Now reading

[Cheryl K]

Shipwrecks, by Akira Yoshimura

[Nak Nak]

Nothing at the moment. Someone please recommend something.

Nothing shit please.

[kendra]

I really enjoy Haruki Murakami. I'm currently reading Skipping Towards Gomorrah: The Seven Deadly Sins and the Pursuit of Happiness in America by Dan Savage, and Pearl S. Buck's The Three Daughters of Madame Liang. I just finished Orson Scott Card's Enchantment last night, and I bought Stephen King's new edition of The Gunslinger on Friday so I'll probably delve into that.

[Kinbote]

I'm plodding through Chateaubriand's Atala - it's either heinously overrated, or I've got a shitty translation.

[Kinbote]

Originally posted by Nak Nak
Nothing at the moment. Someone please recommend something.

Nothing shit please.

Nabokov's Pale Fire, Bend Sinister, or Ada. You seem an intelligent sort; there'd thus be something terribly wrong with you if you didn't enjoy any of these books.

[sleepy sinner]

Notes on a Latin American Journey (motorcycle diaries), Ernesto Che Guevera.

[Feeling Brackish]

I'm reading The Sands of Mars by Arthur C. Clarke. It was his first published novel, published in the 1940's. It's pretty good so far. Clarke has a knack for making science fiction seem completely real.

[revgoozen]

i'm re-reading gates of eden by ethan cohen.

[Reginald I. Perrin]

http://images-eu.amazon.com/images/P/1572436689.01.LZZZZZZZ.jpg

Fantastic stuff. Great stories. Not really literature, but it's what I've just read - litte short though, although not without detail.

[TheImplodingVoice]

Julio Cortázar- Rayuela

[Henriette]

I'm reading two books at once - not something I usually like to do, but when the first book is shit - you know, you kind of have no choice (well, of course you do - but I can't leave a book half-finished - no matter how horrible!)

So,
A Spy in the House of Love - Nin

and

Narcissism - Denial of the True Self - Lowen

I'm really jogging through mud with both... They're pretty dull.

[Nak Nak]

Originally posted by Henriette
I'm reading two books at once - not something I usually like to do, but when the first book is shit - you know, you kind of have no choice (well, of course you do - but I can't leave a book half-finished - no matter how horrible!)

So,
A Spy in the House of Love - Nin

and

Narcissism - Denial of the True Self - Lowen

I'm really jogging through mud with both... They're pretty dull.

I can tell just from the disgustingly pretentious titles.

[Henriette]

Well, the narcissism one isn't so bad - except now I see everyone (myself included) as being terribly narcissistic!

[Nak Nak]

Originally posted by Henriette
Well, the narcissism one isn't so bad - except now I see everyone (myself included) as being terribly narcissistic!

I think just about everyone is narcissistic to some degree, at least subconsciously.

[TheImplodingVoice]

Originally posted by Nak Nak
I think just about everyone is narcissistic to some degree, at least subconsciously.

I think it is needed in order to live

[Foxing Peculiar]

Stephen King's The Dark Tower series. Specifically book IV at the moment.

Not exactly high lit, but very enjoyable anyway.

[XenonDreams]

Introducing Chaos

Non fic introducing the basics of chaos. Pretty interesting sciencey stuff.

Next up, I've got some book about life in ancient rome, another non-fic about two years some journalist spent in some ex-soviet repulbic and i've also go catch-22. read it before, but need to read it again.

[Narcissistic Nihilist]

Ive been almost constantly reading non fiction for months, gotta hit the novels again soon.

Im reading: Hillsborough, The Truth - Phil Scranton

[Polack]

Originally posted by Foxing Peculiar
Stephen King's The Dark Tower series. Specifically book IV at the moment.

Not exactly high lit, but very enjoyable anyway.

Started the Dark tower series in Feb. Just finished book VII a week ago. Fucking fantastic stuff, especially the end. He includes a "second" ending in the Dark Tower, but I don't think it's really worth reading unless you're curious.

I also hate to admit that I read tons of Richard Marcinko books. They're all the same but I can't get enough of the constant cussing, beating up of "limp-dicked pencil pushers" and the technology secrets of the U.S. of A.

[Nak Nak]

Originally posted by UncleLester
Nabokov's Pale Fire, Bend Sinister, or Ada. You seem an intelligent sort; there'd thus be something terribly wrong with you if you didn't enjoy any of these books.

I've read Pale Fire.

I was the shadow of the waxwing slain
by the false azure of a windowpane.

[Nak Nak]

I enjoyed it more as an enthusiast for language and challenging concepts than as a lover of stories. I felt strangely detached from the myriad threads (or indeed planes) of the story throughout. I acknowledge Nabokov's intelligence and artful use of words though.

[Kinbote]

Originally posted by Nak Nak
I enjoyed it more as an enthusiast for language and challenging concepts than as a lover of stories. I felt strangely detached from the myriad threads (or indeed planes) of the story throughout. I acknowledge Nabokov's intelligence and artful use of words though.

But see, I'm a snob and care only for style and structure. More often than not I resent story for getting in the way of the worthwhile portions of a given work. Pale Fire is my favorite novel, like, ever.

But SINCE you've read it, let me ask which school of opinion you belong to - is Kinbote in fact King Charles, or is it all a furry professor's delusion? I'm with the latter.

[Nak Nak]

Originally posted by UncleLester
But see, I'm a snob and care only for style and structure. More often than not I resent story for getting in the way of the worthwhile portions of a given work. Pale Fire is my favorite novel, like, ever.

But SINCE you've read it, let me ask which school of opinion you belong to - is Kinbote in fact King Charles, or is it all a furry professor's delusion? I'm with the latter.

It's most likely delusion. However, I think the nature of Pale Fire would allow for either or both possibilities!

Wasn't there another facet of Kinbote's personality called Botkin (inverted name?) or have I remembered it wrongly?

[Kinbote]

Yes - that's the theory, that the whole thing is a fantasy of Wordsmith University's Professor Botkin; I recall seeing an article somewhere that pointed out all the textual evidence, and I found it compelling, for the most part - though a subsequent rereading saw points for an authentic Kinbote, too, though not so many. Not that it matters!

[Nak Nak]

Originally posted by UncleLester
Yes - that's the theory, that the whole thing is a fantasy of Wordsmith University's Professor Botkin; I recall seeing an article somewhere that pointed out all the textual evidence, and I found it compelling, for the most part - though a subsequent rereading saw points for an authentic Kinbote, too, though not so many. Not that it matters!

