This is meThis.
Sometimes when I'm really immersed in a book, it's as if there's a movie playing inside my head. I'm not even aware that I'm turning pages - people talk to me and I don't hear them.
This is meThis.
Sometimes when I'm really immersed in a book, it's as if there's a movie playing inside my head. I'm not even aware that I'm turning pages - people talk to me and I don't hear them.
I enjoyed The Right Stuff, and I was unable to get very far into Bonfire and eventually gave up on it after just a couple of chapters.Started reading The Bonfire Of The Vanities. I recently re-read The Right Stuff because I absolutely love the story of the early space program but I wasn’t a big fan of Tom Wolfe’s writing style and I’m running into the same issue with Bonfire. There’s just something about his style that keeps me from getting into a rhythm as I read.
I think Wolfe succeeds best with his non-fiction efforts, such as The Electric Kool-Aid Acid Test.
Couple of books in this.
A writer friend and brother in philosophy who I met through my parents when we were defending property rights here in NH and beyond in the '90s.
The best of men.
Just now on Facebook.
Ken West
View attachment 14750
Conversation on a Park Bench
A memory from years ago on the Boston Common…
I'm fifteen years old.
Am walking past Park Street and towards Boylston Street.
A guy in a brown leather jacket says "Hello" as I walk by.
I say "Hello" back to him and keep walking.
"Can I bum a cigarette off you?" he asks
"Sorry, I don't smoke," I answer.
"Bad habit anyway," he says.
He's probably in his late twenties. Good looking. Trim. He is sitting in the sun on the bench with one leg crossed. Looks relaxed, non-threatening.
"Nice day, but a little cool," he says.
"Yes, it is."
"You in a hurry?"
"No… I'm just taking a walk," I tell him.
"Well, rest your bones a bit," he says, pointing at the empty side of the bench.
I'm leery of strangers on the Common, but he has a confident and intelligent voice.
"You like taking walks?" he asks.
"Been doing it since I was a kid," I say. "My mother worked right over on Boylston Street. She was a waitress. Brought me in with her and let me walk around Park Square. I've loved the city ever since."
"Yeah, it's quite a place alright," he says without much enthusiasm.
"Where did your mother work?"
"It was Mcmannus's Restaurant." It's no longer there. I used to count her tips at the end of the day."
"I think I remember it. Busy place. I bet she made a lot of tips."
"Yeah, she was a good waitress - the best," I say.
"So, what do you do when you're not walking?"
"I'm in High School."
"Bet that's a mixed bag of fish," he says. "I hated High School. How about you?"
"It's OK, I guess - but I don't really like it. I'll be glad when I'm out."
"What are you going to do then?" he asks.
"Not sure yet. I'd like to travel."
"Where to?"
"Across the country. I read a book "Travels with Charlie." Made me want to do the same thing," I said.
"Who wrote that?" he asks.
"John Steinbeck."
"Ever read The Grapes of Wrath?" he asks me.
"No, not yet. Is it good?"
"Probably the best book he wrote," says the guy. "You read that book and it opens your eyes. By the way, what's your name?"
Even though the guy seemed OK, I decided to give him a made-up name.
"I'm Tom Shaughnessy," I tell him.
He holds out his hand. "Glad to meet you Tom, I'm Dan O'Hearn. Funny, you don't look Irish."
"Just on my father's side," I say. "My mother's English and Scottish."
"Bet their fighting all the time," he says with a smile.
"Yeah, sort of. You think it's the Irish against the English?"
"Always has been," he says. "It's destiny, that's all. What's dominant in you, the Irish or the English?"
"To tell you the truth, half my brain is Irish, and the other half is English, and they keep contradicting each other. Would have been better to be one or the other."
"Don't worry about it," he says in a brotherly sort of way. "Let them fight it out, and just keep your feet on the ground and take one step at a time."
As if to change the subject, he asks, "Where's the first place you want to go when you get out of High School?"
"New York city," I say.
"Don't get me going on the Big Apple," he says. "That's one mean, nasty place."
"How come?" I ask.
"The cops hassle you… everyone walks too fast, always in a hurry… and everything costs too much."
"Well, I'd like to go anyway. Been there for a few weeks. My aunt lives in Hoboken, New Jersey. I took the 99-Bus into the city every day. Loved the library. So many places to walk. So much to see like the Empire State Building and Central Park. I really loved it."
