MikeyLikesIt
from Calgary is reading Don't get too comfortable - David RakoffJanuary 21, 2012 - 11:55am
Jamesey - I just picked up Stephen King's 11.22.63 as well. The marathon that will ensue after I read the first page will be epic.
Also picked up the Steve Jobs Biography and the original, unabridged version of Peter Pan.
bryanhowle - I feel the same way about the first Vonnegut I ever read, Sirens of Titan.
Charles
from Portland is reading Mongrels by Stephen Graham JonesJanuary 21, 2012 - 12:08pm
@sam: im sorry
Jay.SJ
from London is reading Warmed and BoundJanuary 21, 2012 - 12:11pm
I haven't read Regeneration but I read the last book in the trilogy, The Ghost Road. First (and only, so far) book to make me cry. It's great. Although I don't think my favourite character is in that book, Billy Prior.
Sam Sturdivant
from Hayward, Ca is reading MurphyJanuary 22, 2012 - 3:00am
I think I'll live. Luckily, most of the books are ones I want to read. The stuff that isn't listed consists mostly of more Virginia Woolf and Jane Austen.
Deets999
from Connecticut is reading Adjustment DayJanuary 22, 2012 - 11:53am
I just bought The Family Fang and the new C Whitehead novel.
Jay.SJ
from London is reading Warmed and BoundJanuary 22, 2012 - 12:09pm
Women, Ham on Rye and Post Office by Bukowski.
Pete
from Detroit is reading Red DragonJanuary 22, 2012 - 2:10pm
Nice! Jay I always love the books you buy and read.
Jay.SJ
from London is reading Warmed and BoundJanuary 22, 2012 - 2:17pm
Pete, you do know that's because I base a lot of them off your book selection clubs and goodreads picks right? Today I genuinly went on goodreads, saw you describe Bukowski and brought them!
bryanhowie
from FW, ID is reading East of Eden. Steinbeck is FUCKING AMAZING.January 22, 2012 - 3:56pm
I love Bukowski. Reading his prose in order is a great journey.
My favorite book of poetry is You Get So Alone at Times That It Just Makes Sense
Renfield
from Hell is reading 20th Century GhostsJanuary 22, 2012 - 4:08pm
Good thrift store score:
Jim Harrison - Legends of the Fall
George Pelecanos - The Night Gardener
Denise Mina - The Dead Hour (some skank yoinked Field of Blood right before I could get to it)
on the nook:
Nick Mamatas - Starve Better
Pete
from Detroit is reading Red DragonJanuary 22, 2012 - 4:53pm
Right on Jay! That's awesome. haha
You were one of the people that pushed me to give bizarro a shot. So we've both been helping each other out nicely.
.
January 22, 2012 - 7:46pm
Which Bukowski book should I start with I wonder...
Pete
from Detroit is reading Red DragonJanuary 22, 2012 - 9:35pm
Women was my favorite. Post Office and Factotum are good too. But Women is my favorite. Maybe just because it's the first one I read.
bryanhowie
from FW, ID is reading East of Eden. Steinbeck is FUCKING AMAZING.January 22, 2012 - 9:45pm
Women was the first I read and my favorite, too. I'd start with Post Office, though.
aliensoul77
from a cold distant star is reading the writing on the wall.January 22, 2012 - 10:39pm
I got the book, "Your Anus and You". I'm learning that my anus is my best friend.
Alex Kane
from west-central Illinois is reading Dark OrbitJanuary 23, 2012 - 9:05am
Just picked up A Fire Upon the Deep by Vernor Vinge and Accelerando by Charles Stross.
Judging by their plot summaries, and the reviews I've read, they're among the best science fiction novels of the past two decades. Right now I'm finishing up Star Wars: Darth Plagueis by James Luceno -- it's too bad he hadn't written the scripts for the prequel films. They would've been damn good movies, if Plagueis had actually been part of the story arc. Instead Lucas forced us to follow the gripping development of a banished Gungan.
bryanhowie
from FW, ID is reading East of Eden. Steinbeck is FUCKING AMAZING.January 23, 2012 - 11:33am
@Aliensoul77 Your anus is my best friend, too.
Jeremy Robert J...
from Portland, OR is reading an unreasonable number of books.January 23, 2012 - 12:13pm
Got Cameron Pierce's LOST IN CAT BRAIN LAND last night. And finishing up King's FULL DARK, NO STARS this week.
