Random books from slickdpdx's library

The New Arabian Nights by Robert Louis Stevenson

A Connecticut Yankee in King Arthur's Court by Mark Twain

The moonstone by Wilkie Collins

Ulysses by James Joyce

Geek Love by Katherine Dunn

Man's Ruin: The Posters & Art of Frank Kozik by Frank Kozik

Linguistic Criticism (Opus Books) by Roger Fowler

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Member: slickdpdx

Library1,263 books — see library

Reviews19 reviews — see reviews

Cloudstag cloud, author cloud

Tagsnovel (619), r (592), tbr (447), stories (139), essays (95), f (81), lit (58), on deck (52), history (51) — see all tags

GroupsAmerican Postmodernism, Asian Fiction & Non-Fiction, Books Compared, Japanese Literature, LibraryThing Coffeehouse, Music Junkies, Rock 'n' Roll, Records and Record Collections, Short Stories, The Chapel of the Abyss, The Weird Traditionshow all groups

Favorite authorsKobo Abe, Martin Amis, Paul Auster, Nicholson Baker, Donald Barthelme, Pinckney Benedict, Simon Black, Jorge Luis Borges, Paul Bowles, T.C. Boyle, Scott Bradfield, Charles Bukowski, Edgar Rice Burroughs, Italo Calvino, Albert Camus, Peter Carey, Daniel Clowes, Roald Dahl, Joyce Ellen Davis, Richard Dawkins, Kim Deitch, Don DeLillo, Charles Dickens, Philip K. Dick, Alexandre Dumas, Umberto Eco, Ian Fleming, William M. Gaines, Ryan Gattis, Alex La Guma, Thomas Hardy, Kazuo Ishiguro, Denis Johnson, John Lanchester, Mark Leyner, John L'Heureux, H. P. Lovecraft, Henry Miller, Steven Millhauser, Yukio Mishima, Rohinton Mistry, Michael Moorcock, Haruki Murakami, Vladimir Nabokov, Bruce Robinson, Dr. Seuss, Charles Simic, Gilbert Sorrentino, Su Tong, William T. Vollmann, Voltaire, Nathanael West, Colson Whitehead, Marianne Wiggins, Basil Wolverton (Shared favorites)

About me The bird is in the bag; the bag, in the egg; the egg, in the rock; the rock, in the little finger; the little finger, in the moon; the moon, in the hunting dog; the hunting dog, in the steamship; the steamship, in the forest; the forest, in the powder-box; the powder-box, in the ring; the ring, in the kitten; the kitten, on the desert island; the desert island, in the the blotter; the blotter, in the empty head; the empty head, in the night.
- - Paul Colinet; trans. Paul Bowles
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About my library Now reading:


Books previously read: 2008 - Withnail & I and How to Get Ahead in Advertising; Sayanora, Gangsters; The Feverhead; Slow Learner; The Scarlet Letter; Apex Hides The Hurt; Riding Toward Everywhere; The Adventures of Simplicius Simplicisimuss; The Occult Philosophy in the Elizabethan Age; The Impressionist; Darconville's Cat; The Arabian Nightmare. 2007 - Roo KickKick and the Big Bad Blimp; Indecision; My Life As Emperor; The Thought Gang; Dracula; The Burnt Orange Heresy; After The Banquet; Diamonds Are Forever; Life, a User's Manual; Cool Hand Luke; Hidden Camera; The Three Musketeers; Maldoror; North America; The Life and Opinions of Tristram Shandy, Gentleman; Parasites Like Us.
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Since I don't keep or rate books I dislike, my five-star ratings are about distinguishing between worthy books.
2 = disappointing, 3 = good, 4 = really good, 5 = great

Homepagehttp://knownunknowns.blogspot.com

Also onLast.fm, Rate Your Music

LocationOregon

Emailslickdpdxgmail.com

Account typepublic, lifetime

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

Member sinceApr 13, 2007

Comments from other LibraryThing-ers

(Leave a comment.)

