Here Comes Everybody by Clay Shirky
Fashioning Technology by Syuzi Pakhchyan
Lapham’s Quarterly—the nature isssue
The Design of Everyday Things by Donald Norman
I’m also supposed to read Scott McCloud’s Understanding Comics this week, but I can’t find my copy.
I’m not. I’ve hot a book about Nicola Tesla and a Will Self novel by my bed, but they’re getting ignored at the moment. Just not in a “book” place right now.
Currently, it is Forgotten Voices of the Great War, which is a collection of interviews with people who lived through the First World War. The book is part of the Imperial War Museum’s oral archive and is at once harrowing, amusing, enlightening and depressing.
Oh! Shantaram is awesome, I hope you’re being swept up and away by it, as I was.
I’m reading Ian McDonald’s Brasyl, and Extremely Loud & Incredibly Close by Jonathan Safran Foer.
But after a year of deliriously high reading volume, I’ve slowed these past couple of weeks, probably because I’m reading so much online about the US Presidential Election, and the ongoing financial fubar.
all ‘the sandman’ graphic novels by Neil Gaiman and various illustrators
a biography of Walker Evans
‘the foreign Correspondent’ by Alan Furst
‘Twice a Stranger- how mass expulsion shaped modern Greece and Turkey’ by Bruce Clark
though with the exception of the sandman books i am not making fast progress through any of them
@Alex
Aw, I finished Sandman a few months ago! Really great isn’t it?
Are you reading it in print or on your computer. That was the first time I’d tried comics on my computer, and actually grew to really like it… except for the two page spreads that could be frustrating sometimes…
chris, i like having the books but in all honesty didn’t know you could get it electronically… they’re brilliant, i can’t get enough of that kind of comic.
let me know of any others in that ilk you might know of
I currently get my comics by downloading them through many torrent sites. You can find a lot of great comic books on torrent sites, but it sucks when you want to support a good comic and then you download it for free. I do my best to support the writers that I read on my computer from pirated sources: next time I live in the States, or anywhere with Amazon delivery, I’ll definitely buy the books– but I’d like to think that at least recommending them to friends and “spreading the word” so to speak can help just as much.
Other comic recommendations:
+40 Days of Night — the writing is lacking but the art is wonderful (I hear there’s a movie now?)
+The Walking Dead — excellent excellent excellent
+Fables — at times it’s a bit, errr.. “comic-y”… but the plot is good– best read in large chunks.
+Preacher — kind of libertarian in slant (in that ultra-chivalrous, ass-kicking man sort of way) but a great read and a really good story
+Palestine — non fiction. Unless you’re already very well versed in Palestinian/Israeli relations, this will likely help you to see the issue in a new light (or, hell, even if you are well versed, it’s just great). I’d nominate this for a pulitzer.
I know I’m missing a few since it’s late here– but the ones above I strongly recommend.
I’m currently reading the Robert Jordan series The Wheel of Time. I don’t usually read fantasy, except for a few choice books, I stick to fiction and science-fiction most of the time
The Wheel of Time is 11 books long, the 12th will be published next year. It’s almost 10000 pages long, and I paid about $26 for the books. They were second hand. I read too much and too fast, and I find that books sometimes cost too much. This seemed like a nice cheap alternative.
I’m waiting on the Graveyard Book by Gaiman, it’s coming in by Amazon as we speak. ($10 for the hardcover)
I’m reading, savoring, No Colony, a new lit mag, suggested by Brandon Hobson, a little while back on c’flock. If I remember rightly, Brandon’s due to appear in the second issue. This is brand new, the first issue. Many names are familiar to me on the back cover: Ken Baumann, Jimmy Chen, Kim Chinquee, Brian Evenson, Michael Kimball, Tao Lin, Derek White.
If you can lay your hands on a copy, I would call attention to two pieces, other than the names I mentioned, (I haven’t finished reading the entire installment, so might have others.) “hooray” by Brandon Scott Gorrell is an amazing apocalyptic vision and “Sometimes Babies Act Like This And Who Are We To Question Them? ” by Ryan Call. I cried reading, have cried several times rereading it, his last sentence in the piece. I won’t give it away.
