What are you reading right NOW?!?!

[Guest ScarletKnight41]

I just finished this -



Lupica's fiction writing is always good, and this book is particularly family friendly (I saw it on my son's middle school summer reading list last year). It's the story of a 12-year-old who loves basketball and can really play the game, but he doesn't make the travel team because of his size.

What's fun about Lupica is that he throws in a lot of references to characters he created in prior books, so once you start reading his stories you come across a lot of familar faces, so to speak.

Now I'm going to start In The Stacks, on Willets' recommendation. I'm up for short stories right now - something that's easy to pick up and put down without a huge time investment.

[Willets Point]

Those short stories are hit & miss, but at least the bad ones are just as short as the good ones.



This book is a lot like Berendt's Midnight in the Garden of Good and Evil except in Venice instead of Savannah. Chock full of eccentric people that the author seems to get to tell all the intimate details of their lives. Half the time I think he's making shit up, but it's well-written and entertaining.

[Willets Point]

[Guest OlerudOwned]

Just recieved it from delivery today

I always liked Klosterman's SPIN articles and finally got one of his books.

[A Boy Named Seo]

Do not judge me, people. Just finished "Shopgirl" by Steve Martin. It's super short and I thought it was okay. He developed the characters pretty well, I thought, but ended it kinda abruptly. I still want to see the movie. I dig all of Martin, Schawartzman, and the lovely, lovely Claire Danes (more like Claire Daaaang!).



Also reading "Timequake" right now by Vonnegut. So far my favorite Vonnegut book (edging "Breakfast of Champions"), but I read "Slaughterhouse- Five" and "Galapagos" so long ago, I remember now that I don't remember enough about them. The timequake causes a crack in the space-time continuum (hello, McFly?) forcing humans to relive a decade's worth of life from 1991-2001, knowing exactly how each day would turn out. All the successes and mistakes we've made would happen exactly the way they happened the first time, but we have no free will to alter the course of any of it. Can you imagine? Great, extremely funny commentary about mindless, robotic humans. Very neat.

[Guest Yancy Street Gang]

I'm reading Kiss it Good-bye.

[Theoldmole]

Picked up two books at the same time, that were on my bookshelf and I had never read ... Griel Marcus' book on Dylan and the Basement Tapes, and a bio of Elvis, "Down at the End of Lonely Street: The Life and Death of Elvis Presley" by Peter Harry Brown and Pat H. Broeske. I was finding Marcus's literary flourishes too much to take, so I settled in with the bio of Elvis, which was interesting -- not enough on the music, but seemed to be good on the life. I found out that Elvis has relatives named Richards, so we may be related. And it was written in a fairly neutral biographical style.

I ran across a reference to Wilbur Clarke's Desert Inn, which I was fairly sure was wrong -- but just a typo, I assumed (it was, in fact, Wilbur Clark, although Wikipedia has it as Clarke). Then in the next paragraph, the authors refer to Billy Wood and the Dominoes, which started to bother me a little more. But OK, I guessed I could live with that. But now I'm at a point where the authors are saying that Elvis's first album, Elvis, contained "Heartbreak Hotel." Well, Elvis was his second album -- Elvis Presley was his first. And "Heartbreak Hotel" wasn't on either of them.

So how much else are they getting wrong?

[Guest Edgy DC]

Fact-checking is dead.

And you've got it right. When pointed out, authors and editors will often come back with, "OK, fine, it's an error."

But the real problem is not that, but the lack of faith the reader will subsequently have in the details that he or she doesn't know better.

[Guest Yancy Street Gang]

And that was a big part of my problem with The Bad Guys Won.

I spotted a bunch of errors and because of that, was suspicious about just about everything else.

[Guest sharpie]

The Greil Marcus Dylan book made my head hurt.

[Theoldmole]

I went back to it again, after losing faith in the Elvis book, and it made my head hurt. I've come to the conclusion it's unreadable.

So...time to move on to something else, which at the moment is an old John Dickson Carr mystery I picked up in hardcover for a buck from a local used bookstore. Carr specialized in locked room murders, but no one's gotten killed yet in this, so I can't give you any specifics.

[Guest sharpie]

A friend of mine has written what I think is a valuable Dylan book called "Keys to the Rain" which gives information and commentary on every song that Dylan has ever recorded or performed live (including one-offs, which there are many). Also contains info on who has covered every song. I find myself returning to this book often.

[Theoldmole]

Looked it up on Amazon -- Oliver Trager -- isn't he the guy who has the Lord Buckley website?

[Guest sharpie]

He's the guy who wrote the Lord Buckley book, yeah.

[Theoldmole]

Lord Buckley was a comic saint.

[Theoldmole]

Yep - here's the website I've seen Trager's name on.

http://www.lordbuckley.com/LBC/LBC_Misc_Pages/LBC.html[/url]

[Guest ScarletKnight41]

My copy of Kiss It Goodbye arrived today. I should be able to finish it up before discussions begin at the end of the month.

[Guest Yancy Street Gang]

Fun challenge to anyone reading Kiss it Good Bye:

See if you can spot the error in chapter 10.

[Guest Edgy DC]

I'm on Chapter Seven now, but a newspaper headline at the end of Chapter Six reads as "Pels Blow to Miracle team." I assume the Pelicans did bow, rather than blow before the mighty chicks. The funny thing is that Frank writes that "The headline said it all," and I'm thinking, "It didn't say anything."

I don't know. Maybe that was good usage in 1952.

[Willets Point]

I got my copy today too. It's one thick book, but at least it has lots of pictures.

Anyone know why the Philadelphia Athletics Historical Society are the only one selling a book about a man who never played for the A's or in Philly?

[Guest Yancy Street Gang]

One of the co-authors has a connection with the Philadelphia A's historical society.

[Theoldmole]

Still waiting for my copy.

[metirish]

My copy was waiting for me when I got back, I can't wait to read it.

[Guest Yancy Street Gang]

I finished Kiss It Goodbye last night. Hopefully now I'll stop having Frank Thomas dreams. I've read better and more compelling books that didn't invade my dreams. I can't imagine why this one has for two nights in a row.

[Guest ScarletKnight41]

It's probably due to the amount of detail in this book.

[Elster88]

Harry Potter books...

I've just recently started watching the movies over the past two months. Thought the first two were pretty good, enjoyed watching them though I wouldn't rewatch them. I thought the third was great. I'm looking forward to the fourth when it comes out on DVD.

Haven't read the books yet. There's going to be seven all together right? Are they going to make movies for all seven? I saw on IMDB that the fifth movie is due in 2007.

[Guest ScarletKnight41]

If you want to talk Harry Potter, talk to Impulse2.

[Elster88]

If she responds all well and good, but hopefully someone else knows the answers to my questions in case she doesn't get around to it.

[Guest Yancy Street Gang]

There's going to be seven all together right?

YES.

Are they going to make movies for all seven?

YES.

[Elster88]

THANK YOU