Welcome to Litsy!

#Two4Tuesday @TheSpineView

1. Much as I predicted a month ago, my favorite book of August was also my favorite for July - White Noise.

2. The casual mix of absurdism, wit, and existential dread.

Tag @RaeLovesToRead @BarbaraBB @Eggs @wanderinglynn @MegaWhoppingCosmicBookwyrm @ImperfectCJ @Leftcoastzen @Librarybelle @andrew61 @Vansa @CBee @dabbe

Death is everywhere - hovering in the air (the "airborne toxic event"), on the TV and radio (natural disasters, mass graves), even in the doctor's office ("concerning reports") - and our only answer is to buy more junk. I was hesitant to read WN because of its place in the PoMo pantheon and influence on writers I'm ambivalent towards (DFW, Eggers) or actively dislike (the Jonathans), but in the end I'm glad I did. Absurd, hilarious, and...?

#Two4Tuesday @TheSpineView

1. The one I'm reading now, which will probably be my favorite book for August as well - White Noise
2. It's one of those books I've known about and have been meaning to read seemingly forever, then came across in a used bookstore when I had store credit to burn.

Tag @RaeLovesToRead @CBee @Leftcoastzen @eeclayton @MegaWhoppingCosmicBookwyrm @BarbaraBB @andrew61 @dabbe

War is the form nostalgia takes when men are hard-pressed to say something good about their country.

Babette lay on her side staring into the clock-radio, listening to a call-in show. I heard a woman say: "In 1977 I looked in the mirror and saw the person I was becoming. I couldn't or wouldn't get out of bed. Figures moved at the edge of my vision, like with scurrying steps. I was getting phone calls from a Pershing missile base. I needed to talk to others who shared these experiences." ?

Then there was a second male voice from the flight deck, this one remarkably calm and precise, making the passengers believe there was someone in charge after all, an element of hope: "This is American two-one-three to the cockpit voice recorder. Now we know what it's like. It is worse than we'd ever imagined. They didn't prepare us for this at the death simulator in Denver..."

?

"This is where California comes in. Mud slides, brush fires, coastal erosion, earthquakes, mass killings, et cetera. We can relax and enjoy these disasters because in our hearts we feel that California deserves whatever it gets. Californians invented the concept of life-style. This alone warrants their doom."

#FirstLineFridays @ShyBookOwl

The station wagons arrived at noon, a long shining line that coursed through the west campus.

This book is hilarious and terrifying. It‘s brilliant and absolute nonsense. I freaking LOVED it. Jack and Babette (4th wife, 5th marriage) and their blended family experience a toxic event, but it represents the larger mass of white noise that is constantly surrounding us. My #bookspin for February (🫣) #BarnesNobleChallenge: #NationalBookAwardWinner AND 🥁 231/1,001 #1001Books ALSO, Adam Driver and Greta Gerwig movie adaptation? I‘m in.

Architecture.
Architecture can be playful—curved lines, windows designed to maximize a sunset‘s beauty. Equally, architecture can be sober—austere boxes, windows barricaded by iron bars. DeLillo is an architect. Each line is meticulous, flawless, imbued with frivolity and sobriety. Each paragraph is a room opening on another room; we travel unencumbered, egress perfected.
Now pardon me, I‘m off to the supermarket for some diet sunglasses.

I wasn‘t ready to start this yet, but it‘s our Feb neighborhood book group selection and hubby and I went for a drive to Oklahoma today. We like to read aloud in the car on long rides, so started even though I have another print title in progress. It‘s weird. But so are roadside dinosaurs next to Tesla charging stations outside a gas station/BBQ joint.

#ManicMonday #LetterW
📚White Noise Don DeLillo
🖋️Walt Whitman
📺The Wonder Years
🎥Witness
🎹Tom Waits
🎤Won‘t get Fooled Again -The Who

⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️ • I wish I read this in an academic setting. So excited to see it translated to screen!

🏆

Some brilliant writing, some really insufferable writing. The Toxic Event was great. It got pretty tedious after that. Am I missing something? Probably. I don't care.

It made me think of Infinite Jest for some reason. I don't remember enough specifics to compare. It's just vibes.

When I was a sophomore in college, I had the most DeLillo-esque experience in my life, and it involved (incidentally) a DeLillo book. Our class was assigned White Noise, and when I started reading it, I experienced tremendous deja vu — like I had read it before, even though I knew I hadn‘t. Then, in class, another student said, “Did any of you get deja vu reading this?” and about six or seven of us immediately admitted to it! (See Comment!)