"I think I'll hit Dirty Snow first. And I have yet to get to the Carco..."
I've been sidtracked from Carco by Paul Leppin, "Blaugast", etc. Right now I'm
getting back to Charles Williams, "River Girl". One of the best of the hardboiled writers.
I have an old Signet pb of "The Snow was Black" by GS. Love those old fifties pb's.
Thanks! If you see anything else similar, feel free to let me know. I've been on an experimental/bizarre book kick lately.
Thank you very much - I'll have to admit I just don't have time to read any of them right now - have got my head down for a PhD, but I CANNOT wait to finish and get stuck in. Like, for example, Beggars of Life - a book I see you've recently added. Oh, to light out for the territory, etc--
I just got their new "supplement" to the same old catalog - lots of cool stuff I'm going to have to pick up.
Do you know the Bat Segundo Show podcast? I just listened to his 200th interview from April 14, the subject being Nicholson Baker. It was mostly about the new book, but he touched on some of the others. I really like Baker for his eclecticism, and he had good words for this interview; said it was one of the best he'd done.

I'm going to try Ryu Murakami. I'm working on your canon list, though I don't always pick the same title.
Thanks. I've been trying to review every book I've read since 2006, but I've fallen pretty far behind (something like 30 books behind). I've been making an effort to catch up and will probably be posting a lot of reviews over the next few months. Just posted a new one today for "Lady Chatterley's Lover."

Cheers,

-CZ
Must thank you; I'm reading The Intuitionist and I love it. Also today I see one of my favorite movies: Withnail & I, and didn't know about How to Get Ahead in Advertising. I'm going to have to keep an eye on you!
Noticed you've added a some Simenon. "Man Who Watched the Trains Go BY"
is an all-time favorite. I think I have a pretty complete Simenon in
trans. Hard to do with all the various editions/translations.
Thank you! Now, what to do with my time?

Oh yes - READ!
Your lost book group led me to your library. When I saw the name Colson Whitehead it rang a bell and I knew I must have seen it in today's New York Times. In fact, he has a very funny op-ed about (and the caps are his) "The Guy Who's Where He Is Only Because He's Black". I recommend it, and thank you for the introduction.
Hi-
I've only recently joined and decided to put up just what I've read since the start of this year. But looking at your library, I see several matches to my previously read list from your favorite authors list: Especially Auster, Barthelme, Bukowski, Camus, DeLillo. As well as others I have enjoyed reading: Abe, Amis, Sorrentino, Borges, Calvino, Whitehead. And more! Europe Central was great. Riding Towards Everywhere, not so much.
Glad you're enjoying the early Pynchon short stories...you'll find that he uses many music and lyrical references throughout all of his works. I'm trying to figure out a way to reference more modern sound compositions in my recent writings, but I find it to be very challenging. Maybe I need to re-read 'Silence' by John Cage(?)

Cheers & all that, Jeremy
"There's a glut of other poison sloshing around in my trough..."

So, what poison is sloshing in your trough lately? ;-)

Just finished "Depravity" (Les Innocents) by Carco. Definitely
a must read. A wild ending!
Thanks for the comment about Ishiguro, I think I will give it a go (and Never Let Me Go as well) at some stage. I must reread The Trial some time as well...
AND - your laudable effort has put me in mind, again, of Burton's Anatomy of Melancholy - from which AT grabbed a good portion of his arcana ("Nodina", for example). It's been on my must read list forever.
Another convert to (the other) Theroux - very cool re Crucifer's Library (you must be as well employed as I am). Who is the woman who's name was spelled backwards. I've read that damned thing three times and never caught it. I was always curious as to whether or not the book by "cardinal d'Arconville" mentioned in the book is more than fictional. Theroux, supposedly, wrote that novel as a revenge against some rustic doxy who spurned him (she a student, he a teacher, story of his life it has been told). I will have to check with a friend of mine over the woman's name - she still lives in the Charlottesville area, apparently.
Yeah, I'm only an hour and half drive south of you. Closer to central Oregon than Portland is, but still in the Willamette Valley.
Thank you for your compliment on my recent fanzine and comic additions. Yes, I do own that issue of BB Gun for the Breyer P-Orridge article. I work with Genesis helping out with website and archive tasks.
You probably should. "Infinite Jest" is his best, but it's daunting and not for all tastes. I would recommend starting with a collection of essays, such as "A Supposedly Fun Thing I Will Never Do Again." That one in particular is a good introduction to his style and his various obsessions. It's also incredibly funny.
Thanx for the Glass analogy slick - I love Glass and Nyman and kind of see what you're getting at - I'll try it next winter (long dark evenings). Thanx also for marking my collection as interesting
It took far longer for me to get that reference than I would have liked. This is not a good sign!

