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Posted

east of eden by

Steinbeck

down and out in paris and london by

George Orwell

anything by Irving cept ciderhouse rules

ray by

Barry Hannah

revenge of the lawn by

Richard Brautigan

cosmic comics by

Italio Calvino

climbing stories blow! read REAL fiction by good writers not bs by boring climbers who can't write.

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Posted

Recently I've been reading screenplays. A couple of good ones:

American Beauty (which you can find in it's entirety online), Pulp Fiction and The Piano (all academy award winners by the by).

Somehow I got a lot more out of reading the screenplays...go figure.

Posted

Undaunted Courage by Stephen Ambrose - it's ok so far, haven't gotten to the bear wrasslin' yet

 

Gravity's Rainbow by Thomas Pynchon - for the second time; this time, I'm taking notes

 

Mysterious Japan by Julian Street - most amusing is the wide-eyed aristocratic tone, like when the author boggles that Japanese households get by with so few servants as compared to American households

Posted

'The Monkey Wrench Gang' - Edward Abbey

'Fast Food Nation' - Eric Schlosser (just started it)

'The Amazing Adventures of Kavalier and Clay' - Michael Chabon (one of the better books DFA has read)

'East is East' - TC Boyle

'Breakfast of Champions' - Kurt Vonnegut (see also anything else by Kurt Vonnegut)

'The Broom of the System' - David Foster Wallace

'The Infinite Jest' - David Foster Wallace (buy a dictionary if you don't have one)

'A People's History of the United States' - Howard Zinn (haven't finished yet, DFA = slacker)

'Sometimes a Great Notion' - Ken Kesey (slow, but quite good)

'The Tortilla Curtain' - TC Boyle

 

Uh, there's probably more.

Posted

"Atlas Shrugged", Ayn Rand (long, but pretty rivetting)

"When Character was King", Peggy Noonan

Anything by Tom Clancy

"We Were Soldiers Once...And Young", (forgot author) much better than the movie.

Posted

"The liberties of our country, the freedom of our civil

constitution, are worth defending against all hazards: And it is

our duty to defend them against all attacks." --Samuel Adams

 

"I'm a fuckin' mushroom-cloud layin' mothafucka, mothafucka!" -- Samuel L. Jackson

Posted

quote:

Originally posted by Dr Flash Amazing:

"The liberties of our country, the freedom of our civil

constitution, are worth defending against all hazards: And it is

our duty to defend them against all attacks." --Samuel Adams

 

"I'm a fuckin' mushroom-cloud layin' mothafucka, mothafucka!" -- Samuel L. Jackson

That was the last straw, motherfucker. I called some friends; watch the skies over your home for black helicopters. You no longer exist, Trask will assume your identity until we can plausibly fake your death; in the meantime he will be banging any and all your female friends.

 

Goodbye

Posted

Trask's list was a very good one, the Kipling verse is great. Don't avoid the prose, though! The Man Who Would Be King, The Jungle Books, his short stories, all of it appeals to those of us who seek adventure and who have the frontiersman spirit.

 

I would say that The Old Man and the Sea is my favorite Hemingway book. Anybody who has fished for big fish in blue water should read it.

 

I would put On the Road, Electric Koolaid Acid Test, and Fear & Loathing in Las Vegas all in the same group to read half-drunk or stoned one weekend. Fear & Loathing was my favorite book at age 23...I don't know how old you are today. Hunter Thompson's short stories are also entertaining.

 

DFA's list was good, except for that Edward Abbey one...don't read that anarchist shit! [Mad]

Posted

"The River Why and The Brothers K -- David James Duncan"

 

It is inexcusable and inconceivable that the Doctor left these two books off his list, especially since the former is perhaps DFA's all-time favorite book, and is where part of Dr. Flash Amazing's name came from, and the latter is just a damn good book. David James Duncan is [rockband] .

Posted

I think this group's too sensitive for me. Cryin' over violence in a book? Brace up, man! Goddamnit, don't make the likes of Ernest Shackleton, George Patton, and Teddy R. roll over in their graves any more!

 

Wait a minute...there are a few exceptions...kids...puppies...Bambi...oh never mind. [Frown]

Posted

"I think this group's too sensitive for me. Cryin' over violence in a book? Brace up, man! Goddamnit, don't make the likes of Ernest Shackleton, George Patton, and Teddy R. roll over in their graves any more!

 

Wait a minute...there are a few exceptions...kids...puppies...Bambi...oh never mind."

 

 

If you can read his descriptions of a leg amputation performed with a bottle of whiskey, a wood saw, and a hot frying pan without crying then you are strong indeed. Besides crying is good for the soul.

 

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[ 09-20-2002, 01:32 PM: Message edited by: E-rock ]

Posted

quote:

Originally posted by sk:

I am reading The Unbareable Lightness of Being by Milan Kundera right now. It is realy good, thought provoking. I read it when I was arround 20, and it just seems to have a whole new meaning 10 years later.

I agree, this is an incredible book. He gives so much insight into human nature and relationships.

Posted

quote:

Originally posted by Dr Flash Amazing:

'Breakfast of Champions' - Kurt Vonnegut (see also anything else by Kurt Vonnegut)

I read this recently and don't get all the hoopla about Vonnegut. In my opinion, this book was...basic. It's the only book I've read by him.

Posted

I second:

 

The river why

power of one

monkey wrench gang - although I think it is a simplistic story without too much character development--reads like a comic, but you can't deny the emotions it elicits regarding wilderness and its preservation. Also, check out Desert Solitaire, a non-fiction work Abbey wrote while a ranger in ARches. The rest of Abbey's work lacks, if you ask me.

 

Also check out

 

Barbara Kingsolver, esp. The poisonwood bible

Salman Rushdie, esp. The ground beneath her feet

Things Fall Apart, by Chinua Achebe

Posted

I am several chapters into The Poisenwood Bible. So far it seems realy dry. are you saying it gets better cause if you can tell me that, I would be more likely to pick it back up.

Posted

I'll admit that I've read 17 (yes, seventeen) Kurt Vonnegut novels. A couple of them were good, a couple were real snoozers, and most would be downright depressing if it weren't for Vonnegut's dry and subtle humor. The ones I liked most were "Hocus Pocus", "Slaughterhouse Five", "Mother Night" and "God Bless You Mr. Rosewater". Plenty of grim, cynical humor.

Posted

"A Walk in the Woods"

and

"A Sunburnt Country"

Bill Bryson-Humorous trip essays of the Appalachian Trail and touring Australia respectively.

 

"Perfect Storm" Sebastian Junger

(The description of the physiology of drowning is pretty riveting"

 

"Endurance"

The story of the Shackleton epic in Antarctica

 

"The Killer Angels" Jeff Shaara

-The story of the battle of Gettysburg from the perspective of the officers who commanded both armies.

 

[ 09-20-2002, 03:03 PM: Message edited by: ScottP ]

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