tell me what to read

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So, I want to use the Internet less, it's all part of my "getting out of a rut, getting motivated, being more constructive" plan.

I know we've had lots of posts like this before. But, please just name any book you enjoyed, and I'll print this post out at the end of the day and go check the books out in the bookshop tomorrow.

Thanks

― jel --, Friday, 15 March 2002 01:00 (twenty-four years ago)

done this a few times now. quite worried that this list doesnt seem to change much, but here we go - both fiction and non fiction

nicola barker - wide open
donald antrim - the verificationist (or the hundred brothers)
edward platt - leadville
simon reynolds - energy flash (like, duh!)
victor pelevin - clay machine gun (or babylon)
mikhail bulgakov - master & margarita

― gareth, Friday, 15 March 2002 01:00 (twenty-four years ago)

you should start with leadville, jel, definitely, because its about the western avenue, somewhere you should know pretty well?

― gareth, Friday, 15 March 2002 01:00 (twenty-four years ago)

Jel, as a footie fan it's your duty to read Brilliant Orange, the best football book I've ever read, that and the History of the world cup by Brian Glanville, which is very interesting.

― chris, Friday, 15 March 2002 01:00 (twenty-four years ago)

Yeah Brilliant Orange best book on footie *and* Holland. Other than that, I'll just say something like The Names by Don DeLillo or Barefoot in the Head by Brian Aldiss. Oh yeah I recently read Stand on Zanzibar by John Brunner and that one is quite enjoyable.

― Omar, Friday, 15 March 2002 01:00 (twenty-four years ago)

Novel - Tortilla curtain - T Coraghessan Boyle.

Short stories - Any Raymond Carver collection.

History - I shall bear witness - Victor Klemperer

Music - 45 - Bill Drummond.

Cinema - Hitchcock interviewed by Truffaut.

Footie - haven't read Brilliant orange. would recommend 'In ma head son' by Pat Nevin with George Sik.

― Billy Dods, Friday, 15 March 2002 01:00 (twenty-four years ago)

Brilliant Orange is fantastic, as is Football Against the Enemy by Simon Kuper (especially the chapter on Dynamo Kiev). And, of course, you should read The Wind Up Bird Chronicle cos it's great.

― Jonnie, Friday, 15 March 2002 01:00 (twenty-four years ago)

master & margharita and tortilla curtain seconded! lately i have been reading a lot of *ahem* women's books, the best of which were probably: The Blind Assassin by Margaret Atwood, Wise Children by Angela Carter, Devoted Ladies by Molly Keane, Bonjour Tristesse by Francoise Sagan and The Corner That Held Them by Sylvia TOwnsend Warner (latter recommended only if you like reading about Nuns). have also just finished "The Camomile" by Catherine Caerwell which was ACE! but i love all that 1890-1950 stuff so if you don't, best avoid the last 2 titles and the Keane. anything by Angela Carter = wicked tho.

― katie, Friday, 15 March 2002 01:00 (twenty-four years ago)

I'll third the Tortilla Curtain (its like the Bonfire Of The Vanities done right).

― Pete, Friday, 15 March 2002 01:00 (twenty-four years ago)

cor Pete i never thought about it like that! you're so right!

― katie, Friday, 15 March 2002 01:00 (twenty-four years ago)

I'll second Gareth's choices, particularly Russian ones. I'll add in:

Happiness by Will Ferguson
'Fast Food Nation' by Eric Schlosser
The Impressionist by Hari Kunzru
White Teeth by Zadie Smith
Thin Skin by Emma Forest.

― Ed, Friday, 15 March 2002 01:00 (twenty-four years ago)

Stop talking about TORTILLAS you fcukers, I'm GETTING HUNGRY!

― Sarah, Friday, 15 March 2002 01:00 (twenty-four years ago)

props to Gareth for The Master and Margarita. Absolutely amazing book . I second it wholeheartedly.

New Stuff

For fiction try Little Infamies by Panos Karnezis. I got a review copy but it's out soon. I loved it.

I'm very keen on 'Dead Men's Wages' by Lillian Pizzichini, which is a recent thing. A kind of East End Gangster memoir with a literary slant. My mate wasn't mad keen on it tho.

Old Stuff

The Man Who Was Thursday by G K Chesterton All of Saki's short stories

― misterjones, Friday, 15 March 2002 01:00 (twenty-four years ago)

I fifth the Master and Margharita and second 45.

― RickyT, Friday, 15 March 2002 01:00 (twenty-four years ago)

hooray for "man who was thursday" which is pretty much perfect. for all the bulgakov fans, which translation of master/margharita should i beg/scream/shout for???? i have a nasty fear of buying a copy only to realize it's been translated into yoda-speak or, even worse, hemingway style. god, how awful.

― dave k, Friday, 15 March 2002 01:00 (twenty-four years ago)

i've got the Penguin version, dunno who it's translated by or even if it's any good but it reads brilliantly. apparently there is a particularly poor/dodgy translation of it out there but i don't think it's that one... we've talked about this before, try ILE search!

