Any other major book nerds here?

[CJFusco]

Lookee what I got:





The big one dropped today. And it is BIG. Phone is for scale.

[Dan in Pasadena]

CJ, Not sure what that book is...I don't read as much as I used to...but a long book has never bothered me. If its a good one you are enjoying you don't want to put it down. I read War and Peace in my 20's just to be able to say I had and ended up liking it very much. Same with other long, but much less notable books, Crime and Punishment, the unexpurgated, The Shining, a few more extra long ones.

[M.D. Holloway]

CJ - I tried and failed to finish it several times. I think if I was stuck in an airport in Des Moines for 3 days, I could do it provided there was a Starbucks that stayed open 24/7. Do not try to make sense of it (as anyone could with anything Pynchon writes!). It is all over the place.

Pynchon is a writer’s writer. He is complex, moody, and full of himself. Rightfully so, the guy has some chops the way a $4000 bottle of wine pleases the mouth of a wine snob yet for the masses it goes unappreciated.

Good luck but my bet is you will not finish it (but I hope you do).

[drauz]

Looking forward to reading it. I gave up on Gravity's R before 100 pages when it came out (I was in college, so supposedly busy), but have read it thrice since. I think it is one of the best works of fiction from the 20th Century. Vinland was readable, meaningful, but a bit disappointing (short on depth and scope I expect from Pynchon). Mason Dixon remains unfinished (is it too "special" & too much like Barth's Sot Weed Factor?, or is it just me?), but I should get back to it. {& yes, V is great, & Crying a fun read} If anyone "deserves" the Nobel Prize for Lit, Pynchon does.

[MRM]

I most certainly am both a Porsche nerd and book Nerd. I can prove it. If you weigh the Pynchon book you will find it weighhs just over five pounds, or about as much as your toaster.

No, I didn't weigh it. I just read it in a review of the book. But the fact that I read the review and retained that knowledge pretty much proves I am a book nerd.

[RKC]

Yes, a book nerd, but don't get Pynchon.

Gravity's felt like Joyce's Ulysses - just too much of everything for my taste. Dubliners was just right. Ulysses seemed like complexity for its own sake (IMHO).

Favorite authors are Twain and Fitzgerald, but like a number of things. Always in the middle of a few: right now I'm reading (and re-reading) some Macaulay speeches, Stegner on Powell, Churchill's WWII series and Siddartha by Hesse (how'd I miss that book all these years? I love it). Just finished Gleick on Newton - not as good as Genius, but OK.

[tabs]

I too weigh a book and think the more it weighs the more knowledge it has to impart...after i get done reading a book I weigh it again and see how much lighter it is..of course I have to deduct the pages i used as toilette paper.

[CJFusco]

Originally posted by drauz
If anyone "deserves" the Nobel Prize for Lit, Pynchon does.

Well, GRAVITY'S RAINBOW was the unanimous choice by the critics for the 1973 Pulitzer; the trustees, of course, refused to give the book that honor. The two sides remained deadlocked, resulting in the only time a Pulitzer for fiction hasn't been awarded since the prize was instituted.

I am anxious to begin AGAINST THE DAY, but am afraid it will cut too much into my work on my Master's thesis...

I'm reading Danielewski now. I guess I will have to wait and see how I feel about it after I finish...

[CJFusco]

Originally posted by Dan in Pasadena
CJ, Not sure what that book is...I don't read as much as I used to...but a long book has never bothered me. If its a good one you are enjoying you don't want to put it down.

The problem with Pynchon is that one page of his writing takes about as long to get through as five pages of just about anyone else. It is very difficult reading, but also rewarding.

[Chas White]

One good thing about Pynchon is, when someone asks,
What that about?" You can say "Idunno" with a clear conscience. He brings a lot to the party, and I have to respect that.
Loved V, Gravity's Rainbow, Crying of Lot 49, never finished Vinland or Mason & Dixon. But I have high hopes for this one.
Also like Patrick O'Brien and Elmore Leonard, for completely different reasons.
C.W.

[CJFusco]

Yeah, I see what you're saying. But I also think that what makes reading Pynchon so rewarding is that his books are SO open to interpretation. Assign 20 critics to a thesis on GRAVITY'S RAINBOW and they will come up with 20 remarkably disparate - but probably equally credible - readings.

The "Pynchon Legend" is also a fun part of his literary cache. Sometimes I think his persona was intentionally created back in the early 1960s as a way to define his literary career.

[Shuie]

The only book I've read recently that would be considered Literature is 'A Confederacy of Dunces'. What a great book! Pulitzer winner, also.

[CJFusco]

Yes, and the author's story is a sad one.

[dd74]

Sooner or later, Kazuo Ishiguro should win the Pulitzer. Damn if "Never Let Me Go," wasn't worthy.

[CJFusco]

The only thing I'd read by Ishiguro was REMAINS OF THE DAY. Maybe I should add NEVER LET ME GO to my list?

[Shuie]

Originally posted by CJFusco
Yes, and the author's story is a sad one.

yeah, its sad that his own life and his fragile personality are believed to be the inspiration for such a genuinely hilarious train wreck of a story and for the Ignatius J. Reilly character.

For me, the New Orleans aspect of the book was one of the really great things about it. Toole captured the look and feel of the city of New Orleans in that book better than any other author ever has in anything I've read that was set there. I really felt like I was wandering aimlessly through the city when I read it.

[Moses]

Originally posted by CJFusco
Phone is for scale.

How much are you asking for the phone?

[CJFusco]

I'll trade you a signed first edition of GRAVITY'S RAINBOW (yes, at least one exists...)

[dd74]

Originally posted by CJFusco
The only thing I'd read by Ishiguro was REMAINS OF THE DAY. Maybe I should add NEVER LET ME GO to my list?

Well, if you want the full breadth of Ishiguro, start with the beginning. A Pale View of The Hills, Artist of the Floating World (I think), is a look at post WWII Japan through an ex-military man who is now an artist. After his first two books, he went into what he refers to as his "lost identites" (sic) series, which starts with Remains of The Day, charts through The Unconsoled, then When We Were Orphans, through to Never Let Me Go.

Be warned: Never Let Me Go is a difficult book to get through emotionally. It's been called the anti-Harry Potter book, and it delivers - hard.

Like Amis, Bellow, Carver, Cheever and Roth, I really don't recommend skipping around with Ishiguro, but rather start with his first books to see his development. Being a book nerd, and liking good stories, I'm sure you'll get into him very quickly.

[CJFusco]

Thanks for the recommendation. I might just check it out.