I love that book. Have you seen Capote? If not, you should. It chronicles Truman Capote's life while he was writing the book. It's a pretty fascinating movie and both Philip Seymour Hoffman and Catherine Keener are amazing.


I just finished reading 1984. It was really creepy, especially the end of chapter (section?) 2. It got a little dense during the part devoted to the book, but even that wasn't too bad. 1984 actually explores one of my favorite things to ponder, which is the way that lanuage shapes the way that we see things (or determines whether we even notice things at all) and also the way that it is used to manipulate.

I haven't seen Capote, I really want to though. My family and friends say it's great, plus, it was filmed in my province, Manitoba.

I did see Infamous though, it was very good itself, I was expecting it to be garbage when it was just seen as "the other capote movie" but it was excellent, you should see it if you haven't yet.

I've been meaning to see Infamous, but I haven't gotten around to it yet. It got good reviews though, so I'll see it eventually.

i've seen capote and infamous. there's hardly any difference, except for the disgusting kiss in infamous. why does daniel craig have to kiss the midget? why the midget? kiss someone else..


finished listening to the belljar. i am hounded by the sadness.

I took Cat's Cradle to read while my mom was in the hospital. I didn't get much sleep Monday night so my mind was mush on Tuesday.

In many ways, Cat's Cradle is better than Slaughterhouse Five, but they tend to cover different material. Cat's Cradle tends to be more depressing (how else would you describe a book about the end of the world?). I'll try to plow through it later on this week.

listening to stephen fry's reading of harry potter and the half blood prince. it's okay so far. he has a smooth delivery and he makes ridiculous voices.
but i've realized something. i cannot listen to something and understand it while doing something else, like typing this or reading something. i read of a study that says some men can't do that and a lot of women can. i believe it now. i kind of have to because if it's not the case, then i have ADD or something.

Stop humping my leg, you.

it's so soft. doesn't have muscles at all.

Your rampant humping eroded them away.

So I started reading the new Harry Potter earlier after my mum bought it this morning.

I'm about 300 pages in, hope to finish it before I go to bed. I can read the first 4 books in a day each. Kind of determined to do the same with this one. It's pretty good, I like it a lot.

you're such a (cock)book worm

uh.... thanks.

Finished Harry Potter, took about 9 hours in all. It was pretty good, I liked it a lot. The ending was kind of cheesy but cute.

The Ruins - It wasn't scary in the way that I expected it to be, but that's not really a bad thing. Instead of having jarring scenes of intense horror, the author lets the horror slowly unravel before extinguishing all hope on the final page. I can't decide if I liked the ending. On the one hand, I like the hopelessness of the ending and the fact that it wasn't "tidy." On the other hand, I wish that at least one of them had survived.

The Wasp Factory - Iain Banks

Hard to read because it's so grim and violent. Harder to put down because it's so incredibly well written. This is the first book in a long time where I eagerly anticipated the ending. I won't bother to relate the plot. Let me simply say that The Wasp Factory is a complete and utter negation of childhood (and children for that matter). It's uglier than American Psycho (wink wink, Coolchick), and more eloquent than Lolita. Well, maybe it's not more beautifully written than Lolita, but the 1st person telling is top notch. There are several scenes you won't easily forget. Highest possible rating.

Kiddo (old forum member here) recommended that book to me once because he thought it'd really be my sort of thing and I think I have actually bought it but I've never actually got around to reading it.

Hmm...I might have to read this book

I love Lolita, I shall add this to my list.

harry potter and the half-blood prince

I need to finish that Dune book that I started awhile back. They finally released Sandworms of Dune, which is the conclusion of the series.

Hard stuff to read. I just read for awhile and then stop and let it settle and digest.

downloaded the audiobook for harry potter and the deathly hallows. heh!
only the rar file won't open properly. shit!

You deserve that fate.

meh. i'll just open them from the RAR file. tee hee

I've just discovered Margaret Atwood... wow.

So far I've read "The Robber Bride" which I read because I saw the TV movie. Both book and movie are excellent, the people who made the movie were really smart to change the story the way they did.

And recently I finished "The Handmaid's Tale" What a thrilling novel, while you read it, it doesn't seem like much is ever happening, but it's always so tense nonetheless, impossible to put down, but you don't realize it unlike most books you can't put down.

I'm going to start "Oryx & Crake" next.

The Edible Woman is really funny.

We have that, I'll make sure to read it some day.

I desperately want to the movie version of Robber Bride. The novel is such a fabulous headfuck. And The Handmaid's Tale is utterly devastating.

You need to read Cat's Eye, Cherub.

I finished reading Tennessee William's Sweet Bird of Youth. Completely underwhelming in comparison to A Streetcar Named Desire and The Glass Menagerie (the two other plays included in the book I bought of 3 of his plays). It'll take me a while to have everything that's published - it's 10 pounds per book.

cat's eye, my fave book evaaaaaar.
it's that time of the year again. i need to read it again. sad, beautiful book

agreed. i first read it last october and ive read it 4 times since then. its just refreshing to see the issue of bullying and social identity handled in such a frank, sinister way.

yes. i also love the parts when she's in college. dicier issues.

