What's a noise dude reading?

someone recommend me some quick stuff

you could take a cue from elmo and hit up some borges

ficciones is the bomb

Carver is quick.

And while on the subject, i think "Cathedral" is maybe his most optimistic/uplifting story; the volume as a whole illustrates a kind of painful, technicolor suburban drama but in a way that is often universally appealing/affirming, rather than totally alienating as in Crews. His (Crews) characters are often much more exaggerated & absurd than what you find in Carver and I think that allows him to take them to further extremes without it seeming forced.

ANYWAY, don't ever suggest "A Feast of Snakes" to anybody--they'll hate you. And I wonder why the fuck an ex would suggest it to Mookieproof! It's almost like saying, "Here, I hope u puke."

also quick:
Asimov "Foundation"
Brautigan "In Watermelon Sugar"

I like Feast of Snakes!

Anyways, I passed on the mammoth 2066 (they were sold out of the tpb) and opted for my first HL Humes book in 'The Underground City'. Saw a dope documentary on this cat and really looking forward to it.

And another pile of graphic novels. I've got a serious addiction.

no, i thought feast of snakes was good, just really difficult to read. people talk about how hard blod meridian is to read, and for whatever reason i found parts of feast of snakes 100x harder to get through.

I think i cauterized part of my brain in college reading the most offensive shit I could get my hands on: books about prison rape, 120 days of sodom, loads of burroughs and crews and bukowski, just any fucked up thing to see how I could handle. Printed word don't freak me out much anymore. DeSade especially was instrumental in that: when you read 100 pages of writing about eating shit, that's around two straight hours of thinking about eating shit. You might as well have eaten shit.

I mean, bully for you if that's your thing. I discovered it really ain't mine.

harry crews is not de sade! i mean, crews is really entertaining and easy to read and funny for the most part.

carver is short & quick/'easy' to read but gets pretty brutal after 5-6 stories--for me at least

read delmore schwartz short stories

although i guess some people might find de sade funny, easy to read, and entertaining as well.

Crews can be sufficiently taxing on occasion.

just read short stories by anyone. they tend to be short.

read posts

like i said on the ilb reading thread, i haven't read crews since the 80's. or since the mulching of america came out. but i still have all my paperbacks and i should re-read one of these days. i wish i had some of the older books. his first books aren't that easy to find. i used to get those out of the library.

http://www.fantasticfiction.co.uk/images/n61/n306905.jpg

this is totally a fast read

i wanna read that book! i was just reading about that guy's books.

it's his best, his others are super uneven but gascoyne would probably be the closest runner up

that looks interesting but possibly out of print? might have to track it down.

xp

it just got reissued recently

i bought a bunch of stuff today; local used bookstore got in a big collection of music books.

how to play bluegrass guitar (by my hero HAPPY TRAUM)
outside the dream syndicate: tony conrad and the arts post-Cage
that greil marcus book abt the basement tapes
a book called "the blues revival" which is alright

and i also got a paul bowles autobio.

carver is short & quick/'easy' to read but gets pretty brutal after 5-6 stories--for me at least

same here; i had to take a break from "will you please be quiet" a couple of days ago; struck a nerve at a certain point

i really need to start reading less depressing shit.. lol "terror and consent" by bobbitt and canetti's "auto da fe" are next in the queue

i wanted to read something non-depressing after a few weeks of crews & flan o'connor, so I am reading the Bob Dylan "Chronicles" book which is a lot better than i thought (only 20, 30 pages in.)

'tooth and claw' by t.c. boyle is good collection of short stories - they're all a little bizarre and they read pretty quickly.

that greil marcus book abt the basement tapes

really enjoyed this, curious what you'll think since you're probably a lot more into some of the music referenced (dock boggs etc.) whereas for me it was an education, hadn't heard any of that stuff at the time (and still not that much of it now)

also that reminds me I borrowed Lipstick Traces off a friend and it's been sitting on my shelf

right now I'm reading this Times reporter's 2007 book abt exploring immigrant neighborhoods in nyc called The World in a City

ian you shd watch I'm not there when you're done w/ Marcus and the Dylan book.

I don't rad many short stories, but I think the great George Saunders one I've read is called "Isabelle," 7 devastating pages.

I'm trying to stop writing and job-hunting so I can start Shusaku Endo's Silence.

(I do find Greil M almost unreadable tho)

Not sure what to read next.

Paul Bowles memoir? Book about Minimalism? Sam Charters' book on the Country Blues?

ANYWAY, don't ever suggest "A Feast of Snakes" to anybody--they'll hate you. And I wonder why the fuck an ex would suggest it to Mookieproof! It's almost like saying, "Here, I hope u puke."

― ian, Friday, April 17, 2009 12:45 AM (3 weeks ago) Bookmark

this made me want to read a feast of snakes fyi

also read the paul bowles and tell me what he says about jane, loev her

hated emperors children more than any other book in recent memory

^^only book I've ever wanted to throw at wall in disgust

From Publishers Weekly
Marina Thwaite, Danielle Minkoff and Julian Clarke were buddies at Brown, certain that they would soon do something important in the world. But as all near 30, Danielle is struggling as a TV documentary maker, and Julius is barely surviving financially as a freelance critic.

puke. why would you even think to pick that up?? no offense to you guys & your tastes, but "clever" contemporary urban dramas are MUST AVOID for me.

^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^

to be fair though, that's why i avoided american psycho for so long, only to read it and actually think a lot of it was v v funny and enjoyable.

whos the bigger shithead: me for trusting an amazon booklist or me for reading nearly 200 pages of that crap

clever" contemporary urban dramas

i loved Then We Came to the End

Jim Thompson - The Alcoholics <--- most twisted/funny/weird Thompson I've read yet. also taught me that "Crapping You Negative" by the Grifters has a Jim Thompson reference for both band name and album title.

Denis Johnson - Nobody Move <--- quickie crime/noir, read this start to finish on Saturday during snow-hampered air-travel day, liked it

James Ellroy - Blood's a Rover <--- xmas present, just started it

stuart kaufman - at home in the universe
john r pierce - an introduction to information theory

one day, I will discover the secret of reading fiction!

thomas keller and david cruz - the ad hoc cookbook

i've been in a mostly nonfiction rut for a while too. just not interested in fiction. i'm becoming one of *those* people O_o
reading leonard zeskind - blood and politics
started flannery o'connor - the violent bear it away but wasn't concentrating :/

i was sufficiently not-concentrating on that to think flannery o'connor had written a novel called the violent bear

what's wrong with the dorkily-titled ILB 'what are you reading' threads anyway guys

i never want to post on them bc i feel embarrassed about (1) being too slow and (2) reading nonfiction

the book is called "the violent bear it away but wasn't concentrating"

i think i would possibly stand a chance against a violent bear if he wasn't concentrating

ppl on that board will talk about non-fiction just as happily tbh

i figured, i just never noticed it

i only finished 14 books this year!

u read that many in a week thomp

what's wrong with the dorkily-titled ILB 'what are you reading' threads anyway guys

oh nothing, I just have never posted on that board and don't use site new answers so this is the thread title I remember to search for when I'm thinkin' baout some books

that is nearly a plausible title for a flannerybook, sad it does not exist

christopher small - music society education
brian greene - the elegant universe
the anarchy of silence - john cage & experimental art - MACBA / curated by julia robinson