What did you just finish reading?

[bignewt]

Finished Dungeon Crawler Carl. Fun, light read. Didn't know there were 8 books or I might have not started.

Started Plainsong by Haruf

 

[Orange.]

@bignewt, nice photo of the old country

You’d think more novels would be set there

 

[franklinpence]

Reading Bewilderment by Richard Powers. Random pickup from the library, but I’m enjoying the father-son relationship so far, and there are a few gems in his writing.

Also wrapping up Endurance by Alfred Lansing. The men on that voyage were something else.

 

[bignewt]

Finished Plainsong by Haruf. A book written in the style of the story and very true to the title. Plain. Like an instrument playing one note simply. But good.
Now I have some options but I think Im going to start Insomnia, nonfiction about Robbie Robertson and Martin Scorsese's coke fueled days.

 

[NorCalVol67]

Wine and War: The French, the nazis and the Battle for France’s Greatest Treasure
About how winemakers saved their wine during occupation. Fun read for a wino and history buff.

Plan to reread Edward Abbey Desert Solitaire next.

 

[Danl]

The Passenger and Stella Maris.
Cormac McCarthy is undoubtedly a great writer. His ability to paint a picture, develop interesting characters, and use prose that sends me to the dictionary multiple times per book is remarkable.
But, I just don't grok McCarthy. I enjoy reading his books for the reasons above and I perceive his awesome writing skills. But, often, I just don't like his stories.

 

[bignewt]

The Passenger and Stella Maris.
Cormac McCarthy is undoubtedly a great writer. His ability to paint a picture, develop interesting characters, and use prose that sends me to the dictionary multiple times per book is remarkable.
But, I just don't grok McCarthy. I enjoy reading his books for the reasons above and I perceive his awesome writing skills. But, often, I just don't like his stories.

Agree with all of this except the last sentence of course.

 

[Orange.]

Finished Plainsong by Haruf. A book written in the style of the story and very true to the title. Plain. Like an instrument playing one note simply. But good.
Now I have some options but I think Im going to start Insomnia, nonfiction about Robbie Robertson and Martin Scorsese's coke fueled days.

For no apparent reason I listened to some of The Last Waltz yesterday, which I haven’t heard in years. I just realized it was likely a subconscious response to your post on Wednesday.

 

[bignewt]

For no apparent reason I listened to some of The Last Waltz yesterday, which I haven’t heard in years. I just realized it was likely a subconscious response to your post on Wednesday.

Love the book so far. Learning a lot about the process in getting the movie made.

 

[bignewt]

FInished Insomnia, real fun quick read about Robertson and Scorsese in the late 70s. That they both survived the pace was amazing. Was going to start Atilla by Coll but now I realize that it is virtually inaccessible making Joyce seem like Dan Brown so I am going to pivot to The Beetle Leg.

 

[Orange.]

I usually don’t comment about a book before I finish, but near the halfway point I am really enjoying Oliver Twist In Hell, my nickname for Faulkner’s Light In August.

 

[Orange.]

^ I mean, it makes one of Dickens' ophan's tales look like a walk in the park with an ice cream cone.

Light in August is a great high modernist novel. It's very dark and almost completely unrelieved by the threads of dark comedy that enliven The Sound and The Fury and As I Lay Dying. This one, unlike those other two novels, does not employ stream of consciousness (one late chapter excepted). In that sense the writing is straight forward, if elaborate. The technique here is to tell a compelling story from so many characters' unique angles that it's something like reading a cubist painting, if a painting could move back and forth in time. I was captured from the opening chapter. I don't want to talk about the plot because the reader spends the entire book identifying and assembling those pieces. When I finish one of his greatest novels my first impulse is always to reread it.

 

[franklinpence]

^ I mean, it makes one of Dickens' ophan's tales look like a walk in the park with an ice cream cone.

Light in August is a great high modernist novel. It's very dark and almost completely unrelieved by the threads of dark comedy that enliven The Sound and The Fury and As I Lay Dying. This one, unlike those other two novels, does not employ stream of consciousness (one late chapter excepted). In that sense the writing is straight forward, if elaborate. The technique here is to tell a compelling story from so many characters' unique angles that it's something like reading a cubist painting, if a painting could move back and forth in time. I was captured from the opening chapter. I don't want to talk about the plot because the reader spends the entire book identifying and assembling those pieces. When I finish one of his greatest novels my first impulse is always to reread it.

I love Faulkner’s writing. There are no other authors I re-read the way I do Faulkner. Keep a few of his works in my bedside table.

 

[bignewt]

Speaking of Faulkner, just finished The Beetle Leg by John Hawkes which is very much in that surreal style. It frustrated me a bit by how obtuse it could be but kept me just at the edge and I slowly became entranced by the world Hawkes was creating. There were things I still don't quite grasp about it but that's ok. Moving on to another more straight forward, light read, The Devils by Joe Abercrombie.