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July 23
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mayfly
marked as to-read:
Cloud Atlas (Paperback)
by David Mitchell
bookshelves:
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my rating:
Added to my books!
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mayfly
is currently reading:
Quicksilver (The Baroque Cycle, Vol. 1)
by Neal Stephenson
bookshelves:
currently-reading
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my rating:
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May 12
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mayfly
marked as to-read:
Vurt (Paperback)
by Jeff Noon
bookshelves:
to-read
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my rating:
Added to my books!
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April 22
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mayfly
is currently reading:
Conjunctions: 39, The New Wave Fabulists (Paperback)
by Peter Straub
bookshelves:
currently-reading
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my rating:
Added to my books!
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read in April, 2008
mayfly said:
"Here are the stories I've read so far:
The Girlhood of Shakespeare's Heroines, by John Crowley: Going into this collection I expected immediate super-strangeness, but this was so subtle you might not even notice the weird if you weren't on the loo...more
Here are the stories I've read so far:
The Girlhood of Shakespeare's Heroines, by John Crowley: Going into this collection I expected immediate super-strangeness, but this was so subtle you might not even notice the weird if you weren't on the lookout for it. It moved a little slowly for my taste but I like the idea of planting a seed of doubt in realistic fiction, the way something kind of "off" in your day-to-day life might haunt you for years. Definitely some great character development, but all in all not really my speed.
Lull, by Kelly Link: This was more my style...the kind of nested, complex, mindfuck of a story that you have to read multiple times to even figure out the mechanics of the crazy universe you're in. Just enough of an emotional component to drive home how bizarre things are in this reality. Some of the plot was really reminiscent of a certain Red Dwarf episode, but there was definitely enough beyond that to make it one of the most creative things I've read lately. It really made the most of the short story format. Awesome on a scale of one to awesome.
Entertaining Angels Unawares, by M. John Harrison: Set in England, so it immediately hit a soft spot in my heart. A couple characters I felt like I knew personally by the end and certain vivid details that I had to reread just for the mental images and shivers up my spine. Like the first story, no outright surreal or fantastic elements, but it fit right in in a setting that was already eerie enough, characters flirting with madness...Some stories make me uncomfortable because they hit too close to home. Good.
Little Red's Tango, by Peter Straub: I LOVED THIS STORY. I haven't really read anything that uses deification and scripture about a "normal guy" from our time period but it's an idea I've thought about before. Catholicism at an early age tinges everything forever, and this really hit the spot. I won't give too much away, but the "Beatitudes" nearly brought me to tears. Hey! Jazz! Miracles! Squalor! This is my fave so far.
The Wisdom of the Skin by James Morrow:
Sex, the progression of art and academia, "cyberneurology", and a clone paradox all tenderly woven into a strange love story. Good stuff....less
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mayfly
gave
to:
Black Sabbath's Master of Reality (33 1/3)
by John Darnielle
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my rating:
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read in April, 2008
mayfly said:
"This book absolutely devastated me. I was sobbing pretty much the entire time, and a book hasn't done that to me since the end of Where The Red Fern Grows when I was 9 years old. I don't want to give any plot details away in case you read it. But I h...more
This book absolutely devastated me. I was sobbing pretty much the entire time, and a book hasn't done that to me since the end of Where The Red Fern Grows when I was 9 years old. I don't want to give any plot details away in case you read it. But I have to tell you something, so you do buy it and read it and so John gets the money he deserves for this, and so I can get these feelings out somewhere. Even though it's a book about an album by a band I barely know any songs by, it is far more than that. Do not let the Black Sabbath theme deter you from this book, because it almost did for me and I am so grateful now that I was able to let that go and allow myself to immerse myself completely in a very dark time in a character's life, including its soundtrack, and the underlying feelings and motives for this darkness. It is from the point of view of a teenager who is committed in a psychiatric facility and his feelings of alienation and anger during that time. I am not an eloquent enough writer to critique or even describe something of this depth and emotionality, but it hit me so viscerally. It took out my capacity for anything but anger and despair thinking about my past and forced my eyes wide with the sheer shock of salt being rubbed into a recently opened wound. There have been times, very recent times in fact, when I have thought that music was the only thing that actually makes me feel good. There was a time before I could even voice that but the feeling was still there. I hate to be all "Oh man, I totally relate to this book, I feel alienated all the time" because who doesn't? But right at this time in my life, when I am feeling very very alone and afraid that I will fuck up somehow and end up losing myself to a place like this and that I will never be who I want to be, this book is tearing me up inside. I just deleted a lot of this post because it was getting far too personal, but somehow, in a way that a lot of his lyrics have also done, John Darnielle has given voice to feelings that I have bottled up inside for time immemorial and something inside has shifted. Maybe a kidney....less
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mayfly
gave
to:
The Scar (Mass Market Paperback)
by China Miéville
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my rating:
Added to my books!
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read in July, 2008
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mayfly
gave
to:
Tales of H. P. Lovecraft (Hardcover)
by Howard Phillips Lovecraft
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my rating:
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read in July, 2008
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April 12
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mayfly
marked as to-read:
Number: The Language of Science (Paperback)
by Tobias Dantzig
bookshelves:
to-read
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my rating:
Added to my books!
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mayfly
marked as to-read:
Halting State (Hardcover)
by Charles Stross
bookshelves:
to-read
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my rating:
Added to my books!
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mayfly
marked as to-read:
Perdido Street Station (Mass Market Paperback)
by China Miéville
bookshelves:
to-read
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my rating:
Added to my books!
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