BOOKS THREAD

Just caught a preview for this with "Jesus Walks" playing in the background. At the end, one soldier says to the other, "Welcome to the Suck."

Awesome. Could be a hell of a movie.

 

Mostly a lurker, but an avid book fan, so I felt the need to post:

One book that's a great read, even with an extremely horrible subject, is "We Wish To Inform You That Tomorrow We Will Be Killed With Our Families" by Peter Gourevitch. It's about the 1994 Rwandan genocide and gives pretty good info about the run-up the the genocide and the fallout, too. This should be required reading.

Also, I've revisited "Cosell" by Howard Cosell. His other book "I Never Played the Game" is pretty good. Whether you loved him or hated him, he had something going for him that most don't in the sports journo world: he got it.

 

That was the very first book when there was an actual book club a year or so ago. I believe it was Moddy who made the pick and this was one of the few picks that actually got discussed.

 

We've got about 10 people who've read Tender Bar. I think we may give the book club one last informal shot as soon as I get done reading it this week. Problem is, you need a book where the readers have two different, yet strong opinions, like Moneyball. Argument generates discussion, then more people drop by to see what the fuss is about, and so on, and so on...

 

Has anyone read Stephen King's new detective novel, The Colorado Kid?

 

OK, so I fired up the Way Back Machine to bring this one up.

But on a recent cross country flight - er, three flights and two layovers - I finally read I Am Charlotte Simmons. I loved it.

At first I was a little repulsed at the picture that Tom Wolfe was painting of college life - entitled and glorified athletes,slutty RAs, egomaniacal frat boys who made fun of their own in spite of "brotherhood," freshman naivete, overprivileged and underfed prep school girls, ... but the more I thought about it I was like, yeah, this was what college was like, for the most part. And I couldn't stop turning the pages. I wanted to find out what happened next.

It was quite engrossing. I loved the twist involving Ivy Pierce. I liked how Charlotte finally decided to tell her roommate to eat a bowl of dicks, but did so in an eloquent fashion. I liked how Tom Wolfe embodied freshman anxieties in every aspect of a newfound life and freedom. I didn't like the final chapter, however. That was the only minor disappointment.

And what did I do? I promptly left the book - a library book, no less - on a chair in the San Diego airport. Damn.

 

Wolfe's recent books seem to end badly.....as if the editor is screaming 'Enough, Tom, it's already 2000 pages,' and he says 'fine, whatever, I'm done.'

 

I totally feel the same way. I really liked A Man in Full until I got to the final 50 pages, which seemed like they were just thrown together to have some sort of ending. I was angry when I finished that long-ass book because I felt cheated.

I haven't read Charlotte Simmons, yet, but I may pick it up today when I go spend $150 on books at Barnes and Noble.

 

i got a man in full early, and then about a year or two later, saw it on the bargain table at b&n for like $5. that's when i'll pick up charlotte

 

Picked up the Namath book at a bargain bin (isn't it a recent release)...really enjoyed it. Most recent read (been out for a few years) was "A Heartbreaking Work of Staggering Genius" by Dave Eggers...wow.

 

AHWOSG was fantastic. I read it because I felt like I ought to, but that sense of just being behind the cultural curve was gone pretty fast, and I ended up flying through it. Just amazingly good stuff.