What are you currently reading?

[blueviper]

The Wright Brothers - David McCullough

His John Adams book is amazing.

ooh, I'll have to check it out. Thanks.

[Simple Torture]

http://archive.theskyiscrape.com/viewto ... d#p2998020

It's Dr. Simple Torture now, you hear?

::party hats::

[Rangi Guy]

http://archive.theskyiscrape.com/viewtopic.php?p=2998020&sid=21799250bd785aba3f205c77eceba43d#p2998020

It's Dr. Simple Torture now, you hear?

::party hats::

Nice work man!

[The Argonaut]

Congrats, ST

[epilogue]

http://archive.theskyiscrape.com/viewtopic.php?p=2998020&sid=21799250bd785aba3f205c77eceba43d#p2998020

It's Dr. Simple Torture now, you hear?

::party hats::

Congrats, Doc! That's awesome.

[bune]

http://archive.theskyiscrape.com/viewtopic.php?p=2998020&sid=21799250bd785aba3f205c77eceba43d#p2998020

It's Dr. Simple Torture now, you hear?

::party hats::

Too awesome, congrats.

[Mickey]

http://archive.theskyiscrape.com/viewtopic.php?p=2998020&sid=21799250bd785aba3f205c77eceba43d#p2998020

It's Dr. Simple Torture now, you hear?

::party hats::

Congrats (and you had A BABY during this? Holy shit man). What'd your diss end up being about?

[Simple Torture]

http://archive.theskyiscrape.com/viewtopic.php?p=2998020&sid=21799250bd785aba3f205c77eceba43d#p2998020

It's Dr. Simple Torture now, you hear?

::party hats::

Congrats (and you had A BABY during this? Holy shit man). What'd your diss end up being about?

We had 3 babies--one is going to be 3 next month and the twins are ten months next week.

It's about the new sincerity in American literature, some gobildeeguk about shifting expectations in readers' views of texts, fragmentation, and coherence coming out of the postmodern era. Even as I was waiting for my committee to get back to me with their final decision, I was thinking about things I could've done differently, research I should've done, etc. But in the end it didn't matter. I think one of the things I learned about the topic very late is that a dissertation is a living document, that there's a lot of research and writing you do that doesn't end up in there, that there's stuff you'll want to do that you'll never get to, and that's fine--as long as you're moving in a productive direction and treating it as a piece of scholarship that others can speak to and disagree with, you're fine.

I took a pretty unconventional path to where I ended up, but if you ever had any questions as you work, let me know!

[epilogue]

Alright so I'm only like 20 pages into Adjustment Day and it's already the best thing Palahniuk has written in a decade.

[bune]

*subscribes to thread for updates*

[epilogue]

This book is great, so far. It's like a spiritual sequel -- or better yet, a wise uncle -- to Fight Club. Here's an author with 20 more yeas and thousands of more pages under his belt, revisiting some familiar territory, but this time from a position of far more authority. Some of the minor themes in Fight Club get to take center stage. And then obviously some real world modern day politics and themes soak into that as well, which I love.

It's nice to see a mature book from Chuck. His writing (I mean literal craft) is the best it's been (maybe ever, but at least since Choke). It's an advanced narrative for him. He's never really tackled this many characters and shifting points of view before. He usually locks in on one or two characters and lets them loose. This is much more pinched and constrained, and tense as a result. I know what's happening but I have no idea what I'm in for.

I'm not even half way through yet (life has been getting in the way of my reading time) but I'm loving this book so far. It's nice to see some of his strengths highlighted and some of his weird ticks downplayed. This feels like he's earned the subject matter, like he's finally grown into these concepts of mayhem and anarchy and gender politics that he wasn't 100% sure about 20 years ago when he wrote Fight Club.

Not that this is super advanced literature, either, don't get me wrong. But it's the most advanced and mature thing Chuck has written so far. I can't wait to see how this spins out. I'm really digging it.

[Norah]

Gave up on American Gods. Re-reading Name of the Wind instead.

[bada]

Gave up on Swiss Family Robinson. I loved the Disney version as a kid and was expecting that...instead I got story about an all knowing religious nut and his four psycho kids that kill every thing in their path with a sort of blood lust you'd expect from a Cormac McCarthy novel. I basically sat on that book for a month and half before giving up. No way I'll hit 50 books now.

[Higgs]

Reading this about the social and other costs of the war on drugs, and I'm fucking pissed, man. I mean, I am damn angry right now.



Really great book by the way. Well researched and well written. I started it on Monday and I'm half way through now. Highly recommended (except for the getting me angry bit).

[Bammer]

I just finished “Origin” by Dan Brown.

I like Dan Brown, OK!!!!!

[Simple Torture]

I just finished “Origin” by Dan Brown.

I like Dan Brown, OK!!!!!

Reading is fundamental (as they say), no one in this thread is gonna judge anything you like.

[bune]

Just finished The Elementals by Michael McDowell and it was great. It's got a bitchin' cover and the story is top-notch. I love the whole thing, from the way things are teased to the setting and characters. It's so good. I could totally see this being a short 8- or 10-episode series from some channel like HBO or Showtime. It's got a nice Southern Gothic feel to it that would pair nicely with True Detective if it gets back that S1 vibe.

[Brett]

It had been a while since I'd done any real reading, but a couple weeks ago I returned to my old favorite, Stephen King, and got a couple of his more recent works that I hadn't read on my Kindle: 11/22/63 and Doctor Sleep . It's always a treat to get lost in the worlds that King builds, and I chewed through both novels in about a week each. I think I liked Doctor Sleep a little bit more, though I found the True Knot slightly underwhelming as antagonists at times.

[tragabigzanda]

Whenever there's active promotion on the part of somebody else, whenever I see somebody all dolled up for a fancy photograph and someone's handing out flyers or whenever there's active promotion for something like that, as an imposition on my day, I hate all those people and I want them to fail. I have a visceral reaction to advertising and promotion. There's just something about salesmanship that grates on me on a very base level and I react very negatively towards it. I want those people to suffer and I want their enterprises to fail.

[epilogue]

Doctor Sleep did very little for me, but I adore 11/22/63.