Welcome to Litsy!

New episode just dropped! As you can tell from the title, we are discussing the much beloved and somewhat feared author, Thomas Pynchon. I use the word feared because Pynchon can be difficult to read and thus, readers are often left wondering, where do I start with one of the most important authors of the last 60 years? Let's find out.

https://open.spotify.com/episode/4oXT0Gf63mnLWrghvDDUu4

#ThankfulThursday

1. I had hoped to visit friends in Scotland this fall but due to Covid19 will postpone ...maybe next year? We were definitely going to also visit Wigtown, that town with all the bookstores! 😢

2. I‘m grateful for those longtime friends who live in far away states and countries!

3. Since it‘s Saturday 🤪 I won‘t tag anyone specifically, though it is never a bad time express thankfulness! 😁

Thanks for the tag @Sace

It's that time again for me to purge my shelves and pass on books to my fellow Littens with some #PayItForward GiveAways. 🎉

First up is a used paperback copy of Gravity's Rainbow. If you'd like to have this book simply comment below and let me know. US only please since we still have shipping restrictions here.

Enjoy! 😁

For the past 3 days I have spent every free moment reading this epic novel that has been on my TBR since high school.

Having finished it, I'm not sure how I feel about it. I didn't love it; I didn't hate it. There are sections of it that have some of the most profound writing I have ever read. However, a big chunk of it I felt wasn't needed and just added to my overall confusion.

I can appreciate it though and I'm glad I finally read it.

I picked this book up from my local library in 1996 when I was still in high school. I only read a few chapters then and always told myself I'd get back to it and finish it because those few chapters have stuck with me all these years.

My husband bought it for me last Christmas and I still haven't read it. I think I'll make it my first read in December this year. 😁

#GratefulReads @Alwaysbeenaloverofbooks @OriginalCyn620

Still pissed I couldn't find a fake octopus in time to complete my Slothrop costume for Halloween.

#7days7covers #covercrush Day7

@vanslibanan, would you like to join in and show your favorite covers without explanation for 7 days? 😁

This is on my TBR list, because it's one of the books on my Greatest Opening Lines of Literature mug, but I haven't read it yet. #AyUpAugust #ChasingRainbows
@Cinfhen @squirrelbrain

Challenge completed!
While I don‘t live near the group anymore, I do plan on joining them remotely for their next challenge in the Fall.
#bookstorechallenge #chunkster #readingchallenge

Tina, thank you SO much for sending this to me. So kind of you! 🤗 I love Penguin Classics Deluxe Editions, so bonus! #bookmail

📚see tagged
🎬Finding Dory
🎶Beautiful Briny Sea
#manicmonday @JoScho

Got talked into joining a book club reading this tome. Has anyone ever actually finished it? Please give me hope...

#chunkster #bookclub #slowgoing

#24b42019 will not be completed for me, but my #readathon did result in me FINALLY finishing Gravity's Rainbow!!!

Definitely an amazing work of literature...but I don't know that I could recommend it to people generally. Long, difficult, straight-up disgusting, and very very dense. But what Pynchon has to say, he says very well, and I am glad to have read it.

@Andrew65 @TheReadingMermaid

First day of #24b42019, and what a #readathon it was! Got through 210 pages of Gravity's Rainbow...have another 300 to finish the book. 😭

@Andrew65 @TheReadingMermaid

I'm 100% positive that it is no accident that the premise of the book--Slothrop being the legendary "Rocketman"--occurs with formal introductory fanfare almost exactly halfway through the book.

#24b42019 starting this morning, and nothing else is planned for the rest of the day!! Hoping to make serious dents in these two beasts. #readathon @Andrew65 @TheReadingMermaid

I have been picking and picking and picking away at this book, since July. Do you think #24B42019 is sufficient for me to finish? 😬🤯

I bailed after 50 pages. I wanted to bail before, but I figured when a person takes the trouble to write a novel of about 900 pages, I should at least give him the chance to change my mind. I didn't.

“A screaming comes across the sky. It has happened before, but there is nothing to compare it to now.”

#QuotsyNov18 | 7: #Impact

📷: Made with Typorama

“Down in New York, drive fast maybe get there for the last set - on 7th Ave., between 139th and 140th, tonight, ‘Yardbird‘ Parker is finding out how he can use the notes at the higher ends of these very chords [of ‘Cherokee‘] to break up the melody into have mercy what is it a fucking machine gun or something...”

#QuotsyNov18 | 6: #Jazz

📷: Made with Typorama

“If they can get you asking the wrong questions, they don‘t have to worry about answers.”

#QuotsyNov18 | 5: #Plot

📷: Made with Typorama

If you listen to podcasts and you aren't listening to Overdue, I implore you to start. Craig and Andrew take turns reading books that "you really should have read already" and then discuss them, spoilers and all. These two will read anything from the Hardy Boys to The Odyssey. They are hilarious and smart, and above all, devoted to reading.

