Recommend me books that aren't heavy and don't require a lot of concentration

Non-fiction that isn't memoirs

Try anything of Mark Kurlansky's -- classic modern pop nonfiction about things like cod and salt and how they enabled humanity to thrive. Fun, informative, easy to read.

You want a bit of Vonnegut, miss. And maybe some of K Dick's short story collections?

Novels: The Salterton Trilogy by Robertson Davies, As She Climbed Across the Table by Jonathon Lethem, Myra Breckinridge by Gore Vidal.
The recent Walter Isaacson bio of Albert Einstein is really good. Simon Winchester is pretty tolerable for pop sci/culture non-fiction. Daniel Boorstin has a good one on synchronicity among inventors/thinkers (can't remember the title) and Cleopatra's Nose: Essays on the Unexpected which is about surprise and discovery in science and history.

For some light but literate reading with a splash of sci-fi you might want to check out David Mitchell, as well. Cloud Atlas is his most acclaimed book, but I favour Ghostwriten, his debut.

I also just put all the Skippyjon Jones books on my library list - bilingual little kid's books about a siamese kitten that has a chihuahua alter ego. If you want something completely silly. I'm also partial to Cynthia Heimel's essay collections (Take Your Tongue out of my Mouth, I'm Kissing you Good-bye, for example). Sparkle Hayter's books are light and funny, but possibly too detective-y. And Mark Harris's Pictures at a Revolution was a great read about the 5 very different movies that were up for Best Picture in 1968.

And, Douglas Wolk's Reading Comics, about graphic novels, is outstanding.

"the size of thoughts"; collection of essays by nicholson baker?

rudy rucker's "postsingular" is good fun. scifi. it's online even.

rushdie's "haroun and the sea of stories"...

the princess bride isn't a bad book. (eh, fantasy?)

i'd recommend harry crews' "classic crews" collection. good southern gothic tales of sex, freaks, and woe.

"leadership and self-deception"...by the arbinger institute. looks like a business book so that gives it points off, but in a really light way, it points out this kind of profound tidbit.

i don't know what the fuck i'm talking about really.
m.

the man who only loved numbers by paul hoffman, a short biography about one of the greatest mathematicians of the 20th century: paul erdos. short, easy to read, engaging, fascinating, lots of funny anecdotes and brief histories of other notable mathematicians.

If we're talking Rushide, I loved The Moor's Last Sigh.

do you like conspiracy theory books, abbott? i mean, not bullshit conspiracy theory stuff written by loons, but stuff that is actually researched and genuinely interesting; if so, you should read anything written by david a. yallop, i think you'd particularly like the day the laughter died, about fatty arbuckle.

Terry Pratchett, Wodehouse, Dave Barry, Jerome K. Jerome

the da vinci code

My personal literary junkfood is celeb bios and music bios. You can't go wrong with that shit.

I mean, not "celeb", like, tabloid stalwarts, but more like just, famous human beings in general.

if u dig on murakami, borges! any of ti!

*it

also this:

"the name of the rose" by umberto eco

and foucault's pendulum also by eco

(im recommending those based on ur like of murakami, btw--the eco books are "mysteries" but not really "detective stories" and they might be "heavy" but i dont know what that means exactly--long? "literary"?)

patricia highsmith! she rules.

borges is kinda heavy, isn't he? or am i just retarded? i mean, i always felt like you have to spend a lot of time figuring shit out with him.

there's non-detective-y highsmith like lesbian coming of age "thriller" price of salt

I don't like Murakami so much. I think I have some disease.

Any of Jonathon Lethem's books would be worth reading, and like Murakami and Bradbury, if you like one, you can then spent a few weeks monomaniacally reading everything else. Many are basically fantasy and/or detective, but not in the sense of elves or cats who solve crimes or anything. If you like Murakami, you will probably also like Lethem. There's short stories and a novella or two.

Any of David Markson's notecard books (This Is Not a Novel, Reader's Block, Vanishing Point) may be of some interest. Having virtually no plot and being nothing but fragments of text, you can read them a line at a time and still get through them. They are not usual books though.

idk i always recommend Sam Lipsyte's Homeland for people wanting a lite/funny novel but still incredibly well-written. seriously it is lol & matches what i think of as ilx humor. still some depth too but not "touching" or anything so dont worry

Eco has a little collection of essays too: How to Travel with a Salmon. Florence King has a few collections out - she's a witty southern misanthrope.

burning chrome by william gibson (sci-fi sort of, short stories)

'ada' by vladimir nabokov is funny and sexy so far (i'm about halfway through). i'd second borges but yeah he's more heavy than playful, tons of short stories though (check 'collected fictions').

borges is kinda heavy, isn't he?

Nah, his stuff is pretty abstract and gives the reader a lot to think about, but it's always very readable.

patricia highsmith! she rules.

Yes, she does.