― katie, Friday, 15 March 2002 01:00 (twenty-four years ago)

Another big yay for "The Man who was Thursday".

Run by Douglas Winter is sharp, filmlike and gun heavy.

W hite Boy Shuffle by Paul Beatty. Just damn funny.

Invisible Monsters by Chuck Palahniuk,the guy who wrote fight club.

In Search of Captain Zero, A. C. Weisbecker. The Ultimate in outlandish surfing and smuggling tales.

Oh and Motherless Brooklyn by Jonathan Lethem. Brilliant black comedy featuring Lionel Essrog, gangster with tourettes.

This is just an off the top of my head selection of rollockin good books, none are exactly highbrow but then I work for a publishing co and have had enough of worthy, self important "literature". (None of them are published by the company I work for so this is not SPAM!)

If you buy any of these and don't like them, I will eat them with a sauce of your choice.

― Simeon, Friday, 15 March 2002 01:00 (twenty-four years ago)

Does anybody like George Pelecanos? I keep mentioning him on threads like this one and no one's biting.

I LUUUURRRVVVE him. The Nick Stefanos sequence and the Washington Quartet are amongst my favourite crime fiction. Especially the Big Blowback

Who thinks TMWW Thursday deserves a film adaptation? Who'd be in it? Who'd be Sunday?

― misterjones, Friday, 15 March 2002 01:00 (twenty-four years ago)

Since I don't read enough, by any stretch of the imagination, I tend to recommend the same books on these threads. But If This Is a Man by Primo Levi really is the best book I've ever read. It's written by a guy who was in a concentration camp during the holocaust and it's unbelievable how he manages to just describe everything without any kind of emotion. I mean really the events should and do speak for themselves. It's really vivid and thus a little disturbing, but definitely worth reading at some point.

― Ronan, Friday, 15 March 2002 01:00 (twenty-four years ago)

I've read the Periodic Table by Primo Levi and that was very good too.

― Jonnie, Friday, 15 March 2002 01:00 (twenty-four years ago)

Fuct & fiction by Geoff Parkes

Blonde by Joyce carol Oates

Testosterone or Adrenaline by James Robert Baker

Perfume - Suskind

Dath olf the Author - Andrew Masterson

― Queen G, Friday, 15 March 2002 01:00 (twenty-four years ago)

Periodic Table rocks. Period.

Only kidding. It is one fo my top five books evah, though.

Anybody read any Josef Svorecky?

Anybody like Tibor Fischer?

― misterjones, Friday, 15 March 2002 01:00 (twenty-four years ago)

Tibor Fischer? is he the one who wrote don't read this book if you're stupid? I read it, remember enjoying it but that's about it, I'm terrible at remembering plots etc in books. That's probably why I re-read so many of them, it's like I've got literary Alzheimer's disease.

― chris, Friday, 15 March 2002 01:00 (twenty-four years ago)

Anyone read The Vulture by Gil-Scott Heron? Stunning novel by Heron when has was 19 (from memory). Suprising he hasn't written more as he he has awesome talent.

― Simeon, Friday, 15 March 2002 01:00 (twenty-four years ago)

I read The Bass Saxophone by Svorecky as part of my Czech writers course at university. I enjoyed it but not as much as The Good Soldier Svejk because that's got pictures in it ; )

― Jonnie, Friday, 15 March 2002 01:00 (twenty-four years ago)

Misterjones, I will buy a George Pelecanos tonight. Where should I start?

And I've always thought TMWWT would make a great film, I'd have to re-read it for proper casting suggestions but Stephen Fry should deffo be in it.

― Simeon, Friday, 15 March 2002 01:00 (twenty-four years ago)

Saki Saki Saki. Yes indeedy.

― Sam, Friday, 15 March 2002 01:00 (twenty-four years ago)

Anybody read any Josef Svorecky?

Read some of his mysteries -- seemed okay, but I only remember his name rather than the stories themselves!

I'll again recommend Humphry Clinker by Tobias Smollett.

― Ned Raggett, Friday, 15 March 2002 01:00 (twenty-four years ago)

I read The Bass Saxophone last week, and thought it was fair to good. I thought it would be about Bass.

Rocking the E. European tip, I enjoyed "Premeditated Murder" by Slobodan Selenic very much.

Also I adore the two Bernardo Atxaga books I've read, The Lone Man and The Lone Woman. I think I preferred the latter, because it's shorter.

I heard a rumour the other day that Harvill has been bought and its publication programme svagely cut: do any of you know if this is true? My current run of Harvill reading was kicked off by Murakami and by Richaud's "Gardener To The King", also marvellous. And short!

― Tim, Friday, 15 March 2002 01:00 (twenty-four years ago)

Chris, yes, Tibor Fischer wrote don't read this book if you're stupid, and excellent it is too, especially the titles: Ice tonight in the hearts of young visitors, anyone? I thought so. Try Under the Frog, his first novel.

