I just started Elizabeth Bowen's The Death of the Heart, thanks to Tim's final structured title reading assignment. It's absorbing.
― Jaq (Jaq), Wednesday, 1 March 2006 15:41 (nineteen years ago)
― Beth Parker (Beth Parker), Wednesday, 1 March 2006 16:10 (nineteen years ago)
― Archel (Archel), Wednesday, 1 March 2006 17:06 (nineteen years ago)
― PJ Miller (PJ Miller 68), Wednesday, 1 March 2006 17:15 (nineteen years ago)
― Beth Parker (Beth Parker), Wednesday, 1 March 2006 17:19 (nineteen years ago)
― remy (x Jeremy), Wednesday, 1 March 2006 17:21 (nineteen years ago)
At home, but not yet started:
Arthur & GeorgeThe Economy of Prestige: Prizes, Awards and the Circulation of Cultural Value
― Mary (Mary), Wednesday, 1 March 2006 20:21 (nineteen years ago)
― tom west (thomp), Thursday, 2 March 2006 00:10 (nineteen years ago)
99 days to the World Cup!
― Mikey G (Mikey G), Thursday, 2 March 2006 12:34 (nineteen years ago)
― PJ Miller (PJ Miller 68), Thursday, 2 March 2006 14:21 (nineteen years ago)
― Beth Parker (Beth Parker), Thursday, 2 March 2006 14:46 (nineteen years ago)
― Josh (Josh), Thursday, 2 March 2006 15:35 (nineteen years ago)
― o. nate (onate), Thursday, 2 March 2006 16:05 (nineteen years ago)
― PJ Miller (PJ Miller 68), Thursday, 2 March 2006 17:06 (nineteen years ago)
― Jeff LeVine (Jeff LeVine), Thursday, 2 March 2006 17:07 (nineteen years ago)
― Aimless (Aimless), Thursday, 2 March 2006 17:50 (nineteen years ago)
― Casuistry (Chris P), Thursday, 2 March 2006 18:32 (nineteen years ago)
― Jaq (Jaq), Thursday, 2 March 2006 20:30 (nineteen years ago)
― tokyo nursery school: afternoon session (rosemary), Thursday, 2 March 2006 20:33 (nineteen years ago)
― tom west (thomp), Friday, 3 March 2006 02:18 (nineteen years ago)
Oysters, naturally!:
http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/0345476387/002-3821789-3074440?v=glance&n=283155
― scott seward (scott seward), Friday, 3 March 2006 03:26 (nineteen years ago)
― Josh (Josh), Friday, 3 March 2006 03:35 (nineteen years ago)
― scott seward (scott seward), Friday, 3 March 2006 04:03 (nineteen years ago)
As far as an inside look at law school (from a practical standpoint) it can't be beat, but as literature it's pretty sub-par, and pretty dull.
― Abbadavid Berman (Hurting), Friday, 3 March 2006 05:37 (nineteen years ago)
It's OK so far. Illuminating, I suppose.
― PJ Miller (PJ Miller 68), Friday, 3 March 2006 09:35 (nineteen years ago)
― Josh (Josh), Friday, 3 March 2006 18:18 (nineteen years ago)
neither did flaubert.
i think he must be one of my least favorite of the classic or canonical authors.
― Mary (Mary), Friday, 3 March 2006 23:34 (nineteen years ago)
I also bought, yesterday, William Gaddis "Carpenter's Gothic" but I haven't started it. It was bought at hstencil's suggestions, when we were in da junk shop.
― Special Agent Gene Krupa (orion), Sunday, 5 March 2006 17:58 (nineteen years ago)
― Jeff LeVine (Jeff LeVine), Sunday, 5 March 2006 19:30 (nineteen years ago)
― Aimless (Aimless), Sunday, 5 March 2006 20:06 (nineteen years ago)
― Sterling Clover (s_clover), Monday, 6 March 2006 06:32 (nineteen years ago)
― Archel (Archel), Monday, 6 March 2006 10:38 (nineteen years ago)
― Julio Desouza (jdesouza), Monday, 6 March 2006 11:04 (nineteen years ago)
I bought it from the book stall at Spitalfields market. First time I've been in about three months and was expecting an architectural disaster after reading about the redevelopment. It was far from that. I like the walkway with the glass roof framing Christchurch.
Acoid the tapas bar at Spitalfields. Very poor.
― Mikey G (Mikey G), Monday, 6 March 2006 11:17 (nineteen years ago)
i enjoy that book.
― tom west (thomp), Monday, 6 March 2006 12:19 (nineteen years ago)
I have just started 'The System Of The World'.
― Mog, Monday, 6 March 2006 13:26 (nineteen years ago)
― scott seward (scott seward), Monday, 6 March 2006 15:00 (nineteen years ago)
― Jeff LeVine (Jeff LeVine), Monday, 6 March 2006 17:55 (nineteen years ago)
I am now reading "London Psychogeography Rachman Riots and Rillington Place" by Tom Vague.
He has a very singular style, not far from note-taking and I'm not sure everyone would think this worthwhile but I like this book and I like Tom Vague and I'm finding out how much I didn't know about the 10 Rillington Place murders, and the Notting Hill race riots of the late 50s, and the fabled slum landlord Rachman, and tons more stuff.