Would I like Pnin, do you think? I'll probably reread Pale Fire, just to confirm my opinion about the would-be king of Zembla.

[Kinbote]

Anyone would like Pnin, or ought to; Pnin himself is probably my favorite of all Nabokov's characters.

[homer j. simpson]

reading several things:

the birth of venus by sarah dunant
living to tell the tale by gabriel garcia marquez
dead souls by nikolai gogol.

[Static Split Screen]

I started reading Idoru by William Gibson but I couldn't really get into it, so I think I'm going to give orlando by virginia woolfe a try.

[Nak Nak]

Originally posted by Static Split Screen
I started reading Idoru by William Gibson but I couldn't really get into it, so I think I'm going to give orlando by virginia woolfe a try.

Idoru's really the weakest book in that series because of Rydell and Chevette's absence. All Tomorrow's Parties is awesome in comparison.

And oh no, you're starting on the classics too?!

[homer j. simpson]

Originally posted by Nak Nak
And oh no, you're starting on the classics too?!

classics are wonderful, depending.

i hated mrs. dalloway. i read about 3/4 of it and then decided i was completely wasting my time...so i stopped.

[Kinbote]

Genet's Querelle. It's...goodish, thus far. "Avante is my gard, and Grove is my press."

[Static Split Screen]

Originally posted by Nak Nak
And oh no, you're starting on the classics too?!

Ja, then I can spit out titles and sound pretentious, duh! Nah, I'll probably not read Orlando. There's nothing I have I'm really in the mood to read, I'll get something tomorrow when I go get an application to work at the library.

[TheImplodingVoice]

I'm re-reading all the Wilde's theatre (starting today)

[thenoteleks]

dharma punx - noah levine

[Static Split Screen]

Me Talk Pretty One Day - David Sedaris

[Static Split Screen]

Dude, Where's My Country? - Michael Moore

[brainiac]

Neil Gaiman - American Gods

Kinda "meh" thus far, but there's still half left.

[Kinbote]

The Magician's Doubts: Nabokov and the Risks of Fiction by someone called "Michael Wood": I don't go much for lit crit, but it was on sale at Border's. Interesting but completely wrong in its thesis, I'd say, thus far.

[Static Split Screen]

Originally posted by brainiac
Neil Gaiman - American Gods

Kinda "meh" thus far, but there's still half left.

I liked that book, but not near as much as Neverwhere.

[Static Split Screen]

Dress Your Family in Corduroy and Denim by David Sedaris
Waking Up Screaming by HP Lovecraft

[homer j. simpson]

Originally posted by Static Split Screen
I liked that book, but not near as much as Neverwhere.

i liked both equally. i think they were too different to compare, really. american gods has more of a basis in reality with a bit (okay, maybe more than a bit) of a dark twist or edge to it, while neverwhere is more fantasy-ish and a bit more unreal.

[homer j. simpson]

oh, and, now reading:

as meat loves salt - maria mccann

[Static Split Screen]

I shall :)

Elegy for a Lost Star - Elizabeth Haydon

[Nak Nak]

Originally posted by rainofthehours
Try "The Colour out of space" and "The Shadow over innsmouth" by H.P. Lovecraft if you get the chance to.

+

Rats in the Walls
At the Mountains of Madness
The Thing on the Doorstep
The Model

[TheImplodingVoice]

I cant stand Lovecraft...actually i loathe him

[Static Split Screen]

I think all his stories are pretty similar/predictable/have the same main character, but I really like his writing voice and command of language.

[Static Split Screen]

Ugh, God, I sound like my English teacher.

[Ciaran Finn]

Originally posted by Static Split Screen
Dude, Where's My Country? - Michael Moore

That book is sooooooo funny but also so full of bs.

[TheImplodingVoice]

Originally posted by Static Split Screen
I think all his stories are pretty similar/predictable/have the same main character, but I really like his writing voice and command of language.

I just find him extremely shallow....

[Static Split Screen]

The Shadow of the Wind by Carlos Ruiz Zafon.

[Nak Nak]

Originally posted by TheImplodingVoice
I just find him extremely shallow....

He is super shallow. He's a terrible writer in most ways actually. He creates such a fitting atmosphere to his stories and is full of so much crazy bullshit that he redeems himself for me.

I guess you could equate reading HP Lovecraft to watching hilarious old horror films.

[Kinbote]

The creeping horror of the lurking menace...

Let me now use some form of the word "geometry" 3,042 times.

[Nak Nak]

"inhuman geometry"
"horror from beyond the stars"
"indescribable monster"
"i write this under appreciable mental strain!"
"chilling bas reliefs!"
"subterranean horror"

[aria]

re-reading borges to avoid reading about the stuff i should be reading. call it procrastination re-reading.

[Static Split Screen]

Jane Eyre - Charlotte Brontë

[Cheryl K]

Originally posted by Static Split Screen
Jane Eyre - Charlotte Brontë

I think I've read that 15 times in the past couple years.

[Nak Nak]

Originally posted by Cheryl
I think I've read that 15 times in the past couple years.

5 times in the past 4. Fantastic book.

[homer j. simpson]

Originally posted by Static Split Screen
The Shadow of the Wind by Carlos Ruiz Zafon.

i'm glad you started reading it. how're you liking it?

[Static Split Screen]

Originally posted by SuckerLove
i'm glad you started reading it. how're you liking it?

Finished it; it was awesome!

[Kinbote]

I thought Jane Eyre a rather silly little thing. Of course, women are generally inferior novelists - lack the natural aptitude for logical and sequential thinking. Not that there aren't exceptions. Though Bronte certainly isn't one of them!

[Nak Nak]

Originally posted by UncleLester
I thought Jane Eyre a rather silly little thing. Of course, women are generally inferior novelists - lack the natural aptitude for logical and sequential thinking. Not that there aren't exceptions. Though Bronte certainly isn't one of them!

Don't care what you say! Not every novel needs to be a literary guitar solo.

[Kinbote]

If it's not art for art's sake, it's not art.

[aria]

Originally posted by UncleLester
Of course, women are generally inferior novelists - lack the natural aptitude for logical and sequential thinking.

We are all born split subjects. There is no such thing as "natural (?!) aptitude for logical and sequential thinking". Language itself is generated and re-generated through gaps, fissures, inconsequence.

[Kinbote]

I disagree.

