What are you reading?

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Well, what are you reading?

― Fred (Fred), Saturday, 17 July 2004 12:07 (twenty-one years ago)

I'm reading Pale Fire by Vladimir Nabokov, and enjoying it very much. I guess I'll have to read it twice atleast to truly appreciate it.
I'm also reading Five people you meet in heaven by Mitch Albom and don't like it at all so I'm giving it a pause.
Also there's Selections from the complete works of Swami Vivekananda, it's a big book but very inspiring.

― Fred (Fred), Saturday, 17 July 2004 12:15 (twenty-one years ago)

I'm about 50 pages into Lee's Native Speaker, which I'm enjoying (though I could do without the spy stuff, so far). And I'm also reading a story or two a day from Esquire Magazine's Big Book of Fiction. I started Graves's I, Claudius a few days ago, but I think I may have put that down for a while...

― David Elinsky (David Elinsky), Saturday, 17 July 2004 12:54 (twenty-one years ago)

Orwell's collected essays vol 1 (which obviously isn't as good as the later volumes), and the Paston letters (15th C. letters between members of an English family).

― Casuistry (Chris P), Saturday, 17 July 2004 14:36 (twenty-one years ago)

i just finished gwendoline riley's cold water. i think i need to do a thread on her. today i'm going to sit in the park and finish up greenwood's love on the dole. it looks like nice outdoor reading weather.

― lauren (laurenp), Saturday, 17 July 2004 14:47 (twenty-one years ago)

chris, the paston book sounds interesting, how did you found about that? and is it interesting?

― erik, Saturday, 17 July 2004 17:23 (twenty-one years ago)

After watching the NOVA special, I went out and borrowed "Galileo's Daughter."

― yesabibliophile (yesabibliophile), Saturday, 17 July 2004 17:58 (twenty-one years ago)

I'm still reading the same bloody book: The Half-Brother by Lars Saabye Christensen. It's a good book, but I am now at the stage where I wish the damn thing would end so I can read something new.

I hate that stage.

BTW, it's good to see you all.

― SRH (Skrik), Saturday, 17 July 2004 22:23 (twenty-one years ago)

The Paston book does seem interesting. I just saw it at the library and grabbed it. Lots of random chatter, in the first few letters (all I've read) about land disputes (which are kinda boring) and requests to purchase almonds and cloth for making winter dress (which is interesting). The modernized spelling creates this interesting variety of 15th C. English that never actually existed, which is also weird.

― Casuistry (Chris P), Saturday, 17 July 2004 22:45 (twenty-one years ago)

I've started Asimov's Mysteries, a collection of 13 sci-fi mysteries by Isaac Asimov.

― Fred (Fred), Sunday, 18 July 2004 14:31 (twenty-one years ago)

Presently 'The Dark Room' by R.K. Narayan, an old favourite of mine.

― Martin Skidmore (Martin Skidmore), Sunday, 18 July 2004 20:14 (twenty-one years ago)

What a Carve Up by Jonathan Coe. Halfway through and enjoying it. A Douglas Adams sense of humour.

― Mikey G (Mikey G), Monday, 19 July 2004 07:46 (twenty-one years ago)

I remember reading Bachelor of Arts by RK Narayan, it was a very light novel and I liked it. How is The Dark Room? Which Narayan books would you recommend?

― Fred (Fred), Monday, 19 July 2004 10:09 (twenty-one years ago)

I am reading the dreaded Crimson Petal and the White which I borrowed from my mum. Extremely annoying style of narration but getting used to it as I get more into the story. I bought three second-hand Robert B Parker books on Friday and read them all over the weekend :/

― Archel (Archel), Monday, 19 July 2004 11:32 (twenty-one years ago)

Perdido Street Station by China Mieville
Phoenix: Dawn by Osamu Tezuka

Haven't reached the point where I can't put down Perdido Street Station, but I'll keep at it be/c so many people have said it's the best book they've ever read. I guess that's just a matter of opinion.

I don't usually read manga, but Phoenix has been one of the most interesting and different graphic novels I've ever read. I know I'm going to get addicted to the whole series.

― Vermont Girl (Vermont Girl), Monday, 19 July 2004 11:49 (twenty-one years ago)

finished 'derek bailey and the story of free improvisation' by ben watson, also 'unsung heroes' by nick tosches.
'40 stories' d. barthelme
and yes, still 'empire' by hardt and negri

― Julio Desouza (jdesouza), Monday, 19 July 2004 12:44 (twenty-one years ago)

Vermont Girl, you are a woman of taste! Mieville is great, and the Phoenix series is about as good as comics have ever got (there's a thread on ILC, I believe) - the latest, fourth volume is the best yet.

I really like all of Narayan's Malgudi novels and stories. They're all equally light, really, so if you enjoyed one you'll enjoy the others as much. I also read one travel journal by him, in which I really didn't like him at all.

