Books I've read, bought, or might read

[Ulysses]

OK, haven't done book reviews in a while. Here are a few.

Read recently:

Ugly Americans (Ben Mezick) - By the guy who wrote Bringing Down the House about MIT blackjack team, which I thought was great. This book was pretty weak, about hedge fund guys in Japan. Trying to be another Liar's Poker, but fails.

The Last Opium Den (Nick Tosches) - About a guy's quest to find a genuine opium den, treks across Asia etc. OK, definitely not great.

Running with Scissors (Augusten Burroughs) - Memoir of this dude growing up as a gay kid with crazy parents and a freakazoid foster family. Excellent.

Hollywood Animal (Joe Eszterhas) - Memoir of the screenwriter of Basic Instinct and many other movies. Oustanding if you are into Hollywood/movies/star-f'ing/etc. I loved this book.

Stranger than Fiction (Chuck Pahluniak) - Nonfiction essays by the author of Fight Club, Choke, Survivor, etc. I thought this was one of his best works. Loved it.

Bought recently, putting off 'til later unless someone says they are great (I wanted Running w/ Scissors and it was Buy 3 get 4th free, so......):

The Known World (Edward P Jones) - Pulitzer Prize winning book, historical fiction about a black farmer, a former slave. Apparently very good and very deep. I dunno, not in the mood for such depth at the moment.

The Red Tent - I actually bought this for my sister and wasn't really interested in it.

Bel Canto (Ann Patchett) - Another award-winning book, set in the midst of a hostage-taking situation with terrorists and, hmmm, hostages. That's really all I know. Again, maybe too serious for me at the moment.

Books I bought today and will read soon (Buy 2 get one free!):

Dry (Augusten Burroughs) - Memoir, sequel to Running w/ Scissors. Looking forward to this.

The Kite Runner (Khaled Hosseini) - Some sort of moving novel about people in Afghanistan. So many people told me it was great I finally decided to buy it.

Dress Your Family in Corduroy and Denim (David Sedaris) - I know nothing about this book, but I am a Sedaris fan.

Ace on the River (Barry Greenstein) - I havent bought a poker book in forever (BTW, I have a few signed copies of Ed Miller's books if anyone would like to offer me some $$$ for them), but this book sounds good and Barry Greenstein rules, so I just bought it mainly for the stories I've heard are in it.

[tdarko]

[ QUOTE ]
Stranger than Fiction (Chuck Pahluniak) - Nonfiction essays by the author of Fight Club, Choke, Survivor, etc. I thought this was one of his best works. Loved it.


[/ QUOTE ]
read haunted if you liked fiction he takes the horror thing to another level. i really thought haunted was fantastic.

[MasterShakes]

If you liked the Eszterhas book, check out American Rhapsody if you haven't yet. It's a bunch of reflections on the Clinton Presidency and his political experiences growing up. And no, it's not at all bland, like I just made it sound. Very entertaining.

[shadow29]

i have to read kite runner for school. dont want to. hopefulyl it doesnt suck.

i bought and will read soon beautiful losers by cohen. i read the favorite game which was fantastic. buy them both.

[smokingrobot]

Sedaris is one of the few authors who i actually laugh out loud while reading his works.

You ever read any Murakami? His most recent is so-so, i'm a huge fan of Dance Dance Dance.

Norwegian wood is probably his most popular or the wind up bird chronicle.

[squeek12]

Books that I have recently bought and plan to read in the next 4.5 months:

Cases and Materials on Torts, Epstein
Basic Logic Research, Sloan
Writing and Analysis in the Law, Sharpo
Guide to Legal Writing Style, LeClercq
Civil Procedure, Yeazell
Federal Rules of Civil Procedure, Yeazell
Criminal Law, Robinson
Contracts Cases and Doctrine, Barnett
Civil Law Property, Yianopolous
Louisiana Civil Code, Volumes I and II

I think my plate is pretty full. Not much time for recreational reading I presume.

[plaster8]

You won't be disappointed with Dry. I've actually read it several times now -- I find it so entertaining I keep going back.

[chuddo]

i liked 'dry' more than 'running with scissors'.

'haunted' by paluhniak is pretty terrible. about half of the short stories are great, and the main storyline is awful. so 25% of a good book.

sedaris is one of my favorite authors. 'dress your family' is as entertaining as all of his other books.

other recommendations are: 'the dark tower' series by stephen king as always.

and though it can be kind of hit-or-miss, 'a heartbreaking work of staggering genius' by dave eggers.

[toss]

I recommend State of Fear by Michael Crichton (The guy who wrote Jurassice Park.) If you haven't read his other books I highly suggest that you do.

[KaneKungFu123]

The novel, Vernon God Little, winner of booker prize, WILL become the offical book of OOT, if you read and endorse it. Guaranteed.

ps: how was that book about opium dens? i could easily find one in Laos. im certain of it.