[aria]

I call forth your transcendental ego and prove s/he's an unreliable witness ....

and that s/he was molested by Michael Jackson while residing at the star's Neverland ranch :O

[twee fangs]

The Loved One by Evelyn Waugh. It's funny, but not exactly dazzling. I'd like to try some more of his novels though; has anyone read him?

[Intern Kate]

Originally posted by Nak Nak
Don't care what you say! Not every novel needs to be a literary guitar solo.

agreed! i apologize for sometimes liking a novel for being an enjoyable story, rather than finding its execution critically laudable.

i'm chockful of guilty pleasures, like Goosebumps and Anne of Green Gables from when i was younger. and like, fantasy books. i loved the Pullman trilogy starting with The Golden Compass. and i love me some reality tv! - er, not that this (guilty pleasures) was directly related...

anyway i'm thinking of rereading To Kill a Mockingbird this summer.

[Kinbote]

Originally posted by twee fangs
The Loved One by Evelyn Waugh. It's funny, but not exactly dazzling. I'd like to try some more of his novels though; has anyone read him?

I love Waugh. Though it's somewhat atypical of him, and many people dislike it, I think Brideshead Revisited is his best.

[Kinbote]

Originally posted by Intern Kate

anyway i'm thinking of rereading To Kill a Mockingbird this summer.

This is a surprisingly not bad book.

[Kinbote]

Meanwhile, I'm in the middle of a book called Nocturnal Butterflies of the Russian Empire, by a Cuban called Prieto, and it's fucking excellent. I can't believe I didn't hear more about it when it was published.

[Kinbote]

Originally posted by Intern Kate
agreed! i apologize for sometimes liking a novel for being an enjoyable story, rather than finding its execution critically laudable.

i'm chockful of guilty pleasures, like Goosebumps and Anne of Green Gables from when i was younger. and like, fantasy books. i loved the Pullman trilogy starting with The Golden Compass. and i love me some reality tv! - er, not that this (guilty pleasures) was directly related...


Also: there's no reason you can't have flights of fun fancy alongside literary integrity. Milorad Pavic's Dictionary of the Khazars and Landscape Painted With Tea, or Updike's The Witches of Eastwick, for instance. Many more.

[Static Split Screen]

Originally posted by UncleLester
This is a surprisingly not bad book.

I agree. I had to read it in school and it was MUCH better than I thought it was going to be.

[Intern Kate]

you know what was a really good story? John Irving's The Hotel New Hampshire. i really wish i owned it right now.

[Kinbote]

Kate, you're upsetting me.

[TheImplodingVoice]

I'm reading a Miguel Hernández poetry compillation :yes::yes::yes:

[Static Split Screen]

Originally posted by Intern Kate
you know what was a really good story? John Irving's The Hotel New Hampshire. i really wish i owned it right now.

I read the Cider House Rules and really liked it; my dad has Hotel New Hamshire, I need him to give it to me.

[Intern Kate]

Originally posted by UncleLester
Kate, you're upsetting me.

Ted, it's a great tale of incest.

[Kinbote]

Ada, Or Ardor is a better one.

[Intern Kate]

well golly that was somewhere in the vague conception of a summer reading list i've got going. actually the library finally got to me Pale Fire which i'm now finishing; taking a break from the Rabbit novels. and i just feel compelled to admit that seldom have i found a novel so enjoyable. but i have trouble making progress in the storyline because i keep rereading my favorite line-note passages in the commentary. over. and over. again. sometimes it feels like a choose-your-own-adventure book, actually not really at all, but it's good fun at any rate.

[Intern Kate]

Originally posted by Static Split Screen
I read the Cider House Rules and really liked it; my dad has Hotel New Hamshire, I need him to give it to me.

i've only read The Hotel New Hampshire by Irving, but my friend loved Cider House Rules. it's been awhile since i've read it but i liked it. as far as novel-based movies go, the adapted film was pretty entertaining as well.

[Kinbote]

Originally posted by Intern Kate
well golly that was somewhere in the vague conception of a summer reading list i've got going. actually the library finally got to me Pale Fire which i'm now finishing; taking a break from the Rabbit novels. and i just feel compelled to admit that seldom have i found a novel so enjoyable. but i have trouble making progress in the storyline because i keep rereading my favorite line-note passages in the commentary. over. and over. again. sometimes it feels like a choose-your-own-adventure book, actually not really at all, but it's good fun at any rate.

Have you looked up "crown jewels" in the index?

My favorite portion, I think, is the note to Line 130.

[Intern Kate]

130 was swell indeed. the tunnel, i love the tunnel.

[ems]

I'm about to start reading Stephen King's 'The Shining'. I've seen the film and apparently the book is even scarier :eek:
I love reading scary books though.

I'm so happy, now that i've actually finished uni (handed in my last essay yesterday!!!), instead of reading books i'm forced to read, i can read ones i actually WANT to read!!! WOOHOO life is good :-D

[Static Split Screen]

The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy by Douglas Adams.

French Women Don't Get Fat by Miriam Guilliano or however you spell it.

[Nak Nak]

Originally posted by Static Split Screen
The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy by Douglas Adams.

French Women Don't Get Fat by Miriam Guilliano or however you spell it.

Where'd you get those!

[Static Split Screen]

Borders.

[Barbarian Love Elephant]

Confessions of a mask - Yukio Mishima

[Static Split Screen]

Memoirs of a Geisha - Arthur Golden

[Kinbote]

Collected Stories by Arno Schmidt. It's not bad.

[drumloops]

Huysman's, Against Nature, which I haven't read since my first year of college, all of eleven years ago.

[Static Split Screen]

A Clash of Kings - George RR Martin

[Squirrel]

I just finished reading 'Screen Burn' by Charlie Brooker. I'm not as cultured as the rest of you.

[Nak Nak]

Gene Wolfe - Peace

[Narcissistic Nihilist]

im finally getting round to reading the Hitchhikers Guide to the Galaxy trilogy in five parts.

After seeing the TV series, and after listening to the radio show, I thought it was about time I read the books.


Im onto Restaurant at the end of the Universe already

[Feeling Brackish]

I'm reading Neverwhere by Neil Gaiman

[Nak Nak]

Originally posted by Brackish Boy
I'm reading Neverwhere by Neil Gaiman

It's good. I want to see the tv series or whatever they made of it.

[i]

Lonely Planet - Europe on a shoestring

[kendra]

Nightmares and Dreamscapes (Stephen King)

[Kinbote]

Lucky Jim - Kingsley Amis. To my surprise, it's good.