Just finished "ORYX AND CRAKE". Like Handmaid's tale, about the future. Otherwise pretty different.

Oryx and Crake was just amazing, I love Handmaid's but I feel this one was superior. I recommend it.

While reading The Wasp Factory, I got the uncanny sense that the vile tome was written in response to The Catcher in the Rye. So I've reread the latter and must conclude that the books are indeed connected. First, there's the obvious similarity of names:

Caulfield
Cauldhame

Holden's name conjures the central image of his story: The Catcher (in the field) of Rye. Caul-field. Frank's name is more ambiguous, but also echoes an image central to his story: The dam that he builds every day. Caul-dam. There is also Caul-dame, for a feminine reflection of Caulfield. Boy, that would be a stretch, though. Very big.

So what do these two characters share? Well, they're both interested in childhood, albeit in opposite ways. Holden would like to prowl the fields of childhood, and catch those kids who might accidentally go running off the cliff, and become adults. Frank prefers to build dams by the seaside, bottling up the natural egress of fresh water to the ocean, complete with mock villages that stand in the path. He then bursts the dams and turns a normal flow into a killer torrent. He's also keenly interested in childhood, of course, and is Holden's opposite in this regard. Whereas Holden doesn't want to grow up, Frank cannot. He can never be an adult. And whereas Holden dreads the onset of adulthood, and fights a losing battle in the fields, Frank kills children -- effectively rendering eternal their childhood.

Both books hinge on hormones. Holden reads a magazine article about how bad hormones can ruin your life. Frank experiences that ruin first hand.

Oh, and both characters are insane. Holden is less crazy than Frank, for certain, but he clearly slips over the edge near the end, and finds himself consigned to a psych ward. Frank shares a sunrise with his insane brother, who's not so crazy after all, comparatively speaking. Both books handle the telling of insanity quite well, benefitting from strong 1st person POVs -- ones riddled with humor (and twisted truth) to make sense of senselessness.

I dislike Elaine intensely as an adult. But that's the point, of course.

That's so funny-I was at a bookstore the other day & I almost picked up a new copy of "The Handmaild's Tale"-I actually remember reading that book in hardback when it first came out (Yes, I'm old! LOL!) & just being so affected by it. I also saw the movie my freshman year of high school-I don't remember the movie version being very good.
I studied Attwood some in college & remember really liking :The Edible Woman" & "Bluebeard's Egg."

You should definitely read Oryx and Crake, it's my favorite so far.

Thank U-I will check it out.
I need to read more fiction again, lately I just seem to read true crime stories.

i wish i can find all of atwood's books in the store. i cannot. i tried.
have not read a lot of her work.
oh, reddie, you should get her short stories collection called wilderness tips. gloriously melancholic stuff.

im sure ive read a story from it actually. the story was about this summer camp place where these girls worked as waitresses, and one of them got pregnant... im probably being inaccurate.

i still have atwood books on my shelf i havent read. blind assassin, surfacing, oryx and crake... probably would have if i wasnt still stuck on cats eye.

Go for Oryx & Crake. Then again they're probably all pretty good.

i've only read from her. bodily harm, cat's eye, wilderness tips, handmaid's tale
but those are the only things i can find...
send me books, CA. lol

Lol Okay, I'll just be off to scan 500 pages, one at a time...

You know, if you ripped all the pages out, the scanning would go much faster (that is, if you're not too attached ).

I'm in a very book place at the moment... i've read Stephen King's Misery and two crime fiction novels by Sophie Hannah recently. Any really good books I can get lost in???

^CAT'S EYE BY MARGARET ATWOOD

Brothel: Mustang Ranch and Its Women and Rent Boys: The World of Male Sex Workers, both for my soc of women class. Brothel was actually pretty interesting. Rent Boys was kinda dry, but it was only 100 pages, so it wasn't that bad.

neil gaimen - starbucks.............haha kidding

it should be stardust, probably talk of the town lately because the movie http://www.stardustmovie.com/ but it's a great book to read, funny though.............beautifully!

shit! I am totally fogot return this book to the library

I finally finished Cat's Cradle by Kurt Vonnegut, Jr. I finished it back on the plane returning to the Austin area on Sunday.

It's probably better than I remember it, but I have a better appreciation for black humor than I did while I was in college, back while dinosaurs roamed the earth (the 1970s).

Hey, I love the 70's-remember I was a young child of them...
My partner loves Vonnegut-I have to confess I never got into him much past Slaughterhous 5.

The Good Earth. Ugh.

I actually remember loving that book. Pearl Buck seemed like a cool lady.

Haruki Murakami - Kafka on the shore

I have no idea or I can't find any reasons to read this book, haruki murakami he's most enormously mainstream aurthor in japan, or around the world, there's so many japanese to english version were born, once upon a time my dreamlover brought me this book from the airpoint, (actually it just a couple of months ago ) but it seems like a couple of lightyears ago, maybe I read this book to memorise my jimlover but I don't think I should keep going, it's all been lost...................should I throw away this book to the ocean? maybe