I recently finished Johnny Cash's autobiography, and "The Final Days" about Richard Nixon's last months as president. I was disgusted with Nixon after reading the book.

I'm about halfway through Pynchon's newest Against the Day. It's typical Pynchon, but I've been entertained for the most part. It's taken me quite a while to get this far into it, as the book really bogs down from time to time (also typical Pynchon), but other parts have me staying up late and turning pages like mad. Anyway, if you like Pynchon but were disillusioned with Mason & Dixon, give this one a try.

A Hole in the Mattress-
By Mr. Completely

A Tomcat's Revenge-
By Claude Balls

Just got finished reading History Wars: The Enola Gay and Other Battles for the American Past. Great book, although a bit repetitive due to the fact it's eight separate account of the same event; the Enola Gay show controversy in 1995 at the National Air and Space Museum.

Before that I finished Bait and Switch: The (Futile) Pursuit of the American Dream. Quick read, showing an interesting side of the business "transitional" phase. The best chapter is by far "Networking with the Lord" which deals with how some churches have catered to the business lifestyle. Can drag a bit in terms of writing style and many of my fellow students found it a horrible waste of time. I did not.

Now I'm reading Black Hawk: an autobiography and John Stoessinger's Why Nations Go To War.

A new Latro novel? :clap: I missed this one coming out. Thanks for the tip. Wolfe is one of my favorite authors. I've re-read "Short Sun" three times, and am still trying to figure out exactly what happened.

Finished one about a week ago called: On Killing - The Psychological Cost of Learning to Kill in War and Society by Lt. Col. Dave Grossman

3 weeks ago, Total Survival, a compilation of techniques & strategies for surviving dangerous situations. Made by & for law enforcement types.

In 1 sitting at Barnes & Noble a few days ago, Hunt for the Skinwalker by Colm Kelleher Phd & George Knapp. It chronicles a scientific institutes study of paranormal phenomena at a Utah ranch. SCARY.

Here are quotes from the book i just read. See if any of you can guess the name of the book.

"There is only one thing that makes a dream impossible to achieve: the fear of failure."

and

"when you really want something to happen, the whole universe conspires so that your wish comes true".


No googleing please.

I recently read the Knight and the Wizard by Gene Wolfe. Good off-kilter fantasy.

On a lighter note, I've been reading the Dresden Files books by Jim Butcher. Pretty fun stuff.

just finishing the Kildar series by John Ringo, and reading the March Upcountry series by John Ringo and David Weber for the umpteenth time... that really is a great series

kcmax

If you liked The Wizard Knight, try Wolfe's Opus... Book of the New Sun. The two sequel-series are also incredible.

Haven't read those, but I did enjoy the Posleen War books (Hymm before Battle-Hells Faire). Extreme "carnography" that they are... :)

I'm in the identical situation....about 400 pages in...I like it becuase it is like Gravitys Rainbow, but it doesn't have quite the same mad/dark/paranoid force...this book has more cause and effect than I ever remember from Pynchon, the character's motivations were much more opaque in GR, and there isn't a character that moves/interests me like Slothrop did...and so far Vibe doesn't interest me the way Capt. Blicero did...Vibe seems two-dimensional compared to Blicero, but then, most any character would...

but the sense of confrontation....the anarchists, the class war, the cops...this book has an apocalyptic feel that GR didn't, which I think is a result of his age, and which has me very curious and excited about how this book will resolve...

bittersweet to think that this is probably his last book...you can sense the power fading and surging....still no experience like reading him though...the way he juggles 100 characters across the globe, and shoots it all through with intelligence and melancholy, and corny broadway songs lol...

The New Field and Stream arrived yesterday.

Its fishing lure evaluation month.

Your post sums up exactly what I posted on my teaching blog about the book but you had quite a bit more specificity.


I found this last part of your post to be pretty indicative of a realization I had while reading. My head was absolutely swimming with characters, plots, and events. The book had moved from the world's fair to the West to the East to the polar caps introducing a dizzying array of characters, each absolutely quirky and unique. I felt like I'd been with this book forever, and I looked down to realize I was on page 100 with about 1000 pages to go. The guy is unreal in his ability to generate encyclopedic content.

bingo....sometimes it makes me feel good, sometimes it makes me want to cry....I can not fathom how a human mind can construct such a thing...but it gives me faith in humans, if imagination on that scale is possible it can only be a good thing, and it goes without saying that it is a beautiful thing...

I already know I'm going to read GR again (my 3rd read) after I finish this...lots of parallels and questions...for instance, the fact that pre-WWI has Pynchon actually dealing with the possibility of revolution on an individual scale - man lights dynamite, building explodes - and science is yet to reach a level of complexity beyond the grasping of individuals (working class individuals..again, dynamite)...the corporate systems are only just being put into place....but by GR - WWII - there is no pretense of an individual revolution, no stick of dynamite (literally or metaphorically)...Rockets, aeronautics, plastics,...corporations and governments in full collusion...his infamous full-scale paranoia...Slothrop wandering, no revolution, no NEO, no Jesus (well, I still can't parse the symbolism of Blicero rocketing his gimp/gay/pure/???/lover into space)...

Against The Day (AGTD) is really making me look at GR in a new light. I mean, what I loved about GR - the wandering, the paranoia, the Science as New Religion (and same old fascism) - may be a grand, aesthetic cop-out, a way of not taking responsibility for the world...I guess I wonder if one could read into AGTD and find Pynchon critiquing GR..or if that is stretching it....of course, I don't even know how AGTD ends yet! I could really be full of it.

ok, enough...Pynchon "lights my fire" though...for sure