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| Topics | | messages | Last message | | | What Are You Reading Now? : What Books Have You STOPPED Reading? | | 233 | DevourerOfBooks, Today 1:22pm |  |
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| List Five Books Parlour Game : Where do you live? | | 78 | rolandperkins, August 14 | |
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| 999 Challenge : Group Read?: Middlesex | | 20 | CatyM, June 16 | |
| What Are You Reading Now? : What books are next on your reading list? Part 2 | | 155 | pologal, April 29 | |
| What Are You Reading Now? : : What You Are Reading the Week of 11 April 2009 | | 196 | FicusFan, April 18 | |
| The Green Dragon : The Author as a Character | | 29 | jillmwo, February 25 | |
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| 50 Book Challenge : Knud - The view from my chair | | 6 | billiejean, December 2008 | |
| What Are You Reading Now? : What books are next on your reading list? | | 355 | stevetempo, November 2008 | |
| What Are You Reading Now? : What books came into your home today? August, 2008. Number 2. | | 410 | IaaS, November 2008 | |
| What Are You Reading Now? : The Clunkers of 2007 | | 222 | theduckthief, August 2008 | |
| What Are You Reading Now? : Literary ADD | | 89 | bnbooklady, July 2008 | |
| What did YOU buy today? : Message Board #2 | | 188 | karen5l, June 2008 | |
| Dormant: 50 Book Challenge : Giggsy's List | | 27 | giggsy, April 2008 | |
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| Dormant: Fans of Russian authors : Branching Out | | 9 | anisoara, February 2008 | |
| Dormant: What Are You Reading Now? : What You're Reading the Week of 22 December 2007 | | 127 | adobe4578, December 2007 | |
| Dormant: Reading Resolutions : Books that Most Disappointed You | | 54 | Enraptured, December 2007 | |
| Dormant: 50 Book Challenge : I Did It! Lyza's 50 Books for 2007 | | 4 | lyzadanger, December 2007 | |
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| Dormant: What Are You Reading Now? : Top books read 2nd quarter 2007 April - June | | 60 | grkmwk, October 2007 | |
| Dormant: What Are You Reading Now? : What books came into your home today? - August 2007 | | 176 | Cariola, September 2007 | |
| Dormant: What did YOU buy today? : What did you buy today (July, 2007)? | | 91 | thioviolight, August 2007 | |
| Dormant: What Are You Reading Now? : What You're Reading the Week of 23 June 2007 | | 123 | vivienbrenda, June 2007 | |
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| Dormant: What Are You Reading Now? : What You're Reading the Week of 16 June 2007 | | 172 | varielle, June 2007 | |
| Dormant: High School English Teachers : summer reading - yours, not your students | | 3 | LoisLane, June 2007 | |
| Dormant: What did YOU buy today? : If you didn't buy a book today, what was the last book you bought and when? | | 105 | Jenson_AKA_DL, June 2007 | |
| Dormant: Reading Globally : Where in the World Are You Now? May 2007 | | 66 | jensview, May 2007 | |
| Dormant: What Are You Reading Now? : What You're Reading the Week of 19 May 2007 | | 131 | digifish_books, May 2007 | |
| Dormant: Book Fiend : Do you set yourself reading challenges? | | 10 | klagreg, May 2007 | |
| Dormant: What Are You Reading Now? : What You're Reading the Week of 16 Dec 2006 | | 139 | GaryKurtz, May 2007 | |
| Dormant: Reading Globally : Where in the World Are You Now? April 2007 | | 85 | rebeccanyc, May 2007 | |
| Dormant: Book talk : Best Young American Novelists | | 6 | LolaWalser, March 2007 | |
| Dormant: What Are You Reading Now? : Your Top Five for 2006 | | 104 | momom248, January 2007 | |
... date, author's birthdate, etc.
it helps me stay a bit organized & makes it fun
(today i started reading absurdistan because the first chapter is entitled "the night in question: june 15, 2001")
so my tentative (impossibly ambitious) schedule involves reading middlesex ... 30
absurdistan gary shteyngart
 rebeccanyc in What Are You Reading Now? : What Are You Reading Now? : What You Are Reading the Week of 11 April 2009 (Apr 15, 2009, 5:20pm) #139, CarolynSchroeder, I read an excerpt of Absurdistan in the New Yorker and that was enough to make me not read the book, in addition to the fact that I had been very frustrated with Gary Shteyngart's earlier book, The Russian Debutante's Handbook: it started off great, when the ... I just put down Absurdistan ... absolutely horrible.
