May 2006: What Da Heck You Reading, Huh?

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So, May falls upon us like a fat man on a lamb chop. Wha'choo reading? Me, I'm toying with opening up The Monkey Wrench Gang and seeing if I turn into an Earth-Firster under its mesmeric spell.

Aimless (Aimless), Monday, 1 May 2006 14:44 (nineteen years ago)

Book on the election of 1800.

Emily Dickinson collection.

'My Family and Other Animals' by G. Durrell

M. White (Miguelito), Monday, 1 May 2006 14:53 (nineteen years ago)

"The Accidental" by Ali Smith. It's good, if slightly too woolfy. I should read more contemporary literatchure.

stewart downes (sdownes), Monday, 1 May 2006 15:03 (nineteen years ago)

I'm still reading Ruth Rendell short stories. she really likes the someone-is-really-worried-that-something-is-going-to-happen-and-then-it-DOES-happen after-all-but-NOT-for-the-reason-that-they-thought-it-would-oh-the-irony! approach to the mystery short story. which is fine.

after that, i might read some Hamlin Garland. How thrilling is that?

scott seward (scott seward), Monday, 1 May 2006 15:07 (nineteen years ago)

'moonraker'. 'dubliners'.

tom west (thomp), Monday, 1 May 2006 15:42 (nineteen years ago)

Tom - I've been recently thinking about reading those James Bond books too. I never did. Are you enjoying them?

Anyhow, I'm currently in the middle of Michel Houellebecq's lengthy (overlong?) La possibilité d'une île. I like this style of book, even though it sometimes seems to be rambling a bit much - as if Houellebecq wasn't exactly sure what the focus of the book should be so he kept writing more pages hoping it would add up to something. Perhaps the rambling will all be tied together into a nice little twist towards the conclusion?

Jeff LeVine (Jeff LeVine), Monday, 1 May 2006 16:12 (nineteen years ago)

The Fat Man in History - which has no mention of lamb chops so far and is a collection of short stories by Peter Carey. They are odd in a George Saunders sorta way, but lacking Saunders' underlying romanticism. Our power was out for several hours last night, and I read some by flashlight, which added some nostalgia however.

Jaq (Jaq), Monday, 1 May 2006 17:35 (nineteen years ago)

Pastoralia by George Saunders. Recent reads include Saturday (McEwan), City of Glass (Auster), The Autograph Man (Zadie Smith), American Gods (Gaiman), Gilead (Marilynn Robinson, some Joan Didion.

frankiemachine, Monday, 1 May 2006 17:43 (nineteen years ago)

J LeV: I am finding Bond marvellous although on occasion unpleasant. I enjoyed Casino Royale enough that I went back the next day and bought more or less a set, anyway.

tom west (thomp), Monday, 1 May 2006 18:06 (nineteen years ago)

Me, I'm toying with opening up The Monkey Wrench Gang and seeing if I turn into an Earth-Firster under its mesmeric spell.

This is on my to-read pile as well. I think I'm going to give When We Were Orphans (Kazuo Ishiguro) a go first though.

o. nate (onate), Monday, 1 May 2006 18:11 (nineteen years ago)

Perhaps he is saving the lamb chops for the slambang grand finale.

Aimless (Aimless), Monday, 1 May 2006 19:15 (nineteen years ago)

Mystics and Messiahs Cults and New Religions in American History by Philip Jenkins. A brisk and readable general history of well, cults and new religions in the US. Jenkins draws an interesting parallel between the 1920s and the 70s, documenting how Americans' fondness for fuzzy newage mysticism and dubious gurus began in the 19th century. Overall it's probably too brief and genralized. While Jenkins big theory -- the right wing uses anti-cult scares for politicized ends -- is provocative, he's also a little too forgiving of the cults' manipulative tactics and psychological coercion of their followers. For my taste, anyway.

Still reading Deus Lo Volt! The Crusades were depraved.

m coleman (lovebug starski), Monday, 1 May 2006 21:09 (nineteen years ago)

I've read three poems by W. S. Merwin.

youn, Monday, 1 May 2006 22:18 (nineteen years ago)

I'm reading ILB and ILE—that's about it. I'm working a lot, sunburned and tickbit, and having a terrible time progressing in my book. Tired.

Beth Parker (Beth Parker), Tuesday, 2 May 2006 00:45 (nineteen years ago)

sometimes seems to be rambling a bit much - as if Houellebecq wasn't exactly sure what the focus of the book should be so he kept writing more pages hoping it would add up to something

that describes all of Houellebecq's books pretty well.

jed_ (jed), Tuesday, 2 May 2006 01:28 (nineteen years ago)

I've been reading a lot of Robert Creeley. Words and Pieces mostly. I've also been masturbating to my own recently completed undergraduate thesis, a collection of poems. TMI?

regular roundups (Dave M), Tuesday, 2 May 2006 02:51 (nineteen years ago)

Ryunosuke Akutagawa - Rashomon and Seventeen Other Stories.

Very good, I think. Great, in fact.

Informative intro is by Murakami, Murakami freaks.

Finally fell into The World Is Flat-induced coma. I suppose I will go back to it eventually.

PJ Miller (PJ Miller 68), Tuesday, 2 May 2006 06:53 (nineteen years ago)

Just read Ron Padgett's "The Straight Line", a book of poetics. It had some nice moments.

Casuistry (Chris P), Tuesday, 2 May 2006 07:01 (nineteen years ago)

I have very nearly finished the last in George P Pelecanos's DC quartet, which is very good but which has reminded me why I don't read much stuff like this. It seems to me that for this genre (um, crime fiction I guess) to work it requires a kind of pain and misery to be exacted on the characters. I end up finding the whole thing very difficult, I suppose because I'm soft. I think I prefer a different kind of pain and misery in my literature. Or maybe I prefer a novel to offer me the chance to deflect my attention onto the words if the ideas are getting a little too much.

I bought - and read a chunk of - Orkneyinga Saga (the story of the Earls of Orkney) on Saturday because I forgot to bring my Pelecanos out with me. It's the only Norse saga which is based primarily in the UK, according to the introduction. It's good, and the similarities to crime fiction are glaring.

Tim (Tim), Tuesday, 2 May 2006 07:22 (nineteen years ago)

I'm reading A Land of Two Halves by Joe Bennett. It's about New Zealand. I find his writing style a little grumpy and not really to my taste, but it is interesting to read about all the non-touristy bits of NZ.

Although how you can spend five minutes looking at the view around Quenstown and then get bored of it is beyond me. Perhaps I am too romantic.

accentmonkey (accentmonkey), Tuesday, 2 May 2006 09:09 (nineteen years ago)

The Ill-Made Knight (third book of The Once and Future King). Refreshingly direct about the whole 'and then Arthur accidentally shagged his half-sister and thus brought on his ultimate doom' thing.

Archel (Archel), Tuesday, 2 May 2006 09:59 (nineteen years ago)

almost halfway through kafka on the shore (murakami). enjoying it.

dja, Tuesday, 2 May 2006 13:01 (nineteen years ago)

A Short History of Tractors in Ukrainian (on the bus) and Antonio Pigafetta's journal from Magellan's circumnavigation of the globe in the 16th century (at home).

Also just bought Calcio: A History of Italian Football. 500 pages of goodness.

