Whether it's your first Bonnaroo or you’re a music festival veteran, we welcome you to Inforoo.
Here you'll find info about artists, rumors, camping tips, and the infamous Roo Clues. Have a look around then create an account and join in the fun. See you at Bonnaroo!!
Post by Dave Maynar on Jan 13, 2012 19:24:03 GMT -5
I got this at the library without knowing anything about it aside from the dust jacket summary. In short, it's a couple of years after the zombie apocalypse. Humanity has been able to band together some. They have a settlement in Buffalo (yay, NoD!) and have set about clearing the island of Manhattan for the first permanent settlement, Zone One. The part that caught my eye was that a) Colson Whitehead has won some awards, so I figured it'd be well written rather than just another crap zombie book cashing in on the trend and b) A subset of the zombies don't run around all crazy eating people. They get stuck at some place/moment in their life and just stand there wasting away. I was really hoping for a book that would really pump up that b) reason and explore how certain places and moments stay with you for your lifetime and after you die. You can ask Abra. I am a sucker for books about death and dying. That's not really what it ended up being. There is that, but it's just one of the many things he tries to hit on in the book and never really reaches any of them. You can tell he is a skilled writer, but his storytelling could use some improvement. He makes liberal use of flashbacks and a few flash forwards. I can see what he was trying to do with them (establish them as those "moments" in the main characters life), but he unfortunately doesn't develop them into the narrative, and they ended up standing alone rather than a part of the story. It's a 255ish page book, so he had room to flesh these things out. I don't know why he didn't because I think it could have been a great book if he had. Like it is, it's only okay.
Post by nodepression on Jan 13, 2012 20:47:31 GMT -5
I've never been able to get into horror/zombie fiction for whatever reason. I'm going to try some sci-fi after I finish Gravity's Rainbow, which I'm almost through with by the way and is still very amazing and hilarious, and some other books I have on my nightstand.
^the passage by justin cronin is a really easy (fun i thought) read in that vein, if you don't want to go too dorky.
from amazon.com:
An epic and gripping tale of catastrophe and survival, The Passage is the story of Amy—abandoned by her mother at the age of six, pursued and then imprisoned by the shadowy figures behind a government experiment of apocalyptic proportions. But Special Agent Brad Wolgast, the lawman sent to track her down, is disarmed by the curiously quiet girl—and risks everything to save her. As the experiment goes nightmarishly wrong, Wolgast secures her escape—but he can’t stop society’s collapse. And as Amy walks alone, across miles and decades, into a future dark with violence and despair, she is filled with the mysterious and terrifying knowledge that only she has the power to save the ruined world.
I was heading towards Ballard/Gaiman/Philip K. Dick, but I'll check that out as well.
I thought American Gods by Neil Gaiman was good but not as great as I was led to believe. Ballard and Philip Dick are two that I have meant to look into but have never gotten around to it.
I was heading towards Ballard/Gaiman/Philip K. Dick, but I'll check that out as well.
I thought American Gods by Neil Gaiman was good but not as great as I was led to believe. Ballard and Philip weenie are two that I have meant to look into but have never gotten around to it.
I was heading towards Ballard/Gaiman/Philip K. Dick, but I'll check that out as well.
I thought American Gods by Neil Gaiman was good but not as great as I was led to believe. Ballard and Philip weenie are two that I have meant to look into but have never gotten around to it.
My brother has Crash, so I think that will be the first of that crew.
I thought American Gods by Neil Gaiman was good but not as great as I was led to believe. Ballard and Philip weenie are two that I have meant to look into but have never gotten around to it.
haha phillip weenie
(sorry for being a 12 yr old. )
Dammit, I forgot to use the profanity filter tricks. We need to lobby for that word to be okay on this thread at least.
I thought American Gods by Neil Gaiman was good but not as great as I was led to believe.
Hush your blasphemous mouth! How could you not love a book whose epic battle scene takes place on Lookout Mountain? A book which contains the most amazing speech, rife with references to everything from religion to sex to Schrödinger's cat!
"I believe...there’s a cat in a box somewhere who’s alive and dead at the same time (although if they don’t ever open the box to feed it it’ll eventually just be two different kinds of dead)..."
"Not as great" as you thought?!? C'mere & let me smack you upside the head!
I thought American Gods by Neil Gaiman was good but not as great as I was led to believe.
Hush your blasphemous mouth! How could you not love a book whose epic battle scene takes place on Lookout Mountain? A book which contains the most amazing speech, rife with references to everything from religion to sex to Schrödinger's cat!
"I believe...there’s a cat in a box somewhere who’s alive and dead at the same time (although if they don’t ever open the box to feed it it’ll eventually just be two different kinds of dead)..."
"Not as great" as you thought?!? C'mere & let me smack you upside the head!
Violence won't make that book any better. It's not that I thought it was bad by any stretch of the imagination. The person who recommended it to me listed it as one of his all-time favorites, and while I enjoyed it, it is not making any all-time lists.
