I am a big beat fan and have been since my ninth grade lit teacher read excerpts of HOWL in class (kind of a risky move, really). I've read everything I've been able to get my hands on. Ginsberg has always been my favorite, but I'm with you on Dharma Bums and OTR.

Have you read Go by John Clellon Holmes? If not, you should check it out.

Oyasumi Punpun. A story of a certain guy's life and it starts off when he's young like First grade or somethin' and progresses. 110 Chapters in, he is now 20 years old. Basically fell in love and never really fell out and the person keeps coming in and out of his life.


Yeah...depression and life happens and shit, I'm really hooked. Inio Asano's manga's are not goofy(not really) or anything but just have the sad, happy, funny, and angry parts of life. Every release of his has actually made me feel. I acutally get a bit depressed after reading a voume of this specific manga.

I finally got around to buying a copy of this:

 

I began reading this about ten years ago, but it kept me awake at night, so I stopped. I am now resolved to face my terror.

Pincher Martin. Wm Golding. So/so. It has a pretty nice hallucinatory intro, but now appears to be into a more standard castaway story...

Months now of pretty consistent steampunk immersion. Read some GREAT stuff (The Difference Engine), some so-so stuff (Infernal Devices) and some utter crap (Boneshaker, Chronological Man). No expert yet, but I expect this book to be a game-changer and a soon-to-be classic.

Just a first impression, though.

'jesus son', 'angels' and just about any other denis johnson book deals with roadtrips across america though they aren't happy reads.

Jesus Son, seconded.

TAZ is a classic. i should read it again. however i think that Bey's problem is if i remember correctly is that he puts too much emphasis on these pockets of autonomy that can found within dominant society rather than trying to break down said oppressive society.

I got talked into reading Flannery O'Conner by an acquaintance. Got one with 3 short novels in it, started with Wise Blood, it's pretty good. She's got a nice terse descriptive style...

Started reading Goodbye 20th century the other week.
It's great....well what else, heh :)

Absolutely nothing. I can't decide what to read. Too many choices.

I just finished The Hunchback of Notre-Dame. Aside from a classic, this really is an epic novel! I loved it! So funny and yet so well crafted! Such depth of imagery and casual insertion of mythic symbolism. The dialogue was superb, the narration insightful without being dry or invasive. The plot incredible.

I love the combination of Church and gangster scandals, which is why one of my favorite contemporary authors is Arturo Perez-Reverte!

I especially enjoyed how all the characters and events were interconnected, sometimes obviously, sometimes loosely, and how there was a syncretic blend of sociopolitical commentary merged with the sheer audacious fun of the Roman Noir era of French literature
The ending was perfectly tragic as well. While I usually read novels too deeply like an English Lit teacher, I just enjoyed this one for what it was. Maybe after a second read I will reflect better on what the novel means to me and what the symbolism expresses, but for now, reading was just fun enough


of course, I love the disillusionment reflected so much in the greats Hugo and Dumas, I think their post-Revolution world was just as spiteful and jaded to politics and societal norms as we are in the post-punk/post-modern world ;)

I just remembered! The last book I read was 50 Shades of Grey. The story was compelling, it was a light read. The author could definitely have used a thesaurus. The sex scenes were mostly pretty boring, and I wanted it a lot kinkier. It seems Christian Grey goes even more vanilla in the other two books, which is a shame. Liking bdsm doesn't mean you've been abused or you're damaged.

Excellent. Full of great Factory stories from someone very much in the thick of it all. Especially good on Paul Morrissey.

DRACULA!

House of Sand and Fog. picked it up for a couple $ used since it was such a great performance by Ben Kingsley. That guy is just so good in whatever he does.........book is pretty well Ok, shows you some really interesting cultural differences from the Iranian semi-Savak side to the US semi-cokehead scumbag side....maybe 7/10 imo.....