readin' and stuff

i.e. books

why don't we have a books topic yet

I started Hunger Games, that book Margie mentioned. So-so so far, maybe it picks up later. The whole premise of the Hunger Games(in the book, not the book itself) isn't very believable. Being a sucker for well-thought out premises in fantasy/sci-fi this kind of bugs me.

Also, did you guys know that the Illiad and the Odyssey were part of an eight part series? Those were the only two written by Homer though. The other books were burned / lost =(

I think i'm going to reread the Odyssey btw

finished hunger games it was decent-ish nothing great. don't think i will read the next books even though i kind of want to see the empire toppling section... actually kind of makes me angry that someone could use the frame story of kids in some battle arena poorly like that and still have an avid readership.

like andy i took issue with initial believability, but then tried to squash that and enjoy the story and there definitely are some enjoyable parts. I think the first person narration hurts the story, also some parts are really contrived to be emotional

I'm reading Sometimes a Great Notion at Sam's recommendation and it's the freaaking bomb. Kesey's narration is so damn cool—he switches narrators in the middle of sentences but it works super well. I'm only like a third of the way through it but I like it a lot.

Joshua Ferris is the bomb too. Then We Came to the End is cool: it's told in first person plural about being at an office and it really works with the subject. But The Dinner Party is my favorite short story recently. There's an audio version on the New Yorker Fiction Podcast too.

I just started reading a book of Gabriel Garcia Marquez short stories. He is awesome, even though it would be nice to be taking a class about it as I feel like I miss a lot. Also Eliot I just noticed that this book was a christmas to you last year, so if you want it back let me know.