I'll third Borges. Check out Ficciones or The Aleph, and if you like either of those, then just drop $15 for The Collected Fictions, which includes pretty much every short story (well, many of them aren't exactly "stories", but anyways) that he ever wrote.

Borges: I agree with chap in that there's a lot in there, but it's not "heavy" as in in abstruse or tough work getting through or anything.

haha i thought abbott was saying "infinite jest" et al weren't heavy in the og post (and was like uh). borges' subject matter can be a little bleak (murders, deaths, tyrants), but he's not heavy in the "hard work" sense. he has some playful exhilarating stuff too i, like the "orbis tertius" story which like blew my mind. i also love "the immortal" and "the south," but those are on the darker side i guess.

Bill Bryson's written some readable and amusing travel type books, and his "short history of nearly everything" science tome is, while a really long book, completely readable and awesome fun. I love the back-stabbing, credit-stealing scientific community!

yeah borges is "heavy" if you want him to be, but fun if youd rather. highsmith is a motherfucker too, any of the ripley books are good (as are the lesbian ones!)

borges isnt for everyone tho obviously. i just recommend him to everyone cause im in college and im a lit major and i have a ponytail.

i'm a sensitive holden caulfield.

richard russo, straight man = funny as shit

i was going to recommend straight man but i couldn't tell if my perspective on it is skewed because i'm around lol academics so much. it is really funny...i guess it could be considered sentimental, though.

i didnt like straight man as much as i liked empire falls. and nobody's fool. theyre sentimental but pretty funny about it!

the raw shark texts by steven hall: a page-turner about a guy being hunted by a conceptual shark who feeds off his memories/identity. has cool illustrations constructed out of text.

a handful of dust - waugh (funny shit)
portnoy's complaint - roth (novel, but def on the non-heavy side)
civilwarland in bad decline - george saunders (short stories, funny shit)
only yesterday - frederick lewis allen (a cultural/social/political history of the 1920s, written in 1930. not a hard read, very amusing and interesting)

Try anything of Mark Kurlansky's -- classic modern pop nonfiction about things like cod and salt and how they enabled humanity to thrive. Fun, informative, easy to read.

This is excellent advice.

I can't believe that, in a discussion of non-heavy, good books, Rushdie's name has been mentioned. (OK, Haroun might be different, but really: Say No To Rushdie. Let's not lead Abbott up the primrose path to the magic carpet here.)

Borges is a good call: so brief yet suggestive.

Lethem I back I guess: the short stories, eg the collection Men & Cartoons that I really quite liked - go for that, Abbott?

What about Fitzgerald? He wrote a ton of short stories, widely available.

For that matter what about Carver or - yes! - Lorrie Moore?

Lorrie Moore

Lorrie Moore

There is a series of short story collections called "The Best American Non-Required Reading" that is really good. I think there's 4 of them so far--seems to fit perfectly into what you are looking for.

Yes, the Best American series. There's also a Best American Science and Nature writing (from a different publisher?) that I've read and been impressed with. A good analog for your missing pop-sci, and I can vouch for its readability under adverse conditions, since I've only read them on long days at hospitals.

Just thought of a good page turner: The Amazing Adventures of Kavalier and Clay by Michael Chabon.

And in general bookstores and libraries seem to be full now of these general annual collections, and more targeted things like The Paris Review Book for Planes, Trains, Elevators, and Waiting Rooms and so on. I'm sure they're all calculated attempts by publishers to retain some semblence of profitability without risking everything on single authors, but I have yet to pick a truly bad one up.

Paris Review is usually a sign of quality, non?

Though perhaps I'm thinking of their entretiens.

seconded for Home Land by Lipsyte.
seconded the Lorrie Moore
P.G. Wodehouse--The Code of the Woosters
Pastoralia by George Saunders
Why Did I Ever--Mary Robison

Philip Roth - Portnoy's Complaint.
short, funny,smart,awesome.

Nicolson Baker!

(early?)

lol at umberto eco. Brainiac. Going by sheer physical weight, the shit is heavy.

I like science-y nonfiction, and maybe you would, too.

The World Without Us

in which the physical world decays, and lol Nature.

Corpse

in which the physical body decays, and some very creative scientists cmoe up with wacky-ass ways to find out when that started happening.

Ah, decay. It's fascinating stuff, it really is. I recommend either of these books being read whilst listening to Disintegration Loops by William Basinski. Oh, and weed.

do you like conspiracy theory books, abbott? i mean, not bullshit conspiracy theory stuff written by loons, but stuff that is actually researched and genuinely interesting; if so, you should read anything written by david a. yallop, i think you'd particularly like the day the laughter died, about fatty arbuckle.

DUDE this sounds fucking AWESOME. I have to say I like loony conspiracy theory stuff, too, tho. :)

Try anything of Mark Kurlansky's -- classic modern pop nonfiction about things like cod and salt and how they enabled humanity to thrive. Fun, informative, easy to read.

I read both of those and they were grebt. I love that salty motherfucker.

