The Bookworm Thread

Post by **®eddit®efugee** » Fri May 17, 2019 7:45 am

Whatcha reading?

(My answer: C.J. Archer Glass and Steele series)

Are you looking for suggestions?

(Not so much at the moment but anything optimistic without being saccharine. The world is kind of stressing me out so I'm looking for happy endings or worlds to marvel at, especially if there are witty or otherwise comedic elements.)

Anyone want to start a book club or even an article club?

I wanted to post this thread because lately I've been lucking out and finding my fantasy novels that I want to read on https://www.epub.pub/

I haven't quite figured out overdrive or the Libby app (both use libraries) but that may be because I find a free book on Amazon (typically first in the series) and then want to read all the next ones, rather than browsing the library and checking them out from there. But when I try to use overdrive or Libby for my three library cards, they don't show up so it may just be my authors aren't represented in libraries much because they probably just do Kindle sales.

Anyway, greetings to the bookworms!

Post by **herbalhippie** » Fri May 17, 2019 7:55 am

I LOVE BOOKS!! <3

Currently reading What's Eating Gilbert Grape. I'd seen the movie years ago but hadn't read the book yet.

Post by **beathappening** » Fri May 17, 2019 8:15 am

Oh nice

I've been reading a lot lately...jack kerouac, Jules Verne, Henry James, Edgar Allan Poe...

Right now I'm reading some of Plato's Dialogues as well as Porno by Irvine Welsh (sequel to trainspotting)

Not currently looking for recommendations...I have a few in the queue...There's a used bookstore near my apartment that sells books by the pound...it's hard not to spend a bunch of money there. I find so much good stuff there...they have a whole library of used books in the basement.

Post by **®eddit®efugee** » Fri May 17, 2019 9:10 am

Beatthehappening--

I presume you're in the UK so I'm not sure if you have access to the show, but on the US Netflix there is a show called The Good Place which has three seasons so far. While it is kind of an upbeat, quirky, short show it has a lot of philosophy in it and does a lot of playful work broaching what we owe to one another as well as philosophies behind heaven and hell. Since you're into philosophy, I highly recommend it.

Here are two articles with a philosophical bent that you may like. I really like the second one though the primary essay (linked in PDF form in the first couple of paragraphs is better and only about 8 pages I think.)

https://www.vox.com/future-perfect/2019 ... stin-smith

https://qz.com/967554/the-five-universa ... stupidity/

Post by **herbalhippie** » Fri May 17, 2019 9:51 am

Pretty sure beat happening is in the US. the use of the word queue threw me off for a second this morning as well.

Post by **swablero** » Fri May 17, 2019 9:57 am

herbalhippie wrote:Pretty sure beat happening is in the US. the use of the word queue threw me off for a second this morning as well.

Beat could have some software development experience. I use that word in that particular context as well. For example, heres a sentence, we seem to have a prioritiezed queue for our trading post sales.

Post by **®eddit®efugee** » Fri May 17, 2019 9:59 am

swablero wrote:
herbalhippie wrote:Pretty sure beat happening is in the US. the use of the word queue threw me off for a second this morning as well.

Beat could have some software development experience. I use that word in that particular context as well. For example, heres a sentence, we seem to have a prioritiezed queue for our trading post sales.

It was books by the pound actually as I skim read that to mean a pound as a monetary denomination rather than weight. Rereading his post I realize my error.

Post by **KurtisCards** » Fri May 17, 2019 12:44 pm

beathappening wrote:Oh nice

I've been reading a lot lately...jack kerouac, Jules Verne, Henry James, Edgar Allan Poe...

Right now I'm reading some of Plato's Dialogues as well as Porno by Irvine Welsh (sequel to trainspotting)

Not currently looking for recommendations...I have a few in the queue...There's a used bookstore near my apartment that sells books by the pound...it's hard not to spend a bunch of money there. I find so much good stuff there...they have a whole library of used books in the basement.

when i was locked up i went on a huge "beat" book binge, with Kerouac, Burroughs and Ginsberg. awesome stuff

Post by **beathappening** » Fri May 17, 2019 4:51 pm

I'm in Minnesota, no software experience haha. I didn't even think much of the word queue, I thought it was commonly used by (coincidentally) Netflix, like your Netflix queue. I'm glad I'm not in the UK...I believe kratom was recently banned there. This bookstore actually weighs your books at checkout, I think it's like $4 per pound. So good news if you're picking up paperbacks, not so good for hardbacks or reference books.

