Book Barn Goons discussion

Lol.

Feels good, man.

it true

Resurrected

What is a book barn?

Where you raise books for the slaughter, duh

Reading is for nerds and squares

i can't read

It surprises me less that cats can't read and more that they manage to post on the internet

http://imgur.com/jyIDlLx

I can't even read.

I completely forgot I posted this but I am glad other people posted. Ok.

It's okay, I forgot how to read there for a while and only just now rediscovered it.

wow reading is a thing

do any of u read books

Only if they're about game theory or poker. That way, when I'm in public, people can put my vaping into context.

Same

Same

The art of the deal amirite

Reading the forums counts

I also read the listings on the Uverse guide daily

Get on my level

This is the best thread.

Also, David Foster Wallace is a hack and 'Infinite Jest' is a hot pile of pretentious garbage.

Brad wrote: "This is the best thread.

Also, David Foster Wallace is a hack and 'Infinite Jest' is a hot pile of pretentious garbage."

Says the guy with "Fight Club" in his "Top Favorites" shelf.

Are we helldumping each others shelves now?

It is a Shit-Post thread?

I wasn't trying to hurt feelings, I don't care if someone likes DFW or Palahniuk.

Infinite Jest is over-written, but I wouldn't call it a hot pile of garbage, and there are other books more deserving of "pretentious", like The Familiar series, but plenty enjoy it.

Actually, I asked because I was eager to jump in, because it sounded like fun. Shit post to you heart's content, my friend.

Well in that case Palahniuk is trash pop fic with consistently monotonous narrative voices stuck on motifs that are annoying instead of clever.

DFW likes referring to drugs by their actual drug names, which is annoying, but ties into the idea that we are organisms that survive off chemistry, and ruin ourselves with addictions caused by other chemistry.

Not everyone will like Infinite Jest, but it's different and interesting, compared to Chuck's attempt at being a vulgar Vonnegut (and failing every time).

Choke's good.

edit: "good" as in, better than everything else he's written, but okay in regular standards.

But Fight Club is cool, let's reck the sistum guys. bob had bitch tits lol.

Palahniuk is the same 5 gimmicks in every book.

Kaitlynn wrote: "Palahniuk is the same 5 gimmicks in every book."

So is Gaiman. Someone had to say it.

Aaron wrote: "Kaitlynn wrote: "Palahniuk is the same 5 gimmicks in every book."

So is Gaiman. Someone had to say it."

Gaiman, in my book, gets higher appreciation than Palahniuk for having more interesting sources for his stories. He pulls from mythology and folk tales and shit like that, whereas Chuck literally gets plots from trite urban legends. The one time he tried to do something inspired from a source was Tell-All, which was a book covered in glitter and was ignored upon release by even the most staunch Chuck fans.

I remember reading once that Chuck says he hates every single character he writes, except for maybe Lenny(?) from Choke, and it shows. If the author doesn't give a shit about his characters, why the fuck would his readers?

Is it too late to shit on Palahniuk? I've read several and they all seem like the same book over and over. Sure, maybe it's models instead of office drones or some dude at Colonial Williamsburg, but they all feel like the same shitty person with the same shitty problems. Monotonous is right.

I fuckin love DFW but the DFW cult is annoying as shit

Neil Gaiman is an excellent horror writer who found out he could make $$$ writing twee fairy books so he did that instead. Sad!

Haruki Murakami is excruciating, he (or his translators I guess) will never ever write one word when he can write five instead

am i doing this right

Robin wrote:
Neil Gaiman is an excellent horror writer who found out he could make $$$ writing twee fairy books so he did that instead. Sad!


Coraline is good for a quick read, though I've never read anything else by him that was good or great. What's a good horror story/novel he's done? I'll look into it if its ever cheap.

The DFW cult is annoying; most I've met consider him the echelon of literature because they have only ever read DFW, and he is not without his flaws. It's like people who fawn over Christopher Nolan movies and have never even heard of the Coen Bros. or Stanley Kubrick.

Emery wrote: I remember reading once that Chuck says he hates every single character he writes, except for maybe Lenny(?) from Choke, and it shows. If the author doesn't give a shit about his characters, why the fuck would his readers?

