mollusk

My wife suggested "A Home at the End of the World" so I have started it. I liked "The Hours" well enough and "Specimen Days" was OK, but Cunningham is not one of my favorite authors.

kj5423

ive read this book quite a few times...always keep going back to it

carpediemracing 

I'll be a beyatch about this one.

Almost done with this:


Which is this when closed:

gsteinb

can you put that into english?

what's the deal, CDR, you need 1000 words minimum to be coherent?

carpediemracing 

I was showing off

gsteinb

when I posted the first pic was missing.

was it any good?

mollusk

Am I more jealous of your autograph book or psimet's collection of authentic 7-11 jerseys? Damn, that is a tough one.

carpediemracing 

The one thing I try and get at Interbike is one-off schwag. So it's not the free this or that, it's more like the chance to get my book signed by the author, a poster signed by a rider, etc. The 7-Eleven thing was pretty crazy, all those riders in one spot, just crazy.

7-Eleven book was interesting, definitely more a historical book than either a story or whatever book.

One major error makes me wonder what errors I don't know about - the book claims that (describing the relentless flak US riders took at first) Doug Shapiro, when he glanced over at the camera in the 1986 Tour, that he hit and took out Pedro Delgado. That's not right. He did take someone out, the leader of the Fagor squad, but it wasn't Delgado (he was racing for Reynolds), and it was due to a broken elbow, not a collarbone (at least that's what all the English media reported at the time).

Video about 7-Eleven in that particular Tour. I always fastforwarded over this part of my Tour tapes when watching them on the trainer, too depressing. Of course the next bit of the tape is the Lemond/Hinault battle in the last time trial.

Lemond crashes in a turn. His wife Kathy is watching TV coverage at the line.

"What do you mean he's alright? Is he still riding?"

Hell yeah.

Fat Boy

Within the last year I've read 2 'around the world on a bike' books. The first guy to do it did so on a penny-farthing. His name was Thomas Stevens and he started his trip in 1884. The other book was the guy who did it the fastest. He is a Scot by the name of Mark Beaumont.

Stevens was a hell of an adventurer. I can't imagine doing what he did. Several times he had to get out of trouble by pulling his pistol out (a 41'er perhaps?). The guy was very quick thinking, tough as shoe leather and took sheet from no one.

Beaumont was a hell of an athlete, but pretty naive and often a little stupid. He says that he didn't like the US because he got his wallet stolen here. Well, he put himself in the middle of a crack-head fight and then let them into his hotel room in the middle of the night. Honestly, that was just dumb. On the flip side, several people drove hours out of their way to help him. One guy met him for 15 minutes in California and then later drove 20 hours round trip to bring him a camera in Florida. Nothing even close to that happened anywhere else in the world. Beaumont approached his preparation in a completely haphazard way and basically had no clue about any of the technical aspects of his bike or camping. If the Beaumont and Stevens' rolls were switched, Beaumont would be been dead before he got out of Turkey.

One thing that was interesting was how similar the two trips ended up being. You get to some places on this planet and it really doesn't matter that 100+ years have passed. The people and the culture are exactly the same.

hammy56

I have too many damn books Im trying to read at one time. Very limited time unfortunately. Ive got 3 or 4 I havent finished but Im starting this one now-

carpediemracing 

Read these just before Interbike. I think it took only 3 days. I recommend them. They start with Old Man's War, which I've read maybe 4-5 times.

kensuf

That's funny. I read it over the summer.

mollusk

I read all of the Hesse books way back in the late 1960's/early 1970's. I didn't particularly care for any of them even though I was "supposed" to like them. Shrug.

I did the same for Kafka (also widely popular in certain circles way back then) with a different result: Loved them all. Read Dave Egger's "Zeitoun" recently and kept thinking back to "The Trial" the whole time and was calling the protagonist "Herr Z" in my head as I read it.

GirlAnachronism

I did the same thing, and felt the same way, about both Hesse and Kafka. Except I wasn't alive in the 1970s, so it was a few years later for me.

I liked Zeitoun a lot--probably my favorite Eggers book. I had a moment like that recently, with a story in a TC Boyle collection (I've been working my way through his back catalog, after loving When the Killing's Done and The Women). It was called "The Overcoat II" and as soon as I saw the name Akaky Akakievich I got all excited to re-read Gogol.

mollusk

I presume you have already read "World's End". If not, drop everything else and read it.

GirlAnachronism

Nope, haven't gotten there yet. Boyle has written a ****-ton of books! I'm working on Tooth and Claw right now, then Water Music is up next. World's End on my list at the library though.

Also, Steven Millhauser has a new short story collection out, so as soon as I'm done with There but for the, by Ali Smith (which is excellent, BTW) that takes precedence.

mollusk

I've read almost all of them. The one I can't seem to finish is "Tortilla Curtain". I bought it the week it came out in giddy anticipation of a good read. Every time I try to read it I mutter expletives and toss it aside.

"World's End" is awesome, btw. It is my favorite TC Boyle.

GirlAnachronism

Yeah, Tortilla Curtain was not that great--I don't like being hit over the head with the "point" of a book. My favorite so far is When the Killing's Done, and I enjoyed The Inner Circle quite a bit. The short story collections all blend together for me at this point, and they can be kind of hit or miss.

mollusk

TC Boyle has written some outstanding short stories. I happened to luck into a remainder hard copy of his collected short stories at a discount book store for $5. WIN!

I'm telling you that World's End is better that When the Killing's Done and The Inner Circle, and I also enjoyed both of them as well.

Added in edit: Read Nabokov. 'Lolita', of course, as well as "Pale Fire' and 'Ada'. Then devour what is left after that and wish for more.

botto 

mollusk

On my amazon "wish list".

AzTallRider

A Dog in a Hat celebrates the glory of bike racing, but Parkin thrillingly tells the hard reality of the life—the drugs, the payoffs, the betrayals by teammates, the battles with team owners for contracts and money, the endless promises that keep you going, and the rider's sheer physical agony of racing day after day.

Parkin isn't complimentary of American racing when he returns from Belgium. One of his big points was that, in a pro race in Europe, an attack is all out: an all or nothing affair. Here, he says, people attack, then look around to see what happened before deciding whether to keep it going.

It was a good read... the parts about wins frequently being bought, by someone in the breakaway, was eye-opening for me.

GirlAnachronism

...and my library list. My boss is obsessed with Ways of Seeing.

TMonk

I loved reading this book. Picked it up as one of the "eastern religion" options for world religions GE class in college.

Ultraslide

Sing with me ...

It's the most wonderful time of the year !!!

My 4 year old has been bugging me non stop to read this to her. We're on chapter 4 and intend to be finished by Halloween, doing a chapter every couple of nights.