What are you reading right now?

This is a companion piece to Jerry's thread, 'Whatchya listening to?'.

I am reading the Age of Reason by Sartre but I am very close to finishing. The story is quite dull and gloomy except for the odd drunken hand stabbing scene, so I find it very easy to put down and ignore. Some of the concepts and obervations on existence are amazing however. I consider this book homework more than entertainment.

I am going to read something purely fun next, I have some memoirs of a real life Crocodile Dundee type called Jim Cole, Trainspotting by Irvine Welsh, a fun looking novel I picked up for cheap called 'Everything is Illuminated' and I also have Cats Cradle by Kurt Vonnegut. I am excited about all of them but I don't know where to start next.

 

I just finished Breaking Dawn" by Stefanie Meyer and just started reading "Lessons from a Gang Cop". Before I started reading Breaking Dawn I was reading another gang book about Monster Cody. cant remember the name of it.

 

I'm reading a truly awful book that I found in my mother's collection. I owe the library $, so I have little choice then to read shit. So yes, I'm reading a book called Kepper of the Keys. ZZZzzZZZ

 

play of consciousness

the place of dead roads

 

I just finished What Happened to Lani Garver (two big thumbs up!) and I'm off to the library tomorrow to fetch another one.

 

The Memoirs of Sir Ronald Storrs by Ronald Storrs

 

Fear & Loathing on the Campaign Trail '72 by Hunter S. Thompson. I picked it up along with 1984, which will probably be my next read.

Fear & Loathing is good; I don't like politics much but Thompson's style of writing really does it for me, and I love madness, which is basically what a presidential election is.

 

The Subterraneans.
it's incredible.

 

how to win friends and influence people
a physiology textbook
the protein book

 

HA HA HA, Everything is illuminated is narrated by a Ukrainian immigrant. Read this:

"I dig Negroes, especially Michael Jackson. I dig to disseminate very much currency at famous nightclubs in Odessa....Many girls want to be carnal with me in so many good arrangements notwithstanding the inebriated kangaroo, the Gorky Tickle and the unyielding Zookeeper. If you want to know why so many girls want to be with me it is because I am a premium person to be with."

How cute.

 

Kerouac eh?

Is it one of his depressing ones? I don't like his downbeat work.

 

I wouldn't say so, no.

 

Cool. I respect your intellect and taste in music so I will definitely look into that one. I read Big Sur last year and hated it. It was mostly a nightmare of drug fueled angst. Have you read lonesome traveller? That is my favourite of his. Its more like a travel diary than a story.

 

Let's see...

- Gargantua by Francois Rabelais (almost done)
- La Princesse de Clèves by Madame De LaFayette (just started)
- The Letters of Abelard and Heloise Translated by Betty Radice (almost done)
- 4 other books related to Abelard and Heloise that I have to sift through still
- My Year of Meats Ruth L. Ozeki (half way)

 

thanks a lot man.
the only other Kerouac I've read were the ones everyone reads, On The Road and Dharma Bums. I like The Subterraneans more than either of those. it's still the same highly detailed stream-of-consciousness amphetamine writing but this one is even more abstract and assiduous.

 

And right now I just read the Cats of Ulthar by H.P. Lovecraft. I adore this story. Lovecraft gives me great pleasure in the Harvest season.

 

I read dharma bums this summer while I was traveling.

I wasn't so lonesome out there knowing I was just another ghost.

 

I'm also kind of reading Dead Souls by Gogol, since I don't have any issues with reading several books at once. I was kind of bored at first but once it got going I was laughing out loud. Gogol can make fun of his characters almost as well as old Fyodor.

 

i need something more "fun" to read

 

beautiful.