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"Choke"

I don't like reading books. Well, I do. Problem is I can't find any ones that really grip me... hold me, make me want to read more. Give me Lord of the Rings, and I'll get bored after a few chapters. I guess it's my own fault really, but I have no desire to read things that I have to keep going back over and over to make sure I keep up with the plot. Or just get bored. No flow, nothing that really makes you want to understand the characters more. Just people all walking about, doing things the book asks them to.

I noticed loads of people talking about Chuck Palahniuk on here, and on the way over to Venice, I thought I'd pick up a few books. One of these being Choke, by Chuck.

It's probably the best book I've ever read. Personally. Because I can't stand huge and heavy storylines crafted with stereotypes and mysterious characters... I want to read about them. I want to understand them, know them, be them. This is what Chuck did in Choke. He's wrote about all the things I've been thinking about recently, all the crap that goes on in life, and where we can shove it. He takes a wonderful approuch to showing us quite how pathetic we can be, by hiding from what we truly want to be... how pathetic we are to hold comforts so close. Also pretty much about how we all need to be loved, how we all need to be known, and how we all like to give other people life.

The story is about a man named Victor Mancini, who trawls outside sex addiction meetings for quick shags. His mother, clinically insane and dying a slow death, requires a large amount of money each month to keep her alive. Victor pulls off a ingenius scam most nights to help pay for his mother, and gives the book it's title.

The book is pretty much about a few themes. Love, comforts, and parenthood. And that's about it really. But it handles it so well, written in the first person which I always love, it just grips you so damn well, and forces you to pick it back up. And now I want to read it again.

So yup. Chuck rules. Go read Choke.

After seeing American Psycho I was interested in the novel, so I went to the local library for the first time in about a year and picked up that, Informer and another called Less Than Zero.

Whittled through Psycho pretty quickly, but I honestly think I preferred the film, haven't started Informer but I'm getting into Less Than Zero pretty quick, which is pretty much written in the same style i.e. some parts you feel you can relate to, others you just find downright disturbing.

Read Lullaby, it's very good. I read it in one sitting.

*proud*

Still haven't started Invisible Monsters, I'm into Bret Easton Ellis at the moment, just ordered Glamorama and the Informers. Anyone read either of them?

Well it took me a while, but I finally got a bit of Chuck inside me.

I started with Survivor, simply because it was the only one they had at HMV's site, and they were doing a 3 for 2. (I ended up with 6 books).

Excellent though. Really enjoyed it. Rather cynical, you can tell it's from the same guy that did Fight Club. And though it started at the end, ti wasn't told backwards as such, we still got his early years at the start, and how he got to where he was at the end, so it's not confusing or owt. Strong charatcers, and the guy has a healthy knowledge of both plants and eating etiquette (sp?).

But yeah, top stuff. Next time I pick up books (3 for 2 or like offer...) I'll get another of his. Probably Choke or Invisible Monsters. Plus Omega Man.

Now moved on to Harry Hill, 'Flight to Deathrow'. Reading Harry Hill is much like watching Harry Hill, but rather than seeing him on the TV, and hearing him through the speakers, he's inside your head, telling you things just like he does on his show... Big text. Enjoyable, but very odd.

Shocktrooper wrote:
> And it took me a while to realise that a Pall Mall was a cigar :-D


Johnny sucked gently on his father's Pall Mall, while his father sat back and watched the TV, a satisfied look of serence contentment on his face, and a grin that seemed to almost say "That's my boy" slowly parting his lips.

"You like to smoke the Pall Mall don't you boy?" The father remarked. Johnny took the time to take the Pall Mall from his mouth before speaking.

"I didn't expect it to taste so salty" Johnny remarked, before once again moving the Pall Mall back inside his mouth.






Cigar my ****

Be warned - Kings books have a habit of losing steam toward the end.

Lol @ Goatboy and Snuggly :-D

I've just started reading Stephen King books, the first in the long ling being 'Salem's Lot. Scary, gripping, and down-right un-put-downable.

It makes a change to read something other than Lord of the Rings or Harry Potter.
An adult book like this has such a different style to it, but maybe that's because he's American and it's quite old. There are some words he uses that I haven't a clue what it means, like words for clothes. And it took me a while to realise that a Pall Mall was a cigar :-D

I still got a long way to go, I'm not even half way through it. Which is good, because I'm enjoying it, and the longer it lasts, the better.

Mr.Snuggly wrote:
> Right, I'm not coming on Friday now, until you apologise, and stop
> spraying your testerone around the forums like a cyber-cat.

--

Oh for the love of...

Ok, I apologise that, in response to your insinuation I am a big girly man, I suggested that you spend an inordinate amount of time furiously whacking off into a hand-puppet.

Jeez, some people..

That's cool. I kinda just hope they'll be more for me though, and if not, start looking backwards at old stuff that was made before me. :0)

Nope.

I'm saving it. May sound a bit odd, but I've decided to wait until at least next year before I read it.

It's the same reason that I'm not getting the new Counting Crows alb for a while - I need some backup for when I can't find anything that I like. Now, if I go through a patch where reading/music really isn't inspiring me anymore, I have stuff to fall back on.

You read Choke, MC? *makes wicka noise and throws fingers in impressive wrist movement*