What are you currently reading?

[Simple Torture]

Original thread: http://archive.theskyiscrape.com/viewto ... 9cdd6110a8

Over the last week (or two):

Denis Johnson - "Train Dreams"
Mariane Hauser - "The Talking Room"
E.L. Doctorow - "Ragtime"

[The Argonaut]

We had a great time at your dinner party, the wife wanted me to say thank you

[Simple Torture]

I liked Ragtime, but I've got no idea about anything else of his. It's a pretty quick read, I'd recommend it.

[Sigerson]

The Five Red Herrings - Dorothy L. Sayers
After Dark - Haruki Murakami
From Hell - Alan Moore with art by Eddie Campbell

[VinylGuy]

what joe hill book should i read?

[epilogue]

Still reading this. About half way through. And I love, love, love it!

[washing machine]

First up on my Kobo is CivilWarLand in Bad Decline, by George Saunders. Truly disturbing stuff.

[Birds in Hell]

The Big Sleep - Raymond Chandler

Enjoying the hell out of it.

[The Argonaut]

We had a great time at your dinner party, the wife wanted me to say thank you

[Mickey]

[spike]

Spoiler: show

[Chloe]

When you are engulfed in flames - David Sedaris
Hope to finish it this weekend.

[griffinxi]

Reading:
"The Greatest Show on Earth" -- Richard Dawkins
"Blueprints of the Afterlife" -- Ryan Boudinot

And I got a Kindle for Christmas, so I'm reading Moby Dick for kicks.

[nah]

readers digest

[dkfan9]

Keynes- The General Theory of Employment, Interest, and Money

Some good stuff early, but this "propensity to consume" section is boring the shit outta me. Looking forward to the "inducement to invest" section.

Tim Layden- Blood, Sweat, and Chalk

Liking it a lot so far. Seems a good deal better than Jaworski's book.

[washing machine]

Still working on that Saunders. I'm finding that each story in this collection needs about a day to wear off before I begin the next one. I found that to be true of the Amy Hempel stories that I recently read as well.

[spike]

readers digest

on average, how much time do you spend on the toilet per day?

[Simple Torture]

Still working on that Saunders. I'm finding that each story in this collection needs about a day to wear off before I begin the next one. I found that to be true of the Amy Hempel stories that I recently read as well.

CivilWarLand, right? I started re-reading this today and got through everything except the novella. I actually think it's worth reading everything in nearly one sitting, as this time through I noticed lots of things that went over my head the first time.

[washing machine]

Still working on that Saunders. I'm finding that each story in this collection needs about a day to wear off before I begin the next one. I found that to be true of the Amy Hempel stories that I recently read as well.

CivilWarLand, right? I started re-reading this today and got through everything except the novella. I actually think it's worth reading everything in nearly one sitting, as this time through I noticed lots of things that went over my head the first time.

Yeah, CivilWarLand. What kind of stuff are you picking up? Every one of these stories has a narrator with such a bad relationship to the past, and there's an overwhelming amount of references to creepily named products. I don't quite know what to make of it, but I like it.

[Simple Torture]

Still working on that Saunders. I'm finding that each story in this collection needs about a day to wear off before I begin the next one. I found that to be true of the Amy Hempel stories that I recently read as well.

CivilWarLand, right? I started re-reading this today and got through everything except the novella. I actually think it's worth reading everything in nearly one sitting, as this time through I noticed lots of things that went over my head the first time.

Yeah, CivilWarLand. What kind of stuff are you picking up? Every one of these stories has a narrator with such a bad relationship to the past, and there's an overwhelming amount of references to creepily named products. I don't quite know what to make of it, but I like it.

The products and commodifications are definitely important, methinks. Other things I noticed: every story, with maybe the exception of "Isabelle," is about work and how it affects every characters' life. Some of them are dedicated, but for the most part work just isn't working for them (so to speak). Almost every story takes place during a time of economic hardship, too, so it's not like these characters can just walk away and find something else to do. Really interesting to me as these were all stories from the 1990s, when the economy was getting stronger and stronger. Also, I once almost wrote a paper on historical re-creation parks; could still happen!