Currently reading...

[Drunkre]

currently about to finish "the end of faith" by sam harris.  good book; criticizes religious nuts and "moderates" alike; tends to rely a bit too much on reason (almost becoming a religious nut himself in the church of such reason); paints ugly picture of how "necessary" war and torture can be.

[ben grimm]

Half way through Rob Jovanovich's Big Star biog which I heartly recomend to anyone with an ear for 'rock's forgotten band' next up is Johnson's 'Jesus' Son' (again)

[fitzcarraldo]

Forever, by Pete Hamill. Great book about a guy who is given eternal life as long as he never leaves the island of Manhattan. Set from the 1700's to the present.

[Drunkre]

Just finished Tim O'Reilly's "The Things They Carried."  Do not read this book if you do not care about your fellow human beings.  In all other cases, you will catch your breath at the beauty and the humanity.

[marktwain]

Just finished Tim O'Reilly's "The Things They Carried."  Do not read this book if you do not care about your fellow human beings.  In all other cases, you will catch your breath at the beauty and the humanity.

Nice review! The THings they Carried is a really great book.  I read In the Lake of the Woods as well, but it's not as good.

I'm between semesters now, and reading Tom Franklin's _Hell at the Breech_.  Good, dark contemporary southern fiction.

[Drunkre]

I'm looking for a copy of Going After Cacciato.  Heard it was great.

[marktwain]

I've heard that too, but I've never read it.

[Specialist]

Just finished Cat's Cradle.

I am going to yet again read Catcher in the Rye.  It makes me so happy.

[SmoothOprtr]

I'm currently reading "162 Games, 162 Stories- One Addiction, Cubs Nation"   It's a new, poorly written, but nevertheless easy baseball read if that's your sort of thing.

I think Catcher in the Rye ranks as one of the most overrated books of all time.  

[EC]

I think Catcher in the Rye ranks as one of the most overrated books of all time.

Why?

[CC]

'Orson Welles - The Road To Xanadu'

gotta love orson

[SmoothOprtr]

Catcher in the Rye was a book that everyone blew their load over when they talked about it.  I was aware of it's presense in Lennon's murder and Regan's attempted murder.  I didn't get a chance to read it till college, and perhaps a lot my angst was gone, or perhaps my childhood up bringing was too pleasant... I don't know.... I just didn't think there was anything too brilliant about it.... I once wrote a kick ass paper comparing Holden Caufield to Travis Bickle of Taxi Driver.  I'm a big Scorsese fan and I think Taxi Driver is one of the most overrated films of all time!

[EC]

perhaps a lot my angst was gone

That's a good point - the older you get, as your angst decreases (well, it's supposed to anyhow.  I still have a fucking lot of it) you may not relate to Holden as strongly.  I think I relate more to the other Salinger characters, and have always found Holden really angry, and kind of difficult to connect with.  However, I still think that the book itself is a very good, important work.  

(I always think of The Bell Jar as Catcher in the Rye's sister.)

'Orson Welles - The Road To Xanadu'

Wick-ed.  Tell us how it is.  I read a biography on him about a year or two ago, and I was so impressed by his life.  I mean, yeah yeah the movie stuff, which is obvious, but the dude did a LOT.