I finished "The Foundation Pit" and it's as dispiriting a book as I know, so I'm glad it made me laugh several times along the way.
― Tim (Tim), Monday, 6 March 2006 18:20 (nineteen years ago)
What's wrong with sidebars and historical trivia? This is my favourite kind of reading! Sadly Salt actually degenerates into a list of recipes and doesn't really tell you anything that Cod didn't.
Currently reading Ludmila's Broken English by DBC Pierre and I can't decide if I like it or not. His ear for bizarre dialogue is excellent, and I like the story, but his actual prose is terrible, and his descriptions are disastrous. Even something as simple as the layout of a room becomes a syrupy mess of dagger looks and shaky similes. Amateurish.
Seriously though. When it comes to books about historical trivia, I am expert (as they say in The Big Lebowski).
― accentmonkey (accentmonkey), Monday, 6 March 2006 23:12 (nineteen years ago)
― Casuistry (Chris P), Tuesday, 7 March 2006 01:24 (nineteen years ago)
― Beth Parker (Beth Parker), Tuesday, 7 March 2006 02:29 (nineteen years ago)
The book jacket ranks it up there with Ford and Brennan. We shall see. "Spain conquered the world then didn't know what to do with it." That's a bit of a crass statement for the opening chapter. You only need to look at the tin and silver mines throughout the Americas to work out what they wanted.
I liked Fup too.
― Mikey G (Mikey G), Tuesday, 7 March 2006 10:15 (nineteen years ago)
It may be a bit emo.
Mikey I hope you like reading about little Romanesque churches.
― Tim (Tim), Tuesday, 7 March 2006 11:42 (nineteen years ago)
I didn't read anything this morning. I rested my eyes.
― PJ Miller (PJ Miller 68), Tuesday, 7 March 2006 11:47 (nineteen years ago)
I don't mean I then played in the game. No, just watched it. Christ, Man Utd got lucky. I had rosti and steamed brocoli for tea and a rather heavy new world shiraz.
― Mikey G (Mikey G), Tuesday, 7 March 2006 12:18 (nineteen years ago)
― Mikey G (Mikey G), Tuesday, 7 March 2006 12:23 (nineteen years ago)
― PJ Miller (PJ Miller 68), Tuesday, 7 March 2006 13:17 (nineteen years ago)
― Mikey G (Mikey G), Tuesday, 7 March 2006 16:07 (nineteen years ago)
― Jeff LeVine (Jeff LeVine), Tuesday, 7 March 2006 17:24 (nineteen years ago)
― frankiemachine, Tuesday, 7 March 2006 18:17 (nineteen years ago)
― Zora (Zora), Tuesday, 7 March 2006 21:54 (nineteen years ago)
― Redd Scharlach (Ken L), Tuesday, 7 March 2006 22:22 (nineteen years ago)
― Zora (Zora), Wednesday, 8 March 2006 00:06 (nineteen years ago)
― Jaq (Jaq), Wednesday, 8 March 2006 00:10 (nineteen years ago)
Oh, and, Chris, thanks for my accepting my amazon invitation!
― mj (robert blake), Wednesday, 8 March 2006 03:34 (nineteen years ago)
― mj (robert blake), Wednesday, 8 March 2006 03:38 (nineteen years ago)
― Casuistry (Chris P), Wednesday, 8 March 2006 04:51 (nineteen years ago)
At least you stopped at one "very".
― Aimless (Aimless), Wednesday, 8 March 2006 06:20 (nineteen years ago)
― Casuistry (Chris P), Wednesday, 8 March 2006 06:42 (nineteen years ago)
I gave up on Oldest Confederate. I don't know why, really.
― Gravel Puzzleworth (Gregory Henry), Wednesday, 8 March 2006 12:40 (nineteen years ago)
― Mikey G (Mikey G), Wednesday, 8 March 2006 12:48 (nineteen years ago)
Just started Oranges Are Not the Only Fruit, not far enough in to give a response to it yet.
― Zora (Zora), Wednesday, 8 March 2006 14:24 (nineteen years ago)
I'm enjoying it (Nooteboom) more as I go along, although his obsession with Zubaran (who I've only really considered a decent painter of monks rather than a great painter) is wearing.
Travelling around Spain, staying in paradors, is how I want to spend my life.
― Mikey G (Mikey G), Thursday, 9 March 2006 09:14 (nineteen years ago)
― Tim (Tim), Thursday, 9 March 2006 10:16 (nineteen years ago)
You haven't lived until you'd stayed a night at the Parador in Santiago!
I think half the joy of travelling in Spain lies in using the local railways and bus networks. Public transport compares quite favourably to Portugal, France, Italy etc. Much cheaper than the UK too.
― Mikey G (Mikey G), Thursday, 9 March 2006 10:48 (nineteen years ago)
How does one go about booking a room in a parador?
― Tim (Tim), Thursday, 9 March 2006 11:19 (nineteen years ago)
Used to live round the corner from this one. I am surprised to find myself vaguely nostalgic.
