Reading material

Has anybody read any novels, poetry or any other piece of literature that's worthy for me to read this summer? I don't plan on getting a job, and I fully expect to have a load of time to sit on my arse at home and watch TV and read books. What do you people suggest? I've no time to read anything but my biochem packets and my international relations lecture notes.

...read PATRICK SUESSKIND - 'Das Parfüm' (The Perfume) a german one, I wonder, if it isn't translated yet...

...and buy some CHARLES BUKOWSKY books...

...at last: a nice summer !;)

The Saviour

Mario Puzo "The Godfather". Belive it or not,its better than the film. Same goes for Irvine Welsh "Trainspotting" although that might be a bit of a tough read for an american cos its written using a lot of scottish slang words.

I'd get a subscription to an online game. Sit on your ass and kill others, virtually.

Get a fucking job, or at least go and do some voluntary work. Do something constructive. Sorry, but I have no patience with wasters.

Originally posted by Detweiler 3.63 Get a fucking job, or at least go and do some voluntary work. Do something constructive. Sorry, but I have no patience with wasters.

I actually will have a job this summer, and I'm doing volunteer work now; this thread was more of a joke since Jeff didn't want people discussing literature in one of his threads. Me not having a job is was a scenario for me to get a bunch of suggestions for reading material.

Fair enough.

Catch-22 anything by P.J. O'Rourke or Joe Queenan Lies and the Lying Liers who Tell Them Mike Nelson's Deathrat

That's what I'd recommend, at least (being a friendless anti-social loser who spends way too much time reading :p )

Originally posted by Taboo # 7 Lies and the Lying Liers who Tell Them

Al Franken I'd spend my time better by reading something from Michael "misleading" Moore

Originally posted by Duckman > Originally posted by Taboo # 7> > Lies and the Lying Liers who Tell Them

Al Franken I'd spend my time better by reading something from Michael "misleading" Moore

And here I was thinking you were turning from the Dark Side of the Force

You have mail (be-otch)

Why don't you take advantage of your free time and learn another language? That's what I would do if I had three free months in front of me.

But if you must have a recommendation: Intellectuals by Paul Johnson. Truly fascinating and sooooo refreshing. Very funny, also.

Well, Frenchy, I'd recommend you bone up on some interesting French (or at least French language) lit:

The Theatre and Its Double by Antonin Artaud Philosophy in the Bedroom by the Marquis de Sade Maldoror by the Comte de Lautreamont The Plague by Albert Camus America by Jean Baudrillard The History of Sexuality by Michel Foucault Nausea by Jean-Paul Sartre The Flowers of Evil by Charles Baudelaire Les Miserables by Victor Hugo

Originally posted by His Holiness, The Pope Well, Frenchy, I'd recommend you bone up on some interesting French (or at least French language) lit:The Theatre and Its Double by Antonin ArtaudPhilosophy in the Bedroom by the Marquis de SadeMaldoror by the Comte de LautreamontThe Plague by Albert CamusAmerica by Jean BaudrillardThe History of Sexuality by Michel FoucaultNausea by Jean-Paul SartreThe Flowers of Evil by Charles BaudelaireLes Miserables by Victor Hugo

Well he would need the whole Summer and then some just to read Les Miserables, would he not?

I would start with The Plague, superb book with more levels than a shopping centre and avoid The Nausea like errm the plague, the proper, rodenty one.

Originally posted by Budvar Huber

Originally posted by His Holiness, The Pope Well, Frenchy, I'd recommend you bone up on some interesting French (or at least French language) lit:

The Theatre and Its Double by Antonin Artaud Philosophy in the Bedroom by the Marquis de Sade Maldoror by the Comte de Lautreamont The Plague by Albert Camus America by Jean Baudrillard The History of Sexuality by Michel Foucault Nausea by Jean-Paul Sartre The Flowers of Evil by Charles Baudelaire Les Miserables by Victor Hugo

Well he would need the whole Summer and then some just to read Les Miserables, would he not?

