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Author Topic: Rate the last book you read.  (Read 194211 times)

St. Martin the Bald

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Re: Rate the last book you read.
« Reply #320 on: December 19, 2009, 10:52:17 PM »
lol...I just needed some familiar ground lately...
Hey, nice marmot!

skjerva

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Re: Rate the last book you read.
« Reply #321 on: December 20, 2009, 03:02:52 AM »
i never look into the book thread here, have many people read and written on The Road? i just read it and thought it was pretty bad and i am wondering about the good reputation it seems to have.
But I wish the public could, in the midst of its pleasures, see how blatantly it is being spoon-fed, and ask for slightly better dreams. 
                        - Iris Barry from "The Public's Pleasure" (1926)

saltine

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Re: Rate the last book you read.
« Reply #322 on: December 20, 2009, 03:11:09 AM »
Although it's not my favorite Cormac McCarthy book, I thought it was worthwhile.  I can see why a filmmaker would enjoy the challenges it provided.

What's your complaint with it?  Just a general dislike or the prose style or anything specific.  (It's OK to limit your reply to a few words; I'm good with that. ;))
Texan Down Under

Basil

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Re: Rate the last book you read.
« Reply #323 on: December 20, 2009, 11:32:37 AM »
i never look into the book thread here, have many people read and written on The Road? i just read it and thought it was pretty bad and i am wondering about the good reputation it seems to have.

I didn't care for it much either.
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skjerva

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Re: Rate the last book you read.
« Reply #324 on: December 20, 2009, 11:48:03 AM »
Although it's not my favorite Cormac McCarthy book, I thought it was worthwhile.  I can see why a filmmaker would enjoy the challenges it provided.

What's your complaint with it?  Just a general dislike or the prose style or anything specific.  (It's OK to limit your reply to a few words; I'm good with that. ;))

**perhaps spoilers for The Road**

yeah, the prose was part of it.  a lot of simple sentences piled on top of one another.  the simple language with the occasional 5-cent word tossed in didn't work. the staccato man-boy exchanges were a little bit of torture, but as far as the many odd/poor stylistic choices, at least this made sense. then there is the plot: wander wander nature observation wander wander get hungry and luck onto food wander wander see bad guys wander wander nature observation wander wander get hungry wander wander luck onto food wander wander run into bad guys.  te-de-us!!! then there is the ethic of the thing - mommy leaves and father protects the son - this is good guys against bad guys.  bootstraps time.  funny how the bad guys travel in groups/communities and the good guys travel alone and never help out other good guys - really messed up. then we are redeemed by the motherly mother at close.

i'm really curious why people like it (though i get it does a decent job of painting the picture of a snowy and sooty landscape)
But I wish the public could, in the midst of its pleasures, see how blatantly it is being spoon-fed, and ask for slightly better dreams. 
                        - Iris Barry from "The Public's Pleasure" (1926)

saltine

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Re: Rate the last book you read.
« Reply #325 on: December 20, 2009, 05:10:04 PM »
If you don't buy into the father's need to teach his son and save his son, then it does get tedious. 

This book is not representative of McCarthy's body of work.  In fact the prose style is very different here from his other books.  He has a great story to tell in Blood Meridian and tells it powerfully.
Texan Down Under

Holly Harry

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Re: Rate the last book you read.
« Reply #326 on: December 20, 2009, 08:51:56 PM »
If you don't buy into the father's need to teach his son and save his son, then it does get tedious. 


Yes, the novel absolutely deals with McCarthy's old age and the age of his son(who is still a child). It's a novel about hoping that your child can make way without you, which is probably why it resonated with so many people.

Suttree is great, and hilarious.
"Political questions, if you go back thousands of years, are ephemeral, not important. History is the same thing over and over again."-Woody Allen.

jbissell

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Re: Rate the last book you read.
« Reply #327 on: December 20, 2009, 09:14:54 PM »
If you don't buy into the father's need to teach his son and save his son, then it does get tedious. 

This book is not representative of McCarthy's body of work.  In fact the prose style is very different here from his other books.  He has a great story to tell in Blood Meridian and tells it powerfully.

Boy is it ever different from Blood Meridian (which I need to pick back up, I had to take a breather).

pixote

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Re: Rate the last book you read.
« Reply #328 on: December 21, 2009, 06:03:16 AM »
Snow Falling on Cedars  (David Guterson, 1994)

A little hard for me to judge this book fairly, given my love for the film.  The same great story is here, along with the same great setting, but I was constantly comparing Guterson's prose to Robert Richardson's cinematography, and the prose just pales in comparison.  It's fine writing, functional and readable and unobtrusive, but just not beautiful.  Richardson's photography, on the other hand, is breathtakingly gorgeous and immersive.  I suspect this is why the story's central romance hit me so much harder in the cinema than in the book.  Guterson did make me swoon at least once ("He told himself he had never felt so happy, and he felt a sort of ache that this was happening and would never again happen in just this way no matter how long he lived."), but generally the passages were just good enough, rarely great.

The structure is fantastic, however, and the character of Nels Gudmundsson is every bit as vivid as Max von Sydow's performance in the film.  Ishmael's lighthouse discovery near the end felt very forced (did the film smooth this over?  I can't remember), but most of the plotting is very solid, just like the characterizations.

So, yeah, it's quite a good book, but, damn, I wish I owned the film.  I'd watch it right now.  Too bad it's one of those snapcase DVDs.

Grade: B

pixote
   
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Steven O. Selsnik

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Re: Rate the last book you read.
« Reply #329 on: December 21, 2009, 07:53:34 AM »
K2-Life and Death on the World's Most angerous Mountain (Ed Viesturs with David Roberts) - Only about halfway through but this book busted me out of my reading quicksand. The last couple of books I have chosen i really did not like. This one has me roped. I like mountain climbing books but have never so much as climbed a pimple on the earth let alone these gianourmous peaks. Hoping to finish before Wednesday since I am sure I will get three or four books for Christmas.
« Last Edit: December 21, 2009, 07:58:47 AM by Steven O. Selsnik »