OT: What are you reading?

Giving O’Neill a break after More Stately Mansions. Been wanting to get into DeLillo’s work for a while and had the good luck to find some bargain-priced copies of this several days ago.

BLACK IRISH: Not to discourage you or anything, because DeLillo is a great writer, one of the best living authors in fact, but there is a reason that ‘Falling Man’ is in the discount bin :-(

^^and before anyone gives me any shit, just remember: it’s better late than never!

I’m not discouraged. Actually am kind of liking Falling Man so far, though it took a little getting used to.

EDIT And to be a nitpicker, I didn’t say it was in a ‘bin’. ;)

Black, have you read Cosmpolis? I would recommend that over Falling Man. It’s short and it’s just more interesting, although i must admit i preferred it the second time.

plus the movie is out soon, so if you are interested in that, may as well read it ;-0

Falling Man is easily the worst out of Delillo’s more recent ‘miniature’ works, at least out of the ones i’ve read. Point Omega wasn’t too bad. a little dry and sparse and vague/ambiguous though. not for everyone.

Haven’t read any DeLillo before, actually. While I am interested in Cosmopolis [partly, as you mentioned, for the Cronenberg film,] I have already started Falling Man so I’m not going to abandon ship, so to speak (Haha.)

Baudolino by u. eco . i think my perspective on serra’s birdsong is gonna change dramatically with this book.

I Burn Paris by Bruno Jasieński (Twisted Spoon Press, Prague). Jasieński is the undiscovered Third Man Of Polish modernism after Schulz and Gombrowicz

I would like to read the Bhagavad Gita. Does anyone have any advice, or a suggestion to warm-up with? Thank you.

—PolarisDiB

I just finished Tana French’s In the Woods. I would think fans of Girl with a Dragon Tattoo series would find much to like in this—although I think French’s novel is better—I liked the prose and I loved the Cassie Maddox character (more than Lisbeth Salander, although I never finished the entire series). At the same time, I can understand if people are dissatisfied and frustrated by the In the Woods, but I still like it better that Larson’s novels.

POLARIS: Report back on that Postman please! I’ve read short articles and journals written by him about the subject, but never a full book. I’m at least somewhat interested.

^Currently Jazz and I are discussing this over PM, since he kept recommending it to me and I thought I’d engage in a little bit of process-of-reading based discussion. I figured once I was done I would take all the material I put in those discussions and edit them down for a more broad discussion of the book which I think will fit this forum well.

In the meantime, I suspect this book would be a rather popular read for many users of this site, including you, as it puts into perspective some of the concepts we commonly wrestle with on this board re: use of technology and issue of culture.

I was originally introduced to Neil Postman through his book Amusing Ourselves to Death which was very inspirational for me in college. As Jazz and I have discussed, I don’t always agree with Postman’s points; however, he is a very clear and logical writer so whether one agrees with him or not, none of his points are easily dismissed.

One thing I do love about Technopoly in particular, though, is that it is almost the equal and opposite counter-argument to Francis Fukuyama’s The End of History and the Last Man, which is another book I really like despite parts I disagree with, so I’m really enjoying these two thinkers playing off each other. Postman even mentions Fukuyama’s original essay ‘The End of History?’ in chapter five of Technopoly by saying that Fukuyama’s ‘liberal democracy’ is not, as Fukuyama maintains, currently without major competitors, because Technopoly itself is the major modern competitor to liberal (capitalist) democracy.

—PolarisDiB

Decided to jump in the deep end [or perhaps that be Underworld . . . ]

Honestly, I loved White Noise but had a difficult time with Underworld. The latter had little to do with the book’s qualities — it’s very well written and almost always engaging/entertaining — and more to do with the fact that lo and behold, I’ve discovered that loose narratives are difficult to keep up with and keep interested in when you’re too busy to read regularly each day. I was actually pretty impressed with myself for keeping up with the novel’s many allusive connections for, I think, most of the time, but there were times when I wished there were clearer plot points for me to connect with so that I could really keep immersed.

White Noise is much clearer than Underworld plot wise so it’s a lot easier to keep up with, regardless of your reading situation.

I don’t really think I got a chance in my current circumstances to really read Underworld, so I will have to reread it later.

—PolarisDiB

That’s why I’m going to be holding off on Underworld, and other similarly lengthy novels, but I definitely am interested in reading it at some point.

Anyway, after having finished FM, I’m really looking forward to getting into WN. :)

DiB said, …he is a very clear and logical writer…

and accessible (which is godsend when you read someone like McLuhan, who deals with similar issues). The books are short and relatively quick reads, too.

@Joks

I suspect you would like Postman, as he’s an educator and very much concerned with education. (He has written several books specifically about education. I liked The End of Education, for example.) So his ideas are not only important to the average person, but even more so to educators.

Ok – I’m gonna buy a book and try to get myself into reading again (I haven’t been reading much since finishing college last year)… so should I get Inherent Vice or White Noise?

Ha! I like both!

White Noise is the more profound work, Inherent Vice is the more entertaining, and both are as good.

—PolarisDiB

Thanks Polaris! I ended up getting Inherent Vice cause I’ve read books by Pynchon that I really liked, and the only DeLillo I’ve read I really disliked. Soooo: