Sypha Nadon on 29/4/2008 at 17:52

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I used to be a very prolific reader, but that kind of changed when I started working at Barnes & Noble in 2004. After working with books all day, I found that upon arriving home from work the last thing I would usually want to do was look at another book. Sadly, I was buying more and more books at the time, taking advantage of my employee discount as it were. Last year in particular I barely read any books at all, with the exception of some Nietzsche, Rand's "The Fountainhead", and so forth. So I resolved in 2008 to slough off my reading inertia and try to read at least 50 books, mainly focusing on books that I've had on my shelf for awhile now yet never got around to. I also resolved that each year from now on I'll pick an author whose work I've been wanting to read for awhile now yet kept putting off, and read as many of their books as I could. This year, I decided the author would be Thomas Pynchon. Anyway, it's been four months and I've already reached the halfway point of my goal, though I haven't read all that much Pynchon (yet). Here's what I've read thus far:

1. "The City and the Pillar" (Gore Vidal) (finished Jan. 3)
2. "Sway" (Zachary Lazar) (finished Jan. 9)
3. "Paradoxia" (Lydia Lunch) (finished Jan. 12)
4. "Eden Eden Eden" (Pierre Guyotat) (finished Jan. 23)
5. "Jack the Modernist" (Robert Gluck) (finished Jan. 25)
6. "The Maimed" (Hermann Ungar) (finished Jan. 25)
7. "The Stranger" (Albert Camus) (finished Jan. 26)
8. "Less Than Zero" (Bret Easton Ellis) (finished Jan. 30) *
9. "The Torture Garden" (Octave Mirbeau) (finished Jan. 31)
10. "Zombie" (Joyce Carol Oates) (finished Jan. 31)
11. "The Atrocity Exhibition" (J.G. Ballard) (finished Feb. 7)
12. "Play it as it Lays" (Joan Didion) (finished Feb. 10)
13. "The Blind Owl" (Sadegh Hedayat) (finished Feb. 10)
14. "La-Bas" (J.K. Huysmans) (finished Feb. 15) *
15. "Against Nature" (J.K. Huysmans) (finished Feb. 22)
16. "Moravagine" (Blaise Cendrars) (finished Feb. 29)
17. "Briefing for a Descent Into Hell" (Doris Lessing) (March 14)
18. "In a Glass Darkly" (Sheridan Le Fanu) (finished March 18)
19. "The Weaklings" (Dennis Cooper) (finished March 22)
20. "The Mage's Holiday" (Tom Champagne) (April)
21. "Invisible Cities" (Italo Calvino) (finished April 9)
22. "Exercises in Style" (Raymond Queneau) (finished April 17)
23. "The Wild Boys" (William S. Burroughs) (finished April 21) *
24. "Downstream" (J.K. Huysmans) (finished April 21)
25. "The Crying of Lot 49" (Thomas Pynchon) (finished April 27)

* = book I've read at least once in the past

(I should add here that I usually read more than one book at the same time, hence why there are a few days where I finished reading two books on that day)

Currently reading: Alistair McCartney's "The End of the World Book" and Umberto Eco's "Foucault's Pendulum" (why I've put this latter one off for years now is beyond me, as the subject matter is right up my alley).

In the wings: The "Illuminatus" trilogy (which I've read before but want to read again), Steven Millhauser's "Edwin Mullhouse", Luke Rhinehart's "The Dice Man", and of course, more Pynchon... I might try "Gravity's Rainbow" over the summer. I amy have to take a small break soon though as allergies have been aggravating my eyes and I've been finding it very tough to read recently, though I did read like 200 pages of "Pendulum" yesterday.

Hier on 29/4/2008 at 18:07

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I've not read anything on your list but I have read, and loved, Foccault's Pendulum. Since you say it's up your alley, is there anything on your list there that you'd recommend as being comparable to Eco?

Sypha Nadon on 29/4/2008 at 18:28

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"American Psycho" SE? That book's one of my all-time favorites, and I try to read it at least once a year.

Hier, "Foucault's Pendulum" reminds me (a bit) of the "Illuminatus" trilogy which came out back in the 70's. It also reminds me a bit of another of my favorite novels, J.K. Huysmans "La-Bas" (which I re-read this year). "La-Bas" (which came out back in 1891) is kind of obscure now yet was a bestseller in France back in the day. It deals with a quirky group of social outcasts who are obsessed with the Middle Ages, Gilles de Rais, Satanism and the Black Mass, occultism, and conspiracy theories in general (just as it seems that the characters in Eco's book are obsessed with the Templars and the occult). Huysmans isn't for everyone though as not a whole lot happens in his books, it's mostly lots of dialogue and long descriptions. But he was certainly the greatest of the 19th century French Decadent writers, and his classic "Against Nature" was a huge inspiration for Oscar Wilde's "Picture of Dorian Gray."

Hier on 29/4/2008 at 18:40

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Yeah I've been meaning to read Illuminatus for a while now.

Got anything, uh, more accessible than Huysmans? :D It's not that I'm stupid--at least I don't think I am--it's just that I do most of my reading on public transit, so my concentration level isn't infinite. Foccault's Pendulum took me longer than usual--you know, the ol' "I didn't follow anything on that last page so I have to read it again" ordeal.

Incidentally, if you like Eco, Baudolino is another of his that I really liked. A much easier read than either FP or Name of the Rose, and it's quite funny too. Definitely a lighter offering than some of his other stuff.

heretic on 29/4/2008 at 22:22

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If you've read Fountainhead, why not go for 'Atlas Shrugged'? It's much more well written, and not nearly as sporadic. Even for non-objectivists it's a beautiful insight into an interesting and thought-provoking philosophy.

Edit: Unless you allready have of course.