Lynch Posted March 17, 2012 Share Posted March 17, 2012 About halfway through this and loving it! Really delving into a genre I am not that familiar with (besides The Replacements), and getting introduced to some fascinating characters along the way! Link to post Share on other sites
bleedorange Posted March 26, 2012 Share Posted March 26, 2012 Finished these over the weekend: Link to post Share on other sites
PopTodd Posted March 26, 2012 Share Posted March 26, 2012 About halfway through this and loving it! Really delving into a genre I am not that familiar with (besides The Replacements), and getting introduced to some fascinating characters along the way! Great book. I am in the middle of it, as well (while reading 2 other books). Glad that it is kinda serialized, so that I can come back to it at will.I love a lot of these bands, already. And I love hearing their stories. Link to post Share on other sites
Queen Amaranthine Posted March 28, 2012 Share Posted March 28, 2012 600+ pages! but a great engaging read. I'm about halfway through it. Link to post Share on other sites
kidsmoke Posted March 28, 2012 Share Posted March 28, 2012 Finished these over the weekend: Is The Hunger Games well-written, a good read? I wasn't wowed by the movie, which I saw this weekend. Thought it was utterly predictable in most ways. The futuristic city was cool, and the acting was adequate, but...meh. So I've wondered if the book is better? I finished reading James Ellroy's "Blood's a Rover" yesterday. So intense! It's a very long book, over 600 pages, and took me a bit to get into, but the payoff for sticking with it was huge! I think my brain waves had begun converting over to thinking in the manner Ellroy writes...snapping moment-to-moment snapshots as the world swirls around, intense and immediate. You Ellroy fans know what I'm talking about! Those of you who've read Ellroy, do you have a favorite book? I loved his imagined conversations of figures like J. Edgar Hoover and Tricky Dick. ("Jack Kennedy stole the election from me in '60. Now he's dead and I'm the president.") Link to post Share on other sites
bleedorange Posted March 28, 2012 Share Posted March 28, 2012 Is The Hunger Games well-written, a good read? I wasn't wowed by the movie, which I saw this weekend. Thought it was utterly predictable in most ways. The futuristic city was cool, and the acting was adequate, but...meh. So I've wondered if the book is better? I finished reading James Ellroy's "Blood's a Rover" yesterday. So intense! It's a very long book, over 600 pages, and took me a bit to get into, but the payoff for sticking with it was huge! I think my brain waves had begun converting over to thinking in the manner Ellroy writes...snapping moment-to-moment snapshots as the world swirls around, intense and immediate. You Ellroy fans know what I'm talking about! Those of you who've read Ellroy, do you have a favorite book? I loved his imagined conversations of figures like J. Edgar Hoover and Tricky Dick. ("Jack Kennedy stole the election from me in '60. Now he's dead and I'm the president.") Yeah, it's pretty good. Very entertaining. Nothing transcendent. I haven't seen the movie yet, I was planning on reading the whole trilogy before going. But the strength of the book is Katniss's narration and internal thoughts and dialogue, which might not show up as strongly on the screen. I'm also unsure of how a PG-13 movie was able to convey the brutality of the event and the control of the capitol. Link to post Share on other sites
kidsmoke Posted March 28, 2012 Share Posted March 28, 2012 That sounds better than the movie. I think I will read it. I was hearing good things about the book a long time back...I suspect that internal dialogue gives Katniss far more depth as a character. I think they did try with the movie, but....it's a movie, so the visuals are everything. The scenes that should have been horrifying in the movie were surprisingly bland. To me at least. Link to post Share on other sites
Vacant Horizon Posted March 29, 2012 Share Posted March 29, 2012 the movie was so tame. the premise is utterly unthinkable which the movie never really addresses. Link to post Share on other sites
The Inside of Outside Posted April 7, 2012 Share Posted April 7, 2012 Link to post Share on other sites
