Finished Rosencrantz and Guildenstern Are Dead by Tom Stoppard. Fifty years after it was conceived, it remains an interesting conceit.

Thought I'd drop a link to my favorite booktuber, Steve Donoghue. He reviews books for a living for a number of popular magazines and literary journals. I'm probably wrong, but I'd nominate him as the most well-read person alive. He reads 150 pages an hour, 8 hours a day, averaging 3 books a day. He reads well over 1000 books per year, with a goal of reading "everything important published in English each year."

He's well-spoken, funny, and a bit irritating, as you might suspect someone who reads all day every day might be.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sXL2fvElpxM

Finished Paris Spleen by Charles Baudelaire. A quick introduction to modernity and city life through early prose poems.

That's pretty fast. I usually avg around 100 pp/hr though it varies significantly based on the text, mostly based on if I've ever read that author before. It takes me around 3-400 pages to sort of get in the rhythm or pattern of how an author phrases things and what word choices etc so that I can anticipate better and read fast. For something like Stephen King it's maaaaybe possible I could get up to 150 pp/hr if I really pushed it but I'd definitely be losing something

Finished Choke by Chuck Palahniuk.

It reminded me that Alain Robbe-Grillet said that "the genuine writer has nothing to say. He has only a way of speaking". The word "genuine" may be superfluous.

Gioco,




kokiri,

I did feel the streak of the blasphemer running through me while writing that Earthsea review. I'm definitely willing to give the series another look, so we'll see how deep my sacrilege flows.


Another Marlowe mystery -- The Long Goodbye. I think it's put together better than the other two I've read; it's not quite as convoluted as Big Sleep, and it's not quite as florid as Farewell. Nice balance between the two, I'd say.

I can't imagine reading three books a day. Guy has to get up and take a leak or a shower once in a while.... Hell, I can't even imagine reading more than 50 pages an hour. Thirty in MM paperback is more my neighborhood. I like to gaze into the beyond and let my mind wander too much.

I've had about ten books going at the same time recently and am starting to close out some of them. Add to that list: Beautiful You by Chuck Palahniuk.

The style and tone of Palahniuk's writing in this novel are very different from most of his work. I was beginning to be bored with his style but did not like his effort at something new.

The story and plot are interesting; the writing looks like an attempt to follow the "Rules" Palahniuk described in his 36 Lessons or his descriptions of Tom Spanbauer's writing classes. He would do better to ignore any rules.

Yeah, I'm in the 30-50 pages an hour camp, too. But I imagine reading 56 hours per week would give anyone a significant boost.

Apparently Steve was part of a religious cult that taught him to read quickly and boosted his retention. He regrets much of his indoctrination but owes he life's work to the skills they taught him.

I finished House of Leaves by Mark Danielewski yesterday. It was bit annoying at first but once you get into it you become kind of obsessed. If you can get past the gimmicky structure (upside down sentences, a billion foot notes citing random references), it's a lot of fun and very trippy. I thoroughly enjoyed it and will be thinking about it for a long time.

I finally relented and got On The Road by Kerouac, when I was perusing a bookstore before a doctor's appointment. It's quite good. I love that Jack hated the beats...

I read this book on recommendation of my friend. It was interesting although the only thing boasted about it is the fact that the author wrote the book in one go. There is too much romanticism associated with it. I personally found it a bit overrated.

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I'll give you one of Le Guin & Chandler, but both and we're going to fall out...

I just downloaded A Wizard Of Earthsea because I realised I haven't read it for about a decade and coincidentally my wife is reading the paper version right now. So I'll have to see what I make of what you said

Finished Survivor by Chuck Palahniuk. This had a bit of a feel like Palahniuk does DeLillo, but DeLillo does DeLillo better, so: why read Palahniuk? I've probably read too much Palahniuk too quickly, all the protagonists seem to be speaking in the same voice.

It's not a bad read and has some interesting entertainment value. It's better than 98% of the stuff out there. I liked it better than my recent read of Beautiful You. While I fault Palahniuk for sounding the same, his sameness is better than his attempt to follow some minimalist or Burnt Tongue rules of writing.

I did like Palahniuk's description of the packaging and franchising of celebrity. His own experience?

On the news front: Yesterday, I received a Folio Society fourteen color edition of The Sound And The Fury so I feel obligated to read Faulkner again.

This looks beautiful. Was this a gift? Or did you shell out the $140?

Gift!

<-----jealous. Whatta gift, enjoy!

It's definitely romanticized in people's minds. I like it, though I don't see it as being life changing for me...though I might be too old for that these days.

Oh, we goin' down swingin'!

Nah, Earthsea isn't terrible or anything. It's just that any time it seems like tension would start to build, she'd send Ged off to some other island and meet some other people who don't factor into anything. I think if there was some sort of subplot to give all the excursions significance the novel would've been much better. And, not like I'm a stickler for a good ending, but this one I saw about ten miles away -- and that kinda sucks when so much time and energy is spent on the hero figuring it out.


Now, for a classic that does deliver (I say as I twist my knife another turn into kokiri's soul), and in a big way -- The Stars My Destination by Alfred Bester. What a book! I love me a good revenge plot. It's pace doesn't let up, and it takes some wild turns along the way. Surprisingly deep for pulp sci-fi. Think a futuristic Count of Monte Cristo with only about one-tenth of the word count.

Any reccomendations on courtroom dramas or specific criminal cases ?, I have not read any yet but am just now getting to the trial in The Karamazov Brothers and am thirsty for more.

Try The Stranger by Camus.

I've been reading I Robot for the past month or so. Yesterday I read the short story "Reason". It's quite good. Humans build the first self-aware robot. The robot noticing that robots are better than humans in many respects (durability, logical reasoning) doesn't believe that humans built him. He becomes religious.
The short story is interesting in that it really touches on how difficult it is to convince someone that they are wrong when they hold their beliefs with religious fervor.
It's also humorous. Quite good.

Wow that sounds awesome. I'll have to check it out.

Finished The Informers by Bret Easton Ellis.

The black hole at the center of humanity, that thing that motivates and destroys men, meets unlimited money, drugs, and sex. The black hole wins.

It's The Day of the Locust on steroids.

Helga - Helga Gerbardi

True story about a family of Swiss nationals, living and working in Germany during the rise
of Hitler and through the Second World War.

The family get seperated and the book tells of how Helga escapes from the advancing Russian army and makes her way across Germany to try and find and reunite her family.

Alone, Helga has to join the trek of refugees in the severe winter of 1944/45, fleeing
over land and frozen lakes, trying to stay one step ahead of the advancing Russians.

With no food, no shelter or warmth, Helga's courage and perserverance helped her survive one of the worst winters in living memory.

Engrossing book, worth reading for a civilian perspective of the last year of WWII and the gradual collapse of Nazi Germany.

"The alchemist"

A+