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What is everybody reading?

tranzor

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I love reading and I tend to start a few books at once which eventually I do finish over time. My interests seem to span every genre so to speak, but mainly more so history (I love reading just how decadent humans were), memoir and biography


Currently finished or in the process of:

1. Jaguars ripped my flesh by Tim Cahill-- Do not let the title mislead you, below is a review from amazon.com
From Library Journal
Literate adventure writing may seem a contradiction in terms, but Cahill has produced this rare beast for our enjoyment. A columnist for Outside and contributor to Rolling Stone , Geo , etc., Cahill acknowledges the indifferent art that characterizes this genre with his tongue-in-cheek title. But, in fact, Cahill has written articulate, entertaining, and occasionally humorous pieces based on adventures ranging from parachuting to exploring jungles. His work is more in the mold of George Plimpton than of Raiders of the Lost Ark ; his "common man" approach definitely provides the human interest. Not indispensable, but economical, quality nonfiction for reading interests often poorly served. David J. Panciera, Westerly P.L., R.I.

for you horror fans he also has a chapter where he spoke with the woman who helped put together the zombie vs shark scene for Lucio Fulci's classic film "Zombies"




2. Deep freeze by Thom Racina
review from amazon.com
From Publishers Weekly
On the surface, Racina's highly readable thriller has all the ingredients of a perfect summer read: a major natural disaster, an art gallery heist, steamy sex and racial and familial tension. The action focuses on a wealthy Los Angeles family whose members are scattered throughout the city when a devastating snow and ice storm hits Southern California. Bob and Aileene Hanwell are the worried, homebound parents of Michael (a likable TV news weatherman with a wife and baby daughter), Harry (a slimy talent agent who married a washed-up, alcoholic actress) and Susan (who suffers from severe pancreatitis and contracts her most crippling bout during the storm). In a subplot, a cult inspired by Charles Manson's followers believes the storm will usher in a race war and Armageddon. Racina's novel is a strange mix of the extraordinary and the mundane: on one hand, the freak storm's increasing severity keeps the reader's apprehension high, and on the other, the pages are filled with characters complaining about how the weather is inconveniencing their self-absorbed lives. Even as death, destruction and violence occur around them, they often act eerily nonchalant, which undermines the novel's suspense. Still, Racina (Deadly Game) succeeds in painting a grim picture of the all-too-possible effects of extreme global warming

This is one book where it has a somewhat subplot I would love to re-edit





3. Radio Silence - A selected visual history of American Hardcore Music by Nathan Nedorostek and Anthony Pappalardo
review from amazon.com
Product Description
"Each scene was a reflection of its time and place. It was organic to each city." (Dave Smalley, DYS, Dag Nasty, All, Down By Law) Hardcore music emerged just after the first wave of punk rock in the late 1970s. American punk kids who loved the speed and attitude of punk took hold of its spirit, got rid of the "live fast, die young" mindset, and made a brilliant revision: hardcore. The dividing line between punk and hardcore music was in the delivery: less pretense, less melody, and more aggression. This urgency seeped its way from the music into the look of hardcore. There wasn't time to mold your liberty spikes or shine your Docs; it was jeans and T-shirts, Chuck Taylors and Vans. The skull and safety-pin punk costume was replaced by high-tops and hooded sweatshirts. The Jamie Reid ransom note record cover aesthetic gave way to black and white photographs of packed shows accompanied by bold and simple typography, declaring The Kids Will Have Their Say or You're Only Young Once. This new come-as-you-are attitude attracted skateboarders, surfers, BMX'rs, metalheads, and graffiti writers, with each group adding their diverse influences to the scene. This cross-pollination helped to create an eclectic cross section of bands like Bad Brains, Negative Approach, SSD, Big Boys, and 7 Seconds.Radio Silence documents the ignored space between the Ramones and Nirvana through the words and images of the pre-internet era when this community built on do-it-yourself ethics thrived. Without funding, distribution, or exposure, the scene had to be self-sufficient in order to grow. Everyone involved from bands to fans took it upon themselves to book shows, photograph bands, broadcast pirate radio shows, start record labels, design album covers, publish fanzines, or just offer a place for a band to crash. Authors Nathan Nedorostek and Anthony Pappalardo have cataloged private collections of photographs, personal letters, artwork, and various ephemera from the hardcore scene circa 1978-1993. Unseen images accompany to handmade T-shirts and original artwork brought to life by the words of their creators and fans. Radio Silence includes over 500 images of rare records, T-shirts, fanzines, photographs, and illustrations presented in a manner that abandons the aesthetic clichés normally used to depict the genre and lets the subject matter speak for itself.
Radio Silence would be the perfect companion piece to the upcoming "Burning fight:The Nineties Hardcore Revolution In Ethics, Politics, Spirit, And Sound" book by Brian Peterson





