck-and-jive politicians and reinvents their expedient gestures as moments of great moral weight. Our continuing narrative line is blurred past truth and hindsight. Only a reckless verisimilitude can set that line straight.

The real Trinity of Camelot was Look Good, Kick Ass, Get Laid. Jack Kennedy was the mythological front man for a particularly juicy slice of our history. He talked a slick line and wore a world-class haircut. He was Bill Clinton minus pervasive media scrutiny and a few rolls of flab.

Jack got whacked at the optimum moment to assure his sainthood. Lies continue to swirl around his eternal flame. It's time to dislodge his urn and cast light on a few men who attended his ascent and facilitated his fall.

They were rogue cops and shakedown artists. They were wiretappers and soldiers of fortune and [gay]* lounge entertainers. Had one second of their lives deviated off course, American History would not exist as we know it.

It's time to demythologize an era and build a new myth from the gutter to the stars. It's time to embrace bad men and the price they paid to secretly define their time.

Here's to them.

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The book delivers exactly what it promises; it's chock full of collusion between organised crime, the CIA, the FBI, the far right, and so on. It carries on to what one might describe as the Death of Hope, and ends immediately before the Kennedy assassination (the sequel picks up immediately thereafter). The portrayals of various historical personages would probably have earned Ellroy a number of libel suits if any of them were still alive (notably, he chose to end this trilogy at 1972, before Watergate, in part because too many of the key players are still alive - plus it's been "done to death"). However, given various historical documents I've read, I'd say it's unlikely that any of Ellroy's characterisations of actual historical figures are actually all that far off the mark.

Those easily disturbed by graphic violence, strong language, homophobia, racism, etc. will not want to read this, as it contains casual depictions of each. One certainly doesn't get the sense that Ellroy approves of any of it; however, it's certainly there. Similarly, those who do not want to have their positive views of authority figures shaken will probably want to stay well away, as, if there is a single authority figure in the entire book who is portrayed positively, I've already forgotten about him. For those who are ready to experience a riveting take on the seamy underbelly of semi-recent American history, however, I'd strongly recommend it. Ellroy knows how to unsettle a reader like few other authors writing today.

I'm about seventy pages into the sequel, The Cold Six Thousand, now, and so far it has not disappointed.

*Bracketed word used to replace a particular slur whose use is disallowed at Eyes on Final Fantasy.