What about Fitzgerald? He wrote a ton of short stories, widely available.

Dude I love his stuff, too, esp. "Diamond as Big as the Ritz."

lol at umberto eco. Brainiac. Going by sheer physical weight, the shit is heavy.

Yeah I have a copy of Foucalt's Pendulum I pick up every once in a while and am like "bluh...I know I would like this...oh my god, there's a box elder bug on my windowsill."

Thx for the recs, y'all. Keep them coming – I have a whole summer ahead of me!

I've read "Bartleby the Scrivener" every night before bed for a few weeks.

Miss Manners' Guide to Domestic Tranquility, The Authoritative Manual for Every Civilized Household, However Harried by Judith Martin.

Or any other Miss Manners book. Funny shit. And useful.

i know you said no fantasy, but the song of ice and fire series by george r.r. martin is immediately what i thought of for this. seriously engaging and fluffy. a lot of people who don't really like fantasy really like them, i swear.

have you read other pynchon besides GR? i am almost through V. which was a really quick read.

Haha, I haven't actually read any Pynchon, I just put that down because I know ILX loves to push Gravity's Rainbow on peeps like my brother hands out copies of the Book of Mormon.

Felicity, Miss Manners is my all-time hero and I think she's probably the best writer of the 20th century. I like your style, babe.

I am not against "heavy books" at all, I am just burnt out on them for the moment.

I will third Kurlansky, in particular Cod, it's ace, the basque history of the world is a good read, but, as I've come to realise has some.....questionable revisionism in it regarding ETA.

I only read non-heavy books these days, maybe when I get a less stressful job, this might change

Didn't George W. Bush say the last book he read was Salt?

:D

Eureka

The Crying of Lot 49

!!

Have you tried reading any of the 'Very Short Introduction' series?

They are literally not very heavy, and almost all of the ones I have read have been very readable and interesting. There's a wide range of topics, and the covers look very nice as well.

In terms of fiction, you could do worse than read the Brief Wondrous Life of Oscar Wao by Junot Diaz.

Lorrie Moore thirded, especially 'who will run the frog hospital'.

Dubliners by James Joyce is my new favourite recommendation for anyone and is not heavy.

I have read the Joycey one. I was once elaborately describing the sensation at the end of each story to a friend once and she was like, "Yeah, they're called epiphanies." ME: "Oh. Right."

Hooray for Bartleby!

It's one of my most favoritiest.

Mine too; it's a good one for teaching too--students always make like they don't like it at first, then talk about for *ages*.

What age do you teach?

Undergrads.

Felicity, Miss Manners is my all-time hero and I think she's probably the best writer of the 20th century. I like your style, babe.

And I yours!

If you enjoy Domestic Tranquility you may enjoy Miss Manners' 19th-century British precursor, Mrs. Isabella Beeton.

The Book of Household Management by Mrs. Isabella Beeton.

Comprising Information for the
Mistress, Housekeeper, Cook, Kitchen-maid, Butler, Footman, Coachman, Valet, Upper and under house-maids, Lady’s-maid, Maid-of-all-work, Laundry-maid, Nurse and nurse-maid, Monthly, wet, and sick nurses, etc. etc.
also, sanitary, medical, & legal memoranda;
with a history of the origin, properties, and uses of all things connected with home life and comfort.

Sample chapter (for Ade, esp.): General Observations on Quadrupeds, and corresponding Recipes

Also in a culinary history vein. Try 'cooking for kings' the biography of antonin careme.

Saki!

oo second 'crying of lot 49.' short and so many lols.

oh abbott you will totally love yallop's stuff, then!! 'in god's name' is about the conspiracy behind the death of the pope dude who was only in office for like 33 days (mega edge-of-your-seat stuff, badass mafia dudes, money laundering, poisonings, dodgy fuckers), then there's 'beyond reasonable doubt?' which is about this murder case here in nz in the 70s (guy was wrongly imprisoned, yallop actually discovered who the real killer was, submitted his info to the high court or some shit, nothing's been done about it though). he's got a few others i'd really like to read. also, if you like the loony stuff, 'the tourin shroud' by lyn picknett and clive prince is freakin awesome. they totally replicate the creation of the shroud and attribute it to da vinci. i have a total weakness for religion-y conspiracy stuff, so 'the dead sea scrolls deception' is another favourite.

Lot 49 is a winner. Possibly requiring less concentration would be anything by George Saunders, especially "Civilwarland in bad decline"

"Tench: And How To Catch Them"

Them: Adventures WIth Extremists. Ronson is a v.funny UK journalist who, in his light-hearted, inquisitive way, sheds light on the diverse bunch of conspiracy theorists and extremists that he travels around the world to meet and hang out with.

PG Wodehouse - The Inimitable Jeeves. Just thirding the Wodehouse recommendation.