Jeremy Robert J...
from Portland, OR is reading an unreasonable number of books.January 23, 2012 - 12:16pm
Jay.SJ
from London is reading Warmed and BoundJanuary 23, 2012 - 12:17pm
What did you think JRJ? I liked it other than the first story, which kind of dragged on for me until near the end. The one about the loan extension was a good one, although I was confused that it was described as "Hilarious" and "King's funniest story" considering I didn't laugh once. Maybe it was my British sense of humour.
Jeremy Robert J...
from Portland, OR is reading an unreasonable number of books.January 23, 2012 - 12:25pm
Agreed that the first story has its share of meandering (though I liked the voice, and the ever more miserable condition of the body in the well was alternately funny and disturbing). I think it's a really solid collection, though it's not going to knock DIFFERENT SEASONS or SKELETON CREW any lower on my list.
And, yeah, "funny" King usually just hits me as "goofy" King.
Renfield
from Hell is reading 20th Century GhostsJanuary 23, 2012 - 9:03pm
Did you see Mamatas' list of Ten Bits of Advice Writers Should Stop Giving Aspiring Writers? Pretty funny. -- JRJ
Yeah saw that on Twitter. I missed hearing about the book until the Stoker Award shortlist popped up and picked it up immediately. I find it pretty hilarious that despite his vehement hate for writer advice, he keeps writing really smart, useful advice. Halfway into the book now, it's really interesting to see him do the shop-talk from a writer and an editor's viewpoint. I don't why I read these kind of books, other than they're like TMZ network for storytellers, but this is probably one of the more thought-inducing.
Flaminia Ferina
from Umbria is reading stuffJanuary 24, 2012 - 5:03am
So, last week I ordered The Devil All The Time for the book club. And also Warmed And Bound - finally - and Amy Hempel's Collected Stories.
Too bad there's a massive truckers strike in Italy these days.
I used to love strikes.
JamestheBaker
from Oregon is reading The Number of the Beast by Robert A. HeinleinJanuary 24, 2012 - 6:02am
Waiting for As a Machine and Parts and 2030: What Really Happens to America to get in the mail. Should be today!
Sam Sturdivant
from Hayward, Ca is reading MurphyJanuary 29, 2012 - 3:40am
This is most of what I just purchased for my semester. I still need to get five or six more.
Sam Sturdivant
from Hayward, Ca is reading MurphyJanuary 29, 2012 - 3:42am
Oops, this was a double post.
Jeremy Robert J...
from Portland, OR is reading an unreasonable number of books.January 29, 2012 - 2:01pm
Just copped DEVIL ALL THE TIME and threw it into the nighttime reading rotation in prep for the Book Club next month.
aliensoul77
from a cold distant star is reading the writing on the wall.January 29, 2012 - 4:22pm
Nice pile of books there. That's weird James Ellroy wrote a novel caleld "Blood's a rover". Harlan Ellison was supposed to write a novel called that like twenty years ago, it was the name of his long never produced novel.
aliensoul77
from a cold distant star is reading the writing on the wall.January 29, 2012 - 4:37pm
I'm actually looking to try some new stuff by contemporary writers that are weird, strange, gritty but not cartoony or too over the top. I like horror but sometimes too much supernatural stuff can come off cheesy. What authors would you say are worth my time, I mean there are all these books out I see on amazon that claim to be cutting edge or dark fiction but filled with the usual cliches. What books have you read (lesser known authors) that you just went, "Wow, that was awesome"?? Something where the prose is as good as the story.
Korey
January 29, 2012 - 4:50pm
I just finished reading Blueprints of the Afterlife by Ryan Boudinot. This book is definitely worth checking out. I give terrible summaries so here is a link to the book if anyone wants more info. http://www.powells.com/biblio/71-9780802170910-0
What else did I pick up....?
Wide Eyed and Baby Geisha by Trinie Dalton. Her sentences are amazing. http://sweettomb.com/
Oh, I grabbed another copy of Slaughterhouse 5. The bindings on a few of my old Vonnegut paperbacks gave out. Now I need to find something to do with them because I don’t have the heart to throw them out.
Pete
from Detroit is reading Red DragonJanuary 29, 2012 - 5:20pm
Alien - grab By The Time We Leave Here, We'll Be Friends by J. David Osborne. Thank me later.
