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The Narrow Road to the Deep North and Other Travel Sketches (Penguin Classics) by Matsuo Basho

The Last Ride by Thomas Eidson

End Zone by Don DeLillo

A Spectacle of Corruption by David Liss

Suite Francaise by Irene Nemirovsky

I, Etcetera by Susan Sontag

Berji Kristin: Tales from the Garbage Hills by Latife Tekin

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Friends: angrystarlyt, BeaverMeyer, bibliobibuli, bluesprinkles, deebee1, dtn620, liehtzu1, okupcu, websheer

Interesting library: angrystarlyt, bibliobibuli, dtn620

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Member: Banoo

CollectionsYour library (515), Currently reading (1), To read (1), All collections (515)

Reviews188 reviews

TagsRead (290), Read 2009 (94), Nobel (79), Read 2008 (73), Read 2007 (26), Read 2010 (1) — see all tags

Cloudstag cloud, author cloud, tag mirror

About meI'm a bayou-born Cajun from Cut Off, Louisiana (real name place and has nothing do to with cutting things off but more about things cut off). I've been in Singapore and Malaysia since 1989… a two year move just kind of dragged on. Though I love nasi-lemak, it's still not as good as jambalaya... luckily, thanks to my Dad, I know how to cook Cajun food. Here's my Gumbo Recipe.

I went through a period not long ago where all my reading was done using my hand phone. It was convenient. A mobile phone could be pulled out and looked at almost anywhere without question. And I could keep hundreds of books on my memory card… it was more a portable library than phone but I hated getting calls when I was in my library. So I’ve gone back to paper print. Yeah, the environment is important and we should save the trees, but the smell of a new book and feel of it’s lightly textured paper is a joy worth a tree or two… just be sure to replant a tree for every few books you read.

Problem with my reading is I don’t remember things too well. I’ve got multiple copies of books. It’s a costly problem. I think it may be an age thing, though I’m not fully convinced of that. My memory goes back a couple of weeks fairly well, before that…

I'm a landscape architect working at WDI Design Sdn Bhd. I’m paid to tell people where to plant trees so that I can read more books. I design swimming pools and fountains too because water is cool.

My sign is Cynic not Virgo. The charts are wrong… I should know.

About my libraryMy library is my current library. Not my library when I was younger... or older. I've gone through many libraries and my books of yesterday seemed to have vanished from my shelves. I'm not sure where they ended up, whether they just turned to dust or sneaked off to be with other books on other shelves. I need a book dog to keep my flock of books in order. I'm beginning to think books are wild beasts and cannot be tamed.

Also I've read almost all of the books listed in my library but since my memory is limited and getting less reliable I'm only marking 'read' the books I've recently gone through.

Groups1001 Books to read before you die, 75 Books Challenge for 2010, Author Theme Reads, Books that made me think, Club Read 2010, Group Reads - Literature, Reading Globally

Favorite authorsSamuel Beckett, Fyodor Dostoevsky, Jonathan Evison, James Joyce, Ismail Kadare, Yasunari Kawabata, Orhan Pamuk, Walker Percy, Charles Portis, John Steinbeck, Leo Tolstoy (Shared favorites)

Homepagehttp://www.moosesings.com

Also onFacebook, MySpace

Membership LibraryThing Early Reviewers/Member Giveaway

LocationKuala Lumpur, Malaysia

Emailbrian_doucetmac.com

Account typepublic, lifetime

URLs http://www.librarything.com/profile/Banoo (profile)
http://www.librarything.com/catalog/Banoo (library)

Member sinceFeb 27, 2008

Currently readingBlood Meridian: Or the Evening Redness in the West by Cormac McCarthy

Most recent activity

Banoo added:
A Thousand Rooms of Dream and Fear by Atiq Rahimi

Banoo added:
General of the Dead Army (Vintage Classics) by Ismail Kadare

Banoo added:
Yakuza Moon: Memoirs of a Gangster's Daughter by Shoko Tendo

Banoo added:
On the Beach (Vintage Classics) by Nevil Shute

Banoo added:
A Face in the Dark and Other Hauntings: Collected Stories of the Supernatural by Ruskin Bond

Banoo rated, reviewed:
A Burnt Child (Quartet Encounters) by Stig Dagerman

(read review)

My name is Halima, i got you from www.librarything.com and i want to have a good relationship with you, please i need your cooperation,contact me with my email adress,
( hallimaaamk@hotmail.com )
am yours Halima.
thanks,
Halima

hallimaaamk@hotmail.com

posted by halimalove at 12:32 pm (EST) on Dec 19, 2011

I'm currently reading Absalom, Absalom! and while scrolling through the reviews I found yours, which was hilarious. I don't see that you're in any of the "2011" groups--have you given up on them? I'm about to. Anyway, thanks for the laugh. And you're spot-on, by the way, about Faulkner's story-telling. If you don't mind, I'm going to quote that part of your review on my thread, since it shows better than I could how Faulkner writes and what he's doing in this book.

