Agree with what you said. I read the Rockefeller one and enjoyed that one more. The rest of his books are on my reading list.

I agree that the last third wasn't as good as the first two parts, but I think that it will age well if Wall Street changes and someone is looking back at the history of banking.

Thanks for the recommendation; it's been added to my to-read list. I am probably interested in the Bible as myth first, literature second, and religious text a distant third (compared to the first two, at least, which might even be in the wrong order) so that book seems quite useful. Plus it's always nice to get an unsolicited recommendation from someone whose posts ITT I tend to pay extra attention to.

Interesting. I didn't think 1Q84 to be indulgent at all. It was a page-turner for me.

Loved Wind-Up Bird and Hard-Boiled Wonderland. They'll give him [and DeLillo] the Nobel eventually imo.

No live organism can continue for long to exist sanely under conditions of absolute reality; even larks and katydids are supposed, by some, to dream. Hill House, not sane, stood by itself against its hills, holding darkness within; it had stood so for eighty years and might stand for eighty more. Within, walls continued upright, bricks met neatly, floors were firm, and doors were sensibly shut; silence lay steadily against the wood and stone of Hill House, and whatever walked there, walked alone.

prizes for art are idiotic, but aiui, there's a clause in the nobel prize mantra which demands something like idealism or whatever, which means that it's not an award for pure literary merit.

Second guessing who some random Norwegians are going to give their prize to is a mugs' game, but if i were to do so, it's not clear to me that Murakami ticks the idealism box even remotely, with the slight exception of his book on the Aum terrorism, which is quite interesting imo.

To be honest, I think that the English language literary world is quite self regarding enough as it is, but if i were to give the nobel to an english language author, with a nod to the principle of idealism, i woud give it to ursula le guin.

Maybe I didn't "get" 1Q84, but I'd probably trade that 900ish pages read for another few books if I could

Semi-dissing DeLillo/Roth and now Murakami on the same page itt.... I'll just bend over now and take it

The NIV is unreliable because its wording is in places determined by Christian doctrine rather than scholarly translation. I don't know enough about the NASB to say but generally think the NRSV is a good choice for something that is accessible version that also follows the KJV while trying for a responsible translation.

But a wonderful version of the first five books is Everett Fox's The Five Books of Moses. I love the weirdness of it, which somehow captures what I feel must be the real spirit of the text. Here's his opening of Genesis. Also worth reading are Stephen Mitchell's translations of Genesis, Job, and Psalms.

hi guys!
right now i'm reading "the black swan" by Nassim Nicholas Taleb who is an ex trader talking about the influence of probabilities in life, i'm really enjoing this read because in my opinion is so much poker related, i guess is much better for mindset that the old "poker mindset" and that why i suggest it to everybody here if you don't know it already.
as you can see by my english skill i'm reading it in italian which is my native tongue, otherwise i wouldn't be able to understand everything.

http://www.laweekly.com/2006-11-16/art-books/jest-fest/

Dave Eggers introduction to the 10th anniversary edition of Infinite Jest. About 3.5 pages and very well worth reading. His reaction was pretty much the same exact one I had when the book came out:

'DFW was already known as a very smart and challenging and funny and preternaturally gifted writer when Infinite Jest was released in 1996, and thereafter his reputation included all the adjectives mentioned just now, and also this one: Holy Shiit.

No, that isn't an adjective in the strictest sense. But you get the idea....

And yet, while it uses a familiar enough vocabulary, make no mistake that IJ is something other. That is, it bears little resemblance to anything before it, and comparisons to anything since are desperate and hollow. It appeared in 1996, sui generis, very different than virtually anything before it. It defied categorization...'

DFW wrote a letter asking DeLillo if he was uncomfortable with "the obvious debt a long section of IJ has to End Zone", implying he would cut those pages, so to refer to it as sui generis seems silly.

Also Dave Eggers writes like a clown, at least within the preface imo.

Describing a book that DFW wanted to be profoundly sad and upsetting with "holy ****" seems very insulting.

(Oh, and I like IJ)

muy generous iyam

anyone gonna give Tao Lin's new book Taipei a try?

Having finished The Orphan Master's Son recently, I found this piece to be particularly interesting:

Adam Johnson writes about his interview with Kenji Fujimoto, the personal sushi-chef of Kim Jong-Il

Best LA novel? (this contest doesn't have an updated bracket, or at least I haven't found it)

http://blogs.laweekly.com/arts/best-la-novel/

Seven years ago, we did a book club here on 2p2 for The Old Man and the Sea. I have finally read it! Of course, the thread is archived.

I listened to the Heston audiobook version while driving the last couple days. I think it's amazing. I loved pretty much all of it. I hope to someday teach it in some capacity since that tends to be how I best learn novels.

LA Confidential and it's not close? [Chandler also obvs]

I disagree with this.

Obvs, parts were meant to be profoundly upsetting, others are clearly meant to be read with side-splitting hilarity.

My reaction upon finishing a few parts of IJ was also: Holy S#!&.

If say Ask the Dust

Wanting to read something more contemporary, I bought Extremely Loud & Incredibly Close by Jonathan Safran Foer and White Noise by Don DeLillo the other day.

I read the first few pages of EL&IC in bed the day I got it and then finished the rest as soon as I got up the next day. It was a really enjoyable read despite all the sadness. I'm not sure it's going to leave much of a lasting impression compared to some other stuff I've read lately though.

So far I've read about a third of White Noise and it's great. I will definitely be reading more of DeLillo's work after this. He seems very good at writing about things that are difficult to write about, and—aside from a minor quibble about his under-use of the word and—I really like his prose style.

If you like his style, you're in for a treat of a lifetime with Underworld.

I'm not even so sure that LA C is Ellroy's best LA novel.

The Black Dahlia? White Jazz?

Hell, the most enjoyable thing I've read from him might be his self-bio, My Dark Places.

I am down with Black Dahlia as well.

Going to re-rec two slim European classics of the 70s:
Man in the Holocene
Goalie's Anxiety at the Penalty Kick

I think many here would like the 2nd one for sure.

Yes. And 'The Names.'

Underworld is a bit of an undertaking for sure.

Been on a tear lately:

Revolutionary Road by Richard Yates
Going Native by Stephen Wright
A Visit from the Goon Squad by Jennifer Egan
The Marriage Plot by Jeffery Eugenides
A Fan's Notes by Exley
The Spy Who Came in From the Cold by le Carre
Empire Falls by Russo
Winters Bone by Daniel Woodrell

All in the last 2-3 weeks, and honestly dont think there was a bad one in the bunch