There is a booking bit "reservas" on that website, but you need to register "introduce your datos".
― PJ Miller (PJ Miller 68), Thursday, 9 March 2006 12:16 (nineteen years ago)
Just booked a weekend in Spain! Flying to Vitoria, There is a Parador in Argomaniz just outside Vitoria. Know this one, PJM?
Napoleon stayed there!
Ryanair return flights for two people, all taxes included = £50!
― Mikey G (Mikey G), Thursday, 9 March 2006 13:05 (nineteen years ago)
― PJ Miller (PJ Miller 68), Thursday, 9 March 2006 14:57 (nineteen years ago)
― Mikey G (Mikey G), Thursday, 9 March 2006 15:20 (nineteen years ago)
Neither Here Nor There [Bill Bryson]Separate Parts [Martha King] [my old boss! a memoir of her raging artsy life in the 60s!]The Uses Of Literature [Italo Calvino]and the first few pages of THE LIFE OF SAMUEL JOHNSON [BOSFUCKINWELL]
which is pretty great, so far, and it hasn't even gotten into its stride.
― Casuistry (Chris P), Saturday, 11 March 2006 06:34 (nineteen years ago)
― tom west (thomp), Saturday, 11 March 2006 17:08 (nineteen years ago)
The cover of the edition I bought strangely says right at the top, "Film Rights Acquired by Francis Ford Coppola." I'm having a really hard time imagining who would consider that a selling point for a book. "Ah - a burnt-out has been movie director has purchased the rights to possibly make a movie out of this book - oh my god, I must read this immediately!"
― Jeff LeVine (Jeff LeVine), Saturday, 11 March 2006 17:29 (nineteen years ago)
― Jeff LeVine (Jeff LeVine), Sunday, 12 March 2006 17:35 (nineteen years ago)
― J.D. (Justyn Dillingham), Monday, 13 March 2006 05:24 (nineteen years ago)
I really enjoyed A Short History of Tractors in Ukrainian.
― PJ Miller (PJ Miller 68), Monday, 13 March 2006 09:07 (nineteen years ago)
Prior to that I read Phil Dick's "The man in the high castle". Good book, and a lot more interesting than I expected. I'd steered clear of it before, since I'm usually not interested in alternative history. Still, it dawned on me halfway through that alt.hist. is just about the perfect medium for the kind of reality-confusion Dick so often wrote about. And his prose is fantastic: "I wonder if it will sell, he wondered."Poetry, innit?
― Øystein (Øystein), Monday, 13 March 2006 09:29 (nineteen years ago)
― Joe Dunthorne (JoseMaria), Monday, 13 March 2006 09:36 (nineteen years ago)
― Archel (Archel), Monday, 13 March 2006 09:50 (nineteen years ago)
― PJ Miller (PJ Miller 68), Monday, 13 March 2006 10:25 (nineteen years ago)
― [apal fret, Monday, 13 March 2006 15:15 (nineteen years ago)
― Jeff LeVine (Jeff LeVine), Monday, 13 March 2006 17:23 (nineteen years ago)
― Tim (Tim), Monday, 13 March 2006 17:51 (nineteen years ago)
If you could define me as a target market, this would be the book most tailored to my reading requirements. It was published at the weekend and I've only read the first chapter (on the Ukraine), but it is very promising. (I'm hoping it's up there with Morbo or and Tor). The author was the FT's Eastern European football correspondent.
Also, Whitsun Weddings by Philip Larkin. A 1964 collection of poems, with scant concern for Eastern European football.
― Mikey G (Mikey G), Tuesday, 14 March 2006 10:04 (nineteen years ago)
― PJ Miller (PJ Miller 68), Tuesday, 14 March 2006 10:56 (nineteen years ago)
― Archel (Archel), Tuesday, 14 March 2006 11:58 (nineteen years ago)
― Jerry the Nipper (Jerrynipper), Tuesday, 14 March 2006 12:10 (nineteen years ago)
are the earlier novels worth investigating?
― m coleman (lovebug starski), Tuesday, 14 March 2006 12:18 (nineteen years ago)
I am rereadng IN THE LINE OF BEAUTY in homage to PJM.
― the firefox, Tuesday, 14 March 2006 12:34 (nineteen years ago)
I just finished 'Money' in homage to Da PF! Gosh, I had forgotten how poor the ending is. "You want motivation? Call Fielding Goodney's mother."
― Jerry the Nipper (Jerrynipper), Tuesday, 14 March 2006 12:37 (nineteen years ago)
Dah!
Yes, that is an apt homage.
I agree, about the ending.
He has never explained it well - I think he wanted it to be like Othello: motiveless malignancy? The way he gives the tel # is quite neat, quite Nabokovian perhaps? - but still it's poor, very poor. I think I said this, when I finished rereading it, in fact!