Ronson is a v.funny UK journalist who, in his light-hearted, inquisitive way, sheds light on the diverse bunch of conspiracy theorists and extremists that he travels around the world to meet and hang out with.

Not that it will do Abbott much good but there is a new 2 hour John Ronson documentary on C4 tonight

Tip!

6 years in the making, following around some pro euthenasia minister.

I am enjoying Taichi Yamada's Strangers at the moment (synopsis - Japanese divorcee in his late 40s meets early 30s couple who look exactly like his long-dead parents, strikes up friendship with them, weirdness ensues). It's only about 200 pages long and I managed to get through about 40 yesterday while sitting in the front room while my housemates had the television on.

Oh yeah, I read that. Nicely written (in the typical elegantly minimal modern Japanese style) but a tad predictable I thought.

Peter Hoeg, Miss SMila's Feeling for Snow. Good if slightly flawed thriller.

Some recent things I've read that might fit the bill:

• Novels that aren't "heavy"
Fieldwork by Mischa Berlinski
Day of the Locust by Nathanael West
My Life as a Fake by Peter Carey
Ninety-two in the Shade by Thomas McGuane

• Non-fiction that isn't memoirs
• Interesting stories of companies, businesses and inventors
The Places in Between by Rory Stewart
When Genius Failed: The Rise and Fall of Long-Term Capital Management by Roger Lowenstein

Oh man an 'interesting' man I know just came by to give me a copy of The Education of Oversoul 7 by Jane Roberts, best known as the woman who channeled Seth for the new agey Seth Speaks series. This is bcz I was telling him the other day how I disliked Jane Roberts and thought channeled entities were bullshit. So this is apparently (openly) fiction and I am imagining it will be insaniac as 2150, if anyone's ever read that. So there is a chance I'll read this before the actually good books everyone recs here (thx again). The main reason I've read a great number of books in my life is bcz they were around.

seconding Lethem. I lol'd a lot at various turns of phrase in "Motherless Brooklyn"

Some Douglas Copeland?

I recommended this somewhere else, but Joseph Mitchell's "Up In The Old Hotel" is (well, actually, it's thick and heavy literally)just the finest collection of essays. It's really a book that you have on your bedside table, to read before you go to sleep. His writing is amazing, and it transports you to a different time and place.

Another nonfiction candidate, if you haven't already read it, is "Driving Mr. Albert" - about driving Einstein's brain across America. It's fun. It's like an afternoon by the pool/lake/pond book. I'll send it to you, if you haven't read it. I need to lose some books, and that's one I can happily pass on.

I am bookmarking this thread so I can write down all of the reccomendations!
Also, I gave "Birds of America" to my sister-in-law, for her birthday, three or four years ago. And I can tell she has never read it - it just sits on the modest bookshelf in pristine condition. I think I'm going to steal it back - I can replace it with something similar in binding - and give it to someone who will ACTUALLY READ IT!

Sex and Death to the Age 14 by Spalding Gray.

OH AND THAT JOSEPH MITCHELL BOOK IS ONE OF MY ALL-TIME FAVORITES.

Um, how bout my book?

"Secrets of the Model Dorm". its really really easy, not so well written, and pretty much requires no brain power whatsoever. its about fashion models!!!

http://www.amazon.com/Secrets-Model-Dorm-Amanda-Kerlin/dp/0743298276/ref=pd_bbs_sr_1?ie=UTF8&s=books&qid=1211264242&sr=8-1

it might still be at urban outfitters, though they probably returned them.. oh well

I feel like "Secrets of the Model Dorm" needs to be on many summer reading lists - as we all suffer from the drought of ANTM, Project Runway, etc. episodes.

NEAL STEPHENSON - ZODIAC. READ IT, ABBOTT. IT IS SUPER FUN.

In fact all of his books are fun, but that one is the least wtf/heady.

Have u read Roald Dahl's adult fiction?

no, The Big U is the best neal stephenson book

I had no idea that P-2 had written a book!

--

Everything that could be expected in a novel about aspiring models is present: casual sex, drug usage, club hopping, backstabbing, and though Kerlin, an ex-model, and Oh, a DJ and music consultant, are familiar with the lifestyle, they manage to make it a chore to read about. Heather Johnston, newly arrived to Manhattan from the modeling minor league in Miami, is determined to prove to herself and her doubting family that she can succeed as a model. The agency that represents her provides her with the use of a downtown apartment, which she shares with a handful of other aspiring models, including Svetlana, a calculating Russian possessed of a dubious grasp of English. While out one night, Heather meets a dashing French nightclub owner, Robert du Croix, who shows unusual interest in Heather as a person, not merely a body. Svetlana, though, is obsessed with Robert as well. Something akin to drama ensues, but even the frisson of titillation that should accompany a book about desperate models is lost to flat prose and crude stabs at character development. (Jan.)

OK, so JAN didn't like it. What about KRISTINE?

