A New 'Now What are you Reading'

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Other thread was getting too long again, so I thought I would start a new one. I started 'The Basque History of the World' over the weekend. Good so far.

― bookdwarf (bookdwarf), Monday, 10 May 2004 14:56 (twenty-one years ago)

'Ripley's Game' by Patricia Highsmith.

― Michael White (Hereward), Monday, 10 May 2004 15:06 (twenty-one years ago)

I've read that Basque history. I take it you mean the Mark Kurlanksy one?

They speak the most impenetrable language.

― Mikey G (Mikey G), Monday, 10 May 2004 15:23 (twenty-one years ago)

Squandering Aimlessly, by David Brancaccio

― yesabibliophile (yesabibliophile), Monday, 10 May 2004 15:28 (twenty-one years ago)

No Orchids for Miss Blandish, by James Hadley Chase

― Fred, Monday, 10 May 2004 16:02 (twenty-one years ago)

'Thinks' David Lodge; 'A wilderness so Immense', John Kukla; and 'Objectivity, Relativism, and Truth" by Richard Rorty

― Docpacey (docpacey), Monday, 10 May 2004 16:11 (twenty-one years ago)

Yes, I am reading the Kurlansky book. It's a good book, but I find it hard to keep all the names and places straight. The language does seem difficult, but maybe because they like X's and Z's and double consonants more.
Also started reading 'Queen of the South' by Arturo Perez-Reverte at lunch today as I forgot to bring the Kurlansky with me to work today.

― bookdwarf (bookdwarf), Monday, 10 May 2004 17:57 (twenty-one years ago)

The Tipping Point by Malcolm Gladwell. Much reccomended.

― Chuck Tatum (Chuck Tatum), Monday, 10 May 2004 18:03 (twenty-one years ago)

Chuck- "The Tipping Point" is one of my favorites. Highly recommended.

― Rabin the Cat (Rabin the Cat), Monday, 10 May 2004 18:14 (twenty-one years ago)

A Box of Matches, by Nicholson Baker, and trying to decide whether to continue bothering. It feels really disjointed.

― Su (BoredInsomniac), Monday, 10 May 2004 18:35 (twenty-one years ago)

One Hundred Years of Solitude. It's slow, savor-the-prose type of book. If you're into that, you'll like it.

― SJ Lefty, Monday, 10 May 2004 22:17 (twenty-one years ago)

the moonstone, by wilkie collins.

― lauren (laurenp), Monday, 10 May 2004 22:41 (twenty-one years ago)

Still trying to find time to finish "La Religieuse" by Diderot -- man, what an amazing torture book, and yes all the juicy barely-not-graphic lesbo nun action you'd expect -- but yet again a package of review copies has landed on my desk today: Jim Munroe's Flyboy Action Figure Comes With Gasmask and Girls Who Bite Back, edited by the fabulous Emily Pohl-Weary, yeah, she's Frederik Pohl's granddaughter. So I have to trade girl-on-girl action for sci-fi in the blink of an eye. Oh well, could be very much worse... maybe there's some juicy stuff in these girl-vampire essays... how could there NOT be, actually? I'm also crawling through my first Italian easy reader, by Dario Fo.

― Ann Sterzinger (Ann Sterzinger), Monday, 10 May 2004 22:45 (twenty-one years ago)

(for those of you who envy those of us who get review copies, this be the darkside: as soon as they arrive, deadlines loom and you must drop whatever you were reading for simple fun.)

― Ann Sterzinger (Ann Sterzinger), Monday, 10 May 2004 22:59 (twenty-one years ago)

Ann writes: "for those of you who envy those of us who get review copies, this be the darkside" The darkside only for you writers- as an indy bookseller for years, my review copies were sweetly devoid of responsibility. Well, except for the whole vulgar commerce thing.

I am reading "Elegy for Iris" by John Bayley, pulled at random from a stack of unreads.

― Rabin the Cat (Rabin the Cat), Monday, 10 May 2004 23:52 (twenty-one years ago)

I'm reading _Reading Lolita in Tehran_ as well as _Eats, Shoots and Leaves: The Zero Tolerance Approach to Punctuation_. I'm also occasionally leafing through _The Highly Selective Thesaurus for the Extraordinarily Literate_ and _Raw Spirit: In Search of the Perfect Dram_.

And I really should be packing, since it's moving day on Saturday!

― Halsted (cygnoir), Tuesday, 11 May 2004 00:07 (twenty-one years ago)

I am reading Unlocking the Air and Other Stories. Ursula Le Guin. Also ( as above) enjoyed Eats, Shoots and Leaves. Has helped me with essay writing!

― kath (kath), Tuesday, 11 May 2004 00:11 (twenty-one years ago)

I'm reading "The Hollow Chocolate Bunnies of the Apocalypse" by Robert Rankin. I love the concept (and the title), but I am not sure if I like the book (I haven't read much of it yet).

― Sara L (Tara Too), Tuesday, 11 May 2004 05:08 (twenty-one years ago)

just started _baudolino_. and _kinder der toten_ by elfriede jelinek (austrian writer who is very much discussed and hated by austrias right wing party for her outspoken writing about austria´s history concerning nazi-germany.) baudolino is fun!

― jassi, Tuesday, 11 May 2004 05:15 (twenty-one years ago)

Eats Shoots and Leaves is really good.
I'm reading the third book in the Otori series, Brilliance of the Moon (cue jealous grumbles from people who don't get advance copies?) and just finished Secrets of the Jin Shei. That was soooo good!

― Rowie, Tuesday, 11 May 2004 08:10 (twenty-one years ago)

I'm now reading Get A Life, by the anti-TV organisation White Dot. Quite badly and hysterically written, but I cannot say them nay...

― Archel (Archel), Tuesday, 11 May 2004 09:29 (twenty-one years ago)

A case of curiousities by Allen Kurzwell. I am enjoying it so far. Descriptive and colourful.

― oblomov, Tuesday, 11 May 2004 10:55 (twenty-one years ago)

I'm reading Lars Saabye Christensen's The Half Brother in Norwegian (as God intended), and wondering how the English translation copes with a few things.

― SRH (Skrik), Tuesday, 11 May 2004 11:11 (twenty-one years ago)

I see (where) accentmonkey has... abandoned the colours.

― the finefox, Tuesday, 11 May 2004 13:06 (twenty-one years ago)

What's the Matter with Kansas by Thomas Frank and So I Am Glad by A. L. Kennedy.

― Jessa (Jessa), Tuesday, 11 May 2004 16:58 (twenty-one years ago)

I'm re-reading Ulysses

― Fred, Tuesday, 11 May 2004 17:55 (twenty-one years ago)

Cor.

I finished doing that 10 days ago.

― the finefox, Tuesday, 11 May 2004 19:53 (twenty-one years ago)

"I'm now reading Get A Life, by the anti-TV organisation White Dot. Quite badly and hysterically written, but I cannot say them nay...
-- Archel (dilettant...), May 11th, 2004."

This begs the question: if they aren't watching TV and yet they haven't spent enough time reading to become competent writers, what are they doing with their time? Trying to have a consensus vote? You can only make so much bad art out of smashed televisions... ha ha, obviously I have no life.

― Ann Sterzinger (Ann Sterzinger), Tuesday, 11 May 2004 21:53 (twenty-one years ago)

glued to Ann Garrels, Naked in Baghdad.

― slow learner (slow learner), Wednesday, 12 May 2004 02:08 (twenty-one years ago)

I am trying to remember if I am reading owt new since last time I answered this with an 8-post answer.

I finished Joyce. I have not gone back to Proust. I am still pressing my way through the tidy forest of Muldoon.

― the finefox, Wednesday, 12 May 2004 19:20 (twenty-one years ago)

I am reading Handling Sin by Michael Malone. It was given to me by a kind ILB poster to read. Enjoying it so far.

― scott seward (scott seward), Wednesday, 12 May 2004 20:13 (twenty-one years ago)

I just started I'll Take You There by Joyce Carol Oates
And just finished Oranges are Not the Only Fruit which I much enjoyed

I went to a big-city bookshop last weekend, it was very fulfilling.

― isadora (isadora), Wednesday, 12 May 2004 22:30 (twenty-one years ago)

We recently moved and are unpacking, so I am mostly reading titles as I put things on the shelving. We did finish reading The Great Gatsby aloud (most excellent - thanks for the suggestion) and have begun Vanity Fair (promising so far).

― Jaq (Jaq), Thursday, 13 May 2004 00:17 (twenty-one years ago)

Just finished Scandalmonger (duly reported on that last "Whatcha Readin' Now" thread).

Just started Vernon God Little.

Am reading Schott's Original Miscellany when in need of a fast fix.

Am about to start Eats, Shoots & Leaves and it looks like I'm in good company according to the above postings.