[Static Split Screen]

Originally posted by Brackish Boy
I'm reading Neverwhere by Neil Gaiman

[Tago Mago]

Slaughterhouse-Five - Kurt Vonnegut

Soon:
The Red Room - August Strindberg
Doctor Glas - Hjalmar Söderberg
The New York trilogy - Paul Auster

[sleepy sinner]

The Lost King of France; Revolution, Revenge and the search for Louis XVII.

One Hundred Years of Solitude

The Day of the Jackal

[Ciaran Finn]

Chaos - James Gleick

[Barbarian Love Elephant]

Originally posted by rainofthehours
"Confessions of a Mask" by Yukio Mishima

<3 it,tell me what you think/recommend something else by Mishima

[Kinbote]

Peace Kills - PJ O'Rourke

[Kinbote]

The Wapshot Chronicle - John Cheever. I'd gotten the impression that I'd hate Cheever, but this is actually pretty spectacular.

[Intern Kate]

The Oceans by Ellen J. Prager.

so what.

[Kinbote]

The Twenty-Seventh City - Jonathan Franzen. I despised The Corrections, but this seems, through two hundred pages, awfully good. I don't think I've ever been able to stand anything with this many domestic scenes.

[ATwilightShadow]

"Funhouse" by Dean Koontz

....after a month of reading Burroughs, I felt I needed to read some horror fiction....go figure.

[Imploding Ed]

Hunter S. Thompson - Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas and other American Stories
Ernest Hemingway - The Fith Column
Terry Pratchett - Soul music

[Trickster]

Chuck Palahniuk - Invisible Monsters

[Narcissistic Nihilist]

This Is Not Civilisation by Robert Rosenberg

[Mark E. De Sade]

Naked Lunch by William Burroughs

[TheImplodingVoice]

Originally posted by Floogleberry Hanzelsworth
Naked Lunch by William Burroughs

[Kinbote]

I mostly agree with the following opinion on Burroughs by Martin Amis:

Like many novelists whose modernity we indulge, William Burroughs is essentially a writer of 'good bits.' These good bits of his don't work out or add up to anything; they have nothing to do with the no-good bits; and they needn't be in the particular books they happen to be in. Most of Burroughs is trash, and lazily obsessive trash too - you could chuck it all out and not diminish what status he has as a writer. But the good bits are good. Reading him is like staring for a week at a featureless sky; every few hours a bird will come into view or, if you're lucky, an aeroplane might climb past, but things remain meaningless and monotone. Then, without warning (and not for long, and for no coherent reason, and almost always in Naked Lunch), something happens: abruptly the clouds grow warlike, and the air is full of portents.

The good bits are so fortuitous, indeed (mere reflexes of a large and callous talent), and the no-good bits so monolithic, that the critic's role is properly reduced to one of helpless quotation. Here is a good bit; this is another good bit; take, for example, this good bit.

[Jackal]

King, Queen, Knave
Vladimir Nabokov

[Kinbote]

Originally posted by Jackal
King, Queen, Knave
Vladimir Nabokov

You just made me like you.

[Henriette]

What if he thinks it's shit?

[Kinbote]

Originally posted by Henriette
What if he thinks it's shit?

Then I'll ignore him from here on out because he's retarded.

[Atomsk Iscariot]

Originally posted by rainofthehours
"House of Leaves" by Mark Z. Danieleswski

Or at least, i'm just wondering if i should even start to read it. I bought it at a thrift store for $4 and it just seems like a wierd book.

What are your thoughts on it? I could sell it for $9 at amazon.com very easily. I enjoyed it immensely.

[Atomsk Iscariot]

Originally posted by rainofthehours
By the way, what exactly did you enjoy about it? The way it's structured, primarily. It's just very different from anything else I've ever read, and it proved rather interesting and worth the effort.

[Jackal]

I already know I love it, I've read it before. He's my favorite writer. Because of his descriptive capacity and word choices. In fact when I read his books I like to be alone and the house to be very silent so I can really focus on the beauty of it without distractions. I don't want to miss one thing! I don't see how anyone can not like him.

I've read Lolita 3 times, the first time I was too young to understand so much. Then in my 20's and 30's I got more out of it.

I also like Stephen King, Douglas Coupland, Sylvia Plath, Amy Tan and Anne Rice has her moments in between the blah, blah, blah.

[Barbarian Love Elephant]

Originally posted by UncleLester
Lucky Jim - Kingsley Amis. To my surprise, it's good.

Have you read 'The Enchanter' by Nabokov and if so any good?

[Jackal]

I have the book, so I know I read it, but I don't remember it. :)

It sounds good, maybe I'll read it again.

[Barbarian Love Elephant]

I'm currently reading on the road(yes i do hate myself) i wanted to buy pnin by Nabokov along with acts of worship by yukio mishma but i chickened out.

[Kinbote]

Originally posted by Ms.
I'm currently reading on the road(yes i do hate myself) i wanted to buy pnin by Nabokov along with acts of worship by yukio mishma but i chickened out.

Pnin's a fucking wonderful book. As is The Enchanter, though less so.

[Kinbote]

Originally posted by Jackal
I already know I love it, I've read it before. He's my favorite writer. Because of his descriptive capacity and word choices. In fact when I read his books I like to be alone and the house to be very silent so I can really focus on the beauty of it without distractions. I don't want to miss one thing! I don't see how anyone can not like him.

I've read Lolita 3 times, the first time I was too young to understand so much. Then in my 20's and 30's I got more out of it.

I also like Stephen King, Douglas Coupland, Sylvia Plath, Amy Tan and Anne Rice has her moments in between the blah, blah, blah.

Well, I can't abide by any of the other writers you mention, but liking Nabokov gives you a free pass. He's my favorite as well; I have his initials tattooed on my right forearm. My Nabokov top five: 1., Pale Fire; 2., Bend Sinister; 3., Ada; 4., The Real Life of Sebastian Knight; and 5., Transparent Things.

[Jackal]

I've read:
Lolita
Invitation to a Beheading
Laughter in the Dark
The Real Life of Sebastian Knight, also.


A long time ago.

Do you like e. e. cummings poetry?

[Ghostdog]

JM Coetzee - Slow Man

[Kris Klam]

Bukowski- Post Office

[Intern Kate]

Ada, or Ardor

finished Edwin Mullhouse, really, fully enjoyed it. can't wait to reread it.