I think I've seen one episode of the good place, but it was season 2 episode 1 so I had no idea what was going on. I will check out the first season

KurtisCards wrote: when i was locked up i went on a huge "beat" book binge, with Kerouac, Burroughs and Ginsberg. awesome stuff

I love Burroughs, he may be my favorite author. I've read Junky many, many times. I'm slightly obsessed with his and Kerouac's lives. Terribly depressing though. You're lucky you had access to such good books in jail! I've been in several times and it's usually just unreadable romance novels.

Post by **herbalhippie** » Fri May 17, 2019 5:12 pm

beathappening wrote:
I love Burroughs, he may be my favorite author. I've read Junky many, many times.

I've never read this! Just tried to order it from the library and they didn't have it but this popped up, so I ordered it.

https://www.amazon.com/Literary-Rogues- ... 0062077287

Also ordered Sometimes a Great Notion by Ken Kesey while I was at it.

Post by **beathappening** » Fri May 17, 2019 5:32 pm

herbalhippie wrote:I've never read this! Just tried to order it from the library and they didn't have it but this popped up, so I ordered it.

Also ordered Sometimes a Great Notion by Ken Kesey while I was at it.

I'm fairly confident you'll like it (I can't see anyone not liking it, but I'm biased). It's about Burroughs' experiences in post WWII New York and Mexico as a morphine/heroin/alcohol addict, during the time when he shot his wife in a drunken game of William Tell (true story). It doesn't resemble his later work much...it's written in a very clear, simple, matter of fact way. The way he describes opiate withdrawal is very memorable. It's great, I wish I still owned a copy. There's a companion novel called Queer that was written at the same time...a sequel of sorts.

Post by **herbalhippie** » Fri May 17, 2019 5:35 pm

beathappening wrote:
herbalhippie wrote:I've never read this! Just tried to order it from the library and they didn't have it but this popped up, so I ordered it.

Also ordered Sometimes a Great Notion by Ken Kesey while I was at it.

I'm fairly confident you'll like it (I can't see anyone not liking it, but I'm biased). It's about Burroughs' experiences in post WWII New York and Mexico as a morphine/heroin/alcohol addict, during the time when he shot his wife in a drunken game of William Tell (true story). It doesn't resemble his later work much...it's written in a very clear, simple, matter of fact way. The way he describes opiate withdrawal is very memorable. It's great, I wish I still owned a copy. There's a companion novel called Queer that was written at the same time...a sequel of sorts.

I sent a suggestion to the library. If they don't want to buy it, they'll find a copy and do an inter-library loan. I've gotten hard to find books to read from all over the country that way.

Post by **e_poison** » Fri May 17, 2019 7:24 pm

My favorite book by far is House of Leaves. I'm not a big reader (I'm more of an audio/visual person so I prefer movies and podcasts), but I devoured that book in a few days and no other book has ever drawn me in as much.

It has a very unique style rarely ever seen in literature - some pages only have 1 word, or are written in strange patterns to mirror the events of the story. They also contain footnotes that reference things like films and books that don't exist. It's a story within a story within a story. Very hard to explain, but captivating and really surreal to read.

My other favorites are Lord of the Flies (love the theme), The Hobbit, and Robinson Crusoe.

Post by **®eddit®efugee** » Fri May 17, 2019 7:48 pm

e_poison wrote:My favorite book by far is House of Leaves. I'm not a big reader (I'm more of an audio/visual person so I prefer movies and podcasts), but I devoured that book in a few days and no other book has ever drawn me in as much.

It has a very unique style rarely ever seen in literature - some pages only have 1 word, or are written in strange patterns to mirror the events of the story. They also contain footnotes that reference things like films and books that don't exist. It's a story within a story within a story. Very hard to explain, but captivating and really surreal to read.

My other favorites are Lord of the Flies (love the theme), The Hobbit, and Robinson Crusoe.

We definitely need a podcast thread. Since you like them, you should start one. I bet that would probably cause even more conversation than books.