― I'm Passing Open Windows (Ms Laura), Thursday, 13 May 2004 05:19 (twenty-one years ago)

Just started Saddled With Darwin by Toby Green. A travelogue following Darwin's 1830's South American trip. He makes Uruguay sound like a great place to go. It's not often you hear that said.

― Mikey G (Mikey G), Thursday, 13 May 2004 07:44 (twenty-one years ago)

All Hat by Brad Smith

― The Huckle-Buck (Horace Mann), Thursday, 13 May 2004 15:19 (twenty-one years ago)

My 3rd attempt to read "the book of the lost tales" by Tolkien, though I keep skipping the parts where Christopher starts analysing the story :)

― Docolero, Thursday, 13 May 2004 21:29 (twenty-one years ago)

Just finished Orwell's essays, vol 2, and plowed through Wodehouse's "Summer Moonshine" today. I'll probably read Orwell's essays, vol 3, or Twain's "Tramp Abroad", or perhaps that "Woman and Wheat" book by the woman who homesteaded in Saskatchewan 100 years ago. Don't know yet.

― Casuistry (Chris P), Thursday, 13 May 2004 23:46 (twenty-one years ago)

I'm reading The Namesake by Jhumpa Lahari. I've got Eats Shoots & Leaves on the shelf.

― Phastbuck, Friday, 14 May 2004 03:18 (twenty-one years ago)

I feel I should mention that my beloved, Maria, bought Eats Shoots & Leaves last week. It is on our shelf as well.

― scott seward (scott seward), Friday, 14 May 2004 10:35 (twenty-one years ago)

It would appear at Eats, Shoots & Leaves is the book for the in-crowd at ILB these days. I wonder how the author feels about that.

I just started the new young adult novel by Eoin Colfer (the Artmis Fowl series), titled The Supernaturalist. So far it's creepy and ominous. I'm pleased.

― I'm Passing Open Windows (Ms Laura), Friday, 14 May 2004 19:12 (twenty-one years ago)

Too under the weather to do owt much save reread Hugh Kenner's A Colder Eye for the first time in 7 years. 7 years ago I learned from it much I needed to know. Perhaps some was misleading. But one must begin somewhere.

One thing the book makes me think is: again, how wrong is anyone who attacks 'criticism' as merely secondary, a hindrance between us and literature. HK brings me much closer to Yeats than Yeats does.

― the finefox, Saturday, 15 May 2004 13:47 (twenty-one years ago)

I went with "A Tramp Abroad". It's basically a 19th Century blog!

― Casuistry (Chris P), Saturday, 15 May 2004 14:21 (twenty-one years ago)

The Making of the Atomic Bomb by Richard Rhodes. this is what non-fiction is all about

― common_person (common_person), Saturday, 15 May 2004 14:52 (twenty-one years ago)

Dandelion clocks: their imperfect myth, an overabundance of inability.

― cozen (Cozen), Saturday, 15 May 2004 16:21 (twenty-one years ago)

Whipping through the reprint of Jim Munroe's first novel. It's as addictive as the best old sci-fi: I was in a noisy gay bar last night -- Friday -- and kept reading it even though I liked the people around me. Yum.

― Ann Sterzinger (Ann Sterzinger), Saturday, 15 May 2004 23:53 (twenty-one years ago)

about half way through Vernon God Little, i have to say it's mostly crap but occasionaly funny in a pretty forced way.

― jed_ (jed), Sunday, 16 May 2004 02:42 (twenty-one years ago)

I really liked Vernon God Little. Am I the only one?

Just back from holidays where I read Angels and Demons by Dan Brown, which was largely pants, and nowhere near as good as The Da Vinci Code. Somehow, despite the fact that the stakes are much higher in this one, it's just not as much fun. Also read The Dispossessed by Ursula LeGuin, which was great, and Losing Nelson by Barry Unsworth, which I particularly enjoyed, having just visited the Maritime Museum in Greenwich, where they really love their Nelson. I was a bit put out when we got there to realise that they have an entire room devoted to Nelson and only a tiny corner of a room for Cook, who was my particular hero.

Am currently reading Nobel Prizewinner One Man's Bible and am really struggling with it. Maybe it's just because I'm a bit tired, but I keep having to go back and re-read bits because I can't quite follow what's going on. Also I know very little about Chinese history, so I'm not sure of the sequence of events. I feel like enjoying the book would require more information than I currently have.

― accentmonkey (accentmonkey), Sunday, 16 May 2004 12:57 (twenty-one years ago)

Full Catastrophe Living by Jon Kabat-Zinn (therapy homework, meditation/zen guide) is taking up much of my time, but also still working on The Third Policeman by Flann O'Brien and about to start my traditional summer project of re-reading all my Cortazar, starting with We All Love Glenda So Much and 62: A Model Kit.

― Begs2Differ (Begs2Differ), Sunday, 16 May 2004 13:10 (twenty-one years ago)

(oh also I have to re-read The View From Saturday by E.L. Konigsberg so my daughter and I can have Book Club)

― Begs2Differ (Begs2Differ), Sunday, 16 May 2004 13:11 (twenty-one years ago)

You reread ALL of Cortazar EVERY summer?!

A good friend of mine (one of my poetry reading organizing partners) is big into Cortazar, and introduced me to him, although so far I've really only read "Cronopios" and "Nicaraguan Sketches". Which were both great and clearly I need to read more, yes.

― Casuistry (Chris P), Sunday, 16 May 2004 16:35 (twenty-one years ago)

I'm also half way through Vernon God Little but I'm giving it a break now. I'll continue it after a month or so. It's a fine book though.

― Fred (Fred), Sunday, 16 May 2004 17:00 (twenty-one years ago)

"Candyfreak" by Steve Almond

― yesabibliophile (yesabibliophile), Sunday, 16 May 2004 17:08 (twenty-one years ago)

Moscow Stations - Venedikt Yerofeev

then, I'm gonna start Crime and Punishment.

― jel -- (jel), Sunday, 16 May 2004 18:08 (twenty-one years ago)

xpost to Casu:
no not ALL of Cortazar,
but I try my best

― Begs2Differ (Begs2Differ), Sunday, 16 May 2004 18:56 (twenty-one years ago)

What was the first line of that before it was an xpost?

― Casuistry (Chris P), Sunday, 16 May 2004 20:24 (twenty-one years ago)

yesabibliophile, how is "Candyfreak" by Steve Almond? A couple months back I read "My Life in Heavy Metal." Some of the stories were cliched stronger but "How to Love a Republican" and "The Body in Extremis" were really remarkable.

― theodore fogelsanger, Sunday, 16 May 2004 21:31 (twenty-one years ago)

'The New Rulers of the World' by John Pilger. Recommended, needless to say?

― Archel (Archel), Monday, 17 May 2004 09:36 (twenty-one years ago)

It would appear at Eats, Shoots & Leaves is the book for the in-crowd at ILB these days. I wonder how the author feels about that.

Unsuprised in my first guess. Bibliophiles, books about punctuation, bound to happen.

Recently finished: The Snows of Kilimajaro by Hemingway. The standard criticism that I'd have liked this a lot more at 16 is dead on.

Recently given up on: the Disco 2000 compliation of Youngish Britishish Writers about the end of the millenium. I gave up halfway through and cherrypicked the stuff I actually bought it for (Morrison, Drummond, Stephenson, Coupland). The Poppy Z Brite story was a lot less histrionic than I anticipated.

Recently started: The No.1 Ladies' Detective Agency. After a couple of pangs of "are we just laughing at the funny coloured people?" I relaxed into it, and it is as everyone says great.

― Andrew Farrell (afarrell), Monday, 17 May 2004 11:32 (twenty-one years ago)

Spider, by Patrick McGrath. Good and creepy.

― NA (Nick A.), Monday, 17 May 2004 16:06 (twenty-one years ago)

'Eminent Victorians' by Lytton Strachey. The part on Cardinal Manning was bogged down by too much popish politics, but the chapter on Florence Nightingale is interesting. Next up, 'England: An Elegy' by Roger Scrotum. Ho hum.

― Charles Dexter (Holey), Monday, 17 May 2004 19:11 (twenty-one years ago)

There's a book by Gerald Brennan called South from Grenada about his time living in the Alpujarras in the 1920's. Brennan was on the fringe of the Bloomsbury group and Lytton Strachey came to stay. It's one of the funniest chapters I've read. Strachey doesn't like the food, the terrain, the locals, the villages, the wildlife, the animal life, anything. A Brit abroad if ever there was one.

― Mikey G (Mikey G), Tuesday, 18 May 2004 07:38 (twenty-one years ago)

I'm rereading the Sound and the Fury (one of my favorite books evar) right now and about halfway through "The Autobiography of a Yogi."

― stephen morris (stephen morris), Tuesday, 18 May 2004 12:56 (twenty-one years ago)

I'm still kicking back from finishing Pelham: Or, Adventures of a Gentleman by Lord Lytton (this is before he bothered with the BULWER bit, obv), and am now dipping into a selection of CHARITY SHOP FINDS: viz a History of Witchcraft by Montague Summers (=arch menko and grebt fun) and the Rotters Club by Jonathan Coe.

