Current reading - Page 69

What he said. Also, Beat The Reaper goes by very, very quickly. It's a pretty damn good book, but it's just a breezy read by nature.

Film Theory and Criticism: Introductory Readings by Gerald Mast.

To balance it out I'm going to pick out Watership Down and My Footprint at the library before heading to Myrtle Beach for a week.

Funny Chabon should come up, as I just began The Yiddish Policemen's Union last night. The present-tense first-person is a bit hackneyed, but I assume that's the point. I'm really getting the sense of the main character as a kind of "Humphrey Bogart with sidelocks". It works.

Its a little stiff at first, but once you get used to it, it really flows. Its like Fargo that way.

I didn't give YPU enough of a chance (I was just sort of annoyed by it and stopped about 60-70 pages in), but to be fair I read it right after coming off of Kavalier and Clay. Also, I couldn't bring myself to give a shit about Mysteries of Pittsburgh either. Is Chabon really that hit-and-miss, or am I seriously missing something? I adored K&C and want to enjoy more of his stuff.

Wonder Boys is great.

Crap, didn't read it! Only saw the movie, which I enjoyed. I'll fix that soon.

I don't know if it's that Chabon is so hit and miss, or if its that he is pretty experimental with a lot of his work, which is something to admire and at the same time to potentially find rather annoying. That being said, anyone who is looking to get into "The Yiddish Policeman's Union" really, really should. It's a shit ton of fun, and the alternate history is done very, very nicely. And, at the very least, we can have some fun doing fantasy casting for whenever the Coens get ready to start making their version (my mom came up with a cast for it that would be just fucking unbelievable).

I just picked up several books, including "Carrion Comfort" and the new one, "Black Hills" by Dan Simmons. I loooved "The Terror" more than I can describe, and while I had some very real problems with "Drood", I'm still going to give Simmons the benefit of the doubt.

Also, for my birthday, my parents got me a first edition of "The Gardner's Son" by Cormac McCarthy, which is fucking amazing. I don't even know if I should read it, or if I should just keep it on the shelf, looking pretty.

He's hit or miss. The stuff that's great is GREAT(K&C, Yiddish, Wonder Boys) or mediocre(Mysteries)

Ok, cool. I just seriously couldn't stand any of the characters in Mysteries, especially the protagonist. Still don't remember precisely why I dumped Yiddish aside from an overwhelming feeling of "eh."

Oddly enough, I enjoyed "Revelation Space" more for its hard science than anything else - and particularly its employment of relativistic space travel. In your traditional space opera, zipping a few thousand light years here and there without any kind of temporal impact is a fossilised cliché. What I liked in RS was the way Reynolds paradoxically manages to maintain a ripping pace whilst functioning against a backdrop of events that border upon glacial. Ships travelling at highly-relativistic speeds take decades to arrive at their destination, characters age at differing rates etc. These kind of spatial/temporal shackles would be anathema to more traditional space opera writers such as E.E. Doc Smith, Harry Harrison and even the likes of Peter F. Hamilton & Iain M. Banks. But Reynolds embraces them fully and the various time-shunted plot threads converge satisfyingly to a point at the book's conclusion.

Of course, Reynolds isn't the first space opera writer to work within the framework set by our understanding of the laws of nature. Poul Anderson, C. J. Cherryh & Joe Haldeman (especially with the quite brilliant "The Forever War") have all churned out similar kind of work with varying degrees of success. But I do think Reynolds could well be the best at balancing on the scientifictional knife-edge.

I also like the concept of the "Melding Plague", which is a key narrative instigator within the RS series.

On the negative side, I did think RS was more than a bit exposition-heavy. At several points it was like wading through some future Edward Gibbon. I almost had to write notes. Furthermore, at times characters seemed to behave uncharacteristically and/or make dubious decisions. But it's a first book. And I suppose you have to cut Reynolds some slack because of it. Things certainly improve in "Chasm City".