Mikey G (Mikey G), Tuesday, 2 May 2006 13:48 (nineteen years ago)

I got Kafka on the Shore for Christmas but keep forgetting I have it.

Archel (Archel), Tuesday, 2 May 2006 14:09 (nineteen years ago)

I read Casino Royale yesterday, my first ever Bond. The abrupt ending was terrific.

Mädchen (Madchen), Tuesday, 2 May 2006 14:37 (nineteen years ago)

you should find it a slot on the to-be-read pile, archel. so far so good from here.

dja, Tuesday, 2 May 2006 14:43 (nineteen years ago)

Oh, also, Gene Wolfe's Shadow of the Torturer. It's been a while since I've read any sci-fi/fantasy, so I'm excited for this.

regular roundups (Dave M), Tuesday, 2 May 2006 15:56 (nineteen years ago)

Today I have something of a day off from my studies so instead of reading Wittgenstein or Plutarch I am reading comic books. Guy Delisle's Pyongyang and Seth's Wimbledon Green. Both were very nice.

Casuistry (Chris P), Tuesday, 2 May 2006 22:13 (nineteen years ago)

Rudyard Kipling - Limits and Renewals

Not too keen on Dayspring Mishandled (apart from the title), but enjoyed The Woman In His Life very much indeed.

You have to use your BRANE though, and mine is very rusty.

PJ Miller (PJ Miller 68), Wednesday, 3 May 2006 06:21 (nineteen years ago)

I too am having to use what has to pass for a BRANE in my head, now I have switched from my Pelecanos binge to "Sweet Tooth" by Yves Navarre. It's an NYC novel, I'm not sure it's going to be a pleasant read. Syphilis, and bathrooms infested with insects. Delightful.

Tim (Tim), Wednesday, 3 May 2006 07:26 (nineteen years ago)

NYC novel I recently enjoyed against all expectations - Extremely Loud and Incredibly Close. I don't know if you have read that already Tim?

I'm reading very slowly again because I keep having to go off and write up this pesky dissertation, tch. Have STILL got Loving in my bag for the train/lunch break but it's kind of not happening.

Archel (Archel), Wednesday, 3 May 2006 09:27 (nineteen years ago)

I haven't! I'll have a look.

Tim (Tim), Wednesday, 3 May 2006 09:39 (nineteen years ago)

And then I reread Watchmen! Such a full comics day. And night. Oops. I meant to sleep at some point, boo.

Casuistry (Chris P), Wednesday, 3 May 2006 10:36 (nineteen years ago)

I read a collection of P to tha K to tha Dick's short stories on the plane. Now I'm not sure, I've got those Graham Greene books at home but I'm not that excited about them.

Jordan (Jordan), Wednesday, 3 May 2006 12:53 (nineteen years ago)

The Ukrainian tractor book is enjoyable. The humour is building steadily (I'm about halfway). Also started Auguste Guinnard's Three Years Slavery among the Patagonians. Less humour there.

Mikey G (Mikey G), Wednesday, 3 May 2006 14:42 (nineteen years ago)

I have lost out to a pile of comic books. Oh, the humiliation!

Aimless (Aimless), Wednesday, 3 May 2006 17:55 (nineteen years ago)

Yes but! Both the Seth book and Watchmen toyed, in moments, on your themes of the nature and effects of being (literally) isolated from humanity. And, obviously, I noticed this.

Casuistry (Chris P), Wednesday, 3 May 2006 23:01 (nineteen years ago)

So, it was something like making love to another author while thinking of me... I find that acceptable. Carry on.

Aimless (Aimless), Thursday, 4 May 2006 00:30 (nineteen years ago)

V by Pynchon

Fred (Fred), Thursday, 4 May 2006 01:35 (nineteen years ago)

I eventually reached the end of Gilead last night. i don't know, maybe I had too high expectations about it, or I wasn't concentrated enough. I found many important moments in it, but still it felt sooo incredibly far and remote.
Now, I don't know now what I'll be starting tonight...will let you know tomorrow

misshajim (strand), Thursday, 4 May 2006 07:37 (nineteen years ago)

The Right Nation. Can't be bothered to look who it's by.

PJ Miller (PJ Miller 68), Thursday, 4 May 2006 13:20 (nineteen years ago)

I am still reading Middlemarch, though I only have two parts to finish now.

I am also reading Uncle Silas, which, like most Gothic/Sensational novels of the time, is turning out to be great fun.

mj (robert blake), Friday, 5 May 2006 04:11 (nineteen years ago)

I have finished reading A Land of Two Halves, and didn't think it was that great. Of course it's good to get a different perspective on a place you've only ever visited as a tourist, but some people are beyond curmudgeonly.

Also finished Peter Earle's The Pirate Wars, which is a real history book about the (eventually successful) attempts to eradicate piracy from the 17th to the 19th centuries. It was a gift, so I felt I had to read it, but if you can suck all the joy and fun out of stories about pirates, well, good luck to you.

Now I'm reading Glyn Williams' The Pride of All the Oceans, which is about the British navy essentially, er, being pirates. Thing is though, the book itself is terrible. For some reason the print is half the size on the page that it should be, with massive blank spaces all around it, and the margins on the spine side are narrower than the ones on the outside, and so the whole reading experience is one of hand cramp (from having to hold the book so far open) and squinting. Cack. CACK!

accentmonkey (accentmonkey), Friday, 5 May 2006 05:58 (nineteen years ago)

I put down "Sweet Tooth" for a bit, it's not the correct book for me to be reading at the moment.

In a rush to leave the flat this morning I grabbed "Brendan Behan's New York", which I've had for years (certainly since the 1980s) and never read. I like Brendan Behan (my living room is currently enlivened by a BB postcard as sent by the Dublinfox himself) but this is not good. Dictated AND phoned in, I think.

Tim (Tim), Friday, 5 May 2006 07:45 (nineteen years ago)

John Steinbeck - The Moon is Down. Like Tim, a last minute grab from the flat. My flat, not his, I should say. Don't want to fuel any rumours.

Mikey G (Mikey G), Friday, 5 May 2006 08:57 (nineteen years ago)

Too late!

Also, can I just stand and briefly applaud "May has fallen upon us like a fat man on a lamb chop"? Not enough love.

accentmonkey (accentmonkey), Friday, 5 May 2006 13:23 (nineteen years ago)

It was the two spondees that impressed you. Don't deny it.

Aimless (Aimless), Friday, 5 May 2006 13:33 (nineteen years ago)

That, and yum yum lamb.

accentmonkey (accentmonkey), Friday, 5 May 2006 14:30 (nineteen years ago)

Philip K. Dick's The Game-Players of Titan. Somehow another one I'd never read before - dude wrote A LOT of books! It's great fun to slip back into another weird world, with most of Earth's population destroyed and the remainder mostly unable to have children, there's constant swapping of mates in an effort to improve the odds. Also pre-cogs and PKD's usual word game SF poetry...

Jeff LeVine (Jeff LeVine), Friday, 5 May 2006 15:34 (nineteen years ago)

Im finishing up Never Let Me Go by Kazuo Ishiguro, next is probably A Scanner Darkly or maybe Watchmen

J. Lamphere (WatchMeJumpStart), Friday, 5 May 2006 18:51 (nineteen years ago)

I'm just about to finish the fourth Inspector Montalbano book, The Voice Of The Violin. The whole series is like candy.

