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03-30-2021 , 08:45 PM

#18426

Phat Mack

Twat-Waffle

Join Date: Sep 2002 Posts: 12,273

I love his LBJ stuff. I've never found a copy of the Power Broker.

Quote

03-30-2021 , 09:05 PM

#18427

Zeno

Le Misanthrope

Join Date: Sep 2002 Posts: 22,561

I'm perusing the Bible, yet again. Just to remined myself and catch up. After all, I wrote the damn thang.

Quote

03-30-2021 , 09:55 PM

#18428

Phat Mack

Twat-Waffle

Join Date: Sep 2002 Posts: 12,273

I prefer the Tao Te Ching. Shorter. Pithier. More philosophical. Less violent. Same number of acid stories.

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03-31-2021 , 08:46 AM

#18429

FallawayJumper

adept

Join Date: Nov 2019 Posts: 1,145

.....................

Crime and Punishment...............Dostoevsky

some have called it the greatest mystery ever written
and I would agree with that
I don't think anybody else has ever gotten into the mind of a psychopath in such a convincing way

Dostoevsky knew desperation - he was tortured and imprisoned by the Czarist regime

he was also an addicted compulsive gambler

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03-31-2021 , 04:46 PM

#18430

Zeno

Le Misanthrope

Join Date: Sep 2002 Posts: 22,561

Quote:

Originally Posted by Phat Mack

I prefer the Tao Te Ching. Shorter. Pithier. More philosophical. Less violent. Same number of acid stories.

Agreed. See below:

THE WISDOM OF CHINA AND INDIA, edited by Lin Yutang [Modern Library Publication, 1942]

I highly recommend the above book. I have read much of this book, which includes the complete Tao Te Ching (or Book of Tao). I possessed for many years a paperback version of The Tao Te Ching but it dissolved away in the mists of time and ascended into the clouds. Perhaps I even burned it. Just on a whim of course. But I'm old, and my memory is full of holes, which is of much comfort.

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03-31-2021 , 05:15 PM

#18431

SL__72

Carpal \'Tunnel

Join Date: May 2004 Posts: 16,499

Quote:

Originally Posted by Phat Mack

I like Larry McMurtry a lot, but Lonesome Dove is fan fiction.

Lonesome Dove is the only book of his I've read.

Does this apply to just Lonesome Dove or the remaining books in that series?

Which of his other books would you recommend?

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03-31-2021 , 09:32 PM

#18432

RussellinToronto

veteran

Join Date: Oct 2007 Posts: 2,225

Quote:

Originally Posted by SL__72

Lonesome Dove is the only book of his I've read.

Does this apply to just Lonesome Dove or the remaining books in that series?

Which of his other books would you recommend?

I haven't read a lot of McMurtry, and of what I have read I find him a bit uneven. I loved Lonesome Dove, whatever (straight western, fan fiction, parody) you want to call it, and I found The Last Picture Show striking (but having grown up in Texas added to the impact for me). Texasville was less interesting. This obituary list of six books recommended by The New York Times makes Leaving Cheyenne sound interesting. I was also struck by Jim Harrison saying, “often his work seems disproportionately sensual and violent, but these qualities in All My Friends Are Going to Be Strangers are tempered by his comic genius,” comparing him to both Saul Bellow and Norman Mailer. I think others have more mixed on that novel, but I've always loved the title.

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04-01-2021 , 12:59 AM

#18433

Phat Mack

Twat-Waffle

Join Date: Sep 2002 Posts: 12,273

Quote:

Originally Posted by SL__72

Lonesome Dove is the only book of his I've read.

Does this apply to just Lonesome Dove or the remaining books in that series?

Which of his other books would you recommend?

If you liked Lonesome Dove (I did) I'd keep reading them. "Fan Fiction" sounds dismissive, but I didn't mean it that way.

I liked Last Picture Show and All My friends, plus his essays and non fiction.

I just started "Oh What a Slaughter: Massacres in the American West" and am really liking it.

Walter Benjamin at the DQ is my favorite book of his essays, but you probably have to be an old man to like it.

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04-02-2021 , 10:14 AM

#18434

golddog

Carpal \'Tunnel

Join Date: Feb 2013 Posts: 7,219

Reading Don't stop me now by Jeremy Clarkson. A collection of his auto review columns from 2003-2004 era.

There's some plain cars in there (the ol' CEE'd from Top Gear gets a review), but mostly it seems to be Porches and Lambos and so on.

As mentioned above, also going through The Fabric of the Cosmos. Just in a discussion of wave/particle duality and the uncertainty principle, which reminded me of this. Spoiler because it's a dumb dad joke, but I like it.

Spoiler:

Last edited by golddog; 04-02-2021 at 10:14 AM. Reason: typo

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04-02-2021 , 12:01 PM

#18435

NajdorfDefense

Carpal \'Tunnel

Join Date: Feb 2003 Posts: 17,619

Quote:

Originally Posted by FallawayJumper

.....................

Crime and Punishment...............Dostoevsky

he was also an addicted compulsive gambler

The Gambler is, by far, the greatest book about degenerate gambling. It's an amazing, wonderful, short read. IIRC, he wrote in in ~3 weeks to prevent him losing his copyrights he had pledged vs gambling debts.

Last Picture Show is really good.

