for an english lit graduate my knowledge of books is not good
― gosh I actually dig this shit (country matters), Wednesday, 24 June 2009 13:52 (fifteen years ago) link
*english lit graduate and wannabe novelist, for shame
OTM, it's gay and butch at the same time. xposts
― collardio gelatinous,
Wha???
― Kevin John Bozelka, Tuesday, June 23, 2009 Bookmark Suggest Ban Permalink
Combine all-male cast, whaling "how-to" instructional interludes, Ahab's obsession to conquer the whale and its mysteries on the one hand with Queequeg slipping into the bunkbed with Ishmael, scenes with sailors ecstatically squeezing whale sperm through their hands on the other...
― collardio gelatinous, Wednesday, 24 June 2009 13:53 (fifteen years ago) link
i saw a great staged version of this last year, and the spermaceti-squeezing scene was dead-on-hilarious.
― remy bean, Wednesday, 24 June 2009 13:54 (fifteen years ago) link
All my friends tell me I'd love Moby Dick
― gosh I actually dig this shit (country matters), Wednesday, 24 June 2009 13:54 (fifteen years ago) link
too easy
― rip dom passantino 3/5/09 never forget (max), Wednesday, 24 June 2009 13:55 (fifteen years ago) link
lol oh shit
― gosh I actually dig this shit (country matters), Wednesday, 24 June 2009 13:58 (fifteen years ago) link
lj moby dick is rad
― Mr. Que, Wednesday, 24 June 2009 13:58 (fifteen years ago) link
oh, i forgot The Iron Man
― Great Scott! It's Molecular Man. (Ste), Wednesday, 24 June 2009 13:59 (fifteen years ago) link
apparently it starts as a novel and then launches into some bizarre poem/play/whaling manual midsection before deciding to become a novel again
i.e. sounds rad
― gosh I actually dig this shit (country matters), Wednesday, 24 June 2009 13:59 (fifteen years ago) link
i h8 books
― rip dom passantino 3/5/09 never forget (max)
ah you just need a little more distance from college reading lists
― m coleman, Wednesday, 24 June 2009 13:59 (fifteen years ago) link
Combine all-male cast...
Right ok. But "gay" and "butch" are paired together in the universe waaaaaaaay more than just in Moby Dick. So why said pairing is special there is a bit perplexing to me.
― Kevin John Bozelka, Wednesday, 24 June 2009 13:59 (fifteen years ago) link
Ten off the top of my head:
Alfred Bester - The Stars My DestinationJohn Brunner - The Sheep Look UpJim Thompson - A Hell of a WomanWilliam Faulkner - Absalom, AbsalomRaymond Chandler - The Long GoodbyeJG Ballard - High RiseCamus - The PlagueJames Cain - Mildred PierceOscar Wilder - The Picture of Dorian GrayCormac McCarthy - Blood Meridian
― Alex in SF, Wednesday, 24 June 2009 14:04 (fifteen years ago) link
the sound and the fury: faulknerulysses: joyce
I like everything else I like about equally.
― akm, Wednesday, 24 June 2009 14:08 (fifteen years ago) link
Neil Stephenson - The Diamond Agenice to see someone pick this, this is the only book of his I really really like, I think (Snow Crash is not very well written and the later books are just too much)
― akm, Wednesday, 24 June 2009 14:10 (fifteen years ago) link
http://farm1.static.flickr.com/176/477637650_a4024bddf0.jpg?v=0
Everything else on my list has been mentioned. Jude the Obscure and Lolita are my two picks for favourite. Also Moby Dick, Brighton Rock, A Kestral For a Knave, A Scanner Darkly.
― DavidM, Wednesday, 24 June 2009 14:11 (fifteen years ago) link
I smashed the bed-spring against his cheek
― ledge, Wednesday, 24 June 2009 14:11 (fifteen years ago) link
Love chandler but dunno what I'd pick as a fave, Long Goodbye prob.
― ledge, Wednesday, 24 June 2009 14:12 (fifteen years ago) link
A few that haven't been mentioned yet:
Conrad, NostromoJames, The AmbassadorsMurakami, either Wind-up Bird Chronicles or Hard Boiled Wonderland
― Brad C., Wednesday, 24 June 2009 14:15 (fifteen years ago) link
Who's saying it's special?
― collardio gelatinous, Wednesday, 24 June 2009 14:17 (fifteen years ago) link
― gosh I actually dig this shit (country matters), Wednesday, 24 June 2009 14:52 (2 minutes ago) Bookmark
I know how you feel but really it has to be something you take a lifetime to read. I know lots about books and have lists of things I'd like to read but having only been reading properly for about 7 years, I haven't got very far.