Redd Temple Player (Two Headed Dogg) (Ken L), Friday, 5 May 2006 23:04 (nineteen years ago)

Plutarch, assorted Lives. All this relatively boring crap until 20 pages later you're hit with defeated Gallic women hanging themselves and hanging their children off their [the mothers'] feet and OMG WHY IS NOTHING IN THE INFERNO THAT HORRIFYING?

Casuistry (Chris P), Saturday, 6 May 2006 04:11 (nineteen years ago)

Jaq, I rememeber reading The Fat Man In History about ten years ago, but can't remember much about it other than the title story. It was rather good, if more of a "difficult" read than the stuff I was used to as a teenager.

Currently in my work bag: The Best Of Myles, a collection of Flann O'Brien's newspaper columns, because I want to write a blog post about it.

Forest Pines (ForestPines), Saturday, 6 May 2006 16:07 (nineteen years ago)

I am now reading The Monkey Wrench gang, but I regret to inform ILB that it is largely quite puerile. It does have some nice touches here and there, but the characters are conceived at a comic book level, the dialogue is total crap, the wit is juvenile and the book has few redeeming qualities.

However, I am still reading it because of the pure gusto for destruction that Abbey infuses into the book. Whenever Hayduke sabotages another icon of development, it is clear that Abbey relished every detail and spent considerable time imagining the full scenario. So, while the book doesn't have much to offer, what it does do well is unusual and gripping in a strange way: a wierd hybrid of the superhero Justice League of America and a straight-up military manual.

Aimless (Aimless), Saturday, 6 May 2006 16:50 (nineteen years ago)

What did you think of, oh what is it called, Desert Solitaire?

Casuistry (Chris P), Saturday, 6 May 2006 17:18 (nineteen years ago)

I started Desert Solitaire once, made it about halfway and lost interest. It was a more grown-up book than Monkey Wrench Gang by a large margin, but after a couple of decades of being superceded by newer books in the same vein, it seemed a bit meh to me. In another mood I may have finished it.

Aimless (Aimless), Saturday, 6 May 2006 18:45 (nineteen years ago)

OK. Because I also thought it was completely meh (though I did finish it), but I was reading it as part of the book club at my old enviro job, and everyone thought I was nuts for not love-love-loving it.

Casuistry (Chris P), Saturday, 6 May 2006 19:07 (nineteen years ago)

oh no - it's sitting in my to-be-read pile!

Jeff LeVine (Jeff LeVine), Saturday, 6 May 2006 20:38 (nineteen years ago)

Don't be overly swayed by our opinion, any more than if we were among the many who swoon over it. You could fall into either camp.

Aimless (Aimless), Saturday, 6 May 2006 22:00 (nineteen years ago)

I liked Desert Solitaire a lot!! Though at the same time, it's written in a way that makes you kind of nostalgic for his experience, which it seems doesn't exist anymore, what with massive tourism and development and such. There's something vaguely appealing about that life though, even if in reality I think I would probably hate it.

I just finished Another Country by Baldwin, & liked that a lot, but was also slightly disappointed. I thought Go Tell It On the Mountain and Going to Meet the Man were much better, perhaps because I think his prose is so beautiful and Another Country was almost entirely dialogue...

Now I'm trying to get into Paradise by Toni Morrison--I heard her read an excerpt from it downtown a couple days ago, about love, and it was marvellous. So we'll see...

j c (j c), Sunday, 7 May 2006 13:18 (nineteen years ago)

I just finished the short, Cinema by Tanguy Viel, which I never got too into. It did that annoying thing of no paragraph breaks! Please, I need a pause to catch my breath. Somewhat experimental, it's just the narrator's close descrption of a film. A film that only has two characters. At first I thought it was kind of a clever way to write a book, but when I learned it was a description of a real film, I kind of felt it let the air out of the narrative a bit - made it harder to see the point.

Jeff LeVine (Jeff LeVine), Sunday, 7 May 2006 20:39 (nineteen years ago)

OMG OMG I just saw at the library today that Baen Books has re-released the two Blackcollar books by Timothy Zahn in one hardcover edition. They did the same thing with his 4 or 5 Cobra novels a few years back so I guess they're on a roll, and yeah, okay, the paper is shitty and the production is totally cheap but they've been out of print for, like, DECADES. I haven't read The Backlash Mission since I was probably 13 and I'm enjoying it in a huge Ryqil ass-kicking way.

Laurel (Laurel), Monday, 8 May 2006 00:34 (nineteen years ago)

Cannot praise Akutagawa highly enough.

Mind you, haven't read it all yet.

I particularly like the later stuff.

PJ Miller (PJ Miller 68), Monday, 8 May 2006 06:13 (nineteen years ago)

A Taschen book on Walter Gropius. Some great photos. He couldn't even draw!

Didn't read much this weekend due to a build up of football. Haven't even finished Saturday's Guardian, let alone the Sunday Times.

Mikey G (Mikey G), Monday, 8 May 2006 08:32 (nineteen years ago)

I am reading "Motherless Brooklyn" which is so far not as good as ti says it is on the cover. It has this in common with most books, I suppose.

Tim (Tim), Monday, 8 May 2006 10:10 (nineteen years ago)

I loved Motherless Brooklyn, although it was not what I was expecting from a) the cover or b) the other Lethem books I had read. A good thing.

I'm still on The Once and Future King. Book 4: The Candle in the Wind. Which has the unfortunate effect of making me think about Elton John instead of doomed and ageing lovers.

Archel (Archel), Monday, 8 May 2006 11:10 (nineteen years ago)

The Book of the New Sun quadrilogy. Pretty good so far, if a little self-conscious for my tastes.

Zora (Zora), Monday, 8 May 2006 13:00 (nineteen years ago)

Gerald Larner's biography of Maurice Ravel. Part of Phaidon's 20th-Century Composers series. Your basic, well illustrated biography. So, interesting...

Jeff LeVine (Jeff LeVine), Tuesday, 9 May 2006 02:58 (nineteen years ago)

Bruce Chatwin - On the Black Hill. Lyrical preparation (and inspiration) for a visit to Wales this weekend.

Mikey G (Mikey G), Tuesday, 9 May 2006 07:06 (nineteen years ago)

Everyman - Philip Roth. Very, very good, and very affecting - particularly so soon after reading The Year of Magical Thinking

Ray (Ray), Tuesday, 9 May 2006 07:55 (nineteen years ago)

edward timms' book on karl kraus (the first volume) which is GRATE! also some h-g gadamer, a book on hume's style, and class preparation reading.

Josh (Josh), Tuesday, 9 May 2006 15:26 (nineteen years ago)

Finally reading The Left Hand of Darkness by LeGuin. When I'm done -- probably tonight, as I'm all caught up on TV shows -- I go after Kafka on the Shore and The Stars My Destination and a quick re-read of Cronopios y Famas.

Haikunym (Haikunym), Tuesday, 9 May 2006 17:01 (nineteen years ago)

of grammatology.

tom west (thomp), Tuesday, 9 May 2006 22:50 (nineteen years ago)

I'm continuing Chatwin's On the Black Hill. I noticed someone is reading Chatwin's biography. If you get to the pages about the background to this novel, please add anything you feel is relevant. I am, frankly, too lazy to dig it out.