I just noticed looking through your library that your reviews convinced me to buy Parasites Like Us and add Cool Hand Luke to my colossal master "to read" list a while back. It was a prophecy, I swear. Or something.
i can handle the blame. enjoy!
Hello, I was thinking the same about you-- I like your tag "my canon" and the selection of books so tagged. I set up a "top 10" but it's limiting. I got to know Simic personally many years ago. His output and continuing success still impresses me. I was happy to see your library including Bukowski, Sorrentino, McSweeny's, Barthelme, various poetry, and J Safran Foer, all at the same time. Breadth and depth! I like the exercise of writing short reviews (I leave them in the "comments" column until I think they're done) because it helps me to remember what I found notable about some books which I may have read 30 or 40 years ago. Enjoy LT, I know I do. --Jay
http://www.nybooks.com/nyrb/movingsale
i AM bankrupting myself on those NYRB books. but it's worth it. nice collection, yours.

j
'Darconville's Cat' is an incredible novel...it lead me (eventually) to Gaddis' 'The Recognitions'. I'm still working through A. Theroux's newest work 'Laura Warholic', but am enjoying it. I am always interested in the books you add to your library (whether wished for or otherwise).
well, I'm just finishing it, and am totally bowled over by the stuff on Shostakovich. Very moving stuff. And I agree with you about the portraits of the two generals. I'll check out some of your other recommendations for future Vollman reading.
You would be surprised how man werewolves there are out there. I always seem to keep busy.
Great library!
I see you've read "Perversity". It's been quite a while, so I'll have
to re-read it one of these days. I'm having fun with several new-to-me
Carco stuff.
Also love the John Carter/Burroughs stuff. Just re-read those a few years ago.
Try "Hyperion" by Dan Simmons. Warning: highly addicting 4 vols!
thanks for your message. It's nice to know that my blog is appreciated. I haven't managed to collect many IOs recently because I haven't been reading 19 century literature for a long time, but it's fun coming across them when I'm reading.
I notice that you have Vollman's Riding toward Everywhere in your on deck category (that's like a TBR pile, right?). I'm currently reading Europe Central by him and it's incredibly good. My first Vollman. i will be interested to hear your reaction to RTE, and your recommendation for his other work.
Best wishes, Murr
If I remember well, it was a sculpture realized by an asian women. I can't remeber the name. I found the picture on flickr or Google image, but I haven't been able to find it again, even on my computer.
If it exists somewhere, it must be something to see.
Hi slickdpdx.
First off, I'm impressed by the size of your library.
For your question, if you mean an english bible translation, I personnaly use (even if I usually read it in french) the New International Version, and also the New King James.
I hope it helps.
By the way (since you are the first one to write to me, you'll get my questions too), have you ever managed to (or tried to) get an early reviewer book? I have tried since I'm with LT (only 5 months or so) but never got one so far. I'm just wondering the odds of success...
Welcome to Books Compared. You have a really intriguing list of favorite authors. I'm looking forward to your comparison of Hunger vs. The Arabian Nightmare.
Hey, sorry about that strange URL for "Zardoz" on the front page -- I don't know why it's publishing a wrong archive address. The correct URL is http://www.cclapcenter.com/2008/01/movies_for_grownups_zardoz.html . By the way, you're not just making things up in your review of "The Maltese Falcon;" Peter Lorre's character was indeed gay in the original novel, one of the several "lewd" aspects that led the Hays Code committee to banning the original 1931 version of the movie, prompting this "cleaner" 1941 version that's now become so famous. I left more details over at your original review, in the comments.
Again, thank you very much for the positivity! It is hugely appreciated. I recently finished reading Tanizaki's The Secret History of the Lord of Musashi on a recommendation from a friend; it was brisk (maybe 160 pages or so) and genuinely excellent, frequently confounding my expectations of historical novels, although I suppose this might be a novella despite what its publisher says. I can't say I recommend Arrowroot, sadly (it came bundled in my edition of The Secret History...), as it is more of an essay-narrative quoting actual sources, as opposed to the tactfully fabricated ones employed to further suspend the reader's disbelief in TSHotLoM. Look it up if ever you're seeking a palette cleanser between long narratives.
Judging by your comments on Rice, I think you'd really like Lantern too, as it's also set in early contemporary China.

