A Yalie? Hardly Major. I know a few people that worked with Bloom, but so far I've managed to stear clear of that windbag. Besides, he doesn’t really work in Yale’s English department anymore. From what I’ve heard, he’s practically segregated into his own personal department.

So while, yes, people often mock me for my laziness and sometimes even give me the finger because of my ascot, it has nothing to do with Yale.

I've read Black Swan Green. I liked it, but didn't love it and thought Mitchell added more incident than was necessary. How does Cloud Atlas compare?

Anyway, reading The Last Words of William S. Burroughs for myself, The Divine Comedy for one class and Frankenstein for another. I'm not far in any of them, but I like everything I've read in all three. So... Hooray?

Frankenstein? Sweet. I've read at least one out of the books mentioned in that flurry of literati posts.

Edith Wharton's House of mirth. An Interesting read.

"The Floating Opera" and "The End of the Road" both by John Barth. "The Floating Opera" was the better of the two but I'll have to see how the other, more dated novella wraps up. There was a movie made from "The End of the Road" back in the early 70s, late 60s maybe. It's probably totally unavailable but I'd like to see it.

The Girl Who Played with Fire. I picked up the first one in a gas station on a road trip, and was reading it for 7 hours straight. It's not especially well written, but it is compulsively readable, and it made me go out and buy the final two as soon as I was done.

I'm also going to try and track down an audiobook of Perfume: Story of a Murderer, narrated by Sean Barrett. Roger Ebert, in his review of the film, said that he considers it one of the best audiobooks he's ever heard, and after listening to an excerpt, I can see why. I haven't been able to track down a copy though. Anyone know how to get one?

There seem to be a few available on Amazon through 3rd party sellers. They're on audio cassette though.

I just accidentally erased my answer.

Short version: Black Swan Green had an irritating framing device and too much British insiders info to appeal. Cloud Atlas is endlessly clever: every story is part of a larger device, each story being an element of the next and so on.

While I'm here and you're here and everyone is reading this while they're preparing for Dogtooth...

ROOM by Emma Donoghue is an interesting read. It's told by a 5-year-old narrator and is about this kid growing up in a locked room with his mother. The entire world is Room and then... they escape. But that's the second half and you get the answer to "What happens after the last shot of Dogtooth?"

Just received Asterios Polyp in the mail. Will start reading soon.

From LibraryThing:


Sounds good to me. Kind of like Pnin without the commentary on immigration. Will you be doing a review?

The Spanish Tragedy is a hella good play.

I just bought a new phone. It's way too advanced for me. I found this Kindle application where you can read books, like, on your phone. IT'S CRAZY!

I need you guys to recommend me a book to read on there...a FREE book, to read.

Make me go blind.

If it inspires me to write one, yeah. Which it looks like it's going to. Everything about this book is badass, right from the get-go. Jesus, just look at the cover--that logo design is too good!

There's actually a bunch of stuff I want to say already, but I'll wait until I've finished the book.

I checked out "The Short Second Life of Bree Tanner" from the library....it's that Twilight novella that came out when movie-Eclipse did. And it's going to be reviewed.

I never thought I had to type that sentence.

Sweetness!

Check out Project Gutenberg. All the books are free there.

They have top 100 lists based on what people are downloading so at least you know what is popular (which doesn't necessarily make it good).

My recommendation is this: you might not like the experience of reading on your phone so start with something short like a novella or some short stories. My choice would be Kafka's Metamorphosis (if you haven't read it already):

http://www.gutenberg.org/ebooks/5200

Finished House of Mirth. Harrowing.

Awesome. Thanks for that. If I can figure that phone out, I'll download that choice, exactly.

I have just finished reading the Stephen Fry autobiography.
a Good read all round.

Read it, being free from the Cullens and Bella plus being very short makes it not suck..but not as good as Eclipse.