― the bellefox, Tuesday, 14 March 2006 13:17 (nineteen years ago)
― PJ Miller (PJ Miller 68), Tuesday, 14 March 2006 13:30 (nineteen years ago)
― tom west (thomp), Tuesday, 14 March 2006 15:21 (nineteen years ago)
― Beth Parker (Beth Parker), Tuesday, 14 March 2006 16:44 (nineteen years ago)
Exactly! What I liked about Motherless Brooklyn and am liking about Gun, With... is the playfulness, which is totally absent in TFOS as far I can see. Girl in Landscape was a bit too sci-fi tropey for me, and As She Climbed Across The Table just odd, but I still enjoyed them because they weren't - literally - weighed down with their own Great American Novel pretensions.
― Archel (Archel), Tuesday, 14 March 2006 17:20 (nineteen years ago)
― Jeff LeVine (Jeff LeVine), Tuesday, 14 March 2006 19:27 (nineteen years ago)
some descartes on the table next, some hume next week, and eyeing queneau's 'we always treat women too well', which i had to look up on the web to check to make sure was by the oulipo queneau since on scanning the promotional materials in the book i could find no mention of that group (so much the better, i suppose).
― Josh (Josh), Tuesday, 14 March 2006 20:15 (nineteen years ago)
It is funny to compare The Rotters' Club with The Fortress of Solitude.
I tried to explain my reaction to the latter on the what are you reading? thread, or maybe a Lethem thread, or both, in probably February 2005. Probably I tried to explain there why I thought it was excessively hip. Perhaps not. Part of my reaction may be from not being American, I suppose.
― the bellefox, Tuesday, 14 March 2006 22:16 (nineteen years ago)
― Beth Parker (Beth Parker), Tuesday, 14 March 2006 22:59 (nineteen years ago)
I saw this one in a used bookstore the other day, and I decided to buy it out of curiosity.
Given the topic, I think that it would be impossible to write a four-hundred page book that even remotely touches on said subject in any kind of depth. That aside, much of the material in this book was previously unknown to me; I also like her style of writing.
Too, the more I read from it, the more it seems less of a history of celibacy, per se, than a document of one woman's research into her own sexuality. Which is just as alluring, if the person, herself, is an interesting human being -- which she seems to be.
Melmoth the Wanderer
So far, I absolutely love this one -- but then, I love anything containing a Faustian soul-exchange element; the framed storytelling within is also a lot of fun.
― mj (robert blake), Wednesday, 15 March 2006 00:59 (nineteen years ago)
― accentmonkey (accentmonkey), Wednesday, 15 March 2006 07:34 (nineteen years ago)
― Matos-Webster Dictionary (M Matos), Wednesday, 15 March 2006 07:50 (nineteen years ago)
― Josh (Josh), Wednesday, 15 March 2006 08:45 (nineteen years ago)
(Musil was interesting, very ironic. Ulrich, the protagonist, is trying to find a meaningful or 'good' way of livingand engages in lots of dense discussions about what this could mean/be. All these discussions are taken seriously and sincerely but (it seems to me) most of the other characters are living variants on these ways of living, and all are unsatisfactory. The big irony in the plot is that most of the central characters are involved in a committee to come up with some way of commemorating the 70th anniversary of their (Austrian) emperor's reign. Which means that they are, starting in 1913, planning a great celebration to take place in 1918)
― Ray (Ray), Wednesday, 15 March 2006 08:48 (nineteen years ago)
I'm now reading "Doting", Henry Green's final novel.
― Tim (Tim), Wednesday, 15 March 2006 10:10 (nineteen years ago)
― J.D. (Justyn Dillingham), Wednesday, 15 March 2006 10:21 (nineteen years ago)
IPA, I'm assuming.
― Tim (Tim), Wednesday, 15 March 2006 10:24 (nineteen years ago)
― PJ Miller (PJ Miller 68), Wednesday, 15 March 2006 11:05 (nineteen years ago)
― Jerry the Nipper (Jerrynipper), Wednesday, 15 March 2006 11:08 (nineteen years ago)
― Jerry the Nipper (Jerrynipper), Wednesday, 15 March 2006 11:09 (nineteen years ago)
Shoedog George Pellecanos. An early novel from my favorite nuevo noir crime writer. Not as richly detailed as later work, but fast-moving and violently "cinematic" in a Q Tarrantino style.
The Aztec Treasure House Evan S Connell. New and selected essays on uh, I guess you'd call it anthropology. Just started.
also sprang for a copy of Rip It Up And Start Again by Simon Reynolds. So far it's smart but v. accessible, well-written and thoruoughly researched, though somewhat less-than-earth-shattering so far. This has more to do w/my advanced age and firsthand exp of postpunk than it does w/Reynolds efforts. And in an unconscious Kogan/Eddy tribute I just re-posted something I said on ILM :-)
― m coleman (lovebug starski), Wednesday, 15 March 2006 11:34 (nineteen years ago)
― Matos-Webster Dictionary (M Matos), Wednesday, 15 March 2006 12:04 (nineteen years ago)
― Mikey G (Mikey G), Wednesday, 15 March 2006 12:51 (nineteen years ago)
Apols for the coma / comma typo above, btw.