#139, CarolynSchroeder, I was never so happy to abandon a book as I was when I tossed Absurdistan after a hundred pages. Okay, ugh, putting down Absurdistan ... I have sort of a rule, anytime the protagonist/author talks about, or makes references to, his genitalia 10 times or more in a few pages, it's gonna be a struggle for me. I don't, per se, have anything against the male private part but that being said, I ... ... but certainly graphic in sex dept. (gay lifestyle too), so need to be able to handle that.
I am now starting Absurdistan and I'm entirely unsure what to think of it so far. It's kinda funny, but the accolades are mindblowing, so I want to give it a fair chance. Strange little ... ... in this spate of reading.
Startted with Zookeeper's Wife but it was a bit slow so I'm taking turns between it and Absurdistan... also read Swinging for the Fences: Choosing to Live an Extraordinary Life about a local man born with no arms and only 1 leg who now works for the Padres. ... terms slowed me down through the first 3rd or so of the book, and the ending slightly fizzled...
today it's on to either Absurdistan or The Zookeeper's Wife ...? ... I'm going to start adding to my library.
Off the top of my head:
Galatea 2.2 by Richard Powers (author as protagonist)
Absurdistan by Gary Shteyngart ("Professor Shteynfarb" makes very funny commentary)
The Feast of Love by Charles Baxter (author as secondary character)
The New York Tri ... ... it's anything to go out of your way for.
Gary Shteyngart is the only one of these four that I'd heartily recommend. Absurdistan is hilarious. Good, biting satire. Can't say I got the ending, but that happens so much in modern lit, I've gotten to where I just throw up my hands and ... ... rson
Cosmopolis by Don DeLillo
The Thirteenth Tale by Diane Setterfield
Waiting by Ha Jin
Dead Air by Ian Banks
Absurdistan by Gary Shteyngart
The Bookseller of Kabul by Asne Seierstad
Carter Beats the Devil by Glen David Gold
The Metaphysical Club by Louis Menard
..and ... ... are engulfed in flames david sedaris (24 july-25 july)
6 olive kitteridge elizabeth strout (13 november-20 november)
7 absurdistan gary shteyngart (15 june-17 june)
8 snow flower and the secret fan lisa see (27 january-28 january)
9 self yann martel (14 october-17 october)
Absurdistan by Gary Shteyngart
The Castle of Otranto by Horace Walpole
The House of Mirth by Edith Wharton
Cold Comfort Farm by Stella Gibbons
The Hot House by Pete Earley ... bonanza:
Dictionary of the Khazars by Milorad Pavic
The Hummingbird's Daughter by Luis Alberto Urrea
Absurdistan by Gary Shteyngart
You Can Prevent Global Warming (and save money!) by Jeffrey Langholz
Sold by Patricia Mccormick
I also received Months ... Katbook - I just sent you a PM about Absurdistan. I would love it if you still have it. This thread is awesome! ... out the reserve thing (I haven't tried it yet).
The Collected Stories of Amy Hempel by Amy Hempel . MOOCHED
Absurdistan by Gary Shteyngart.- MOOCHED
The Master and Margarita by Mikhail Bulgakov.
The Well of Lost Plots by Jasper Fforde. MOOCHED
Hope I can ... ... he popped up I got a lot more interested. He's like the great-great grandfather of Misha Vainberg in Gary Shteyngart's Absurdistan. We Read Every Single Title a Little Each Day...WRESTLED. I WRESTLED BADD, I'm sorry to say. ... today and bought some books specifically to add to my BookMooch inventory. They include some highly wishlisted titles like Absurdistan, The Gathering, and Loving Frank. I'm going to go add them right now so mooch away.
http://www.bookmooch.com/m/inventory/mcna217
Currently reading absurdistan by gary shteyngart, aztec by gary jennings, smillas sense of snow by Peter Hoeg, The Monsters of Templeton by Laura Groff and In the Lake of the woods by tim o'brien.
