can deal with tacos, not so corndogs, i look at a corndog and i want to drink tea and watch cricket until i've forgotten it ever invaded my consciousness
― Guy de & (country matters), Wednesday, 24 June 2009 15:42 (fifteen years ago) link
Corndogs are aight, I don't ever crave one tho.
― my so-called trife (Noodle Vague), Wednesday, 24 June 2009 15:43 (fifteen years ago) link
Ishmael Reed - Mumbo JumboAlfred Bester - the Stars My DestinationGGM - One Hundred Years of SolitudeAgatha Christie - And Then There Were NoneEvelyn Waugh - Brideshead Revisited
― maciej recognizing trill, Wednesday, 24 June 2009 15:46 (fifteen years ago) link
hoos cheated - i would have immediately put jesus' son by denis johnson too, but it's really a short story collection, not a novel
i also forgotfactotum by bukowskibehind the scenes at the museum - kate atkinsonwide sargasso sea - jean rhyshey, nostradamus - douglas coupland
― where we turn sweet dreams into remarkable realities (just1n3), Wednesday, 24 June 2009 15:48 (fifteen years ago) link
oh hang on was it pinefox?
hahaha no, it wasn't pinefox! (actually it was only one person who said it twice but still)
― get money fuck witches (HI DERE), Wednesday, 24 June 2009 15:48 (fifteen years ago) link
But we have Chiquito's and everything! Tell you the truth I'm not sure if they do tacos but taco shells are freely available from most supermarkets.
― my so-called trife (Noodle Vague), Wednesday, 24 June 2009 15:49 (fifteen years ago) link
I wouldn't vote on that poll anyway because all Britishes hotdogs are without exception terrible.
― my so-called trife (Noodle Vague), Wednesday, 24 June 2009 15:50 (fifteen years ago) link
As is all Britishes Tex-Mex food I imagine.
Not Mrs Vague's cornbread tho. That's pretty good.
― my so-called trife (Noodle Vague), Wednesday, 24 June 2009 15:51 (fifteen years ago) link
I ate at this place near Covent Garden that was actually pretty tasty! They had like a billion different tequilas and was a lot of fun.
― get money fuck witches (HI DERE), Wednesday, 24 June 2009 15:51 (fifteen years ago) link
(mexican food, I should clarify; their fajitas were v.v. good)
i love how even a thread on books can turn into a thread on tacos
― Mr. Que, Wednesday, 24 June 2009 15:52 (fifteen years ago) link
xpost
Yeah I'm sure London's got some dece places. Hull not so much.
― my so-called trife (Noodle Vague), Wednesday, 24 June 2009 15:53 (fifteen years ago) link
if salinger's franny & zooey and seymour:an introduction/raise high the roofbeam, carpenters then i'll add both those to my list, as well
― where we turn sweet dreams into remarkable realities (just1n3), Wednesday, 24 June 2009 15:53 (fifteen years ago) link
*count as novels
yeah those count
― Mr. Que, Wednesday, 24 June 2009 15:54 (fifteen years ago) link
to the poster who mentioned the loved rock springs but didn't enjoy sportswriter - independence day is DEFINITELY the best of ford's trilogy. i couldn't get thru sportswriter or lay of the land - both felt like such a slog.
― where we turn sweet dreams into remarkable realities (just1n3), Wednesday, 24 June 2009 15:55 (fifteen years ago) link
i liked lay of the land but it's a good thing you didn't read the ending. shockingly wtf.
― Tracer Hand, Wednesday, 24 June 2009 16:09 (fifteen years ago) link
i might enjoy it more the next time i go back to it - i was really stressed and busy and had a lot of shit going on in my life when i first tried reading it. rock springs really is great, though.
― where we turn sweet dreams into remarkable realities (just1n3), Wednesday, 24 June 2009 16:16 (fifteen years ago) link
well, maybe i'll try independence day sometime. i love ford's writing, and there were parts of the sportswriter i would have liked as short stories. but i just wasn't into it at novel length. (also saw ford read once, and he's a very entertaining reader.)