With Reynolds you get what it says on the tin. As you might expect from someone holding a Ph.D. in an astronomical discipline - he gets the technicalities right, which all serve toward rendering a credible and immersive universe. He also manages to successfully inject a weird kind of brooding environmental intensity, where machines, once the driving force behind mankind's expansion into space, have fallen victim to the same perils he has endured for centuries - disease, decay and death. You very much get the feeling that human beings are on the evolutionary downslope, with mother nature hovering over the extinction button.

Where Reynolds is not so hot is in getting to grips with the human condition. I mean, guys like Peter F. Hamilton and even Richard Morgan are technically inferior writers to Reynolds, but both - in their tin-pot ways - are capable of strumming the odd emotional note in the reader's mind. With Reynolds it's very cold and clinical. Kubrickian, almost. He certainly doesn't seem capable of getting to grips with complex and motivating human themes such as love, revenge and redemption - the brand of stuff Iain M. Banks rattles off in his sleep.

Which leaves me with mixed feelings over Reynolds. He's got promise. But it's kind of like a river flowing beneath the ice. Occasionally you see a brief hint of movement in the inky depths. But only occasionally. What makes him the current darling of the publishing industry I'm not sure. Don't get me wrong, I like reading his work (mostly), but if you were to ask me whether he - above other sci-fi writers - is worth the multi-million dollar book deal he recently negotiated I'd have to say no.

I just finished Lost City of Z by David Gann and Forever War by Dexter Filkins. I was in a non-fiction mood, and both are great. I always wanted to read more/see more Indiana Jones-esque adventures, and Lost City delivers. The author connects the modern and the mystery together quite well. I want to be that type of explorer (though, I would likely die within weeks of setting foot in the jungle.)

Forever War is fantastic. With vignettes of scenes from Afghanistan to NYC to Iraq, its the first reporting I have read that makes the reporter look better. This guy lived it and shares all aspects of his time. Great stuff.

My next book is Mr. White's Confession by Robert Clark. It should arrive in the next day or so.

I loved the hell out of that book.

Hard Bolied Wonderland and the End of the World and The Wind-Up Bird Chronicle are both great reads as well.

Have you tried reading "The Worst Journey In The World" by Apsley Cherry-Garrard? It is regarded by many good judges (including National Geographic) as the best book on exploration ever published. Garrard was part of Robert Falcon-Scott's ill-fated Terra Nova expedition to claim the south pole for Britain. Scott's attempt is only covered third hand because Garrard was sent back to base camp once he - and his colleaagues - had served the purpose of hauling supplies and depot laying. The real guts of the book concerns Garrard, "Birdie" Bowers and Edward Wilson's attempt to claim the eggs of the emperor penguin from Cape Crozier. It's a truly harrowing journey into immense danger, terrible weather and the ultimate decision of choosing to live or die. Amidst all this the three develop a life-affirming bond of friendship that really does raise the hairs on the back of your neck.

I also recommend Scott's diaries for the Terra Nova and the earlier Discovery expeditions. The former leaves you wondering how it is possible for human beings to endure such agonies and still function. Scott himself was practically a machine (a label used to both damn and glorify him over the years). And then there's Ernest Shackleton's "South: The Endurance Expedition" which details the most miraculous journey/escape ever put to print. As a companion piece try "Shackletons Forgotten Men: The Untold Tale of an Antarctic Tragedy" by Lennard Bickel, which will affirm your faith in humanity.

If you like your adventures warm and sunny I must recommend "Blood River: A Journey to Africa's Broken Heart" by Tim Butcher, which concerns his attempt to retrace the footsteps of Livingston who followed the mighty Congo river on foot from its source in the centre of the continent to where it flows out into the Atlantic. This is no lavishly funded "Long Way Round" - Butcher goes hardcore adventuring with just a few dollars in his boot, a backpack and little else. But what makes the story so special is the fact that - at the time - the Congo was the most dangerous place on earth and Butcher was in grave peril throughout his journey.

I also suggest "The Dig Tree: The Extraordinary Story of the Burke and Wills Expedition" by Sarah Murgatroyd. Here she shines light on Robert Burke's daring yet foolhardy attempt to cross the vast, arid and very lethal Australian outback in order to link the northern coast to the south. To say the expedition was a shambles would be an understatement and, given this handicap, it's astonishing they managed to get so far.