Anyone attracted to the glamour of modeling will do a double take upon reading former model Kerlin and Oh's fictional expose of New York's fashion world. Heather Johnston leaves Miami for New York City when she is accepted by the Agency, one of the hottest modeling firms in town. But she experiences a rude awakening when she finds herself housed in a dorm with several other models and forced to sleep in bunks that are too short for the tall girls and to contend with a messy place only one bothers to clean. Her roommates are a colorful bunch, however, including Svetlana, who is crazy for both men and cocaine; Laura, who is being driven crazy by the Agency's shoddy treatment; and Kylie, a friendly Australian who downs more Metamucil than food. Heather soon learns that being a young hopeful has its advantages when a handsome French nightclub owner begins to pursue her. Readers will be engrossed by this inside look at the lives of ingenue models. Kristine Huntley

That's more like it, Kristine!!

I think my only other advice is to register at Barnes and Noble (or better yet Powells!) for your wedding.

Just list a bunch of books and let people buy them for you! As a wedding gift!

Including, ahem, all of the people who adore you here! We could set you up with the library of your dreams! All you have to do is build lots of bookshelves.

Some of the best I've read this year that might apply:

Essays:
The Literature Machine by Italo Calvino
Any collections of essays by William Hazlitt
Essays on Shakespeare by William Empson (ok heavy if, like me, you haven't done much lit since school but he brings interest along with the analysis)

Short stories:
Species of Spaces by Perec (w/essays + all sorts really, hangs quite well together)
Boccaccio's The Decameron (warning: some of the dislikes maybe present among the stories, but its all comedy)
Primo Levi The Periodic Table

The lover by Marguerite Duras

Shit about murders, etc. that you may dislike but might want to give a go as Murder and Incest are enjoyable if done w/style.

Mishima's The Sea of fertility tetralogy
A couple from Jim Thompson: The Grifters and Savage night
Alain-Robbe Grillet The topology of a phantom city

errr, yeah, the reviews weren't so hot... but whatevs, please buy!!!

Dislikes:
• Fantasy
• Detective books
• Shit about murders, deaths, incest, genocides, tyrants, etc.
• Things sentimental or 'touching'

these are my dislikes too! but add to that sci-fi and anything set in england

Hey Phil-two I just finished reading secrets of the model dorm. i liked it!

Sex and Death to the Age 14 by Spalding Gray.

-- Eazy, Monday, May 19, 2008 10:47 PM (Yesterday) Bookmark Li

^ This is great.

hm i think i am alone in not really liking the crying of lot 49, though it was good beach reading a couple years ago. i just like pynchon better when he is doing his acid craziness thing applied to wwii or other time periods besides the 60s, where it just seems kind of mundane.

but a lot of people really hate pynchon so it might be a good idea to start with the short book!

you're not alone. . .i just re-read crying of lot 49 two weekends ago and i was suprised how slapdash and half assed it seemed. i think you're OTM, bell, about pynchon in the 60's.

reading the master and the margarita right now, which is fucking a awesome.

Hey Phil-two I just finished reading secrets of the model dorm. i liked it!

wow really?? thanks!!

Oh, it's too bad you don't like detective novels, 'cause those are my standard easy under two hour reads.

Have you read Mary Roach? I just finished Bonk, it was funny and a little nerdy, and all about sex and sex researchers. Her other two books are about death and ghosts.

Dude Phil I want to read your book!

Have u read Roald Dahl's adult fiction?

Yes, nick, and that shit is fantastic. I read Tales of the Unexpected like three times on my Christmas vacation.

Rosemary, I have read Roach's first two and loved them. Really want to read her new one but I do not want to drop $$$ on it so I'll wait the six months until it's my turn on the library reserves list.

how have we gone this far without any donny barthelme? i think he'd be right up yr alley abbott

also 2nd waugh

no, The Big U is the best neal stephenson book

-- El Tomboto, Tuesday, 20 May 2008 06:49 (13 hours ago) Link

Haven't read this one yet! Actually Snow Crash is my favorite so far but it Requires Concentration.

omg Barthelme, big heart emoticon.

http://www.eskimo.com/~jessamyn/barth/mandible.html

:)

Abbott: Joseph Conrad's The Shadow-Line.

Snow Crash is my favorite so far but it Requires Concentration.
-- nickalicious, Tuesday, 20 May 2008 20:01

I loved Snow Crash, which for the most part I breezed through fairly happily just skimming the bits which required concentration.

But if that read as a putdown in any way I should point out that I haven't yet waded through more than a couple of chapters of Cryptonomicon, because the whole damn thing appears to require concentration, and that I've been afraid to post to this thread because my idea of a non-heavy book for my severely depleted attention span is clearly different from everyone else here so far (I love Borges, to pick one name out of the recommendations so far, but some of his stuff has page-long paragraphs which I've had to start multiple times because when I reached the next one I realised I had no idea what was going on - he makes it worth it, though, but...).

