A few months ago I read the first story in Carver's book about the young couple buying furniture and yah... I think I left a lot on the pages on that one.

And I'm A COWBOY!!!!

maybe if I turned them into questions it would help:

Would you be so kind as to orally pleasure me, please?

How's that?

kudzu...is this you IRL?

And, what, pray tell, is a great writer, exactly? Not who (although I wouldn't mind seeing who you consider to be such), but if we're going to accept such a blanket statement, let's at least define our criteria. What does a writer have to do for the "scholar's" to consider them "great"?

I don't consider King to be "great writer", either, but that doesn't mean consignment to the dust heap. It's not a binary equation. There are, I think, acceptable contributions to be made by less than "great".

As to your claim that DB is "obviously not a writer", you realize how horrible a statement that is? Not socially, which is merely obnoxious, but taken purely from a "writing" standpoint. He certainly communicates well enough. Were I to find that he is a writer, it wouldn't surprise me a bit. But the fact he is not a writer is not "obvious".

And, if you are indeed as gifted and competent a writer as you proclaim, your lack of finesse betrays it. Making such sweeping and groundless generalization is not "writing"; it's sloganeering, clumsy propaganda. Which I guess you think is okay, since you're taking a holiday from your contributions to the literary world, you know, slumming here in the lounge. But if you're going to make such proclamations, we demand a little more depth of explanation than just a broadside and an appeal to authority.

And I'm now Johnny Six-Pack.

okay okay guys, I've already cleared this up with black_milk, let's have a "WHOAAAH LOUNGE!" and go bowling.


damn, I think I OD'ed on watching Married With Children.

LOL. Yeah. That's me. New-Cue-Lar, New-Cue-Lar, New-Cue-Lar. I'm the decider. Stategery.

Think about. He's kind of like a little kid playing president, isn't he? I will repeat Hunter S. Thompson's description of W; "our baffled boy president"

Just to stay on track, I just finished The Murrow Boys, by Lynne Olson and Stanley W. Cloud. It focuses on Murrow and his associates in World War II, guys like William Shirer and Eric Sevareid. Great, great book, although it may be for limited tastes. A great "behind the scenes" look at the early days of broadcast journalism, and, when one sees the rantings of Bill O'Reilly and Keith Olberman, a reminder of what real journalism should be.

A closer reading pays off. These stories are, despite the occasional moments of drama, very understated. Hemingway is Faulkner, compared to Carver. The first story, Why Don't You Dance?, is as carefully put together as a poem, but covers a lot more distance. It's a miracle of a story well worth prolonged study.

I am currently reading The Stand by Stephen King

I've been reading selections from Classic Crews, a collection of writings by white-trash goth chronicler Harry Crews. I keep it close by; it is too intense to read a lot of Crews at once. Car, his story of a man who eats a car, piece by piece, is what led me to his work, one of those goofy pieces that you figure you have to read when you find out about it. His piece about his young son's drowning is one of the more heart braking things I've ever read, literally bringing me to tears, and his writing runs tha gamut from that to laugh out loud funny to graphically and emotionally brutal, and sometimes all on the same page. He's been compared to Flannery O'Connor and the like, but he definitely has an edgier and more absurdest sensibility.

don't you know most scholars do not consider him great?

So has this book ever been a book club book? I have a feeling I won't pick up on the nuances you mention and wouldn't mind seeing a thread discussing it.

And actually, what we are discussing right now is kind of the reason I found I didn't really like reading short story anthologies. When I finished one story I wanted to "think" about it, but I also wasn't finished reading and wanted to read more in that sitting but then I would never "think" about the story as I had moved on and read two more. /shrug -

MarkD,
I enjoyed Brave New World alot. A very interesting take on the future with some wild creative ideas.

I finished 'Collapse' by Jared Diamond. It follows the rise and declines of civilizations throughout history. Diamond has a dry writing style (perhaps it is the material that is somewhat boring). I thought many of the elements presented (Easter Island) were fascinating though there were a fair amount of drier/duller parts. I'd recommend this if you're interested in reading about these declines (and the economies/societal and cultural influences) but for conventional reading, meh.

I started reading 'Blink' by Malcolm Galdwell. I started it last year but never got around to finishing it. It is about 'thin slicing', or unconscious movements in our brain that allow us to just 'know' things. Pretty interesting so far.

