what do you read?

ChrisG

Unapologetic Lifer for Rock and Roll
Long-overdue to post on here. My last few reads:

Status Anxiety and The Pleasures and Sorrows of Work, both by Alain De Botton. This guy is a keen observer and makes all kinds of cool connections. He just kind of keeps writing the same book, just changes topics, but his method works for me.

http://www.amazon.com/Status-Anxiet...id=1357757336&sr=1-9&keywords=alain+de+botton

http://www.amazon.com/Pleasures-Sorrows-Work-Vintage-International/dp/0307277259/ref=pd_sim_b_1

Consider the Lobster by David Foster Wallace. Yes, everyone always jumps right to Infinite Jest, with wildly mixed outcomes. The essays are fucking brilliant, and a much better place to start. The guy was a genius.

http://www.amazon.com/Consider-Lobs...57757649&sr=1-4&keywords=david+foster+wallace
 

Glenlivet12

Well-Known Member
I read Outliers by Malcom Gladwell a few months back. Not a difficult read by any means but still very interesting.
 

jmanic

JORBA Board Member/Chapter Leader
Staff member
JORBA.ORG
Team MTBNJ Halter's
Considering my next read as either:

The signal and the noise

or something by Junot Diaz, although the David Foster Wallace rec might make it into the mix.
 

bonefishjake

Strong like bull, smart like tractor
Team MTBNJ Halter's
wow, you slackers. all your brains are going to ROT.

SWWW: the what do you read edition.

it's been awhile since i've updated this myself but with all my traveling lately i've been on a reading tear.

i recently came across an author by the name of Scott Sigler. actually, i heard him on Joe Rogan's podcast and decided that the stuff he was talking about writing sounded cool as hell so i gave it a shot. his writing is in a genre that i can only describe as tech-horror-thriller. it sort of reminds me of some dean kootz i've read, particularly Watchers, which was one of the first books i read in my post-college adult life and is still one of my all-time favorite books. i highly recommend it. anyway, back to Sigler.

on the podcast he was talking about his book Ancestor and since it was a stand-alone i figured i'd start there. in my experience there is nothing worse than reading the first in a series of books only to find out book one wasn't so great but you NEED to know what happened. thankfully i wasn't disappointed. in fact, the book was flat out crazy-awesome.

non-spoiler synopsis: company run by insane crazy people decides to try and corner the organ-replacement market by creating a critter that will have the closest common DNA structure that will be compatible with humans. think something along the lines of cattle that could be harvested. anyway, in true tech-horror-thriller fashion, things go horribly wrong and said critters don't turn out exactly as expected. fun ensures.

this really was a great book earning a near perfect rating in my system: 4.5 tasty crab flies.

after tearing though that and having a several hour plane ride to denver, i picked up the first of a trilogy that Sigler wrote called Infected. same genre as Ancestor with the tech-horror-thriller vibe, this one centers around a mysterious disease that is causing previously normal people to go completely insane and kill without any remorse...then kill themselves. at least most of the time. the origins of this disease are in serious question- is it alien? is it naturally occurring and evolving? is it crazy-tech terrorist bio-warefare? the truth turns out to be completely insane. this book is right on the edge of crazy-town and contains one of the most squeamish scenes (if not the most down-right horrifying) i have ever read in any book ever. the mental picture was just awful.

needless to say, if you like crazy-ass books in the King/Koontz categories, than these two are an absolute must. immediately upon finishing Infected yesterday i ordered the second book. apparently the third is due out this year which is awesome.

no sense in beating around the bush here: 4.5 tasty crab flies for this one as well.

do reading SONS!
 
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SpartaBard

Well-Known Member
Watchers - that along with Jurassic Park were the first novels that really got me into reading for fun, instead of reading for school.

I am trying to track down Ancestors.

In this day and age of iPads and digital books it is actually harder to discover new books. In the past I would pass along books that I have finished and enjoyed or received books from other people. That is so much harder to do with digital books. I need a good forum or something to help me discover new titles. I am more in the thriller/espionage genre.
 

ChrisG

Unapologetic Lifer for Rock and Roll
Hey, I read books! I've been meaning to throw some stuff on here, thanks to Mr. Bonefish for the reminder.

*Why Kerouac Matters by John Leland. I picked this up in Seattle last November, hadn't known about it until seeing it at a cool used book shop. The book is a fairly non-academic close read of On the Road, a book that literally changed my life at age 15. So it was interesting to read an assessment of it some 31 years later.

Leland is a solid writer whose Hip: The History is really a good read as well.

