This just is great.


This book has been a favorite of mine since it came out. One of the few books I've read more than once (that aren't comics)

Everything Little Nemo.

Any books on world religions.

I havent read a book in ages.I tend to just read Skullbrain and just stare at my toy cabinet.

I used to eat Malcolm X up and wrote a 30 page paper on him.That was 20 years ago and Im lucky now if I can get through a book a year.Thank god for Flickr.

Dharma Punx

looking forward to this to come in:

I just finished 1q84 by murakami and was going to ask for some recommendations and found this thread. Lots of good stuff for me to look into. In the last few months I've also finished:
Steve jobs bio
Game of thrones series
Finally finished dark tower series
The snowman by Jo nesbo
The last couples fables trades to catch up

Needless to say I like reading. Im gonna start damned by chuck paluhnik today and then search for more tonight.

I'm reading The Instructions right now. Taking a little break from sci-fi, and waiting for A Dance With Dragons to come out in paperback. I was intrigued by this book because it's 900+ pages and the events of the book span only 4 days. So far I'm enjoying it quite a lot.

Sick city by Tony O'Neill is definitely worth a read.

Rereading one of my absolute favorites, Leonora Carrington's The Hearing Trumpet. I don't want to risk ruining it's perfection with my own words, so...

o

"Reading The Hearing Trumpet liberates us from the miserable reality of our days."
— Luis Buñuel

Autobiography of a Yogi is one of my favorites. I think it's the only book I've ever read through twice.

This is a really great read too.

Not a book, but I loved this issue of Lucky Peach:



A great read + great photos/drawings of amazing food.

I can't wait for my copy of lucky peach to arrive!
The first issue was so great, i loved the ramen theme.

Lucky Peach = Coolest new magazine of 2011. Food punk with a brain, and dang, such cool art and illustration.

Good recent nonfiction reads: "The Pschopath Test" by Jon Ronson (much better than "The Men Who Stare at Goats" by the same author) and "Inside Scientology" by Janet Reitman. Most comprehensive history of the org, totally fascinating without being overly polemical. Both compelling reads that make you think about a lot more than the immediate subject matter.

A fantastic read.

Currently Reading:

I think I'll be reading this soon, Carrington's paintings are probably my favorite surrealist oeuvres. But I'd like to know something first and let's hope you can help me out. LC was english but lived in Mexico for a long time. I'd love to read this in it's original language, do you know if it was English or Spanish?

^^^ Good news, Aldo - you'll love it!

Although penned during her expat years, and first published in Mexico (in Mexican ), she wrote it in English. I think she did the translation into Spanish herself, but the "definitive" version is the '76 English-language publication. I'd highly recommend checking out the Exact Change reprint - it's beautifully laid out and restores her original illustrations, missing from many an edition.

She's one of my favorite artists of any identifiable school, although I only know her visual works from monographs and various catalogs. Is it a fair guess that you've had the pleasure to be around them in person? A pilgrimage to her adoptive home of Mexico City has long been on my list of things to do.

She just died about half a year ago - I wonder if efforts have been made to preserve her home; it's said to have been a genuinely magical place.

I am looking for some suggested gift recommendations, so happy this thread has been revived. I was thinking of "How to Survive.." but the reviews on amazon don't seem to be stellar. Of course, anything has to be taken with a grain of salt, but I usually expect the reviews are better than the book might be, so I am somewhat wary.

Thanks for the info David. So, I should be hunting for the 76 edition... Dunno how easy that'll be but I'll give it a shot. Or the reprints but how to know if they're reprints of that particular one? I bet she did her own translations and if not, she had tons of wonderful friends who probably helped her with good translations. So I guess I shouldn't have worried in the first place.
Kinda what happens with Saramago and his translations to Spanish, these are done by his wife and they are supposed to be very close to the original work. I have certainly enjoyed them. BTW if anyone enjoys some satire and critique and insight catholic/christian religion you should read Cain or Jesuschrist's gospel(not sure about the names in English).

Now, regarding Carrigton's work, I actually was in the Modern Art museum two weeks ago and they have two of her pieces. Unfortunately, as it usually happens with a lot of living artists, their work is in private collections. I'm sure we'll see more of her work in museums but it'll take some time. I should probably run a short research about the whereabouts of her work.

I forgot to add, when she died there was a especial showing of her work, but only temporary.

Depending on your target, here's a few!

Aldo (and anyone else interested) - Go for the edition by Exact Change, pictured above. Damon and Naomi, the publishers, go to great lengths to put together the finest copies out there of whatever they set their interests on, and their publication of The Hearing Trumpet is far and away the best I've encountered. Still available and quite inexpensive through Amazon.

Thanks for your recommendations and information as well! I wish I'd managed to hear about Carrington's passing back in May, I surely would have made the trip south! PM me with your findings if you turn up anything interesting.

I would highly recommend the wind up bird chronicle! I have bought and read all of murakami's book and that was still my favorite one. Not that any of them were not good.

I would definitely agree it remains one of his best works. I was not too taken with some of the short story collections, only because he leaves you wanting so much more - the stories themselves are of course amazing. I have not yet picked up the tome that is IQ84, but probably after Christmas, if my studies leave me any free time.

Since I am posting again, might as well share another personal favourite of mine, and for fans of Murakami, this is right up there. If you can recall the first time you read one of his novels, it was probably an experience in literature that you wouldn't forget, and the same is true of Steven Hall's The Raw Shark Texts.



A phenomenal debut novel, and one I would suggest not reading the summary for. Like Murakami, it does not, cannot, do it justice. You too must fear the Ludovician.

Let us know what you think if you read it. Murakami showed up for an event at a bookstore near my home recently and was mobbed by fans. I considered downloading the audiobook but realized that this is the sort of book that really needs to be read "in person." Very curious about it.

I'm still unsure as to how I feel about it. For me the ending wasn't fulfilling enough. I read the last page, thinking there would be another small chapter left, but when I flicked over (read it on my iPad) it was just a big 4 and then pages of notes, questions and randomness. Kind of disappointing but overall the story was still good. Some parts were underwhelming, while some were very strong and made me want to continue on regardless of the time. I'll probably read a few more books and then get back into this one. I'd still recommend wind up and Kafka over this one.

Side note: would anyone be interested in a book trade or even an ebook trade? I probably won't be buying many physical books now as my wife would strangle me now that we have an iPad, but still like having the physical book in hand and have a bunch just sitting around.

Book swapping would be a great idea! Only snag for me is that we don't have the benefit of excellent media mail pricing that the USPS offers, so it is very pricey to send books through Canada Post (even within the country ).

noah is a good dude and i recommend all 3 of his books.

in the same vein...i haven't met brad (warner) but read a couple of his books too and they have some pretty good perspective as well.