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[Ququman]

Currently reading The ABC Murders by Agatha Christie. I plan on reading every one of her novels because they're awesome.
I think I'm in love with Poirot :3 it's the power of the moustache 

[paste]

I'm reading The Gospel of Anarchy by Justin Taylor.  It's kind of strange reading a book by someone I know because I end up hearing all the narration in his voice.

[Widget]

Finally started reading some China Mieville, Perdido Street Station. Been meaning to read some of his work for ages now, since I picked up Veniss Underground by Jeff Vandermeer.

[Dustin Smith]

rereading Vonnegut's Timequake. He got me through my mid-teens, and it's nice to turn back to his stuff.

[Seth]

Survivor by Chuck Palahniuk, at the insistence of a friend.  I think it's terrible.

[Nava]

Survivor by Chuck Palahniuk, at the insistence of a friend.  I think it's terrible.

And that's arguably one his better books, too. Quit while you're ahead 

[cystem glitch]

Survivor by Chuck Palahniuk, at the insistence of a friend.  I think it's terrible.

And that's arguably one his better books, too. Quit while you're ahead 

My ex was a consumer of all things Palahniuk but I could never get past the first few pages of his stuff, I just found it tiresome. But I actually liked Survivor.

Speaking of writers with much wider readerships thanks to popular movies, Irvine Welsh's book Filth is amazing. A fucked up story narrated by a bigoted crude cop with a thick scottish accent and whose every other word is cunt, and whose tapeworm eats up a bunch of pages from the book. The best part is how you just soak up all the horrible shit from this guy but you can't put the book down. It's really good in fact not just obscene.

I also read Geek Love for the first time not too long ago, and another book was really good Growth of the Soil by Knut Hamsen. Growth of the Soil doesn't have anything fucked up in it like those previous two I just mentioned it's basically just about a farmer but it's so stripped down and matter of fact that as the story builds up from such simple and natural events and is delivered in such a plain and direct manner it really resonates in you.

Some of my favorite stuff ever is Kafka's short stories, Godel,Escher,Bach, The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy, Borges and J.G.Ballard's short stories, Dostoevsky's notes from underground, Sartre's The wall, Martin Gardner's old recreational mathematics columns for Scientific American, Hunter S. Thompson's Hells Angels, Candide by Voltaire, Lolita by Nabokov, H.P Lovecraft stuff, old intelligent sci fi short stories from the 60's and 70's, and I love reading about word roots and how english has been regurgitated up from 'Indo-European' languages.

I guess the topic is what are you reading now and I have only half read William Burroughs' Cities of the Red Night. I haven't picked it up in awhile but it seems the most coherent and interesting thing I have read of his and would be the first thing I pick back up if I get in a reading mood.

[ithamore]

I've read some sci-fi compilations recently:

"Nebula Winners Fourteen" ("Stone" was my favorite and the oldest cyberpunk story I can remember [written in 1977 and printed in 1978];

"The Early Asimov" Volume 3 (it covers the end of the "Campbell years" during which, after having dozens of stories, a novel, and several textbooks printed, he finally realizes he's a writer and should do so professionally; he also further proves how much he is into himself and his perspectives);

"Wondermakers 2" ("Vaster than Empires and More Slow" was my favorite, since it was a combination of light hard-science facts encompassing a social-science/psychological view of being culturally disconnected for centuries only to find a planet dominated by plants that prove to be sentient).

I also finally read "The Hitchhicker's Guide to the Galaxy", and I've begun reading Roger Zelazny's "The Doors of His Face, the Lamps of His Mouth", which is a collection of his sci-fi/fantasy hybrid short stories from the 60's.

[Nava]

My ex was a consumer of all things Palahniuk but I could never get past the first few pages of his stuff, I just found it tiresome. But I actually liked Survivor.

I read a LOT of Palahniuk when I was younger. I really liked most of it, and I almost credit him for getting me back into reading after a few years' lull back in high school, but things started going downhill at around the time of Haunted. There was a huge ray of sunshine in Rant, and then he released Snuff and I just decided that was enough; I had outgrown obscenity for the sole purpose of shock. It's funny how you start to re-assess the things you liked and thought were smart when you were younger. In some ways it's almost better for your memory to *not* revisit something years later.