4. Lonesome cities by Rod McKuen
quote from inside cover
Lonesome Cities is the newest collection of love poems and lyrics by the American chansonnier Rod Mckuen. It is divided into several sections and details a man's life journey around the world in an attempt to find himself.
This really isn't my thing, but something about it made me pick it up and I have been reading it since






5. Sin-A-Rama: sleaze sex paperbacks on the sixties by by Brittany A. Daley, Adam Parfrey, Hedi El Kholti, and Earl Kemp
from amazon.com
Older readers may remember the lurid soft-X-rated paperbacks-titles like Topless Waitress, Lake of Lust, Casting Couch and so on-that crowded the shelves of newsstands and candy stores but more often adult bookstores in the 1960s. What most distinguished these paperbacks wasn't their narratives but their frequently amazing covers, swashes of erotic eye-candy that, as surely as a Warhol soupcan, now define an era. And so the emphasis in this first-rate celebration of these paperbacks is on the covers, with hundreds reproduced in what looks like accurate (i.e., soul-shocking) color. Most of these reproductions appear in the editors' grouping of sex paperbacks into various themes (Asphalt Jungle, Sex at Play, Butch Swish, etc.) but more show up in the startling essays and profiles that precede these groupings-startling for the several well-known authors profiled (Donald Westlake, Ed Wood, Lawrence Block) and for the praise-going by the illustrations, well justified-for a handful of the star cover artists. The book opens with overviews of the history of softcore paperback publishing by Jay A. Gertzman and Stephen J. Gertz and, most notably, by acclaimed SF author Robert Silverberg, who in "My Life as a Pornographer" recounts how by 1962 he was "turning out three Nightstand books a month" and earning enough money to buy "an enormous mansion in the finest residential neighborhood of New York City." A catalogue of "sleaze publishers" and a list of author pseudonyms (Miriam Gardner: Marion Zimmer Bradley; Paul Merchant: Harlan Ellison, etc.) close this informative and giddily entertaining book.
bought this one for the amazing book cover scans throughout this massive piece of information




6. Sargasso by Edwin Corley
from his website
As the whole world watches, an American space capsule splashes down in the Sargasso Sea in the heart of the Bermuda Triangle. Then, in the space of a few seconds, a colossal drama begins to unfold - adding yet another mystery to the far reaches of space and to the unfathomable depths of an area in the sea where, for centuries, men and ships have vanished without a trace...

What happens when the capsule is opened is only the beginning of an odyssey that moves swiftly from the bottom of the ocean to the heights of political power, taking the reader from the busy decks of an American aircraft carrier to the silent menace of a Russian "fishing ship"; from the enigmas of the Devil's Triangle to the ruthless logic of international intrigue; from the desk of a desperate American President guarding a deadly secret to the sea-borne laboratory of an equally desperate American scientist in danger of falling victim to that same secret.

An exciting story of underwater adventure, political maneuvering, and baffling natural phenomena.
I really enjoyed this and it would truly make one hell of a movie if it were made today. I went to see if I can drop the author a line. Sadly he is no longer with us and his website was put up by family members (who I got in contact with).
take a look:
http://edwincorley.com/default.htm
 

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Very nice Tranzor. and I thought I was a reader. :-o
And thanks for the blurbs. very detailed. Are these available to buy or rare?
where do you buy your books?
 

tranzor

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killbillme said:
Very nice Tranzor. and I thought I was a reader. :-o
And thanks for the blurbs. very detailed. Are these available to buy or rare?
where do you buy your books?

Everything can be purchased at Barnes and Noble (or which ever store you choose) with the exception of Sargasso, lonesome cities, and possibly deep freeze as well as Jaguars ripped my flesh.

Pretty much if you go through amazon, ebay or the very good http://www.abebooks.com/ you can find whatever you are looking for with minimal effort. I recommend Abe because they cut out the middle man. I found out that Barnes and Noble as well as Amazon on many occasions use the same dealers for the same used book you can find on Abe directly, however in that case you pay the dealer price and then Amazon and B&N add in their cut. Greatest example of this was a used book on B&N through one of their many used dealers was $50.00. I went on Abe, found the same dealer with the book (by doing a title search for the book) and it was only $20.00 going that route. Something to keep in mind before you purchase a used book that is pricey.