[Bob Moss]

[ QUOTE ]

Running with Scissors (Augusten Burroughs) - Memoir of this dude growing up as a gay kid with crazy parents and a freakazoid foster family. Excellent.


[/ QUOTE ]

I read this book because I was in a situation where I had a ton of time to kill and nothing else to do. I thought it was terrible, but I read the whole damn thing because I had nothing else to do. It was fun though that it took place near where I live (amherst and northampton, ma), but that's about it. I'm not much of a literary critic, but the writing seemed nothing special. The molestation stuff just grossed me out of course. This author I've heard compared to David Sedaris, but the only common thing I see is that they're both gay. Sedaris is HILARIOUS. I have a book of short stories by him forget what it's called but it's great. I've rambled on too long, I'm sorry, but bottom line is, this book sucked.

B

[sexdrugsmoney]

[ QUOTE ]

The Last Opium Den (Nick Tosches) - About a guy's quest to find a genuine opium den, treks across Asia etc. OK, definitely not great.

[/ QUOTE ]

Wow I've never heard of this book before you mentioned it, but someone stole my dream!

Care to post a review about it?

+ Did he find one?

[sfer]

The new Sedaris is very good. A couple of the essays might be the best he's written.

[mason55]

All of Burroughs' books are great. I think Magical Thinking is actually my favorite.

[FatOtt]

[ QUOTE ]
Bel Canto (Ann Patchett) - Another award-winning book, set in the midst of a hostage-taking situation with terrorists and, hmmm, hostages. That's really all I know. Again, maybe too serious for me at the moment.

[/ QUOTE ]

Bel Canto is very, very good.

If you're looking for another Liar's Poker, you should definitely have read Frank Partnoy's F.I.A.S.C.O. by now.

[miajag81]

[ QUOTE ]

Basic Legal Research, Sloan


[/ QUOTE ]

Heh, not only did I have to read this book last year, but Amy Sloan was my professor...good times!

[miajag81]

Just finished Oryx and Crake by Margaret Atwood. Outstanding, and pretty scary.

[dtbog]

[ QUOTE ]

Ugly Americans (Ben Mezick) - By the guy who wrote Bringing Down the House about MIT blackjack team, which I thought was great. This book was pretty weak, about hedge fund guys in Japan. Trying to be another Liar's Poker, but fails.

[/ QUOTE ]

I loved Bringing Down the House too, but I always got the feeling that the story told itself... and that a writer would have needed to try very hard to make that book bad.

[Zeno]

If you are going to read 'Burroughs', try William S. Naked Lunch (http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/tg/detail/-/0802132952/qid=1123348981/sr=8-1/ref=pd_bbs_1/102-8266044-1407310?v=glance&s=books&n=507846)

Partial reveiw from link:

"He was," as Salon's Gary Kamyia notes, "20th-century drug culture's Poe, its Artaud, its Baudelaire. He was the prophet of the literature of pure experience, a phenomenologist of dread.... Burroughs had the scary genius to turn the junk wasteland into a parallel universe, one as thoroughly and obsessively rendered as Blake's."

Why has this homosexual ex-junkie, whose claim to fame rests entirely on one book--the hallucinogenic ravings of a heroin addict--so seized the collective imagination? Burroughs wrote Naked Lunch in a Tangier, Morocco, hotel room between 1954 and 1957. Allen Ginsberg and his beatnik cronies burst onto the scene, rescued the manuscript from the food-encrusted floor, and introduced some order to the pages. It was published in Paris in 1959 by the notorious Olympia Press and in the U.S. in 1962; the landmark obscenity trial that ensued served to end literary censorship in America.

------------------

This book will make your brain bleed.


Of course, I'm reading more morbid and mundane books, just purchased Thomas Jefferson Author of American , by Christopher Hitchens.

However, I'm still slogging through The Decline and Fall of the Rome Empire by Gibbon, a very good human comedy, replete with human foibles and imbecilities, and also spiced with marvelous insights by the author. For example:

"The religious system of the Germans (if the wild opinions of savages can deserve that name) was dictated by their wants, their fears, and their ignorance. They adored the great visible objects of nature, the Sun and the Moon, the Fire and the Earth; together with those imaginary deities, who were supposed to preside over the most important occupations of human life. They were persuaded that, by some ridiculous arts of divination, they could discover the will of the superior beings, and that human sacrifices were the most precious and acceptable offering to their altars."


When human sacrfice enters the plot of the book you are reading you know its ripping good stuff worthy of your time and attention and of absorbing into your worldview.

I would suggest that you pepper your reading with a few more old time classics. You would be pleasantly suprised, I predict.

-Zeno

[Bradyams]

[ QUOTE ]
[ QUOTE ]

Running with Scissors (Augusten Burroughs) - Memoir of this dude growing up as a gay kid with crazy parents and a freakazoid foster family. Excellent.


