9622.net

Tired of chicks in bikinis?

Blasphemer.

Yes. Bring on the men in bikinis!

Ewwwww....

cowboy sally, why do i feel like we have the exact same favorites menu?

But on another note, the MeFi thread on bad books has inspired me. I'm looking for some good reading material. What have you guys been reading lately that's good summer reading (as in "Don't make my brain hurt, please")? My barnesandnoble.com account has become lazy from lack of exercise, and I'm ready to teach it a lesson.

Speaking of books, witchy, remember that Greil Marcus book I had at teh Pioneer you were interested in?

Didja ever read it, and if so, whadja think?

Actually, I had totally forgotten about it. What's it called?

This isn't exactly ahead of the curve, but I hauled all 600 hard-covered pages of The Corrections with attendant hype out to the beach. And enjoyed it quite a lot.

The Russian Debutante's Handbook! The best book I've read in quite some time, and funny as hell.

Mystery Train, by Greil Marcus.

This one by him is great too. Not exactly light reading, but if you care about music and american history thry are fascinating.

For light stuff just go with Kinky Friedman or Not Fade Away by Jim Dodge, because I loved it immensly, but I've never met another soul who's read it. It's kind of a metaphysical rockabilly beat poet road novel.

Plus Tom Perrotta's The Wishbones, easy to read but very emotionally resonant.

Read it already. I really enjoyed the Gary & Denise stories, didn't get into the Chip & parents' stories as much.

(that goes with The Corrections)

Not internal server error!

Everyone I've spoken to about The Corrections seems to like different parts. I liked Chip, Denise and the parents' stories best (but found stuff to like in Gary's, too).

I didn't click on cowboy sally's link, but the URL damn near made me pollock my screen.

Witchy, if you haven't done so already, you may want to check out the U.S.A. Trilogy by John Dos Passos. They're very interesting reads in a timepiece kind of way (think Steinbeck but without all the messy symbolism, etc.). I'm almost finished with the second one. Pretty good stuff, but not going to give you headaches.

Since we're talking books and whatnot, I found a hardcover copy of "A Heartbreaking Work of Staggering Genius" for about $4 yesterday and picked it up b/c I remember hearing some web-type folk speak high things about it. Anyone read it? Anyone willing to discuss via e-mail with me once I finish it?

Aw, g'won, click it. The power of Christ compels you.

It's awfully popular to rag on Dave Eggers, but Might magazine was truly fucking brilliant. AHWOSG is not so much. But it's an entertaining and touching read. I've not read it in a while, but I'd be willing to talk about it with you, ufez, in exchange for candy.

I choose to save my hostility for Neil Pollack, who is the Tom Green of the metaliterary world.

Oh, did anyone already recommend AM Homes? Love love love her. Read Music for Torching. Or the Safety of Objects.

I just finished Eco's latest "Baudelino," and it is both magnificent as usual and not quite as densely-packed as his earlier stuff. Now I'm into Connell's "Deus Lo Volt", a novelized history of the Crusades. I recommend both.

One book I'm reading that I cannot recommend is "Blur", subtitled Business in the Age of Information or some such nonsense. It is a load of buzzwords and bullshit. Avoid it.

I'm in North Carolina! Anyone want a tote bag?

Ufez, I loved AHWOSG but would prolly have to re-read it before I could discuss it.

The three best books I've read lately were "Big If" and "Bag Men", both by Mark Costello, and "Up in the Air" by Walter Kirn.

I'm currently re-reading a Nero Wolfe mystery by Rex Stout (went and found his brownstone the other day)...and "Pattern Recognition", "Carter Beats the Devil", "You Shall Know Our Velocity" and "Emporium" are all on the on-deck shelf. Can't decide which one's next.

Oh , be nice to Tom Green. I was told all the time that I looked like him back in the day.

Only I never got to boink Drew Barrymore.

*sniff*

On preview: I loved Up In The Air, too. I'm also gonna start the new Jedidiah Purdy soon. I like the little bugger. Someone has to.

You use preview on 9622? Wimp.

We want to see the unfiltered, unadulterated musings, Jon!

Oh, trust me, that's the last thing in the world you'd wanna see....

Also a good recent read (but not recently written): "Gun, With Occasional Music" by Jonathan Lethem (his "Motherless Brooklyn" got a lot of buzz but I didn't like it as much as GWOM..."Gun" is like the offspring of Raymond Chandler and Philip K. Dick), one of the wonderful Travis McGee novels by John D. McDonald, "Put A Lid On It" by Donald E. Westlake, and on the nonfiction side: "Fast Food Nation" by Eric Strosser, "The Gatekeepers" by Jacques Steinberg, and "The Emperor of Scent" by Chandler Burr.

And I miss Might too. There's a pretty good compilation out called "Shiny Adidas Tracksuits and the Death of Camp" that gets some of the highlights.

I actually have 7 or 8 of the old issues, including the Adam Rich "death" issue in a box somewhere in my apartment. I accumulated a lot of cultural artifacts in the late 80's to the mid 90's period.

