Started Infinite Jest but finding it very rambly after only 60 pages.. Has anyone managed to get through the whole thing? was it worth it?..

Yup. Yup. My posts mid-experience in this thread and elsewhere on the site reveal it was a rollercoaster that involved me nearly quitting more than once.

The Doomsday Book, https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Doomsday_Book_(novel), is quite fun. Academic historians in a world where time travel is discovered, plus the Black Death.

excellent ty.
this is in my audible wish list but buried (i have like 200 books on my list lol) so totally forgot about it.

all additional recs welcome.

I've only made it about 40 pages into IJ, back when it first came out. True story, I now use the copy I bought off Amazon back then to hold up my computer monitor.

I'm more of a Jonathan Franzen guy than a David Foster Wallace guy, in general. I do intend to tackle IJ again someday though. It's on my list.

IIRC there are a few guys ITT who've read IJ multiple times. It's indeed "rambly" the whole way through, but that's a big part of the fun.

It's also (possibly) the most depressing book you'll ever read.

I was hoping to do a Pale King re-read this year but never got around to it. Might bring that on my next long flight.

Heh, right now I have Tom Wolfe and GRRM propping up a ~7 year old laptop so that it doesn't overheat. Basically ghetto computer risers.

First Fifteen Lives of Harry August

This & the Connie Willis series (I think there is at least one other, but they're separate stories) are a good place to start. Asimov's The End of Eternity is one of the better scifi time travel books, and King's 11.63.?? book is great.

Time and Again by Jack Finney is wonderful.

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re: Time Travel

Time and Again is indeed wonderful.

If you like baseball, read If I Never Get Back by Darryl Brock. There's a sequel, but I didn't like it as well.

Which Connie Willis series?

awesome thanks guys.

Finshed Eyes of the Dragon by Stephen King, having never heard anyone really comment on it.

It was terrific.

From Dawn to Decadence; 500 Years of Western Cultural Life, 1500 to the Present. By Jacques Barzun.

Resumed reading this, had set it aside for awhile to pursue other reading. Taking it up again at the story of the enlightenment (about half way through). Reminded me again that Denis Diderot, a forgotten hero, was worth his weight in gold. Hope to finish this before the end of the year. Recommend for all and especially for history buffs. Jacques is detailed and sometimes verbose and over indulgent but overall this is an excellent read. Not for the timid.

I read it along with a friend of mine a couple years ago as a challenge. He said that people normally can't get into it for 100-200 pages. I struggled to power through the start as well, but once you get into it, especially at the tennis academy, it gets really good. It's still my favorite book and I think I'm due to reread it actually.

I've owned it for about 13 years and haven't even opened it. Bucket list?

I lost the ability to read years ago, but one can dip in and out of Nairn's London. He writes well, with a caustic but endearing turn of phrase reminiscent of Zeno, and has reasonably good taste in London, IMO. Recommended as a stocking-filler for anyone with an interest in the city.

Pickers & Poets: The ruthlessly poetic singer-songwriters of Texas
A Texas A&M book of short essays and interviews with many who have made the genre of Outlaw Country so rich.

The Fall of the West: The Death of the Roman Superpower by Adrian Goldsworthy
Having read Goldsworthy's previous books on Caesar and Augustus and loved them (I'd highly recommend them) I found this book to be a disappointment and a bit more of a slog. There are two reasons for this and I can't blame the author for either, one is that the sources just aren't as good for the later periods so there's a fair bit of guesswork and looking at differing theories. The other is that unlike his books on Augustus and Caesar there isn't the same gripping narrative. Emperors come and go so quickly, some lasting just a matter of days before being murdered, that it just feels like it's a constant rinse and repeat. Overall I'd only recommend this for someone with a particular interest in the subject rather than a casual reader.

The German War: A Nation Under Arms by Nicholas Stargardt
It tells the story through German eyes from the letters of soldiers and those on the home front. Overall it was a decent read but there wasn't much new in it for me. I did find it a bit disconcerting finding myself to hope that certain ones survived the war considering the death and destruction they brought on.

Time out of Joint by Philip K Dick
I'm a big fan of PKD and this is one of his earlier books. It's set in 1950's America (or is it? ) and involves the themes that PKD explored in many of his books, paranoia, the nature of reality, mental illness. I thoroughly enjoyed it.

I finally finished Cryptonomicon. It's probably the longest I've ever spent on a book.

I've managed to trudge through all of Malazan and I've reread A Song of Ice and Fire twice, and yet Cryptonomicon takes, by far, the cake for being the book/story in most desperate need of an editor. It's like the author heard the saying "show don't tell" and said "I can show how that can be taken overboard." Of the 1200 pages in this book, I think the story could have been aptly told in 300 or 400. A paragraph dedicated to the body's functions to explain how amazing it was people were incredibly quiet. Several pages dedicated to cereal eating strategies. A chapter more or less dedicated to the formula for optimal jerking off/whoring frequency to have a clear mind. Half a chapter dedicated to the sexual story of a secondary character who hardly shows up. A full chapter on a character being seduced by a spy which has absolutely no consequence. It just seems to never end.

I did enjoy the story though. A lot of the unnecessary stuff in the book was written in a fun enough manner to still be fun and exciting. I thought the plot itself was pretty contrived and full of plot holes, but I still enjoyed how it tied together and thought it was all very, very clever.

I enjoyed it and plan to try another book by Stephenson, but maybe not anytime soon.

Also a question I had:

I'm reading Sinner Man by Lawrence Block. Half way through. Honestly the plot is terrible. Character feels lost and stumbles upon things rather than creating movement for himself. Every other line is either reaching for a smoke or a drink. Confused in one particular moment where he has to decide what gang he wants to go with. I'm confused because he tells one group that he is undecided and they simple let him walk out. In my view he must be killed or made join. The gangs reaction is "that's cool join the other team if it makes you happy" despite the two groups in direct conflict. At other times the main character just seems to start trouble with no end in mind. Oh I'll kill this guy today and see what happens. I'll finish it but not loving it.

I'm looking for gritty noir reads loaded with femme Fatale characters.

#popyourcherry

haven't read any of his serious books but I freaking love blocks's bernie books about the gentleman burglar.

I like Block's Matt Scudder books a lot, the ex-drunk ex-cop private eye with the hooker gf. I think I've read all of them. None of his others did much for me. Block used to be a drunk himself iirc.

I like a bunch of Block's stuff. I believe he also did a Hit Man series that I liked. My GF from ten years ago told me it was incorrect to enjoy these books so much as the guy was basically just a psychopathic murderer, yet enjoy them I did.

I also enjoyed all the books Donald Westlake wrote as Richard Stark, which some might call a little dark.

OMG I finally made it through book 5 of Malazan. I don't even know if it was any good, but it was super Malazany. I liked Bug.

Reading Trotsky: Downfall of a Revolutionary. He's banging Frida Kahlo like a boss. Well-written book if you have any interest at all in Trotsky.