[Kinbote]

Originally posted by Intern Kate
Ada, or Ardor

finished Edwin Mullhouse, really, fully enjoyed it. can't wait to reread it.

You please me on both counts, Kate!

[Kinbote]

Shall I contribute to this not-quite-dead thread on this mostly moribund board? Why not!

Exercises in Style - Raymond Queneau

I was very pleased to find at last a copy of this for sale, in the basement clear-out for-sale section of my local library. It's just as fucking brilliant as I'd remembered it being.

[Intern Kate]

Ted, how was Martin Dressler?

[Kinbote]

It was good, until a certain point in the novel which I won't give away, when it became transcendent. Fluttered slightly back toward earth at the end, but damned if it wasn't fun.

[Atomsk Iscariot]

As mentioned in another thread, I'm currently digging my way through The Wind-Up Bird Chronicle by Haruki Murakami.

Stylistically, you begin to wonder if the translator's a piece of shit, or the actual writer's a piece of shit.

Plot-wise, it's exciting and different enough to keep me interested.

But fuck. You finish reading Tender is the Night and move onto THIS... there's a big culture shock.

[Kinbote]

Originally posted by Atomsk Iscariot

Stylistically, you begin to wonder if the translator's a piece of shit, or the actual writer's a piece of shit.


According to his Paris Review interview, Murakami is a fluent English speaker and an even better reader, and picks from a group of three translators, each of whom he is very familiar with. I think your answer is somewhere in here.

[Jackal]

"The Devil in the White City" by Erik Larson

Chicago circa 1893, the World's Fair, One man is the architect behind the fair, the other uses it to lure his victim's to their death.

Fuses history with entertainment.

I'm on page 54, so far so good.

[Trickster]

Originally posted by UncleLester
According to his Paris Review interview, Murakami is a fluent English speaker and an even better reader, and picks from a group of three translators, each of whom he is very familiar with. I think your answer is somewhere in here.

I felt I ought to try out some Murakami after hearing so much about him, but I'm just getting to the end of Norwegian Wood, and it's been alright... BUT I can't help feeling drawn out of the book sometimes, like I find myself thinking "This wouldn't happen, it's more the writer's opinion coming through..." which can't be good. I don't think I'll be in a hurry to read any more of his books.

[Atomsk Iscariot]

Originally posted by rainofthehours
Give him another chance, try "Hard-Boiled Wonderland and the End of the World." You won't regret it. I do want to still check out Hard-Boiled Wonderland since it spawned one of my favorite anime series (Haibane-Renmei). However, from what I've read of Wind-Up Bird Chronicle, I'm not particularly looking forward to it.

I mean, the story's great and different and all, but stylistically it's fucking vapid and horrible. I couldn't stand reading the first few chapters. To better explain, I've retyped the first few paragraphs.

When the phone rang I was in the kitchen, boiling a potful of spaghetti and whistling along with an FM broadcast of the overture to Rossini's The Thieving Magpie, which has to be the perfect music for cooking pasta.

I wanted to ignore the phone, not only because the spaghetti was nearly done, but because Claudio Abbado was bringing the London Symphony to its musical climax. Finally, though, I had to give in. It could have been somebody with news of a job opening. I lowered the flame, went to the living room, and picked up the receiver.

"Ten minutes, please," said a woman on the other end.

I'm good at recognizing people's voices, but this was not one I knew.

As one can see, it's such a disgustingly BORING style of writing. Once again, the story's great, but that's not purely where I get my enjoyment out of a novel. If you can't CONVEY it well, it's just not bloody interesting to me.

Added to the fact that I found out halfway through this book that the U.S. publisher forced Murakami to cut the crap out of Wind-Up Bird so it would be more palatable for American audiences. It's seeming more and more like a waste of $14 the further I get into it.

[Atomsk Iscariot]

Originally posted by rainofthehours
Well, for one thing, only several pages were cut, primarily those that strove away from the storyline (pointless pages i suppose.) The pages cut were also of very little significance. Which explains why so many reviews of the book point out its loose ends.

Regardless, I hate reading something that's been tampered with.

[Kinbote]

I think it's a tremendous stretch to call that a "style" of any sort.

[Atomsk Iscariot]

Originally posted by UncleLester
I think it's a tremendous stretch to call that a "style" of any sort. I entirely agree.

It's written like a damned children's novel.

[Atomsk Iscariot]

Originally posted by rainofthehours
Well, that really wouldn't cause critics to note "The Wind-Up Bird Chronicle" as having loose ends. If you cut out insignificant pages that strive away from the story, the story will flow more fluently, wouldn't it? And also drop characters out of the story like dead babies.

[Kinbote]

Originally posted by Atomsk Iscariot
dead babies.

Dead Babies - now THAT was a good, and stylish, book.

[Atomsk Iscariot]

Originally posted by rainofthehours
The first Lord of the Rings film (The Fellowship of the Ring,) did not include the scene following the hobbits leaving the Shire (the one that included "Tom Bombadil"). The transition from book to film is an entirely different monster that doesn't pertain to the topic at hand.

Forcing an author to edit out portions of HIS book is something far different.

[Atomsk Iscariot]

Originally posted by UncleLester
Dead Babies - now THAT was a good, and stylish, book. You've convinced me. It's been added to my wishlist.

I'm going to need a big fucking influx of style once I'm finished with this giant turd of Murakami's.

[Kinbote]

My impression is that I'd need a big fucking influx of scotch to crawl through its first half dozen pages.

[Static Split Screen]

Since school got out I have read the following:

Not the End of the World - Kate Atkinson
Downsize This - Michael Moore
Daggerspell - Katharine Kerr
Darkspell - Katharine Kerr
Dawnspell - Katharine Kerr
Dragonspell - Katharine Kerr
Shaman's Crossing - Robin Hobb
Inversions - Iain Banks
The Wasp Factory - Iain Banks (so fucked up)
Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince - J.K. Rowling
Hellblazer: Son of Man - Garth Ennis/John Higgins
The Sandman VI: Fables of Reflection - Neil Gaiman
The Sandman VII: Brief Lives - Neil Gaiman
Death: The High Cost of Living - Neil Gaiman
Reaper Man - Terry Pratchett
Mysteries From Forgotten Worlds - Charles Berlitz
Elric of Melniboné - Michael Moorcock
The Sailors on the Seas of Fate - Michael Moorcock
The Weird of the White Wolf - Michael Moorcock
When Do Fish Sleep? And other Improbables of Everyday Life - David Feldman
The Voyage of the Space Beagle - A.E. Von Vogt
Nightside the Long Sun - Gene Wolfe
Miss Smilla's Feeling for Snow - Peter Hoeg
Life of Pi - Yann Martel

[Static Split Screen]

Now I'm re-reading Harry Potter for old time's sake and I'm nearly done with the third one.