I have two very good used book shops close by to me and tend to find way more than I would possibly have time to read. I do not really have favorite authors as so many have written only one or two novels that as time goes on the list changes a lot because I keep discovering new ones (new to me). I keep things in mind with books by authors that I do like, but no longer jump on the latest book by such and such.

Not to sound too overbearing, but call it a 6th sense. When I am in a used shop a majority of the time the only things I have to go on are a title and/or seeing what the cover is before reading the back. I tend to get a strong feeling as I pass by titles and then I pick them up to see what it may be about. 8 out of 10 times it becomes a hit with me and if it does not, eventually it will get traded back in.

In fact the 6th sense was in full swing when I found Sargasso. I caught the title out of the corner of my eye and something told me to grab it. Glad I did

Too bad this talent cannot help me hit the lotto
 

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The Great Influenza: The story of the deadliest pandemic in history
Sorto topical.
In 1918, a plague swept across the world virtually without warning, killing healthy young adults as well as vulnerable infants and the elderly. Hospitals and morgues were quickly overwhelmed; in Philadelphia, 4,597 people died in one week alone and bodies piled up on the streets to be carted off to mass graves. But this was not the dreaded Black Death-it was "only influenza." In this sweeping history, Barry (Rising Tide) explores how the deadly confluence of biology (a swiftly mutating flu virus that can pass between animals and humans) and politics (President Wilson's all-out war effort in WWI) created conditions in which the virus thrived, killing more than 50 million worldwide and perhaps as many as 100 million in just a year. Overcrowded military camps and wide-ranging troop deployments allowed the highly contagious flu to spread quickly; transport ships became "floating caskets." Yet the U.S. government refused to shift priorities away from the war and, in effect, ignored the crisis. Shortages of doctors and nurses hurt military and civilian populations alike, and the ineptitude of public health officials exacerbated the death toll. In Philadelphia, the hardest-hit municipality in the U.S., "the entire city government had done nothing" to either contain the disease or assist afflicted families. Instead, official lies and misinformation, Barry argues, created a climate of "fear... [that] threatened to break the society apart." Barry captures the sense of panic and despair that overwhelmed stricken communities and hits hard at those who failed to use their power to protect the public good. He also describes the work of the dedicated researchers who rushed to find the cause of the disease and create vaccines. Flu shots are widely available today because of their heroic efforts, yet we remain vulnerable to a virus that can mutate to a deadly strain without warning. Society's ability to survive another
 

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If at all possible, involve a cow: The Book of College Pranks by Neil Steinberg http://www.amazon.com/If-All-Possible-Involve-Cow/dp/0312078102

Its a potted history of college pranking all the way from the very first universities back in the 1800's (breaking windows was considered the high point) up to the present day including MIT, Harvard and all the other well known universities of our time. the first couple of chapters are pretty boring as early students werent very creative but the book really hits its stride about halfway through with some of the accounts of specific pranks being worth their weight in gold.

if you're the kind of person who will happily spend twice as much effort to get out of doing something as it would take to just simply do it then this book will very much appeal to you.

ive also just ordered Magick: Liber ABA Book 4 which is the full on revised 2nd edition with the restored (once thought lost) texts and many extra footnotes and information.

anyone else into Crowley?
 

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About to take a 3 month vacation though my funding during this time will be cut in half. Picked these up because I will not be spending money on anything else unless it is to help me survive (like food)

Graffiti Kings: New York City Mass Transit Art of the 1970s by Jack Stewart
review from amazon.com
Graffiti Kings is the definitive book on New York's subway graffiti movement, an unprecedented creative explosion that occurred across the five boroughs during the 1970s. This rare, firsthand account of the birth of this movement is the first and only graffiti book to reveal what happened behind the scenes when writers put their lives on the line to grab a piece of fame from a faceless urban landscape.

Through personal interviews and over 275 full-color, previously unpublished photographs, the colorful origins of subway graffiti are brought to life. Legends such as Taki 183, Blade 1, Phase 2, and Co-Co 144, as well as the city officials who saw the writers as public menaces and their art as vandalism, give accounts of everyday struggles, each full of new advancements, excitement, and risk. Although author and photographer Jack Stewart maintained a low profile at the time, his work is now a graffiti-world legend: rumored to exist, seldom seen, a near-equivalent to the Dead Sea Scrolls.

Alongside archival photographs of everything from vibrant bubble-letter and 3-D pieces to the Holy Grail, the whole-train pieces, are maps, images, and ephemera that help fill out the complete story. A celebration in words and pictures of graffiti's golden age, Graffiti Kings is a book sure to be coveted by those fascinated and inspired by this uniquely American urban art form.