I'm also supposed to be starting The Curious Incident of the Dog in the ~~Hammer~~Night-Time as part of my monthly book group, but um, I haven't found a cheap charity shop copy yet, curses. The other books are Norweigan Wood by You Know Who (already read) and Brave New World by You Know Him Too. I could re-read, but I'd much rather read the stuff I mentioned first.

I've ALSO been flicking through the Perks of Being a Wallflower (the jury is still VERY much out on this) and re-reading the Secret Garden, tha knurs.

― Sarah (starry), Tuesday, 18 May 2004 13:21 (twenty-one years ago)

I note a follow-up novel by Catherine Gore: Cecil, or Adventures of a Coxcomb. I wonder how far one could go. Barry, or, Adventures of a Bumption. Dennis, or, Adventures of a Dandy. Neville, or Adventures of a Ne'er'Do Well. What fun.

― Sarah (starry), Tuesday, 18 May 2004 13:29 (twenty-one years ago)

I just finished some Doctor Who fiction (_Heritage_ and _Ten Little Aliens_) and am currently halfway through _Red Thunder_ by John Varley. (PHEAR MY LOWBROW)

― VengaDan Perry (Dan Perry), Tuesday, 18 May 2004 13:34 (twenty-one years ago)

Hello Loki. Have you read Last Man Running by Chris Boucher?

― Sarah (starry), Tuesday, 18 May 2004 13:36 (twenty-one years ago)

I SURE HAVE (It was a couple of years ago but I remember being thoroughly entertained). I wish there were more 4th/Leela books out there.

I also recommend Drift and Eye Of Heaven.

― VengaDan Perry (Dan Perry), Tuesday, 18 May 2004 13:42 (twenty-one years ago)

Finished The Rotters Club over the weekend, and now reading As She Climbed Across the Table, as I feel I am not quite ready to dive into The Fortress of Solitude yet. It's very good so far. Also bought The New Yorker to read the Iraq reports...

― Jocelyn (Jocelyn), Tuesday, 18 May 2004 13:42 (twenty-one years ago)

Have you read the other books he's done? There's a Robots of Death (THE ROBOTS ARE STILL KILLING) one and another one called Psi-ence or some horrific B5 sounding effort, neither of which I've read, but hey it's Chris Boucher, and you would, wouldn't you?

The other book I'm "reading" is Official Scrabble Lists, but that doesn't count :)

J - what did you think of ver Rotters Club?

― Sarah (starry), Tuesday, 18 May 2004 13:46 (twenty-one years ago)

Haha full disclosure time: I've got at least (AT LEAST) 80% of those books. All of the Boucher ones are good to varying degrees; sadly, the _Robots of Death_ one is the LEAST entertaining/most disappointing. _Psi-Ence Fiction_ was great, though.

I also HIGHLY recommend _Tomb Of Valdemar_ and _Festival Of Death_; it's a toss-up between those two and _Eye Of Heaven_ as to which is the best BBC 4th Doctor book.

― VengaDan Perry (Dan Perry), Tuesday, 18 May 2004 14:07 (twenty-one years ago)

I thought The Rotters Club was often quite funny and insightful about guy friendships, but nothing about the writing style itself jumped out at me. I hated Cicily, and I'm not sure if you are supposed too. I'm glad that I read it after living in the UK for a while, for perspective.

― Jocelyn (Jocelyn), Tuesday, 18 May 2004 14:26 (twenty-one years ago)

We ain't askeered of you, VengaDan! Welcome. Have a seat. Care for a crumpet?

― scott seward (scott seward), Tuesday, 18 May 2004 15:07 (twenty-one years ago)

It's Iris Murdoch this summer. I'm reading them all in order. So far, I've really liked Under the Net--New Grub Street written by Wodehouse, was the phrase that kept coming to mind--Flight from the Enchanter was an interesting mess, and The Sandcastle is shaping up to be a schoolmaster seeks to escape middle-class dreariness novel. I'm also half-heartedly reading Greil Marcus's Old, Weird, America which I found for a buck. As usual, I find Marcus's discographical (if that's a word) work absorbing and his pangyricism or airy theorizing, or whatever it is, annoying.

― Paul Ess (Paul Ess), Tuesday, 18 May 2004 15:46 (twenty-one years ago)

Reading "Culture of Complaint" by Robert Hughes. He was prescient (writing in 1993) in his estimate of how the religious right would color the political and cultural debate in the US for years. Some interesting things to say about stultified academia too. I've always liked his art criticism.

― Rabin the Cat (Rabin the Cat), Tuesday, 18 May 2004 15:56 (twenty-one years ago)

I s'pose that's the same Robert Hughes who wrote The Fatal Shore? What a great book.

― Charles Dexter (Holey), Tuesday, 18 May 2004 16:38 (twenty-one years ago)

Donald Barthelme - 40 Stories, and
Marcel Proust - Within a Budding Grove

― NA (Nick A.), Tuesday, 18 May 2004 17:32 (twenty-one years ago)

Liked parts of "Culture of Complaint" as Hughes can be an endearing curmudgeon. After a recent overdose on Highsmith, I'm reading Colin Jones', The Great Nation about 18th century France.

― Michael White (Hereward), Tuesday, 18 May 2004 18:14 (twenty-one years ago)

"Hughes can be an endearing curmudgeon". Very true. My husband teases me because I love to read cranks in almost any discipline.

― Rabin the Cat (Rabin the Cat), Tuesday, 18 May 2004 18:33 (twenty-one years ago)

I'm reading another John Le Carre spy book. They are set in a world of civil servants who kill each other, not unlike where I work.

― DV (dirtyvicar), Tuesday, 18 May 2004 18:48 (twenty-one years ago)

THE VICAR will be glad to know that I spent dark Sunday night and sunny Monday morning rereading... John Millington Synge.

― the finefox, Tuesday, 18 May 2004 19:51 (twenty-one years ago)

Molvania. A spoof travel guide. Started it on the bus this morning. Blue skies outside and and a trip to Cardiff imminent.

― Mikey G (Mikey G), Wednesday, 19 May 2004 07:30 (twenty-one years ago)

I've given up on translated Nobel prizewinner and have arbitrarily decided not to read translated books anymore, because I just can't get the hang of them. I'm sure this is because of my lack of empathy with foreign cultures, or some such thing.

So now I'm reading (by which I mean handling and talking about reading but not actually reading) the John Stuart Mill volume from the Pelican philosophers series. Someone brought a bunch of these into the shop, so they were super cheap.

― accentmonkey (accentmonkey), Wednesday, 19 May 2004 09:26 (twenty-one years ago)

"Gods Knows" by Joseph Heller.
Brilliantly blasphemous retelling of the story of David. Some Biblical knowledge desired but not essential.

― Onimo (GerryNemo), Wednesday, 19 May 2004 09:52 (twenty-one years ago)

I wanna get my hands on all Joseph Heller books. I've read Catch-22, Something Happened and Good as Gold in sequence, and I have Picture This waiting in my room to be read.

― Fred (Fred), Wednesday, 19 May 2004 11:39 (twenty-one years ago)

Something Happened depressed the hell out of me. Someone told me it was funnier than Catch-22. Madness.

― Mikey G (Mikey G), Wednesday, 19 May 2004 12:26 (twenty-one years ago)

It's not funnier, but is possibly better.

― Charles Dexter (Holey), Wednesday, 19 May 2004 12:30 (twenty-one years ago)

It depressed me too.

I'm reading The Politics of Disablement by Mike Oliver.

Holiday next week though and all improving/work books are banned. What shall I get from the library on Saturday?

― Archel (Archel), Thursday, 20 May 2004 13:31 (twenty-one years ago)

Are you a Londoner? I've just started Underground London about disused tube lines, underground rivers, secret tunnels etc. Most excellent.

― Mikey G (Mikey G), Thursday, 20 May 2004 13:41 (twenty-one years ago)

I'm not a Londoner but as the bits that are underground are plainly the best bits of said town, I might enjoy that book anyway.

Is it bad to read Jenny Colgan, even on holiday?

― Archel (Archel), Thursday, 20 May 2004 15:35 (twenty-one years ago)

Spirits in the Wire, by Charles DeLint.

― amysue chase, Thursday, 20 May 2004 19:41 (twenty-one years ago)

Underground London - Stephen Smith. Lost rivers, old tunnels, secret bits etc.

Geeky and great.

― Mikey G (Mikey G), Friday, 21 May 2004 14:12 (twenty-one years ago)

I'm relieved to have just finished Flowers in the Attic (damn you Mikey G!) - I was getting fed up trying to hide it whenever anyone sat next to me on the bus. The shame was frankly too great (especially when a ten year old gave me a pitying look.)

