Books: Any Thomas Pynchon fans out there?

[Taco John]

I'm about to take a plunge into the works of Thomas Pynchon, who is a noted author of our time, and wondered if there were any O-maners who might have read any of his stuff. The sense I get from the reviews I've read is that he's a difficult but brilliant read. Sounds like just what I'm looking for right now...

Anybody else reading anything worthwhile?

[GonzoLays]

I just finished reading a couple of Dr. Seuss books.

[Dagmar]

Working in Borders = the best perks. One of which is that I can check out any book in the store for 2 weeks...I read constantly. Pynchon sells a lot of books, never read any though.

Read recently>
http://www.publishersmarketplace.com/members/LaurieAbkemeier/main.jpg
(getting a dog soon...)

http://trashotron.com/agony/images/2005/05-reviews/palahniuk-haunted.jpg
http://www.kensingtonbooks.com/itm_img/0806527285.jpg
http://www.simonsays.com/assets/isbn/0743264452/C_0743264452.jpg

[halfcreek]

Read several early ones and then Gravity's Rainbow. Challenging but worth it.

[Mr Chatterboodamn]

dont start with Gravity's Rainbow... maybe V is a better start.

[watermock]

I'm polishing off the latest issue of the Weekly World News.

We should trade both our firsts on the Bat Boy...he's very elusive...

http://www.thefirsttwins.com/images/batboy.jpg

[bombquixote]

dont start with Gravity's Rainbow... maybe V is a better start.

agreed. 'vineland' is also pretty accessible, and fun.

[Victor]

I read the beginning of Gravity's Rainbow three time. I just couldn't break on through. I had the same problem with Infinite Jest.

Good luck.

[Dagmar]

Taco, change this to a general "book"/"what are you reading right now" thread... Surely the Mane isn't that illiterate...

[Taco John]

dont start with Gravity's Rainbow... maybe V is a better start.



I'm either going to start there or The Crying of Lot 49. I purchased both books.

[BroncoBuff]

I'm about to take a plunge into the works of Thomas Pynchon, who is a noted author of our time, and wondered if there were any O-maners who might have read any of his stuff. The sense I get from the reviews I've read is that he's a difficult but brilliant read. Sounds like just what I'm looking for right now...

Anybody else reading anything worthwhile?
TJ, did you know Thomas Pynchon was a guest-voice on The Simpsons once? In fact, maybe twice. Very funny, he parodied himself.

I just finished "Founding Brothers" by Joseph Ellis on the American Revolution. Interesting .... Jefferson is very overrated in history. He was a real France lover, and through his henchman James Madison, he did his level-best to undermine first Washington, and then John Adams ...

"The Forgotten Man" - Robert Crais. Excellent, much better than LA Requiem...

I read Shanny's book a month or two ago .... a real life-coach, cheerleader thing ...

I'm trying to get my hands on "Fast Food Nation," and Crichton's "State of Fear." Apparently Bush had Crichton to the White House to "consult" about environmental issues ... "State of Fear" is a environmentalist-bashing book. Hilarious that Bush is so interested in it .... it's a novel!

[Tredici]

TJ, did you know Thomas Pynchon was a guest-voice on The Simpsons once? In fact, maybe twice. Very funny, he parodied himself.

I just finished "Founding Brothers" by Joseph Ellis on the American Revolution. Interesting .... Jefferson is very overrated in history. He was a real France lover, and through his henchman James Madison, he did his level-best to undermine first Washington, and then John Adams ...

"The Forgotten Man" - Robert Crais. Excellent, much better than LA Requiem...

I read Shanny's book a month or two ago .... a real life-coach, cheerleader thing ...

I'm trying to get my hands on "Fast Food Nation," and Crichton's "State of Fear." Apparently Bush had Crichton to the White House to "consult" about environmental issues ... "State of Fear" is a environmentalist-bashing book. Hilarious that Bush is so interested in it .... it's a novel!

Robert Crais -- There can't ever be too many "The World's Greatest" escapades. Did you read Hostage?

Same way with Michael Connelly's Harry Bosch. His most recent adventure was The Closers with Harry back on the job after a brief retirement.

State of Fear is typical Creighton. All though he seems to be leaning more and more towards just writing the book as a Hollywood script to begin with.

A couple other recent reads:

Freedomland by Richard Price

The Kite Runner by Khaled Hosseini - described as "A moving portrait of modern Afghanistan." Always interesting to get a glimpse into another culture even if it's in novel format.

[BroncoBuff]

Robert Crais -- There can't ever be too many "The World's Greatest" escapades. Did you read Hostage?

Not yet ... I was put off by the name "Elvis" at first, but I guess I can hang now. LA Requiem was below average imo ... "latter day Raymond Chandler," my ass...

State of Fear is typical Creighton. All though he seems to be leaning more and more towards just writing the book as a Hollywood script to begin with.

Sphere and Jurassic are two of the very best novels I've ever read (you gotta blot out what you know of the movies, though....) BUt his recent stuff is really falling downhill .... "Prey" was a good idea, but the execution - whil good in places - lacked his earlier brilliance. I was shocked he's a Bush-guy ... Speaking of going downhill, Grisham has completely "jumped the shark" with "The Last Juror" .... tripe

A couple other recent reads:

Freedomland by Richard Price
Is that the guy who wrote "Clockers"? Speaking of New Jersey, I actually just started Harlan Coben's "The Innocent" .... a ripper so far (56 pp)
.

