It's one of those books that's so good, but I don't think I could ever read it again. The unrelenting brutality just wore me down. It didn't help that I read it after the Road. So in my mind, he just writes terribly brutal scenes with lots of dead babies. I cannot recommend McCarthy to anyone, despite how good he is.

If on a Winter's Night a Traveler is even better than Cosmicomics and Invisible Cities, in my opinion. But really, I haven't read any bad Calvino. The man is golden.

Also, how's Carrion Comfort? I have both Carrion Comfort and the Terror, but I haven't read either yet. Which one should I read next?

I recently picked up the Ballard omnibus but I haven't dug into it yet. Now I'm really excited to check it out. I liked Crash a lot, but then I tried to read the Atrocity Exhibition, and I could not get into it. It was like he had taken Crash and dropped it into a box with a grenade—a messy, narrative-less Crash,…

I think there was too much explanation for me. Also, I did not care for Aenea, who I dubbed Time Traveling Buddhist Jesus.

I was completely blown away by Love Medicine. She's just a fantastic writer. The (opening?) story with the woman in the bar, eating the colored eggs leftover from easter and then wandering out into the snowstorm is one of those book scenes that has stuck with me for years. She just has such a gift for description. I…

I liked the epidemiology parts and all the thought that went into how people would live with zombies everywhere. I did not care as much for the characters and their characterization, though.

Yeah, I gave Mr. Brewman the Ilium/Olympos books because he loved Hyperion and then I heard they got real weird and racist. Apparently, it just sort of appears out of nowhere near the end?

I support your entire list, because I love all those authors. We are now book friends.
I really like Angela Carter, but I haven't liked any of her novels as much as I loved Burning Your Boats. But I keep reading her solely because of that collection.

I will second the White Noise suggestion. I had a crazy postmodernism class where I read Murakami and White Noise and I just fell in love with most of the authors we covered. I think they complement each other well.

Lord Jim is fantastic. I like Conrad the more I read of him. I just started Secret Agent this week and I'm really looking forward to it.

Recently finished Murder on the Links by Christie and the Grifters by Thompson. Right now, I'm reading 2312 by Robinson, the Round House by Erdrich, and the Secret Agent by Conrad. Every month, I keep vowing that I'm going to start Middlemarch, but lately, genre fiction has been so much easier to fall into. Maybe this…

I was so frustrated by the book that I didn't even finish it. Should I give it another chance?

I think it's his best. I also really liked Wild Sheep Chase. It's even better if you can get your hands on his first two, Hear the Wind Sing and Pinball, 1973, since they form a loose trilogy.

I've been thinking about picking up 'The Stars my Destination' but was waffling on it. I'll have to check it out. Thanks!

I liked Don Quixote a lot more when I would take time off between sections and read something else. I guess what I'm saying is, Don Quixote reads better as a tv show than as a movie.

I think butts as well.

I got her, too, and I chose the black cherry gelato. Maybe it was my choice of plaid?

I got a cheapie box set of early Hitchcock films that are in the public domain that are like that. It's pretty confusing. It doesn't help that they were also inconsistent with the labeling of the disks (some have the label in the center plastic piece on one side, some on both sides), and that some disks say they're…

Someone at ABC is also failing if they don't include an easter egg that's a supercut emphasizing the central romance of the show: that of the other two dude detectives, Esposito and nominally-Irish guy.