I need to stop buying books and finish the ones i start first! gosh, freakin' books ... ... Blue Bear by Walter Moers
Around the world in 80 days by Jules Verne
In the lake of the woods by Tim O'Brien
Absurdistan by Gary Shteyngart
and now i shall go sit at starbucks and read all afternoon. I love sundays :) ... matova,
Tsvetaeva,
Yevtushenko,
Vosnezensky.
Some lighter stuff by emigres like Gary Shteyngart's Absurdistan, and The russian debutante's handbook,
There are Jews in my House by Lara Vapnyar ,
and the sad and heroic memoirs of Mandelstam's wife Nadezhd ... Glad to hear Absurdistan is good--I also enjoyed The Russian Debutante's Handbook and now have Absurdistan on the shelf. 7. Absurdistan by Gary Shteyngart (338 p.)
After having read The Russian Debutante's Handbook I was quite looking forward to this one. It didn't disappoint. Funny, bitter, cynical satire. The chapter "A Modest Proposal" made me laugh out loud. ... and has now been added to my ever-growing wish list. I've got The Book Thief, and will probably pick it up once I finish Absurdistan. Just finished with Absurdistan by Gary Shteyngart -- not a book for everyone, but interesting.
Started last night Drenched in light - it's a pick for our book club.
121, 122, 124, 125: It takes all kinds. I thought Absurdistan was a decent read. It was overhyped, though. #121, #122, Fortunately for me, I had read an excerpt from Absurdistan in the New Yorker, so I knew to avoid the book. Also, I had read The Russian Debutante's Handbook, Gary Shteyngart's first novel -- it started out great when the protagonist, a young Russian immigrant, was in New York, ... I couldn't agree more about Absurdistan, CEP, another over-hyped and un-funny piece of work that really is a supreme clunker. ... the way I had expected, I found it a solid enjoyable read and I'm not sorry I bought the hard cover early on.
I bought Absurdistan at the same time as STICP. Now that was a clunker, so much so that I wouldn't have remembered it if it wasn't for the buying connection. The humor never quite ... ... for the next couple of weeks, but I've been eyeing up my next couple of books.
Namesake - Jhumpa Lahiri
Absurdistan - Gary Shteyngart
and
Oh Pure and Radiant Heart - Lydia Millet are all likely. I'd like to see the movie version of Namesake so I'll likely start ... ... by Henry James
25. The Hundred Secret Senses by Amy Tan
26. Little Women by Louisa May Alcott
27. Absurdistan: A Novel by Gary Shteyngart
28. Do You Speak American? by Robert MacNeill
... ... on the cover, is 'social' or something like that.
For example, here's a link for one of the books in your library: Absurdistan. You have the tag cloud about mid-way down the page. You can also expand it to see all the tags that have been used or to see it in a list with a numbers view. ... I just got these--
The Old Devils by Kingsley Amis
Absurdistan by Gary Shteyngart
White Teeth by Zadie Smith
Experience by Martin Amis
The Wind-Up Bird Chronicle by Haruki Murakami
Never let me go by Kazuo Ishiguro
David Copperfield by Charles Dickens ... I bought Understanding Comics by Scott McCloud today, Absurdistan by Gary Shteyngart and also House of Sugar, a graphic novel/comic strip by Rebecca Kraatz. I also got the Feedback comic from the "Who Wants to be a Superhero?" show. #97 bookishy and #99 rebeccanyc
I got about halfway through Absurdistan. I chose it based on the New York Times recommendataion. I found it a bit goofy and a bit funny. Nothing compelled me to finish reading it--I didn't really care what happened to the characters. I could see it as an ... ... parts in NY were very funny and that it petered out when he got back to Russia. Then, after reading an excerpt from Absurdistan in The New Yorker, I decided not to read the book. So it will be interesting to hear what you think. ... It was entertaining, but uneven, and I still don't know quite what to make of it. But I'm going to read his new book, Absurdistan, so I guess that's a positive.
I've had so much trouble trying to figure out what to start next. The Widow's War has captured my attention enough that I ... ... Policemen's Union by Michael Chabon
Both authors tell a good story with wonderful use of language.