― us_odd_bunny_lady (tipsy mothra), Wednesday, 24 June 2009 16:48 (fifteen years ago) link
* Victoria - Knut Hamsun* The Old Capital - Yasunari Kawabata* I Served The King of England - Bohumil Hrabal* Winesburg, Ohio - Sherwood Anderson* Moominland in Midwinter - Tove Jansson* Dance, Dance, Dance - Huraki Murakami* George Grossmith - The Diary of a Nobody
― Orin Boyd (jel --), Wednesday, 24 June 2009 17:08 (fifteen years ago) link
invisible cities is probably third fave calvino, with winter's night after that. second is the wildly underrated "Marcovaldo."― ian, Tuesday, June 23, 2009 9:47 PM (16 hours ago) Bookmark
― ian, Tuesday, June 23, 2009 9:47 PM (16 hours ago) Bookmark
ian is OTM a lot lately
― nabisco, Wednesday, 24 June 2009 17:51 (fifteen years ago) link
I don't think I've ever read it. Must change.
― ☺☻☺☻come on ppl now smile on u brother☺☻☺☻ (ENBB), Wednesday, 24 June 2009 17:54 (fifteen years ago) link
I think my #1 Calvino is Cosmicomics, but getting into Calvino gets us drifting onto the line between the "novels" and "short stories" categories
― nabisco, Wednesday, 24 June 2009 18:00 (fifteen years ago) link
isnt marcovaldo like "technically" "a bunch of short stories"
― rip dom passantino 3/5/09 never forget (max), Wednesday, 24 June 2009 18:01 (fifteen years ago) link
* Moominland in Midwinter - Tove Jansson
^^^^^
i will always rep for moomins.
― us_odd_bunny_lady (tipsy mothra), Wednesday, 24 June 2009 18:07 (fifteen years ago) link
yes, definitely, although they're all about the same character and all about "the seasons in the city," so it's like plenty of other Calvino -- you know, one coherent thing that seems made out of snapshots or permutations or anecdotes or whatever
― nabisco, Wednesday, 24 June 2009 18:08 (fifteen years ago) link
If On a Winter's Night should have been on my list
some other o_O outliers no one has mentioned yet
How The Dead Live - SelfMarabou Stork Nightmares - WelshThe Westing Game - Ellen RaskinDoctor Rat - William KotzwinkleGun, With Occasional Music - Lethem
― meh (jjjusten), Wednesday, 24 June 2009 18:34 (fifteen years ago) link
or maybe sub Motherless Brooklyn, i could go either way
― meh (jjjusten), Wednesday, 24 June 2009 18:35 (fifteen years ago) link
My Will Self pick would be Great Apes without hesitation but How the Dead Live's pretty fine too.
― Stobby Buld (Noodle Vague), Wednesday, 24 June 2009 18:36 (fifteen years ago) link
i have Great Apes on the shelf but haven't gotten to it yet
― meh (jjjusten), Wednesday, 24 June 2009 18:38 (fifteen years ago) link
DO IT DO IT it's fantastic altho don't know how well some of the Britishes interest gags will translate.
― Stobby Buld (Noodle Vague), Wednesday, 24 June 2009 18:39 (fifteen years ago) link
http://ecx.images-amazon.com/images/I/51Q3D0TTNHL._SL500_AA240_.jpgthse look like contenders for best/worst. has anyone here read them?
― Philip Nunez, Wednesday, 24 June 2009 18:42 (fifteen years ago) link
― where we turn sweet dreams into remarkable realities (just1n3), Wednesday, June 24, 2009 10:53 AM (2 hours ago) Bookmark
Yeah, if they count, I add them too.
― bamcquern, Wednesday, 24 June 2009 18:49 (fifteen years ago) link
I would for Raise Hight the Roofbeams except Seymour an introduction is a pile of ass.
― ❉❉❉❉❉❉❉❉Plaxico❉❉❉❉❉❉❉❉❉ (I know, right?), Wednesday, 24 June 2009 19:54 (fifteen years ago) link
this is a dumb point to raise, but there's something characteristic of list-building - moreso with films, i think - whereby the only criterion i can use to assemble them is how much i liked them straight upon impact, without thought for their longevity or reverberation. if someone asks about favourite films, the ones that come to mind are those that i finished watching and thought that was my favourite film ever, a godard and a few documentaries, a lot of recent stuff. and then there is the fear of my earlier judgements, all the trash that i thought was good 5+ years ago because it had enough excitement to keep me excited, rather than enough maudlin shit to fuel and sate melancholia. anyway, i say all this because so many of the ones that are popping up - like particularly white noise, which always comes to mind despite a feeling that i enjoyed with some kind of detachment (the opposite of above, a feeling of it being good without a feeling of it being the best) (and enjoyed less than americana), it totally skews my perception.
