Books 2nd Edition, Foreword by m0r1arty Options

[maian]

After starting it last summer, then getting distracted by somewhat quicker paced fare, I finished The Idiot by Dostoevsky yesterday. I thought it was pretty brilliant, at times profound (particularly his observation that the best way for someone of above average intelligence to be happy is to know that they have talent but not to have enough self-awareness to realise that they aren't that talented, which I think is as true today as it was in 1869) and often pretty funny in its depiction of how a completely honest and transparent man, or "Idiot", could be perceived, and ultimately destroyed, by society. My one problem with it, and it's more of a case of how much the idea of 'the novel' has evolved since the nineteenth century than an inherent fault in the novel, was the near-endless monologues, some of which go on for several pages at a time. They can be entertaining, but it does make the book feel like more work than it actually is.

This post has been edited by maian: Jan 11 2011, 02:11 AM

[Silky]

Currently on The Waste Lands, Book three in the Dark Tower saga, by Stephen King, if you kennit.

[Schlubalybub]

I'm just Starting Under The Dome by Stephen King (subtitled The Simpsons Movie according to my mum, who owns the book and has already read it...)

[Silky]

I'm just Starting Under The Dome by Stephen King (subtitled The Simpsons Movie according to my mum, who owns the book and has already read it...)

Need to read that one.

[Schlubalybub]

Need to read that one.

I just hope it's better than Cell...Cell was kinda said to be the new Stand (before Under the Dome was the new Stand) and it really isn't
I loved The Stand, but Cell was just weird!

I dunno- King's 1990s/2000s books just seem to have been strange
I read half of Duma Key and wasn't keen...didn't help that the title sounds like "Dyma ci", which is Welsh for "here's the dog"

[omni]

Reading Consider The Lobster by David Foster Wallace. I had never encountered his work before. Wonderful, intelligent, and darky hilarious prose. This is a collection of essays and I look forward to reading his novels.

[maian]

A Supposedly Fun Thing I'll Never Do Again is another great collection of short stories and essays. The title story, in particular, is hilarious, as is his report from the set of Lost Highway.

[Silky]

I just hope it's better than Cell...Cell was kinda said to be the new Stand (before Under the Dome was the new Stand) and it really isn't
I loved The Stand, but Cell was just weird!

I dunno- King's 1990s/2000s books just seem to have been strange
I read half of Duma Key and wasn't keen...didn't help that the title sounds like "Dyma ci", which is Welsh for "here's the dog"

Yeah Cell did strike me as Stand Lite as it were.
I loved The Stand too.

[Shack]

I occasionally like to dip into sports books so I got "Beware of the Dog" by Brian Moore out of the library. Starts out grittily, turns a bit tiresome by the end. No doubting his opinions mind, I just wanted more after it won the Booker equivalent for sport.

Onto more regular matters now, the latest Ruiz Jafon.

With "great sex" in it. Apparently.

This post has been edited by Shack: Jan 11 2011, 10:34 PM

[Schlubalybub]

Yeah Cell did strike me as Stand Lite as it were.
I loved The Stand too.

Have you seen the TV version? It's bloody good! Although it does take 6-7 hours to watch the complete thing.

"It" is my favourite King book, I absolutely adore that book...and Frankenfurter also plays a good It...

I read It when I was 13, I watched it for the first time when I was 15, and it didn't make a dent compared to the book

This post has been edited by Schlubalybub: Jan 11 2011, 10:48 PM

[Silky]

Have you seen the TV version? It's bloody good! Although it does take 6-7 hours to watch the complete thing.

Assuming you mean the Stand, I have. The Gunslinger was the first King book I read, followed by the entire DT series, then the Stand.

[sweetbutinsane]

I used to love watching this guy's Twilight readings and was quite saddened when he said he was only doing the first book. I then tried to read New Moon for teh lulz. I barely made it to the end of the third chapter and ended up giving it back to the person I borrowed it from. It crushed my soul more than it made me laugh at the fail.

[Silky]

Now onto book 4 of the DT, Wizard and Glass.

[mcraigclark]

Reading Consider The Lobster by David Foster Wallace. I had never encountered his work before. Wonderful, intelligent, and darky hilarious prose. This is a collection of essays and I look forward to reading his novels.

It's fantastic. I loved him, and I'm still very sad that he's gone. Infinite Jest should be your next one.

[maian]

His last book, The Pale King, is being released in April. I've got mixed feelings about it. On the one hand, it'll be an incomplete work which, coming from a writer as precise as Wallace, could feel like a betrayal. On the other, it's still David Foster Wallace.