Jump to content

Now Reading in the Old Year


Recommended Posts

  • Replies 583
  • Created
  • Last Reply

Top Posters In This Topic

Top Posters In This Topic

Posted Images

Just bought a copy of "A Coney Island of the Mind" 50th Anniversary Edition. On a cool side note, there is a Tom Waits quote on the back.

 

"I got it signed when I was a teenager. I took the train to San Francisco, went to the bookstore and went to a nearby bar where I heard that he hung out, gave it to the bartender and said, 'Well, if he comes in, have him sign it for me, will ya?' And he did! There are great pieces in A Coney Island of the Mind--it feels very current in spite of the fact that it's fifty years old." --Tom Waits, on National Public Radio

 

51vjD+f7suL._SS500_.jpg

Link to post
Share on other sites

Interesting shakeup at Random House last month.

 

Apparently Jon Krakauer's withdrawal of his book due to have been published late last year, and the failure of Dan Brown to deliver the follow up to the Da Vinci Code, was enough to put an end to Doubleday.

 

Hope Krakauer gets on the stick and finishes Heroes.

Link to post
Share on other sites
  • 3 weeks later...

triumph_250.jpg

 

Pretty good read so far. Amazing that he was tying/setting records as a high schooler and broke three world records in one day (in less than an hour) while at Ohio State (should have broken 4 but "slow thumbs" by the line judges/timers has often been cited and he tied that record).

Link to post
Share on other sites

"A Confederacy of Dunces," which I have not gotten to before. Very funny stuff.

Link to post
Share on other sites
Sounds interesting. I heard somewhere that Stephen Stills auditioned for the Monkees. Does the book have that kind of detail?

 

Yes he did. And he played on many of their songs - along with Neil Young, Dewey Martin, etc. It has more than you would want to know - depending on how much you like or hate The Monkees. I like many of their songs - always have. Another piece of trivia for you - in terms of numbers, they had some of the biggest selling albums of the 1960s.

Link to post
Share on other sites
Yes he did. And he played on many of their songs - along with Neil Young, Dewey Martin, etc. It has more than you would want to know - depending on how much you like or hate The Monkees. I like many of their songs - always have. Another piece of trivia for you - in terms of numbers, they had some of the biggest selling albums of the 1960s.

 

And Jimi Hendrix was their opening act for a tour!

 

It sounds like a Book I would like.

Link to post
Share on other sites

Two nights ago I finished David Kirby's The House On Boulevard Street: New and Selected Poems, and last night I started Nick Flynn's first collection of poems, Some Ether. That's a huge shift in tone and subject matter, that's for sure. Kirby's poems are long and rambling and funny, and I highly recommend him. He was also one of the most generous and good-hearted teachers I had in grad school, which I know doesn't really impact his writing, but it makes me respect him tremendously and seek out his work whenever I can.

 

A few weeks ago while I was fighting insomnia I read Nick Flynn's memoir Another Bullshit Night in Suck City, which aside from being a pretty good book also has one of the best titles in contemporary American literature, doesn't it? It's a dark book, not unlike his poetry, but it looks with great honesty at his mother's suicide and his father's absence from his life, though the two cross paths again when Flynn is working as a counselor at a homeless shelter and his father becomes, for lack of a better word, a client. It looks a lot at how we remember things, and how those memories (and how we try to escape them) shape us. I read it all in one night, but I'll blame it more on my insomnia than anything else.

 

I'm not sure yet, but I'm leaning toward Mark Doty's new and selected poems (winner of the National Book Award--a long time coming for him, I think) as my reading for the train trip to and from Chicago.

Link to post
Share on other sites

I'm looking forward to this (publication date April/May 2009):

 

9781594743344_large.jpg

 

"Pride and Prejudice and Zombies features the original text of Jane Austen's beloved novel with all-new scenes of bone-crunching zombie action. As our story opens, a mysterious plague has fallen upon the quiet English village of Meryton

Link to post
Share on other sites
book%20thief%202.jpg

I'm going to start this. It's marketed as a teen or "young adult" but many English teachers tell me it's one of the best books for kids or adults they've read.

 

triumph_250.jpg

Both of these look good. I'm adding them to my list, thanks!

Link to post
Share on other sites
I'm looking forward to this (publication date April/May 2009):

 

9781594743344_large.jpg

 

"Pride and Prejudice and Zombies features the original text of Jane Austen's beloved novel with all-new scenes of bone-crunching zombie action. As our story opens, a mysterious plague has fallen upon the quiet English village of Meryton—and the dead are returning to life! Feisty heroine Elizabeth Bennet is determined to wipe out the zombie menace, but she's soon distracted by the arrival of the haughty and arrogant Mr. Darcy. What ensues is a delightful comedy of manners with plenty of civilized sparring between the two young lovers—and even more violent sparring on the blood-soaked battlefield as Elizabeth wages war against hordes of flesh-eating undead. Complete with 20 illustrations in the style of C. E. Brock (the original illustrator of Pride and Prejudice), this insanely funny expanded edition will introduce Jane Austen's classic novel to new legions of fans."

I am not a fan of Austen, but if I were her I'd come back from the grave and eat Mr. Grahame-Smith's brain.

Link to post
Share on other sites
Guest
This topic is now closed to further replies.

×
×
  • Create New...