Last CD you bought/ Book you read

[number6horse]

A novel about werewolves in Los Angeles written in free-verse ? I'm in.

http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=87892707

 

[zoom man]

Yeah, this book is absolutely fantastic,
right up Buk's alley->
all the extra words really are stripped away.
Get a load of this->

"There on the sandy beaches and
the lush green sod of the quad she had only three loves:
Chad, so kind, a surfer, easy smile and a pirate's tooth
his hands roamed her body, then his body up and roamed.
Easy heartbreak, must not have been so deep.
Enter Mike, sweet Mike, his body arched
over volleyballs nets, he was tall, tall, tall,
but when he stopped coming by,
and she felt that heartache
cut deeper into her ribs,
she could still walk it off,
she knew something better was coming.
Then Pete. Oh, Pete,
basketball, lacrosse, blue eyes that seemed swimmable.
She smiled so brightly at him, her teeth practically chimed.
He could kiss her anywhere, touch her anywhere,
anything for Pete, everything arched and opened for him.
When he touched her thigh,
she was anchored to the world.
She drew pictures of him while he slept,
she hummed along when he sang.
Nice.
But then something
was sprung, she doesn't remember
how the dark sparked but
one idle daiquiri day
she slipped out some small thoughtless words,
stupid jealousy, nothing really, but
the day paused and
everything vibrated wron.
And then Pete answered back
with something much worse."

Yeah, 308 pages of this lyrical style
and I'm loving it and taking it slow...
Reading it aloud to people, passing it around,
other people reading new aloud.
Just great,
Ok
(btw-> Pete beat her, and since then, shes become a werewolf and her and her pack are bearing down on him)

 

[hoochmonkey9]

In that case maybe you want to go back to the very beginning. Try; Big Youth - Screaming Targets.

It won't sound like the hip hop you're used to hearing, but it's where that all began. Duke Reid, Sir Coxsone Dodd, Lee "Scratch" Perry, Big Youth, I-Roy, U-Roy, Prince Far-I...

These guys invented improvising lyrics (they called it "toasting") over musical tracks (the dub - instrumental - B sides of Jamaican 45's). All modern hip hop can be traced back to these Jamaican pioneers. They started in the 60's, but the guys who did it in the very early 70's and released "toasting" singles and albums (it was all done live before that, never pressed on records for release - just like early hip hop) were the seeds of the New York hip hop movement of the late 70's.

in the studio for the new lee "scratch" perry cd.

 

[mjp]

Ah, nice. To be honest, it pains me to hear the organic madness of Scratch ("Santa Claus will be here/with the rainbow in his hair") on top of that cold, lifeless computer music, but what can you do.

 

[Purple Stickpin]

Last CD was Dylan's Oh Mercy, and last book was Michener's Kent State.

Of course, I've owned the album and book for years, but have had to upgrade.

 

[justine]

just finished carson mccullers' 'the heart is a lonely hunter' last night. i read her other three books last year but only just got round to this one recently. so, so sad; so beautifully written; such amazing characters.

 

[Digney in Burnaby]

Still working on James Ellroy's Destination: Morgue and Dangling in the Tournefortia. My drag around at work book is still Carl Hiassen's Skinny Dip.

Finally bought The Pleasures of the Damned and This is your Brain on Music, new. Second hand: Vonnegut's Timequake and Ellroy's The Cold Six Thousand.

Two new reissued Replacement cds: Hootenany and Let it Be. From the Sally Ann: Veda Hille's Here's a picture, Lyle Lovett's first, and Dr. Feelgood's On The Job.

I've been a industrious little consumer. No room for all this shit but I do buy, buy, buy.

 

[Benwa]

cd: the essential Leonard Cohen

reading: April issue of Scientific American (I have May, just haven't started). I like science, there I said it, I'm a geek. I man cannot subsist on fiction alone.

 

[LickTheStar]

Haven't been buying music lately. I just don't feel like there's a lot out I want. Especially with books.

I just bought No One Belongs Here More Than You by Miranda July. There's some good stories in that collection.

 

[hoochmonkey9]

cd: the essential Leonard Cohen

reading: April issue of Scientific American (I have May, just haven't started). I like science, there I said it, I'm a geek. I man cannot subsist on fiction alone.

good choices, both.

