Comments on: 50 Book Challenge - Clearing the Backlog

by: Josh

Sat, 16 Jul 2005 19:43:21 +0000

CM: They are great, aren’t they? I don’t know any fifth graders, so I’ve been recommending them to college friends instead.

Alex: I actually attempted to read Gravity’s Rainbow first… Going in blind, without a clue how dense Pynchon is, I broke down just about as soon as you would expect (less than a hundred pages in). I’ll give it another shot later on, but for now, I’m leaving Gravity’s Rainbow alone. I’ll have to check out Vineland, though. Work my way up to the 700-page monster. Thanks for the recommendation.

by: Alex

Sat, 16 Jul 2005 17:33:58 +0000

The Crying of Lot 49 is fantastic, I think. And, if you enjoyed it and are not trying to undertake to read Pynchon's massive Gravity's Rainbow, I strongly recommend Vineland. It harks back, strongly, to Lot 49 for me, and is of a similarly readable length.

by: CM

Sat, 16 Jul 2005 10:35:32 +0000

I LOVE the His Dark Materials trilogy. I’ve bought those books for every fifth grader I know. (Not that many, so it wasn’t too expensive.)

Blink, The Tipping Point, and the Two-Income Trap are all on my library request list.