#QuotsyJan21 Day 22: #Lifestyle

This is a little too self-conscious in its irony for me to say I enjoyed it. There were moments I appreciated the language or humor, but parts were hard to keep my eyes open for. And the end was totally off the rails. But I can scratch this off my 100 Essential Novels poster, and get #bookspin credit, so not a waste. @TheAromaofBooks

I‘m enjoying the marginalia in this as much as the novel. (If it‘s too faint to read, it says “Ha! If they only knew what comes next.”) On the copyright page (1984) is scribbled “The year I moved from Bst to N.I.” Who are you, previous reader? #bookspin

I started my #bookspin this morning. I‘m only a few chapters in, so no opinion yet. It‘s one of the books on my 100 novels poster, so I‘m checking 2 boxes with this one.

It‘s not Coronavirus keeping us in today but rain. *sigh*

This is the second of two recommendations from Ashley on the episode of Unabridged when we recommended books for each other. Don DeLillo's White Noise is, somehow, the first novel I've read by the author, and it was *amazing*. I was completely engaged from moment one, as Jack Gladney moves through the routine of his daily life as a father, husband, and professor with a focus on Hitler studies(!). (continued in comments)

I enjoyed the craft here, but the end was frustrating. I'm guessing that other DeLillo books will be like this as well ... :)

Hee.

Enjoying this so far! Wish I had an orange for my Aperol Spritz #24b4monday

https://www.atlasobscura.com/places/t-a-moulton-barn “T.A. Moulton‘s barn also served as inspiration for the fictional “most photographed barn in America” in Don DeLillo‘s White Noise. His depiction mocks the spirit of tourism.” Started this after my morning run #bfc #reading #litsywalkers

In good company when you are waiting for a train after the one you were waiting for has just been cancelled...

I very rarely DNF books but I just can‘t get through this one. I know it‘s a classic and all, but I‘m just truly bored to tears and have so many other books I‘d rather be reading. I‘ve had to restart several chapters multiple times because it was just a rambling mess to me and if anyone had asked me what it was about, I couldn‘t tell them. I know this is an unpopular opinion, but to each their own!

Hey #1001bookswap buddies! I received this book (and fun scarf!!) from @Chinook yesterday. I think I'm the last one to read it, so no need to hide the cover. 🙂
How is everyone doing? It seems like some of our members are MIA, and I think at least one book is lost along the way. Everybody okay?
@jenp @vivastory @RebelReader

There's an interesting cleverness to the dialogue and the interactions between the family and others that I found so funny. It really is an interesting study on life. The ending truly shocked me. Wow--I really liked it!

This was published 34 years ago, but you wouldn‘t know it from this quote. Sometimes change is slow to come.

#1001bookswap

This is one of those books that has sat on my shelves for ages and now I‘ve finally got to is much better than expected. It takes you into the story from the first page and is full of brilliant paragraphs and insights.

Wednesday morning read 💙 really liking this!

A very interesting look at the preocupations that threaten contemporary American individuality and existence in general, written in a hyperbolic ironic tone.This was published in 1984 but could just as well have been written in 2018. That's the disturbing creepiness of speculative fiction...

⭐⭐⭐⭐

Lovely weather calls for reading! #currentlyreading

“Perhaps we are what they dream.”

Made it to chapter 12, but I'm just not feeling it. The premise still interests me, but I'm not in the right mood for it. So I shall return it to the library, and probably try it again another time.

My current read for school.

And the winner is... 🥁 #WhiteNoise by #DonDeLillo

My latest library haul. Now to figure out what to read first. 📚🤓

“We are quartered in Centenary Hall, a dark brick structure we share with the popular culture department, known officially as American environments.”

Anyone else chuckle at that little quote?

“Maybe there is no death as we know it. Just documents changing hands.”

“There is an expressway beyond the backyard now, well below us, and at night as we settle into our brass bed the sparse traffic washes past, a remote and steady murmur around our sleep, as of dead souls babbling at the edge of a dream.”

• My first adventure with Don DeLillo. From the first page, the writing is thick with lovely description. Writing that makes me a little giddy inside. I mean, everyone knows that students‘ summers are “bloated with criminal pleasures.” •

#currentlyreading #fiction #TBR #MountTBR #newauthor

• Excuse me while I sit here and drool over this beautiful book...🤤 •

#TBR #MountTBR #beautifulbooks #fiction #libraryloot

Ah, finally some sunshine to take photos. #NewBook on my shelves! Any opinions? I've never read him.

#MarchInBooks

Hell is when no one believes. There must always be believers. Fools, idiots, those who hear voices, those who speak in tongues. We are your lunatics.

#noisenoise #NuYear I have not read it in years ,but when I did , thought it was ahead of its time . Or maybe, I saw some of the disquiet around then , with nobody acknowledging it.Might try again and see how it held up. published in 1985.

He'd once told me that the art of getting ahead in New York was based on learning how to express dissatisfaction in an interesting way. The air was full of rage and complaint. People had no tolerance for your particular hardship unless you knew how to entertain them with it.