Finished this a while back.  I found this edition of Naked Lunch on skinnybones's bookshelf and started reading.  It was, apparently, a gift from an old girl that he never read.  Will he ever read the copy of Kafka on the Shore that I got him for xmas?  I wonder.  Oh well, I'm one of those people who gets people gifts that I secretly want to borrow, so I read it, anyway.

I couldn't let the book go to waste so I picked it up myself and read it and now it's on my bookshelf.  I read a lot of it at work on my lunch hours and downtime.  I got a lot of weird comments from coworkers that apparently don't understand what a book is.   Lately, though, I wouldn't try to sneak reading at work...management has been on a manhunt, lately.  boo.

Anyway, I thought Naked Lunch was just great.  Certain passages and chapters (Benway, Hassan's Rumpus Room) were difficult to slog through, but the Burroughs's style is so crisp and funny.  I lol'd out loud a lot.  Favorite chapters: And Start West and The County Clerk.

A new favorite. I'm so glad this was left on a shelf for me to find.  You, too, should find this book on a shelf! If you haven't already because you're more well-read than I! I've been doing a lot of reading (and music listening, and movie watching, and just everythinggg) lately, and I'm glad.  I haven't posted about this since months ago when I had just discovered the joys of Philip K. Dick.  I don't talk about every book that I've read on here because that would become tiresome for both me and whoever internet people actually read this.

Oh, but speaking of beat literature, I did read Kerouac's On the Road after finding that on skinnybones's shelf, too.  I know it's a classic and all that, but somebody once warned me that he didn't think much of Kerouac and I guess I have to agree, or at least say that I was disappointed!  The novel started out with such promise for me, I was devouring it, but then somewhere in there it lost me.  Dean's character grew tiresome and he came off as a dumb, self-centered, pesudo-intellectual.  Difficult to enjoy a book when it's pretty much about idolizing a character you don't like and cant identify with.  I feel like the story should have been called "Driving Around and an Apology for this Dumb Guy I Knew."

The thought of and writing about travel was exciting at first, but it just grew old.  It seemed like the characters in the book just drove around and went to parties.  OK, who cares?  I've driven around and gone to parties, too.  That and the long, drawn out passages describing jazz performances were boring as fuck and struck me as like a bunch of white honkies sensationalizing performers because they'd never seen people of color make music before or something.

Oh well, what the fuck do I know?  Kerouac has written a classic and I'm just a wannabe on the internet.  But I guess I can say what I wanna about it because it's a free country god bless the U.S.A.

Other recently read books: Machiavelli's The Prince and Kafka on the Shore....oh, I guess that's it, how embarrassing!  I had The Prince sitting on my bookshelf since freshman year of college when I was supposed to read it because I refused, on principle, to sell it back if I was only gonna get $2 for it.  I wish I'd read it when I was supposed to, it's a great read for those interested in politics and/or history and really isn't as heavy as one might think.

More poorly fleshed-out thoughts on Murakami when I finish reading his books, probably.  So far I've read Kafka on the Shore, After Dark, Sputnik Sweetheart, and The Wind-up Bird Chronicle.