Korean Job Discussion Forums

manlyboy · Posted: Sun Feb 04, 2007 8:09 pm Post subject:

The Possibility of an Island - Michel Houllebecq

I saw an article on this guy where he was described as France's "enfant terrible". Apparently he's huge over there. I thought "ooh-laa-laa" and ordered the book, but I really didn't get much out of it. I'd say around 20% of it reads more like a letter to Penthouse forum than it does a novel. Just smutty for the sake of being smutty. The narrative is actually somewhat interesting, but seems to go missing for much of the book.

Bedroom Secrets of the Master Chefs - Irvine Welsh

Upon finishing this I thought it to be pretty average, but curiously the characters and themes have really stayed with me. Every single character gradually grows more an more unlikeable until you just become fascinated by them. I now understand why Welsh's books are often sold in the literature section and not in popular fiction.

The War of Art - Steven Pressfield

A self help book. Brilliant. Read it.

The Portable Henry Rollins - Henry Rollins

I've always liked Rollins. He's the poster boy for tripped out, socially crippled, macho loners. He's the first writer I ever came across who put into words things I was feeling but was unable to express. Some of this stuff is absolutely macabre, though. Reading this has actually made me like him a little less.

America Alone - Mark Steyn

As funny as it is scary. Scoff at his conclusions if you must, but even fluffy-wuffy-touchy-feely-huggy-wuggy lefties should take heed of what he says.

movybuf · Joined: 01 Jan 2007 Location: Mokdong

[quote="Ya-ta Boy"]

Ya-ta Boy · Joined: 16 Jan 2003 Location: Established in 1994

You might like Richard Farina's "Been Down So Long It Looks Like Up To Me". He was the one who was married to Mimi Baez.

For travel books, you can't go wrong with Paul Theroux and Pico Iyer.

Any and all of Tom Robbins are well worth your time, but my favorites remain Another Roadside Attraction and Even Cowgirls Get the Blues.

Some of Richard Brautigan's books are good. I recommend The Abortion, but Confederate General from Big Sur has some good parts.

Ya-ta Boy · Joined: 16 Jan 2003 Location: Established in 1994

Request for a recommendation:

A couple of weeks ago I read Tobias Wolff's short story 'Awaiting Orders' in an anthology and was impressed. I want to try something else of his. Does anyone have a recommendation as to where to start with his work?

VanIslander · Posted: Fri Jan 16, 2009 10:33 pm Post subject:

Have you seen the book prices lately? Shocked

20,000-45,000 and that's for paperback!

I was looking forward to ordering 50+ today but instead only got 7. (the recession's hit reading)

Darn exchange rates!

fadedgirl · Joined: 26 Nov 2006

yeah...books can get pricey.

recently: The Angels Weep and The Leopard Hunts in Darkness. Both by Wilbur Smith. Adventure and sex..everything you need in a good book. He also throws in some African politics.

Catch-22. I'm really loving the absurdity of the book.

My favorites are House of Spirits and The Stories of Eva Luna, especially "And of Clay are We Created."

fadedgirl · Joined: 26 Nov 2006

oh! and Burning Shore by Wilbur Smith.

WW2 novels get me every time. No idea why...but I really love them.

it's full of stars · Joined: 26 Dec 2007

In the last 2/3 weeks I've read,

The Player of Games by Iain M Banks

The Lost Continent by Edgar Rice Burroughs

Black Man by Richard Morgan

All Quiet on the Western Front by Erich Maria Remarque

The White Lioness by Richard Mankell (Swedish detective novel, with assasins from South Africa being set up to kill Nelson Mandela and training in Sweden, why, I have no idea)

Chance by Robert B. Parker

And at least 4 other modern, pulp fiction rubbish.

I'm halfway through A Portrait of the Artist as a Young Man by James Joyce and have to say I'm not enjoying it/and I am enjoying it as I find it disturbingly close to home, in some respects.

I'm also reading Colossus by Niall Ferguson & Back to The Stone Age ( A Castaway in Pellucidar) by Edgar Rice Burroughs.I have a glut of Burroughs as a friend passed them onto me.

I have The Thirty-Nine Steps by John Buchan waiting for me when I get through this pile.

A lot of fiction, not much that is educational. Very Happy

yingwenlaoshi · Joined: 12 Feb 2007 Location: ... location, location!

I started readint "The Count of Monte Cristo," but I lost it because I lost my bag. Like a Canadian, I was carrrying my backpack with me in a bar...

You can figure out the rest, but... Pretty good book so far. Caniff gave it to me.

semi-fly · Joined: 07 Apr 2008

Thus Spoke Zarathustra by Friedrich Nietzsche
Pride and Prejudice by Jane Austen

movybuf · Joined: 01 Jan 2007 Location: Mokdong

greedy_bones · Joined: 01 Jul 2007 Location: not quite sure anymore

I just finished America (The Book) and found it pretty good. Not really great literature, but a pretty hilarious view of America's history and government.

michaelambling · Joined: 31 Dec 2008 Location: Paradise

kprrok · Joined: 06 Apr 2004 Location: KC

Let's see, I've been on a bit of a classics train lately.

Dracula by Bram Stoker, The Prince by Machiavelli, Pudd'nhead Wilson by Twain, The Time Machine, Island of Dr. Moreau, The Invisible Man, and The War of the Worlds by H.G. Wells.

I've just started two books, the Bible, and The Scarlet Letter.

Next on my list are The Secret Agent by Conrad and 20,000 Leagues Under the Sea by Verne.