I might as well be illiterate...
 

...because I know nothing about books. Every now and then I get lucky and find something good, but usually any book I find is so boring that I can't even finish it. I have good taste, I just don't know where to look. It's like going to Chicago and ordering Papa John's cause you don't know the numbers for any good pizza place. But I tried a little harder than usual this time and I picked these up at the library:

The Unbinding - Walter Kirn
Tough Luck - Jason Starr
Tropic of Cancer - Henry Miller
Post Office - Charles Bukowski

Good choices? I don't know; the last two I picked because I've heard good things about the authors, the first one because it was written by the same author as thumbsucker, and Touch Luck? Just picked it up, I have no clue about it. I hope though that if I just keep following the trail of good books (assuming I am close) I'll get more and more refined in my reading choices.

I don't recommend reading at all. Ruins your eyesite, and stupid boys are far sexier.

I see your point, but I already wear contacts, and it would take a lot more than going stupid to make me sexy :)

You're right. Add some highlights.

I guess since I wear contacts, I might as well get some blue eyes along with them...

On another note, you'll get a million responses, but it all depends on your personal taste. What kind of plotlines get you wet? Are you sci-fi, romance, 'post-modern' (I hate that term, for the record), fantasy, horror, biography, etc.?

Not that I can recommend anything. I maintain my vacuity and illiteracy. They are my only attractive features.

That's how you learned those fancy words.

Read the bible.

honestly though i do find it hard to read novels, but i am still trying

I don't know. I know I don't like sci-fi. Well, I don't like the typical sci-fi with tons of ships and aliens and stuff, but if it were closer to E.T. than Star Trek I could be more interested I guess. I just like a good novel, Catcher-In-The-Rye style. Coming of age stories? Maybe; I'm bad with labeling things. I do like non-fiction too. Especially stuff on psychology and stuff. I remember reading "Awakenings" a while back (only because I remember the movie from when I was little) and loved that. Also read a book about the history of the number zero, which was actually very interesting.

What a long winded way to say "I don't know."

I still don't feel like answering/recommending at length - mostly because I'm lazy - but you have inspired a thread.

Are you trying to force yourself to read classics? Picking up a different book by an author you've liked in the past is generally a good idea. Then look into who that author's contemporaries were, influences etc. and work your way back to classics at your own pace.

Just stick with the classics.
60's-70's, is my favorite era for literature.

I suggest checking out Anthony Burgess everything other than A Clockwork orange of his is under-rated. Fantastic writer.

Hey, nobody is here to make you do anything you don't want to do.

I don't know about FORCE myself, but I just want to find good stuff, and if that is where it is, by god I shall try.


I'll check that out fo' sho'.

Have you read Salinger's other stuff?

No, I thought about it, but I was going to try widening my range of authors first. But maybe I should stick with a few things I know first, couldn't hurt.

^ His short stories are underappreciated.

Not Kloriel, I mean, Salinger's. I have no idea if Kloriel can write well. Kloriel, do you write well?

Who are all these people? Where have I been?

Thanks for getting in the way of my arrow, assbag.

I also agree with Salinger's short stories.

I thought you were just pointing at the cops.

Sorry, I don't share your penchant for communicating with pitchers.

It's my only vice, EXCUSE ME.

I rarely dole out pardons.

Unless you get the highlights.

i highly suggest doing that... get in the habit of reading with stuff you really enjoy, then start to check out some stuff you're not sure about... i personally think catcher in the rye is the worst thing salinger ever wrote... and it's a damn fine book. it's just i think his writing style works better with short stories...

I tried highlights when I was 16. My mom did it, and I looked like a calico cat.

I started on that book "The Unbinding" and it is actually really good.

Not to stray from the topic of this thread, but I'm about to stray from the topic of this thread. For the record, I believe that highlights are very very difficult to accomplish without losing ones sense of dignity. Basically, highlights are not working most times I see them. Not that I care and not that I am a specialist ont he topic, its just an observation.

That's ok, it's a sub-topic of the thread anyways, so you didn't stray much. And I agree, highlights are hard to pull off.

grab CAT'S CRADLE or GALAPAGOS by Kurt Vonnegut

or

HAM ON RYE by Charles Bukowski

I actually saw Ham On Rye last night, but I grabbed Tropic of Cancer instead. Bad move?

I find henry Miller a tedious bore. but that's me. ham on rye os about charles bukowski's growing up, like you said, kind of coming of age story, although a hundred times harsher than anything in bullshit catcher on the rye.

Ham on Rye is a fantastic book.

That's cool, cause while I liked Catcher on the Rye, it was a little slow.

tropic f cancer is one of my favorite books.
good choice.
if you like coming of age kind of things
maybe check out
f scott fitzgerald-this sid of paradise (guys in his early 20s)
not coming of age but still a damn fine boook is
john fante-ask the dust

Tropics of Cancer, is that the one that features the word Cunt a bunch of times?

yup

I don't think you should run for classics without treating them the way you'd treat an anonymous writer.

I have no idea who Kirn and Starr are, but you mentioned Bukowski and Miller. I can only guess for Bukowski, but I've read some Miller stuff and what you seem to look for is personal voices, variety in rhythm and flow.

The test would be to read books out loud. When sentences are side by side and don't connect at all, when you can't grasp the writer's rhythm, or bump every here and there, it's over. Among other reasons.

The thing would be to whisper for yourself a whole page of a novel in a noisy bookstore to make your mind up. Had I done that that I wouldn't have bought that horror...

If you're sick of trying and finding nothing, I'd recommend Leonid Andreiev's short stories (if luck has it that they've been translated and made available) - Miller thought he was good (and it was hard for him to pay another writer a compliment).
His stories are dark, short, sharp. The Lie, The Silence, The Red Laugh are the ones I enjoyed the most.

After that, mister fact, it's up to you; I dig Joyce but he's said to be hard to read, with never ending sentences, Woolf, same and she's for sissies, Malcolm Lowry but noone ever finished the book I gave them, Louis-Ferdinand Céline but most people drop the book as it's exhausting (even when you read it out loud, it's extremely challenging and breath taking - it's a beauty), and Toby Litt's Deadkidsongs but the ones I lent it to thought it was too frightening to finish it...

Thanks, that should help too. I've never even touched Joyce, cause I always thought that would be very cliche, but that's probably stupid and I should just read it already.

post office is GREAT! it is the first novel bukowski wrote after leaving work at the post office. it is the best american novel bout the humiliation and degradation of working a 9-5. I love it.