― Tim (Tim), Wednesday, 15 March 2006 13:33 (nineteen years ago)
― Gravel Puzzleworth (Gregory Henry), Wednesday, 15 March 2006 15:04 (nineteen years ago)
― Jaq (Jaq), Wednesday, 15 March 2006 15:41 (nineteen years ago)
― Jaq (Jaq), Wednesday, 15 March 2006 15:57 (nineteen years ago)
I am planning to reading (or re-reading) all of his work chronologically. "V." has been mostly fun so far. It gets off to a great start but then you sort of hit a wall with Stencil's South Africa Chapter and again with Paola's Dad's Journal/Letter, which I found particularly hard to get through.
Has anyone ever been to Malta? It sounds like a cool place to visit with an extremely rich history?
Also, has anyone read "Mason & Dixon"?
― Mikhail, Wednesday, 15 March 2006 16:58 (nineteen years ago)
*"We" in this case being the British, who all seem to obsess variously about the whole business.
― Tim (Tim), Wednesday, 15 March 2006 16:59 (nineteen years ago)
― Casuistry (Chris P), Wednesday, 15 March 2006 17:20 (nineteen years ago)
― Jordan (Jordan), Wednesday, 15 March 2006 20:22 (nineteen years ago)
Yes.
I'm reading Huston Smith's 'The World's Religions' and PKD's 'Three Stigmata of Palmer Eldrich.'
― remy (x Jeremy), Wednesday, 15 March 2006 20:39 (nineteen years ago)
I was briefly hoping for a common bond of chromaticism and cynicism.
― frankiemachine, Wednesday, 15 March 2006 21:46 (nineteen years ago)
the other week at the store i was seriously eyeing a smaller copy of it to replace my large paperback copy. just thinking about carrying around some of my books on the bus makes me disinclined to finish them. (see also: tale of genji. how cool would it be if they published it in ten little volumes or so?)
― Josh (Josh), Wednesday, 15 March 2006 22:31 (nineteen years ago)
― andrew m. (andrewmorgan), Wednesday, 15 March 2006 22:42 (nineteen years ago)
Neither was particularly color-laden, alas. However, the Hrabel novel had lots of turquoise-blue and velvet-violet, associated with gypsy girls.
― Jaq (Jaq), Wednesday, 15 March 2006 22:48 (nineteen years ago)
Really, all books should be published in little hardback Loeb Classic edition style books. And translated into Latin or Greek. Except not as expensive.
― Casuistry (Chris P), Wednesday, 15 March 2006 22:53 (nineteen years ago)
― Casuistry (Chris P), Wednesday, 15 March 2006 22:54 (nineteen years ago)
Yeah, the book is very entertaining. For instance, I had heard about vestal virgins many times previously, but had no idea behind the history or origins of the phrase.
As a history, of course, it is extremely spotty -- she should have given it a different title.
― mj (robert blake), Thursday, 16 March 2006 00:35 (nineteen years ago)
It has many things against it: * inability to maintain much narrative momentum over 1,000 pages;* dopily wacky sense of humour ("President Washington was a drug fiend!"); and* fatal attraction to banal allegory.
Nevertheless, I have high hopes for the next book.
― Jerry the Nipper (Jerrynipper), Thursday, 16 March 2006 01:12 (nineteen years ago)
― accentmonkey (accentmonkey), Thursday, 16 March 2006 09:31 (nineteen years ago)
― Mikey G (Mikey G), Thursday, 16 March 2006 12:34 (nineteen years ago)
― mog, Thursday, 16 March 2006 13:18 (nineteen years ago)
― PJ Miller (PJ Miller 68), Thursday, 16 March 2006 15:12 (nineteen years ago)
xpost
― tom west (thomp), Thursday, 16 March 2006 15:22 (nineteen years ago)
recently arrived: Murakami's Kafka on the Shore, Chang's Can't Stop Won't Stop, Baseball Prospectus 2006
also working on Leigh Brackett's The Book of Skaith
― Haikunym (Haikunym), Thursday, 16 March 2006 15:45 (nineteen years ago)
I'm not reading anything right now, although I'm technically in the middle of about 3 different books. None of which are really holding my interest. I'm in a phase of book apathy.
― qwpoi (maga), Friday, 17 March 2006 05:07 (nineteen years ago)
― the bellefox, Friday, 17 March 2006 16:39 (nineteen years ago)
Just started: The Bridge, by Iain Banks, which I'm re-reading and finding amusing and well structured (arf!) though less "OMG how good is this?!" than it seemed when I was a teenage boy.
I've also been working my way through Men & Cartoons, by Jonathan Lethem and David Foster Wallace's Consider The Lobster this month, both of which are very good indeed.
Almost all of the stories in that Lethem book are very immediate and fun, but that last story, The National Anthem... that one doesn't quite work for me. Beside the whole "A motorcycle that’s gone off a cliff can't be fixed by another motorcycle" line (CLUNK!), it just seems a bit too… up-front, maybe?
I think Lethem's best stuff pushes that po-mo genre play thing he does to the point where it becomes very affecting rather than just kinda clever, or else gives his pop-culture inflected ramblings a bit more room to breath. The National Anthem is very straight-forward and compressed, and the style doesn’t suite Lethem at all.