I've never read house of leaves. I know I should, but just never got around to it.

The idea of a jail with nothing but the worst of romance novels makes me laugh. I read romance and even I know how much dreck there is out there. That's some serious bullshit.not having a variety of books should be considered a form of torture and therefore a human rights abuse because of how the human mind responds to either isolation, or imprisonment with nothing to keep busy with.

Post by **herbalhippie** » Fri May 17, 2019 10:45 pm

®eddit®efugee wrote:
The idea of a jail with nothing but the worst of romance novels makes me laugh. I read romance and even I know how much dreck there is out there. That's some serious bullshit.not having a variety of books should be considered a form of torture and therefore a human rights abuse because of how the human mind responds to either isolation, or imprisonment with nothing to keep busy with.

Absolutely. Cruel and unusual punishment.

Post by **KurtisCards** » Sat May 18, 2019 1:24 am

in jail, yes books are terrible

prison on the other hand, amazing book selection haha and if the prison didnt have it, we could order it from amazon.

Post by **beathappening** » Mon May 20, 2019 10:11 pm

e_poison wrote: My other favorites are Lord of the Flies (love the theme), The Hobbit, and Robinson Crusoe.

I just got a copy of Lord of the Flies today! Haven't read it since high school. I'd love to read the Hobbit again...I didn't care much for the Lord of the Rings series, but I really liked the Hobbit.

I also got a number of other used books today...
Jon Krakauer, F. Scott Fitzgerald, Tom Wolfe, Cormac McCarthy, and others. It was a good haul! Really into 20th century American classics right now.

Post by **herbalhippie** » Tue May 21, 2019 12:00 am

beathappening wrote: Cormac McCarthy

Which McCarthy did you get?

My favorite is Suttree.

Post by **beathappening** » Tue May 21, 2019 7:29 am

All the Pretty Horses.

I actually haven't read any of him yet, but I heard this one was one of his best.

Post by **swablero** » Tue May 21, 2019 8:56 am

Blood Meridian is a dark masterpiece. Incredible writing.

Post by **®eddit®efugee** » Tue May 21, 2019 9:06 am

I keep wanting to read the trilogy (in fact I think my husband and I were planning on doing that after watching No Country for Old Men) but I read either one or two books of it in high school and as beautiful as I remember it being...I also remember it being really depressing. Sometimes all that tension and negative stuff (especially when a protagonist just keep getting pounded by life and unfair experiences) it's hard not to take a long breather and then not get back to it. Is it better than I remember?

Like, Angela's Ashes is a good example of this for me.

Post by **swablero** » Tue May 21, 2019 9:26 am

®eddit®efugee wrote:I keep wanting to read the trilogy (in fact I think my husband and I were planning on doing that after watching No Country for Old Men) but I read either one or two books of it in high school and as beautiful as I remember it being...I also remember it being really depressing. Sometimes all that tension and negative stuff (especially when a protagonist just keep getting pounded by life and unfair experiences) it's hard not to take a long breather and then not get back to it. Is it better than I remember?

Like, Angela's Ashes is a good example of this for me.

Blood Meridian (i guess your talking about Pretty Horse) does have the potential to be incredibly bleak and depressing. Just incredible prose however. I first read it when I was younger and the bleak mood and graphic moral violence didn't bother me. Rereading it outside the context of academics is a bit much. I still dip into it just to get the rhythm of the prose.

Post by **®eddit®efugee** » Tue May 21, 2019 9:31 am

Speaking of bleak but magnetic prose, have you read the Annihilation trilogy?

Post by **herbalhippie** » Tue May 21, 2019 10:01 am

®eddit®efugee wrote:
Like, Angela's Ashes is a good example of this for me.

Just read that again recently. Another one along that line is The Glass Castle.

Post by **GrannyJ62** » Thu May 30, 2019 6:10 pm

Just love all kinds I have Amazon prime for Kindle so I get to pick 1 newbook from first reads.I love kindle but I do miss real books

Post by **herbalhippie** » Sat Jun 22, 2019 12:07 am

beathappening wrote:

I love Burroughs, he may be my favorite author. I've read Junky many, many times. .