And Neal Pollack is fun -- you like Gawker, but not Pollack? Gawker : New York :: Neal Pollack : literary establishment.

Oh, trust me, that's the last thing in the world you'd wanna see....

Nah, the last thing I'd wanna see is Rush Limbaugh fucking the headless corpse of Reba McEntire. Your pure, unfiltered musings don't even hold a candle.

Fes! I'll pass on the tote bag, thanks anyway. But if you change planes at CVG on the way home, I'll meet ya for a beer.

It would be like a really cool NYC meetup, except it would be in Kentucky. *sigh*

And ufez, go to your room. That was not a nice thought, young man!

Witchy: I don't know you very well but I think I know you a little; your sense of humour above all. So I venture to suggest you read Samuel Beckett's Watt. It may well be my favourite book - the one I read for sheer enjoyment.

Otherwise, from the clues I've gathered about you here on the Tootoo, I'd say you were also a Chekhov, Flann O'Brien, Muriel Spark, Ionesco sort of girl. Oscar Wilde's funny plays (Earnest, Fan, Husband) you've probably already read. What about Evelyn Waugh's Vile Bodies, Decline and Fall, Scoop and Black Mischief? Or his travel books, anthologised in "When The Going Was Good"?

For food books with a kick: Elizabeth David.

I'm writing this and I so well remember Brittney's post from a while back, where she polled us for what movie she should go and see and we sort of selected Red Dragon.

I watched the DVD yesterday and when the close-up of Philip Seymour Hoffman's feet came up I exclaimed: "Look! Brittney warned me about this!"

And my wife goes: "Brittney?"

The rest would be treasonous to my wife to recount. But it wasn't nice.

Oh no.

I had fun reading Pattern Recognition, if not for the story, then at least for the look at online communities in a fictional setting. It was so hard not to think of Metafilter the whole time I was reading it.

I, too, have been known to call out "Brittney" at inappropriate times.

So have I, but fortunately I'm alone in the room.

Two books:
"The Reluctant Saint" by Donald Spoto (about St. Francis of Assisi)
"The Emperor of Scent" by Chandler Burr (about renegade scientists Luca Turin and, well, scent)
Both non-fiction, but good.

Two books:
"The Reluctant Saint" by Donald Spoto (about St. Francis of Assisi)
"The Emperor of Scent" by Chandler Burr (about renegade scientists Luca Turin and, well, scent)
Both non-fiction, both good.

both are good. both. as in each one. meaning two. not one. both.

Otherwise, from the clues I've gathered about you here on the Tootoo, I'd say you were also a Chekhov, Flann O'Brien, Muriel Spark, Ionesco sort of girl.

This could be a cottage industry -- Miguel reads your postings and decides what books you should read.

Do mine!

"Pattern Recognition" was really good -- read that next, Vidiot. "Heartbreaking Work of Staggering Etc." -- I *have* it, but didn't read it. Bought it two weeks after my Dad died, without realizing...yeah, you get the picture. Still haven't read it. Will read it someday. I would totally, absolutely recommend The Savage Girl -- if the plot isn't quite all there, the concepts are killer.

BUT, Ms. Witchy wanted "non-thinking" books, so I'd heartily recommend these as happy little lite-reading romps: Plan B, Sellevision, and (best out of the three) e (yes, that's the title.) :)

On Amazon:

Customers interested in Plan B may also be interested in:

Morning-After Pill $24.95
U.S. Doctors offer safe web consult

In any discussion of Moneybooks, we should include our

Desert Island Books Thread
and
The Big List followup thread.

Because I said so.

But I'm not going to a desert island--just the subway.

Thanks for the suggestions. Now can you guys help me with my homework?

ColdChef, you can come out now! They caught the serial killer.

And isn't this always the case - he's a smooth talking bastard. "I hate to use the word charming, but he really was," she told The Advocate.

Com-fucking-pletely off topic..

but how cool is this...

Big, Stern Amazon Woman Swats Jonmc For Un-PC Link

Thank You, big stern amazon woman, may I have another?

The sterner the better, I always say.

*whap!*

Funny, for me that link doesn't conjure up images of limber young tennis stars. It conjures up images of shivs whittled out of hair picks and Linda Blair with a plunger.

*steps out of cold shower*

How about them there books!

Incidentally, who is Miss Junior Rumpleminze anyhow?

I. MUST. HAVE. THIS. ALBUM!

Damn, Fred Missildine is, like, the Michael Jordan of skeet shooting.

Have you ever been driving along a road at 2 a.m. and seen a guy walking down the street with a big cross on his shoulder? And the cross has a little wheel on the bottom so that he can walk around the whole city saying a prayer for it.

Well, neither have I. That's not exactly true. That man was me.

I've been lurking here for awhile and it turns out you guys read, too? Is there nothing you can't do?

*goes back to reading her Tick comics and keeping an eye on #mefi*

I can't do most things actually. I can't even type. I just sit here drooling in my wheelchair, while my specially trained army or telepathic mice pounds my thoughts onto the keyboard.