Boone Spaulding
from Coldwater, Michigan, U.S.A. is reading Solarcide Presents: Nova ParadeJanuary 29, 2012 - 5:41pm
All used, all several years old:
The Violence of Our Lives: Interviews with American Murderers by Tony Parker
The Living Great Lakes: Searching for the Heart of the Inland Seas by Jerry Dennis
The Farther Shore by Matthew Eck
...and four Richard Laymon titles I don't remember.
Jeremy Robert J...
from Portland, OR is reading an unreasonable number of books.January 29, 2012 - 5:59pm
Alien- Ketchum, Brian Evenson, John Shirley, Cody Goodfellow, J. David Osborne, Stephen Graham Jones, Laird Barron. And Selby's stuff usually produces a sense of horror for me. And Robert R. McCammon and Lansdale have some great stuff that's non-supernatural and still very intense.
Chester Pane
from Portland, Oregon is reading The Brief and Wondrous Life of Oscar Wao by Junot DiazJanuary 29, 2012 - 6:49pm
Alien sounds tasty. I really like Evenson.
Thrift store finds this weekend:
Richard
from St. Louis is reading various anthologiesJanuary 29, 2012 - 8:11pm
@JRJ - one hell of a stack. i have most of those.
@aliensoul77 - i'd say Stephen Graham Jones (ALL THE BEAUTIFUL SINNERS, THE ONES THAT GOT AWAY), Craig Davidson (RUST & BONE, THE FIGHTER, and SARAH COURT [pictured above in JRJ's stash), Paul Tremblay (IN THE MEAN TIME) for sure. hell, check out almost all of my book reviews at TNB. and don't shy away from the ladies, either. Lindsay Hunter (DADDY'S) is one of my favorites authors going, and Tina May Halls' PHYSICS OF IMAGINARY OBJECTS was so great. CUT THROUGH THE BONE by Ethel Rohan, too.
Jay.SJ
from London is reading Warmed and BoundJanuary 30, 2012 - 12:48am
Went to a used book store and got:
Sex On The Moon by Ben Mezrich
Bright Lights, Big City by Jsy McIniry
Headhunters by John King
Jennifers Government by Max Berry
All for about £8? Swhing.
J David Osborne
from Portland, OR
January 30, 2012 - 3:55pm
'The Bayou Trilogy' by Daniel Woodrell. Almost tore through the whole first novel in one sitting. Probably the best crime writing I've read since Pelecanos's last one.
Richard
from St. Louis is reading various anthologiesJanuary 30, 2012 - 6:14pm
^very cool, JDO. got that myself, recently along with Winter's Bone. and i've got your novel here too, been meaning to dig into that for a long time, just buried.
Pete
from Detroit is reading Red DragonJanuary 30, 2012 - 6:32pm
Richard read it now! You won't be disappointed it. It kicks the most amount of ass possible. :)
J David Osborne
from Portland, OR
January 30, 2012 - 10:14pm
I know what you mean, RT. I've got a stack myself. Pete: you are my dude. Luh you, bruh.
Pete
from Detroit is reading Red DragonJanuary 31, 2012 - 12:10am
Haha thanks!
bryanhowie
from FW, ID is reading East of Eden. Steinbeck is FUCKING AMAZING.January 31, 2012 - 12:04pm
Utah
from Fort Worth, TX is reading Lonesome Dove by Larry McMurtryJanuary 31, 2012 - 12:11pm
@Bryan: I've read a bit of that. There is some good stuff in there.
Max Redford
from Your basement. is reading Mirrorshades: The cyberpunk anthology, Mondo 2000: Guide to life on the New Edge, Book of CthuluJanuary 31, 2012 - 12:16pm
Grr. Double-posted.
Max Redford
from Your basement. is reading Mirrorshades: The cyberpunk anthology, Mondo 2000: Guide to life on the New Edge, Book of CthuluJanuary 31, 2012 - 12:15pm
Was at my local used bookstore the other day and picked up a few books. The only one I've started reading is Blood Oath by David Morrel. I love his style.
JameseyLefebure
from Liverpool, Uk is reading The Gunslinger- Stephen KingJanuary 31, 2012 - 2:44pm
I just got (and have very nearly finished) The Talisman graphic novel, i got it for £2.19 on play.com! :)
it's not very good unfortunately which is a shame though cause the book it's based on is brilliant!! :)
JameseyLefebure
from Liverpool, Uk is reading The Gunslinger- Stephen KingJanuary 31, 2012 - 2:45pm
oh and @Mikeylikesit - what do you think if 11.22.63? I've not had much time to read, but i'm about 60 pages in and think it's very good!!
