bleedorange Posted July 19, 2012 Share Posted July 19, 2012 Just finished this and boy did I like it. It reminded me of a lot of John Irving's work. I really enjoyed that a lot, too. Link to post Share on other sites
SarahC Posted July 19, 2012 Share Posted July 19, 2012 Sarah, I don't know anything about Schubert, so if you've got any recommendations on what to listen to while I'm reading, I'd love to hear them. I would recommend any of his symphonies, specifically #8 (mostly known as the "unfinished symphony") and pretty much any of his art songs. Those are what I am more familiar with. Link to post Share on other sites
gogo Posted July 19, 2012 Share Posted July 19, 2012 Perfect, thanks! Link to post Share on other sites
Preferred B Posted July 19, 2012 Share Posted July 19, 2012 Ooh! Is this a follow-up to The Magicians? I've read some of the same books as gogo, in part because I'm shameless Goodreads stalker. Whenever someone marks a book as read (especially if they rate it 4 or 5 stars), I check it out to see if I want to read it too. God, I love my library. Most best-sellers take a couple of months to get here, too, but I put a ton of books on hold at the library and then just wait for them to start rolling in. It's like my library Netflix queue. Sometimes it creates an unexpected book logjam (bookjam?) but usually I have a good enough mix of new and not-new that I can keep up and renew if needed. I recently read this and loved it: And now I'm reading this: I enjoy Jhumpa Lahiri's writing very much, but I wish she'd try a really cheerful book sometime. Link to post Share on other sites
gogo Posted July 20, 2012 Share Posted July 20, 2012 Ooh! Is this a follow-up to The Magicians? I've read some of the same books as gogo, in part because I'm shameless Goodreads stalker. Whenever someone marks a book as read (especially if they rate it 4 or 5 stars), I check it out to see if I want to read it too. It is! Haven't started it yet, but I just re-read The Magicians, and I'm looking forward to it. I've been trying to read new, different books, I'm starting to feel like I'm old and running out of time to read everything I'll ever want to read so I don't really want to waste time on re-reading a ton of stuff anymore. But I do love to re-read, even something that's just a fun read, it's always interesting to me to go back and see what I missed the first time, pick up on things that I read differently once I know how the story ends, etc. And I'm also a Goodreads stalker! Not quite as fast as you, though. Link to post Share on other sites
The High Heat Posted July 20, 2012 Share Posted July 20, 2012 It reminded me of a lot of John Irving's work. You have a point there. Link to post Share on other sites
froggie Posted July 20, 2012 Share Posted July 20, 2012 no comments on Fifty shades of grey?. i struggled through a few pages from my girlfriend's copy Link to post Share on other sites
Albert Tatlock Posted July 20, 2012 Share Posted July 20, 2012 i struggled through a few pages from my girlfriend's copySuppose it was hard to turn the pages once she'd put the handcuffs on ... Link to post Share on other sites
froggie Posted July 20, 2012 Share Posted July 20, 2012 Suppose it was hard to turn the pages once she'd put the handcuffs on ... Link to post Share on other sites
worldrecordplayer Posted July 20, 2012 Share Posted July 20, 2012 Just finished this and boy did I like it. It reminded me of a lot of John Irving's work. In the middle of Art of Fielding right now, a good read. I hadn't previously thought of it, but I agree with the John Irving reference. Before that, I read Zeitoun by Dave Eggers. (I haven't mastered the ability to display the book covers when using my iPad). A non-fiction account of a Syrian family in New Orleans during and after Katrina. Excellent book. And infuriating to read what out of control police state government can do. Link to post Share on other sites
gogo Posted July 20, 2012 Share Posted July 20, 2012 As discussed here previously, I have some problems with Dave Eggers but I like when he gets out of the way of the people he's writing about. Zeitoun is an excellent example of that. Link to post Share on other sites
Fritz Posted July 20, 2012 Share Posted July 20, 2012 Just finished this and boy did I like it. It reminded me of a lot of John Irving's work. That's a good enough recommendation for me. Link to post Share on other sites
Fritz Posted July 20, 2012 Share Posted July 20, 2012 What did you think of this, Gogo? I haven't read it yet but am intrigued. Link to post Share on other sites
