No. I understood that they are self-contained and decided that I was more interested in diving into The Town without having first read it's predecessor. Would you advise against? It's interesting that he published two more books about the family 17 & 19 years after the first.
Not necessarily, but I do remember feeling like it helped give me a better sense of the characters than if I was just meeting them for the first time in The Town.
Saw on TV that this is one of the fastest selling books of all time. This is fine praise for a book that's rated among such literary classics as Hunger Games. Went to the library earlier to take some books back and this was propped up on display so I picked it up and went to check it out. No go! Got this red screen on the checkout monitor and a note saying I had to take it to the desk. Took it to the lady there and told her the machine won't let me check out porn. She said I wasn't old enough. She was quick but I'm Prolly older than her dad. I'll give it a start tonight...do I have to read it in the bathroom????
I was killing some time in a bookstore in Atlanta a few weeks ago as I was a good bit early for a lunch appointment and read about 15 pages of 50 Shades of Grey just to see what the hype is about. It's so terrible. I'm not even talking about the content. The writing is awful. This book reminds me of what a college professor of mine once said: "Every time you buy a book, a movie or an album you are casting a vote about what kind of stuff you want produced in the future. America is voting and we're turning talentless idiots into millionaires."
I hadn't heard about the book until today. I live such a cloistered life. Didn't even know E. L. James was a woman. I beat you though, got in about 100 pages before putting it down, I doubt my wife will get that far. My wife and I were having a laugh at the TV news expence this morning with their fastest selling book of all time quote. Out selling Hunger G and another she mentioned and soon forgot. Remembering stories about ships from England pulling into NY harbour and people shouting down to the waiting crowd. "Little Nell is dead!" (Now there's a spoiler..)
Jack's Book: An Oral Biography of Jack Kerouac by Barry Gifford and Laurence Lee. One of the few books about the Beat Generation that I haven't read yet. I actually am reading a first edition, not the revised and updated one, but it's better than I thought it would be.
I Suck a Girls by Justin Halpern I needed some light reading and enjoyed Sh*t My Dad Says and Halpern's new book hit the spot. I read it in two sittings and, if true, he had some disastrous attempts at relationships (and "relations" for that matter) until he met his wife. Nothing earth changing, but I did laugh out loud a few times during this quick read.
Autobiography of the Hall-of-Fame receiver. Easy read but basically skips everything in his life after winning the Super Bowl in 1969.
Kid A by Marvin Lin It's a part of the 33 1/3 series which is monographs published about albums from the last 50 years. There's somewhere between 75 to 100 of them now I think. This is the first one I've read, though I own a few others. The book is really more than just about the album Kid A, it's about the time it was born, how it influenced what followed and about the philosophy of music in general. I think a lot of people get into these books expecting a VH1 "Behind the Music" treatment, but I don't think that's what the series in general is going for and it's especially not what Lin had in mind. I enjoyed the philosophical look at things. I read it in 3-4 sittings (it's about 150 pages) and would recommend it to those that at are Radiohead fans and that like to think about the bigger picture.
After reading Jack's Book I decided to go back and look into some Kerouach that I missed or skimmed in the past. The Subterraneans by Jack Kerouac. Some good passages, but not his best. Better, IMO, was Tristessa Got through these this weekend, thanks to hot weather. About halfway through this one. Lonesome Traveller. The essay/memoir/short story "The Railroad Earth" is fantastic.
Glad to hear a review from someone I know. Unrelated, but maybe of interest, he just got hired to write for Cougar Town when it moves to TBS next year.
For you fans of The Wire (and of Generation Kill, for that matter): I just started Dust to Dust, by Benjamin Busch My lovely wife went to a presentation by Busch at a local bookstore (yes, we still have one of those) and brought back an autographed copy dedicated to me (typical of her, by the way). So far, I'm liking it a great deal. He's got a nice voice and the narrative is settling into a strong combination of wryness and insight. The connection to the wire: Benjamin Bush had a minor recurring role on the Wire as Tony Colicchio, one of the less tolerant cops. He also saw action in Iraq as a Marine and played a role on Generation Kill.
Chronicles the radio career of a truly creative genius, Gary Burbank, formerly of WLW in Cincinnati, among other stations.
I read this a few years back and figured you might have interest. It's about a group of Russian and French mathematicians that were studying the nature of infinity and working with set theory, etc. I found it fascinating given the difference of French rationalist approach and the Russian mystical approach.
For books on mathematics: Logicomix: An Epic Search for Truth is an outstanding graphic novel about modern mathematics, focusing mostly on German and British mathematicians, with a bit of meta-commentary on how hard it is to tell this sort of a story. Starring Bertrand Russell with cameos by Whitehead, Wittgenstein, David Hilbert, and loads of others, with a brief Greek Tragedy a the end. I was going to read another Kerouac book, Visions of Cody or Maggie Cassidy, but I found this in the library. It sounded like something that Carlos Castenada might've freelanced for Runner's World. It's even better than I expected. Born to Run by Christopher McDougall. All about a hard-to-reach tribe in Mexico, ultramarathoners, and the idea that most of us should be able to run great distance. Not buying the last part, but I'm only 1/3rd the way in. Dammit. The new edit doesn't let me see the codes that are screwing up the font. Pretend I did Italics properly.
Making my way through an interesting biography, Ron Chernow's Washington, A Life My local library only has the large print version, so the book is massive. On the other hand, you can knock out 100 pages rather quickly!
After a rainy miserable week we were forcast a rainy miserable weekend. So Friday I called by the local library to see what would grab me. It turned out that I did the grabbing and picked up 3 books by Robert B. Parker of his Jesse Stone series. Night and Day Killing the Blues Stone Cold It took a while to get rid of the image of Tom Selleck as Jesse Stone. I mean in the books he's younger and likes his women. Selleck is just too old for the TV part and too tacturn. Not that there's anything wrong with "older men" liking women. Fun reads, decent dialog and went surprizingly quickly (along with a bottle of sherry) and the first part of the weekend. Looks like it might be sun, at least not rain today, so I'll play catch up.
Spencer? You are old! No, I haven't read any, I didn't even know that Parker wrote them but I saw the list inside the book. Seems I should look them up, I could Handle Ulrich better than Selleck. Mind you Magnum PI was a gang favourite in my Cal. beach city apt. days. "Magnums on, bring the beer!"