Also Auguste Guinnard's Three Years Slavery among the Patagonians. Published by Non-Such who have now issued four travellers tales on Patagonia, mostly 19th century and long before Chatwin rewrote its history for his own amusement.

Mikey G (Mikey G), Wednesday, 10 May 2006 07:39 (nineteen years ago)

I finished Thud! and stalled in the midst of the final story in The Fat Man in History (which I bought for the title and because I enjoyed Not Wrong About Japan). A lot of my normal reading time has been diverted into games, and I'm struggling to decide what to read next. >:-{ We are heading out on a 4-day road trip tonight though, and I'll pack Kafka on the Shore and At Swim-Two-Birds maybe and some others and hope that something strikes my fancy.

Someone (Chris?) had mentioned a bookstore in Las Vegas - any clues to the name? We'll have a little time there this trip.

Jaq (Jaq), Wednesday, 10 May 2006 13:52 (nineteen years ago)

I'm reading Tacitus, Annals, or rather I've put it down to check ILX, because god I am really starting to detest these Romans, all their pointless bluster and politicking.

Also I started Nick Montfort's Twisty Little Passages, which I can't believe I have waited this long to get a hold of. My excuse: I didn't realize it was out in paperback.

Otherwise, still reading Wittgenstein, PI and RFM.

I did mention that bookstore and a quick Citysearch and Booksense gander offer no evidence of anything like what I remember. So it might be gone! It was somewhere in the University district, I think. I was never the one driving and LV is a huge self-similar grid so I never had a sense of what road or even what part of town we were in.

Casuistry (Chris P), Wednesday, 10 May 2006 15:20 (nineteen years ago)

A Mind of Its Own: A Cultural History of the Penis by David Friedman

remy (x Jeremy), Wednesday, 10 May 2006 16:29 (nineteen years ago)

Holy crow... follow my link above, and read the third review from the top, by R0b3rt Gu1t4rr3z. Dude should write his own book on the penis. Full of errs by "white men".

remy (x Jeremy), Wednesday, 10 May 2006 16:33 (nineteen years ago)

Thanks for checking C. We'll be in Flagstaff for a small part of a day, so can hit up Bookmans if needed. Though if we get a chance to wander around UNLV, we'll see if we can spot it.

Jaq (Jaq), Wednesday, 10 May 2006 16:34 (nineteen years ago)

Hahahaha! And this option isn't coming from a "white" how is afraid but from a educated "male".

Whoa! I take issue with that "educated" there.

Jaq (Jaq), Wednesday, 10 May 2006 16:50 (nineteen years ago)

http://stephenfry.starbuzz.com/images/StephenQuotesAnim+.gif

(I'm reading Jack Vance's "The Palace of Love", book three of his "The Demon Princes" series. Yes, the name's atrocious, but it's quite entertaining)

Øystein (Øystein), Wednesday, 10 May 2006 17:07 (nineteen years ago)

STEELY DAN: Reelin in the Years by Brian Sweet
The Saskiad by Brian Hall (still)
The City of the Singing Flame by Clark Ashton Smith (short stories)

just finished Rocketo by Frank Espinosa and Blood & Grits by Harry Crews.

electro-acoustic lycanthrope (orion), Wednesday, 10 May 2006 17:28 (nineteen years ago)

Just finished with How I Paid for College: A Novel of Sex, Theft, Friendship and Musical Theater by Mark Acito. Actually, this one I listened to on audio tape and it's very funny. Next on my To Be Read pile is The Best American Political Writing of 2005 (at least I think that's the title).

Sara Robinson-Coolidge (Sara R-C), Thursday, 11 May 2006 00:30 (nineteen years ago)

I ended up enjoying "Motherless Brooklyn" very much indeed, though there remains something in the back of my mind which is uncomfortable with it, I wonder what that is?

I read the endearingly short "Here Is New York" by EB White, which is really an article about NYC, written in 1948 or thereabouts, but bound into an attractive slim volume, and no less beautifully written.

I then had another go at "Sweet Tooth" which I like on a paragraph-by-paragraph basis but can't really warm to.

I need more NYC books, or DC books, or Reykjavik books. I borrowed "Independent People" by Halldor Laxness off Ricky T ages ago, which seems to me probably a slightly better reflection of Icelandic life than the sagas I've been dipping into, but it's fat and large and I want to save it for my return from the States. Problems, problems.

Tim (Tim), Thursday, 11 May 2006 13:31 (nineteen years ago)

How specifically New York must it be? Would The Intuitionist by Colin Whitehead count? It's sort of in a Gotham-esque unspecified-but-obviously-New-York place.

Laurel (Laurel), Thursday, 11 May 2006 13:36 (nineteen years ago)

How specifically New York must it be? Would The Intuitionist by Colin Whitehead count? It's set in a sort of Gotham-esque unspecified-but-obviously-New-York place.

Laurel (Laurel), Thursday, 11 May 2006 13:38 (nineteen years ago)

Colin? Colson? Whatever.

Laurel (Laurel), Thursday, 11 May 2006 14:43 (nineteen years ago)

Shalimar the Clown. I love Kashmir in this story, and I think his style is ebullient and playful. However, the opening narrative takes place in Los Angeles. I hate LA (irrationally, like a good Midweterner), and I think his prose reflects the vapid warriness of the mythical LA that I have probably projected onto the text. But, whatever, Shalimar rocks, and I am gobbling it up.

Fluffy Bear (Fluffy Bear Hearts Rainbows), Thursday, 11 May 2006 16:31 (nineteen years ago)

Intimacy by Hanif Kureshi

Navek Rednam (Navek Rednam), Thursday, 11 May 2006 18:43 (nineteen years ago)

The new issue of n+1. And oodles of Latvian fiction.

zan, Thursday, 11 May 2006 19:56 (nineteen years ago)

philosophy of math final exam binge!

Josh (Josh), Thursday, 11 May 2006 20:45 (nineteen years ago)

I started Shalimar too.

PJ Miller (PJ Miller 68), Friday, 12 May 2006 10:39 (nineteen years ago)

Finished Kogan's "Real Punks Don't wear Black" and the collected issues of Mark Perry's Punk Zine "Sniffin' Glue". Nearly finishing Tony Cliff's (Brit Trot) autobiog and halfway through Gramsci's "Prison Notebooks" (Economism = heavy). Checked out Paul Foot's "The vote: How it was won and how it was undermined" from the library, read the intro. Feeling like moving on to John Savage's "England's Dreaming" (80 pages a few months ago).

Julio Desouza (jdesouza), Friday, 12 May 2006 10:57 (nineteen years ago)

Solved my short-term problem by re-reading Kogan's "Real Punks Don't Wear Black", hurrah, entirely non-coincidentally with julio's finishing same.

Laurel I'm not working to hard or fast rules - well, some of them are fast but that need not be your concern - but I note that your Mr. Whitehead has a novel out called "The Colossus of New York" which sounds like it might fit the (not very specific) bill perfectly, especially since the online reviews I've seen are mixed, at best. Sounds tailor-made for me. thanks!