He smiled. "Yeah, if you've got the cash, it's good. Speaking of which, do you have a dollar you can spare?"
I was surprised. The guy didn't look like he needed money. I thought he just wanted to shoot the breeze with me.
“What do you need a dollar for?"
He seemed surprised by my question. "For Wine," he said, as if it should have been obvious. "I'm a wino."
I gave him a dollar, said my goodbyes and headed for Boylston Street, over to where my mother used to work.
Later, I realized that it was one of the best conversations I ever had with a stranger. I liked the guy. He had some sort or charisma… and it was hard to believe that he was just a wino looking for a buck.
And that's OK.I don't begin to know anywhere near enough to explain it much further.
BTW.
Why does Baron get a book club?
I want a book club.
Everybody should have a book club.
Despots and tyrants, the lot of you.
View: https://youtu.be/l8ukak8P2vY
I wanted to establish IP rights first.
I’m a bit more than halfway thru and it is getting better, mainly because he’s actually into the story now. Seems like he spent the first third of the book setting up all the characters, which was way too long.I enjoyed The Right Stuff, and I was unable to get very far into Bonfire and eventually gave up on it after just a couple of chapters.
If you do finish Bonfire, come back and let us know whether it's one of those books that starts out as a slog but then gets better as it goes along, or is just something that never clicked for you.
I think Wolfe succeeds best with his non-fiction efforts, such as The Electric Kool-Aid Acid Test.
i like wolfe's fiction but it can be ponderous and some of his phrasing can be repetitive. "a Man in Full"might be my fave.I’m a bit more than halfway thru and it is getting better, mainly because he’s actually into the story now. Seems like he spent the first third of the book setting up all the characters, which was way too long.
i like wolfe's fiction but it can be ponderous and some of his phrasing can be repetitive. "a Man in Full"might be my fave.
It's OK, Imapig has a Fuck Club
And I'm the treasurer.
I loved The Electric Kool-Aid Acid Test and The Right Stuff, although neither was fiction, but never liked Bonfire all that much. I think his stuff fit into
the unofficial niche of "books to read while stoned", especially that first one. I can't say exactly why, but his prose seemed to me to view the world though a
drug-hazed lens. I was big into "counterculture favorites" at one phase of my life and Wolfe seemed to fit in with all that. It's almost like he wrote for
an audience with different brain waves than the mainstream, so he had to throw a lot of bright, shiny objects into the mix to keep the pages turning.
Looking back, it seemed like drug culture was almost like Oprah's Book List. People would get together, pass a joint and talk about which books were
"cool" (which meant approved) and I was influenced to read stuff like Kerouac, Vonnegut and a few others through being exposed to that lifestyle. Now I see it
as just part of growing up in the 70s, but I still have a soft spot in my heart when I get reminded of those books,
fyi...recently finished this book. wow,it was super cool. i am starting another of his:ThunderstruckThe Devil in the White City was a tremendous read, although Holmes was one of the most disturbing characters you
will ever read about. Those that are squeamish should just skip this book because he was truly evil and diabolical. Your
heart will ache for the unspeakable horrors he inflicted on his innocent victims. Strap yourself in.
What I found most surprising about the book was the concurrent story of the Chicago World's Fair and how amazing that
event was. I had never heard of it and ended up wishing I could have seen it myself or that there were at least more
photos or films (very little survived) that could have helped to really grasp the brilliance and enormity of it. Larson's lyrical
descriptions of the whole thing were like the brush strokes of a master.
Erik Larson is one hell of a writer. He is a human time machine. It's one of the better books I've ever read.
I understand that Hulu is supposed to be filming a series of it but it won't be released until 2024.
fyi...recently finished this book. wow,it was super cool. i am starting another of his:Thunderstruck
thank you for bringing Larson to my attention!
If the author of the text gains my trust by demonstrating intelligence and skill—a sense of humor also helps—I sink into a kind of reverie, in which I begin almost semiconsciously to fill in gaps in the text, using my own experiences to extrapolate a complex inner or external landscape from a brief description of a character’s perceptions or dress. In doing so, I become a kind of co-author of the text I am reading, which means that in some sense the book I am reading will always be unique to me.
If you're a big fan of getting information via text and reading physical books, then this article may interest you:
Here's a brief excerpt: