Welcome to Litsy!

"Two jokes written on the bathroom wall at Pages: How do you get a nun pregnant? Fuck her. What‘s the difference between a J.A.P. and a bowl of spaghetti? Spaghetti moves when you eat it. And below the jokes: "Julian gives great head. And is dead.""

""I think I would rather die in a plane crash than any other way," my father said after some time. "I think it would be dreadful." "But it would be nothing. You get bombed on the plane, take a Librium, and the plane takes off and crashes and you never know what hit you." My father crossed his legs."

"Someone named Angel was supposed to go with us tonight, but earlier today she got caught in the drain of her jacuzzi and almost drowned."

"I can also hear the dog barking out in back and KROQ is playing old Doors songs and War of the Worlds is on channel thirteen and I switch it to some religious program where this preacher is yelling "Let God use you. God wants to use you. Lie back and let him use you, use you." "Lie back," he keeps chanting. "Use you, use you.""

"There's an old, expensively framed poster of The Beach Boys hanging over Rip's bed and I stare at it trying to remember which one died, while Rip does three more lines."

This is a good book to alternate with Wyrm, because it makes me feel nothing, while each chapter of Wyrm guts me in a different way.

"My father looks pretty healthy if you don't look at him for too long."

I can see that this was probably a big deal when it was published in the 80s, but when you get down to it, nothing much happens. Rich, jaded teens in LA taking/dealing drugs, doing very little else, not even having real conversations with each other. Basically there‘s no plot and the characters are all flat. And this is written in stream of consciousness, which I didn‘t know, and which I very much loathe.

#bookspinbingo

I loved The Bonfire of the Vanities, but straight people don't write about themselves nearly as well as gay men write about them.

This is such a bleak, nihilistic novel & I think when it arrived on the scene in 1985 it would have caused shock waves. The 80s I recall as a toddler was full of campy excess; this is resoundingly minimalist, with a young narrator already jaded beyond imagination. The events & actions around him are horrifying as hell; sex & drugs are mainly means of enacting violence or avoiding life. A good, scary read. #TitlesAndTunes #SexDrugsAndRockandRoll

Thinking there's nothing more #sexdrugsandrocknroll than a Bret Easton Ellis novel. Want to read Less Than Zero before I embark on his most recent one, The Shards, so July will be an ideal time! And on that theme, Nine Inch Nails' "Closer" captures the vibe perfectly, I think ? #TitlesAndTunes

@BarbaraBB @Cinfhen

I was in high school when this book came out yet never read it until now.
BEE's debut novel that put him on the literary map rings of authenticity and the sense of hopelessness that is common amongst the teenage set.
While I thought The Shards was better, this stream of consciousness tale was a quick and engrossing read.

Well it‘s a lot

I was inspired to finally read this book after listening to the podcast Once Upon a Time at Bennington College, a deep dive into the origins of several important Gen X literary wunderkinds who had their start there in the early-mid 80s, including Ellis and Donna Tartt.

This is not a book I would recommend - there‘s barely a plot, the characters are very thin - but there is some beautiful prose to be found and it was very short (~200 pages).

Considering the light reading month I had in September, I did pretty well with my #BookSpinBingo board, and I completed both my #Bookspin (Less than Zero) and #Doublespin (The Vanishing Half), although technically I finished Less than Zero on October 1st (shhhh 🤫). I got lucky with the free spaces this month, and was actually able to get one bingo line! I‘m hoping that October will be especially successful with all my #Scarathlon reads.

September #BookSpinBingo all put together!

My #Bookspin this month is Less than Zero by Bret Easton Ellis and my #Doublespin is the new TJR release Carrie Soto is Back (which I‘ve already started on audio). I have high hopes to actually get a couple bingos this month. I‘ve got a lot of conveniently placed free spaces, so I think I can get at least one. Fingers crossed! 🤞🏼

This book is deeply disturbing. It makes you think; it reads quick & is really difficult to put down; and it has fantastic imagery from the 1980s & musical references. I am giving it a thumb‘s up and looking forward to my book club discussion on it next week.

