Samantha Irby. We missed a reading by her, so I picked up some essays, pretty funny

If I had to say one it'd be The Child in Time, but more purely for the writing than the story, although the writing in On Chesil Beach isn't far behind it. His style is almost the polar opposite of Amis's so it'd be interesting to know what you think. Personally for all his limitation and recent shift in focus, I'd take McEwan over Amis, even at his most annoying.

has anyone here ever used bookfreeswap.com or booklender.com? and if so how was the experience?

No, but I'm on the edge of signing up for bookfreeswap. The other is netflix for books and totally unnecessary for me.


Read it in a day years ago, so I remember nothing. Think I'll re-read it soon.

I have Atonement, Saturday and maybe Solar laying around, but whatever reason, never cracked any of them open. Skip them?

I'm doing Proust's behemoth - currently early into Budding Grove. It's a slow read but I am genuinely enjoying this long slog. I think by the time I am done, perhaps in 2029 or so, I can claim to have read it all 3x, because the nature of most Proustian sentences causes me to immediately re-read in order to capture/absorb. On the first try I am usually off-course, somewhat. This might not sound like fun, but the rewards for sticking with this are immense. He really was a fucking literary genius...and...funny as hell!!

a netflix for books is just what i need. i don’t wanna accumulate stuff and i’m far from the library now.

been thinking of buying books and reselling them after, but that could be a major chore...

i also have a ton of books to get rid of. swapping them would not reduce numbers though.

been racking my brain all day on this subject. how to supply the most reading with the smallest burden. no storage/no clutter.

i miss the library of congress

Lots of people consider Atonement his masterpiece so I'd at least give it a try, although personally I'm not a fan. Saturday is decent. I haven't read Solar but hear mixed things about it.

Have you read The Cement Garden? I suppose that's still his most essential book, in terms of the one that put him on the map.

Guess we have to pause everything to talk about Roth.

I've found his stuff best appreciated cumulatively. I have a hard time finding one masterpiece to recommend to people when they ask. But there are 8 or 9 I've re-read with pleasure over the years, and while none is entirely satisfying in itself, his powers eventually become undeniable.

He was a vulgar moralist whose style blended the literary and colloquial. I think I most respect this great artistic balancing act.

Turns out I have a digital version of Cement. Never read. I'll give it a try.

(I seem to have a lot from an author I've read only one thing by.)

Great American Novel is hilarious.

And so, with all that, the inevitable question: if you were to recommend one Phillip Roth, what one would it be?

I can list about a dozen to avoid, but there really isn't one must-read by him.

Gun to my head, maybe Counterlife.

Best bet would be to read all three "American Trilogy" books: I Married a Communist, Human Stain, American Pastoral. Individually they disappoint near the end, but taken together they are quite an achievement.


Oh yeah. I forgot. He's funny too.

OK thanks. I've only read American Pastoral, which I liked, but didn't know if there was one that's generally considered his defining masterpiece.

Almost done with the original run of Gaiman’s Sandman, which I’ve never properly read before (only got through the first three volumes, I think).

Goddamn brilliant. I think someone in this forum urged me on in this, knowing that I was a fan of Gaiman’s books. That person said Sandman ranks alongside his other works in terms of literary maturity, and damned if that isn’t true as fuck.

Still have the final volume of the initial run and the tie-ins like “Overture,” but I’m pretty blown away.

Watchmen who?

sandman is myth building and myth re-shaping. awesome


watchmen is critical hyperanalysis. awesome

sandman is the greatest comic book ever

for metafictions skip watchmen and go straight to borges

Again, wouldn’t call it a masterpiece, but Great American Novel is very funny and extremely readable.

Cool, thanks. Have to admire a writer with the balls to choose that as a title.

The Lucifer Effect by Philip Zimbardo.

Zimbardo is the psychologist who did the famous Stanford Prison Experiment. This was released in 2007 a little bit after the Abu Gharib scandal came out and he talks about how things like that can happen. How can seemingly normal people end up quickly (and in the case of the SPE within hours) becoming someone totally different.

I'm not gonna lie. It's depressing. Really, really depressing. Added to the fact that the last three books I've read have been this and two Cormac McCarthy books. No wonder I'm feeling so bummed out at the moment. Next book I read I'm determined to make an upbeat one. Any recommendations from you guys?

^^

don quixote. you’ll laff yuor ass off

virktor frankl’s search for meaning. the opposite of the lucifer effect

a day in the life of ivan denisovich. best cure for depression ever

tolstoy’s ivan the fool

gargantua & pantagruel

voltaire’s “candide”

whitman’s leaves of grass

henderson the rain king by saul bellow

russell hoban’s the medusa frequency

the odissey

milan kundera’s book of ridiculous loves

baudelaire’s la fanfarlo and prose poems

vicente huidobro’s altazor

el lazarillo de tormes

quevedo’s vida del buscón

clouds (nefeli!!!) by aristophanes

more stuff coming when i remember