― Cathryn (Cathryn), Friday, 21 May 2004 14:30 (twenty-one years ago)

It was merely to raise the wider question of re-reading a childhood favourite! Plus, it raises the question of what you would do if stuck in an attic for three years. Answer - shag your sister.

― Mikey G (Mikey G), Friday, 21 May 2004 14:47 (twenty-one years ago)

Jerry Stahl - Perv, A Love Story (better than expected)
Larry McMurtry - The Last Picture Show

― miloauckerman (miloauckerman), Saturday, 22 May 2004 03:50 (twenty-one years ago)

"The Main Enemy" Milt Bearden & James Risen: fast paced memoir of CIA-KGB showdown in 1980s. fascinating stuff on Soviets in Afghanistan, premonitions of Iraq for sure.
"Tropical Truth" Caetano Veloso: slow going (english translation) but absorbing memoir of Tropicalia movement in Brazil.
Just finished Pat Highsmith bio, "Beautiful Shadow." Interesting facts, somewhat repetitive/formulaic prose. A little disappointing.

― lovebug starski, Saturday, 22 May 2004 14:16 (twenty-one years ago)

'Girl with Curious Hair' by David Foster Wallace.

― bookdwarf (bookdwarf), Monday, 24 May 2004 02:20 (twenty-one years ago)

Rebecca by Daphne Du Maurier. Only 50 pages in and not sure why I haven't read it in the past. Lovely.

― Mikey G (Mikey G), Monday, 24 May 2004 07:44 (twenty-one years ago)

I saw Rebecca for the first time at Christmas and I absolutely loved it. I've been meaning to read some Daphne Du Maurier ever since, but keep forgetting to pick some up. I'm thinking Jamaica Inn. Have you read it, Mikey?

I haven't read a single book all week. I feel like such a slacker.

― accentmonkey (accentmonkey), Monday, 24 May 2004 08:06 (twenty-one years ago)

Bad monkey!

There's a great description of the main character in Rebecca, catching her young awkwardness, "all red elbowed and lank haired"

I've not read any of her other novels.

― Mikey G (Mikey G), Monday, 24 May 2004 08:42 (twenty-one years ago)

Something Happened was surely a depressing book but it was funny also (though it can't be compared to Catch-22 which was hilarious).

― Fred (Fred), Monday, 24 May 2004 12:00 (twenty-one years ago)

I've read "Jamaica Inn". It's just as well-done as "Rebecca" with an even more sinister air to the whole novel. Du Maurier is someone I like to re-read.

― Rabin the Cat (Rabin the Cat), Monday, 24 May 2004 13:45 (twenty-one years ago)

I finished Babbitt (Sinclair Lewis) today and started The Crossing (Cormac McCarthy). And tomorrow I'm going to start Dodsworth (Sinclair Lewis). I'd never read any Lewis before but enjoyed him very much. I live in a town just like Zenith. It was funny (and sad) to see so many similarities.

― jmp, Tuesday, 25 May 2004 03:23 (twenty-one years ago)

Excellent news about Du Maurier, especially since her stuff turns up in the shop for cheap all the time because no-one in the real world seems to read it much anymore. I shall get some. Then maybe I can break my reader's block.

― accentmonkey (accentmonkey), Tuesday, 25 May 2004 07:59 (twenty-one years ago)

I'm reading Without Feathers by Woody Allen. It's funny.

― Fred (Fred), Wednesday, 26 May 2004 19:32 (twenty-one years ago)

adorno's book on mahler.

― Julio Desouza (jdesouza), Thursday, 27 May 2004 07:46 (twenty-one years ago)

I just wanted to say that I hated 'Eats, Shoots and Leaves'. It's the most unoriginal and blatantly plagaristic book I've read in years. I do a lot of sub-editing, and Lynne Truss has basically ripped off the content (and most of the illustrative jokes) from various in-house style guides. I found it really tedious and annoying.

I didn't care for her lofty tone either - she's way too fond of words like 'ignorant' and 'stupid' for my liking. I'm amazed at the acclaim it's received.

I'm currently reading the 'Sword of Honour' trilogy by Evelyn Waugh, which is the only thing of his I've not yet read. Very good so far.

― Tom B, Thursday, 27 May 2004 08:48 (twenty-one years ago)

The Mahler book looked very interesting. Let us know what you think of it! I finished the Letham, which was quietly heartbreaking and fits the mood I've been in lately. Just started "The Marriage of Cadmus and Harmony," and I'm curious. And bits of an art history book on Classical Greece, for perspective.

― Jocelyn (Jocelyn), Thursday, 27 May 2004 12:12 (twenty-one years ago)

Finished reading 'Aloft' which was pretty good. Now I am starting 'The Skeptic: A Life of HL Mencken'. Seems like an intriguing person.

― Megan (bookdwarf), Thursday, 27 May 2004 15:34 (twenty-one years ago)

Started Dracula on the bus this morning. Another book that passed me by in younger days. Difficult to get into when the sun is shining.

― Mikey G (Mikey G), Friday, 28 May 2004 07:57 (twenty-one years ago)

It's about time I got in on this thread again. I'm still reading Christensen's Half Brother, but I'm also re-reading Aphra Behn's Abdelazer, Gérard Genette's Narrative Discourse, Adolf Hitler's Mein Kampf, Conrad's Heart of Darkness, Dahl's Charlie and the Great Glass Elevator (reading it to the kids), various didactic and pedagogy text books, and various source materials for a biography I'm researching.

It takes me ages to get through one book, but then they all end at once.

― SRH (Skrik), Friday, 28 May 2004 09:43 (twenty-one years ago)

Howard Zinns, Peoples History of the United States. Fascinating for the light it sheds on the fate of the poor and oppressed in Americas history.

― oblomov, Monday, 31 May 2004 11:02 (twenty-one years ago)

North and South by E. Gaskell, I didn't think at first I would, but am actually enjoying it...as a matter of fact it feels incredibly passionate, and that's surprising

― misshajim (strand), Monday, 31 May 2004 11:41 (twenty-one years ago)

I'm still reading that Handling Sin book that I mentioned upthread. It's a Homeric epic southern-style. Very entertaining. But I'm now also reading that Richard Yates biography that came out last year. I'm learning how much of his life went into his fiction. ALL OF IT!!

― scott seward (scott seward), Monday, 31 May 2004 11:55 (twenty-one years ago)

"Thousand Cranes" - Yasunari Kawabata

― jel -- (jel), Monday, 31 May 2004 16:36 (twenty-one years ago)

Misery by Stephen King

― Fred (Fred), Tuesday, 1 June 2004 09:04 (twenty-one years ago)

I don't like Eats Shoots and Leaves either. Maybe I already said that but I can't be bothered to check.

Anyway, while I was on holiday I read Back Story by Robert B Parker, and Tipping the Velvet by Sarah Waters. The latter was perfect holiday reading, an old-fashined romp but so sexy that I blushed to be reading it in the same room as my grandmother...

I've just finished The Mercy Boys by John Burnside (so dark! such great writing!) and The Whole Story and other stories by Ali Smith.

Now I have Nothing To Read until I can get to the library and it's grim. But I've done quite a few crosswords.

― Archel (Archel), Tuesday, 1 June 2004 11:13 (twenty-one years ago)

The Plague - Albert Camus
Java 2 In Plain English

― Michael B, Tuesday, 1 June 2004 11:26 (twenty-one years ago)

Rohinton Mistry - Family Matters
Professional C#
Some short story collections

For some reason John Updike is everywhere I look these days, including being featured in two short story collections I recently picked up, being quoted on that Mistry novel's jacket and just generally seeming to appear around every bend.
Is his Rabbit series any good? I figure I should be a hippie and go with the flow while having Gong-like speeches about how the octave doctors wish for me to read Updike.

― Øystein H-O (Øystein H-O), Tuesday, 1 June 2004 12:09 (twenty-one years ago)

'The Mahler book looked very interesting. Let us know what you think of it!'

Part of mahler's thesis is that there is something novelistic, in terms of style, that is present in the makeup of his symphonies, so this ties in with ILB!

He discusses all other features such as his use of folk music. The rhythm in Adorno's writing is quite something and I think if you like some classical (but even if you want to read something for the writing) then you would like this. His sentences take time to unravel, so there are (on first reading) many imcomprehensible or ambiguously worded passages, but I enjoy that kind of thing. To be read over and over.

manny faber 'negative space'.

― Julio Desouza (jdesouza), Tuesday, 1 June 2004 12:28 (twenty-one years ago)

Just started 'Excession', an Iain M Banks 'Culture' novel (which should be good if the previous ones were any indicator), and Philip K Dick's 'The Man In The High Castle' - his awarded winning alt-history novel.
I'm a big fan of both authors so I'm looking forward to these.

Just finished Peter Straub's 'lost boy lost girl' - run of the mill easy-read supernatural thriller. Not bad (he said grudgingly).