Just got it today, it was an inter-library loan from out of the area.

Post by **Payshince** » Sat Jun 22, 2019 12:32 am

Im trying to focus more on the current Books Ive had near by half read-ish for a while now.
What would you all recommend and or what works best for you aka what are your favorite strains, veins, blends, for when you’re Reading?

Post by **trigger** » Sat Jun 22, 2019 3:05 am

e_poison wrote:My favorite book by far is House of Leaves. I'm not a big reader (I'm more of an audio/visual person so I prefer movies and podcasts), but I devoured that book in a few days and no other book has ever drawn me in as much.

It has a very unique style rarely ever seen in literature - some pages only have 1 word, or are written in strange patterns to mirror the events of the story. They also contain footnotes that reference things like films and books that don't exist. It's a story within a story within a story. Very hard to explain, but captivating and really surreal to read.

My other favorites are Lord of the Flies (love the theme), The Hobbit, and Robinson Crusoe.

I bought this last year, but haven’t been able to dive into it since we had a baby. It looks soooo cool!

Post by **trigger** » Sat Jun 22, 2019 3:06 am

herbalhippie wrote:
beathappening wrote:

I love Burroughs, he may be my favorite author. I've read Junky many, many times. .

Just got it today, it was an inter-library loan from out of the area.

Great taste!

Post by **herbalhippie** » Sat Jun 22, 2019 7:33 am

I can't remember if I've ever read any Burroughs before. I just started it last night, I do like the way he writes so far.

I just finished The Haunting of Hill House by Shirley Jackson. Excellent psychological horror story. If you get a newer edition, it has an excellent intro to it. If it's your first time reading the book, I'd save the introduction until after you read the book though.

Post by **beathappening** » Tue Jul 02, 2019 1:54 am

Just finished a few.
Siddhartha by Herman Hesse.
Lord of the Flies by William Golding.
Porno by Irvine Welsh

Currently in the middle of The Right Stuff by Tom Wolfe. Its the 50th anniversary of the Apollo 11 moon landing, so it seems apt.

Post by **diophantine** » Tue Jul 02, 2019 9:45 am

Some great reads being mentioned here. Loved Blood Meridian and House of Leaves. I am re-reading Fernando Pessoa's The Book of Disquiet.

Post by **beathappening** » Tue Jul 02, 2019 11:07 am

herbalhippie wrote: Just got it today, it was an inter-library loan from out of the area.

I hope you like it! I find the drug culture of the late 40s/early 50s to be endlessly fascinating. It's groundbreaking in that regard. It's all autobiographical too (although he probably exaggerated some parts). some of the anecdotes are incredibly graphic and accurate; his description of opiate withdrawal is spot on. He did a lot of experimenting trying to find a cure ..if only he knew about kratom back then! He really did kill his wife and go on the run to Mexico. In fact, if you watch the 1991 movie Naked Lunch, it's more of a personal bio than a retelling of the book and it depicts certain events from Junky.

It's nothing like his later work, fair warning if you read the book Naked Lunch (another classic Beat era writing, right up there with Kerouac's On the Road and Ginberg's Howl) and after. It gets very disturbing and abstract and bizarre. He somehow lived into his 80s, and kept writing novels and poems until his 1997 death. If you've ever seen Drugstore Cowboy with Matt Dillon, he has a part in it as a junky priest.

Ok I'm done, I promise! Sorry to ramble on, it's a huge interest of mine heh

Anyway, enjoy Junky!

Post by **beathappening** » Mon Jan 27, 2020 11:29 pm

BUMP

I've been reading more classic novels from the used bookstore. Latest ones:

Franz Kafka - The Trial
John Steinbeck - Cannery Row
Daniel Defoe - Robinson Crusoe

Got a few more in the queue, but I'll need to re-up soon

Anyone read anything good lately??

Post by **Babel-17** » Tue Jan 28, 2020 1:30 am

If anyone likes older titles, you can often find them online, legally, and free, at openlibrary.org.

