I came across an article about The Gospel of Mark that suggested that it was a mimetic treatment of the Odyssey. Any thoughts on the weight of that proposition? Having not read Mark.

You passed over DeLillo's second novel, End Zone, which was my introduction to his work and a novel I continue to remember fondly.

I listened to The Body Artist, and didn't warm to it, but I should probably try it again in print to judge it fairly. One novel of his that I don't see discussed but quite enjoyed, even if it's not at the level of his best work, is Running Dog.

I keep meaning to get to Ratner's Star and to Mao II and, yes, having loved "Pafko," to Underworld. I'm one of the few dissenters on Libra, and I keep wonder if I'm missing something.

Finished American Pastoral by Philip Roth. Roth, a skilled storyteller and wordsmith, over uses long lists of places, things and emotions to inform and advise the reader how to understand and feel about characters. It suffers from major structural problems from a shift of authorial understanding without any explanation for how that could be and it is excessively long. From his earliest novels, Roth has made readers feel good about reading him and he does the same in this novel.

Started Big Fish by Daniel Wallace.

Recently completed Contact and The Better Angels of our Nature.

Contact was thought provoking and, overall, an enjoyable read. At times it inspired wonder, at other times boredom. 4/5 because the high points were really high.

The Better Angels of our Nature was great. It made a strong case for a significant, and possibly accelerating, trend among humanity away from violence. Along the way I learned many new things about history, psychology, reason and probably other things I'm not thinking of right now. Easy 5/5.

I also read Wild: From Lost to Found on the Pacific Crest Trail. As a story about an unprepared amateur taking a stab at long distance hiking, I enjoyed it more than A Walk in the Woods. I didn't find the getting over the death of her mother/personal growth component of the story as compelling. The story of the hike was still more than interesting enough to make it a worthwhile read though. It made long distance hiking sound simultaneously awful and incredibly intriguing. 3.5/5.

Still working on Thinking Fast and Slow.
I started 7 Habits of Highly Effective People for a 2nd time.
I also started Daisy Miller and Other Short Stories by Henry James because I needed to start a new fiction book and it was already on my kindle for some reason. Not my usual method for picking a new book... we'll see if I stick with it.

Current Audiobooks are:

The New Edge in Knowledge: How Knowledge Management Is Changing the Way We Do Business - I need to brush up on KM and picked this based on limited research and the fact that it was readily available on Audible. If anyone has other suggestions about books on this topic I'd be interested in them.
A Clash of Kings(reread)

Just read Carmilla by Sheridan Le Fanu. This is top 2 or 3 classic vampire stories, only clearly beaten by Dracula (it's hard to beat the king). Charming read, definitely influential on Bram Stoker when he penned Dracula.

Positively infused with lesbian undertones.

I LIKED IT!

I just read The Snow Leopard by Peter Mattheissen, about a trip up into the Himalayas to observe blue sheep. It's really very good, all the more so because neither Matthiessen nor the other main protagonist are particularly likeable. Mattheissen turns out to have been a CIA agent as well as a Buddhist.

I haven't read that but would like to get around to it some day. I think you'd like his novel, At Play in the Fields of the Lord. I've always loved the opening sentence: "In the jungle, during one night each month, the moths did not come to lanterns; through the black reaches of the outer night, so it was said, they flew toward the full moon."

I think Every chick I know is reading Wild

You're right! I mistook End Zone for Players. 70s DeLillo texts do bleed into one another, to my defence. I wouldn't mind dipping into Running Dog again (from memory the narrative is somewhat manic).

My take on Libra is that DeLillo's prose lacks its normal balance. I always thought this was due to the weight of the subject matter, not to mention the sheer amount of information he had to navigate.

Yeah... I read my wife's copy.

I think The Body Aritist contains some of DeLillo's best writing. It isn't a "cohesive book", though, so there's that. Neither is Mao II but again, same thing.

I'm re-reading Underworld right now (once I finish the interjection of Winesburg, Ohio) and it is a lot laggier than I remember. I also wasn't as moved by the prologue, which might be my fault or it just not standing up. That said, it is a phenomenal book.

Finished Big Fish by Daniel Wallace.
Ichy character change and equally bad jokes.