― Onimo (GerryNemo), Tuesday, 1 June 2004 14:10 (twenty-one years ago)

I am impressed to hear that Waters can write a really sexy book. I met her recently, surprisingly.

― the pomefox, Tuesday, 1 June 2004 14:31 (twenty-one years ago)

Well, *I* thought it was sexy. It depends on your liking for lesbian fisting episodes involving chemises, oysters and cross-dressing, really.

― Archel (Archel), Tuesday, 1 June 2004 15:25 (twenty-one years ago)

Mikey G is shocked.

― Mikey G (Mikey G), Tuesday, 1 June 2004 15:29 (twenty-one years ago)

But I'm now also reading that Richard Yates biography that came out last year.

i need this. or want it very badly, i should say.

― lauren (laurenp), Wednesday, 2 June 2004 16:44 (twenty-one years ago)

Dress Your Family in Corduroy and Denim by David Sedaris.

I'm not sure how many of these stories haven't ever been printed before. I've already run across one that I read in GQ or Esquire already... And some of them are really shizzort.

― Vermont Girl (Vermont Girl), Wednesday, 2 June 2004 17:01 (twenty-one years ago)

The Diamond Age. I'm more than halfway through and loving the ideas but I'm confused as to where the plot is going. Hmmm...

― Vinnie (vprabhu), Wednesday, 2 June 2004 18:59 (twenty-one years ago)

I wasn't too fond of The Diamond Age. Sci-fi that takes place in the near-future or even the present is so much more fun for me. Cryptonomicon (which is sci-fi only in the strictest sense of the phrase) is still probably my favorite of his.

Forgive me for geeking out! I swear I haven't read any of those books in over three years!

― Dan I., Wednesday, 2 June 2004 20:31 (twenty-one years ago)

The hardback of Harry Potter and the Incredibly Long Book just showed up in my shop, so I charged myself €7 for it. I know it's cheap, but I am going to redonate it when I've finished it, so that's okay, right?

It's less than compelling at the beginning, but the last 250 or so pages really seem to be clipping along. Although I realise as I'm reading it that I can't remember anything that happened in the previous book, and in fact the only one I can really remember clearly is The Prisoner of Azkaban, which I still think is the best one.

― accentmonkey (accentmonkey), Wednesday, 2 June 2004 21:39 (twenty-one years ago)

A lot on my plate at the moment:

Fiction:
Dosotoyevsky - Bros. Karamazov
Umberto Eco - The Name of the Rose
PKD - Now Wait for Last Year
Raymond Chandler - The Long Goodbye
DeLillo - Underworld

Non-Fiction:
Darwin - Origin of Species
Thomas S. Kuhn - The Structure of Scientific Revolutions

― fcussen (Burger), Wednesday, 2 June 2004 21:51 (twenty-one years ago)

Sci-fi that takes place in the near-future or even the present is so much more fun for me.

I think I agree. The downside of going far into the future is that the author feels obligated to explain every little detail. Sometimes you lose focus. Maybe someone should just write a novel set 500 years in the future using all these new words and concepts and not explain a bit of it.

― Vinnie (vprabhu), Wednesday, 2 June 2004 22:28 (twenty-one years ago)

B-but that's why The Diamond Age is so great! It doesn't have a new and complicated social structure, it's retro-victorians (and in hindsight, a sign that he had a few historical novels in him).

Accentmonkey: have you any interest in going to see the film of the book?

― Andrew Farrell (afarrell), Thursday, 3 June 2004 08:14 (twenty-one years ago)

Prisoner of Azkaban? Er, I'm going to say no. I know it's not directed by that hack Chris Columbus, but I'm not convinced that the director of a Harry Potter film matters any more than the director of a Joel Silver film, so I can't see it being any better than the other two. I don't think any of those kids can act, and Gary Oldman hasn't been in anything good in years.

― accentmonkey (accentmonkey), Thursday, 3 June 2004 10:10 (twenty-one years ago)

It wasn't even as good as the first two films, in fact. Too many fake rocks and breathless teens running amongst them, not enough jokes or school life, and half the good background stuff from the book was missed out or condensed so the time-scale hardly made sense. And Gary Oldman was shouty and crap.

― Archel (Archel), Thursday, 3 June 2004 11:31 (twenty-one years ago)

>It wasn't even as good as the first two films, in fact. Too many fake rocks and breathless teens running amongst them...

Aaghh!! No! I can't hear you! La la la la laaaa!!

I'm ditching work early tomorrow to see a matinee. I like to bring my wand with me to the HP movies. During the film, I swish my wand and mouth the spells with the actors: Alohomora [Swish]... Petrificus Totalus [Swish, slash]... Expelliarmus! [Swish, jab, accidentally poke-out the eye of the kid in the seat next to me, he starts crying, I futily scream "Reparo! Reparo!" as I point my wand at the kid's face, the theater people call the cops, I fail a breathalizer, etc...]

― Vermont Girl (Vermont Girl), Thursday, 3 June 2004 11:42 (twenty-one years ago)

Eek sorry for fake rock spoiler! ;)

― Archel (Archel), Thursday, 3 June 2004 11:45 (twenty-one years ago)

Have just finished number five. The end is pretty good, even if the whole thing does go on and on and...

― accentmonkey (accentmonkey), Thursday, 3 June 2004 13:04 (twenty-one years ago)

Yeah, that's basically how I felt too at the time. I can't even remember now what happened in those first 700 or so pages. And unlike the other four, I couldn't envision it being a good movie.

― Vinnie (vprabhu), Thursday, 3 June 2004 13:28 (twenty-one years ago)

Is five out in paperback yet?

― Mikey G (Mikey G), Thursday, 3 June 2004 13:41 (twenty-one years ago)

Amazon says August 10.

― Vinnie (vprabhu), Thursday, 3 June 2004 13:48 (twenty-one years ago)

'Man In The High Castle' is an A1 fucking amazing read - I envy those who have yet to read this book.

Currently reading James Ellroy's 'American Tabloid' and just loving it. Have lined up 'The Cold Six Thousand' to follow.

― Mog, Thursday, 3 June 2004 13:53 (twenty-one years ago)

Will anyone do the honourable thing and start an "I Love Parry Hotter" board. Pretty. Please.

― SRH (Skrik), Thursday, 3 June 2004 14:50 (twenty-one years ago)

Well, *I* thought it was sexy. It depends on your liking for lesbian fisting episodes involving chemises, oysters and cross-dressing, really.

Oh, I too think it's sexy, now.

― the junefox, Thursday, 3 June 2004 15:28 (twenty-one years ago)

GB84

― the bluefox, Thursday, 3 June 2004 15:29 (twenty-one years ago)

Now reading the sixth Mike Hammer book, "Kiss Me, Deadly", and the last of the books collected in the two MH omnibus editions. Have been greatly enjoying Spillane's writing and Hammer's gritty, in/flexible moral code (i.e. it's okay for him to cheat on his true love Velda, but make a kid an orphan and beware the .45 caliber wrath of Mike!). Hope they release a third volume with the next three books, so I don't end up snagging individual copies. Having seen (and enjoyed) the Ralph Meeker film, am curious to read how the book differs/mirrors the movie.

― Chris Hill (Chris Hill), Thursday, 3 June 2004 16:09 (twenty-one years ago)

peter hoeg's borderliners. seems to be standing on the edge of actually using the kind of science fiction trope it keeps invoking but i fully expect it not to, which would leave it a quite dull sort of novel -

― tom west (thomp), Thursday, 3 June 2004 18:24 (twenty-one years ago)

Seamus Heaney's Finders Keepers: Selected Prose, 1971-2001

― cozen (Cozen), Thursday, 3 June 2004 20:16 (twenty-one years ago)

Francis Spufford's 'I May Be Some Time': Ice & the English Imagination.

― cozen (Cozen), Friday, 4 June 2004 15:41 (twenty-one years ago)

Starting Vernon God Little from where I left it.

― Fred (Fred), Friday, 4 June 2004 18:01 (twenty-one years ago)

A collection of Donald Justice poems.
Fool on the Hill by Matt Ruff.

― bnw (bnw), Friday, 4 June 2004 18:14 (twenty-one years ago)

Fredric Jameson's The Political Unconscious and Richard Yates' Easter Parade.

― cozen (Cozen), Saturday, 5 June 2004 15:07 (twenty-one years ago)

... and... (drumroll)... Geoffrey O'Brien's Sonata for Jukebox.

― cozen (Cozen), Saturday, 5 June 2004 15:23 (twenty-one years ago)

samuel delany's autobiography hurrah

― tom west (thomp), Saturday, 5 June 2004 18:16 (twenty-one years ago)

h.g. wells - kipps

― lauren (laurenp), Saturday, 5 June 2004 20:07 (twenty-one years ago)

Well, on finding that the two books i had queued up to read now didn't look very enticing at all, I went and dragged something random off the shelf of "books I want to read" (which has been growing for years, but I'm too much of a library-addict to ever make much of a dent)

SO!
I've started GK Chesterton's The man who was Thursday.
Hooray! It's quite nifty so far.

