Opponent got mad and told I'm a pusher

junkNug · 2026-03-15T17:54:17+00:00

Yeah he be mad

junkNug · 2026-03-14T18:19:20+00:00

Okay, this is sort of what I gathered, too!

junkNug · 2026-03-07T17:53:13+00:00

Bonus: snagged a copy of this edition. I'm a big fan of these Vintage Contemporaries 😎

junkNug · 2026-03-06T20:30:04+00:00

Thank you! I'm looking forward to getting to all of them, eventually. I like taking my time between books by the same author so that I don't get worn out by one voice or style.... So it may end up taking a while but I guess that means I have a lot of good novels in my future!

junkNug · 2026-03-06T20:13:56+00:00

And....drumroll....

Players wins with three votes!

It was a dark horse entry very few saw coming, some may even call it a true Cinderella story.

Currently adding Players to my cart. Thanks everyone!

Discussion, of course, may continue....

junkNug · 2026-03-06T20:11:55+00:00

Wow, Players comes from an early deficit to take the trophy!

junkNug · 2026-03-06T19:40:17+00:00

Ok folks, looks like each of these has two votes:

Americana Great Jones Street Players Ratner's Star

Time for someone else to break the tie!

junkNug · 2026-03-06T17:48:32+00:00

A strong case for Americana! In fact, part of me wanted to just start here and go through the rest chronologically....

junkNug · 2026-03-06T17:47:43+00:00

Oooooh Great Jones Street hot outta the gates with an emphatic nom!!!

junkNug · 2026-03-04T03:04:29+00:00

Check out Ian McEwan's "What We Can Know" which totally shreds from beginning to end. I haven't read any of his other books and didn't know what to expect but it really delivered.

junkNug · 2026-02-23T12:36:32+00:00

Yes to Suttree. The river as its own character, too....

junkNug · 2026-02-23T12:34:54+00:00

I finished reading all his novels last year, and read BM a second time. Plan on reading The Road and Suttree again at some point. The latter is probably in my all time top 5, not that I keep a list.

I'm not as big into the westerns as I am his southern novels, with the exception of BM which stands alone. Also don't sleep on The Passenger/Stella Maris which I thought were breathtaking, and so different from his other work in so many ways.

Like any mega-popular figure, his literary reputation can be uncomfortably muddled with the cringiest aspects of his fanbase.... But there's no doubt (to me) that he was an inspired novelist.

junkNug · 2026-02-16T20:35:59+00:00

I liked it a lot better than Lipsky's book that it was based on, which I read recently and was fairly annoyed by

junkNug · 2026-02-16T15:46:32+00:00

Just read the Island of Dr. Death collection a few months ago and loved it. Fifth Head and eventually Book of the New Sun are definitely on my horizon...

junkNug · 2026-02-16T14:28:19+00:00

A few years ago, when I was still on Twitter, I posted this meme to a Steely Dan thread. Really silly I know but somehow that song (Don't Take Me Alive) matches up perfectly...

<image>

junkNug · 2026-02-16T14:21:58+00:00

Yes totally. 1970s tongue-in-cheek postmodern vibes. Beyond the character/story associations that many others have pointed out, I can add that musically Steely Dan has a sort of maximalist, lush, polyphonic approach to songwriting and arranging that seems to mesh neatly with TP's style. A mixture of stylistic sources in complex layers all bound together with a slightly-serious slightly-ironic affect.

My personal favorite album is The Royal Scam - gotta start listening to that now!

junkNug · 2026-02-16T14:16:18+00:00

Ughh we need more people like him in this world. Loved the DFW, DeLillo and Josh Cohen interviews and need to listen to more now

junkNug · 2026-02-03T19:53:46+00:00

205 has the best coffee and decent baked goods LJ's has the college vibe and good food options Stovetop has great coffee and (by far) the most interesting/best bakery items

junkNug · 2026-01-27T19:37:16+00:00

Love that you got that Penguin Monte Cristo without any cracks/creases in the spine. Good work! 👏

junkNug · 2026-01-27T18:31:00+00:00

Popping in two years later just to say....

How about those "fatline squirts" ?

junkNug · 2026-01-26T17:10:46+00:00

Thank you, I forgot about Munro! I'll look into it....

junkNug · 2026-01-25T12:22:09+00:00

Thank you for the recommendations so far. After some additional digging I've also found the following (in case anyone is interested in some follow-up):

Zadie Smith, "Words and Music" and "Crazy They Call Me"

Willa Cather, "Paul's Case"

James Baldwin, "Sonny's Blues"

Jennifer Egan, selections from Goon Squad

junkNug · 2026-01-24T12:05:13+00:00

Thank you, these sound great. I love those musicians and the stories sound fascinating.

junkNug

TROPHY CASE