Pathetic, really.

And with all the sugar he eats, that's some sticky drool.

I read the New Yorker every week, and anything beyond that is gravy. I have been reading Bill Bryson's Notes from a Small Island, and though it is a little whiney it has some really good moments.

But it helps that your mice are geniuseseses, jon. Bunch of little Algernons, I dare say.

And witchy, sorry to ask, but if that is you dragging that cross around... why the wheel?

Whenever I see a Cross Guy with a wheel I always think:

"Repent! But don't feel like you have to over-do it."

He had it all rigged up man. This guy was a professional cross bearer. He once walked all the way from Salt Lake City to St. George or something (which is about a 5 hour drive). I guess he was praying for all those heathen Mormons (Mormons pretty much avoid all cross symbolism).

Recommended light summer reading:

A Confederacy of Dunces by John Kennedy Toole. (Although, you may have to be southern to get this one.)

Sweet Potato Queens' Book of Love and God Save the Sweet Potato Queens (campy, silly fun.)

Wacky Chicks: Life Lessons from Fearlessly Inappropriate and Fabulously Eccentric Women

and for entertaining, but a little deeper than strange women in latex and big hair:

The Decameron - by Giovanni Boccaccio

What a feelin'
Bein's believin'
A song can have it all
And become a shitty film!

Sk8er Boi - The Movie

I was learning about building supplies today, and I learned that they have new plastic textured lumber look-alike stuff that weighs practically nothing.

The cross man needs to get a load of it. If he paints it up right, even God won't know the difference.

Well, if you believe in the law of threes, then this completes the devil's triangle (with Ms. Spears and Ms. Carey) of diva-derived crimes against cinema.

It's so gonna suck. I'm so going to see it.

But tiz, what does it look like if you drag it along the ground? If it looks bad, you still gotta go with the wheel, and then Cyrano's gonna laugh at you.

This cross would be so light that you could get by with a caster. Much more discreet than a wheel, my friend!

*pings salmonberry*

You dirty lurker!

I am here!

ebk, you'd best be careful or you'll get a CTCP fingering right where you don't want one!

wait. i'm a dirty lurker here too lately.

Problem solved.

Go, go Gadget Cross!

It's fuckin' raining and I gotta walk alla way to Ave A to buy my train beer, cause there's the only place in Lower Manhattan you can get Country Club for cheap.

I'm gonna be one wet flannelly smellin' mother fucker.

Wheeee! Salmonberry! Welcome! :)

Let me just uncork the bubbly put something appropriate on the turnplayer.

This is so surreal. That giant eight-ball is in a casket! And is that third fellow from the left Colonel Potter from M*A*S*H?

Och! So many excellent ideas for the would-be martyr in your life!

Tiz, Cyrano, y'all should go into business. In these post-millennial times, I'd bet the faux-cross racket is one hella big untapped market. Huuuge upside there.

dirty!
Dirty!
UNCLEAN!!! UNCLEAN!!!

oh, sorry.

what?

Migs, I assure you if I had me a spouse and I exclaimed something about a Miguel out loud and unexpectedly, I'd be getting a divorce.

Because, what could I say, really? "He's this really suave, Portuguese writer I know from on-line. He wrote this really incricate and explicit post about sex and it's varying positions once..."

Okay, so a rabbi walks into a bar. The bartender says "See that nun over there? If you recite the Carmina Burana from memory that nun will do you right here on the bar." The rabbi says "I'll take a gin and tonic." A lady stands up and says "I'd pull down your pants to get a drink."

The rabbi sits down and says "You have a drink named Eric?"

Now THAT is dirty. I lurk solely for research and educational purposes.

Hmmm. Apparently, my site has taken on a monkey theme that I didn't expect.

Kinda got the short end of the Google ad stick, didn't ya EBK?

I'm jealous. That's a damn fine search referrer.

That's a nice redesign you got going there, EBK!

Good read too!

See what a well-placed anal reference on Google can achieve?

!

Our resident Portuguese cult author called me a "Good Read!"

*prepares press release*

AAAH! From salmon's link:

So this dog walks into a bar. A monkey pounds on the bar and yells "I'm gonna fuck you and anyone else you'd like to invite along!" The dog gets flustered and doesn't know what to say. The bartender says "You owe me a twenty."

So the dog sits down and says "You better pet him first, he looks mean."

Nothing like drubk monkeys at bars yelling "I'm gonna fuck you and anyonelse you'd like to invite along!"

FTW!!!!!!

Fight The War?
Feel Truly Worthy?
Foul Weather Tonight?

jon, didya want to read the corned beef article?

FTW=Fuck The World.

I toldja, Katz's is better tha the Carnegie....

I warned you it was dirty, ufez. But did you listen? NooOOOooOOo.

Why have corned beef when you can have pastrami?

Fleece the World...

which i remember from the Sigue Sigue Sputnik record.

I toldja, Katz's is better tha the Carnegie....
I believe you, but when I come to New York, we'll do another taste test. Not for science, just for fun.

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