Regards,
Becky

posted by labwriter at 2:25 pm (EST) on Feb 18, 2011

Hi Brian, Thanks for introducing me to Stig Dagerman! I have had you on my interesting libraries for a while now - Your reviews are excellent. I read "To Kill A Child" based on your link - wow... what an amazing short story. Heart rending and real, I loved the deliberate foreshadowing - you knew what was coming from the first line but are pulled along like a whirlpool. Thanks for the introduction.

posted by Cygnus555 at 12:23 am (EST) on Dec 21, 2010

Thank you for your review of The Confusions of Young Torless. I read it after I finished the book. Needed a laugh.

posted by pamelad at 4:19 am (EST) on Jun 26, 2010

A belated thanks for your kind words about my review of The Book of Negroes! I hope you enjoy it as well!

posted by spacepotatoes at 2:57 pm (EST) on Jan 19, 2010

Hi Brian--I had to stop by after I read your intro on Club Read. I followed your reading last year and enjoyed adding many books to my TBR. Now I see that in addition to sharing some of the same reading tastes, we have other similarities in our backgrounds.

Not a coon ass, but my mom has deep roots in La.--West Feliciana Parish--so I visited often when I was growing up. Then I went to Tulane, archrival of LSU, where my husband graduated from architecture school. We ended up staying in New Orleans for 18 years, before we moved to Washington state where we currently live.

And, I spent about 9 months in the early 70's in Singapore, when I had a chance to visit KL (and Penang, Malacca, Ipoh etc.). I know it's very different there now.

Happy Reading!

Deborah

posted by arubabookwoman at 6:13 pm (EST) on Jan 4, 2010

I love Blood Meridian, and I love too your review of Blood Meridian. Well done!

posted by EnriqueFreeque at 9:52 pm (EST) on Dec 4, 2009

Wow! Thanks. I need to sell all the copies I can. Let me know if you're ever in Baton Rouge. We could meet for coffee.

posted by cmtusa at 11:10 pm (EST) on Nov 15, 2009

Thanks. I appreciate it.

posted by cmtusa at 10:59 pm (EST) on Nov 15, 2009

Brian

Congratulations on your hot review listed on today's home page.

posted by Whisper1 at 6:19 pm (EST) on Nov 14, 2009

Brian;
Your "Little Halloween Story" "100 Watt God" is brilliant!~!
I kept waiting for the name of the book to come up as I was getting more and more into the story. You should be published, you brilliant young man you. Absolutely loved it!
belva

posted by rainpebble at 7:41 pm (EST) on Nov 9, 2009

Hi;
Mark and I have been discussing the possibility of another group read in November and want your input. We have narrowed it down to two books at this point. "The People of the Book" by Geraldine Brooks and "The Thirteenth Tale" by Diane Setterfield. So chat it up with friends or us and let us know if you are up for it and what you think. Probably the same plan as with "Pillars of the Earth" which seemed to work out perfectly for almost all of us.
Think it over and give one of us a shout.
hugs and looking forward to hearing from you,
belva

posted by rainpebble at 10:01 pm (EST) on Sep 8, 2009

Brian;
You cannot imagine how very good it made me feel to read your post regarding John Steinbeck. To me, he is just the best. He never writes the same book twice. There is absolutely no formula to his writing. Each and every one is new and fresh no matter how many times I read it. And you are exactly right. It is his writing even more than his stories, even though each and every one of them is wonderful. His writing, the way he puts his words together, his very thought process is so special when comparing him to the other greats.
Thank you for that note. You made my day.
big hug,
belva

posted by rainpebble at 10:16 pm (EST) on Sep 6, 2009

Thanks to your review of Inoue's Hunting Gun, I'm going to find my copy and read it. I checked out your gumbo recipe and plan to use it. I tried to make something vaguely like gumbo when we lived in Houston, but that's as close as I got to the real thing, so I'm glad to read your recipe. Thanks for sharing.
Happy reading!

posted by nobooksnolife at 6:34 am (EST) on Sep 6, 2009

Congratulations for your hot review listed on LT home page today!

posted by Whisper1 at 8:28 pm (EST) on Jul 24, 2009

Ohhhhhhhhh, I so would love to go to Russia one day. All that history. I do hope you travel safely and enjoy the trip.
We will still be here reading when you return.
belva

posted by rainpebble at 8:53 pm (EST) on May 26, 2009

I am really enjoying your 2009 reading thread! I haven't read Anna K. since high school and have often thought of re-reading it, but there are so many good books I've never read that I just haven't gotten back to it yet. Someday, I hope!