'Pretty' pessimistic? It's down right bleak, all the moreso because of what's transpired since he wrote it.

correct!

Thanks for the recommendation. Looks interesting - like a Graham Greene sort of vibe. Add it to the list.

I recently finished Soccer in Sun and Shadows by Eduardo Galeano (I read the original in Spanish) and I thought it was magnificent. Easily the best sports book I've ever read. Galeano write beautifully and the snippets of soccer history were all worth reading. I hope someone compiles a YouTube video with most of the special goals Galeano describes (some of them I'm sure can't be found on the internet since they are before TV).

I am in the middle of reading Rogues a cross-genre anthology by Gardner Dozois and George R.R. Martin. So far I've enjoyed the 9 stories I've read. Of the nine I've read the stand outs have been Scott Lynch, Joe Abercrombie and Gillian Flynn.
Inspired by these shorts I also reread a few shorts. For a couple of years I read most stories in Asimov's science fiction magazine and my favorite was The man who bridged the mist by Kij Johnson, so I gave that one a re-read. The other one I re-read was The weight of the sunrise mainly because I heard it won the Nebula this year. It was pretty good, although not as good as bridge.

Another stand out short story I read recently was Ted Chiang's "The truth of fact, the truth of feeling". This one is free online and I highly recommend it. It's about a guy trying to argue against the new technology "Remem", technology that allows people to quickly find anything from their past (most people by this point have most of their lives recorded and it's cumbersome to find a particular thing in your memory if you don't know the exact moment it happened). The short story had me thinking a lot about how we alter our memories.

For those of us who enjoy oral histories. A nice short story which reminded me of World War Z is "Unlocked" by John Scalzi. The novelette is free on tor.com, sort of in preparation for Scalzi's next book "Lock in" which comes out soon. After reading the short story, I am sold on reading "Lock In".

Threads really been delivering lately guys

Finished Fante: A Family's Legacy of Writing, Drinking and Surviving by Dan Fante.
It's a very quick read and well written. While it is honest, sometimes painfully honest, I wish Dan Fante had taken a little more time to elaborate on some of the insights he had about himself.

Just read the book "Unbroken". The author is Laura Hillenbrand who also wrote "Seabiscuit" which was made into a movie.

This book is about Louie Zamperini who was sort of a wild guy when he was very young - but got into the sport of track & field & found he was an excellent runner (ran for USC) at the distance of 1 to 2 miles.

This was back when track & field was a much bigger sport in America than today (this was back when most experts thought it impossible for anyone to run a 4 minute mile). This story basically begins in the mid to late 1930's. He had a very tight knit family & lived in California.

Louie ran in the 1936 Olympics in Berlin & even though he didn't win any medal - Hitler watched his race & called him up to meet him (the reason is in the book.)

Anyway - WW-2 came around & Louie found himself in it.

I guess all I could say to sum up this book is that it is very hard to believe a human being could go through what Louie did & survive it. When I read all the intensive background work & interviews that Hillenbrand went through to write this book - I do believe it - but I still find it hard to believe.

Hillenbrand has health challenges & most folks that know her admire her for what she has accomplished.

A movie has been made about this story.

Joel & Ethan Coen ended up writing the script & Angelina Jolie is directing & one of the producers. I read the release date is Christmas of this year.

It is quite a read.

25% into IJ, mesmerized but confused. Red herring? argh tell me/don't tell me. WTF is going on with the cartridge viewer thing, is it set in the future. I may be too thick to get it, but ploughing on regardless. Off to Sicily vacation tomorrow, dilemma whether to carry on IJ or something new for poolside.

i just finished the broom of the system. i have always wanted to read infinite jest based on comments in this thread so i figured i would warm up with an earlier book


the story was so amazingly large and yet small at the same time, i felt like i do when i watch a todd solondz movie... much of what was being said or done was sinking in very slowly


i am also looking forward to the new lev grossman book that waits in my kindle for me to finish the DFW stuff

One of my favorite books ever is King Leopold's Ghost.

Amazon's synopsis:

Yeah, Leopold is one of the true monsters of history.

Now the Chinese are doing worse to Congo than the Belgians did. The Belgians did set up churches and schools. The Chinese resource extraction is straight rape and pillage, no humanitarian niceties at all.