Let Me In -- I'm 200 pages in and, so far, I prefer the movie version. Many useless subplots, and Hakan's love for young boys is hilariously non offensive.

That's not really hit or miss, though. More like one weaker debut (which even Chabon himself admits has major problems) and three great novels.

Nobody should judge him by Mysteries of Pittsburgh.

FANTASTIC MR. FOX by Roald Dahl. Always surprised at the level of real danger, violence, and small stories in these old kids' books. Oh, the book is good. The movie probably expands a bunch on everything.

THE KANGAROO NOTEBOOK by Kobo Abe. Abe is one of my favorite writers. A descendant from Kafka ala Murakami, Kosinski, etc. (Both of those authors are excellent, BTW.) In KANGAROO NOTEBOOK the narrator wakes up to find his legs covered in radish sprouts. The doctor cannot explain the condition, so sends him on a sentient hospital bed to a hot spring which appears to be in hell. Along the way he encounters explosive squid come-to-life from a thriller novel, demon children, etc. KANGAROO NOTEBOOK was written a few years before Abe's death. It's obvious, not only in the deterioating condition of the protagonist, not only in his journey to hell or a hell-like place, but also in the overall tone of things. It's dripping with that very Japanese feeling of accepting the passing of things. It's a thin book, only 100+ pages, but I've put it down for a few days after each chapter. Just too melancholy despite the gleeful surrealism and stripped-down, jounralistic prose.

Oh yeah I fuckin' lost Sputnik Sweetheart on the bus so I guess I'll be buying the L.A. Public Library a copy. About to start Jeannette Walls' memoir, The Glass Castle.

You're obviously an anti-semite.

But as much as I like Chabon, he's hit or miss with me as well. You'd probably like his book of essays, Manhood For Amateurs.

Well, yeah, my last name's German.

I read a couple of lukewarm reviews on it, but fuck it I'll just get it from the liberry.

Finished up Bloch's Psycho, which was adapted pretty faithfully, and then read William S. Burrough's short novel Queer.

Just started Millennium: Gehenna.

Reading Oedipus The King for my Drama class (not gay).

Hard to sympathize with the man. He's too much of a motherfucker.

The Glass Castle was good, but my colleagues at work hated it. It reads like Angela's Ashes. " We were poor and starving. And we are starving. The baby died. And we are still starving."

There is a lot of suffering, but the fact she made it was always impressive

...as in, a novelization of the TV show Millennium's first season episode Gehenna?

If so, that is kind of fucking awesome.

There's a great story in this biography of Robert Altman I'm reading about how he got his Iranian cameraman to impersonate a prince to get a suite in Vegas. Then an actual Iranian prince showed up, and the cameraman asked Altman what to do, and Altman said "we bail." Turns out, the prince was a fan of the cameraman from his days playing youth soccer in Iran, and went along with the ruse, including paying for the suite. Long story short, Altman lost a bunch of money in Vegas.

The book has a lot of stories like that.

Yeah, it was a little TOO oppressive and my copy had pages falling out, so I took it back. I'll check it out in the future when I'm actually depressed about shit and need some perspective.

Second favorite book ever!

Well you should go out and read one of my favorite books ever. If you don't know what it is just ask Cameron.

I, um, didn't know there'd be a test. A little help, is it something I recommended?

You seem to recommend it your stubborn friend all the time in the Crime Fiction thread.

Ah, that. Yes, yes he should. Dwayne McDuffie of JLU and Milestone Comics fame actually just e-mailed me to say thanks for telling him about it.

Just to be clear, are you talking about "Do They Know I'm Running"?

That's a great book, but we're talking The Power of the Dog, Don Winslow's epic novel about the war on drugs.

RE: Do They Know I'm Running - Jesus christ, Cameron. I love this book.

Johnny Porno hits stores next week. Its by the greatly underrated Charlie Stella. Its set in 1973 New York and is about the NYC Mafia and their involvement in Deep Throat(The porno, not Mark Felt). Its more Donnie Brassco than Goodfella's, because its about the guys working the streets, not the higher level guys living the good life.