That said, I have the afternoon free and am going to see if I can read Lolita cover to cover. Unemployment does have its benefits.
― b!tchass, birdchested bastard sees a dude bigger than he (a hoy hoy), Wednesday, 24 June 2009 14:18 (fifteen years ago) link
Oh man don't rush at Lolita you gotta sip that shit like champagne
― my so-called trife (Noodle Vague), Wednesday, 24 June 2009 14:20 (fifteen years ago) link
Ok, some chapters and then some Football Manager. Either way, it's gonna be a good afternoon.
― b!tchass, birdchested bastard sees a dude bigger than he (a hoy hoy), Wednesday, 24 June 2009 14:21 (fifteen years ago) link
glad to see a few more mentions of the plague on here. that's one i really took my time with, i found i couldn't rush it. maybe 10-20 pages a day some days -- not because it's hard going exactly, more because it sort of demanded careful attention. i'd read a bit and then put it down and think about it. camus is one of my favorite writers and one of my favorite thinkers.
― us_odd_bunny_lady (tipsy mothra), Wednesday, 24 June 2009 14:23 (fifteen years ago) link
The Fall is my fave Camus and also belongs on this list.
― my so-called trife (Noodle Vague), Wednesday, 24 June 2009 14:23 (fifteen years ago) link
yeah the fall is great too.
― us_odd_bunny_lady (tipsy mothra), Wednesday, 24 June 2009 14:24 (fifteen years ago) link
The Plague was fucking excellent, way better than The Stranger IMO.
― get money fuck witches (HI DERE), Wednesday, 24 June 2009 14:24 (fifteen years ago) link
One day I will add Lolita and Pale Fire to Pnin. Seeing as Pnin, my only Nabokov, is in my all-time top 3, I feel I may well enjoy them. Quite a lot.
Rest of all-time top 3:
Iain Sinclair - White Chappell, Scarlet TracingsCharles Maturin - Melmoth The Wanderer
― gosh I actually dig this shit (country matters), Wednesday, 24 June 2009 14:25 (fifteen years ago) link
The Stranger's good and all but yeah it definitely feels like an illustrative parable compared to his other novels.
― my so-called trife (Noodle Vague), Wednesday, 24 June 2009 14:25 (fifteen years ago) link
yeah. i like the stranger and i think it's good it was the first camus i read. i understand why it's the term-paper favorite. but his other novels i love more.
― us_odd_bunny_lady (tipsy mothra), Wednesday, 24 June 2009 14:26 (fifteen years ago) link
xp to LJ Always wondered about Melmoth- good is it?
― Achtung Blobby (Neil S), Wednesday, 24 June 2009 14:26 (fifteen years ago) link
i love the plague and i can't believe i forgot: richard wright, native son
― harbl, Wednesday, 24 June 2009 14:26 (fifteen years ago) link
oh shit, hrbl OTM re Native Son
also: Ellison's Invisible Man
― get money fuck witches (HI DERE), Wednesday, 24 June 2009 14:27 (fifteen years ago) link
someone snuck "speak, memory" (nabokov's memoir) into their list here, and i gotta say, i thought it was fantastic.
xp i'm really glad to read these posts about camus, because i read "the stranger" in my teens, loved it, but never got around to his other stuff. now i have some camus to look forward to.
― collardio gelatinous, Wednesday, 24 June 2009 14:27 (fifteen years ago) link
x-post Invisible Man!!
― ☺☻☺☻come on ppl now smile on u brother☺☻☺☻ (ENBB), Wednesday, 24 June 2009 14:28 (fifteen years ago) link
I've got a copy of Invisible Man I keep meaning to read but my books are mostly being stored at a friend's house at the mo.
― my so-called trife (Noodle Vague), Wednesday, 24 June 2009 14:30 (fifteen years ago) link
Moby Dick The Sot-weed Factor (so happy this got mentioned!)The Brothers Karamazov
I can't think of two more I really, really love, and I feel like I'm forgetting shorter beautiful books I've read. I actually remember some of the young adult books I read over and over and over better than most of the books I've read in the last few years. Many Waters by Madeleine L'Engle and Emily of New Moon by L.M. Montgomery were totally my favorites.
Can I put "the first half of Smilla's Sense of Snow? Or does a novel have to be considered as a whole?