#CuriousCovers Day 10: Abstract

This picture is a reminder to me that my bookshelves are very dusty and need to be cleaned. I love how deliciously 1980s this cover is. I‘ve had this book on my TBR for awhile, but have not yet read it. I do remember the movie adaptation with Andrew McCarthy and Robert Downey Jr., though. I feel like it used to play on cable a lot in the 90s.

I must admit, I did a bit of research because I am myself didn‘t know that this book was supposed to be a final paper in College and became a book because the professor encouraged Ellis to elaborate it.

If you take that into account it‘s a good book because it then has a meaning. It‘s criticising, showing a “reality”, not telling a story or entertaining.

It‘s okay and will linger in my mind for a while – but now I need a pause from Ellis.

As a cultural study worth reading, as an entertainment novel less.

Also a bit lengthy, after 100 pages the everyday meaning-/aimlessness and the superficiality of the characters that at first are interesting wear out. The last 30 pages are interesting again, because a few things are revealed and at least with Clay a development flashes up.
Then the book ends without solutions: The personnel isn‘t even aware of its problems.

@Buechersuechtling

Found it! From the German translation, I understood it to be a pictorial representation of the flag hanging on the wall behind the sofa. But looking at the original, it‘s a blanket with an image of the flag or similar DRAPED over the sofa. Would you maybe use the word “bedeckt”? 🧐

?? “Split says thank you and then sits on the couch by the fireplace, above which hangs a huge copy of the American national flag, [...]” (p. 74)

?? „Split sagt Dankeschön und setzt sich dann auf die Couch am Kamin, über dem eine riesengroße Kopie der amerikanischen Nationalflagge hängt, […]“ (Seite 74)

⬆️⬆️⬆️ Okay, my fellow American Littens, step forward, please. When is an American national flag an original and when is it just a copy❓?

Page 27. I‘m sure if the talks about coupling and who is sleeping with who or who (reportedly) has slept with who are continuing in that manner, I might need to grab pen and paper to draw diagrams in order to at least _try_ keeping in mind all those names and bonding.

But I‘m loving it so far. 😍 It reminds me of a walking 80s cliche and perfectly fits the pictures I recall from the film “Rules of Attraction”, my first contact with Ellis.

For all of you who liked yesterday‘s post about my bookmark.

Here‘s another one. 🪶
I am on a roll, it seems. 😉

Recently (okay, last year) that tiny little feather 🪶 came out of one of the pillows I have on my sofa.
One of the small things in (everyday)life that have the potential to make my heart feel warm and my face to smile on its own. That‘s the main reason why I kept it. As I realised my current read has no ribbon – 🤦🏽‍♀️ it‘s a paperback – I spontaneously decided to take this feather as bookmark.

A premiere in my life.

Unbelievable that this book is already sitting for maybe a bit more than five months on my sub. Even though I admit that I remember owning books that are lying around here and read for much longer.
Do you want an example❓
„🇩🇪 Das Geschenk“ by Sebastian Fitzek. *) [annotation in the comments]

I remember “The Rules of Attraction” (both, film and book) back then left me a bit confused here and there. Let‘s see if “Less than Zero” does so, too.

Book 2 I found on Friday at work. When I returned from the loo I passed the kitchen and saw some books sitting on the windowsill for free take-away. And of course I had a look. 😇

„🇩🇪 Unter Null“ (“🇬🇧 Less than Zero”) is on my “want-to-read-this”-list for sooooo long. I think since I watched “The Rules of Attraction” and afterwards read Ellis‘ novel. And that‘s about 15 years ago …

When I snatched it away I was surprised how slim it is.