― Øystein H-O (Øystein H-O), Saturday, 5 June 2004 22:19 (twenty-one years ago)

and Richard Yates' Easter Parade.

Cozen, lemme kow what you think. I'm in awe of yates. I'm halfway thru the biography. god, it's addictive. you would think i would be sick of all the drunken bad behaviour, but it hasn't happened. Easter Parade just devastated me.

― scott seward (scott seward), Saturday, 5 June 2004 23:28 (twenty-one years ago)

I loved Revolutionary Road (despite its wonky too-balanced orchestration, e.g., the madman deus ex machina) so I doubt I'll dislike this.

― cozen (Cozen), Sunday, 6 June 2004 11:49 (twenty-one years ago)

Only 30pp to go.

― the minefox, Sunday, 6 June 2004 14:00 (twenty-one years ago)

Finished. A baffling book, in a way. The History is clear enough, gives the thing its trajectory; but the flavourings of Gothic and Espionage don't ever come clean or clear.

A touch of Morley about the prose, at best; makes me wish I'd heard Morley interview him, after all.

― the minefox, Sunday, 6 June 2004 15:18 (twenty-one years ago)

Just finished Running With Scissors. Eek. But hilarious.

― Archel (Archel), Monday, 7 June 2004 08:10 (twenty-one years ago)

The Stepford Wives.

― Vermont Girl (Vermont Girl), Monday, 7 June 2004 10:42 (twenty-one years ago)

the duino elegies. and the delany, still: a couple of years ago i'd have wished i was him so much more, and i don't know what to make of that.

― tom west (thomp), Monday, 7 June 2004 22:00 (twenty-one years ago)

note to self: berryman's line isn't

"Rilke was a jerk"

but

"Rilke was a jerk."

― tom west (thomp), Monday, 7 June 2004 22:03 (twenty-one years ago)

Earlier today: Esmé, with Love and Squalor.

― the bellefox, Tuesday, 8 June 2004 10:25 (twenty-one years ago)

Fludd, by Hilary Mantel.

― Archel (Archel), Tuesday, 8 June 2004 11:16 (twenty-one years ago)

Geoff Dyer The Colour of Memory. It comes recommended by some mates of mine and I'm enjoying it so far, even if its descriptions of doley living in Brixton are all a bit over my head, what with my never having lived on the dole and all.

― accentmonkey (accentmonkey), Tuesday, 8 June 2004 11:27 (twenty-one years ago)

I have given up on literature entirely, and now read only pulpy mysteries. I finished a Collins one in one big gulp,and am currently snacking on Elizabeth George AND James Lee Burke.

― aimurchie, Tuesday, 8 June 2004 12:42 (twenty-one years ago)

I have come to a resigned acceptance of Jay's verdict that I am Esmé, lately.

― Gregory Henry (Gregory Henry), Tuesday, 8 June 2004 12:48 (twenty-one years ago)

For

― tom west (thomp), Tuesday, 8 June 2004 12:57 (twenty-one years ago)

Monkey: that's funny: one of my favourite contemporary books, and I have read it no fewer than 5 times.

― the junefox, Tuesday, 8 June 2004 14:51 (twenty-one years ago)

Should I read more Geoff Dyer, having read Paris Trance and been distinctly underwhelmed? I mean, is it representative?

― Archel (Archel), Tuesday, 8 June 2004 15:08 (twenty-one years ago)

― Davel (Davel), Wednesday, 9 June 2004 07:27 (twenty-one years ago)

Monkey: that's funny: one of my favourite contemporary books, and I have read it no fewer than 5 times.

Foxy, have you really? I'm enjoying it, but I think it might take a while for the full genius that everyone else sees to filter through to me. Like I say, I can't really relate to the areas or the circumstances, but surely in a really well-written novel that shouldn't be an issue? I'm also surprised at how long it's taking me to read it, given its lack of density and plot.

Hmm, this all makes it sound like I don't really like it, but I honestly do.

― accentmonkey (accentmonkey), Wednesday, 9 June 2004 08:36 (twenty-one years ago)

Just started Ken Kesey's 'One Flew Over The Cuckoos Nest' - spotted in a bargain bin in the library. They had a 'Fill a bag for 50p' sale on withdrawn books, so I did.

Just finished Philip K Dick's 'The Man In The High Castle' which was a fantastic read and has gone straight into my top 3 PKD novels.

Also just re-read Paul Zindel's 'The Pigman' to see if it was as good as I remembered it being when I was a kid. It wasn't. It wasn't even close. I'm just glad it only cost me about 4p (part of the filled bag menioned above).

― Onimo (GerryNemo), Wednesday, 9 June 2004 08:40 (twenty-one years ago)

Paul Auster's New York Trilogy.
Strange how similar to Murakami it is.

― Joe Kay (feethurt), Wednesday, 9 June 2004 08:46 (twenty-one years ago)

Patrick Humphreys biography of Nick Drake. A difficult subject to write about. Lots of "Nick came around my house and sat in the corner, saying nothing. 14 hours later he left. He was a nice guy."

The opposite of anecdotes. Is there a word for that? How about Disancecdotes? Hmm, no.

I've always loved his songs.

― Mikey G (Mikey G), Wednesday, 9 June 2004 12:19 (twenty-one years ago)

But Beautiful by Geoff Dyer -- ugh. Tried to get through this once and failed, miserably.

― lovebug starski, Wednesday, 9 June 2004 12:25 (twenty-one years ago)

I started "The Buddha of Suburbia" last night and just ended up skimming it to see if I was missing anything. Not really. All I could think of was the Fox's opinion about sex in books, and how well this one fit Anne's "aren't I radical" comment.

― Jocelyn (Jocelyn), Wednesday, 9 June 2004 12:49 (twenty-one years ago)

Read 26 pages of Oliver Twist, it was intersting but the idea of spending two weeks with that book didn't seem so great. Then tried The Secret Lemonade Drinker but didn't like it in the first 25 pages. Now I've settled on Picture This by Joseph Heller, it's going good.

― Fred (Fred), Wednesday, 9 June 2004 16:56 (twenty-one years ago)

Actually Oliver Twist will be great in serial form. If only someone would start a blog posting one chapter every week.

― Fred (Fred), Wednesday, 9 June 2004 17:04 (twenty-one years ago)

Just finished Bad Blood by Lorna Sage - I thought it was wonderful. Now I'm reading Britons: Forging the Nation by Linda Colley. So far pretty good.

― Charles Dexter (Holey), Wednesday, 9 June 2004 17:26 (twenty-one years ago)

'I'm reading a book called "How to Write Realistic Dialogue".'
'You pranny.'

― PJ Miller (PJ Miller), Wednesday, 9 June 2004 19:21 (twenty-one years ago)

Well, big happy day at the library yesterday, so I have a nice pile to read over the next month.
Started off with Joyce - Dubliners.

― Øystein H-O (Øystein H-O), Thursday, 10 June 2004 03:09 (twenty-one years ago)

How appropriate, Oystein, since we are swinging into the centenary of Bloomsday in Dublin next week. Bloke is taking the day off work and we're considering going to the enormous breakfast of kidneys and stuff that will take place on O'Connell St. What Edwardian larks we will have.

― accentmonkey (accentmonkey), Thursday, 10 June 2004 06:57 (twenty-one years ago)

My girlfriend has just started reading the Da Vinci Code. Is this a split lip or black eye offence?

Please advise.

― Mikey G (Mikey G), Thursday, 10 June 2004 11:43 (twenty-one years ago)

Monkey: we must meet! I'm around Monday to Friday!!

― the junefox, Thursday, 10 June 2004 12:05 (twenty-one years ago)

Foxy: I'm around too! Let's take this to email.

― accentmonkey (accentmonkey), Thursday, 10 June 2004 14:29 (twenty-one years ago)

I have just started '27th City' by Jonathan Franzen. This is based on a friend's recommendation. Anyone read it?

― megan (bookdwarf), Thursday, 10 June 2004 14:49 (twenty-one years ago)

Fludd reads like it has cotton wool in its mouth. I think this might be deliberate, but can't tell as have not read any other Hilary Mantel. Her memoir sounds good.

― Archel (Archel), Thursday, 10 June 2004 14:59 (twenty-one years ago)

I was drawn in by Waterstones 3 for 2 summer offer today. A Royal Geographical Society publication of Hiram Bingham's discovery of Machu Pichu. Plus Marco Polo's diaries and a guide book on Romania. £20. Great stuff.

― Mikey G (Mikey G), Thursday, 10 June 2004 15:11 (twenty-one years ago)

Wow. Very long thread.