gogo Posted July 20, 2012 Share Posted July 20, 2012 It was amusing, for sure. But it was a little too in love with the idea of itself, if that makes any sense. Hard to talk about why I wasn't crazy about it, without getting too spoiler-y. He's very readable, but overall I wanted more from the characters and the story. Link to post Share on other sites
kidsmoke Posted July 20, 2012 Share Posted July 20, 2012 How was the Simon Pegg book, Maudie? I get a kick out of him. Link to post Share on other sites
gogo Posted July 20, 2012 Share Posted July 20, 2012 I'm going to sound very contrary today! He's funny, but his book felt a bit padded (there's a framing device that he pretty much comes out and admits is padding), and it lacked a lot in the "tell-all" category. It's one of those sweet happy memoirs where the worst thing that happens to him is that his parents split up, but even that's OK because he gets the best step-dad ever out of the deal! Not that I need a ton of drama or anything, it's just very very light, with some odd bits of serious film criticism thrown in. You could do worse, but don't be expecting anything too wild or juicy. Link to post Share on other sites
kidsmoke Posted July 21, 2012 Share Posted July 21, 2012 Sounds like I'll be missing that one. Maybe instead I should read the Mick Jagger biography my sister was telling me about, where the author makes reference to Mick's big brown eyes. Um, nope...they've been blue Mick's whole life. Actually I'm currently reading: Powerful stuff. Link to post Share on other sites
Oil Can Boyd Posted July 21, 2012 Share Posted July 21, 2012 Powerful stuff.Years ago I went to see Jim Carroll (of Basketball Diaries fame) read and after the reading he was signing books. The only book I had was Invisible Man so I had him sign that. He sort of chuckled right before he signed it. Link to post Share on other sites
GtrPlyr Posted July 23, 2012 Share Posted July 23, 2012 Just finished the Scotty Bowers book about his life in Hollywood turning tricks and hooking up various big name "stars" with men and women from his stable. He really exposes a lot of secrets in this one. Good read for anyone Interested in old Hollywood and the behind the scenes shenanigans that went on. I'm a few pages into the Fleetwood Mac one, so far so good. Link to post Share on other sites
Fritz Posted August 1, 2012 Share Posted August 1, 2012 Just finished Tess of the d'Urbevilles which I absolutely loved. Such beautiful writing. Next month we're going to see English actor Simon Callow do a spoken word show on Charles Dickens (which I'm really looking forward to) and, never having read any of his novels, I've just started: Link to post Share on other sites
Queen Amaranthine Posted August 1, 2012 Share Posted August 1, 2012 Just finished Tess of the d'Urbevilles which I absolutely loved. Such beautiful writing. Next month we're going to see English actor Simon Callow do a spoken word show on Charles Dickens (which I'm really looking forward to) and, never having read any of his novels, I've just started: How do you like this? This is one of my all-time favorites! I listened to it on CD in my car, and the guy who read it was hilarious with the aunt's line "raised you by hand!" There's more humor in Dicken's work than he gets credit for. And lots of insight and riveting plots, too. The Simon Callow show sounds like fun; report back here afterwards? Link to post Share on other sites
NightOfJoy Posted August 1, 2012 Share Posted August 1, 2012 "Apathy for the Devil" by Nick Kent. Crazy story, this guy knew everybody! Link to post Share on other sites
Fritz Posted August 2, 2012 Share Posted August 2, 2012 How do you like this? This is one of my all-time favorites! I listened to it on CD in my car, and the guy who read it was hilarious with the aunt's line "raised you by hand!" There's more humor in Dicken's work than he gets credit for. And lots of insight and riveting plots, too. The Simon Callow show sounds like fun; report back here afterwards? I'm only three chapters in but there have been plenty of chuckles already. I shall indeed report back on the SImon Callow show. Hopefully I'll finish this book before the show so I'll at least know what he's talking about when he's referencing this Dickens novel. Link to post Share on other sites
uncool2pillow Posted August 2, 2012 Share Posted August 2, 2012 Speaking of Dickens, I'm reading A Tale of Two Cities. I'm taking it too slow. I love his descriptive writing. Link to post Share on other sites
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