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I’m generally not reading books that are current best sellers–not out of snobbery, but because my own reading agenda is out of sync with everybody else’s. Currently I’m reading Once Upon a Time on the Banks by Cathie Pelletier, a novel about people in a backward village in northern Maine. I also checked The Orchid Thief out of the library yesterday. Written by Susan Orlean, it’s a true story about a plant dealer obsessed with orchids. I’m also trying to finish the biography of Alexander Hamilton that I started reading almost a year ago
I made a discovery in the downtown library Saturday. In the far back corner in the basement is the “reshelving area” and it turns out this is where to find books that you can’t find on the regular shelf. The cart in the fiction section contain books that have been returned recently and shows that C’villians have discerning taste in literature. One book I saw at the library yesterday but didn’t check out: Stop Dressing your Six Year Old Like a Skank.
Charlottesville is a great town in which to be bookish.
What is the rest of Charlottesville reading lately?
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Tagged as: Charlottesville, Questions
Patience, I had no idea we were posting at the same time. I’m sorry I knocked your real estate off the top of the page! I’ll wait a bit.
ah, books. i’ll admit– i am a book o phile. recently, i have een devotong much of my time to modern american novelists: chuck palahniuk, bret easton ellis, david eggers, to name a few. if any of you out there have not discivered the genuius if palahniuk, get thee to the bookstore. perhas most well known for Fight Clu, the man writes with a voice unheard in american literature until now. he is raw but funny. in your face, but gentle.
whats everyone else reading?
Periodicals.
ditto on Palahniuk, though “Fight Club” the movie was as faithful to the novel as “Doctor Zhivago” was (that is, “very”). I’d always heard it was a very different experience than the novel, but didn’t get that at all.
“Haunted” was a joy. To quote the NY Post:
Being insensible, I was, of course, not at all offended.
I can barely get through The New Yorker anymore… now I just listen to nonfiction care of audible.com while I do laundry and supplement with my This American Life podcast.
I am only capable of reading fiction while a) on a train, b) in a hammock, or c) relaxing on a Saturday afternoon on my couch, and none of those scenarios have played out as of late. Is anyone else is desperate need of a debilitating snow storm?
Is anyone else is desperate need of a debilitating snow storm?
Yes please.
Lys Wireless headphones + This American Life = Happy Yo.
Problem is, I have been through the whole archive and started to go through withdrawls. So I searched out some other related audio shenanigans that you may be insterated in:
http://www.radiolab.org (what this show lacks in quantity, it more than makes up for in quality, really good stuff this)
http://www.themoth.org (sparse selection, rarely udated, but pretty good)
hearingvoices.com (just started in on their stuff, jury is still out)
Reading? Im so shewer. Thats soooo 2004. Like, ya know? Duh.
hooker- nice choices. im a little underwhelmed by “what is the what,” though. “you shall know our velocity” is one of my all-time favorites, though.
right now, im reading larry sabatos newest one:
A More Perfect Constitution: 23 Proposals to Revitalize Our Constitution and Make America a Fairer Country
not bad for any political junkies out there.
lets start a cvillain book club!
Thank you Lilith. And I love the picture you added.
A cvillain book club is a great idea.
B’yo - thanks for the suggestions! I too have plowed through the TAL archives, and I am always in search of distraction while I spreadsheet my life away.
indie dork - I second Patience, a book club is a great idea. Could be it’s own tab on the site, could be an excuse to meet in person every once in a while.
also, for those unfamiliar with palahniuk, this story induced several dozen fainting/puking spells in public readings: http://www.seizureandy.com/stuff/guts.html
i challenge anyone not to feel at least a little queezy after reading it.
Thank Thor
you shall know our velocity was amazing. really the ook responsibel for cementing my love of eggers.
while i enjoy reading ellis, i cant say i love him. american psycho was great, but have had a hard time getting into his other work.
fight club the book an dmovie were pretty similar. except for the ending. they are currently shooting another movied based on a Palahniuk work– Choke. should be pretty awesome.
i would be all over a book club.
ok… show of hands… who would do a book club every month or so? if we get 8 people, ill host the first one. booze included.
if i knew how to read, i would join.
reading bret easton ellis made me a damaged person. it put images in my head that i wish i could go back in time and erase a la “eternal sunshine of the spotless mind”…now i can only read hot pink-covered chick lit.
who writes about poking puppies’ eyes out? makes henry miller look PG…
she nay nay– if ellis makes you queasy, never read palahniuk. seriously.
i am all over the book club.
We’ll setup a signup list at our next gathering and work on promoting the book club.
That was from “Haunted”, the book I mentioned above - basic premise is a writer’s commune in a secluded mansion, with each writer submitting stories to the group. The quoted link is one of those submitted stories - one of the most memorable. I’ve been sleeping too well lately; might have to re-read that book.
What HH said sha nay nay - “American Psycho” is Dr. Seuss compared to “Haunted”. Palahniuk is like that occasional piece of Japanese bukkake-scat-puke porn a friend tricks you into watching - once you see it, there’s no way to ever unsee it.
Haunted! I can not read that. My husband gave me a few hints–something about a swimming pool? He thinks it’s a good book, but definitely not for everyone.
I would like a book club, but not of the fine wine and polite erudition variety which is so in vogue. No I’d like a book club where cocktails are liberally quaffed and conversation fantastical.
I am reading Eugenidies, Middlesex. Very well written and overflowing with conversation starters.
I read lots of nerdy things I don’t want to admit to
[…] you do and maybe this is a good opportunity for our cVillains to start their book club that was mentioned a while ago. Anyway, check out the festival and let us know what smart people should […]