Simeon, The Big Blowdown (not back as I said earlier - Imust have been thinking of some other big blowback) is chronologically the first in Pelecanos' Washington quartet (set in the forties), but in common with most Brits I read that sequence mostly backwards (3,2,1 and finally four), as that's the order they were published in over here, and I can recommend that approach. All the Nick Stefanos books are great. So that's Washington Quartet: the B B, King suckerman, The Sweet Forever, Shame the Devil. Nick Stefanos: A firing offence, nicks' trip, down by the river where the dead men go.

Incidentally, I believe Pelecanos has produced some of the Cohen Brothers movies.

Avoid Shoedog unless you're a fan - it's an earlier work and stands outside the sequences above, and it's not really in the same league.

TMWWT - thursday - Gabriel Byrne I think. Sunday - that big old bastard who played Blofeld in Diamonds Are Forever. Probably dead now.

Saki rules!

― misterjones, Friday, 15 March 2002 01:00 (twenty-four years ago)

Omar, that's the first time I've heard anyone mention Stand on Zanzibar in years. Have you read the Muller Fokker Effect by Sladek?

― misterjones, Friday, 15 March 2002 01:00 (twenty-four years ago)

i like tibor fischer, however my copy of the philosophy gang has an inscription of wuv from [xXx] so i shall nevah read another book by him again

― mark s, Friday, 15 March 2002 01:00 (twenty-four years ago)

Thanks Misterjones, you're a big star!
I'll buy The Sweet Forever (from Crime in Store, Covent Garden. Anybody know it?)
The rest I'll try and scam from a mate who works at Orion! I'll report back when I finish it.

― Simeon, Friday, 15 March 2002 01:00 (twenty-four years ago)

Svorecky's Lieutenant Berovka stories are bleak and beautiful - like simenon set against the backdrop of the Soviet Invasion of Czechoslovakia. Well worth a look. The engineer of Human Souls and Republic of Whores are great too.

― misterjones, Friday, 15 March 2002 01:00 (twenty-four years ago)

ENDER'S GAME

I'm gonna get someone to read the damn thing...

― Dan Perry, Friday, 15 March 2002 01:00 (twenty-four years ago)

Incidentally, as a knock on from this and the most recent tell me what to buy thread, I've just bought Leadville (thanks Gareth, it sounds great) and Motherless Brooklyn (at pretty much everybody's insistence) from Amazon. I'll let y'all know what I think.

― misterjones, Friday, 15 March 2002 01:00 (twenty-four years ago)

FLAUBERT

― anthony, Friday, 15 March 2002 01:00 (twenty-four years ago)

Cool thanks alot everyone! I shall have a look in the book shop tomorrow! Off home now.

― jel --, Friday, 15 March 2002 01:00 (twenty-four years ago)

Dan is of course right. Drop all this neo-millennial nonsense and get that. ;-)

― Ned Raggett, Friday, 15 March 2002 01:00 (twenty-four years ago)

three months pass...

Svorecky's best novels are The Mystery Game and The Engineer of Human Souls. Both are among the best e. european novels of the past 30 years.

― Mike Persellin, Wednesday, 10 July 2002 00:00 (twenty-three years ago)

nine years pass...

well?

― RR (Lamp), Thursday, 3 November 2011 06:47 (fourteen years ago)

Randomly: Carlo Levi - Christ Stopped at Levi

― xyzzzz__, Thursday, 3 November 2011 06:55 (fourteen years ago)

haha do you mean christ stopped at eboli?

― RR (Lamp), Thursday, 3 November 2011 06:57 (fourteen years ago)

haha oops I've not slept as much, but yes

― xyzzzz__, Thursday, 3 November 2011 07:00 (fourteen years ago)

yuri olesha

― thomp, Thursday, 3 November 2011 09:20 (fourteen years ago)

yuri olesha

― thomp, Thursday, 3 November 2011 09:20 (fourteen years ago)

dante

― Agyness Dei (Noodle Vague), Thursday, 3 November 2011 09:36 (fourteen years ago)

svevo

― Nigel Farage is a fucking hero (nakhchivan), Thursday, 3 November 2011 10:54 (fourteen years ago)

tolkien

― blind pele (darraghmac), Thursday, 3 November 2011 11:13 (fourteen years ago)

currently reading 'christ stopped at eboli' btw

am not going to read olesha but may have an olesha related dn soon

dante is too much for me although i have a copy of 'the inferno' so its possible

svevo is great but i read 'as a man grows older' already this year when i was on an nyrb kick and have read 'confessions...' a couple of times

actually picked up tolkien for an essay i wrote a couple of months ago and have no real urge to go back to him tbh. one day tho

― so solaris (Lamp), Wednesday, 9 November 2011 17:30 (fourteen years ago)

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