Excession is next up in my Banks rereading project (currently running at 1 a year).
― koogs, Tuesday, 28 September 2021 18:02 (two years ago) link
None of these really leaping out at me. I had fun with the Poppy Z. Brite back in the day so might go for that.
― Vanishing Point (Chinaski), Tuesday, 28 September 2021 19:36 (two years ago) link
Embarrassing admission: I only just realised Poppy Z. Brite is a man.Excession for me, but nothing here is top-drawer. I probably read the Pelecanos about 20 years ago. I have never read and will never read Infinite Jest.
― a down-on-his-luck gastromancer enters (Matt #2), Tuesday, 28 September 2021 19:43 (two years ago) link
Infinite Jest, happily, recently picked up a copy for a re-red.
― bulb after bulb, Tuesday, 28 September 2021 20:29 (two years ago) link
The Beach by Alex GarlandFight Club by Chuck PalahniukThe Sparrow by Mary Doria Russell - Catholics in Spaaaace!253 by Geoff Ryman - "originally created as a website"Excession by Iain M. BanksNaive. Super by Erlend LoePrimeval and Other Times by Olga Tokarczuk
My copy of The Beach was misbound, leading to a confusing reading experience - after jumping off the cliff it cut to the food poisoning bit, to me it seemed like they blacked out on hitting the water and woke up disoriented and sick through concussion, but who were all these other characters who our protagonists seemed to know already?
Tokarczuk is my new favourite author but voting Excession as probably the best Culture novel.
― ledge, Wednesday, 29 September 2021 07:36 (two years ago) link
Automatic thread bump. This poll is closing tomorrow.
― System, Thursday, 30 September 2021 00:01 (two years ago) link
lol that the two I've read are Cocaine Nights and, er, Bridget Jones' Diary. I read the latter in response to "you can't just dismiss something if you haven't read it", and it was even worse than I was expecting it to be, so eh, that lesson was not learnt. I remember the Ballard as being pretty poor, though, so not sure I want to vote for that one either.
― emil.y, Thursday, 30 September 2021 00:13 (two years ago) link
alias grace is one of atwood's better novels.
― adam t. (abanana), Thursday, 30 September 2021 08:50 (two years ago) link
The Debt to Pleasure is actually pretty good, don't hate me for saying so. I'm going Ballard, a good example of his late style.
― Neil S, Thursday, 30 September 2021 08:57 (two years ago) link
I'd like to save my vote so can I have two for 1997?
― look on my guacs, ye mighty, and dis pear (Noodle Vague), Thursday, 30 September 2021 11:09 (two years ago) link
All the great authors wrote Britpop songs instead.
― xyzzzz__, Thursday, 30 September 2021 12:56 (two years ago) link
i am gonna vote for the book that's gonna win
― STOCK FIST-PUMPER BRAD (BradNelson), Thursday, 30 September 2021 13:13 (two years ago) link
rereading infinite jest a few years ago was very frustrating and uneven and made me reflect a lot about what we expect from our white dude masterpieces but when i got to the last twenty or so pages i was like "yeah this is still like fucking incredible"
― STOCK FIST-PUMPER BRAD (BradNelson), Thursday, 30 September 2021 13:14 (two years ago) link
Those last twenty pages are woah
― Legalize Suburban Benches (Raymond Cummings), Thursday, 30 September 2021 16:57 (two years ago) link
Automatic thread bump. This poll's results are now in.
― System, Friday, 1 October 2021 00:01 (two years ago) link
Lanchester robbed. Is Fight Club off the cultural agenda nowadays?
― a down-on-his-luck gastromancer enters (Matt #2), Friday, 1 October 2021 00:22 (two years ago) link
i appreciate fight club for being gay as hell but i hate reading palahniuk's writing
― STOCK FIST-PUMPER BRAD (BradNelson), Friday, 1 October 2021 00:48 (two years ago) link
Expected enough backlash for it not to come anywhere close to winning but I'll admit I didn't expect it to straight up get zero votes.
― Daniel_Rf, Friday, 1 October 2021 10:40 (two years ago) link
Wherein We Elect Our Favourite Novels of 1997
― Daniel_Rf, Friday, 1 October 2021 12:10 (two years ago) link