read through Ayn Rand’s Anthem this week. Quick read. nice to have some insight into the author since shes so often referenced by politicians
I’ve read On The Road myself and wasn’t too taken by it, it’s just Kerouac talking about his travelling and idolising his friend while also despising homosexuality.
The Road I’ve not read, but I have read Blood Meridian. It’s beautifully written while being incredibly bleak and disturbingly graphic at points. I think it’s a better book to convince somebody to become Christian than anything else I’ve read.
I also finished up Gravity’s Rainbow just before school began, and I still don’t know what to make of it. Pynchon’s an absolute virtuoso coming close to Joyce’s approach to maximalist writing style, but funnier, and a hell of a lot weirder. The plot revolves very loosely around an American living in London who gets erections whenever a rocket is near, during World War II. He sets off on a quest to find one particular rocket and ends up in central Europe as the war ends. And that’s about the most I can say about the plot.
Over the past two days I read Escape From Camp 14, the story of the only person born in a North Korean prison camp to ever escape. It shows a world beyond even the terrors of the holocaust of WWII, and Shin’s story is pretty uplifting in his ability to find a semblance of hope in the blackest pits known to man. But the writing is a bit flat and the writer isn’t able to engage with Shin in the way I had hoped.
I’d ready Psychoblue’s book, but I read one of SRK’s stories and it was just awful. I can’t take that risk again.
“On The Road” by Keroac is great. Its a time piece about moving on, and culturing, albiet slowly, and randomly. I like the pseudo journalism and growing notion of it.
Anyone read any of the Asia series by Clavell?
I’m in the middle of Tai Pan at the moment. I’ve finished Sho Gun, Gai Jin and King Rat. The first two being quite verbose, managed to maintain a story with quite some cohesion, intracacy and not stall. King Rat was quite a departure from the two… though, its message I feel is very prominent, and the subject matter something often overlooked in reagrds to the current state of POWs, rather than what is focused on them in their after effects
An edit to not double post:
I’m a Card junkie, the Ender series and the Shadow series are brilliant. The Homecoming series I found particularly well done, though the last book was kind of ass.
I really haven’t read anything by Hunter S Thompson that I haven’t appreciated.
I would recommend that those into smart satire check out a book called ‘Lamb’, narrated by the 13th apostle, Biff of Nazareth, close friends of Jesus, who gives an account of things that build the persona of him, and “explain” his unaccounted for time in the bible. Satirical, clever, and highly humorous. Very well done piece of literature. Christopher Moore I believe is the author’s name
Which one?
I’d tell you if I remembered. I made it half-way through but couldn’t go on. The idea was great, but the prose needed some tightening.
Yeah, I doubt Sheol Must Fall is going to have the same problem. I proofread it and then had someone else proofread it on top of that. It also helps that I wasn’t bound by the rules of fanfiction with this one since I’ve been building the Sheol world for a few years now, tightening it up and rewriting the plot a few times over.
Re-reading All My Friends Are Going To Be Strangers. Good book for people who are or were writers, itinerant college students, guys in their 20s, etc.
Can you send it over to me by secretive means? PM me if so.
I know there’s a writing thread bobbing around in here somewhere, but I’m on my phone right now and can’t be assed to skim it up.
Anyway, I know we’ve got some writer types hanging around in here, so check this out. It’s Pixar’s 22 rules of storytelling. Excellent stuff: http://www.pbjpublishing.com/blog/pixars-22-rules-to-phenomenal-storytelling-infographic/
I’m just now getting around to checking this thread! AWESOME! And congrats, mate! I hope to one day share with you the horrors joy of being published!
Check out Eye of The Needle, by Ken Follett. Straight up good thrillers written by this guy. I think it will deliver. :tup:
Cool title. What’s it about?
This dude sells his first novel, gets into a horribly toxic marriage, and his life generally goes to hell from there. Very Saul Bellows-esque.
It’s by Larry McMurtry, if that helps. One of his non-westerns, although it takes place in the southwest.
So Thomas Pynchon, the guy that’s been writing ridiculous stoner hipster/modernist intellectual multi-layered doorstoppers since 1963 is on about videogames and anime in his new novel. Fuck man, give it a rest, let the rest have something to write about. You already got vast quantities of American history done, just die already
I’d rather read the signature on loop, than the book.
My god, was that awful tripe.
Especially compared to the first three books.
But it sucked regardless of them, too.
Dance wasn’t much better.
I swear, it’s like Martin got tired of people being all antsy anticipating his new book, and decided to neuter the hype the hard way.
Shame… I loved the first three.
Yea that book was sloooooow.
I wish Martin would have just stuck to his guns and skipped ahead ten years after book three like he originally planned.
Debating whether or not to pick up a copy of Bob Holly’s “Hardcore Truth”. I go to the same gym he does and copies are sold there, that and I hear good stuff about it from other pro wrestling fans. Maybe when I finish up Lean Mean Thirteen.
I red a buk abot ho 2 spel, dnt git et.
Got a free audiobook from audible, any suggestions?