Haha, I haven't actually read any Pynchon, I just put that down because I know ILX loves to push Gravity's Rainbow on peeps like my brother hands out copies of the Book of Mormon.

This is so true. I've tried again and again with Pynchon due to Ilx and can't enjoy him at all.

GK Chesterton - Man who was Thursday

I've been afraid to post to this thread because my idea of a non-heavy book for my severely depleted attention span is clearly different from everyone else here so far

Agreed. Borges, Barthelme, Calvino, Perec? I'd hate to see what you people would suggest if someone requested books that do require concentration.

I love Mr Phillips by John Lanchester - incisive, short and fun.

Felix Feneon: Noves in Three Lines (trans. Luc Sante)
David Lodge: Changing Places

Wait, did Borges write "The Library of Babylon"? That story gave me recurring nightmares, on and off, for almost a year!

For funny fiction you need:
A Confederacy Of Dunces
also
Christie Malory's Own Double-Entry
and
Catch-22

Wait, did Borges write "The Library of Babylon"? That story gave me recurring nightmares, on and off, for almost a year!

Yes he did. What could be so frightening about wandering through a near infinite hexagonal library, searching in vain for the book that describes your entire life from birth to death? Or at least trying to find the book that tells you how to find that book? Nothing scary about that.

- because you know along the way you'd run into a "Best Jokes of Nickelodeon 1995-1997" book or something!

Personal Days - Ed Park

Can I just say I love ILX book recommendation threads? Whenever my reading list gets too short, there you all are.

"Peter Hoeg, Miss SMila's Feeling for Snow. Good if slightly flawed thriller.

-- Ed, 19. maj 2008 12:32 (1 week ago)"

I just read this and wanted to recommend it, but it's both a mystery and "Shit about murders, deaths, incest, genocides, tyrants, etc!" I am totally in love with the main character, though. (Also, my translation was called "Smilla's Sense of Snow," which might help if you're getting it from Amazon.)

I'll join the Neal Stephenson train, too. I like the Baroque Cycle best, but that's quite literally heavy reading, so I'd recommend Snow Crash instead.

Last suggestion is a nonfiction book I'm reading called The Last Imaginary Place: A Human History of the Arctic World (by Robert McGhee but that might be misspelled. It's extremely broad and not too long, so that might be up your alley as far as this request. Not that you don't have enough suggestions!

you're right about "Cryptonomicon", it's an epic book requiring a lot of attention. I think I'm attempting to read it for the third time now as prolonged periods of putting it down don't help at all.
Snow Crash on the other hand wasn't too bad.

My other suggestion, Pratchett books. Speshly the first two Discworld books.

oh hang on, you don't like Fantasy. scrath the Pratchett then.

Abbott's summer reading list is getting long! Also, Abbott, aren't you getting married in the midst of perusing the non-weighty tomes?

I would like to send you a few good books.
Consider it a wedding present. (I think most of IlX would like to give you a present. Now is the time to demand good presents.)

I'm up for getting Abbott a toaster oven, at least!

Yeah, where's the wedding list kept?

Kirino - Out
Dark Japanese crime tale.

Barthes' Lovers Discourse and Camera Lucida are AWESOME.

Camera Lucida are AWESOME.

Ha! Was about to post this right now. One of the most perfect light, not requiring a lot of concentration 'Non-fiction that isn't memoirs'

Plus it really is awesome.

Off the top of my head:

The Wild Trees by Richard Preston. Non-fiction book about the amateur & professional scientists who explore giant redwoods and other very large trees. A fascinating book.

The Devil's Teeth by Susan Casey. Writer spends time on the Farallons off the coast of California (not far from SF) where marine biologists study the Great Whites that like to hang out there. If you're curious about sharks, this is a very fun, light book.

For fiction, I'd actually suggest War & Peace. It may literally be heavy (esp. in hardcover) but the reading itself is downright breezy. You're carried along by Tolstoy's acutely keen perception of human behavior; his ability to make you feel like a privileged eavesdropper on Petersburg salons as well as on his characters' hearts. Plus the chapters are real short, so you can complete one within a twenty minute train ride, as if Tolstoy wanted to keep encouraging the reader onward.

omon ra by victor pelevin

http://everyone-has-a-purpose.org/Images/SongsBooks/GoodnightMoon.jpg

Read Richard Price's new novel "Lush Life". I had a hard time putting it down.

Goodnight Moon is of course timeless.

Read Richard Price's new novel "Lush Life".

can not agree more. really really really really really good. really.

Goodnight mush! MUSH! Never fails to get a laugh.

Shocked you agree with me on something, ck!!!

(it is a fantastic book)

Abbott, check out my friend's website! http://bookbrothel.com She gets publishing houses sending her 100s of books a month nowadays, it's all searchable so maybe you can search by themes/places/other things??

