Last CD you bought/ Book you read (2 Viewers)

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Pineapple Express meets H.P Lovecraft. This one is a lot of fun.

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Because that is the coolest name and album cover ever.
 
Agree with the album cover, it is amazing, the name of the band... a bit lame, doesn`t inspire me to have a listen, maybe if I was a 15yr old boy I`d disagree.
 
Totally undecided, I guess the most plausible events are that of the official records, but I would not be surprised if he had been deposed by his 'own' men, history is littered with murdered kings of every nation and politics is the arena of powerful ambitious,ruthless and murderous men.
I actually meant what did you think of the book, but since you mention it I've now come round to the idea that Oswald may well have acted alone. There's a good page that debunks a lot of the myths and misinformation surrounding the events here:
http://mcadams.posc.mu.edu/home.htm
Having said all that and despite it being a load of bollocks, I really loved the film JFK.
 
Hi Bruno, sorry,yes really enjoyed the book, its subject matter is huge and kind of revolves around the Butterfly Effect theory and not in a good way, as the belief that altering history and preventing the assassination of JFK would have been a better outcome for us.The town of Derry yet again makes its appearance. I enjoyed the main characters and the sub plots are compelling, you really care about the fate of some of the characters. Would recommend it but only if you like a 'big' book
 
Just started Hard Rain Falling - Don Carpenter...
as recommended by Pittsburgh writer Dave Newman (whose book Raymond Carver Will Not Raise Our Children is terrific!)

Twain's The Man Who Corrupted Hadleyberg and Tolstoy's The Devil were both also a nice surprises! Twain's reads like a Coen Bros. movie, and I assumed Tolstoy would be ornate and obtuse -- but I assumed wrong! His autobiographical novella clipped along at a perfect pace.
 
I know the whole alternative history thing has been done many times before but that sounds like a fascinating book. I like of bit of King anyway and I used to be really interested in the JFK assassination / conspiracy theories surrounding it. What did you think of it?

i'm about 2/3 of the way through and so far i would highly recommend it - very easy read, great sense of dread built up, absolutely no idea where the story is going or how it will end. the time-travel constraints are really interesting, too, making it a bit different from your usual time-travel story. there is also a sort of funny callback to It early in the book.

BUT i recommend buying the e-version - this book is ridiculously awkward in size (and i've only been reading it in bed, not carrying it round) and the spine is already tearing away from the text block, just from the weight.
 
if you dig her stuff this is all you need.
I remember the first time I saw a book of Arbus pictures when I was a teenager, in the 70s. I thought, "Who the hell...what the hell...how the hell?" I had never seen any art like that. Weird and marginal and wonderful.

She certainly paved the way for a lot of other oddball photographers like Mary Ellen Mark, Sally Mann and Joel-Peter Witkin.

She was punk rock, as Neil Young would say.
 
seeing her stuff at that time must have been a trip. seeing it now still is...

there's a bowie appearance on dick cavett from 1974 where he mentions her as an artist he was
into at that time.
 
So, UPDATE: Hard Rain Falling - Don Carpenter is pretty damn good; well done characters. Same guy who did the POST OFFICE script...(which I am now super interested to read. Saw on an old thread that a few of you have read it...)

I'd be surprised if "Rita Hayworth and the Shawshank Redemption" wasn't influenced by the book...the prison side of things fells like something they both share. As for the rest, I kept thinking of the Burnett film "Killer of Sheep" maybe crossed with a Patrick Hamilton book. Anyhow -- worth a read.
 
Did you read the NYRB edition w/ the George Pelecanos introduction, and if so what did you think of what he had to say?

Just read Dan Fante's 86'd. Very strong book. intense at points, and well developed characters surprise, surprise. Not the same writer as his father but of course there are similaritites w/ his father & Buk, in a good way fortunately. Next on board is his play Don Giovanni that, just by chance, happens to be a signed copy...
 
Has anyone read The Stories of Breece D'J Pancake. I've only read the first couple of short stories but I'm enjoying it so far. I have to confess that I'd never heard of the guy until a recent recommendation. You have to love his name as well.
 
Amazon says Breece took his life at 26 with a shotgun. Ouch. Regardless, it looks to be a mighty fine collection. Read amazon's "click to look inside" portion. Gonna have to add yet another Buk forum recommendation to my list.
 
Last book: Cadillac Men by Rebecca Schumejda.

I'm going to order that one.

Just recently finished a book called Men and Machines by a guy named Stuart Chase. If anybody is into history/philosophy, this book is easy to recommend. Balanced critique, very readable. Really a better history book doesn't come to mind. It was written in the late 20s, so it's a work of history, but also is itself historical. Also, the book has some awesome woodcuts for people who like an occasional image with their reading material.
 
