The Book Thread Book • Page 139

Yeah we both frequent that thread enough to have recs for years!

I get 1 credit a month anyway and have 2 to go through. I think i remember wanting to read Imaginary Friends so I might actually have a look at that. I'll take a look at the others too so thanks :)

 

Lapvona is so fucking dark and weird and twisted. Haven’t really read anything like it before. I am loving it but man some of the imagery is so vile.

 

LOVED LAPVONA with every fiber of my being. There's one very minor scene where I thought the grossness felt gratuitous, but overall, I (surprisingly) fucking loved how weird and vile the whole thing was. I found myself dreading reading it each night, yet within seconds, I'd be completely sucked in again. it was like an LSD or fever-dream-tinged Game of Thrones meets Master of Margarita.

Definitely going to read Ottessa's other work, but first, I think I'm going to finally do Station Eleven.

 

About a third of the way through Watership Down. I really enjoy how this book doesn't seem to be catered toward children, or at least not in my opinion, and feels more like the theoretical stories of small woodland animals trying to survive in a world that's trying to kill them at every turn.

 

Watch the movie next

 

Is it any good?

 

Updating from my post last year as I'm now three-deep with DeLillo. Started with the Names and immediately fell in love with his style but much of the story eluded me. Not in a negative way though -- I look forward to rereading sometime. White Noise was fantastic, the best book I read last year. Just now finished Great Jones Street and really enjoyed it; the most plotless of the three but still a joy to read his prose. Libra will be next but I'm a full-blown fan now, I'm going to work through much more of his catalogue this year. Building up to Underworld.

When I read novels with great prose I mark sentences and paragraphs that I really like, and then copy them down into a notebook. It helps improve my own writing but it's also just cool to look back through the quotes and remember the books I've read. DeLillo's style is so infectious that I've got pages and pages of quotes from White Noise and GJS copied down.

 

Watership Down is a great book, one of my favorites. I only discovered it because of a Hop Along lyric

 

Tried the read the book twice and couldn't do it.

 

My sister is also reading the book and I said something about the movie that spoiled the book so I'm gonna hold off on saying anything other than yes

 

The Netflix one?

 

Oh I didn't even know there was one, I was talking about the 1978 version

 

I've already emotionally prepped myself for a rabbit slaughterfest because humans suck. Don't tell me though.

 

I love al his works and he’s easily my favorite author. Not sure which work of his is my favorite but The Names is up there because of like you said, the style of how it’s written. It’s not super different from his others or anything but idk, I find myself randomly thinking about that probably more than any of his other works.

I probably said this before but when I started reading again and saw he wrote Underworld and White Noise I thought those were books the films of the same name were made from and boy could I have not been more wrong lmao. Underworld the movie (Kate Beckinsale as a vampire hunter) is definitely not what Underworld the book is. I honestly think younger me thought that you couldn’t name two different things the same title, I guess I thought all titles (of anything) were trademarked or something. Oh how foolish I was / am sometimes lmao

 

Not a book, but it's literature!

Wanted to share my newest publication with you all, "The Bridge" on Sterling Clack Clack, maybe my favorite story I've written next to my novella Below Torrential Hill. A long short-fiction (or a 'novelette' - it's roughly 32 pages) that follows an American teenager at the end of her childhood and an elderly woman who survived the atomic bombing of Hiroshima. To me, this story is about the nature of time, American identity and imperialism, nostalgia vs. remembrance, the universal desire to connect--whether it's across hemispheres, or decades into the past, or from one sibling to another, or to another species altogether. If you end up reading it, I hope you enjoy it! It'll be my last story to share for a while ❤

Sterling Clack Clack: The Bridge by Jonathan Koven

 

Finished SELLOUT, really feel like every poster on this website should consider reading it.

 

I got it for Christmas - it's a few down on my to-read list right now, after Cosmopolis, the new John Darnielle book, and whatever my book club picks next.

 

For anyone who enjoys reading about pop culture / entertainment / movies I just finished Brian Raftery's Best. Movie. Year. Ever. and it was great, I'm sad it's over. Highly recommended.

Along the same lines, about to start The Jaws Log and Tom Scharpling's It Never Ends.

Looking for some recommendations in the same area if anyone has any.

 

If you are a fan of The Wire, then I highly recommend All The Pieces Matter.

Blood Sweat and Chrome comes out next month (about filming mad max fury road) and I'm excited.

 

I read two books in January. Let's Pretend This Never Happened by Jenny Lawson and How Lucky by Will Leitch. Both quick and easy reads.

I'd read Lawson's second book after buying it on a whim based on the hilarious cover and loved it. This one isn't quite as entertaining, but still good.

I read How Lucky as part of a book club I'm in. If it wasn't for the club I probably would have quit on it. On the positive side, I really appreciated Leitch's agency and treatment of the main character (a 20-sometihng with SMA). But outside of that, the prose was irritating. It was constantly going out of its way to make pop culture references or just over explaining what was happening plot-wise.

Next up is Harlem Shake by Colson Whitehead.

 

Finished Station Eleven. Really liked it and appreciated how languid and meditative a lot of it was as opposed to the non-stop horror and suspense you usually get in a story like this. I wouldn't say I loved or felt attached to any of the characters in the book except maybe Miranda but it still did a great job at getting you to sympathize with and ponder alongside them.

As soon as I finished I read Goosebumps Monster Blood (book no. 3) and lol that was a pretty fun one. A bit more cobbled together than Stay Out of the Basement! but still a blast although I felt like there were a few missed opportunities. I also loved that instead of being sinister and knowing what was up that the shopkeeper truly was just cranky and concerned he was selling something that wouldn't work.

Probably going to start Devil House next. I've never read anything by John D. outside of Mountain Goats lyrics and I don't have a ton of interest in true crime but it sounds like it could be an interesting albeit challenging read so we'll see.

 

Miranda was my favourite too, she's so good

 

Finished Watership Down tonight and, wow, it is a perfect novel.

 

Yep, full agree. My favorite book. I think it because a top 5 favorite once I finished it the first time and over time it just grew and grew on me and moved up the list. I try to read it, or at least parts of it, every year or so. Just such a magical spirit to it.

 

Absolutely insane to me that in the preface of my edition, Adams goes on to say there’s no deeper meaning behind it. That it’s just about rabbit life. Even if Adams’ intent was to just write about rabbits, this book is teeming with wisdom and insights. About survival, the brutality of man, nature, friendship, community, and much much more. The ultimate fable.