"An Intimate History of Humanity" by Theodore Zeldin
"Jean Santeuil" by Marcel Proust
"Mme Proust and the Kosher Kitchen" by Kate Taylor
"The Collected Poems of Wallace Stevens" by Wallace Stevens
"The Story Species: Our Life-Literature Connection" by Joseph Gold

I think that's all right now.

― August (August), Thursday, 10 June 2004 17:51 (twenty-one years ago)

I just finished the Yates biography. A truly fine biography! Sad (really sad in some ways), but inspiring as well. I just started the book Plainsong by, um, whatshisname, i'm gonna guess, Kent Haruf? Let me look, it's in the other room. Yeah, that's it, Kent Haruf. I picked it up at the thrift store.

More importantly though, 3 -COUNT 'EM- 3 Alice Munro short stories in this week's New Yorker!!! What have I done to deserve such riches? (coincidentally one of the only women writers that Richard Yates rated as worth the time. He was like that. What can I say?) But I not only rate her, I worship her. Okay, I don't worship her. But she staggers me like few living writers do.

― scott seward (scott seward), Thursday, 10 June 2004 21:15 (twenty-one years ago)

Just finished: I Capture the Castle (my new favourite thing!)
Just started: The Finishing School by Muriel Spark

― Archel (Archel), Monday, 14 June 2004 15:13 (twenty-one years ago)

I have started Bracewell's Crypto-Amnesia Club.

But look out for great footy reports all week, rather than books?

― the pomefox, Monday, 14 June 2004 21:07 (twenty-one years ago)

Just finished the Geoff Dyer. It was all very wistful and lovely and made me quite sad when it finished.

Now reading Anne Tyler's Earthly Possessions. It's the usual mix of bizarre characters and quirky small towns. Predictable, but pleasant.

― accentmonkey (accentmonkey), Monday, 14 June 2004 21:18 (twenty-one years ago)

I'm re-reading "Catcher in the Rye"

― Tatiana Marzi (wondertati), Tuesday, 15 June 2004 05:45 (twenty-one years ago)

I've just finished the "Anne of..." series and jumped into Discworld...but i don't think I'm that much interested, I mean, after all I'm not on holiday yet, plus I want something to think about too when I read, and whereas the "Anne of..." had some sparkle of delight now and again, the Discworld book doesn't really look like it. As a matter of fact I can't even remember much of last night's first plunge into it.

― misshajim (strand), Tuesday, 15 June 2004 06:13 (twenty-one years ago)

Poor Things-Alasdair Gray (Now I must track down the Gray thread)

― Jocelyn (Jocelyn), Tuesday, 15 June 2004 12:04 (twenty-one years ago)

Mm I liked Poor Things. Need to read Lanark obv but the library NEVER has it in.

― Archel (Archel), Tuesday, 15 June 2004 12:44 (twenty-one years ago)

Halfway through Daren King's "Jim Giraffe" which is turning out to be a huge disappointment after "Boxy an' Star". Also got "Any human heart" by William Boyd on the go and enjoying that much more.

Pinefox, how's that Bracewell book? It's been recommended to me so many times but each time I start reading it there's something about the first copule of pages that send me to sleep and I give it up. Worth perservering?

― winterland, Tuesday, 15 June 2004 14:21 (twenty-one years ago)

Whee! I just finished my first Italian-language easy reader, which was by Dario Fo (adapted of course) and now I'm a just-add-water Fo fan and am salivating over my future in the great unknown of Italian literature! Also reading a ton of mystery novels as research. All at once. (And I wonder why I keep spacing out when I try to talk to people!)

― Ann Sterzinger (Ann Sterzinger), Tuesday, 15 June 2004 17:24 (twenty-one years ago)

Winterland: indeed. I shall get back to you about this.

Sterzinger: I know a bit of Fo - just major plays, I guess.

― the junefox, Tuesday, 15 June 2004 20:02 (twenty-one years ago)

To Have and Have Not - Headless Hemmingway

I haven't read Earnest for about ten years. Macho!

― Mikey G (Mikey G), Friday, 18 June 2004 14:20 (twenty-one years ago)

Arrah, winterland, why couldn't you have posted that a month ago? You would have saved me the price of Jim Giraffe. Feck. I've just finished me Anne Tyler and am moving on to the free book I got off Bookcrossing.

I've come over all Duberlin today.

― accentmonkey (accentmonkey), Friday, 18 June 2004 15:03 (twenty-one years ago)

Books I got for my birthday:

Everything Is Illuminated by Jonathan Safran Foer (I kind of missed all the hoohah when it came out, but am halfway through now and it's good isn't it?)

Two Thousand Streets Under the Sky by Patrick Hamilton, in its nice new edition (get the other books back in print NOW!)

A Responsibility to Awe by Rebecca Elson (poetry)

― Archel (Archel), Monday, 21 June 2004 08:30 (twenty-one years ago)

Started Anna Karenina this morning. That's the way to kick off the week. Only 851 pages to go. I'm taking it with me to Transylvania on Wednesday. Had to jettison most of my underwear to find space for it in my rucksack.

― Mikey G (Mikey G), Monday, 21 June 2004 08:54 (twenty-one years ago)

hardt and negri 'empire'.

― Julio Desouza (jdesouza), Tuesday, 22 June 2004 10:02 (twenty-one years ago)

Just finished wandering through all of P.D. James again. It had been long enough I'd forgotten whodunnit. Her protagonist is a tormented poet. I have "Random Family" and an Alison Lurie in the offing. Sedaris always pimps someone else's book at his readings and he's on about "Random Family" now. It was the third recommendation I'd gotten, so I succumbed.

― Rabin the Cat (Rabin the Cat), Tuesday, 22 June 2004 19:56 (twenty-one years ago)

I started and finished "Goat:A Memoir" by Brad Land yesterday. Anyone else read it? I must like it to have read the whole thing at once. I got it at the library, but I was actually trying to find a book that has been highly recommended here....the title is..."The Traveller's Wife?" - or "Tales of...?" - does anyone know what I'm talking about? It's not on this thread (I just scrolled all the way through), but has received raves on other threads.

― aimurchie, Wednesday, 23 June 2004 01:16 (twenty-one years ago)

Junefox: is all of Fo absurd witty fun, or am I language-goggling?

― Ann Sterzinger (Ann Sterzinger), Wednesday, 23 June 2004 05:55 (twenty-one years ago)

Ainmurchie, d'you mean 'The Time Traveller's Wife'? I've seen good and bad things about it and was toying with buying it yesterday. If that's the one it's by the wonderfully named Audrey Niffenegger.

― winterland, Wednesday, 23 June 2004 07:30 (twenty-one years ago)

'Duberlin'!

There are about 2 big biographies of Fo. Terry Eagleton reviewed one, once. Has anyone seen a Fo play on stage?

― the junefox, Wednesday, 23 June 2004 10:53 (twenty-one years ago)

Just completed Picture This by Joseph Heller. It was wonderful.
Now started "Many Lives, Many Masters" by Dr. Brian Weiss.
Still reading Vernon God Little and The Occult by Colin Wilson.

― Fred (Fred), Wednesday, 23 June 2004 11:44 (twenty-one years ago)

About the Bracewell, *Crypto-Amnesia Club*: here's a para:

She was complete in that room, surrounded by her souvenirs and her relics, the epiphenomena of a life: the fluffy toys won for her by some former boyfriend at a coastal fair years ago, the strata of cosmetics (above the washstand) that dated back to the original Body Shop and then, finally, the bottom line - the row of twenty pairs of shoes, spread out like a crescendo on a creased piece of music. The spoils of a thousand shopping trips, the evidence of a thousand rainy afternoons in bad-tempered shops. From the plimsolls rebelliously worn to school, to the court shoes worn once to a friend's wedding, to the scuffed and despised work shoes, to the final sad lustre of the catalogue bridal slippers - white shells in a rockpool of tissue paper. Her fiancé was marrying a collection of shoes, scorched by hot pavements and frozen by bus stop sleet.

― the bellefox, Wednesday, 23 June 2004 11:59 (twenty-one years ago)

cryptomnesia.

― cozen (Cozen), Friday, 25 June 2004 20:38 (twenty-one years ago)

Just finished Many Lives, Many Masters and Vernon God Little.
Starting:
Selections from the complete works of Swami Vivekananda
The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy.

― Fred (Fred), Tuesday, 29 June 2004 09:27 (twenty-one years ago)

A Good Man Is Hard To Find by Flannery O'Connor.

Plus, in the way of poetry, A Working Girl Can't Win by Deborah Garrison, An Awful Racket by Rita Ann Higgins, and 101 Sonnets ed. by Don Paterson.

― Archel (Archel), Tuesday, 29 June 2004 09:46 (twenty-one years ago)

Rereading various Straight Dope books. About to consider starting either a history of the Roman Republic or a discussion of Dublin pubs.