[Tredici]

Yeah, Price wrote Clockers.

Harlan Coben is on the top of my list. I've read everything he's done. I wish he wouldn't have shelved Myron Bolitar, though. I liked his "Sports Agent with some type of murky CIA connected past" schtick.

Pretty much agree with your assessment on the recent Creighton and Grisham.

Right now I'm in the 700+ page With No One As Witness by Elizabeth George. She's at the top of my will read anything this author writes list, too. If you haven't read her start with A Great Deliverance. Puts all the re-occurring characters in perspective from the beginning.

[BroncoBuff]

http://www.themodernword.com/pynchon/ketzan_simpsons.htm

[loborugger]

Working in Borders = the best perks. One of which is that I can check out any book in the store for 2 weeks...I read constantly. Pynchon sells a lot of books, never read any though.

Read recently>
http://www.publishersmarketplace.com/members/LaurieAbkemeier/main.jpg
(getting a dog soon...)

http://trashotron.com/agony/images/2005/05-reviews/palahniuk-haunted.jpg
http://www.kensingtonbooks.com/itm_img/0806527285.jpg
http://www.simonsays.com/assets/isbn/0743264452/C_0743264452.jpg

Tucker Max wrote a book? Isnt he the dude that who basically bragged about mistreating women? He is really capitalizing isnt he?

So, is it worth even cracking the cover - or is it like listening to a dude banter in the locker room. A while back someone on here posted a link to his webpage and I read some of his stuff. I figure some of that stuff is urban legend as I heard similar stories going on 15 years ago.

[BroncoInferno]

Taco, I haven't read much Pynchon (other than his short story, "Entropy", which I really enjoyed), but if you are interested in postmodernism, I just finished a really interesting book called If on a winter's night a traveler by the Italian writer Italo Calvino. Here is a description of the book from Amazon:


If on a Winter's Night a Traveler is a marvel of ingenuity, an experimental text that looks longingly back to the great age of narration--"when time no longer seemed stopped and did not yet seem to have exploded." Italo Calvino's novel is in one sense a comedy in which the two protagonists, the Reader and the Other Reader, ultimately end up married, having almost finished If on a Winter's Night a Traveler. In another, it is a tragedy, a reflection on the difficulties of writing and the solitary nature of reading. The Reader buys a fashionable new book, which opens with an exhortation: "Relax. Concentrate. Dispel every other thought. Let the world around you fade." Alas, after 30 or so pages, he discovers that his copy is corrupted, and consists of nothing but the first section, over and over. Returning to the bookshop, he discovers the volume, which he thought was by Calvino, is actually by the Polish writer Bazakbal. Given the choice between the two, he goes for the Pole, as does the Other Reader, Ludmilla. But this copy turns out to be by yet another writer, as does the next, and the next.
The real Calvino intersperses 10 different pastiches--stories of menace, spies, mystery, premonition--with explorations of how and why we read, make meanings, and get our bearings or fail to. Meanwhile the Reader and Ludmilla try to reach, and read, each other. If on a Winter's Night is dazzling, vertiginous, and deeply romantic. "What makes lovemaking and reading resemble each other most is that within both of them times and spaces open, different from measurable time and space."

http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/0156439611/qid=1143394876/sr=2-1/ref=pd_bbs_b_2_1/104-0945018-7511905?s=books&v=glance&n=283155

I was concerned the gimick would get old, but it was a very entertaining read. I liked the idea of myself, as the reader, being a character in the book. It really explores the act of reading as an art form in and of itself, and the reader as an equal participant in determining the ultimate meaning of a work of fiction. Also, each of the ten 'novels' worked really well as short stories within the framework of the novel itself. If you like metafiction (i.e. Jorge Luis Borges), I think you will will really get a kick out of this book.

[Malcontent]

Dean Koontz!

[Lidderer]

Definitely go with Crying of Lot 49 as in introduction to Pynchon.

Although David Foster Wallace's 'Infinite Jest' is better in maybe every possible way.

[Den Smith 49]

Dean Koontz!

Used to read Dean Koontz. Read about 10 or 12 before I decided I'd had enough. That guy is twisted.

I like that guy that writes about medical disasters and such, James something. Haven't read one in a while. Reading Rain Dogs right now, can't remember the author. About a guy who inherits his grandpas campground/river adventure business, meth lab blows up next door. Thats as far as i've gotten so far, books at work.

[BroncoBuff]

I'm about to take a plunge into the works of Thomas Pynchon, who is a noted author of our time, and wondered if there were any O-maners who might have read any of his stuff. The sense I get from the reviews I've read is that he's a difficult but brilliant read. Sounds like just what I'm looking for right now...

Anybody else reading anything worthwhile?
Pynchon was on The Simpsons again last night .... the one where Marge competes in the "Bake-Off" (and Bart and Milhouse live the "Playboy Lifestyle") .... I checked him out on Amazon and ordered a used copy of "Gravity's Rainbow." I'll keep ya posted ...