Tim (Tim), Friday, 12 May 2006 12:57 (nineteen years ago)

So Twisty Little Passages was somewhat odd, being more or less all about enshrining something (interactive fiction) in an academic context, mostly rehashing familiar history (but in an accurate, clear, and well cited way that perhaps hasn't been done so thoroughly before), and adding some new interpretive approaches that mostly serve to "justify" IF as literature (which isn't really the sort of thing I feel needs justification, ever, but if it gets you thinking about interesting parallels, I suppose it's all right).

Casuistry (Chris P), Friday, 12 May 2006 14:37 (nineteen years ago)

I am now also reading Routlegde's Criticial Thinkers: Zizek.

Nathalie (stevie nixed), Saturday, 13 May 2006 14:18 (nineteen years ago)

Criticial
And another ILX Meme of Misspelling is born.

Sons Of The Redd Desert (Ken L), Saturday, 13 May 2006 16:30 (nineteen years ago)

I just started James Ellroy's White Jazz.

That whole incest thing just gets dumped on you in a hurry.

milo z (mlp), Saturday, 13 May 2006 16:42 (nineteen years ago)

Just finished Régis Jauffret's Asiles de Fous. A very weird / odd book. Four major characters tell the story (essentially of the end of a lengthy affair), but they all often seem to be lying.

Jeff LeVine (Jeff LeVine), Saturday, 13 May 2006 20:24 (nineteen years ago)

I am currently reading Roddy Doyle's Oh, Play That Thing. I don't like it, and I can't decide if I don't like it because I can't remember what happened in A Star Called Henry (which I did like), or because Roddy Doyle's gotten hopelessly out of his depth, or because I'm so used to reading very straightforward narratives these days that I can't read anything that isn't written in a totally linear fashion.

accentmonkey (accentmonkey), Sunday, 14 May 2006 08:38 (nineteen years ago)

Little Women
Anyone read Alcott's other similar books? Little Men, Eight Cousins etc? I can't help but think I should steer clear of them.

Øystein (Øystein), Sunday, 14 May 2006 09:21 (nineteen years ago)

Tell Me No Lies edited by John Grisham.

It's not John Grisham, but I can't remember his name.

Pilger, John Pilger, that's it.

Bit heavy before bedtime.

PJ Miller (PJ Miller 68), Sunday, 14 May 2006 14:57 (nineteen years ago)

Black Swan Green by David Mitchell, which is my favorite book by him thus far.

remy (x Jeremy), Sunday, 14 May 2006 18:06 (nineteen years ago)

remy: interesting. Why is it your favorite? As much as I enjoyed it, it will probably take position #4, as it's left the least impression of them all. But I always need time to digest these things.

I'm reading Shirley Jackson's The Haunting of Hill House. During one particularly creepy bit, I nearly jumped out of my skin when a truck ran over a manhole outside our apartment. I made my husband shut the closet door before I could even think about falling asleep. Now that's a damned good book.

zan, Monday, 15 May 2006 01:34 (nineteen years ago)

Fresh Air Fiend, Paul Theroux. A compilation of essays.

Aimless (Aimless), Monday, 15 May 2006 04:27 (nineteen years ago)

The Emperor of Ocean Park. Quite absorbing but the narrator is so mealy-mouthed.

Archel (Archel), Monday, 15 May 2006 08:22 (nineteen years ago)

The Independent.

Tomorrow it is by BONO out of U2!

PJ Miller (PJ Miller 68), Monday, 15 May 2006 10:04 (nineteen years ago)

Aimless, are you prepping for another long hike? We drove near the Wallowa range this weekend.

Jaq (Jaq), Monday, 15 May 2006 12:10 (nineteen years ago)

While I wait for the various ILB recommendations to arrive I am reading "The Furies" by Fernanda Eberstadt. I enjoyed her "When The Sons of Heaven Meet The Daughters of Earth" (or was it vice versa?) and I'm quite enjoying this, too, though thus far it seems rather similar to WTSOHMTDOE.

Tim (Tim), Monday, 15 May 2006 12:40 (nineteen years ago)

WTSOHMTDOE, hey! gotta no respect.

PJ Miller (PJ Miller 68), Monday, 15 May 2006 14:17 (nineteen years ago)

Still reading Chatwin's On the Black Hill, but I took a detour up to see the black hill itself yesterday. It was quite dramatic under cloudy skies. Sheep everywhere and each time I revved the engine, they scurried away. The road was virtually single track for the whole journey until I hit the ridge and then the view just dropped away with Wales to my left and England to my right.

Mikey G (Mikey G), Monday, 15 May 2006 14:38 (nineteen years ago)

Re Alcott: I can't say whether she has a future with you because you don't say what you dislike about Little Women. I guess there's a lot to choose from. I'm partial to An Old-Fashioned Girl but then I would be, so choose yr own adventure wisely.

Laurel (Laurel), Monday, 15 May 2006 14:58 (nineteen years ago)

King Solomon's Mines by H. Rider Haggard

Navek Rednam (Navek Rednam), Monday, 15 May 2006 15:24 (nineteen years ago)

I definitely have a weakness for Little Men, because I'm fascinated by fictional schools and experimental education, and imaginary worlds that are pretty much contained within one building or institution.

There used to be a Victorian convent opposite my gran's house that I coveted for my own progressive school/personal domain, and I don't think I have ever grown out of the dream.

Archel (Archel), Monday, 15 May 2006 15:28 (nineteen years ago)

I've just Last Tango in Aberystwyth, which was fun enough, I suppose, a bit flimsy though.

Matt (Matt), Monday, 15 May 2006 15:50 (nineteen years ago)

And my department does secondary marking for Aber students, my boss gets quite sniffy about their standards.

Matt (Matt), Monday, 15 May 2006 15:51 (nineteen years ago)

Aimless, are you prepping for another long hike?

Yes, but not until late July. I am hoping to do a 130 mile section of the Pacific Crest Trail in WA. From below Indian Heaven up through the Wm. O. Douglas Wilderness, east of Mt. Rainier.

Aimless (Aimless), Tuesday, 16 May 2006 00:06 (nineteen years ago)

Re Alcott: I can't say whether she has a future with you because you don't say what you dislike about Little Women.
Err, I like Little Women a great deal. I just somehow assumed the rest were going to be a lot less worthwhile (possibly simply because they're not as well-known)

Øystein (Øystein), Tuesday, 16 May 2006 01:06 (nineteen years ago)

A book on Bauhaus written by Ulf Meyer with lovely photographs by Hans Engels. That's the Dessau Bauhaus as opposed to the Northampton one.

Mikey G (Mikey G), Tuesday, 16 May 2006 07:34 (nineteen years ago)

I definitely have a weakness for Little Men...
--Archel (slightlyfoxed@hotmail.co.uk), May 15th

I had to note this if only because Markelby hadn't, yet.

I am reading Chris Ricks' 'Oxford Book of English Verse' in chronological order, from 'Summer is icumen in' onwards. Lots of good "a-Maying we will go" poems, which feels apt. I'm up to Ben Jonson right now.

Jerry the Nipper (Jerrynipper), Tuesday, 16 May 2006 08:42 (nineteen years ago)

Ha!

Archel (Archel), Tuesday, 16 May 2006 08:54 (nineteen years ago)

New Orleans, Mon Amour by Andrei Codrescu, in addition to Love & Rockets and Gotham Central trades.