Consider The Lobster is more or less business as usual for Wallace. Like most of his non-fiction (I can’t vouch for the maths stuff) it’s all humour, self-consciousness and footnotes, and it’s often pretty damned insightful to boot. Your mileage may vary, of course, but I thought that the Republican candidacy campaign as covered in Up Simba was pretty much the perfect jump-off point for one of Wallace’s recurring themes: the potentially harmful effects of a cynical, seen-it-all-so-who-cares postmodernist world view. The layout for Host is making my head bleed right now, but I’m going to give it another go over the weekend all the same…
― David A (David A), Friday, 17 March 2006 17:39 (nineteen years ago)
― Jeff LeVine (Jeff LeVine), Friday, 17 March 2006 17:40 (nineteen years ago)
I'm still reading Gun With Occasional Music, and Teh Fr0gmore P4pers no. 67 which returned from the printers several apostrophes short, alas :(
― Archel (Archel), Friday, 17 March 2006 18:18 (nineteen years ago)
― TOMBOT, Friday, 17 March 2006 18:30 (nineteen years ago)
Just started: The Bridge, by Iain Banks, which I'm re-reading and finding amusing and well structured (arf!) though less "OMG how good is this?!" than it seemed when I was a teenage boy.Huh, I'm wondering how that will work for me on re-read too. I have that and "Use of Weapons" mentally marked as the best Banks books, and it could definitely be time to revisit.Incidentally, a fellow named Rich Puchalsky made a lot of posts about The Bridge a few years ago, where he went chapter by chapter, commenting on the plot, connections etc. I recall it being quite interesting, though I didn't read the whole thing.A quick search turns up a page where he's backed up all the posts: http://home.att.net/~rpuchalsky/bridge/index.html
I've also been working my way through Men & Cartoons, by Jonathan LethemI sort of blasted through this a year or two ago - still the only Lethem I've read, though I've picked up a copy of "Gun..." - but I found it to be a lot of fun. I did occasionally think that I was running through it a bit too quickly, so I didn't really stop to consider the stories very much, mostly taking it as a collection of pure fun. I had a similar reaction to yours with the final story. I'd enjoyed everything in the book, and was really let down by having it end with a story that didn't feel at all up to the rest. Maybe it was a difference in tone that didn't fit the mood I was in; truth be told, I can't at -all- recall what it was about anymore. Anyhoo, the super goat man and past-spray stories were my favorites, I believe.
― Øystein (Øystein), Friday, 17 March 2006 19:14 (nineteen years ago)
Stories like Access Fantasy and The Spray are good pop fun, but there are little touches there that stay with me. Like the patches that make you compelled to advertise and the one way permeable barrier in Access Fantasy, or the whole concept of The Spray.
Thanks for the Bridge link, by the way. I'm feeling a bit of Banks re-read coming on at the moment, but I tend to have a pretty short attention span so we'll see how it goes.
― David A (David A), Friday, 17 March 2006 20:01 (nineteen years ago)
bouvard and pecuchet have given up on agriculture and commenced their investigation of chemistry.
― Josh (Josh), Friday, 17 March 2006 20:25 (nineteen years ago)
― Mary (Mary), Friday, 17 March 2006 22:36 (nineteen years ago)
― Josh (Josh), Friday, 17 March 2006 22:56 (nineteen years ago)
I quite liked it, but I can see how it would get passed over in the prize race.
― accentmonkey (accentmonkey), Friday, 17 March 2006 23:21 (nineteen years ago)
― Josh (Josh), Saturday, 18 March 2006 04:25 (nineteen years ago)
― Jeff LeVine (Jeff LeVine), Sunday, 19 March 2006 01:48 (nineteen years ago)
http://images-eu.amazon.com/images/P/0141020520.02.LZZZZZZZ.jpg
― accentmonkey (accentmonkey), Sunday, 19 March 2006 12:06 (nineteen years ago)
http://www.harpers.org/TheFrequency.html
― Sterling Clover (s_clover), Sunday, 19 March 2006 16:25 (nineteen years ago)
― Casuistry (Chris P), Sunday, 19 March 2006 19:51 (nineteen years ago)
― tom west (thomp), Sunday, 19 March 2006 22:24 (nineteen years ago)
― Sterling Clover (s_clover), Monday, 20 March 2006 02:22 (nineteen years ago)
Now I'm reading "Home Is The Sailor" by Jorge Amado.
― Tim (Tim), Monday, 20 March 2006 10:21 (nineteen years ago)
Tim, I've just started Loving. As it were.
― Archel (Archel), Monday, 20 March 2006 10:25 (nineteen years ago)
― Josh (Josh), Monday, 20 March 2006 17:20 (nineteen years ago)
I finished The Scarlet Cockerel, which was very rough-n-tumble with swordfights and petards and "caneu"ing in the wilds of Florida. Also, every native American stereotype known to man. And the only female character was a cossetted, not-bright, dainty mademoiselle.
― Jaq (Jaq), Monday, 20 March 2006 17:34 (nineteen years ago)
also I am now reading Kenzaburo Oe's "Somersault"
― Haikunym (Haikunym), Monday, 20 March 2006 18:09 (nineteen years ago)
― Zora (Zora), Monday, 20 March 2006 18:18 (nineteen years ago)
I finished Drood (amazing, of course, though unfinished), so next I start Diderot's the Nun. I really wanted to reread Rameau's Nephew but my library doesn't have a copy. (I read Enlightening the World about Diderot's role in the Encyclopedia which made me want to revisit him.)
