What Book Did You Read Last Night??? (6 Viewers)

[Lili Marlene]

FINALLY I UNDERSTAND

The 50 Coolest Books Ever - Entertainment - ShortList Magazine


I've read seven and two separate halves off that list. Very uncool. I've read all the Harry Potters though

 

[David Kronenbourg]

FINALLY I UNDERSTAND

The 50 Coolest Books Ever - Entertainment - ShortList Magazine


I've read seven and two separate halves off that list. Very uncool. I've read all the Harry Potters though

I've read 27. Cool but not too cool, therefore cooler than any spa who's read all 50.

 

[Denny Oubidoux]

I've read three of them. It looks like the "Cult Fiction" section in Chapters. I hate that section, if a book is in there I'm not going to read it.

 

[тхеодоре кацзынски]

17 here.
Atlas shrugged is cool?

 

[Lili Marlene]

It's also biased massively towards white, North American, male writers.

COOL

 

[Jill Hives]

I've only read 10 of those and two were for High School. :/

 

[hugh]

Christ, I've read 30 of them. I'm so predictable. And yeah, Ayn Rand is cool???? What kind of idiot thinks Ayn Rand is cool?

 

[rettucs]

Christ, I've read 30 of them. I'm so predictable. And yeah, Ayn Rand is cool???? What kind of idiot thinks Ayn Rand is cool?

 

[тхеодоре кацзынски]

Give the man some credit.

 

[Jim Daniels]

My first James Salter - A Sport and a Passtime.

Really beautiful and vivid writing early on, but the eroticism has kicked in, which is ironically, a real turn off.
I find sex scenes in books to be ludicrous. I'll try a few more though as his writing is so impressive.

Picked it up 2nd hand in Chapters, which is why I started with this one..

 

[Nate Champion]

My first James Salter - A Sport and a Passtime.

Really beautiful and vivid writing early on, but the eroticism has kicked in, which is ironically, a real turn off.
I find sex scenes in books to be ludicrous. I'll try a few more though as his writing is so impressive.

Picked it up 2nd hand in Chapters, which is why I started with this one..

Yeah, it's a strange one. My feelings exactly. I had read The Hunters (his first, I think) before which is an awesome, beautifully written book about masculinity, competition and failure. (I'll save you a plot synopsis because it'll sound like Top Gun).

Been looking for a secondhand copy of Light Years myself. Interested to see how his suburban marriage one is in comparison to Updike, Yates, et al.

The last Salter I read was his autobiography, which is another feast of a book. Burning the Days. He renders his own life so beautifully, thus making it all sound so impossibly romantic. Whilst coming across as a grounded, considerate human being. No mean feat.

And there's a nice interview with him in the Paris Review (google it)

I hear your point, Jim, about erotic/sex writing. Robert Coover may be the only fiction writer to ever give me a proper hard on. He's a naughty little man.

Anyway Salter has a new book out this year. He's even on facebook!

FINALLY I UNDERSTAND

The 50 Coolest Books Ever - Entertainment - ShortList Magazine


I've read seven and two separate halves off that list. Very uncool. I've read all the Harry Potters though

Yeah, these things give me the willies. It's always the same fucking writers. Jesus, dig a little deeper.

Ooh, they have the token Calvino (it's a good one, mind).

Always Pynchon. William Gaddis did exist, yaknow. Pricks.

Phew, fourteen and a half. Two were for seminars though (Fight Club and In Cold Blood). And two when I was a teenager.

I'm surprised The Dharma Bums is there. That is the only Kerouac I like. Two Kerouacs on a list though? C'mon. Dig deeper. Or is he cool again, when he's not making a tit of himself on old youtube clips?

People are always banging on about Perfume. Chess soc auditors and the like. People who don't read a hell of a lot and then proclaim it to be one of the best books ever written, it being one of the few they've read. Christ.

I've read three of them. It looks like the "Cult Fiction" section in Chapters. I hate that section, if a book is in there I'm not going to read it.

I hear ya. But at the same time, you'll be missing out on some spiffy American post-modern stuff.
Are you talking about the second hand cult section also?

Anyway, read Muriel Spark's The Comforters last week. She's cheeky. Spark has her cake and eats it too. Yum yum yum. Best Spark yet.

Ambling through William Maxwell's autumnal All the Days & All the Nights also. Reads like a kinder, more innocent Cheever perhaps. I haven't read Maxwell in a while. Always good to go back to him.

 

[Lili Marlene]

50 Incredibly Tough Books for Extreme Readers – Flavorwire

eh... six.

 

[rettucs]

50 Incredibly Tough Books for Extreme Readers – Flavorwire

eh... six.

3 and a half.

I can't remember if I read the Naked Lunch or not. I think I might have. So maybe 4 and a half.

 

[David Kronenbourg]

3 and a half.

I can't remember if I read the Naked Lunch or not. I think I might have. So maybe 4 and a half.

what was the half?

 

[rettucs]

what was the half?

Proust. I just figured that life was too short to waste anymore time with it (sorry @Shaney)

 

[hugh]

Think I've read 6 of them. Certainly started Gravity's Rainbow but not sure I ever finished ....

 

[David Kronenbourg]

i've made several failed attempts at gravity's rainbow.

 

[Denny Oubidoux]

I hear ya. But at the same time, you'll be missing out on some spiffy American post-modern stuff.
Are you talking about the second hand cult section also?

Anyway, read Muriel Spark's The Comforters last week. She's cheeky. Spark has her cake and eats it too. Yum yum yum. Best Spark yet.

Ambling through William Maxwell's autumnal All the Days & All the Nights also. Reads like a kinder, more innocent Cheever perhaps. I haven't read Maxwell in a while. Always good to go back to him.

The secondhand cult section only has about 6 books i think. I wish William Maxwell had more books. That said, I've had Mr's Donald's Dog Bun and His Home Away From Home sitting on the shelf for the last year or two and I still haven't rad it.

 

[Denny Oubidoux]

50 Incredibly Tough Books for Extreme Readers – Flavorwire

eh... six.

I've read three of those (Proust, Underworld and something else)

Proust. I just figured that life was too short to waste anymore time with it (sorry @Shaney)

Are you sure you don't mean half of a seventh? Its the best book ever, it'd be perfect if he hadn't lost the run of himself in the last volume.

 

[Denny Oubidoux]

Oh yeah, Pet Cemetery? That was the third. What the hell is that there for?