Can't. Reading my favorite book ever right now.

Did they helicopter him to a hotel for the night after a day's climbing?

Are you honestly saying that the verifiable feats he has performed on camera are not so jaw droppingly impressive as to put nearly accomplishment in your life to shame? I excelled at the gnarly climbing tower way back when at YWCA camp, at I like to think of myself as at least moderately out doorsy... But the stuff he does on that show I'd never be able to do even with two lifetimes of training.

His life story is hugely impressive, he seems kind, is well spoken and charming. He has a wealth of fascinating knowledge on a broad range of subjects.

He only ever slept in a hotel once or twice and that partly had to do with filming permits. Sure some stuff like his 'sudden'
cobra encounter was staged..* But he still encountered a fucking cobra!*

He is a consummate gentleman (and, to put it mildly, Mr Grylls is easy on the eyes), and the ideal host for a show called MAN VS WILD

I am kind of still at a loss for how he is not everyones favorite person ever

PS He owns his own tropical castaway island !

So, basically, you don't give a shit about the book, you just want to fuck the author, right?

It's okay, my dad went through something similar with Tana French a year or so back.

Yes.

That is both equally rude and retarded.

I just started reading Something Wicked This Way Comes. I was considering holding off until the fall, but that seemed a little silly I guess.

Alright. I just ordered both of these based on your recommendations, along with a novel about "The Endurance", Joe Halderman's "The Forever War", and the preorder of "The Girl Who Kicked the Hornets Nest." I know "The Girl With the Dragon Tattoo" isn't too popular around these parts, but I was really impressed with the first two books in Larsson's series.

Right now I'm finishing up "The Songs of Distant Earth" by Arthur C. Clarke. I'm not really a big fan of sci-fi (a lot of it is a little too geeky and out there for me), but I've really enjoyed Clarke's novels. "Rendezvous with Rama", "Childhood's End" and "The Songs of Distant Earth" have all been amazing. If anyone else is a fan of his, do you have any other recommendations? I bought a book of short stories of his from Half Price Books, but I'm wondering if he has any other novels that are highly regarded (outside of the 2001 series).

I'm alternating between The Blood Crown of Conan by Robert E. Howard and Ebert's I Hated, Hated, Hated This Movie. I love reading his older reviews of bad movies from the 1970s and 80s, especially because he's such a giant perv.

Kevin Mackin... It is neither rude nor retarded. It's a statement of fact. I don't exclude myself from the list of people who have never acheived anything as impressive as Mr Grylls has*. I was not intending it as any special slur on Mr Jscsavanagh. I just meant it as a reality check.

Mr Grylls broke his spine after a five hundred foot drop with an undeployed parachute. He was told he would never walk again. Six months later he climbed Everest becoming the youngest english person ever to do so. Oh, and these days he jumps through the frozen ice of lake Baikal *recreationally*

I accidently fell through the ice of a pond I was throwing rocks through with friends once, but somehow that does not stack up
I don't mean to insult you guys, but I kind of suspect there might be a weird male jealousy thing going on behind some peoples dislike of Grylls. I seriously don't get how everyone is not his fan
*execpt maybe meeting State Senator Barack Obama in 2004 and predicting his Presidency before 2020

I'll be the first to admit, there are plenty of people that I feel that I would pale in their comparison, but Bear Grylls is not one of those people. Even if you forgot that he has rountinely faked parts of his show, the fact remains that he is an impressive survivalist, nothing more. Yeah, that's cool and all, but there are a LOT more impressive people, doing a LOT more impressive things.

Hell, I find John Krakauer to be more interesting and worthy of praise; but like I said, I get the feeling that you'd just like to fuck the guy, so you're objectivity is obviously in question.

I just finished Serena by Ron Rash and it was fucking awesome. You guys that are into really good current fiction, as well as historic fiction, with a little bit of good old fashioned southern Gothic and crime fiction thrown in, Rath, Cameron and Jake (as far as I can tell from this thread), should all check it out.

I started The Family: The Secret Fundamentalism at the Heart of American Power by Jeffrey Shallat last night, and I'm burning through the pages. It's really, really good, and really, really frightening.