I read Close by Martina Cole last week which is both heavy and requires lots of concentration but HOLY HELL is it fun! It's like all of the Sopranos, as a book. I think it just came out.

oh and I'm reading Paint it Black by the same person who wrote White Oleander - it's very good but about death so crossed off your list :)

Pelevin seconded altho my favorite is not Omon Ra, its Homo Zapiens. Life of Insects and 4 also amazing

Most of me thinks I could totes read grim tales of sad death, but I think I am in still too sensetive a stage right now, and that it would end up upsetting me.

I also just put all the Skippyjon Jones books on my library list - bilingual little kid's books about a siamese kitten that has a chihuahua alter ego. If you want something completely silly.

These are really cute, btw.

Does anyone know who wrote the short story "Axolotl"? I would like to read more stuff like that.

someone on the "not being able to read" thread just mentioned plays, which is a good idea, i think! depending on the playwright.

if you can find joe orton's "what the butler saw" i think it may delight you.

Does anyone know who wrote the short story "Axolotl"?

Julio Cortazar!

Thank you! That is a fucking awesome story. Is his other stuff good?

I wld recommend to anyone The Palm-Wine Drinkard by Amos Tutuola, which is captivating & out of control bonkers and just fucking great. And short with short chapters.

yuppers. super-good, Abbott. try "hopscotch", the novel, or some of the stories (e.g. blow-up, on which the film was somewhat based)

i gotta run for train now!

tho i wouldn't put cortazar in the "not heavy" camp.

i just breezed thru Jack Pendarvis' Awesome on a plane...it is v. suitable for this thread complete featuring a giant named Awesome, his robot ward, Jimmy, & gf Glorious Jones

Cortazar is great - for short pieces I'd recommend Cronopios et Famas, and Around the Day in 80 Worlds. His poetry is also surprisingly great (Save Twilight is a really solid collection). His novels can get pretty cumbersome.

Grab Soon I Will Be Invincible. It's about superheros and supervillains.

Cuban Heels. Its like Single White Female (but with BABIES) and is set in Cuba...obv. Its quite a good trashy thriller but has a 'safe ending' and no one gets sliced

how is the master & margarita for this (i just started it)

the master and the margarita is great for this!

M&M is kinda overrated methinks but its enjoyable. Kinda one note.

you're kinda one note

*rimshot*

OK this may already have been mentioned but big ups for Wodehouse. He's become my go-to vacation read!

Master and Margarita is AWESOMES for this except for the four or so Pilate chapters, which are hard to get through.

off topic, sorry, but could i just ask on this thread: 1) did alfred hitchcock write any books 2) is there a novel version of the birds? 3) if so, did hitch write it?

my boss is telling me all sorts of things today...about her favorite books and such...and it all sounds so crazy.

she also told me that i should watch "black christmas," which hitchcock directed, based on the novel by...alfred hitchcock. imdb put the nix on that one.

it's just sort of amazing to me that people would make things like that up? not out of insecurity or anything, but just because accuracy isn't a priority...strange.

re: M&M and Pilate - yeah Pilate is brought back around in the end, and I'm sure my non-lit-major mind is probably missing something but I really didn't get what he was trying to do with his little "re-telling" of the crucifixion myth/story. Fairly lame. Preferred Saramago's "The Gospel According to Jesus Christ" or hell even Moorcock's "Behold the Man" for that kind of thing.

Pilate:Master & Margarita::Black Freighter:Watchmen

The Birds is by Daphne du Maurier. I don't think Hitch wrote any novels. You could always google this stuff.

xxpost

and I'm sure my non-lit-major mind is probably missing something but I really didn't get what he was trying to do with his little "re-telling" of the crucifixion myth/story.

i think i read about what he was trying to do with Pilate in the intro or something after i read this (and i just read it in june for the first time) and ha, yeah, i forgot already what he was trying to do

Pilate:Master & Margarita::Black Freighter:Watchmen

lolz this may very well be and I usually am a big fan of the story-within-a-story style narrative but I just couldn't mentally draw the connections between what happens in the Pilate re-telling and the main action of the novel. There don't seem to be any analogous characters, the stories don't bear much resemblance to one another (whereas w/the Black Freighter its kinda blindingly obvious who the main character's dilemma applies to)

Yes but they were both BORING. Is more what I meant.

hahahaha

Abbott, have you read The Road? I think you'd like it.
Control F isn't seeing any mention thereof.

Cormac McCarthy's the Road?!? that's a joke, right?

Dislikes:
• Shit about murders, deaths, incest, genocides, tyrants, etc.

Regardless of that caveat, I think she'd like it. It's a tense book that never betrays the reader's trust and never goes for the cheap kick in the nuts.

It is a post-apocalyptic thing, right? :S

I think I am going to read Sting's biography. It better be hilarious, tho, or I'll be super pissed!

Kingsley Amis On Drink!!!

I think you would love this book, Abbott.

I like m&m so far, mostly because of the cat that rides the bus and tries to pay bus fare . But I'm only 50 pages in. Its pretty pageturny at least!