Su Tong's next is coming out in hardback sometime in the middle of February. It's apparently based on an old Chinese myth and thus set in the pre-modern era. Howard Goldblatt is on board again as translator, and it promises to be excellent all around!
Isn't Su Tong excellent? I've actually read both Rice and Raise the Red Lantern, but My Life as Emperor is by far my favorite. I hope his next novel also exhibits a similar leap in skill--it'd be phenomenal.

I'm still holding off on rereading the Taran books, because I want to have somewhat forgotten them before I pick them up again (I pretty much knew every word as a child)...it's the next best thing to reading them for the first time again!
Thanks for the kind words. I'll be fine as long as I can find ways to turn my pain into comedy.
Cheers slick dp - I wanted to write reviews of the physical books I had - the actual copies, and that Ballard was such a major one in my life. But... once that was written and a few others, I slacked off. I kind of worry about how may hours there are in the day. It's either too many or too few, but either way, it's the not the right amount. Had a breeze through your blog. Good things + impressive. I'll read again. Myself have just picked up a copy of a book called 'Fishlore' - just an informative book about fish, but there's a humorous twist to the writing which has addicted me. Keep Zoning + Trailing, dudre.
Pickwick is really the further adventures of Toby Shandy. Enjoy!
Hey Slickbird,
Thanks for finding my virtual collection and for your note. Any comment from a Committed Electic like you is much appreciated. I see you dig Murakami--it's hard to top The Wind-Up Bird, isn't it? Makes you feel like hanging out in a well... Anyway, I add books to my LT library only after I "review" them, which as you saw entails much cud-chewing. So, it will take me a while to drag in all 100 works from the list--the centathlon is a long slog...
Mike
btw I see that Pickwick Papers is in your library but haven't you read it? It's wonderful. I also recommend Tristram Shandy.
Hi slickdpdx,

Thanks for connecting. I've enjoyed going through your library. So far, I've just been cataloging books as I read them, kind of to keep score. I'll eventually put everything in that I actually have. Mostly it's classic lit, although during the past couple of years I've started to get interested in the Japanese novel.
Glad the books got there ok - I have some others to send yr way (I'm a nut in that I nab up copies of books I like a lot in order to redistribute them to peeps I think might enjoy them, and to further my own agenda, whatever that may be - ha!).

Yeah, I bookmarked 'Entropy' for you as it is my fav short-story. To a certain degree it's like ripping out 20 or so random odd pages from one of Joyce's longer works, but the mechanics beneath it are a bit more complex; also, whereas Borges can be overtly-technical, I find this to be a far more realistic, nay, flowing immersion. My 2 cents.

You Bright and Risen Angels by Vollmann was such an eye-opening experience for me when I first read it. I think that book, along w/Gravity's Rainbow, really opened me up to moving beyond first-person human-based narratives to that of inanimate (and lesser-animate?) POVs. Or somethin' like that - (oh I sooo need to go to bed now).

Maybe some of this made sense...hee. I'm off to make some New Year resolutions; some to keep, some to break. - J.
Thank you for your complement on my review of Kangaroo Notebook by Kobe Abe. I enjoy reading his books very much and hope you do too. Have a wonderful New Year!
Thanks for the tips.
Boyle´s East is East did I already have at home, but no time to read it. I really loved the Water Music and surely want to try another Boyle.

Bad Monkeys is the only book by Matt Ruff I have not read, but the others were fantastic. Crazy, but funny and exciting. My favourite book by him is Fool on the hill, which is, in my opinion, very well-written and related to shakespeare, lord of the rings, stephen king (allthoug I don´t like him) and many tales.