I have a laymans passion for physics. Richard Feynman, Einstein, etc,
I stress layman.

 

[Purple Stickpin]

Rock on, guys. I'm a full-time scientist (human health risk assessment from environmental contaminants; chemical fate & transport in the environment, etc.). I ain't no M-F-in' geek anymore than you guys are. Science is a valuable topic, even if Buk never had too much to say about it. We needn't be shy about liking what we like; I'm glad to know of a few science types here!

Cheers

 

[bospress.net]

just finished carson mccullers' 'the heart is a lonely hunter' last night. i read her other three books last year but only just got round to this one recently. so, so sad; so beautifully written; such amazing characters.

I would read this if not for it being forever stained in my eyes by the dreaded OPRAH.....

It pretty much is the kiss of death for me whenever I see her seal on a book.

I know that it is petty, but I feel that it is a sad state that people need Oprah to tell them what to read, what to wear, what to eat...

Plus, I really would love to read it, but I have to hold my ground. The same with Frank McCourt. Let's just hope that she never recommends Buk or I'll ave a real quandary.

Bill

 

[strangegirl]

I hear ya Bill, I see Oprah and it's like a giant Bug Zapper, I head the other way. But Carson McCullers was around LONG before the Oprah book seal...
hold on I've something stuck in my throat ...hack hack..... cough... cough...
ahem....
Ok what was i saying .. oh yeah long before that book club had any relevance what so ever.
Here check the dates:
* The Heart Is a Lonely Hunter (1940)
* Reflections in a Golden Eye (1941)
* The Member of the Wedding (1946)
* Clock Without Hands (1961)
So I remember reading the play "The Member of the Wedding" in High School. I could totally relate to Frankie, I was that tomboy. You know I think I will read the novel version of this next.

okay back to the thread at hand.
Oh what did I just finish, Factotum, and I am currently reading Women.

:)

 

[bospress.net]

Yeah, I know CM predated Oprah , but still. Something about it. Kinda like "If SHE likes it, then there must be a reason why I'll hate it." Plus, I always like being in the know when others are not. If they ever get too famous, then I feel like I have lost something in being one of the few. That seal of approval from her is the sign that her legions can now read the book with assurances that they will love it because she loves it.

Does anyone know if she gets a kickback for making a book like this her selection? Looking at something like the McCullers book, it had to bring in millions of extra dollars because of the mark of the beast that they put on it....

Bill

 

[justine]

people don't cut her much slack, but at least she gets people reading. and honestly, in my humble opinion, she has picked a lot of great books - from comtemporary works to some of the classics (both famous and lesser known). the heart is a lonely hunter is an amazing, beautifully rendered piece of writing and should be read by as many people as possible. it's a sad state of affairs when we don't want to read something, no matter how great it is, just because the masses have read it. i read for myself, and only for myself.

 

[1fsh2fsh]

I would read this if not for it being forever stained in my eyes by the dreaded OPRAH.....

It pretty much is the kiss of death for me whenever I see her seal on a book.

I feel the same about oprah, matter of fact I think that she just may be the anti-christ. and like you Bill I always feel that if a book or movie or music or whatever has good reviews or ratings or even if a lot of people recomend it to me then chnces are I will probably be disapointed. Thank God that I read most of Carson Mc Cullers work before Oprahs recomendations, other wise I would have missed out on some great stuff. actually I was totally shocked (and disapointed) when I found out that she even knew who McCullers was. but do your self a favor and pick up something by C.M. that Oprah (shudder) hasn't tainted yet. Before she does.... I think that you will be glad that you did. She really is a "must read" in my humble opinion anyway..

 

[Father Luke]

Really. I return to this about once a year.
It is among my favorite books.

 

[mjp]

I don't understand hating Oprah, but maybe that's just because I've never seen her show. But I do understand taking selfish ownership of, and pride in, the obscure, as Bill mentioned. This was at it worst when I was in my early 20's, and if too many people bought a band's record, that was it. I was finished with them.

I was a bout to say that I've since seen the error of my ways, but I realize that's not completely true. I've never read a Stephen King book, A) because that's not my thing, but more tellingly, B) because he's just too god damn popular and prolific (what was his last book called again? I'm Typing As Fast As I Can! - something like that? ;)). And I assume nothing that popular could hold any interest for me.