I've added Shirley Jackson to my favorite authors - I think she's sadly neglected.

posted by marise at 8:01 am (EST) on May 15, 2009

Nice review of Pamuk's New Life. An excellent book by a first rate author.

posted by Makifat at 4:56 pm (EST) on Apr 2, 2009

Hi,

Was wondering if you'd be interested in reviewing my new novel and posting your comments here as well as a few other book-related sites. Saw you liked Butcher Boy, and I thought you might like my novel since it's also about a disturbed adolescent and a bit dark. I could e-mail you the novel in an e-book format if you'd like. Let me know if you're interested. Here's a link to a summary in case you're interested:

http://christophertusa.com/blog/?page_id...

Thanks,

Chris

posted by cmtusa at 8:38 am (EST) on Mar 25, 2009

didn't miss it - I'm keeping an eye on your thread! It's definitely one of my favorites this year! :D

posted by girlunderglass at 7:23 am (EST) on Feb 5, 2009

hey man

sorry for the late comment, i havent been on here for some time.

as for kyoto, i found the place astonishingly... disappointing. i was staying in osaka for awhile and took a day trip there, and first thing you do is exit the ultramodern train station. i just strolled around town... A LOT. but thinking: this is old kyoto?? there were some good old temples, sure, but the town was a typically japanese mostly concrete n'ugly affair. it was only later that year when i read alex kerr's depressing "dogs and demons" that my vague dissatisfaction with japan found more expression.

posted by liehtzu1 at 11:49 pm (EST) on Dec 18, 2008

Thanks, Banoo, for the reassurance! I look forward to reading it, now.

I have enjoyed your reading list this year.

posted by marise at 8:24 pm (EST) on Sep 25, 2008

OK Brian, I've re-upped the Library Thing. Will start adding away...

posted by liehtzu1 at 12:47 am (EST) on Sep 25, 2008

15 years is a long time . . . but I love Perth. Big enough, but not too big. I recently read a book which I thought was awful, but while flicking through my reading journal from two years ago, discovered that I had read it and thought it was great! So either my tastes have changed, or I have become a more discerning reader because of all the great titles I am recommended here on LT.

posted by judylou at 1:29 am (EST) on Aug 29, 2008

A few years ago I also started to write a little about what I was reading because I kept finding myself rereading things without necessarily wanting to! I've also spent a bit of time in KL. About 10 years ago we were very close to moving there permanently, but things didn't quite work out and so we stayed here in Melbourne. I'm sure it is an interesting place to live.

posted by judylou at 1:09 am (EST) on Aug 29, 2008

hi Banoo. it was very nice to hear from you and then to find that you are also in KL. hope one day soon to bump into you for a real world book chat.

thanks for the offer of the lend of pramoedya's books - i have read the first two books of the buru quartet and i hav some others by him.

am a bad borrower but a good lender of books so if i have any you would like to read, do say. i am collecting out of print books about malaysia partic fiction titles and trying to read as many local books as i can.

posted by bibliobibuli at 10:45 am (EST) on Jul 24, 2008

enjoy reading your reviews...u couldn't have described Faulkner's writing better. and that one about ur grandma is a funny comparison.

posted by deebee1 at 5:59 am (EST) on Jul 21, 2008

thanks, too, for the invitation. Blindness would make a very good first Saramago. if u find him to ur liking, Baltazar and Blimunda is another interesting translated work of his. not everybody likes his writing style; i myself adore it. would be interested to know what u think.

posted by deebee1 at 7:46 pm (EST) on Jul 4, 2008

Yeah, I'm a fellow FFer. I'm the Laura with the Orson icon who pops in occasionally. :)

posted by Sniv at 10:06 pm (EST) on Jun 5, 2008

Yes I did and really enjoyed it. How about you? Read it yet?

posted by Sniv at 11:29 am (EST) on Jun 5, 2008

Yummy sounding Gumbo. Forgive a Yankee, but I always thought gumbo had okra in it. Not that I can imagine okra improving the taste, but I was just curious. I love cajun cooking, but it's so much better when someone else cooks it, especially when they cook it and I eat it in Louisiana!

posted by tloeffler at 11:52 am (EST) on Apr 25, 2008

We certainly do have some books in common, especially the Steinbecks. My book doesn't have much literary merit. I tried to be too literary with it (I had been reading a lot of Faulkner) and it didn't turn out right. I've been rereading Steinbeck and trying to simplify my writing for the next one. It's a fun struggle. I'm hoping things work out.

posted by BeaverMeyer at 10:56 pm (EST) on Apr 9, 2008

Hi – have you weighed in yet on the next book for Group Reads – Literature? The discussion thread is here. And Irish set up a poll for us here (it can be amended if there’s lots of interest in a book that isn’t on there yet). Hope to see you there!

Terri

posted by teelgee at 1:15 am (EST) on Mar 27, 2008