A person donates a physical book, they scan it, and then it can be legally loaned to one person at a time.

https://openlibrary.org/

https://openlibrary.org/search?q=Willia ... ltext=true

There's a wait list for Junky but plenty others are available.

https://openlibrary.org/works/OL15867504W/Junky

Lol, hearing him read Seven Souls for the Sopranos Season Six opener was amazing.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oKYNXo-jUBo

Post by **kmu777** » Tue Jan 28, 2020 1:48 am

beathappening wrote:Just finished a few.
Siddhartha by Herman Hesse.
Lord of the Flies by William Golding.
Porno by Irvine Welsh

Currently in the middle of The Right Stuff by Tom Wolfe. Its the 50th anniversary of the Apollo 11 moon landing, so it seems apt.

Siddhartha is a classic; love that book. I recently finished “The Brief Wondrous Life of Oscar Wao” by Junot Diaz, and just started on “This is How You Lose Her.” His style is very unique & unlike anything I’ve read.

Post by **beathappening** » Tue Jan 28, 2020 9:59 pm

kmu777 wrote: Siddhartha is a classic; love that book. I recently finished “The Brief Wondrous Life of Oscar Wao” by Junot Diaz, and just started on “This is How You Lose Her.” His style is very unique & unlike anything I’ve read.

Yeah I really liked Siddhartha. I like reading about eastern religions and Buddhism in general. The Tao The Ching was very interesting. I'll keep an eye out for other Hesse titles.

Babel-17 wrote:If anyone likes older titles, you can often find them online, legally, and free, at openlibrary.org.

This is a great resource and I'm definitely glad it exists, but for me there's no substitute to owning the actual book and being able to see it on the shelf. It's also an aesthetic thing to read a physical copy; I've tried reading books online and just didn't like it. Plus I'm working with only a smart phone now.

I'm into Dante's Inferno now. The copy I have is an English translation and has helpful commentaries. I think after that I'll reread Mark Twain's Adventures of Huckleberry Finn - I want to figure out if Twain intended it to be anti-racist or if it's just a product of the times (late 1800's)..I've seen arguments for both. But it's considered a classic novel so there should be something redeeming to it.

Post by **mivanqua** » Thu Jan 30, 2020 2:29 am

herbalhippie wrote:
beathappening wrote:
I love Burroughs, he may be my favorite author. I've read Junky many, many times.
I've never read this! Just tried to order it from the library and they didn't have it but this popped up, so I ordered it.

https://www.amazon.com/Literary-Rogues- ... 0062077287

Also ordered Sometimes a Great Notion by Ken Kesey while I was at it.

Look, guys! Junky is a great book. I'm not going to say it's not BUT if you are just quitting or are actively struggling with opiate/oid abuse issues, I would maybe stay away until you are on more level ground. Getting boxes full of cubes of morphine and his descriptions of shooting are a little too close for comfort for this PAWSing addict (at one point, caused a relapse.) If you're strong willed or confidently "over it," and have some time behind you, that's different. Just a cautionary word to the wise. Again, super awesome and enthralling book. Just....right on in the smack department.

Post by **beathappening** » Thu Jan 30, 2020 3:25 am

Junky is one of my favorite novels, I must have read it 10+ times. I was using opi's heavily at the time though. Haven't read it since, maybe it would be triggering now. I have it memorized more or less. One of the things I like about it, is it doesn't glorify drug use, it merely documents it in a very objective way, to the point where is could be considered non-fiction. It's basically an autobiography. It displays the perils of drugs as well as alcohol, which takes the spotlight in the second half of the book. He shot his wife in the head and got away with it!

There is a direct sequel to it, "Queer", that picks up where Junky left off. It's not as good, but it's extremely poignant and heartrending, and shows even more of the pain of dopesickness. It's written in the same style, before the drastic departure of Naked Lunch and his work in the 60s and beyond. Burroughs tried all of his life to find a cure for his opiate addiction, I wonder what he would have thought of kratom.

I like all of the Beat authors, mainly Jack Kerouac. I've read many of his novels, including the original unabridged 120-foot scroll that became On the Road. It's interesting that they all make appearances in each other's books, Burroughs is in a lot of Kerouac's stuff under different names.

Post by **IndelibleDotInk** » Fri Jan 31, 2020 10:37 am

Dune by Frank Herbert. Absolute masterpiece, rich characters, so many themes, esp. spice as a model of oil industry in our present day.

Read it before the new movie comes out later this year!