Cram some more of this in before a work shift!

So I‘ve been off Litsy for ages, everything been mad since I left for Scotland to do a show but stuff is finally starting to settle and as luck would have it a readalong was starting so I‘ve got a nice big book to bring me back! Both excited and scared for this 😂

So we‘re here! In Philly for tomorrow‘s meetup (and SO excited to meet everyone ☺️) and with some extra time after dinner, we OBVIOUSLY hit up Barnes & Noble. @BookBee89 has been wanting to try Thomas Pynchon and he was nice enough to treat me to Undead Girl Gang which I‘ve had my eye on for awhile. #bookhaul #litsymeetup

#QuotsyJuly18 Day 7: #Conspiracy, lies, deceit, gaslighting - all seem to be the sine qua non in modern day politics. I have yet to read a Thomas Pynchon novel. Do you recommend I begin with this massive Gravity‘s Rainbow, or something lighter?

Ludicrous or fun? Either way, it‘s something I‘ve always wanted to try.

A screaming comes across the sky...Happy birthday Gravity‘s Rainbow!!The 28th of February in 1973 this big book was first published ❤️ #thomaspynchon

#questions #quotsyjan18 @TK-421

This might be the best onomatopoeia of vomiting I have ever come across. Who doesn't love a good umlaut?

Happy Holidays! First post in weeks. Epic reading slump. I could blame Gravity's Rainbow, but I'm not going to point any fingers, Mr. Pynchon. I came nowhere near my reading goals for the year, but I did lose 40 pounds, biked and hiked 50 trails with my wife, and finished a new draft of my novel. Settling in for a few days off and hopefully some time to read, write, and eat cookies. Best wishes to all my Litsy friends and your families.

The iconic #FirstSentence of my current read. It is a postmodern beast, a tricky, turgid text, but it is an illuminating, rewarding read. That right there in the image is the V-2 rocket.

#riotgrams #day5 - #bigbooks

I seem to have trouble finishing larger books consistently; this and Infinite Jest I've started reading on 2 occasions, only to stop a couple hundred pages in.

I own 2 copies of this specific edition: one was a Christmas gift, the other I bought after the first one got damaged when my fridge leaked. That one's still readable, I just got the second one for display purposes.

I just discovered the possible origin of David Foster Wallace's "howling fantods" (i.e. the "heebie jeebies"). I have never seen this expression anywhere else.

Pg.42

This is the most fun I've ever had reading Gravity's Rainbow. I have failed multiple times. My system: I read a few chapters, listen to the Pynchon in Public podcast analysis, and then listen to the audiobook as a refresher. It's a book club of one. The novel is dense yet rewarding. Bursting with ideas and so damn funny. It's like falling asleep in a movie theater, dreaming, waking up, watching the movie, dreaming, and then back to reality.

I have attempted and failed to read Thomas Pynchon's novel "Gravity's Rainbow" more times than I care to admit. As a silly literary exercise, I am experimenting with a new method to scale this daunting postmodern doorstop-of-Everest-proportions. Audiobook shall be my Sherpa! That is 30+ hours of wacky World War II antics, bizarro cartoon lunacy, psychedelic paranoia on parade, and far out physics. Wish me luck, folks. #bookrainbow #fallintobooks

All this for under 40 bucks!!!'

Omg I'm SCREAMING. I was wiki'ing stuff about postmodernism and stumbled across the fact that Thomas Pynchon's middle name is "Ruggles." ??

What a hidden gem. ???

Happy 80th birthday to Thomas Pynchon!

Gravity's Rainbow is my favorite book. I've read it four times...and through parts of it countless times. This copy (with Kerouac's 'Desolation Angels') has been with me road tripping across 25+ US states.
It's an endlessly creative, weird, and hilarious romp that never stops impressing me.
😎📚✨

Nothing says "Monday morning" like learning about comb-sex fetishes in a book about psychological experiments in World War II...

Nothing says "Monday morning" like learning about comb-sex fetishes in a book about psychological experiments in World War II

Nothing says "Monday morning" like learning about comb-sex fetishes in a book about psychological experiments in World War II...

Since #candycolouredcovers has the superfluous British "U", I went with the hilarious "Disgusting English Candy Drill" where Tyrone Slothrop, an American stationed in England during World War II, must survive a gauntlet of eponymous candies.

http://www.olemichaelsen.dk/gravity.html

"You were in London," ..."while they were coming down. I was in 's Gravenhage"-fricatives sighing, the name spoken with exile's lingering-"while they were going up. Between you and me is not only a rocket trajectory, but also a life. You will come to understand that between the two points, in the five minutes, it lives an entire life. You haven't even learned the data on our side of the flight profile, the visible or trackable.…"
An all time fave.

#24in48
Good morning! Almost made it to 10 hours yesterday 🤓 I hope to get some more quality hours in today. This is a repost of my favorite book rainbow.

Just started reading this, really enjoying it so far...think it's going to take a while though!