Still trudging through 'Devil in the White City', its picking up a bit. But still haven't found the ravenous desire that I find in many great books. Meh.

Yes it was. It wasn't commented on too much though because I think for some people the fact that the stories are such a direct read conceals their depth. I think if the stories called more attention to their own virtuosity by being more ornate, convoluted, and difficult to read, the collection would have gotten more wows here at the lounge. But Carver's style works in the opposite fashion. It slips out from under you, suggests by juxtaposition and timing and what has been left out. Sometimes it can leave you scrambling with the harshness of its vision the same way Carver's characters scramble through the harshness of their lives and what those lives make them say to the people they love. Carver completely turned American literature around, and much for the better, in the 80's. An editor at the New Yorker said that over 90% of the stories the magazine got after Carver became famous were Carver rip-offs. To which I'd, it was about time.

Currently ploughing through The Grantha book of the american short story. Americans are good at short stories.

Also read 'Boy In The Striped Pyjamas' last night. If anyone has a couple of hours to kill, I'd reccommend it highly. It's very clever though I did work out the ending slightly too early which led me to not want to finish the book because I knew that what was going to happen would be horrible. If anyone hasn't heard of it, it's about the son of the Camp Commandant at Auschwitz during the Second World War.

Just about finished with Freethinkers - A History of American Securlarism by Susan Jacoby. Twas a good read.

Wizard and Glass (Dark Tower 4) - Stephen King

This was mostly a story-within-a-story told by Roland the gunslinger, about his youth. I enjoyed it a lot, and King conveyed the feelings and situations in a strange world very nicely and without a false note.


I'm taking a break of a few different books till I get to the next one though

Damn I couldn't put those books down. I really love that series alot.

im about 150p into The Brothers Karamazov and its really really good...wish i had more time to read...so far its on par to be as good or better than Count of Monte Cristo...

qfepictruths

thing i liked most was that aldous huxley got a whole lot right when he wrote about the Brave New World. must-read for any SF fan, up there with ender's game, fahrenheit 451, dune..

as for new sf authors? i'd love to hear suggestions from anyone for more new sf in the vein of the following authors, whose works i have explored almost all of:
neal stephenson
vernor vinge
alistair macleod
greg bear


as for nonfiction, i have more ideas:

gladwell's blink was a bit thinly sliced, no shame for not finishing that one - short on content, if you will, long on elaboration? diamond did better work in guns, germs, and steel, but this also is dry, like your british uncle.

more of the nonfiction vein:
freakonomics obv
the stuff of thought, stephen pinker
the black swan, taleb (tough style, worthy content)

but what i really like, and most times shamelessly, are the books that are technically fiction, yet they are just hurling nonfiction nuggets at you like so much candy:
cryptonomicon, neal stephenson
state of fear, michael crichton
da vinci code, dan brown
rainbow six, tom clancy

is it any mistake that these guys are all insanely commercially popular authors? yet all these books are more or less the same type - wait, can you say 'recipe for publishing success'? doubt it's easy to master though, chuckle...


open call to any of these questions:

top scifi books? authors?
top nonfiction books? authors?
favorite textbook of all time?
favorite book character of all time?
favorite book passage of all time?

Diebitter, this one was by far the best book in the series imo.
I was saddened by the drop in writing quality in certain parts of the last few books. It almost seemed like he just rushed them to publication to me.

If you read all 7 , the wizard and the glass is the one that sticks to you the most.

Question:

Does everyone feel like there is just way too much to read?

My "to read" list keeps on growing. There is always somebody mentioning something else I'm supposed to read. It makes it almost impossible for me to read multiple works by one author, too. By doing that, I feel like I'm missing on so much more.

Skimming everything is self-defeating. One author read well is worth any number blazed through only long enough to be soon forgotten.

I agree with this sentiment.

I guess my problem is just moreso that I want to read various authors to find which I like and such. However, in doing that, I don't often read more works by an author I liked. I just move on to the next.

For example, I'm almost done with my second Garcia Marquez novel. I'm not a huge fan of his, but I appreciate what he does. That said, I can't decide if I want to give a third book a shot or move along to someone else.

I have that problem a lot, but usually on the first book.

Skimming is not an option though; I agree.