Sign in to follow this  
Thyroid

Upcoming books you want to read

Recommended Posts

What's an upcoming book you're excited for, and why?
 

Bleeding Edge, by Thomas Pynchon. I like Pynchon plenty, though he can come off as pretentious (or maybe I don't get his genius, whatever). Anyway, this looks like a potentially brilliant mess. A detective/person running a fraud investigation business looks into the finances of a billionaire CEO, and things go from good to bad.

 

"She soon finds herself mixed up with a drug runner in an art deco motorboat, a professional nose obsessed with Hitler’s aftershave, a neoliberal enforcer with footwear issues, plus elements of the Russian mob and various bloggers, hackers, code monkeys, and entrepreneurs, some of whom begin to show up mysteriously dead. Foul play, of course."

 

I'm unsure about the bit with the hackers and code monkeys, but otherwise it looks okay.

 

- Night Film, by Marisha Pessl. Because it's apparently a genre-"melding", morphing, sprawling tome of a story. 

 

His Wife Leaves Him, by Stephen Dixon. Supposedly a about "a bunch of nouns" (love, guilt, sickness, loss, etc). I'm mostly interested in it because it's about a "jilted man" and it's 600 pages long. Makes you wonder how he got that much out of a simple idea. More seriously, though, it's supposedly rather ambitious.

 

The Luminaries, by Eleanor Catton. Because she wrote The Rehearsal and that was excellent.

Share this post


Link to post
Share on other sites

This might not be the most interesting kind of answer or something that's even entirely relevant to this topic buuuuuutttttt I've just realised after reading your post that I have no idea what books I'm excited for. Actually, it goes further than that. I couldn't name one single book that's coming out soon, never mind one I'm interested in. This might sound a bit stupid but where exactly do you find this sort of thing out? 

 

I've been far too stuck in olde timey authors to even notice any contemporary stuff tbh. I don't want that to come of as pretentious as it seems, I just mean that I've literally never really took much notice in contemporary authors simply because no one's really personally recommended me stuff. The last new book I read was Wool by Hugh Howey after it "blew away" critics etc, but I was pretty let down with the whole thing in the end that I probably won't pay the sequels any attention when they come out. 

Share this post


Link to post
Share on other sites

The Winds of Winter - George R.R. Martin.

 

Yup, I'm one of those guys now.

Share this post


Link to post
Share on other sites

I'm excited for "The Tournament" by Matthew Reilly.

Now, his books might not be the most intelligent or insightful. But they are fun to read and I've enjoyed every one immensely.

Share this post


Link to post
Share on other sites

Yeah, I'm pretty excited for The Winds of Winter myself. And The Doors of StoneThe Wise Man's Fear was, despite its flaws, very satisfying in the sense that it hit the notes I wanted it to: the overall tragedy's seeds are watered, but meantime it's rollicking fun. But, I don't think we're getting a resolution on at least a couple of plots, which Rothfuss probably wants to do in an another trilogy. I wish he wouldn't, but he's the one telling a story, not me.

 

This might not be the most interesting kind of answer or something that's even entirely relevant to this topic buuuuuutttttt I've just realised after reading your post that I have no idea what books I'm excited for. Actually, it goes further than that. I couldn't name one single book that's coming out soon, never mind one I'm interested in. This might sound a bit stupid but where exactly do you find this sort of thing out? 


I check websites like The Millions and Full Stop! I don't usually know what's coming-up either, mind you, which is why I thought this thread would be useful.

Share this post


Link to post
Share on other sites

This is a great thread, and as mentioned by Thyroid, The Millions published a second-half of 2013 preview earlier today.

http://www.themillions.com/2013/07/most-anticipated-the-great-second-half-2013-book-preview.html

As for myself, I'm excited for the volumes of My Struggle to be gradually translated into English (one per year). There are six overall, so it'll be until 2017 before they're all out. Also on the horizon is Caro's final volume of his LBJ biography/masterpiece, which is a race against time since he's getting pretty old. :[

I don't really have much of a list since I have so much book guilt over existing books I haven't read. For example, it's hard to get too excited about new Pynchon when I still have old Pynchon to tackle, weighing on my mind.

Share this post


Link to post
Share on other sites

This thread reminds me how much I've fallen out of sync with the literary world recently.

 

When I moved to Boston I, for various reasons, got incredibly into literature. I read a ton of books and listened to a bunch of book podcasts and always new what new literary fiction was coming out or on the verge of coming out, and what everyone in that world thought about it. But since moving back to San Francisco, I've been reading less and and much less up to date on that whole scene. It's actually a real bummer. I'm finding it hard to recreate those specific conditions that led to those tendencies on my part.

Share this post


Link to post
Share on other sites

The Winds of Winter - George R.R. Martin.

 

Yup, I'm one of those guys now.