There are many German authors, which are very good, you might know Thomas Mann and Günter Grass, who has even won the literature-nobelpreis. But one of my favourite is Daniel Kehlmann, his book, "Die Vermessung der Welt" is pretty new and really great. I don´t now, wether it has been translated in English, but I hope, if it is, that nothing of the beautiful and humerous language is lost.

I hope this was helpfully and please forgive my bad English :)

Cheers
Deleted it. I'm paring down my online presence.
Thanks - that might be a better idea. I just happened to notice that LOC had lps - so I went to town. They seem to have gaps in their holdings or entries, though. I would like to keep the media separate.
Hey - glad you liked the the tajine - and it does take more effort than I'm used to expending (pasta in boiling water... sauce on top), but it is delicious. If you'd like, I'll scrounge up my recipe for Harira (a Moroccan soup and, I believe, a Ramadan staple). I have not yet made the Turkish dish - but will give it go over the holidays.
I was hoping you'd know - and must confess, I ain't tried it yet.
Heya. I only archived mine because I was bored (who'da thought). Here, by the way, is another recipe someone posted privately (unless it's a secret recipe, I don't think I'm guilty of a gravy indiscretion):

Kiymali Ispanak (spinach with minced meat; Turkey)

Super easy and tasty.

1 pound frozen spinach (because I'm lazy like this)
2 onions, peeled and chopped
some oil
1/2 pound minced meat
1/2 cup rice, washed
16 fl ounces broth
salt and pepper
1 tsp red pepper
1 1/2 cups yogurt (the thick, creamy kind)

Heat the oil and fry onions and meat until the meat is dry...make sure to crush the meat properly. Add rice, spinach and broth, red pepper and salt/pepper to taste, bring to cook and let it simmer for 30 minutes. If it gets too dry, add a little more water. This isn't a soup, but should be juicy. Add spices if necessary and serve with yogurt. Serves 4.

Mubattan (stuffed potatoes; Libya)

This is from Kulinarisches Arabien (although I already made some improvements, or at least I think so ;)), and while it's a little laborious, the results are SO worth it.

1 pound minced meat
1 onion, peeled and chopped
3 cloves of garlic, peeled and crushed
2 tblsp parsley, chopped
2 bread rolls, soaked and squeezed
salt and pepper
1 tsp cumin

Mix everything well to create the stuffing for the potatoes. Cover and put aside.

6 big potatoes, peeled
oil for deep-frying
flour

Slice the potatoes into 1 cm thick slices (a little less than 1/2 inch). Lengthwise cut some kind of a pocket into them, making sure you don't hurt the second long side. Salt the potatoes generously inside and outside and let them rest for 20 minutes (in the meanwhile, you can prepare the tomatoe sauce). Dry them with some kitchen towels and fill them with the prepared stuffing; the stuffing should be around a good 1" thick. Turn the stuffed potatoes thoroughly in flour, brush off the excessive and deep-fry until golden brown. De-fat a little by putting them on a kitchen towel for some time, and enjoy :)

4 big tomatoes, peeled, without kernels and chopped
2 onions, peeled, halved and thinly sliced
4 tblsp tomato paste
2 tsp parsley, chopped
salt
1 tsp harissa
oil

Heat oil and fry the onions a little; add everything but the parsley and make a tomatoe sauce. Add spices to taste and when done, the parsley. Serve potatoes with the sauce (serves 4).
I'm a binger, not a purger - I just archived 'em. And now, voila:
Yes! I always look at peoples' bookshelves when I go to their house. (Ugh, grammar clash) Thankfully, my friends are eccentric enough to not mind my sniffing their books. Sometimes I get weird looks at libraries though.
I love buying library discards. They've been read by so many people and they're so full of personality.
Hope you're enjoying "The Thought Gang". It is one of my favourite reads from the past couple of years.
Ha, sry for the delayed response; yes I own 5 copies of CoL49 - I collect different versions of TRP's books, so I have multiples of each lying around.

