On the slate

[Don Eduardo]

Holidays again and I have time to read arse-loads. There's a few ugly, uncreased spines sitting on my shelf that I've picked up over the course of the year that I'm going to try and get through. Anyone have any thoughts on the following, as to which I should consider getting into first?

Eco - Island Of The Day Before
Dick - Valis
Garcia - Love In The Time of Cholera (I loved 100 years so damn much this will be one of the first)
Gibson - Idoru/Pattern Recognition (still unsure of this guy, seems a bit simplistic at times)
Amis - Stanley & The Women (I have no idea why I picked this up or what it's about)
Pynchie - Mason & Dixon (probably might wait until GR has sunk in fully)
Barnes - History Of The World (A Toast recommendation)

Any other ideas for stuff I should consider picking up with my inevitable Christmas book vouchers are more than welcome as well. Anything proposed by Roark will be aptly discounted, of course.

[The Rambam]

Of those, I've only read Idoru and Pattern Recognition. Personally, I preferred PR to Idoru.

[Roark]

Anything proposed by Roark will be aptly discounted, of course.

Haven't got the skin for non-fiction then, eh Southman? Haven't got the bollocks for the REAL WORLD?

Go back to your poofter art-nik lefty wanktomes then. I hope you're happy together.

[Busta]

Somebody recommend me something pertaining to recommending recommendations

[ReverseEngineer]

Have you read Focault's Pendulum by Eco?
The only other one of his I've read is his last one, The Mysterious Flame of Queen Loana
it was a lot less "heavy" than Pendulum. For that reason I liked it a lot more.

Mason & Dixon is muchmuchmuch different from Gravity's Rainbow. no less funny or dense, though. And certainly great.

[Don Eduardo]

I've read Name Of The Rose and a heap of his essays. I'll read Island soonish.

I knew you would say something like that about M&D. I will get to that over Chrissy.

[ReverseEngineer]

I knew you would say something like that about M&D. I will get to that over Chrissy.

it's tough, because it seems like they go back and forth over that fucking line for years.
and they probably did.

but you're no stranger to how Pynchon rewards the readers who make it to the end.

[Don Eduardo]

Roark, real life can go blow a goat.

Update time, I guess. I'm about halfway through Mason & Dixon, and as I've remarked upon elsewhere on bbs-land, I think it's my favourite Tom Pynchon novel I've read thus far. Great writing at its most addictive, page-turning best.

I'm kind of simultaneously flipping through Barnes's History Of The World... and am a little unimpressed. Being such an episodic book I'm not really engulfed in it the way I remember I was years ago during Flaubert's Parrot.

Just prior to those I went back and re-read A Confederacy Of Dunces on a whim. Why that's not been made into a terrible Hollywood black comedy directed by Wes Anderson or the like is beyond me.

I was gifted a fair whack of book vouchers for Chrissy, and picked up some Philip Roth on an impulse. All those Time articles about how he's the "Greatest Novelist Alive" and winning awards for every single bloody book he puts out probably turned me off. Considering I'm going through a bit of a phase involving hyped books it's probably time I gave him a shot.

[ReverseEngineer]

I thought I read somewhere that Soderbergh was trying to get Dunces made...

[Don Eduardo]

I just quickly looked it up. Apparently he wrote a draft of the screenplay that was nearly green-lit last year. Will Ferrell was reading for Ignatius...gah.

[Rick Cave]

A no name disgusting bastard would be good.
Hollywood doesn't like no name disgusting bastards.

Reading about the guy was annoying enough. Seeing him would push me over the edge.
It's like a combination of pi and Clayton.

[Don Eduardo]

I hate you for putting that image in my head, but it's pretty apt.

[Rick Cave]

I can see both of them pushing a hot dog cart around New Orleans.