Fritz Posted April 7, 2012 Share Posted April 7, 2012 I finished reading James Ellroy's "Blood's a Rover" yesterday. So intense! It's a very long book, over 600 pages, and took me a bit to get into, but the payoff for sticking with it was huge! I think my brain waves had begun converting over to thinking in the manner Ellroy writes...snapping moment-to-moment snapshots as the world swirls around, intense and immediate. You Ellroy fans know what I'm talking about! Those of you who've read Ellroy, do you have a favorite book? I loved his imagined conversations of figures like J. Edgar Hoover and Tricky Dick. ("Jack Kennedy stole the election from me in '60. Now he's dead and I'm the president.") Mr Ellroy is very intense and I love the imagined conversations and scenarios as well. As far as favourite books go, I loved the LA Quartet: The Black Dahlia, The Big Nowhere, L.A. Confidential and White Jazz. White Jazz is sublime. Just finished this: Slow to start and I was wondering when things were gonna happen. I ended up quite liking it. Have now started and am looking forward to: Link to post Share on other sites
Oil Can Boyd Posted April 10, 2012 Share Posted April 10, 2012 Finished this last night and thought it was great. (It also made me realize how many books I read that are set in NYC ...) Next up is this. It's one of the few books in the 33 1/3 series that is a novel. Link to post Share on other sites
Fritz Posted April 24, 2012 Share Posted April 24, 2012 Just finished... Just started... Link to post Share on other sites
smells like flowers Posted April 27, 2012 Share Posted April 27, 2012 Link to post Share on other sites
IRememberDBoon Posted April 27, 2012 Share Posted April 27, 2012 whoa! gotta get the levon one. how is it? reading jobs bio now and then maybe US Grants memoirs after. Link to post Share on other sites
smells like flowers Posted April 27, 2012 Share Posted April 27, 2012 whoa! gotta get the levon one. how is it?. Just started it last night. His very folksy way of speaking comes through. I think that might be more charming as an audio thing than on the page. I never really connected with The Band but thoroughly enjoyed seeing Levon Helm at Solid Sound. Also really enjoyed hearing some interviews on Fresh Air the day after he died. Listening to Music From Big Pink as I write this. ** EDIT: Spent the entire afternoon reading this book. Playing hooky from real responsibilities. Can't put it down! Link to post Share on other sites
Al.Ducts Posted April 29, 2012 Share Posted April 29, 2012 Love Goes To Buildings on Fire by Will Hermes. It is a pretty interesting look at a number of music scenes (punk, jazz, rock, hip hop, salsa, classical) that were going through big changes in New York City between 1973 and 1978. Finally picked up a copy of this and I'm about 70 pages in. It's fantastic so far. Link to post Share on other sites
Fritz Posted April 30, 2012 Share Posted April 30, 2012 I've just finished "Black Swan Green" by David Mitchell. Utterly beautiful. It's going to haunt me for a while. I love it when a book does this to me. That has lead me to this: Link to post Share on other sites
kidsmoke Posted April 30, 2012 Share Posted April 30, 2012 I loved Black Swan Green. Link to post Share on other sites
lost highway Posted April 30, 2012 Share Posted April 30, 2012 I've just finished "Black Swan Green" by David Mitchell. Utterly beautiful. It's going to haunt me for a while. I love it when a book does this to me. That has lead me to this: I made the same second step after reading Black Swan Green. I found Le Grand Meaulnes to be a cool book, although I didn't actually enjoy it as much as Mitchell's book that referenced it so aggresively. I know that makes me look like a philistine since MItchell is contemporary fiction and Meaulnes is a revered classic. Tell us what you think when you finish it. I see a connection in the theme of young men dreaming of the bigger world beyond the village, beyond that it seems pretty different. Link to post Share on other sites
Fritz Posted May 6, 2012 Share Posted May 6, 2012 Just finished Le Grande Meaulnes and enjoyed it immensely. Such beautiful writing. Over the last few weeks I have looked forward to diving into its pages every night. Ultimately a sad book about childhood disappearing and the complexities of adulthood. The chateau for Meaulnes is like Gatsby's green light. But now I've decided to try another David Mitchell book. I wanted to start chronologically but this afternoon in the bookstore could not find Ghostwritten so instead I bought: What's the take on David Mitchell in this forum. Have any good folks around here read much of his work? Link to post Share on other sites
Oil Can Boyd Posted May 6, 2012 Share Posted May 6, 2012 What's the take on David Mitchell in this forum. Have any good folks around here read much of his work? There are a lot of fans of Black Swan Green here and I'm one of them. Great, great book. I read The Thousand Autumns of Jacob de Zoet which I also really liked. It's very different from Black Swan - it's got a much bigger scope - but it's good. I own Cloud Atlas and number9dream but have not yet read them. Link to post Share on other sites
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