BOOKS THREAD

Reading DFW's "Both Flesh and Not" right now. Some esoteric stories, but also others that are more approachable. It's hard to believe he's been dead for nine years. What a tortured genius.

 

Finished "Woman in Cabin 10" a highly acclaimed thriller for 2016. I enjoy thrillers and found this about a 6 (SJ scale). The author had an earlier one "In a Dark Dark Wood" or something like that which I found better. This was not as good as "Girl on a Train" or "Gone Girl".

 

Found this on sale at Half Price Books last weekend, and finished it this morning.

Not as good as his other stuff. It's the story of a wanna-be artist and the guy from a rich family she ends up marrying. It's got some creepy moments, but kinda fell flat, especially at the end.

Joe Bob less-than-enthusiastically says check it out.

 

Just reread Catcher in the Rye bc I'm working on a coming of age novel and wanted to sample some well known ones for research. Not sure it has much of anything to say to teenagers of today, though I thought it was sorta funny back in the late 80s when I first read it.

Reading Flaubert's "Sentimental Education" now, another such coming of age story. Can anyone recommend such books or novellas that they particularly enjoyed?

Thanks

 

I have not read Catcher in the Rye since the 80's but I've got to believe that its as relevant now as it was when I read it. That's the magic of literature, the settings change but the themes are timeless. Of course, the readers need to look past their initial time bias and open themselves to the message.

 

That's the thing, I don't think CITR is timeless in its themes bc the people and attitudes it describes are not timeless (at least to me). They seem particular to the time. Holden seems less like a nonconformist and more like a groundless cock. Maybe that's the point. A book like the Ginger Man holds up better for me in its refutation of norms. That obviously dealt with people who were a bit older.

Holden is a prep school kid who grew up on Park Ave and prep schools and basically was a spoiled brat with depression. I dunno, it never completely resonated with me anyway, even though I went to prep school and knew plenty of spoiled assholes (probably myself included).

 

Never understood people's obsession. His Kenyon College commencement address was OK, but man, Infinite Jest was boring and long and I'm glad I didn't muscle through and finish it. He just struck me as obscure, pedantic and a boor. Then again, I love Nabokov, whom many have described the same way.

 

Haven't read any of DFW's fiction, but his non-fiction—which I am not alone in suspecting isn't entirely non-—is pretty frigging good. Consider the Lobster, the collection, is well worth the read. Same with String Theory, his tennis collection.

 

I wanted to like this one a lot more than I did. It was very, very well-researched, but parts of it read like a textbook. Here's what happened this year. Here's what happened the next year. There was no narrative that tied the whole thing together. But, the title does say "The History of....," so there ya' go.

And, this is the editor in me coming out, many times, a band or a record label or a country would be called "they." Sometimes, the author would be correct and call it an "it," but more times than not, it was "they."

Joe Bob says...maybe...check it out.

 

Is this new? I recall Ed Ward writing a History of Rock and Roll under Rolling Stone's banner years ago.

 

He co-wrote Rock of Ages: The Rolling Stone History of Rock & Roll in 1986.

The History of Rock & Roll Volume 1 came out last year.

 

Thanks, I will look for that