Summer Reading Thread

[PNWbrit]

http://www.nytimes.com/2014/10/02/bo...-killings.html

Has anyone tried wading into this yet?

[The AD]

Just started on "The Martian." Somewhat amateurish, but very entertaining!

[NoPostholio]

^^me too - narrative reminds me The Dog Stars which is also a great book to pick up -

[Buster Highmen]

'The Emerald Mile' by Fedarko is 257 ways of an awsum, magnificent and brilliant weave of history of the American Southwest, beautiful arc of the individual, cultural contrasts and transformations, politics and orthogonal truths against a background of the mad and raging colors of the Grand Canyon and the Green and Colorado River Basins.
A Really Fine Read.

[The AD]

Just started "The Emerald Mile." I figure it's gotta be good to get that kind of praise from Buster!

[Buster Highmen]

I should have mentioned the engineering stuff in EM too. Mankinds largest machines.

I thought 'The Glass Castle' by Jeannette Walls was a good read too: hysterical from a distant view, sad and frightening because that life is really not so far off.

'Half Broke Horses' by her was good too.

Also Ivan Doig is a guilty pleasure with 'Work Song' current.

Seven Ages of Paris by Horne was a bit thick at times, but satisfying.

can't remember the other historical junk I've read...

[PNWbrit]

Just started on "The Martian." Somewhat amateurish, but very entertaining!

Fun little page turner. Movie is on the way. Which is how it kind of read.

[::: :::]

just read The Martian this weekend (blew out my back so spent it on the couch reading)...entertaining! thx for the recco

also, from this thread I enjoyed The Son
i intensely disliked Infinite Jest's writing style so much that i couldn't continue [for those that got through it, is it worth going back to and enduring for a later payoff?]


good thread!

[~mikey b]

Just finished a Steinbeck anthology again. East of Eden, Grapes of Wrath, Cannery Row, Of Mice and Men.

Read John Steinbeck. One of the best Californian American writers evar! Then read Wallace Stegner and Ed Abbey.

[Yanos]

'The Emerald Mile' by Fedarko is 257 ways of an awsum, magnificent and brilliant weave of history of the American Southwest, beautiful arc of the individual, cultural contrasts and transformations, politics and orthogonal truths against a background of the mad and raging colors of the Grand Canyon and the Green and Colorado River Basins.
A Really Fine Read.

Thanks for the rec. In the middle of reading this one and really enjoying it.

[The AD]

I'm in the middle of "The Emerald Mile" now, too, and really enjoying it. It really makes me want to visit the Southwest.

[butterscotch]

Sometimes so much density it seems best saved for the long nights of winter.

A Supposedly Fun Thing I'll Never Do Again is the summer-read version of DFW.

If you like the absurdist angle of Wallace's work, you may like Mark Leyner - Et Tu, Babe, and a more page-turny and even lighter version might be Carl Hiaasen's Sick Puppy.

I found A Supposedly Fun Thing... less dense but more serious. I just read Although of course you end up becoming yourself, which might be the closest DFW gets to summer reading.

I'll check out the other books you mentioned; my book pile is dwindling. Infinite Jest made me want to give Gravity's Rainbow another try as well.

Just finished a Steinbeck anthology again. East of Eden, Grapes of Wrath, Cannery Row, Of Mice and Men.

Read John Steinbeck. One of the best Californian American writers evar! Then read Wallace Stegner and Ed Abbey.

Travels with Charley!

[::: :::]

The Goldfinch just came in at the library after putting a hold on it in Aug...gonna dig into that one this weekend

[vaquero]

Interesting thread. Anyone here read Hofstadter's Gödel, Escher, Bach?

[Flyoverland Captive]

Interesting thread. Anyone here read Hofstadter's Gödel, Escher, Bach?

Read it years ago. I remember it being a very dense read; I think it sprained my brain.

[mall walker]

Interesting thread. Anyone here read Hofstadter's Gödel, Escher, Bach?

Yes. A good read, bit long winded, probably overrated by CS types. I enjoyed it nonetheless.

[mall walker]

Been finally plodding through Hesse's Glass Bead Game although not nearly as fast as I'd like... mixing in perhaps my 10th re-reading of William Gibson's Neuromancer

[Buster Highmen]

Interesting thread. Anyone here read Hofstadter's Gödel, Escher, Bach?

I found it to be one of the most irritating and pretentious books to which I've ever laid an orb.
Admittedly, I studied the stuff (set theory, axiom of choice, completeness) in a wonderfully nonpretentious environment and loved it.

[nogophers]

Finished last night. Recommend.

http://www.amazon.com/High-Divide-Pr...ds=high+divide

[~mikey b]

I found A Supposedly Fun Thing... less dense but more serious. I just read Although of course you end up becoming yourself, which might be the closest DFW gets to summer reading.

I'll check out the other books you mentioned; my book pile is dwindling. Infinite Jest made me want to give Gravity's Rainbow another try as well.



Travels with Charley!

Just into The Winter of Our Discontent - next up Travels with Charley - I guess that's how he wrote them and how you should read them.

[snoqpass]

[snoqpass]

This is a great book too...

[NoPostholio]

^^^def one of the best in a long time. The Comanches were like outlaw motorcycle gangs.

For the 420 crowd this is must read

http://www.amazon.com/Smoke-Signals-.../dp/1439102619

[PROJECT_MANAGER]

Desmond Bagleys - Landslide. for me its every thing i want in a book:

adventure
hot women
realistic

think clint eastwood meets john wayne meets harrison ford, so a lad wakes up from a car crash and becomes a geologist and go's on to get chased around the BC back country. oh yea

[NoPostholio]

The Martian, by Andy Weir

Not summer but this thread needs a bump - thanks for rec Brit, holy fucking macgyverfest - that is a top tier read for sure.

fight your inner Mr Dumbstone - Read the martian or emerald mile, two great recommendations from this thread -

Read it before Nov

http://www.dailygalaxy.com/my_weblog...best-ever.html

http://www.hitfix.com/in-contention/...ts-the-martian