Which books kicked your butt?

[GeorgieForPresident2216]

Maybe this line I found is a bit self-referential:

"We are circumveiloped by obscuritads."

A tad bit obscure?

[Avi]

A tad bit obscure?

Yes, almost as bad as A Conspiracy of Dunces.

[Mind Flayer Monk]

A tad bit obscure?

Or a small bit of yeti's fur

[Harmness]

Finnegan's Wake is a good one.  Slogged my way through Ulysses years ago, but had to holler 'nuff pretty quickly into Finnegan's Wake.

Nabokov's Ada, or Ardor kicks my ass.  It's one of those which I feel that there's a roiling sea of depth and meaning just beneath, and I can't quite seem to get to it.

[zeebo]

...Nabokov's Ada, or Ardor kicks my ass.  It's one of those which I feel that there's a roiling sea of depth and meaning just beneath, and I can't quite seem to get to it.

That one has a bit of a rep for being difficult.  I might check it out sometime, but first have to see how I do with Pale Fire, which is on my reading list.

[SredniVashtar]

That one has a bit of a rep for being difficult.  I might check it out sometime, but first have to see how I do with Pale Fire, which is on my reading list.

I keep meaning to try and get to Ada, but its reputation for difficulty has put me off. Also Pale Fire is one of those that I have started but never managed to get through. I never know whether to skip the poem and come back to it after I have read all the footnotes or just get it out of the way. Also, it is one of those books that it seems nobody really knows how what it all means. I just read Nabokov's Speak Memory, which is worth a go, although it is as far from a conventional autobiography as it is possible to get. I don't know about anybody else, but the first time I read Lolita I didn't like it all, then read it a second time and thought it was a bit better. It took me another go at it before it finally dawned on me what a masterpiece it was. Most people cottoned on to it sooner, of course. There is something about Nabokov that always takes me a little while to get the hang of.

[stenjay]

Any of these:

http://awkwardfamilyphotos.com/2015/03/02/12-awkward-childrens-books/

[Avi]

That one has a bit of a rep for being difficult.  I might check it out sometime, but first have to see how I do with Pale Fire, which is on my reading list.

I hate Nabokov and everything about him, his cheap snobbery, his adolescent petulance and his need to trample bourgeois sensibilities - like there's anything clever about any of it. I'd rather hear a Hell's Angels biker on an acid trip talk about synesthesia. I don't buy the prose-vérité argument, either. Can you tell I don't like the man? Every time I hear about a book-burning in progress, I drop by just to throw a couple of Nabokov "works" in the flames.

[zeebo]

...Every time I hear about a book-burning in progress, I drop by just to throw a couple of Nabokov "works" in the flames.

I haven't had such a bad reaction since my last Oprah Book Club selection.   

[Harmness]

I felt the same about Nabokov until I read a short story of his in Playboy sometime in the 90s, which I read and liked before realizing who wrote it.  I finally got around to reading Lolita knowing I'd hate it, but that I might as well read the damn thing so I could excoriate from a position of knowledge, and, strangely enough, it was good.  I still don't know how a book about a fucking kid-toucher can be a good read, but damn if it ain't.

I feel about Salinger the way you feel about Navokov, Avi.

And I am reminded of a review I once read:  "The only way this book could be worse is if it jumped off the nightstand, crawled on your bed and shit on your pillow."

[Avi]

And I am reminded of a review I once read:  "The only way this book could be worse is if it jumped off the nightstand, crawled on your bed and shit on your pillow."

[maureen]

Reading Joyce, I find that I view his language as the revolt of a colonial using the colonizer's imposed restrictions... an Irishman trying to resurrect an Irish identity... bugger the colonizer Brit!!

[zeebo]

Reading Joyce, I find that I view his language as the revolt of a colonial using the colonizer's imposed restrictions... an Irishman trying to resurrect an Irish identity... bugger the colonizer Brit!!

I never thought about this, but definitely alot of such anti-colonial sentiment in the subversive content of Ulysses.  Interesting to think the style/language itself is reinforcing the theme. 

Btw great to see you back posting, Maureen.

[maureen]

I never thought about this, but definitely alot of such anti-colonial sentiment in the subversive content of Ulysses.  Interesting to think the style/language itself is reinforcing the theme. 

Btw great to see you back posting, Maureen.

Thanks, my dear Squirrel Nutkin!!
I always consider the times in which an author is writing... and use socio-political analysis when I watch soccer, too. Canada will NEVER win the World Cup!! 