We're talking about Tingle right? Not familiar with Chok....I mean, his writing. ANYWAY

Gaiman I think of first and foremost as a comic book writer. How are his actual books?

Billy wrote: "Emery wrote: I remember reading once that Chuck says he hates every single character he writes, except for maybe Lenny(?) from Choke, and it shows. If the author doesn't give a shit about his chara..."

Palahniuk, not Tingle. Tingle feels nothing but a pure love for his billionaire space t-rexes.

Billy wrote: "We're talking about Tingle right? Not familiar with Chok....I mean, his writing. ANYWAY

Gaiman I think of first and foremost as a comic book writer. How are his actual books? ."

No, Chuck Palahniuk.

I haven't read Sandman, but I hear it's his best stuff. Most of his novels appeal to fans of genre fiction, and are considered top form of genre fiction. Fans of more literary fiction find him frustrating and trite. So, he's divisive.

I like Gaiman as a person in interviews and when he talks about books, but I've barely ventured into his work, since my genre trapping is horror, not fantasy. He gets what makes a great book, but he seems to miss the mark more often than not, landing in "good" territory.

I have a few of his paperbacks, but it's far down my reading list.

I'm actually struggling to think of a good Gaiman horror short story ('Nicholas was...' is great but it's more black comedy than horror). It's been a while since I read his collections and you have to wade through an awful lot of fairy dust to get to the good stuff.

He's done some phenomenal horror comics though - there's an admirably nasty one in the first Sandman arc about a bunch of people trapped in a diner, and he and Dave McKean did a story for the Hellraiser comic that's top-hole.

My problem with the DFW cult is that they're so annoying they scare people away from reading DFW, who I think is one of the very few novelists of the last few decades with something real and vital to say.

Yeah, Gaiman is atrocious. DFW is a middling pomo writer at best, but people that think he was the only dude that thought to use annotations in a work of fiction make me want to hit my nuts with a brick.

Robin wrote: "It's been a while since I read his collections and you have to wade through an awful lot of fairy dust to get to the good stuff."

No one should read the collection he edited Unnatural Creatures. Complete waste of time and money, though the proceeds went to charity, so that's good.

Calling DFW the most original and bestest blazing literary genius in the history of the world ever is grating, but writing him off as 'eh, just another pomo guy' is just as silly imo

Billy wrote: "Gaiman I think of first and foremost as a comic book writer. How are his actual books? "

Most of his books are basically fairy tales. Star Dust is probably the best of the fairy tale ones I've read. I wish there was some more of the other stuff, because I like a number of his short stories when he branches out. "Study in Emerald" is a good Sherlock/Lovecraft crossover. Man, I can't bring to mind a creepy story either.

God how do I unsubscribe from this garbage.

Afraid you're stuck forever Theomanic

Welcome to the Goon Shit Posting Thread
You can check-out any time you like,
But you can never leave

OTOH how many of you seriousposted at my shit Chuck Tingle joke? smdh

Emery wrote: "Brad wrote: "Says the guy with "Fight Club" in his "Top Favorites" shelf."

I have no defense... the Palahniuk criticism is well-deserved. I liked Fight Club a lot when I read it, but I was also in the midst of some healthy college angst at the time so whatevs.

DFW still sucks and was not the Great American Literary Hero everyone wanted him to be. He's a big bore.

Brad wrote: "DFW still sucks and was not the Great American Literary Hero everyone wanted him to be. He's a big bore."

Real talk, though: I appreciate DFW's attempt at bringing--what's the best wording--emotional resonance to his characters and story while maintaining a Post-Modern aesthetic.

But no, he wasn't the Great American Literary Hero, just really good at a polarizing literary form.

Have you ever read his essay Big Red Son from Consider the Lobster? It's the first essay. The one about the porn industry? Whether you like DFW or not, it's one of the funniest pieces I've read, and shows he certainly knows how to write a compelling essay.

I agree, I Love that essay.

I am hankering for some spooky occult mystery bullshit with simlar themes as Foucault's Pendulum. Does anyone have a recommendation?

Gravity's Rainbow