seymour is probably salinger's writing at its most enjoyable, i think - like there are occasions when it's almost too much (the part when SG thinks the top-hatted man might reach for his hand while walking down the street jumps to mind), comic in a way that the story arcs and wider breadth of the other stories didn't allow, satisfying in the same way as shorts like the heart of a broken story that allowed for some indulgence. it's maybe his exile on main street, not full of hits but the most entertaining, minute-to-minute.
― the heart is a lonely hamster (schlump), Wednesday, 24 June 2009 20:13 (fifteen years ago) link
you mean Roofbeams, right, not Seymour
― nabisco, Wednesday, 24 June 2009 20:17 (fifteen years ago) link
yeah top hatted man, drinking Tom Collins=Roof Beams
― Mr. Que, Wednesday, 24 June 2009 20:18 (fifteen years ago) link
xp uh no wth?
― ❉❉❉❉❉❉❉❉Plaxico❉❉❉❉❉❉❉❉❉ (I know, right?), Wednesday, 24 June 2009 21:44 (fifteen years ago) link
I thought seymour was the one where this toddler is a reincarnated spirit warrior who can pre-cog his own death on a cruise ship?
― Philip Nunez, Wednesday, 24 June 2009 21:48 (fifteen years ago) link
I'm really terrible at listing my favourite of any sort of thing but some favourites include:
La Ciudad y los perros (translated to English under the name "The Time of the Hero" ) by Mario Vargas Llosa.Love in the Time of Cholera by Gab Garc Marq.The Fall by Albert Camus.War and peace by Leo Tolstoy.2666 by Roberto Bolaño.
― suggestzybandias (jim), Wednesday, 24 June 2009 22:03 (fifteen years ago) link
what do you denis johnson ppl think of angels?
― Gravel Puzzleworth, Wednesday, 24 June 2009 22:07 (fifteen years ago) link
I'm not sure abt my inclusion of Ask The Dust, because it's definitely sort of... ridiculous, but as far as explorations of juvenile obsessions go...
― ian, Tuesday, June 23, 2009 8:24 PM (21 hours ago) Bookmark
This is def in my top 5 too
― I wish I was the royal trux (sunny successor), Wednesday, 24 June 2009 22:40 (fifteen years ago) link
― ❉❉❉❉❉❉❉❉Plaxico❉❉❉❉❉❉❉❉❉ (I know, right?), Wednesday, June 24, 2009 2:54 PM (Yesterday) Bookmark
You can bite the piles on my ass. It's the best thing he published.
― bamcquern, Wednesday, 24 June 2009 23:16 (fifteen years ago) link
xpost. I loved Ask the Dust a lot and empathised with Arturo Bandini at the time - i think i was still a teenager when i read it. Have sort of consigned it into the dustbin of books better forgotten because i associate it with Bukowski who I've pretty much rejected as slightly shameful youthful taste but I think I should give it another shot.
― suggestzybandias (jim), Wednesday, 24 June 2009 23:27 (fifteen years ago) link
nunez: seymour cruisin' is teddy outta nine stories. but not seymour. just some other precocious child.
and oops!, yeah, i guess i meant roofbeams. will have to look up seymour now. then come back and stand up for it.
― the heart is a lonely hamster (schlump), Thursday, 25 June 2009 01:28 (fifteen years ago) link
i like dan for being the only one to have the TRUCK NUTZ to put stephen king on his list. the rest of u camus readin niggas siccen me.....
― (╬ ಠ益ಠ) (cankles), Thursday, 25 June 2009 01:48 (fifteen years ago) link
i've only counted one camus readin nigga
― Fred Durst. Wat heb ik gewonnen? (Matt P), Thursday, 25 June 2009 01:53 (fifteen years ago) link
tbf
― Fred Durst. Wat heb ik gewonnen? (Matt P), Thursday, 25 June 2009 01:54 (fifteen years ago) link
That's weird because there are at least seven.
― ☺☻☺☻come on ppl now smile on u brother☺☻☺☻ (ENBB), Thursday, 25 June 2009 01:56 (fifteen years ago) link