Understood, I think I started to read the book an eon ago but my recollection is that the endless detailed analysis of pop music made it unreadable for me, I simply could not deal with pages of discussion about a Huey Lewis and the News tune. I think one of the things about the movie that struck me was the way scenes of his home were annotated like an IKEA catalog.

Very much a possibility. thanks for the response :)

Yeah, i see what you're saying but when it comes to consumerism he normally mentions a dozen brand names on a page, but the music gets entire chapters about what he thinks of them.

He has verrrry long takes on music and his casual mentions of multiple brand names for suits and stereos shows a stark contrast on the amount of time he spends analyzing the music

This is true.

Maybe you're on to something about the "genuine" of music in a world of materialism.

You are correct, but imo the book highlights the music way more than the rest of it. Like it isn't uncommon for a dozen brand names to be mentioned on every page, but when it comes to music the author has multiple chapters that are literally only about the music and what Bateman thinks about it. It's similar but imo not the same vein as he sees the rest of consumer America.

Totally agree, he's a poser

Could be, but in my opinion (which i haven't read it in a while) was always that music was the one thing that made him have a genuine feeling beyond trying to be #1 and better than everyone else.

> Because if his actions had a soundtrack, it would not be Mozart.

Funny you say that, cause when I hear Mozart I think of Hannibal murdering and eating people 🤣 but I know he is a totally different type of killer than Bateman

I still love SJM. But I'm an adult that can separate what I'm reading from reality so.... I'm still having a good time.

This is one of my kids' all time favorites. My youngest is 8 and brought it into her class earlier this school year because some of her classmates hadn't read it before.

Why would an author dedicate multiple chapters analyzing music if it meant nothing? It's not like it's a passing paragraph, there are several chapters.

It’s shallow, commercial pop music. There’s nothing particularly deep or interesting enough to rant on for paragraphs about, that is if you’re someone who isn’t one of those alien yuppies, much like the design and texture of a business card.

Yes, my friend started one six years ago so now we’re six years strong it’s a small group of like 10 people less than 10 people.

When we first started out, we would do really engaging book discussions but now when we meet up to talk about the book, it’s like mainly talking and just catching up and then doing a little bit of book talking, but also depends on how interesting and how good the book was sometimes the book was rather boring and we’d rather talk about something else going on

Agh no I just misremembered lol. My analysis is null and void.

I was going to say though in a world of brand names and materialism, music is one of the only truly genuine things so...it seems like killing and listening to music are the only things that make him feel truly alive.

Psychopathic as he is, he's unable to derive meaning and fufillment from benevolent or altruistic activites.

Same!!! Are you by chance from AZ also?

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In my opinion It's all just part of his mask of sanity, he's obsessively engaged in anything that hides his inner.self, like his morning routine, all part of keeping the mask up. It's also a way to keep victims at ease while preparing in the case of Paul Allen.

I haven't read the book but the movie I think helped illustrate the MC's fixation on popular materialism - the business cards and furnishings, the music....every thing in this guy's world is a prop of some sort that is a part of his fantasy.

Sounds about right. I used to work at a used book store that gave cash for books. Books were priced at MOST half the US list price, but most didn’t sell until marked down to 7.99 or even 2.00 clearance. So we were told to pay based on desirability, if it was new and likely to sell quickly we paid 30% of what we would put it out for. (So like a brand new release aka within a month or two of its release date) It’s sucks, as a book lover I wanted to value the books more, but after a while you see just how many copies of Twilight, 50 Shades and every single James Patterson novel…. Ugh

Oh for sure! We talk about what's healthy and not healthy in a relationship, while trying not to tip him off that we are talking about her (don't want them to dig in their heels because the parents are trying to break up truuuueee looooove). Teenagers are exhausting

I think I said "can't catch me, I'm the stinky cheese man" to my kids just a few days ago when we were playing outside, neat.

This is true. I have one signed first edition, and it still isn't worth much. I didn't get it for investment anyway.

That sounds about right and you need to factor in how in-demand those books. Unless they're a rare book or one that is in high demand then you're not going to get much for it used.

You may have paid $40 for that hardcover but they might only be able to resell it for $5 if it's not popular. They're only going to give you like $1 or $2 for that.

I agree

Did you read the same book? It's not sonatas. It's pop. Are you thinking of Alex in A Clockwork Orange?