[/ QUOTE ]

I read this book because I was in a situation where I had a ton of time to kill and nothing else to do. I thought it was terrible, but I read the whole damn thing because I had nothing else to do. It was fun though that it took place near where I live (amherst and northampton, ma), but that's about it. I'm not much of a literary critic, but the writing seemed nothing special. The molestation stuff just grossed me out of course. This author I've heard compared to David Sedaris, but the only common thing I see is that they're both gay. Sedaris is HILARIOUS. I have a book of short stories by him forget what it's called but it's great. I've rambled on too long, I'm sorry, but bottom line is, this book sucked.

B

[/ QUOTE ]

I actually just read this last week, and I thought it was a great book (aside from the gay sex scenes). I'm not a homophobe, but reading it was a little much. Other than that though the book was extremely funny. How could you not stop from laughing when Dr. Finch thought God was talking to him through his crap?

[razor]

[ QUOTE ]
[ QUOTE ]

Ugly Americans (Ben Mezick) - By the guy who wrote Bringing Down the House about MIT blackjack team, which I thought was great. This book was pretty weak, about hedge fund guys in Japan. Trying to be another Liar's Poker, but fails.

[/ QUOTE ]

I loved Bringing Down the House too, but I always got the feeling that the story told itself... and that a writer would have needed to try very hard to make that book bad.

[/ QUOTE ]

It was a great story and I enjoyed reading the book. But I don't think it was all that well written.

I just read 'Stiff' by Mary Roach. An amazing (disturbing) look at what happens to bodies once they're no longer functioning. Not a religious book, and not just about decomposistion either. Mostly looks at corpses use in scientific research.

[Rob Blackburn]

[ QUOTE ]
Ugly Americans (Ben Mezick

[/ QUOTE ]

I liked this one alot, maybe because I know little about high finance and found those parts as facinating as the other storylines in the book. I ended up buying Rogue Trader after reading this to get the story on the market maker they always talk about in this book.




[ QUOTE ]
Hollywood Animal (Joe Eszterhas)

[/ QUOTE ]
I like reading about star-fing and movies, this guy was a real piece of work, good stuff.


[ QUOTE ]
Stranger than Fiction (Chuck Pahluniak)

[/ QUOTE ]
I didn't like it so much. Maybe I should read it again, but I found myself putting it down alot. Maybe a secound pass, the first time I read Fight Club I wasn't so thrilled about it either.

[ QUOTE ]
Ace on the River (Barry Greenstein)

[/ QUOTE ]
I thought the book was great, people ripped it to shreds in the Books forum though.

[ChipWrecked]

[ QUOTE ]
[ QUOTE ]

The Last Opium Den (Nick Tosches) - About a guy's quest to find a genuine opium den, treks across Asia etc. OK, definitely not great.

[/ QUOTE ]

Wow I've never heard of this book before you mentioned it, but someone stole my dream!

Care to post a review about it?

+ Did he find one?

[/ QUOTE ]

I read an excerpt from this in a magazine someplace. The thing that stuck with me was a statement about opium addiction. The author mentioned what horrible overkill heroin and morphine were, compared to the slow, tea ceremony pace of opium smoking. Opium smoked this way, he said, was no more addictive than cigarettes.

Not that that's great, I suppose, but at least you wouldn't find yourself retching and wishing to die in some fleabag room.

[jason_t]

[ QUOTE ]
The new Sedaris is very good. A couple of the essays might be the best he's written.

[/ QUOTE ]

I'll read everything that Sedaris writes.

[David Steele]

I love The Favorite Game too, I couldn't even get through
Beautiful losers.

It's odd because most of the critics go the other way. Cohen doesn't even like his first book, but probably because it is too much based on his real life, I am guessing.

There is a fantastic movie from the period when he wrote Favorite Game.

Movie (http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0126376/)

It must be hard to find though.

D.

[arod15]

Check out the Harry Potter books. They are a great read at any age.

[Boris]

The Greenstein book is OK. My only complaint is that you get nailed with a bad beat story on the second page of the book. Also some of the info is super beginner material for anyone who has played in a casino.

[SmileyEH]

I can vouch for Kite Runner being a great read.

-SmileyEH

[Phat Mack]

[ QUOTE ]
However, I'm still slogging through The Decline and Fall of the Rome Empire by Gibbon, a very good human comedy, replete with human foibles and imbecilities, and also spiced with marvelous insights by the author. For example:

"The religious system of the Germans (if the wild opinions of savages can deserve that name) was dictated by their wants, their fears, and their ignorance. They adored the great visible objects of nature, the Sun and the Moon, the Fire and the Earth; together with those imaginary deities, who were supposed to preside over the most important occupations of human life. They were persuaded that, by some ridiculous arts of divination, they could discover the will of the superior beings, and that human sacrifices were the most precious and acceptable offering to their altars."

[/ QUOTE ]

Zeno,

Have you read Frazer's classic, The Golden Bough? It's a book that you might enjoy dipping in to.