Trying to finish A Clash of Kings before new season starts.

i'm sort of reading a dance with dragons. i put it down for a month because i was swamped with school reading. i'm going to try and make a lot of progress during spring break.

i'm also reading seven years in tibet. it's awesome and amazing that it's a true story. fictional adventure stories can't touch this.

what's the best Malcolm Gladwell book? I have never read one and I feel like I am not being the most yuppie I could possibly be.

Don't read him.

Meanwhile I am reading Male Subjectivity at the Margins by Kaja Silverman for senior thesis and it is sweeeeeeet.

Why not? He's no good?

I read his shizz about hockey in Canada and how all the stars were born in a particular few months and thought it was interesting. Plus the last two books I've read were Eating the Dinosaur (Chuck Klosterman) and The Book of Basketball (Bill Simmons), and I know those two are buddies with Gladwell.

Speaking of which, I'll give the Klosterman book an A-. His books are so much fun. I remember thinking it was really deep shit in late high school/early college. Now it's just a quick read I went through on the exercise bike at the gym. You always know what you're getting yourself into with a Klosterman book, but what I didn't like about this one compared to the others I've read is that his views portrayed in the book seemed less unique than usual. In his chapters about time travel laugh tracks, and advertising, for example, I had already thought all those thoughts before. I prefer him when he's making crazy connections I would have never considered before, like when he wrote about how Saved by the Bell is the most realistic show ever.

I guess he's kind of good but I read both The Tipping Point and Blink and literally the only thing I remember from either of them was something about the Pepsi challenge that isn't even interesting now that I think about it. He's basically a more refined (less fun) version of Klosterman with the same basic level of intelligence. Why not read someone who is both more intelligent and more fun, like George Saunders? His Braindead Megaphone is amazing. Also Wallace's Consider the Lobster.

I suspect somehow that Chuck Klosterman's piece where he posits The Woody Allen as a new form of culturally viable masculinity both got me through high school and ruined my life.

Ha ha, your posts actually used to remind me of Chuck Klosterman a lot. Less so these days.
I think I will take your advice and check out Braindead Megaphone and Consider the Lobster. I'm about to hit up the library and get some road trip books, and I'm thinking "fun" is definitely a descriptor I want attached to my road trip books.

just started that one. pretty good so far.
also, i've always thought gladwell was more interesting for his anecdotes than any insights. Still, i think something like "outliers' would be enough to keep your attention for light reading.

Anyone else on Goodreads?

Finished Midnigbt's Children awhile back. It was amazing, but I didn't enjoy it as much as I expected. I would give it five stars for craftsmanship, but the main character was not enjoyable to me. He probably wasn't supposed to be, I don't know. This ended up being one of those books I knew I should love, but didn't. And I usually love post colonial work. I probably just needed some good people to read and discuss with.

Next I read The Road which I loved. I think I read this in like a day and a half. I couldn't put it down. It didn't help that I have a very sweet little boy that reminded me of the boy in the novel. This was a very different kind of border that mccarthy tackled, borders of goodness and humanity. Brilliant, chilling, amazing.

Then for an upper I read Beloved. I can't believe this was one of the last of her novels I hadn't read. Honestly I love everything she does. This was another one I consumed in a few days. Being a mother the subject matter is difficult to tackle, but at the same time so real and beautiful.

For kicks and giggles I read the Adventures of Sherlock Holmes. Pure fun classic crime fiction. A good antidote for all the heavy emotional reading I had been doing.

Currently reading The Girl With the Dragon Tattoo, also for fun. Enjoyable so far, for the kind of book it is.

Wilt: Just Like Any Other 7-Foot Black Millionaire Who Lives Next Door

Just read this based off of how highly Bill Simmons spoke of it in The Book of Basketball. I must stay it was a pretty interesting and often hilarious read. I read it mostly because I wanted to laugh at the egotistical/quirky Wilt-isms, and I got plenty of that ("When I go on a cross-country road trip by myself, all I bring is a hamper of gourmet sandwiches, a few gallons of 7-up, a few gallons of orange juice, and a bouquet of flowers in case I meet a pretty girl"), but I was surprised by Wilt's intellect. Although he wrote it with the help of a journalist, he still seems exceptionally eloquent. Aside from the funny Wilt-isms and hoops history, I think the most worthwhile part of this book was his commentary on race relations. I've read modern writing on American race relations in the 60s and 70s, but it was interesting to read the commentary on it that was actually written in 1973. I think Wilt really expanded people's perceptions of what a black celebrity could be at the time, because he was just one more example of what an African American could be that didn't fit white (and actually, black) America's idea of what that was. He campaigned for Nixon, had many Jewish friends, traveled Europe extensively. At one point he even randomly threw in that he didn't think the government had the right to ban gay marriage, which was a bold statement for a person of any race to make at the time. I came out of this book with more respect for Chamberlain, which I did not expect at all.

I'll rate it an A-/B+. I'd mostly just recommend it to basketball fans, because you can read the race relations stuff somewhere else.

Now I'm reading George Saunders's Braindead Megaphone. Just read the essay on Dubai. Incredible!

Finished Girl With the Dragon Tattoo last night late when I should have been sleeping. Darn that addictive book. It was a fun read. I gave it four stars because I liked what he did with the characters (although I found it slightly irritating that two separate women fell in love with the protagonist--I'm always slightly suspect of some authors living vicariously through their characters). It was a solid crime fiction novel. Will probably read the two sequels.

Currently reading Tinkers. Not sure what to make of it so far.

someone give me a suggestion for a "classic" book that I may not have read before. keep in mind that there is a buttload of classics I have yet to read.

Define "Classic." Are you talking about Milton era or anything through the 20th century that has been "cannonized"?