Ash
from the dark ghoulish woods creaking just outside the unhinged door, the macabre biting at the heels. is reading Our Tragic UniverseFebruary 1, 2012 - 3:22pm
I just bought Germline by T.C. McCarthy and Our Tragic Universe by Scarlett Thomas. Reading Our Tragic universe first because i've read other Scarlett thomas books and they're really great. I'm not disapointed so far.
Mike Mckay
is reading God's AshtrayFebruary 1, 2012 - 11:05pm
These little buggers finally got to my mail box. Anyways my week has been going great so far how about you guys?
Mike Mckay
is reading God's AshtrayFebruary 1, 2012 - 11:08pm
Jamesey - I just picked up Stephen King's 11.22.63 as well. The marathon that will ensue after I read the first page will be epic.
Also picked up the Steve Jobs Biography and the original, unabridged version of Peter Pan.
bryanhowle - I feel the same way about the first Vonnegut I ever read, Sirens of Titan.
@sam: im sorry
I haven't read Regeneration but I read the last book in the trilogy, The Ghost Road. First (and only, so far) book to make me cry. It's great. Although I don't think my favourite character is in that book, Billy Prior.
I think I'll live. Luckily, most of the books are ones I want to read. The stuff that isn't listed consists mostly of more Virginia Woolf and Jane Austen.
I just bought The Family Fang and the new C Whitehead novel.
Women, Ham on Rye and Post Office by Bukowski.
Nice! Jay I always love the books you buy and read.
Pete, you do know that's because I base a lot of them off your book selection clubs and goodreads picks right? Today I genuinly went on goodreads, saw you describe Bukowski and brought them!
I love Bukowski. Reading his prose in order is a great journey.
Post Office (1971)
Factotum (1975)
Women (1978)
Ham on Rye (1982)
Hollywood (1989)
My favorite book of poetry is You Get So Alone at Times That It Just Makes Sense
Good thrift store score:
Jim Harrison - Legends of the Fall
George Pelecanos - The Night Gardener
Denise Mina - The Dead Hour (some skank yoinked Field of Blood right before I could get to it)
on the nook:
Nick Mamatas - Starve Better
Right on Jay! That's awesome. haha
You were one of the people that pushed me to give bizarro a shot. So we've both been helping each other out nicely.
Which Bukowski book should I start with I wonder...
Women was my favorite. Post Office and Factotum are good too. But Women is my favorite. Maybe just because it's the first one I read.
Women was the first I read and my favorite, too. I'd start with Post Office, though.
I got the book, "Your Anus and You". I'm learning that my anus is my best friend.
Just picked up A Fire Upon the Deep by Vernor Vinge and Accelerando by Charles Stross.
Judging by their plot summaries, and the reviews I've read, they're among the best science fiction novels of the past two decades. Right now I'm finishing up Star Wars: Darth Plagueis by James Luceno -- it's too bad he hadn't written the scripts for the prequel films. They would've been damn good movies, if Plagueis had actually been part of the story arc. Instead Lucas forced us to follow the gripping development of a banished Gungan.
@Aliensoul77 Your anus is my best friend, too.
Got Cameron Pierce's LOST IN CAT BRAIN LAND last night. And finishing up King's FULL DARK, NO STARS this week.
Renfield-- Did you see Mamatas' list of Ten Bits of Advice Writers Should Stop Giving Aspiring Writers? Pretty funny.
What did you think JRJ? I liked it other than the first story, which kind of dragged on for me until near the end. The one about the loan extension was a good one, although I was confused that it was described as "Hilarious" and "King's funniest story" considering I didn't laugh once. Maybe it was my British sense of humour.
Agreed that the first story has its share of meandering (though I liked the voice, and the ever more miserable condition of the body in the well was alternately funny and disturbing). I think it's a really solid collection, though it's not going to knock DIFFERENT SEASONS or SKELETON CREW any lower on my list.
And, yeah, "funny" King usually just hits me as "goofy" King.
So, last week I ordered The Devil All The Time for the book club. And also Warmed And Bound - finally - and Amy Hempel's Collected Stories.
Too bad there's a massive truckers strike in Italy these days.
I used to love strikes.
Waiting for As a Machine and Parts and 2030: What Really Happens to America to get in the mail. Should be today!
This is most of what I just purchased for my semester. I still need to get five or six more.
Oops, this was a double post.
