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Does anybody read [books] anymore?

Fool

The Thing cannot be described
Sep 10, 2001
2,761
1,471
Brooklyn


This was a fun read. Basically a PG-13 version of The Road.
This was good and so was his other one, The Painter, but after the two of them I was done with the brooding, loner, broken, manly man wandering the west, describing it's wonders, fucking young women, and shooting people.
 

Fool

The Thing cannot be described
Sep 10, 2001
2,761
1,471
Brooklyn
Not tentacle porn, per se, but not, not tentacle porn, either


Screenshot 2023-11-14 at 4.32.25 PM.png


No, really, it's about pissed off, sentient octopi who can walk around on land and knife fuckers with shell knives. Also, AI, our dystopian future, and an android.
 

binary visions

The voice of reason
Jun 13, 2002
22,092
1,132
NC
I have never read Cormac McCarthy before. Headed out on a road trip tomorrow.

Which one should I start with?
 

Fool

The Thing cannot be described
Sep 10, 2001
2,761
1,471
Brooklyn
I have never read Cormac McCarthy before. Headed out on a road trip tomorrow.

Which one should I start with?
Start with one of his lighter, uplifting works like Blood Meridian

edit: ok, really, maybe just start with All The Pretty Horses.
 
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Pesqueeb

bicycle in airplane hangar
Feb 2, 2007
40,143
16,538
Riding the baggage carousel.
I have never read Cormac McCarthy before. Headed out on a road trip tomorrow.

Which one should I start with?
The most accessible? I agree with @Fool for All the Pretty Horses, which I think I actually found to be his most depressing book, though probably also the least "brutal". It's probably my favorite McCarthy book, absolutely heartbreaking.
 

binary visions

The voice of reason
Jun 13, 2002
22,092
1,132
NC
He sure does love to spend a lot of time building up the story before he absolutely burns it all to the ground, huh?

Really loved the narrative style, and the scene building. I expected bleakness but ... Wow.

Also noticed a recurring style where you weren't always sure who was speaking (e.g. imprecisely using pronouns or jumping into a conversation without setting a scene), or sometimes didn't get a perfect understanding of how a situation was unfolding. Usually I assume I missed something and go back to re-read, but that wasn't the case here. Just have to let the words wash over you. Is that a common style choice for him? I enjoyed it.
 

Westy

the teste
Nov 22, 2002
54,236
20,019
Sleazattle
He sure does love to spend a lot of time building up the story before he absolutely burns it all to the ground, huh?

Really loved the narrative style, and the scene building. I expected bleakness but ... Wow.

Also noticed a recurring style where you weren't always sure who was speaking (e.g. imprecisely using pronouns or jumping into a conversation without setting a scene), or sometimes didn't get a perfect understanding of how a situation was unfolding. Usually I assume I missed something and go back to re-read, but that wasn't the case here. Just have to let the words wash over you. Is that a common style choice for him? I enjoyed it.
He pretty consistent with that style. Very similar to A. B. Guthrie's books, which are also very worthy reads. Guthrie wrote historical fiction about a time and place in America that isn't really discussed in most formal educations.


I think I need to visit Blood Meridian again.
 

Pesqueeb

bicycle in airplane hangar
Feb 2, 2007
40,143
16,538
Riding the baggage carousel.
He sure does love to spend a lot of time building up the story before he absolutely burns it all to the ground, huh?

Really loved the narrative style, and the scene building. I expected bleakness but ... Wow.

Also noticed a recurring style where you weren't always sure who was speaking (e.g. imprecisely using pronouns or jumping into a conversation without setting a scene), or sometimes didn't get a perfect understanding of how a situation was unfolding. Usually I assume I missed something and go back to re-read, but that wasn't the case here. Just have to let the words wash over you. Is that a common style choice for him? I enjoyed it.
Definitely his milieu. Punctuation is a suggestion only. That bugs me a bit, but his story telling is just so compelling that after a bit I don't notice.

Which one(s) did you read?
 

binary visions

The voice of reason
Jun 13, 2002
22,092
1,132
NC
Definitely his milieu. Punctuation is a suggestion only. That bugs me a bit, but his story telling is just so compelling that after a bit I don't notice.

Which one(s) did you read?
Just finished All the Pretty Horses. Starting on The Road. Will probably tackle Blood Meridian after that.

I don't mind the punctuation and it adds to the feeling of just letting the words flow. I kinda like it, actually. The only thing that kept throwing me was not knowing who was speaking (or, occasionally, what the circumstances were) because I kept thinking my ADHD was kicking in and I had simply skipped reading something - which is not unusual for me. Once I stopped second guessing myself it was fine.

Depressing, but fine.

Half the book was world building an epic life adventure before someone kicked God's puppy and everyone suffered forever.
 

Westy

the teste
Nov 22, 2002
54,236
20,019
Sleazattle
Just finished All the Pretty Horses. Starting on The Road. Will probably tackle Blood Meridian after that.

I don't mind the punctuation and it adds to the feeling of just letting the words flow. I kinda like it, actually. The only thing that kept throwing me was not knowing who was speaking (or, occasionally, what the circumstances were) because I kept thinking my ADHD was kicking in and I had simply skipped reading something - which is not unusual for me. Once I stopped second guessing myself it was fine.

Depressing, but fine.

Half the book was world building an epic life adventure before someone kicked God's puppy and everyone suffered forever.
For clarification, All The Pretty Horses is the first book of the Border Trilogy. Assuming you read all 3 books as All The Pretty Horses is pretty upbeat compared to the whole story.
 

stevew

resident influencer
Sep 21, 2001
40,494
9,524
For clarification, All The Pretty Horses is the first book of the Border Trilogy. Assuming you read all 3 books as All The Pretty Horses is pretty upbeat compared to the whole story.
i can only imagine how a audiobook of his might be....
 

Fool

The Thing cannot be described
Sep 10, 2001
2,761
1,471
Brooklyn
Book adjacent, but I am really pleased to see William Gibson's Neuromancer get picked up by AppleTV for a new series. I hope they go with his idea of what the tech of the future would be like, looking at it from the early '80s when he wrote it
 

6thElement

Schrodinger's Immigrant
Jul 29, 2008
15,827
13,063
Just read Jon Krakauer's "into thin air" during my flight. Don't think I want climbing Everest on my bucket list.
 

SkaredShtles

Michael Bolton
Sep 21, 2003
65,379
12,533
In a van.... down by the river
Just read Jon Krakauer's "into thin air" during my flight. Don't think I want climbing Everest on my bucket list.
That's a bit of a sobering account of high altitude mountaineering, for sure. Not a lot of sugar-coating in it...

I just finished a book called "Demon Copperhead" that my wife handed to me randomly. It was OK, I guess.

On the hut trip I went on I started in on "World War II at Camp Hale: Blazing a New Trail in the Rockies" - it was interesting enough that I'm considering checking it out from the library so I can finish it...
 

Nick

My name is Nick
Sep 21, 2001
23,928
14,450
where the trails are
I can't put this down.





ok just kidding. I have started reading "The Creative Act: A Way of Being" by of all people, Rick Rubin. so far very interesting.