I agree that Welsh is an amazing writer who manages to be terrifying and coarse and often disgusting, but not really obscene. He's got brains behind his madness.
Great faves list, Cystem glitch :D Have you read any Bill Bryson? He's got a great book on the origins of English.

[Toom]

I found a copy of Norman Mailer's The Executioner's Song in a second-hand bookshop for all of £2 and have been voraciously devouring it; I got through probably half the thing on the train home from Oxford this afternoon.

[Dustin Smith]

cystem glitch, let's be reading buddies.

survivor is definitely my favorite palahniuk novel -- i read a lot of his work when i was 17-19 and i've always admired his style. his earlier books all are about some displaced person trying to re-enter society, so they all blend a bit together, but his prose is great. haven't read too much of his recent work, though.

i have a raymond carver collection to keep me company for my flight today.

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It's not as good as The Third Policeman, alas, but he's still a great author.

Yay!  Does anyone else know books that one might like if one likes The Third Policeman?

[cystem glitch]

i have a raymond carver collection to keep me company for my flight today.

I read a little Raymond Carver at the library (I would of checked the book out by I learned I had never returned an origami book I've had out for several months, whoops). They were some great stripped down and bare stories though. Have you already read much Bukowski? If not you should definitely check out Ham on Rye if you dig Carver's style.

[X3N]

Delusions of Gender
How society and neurosexism make the difference

It's fascinating so far.

[Nava]

I finished the last book in the His Dark Materials trilogy and cried like a little girl.
I also raced through The Diving Bell and the Butterfly, by Jean-Dominique Bauby. Fascinating story, but not a very good book (oops does that make me heartless?).

Now I'm not sure what to read. It's a toss-up between:
1) This is Your Brain on Music, by Daniel J Levitin
2) The Greatest Show on Earth, by Richard Dawkins
3) Rogue Messiahs, by Colin Wilson

I crave non-fiction. I will accept your votes until Thursday evening

X3N that sounds amazing, I can't fucking stand brain-gender myths. Adding to my to-read list!

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I read This is Your Brain on Music.  It wasn't as good as I was expecting, and if you know much about music, it might be kind of boring.  There were a few snippets here and there that were good, but it was a mostly forgettable book.  I'm gonna try reading Musicophilia by Oliver Sacks.  I usually like his stuff.

[Nava]

I read This is Your Brain on Music.  It wasn't as good as I was expecting, and if you know much about music, it might be kind of boring.

I know a LOT more about brains than I do about music and music theory, so I'm a bit concerned about it being boring on that front; but that's always my concern with popular(ish) neuroscience books

I'm gonna try reading Musicophilia by Oliver Sacks.  I usually like his stuff.

I have read this one! I don't normally enjoy Sacks (I find he often puts too much stock in his own anecdotes-- and the SAME case study anecdotes in evvverrryyyy booook-- at the expense discussing research) but I really liked Musicophilia. I wonder if there would be much overlap between the two books? I know Sacks approaches it from a very clinical standpoint, I imagine Levitin comes at it more from experimental work?

[fraxcell]

Sandman Slim: Interesting ideas, and a nice twist on the normal urban fantasy stuff.

Oryx and Crake: About halfway through, and it's interesting so far. Sort of a post apocalyptic story, with lots of flashbacks to pre-apocalypse times.

Catcher in the Rye: Read the first six or so chapters, and I'm finding the main character to be annoying as fuck.

[paste]

I know a LOT more about brains than I do about music and music theory, so I'm a bit concerned about it being boring on that front; but that's always my concern with popular(ish) neuroscience books

Oh, then I don't know.  It's very casual; that's all I really remember about it.

I have read this one! I don't normally enjoy Sacks (I find he often puts too much stock in his own anecdotes-- and the SAME case study anecdotes in evvverrryyyy booook-- at the expense discussing research) but I really liked Musicophilia. I wonder if there would be much overlap between the two books? I know Sacks approaches it from a very clinical standpoint, I imagine Levitin comes at it more from experimental work?

I like Sacks, usually from what I hear from him on the radio (mostly Radiolab?).  Levitin speaks mostly in anecdotes, IIRC.  I would just browse the first couple chapters before picking it up.

[Nava]

Levitin speaks mostly in anecdotes, IIRC.  I would just browse the first couple chapters before picking it up.

Dang bro. I got it as a Christmas gift, which pretty much means I must read it at some point, if only to satisfy my completist obsession of reading every book I own. I'll let you know what I think