Rick, I think it’s a cool little journal. I like Ryan’s piece a lot. It’s intense all the way through, with a great payoff. That last line, yes. Payoff.
@chris, no worries about the name, thanks that’s great, 30 days of night i just read 4 of the books, the art work is fantastic though it can be a little confusing at times, well it was in ‘Stella and Eben’… like which vampire was which.
was looking at the walking dead, so will delve into that . and palestine’s on the cards.
The Spanish and the French have a huge ‘comic’ culture, i just wish some of those were available in translation, well the Spanish anyway.
where do you live that doesn’t have Amazon delivery? unless i’ve missed something that’s quite likely, i mostly do.
@amanda mae - would love that if i can send you something in exchange
Shantaram. That’s been keeping me busy for a while. I’m also in the middle of Maus.
I’d been wanting a meaty, easy to read book. Something I could really sink my teeth into.
I chose The Stand since it was one of the Stephen King books I always regretted not reading.
It’s proved to be exactly what I was looking for in a book, except now I’m having post-apocalyptic dreams every night.
Hitler’s Peace by Philip Kerr
“Sober for Good” by Anne Fletcher.
Non-fiction, sadly.
Here Comes Everybody by Clay Shirky
Fashioning Technology by Syuzi Pakhchyan
Lapham’s Quarterly—the nature isssue
The Design of Everyday Things by Donald Norman
I’m also supposed to read Scott McCloud’s Understanding Comics this week, but I can’t find my copy.
Thanks for asking! Poetry of the Universe, a Mathematical Exploration of the Cosmos by Robert Osserman. I like stories about math.
The Terror by Dan Simmons. Up to page 371 of 943 and not scared enough yet. but there is still time, i guess…
I’m not. I’ve hot a book about Nicola Tesla and a Will Self novel by my bed, but they’re getting ignored at the moment. Just not in a “book” place right now.
Currently, it is Forgotten Voices of the Great War, which is a collection of interviews with people who lived through the First World War. The book is part of the Imperial War Museum’s oral archive and is at once harrowing, amusing, enlightening and depressing.
Oh! Shantaram is awesome, I hope you’re being swept up and away by it, as I was.
I’m reading Ian McDonald’s Brasyl, and Extremely Loud & Incredibly Close by Jonathan Safran Foer.
But after a year of deliriously high reading volume, I’ve slowed these past couple of weeks, probably because I’m reading so much online about the US Presidential Election, and the ongoing financial fubar.
all ‘the sandman’ graphic novels by Neil Gaiman and various illustrators
a biography of Walker Evans
‘the foreign Correspondent’ by Alan Furst
‘Twice a Stranger- how mass expulsion shaped modern Greece and Turkey’ by Bruce Clark
though with the exception of the sandman books i am not making fast progress through any of them
Now, Unaccustomed Earth by Jhumpa Lahiri
Next up, The Septembers of Shiraz by Dalia Sofer (for one of my book clubs).
Cha-Bone - maps and legends
I just started Infinite Jest.
@Alex
Aw, I finished Sandman a few months ago! Really great isn’t it?
Are you reading it in print or on your computer. That was the first time I’d tried comics on my computer, and actually grew to really like it… except for the two page spreads that could be frustrating sometimes…
The Great Derangement by Matt Taibbi.
chris, i like having the books but in all honesty didn’t know you could get it electronically… they’re brilliant, i can’t get enough of that kind of comic.
let me know of any others in that ilk you might know of
How I became stupid by Martin Page.
At first glance, I thought that said, “What are you currently eating”, which lead me to be concerned about the rest of you. Who eats books? Weirdos.
I just finished Mainspring by Jay Lake. Considering re-reading the Dark Tower series, or House of Leaves.
I’m not currently eating anything.
“How to Rig an Election” by former GOP operative Allen Raymond. Quite eye-opening.
I wish I were eating something. I woke up too late to get breakfast.
Book currently in front of me: The Ultimate Book of Cocktails (it’s for work, I promise).
