Saying Yes!

I have amazed myself by reading yet more books. I just can't stop reading books!

These are those books, read largely in July and early August:

A Long Way Down isn't Hornby's best, but it's a good & fast read; Cryptonomicon was completely fucking mind-bending & brilliant & just a totally engrossing story; Count Down was interesting material, but felt like a really, really long prologue to an actual story; Yes Man was another fast read and is both very funny and oddly moving in places [1].

All of the above recommended, but in particular Yes Man & Cryptonomicon [2].

[1] "Oddly" particularly for a book that feels a bit gimmicky, at first glance and/or read of the flap. The premise is that the author decides to say "yes" to every opportunity offered to him over the course of a year, and the book documents that year.

[2] Yes, I'm quite late on reading Cryptonomicon. I started on the Baroque Trilogy and finished that last December, and was so, so happy to find Cryptonomicon just as amazing a story.

Comments

[Divine Trash]

I keep saying I am going to get past the first page of Cryptonomicon but other books always come my way and I end up reading them first. Maybe I should read it this week.

[Ask Bjørn Hansen]

The Cryptonomicon recommendation is so behind the curve that it's almost timely again (timely for a re-read, that is). :-)

- ask

[Barak]

When on earth do you get the time to read all of these books?

[aa]

Almost done with the Baroque Trilogy... finally! But yeah, Cryptonomicon was what inspired me to read it. Great book!

[Papi Chulo]

Speaking of Nick Hornby, did you read "How To Be Good"?

[gnat]

The Baroque trilogy baroque me, unfortunately. I'm stuck having finished book 2 and not loathing myself enough to read book 3. I loved Cryptonomicon like Dick Cheney loves shotguns, I loved it like Angelina Jolie loves collagen. I loved Cryptonomicon like Rush Limbaugh loves OxyContin. There, I said it. But after Cryptonomicon, reading the Baroque Trilogy is discovering the hard way that the hot chick you chatted up at the hotel bar enjoys scat play.

[Patti]

Partially on your recommendation, I picked up A Long Way Down at the airport last week.  It was good but not great, and truly bizarre.

[Kimberly]

Have you read any other Nick Hornby? High Fidelity was fab, much better than A Long Way Down, I thought. 

[btrott]

Kimberly: yep, I loved High Fidelity, that's by far my favorite of his books (and the movie, so good). I think I've also read Fever Pitch, and I know I've read The Polysyllabic Spree, and I quite enjoyed About a Boy.

[Kimberly]

Oh, I haven't seen the movie -- will have to do that. I'm a fan of About a Boy too. I just finished A Year in the Merde by Stephen Clark which is a bit Hornby-esque in terms of the humor, though the topic (a year of trying to do business in France and trying to seduce French women) is more lighthearted.

[Ralph]

I read "Yes Man" several months ago when it first came out in hardcover after hearing an interview with Danny Wallace on the BBC World Service. I was in a very negative place at that point, saying "No" to pretty much everything. I wouldn't recommend saying yes to everything like Wallace, but the book did get me to start saying "Yes" more often, which was a good thing. And I thought it was hysterically funny to boot.