BOOKS THREAD

I really like Gatsby, but my favorite Fitzgerald book was: Tender is the Night. I also really enjoyed The Last Tycoon, though it ended abruptly, for obvious reasons.

 

OK, I've read some books, and to celebrate I'm gonna make my 5,000th post.

"The Last Day of Summer" by Steve Kluger ... good storytelling and great presentation (through letters and cards, not ongoing narrative). Makes me want to pick up some of his other stuff.

"Up For Renewal" by Cathy Alter ... I was seduced because I'm a magazine junkie and the premise of this book is a woman taking the advice of women's magazines for a full year. Really good insight and an interesting commentary on the genre of mags without indicting them all as crap.

Interesting thing about this one is it falls into the "year of" category, of which there have been many. Newsweek did an article on the phenomenon: http://www.newsweek.com/id/41781

Next up for me is a book published by one of my colleagues at the paper. I'm hoping I like it so I can give a favorable report, but it's a military book so I'm a little wary that I won't understand anything.

 

Can't say it's my favorite FSF book, because Gatsby is so ingrained as one of my all-timers, but I really liked "This Side of Paradise."

Not because it's, umm, a coherent story or anything, although it is well-told, but because I read it at a point in my life when I felt as disillusioned as Amory Blaine and the book really connected with me.

Don't think I've picked up "Tender is the Night," for some reason, but I might have to do that soon.

 

Respectfully, In Dubious Battle, in my opinion, tried a little too hard. The words seemed to flow like water in other books, especially East of Eden, which makes me cry all over it every time I read it; some pages are stained. My favorite Steinbeck by a large margin, and my favorite novel of all time.

 

In observance of his death, I suggest David Foster Wallace's "Infinite Jest." I bought it as a first edition when Esquire and Details (when it was a good magazine) both had incredible reviews of it in the same month. I've read it twice, and the second reading reveals details and links that escaped me upon the first reading, especially the end notes. Easily in my top 10 books of all time.

If you don't want to tackle 1,000 words -- and it's a dense, hilarious, dictionary-checking 1,000 -- check out "A Supposedly Fun Thing I'll Never Do Again." The shock of recognition was cool when he wrote in a story about growing up and playing tennis Philo, Illinois; I lived in Champaign at the time, and I knew about the Urbana snobs he talked about.

"Brief Interviews With Hideous Men" was painfully good.

I haven't gotten through "Everthing and More", his book about math and infinity, but what I've read so far makes it understandable -- and cool to boot.

Unless he left a letter and his wife decides to release it, we'll never know exactly why he killed himself. I'm just sad he did because I think he had so much more to give, and his loss is our loss.

Rest in peace, David. May you find peace.

 

I just ordered Infinite Jest and hope it won't be too brain-breaking.

 

I think I can handle 1,000 words.

Just kidding. He sounds like a talented guy; sad he couldn't find peace.

 

Any Grisham fans?

I've read several of his books -- the firm, the pelican brief, the last juror, the summons, bleachers, the painted house. Anyone got any recommendations?

 

That's a great book. I liked The Rainmaker, The Partner and The Street Lawyer. I thought The Chamber and The Broker were terrible.

 

A Time To Kill was tremendous and the first Grisham book I read. I think it's his best by a pretty big margin.

 

Armed Madhouse, by Greg Palast

The world's assholes hate this book.

Thus, odds are you'll love it.