Just copped DEVIL ALL THE TIME and threw it into the nighttime reading rotation in prep for the Book Club next month.
Nice pile of books there. That's weird James Ellroy wrote a novel caleld "Blood's a rover". Harlan Ellison was supposed to write a novel called that like twenty years ago, it was the name of his long never produced novel.
I'm actually looking to try some new stuff by contemporary writers that are weird, strange, gritty but not cartoony or too over the top. I like horror but sometimes too much supernatural stuff can come off cheesy. What authors would you say are worth my time, I mean there are all these books out I see on amazon that claim to be cutting edge or dark fiction but filled with the usual cliches. What books have you read (lesser known authors) that you just went, "Wow, that was awesome"?? Something where the prose is as good as the story.
I just finished reading Blueprints of the Afterlife by Ryan Boudinot. This book is definitely worth checking out. I give terrible summaries so here is a link to the book if anyone wants more info. http://www.powells.com/biblio/71-9780802170910-0
What else did I pick up....?
Wide Eyed and Baby Geisha by Trinie Dalton. Her sentences are amazing. http://sweettomb.com/
Oh, I grabbed another copy of Slaughterhouse 5. The bindings on a few of my old Vonnegut paperbacks gave out. Now I need to find something to do with them because I don’t have the heart to throw them out.
Alien - grab By The Time We Leave Here, We'll Be Friends by J. David Osborne. Thank me later.
All used, all several years old:
The Violence of Our Lives: Interviews with American Murderers by Tony Parker
The Living Great Lakes: Searching for the Heart of the Inland Seas by Jerry Dennis
The Farther Shore by Matthew Eck
...and four Richard Laymon titles I don't remember.
Alien- Ketchum, Brian Evenson, John Shirley, Cody Goodfellow, J. David Osborne, Stephen Graham Jones, Laird Barron. And Selby's stuff usually produces a sense of horror for me. And Robert R. McCammon and Lansdale have some great stuff that's non-supernatural and still very intense.
Alien sounds tasty. I really like Evenson.
Thrift store finds this weekend:
@JRJ - one hell of a stack. i have most of those.
@aliensoul77 - i'd say Stephen Graham Jones (ALL THE BEAUTIFUL SINNERS, THE ONES THAT GOT AWAY), Craig Davidson (RUST & BONE, THE FIGHTER, and SARAH COURT [pictured above in JRJ's stash), Paul Tremblay (IN THE MEAN TIME) for sure. hell, check out almost all of my book reviews at TNB. and don't shy away from the ladies, either. Lindsay Hunter (DADDY'S) is one of my favorites authors going, and Tina May Halls' PHYSICS OF IMAGINARY OBJECTS was so great. CUT THROUGH THE BONE by Ethel Rohan, too.
http://www.thenervousbreakdown.com/author/rthomas/
Went to a used book store and got:
Sex On The Moon by Ben Mezrich
Bright Lights, Big City by Jsy McIniry
Headhunters by John King
Jennifers Government by Max Berry
All for about £8? Swhing.
'The Bayou Trilogy' by Daniel Woodrell. Almost tore through the whole first novel in one sitting. Probably the best crime writing I've read since Pelecanos's last one.
^very cool, JDO. got that myself, recently along with Winter's Bone. and i've got your novel here too, been meaning to dig into that for a long time, just buried.
Richard read it now! You won't be disappointed it. It kicks the most amount of ass possible. :)
I know what you mean, RT. I've got a stack myself. Pete: you are my dude. Luh you, bruh.
Haha thanks!
The Best American Noir of the Century on the Kindle for $1.99. Today's Amazon e-book deal.
@Bryan: I've read a bit of that. There is some good stuff in there.
Grr. Double-posted.
Was at my local used bookstore the other day and picked up a few books. The only one I've started reading is Blood Oath by David Morrel. I love his style.
I just got (and have very nearly finished) The Talisman graphic novel, i got it for £2.19 on play.com! :)
it's not very good unfortunately which is a shame though cause the book it's based on is brilliant!! :)
oh and @Mikeylikesit - what do you think if 11.22.63? I've not had much time to read, but i'm about 60 pages in and think it's very good!!
I just bought Germline by T.C. McCarthy and Our Tragic Universe by Scarlett Thomas. Reading Our Tragic universe first because i've read other Scarlett thomas books and they're really great. I'm not disapointed so far.
These little buggers finally got to my mail box. Anyways my week has been going great so far how about you guys?
I guess you have to click to enlarge (sighs)