Jordan (Jordan), Tuesday, 16 May 2006 13:58 (nineteen years ago)

Julian Cope book - Repossessed, the one about Tamworth.

PJ Miller (PJ Miller 68), Wednesday, 17 May 2006 07:33 (nineteen years ago)

V for Vendetta. And my fucking dissertation.

Archel (Archel), Wednesday, 17 May 2006 08:37 (nineteen years ago)

I believe Zukofsky's Catullus is waiting for me through interlibrary loan, so I'm off to read that!

¯\(º_o)/¯ (Chris Piuma), Wednesday, 17 May 2006 21:32 (nineteen years ago)

The Lady and the Unicorn by Tracy Chevalier.

An historical novel, oh yay mine children.

Mikey G (Mikey G), Thursday, 18 May 2006 07:50 (nineteen years ago)

Just finished Cherokee by Jean Echenoz. Another one of those odd books that doesn't take itself seriously. The book treated as a game, or a dream, where basically anything can happen and nothing that happens really matters. It also reminded me slightly of the great The Man Who Was Thursday.

Just starting volume one (of two) of the complete novels and stories of Sherlock Holmes. Since I've never read a single one - I figure it's more than about time. A fat book to read on some travels...

Jeff LeVine (Jeff LeVine), Friday, 19 May 2006 00:06 (nineteen years ago)

Carson McCullers, blown away.

Gravel Puzzleworth (Gregory Henry), Sunday, 21 May 2006 04:59 (nineteen years ago)

f. scott fitzgerald, tender is the night
s. maugham, the moon & sixpence
j. barth, chimera
g. stein, tender buttons
n. baker, vox

cozen (Cozen), Sunday, 21 May 2006 12:42 (nineteen years ago)

http://images-eu.amazon.com/images/P/0415158761.01._BO01,224,223,220_PIsitb-dp-arrow,TopRight,22,-21_SH30_SCMZZZZZZZ_.jpg

An introduction to visual culture

(besides that intro to zizek, dave navarro bio, some trashy thriller and a history of knowledge as well as a book on babies)

Nathalie (stevie nixed), Sunday, 21 May 2006 14:00 (nineteen years ago)

I have just returned from Paris with Mister Monkey and his ma. I have not read a page of a book in SEVEN whole days! I did bring a book with me, but I left it on the plane by accident (it was the Granta film one as well, and I was enjoying reading stuff by ye olde curmudgeon John Fowles) on the way over.

I feel itchy, and my eyes are restless.

accentmonkey (accentmonkey), Sunday, 21 May 2006 20:10 (nineteen years ago)

I'm taking two heavy history courses('WWII' and 'British Empire & Commonwealth') as well as a heavy PoliSci course (Globalization and the Canadian State), so most of my reading time is spent on coursework.

To maintain a balance, however, I've committed to only reading novels for pleasure on the bus/skytrain to school and back. It's good, because I am guaranteed to have at least 90 minutes per day through the week to read for pleasure. Right now I am reading Isaac Asimov's Foundation series, and am part way through 'Foundation and Empire'.

derrick (derrick), Sunday, 21 May 2006 23:51 (nineteen years ago)

I am reading Shantaram and I quite like it, This Thing of Darkness will follow, I think, but it will take me ages anyway to get there, considering how slow I am lately.

misshajim (strand), Monday, 22 May 2006 06:28 (nineteen years ago)

It rained all weekend so I finished Antonio Pigafetta's account of Magellan's voyage and also Tracy Chevalier's The Lady and the Unicorn. The latter was wishy washy.

Started Lucas Bridges Uttermost Part of the Earth, found via Abebooks. A nice 1951 first edition from the Readers Club with inky plates and thin pages. Also The Thinking Fan's Guide to the World Cup. Sounds terrible, but reads OK. Henning Mankell writes about Angola!

Mikey G (Mikey G), Monday, 22 May 2006 09:34 (nineteen years ago)

K-PAX! The TRILOGY!

PJ Miller (PJ Miller 68), Monday, 22 May 2006 10:04 (nineteen years ago)

I can't think of many people who construct a sentence better than Tim Gautreaux. Am gobbling up the Clearing at the moment and will re-read Welding with Children next, to keep me going until his other book of short stories arrives in the post some time next week, I hope.

Mädchen (Madchen), Monday, 22 May 2006 14:54 (nineteen years ago)

Tahir Shah - The Caliph's House

M. White (Miguelito), Monday, 22 May 2006 15:00 (nineteen years ago)

I finished Aimless's book. Spoiler: He makes it home alive.

Casuistry (Chris P), Tuesday, 23 May 2006 00:26 (nineteen years ago)

cozen, tender is the night is such a great book, eh? i much prefer it to gatsby for its unrelenting harshness. poor dick i kinda feel sorry for him. he's like so many of us, attracted to vulnerability.

reading pj o rourke ('give war a chance') now on someone's rec. he's loathsome really. he's quiet these days tho' isnt he?

popli kid, Tuesday, 23 May 2006 01:32 (nineteen years ago)

I've been working really hard. That sort of sucks, not least because I find my eyes so sore after a day's staring at this here pooter screen that I can barely focus on my book on the bus home.

Nevertheless, I've made ti to the end of "The Furies" which I found pretty harrowing, actually. It's a bit curate's eggy but it packs a surprising emt=otional punch from time to time.

Early in the book I thought it was high-end chick lit, and I suppose that's right in a way, but it's different to that also.

I was also going to say something about how it's brutal and forensic in its portrayal of a breaking relationship, but it's probably closer to the truth to say it's brutal and detailed.

A real New York book though, so it was good homework. It was an especially good NYC book during the bits where they were in London.

Tim (Tim), Tuesday, 23 May 2006 07:53 (nineteen years ago)

Going to Work
Richard Brautigan - The Hawkline Monster. Tatty old Picador edition. Read the book many times, but not this copy.

Going Home
The Thinking Fan's Guide to the World Cup. Preface and intro were OK, but first two stories (Angola and Argentina) were nothing special.

A look at the future of independent bookshops from Monday's Guardian:
http://books.guardian.co.uk/shoptalk/story/0,,1780436,00.html

Mikey G (Mikey G), Tuesday, 23 May 2006 08:34 (nineteen years ago)

The article would have been far more interesting if she'd managed to track down the "witch", but that's just my perverse view.

I reread The Bell Jar last week for book club and was the only person to have anything negative to say about it. I loved it first time round but this time despite the beautiful writing I ran out of patience with Esther.

sandy mc (sandy mc), Tuesday, 23 May 2006 10:28 (nineteen years ago)

The World Is Flat, Part the Second.

PJ Miller (PJ Miller 68), Wednesday, 24 May 2006 06:45 (nineteen years ago)

1973 Nervous Breakdown: Watergate, Warhol And The Birth Of Post-Sixties America by Andreas Killen. Off to a swinging start.

m coleman (lovebug starski), Wednesday, 24 May 2006 08:51 (nineteen years ago)

I finished Conquest Of New Spain (really got quite exciting at the end, lots of gory human sacrifices etc). Now reading Ballad Of The Whiskey Robber by Julian Rubenstein - lots of fun.