I really want to be reading John Fante's "Ask the Dust" but I am eighth in line and it is still on order:(
― Mary (Mary), Monday, 20 March 2006 19:40 (nineteen years ago)
― Casuistry (Chris P), Monday, 20 March 2006 20:15 (nineteen years ago)
I always thought the antenna guy was looking for me.
― The Day The World Turned Dayglo Redd (Ken L), Monday, 20 March 2006 20:49 (nineteen years ago)
― The Day The World Turned Dayglo Redd (Ken L), Monday, 20 March 2006 20:50 (nineteen years ago)
Now, onto "The Satyricon" and perhaps "Zen and the Art of Motorcycle Maintenance."
― mj (robert blake), Tuesday, 21 March 2006 06:42 (nineteen years ago)
It sparkles still.
― Mikey G (Mikey G), Tuesday, 21 March 2006 10:06 (nineteen years ago)
― Øystein (Øystein), Tuesday, 21 March 2006 16:18 (nineteen years ago)
― Josh (Josh), Tuesday, 21 March 2006 17:07 (nineteen years ago)
I keep meaning to read "Salammbo" but my copy is too big, and it's a hardback, but you should see the pretty illustrations.
― Tim (Tim), Thursday, 23 March 2006 16:09 (nineteen years ago)
― Jeff LeVine (Jeff LeVine), Thursday, 23 March 2006 17:36 (nineteen years ago)
Now I am reading Thomas Hardy's first novel, Desperate Remedies, which, if the introduction is to be believed, firmly inserts Hardy into the realm of the sensation novelists, a genre that will continue to impact upon him throughout his novelistic career.
― Mary (Mary), Friday, 24 March 2006 20:53 (nineteen years ago)
― tom west (thomp), Saturday, 25 March 2006 10:21 (nineteen years ago)
― Jaq (Jaq), Saturday, 25 March 2006 15:28 (nineteen years ago)
― Jeff LeVine (Jeff LeVine), Sunday, 26 March 2006 02:59 (nineteen years ago)
― Casuistry (Chris P), Sunday, 26 March 2006 03:10 (nineteen years ago)
see what you think, US reviews were mixed. I actually like it better than Atonement but not more than Enduring Love.
― m coleman (lovebug starski), Sunday, 26 March 2006 12:27 (nineteen years ago)
― Navek Rednam (Navek Rednam), Sunday, 26 March 2006 18:52 (nineteen years ago)
Anyway, I'm reading Stuart - A Life Backwards by Alexander Masters. I'm two thirds of the way through and not sure how I feel about it.
― Mikey G (Mikey G), Monday, 27 March 2006 10:52 (nineteen years ago)
― Archel (Archel), Monday, 27 March 2006 11:07 (nineteen years ago)
Mary, I didn't. But if it went to the address on here then I wouldn't have, yet. But I will, soon. If it went to my work address then we need to think, again.
Archel I found "Loving" slower than the other HG books I've read, too, and none the worse for it.
― Tim (Tim), Monday, 27 March 2006 13:19 (nineteen years ago)
Not very good really. Seems to go on for ever.
― PJ Miller (PJ Miller 68), Monday, 27 March 2006 13:35 (nineteen years ago)
"I don't see any sense in owning something you can't kick..."
― Øystein (Øystein), Monday, 27 March 2006 13:37 (nineteen years ago)
― Beth Parker (Beth Parker), Monday, 27 March 2006 14:55 (nineteen years ago)
Also, joie de vivre is sort of the opposite of what you need to enjoy Schulz (and arguably the Muppets as well).
― Casuistry (Chris P), Monday, 27 March 2006 18:40 (nineteen years ago)
― J.D. (Justyn Dillingham), Monday, 27 March 2006 19:04 (nineteen years ago)
― Mary (Mary), Monday, 27 March 2006 21:56 (nineteen years ago)
― Archel (Archel), Tuesday, 28 March 2006 12:02 (nineteen years ago)
― Jaq (Jaq), Tuesday, 28 March 2006 14:23 (nineteen years ago)
― Jeff LeVine (Jeff LeVine), Tuesday, 28 March 2006 15:57 (nineteen years ago)
after this, "swann's way" or milan kundera's "art of the novel."
― Special Agent Gene Krupa (orion), Tuesday, 28 March 2006 16:22 (nineteen years ago)
I just finished Banville's 'The Sea'.
― M. White (Miguelito), Tuesday, 28 March 2006 22:07 (nineteen years ago)
also a little wittgenstein to pick me up (lots of zingers in 'zettel'), a bit about epictetus, some hume and some charles taylor.
and amelie rorty's great essay on descartes, 'the structure of the meditations'.
― Josh (Josh), Wednesday, 29 March 2006 01:17 (nineteen years ago)
― Casuistry (Chris P), Wednesday, 29 March 2006 01:37 (nineteen years ago)
― Josh (Josh), Wednesday, 29 March 2006 03:12 (nineteen years ago)
― Casuistry (Chris P), Wednesday, 29 March 2006 06:50 (nineteen years ago)
I have very nearly finished At Swim Two-Birds, for which I congratulate myself. I shall be neeeding a thorough explanation though.