One of my "forever top-ten list", Less than zero made me discover a new literary genre that had a huge impact on me as a reader. I connected to it right away, it's one of the best book I have ever read. ? #lessthanzero #breteastonellis #topten #bestbooks #challenge #2020

#LilithJuly

(Day 21 - #FeelSoHigh)

*Everybody is feeling high at the drug- and sex-fueled parties that are circumambient in Clay‘s world; i.e., the world that Easton Ellis paints for us in his debut novel, tagged. It‘s a fairly stultifying existence: house parties at million-dollar homes featuring kids shooting heroin, having one-night-stands, and watching snuff films. It‘s the kind of exotic party that was de rigueur in the 80s, unfortunately.

The prose is terrific (both calm and skilled), as I‘ve come to expect from Ellis, and the tone relentlessly chilly. This author is so good at evoking a mood—even when he was barely out of his teens, apparently.

Event-wise, there is some absolutely evil stuff that happens here, which I‘m surprised gets overlooked in most of the reviews I‘m seeing; it‘s easy to see this book as a precursor to “American Psycho.”

“I haven‘t seen you around,” I told her.
“Yeah, well, I haven‘t been around too much.”
“I met someone who knows you.”
“Who?”
“Evan Dickson. Do you know him?”
“I‘m going out with him.”
“Yeah, I know. That‘s what I heard.”
“But he‘s fucking this guy named Derf, who goes to Buckley.”
“Oh.”
“Yeah, oh,” she said.
“So what?”
“It‘s just so typical.”
“Yes,” I told her. “It is.”
“Did you have a good time while you were here?”
“No.”
“That‘s too bad.”

Not original but I love the Bangles' version of the song. Not so good book or movie. Very, very 80s in the worst way.
#winterwonderland #hazyshadeofwinter #teambangles
@Cinfhen @TrishB

I kinda hated this book. It‘s quite disturbing. But on the other hand I couldn‘t put it down. This is the obvious choice for #hazyshadeofwinter since The Bangles covered the Simon & Garfunkel original for the movie soundtrack when the book was adapted to film.🤓 #WinterWonderland

#agameoffavorites
Author YA: Melissa de la Cruz
Her fave book: Less then Zero by Brett Easton Ellis
My fave of hers: Blue Bloods series

I read "Less Than Zero" when it was first published in the UK simply because it takes its title from one of my favourite Elvis Costello songs, and then I was encouraged by reading that the protagonist has a poster of the cover of a favourite Costello album, "Trust". Then... what a catalogue of empty, shallow characters leading pointlessly empty and shallow lives. Surely this was "The Horror" whispered of by Conrad's Kurtz... ??

#booksandmusic

"I don't want to care. If I care about things, it'll just be worse, it'll just be another thing to worry about. It's less painful if I don't care.”

This is the very depressing and controversial story about rich and bored #CaliforniaGurls and boys in the 80s. It made a big impression when reading it. #heatofjuly

A lucky book haul at the yearly book sale! Today was buy one get one free. All this for $9!!!

My roommate owns the LP so I'm listening to the soundtrack. I own the book and have seen the movie, but don't recall much about the music. What do you think about Bret Easton Ellis' books?

Well. That was different from Dickens!! Loved the first person narrative that B. E. E. does so well but very dark and depressive. Back to some Austen to lighten the mood a little I think!

What a depressing story. The lifestyle of rich teenagers in Los Angeles in the 80s. Drugs, sex, violence, they are doing it all without feeling anything. Clay, the storyteller, watches all that happens, seemingly without participating actively. But neither does he stop anything from happening although he at times feels the need to cry. But there's no one to talk to, no one who listens. Even his shrink talks mainly about himself. #1001

I am hot and thirsty and I will order what I fucking want

I seem to remember a lot of #cocaine use in this weird going away to college present from my ex-boyfriend 🤷🏻‍♀️ I kept it for awhile but got rid of it about 5 years after him. #rockinmay

Futile. Empty. Cold. Parts of it made me feel physically ill. But maybe that's exactly the point?

At least I can say I've read an Easton Ellis, and that it's likely that I'll never read another.

My current read is apt for today's #Marchintoreading prompt #crazycovers. My motivation is waning with this one, but it's short so I should really finish it...

#feistyfeb #candycolouredcovers ❤️💕📚