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04-02-2021 , 02:04 PM

#18436

NajdorfDefense

Carpal \'Tunnel

Join Date: Feb 2003 Posts: 17,619

Read the WFA-winning Jade City, very interesting fantasy book. Overt shades of the Godfather between the warring clans if that's your thing you will love it.

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04-02-2021 , 11:17 PM

#18437

Zeno

Le Misanthrope

Join Date: Sep 2002 Posts: 22,561

One last take: Lonesome Dove is a book about People. That it is presented through the lens of the mythical west is a convenient device used by McMurtry. He did know quite a bit about that era and its mythical influence and history. So it all fits and he did one of the first rules of good fiction - write what you know about. See Mark Twain.

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04-04-2021 , 09:11 AM

#18438

Phat Mack

Twat-Waffle

Join Date: Sep 2002 Posts: 12,273

Quote:

All to the north the rain had dragged black tendrils down from the thunderclouds like tracings of lampblack fallen in a beaker and in the night they could hear the drum of rain miles away on the prairie.

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04-05-2021 , 09:20 PM

#18439

kioshk

Nixonian

Join Date: Oct 2006 Posts: 92,966

I'm just finishing John Derbyshire's 1996 novel Seeing Calvin Coolidge in a Dream, I think it's brilliant. Lots of China in this book ofc, he used to live there, even met his wife while teaching there in the 70s I think. Fun fact: he actually had a very small part in a Bruce Lee movie! It's true, you could look it up.

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04-15-2021 , 07:57 PM

#18440

RussellinToronto

veteran

Join Date: Oct 2007 Posts: 2,225

An interesting piece on David Foster Wallace, arguing that he was good at story-telling but overrated as a thinker:
http://lithub.com/reclaiming-david-f...-the-lit-bros/

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04-16-2021 , 12:29 AM

#18441

Zeno

Le Misanthrope

Join Date: Sep 2002 Posts: 22,561

Ecce ****, by Friedrick Nietzsche. Old Freddy Boy reviews and comments on his life's work. Written in 1888 it was published posthumously in 1908**. Scintillating and Brilliant.

Have I been understood?..............Ecrasez l'infame!

*Ho-mo; Damn idiotic filter........F**K the H**OS that think **** is some dastardly word.

**Nietzsche died in 1900.

Last edited by Zeno; 04-16-2021 at 12:47 AM.

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04-16-2021 , 04:18 PM

#18442

rickroll

certifiable dipshit

Join Date: Aug 2011 Posts: 25,794

Quote:

Originally Posted by RussellinToronto

An interesting piece on David Foster Wallace, arguing that he was good at story-telling but overrated as a thinker:
http://lithub.com/reclaiming-david-f...-the-lit-bros/

Ty for sharing, good read

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04-16-2021 , 04:56 PM

#18443

brianr

Pooh-Bah

Join Date: Aug 2006 Posts: 4,796

Quote:

Originally Posted by NajdorfDefense

Read the WFA-winning Jade City, very interesting fantasy book. Overt shades of the Godfather between the warring clans if that's your thing you will love it.

Loved this, thanks for sharing. Moving immediately to the sequel.

Quote

04-17-2021 , 04:58 PM

#18444

NajdorfDefense

Carpal \'Tunnel

Join Date: Feb 2003 Posts: 17,619

I enjoyed the sequel, assuming it's a trilogy I hope the finale doesn't just come down to, you know, a fight between the 2 leaders [or some variation thereof].

Quote

04-17-2021 , 05:05 PM

#18445

NajdorfDefense

Carpal \'Tunnel

Join Date: Feb 2003 Posts: 17,619

Quote:

Originally Posted by RussellinToronto

An interesting piece on David Foster Wallace, arguing that he was good at story-telling but overrated as a thinker:
http://lithub.com/reclaiming-david-f...-the-lit-bros/

I must have completely missed the part that argued he was overrated as a thinker, I'm not even sure what that means. Was that in the NYM Fischer article that was linked instead?

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04-17-2021 , 07:10 PM

#18446

RussellinToronto

veteran

Join Date: Oct 2007 Posts: 2,225

Quote:

Originally Posted by NajdorfDefense

I must have completely missed the part that argued he was overrated as a thinker, I'm not even sure what that means. Was that in the NYM Fischer article that was linked instead?

My mistake, wrong link.

https://marginalia.lareviewofbooks.o...allace-genius/

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04-23-2021 , 04:52 AM

#18447

FallawayJumper

adept

Join Date: Nov 2019 Posts: 1,145

...................

I started reading Agatha Christie for the first time - "The ABC Murders"
I believe I hadn't read her before because I was sexist -
I didn't think a woman could write a great mystery

wow, I was dead wrong about that
it's very entertaining
she's obviously a master storyteller

Last edited by FallawayJumper; 04-23-2021 at 04:53 AM. Reason: believe half of what you see and nothing that you hear..POE

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04-24-2021 , 01:17 PM

#18448

Zeno

Le Misanthrope

Join Date: Sep 2002 Posts: 22,561

Agatha Christie is great, but an anomaly. A drawback is that her writing became somewhat formalized. But this is hard to avoid if concentration is centered on a single main character or characters, or use of a consistent theme, as mystery stories, for example.

And don’t fall into the trap of apologizing, especially on the internet. See P. G. Wodehouse.

Last edited by Zeno; 04-24-2021 at 01:22 PM. Reason: Typos