[motorcyclemptiness]

And I Don't Want to Live this Life--Deborah Spungen

[Kinbote]

The Ghost Writer - Philip Roth

I don't much like it. I've yet to figure out why exactly it is that Roth is so highly regarded.

[Trickster]

I have recently read:

The Lonely Dead by Michael Marshall (not as good as the first one)
Long Way Round by Ewan MacGregor & the other guy (pretty interesting reading, if a bit icky at times)
Now Wait For Last Year by Philip K Dick (this one really blew the other two away, great novel)

now i'm reading...

Imajica by Clive Barker

and it's gonna be a long journey...

[Atomsk Iscariot]

So I finally finished The Wind-Up Bird Chronicle. And I do like the plot. But the fact that the writing-style was so horrid that it took me 3 months to crawl my way through this monster makes me want to burn it to ash and take solace in the escaping smoke.

So now I'm reading Less Than Zero.

[Kinbote]

Originally posted by Atomsk Iscariot

So now I'm reading Less Than Zero.

I thought that was terrific when I first read it. It did not, however, stand up to rereading.

Have you read American Psycho? That is, so far as I'm concerned, one of the finest novels ever written.

[Atomsk Iscariot]

Originally posted by UncleLester
I thought that was terrific when I first read it. It did not, however, stand up to rereading.

Have you read American Psycho? That is, so far as I'm concerned, one of the finest novels ever written. I was debating between getting that and Less Than Zero while I was at my school's bookstore a few days ago. I chose Less Than Zero purely for the raised letters on the cover.

I'm a shallow, despicable human being. :cry:

[Kinbote]

My edition of Less Than Zero does have a nifty cover photo, I'll grant it that. But really, you ought to read American Psycho. It ought to be fucking canonical.

[Trickster]

I forgot I also just re-read "are you experienced?" by william sutcliffe - which is a very funny book. if you have ever been on any travelling or year-out kind of trip then you will recognise a lot and enjoy this book.


and yes, american psycho is a great book - some of it is very random, like the chapters on genesis and huey lewis and the news, but i guess it only further illustrates the nature of the narrator, that he can calmly discuss music in the same way as he discusses his murdering sprees... if they really exist?

[Static Split Screen]

I've made it to Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince, now.

[Static Split Screen]

I, Robot - Isaac Asimov

[TheImplodingVoice]

Originally posted by Static Split Screen
I, Robot - Isaac Asimov

Some Ppl might hate me for this..but I loathe that book more that anything

[Nak Nak]

Originally posted by TheImplodingVoice
Some Ppl might hate me for this..but I loathe that book more that anything

because it's about robots?

[Static Split Screen]

I'm not getting into it so much. I can't find it right now, I think I left it in the car, so I'm reading a Mary Gentle book. It's right up my alley of fun fantasy tripe that I love.

[kendra]

Originally posted by Static Split Screen
I, Robot - Isaac Asimov

I just checked this one out of the library randomly, but I'm reading The Corrections by Jonathan Franzen first. I'd consider myself a scifi fan and it's sad that the only Asimov I've read is one short story in a book I got for free from a thrift store, so I thought I would pick one up. I, Robot happened to be the shortest one so I snagged it. (The Corrections is pretty long and I want to be able to read them both in a month, on top of homework and eating and sleeping.)

On an unrelated note, I find Ben Bova really preachy and irritating. More so than Orson Scott Card. He seems to be able to keep his loathesome personality out of his writing.

[Trickster]

Originally posted by kendra
I got for free from a thrift store

Did you steal it?

[Static Split Screen]

Originally posted by Richard Fish
Did you steal it?

Sometimes they have books so old and trashed or that they've had for so long they just give them away.

[kendra]

Yeah it was in a big bin saying "TAKE ME PLEASE" so I got this old ass scifi compilation and a biography on Freud.

[Trickster]

Ah cool, I got a compilation of Egar Allan Poe stories that are unlike his normal style, called The Other Poe, from a charity shop for 50p. Nothing quite like a bargain!

[Static Split Screen]

Yeah I've gotten books for like 25 cents and stuff, it's pretty sweet. Most I've paid is like 38 bucks, urgh.

[Intern Kate]

I read something by Poe recently, Maelstrom was in the title, it was BORING.

[Static Split Screen]

Yeah, I've never been able to read Poe. Boring!

[Trickster]

I think it varies greatly, that particular short is a weird descriptive story rather than a narrative, but if you read Murders In The Rue Morgue or The Mystery of Marie Roget you'll probably find them more palatable. They are kind of analytical detective type stories.

http://wikisource.org/wiki/The_Murders_in_the_Rue_Morgue
http://wikisource.org/wiki/The_Mystery_of_Marie_Rog%C3%AAt

You don't even need to spend a penny. :-p

[Static Split Screen]

Finish I, Robot today
Read Debt of Bones by Terry Goodkind
Read most of the 2nd Sandman graphic novel
Will start All Tomorrow's Parties by William Gibson tonight before I go to bed, most likely.

[Atomsk Iscariot]

Finished Less Than Zero - utterly MAGNIFICENT on first read.

Starting Pale Fire today.

[Kinbote]

Originally posted by Atomsk Iscariot

Starting Pale Fire today.

http://www.blamonet.com/vb/images/icons/icon14.gif

[Mark E. De Sade]

Originally posted by Atomsk Iscariot
Finished Less Than Zero - utterly MAGNIFICENT on first read.

Starting Pale Fire today. Bizarre. I started Pale Fire yesterday.

[Cheryl K]

The Turn of the Screw by James

[Kinbote]

Originally posted by Floogleberry Hanzelsworth
Bizarre. I started Pale Fire yesterday.

http://www.blamonet.com/vb/images/icons/icon14.gif

[Narcissistic Nihilist]

Milan Kundera - Ignorance

[sleepy sinner]

The Bell Jar - Sylvia Plath
A Long Way Down - Nick Hornby

[Intern Kate]

Dubliners...

[Kinbote]

Originally posted by Intern Kate
Dubliners...

Hit and miss!

[Intern Kate]

i like Updike's A&P. wasn't that supposed to be satirizing Araby?

yeah, i feel "eh..." but then again i'm speed-reading for class tomorrow and perhaps not fully apreciating it.