About the Author
Jack Stewart, a painter, muralist, and art historian, first began to photograph graffiti as it made its transition from the streets to the subways. He was one of the first observers to understand the power and significance of tags, and he befriended and interviewed many of the writers who appear in this collection. This text is based on Stewart's doctoral thesis, and has been curated and edited by his wife, Regina Stewart.


Piecebook: The Secret Drawings of Graffiti Writers by Sacha Jenkins and David (Chino) Villorente
from amazon
Way before there were all these electronic networks, there was piecebooks. And within the confines of the book's covers, writers explored styles and studied up on the art. With that in mind, Sacha "SHR" Jenkins and David "Chino" Villorente have compiled dazzling pages from the real sketchbooks of graf legends like Zephyr, Lady Pink, Dondi and Sane for Piecebook: The Secret Drawings of Graffiti Writers (Prestel).

"Piecebooks are also used to collect work from other writers we respect/admire," says Villorente. "There are very few items a writer might buy at 14 years old that they'll still be purchasing and passing around at 41." Through close attention to design detail--simulated duct taped spine, illustration proportions and texture over 200-plus pages--the two have triumphed, where most have failed, in capturing graf's authenticity in book format. --Mass Appeal, Issue # 51

Product Description
Original in concept and design, this living history of the graffiti movement mimics the actual sketchbooks graffiti artists use to perfect their work before it goes public.

Before it hits the wall, graffiti is often painstakingly planned out in a sketchbook or piece book. Well-worn and dog-eared, these books are passed along from artist to artist as a way of sharing ideas and offering instruction. Here hundreds of drawings, most of them never before published, are reproduced on uncoated paper to resemble the pages of an authentic piecebook. Bold and beautiful works from graffiti history s most important sources or seeds Zephyr, Dondi, Daze, CRASH, Lady Pink, T-Kid, CAP and Ghost, among others represent a dizzying array of techniques. The authors, former graffiti practitioners themselves, offer biographies of the artists and an introductory essay on why piecebooks have become such valuable historical records. Fans of graffiti will find this an irresistible inside look at how their favorite artists perfected their talents.

The Complete Persepolis by Marjane Satrapi
from amazon (review is for volume 1, this edition collects both volume 1 and 2
Persepolis is the story of Satrapi's unforgettable childhood and coming of age within a large and loving family in Tehran during the Islamic Revolution; of the contradictions between private life and public life in a country plagued by political upheaval; of her high school years in Vienna facing the trails of adolescence far from her family; of her homecoming--both sweet and terrible; and, finally, of her self-imposed exile from her beloved homeland. It is the chronicle of a girlhood and adolescence at once outrageous and familiar, a young life entwined with the history of her country yet filled with the universal trials and joys of growing up.

Edgy, searingly observant, and candid, often heartbreaking but threaded throughout with raw humor and hard-earned wisdom--Persepolis is a stunning work from one of the most highly regarded, singularly talented graphic artists at work today.

About the Author
Marjane Satrapi was born in Rasht, Iran. She now lives in Paris, where she is a regular contributor to magazines and newspapers throughout the world, including The New Yorker, and The New York Times. She is the author of Embroideries, Chicken with Plums, and several children's books. She cowrote and codirected the animated feature film version of Persepoliin one book

Next Stop: Growing Up Wild-Style in the Bronx by Ivan Sanchez
from amazon
Beyond the safety of New York City's news headlines, Next Stop is a train ride into the heart of the Bronx during the late eighties and early nineties at the height of the crack epidemic, a tumultuous time when hip-hop was born and money-hungry slumlords were burning down apartment buildings with tenants still inside. From one stop to the next, this gritty memoir follows Ivan Sanchez and his crew on their search for identity and an escape from poverty in a stark world where street wars and all-night symphonies of crime and drug-fueled mayhem were as routine as the number 4 train.

In the game, the difference between riches and ruin was either a bullet or a lucky turn away. Almost driven insane by the poverty, despair, and senseless violence, Ivan left it all behind and moved to Virginia, but the grotesque images and voices of the dead continued to haunt him. This book honors the memories of those who died. At times heartbreakingly sad and brutal, Next Stop shares with a whole new generation the insights and hard lessons Ivan learned.

Review
"It's the raw and brutally honest portrayal of a violent youth who walks through fire in order to find himself."-- Linda Nievez-Powell, author of Free Style

"A harrowing journey told with humor, spirit and wisdom..."-- Henry Chalfant, author of Subway Art/Spraycan Art and the movie StyleWars

"Ivan Sanchez not only encapsulated the essence of the Bronx during that time period, he vivified his characters to the point where you felt like you knew one of the guys from his block. This book is amazing, real and raw!" -- April Lee Hernandez, actress (ER, The View, and Freedom Writers)

"A harrowing journey told with humor, spirit, and wisdom." -- Henry Chalfant, co-author of Subway Art and Spraycan Art and co-director of the movie Style Wars
 

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i really admire the great german author Walter Moers.

