Boxall's 1001 Books You Must Read Before You Die discussion

I know there is a big long topic of it down in the Monthly reading thing, but I thought I would start on up here so that people wouldn't think it was dated.

I just read this the other day and although I found parts of it to be funny, the whole book was profoundly sad to me. Everyone I know either HATES this book, or thinks it's an absolute riot... was there anyone else who was left with a sense of sadness at all of it? Or did I look too deeply into a comedy and miss the humor?

I see what you're saying about the sadness, I just think its all pretty hamfisted on Palahniuk's part (even the "comedy"). By this point in his writing he seems to have gotten into a complete formula: alienated quasi-nihilist has some weird scam, alienated quasi-nihilist finds a girl who he hates but gets involved with, followed by twist. Also I just found the character of Denny to be very poorly written, easy and uninteresting. Up until reading this I thought I might like Palahniuk (I had only read Fight Club [which I was somewhat disappointed with] and Survivor) but after completing Choke I just gave up on him. He writes too much in tired punchlines and overdone ennui for me to find anything likable, clever, or even passable.

And this is coming from someone who likes anarchic characters! I think if anyone is sort of into Palahniuk they should just read Celine, Hamsun, Vonnegut, Bukowski, Böll, or Jünger and they'd find everything they liked in him except done better and with actual feeling behind it.

But in the words of Lavar Burton: "Don't take my word for it!"

I love Vonnegut, he's one of my all time favorite authors. I almost felt like Chuck was trying to write something along the lines of the Florida authors, like Hiaasen, Dorsey, Barry and the like, only make it more offensive. It never really all clicked for me as a great book. I would have read it either way because so many people recommended it, but after reading it... I'm surprised that it's on this list.

Granted this is the only book by Chuck that I've read, perhaps I'll like some of his others better. I have "Fight Club" on the way. I sort of liked the movie, but I almost feel that Norton and Pitt were what carried the movie rather than the script, which has be a bit worried about the quality of the book.

I absolutely love this book. I dont think it's as good as some of Chuck Palahniuk's other books, but it was definately a fun read and a book I would pick up multiple times!

I also wasn't impressed with Choke. Too many statements seemed to be there for shock value and not because they were relevant to the story. I also didn't like how Palahniuk repeatedly stopped the present-action only to tell (rather than show) what had happened later.

The one thing that did impress me about this book was the ending. I thought it was well done and if the rest had been similar I would have liked it better.

It's one of my favorite books and I found it extremely hilarious. Though I'm biased because I enjoy the dark humor stuff. It's sad, but like most of Palahniuk novels, they take you away from feeling pity or sadness for characters that you otherwise would feel that way in real life.

Choke is one of my favorite Palahniuk's books. but you love him or hate him. I guess I like the musicality of his writing, and the dark twisted humor. He tried to do something different in Rant and it's not as good, but still, I like him.

This was one of my LEAST favorite of Palahniuk's books. I just couldn't fall in love with Victor, even though some parts were very funny. I couldn't make myself give a crap about anything in this story. I REALLY wanted to like the characters better (I generally like Palahniuk's characters), but I didn't.