― Ned Raggett (Ned), Tuesday, 29 June 2004 16:05 (twenty-one years ago)

Just finished An Almost Perfect Moment by Binnie Kirshenbaum, now reading The Wreck of the William Brown: A True Tale of Overcrowded Lifeboats and Murder at Sea by Tom Koch and The Winshaw Legacy by Jonathan Coe.

― Jessa (Jessa), Tuesday, 29 June 2004 16:35 (twenty-one years ago)

Jessa, are you getting into the mood for the movie Open Water?

I'm reading The Story of O.

― Vermont Girl (Vermont Girl), Tuesday, 29 June 2004 16:39 (twenty-one years ago)

I am 451/851's through Anna Karenina.

― Mikey G (Mikey G), Wednesday, 30 June 2004 10:16 (twenty-one years ago)

mikeyG, I think that's as far as I am thorugh the pasolini biography. (it' s easier here to skip whole parts about italian politics)

― erik, Wednesday, 30 June 2004 10:52 (twenty-one years ago)

I am loving Anna Karenina. It's just so...dense. Every character has 97 names, but the Penguin edition clarifies and is consistent throughout.

Even the agriculture discussion are interesting! Not something I say too often.

― Mikey G (Mikey G), Wednesday, 30 June 2004 10:56 (twenty-one years ago)

I've had a wee science fiction kick recently, after a year's sabbatical due to the rather atrocious "Snowcrash" ruining my appetite.

Karel Capek - War with the newts (wow, this was wonderful!)
China Miéville - Perdido Street Station (didn't expect to like this one, as it was a recommended scifi book, but turned out to be a fantasy thing, something I usually don't care for. Nonetheless, it was quite entertaining)
William Faulkner - The Sound And The Fury (It was tempting to just start re-reading right after finishing it, as chapter three and four really opened up the first one. I have to admit that I had some trouble with it at times, but it was a joy to read, and while it felt a bit obscure at first, it really cleared up in an exhilerating and fascinating manner. Must read more Faulkner!)

Started, but gave up on after 100 pages: Larry Niven - Ringworld. Yeech. I don't really like the way he writes, and the story was far from my kind of thing. Too much of a "what ho! Adventurin' time! O look at the strange creatures" plot.

I now have today to pack up a nice collection of books to read over the next two weeks, not sure what to bring yet, except "The French lieutenant's woman" and "Moby Dick", neither of which I've read before. I have tons of books here that I've yet to read, so it's fun to spend time browsing to figure out what I want to read next.

― Øystein H-O (Øystein H-O), Wednesday, 30 June 2004 11:38 (twenty-one years ago)

russian character names, aaah talk of gloom

― erik, Wednesday, 30 June 2004 12:11 (twenty-one years ago)

"So Prince Sherterbaksy, Vronsky is in Petersberg I hear?"

"Yes, the Count is there, Betsy."

You get used to it.

― Mikey G (Mikey G), Wednesday, 30 June 2004 12:21 (twenty-one years ago)

Jarhead - that autobiography from the sniper in Desert Storm. It's good when it sticks to the biography part, but almost unreadable/laughable when you hit one of his over the top metaphors.

― bnw (bnw), Wednesday, 30 June 2004 12:36 (twenty-one years ago)

"So, Misha, how was your trip to Romania?"

― jocelyn (Jocelyn), Wednesday, 30 June 2004 12:46 (twenty-one years ago)

I hated wronksy as much as I hated " her". I never finished AK.

― erik, Wednesday, 30 June 2004 12:53 (twenty-one years ago)

Romania:
Really cheap. Pizza and wine meal for about $4. Beautiful countryside. Tenuous Dracula connections. Had a cracking time.

Anna K:
My loyalties to the characters keep shifting. Although Levin (for whom read Tolstoy) is the most consistent and charming.

― Mikey G (Mikey G), Wednesday, 30 June 2004 12:58 (twenty-one years ago)

I once visited a lecture about AK film-adaptations it started with greta garbo and ended with jaqueline bisset.

― erik, Wednesday, 30 June 2004 13:19 (twenty-one years ago)

I started 'Snow' by Orhan Pamuk last night.
It's the fifth Pamuk book I've read. There's something about his writing that makes me a bit obsessive, even though only one of the 4 I've read so far was completely satisfying ('The New Life').
But this is very promising. It seems to be written in a more straightforward style than his other books, and directly tackles political/religious issues in modern Turkey. (A quote from Stendhal at the beginning promises discussion of 'ugly matters')

― Joe Kay (feethurt), Wednesday, 30 June 2004 14:07 (twenty-one years ago)

I just finished Monica Ali's Brick Lane. I really wanted to like it, but I simply can't muster any enthusiasm for it. I've been slogging through it for a month, and while there isn't anything particularly bad about it, there isn't anything remarkable about it either. The Islamic female fate/agency issues are somewhat interesting, but could've been handled well in fewer pages (and could've been treated with more subtlety). Maybe I've just read too many Indian/Bangladeshi/Desi novels lately to approach it with a fresh eye, and maybe I'm not ready to find fictional treatments of 9/11 anything more than gimmicky, but I have to say that in my opinion this is just mediocre litfic. I don't understand what all the fuss was about.

I'm also reading The Wind-Up Bird Chronicle, which was a gift and is my second Murakami--it's just what I expected, which is a good thing (and a good palate cleanser just now).

― mck (mck), Wednesday, 30 June 2004 14:14 (twenty-one years ago)

mck, I totally agree about Brick Lane...overrated, I thought. Unless I'm missing something? Why did people love it so much?

And bnw, OTM re: Jarhead. I got really sick of it by about 1/2way through.

I'm reading Jane Eyre for the first time. I haven't read anything non-contemporary in (I think) years, and I'm enjoying it immensely.

I had a high school teacher recommend once that, in order to keep track of potentially-confusing names in Russian novels, we mentally replace the Russian name with a common American one. I always thought this was funny advice. I mean, it just doesn't have the same ring to it.

"Happy families are all alike; every unhappy family is unhappy in its own way.
"Everything was in confusion in the Smith household."

― nory (nory), Wednesday, 30 June 2004 15:15 (twenty-one years ago)

Anna, Al, Katie and Dino be hangin' out in Russia.

― jocelyn (Jocelyn), Wednesday, 30 June 2004 15:34 (twenty-one years ago)

Any recommendations? I don't know what it is, but I have been in this rut lately where I haven't seen any books that have piqued my interest.

― Leon Czolgosz (Nicole), Wednesday, 30 June 2004 16:08 (twenty-one years ago)

re: nory

"aaah, anna karenina, you know, that book about the smiths."

― erik, Wednesday, 30 June 2004 16:10 (twenty-one years ago)

Just to register my disappointment on another reading misadveture since I'm such an very unforgiving reader lately.... Matt Ruff's "Fool on the Hill" i.e. "it's Tolkein but on a college campus!" Cliches + faeries + swords are still cliches. And using metafiction to show that "there's this guy and he's a writing a story and you're reading it! and i'm the writing guy!" is really not that clever at all, so spare us.

― bnw (bnw), Wednesday, 30 June 2004 17:23 (twenty-one years ago)

Let's see, I'm opening the box from Powells....

War of Words: Language, Politics and 9/11 -Sandra Silberstein
Don't Tell the Grown-ups: Subversive Children's Literature- Alison Lurie
The Book on Bush: How George W. (Mis)leads America-Eric Alterman and Mark Green
Reason: Why Liberals will win the battle for America-Robert Reich
Random Family: Love, Drugs, Trouble and Coming of Age in the Bronx -Adrian Nicole LeBlanc
Boys and Girls Forever: Children's Classics from Cinderella to Harry Potter- Alison Lurie

You can tell my politics and my profession from that bunch! Thank God I have a long weekend forthcoming.

― Rabin the Cat (Rabin the Cat), Thursday, 1 July 2004 02:56 (twenty-one years ago)

Evelyn Waugh - A Handful of Dust. His best, I think. It's a bookclub read, so I've had to take a break from Anna Karenina. Many similarities between the plots anyway.

― Mikey G (Mikey G), Thursday, 1 July 2004 12:45 (twenty-one years ago)

I am reading THE CURIOUS INCIDENT OF THE DOG IN THE NIGHT-TIME which an ilxor kindly gave me.

― the fairfox, Thursday, 1 July 2004 12:51 (twenty-one years ago)

Still Flannery O'Connor (all the Carson McCullers books were out of the library but a worthy substitute I thought), and also Watching The English by Kate Fox. At the extreme 'pop' end of pop soc-anth but interesting nevertheless.

― Archel (Archel), Thursday, 1 July 2004 12:58 (twenty-one years ago)

Hmmm. Perhaps I will read "The Curious Incident..." next, since I have finished Poor Things, am bookless, and have heard much praise for this one.

― jocelyn (Jocelyn), Thursday, 1 July 2004 13:31 (twenty-one years ago)

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