Hello

[SpecialAgentCooper]

I'm 31 years old and live in Atlanta. I never was a big fan of reading until about 4 years ago - was always a "cliffs notes and skim it" kind of guy in school. The notion of reading for fun was foreign to me, I would rarely pick up a nonfiction book (usually sports or war or some kind of CIA type book), and the thought of reading fiction was just totally bizarre.

I heard of Cormac McCarthy while reading an Ebert review of he movie "The Proposition". Picked up a copy of Blood Meridian and my joy for reading was born. Since then, I've read stuff from Ellroy, Pynchon, DeLillo, McCarthy (of course), Roth, Nabokov. I even enjoy things less serious like Lindsay's Dexter series. I'll still pick up a non-fiction book every once in awhile - I really enjoy Mark Bowden and David Simon's stuff.

I hope to find and share some good reads on this forum. Now I need to decide whether to finish the 2nd half of Underworld, continue on Infinite Jest (about 20 pages in), or crack open Shantaram for the first time. The thought of 2400+ pages on my to read shelf is quite intimidating. Perhaps I can procrastinate a bit longer here.

[Tralala]

Hello, and welcome! Weird that there are two mentions of Shantaram in one day....I'll definitely add it to my next book order.

[Mairin]

Hi and welcome to the forum!! I personally wasn't a huge fan of Underworld, but I know a few who did enjoy it.

[StephenKingman]

Hi and a big welcome to the forums, great to have you here

[SpecialAgentCooper]

Thanks guys. I also forgot to mention I really enjoyed Jhumpa Lahiri and Jonathan Safran Foer as well! How'd I forget them?

I decided to finish Underworld first. only 450 or so pages to go

[andr70]

Hi SpecialAgentCooper and welcome to the community!
It's really great you've joined, hope you'll enjoy your stay!
Appreciate your taste in reading!

[GotThatSwing]

Welcome SpecialAgentCooper Good to hear you got into reading, therefore it's the right place for you