Hmm, what next? Bollocks to Alton Towers?
― PJ Miller (PJ Miller 68), Wednesday, 29 March 2006 07:25 (nineteen years ago)
Next, it's either the Ukrainian tractor thing or that David Winner book on British football which I've flicked through and it looks bollocks. I hope not, his Dutch one was tip top.
― Mikey G (Mikey G), Wednesday, 29 March 2006 09:08 (nineteen years ago)
I am buried in Frank Kogan, taking it slowly, trying to think about it as I go, liking it very much.
― Tim (Tim), Wednesday, 29 March 2006 09:18 (nineteen years ago)
from the library yesterday: more cold-war thrillerz
Judgement on Deltchev Eric AmblerEpitaph for a Spy Eric Ambler
also borrowed a friend's copy of Deus Lo Volt! by Evan S Connell, non-ficiton on teh Crusades. I returned that big book of Connell essays after reading only a couple, it was v. good but I guess pop anthropology isn't really my thing. But he's still the best "unknown" author I've come across in years.
― m coleman (lovebug starski), Wednesday, 29 March 2006 10:15 (nineteen years ago)
And I'm still at it. Yesterday I bought one of the Wire CD reissues. Incidentally, the CD liner notes are great, "Wire were a big influence on the Dusseldorf art punk scene in the late seventies." Ha.
― Mikey G (Mikey G), Wednesday, 29 March 2006 10:43 (nineteen years ago)
― PJ Miller (PJ Miller 68), Wednesday, 29 March 2006 11:39 (nineteen years ago)
― The Day The World Turned Dayglo Redd (Ken L), Wednesday, 29 March 2006 11:44 (nineteen years ago)
― Mikey G (Mikey G), Wednesday, 29 March 2006 11:55 (nineteen years ago)
no I'd heard of him but your post there encouraged me to read him! thanks big redd!
― m coleman (lovebug starski), Wednesday, 29 March 2006 12:36 (nineteen years ago)
― Øystein (Øystein), Wednesday, 29 March 2006 12:43 (nineteen years ago)
Mati Unt - Things in the NightCurtis Sittenfeld - PrepNeil Gaiman - The Sandman vol.1: Preludes and NocturnesJoan Didion - DemocracyDubravka Ugresic - The Ministry of Painbits of James Surowiecki's The Wisdom of Crowds
I'm now halfway through Chang-rae Lee's Native Speaker on my mom's recommendation. She makes good recommendations.
― zan, Wednesday, 29 March 2006 16:24 (nineteen years ago)
― Casuistry (Chris P), Thursday, 30 March 2006 05:03 (nineteen years ago)
― Navek Rednam (Navek Rednam), Thursday, 30 March 2006 10:27 (nineteen years ago)
It does a pretty good job of building its theses and is interestingly written enough. But like a lot of scholarly history, it tends to take a couple of modest ideas and then treat them as if they were so novel and controversial as to merit the 150 pp. of back matter (!!) appended to the 300 pp. of exposition.
Next, I read The Meaning of It All: Thoughts of a Citizen-Scientist by Richard Feynman. It isn't really fair to father this book onto Feynman. He didn't seek to publish these transcripts of three lectures he gave in 1963. That was someone else's bright idea, as part of the continuing mini-industry of fobbing off whatever Feynman's fans will buy.
I can see why he got so popular. He won a Nobel Prize in Physics and he talks like an ordinary Joe. He's folksy. He talks around all the hard stuff and uses words like "stuff" a lot, and phrases like "a lot" a lot, too. And these lectures are something of an embarrassment, except he never pretended they were profound or worthy of preserving for posterity, so he's off the hook. I blame greed and idolatry.
― Aimless (Aimless), Thursday, 30 March 2006 19:42 (nineteen years ago)
Also, perhaps more urgently, have you heard his voice?
― Casuistry (Chris P), Thursday, 30 March 2006 20:16 (nineteen years ago)
This one, though, was not worthy of publication, IMHO. It rambles all over and has very few interesting things to say - and these few things are fairly perfunctory and disconnected. It would work OK as a lecture - you'd listen to him and walk out of and remember one or tidbits and be satisfied with your evening.
I've never heard a recording of his speaking voice. I'd expect he had good timing and delivery for his jokey bits.
― Aimless (Aimless), Thursday, 30 March 2006 20:24 (nineteen years ago)
I haven't read that book (I saw it recently but didn't look closely, thinking it was a collection of other pieces I had already read).
― Casuistry (Chris P), Thursday, 30 March 2006 20:50 (nineteen years ago)
― Josh (Josh), Friday, 31 March 2006 01:18 (nineteen years ago)
― misshajim (strand), Friday, 31 March 2006 10:35 (nineteen years ago)
― Mikey G (Mikey G), Friday, 31 March 2006 10:57 (nineteen years ago)
― misshajim (strand), Friday, 31 March 2006 15:07 (nineteen years ago)