 

I was shocked, SHOCKED, not to see this in Thyroid's opening post.

Share this post


Link to post
Share on other sites

The Winds of Winter is coming-out in 2014, if we - and recently GRRM - are being optimistic.

 

I'm not stirring that craving until we're a day away, although I just felt the itch.

 

 

This thread reminds me how much I've fallen out of sync with the literary world recently.

 

When I moved to Boston I, for various reasons, got incredibly into literature. I read a ton of books and listened to a bunch of book podcasts and always new what new literary fiction was coming out or on the verge of coming out, and what everyone in that world thought about it. But since moving back to San Francisco, I've been reading less and and much less up to date on that whole scene. It's actually a real bummer. I'm finding it hard to recreate those specific conditions that led to those tendencies on my part.

Don't feel too bad. There are so many great books out there - classic, new, contemporary, genre, literary - that keeping-up with all the new releases is an exercise in fruitlessness. If you spent the rest of your life reading only great contemporary novels, you'd hardly put a dent in. This is why this thread was created: to throw the spotlight on stuff and see if we can shine some gold.

Share this post


Link to post
Share on other sites

Oh and I also read something by Paul Auster, and boy did that read like a big ol' bag of shit.

Share this post


Link to post
Share on other sites

Definitely looking forward to Doors of Stone aside from that it's all just backlog for me.

Share this post


Link to post
Share on other sites

I read a ton of books and listened to a bunch of book podcasts and always new what new literary fiction was coming out or on the verge of coming out, and what everyone in that world thought about it. 

 

I've never been able to do this with books. My impression - from the outside - is that following all this would significantly cut into my actual reading time. As I type this, though, I'm realizing the issue goes deeper than that: I don't know how to even find reliable sources (critics, book podcasts, upcoming releases, etc.). Engaging with reading other than someone giving me a personal recommendation is mystifying.

 

Putting it in the context of the video game industry, I know how this industry works because I grew up with it. I was there when major magazines rose and fell, when the concept of a game website was still (ahem) novel, and so on. I've not only got critics I can generally trust, and ways to gauge common public opinion on ___ game, but I have some basic metrics I can use to judge whether I want to give a game my free time. On the other hand, I feel like books are so much more subjective (to me personally, at least) that it's tough to even know how to look forward to a book, particularly ones from first time authors. And because I haven't stayed on top of it, I don't know what reliable / "good" places to find critical thought and discussion are. I have no idea how the industry of this medium really operates.

 

So...yeah. Reading about reading is hard, guys.

Share this post


Link to post
Share on other sites

I listened to the New York Times Book Review Podcast, Bookworm, and the Slate Audio Book Club. I still listen to the NYTBR podcast every week; Bookworm I probably listen to half the episodes, and the Slate Audio Book Club seems to go away for months at a time (cough). I also read the New York Times Book Review fairly regularly.

 

But the most significant difference between my habits then and now—and this is extremely frustrating—was that when I was in Boston, I lived quite close to an absolutely amazing bookstore called Porter Square Books. It's an independent bookstore that sells only new books (not used) and has a great cafe inside of it run by an independent pizza shop down the street. It's just a wonderful place that feels really good to be inside. I would go there almost every night on my way home from work, just to get a cup of tea or coffee and read. I bought all my books from there. They always had all the newest hardbound fiction on a big table right in front, and three or four days a week they have author events in the evening.

 

I have simply never found anything like that since: an independent new-oriented bookstore with a cafe inside of it. It's either a huge corporate bookstore like Barnes & Noble, or a sort of disheveled used bookstore. Neither of those are bad; I enjoy both for what they are. But neither is what I really want as a place I can use as a way to genuinely keep me in tune with the literary world. Porter Square Books fulfilled that need amazingly well for me, to the point where I've found it very difficult to recreate in the absence of such an establishment. That probably means I just don't consider it important enough, or I'd figure it out, but man that place made it easy. I miss it more than any other establishment in the Boston area.

Share this post


Link to post
Share on other sites

My hometown was extremely small, and only had one used book store (which went out of business back before I started highschool), so any time I would go to a city one of the first things I would do would be to seek out a book store.

I have never encountered one that wasn't a major chain store or a used book store.

Share this post


Link to post
Share on other sites

I listened to the New York Times Book Review Podcast, Bookworm, and the Slate Audio Book Club. I still listen to the NYTBR podcast every week; Bookworm I probably listen to half the episodes, and the Slate Audio Book Club seems to go away for months at a time (cough). I also read the New York Times Book Review fairly regularly.