[Avi]

Canada will NEVER win the World Cup!! 

Allez-y, Canadiens!

[WildCard]

Marshall McLuhan's -- Understanding Media: The Extensions of Man ... we had to read it in broadcasting school and it literally made my brain spin. A lot of what he delineated back in '67 has and is happening and likely will happen. It's some seriously VERY deep shit.

No doubt. A century later and he's still over my head. But not in a 'baffle you with bullshit' way.

Speaking of, what's the deal with Pynchon? Does anybody get it?

No prob.  In the interest of full disclosure, I read the abridged version.  But still... dang.
It was still almost 1000 pages of exquisitely crafted 18th century run-on sentences.

I went through the same thing with, "The Golden Bough". For years I checked it out and read a few pages each time. Then Miss Smarty Pants says, "and I don't mean the single-volume, abridged version. I mean all 12 volumes." Fuck that. You're the teacher. Just tell us the good parts.

Anyone every read any of Harold Lamb's history books? Things like Hannibal, Ghengis Khan, Suleiman, or the founding of Constantinople? I really like all of these. Unfortunately, the prices for Lamb's 40 year old books are the same as modern books.

I hadn't. Still haven't finished a single book, but these are all must-reads. Thanx.

[pate]

Dune is one of the most exquisite novels produced in its time.

The spice is oil. Get it?

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1uXEVRaTpdQ

[Robert Ghostwolf's Ghost]

This one, and it also made me weep unabashedly. If anyone has a problem with that it's their problem.

MAPA

[pate]

Aye, the common ones vershtandig, as do I dig.

Mmmm

[Robert Ghostwolf's Ghost]

This one didn't kick butt as much as it evoked screaming night terrors.

[pate]

This one didn't kick butt as much as it evoked screaming night terrors.

Your kiddie laborers seem to ash a derp howl...  Pics on 'tubes reprehensint the flushable?  Your narrative is intriggering, to say the lest.

[Yorkshire pud]

The Double Tenth, by George Brown.. only book I've read twice.  Great read.

[GravitySucks]

Differential Calculus

Or these two...

[21st Century Man]

The Old Testament.  When I was younger I made it through the parting of the Red Sea in Exodus but then got bored.  Recently, I tried  again, made it into Numbers and once again got bored.  I'm thinking about skipping the rest of the Pentateuch and moving into the other books.  I've read the New Testament 2 or 3 times and that was basically a breeze.

I've also wanted to read all of Gibbons Rise and Fall as I love Roman history but the sheer length of all the volumes has been too intimidating what with the archaic prose.

[Robert Ghostwolf's Ghost]

Your kiddie laborers seem to ash a derp howl...  Pics on 'tubes reprehensint the flushable?  Your narrative is intriggering, to say the lest.

To paraphrase Homer's gripping account of the reaction of Polyphemus to the neigbors who angrily exhorted him to quit his bellyaching and shut the heck up after Odyssesses blinded him by jamming a red hot hot stick into his eye, "No man is grabbing my kitten!"

[Ciardelo]

Purchased through the Weekly Reader Book Club.

[21st Century Man]

I love horror novels and I've tried really hard to read this book.  Two attempts have been made.  I love some of Simmons other work like Carrion Comfort, Summer of Night and Song of Kali but The Terror was a slog and moved far too slow for my taste.




I'm not sure if it kicked my butt or it was simply too ponderous.

[Yorkshire pud]

To paraphrase Homer's gripping account of the reaction of Polyphemus to the neigbors who angrily exhorted him to quit his bellyaching and shut the heck up after Odyssesses blinded him by jamming a red hot hot stick into his eye, "No man is grabbing my kitten!"

I miss when you read like that to me. Happier times.

[GravitySucks]

I guess I must admit I couldn't finish this one.

[Robert Ghostwolf's Ghost]

The Old Testament.  When I was younger I made it through the parting of the Red Sea in Exodus but then got bored.  Recently, I tried  again, made it into Numbers and once again got bored.  I'm thinking about skipping the rest of the Pentateuch and moving into the other books.  I've read the New Testament 2 or 3 times and that was basically a breeze.

I've also wanted to read all of Gibbons Rise and Fall as I love Roman history but the sheer length of all the volumes has been too intimidating what with the archaic prose.

I was willing to give the Old Testament a fair shake until I got to the part about God bringing The Flood in part because even the animals had pissed Him off because they were being disrespectful by mouthing off about stuff. Random samplings of Leviticus and Deuteronomy didn't help, either.