M0g, Wednesday, 24 May 2006 12:10 (nineteen years ago)

James Tiptree, Jr., Warm Worlds and Otherwise
Vernor Vinge, True Names (special edition with all the essays)
Herman Melville, Moby-Dick

Haikunym (Haikunym), Wednesday, 24 May 2006 12:27 (nineteen years ago)

Just read Euripedes, Electra. About a third of the way through Purgatorio. Still working on Philosophical Investigations and Remarks on the Foundations of Mathematics. Also investigating Louis and Celia Zukofsky's Catullus and David Melnick's Men in Aida.

Casuistry (Chris P), Wednesday, 24 May 2006 15:15 (nineteen years ago)

Nearly finished with Jonathon Franzen's book of essays, How to Be Alone. I'm heading out on a 10 day car trip next week and trying to figure out what books to take along. Too many candidates.

I finished Aimless's book.

Does Jaq charge overdue fines?

Aimless (Aimless), Wednesday, 24 May 2006 16:19 (nineteen years ago)

I should be seeing her this weekend, so I think I finished it just in time.

Did you really need to learn how to be alone?

So far Jaq has been very good at giving me a book to read every time we've met, and one that was well worth reading. I have been very bad at returning the favor. This is because I am, essentially, a terrible human being. Ah well!

Casuistry (Chris P), Wednesday, 24 May 2006 18:18 (nineteen years ago)

The title of the book may have been thrust on him by his publisher. They now consider it their perogative to re-title books, or so I hear. It comes from what I consider to be a throwaway line in one of the essays, none of which address the subject of being alone.

But to go back and answer your question: no. ;)

Aimless (Aimless), Wednesday, 24 May 2006 18:29 (nineteen years ago)

i read "how to be alone". just the other day. i don't feel i learnt how. maybe i was not reading it right.

tom west (thomp), Wednesday, 24 May 2006 18:47 (nineteen years ago)

I have been exchanging books for good Portland restaurants :)

Jaq (Jaq), Wednesday, 24 May 2006 19:05 (nineteen years ago)

bio of Robert Mitchum, Sarver
Sweet Soul Music, Guaralnick
The Country of the Pointed Firs, Jewett

unclewilly, Wednesday, 24 May 2006 20:19 (nineteen years ago)

I quite liked How to be Alone, but yeah the title doesn't describe the collection that well. Except that most of the essays do touch on things like urban alienation and how to locate yourself as an individual in the modern world.

I've just started Kafka on the Shore, and wondering why I thought I'd gone off Murakami.

Archel (Archel), Thursday, 25 May 2006 09:18 (nineteen years ago)

I'm supposedly re-reading More Than Human, but I don't have time to actually do more than get a couple of pages into it until I finish this paper I have to write. It's pretty much a one-sitting book though.

Dan I. (Dan I.), Thursday, 25 May 2006 09:22 (nineteen years ago)

Also still reading The Emperor of OCean Park. Has anyone else read this? And can anyone tell me whether the phrase 'a member of the darker nation/paler nation' to denote 'a black/white person' is a common usage or a specific narratorial tic? I cringe every time I read it because to me it sounds twee and grating, but should I just get used to it?

Archel (Archel), Thursday, 25 May 2006 09:47 (nineteen years ago)

did you read with your partner, tom? most people get that wrong. they think they're supposed to read it alone. but no! then it backfires and you learn NOTHING.

Josh (Josh), Thursday, 25 May 2006 13:41 (nineteen years ago)

The Death and Life of Great American Cities--Jane Jacobs (interesting and thought-provoking but dry in places)
California: A History by Kevin Starr (a bit dull; not recommended)
The Twenty-One Balloons by William Pene du Bois ("work" reading, awesome)
Chasing the Bird: The Life and Legacy of Charlie Parker by Brian Priestley (meh)

(Hopkins T: If you are reading, when do you roll into DC?)

Mary (Mary), Thursday, 25 May 2006 15:24 (nineteen years ago)

well if i had a partner i would have read with it, oh well. foiled.

tom west (thomp), Thursday, 25 May 2006 16:19 (nineteen years ago)

I just finished When We Were Orphans by Kazuo Ishiguro, which I thought was pretty good. It has the running joke of a narrator who is a famous detective yet who often seems to understand less of what's happening around him than the reader does - rather a nice riff on the unreliable narrator meme. It's also great on capturing the quasi-magical feeling of childhood and childhood memories in particular, it captures nicely the fading days of British colonialism in Shanghai, and it has a cracking good detective yarn built into it as well.

What to read next...

o. nate (onate), Thursday, 25 May 2006 16:48 (nineteen years ago)

I am continuing with my homework, and should be able to read a bit more now my horrific menths-long work jag apears to be subsiding a little (also the huge list of people I owe e-mails should start to suffer the unpleasantness of my prose style clogging their inboxes soon, hurrah). Anyway this is homework kinda sorta set by Laurel (HBLGbtw)and it's "The Colossus of New York" by Colson Whitehead and I like it very much. It does for (to) NYC what the wonderful St Etienne film "Finisterre" did for London, in an oddly similar way, concentrating on texture and glimpses rather than documentary or direct commentary. And it's only short, which has to be a good thing.

Next up will be homework as set by Archel, i.e. "Extremely Loud and Incredibly Close".

Mary: looks like I'll be arriving on Tuesday 20th, but I haven't had the time or the energy to "firm up" any "Plans", yet. I am, however, extremely excited by the whole shebang. I'm going ot get a guidebook out of the library, soon.

Tim (Tim), Friday, 26 May 2006 08:55 (nineteen years ago)

Marcus Aurelius, Meditations.

Casuistry (Chris P), Friday, 26 May 2006 09:19 (nineteen years ago)

The Phenomenon of Man, Pierre Tielhard de Chardin.

His primary thesis is exceptionally interesting and not scientifically unsound, namely that conciousness is an inherent quality of all matter/energy and therefore implicit in the universe from the beginning. This idea was a sensation in the mid-1950s when it was published, but it seems to have devolved into the so-called 'Gaia hypothesis' since then, which is far less subtle and not as fundamental as Tielhard's ideas were.

Aimless (Aimless), Friday, 26 May 2006 15:23 (nineteen years ago)

"not scientifically unsound"

o. nate (onate), Friday, 26 May 2006 16:21 (nineteen years ago)

Busted. What I was thinking was along these lines: "It might not be a well-formed theory in the sense that it is falsifiable, but it is premised on well-formed logic and it does not conflict with any known property of matter/energy, therefore it is an idea that can be accepted without conflicting with science."

Aimless (Aimless), Friday, 26 May 2006 16:53 (nineteen years ago)

Well, it does seem to fly in the face of the common-sense view that consciousness has something to do with, you know, grey matter. I mean, there must be some reason that consciousness resides particularly in our brains and nervous tissue. What is the purpose of an enormously complicated organ like the brain if every piece of matter has consciousness? A stick of butter doesn't have a nervous system, but Chardin wants us to believe it has consciousness? I don't buy it.

o. nate (onate), Friday, 26 May 2006 17:15 (nineteen years ago)

Rather than rely on my poor ability to paraphrase, it would be better to go straight to the source and see what he says on the subject. He was both a Jesuit priest and a highly respected, world-renowned paleontologist. He was very careful about what he published, what he said and how he said it, as he had both his scientific peers to satisfy and needed to pass muster with his Jesuit superiors. (As it turned out, it was the Jesuits who stymied publication of this until after his death.)