 

But the most significant difference between my habits then and now—and this is extremely frustrating—was that when I was in Boston, I lived quite close to an absolutely amazing bookstore called Porter Square Books. It's an independent bookstore that sells only new books (not used) and has a great cafe inside of it run by an independent pizza shop down the street. It's just a wonderful place that feels really good to be inside. I would go there almost every night on my way home from work, just to get a cup of tea or coffee and read. I bought all my books from there. They always had all the newest hardbound fiction on a big table right in front, and three or four days a week they have author events in the evening.

 

I have simply never found anything like that since: an independent new-oriented bookstore with a cafe inside of it. It's either a huge corporate bookstore like Barnes & Noble, or a sort of disheveled used bookstore. Neither of those are bad; I enjoy both for what they are. But neither is what I really want as a place I can use as a way to genuinely keep me in tune with the literary world. Porter Square Books fulfilled that need amazingly well for me, to the point where I've found it very difficult to recreate in the absence of such an establishment. That probably means I just don't consider it important enough, or I'd figure it out, but man that place made it easy. I miss it more than any other establishment in the Boston area.

Oh man! I am in Boston for the summer and I live right by that place! I hadn't heard of it until this post, but it sounds incredible...Thanks for writing about that!

Share this post


Link to post
Share on other sites

There's a similar place in Chicago called The Book Cellar that I loved when I lived there. The cafe was a bit more slim, but they had wine and beer to make up for it.

Share this post


Link to post
Share on other sites

Speaking of bookstores we love, when I was in Portland a few weeks ago, the first place I went to was Powell's. It's probably silly, to fetishize a bookstore, but there was something so wonderful about being there and seeing literally four floors of books (color coded by category). Plus, Powell's has really great staff recommendations.

Share this post


Link to post
Share on other sites

Oh man! I am in Boston for the summer and I live right by that place! I hadn't heard of it until this post, but it sounds incredible...Thanks for writing about that!

Nice, are you in Porter Square? I lived at Highland & Cherry, basically equidistant to Porter and Davis Squares. Great location.

Share this post


Link to post
Share on other sites

The Familiar by Mark Z Danielewski (of House of Leaves) although I still haven't picked up The Fifty Year Sword now that it's not impossible to find/impossibly expensive anymore.

 

'The End of Endings' which is the next novel from Steven Hall (of The Raw Shark Texts)

 

I'm also generally up for anything by Orhan Pamuk though I have no idea if he has anything slated in the near future.

Share this post


Link to post
Share on other sites

If I can be a butt and count comics, Picture Box started publishing a series they call "Ten Cent Manga," which is a set of classy hardcover collections of postwar Japanese pulp comics, which is the kind of thing that's right up my alley. Right now there's only two announced, Shigeru Sugiura's adaptation of Last of the Mohicans and Osamu Tezuka's The Mysterious Underground Men, so I definitely intend to check them out. There's been another Tezuka resurgence lately so there's actually a lot of his work coming out soon that I'd love to read. Twin Knight, Triton of the Sea, etc.

Share this post


Link to post
Share on other sites

Now that I've inexplicably got into the Witcher books and not the Witcher game series (yet), I'm anticipating the August release of the second entry in The Witcher Saga, The Time of Contempt.

Share this post


Link to post
Share on other sites

Nice, are you in Porter Square? I lived at Highland & Cherry, basically equidistant to Porter and Davis Squares. Great location.

I'm in Union Square in Somerville. I use my bike to get around, and have spent a lot of time in Davis square. Harvard, Central, Kendall, Porter, and Davis Square all take about the same amount of time to get to where I'm at. 

Share this post


Link to post
Share on other sites

On the topic of book stores there's a really nice one in York (in the UK) with a shop front about 9ft wide so it seems really small from the outside, but opens up Narnia style on the inside and there's just a fucking bunch of rooms every which way. All the corridors are different heights and widths so it's got a very unique York charm to it, and they always have newly printed books for £3-4 which rotate on a fortnightly (ish) basis so there's always a good deal in there somewhere. 

 

That book shop was the reason I had such a big back catalog of classic books to read because they'd always have writers like Vonnegut, Philip K. Dick and Bradbury on offer and I just couldn't refuse their sweet sweet delicious savings. 

Share this post


Link to post
Share on other sites

I live about 40 min from an amazing bookstore.  It's all used but generally the books are in great condition and it is dirt cheap.  Coincidentally my sister lives near there so driving that far usually is a twofer, as one of her favorite activities is book shopping.

 

The Winds of Winter - George R.R. Martin.

 

Yup, I'm one of those guys now.

 

I feel your pain brother.

Share this post


Link to post
Share on other sites

I'm waiting in the release of "Doomed" by Chuck Palahnuik. I look at Amazon and it will release on October this year.

Share this post


Link to post
Share on other sites

Create an account or sign in to comment

You need to be a member in order to leave a comment

Create an account

Sign up for a new account in our community. It's easy!

Register a new account

Sign in

Already have an account? Sign in here.

Sign In Now
Sign in to follow this