!

[Kinbote]

"The Dead" is really good.

[Static Split Screen]

I read High Fidelity by Nick Hornby yesterday

Now I'm starting Dune by Frank Herbert.

[motorcyclemptiness]

I just started "Less Than Zero" the other day.

I'm waiting for paper back for "Lunar Park."

[Kinbote]

Originally posted by motorcyclemptiness

I'm waiting for paper back for "Lunar Park."

Give it another couple of weeks and I'm sure you'll be able to find a remaindered hardback for 32 cents.

[Intern Kate]

guys, guys, Benjamin Franklin is ok!

[Intern Kate]

Originally posted by Kinbote
"The Dead" is really good.

wow, agreed.

onto Ulysses!

[Kinbote]

Oh, good. It's the rare "classic" entirely deserving of its reputation.

I just hope, Kate, that you're not going to be one of those people who swoons at Molly's monologue. Everyone always goes on about Molly's dumb monologue and I think it blows.

[Intern Kate]

well see, now i have this pre-conceived notion Ted, and i'm tainted, tainted! but actually i think we read a bit of that in high school, and if i recall correctly, i was bored to tears.

[Atomsk Iscariot]

Originally posted by Kinbote
I just hope, Kate, that you're not going to be one of those people who swoons at Molly's monologue. Everyone always goes on about Molly's dumb monologue and I think it blows. I like it for one reason and one reason alone.

Kate Bush somehow made a BRILLIANT song out of it.

[Kinbote]

Originally posted by Intern Kate
well see, now i have this pre-conceived notion Ted, and i'm tainted, tainted! but actually i think we read a bit of that in high school, and if i recall correctly, i was bored to tears.

That's okay, Kate. Books aren't important. The historical context of a book is all you should care about! That, and how it relates to feminism and class struggle!

[Intern Kate]

dear god Ted, please join my "Modern Novel" class, they would eat you up faster than a veggie burger. be sure to drop some slang, like "bourgeois", "bohemian", and "pagan".

[Kinbote]

Originally posted by Atomsk Iscariot
I like it for one reason and one reason alone.

Kate Bush somehow made a BRILLIANT song out of it.

How do you like Pale Fire?

[Kinbote]

Originally posted by Intern Kate
dear god Ted, please join my "Modern Novel" class, they would eat you up faster than a veggie burger. be sure to drop some slang, like "bourgeois", "bohemian", and "pagan".

No, but really, everyone, have you considered it from a panethnic posthistorical deconstructionist angle? I mean, really considered it?

[Atomsk Iscariot]

Originally posted by Kinbote
How do you like Pale Fire? I'm only halfway through and I find it entirely fucking brilliant.

[Kinbote]

Originally posted by Atomsk Iscariot
I'm only halfway through and I find it entirely fucking brilliant.

Have you read the note to Line 130 yet? I think that's my favorite part.

[Atomsk Iscariot]

Originally posted by Kinbote
Have you read the note to Line 130 yet? I think that's my favorite part. Not yet but I intend to read it tonight until I get there.

[Henriette]

Ted - you should get some sort of commission or something. From the publisher, I mean.

[Kinbote]

It's not a bad idea. Perhaps they can send me a suitcase full of Pale Fires and I can go door to door, or solicit strangers outside train stations.

[Intern Kate]

Originally posted by Kinbote
No, but really, everyone, have you considered it from a panethnic posthistorical deconstructionist angle? I mean, really considered it?

there is one sandal-clad fellow i have in mind who'd probably ask for your number.

a professor asked for ideas for a new class next year, apparently the department is brain-storming. this lad wanted one on existential literature, to which the professor suggested he pursue philosophy.

[Kinbote]

I would have suggested that the dear boy put a bullet in his brain, but to each their own, I guess! Given his expressed interest there, I suppose his brain already operates as if it contains a bullet, or even several.

How can you tolerate this class, Kate! Is the professor as bad as your fellow students?

[Intern Kate]

yes. the one time i spoke in class was out of severe irritation over my classmates, i made a vehement contention, then continued looking for words contained in my name. he said something like "that's not fair" or, "i don't think that's what everyone was trying to say." to which i didn't raise my head or thus acknowledge. i'm very childish! once his son called in the middle of class, so he put it on hold - the class - to have a conversation. actually, this was probably a good thing. i would've switched out but it's too late. and it should be an easy A, so hopefully i'll boost my GPA.

[Intern Kate]

Originally posted by Henriette
Ted - you should get some sort of commission or something. From the publisher, I mean.

OMG. so true.

[Kinbote]

What horrors! Are you going to have to contort your brain in order to write papers from ridiculous critical perspectives? Or shall it at least be laissez-faire in that respect?

...I'm not really sure what the plot in this book is, but I don't think it's important to know. The plot is just a roadblock the author constructs to try to keep us from determining whether he's a homosexual.

[Intern Kate]

we don't WRITE papers. the "professor" cancelled the three papers because our class is too big and he doesn't want to grade them all! oh dearest god. but again, easy A. i mean, i'll only be facing quizzes like "In A Painful Case what happened to Mrs. Sinico?" TED WHY AM I PAYING MONEY TO GO TO HIGH SCHOOL. again. oh well. thee end. oh, and i guess i should speak up rudely every other class for participation or some shit.

[Kinbote]

Wow, that's horrible! That's just...fucking stupid. Really. Shame and shootings should be had and done. Your tests at least I hope are not multiple choice. It's really kind of remarkably awful - it's not even like it's a fake school, or (I presume) you're in one of those dumb athlete's classes.

[Intern Kate]

i'm beginning to wonder if it is in fact a dumb athlete's class, because there are at least a handful of semi-intelligent people in all my other classes. at least nothing nearly as infuriating. i should've taken "Shakespeare's Comedies" but i keep putting off my Shakespeare requirement.

[Kinbote]

I don't know, it's an English class, I guess, which is where a certain segment's retardation leaps frontwards, banging together pots and pans and drooling all over the place.

Shakespeare's comedies are fun! Why on earth didn't you do that instead!

[Intern Kate]

well because i was waiting to take "Shakespeare in Film" but i think i've decided that class would probably be filled with the same folks in this current atrocious class, so i'll probably take the one about his comedies anyways, so really this is all stupid but, eh. oh well.

and so goes my life.

[Kinbote]

With the exception of Olivier stuff and Polanski's Macbeth, I think Shakespeare movies mostly kind of suck!