Yes, I have a sickness; but it is such a good one...
Thanks for the comment about my comments about the Sorrentino book. I wish I'd noticed it sooner, but after an initial burst of enthusiasm, I haven't been spending much time on LibraryThing of late. I'll have to get around to entering the rest of my books and posting more reviews soon.
yes, I have read the three musketeers before ... i can't argue with you about the cover, but it is an interesting piece of packaging.
HC is part of my organizational system. I have a separate shelve for hardcover books (divided further into fiction and non-fiction), so the "HC" prefix indicates that a book is on my hardcover shelve, and it makes it easier for me to find titles.
Rotten does have a lot of great content, once you get past the deeply skeevy vibe of the place.
I have to admit, I don't feel as strongly about [Dracula] as I did about [Frankenstein]. I'm just about finished with it and while Stroker is a great job building up tension in the first part I feel the ending is dragging. Plus all the Victorian sensibilities around women are really starting to get to me. Oh, mustn't upset the little woman, don't tell her anything. It makes me wish Dracula liked men instead.

PS anytime you see a post, it's the Mistress ('rissa) since I'm the one with the fabulous desk job.
By the way, like the profile pick. What's the story on it?
No worries. I've found a few people on this site and Last.fm (the only social sites I use, since I can troll for book and music recommendations. Just need a comparable site for movies and I'm set).

Happy cataloging to you.
Thanks for the comments on "Parasites Like Us." And your review. And the link to my review.

I gave the book to a friend, who thought it old hat, just more whining by college people about their rather silly lives. Since that is, in a sense, the take-off point of the book -- the vacuity of collegiate success, the vacuity of our civilization's alleged high-water mark -- I was a bit surprised that he couldn't read further.

But one thing I've noticed: people have different tastes and different tolerances!

(Now there's an almost vacuous response! It's certainly laboring the obvious.)
Yo. Nice to see your taste in books is as good as your taste in music. Cheers.

-zombiereligion.
3 of the yo-yo books came with 1 yo-yo and 1 yo-yo book came with 3 yo-yos!

Yes, I collect yo-yos (and yo-yo books). Am I a champion yo-yoist? Uh-h-h no, no just so-so.
It looks like a dream I've had. Every night for the past 30 years.
Well, quite frankly, I have no idea. I've just ordered it. But, Ewers is the creepiest and the most amusing writer of decadent horror fiction you could ever hope to read. Back to the Ant People. I was going over my Ewers stuff of an evening and discovered that another of his books I have not yet read, The Wonders of the Ant World, is a toned-down for "young readers" version of The Ant People. My hopes are high. His story "The Spider" joins decadence and bugs pretty efficiently.
Thanks for linking to my idiotic blog.

U R nice.

Greg (Bastard of Art and Commerce)
You're very welcome. Let me know what you think when you finish it.
Thanks so much for the positivity, Slick. It's humbling to know people with such taste as yourself enjoy my work and it definitely gives me energy to keep plugging away on what I'm crafting now. By the way, have you read After the Banquet, by any chance? That's one of my very favorites of Mishima's. Kazu is one hell of a character, and certainly one of his finest protagonists.
I am honored that you listed my library as "interesting". Good to meet a fellow devotee of Wolverton.
Confessions: My copy of Those Who Return is bound in green cloth: rather unattractive. My copy of the short story collection is a series of freely downloaded print-outs: unwieldy and unattractive. And I was shocked to find, at this late hour, that someone had republished these. I am assuming it's a Kessinger sort of slap-dash public domain snatch: old translations, heady glue fumes?
Thanks for the heads up!
Nice to see someone else has a copy of 'Devil in the Dooryard!' Thanks for posting the cover.
I'm surprised we aren't matched better... I was looking at your author cloud and most of the names are people I enjoy, or people on my booklist to pick up. I'll have to go through the names carefully and pick out those few I have not heard of.
Why thank you very kindly. I try.
Hi.
I really like your library! I saw you recommended Gilbert Sorrentino as a good po-mo writer. Is there any specific book you would recommend?

-The Mistress
weirdly, i have around four (probably five) different copies of this book. It might actually be the one that i own the most of.

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