Aimless (Aimless), Friday, 26 May 2006 17:33 (nineteen years ago)

highly respected, world-renowned paleontologist

Uh huh. Piltdown Man

Jaq (Jaq), Friday, 26 May 2006 18:10 (nineteen years ago)

This is just sad. I shall now mope away quietly.

Aimless (Aimless), Friday, 26 May 2006 20:51 (nineteen years ago)

Finished:

Antonio Gramsci "Prison Notebooks"
Paul Foot "The vote: How it was Won and How it was Undermined"

Finishing:

Tony Cliff "A World to win: Life of a Revolutionary"

Started:

Gabriel Kolko "Century of War"

Taking up again:

Emmanuel Todd "After the Empire: The Breakdown of the American Order"

xyzzzz__ (jdesouza), Tuesday, 30 May 2006 09:37 (nineteen years ago)

still reading that zizek book and intro to visual culture. also started a. kiedis' bio "scar tissue". hah.

Nathalie (stevie nixed), Tuesday, 30 May 2006 09:51 (nineteen years ago)

I have recently finished Glyn Williams' The Prize of all the Oceans, more seafaring fun featuring scurvy, shipwreck and galleons. I've entirely abandoned the Roddy Doyle book because I can't actually follow what's happening. So now I'm reading George Orwell's collected pieces for The Observer, and John Wyndham's book of short stories, The Seeds of Time. It is wonderful, polite, post-war English fiction, but with time-travellers and so on thrown in. His style is witty, light and straightforward and I'm so glad I picked up this book.

accentmonkey (accentmonkey), Tuesday, 30 May 2006 09:56 (nineteen years ago)

Ghost of Spain by Giles Tremlett. A big book from the UK Guardian's Madrid correspondent about how modern Spain reconciles its recent history and how it reacts [politically] to exhumations of political prisoners from the civil war. It also looks at Spain's economic boom and considers the [mainly] Francoist notion of 'the end justifying the means'.

Good stuff.

Mikey G (Mikey G), Tuesday, 30 May 2006 10:12 (nineteen years ago)

I say mnainly Francoist because it also looks at corruption under the Gonzalez socialist government and, in particular, GAL's activities in "counter" terrorism.

Mikey G (Mikey G), Tuesday, 30 May 2006 10:14 (nineteen years ago)

Life A User's Manual
Liking it so far, even though I haven't really had the time to take a good run at it

Ray (Ray), Tuesday, 30 May 2006 10:17 (nineteen years ago)

Rise Of The Vulcans: The History of Bush's War Cabinet by James Mann. If you only read one book about current US politrix, make it this one. Haunting thread running throughout: the wide gap between people in positions of power who have actually fought in wars (Powell, Richard Armitage) and PIPOP who haven't ever fought in wars or served in the military (Cheney, Rumsfeld). You can guess which side is all gung-ho about invading Iraq.

m coleman (lovebug starski), Tuesday, 30 May 2006 10:18 (nineteen years ago)

Finished The Sea by John Banville - I liked it. But heavy! Sort of a book out of time, reads a bit like it was written, say, 40 years ago, not just last year. Perhaps it relies slightly too much on somewhat obvious clichés during its most "profound" moments. Still - ambitious for its small scale and moving.

Just started The Search by Geoff Dyer. His sort of detective novel from 1993, which opens with quotes from Kierkegard and Fernando Pessoa. Will be a quick read...

Jeff LeVine (Jeff LeVine), Tuesday, 30 May 2006 15:34 (nineteen years ago)

This is just sad. I shall now mope away quietly.

I apologize for jumping on you like that, just because you happened to enjoy the book. I can understand how the ideas could be interesting to read and think about, whether or not one is completely convinced of their truthfulness. I often like to read about theories that wouldn't necessarily pass rigorous scientific muster, and thinking "outside the box" in that way can be liberating.

o. nate (onate), Tuesday, 30 May 2006 15:53 (nineteen years ago)

The Lost Rivers of London. Bunch of good-looking actors are dumped in the Walbrook and Fleet. Interspersed with constant adverts.

Actually it's excellent.

Mikey G (Mikey G), Wednesday, 31 May 2006 14:24 (nineteen years ago)

This is just sad. I shall now mope away quietly.

My apologies, Aimless. As a reader of Wilhelm Reich and his orgone theories, I should not cast stones at Fr. Chardin.

Hope you're enjoying your Long Trip as much as we are enjoying ours!

Jaq on the road, Wednesday, 31 May 2006 14:53 (nineteen years ago)

I'm back to reading Joanna Scott's Tourmaline, and starting to get drawn into it - I'm already past page 100, which is pretty fast for me.

o. nate (onate), Wednesday, 31 May 2006 19:22 (nineteen years ago)

I finished "Extremely Loud and Incredibly Close" and I enjoyed it. I ended up thinking that it was as much a novel about narrative pacing than anything else. Thanks for that homework, Archel.

I am now on to "Solos" by Kitty Burns Florey. I have a sense that it's going to be indie (like it (indie) will be to Brautigan (not indie) like The Pastels (indie) are to the Velvet Underground (not indie)).

I will also be reading The Rough Guide to New York, The Lonely Planet City Guide to Washington, DC and The Lonely Planet Guide to New Yourk, New Jersey and Pensylvania. Not indie.

Tim (Tim), Thursday, 1 June 2006 07:47 (nineteen years ago)

I am a bit fed up of The World Is Flat.

PJ Miller (PJ Miller 68), Monday, 5 June 2006 07:37 (nineteen years ago)

Finished the Thinking Fan's Guide to the World Cup which was a predictable mixture of decent football stories, smart travel pieces and dull economic essays.

Also finished Lost Rivers of London which was fascinating, if a little footnotey. The sort of book which leaves you tracing ancient streams in the A-Z.

Back to Ghosts of Spain by Giles Tremlett. Interesting stuff on Spain's attitude to brothels. I'm there a week today.

Mikey G (Mikey G), Monday, 5 June 2006 08:46 (nineteen years ago)

Spain, not brothels.

Mikey G (Mikey G), Monday, 5 June 2006 08:47 (nineteen years ago)

Hope Mirrlees - Lud-in-the-mist
Samuel Beckett - Murphy
Rudolf Nilsen - Collected poems

Annoyed that a used copy I recently bought of Sigurd Hoel's "The Road to the World's End" turned out to be abridged.

Øystein (Øystein), Monday, 5 June 2006 09:26 (nineteen years ago)

The Earthsea Quartet - Ursula Le Guin

Navek Rednam (Navek Rednam), Monday, 5 June 2006 10:12 (nineteen years ago)

I finished A Man with No Talents (Oyama Shiro) yesterday - memoir of a 50-something Tokyo day-laborer. An affecting glimpse into a dark part of Japanese society and homelessness. It was difficult to read - its intimacy juxtaposed with an odd separateness/distance.

Now I am reading Hesse's Siddartha, which my son sent me.

Jaq (Jaq), Monday, 5 June 2006 11:59 (nineteen years ago)

Finally finished part one of Philosophical Investigations. The last sections are a bit ho hum, but I rather liked the last passage, and want to think W. chose it intentionally!

Casuistry (Chris P), Monday, 5 June 2006 23:09 (nineteen years ago)


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