*Civilwarland in Bad Decline by George Saunders. I've been hearing about this guy since this book came out in 1997, but finally got around to reading it. Tremendously imaginative short story writer, coming from the angle of Vonnegut or a much less-wordy Pynchon. Amazing prose.

I'll be reading the rest of his stuff. Tenth of December is his latest.

*Dance of Days: Two Decades of Punk in the Nation's Capital by Mark Anderson & Mark Jenkins. Another book I've been aware of since it came out, I was finally spurred to pick this up when I went to D.C. to see an exhibit based on the late 70's-80's counter culture, particularly the hardcore scene of the city at that time. Given my devotion to Minor Threat, Fugazi, and a slew of other Dischord bands, this was incredible fun to read.
 

bonefishjake

Strong like bull, smart like tractor
Team MTBNJ Halter's
Watchers - that along with Jurassic Park were the first novels that really got me into reading for fun, instead of reading for school.

I am trying to track down Ancestors.

In this day and age of iPads and digital books it is actually harder to discover new books. In the past I would pass along books that I have finished and enjoyed or received books from other people. That is so much harder to do with digital books. I need a good forum or something to help me discover new titles. I am more in the thriller/espionage genre.

bard, if you want the old school dead-tree version you can grab mine.

Hey, I read books! I've been meaning to throw some stuff on here, thanks to Mr. Bonefish for the reminder.

*Why Kerouac Matters by John Leland. I picked this up in Seattle last November, hadn't known about it until seeing it at a cool used book shop. The book is a fairly non-academic close read of On the Road, a book that literally changed my life at age 15. So it was interesting to read an assessment of it some 31 years later.

Leland is a solid writer whose Hip: The History is really a good read as well.

*Civilwarland in Bad Decline by George Saunders. I've been hearing about this guy since this book came out in 1997, but finally got around to reading it. Tremendously imaginative short story writer, coming from the angle of Vonnegut or a much less-wordy Pynchon. Amazing prose.

I'll be reading the rest of his stuff. Tenth of December is his latest.

*Dance of Days: Two Decades of Punk in the Nation's Capital by Mark Anderson & Mark Jenkins. Another book I've been aware of since it came out, I was finally spurred to pick this up when I went to D.C. to see an exhibit based on the late 70's-80's counter culture, particularly the hardcore scene of the city at that time. Given my devotion to Minor Threat, Fugazi, and a slew of other Dischord bands, this was incredible fun to read.

of course you do. you're a teacher. duh. :D
 

bonefishjake

Strong like bull, smart like tractor
Team MTBNJ Halter's
I want it. F'real.

yours. bard didn't respond. and you can have that HORRIFIC yan martel book back too.

oh, and book two in the series Contagious arrived today. amazon rules. ordered it on the bus on the way home yesterday, in the mailbox today. insane.
 

Monkey Soup

Angry Wanker
Watchers - that along with Jurassic Park were the first novels that really got me into reading for fun, instead of reading for school.

I am trying to track down Ancestors.

In this day and age of iPads and digital books it is actually harder to discover new books. In the past I would pass along books that I have finished and enjoyed or received books from other people. That is so much harder to do with digital books. I need a good forum or something to help me discover new titles. I am more in the thriller/espionage genre.

Cryptonomicon by Neal Stephenson. Not new, but kicks ass. Techno/thriller/espionage all in one.
 

FFT

Gay & Stuffy
Ok, so Im sitting here next to cdrmtb and I was telling him about the time when I was banned from Barns and nobles for moving all the bibles to the fiction section. Im curious, whats everyones favorite story from that book?

I think I like the part where adams rib is removed in the middle of the night and women where made with it.
 

Jase

Active Member
I Just finished readying Shadow Divers by Robert Kurson. Really good read.

I've read the of Frankenstein series by Dean Koontz, pretty good. Read some of James Patterson, as well as Nelson DaMille.

Currently reading the Gone series by Micheal Grant. Real easy reading, but I'm intrigued.
 

SpartaBard

Well-Known Member
Ok, so Im sitting here next to cdrmtb and I was telling him about the time when I was banned from Barns and nobles for moving all the bibles to the fiction section. Im curious, whats everyones favorite story from that book?

I think I like the part where adams rib is removed in the middle of the night and women where made with it.

that is friggin hilarious!
 

rottin'

Well-Known Member
Staff member
Team MTBNJ Halter's
You guys are way to philosophical for me;) I am in book 4 of 9 of Taylor Anderson's Destroyerman series...an alternate history/sci-fi genre and it is a blast to read

Brian
 

Norm

Mayor McCheese
Team MTBNJ Halter's
I had nothing else to say but wanted to justify having clicked the thread.
 
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