Framley Parsonage by Anthony Trollope
The Ten Thousand by Michael Curtis Ford
coming up: Octavius by Minucius Felix and maybe some Tertullian
Euloowiree Walkabout by John Kiddell.
The new Anthropologie Catalog that is all about Iceland.
An e-mail from Sheila Ryan
And yes, Sandman is lovely, Alek et al.
I just finished Summer Blonde by Adriane Tomine, in that vein.
E-mails from Sheila Ryan are worthy to list, for the record.
Orley Farm by Trollope.The First Third by Neal Cassady. Cinese Footbinding in the Twenty-First Century by Ming Li Chow Fat.
“the world according to garp”
@Amanda Mae - terrific thanks, just ordered that
Oh Alek, I could have just sent you mine!
@aleK
sorry, for mistyping your name the first time…
I currently get my comics by downloading them through many torrent sites. You can find a lot of great comic books on torrent sites, but it sucks when you want to support a good comic and then you download it for free. I do my best to support the writers that I read on my computer from pirated sources: next time I live in the States, or anywhere with Amazon delivery, I’ll definitely buy the books– but I’d like to think that at least recommending them to friends and “spreading the word” so to speak can help just as much.
Other comic recommendations:
+40 Days of Night — the writing is lacking but the art is wonderful (I hear there’s a movie now?)
+The Walking Dead — excellent excellent excellent
+Fables — at times it’s a bit, errr.. “comic-y”… but the plot is good– best read in large chunks.
+Preacher — kind of libertarian in slant (in that ultra-chivalrous, ass-kicking man sort of way) but a great read and a really good story
+Palestine — non fiction. Unless you’re already very well versed in Palestinian/Israeli relations, this will likely help you to see the issue in a new light (or, hell, even if you are well versed, it’s just great). I’d nominate this for a pulitzer.
I know I’m missing a few since it’s late here– but the ones above I strongly recommend.
I’m currently reading the Robert Jordan series The Wheel of Time. I don’t usually read fantasy, except for a few choice books, I stick to fiction and science-fiction most of the time
The Wheel of Time is 11 books long, the 12th will be published next year. It’s almost 10000 pages long, and I paid about $26 for the books. They were second hand. I read too much and too fast, and I find that books sometimes cost too much. This seemed like a nice cheap alternative.
I’m waiting on the Graveyard Book by Gaiman, it’s coming in by Amazon as we speak. ($10 for the hardcover)
I’m reading, savoring, No Colony, a new lit mag, suggested by Brandon Hobson, a little while back on c’flock. If I remember rightly, Brandon’s due to appear in the second issue. This is brand new, the first issue. Many names are familiar to me on the back cover: Ken Baumann, Jimmy Chen, Kim Chinquee, Brian Evenson, Michael Kimball, Tao Lin, Derek White.
If you can lay your hands on a copy, I would call attention to two pieces, other than the names I mentioned, (I haven’t finished reading the entire installment, so might have others.) “hooray” by Brandon Scott Gorrell is an amazing apocalyptic vision and “Sometimes Babies Act Like This And Who Are We To Question Them? ” by Ryan Call. I cried reading, have cried several times rereading it, his last sentence in the piece. I won’t give it away.
You must find a copy! You must see it.
Rick, I think it’s a cool little journal. I like Ryan’s piece a lot. It’s intense all the way through, with a great payoff. That last line, yes. Payoff.
A compelling then relentless voice in your ear, crescendoes until you almost can’t stand it, then crack!
@chris, no worries about the name, thanks that’s great, 30 days of night i just read 4 of the books, the art work is fantastic though it can be a little confusing at times, well it was in ‘Stella and Eben’… like which vampire was which.
was looking at the walking dead, so will delve into that . and palestine’s on the cards.
The Spanish and the French have a huge ‘comic’ culture, i just wish some of those were available in translation, well the Spanish anyway.
where do you live that doesn’t have Amazon delivery? unless i’ve missed something that’s quite likely, i mostly do.
@amanda mae - would love that if i can send you something in exchange