I know, rationally, that's not true. It turns out that I enjoy plenty of popular things, but I don't know - there are some things I have to pass on, and authors who sell a million books a year are one of those things. And the Star Wars movies, and Disneyland and...

 

[hank solo]

there are some things I have to pass on... the Star Wars movies...

Get out of here!
:p

 

[mjp]

Ha ha - sorry, man!

 

[mjp]

I listened to PJ Harvey's White Chalk for the first time yesterday.

It sounds like the soundtrack to a black and white movie where a weird adolescent girl befriends homeless men and brings them home for a meal only to murder them with vacuum cleaner hose and bury them in her family's basement all while carrying on gossipy conversations with hundreds of dolls and stuffed animals.

Or something.

The song Grow has a great lyric:

I sowed a seed
underneath the oak tree
I trod it in with my boots
I trampled it down
Grow! Grow! Grow!

Ha - grow, damn you! That one gets me.

Of course this is the woman who also wrote the greatest rawk'n'rowl album ever made, Dry. So whenever she gets weird like this I just keep listening and waiting to see what comes next.

 

[CarversDog]

Some days I wish I had never returned to book reviewing, as it severely cuts into my lesire reading time; with that much said, I just finished the remarkable new novel by Willy Vlautin, Northline. and Cynthia Ozick's Dictation: A Quartet. Next I have to read If You Die, I'll Kill You: The Films of Sam Fuller.

Books in my personal queue that are in various stages of being read:

(1) "Ham on Rye"
(2) "Rabbit is Rich", John Updike
(3) "Snitch-Jacket", Christopher Goffard (very Bukowski inspired novel)
(4) "Gun, With Occasional Music", Jonathan Lethem

 

[hoochmonkey9]

I listened to PJ Harvey's White Chalk for the first time yesterday.

It sounds like the soundtrack to a black and white movie where a weird adolescent girl befriends homeless men and brings them home for a meal only to murder them with vacuum cleaner hose and bury them in her family's basement all while carrying on gossipy conversations with hundreds of dolls and stuffed animals.

Or something.

this one was on my top 5 list last year.

and I think mjp's was my favourite review of it.

 

[jmoshea]

This was one of the most disturbingly excellent novels I have ever read. Ralph Ellison called McCarthy a writer "to be envied." I am currently working my way through all of his books. Pretty astounding that I had never heard of him until "No Country for Old Men" came out in theaters. Could be the greatest American writer alive today.

Can't say I hold out much hope for the movie to match the book...but hey, you never know:

http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0983189/

 

[Gerard K H Love]

Ridley Scott means there is hope for the movie!

 

[CarversDog]

"Blood Meridian" is simply brilliant; in fact, much of McCarthy's early writing is astounding, especially "The Orchard Keeper."

Avoid at all costs the so-called Border Trilogy: those three novels mark McCarthy's attempt to grab a wider, more commericial audience and they pander, in my opinion, to a crowd less apt to grasp the subtle symbolism in his earlier works (in other words, they're not so subtle works).

I was so disappointed by "No Country For Old Men" that it took a full year of pleading by friends to get me to the trough to read "The Road" --- and I fuckin' loved every word of it, a perfect penance for the Elmore Leonard stylings of "No Country".

 

[hoochmonkey9]

mccarthy is a master.
his first 5 novels are masterpieces.
agree w/ CarversDog about the border trilogy. it soured me a little on mccarthy, but will give the road a shot.

 

[CarversDog]

Give The Road a try, Hooch. I don't think you will be disappointed. The post-apocalyptic novel may be a done-to-death genre but McCarthy's masterful use of language (absent without an excuse in No Country For Old Men) breathes new life into it.

 

[chicagoburgers]

maybe all you california people out there can appreciate the Descendents.

i've rebought all their material.

Hell yeah,
Descendents are killer!
They never get their due respect.

Last bought:

Books: Confederacy of Dunces (John Kennedy Toole), A Spaniard in the Works (John Lennon)

Music: Rubber Factory (Black Keys), The Rolling Thunder Review Live "75 (Bob Dylan), Liquid Swords (GZA), Fever (Tenor Saw)

DVD: Repo Man, Ghost Dog, Dexter (Season 1)

 

[Rob.]

Gotta love Descendents. Youth Brigade too.

Just picked up No Virginia by the Dresden Dolls. Now that's punk rock of a different color!