Post by ziggyandthemonkeys on Jan 13, 2012 23:55:31 GMT -5
I'm in that boat with you, Dave. It was billed as being the most upper level of awesomeness, but I wasn't blown away. I'm glad I read it, and it was really good, but definitely not one of the best books of the past decade type book. I did really enjoy all the references, and am glad I was able to read it on a Kindle. Made my life easier.
About halfway through Naked Lunch. It doesn't make any more sense, but its fun. I have a feeling Tom Waits might have read this book.
Edit: At first I was trying to read it as one story, but once I approached it as vignettes I was really able to enjoy the scene he draws and the ridiculousness of it all.
^the passage by justin cronin is a really easy (fun i thought) read in that vein, if you don't want to go too dorky.
from amazon.com:
An epic and gripping tale of catastrophe and survival, The Passage is the story of Amy—abandoned by her mother at the age of six, pursued and then imprisoned by the shadowy figures behind a government experiment of apocalyptic proportions. But Special Agent Brad Wolgast, the lawman sent to track her down, is disarmed by the curiously quiet girl—and risks everything to save her. As the experiment goes nightmarishly wrong, Wolgast secures her escape—but he can’t stop society’s collapse. And as Amy walks alone, across miles and decades, into a future dark with violence and despair, she is filled with the mysterious and terrifying knowledge that only she has the power to save the ruined world.
Oh man, I hated that book! Haha I picked it up based on that review right there (I also work in a bookstore and we got an advanced reader) My favorite books are apocalyptic/post apocalyptic and I had heard good things about this one, but I was pretty dissapointed. I feel like he should have broken it up into three books and developed the story from each section more. I tell people about it if they like that kind of thing but I don't do it happily, haha.
^That being said I have disliked every book I have read in the past three or four months....so maybe I am just going through one of my "I don't feel like reading right now" phases
^the passage by justin cronin is a really easy (fun i thought) read in that vein, if you don't want to go too dorky.
from amazon.com:
An epic and gripping tale of catastrophe and survival, The Passage is the story of Amy—abandoned by her mother at the age of six, pursued and then imprisoned by the shadowy figures behind a government experiment of apocalyptic proportions. But Special Agent Brad Wolgast, the lawman sent to track her down, is disarmed by the curiously quiet girl—and risks everything to save her. As the experiment goes nightmarishly wrong, Wolgast secures her escape—but he can’t stop society’s collapse. And as Amy walks alone, across miles and decades, into a future dark with violence and despair, she is filled with the mysterious and terrifying knowledge that only she has the power to save the ruined world.
Oh man, I hated that book! Haha I picked it up based on that review right there (I also work in a bookstore and we got an advanced reader) My favorite books are apocalyptic/post apocalyptic and I had heard good things about this one, but I was pretty dissapointed. I feel like he should have broken it up into three books and developed the story from each section more. I tell people about it if they like that kind of thing but I don't do it happily, haha.
^That being said I have disliked every book I have read in the past three or four months....so maybe I am just going through one of my "I don't feel like reading right now" phases
haha, just goes to show i guess. there are going to be more books though....
Post by nodepression on Jan 17, 2012 23:35:05 GMT -5
I finished Gravity's Rainbow last night. One of the most bizarre, hilarious, beautiful and rewarding books I've ever read. I didn't understood it all obviously, but that's part of what makes it so great. Pynchon's an American master.
Now I'm reading,
Which has been a good short read so far, will probably finish tonight.
Somebody give me some recommendations. I need something to good to read.
My favorite authors tend to be American but I guess I really don't care. Maybe something with some wit to it, I just finished reading pretty much the entire Vonnegut library. I'm also a big fan of good old fashioned American realism: Steinbeck, Hemingway and such. I would prefer something that isn't too thick. Something I can read a chapter or two and come back to in a few days without issue.
Finished 1Q84! Have to admit, I was a bit disappointed but I can't pinpoint why exactly just yet. I'll give it some time to sink in, as I literally JUST finished the book.
Post by A$AP Rosko on Jan 18, 2012 22:12:51 GMT -5
The Sound and the Fury, baconus. It's pretty dense but it is totally moving. Also I recommend that you read Thomas Wolfe's Look Homeward, Angel.
NoD coming strong with the recommendations. I should check this thread more regularly. Right now I am reading a nonfiction book by Harvard sociologist William Julius Wilson called More Than Just Race and Philip Roth's American Pastoral, which is quacking amazing and I don't know why I haven't read it already.
Post by A$AP Rosko on Jan 18, 2012 22:16:27 GMT -5
Seriously, just about all my favorite novelists are mentioned on this page. Badass. What did you think of Blood Meridian, theshining? Cormac McCarthy is my hero. He was also the very first avatar pic I had on this site.
Post by A$AP Rosko on Jan 18, 2012 22:20:35 GMT -5
Also, if any of you McCarthy fans haven't read The Road, you need to get on it. Sorry for the triple post, but that book is worth it. Quite possibly the single most harrowing, devastating, and ultimately hopeful books I have ever read. And it contains a lot of the most technically impressive prose of McCarthy's canon.
