I thought this book had some lofty assumptions and a lot of sample size issues. Still was some interesting stuff in there though.

This is my 2nd favourite book (I feel such a child saying that). I love it. Pity his other stuff isn't quite as good.

Ya Shadow of The Wind is really good.

I did quite like The Angel's Game, it is just unfortunate in that it has to be compared to SotW. I also somewhat enjoyed The Prince of Mist, even if it is a book for children/teenagers. I think those are the only others in English.

I found Angel's Game a bit too convoluted, and Prince of Mist a bit too simplistic. Shadow of the Wind got it just right. I felt the writing was better in it too, but that may just be that I was used to it by the later books.

Prince of Mist was written first, which explains its problem. Perhaps Angel's Game was just him trying too hard. I just checked and both adult novels were translated by the same woman.

Yea, I would have liked to have seen a little more scientific rigor in some of the sections but I still thought he a had a lot of plausible and interesting conclusions. I also like how he kept showing how the conclusions could be applied to real life scenarios.

Black Swan, which is also a very interesting book, is even worse for this. Seems like the media experiences he had with FBR has made him even more intolerant of people. It gets very bitchy at times.

Hopes and Prospects - Noam Chomsky
The World Is Flat - Thomas L. Friedman

a couple of my favorites

Eh, I don't think his resentment stems from other people having made money at all. I think he's just incredibly intolerant of stupidity, idiocy, irrationality, etc. in all forms. If money wasn't part of the equation at all I think he'd still take shots at dummies every 2nd page. There's evidence of this, actually, in the way he talks about mass media & journos with just as much vitriol as he does bankers. Classical economists, too.

There is much wisdom in his writing, but I agree that it's tough to plow through at times. Loved the preface to the 2nd ed. where he rationalizes not hiring an editor to spiff up the text.

Noam is somewhat interesting as long as you take him for an educated, eloquent, extremely paranoid and gifted story teller. I mean, he's right on about some things, however his tone gets conspiracy theoretical to the point where a reader from another planet might think 'WOW - they must REALLY have their **** together down there on earth to be able to keep million man secrets'.

The World is Flat is kinda fun, but about halfway through you begin to realize that you lived it, and inherently know it. Still a fun read.




I'm about 100 pages into Infinite Jest and while I'm starting to like it more, can anyone out there reassure me that this isn't one of those Stephen King type books that takes 999/1000 pages to setup the story and the last page to pull it together? At this point, it seems like DFW sat down with 1100 pages and was like 'I'm not getting up until I fill em all', and while his prose is interesting (can't say I'm a fan of the 3 page run-on or 20 page superfluous footnote), he certainly takes takes his time getting wherever he's going.

I can assure you that he doesn't take 999/1000 pages to set up the story and then pulls it together in the last page, yes.

But if "(can't say I'm a fan of the 3 page run-on or 20 page superfluous footnote)" is true, this might not be a good book for you to soldier all the way through, bc imo that stuff is kind of the point.

The think about Infinte Wallace is that David Edgar Wallace can't leave a strand of a story alone until he has squeezed every last drop of narrative juice out of it.

The footnotes are a part of the book but can be irritating sometimes especially when you spend time trying to find the footnote and it's just the name of a drug or something.

It took me 2-300 pages to really get into IJ. It took me ages to read but was certainly worth it. It's definately the best book I wouldn't recommend to anyone.

Ahahaha - love the 'best book I wouldn't recommend to anyone'. Well said.

I can see the footnotes being extra annoying in print, however the Kindle makes them quite easy. I guess it was just the



Idk, I mean - I'm certainly enjoying it so far, it's better than forcing myself to finish Angle of Repose (which was really well written, but most definitely the definition of a 'yarn'). Still - I'm not hooked to the point yet where the ability to click a button and be started on Blood Meridian doesn't flash in my head when I read yet another random footnote.

Hmm. That's an interesting point.

For me, the placement of the footnotes in print was a key part of the experience--needing two bookmarks, one for the footnotes and one for the text, seeing the second bookmark going through the footnotes toward the end of the book as well, if you see what I mean.

There was something really cool about the physical experience of reading IJ in print (all the page flipping, the weight of the thing, the random rat-with-lever "will this footnote before 4 or 4000 words long?") that I would not have experienced in an electronic/hypertext version of the book. I think this specifically applies to IJ or something like House of Leaves, quite outside the normal considerations of how reading electronically is different.

The footnotes really are like Forrest Gump's box of chocolates. Some are seemingly pointless, some annoying, some insightful and some excellent short stories in their own right.

Stick with it Snipe. The book does settle down to a discernable narrative and there are some truly amazing set pieces.

I discovered this site part way through reading and it's a useful and interesting resource.

http://infinitesummer.org/

Thanks to the people who recommended "A Song of Ice and Fire" earlier ITT. I am 100-odd pages into "A Game of Thrones" and it is so good!

Yeh, I was expecting it to be crap but ended up reading the first three flying to Australia & back. I don't like fantasy at all, but these really are good. There isn't much actual fantasy in them if that kind of thing bothers you too.

It actually kind of reminds me of The Pillars of the Earth (novel about the building of a church in 12th century England)

Let's just hope GRRM doesn't die before finishing the series. I believe he intends to write 3 more... Book 5 has been delayed for like 5 years

Thanks again for the recommendation! Have finished A Game of Thrones, which I loved. Gogogogo A Clash of Kings!

it is not even remotely a spoiler to say there is a long footnote that is the filmography of one of the books characters.

also, that footnote is hysterical. while most of the films get mentioned in more detail in the main text eventually, it's still funny to read through them.

the book does take a while to get into because there are just so many characters and plots that seems almost completely unrelated at first. he also spends a lot of time on characters early in the novel who dont play much of a role later. once you've read maybe a 5th of the book, you find yourself reading it in much bigger chunks because you have more invested in the people he's talking about.

these arent really my favorite books of the past 10-15 years or whatever (dfw and roberto bolano mostly cover that), but i thought id mention some ones that are interesting that i havent seen brought up very often. .

michel houellebecq - the elementary particles, platform, the possibility of an island

he's a very popular french novelist whose books follow in that grand tradition of intelligent, misanthropic, unhappy guy who divides his text between discussions of his major philosophic ideas, his boredom with life and a large number of graphic sex scenes. his books cover pretty similar territory, but i would say read the elementary particles or platform first, then his others (his first book is worse than these and his most recent one hasnt been translated yet)

sam lipsyte - the ask

he's an extremely funny writer (seriously, it's actually funny)whose writing focuses on guys "who havent panned out." i think this is his best work.

he's a recent short story of his that was in the new yorker.
http://www.newyorker.com/fiction/fea...iction_lipsyte

What Roberto Bolano do you recommend first? 2666?

i would say try a short story collection before either the savage detectives or 2666. i think he has 3, but one of them, "last evenings on earth" takes stuff from the other two.

Thanks.

I'm trying to read Infinate Jest but 93 pages in I'm really not feeling the writing style and still don't really know what's going on. I also have no interest in Tennis. Think I might give up, this must mean I'm not so good at books :/