― Maria, Wednesday, 24 June 2009 14:31 (fifteen years ago) link
Maria - there are no rules here. You can put whatever you want!
― ☺☻☺☻come on ppl now smile on u brother☺☻☺☻ (ENBB), Wednesday, 24 June 2009 14:32 (fifteen years ago) link
the first half of smilla's really is great. then it turns all robert ludlum. second half is compulsively readable, but totally loses the mystery and vibe of the copenhagen section.
― us_odd_bunny_lady (tipsy mothra), Wednesday, 24 June 2009 14:33 (fifteen years ago) link
I enjoyed Red Harvest a good deal more than Maltese Falcon, but I think that's largely due to the fact that the Continental Op is a better protagonist than Sam Spade.
For Chandler, Farewell My Lovely may be his best IMO but Long Goodbye is very close to it
― giovanni & ribsy (elmo argonaut), Wednesday, 24 June 2009 14:33 (fifteen years ago) link
my favorite parts of smilla were when she would go sit alone in her apartment and cry, passages like that from the copenhagen section. then when it turned into an action adventure novel i was really upset!
― Maria, Wednesday, 24 June 2009 14:36 (fifteen years ago) link
Charterhouse of Parma - StendhalLolita - NabokovOld Goriot - Balzac (after reading it I told myself I'd go on and read all of Balzac's novels ... kind of failed, stopped after four or five even though I really enjoyed them all)Life: a user's manual - Pérec Journey to the end of the night - CélineTender is the night - Fitzgerald
― Jibe, Wednesday, 24 June 2009 14:36 (fifteen years ago) link
(xpost ps - i actually picked up another peter hoeg book that was action adventure all the way through just to get that crushingly sad beautiful atmosphere. it worked, i was stuck in this sad wistful quiet mood for days, even though the book wasn't very good.)
― Maria, Wednesday, 24 June 2009 14:37 (fifteen years ago) link
Neil S it is giant and wondrous and yeah pretty anti-Catholic and even at one point fairly crude in its understanding of Hindu ritual; its overall argument against persecution in the name of religion was incredibly forward-thinking for its time, and that's before I start on the insane multi-layered story structure, the awesome narrative, and the unceasing post-Gothic tension. Truly the Gerard Manley Hopkins of novelists, a story with a moral and with the conviction of a religious man whose religion above all represented the fortitude of humanity rather than unquestioning faith in a higher agency to put things in their place.
Besides, the figure of Melmoth himself, flitting in and out of the story, a human agent tainted with a Satanic curse he cannot quite control, is one of the great novelistic characterisations. Impervious to everything except his own doom, irresistible to everything except those he must pass the curse onto...
It's just a fabulously exciting and imaginative bit of writing.
― gosh I actually dig this shit (country matters), Wednesday, 24 June 2009 14:38 (fifteen years ago) link
Plus, his grandson, John Melmoth, makes for a cracking detective hero, all getting into scrapes with the Inquisition, surviving by the skin of his teeth, and slowly piecing together the vast and implacable truth: nobody will succumb to Melmoth. In fact, as Melmoth preys upon the increasingly desperate, it is never outright spoken, but it is sung of. By the last third MTW is practically a prose-poem.
― gosh I actually dig this shit (country matters), Wednesday, 24 June 2009 14:46 (fifteen years ago) link
relative dearth of hemingway on this thread is interesting. for whom the bell tolls is probably in my 2nd or 3rd tier of favorites -- probably 3rd tier, all the macho mythmaking is a bit much. but i bet the demographic equivalent of ilxors 20 or 30 years ago would have had a lot more hemingway love.
― us_odd_bunny_lady (tipsy mothra), Wednesday, 24 June 2009 14:49 (fifteen years ago) link
You.
― Kevin John Bozelka, Wednesday, 24 June 2009 14:52 (fifteen years ago) link
american tabloid - james ellroythe dead school - pat mccabethe buddha of suburbia - hanif kureshitender is the night - f. scott fitzgeraldone flew over the cuckoos nest - ken kesey
― Michael B, Wednesday, 24 June 2009 15:00 (fifteen years ago) link
xp to LJ okay that sounds pretty amazing, I will look out a copy!
― Achtung Blobby (Neil S), Wednesday, 24 June 2009 15:04 (fifteen years ago) link
I think I'd add Andre Maurois' Fattypuffs and Thinifers to this list plus the 2 Alice books.
― my so-called trife (Noodle Vague), Wednesday, 24 June 2009 15:07 (fifteen years ago) link