I would start with The Plague, superb book with more levels than a shopping centre and avoid The Nausea like errm the plague, the proper, rodenty one.

I've already read Les Miz in English, and it's a book I'd frankly not want to read again. I don't particularly like Hugo.

If I don't end up reading more works from Celine, I may just go into Camus' works.

ok for "summer" reading...I reccomend

-Wild Sheep Chase and Dance Dance Dance by Haruki Murakami -Anything by JG Ballard -Short stories of Jorge Luis Borges -Anything by Chuck Palahniuk

David Foster Wallace is also a hoot...but can be a bit challenging for summer...read him in the fall/winter

Well, I read Les Miserables in an abridged form that was about half the length of the original, but it was still a hefty read at 500 pages. And now that it's been mentioned, Nausea is pretty nausea-inducing but at least it's better than reading something like Being and Nothingness.

Here's a few random books like I like quite a lot that are definitely worth a read:

The Atrocity Exhibition by J.G. Ballard Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas by Hunter S. Thompson A People's History of the United States by Howard Zinn One Hundred Years of Solitude by Gabriel Garcia Marquez (a good summer read) ...and a wonderful little Romantic novel (practically a novella, it's so short) called The Sorrows of Young Werther by Goethe

but you could always be like me and make your primary leisure activity watching interesting movies...i'm sure I could whip up a list of obscure ones for you to search out.

I will probably try to read some books from Kundera; I started The Unbearable Lightness of Being, but for some reason I never finished it.

If you haven't already read it, read Camus' "The Stranger" or "A Happy Death." Or, for a movie, you could always watch My Own Private Idaho a few times in a row. Or, since Gravitation is finally coming on to DVD in the US, find it and watch the first few episodes in Japanese. Actually, that's what I'm probably going to be doing.

I thoought you read those for the articles.

"this band could be your life" - Michael Azerrad A very interesting series of Bios/Interviews with members of Sonic Youth, Fugazi, Black Flag, The Minutemen, Dinosaur Jr, Mission Of Burma and a few others. If you're into music, you'll like this. Charles Bukowski is good for light reading. I don't care for his poems much but his stories are like sitting down with one of the coolest guys you've ever met at a bar while sitting alone, reading the newspaper. "A Party Of One" - Anneli Rufus subtitled as "a loner's manifesto". Essays about people wjo consider themselves "loners". Reading it right now and she hits the nail on the head. We just don't/won't/can't fit into society. "A Natural History Of The Senses" - Diane Ackerman Non fiction. Just whaat the title says. I buy it for myself and always give that copy away to someone and buy it again. Can you recommend something?

I have to agree with those who mentioned bukowski (he's by far my favorite :D)

I'd add some robbins and vonnegut to the "light-summer-books" list as well;)

As far as Hunter Thompson goes, I have to say "The Great Shark Hunt" is great (and bulky enough to get through the summer). I want to get my hands on the books of letters he put out (one back in '97 which I got through half of before getting kicked out of college, "The Proud Highway"), but I have been strapped for cash lately (I know, I know, me a river).

Psychotic reactions and carburetor dung, by Lester Bangs. Either read it beginning to end or dip into various chapters at random . Mission by Patrick Tilley. And if alcholol related stuff is your thing, Play the piano drunk like a percussion instument by Bukowski. Under the volcano by Malcolm Lowry The Complete bartenders guide by Dave Broom. And for light reading Dark omens by Terry Pratchett and Neil Gaiman

Originally posted by Taboo # 7 As far as Hunter Thompson goes, I have to say "The Great Shark Hunt" is great (and bulky enough to get through the summer). I want to get my hands on the books of letters he put out (one back in '97 which I got through half of before getting kicked out of college, "The Proud Highway"), but I have been strapped for cash lately (I know, I know, me a river).

Well if you are strapped for cash, then go see Lou Pearlman to go make a new boy band.

Kicked out of which college btw?