He build his reputation with satirical comics like ´the little asshole´ and on an international scale with his satire about adolf hitler called ´adolf´ (which forced him into anonymity because continously being threatened by rightwinged people...(they didn´t like his way of treating the legacy of adolf hitler. example: at one point in the adolf comics adolf walks the street in our days (i think he made a time jump) and bumps into herman göring who turns out to be a prostitute nowwadays but soon herman göring is killed by adolf because he is high on crack and gets mad :grin: )


But in fact he is one of the(if not the) greatest fantasy writers we have.

here are his novels translated into english:

http://www.amazon.com/s/ref=nb_ss_gw?ur ... lter+moers

and a very fitting comment on him

moer is an awesome storyteller. he is darkly comic, and deeply disturbing while at the same way he can make you giggle so hard you'd think you were reading hitch-hiker's guide to the galaxy for the first time all over again. i've seen him compared to terry pratchett, but really i think that's just an awful marketing ploy, because i'm not a pratchett fan, and find moer much more to my taste. moer's got more of an edge to his stories, and just a whole lot more gold for your dollar.

i know it´s a bold statement (and the english folks around probably like to kill me for it) but i think he is better than pratchett was at his best times (and i always liked pratchett very much). with every book he´s getting better at crafting a good story. he has a vaste imagination and he´s funny in a funny way.


you should start with 13 1/2 Lives of Captain Bluebear and work your way through...

if you are into fantasy novels that have more to offer than ´get hold of an old artefact/sword/amulet/ring and slay the evil mastermind in his fortress in some dark woods/ high mountains/ deep cavern´ you should have yourself some walter moers... all his novels are illustrated by himself because he is a decent illustrator as well...

oh and with this one book he had this neat idea. he took 21 woodcuts by 19th-century illustrator Gustave Doré and constructed a story around them involving a small boy which gets to fulfill six impossible tasks for the Grim Reaper. It´s a small but wonderful fairy tale...

my absolute favorite is ´city of dreaming books´ which is not only a great novel but a wonderful homage to the written word itself.

go buy his books now!

;-)
 

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I'm trying to make a start on the prequel novel of Terminator Salvation, but I don't have enough time to read it and I'm also not the biggest reader.
 

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BUYOLOGY
Through extensive and expensive research, Lindstrom provides an adequate primer on what neuroscience studies can tell society—particularly marketers—about how selling (and more important, buying) works. Whether considering the roles of sex, religion, product placement or contradictions in consumer habits between what they say and what they do, Lindstrom explores how brain-scan studies reveal an avalanche of information about what works and what doesn't. Though the information is intriguing, Lindstrom's disregard for the potential abuses of such information (such as marketers purposely manipulating people to buy products that are harmful, of which there is a proven track record) makes his enthusiasm suspect.
 

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For school, I'm reading T.H. White's The Once and Future King. Currently on book 2, The Queen of Air and Darkness. Last books I read for fun were Watchmen, The Zombie Survival Guide, and World War Z: An Oral History of the Zombie War. Don't know what I'm going to pick up next, though.
 

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haha its the 'receiver' guy.

used to use that to scare the shit out of people before goatse turned up.

the editorial review is quite funny.
 

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The Black Stallion by Walter Farley.
Walter Farley's first book, The Black Stallion, was an instant hit when it appeared in 1941. Mr. Farley went on to write thirty-three other enormously popular books about the Black Stallion and other horses which were published in more than twenty countries. He died in 1989, shortly before the publication of his last novel, The Young Black Stallion, written with his son Steven.
Really good. it still holds up. classic.
 

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killbillme said:
The Black Stallion by Walter Farley.
Walter Farley's first book, The Black Stallion, was an instant hit when it appeared in 1941. Mr. Farley went on to write thirty-three other enormously popular books about the Black Stallion and other horses which were published in more than twenty countries. He died in 1989, shortly before the publication of his last novel, The Young Black Stallion, written with his son Steven.
Really good. it still holds up. classic.

Wow. I remember seeing the 1980's film version in the theater
 

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tranzor said:
Wow. I remember seeing the 1980's film version in the theater
Yep. The film is really faithful to the book.
Gorgeous film too... it's sequel?... hmmmm...
 

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hmmm...that looks more like a vagina than an asshole...and a fake one at that. Disturbing, at any rate.
 
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