Got this from a colleague who said I would like it, didn't really think so when I read the title, (who needs punchy?).But I can't put it down, well that's a bit of a fib; 'cos here I am, but it's just sitting to the left of me and I will be returning to it, immediately. The humour is very dry and I love a book that makes you laugh out loud. Slightly Forest Gumpish in the way the hero stumbles through his life and some of the events of the 20th century,hope that doesn't put anyone off. Anyway, has anyone else read it already?

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oddball photographers

How about Ted Orland? His Scenes of Wonder and Curiosity is one of a very few 'art' books that I really miss since i gave it away. Subtle photography and digable stories about learning from Imogen and Ansel and being on the leading edge of a new scene.

Anyway, has anyone else read it already?

I only get to a novel or three a year, but this one seems like it might be up my alley, adventurous, light and philosophical? Plus one of my best buddies is from Ticino, where it was written ... Are you still flowing with it? Title draws me in.
 
Em, yes, still reading it, haven't really been in the mood much this week though.The title made me want to run in the opposite direction to be honest, however if you enjoy your humour a bit on the black, satirical side it's a good wee read.
 
Holy Shit Newcastle!, you've totally misread me there. What I meant was, you should read:
Remembrance of Things Past by Marcel Proust, Das Kapital by Karl Marx and War and Peace by Leo Tolstoy.
 
Just finished Joseph Conrad (1899) Heart of Darkness. What a bleak masterpiece, certainly understand more how Francis Ford Coppola 's Apocalypse Now (1979) was inspired by the book and the Vietnam War being the 'ideal' setting for the theme. (Not that there aren't countless others in history, depressingly.) Would recommend it, if you haven't already read it.
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Buyer beware: buying this will induce a need to seek out other books by this writer if new to his work. Guess that's true for any of his books.

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Snared off Ebay because I was too lazy to get to the record store on RSD.
 
Just finished Joseph Conrad (1899) Heart of Darkness. What a bleak masterpiece [...]

Absolutely agree. Recently reread and it stands up very well. Still feels very modern and I was surprised at how many points had been directly quoted by Coppola.
Also, it is short, which helps.
 
Yep, I avoided it for a long time ( white, European, male supremacists in African colonial landgrab - oh joy! fully expected not finish it).Just at the start of modernism, I was amazed by the writing style. scenes from the movie crossed my mind as I read but it didn't detract. Damning of the European devaluation and disregard of African culture. For me Kurtz was the allegory for Europe; sickly, corrupt , greedy, in contrast, the African woman; Kurtz's mistress is beautifully described, as magnificent, wild, savage and superb. It's clear how much Marlow is changed on his journey to get Kurtz. You do feel utterly sickened at the end of the book at what humanity (some of??) is capable of.
And yes Joseph K amazed to read some of the film quotes in it. One very absent from the book but one of my favourite quotes from the film has got to be this: Willard (who is Marlow in the book.)
Willard: Who's in charge here?
Soldier: In charge? I don't know, man. I'm just doing what I'm told - I'm just a working girl.
 
And the Dennis Hopper journalist character is directly from the book - the young man who worships Kurtz. Marlow: "You talk with him." "No, you listen to him."
I had Kurtz's fiancee down as a woman who really didn't understand Kurtz at all and Marlow can't bring himself to explain his brutality and brilliance.
A very complex book. I guess the fact it is on school reading lists puts people off, but it shouldn't.
 
I agree Joseph K, they were certainly two of the most wilfully? deluded characters in the book as to Kurtz's real nature (psychotic megalomaniac, would probably cover it) Yep the Dennis Hopper character was pretty close to the Russian trader's worship of Kurtz. Trying to convince Marlow of his 'genius' and how Kurtz "expanded his mind" he was lucky it never landed up on a stick beside the rest.
I know Conrad gets the Misogynist label hung on him as the gender politics theme gets pulled out of the book but I don't agree, I think he was a typical man of his time and 'class' he and Kurtz both describe women as belonging in their own 'beautiful world', kept apart from all the ugliness and brutality of life, as Marlow talks to Kurtz's Fiance I think there's also an undercurrent of exasperation with her attitude as she describes the fantasy she has of him. He can't bring himself to enlighten her, being of the belief that women are too delicate, ( or should I say middle/upper class women - working class women were never 'protected' from this reality and were fully exploited as were their children throughout industrialisation of the 19th century).
Sorry, I've ran on too long, but your right it is such a complex book and does it matter that it is on school reading lists? so is "To Kill A Mockingbird" and I still love that. You can't always be reading Irvine Welsh and Scott McClanahan.
 

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