Oh please dear Abbott don't give that pretentious twat (Sting) one ounce of your reading brain.
Plus, how much tantric sex can you really stomach reading about?

Read a biography of Aerosmith instead. "Dream On...the Story of Aerosmith" is a great start.

Read the zep bio "hammer of the gods"!

ANYTHING BUT STING!!!

motley crue - "the dirt"

But aimurchie that is why I want to read it! he is so fucking full of himself & sleazy, like some snotty, upscale Klaus Kinski.

I h8 teh Aerosmith, sorry. Read "Hammer of the Gods" in HS, which was basically required extracurricular reading along w/1984 & A Clockwork Orange. I think I'm sticking to Sting! I'm mad at rock & roll these days. We had a falling out.

Speaking of things that aren't heavy, I read about 20 "spiderman loves maryjane" comics last night

I am so sorry that we can't be friends anymore. Hate Aerosmith?
Goodbye!

(How can you HATE Aerosmith? That's like punching a pillow. HATING Sting - now that's a worthy place for the emotion of intense dislike.)

It's kind of like somebody saying they HATE the Red Sox - except it's Aerosmith.

hey i hate the red sox and love sting so f u aimurchie

abbott--read some sherman alexie books

also you might try elmore leonard who writes 'crime' novels but theyre always light and usually pretty funny

I'm currently reading Monkey, Arthur Waley's pretty well-regarded abridged translation of The Journey to the West. lots of zany antics, and some pretty funny satire of Chinese bureaucracy. like anything with a bunch of Chinese names in it, it takes a mild amount of effort for me to avoid getting people mixed up, but the main characters all have pretty distinctive names, so that's not too much of a problem. and besides, it's so ridiculous that sometimes it's fun to just sit back and let it all wash over you without needing to know exactly what's happening to who.

wait I guess maybe that would fall under fantasy? but it's more like mythology. also, it doesn't suck the way fantasy does.

motley crue the dirt is awesomely junky popcorn delight. woohoo.

"how is the master & margarita for this (i just started it)"

awesome book but uh you do need a lot of concentration. that said, it's a CLASSIQUE.

max – I completely should! I saw Alexie speak a couple times (he was always up in Boise for some reason), and he's great! I mean, he's great at talking, and the excerpts he read from his books were rad too. But I had completely forgotten about him so thank you for reminding me.

Hrabal - I served the king of England
Tai Chi Yamada - Strangers

yeah i think hes sort of perfect for what youre looking for, like a native american lorrie moore or something

i mean, uh, like a lorrie moore concerned with native american communities

He is a bro.

Read the zep bio "hammer of the gods"!

-- bell_labs, Saturday, August 16, 2008 2:07 AM (17 hours ago) Bookmark Link

FISH INCIDENT

i just want to remind you again, abbott, of those david yallop conspiracy books i recommended, particularly 'in god's name' (about the pope before that last one, who was only in office 30 days before he MYSTERIOUSLY DIED - it's all about the MOB and intrigue and shit and it's awesome), and also 'beyond reasonable doubt?' (about the murder of a family in rural nz many years ago, and the dude that was wrongly accused and dodgy cops and the fucked judicial system).

from what i've read of alexie, reservation blues is the most enjoyable one. indian killer is him being really pissed off for 400 pages and it's not much fun.

Also, don't read the incredibly douchey, self-fellating article he wrote for the Stranger recently.

Not sure Alexie is aiming for enjoyable.
Could you link the Stranger article?

"The Lone Ranger and Tonto Fistfight in Heaven" is great -I guess it's his first collection? His short stories give context to his novels. As does his poetry. To both.

It's great that you saw him read/tell/speak. or HEAR him, as you more aptly put it.

I saw Galway Kinnell read this weekend - outside! - which was amazing. I like poetry, especially good poetry, especially good poetry read well in a beautiful setting.
I am lucky.

I just finished Joyce Carol Oates "Middle Age: A Romance". Which is heavy and required, for me, a lot of concentration. (But it's so fucking well written.)
But it also reminded me of Anne Tyler, who is sort of a user friendly Joyce Carol Oates. I read "The Amateur Marriage" and "Digging to America" this summer. She's great - I hadn't read her for awhile, so it was fun to rediscover her. Like J.C. Oates, she seems to publish something every season. Prolific to the point of exhaustion.

Louise Erdrich? Heavy? I don't think so, but others do.

I'm trying to think of guy novels!
have you ever read "Carter Beats The Devil?" That would fit your credentials!

I have come upon a perfect book for you, Abbott.
"The Zookeepers Wife" by Diane Ackerman.

It's a biography that takes some literary advantage of the writers incredibly informed knowledge of the people, animals and the setting...she did a ton of research.
She wrote " A Natural History of the Senses", which is also an amazing book. it's hard to describe her writing.

I just know you will love this! Although it is heart wrenching.

Thz aimurchies!

So right now I'm reading Bleak House. ...