I remember in sixth form English we watched the Leonardo+Claire Romeo+Juliet. It was kind of excruciating.

At least with Shakespeare most things have such precedent, are so established, etc., that it's difficult to climb too far out on an idiot limb. Unless you're a tenured research professor, of course. In which case go right ahead and argue that Shakespeare was really a disabled lesbian from Zanzibar.

[motorcyclemptiness]

Welles' "Othello" is very good.

The Zefferelli Romeo and Juliet was pretty good.

Polanski's Macbeth is ace.

And I secretly really love Ten Things I Hate About You.

Gimme a break, y'all.

[Static Split Screen]

Nickled and Dimed: On (Not) Getting By in America - Barbara Ehrenreich

Pretty interesting. A woman goes out and gets a minimum wage job to see if she can actually live on it. She can't unless she works two jobs. Evidently all the rich twits are reading it to feel "compassions" but they aren't doing shit about it.

[xamot]

The Prophet Outcast
Trotsky:1929-1940
by Isaac Deutscher

[Intern Kate]

Cliff Note's The Odyssey.

[Barbarian Love Elephant]

Originally posted by Intern Kate
we don't WRITE papers. the "professor" cancelled the three papers because our class is too big and he doesn't want to grade them all! oh dearest god. but again, easy A. i mean, i'll only be facing quizzes like "In A Painful Case what happened to Mrs. Sinico?" TED WHY AM I PAYING MONEY TO GO TO HIGH SCHOOL. again. oh well. thee end. oh, and i guess i should speak up rudely every other class for participation or some shit.
I <3 a painful case (for selfish reasons)

I'm nearly finished the real life of sebastian knight

[Intern Kate]

that was my second favorite, after The Dead. not for any personal reasons though. every dumb person in my class was obsessed with Araby and/or Eveline so it made me dislike them.

i like Ulysses a lot so far. but i have to be in the right mindset while reading.

[Barbarian Love Elephant]

I have shied away from reading Ulysses because of it’s difficult reputation and I’ve got an extremely short attention span. Every Irish household up til 1990 had two books the bible and Ulysses and neither was read!

[sleepy sinner]

I just finished The Bell Jar by Sylvia Plath. Has anyone studied it and can shed more light on a question for me? My sister said there has been suggestions that when Esther feels the pounding on her head after attempting suicide (and her face is subsequently all bruised and her eye all gross) that this could possibly have been a lobotomy? Which is appalling. But an interesting thought, and shed light on the ugly side of 1950s psychiatry.

Anyway it was a really absorbing book not only while reading it but thinking about it afterwards. I also currently have a very good friend dealing with mental illness so it was just another conduit I think for me to turn some of my emotions about it over and contemplate it from a wider perspective.

I've begun Nick Hornby's A Long Way Down but it's not really appealing to me at all at this stage, the characters aren't doing it for me.

[In Dust and Ashes]

I'm still trying to get through Tropic of Capircorn by Henry Miller...I've been on it for several months now...

[Barbarian Love Elephant]

keep at it jack <3 i know you're not normally a reader(except the cookie packs right EH EH EH!)

[In Dust and Ashes]

lol. thanks ronan...I read other things beside cookie packets..I read cerial boxes...and road signs...and posters...and little informational plates on the sides of old buidlings.... :( i'm not THAT dumb.

but seriously, I think the thing that keeps slowing me down in this book is the sex. I thought I was past it..then I got to the interlude, which I THOUGHT would be an intelegent discussion because he started out with the line "Confusion is a word we have invented for an order which is not understood." ...and hten he went into more sex....a lot more sex...I"m 5 pages past that and he's still stuck on sex...

[Barbarian Love Elephant]

My new aim is ronanwestlake,add me

[In Dust and Ashes]

I dyed my hair. applaud me :)

[Trickster]

I'm growing a pimp moustache. Laugh at me.

[In Dust and Ashes]

I don't even know what a pimp mustache looks like :-o

[Trickster]

Skinny, creepy-looking thing...

[In Dust and Ashes]

if it's skinny and creepy, why are you groing it?

[Static Split Screen]

The Hotel New Hampshire - John Irving

[Trickster]

if it's skinny and creepy, why are you groing it?

just for the fun of it, it won't stay very long.

and i think every guy likes to let his facial hair get a bit silly every once in a while. whether it's full grown beard, moustache, goatee... etc

also: look at jack white from the white stripes just now. that kinda thing.

[Barbarian Love Elephant]

Originally posted by Richard Fish
just for the fun of it, it won't stay very long.

and i think every guy likes to let his facial hair get a bit silly every once in a while. whether it's full grown beard, moustache, goatee... etc

also: look at jack white from the white stripes just now. that kinda thing.

so true on all counts

[Trickster]

i'm already finding myself spending too much time stroking my feeble growth (i'm talking facial hair still people, behave) and going "hmmm".

[In Dust and Ashes]

I can understand guys wanting to do funky stuff with their hair...
I want to do funky stuff with my leg hair, but I'm still trying to build up the courage.....
one day, I'll grow it out and then shave disigns into it :-D :-o

[Static Split Screen]

:smug:

[In Dust and Ashes]

sounds like so much fun, doesn't it?
I swear, one day I'll do it.....

[Static Split Screen]

I'm reading Confessions of an Ugly Stepsister by Gregory Maguire at Borders and it's fun.

[homer j. simpson]

re-reading the great gatsby for english class.

[Static Split Screen]

Originally posted by SuckerLove
re-reading the great gatsby for english class.

Ew.

[Static Split Screen]

Harry Potter à l'école des sorciers


I'm trying to brush up on my French.

[Trickster]

Update: the moustache has gone, i couldn't be arsed looking like a creepy mexican anymore.

[Static Split Screen]

The Martian Chronicles - Ray Bradbury

[sleepy sinner]

I read Digital Fortress by Dan Brown yesterday.
It was tacky and predictable and I feel dirty.

[Barbarian Love Elephant]

You've just put the feminist cause back 45 years :(

[Static Split Screen]

Firebird - Mercedes Lackey

[Static Split Screen]

The Gap Into Conflict - The Real Story by Stephen R. Donaldson

[Static Split Screen]

Ghostlight - Marion Zimmer Bradley

[Barbarian Love Elephant]

how!

[Static Split Screen]

Witchlight - Marion Zimmer Bradley

I love trashy fantasy.

[Barbarian Love Elephant]

bitch