In no order
Absurdistan by Gary Shteyngart
Many readers didn't like this book -which has an affinity in it's surreal plot line to the movie "Borat" It is very funny and tasteless ... I'm currently reading Absurdistan, by Gary Shteyngart I am in Russia with Absurdistan and plan to move on to Italy, India, and Indonesia with Eat Pray Love. Then I will be off to Japan with Goodbye Tsugumi.
Thank goodness for books. I could never afford the airfare to satisfy my curiosity of the world :). ... right now I just want pleasure reading.
So far, I have read Alas, Babylon and Endless Love. I am currently reading Absurdistan and Eat Pray Love. Usually I have a book at school and one at home. I just don't know how to break the two-books-at-once habit. Just finished Absurdistan by Gary Shteyngart and The Madonnas of Leningrad by Debra Dean. I am now in need of non-fiction. Just started Eats, Shoots and Leaves by Lynne Truss ... of Death by Ariana Franklin The Franklin book was disappointing in the last part-too cloying for me. I am now reading Absurdistan by Gary Shteyngart A number of LT reviewers don't like his work-but I do! Will go on to read another Boris Akunin mystery.
Hmm- The Yiddish Policemen' ... ... author completes. ( Stella Tillyard and her A Royal Affair George III and his Troublesome Siblings ) I am now reading Absurdistan by Gary Shteyngart and will try to get back to the big books that I put down- Mortals by Norman Rush and the last 400 pages of Jonathan Strange & Mr. ... ... and Russia in A woman in Jerusalem by Yehoshua. Not sure where I'll go next... I still have open passage to Absurdistan and suppose I'll eventually return there. ... at B&N and purchased:
Jane Eyre (Penguin Classics) by Charlotte Bronte
Josie and Jack by Kelly Braffet
Absurdistan by Gary Shteyngart
Twilight of the Superheroes by Deborah Eisenberg
Special Topics in Calamity Physics by Marisha Pessl
I'll start reading ... #67, I read the parts of Absurdistan that appeared in the New York and was decidedly unimpressed -- let us know what you think if you go back!
I have left 1920s Connecticut (during Prohibition) and 1920s and '30s England, Germany, and Morocco in Richard Hughes's The Wooden Shepherdess ... I left Nigeria and Biafra in Half of a Yellow Sun enlightened and melancholy, stopped in Absurdistan, but became so impatient with the droll nature of the populace, I left for Japan in Spring Snow. I'll probably be summoned back to Absurdistan this weekend because I left without a visa. ;-) ... his troublesome siblings -touchstone got it wrong
Sarah Dunant In the Company of the Courtesan
Gary Shteyngart Absurdistan and
Ami McKay The Birth House ... The Russian Debutants's Handbook but felt it completely fell apart around the middle. I read the parts of his Absurdistan that were excerpted in The New Yorker and found them almost unreadable.
I was also disappointed in Maile Meloy's Liars and Saints although I wanted ... ... you there on the broken English thing... I know it's usually done with a purpose but it irritates me too. I haven't read Absurdistan, but I had the same kind of issue with The True History of the Kelly Gang by Peter Carey. It got rave reviews and won the Booker, but it didn't grab me at ... LouisBranning, #65, I read the parts of Absurdistan that appeared in the New Yorker and that, combined with my disappointment with Shteyngart's earlier The Russian Debutante's Handbook has led me to avoid Absurdistan, despite all the praise. The best parts of Debutante were the sections ... Gary Shteyngart's Absurdistan had come very highly recommended to me by several folks with usually semi-impeccable taste in books, but after 150-plus pages I was forced to put that lame dog down and move on to something (anything!) else. It just never managed to engage me on any level, I ... ... etc, time for a new one I thought.
A couple of interesting things in the mail today: a copy of Gary Shteyngart's Absurdistan, along with the new Penguin classics edition of The Portable Dorothy Parker, edited by Marion Meade, and which appears just totally irresistible. ("The sun's ... ... online its 10 best books of 2006, but you have to be registered with them to see it, I think. They list:
Fiction
Absurdistan by Gary Shteyngart
The Collected Stories of Amy Hempel
The Emperor's Children by Claire Messud
The Lay of the Land (touchstone not loading) by ...
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