― Martin Skidmore (Martin Skidmore), Monday, 19 July 2004 14:53 (twenty-one years ago)

Oh, I am also theoretically reading A Brief Stay With the Living by Marie Darrieussecq but it's just not happening. It's not you Marie, it's me.

― Archel (Archel), Monday, 19 July 2004 14:57 (twenty-one years ago)

Like Vermont Girl, I have been reading comics. I finished the first two volumes of Fables, the first vol. of Y: The Last Man, and Age of Bronze: A Thousand Ships. They were all fantastic, and deserved all the praise I have been hearing. Unfortunately I am broke (cursed car repairs) and cannot purchase, and must wait for the library to get the next ones in. Now reading "The Beauty Supply District."

― jocelyn (Jocelyn), Monday, 19 July 2004 15:03 (twenty-one years ago)

For those who enjoy comics, my current reccommendation is Sleeper by Ed Brubaker. You won't regret it. For those who have never read comics and/or aren't interested in them, I reccommend Sleeper. Seriously, it's that good.

― Vermont Girl (Vermont Girl), Monday, 19 July 2004 15:07 (twenty-one years ago)

Trying to finish Junot Diaz's Drown, but I mentioned how good it was to my boyfriend and he took it to work today? But I am also reading The Late George Apley by John Marquand, which is also good.

― bookdwarf (bookdwarf), Monday, 19 July 2004 21:25 (twenty-one years ago)

brideshead revisited, selections from 'a choice of kipling's prose', and cien anos de soledad.

― j e r e m y (x Jeremy), Monday, 19 July 2004 22:41 (twenty-one years ago)

What a coincidence! I'm reading "Brideshead Revisited" too. The only other Waugh I've read is "Put Out More Flags" which is also good, but I'm feeling "BR" more.

― o. nate (onate), Tuesday, 20 July 2004 03:05 (twenty-one years ago)

'London Orbital' by Iain Sinclair - took me a while to get into it but now *really* enjoying it. Think it helps that I've always lived within the M25 so I know all the places he writes about.

― Mog, Tuesday, 20 July 2004 08:42 (twenty-one years ago)

Yeats: REVERIES

cos I have finished RING ROAD, at last.

+ still reading MACNEICE

― the ringfox, Tuesday, 20 July 2004 10:20 (twenty-one years ago)

Just finished: The Catcher In The Rye. I can't see what all the fuss is about. Maybe I'm too long past my teens to empathise with the narrator.

Currently reading: "Lucky You" by Carl Hiaasen. Hiaasen's usual bunch of corrupt officials, scam artists, social misfits and cynical journalists a Florida crime/environment caper. This is my 5th or 6th Hiaasen novel and they are getting a bit samey but good fun nonetheless.

Next up: Lance Armstrong's autobiography "It's Not About The Bike" which a colleague assures me is a good read. I have a feeling I won't see it through, I find it hard to relate to a man who takes his bike on his honeymoon.

― Onimo (GerryNemo), Tuesday, 20 July 2004 12:10 (twenty-one years ago)

Have you seen a photo of his wife?

― Mikey G (Mikey G), Tuesday, 20 July 2004 12:16 (twenty-one years ago)

She's not bad at all. Could be worse.

― Vermont Girl (Vermont Girl), Tuesday, 20 July 2004 12:49 (twenty-one years ago)

Isn't Armstrong with Sheryl Crow now?
Anyway, I'm reading 'The Big Con' by David Maurer, a book written in 1940 about confidence tricksters.
Also reading 'The Speciality of the House and other stories' by Stanley Ellin. I thought he was mentioned on another thread, but it turned out that was Stanley Elkin. My Stanley used to get his stories published in Ellery Queen's Mystery Magazine, and I love all that stuff.

― Joe Kay (feethurt), Tuesday, 20 July 2004 13:17 (twenty-one years ago)

Perhaps you should try reading Catcher in the Rye again after a year or so.

― Fred (Fred), Tuesday, 20 July 2004 14:07 (twenty-one years ago)

Here is where I admit I'm just getting around to Kavalier and Clay by Chabon. And yes, it's as good as everyone said, and yes, now I feel stupid for taking so long to read it. It's just so difficult to read a book when the hype is neverending.

Also reading This is America?: Lawrence, Kansas in the 1960's because I'm from Kansas and it sparked my interest at the used bookstore. Pretty good thus far, but I'm not entirely sure it would entertain anyone not from Kansas. Maybe it gets more universal later on.

― Jessa (Jessa), Tuesday, 20 July 2004 16:36 (twenty-one years ago)

That reminds me, I'm curious to read that What's Wrong with Kansas? book that just came out from Thomas Frank, the Baffler guy. He was on Charlie Rose the other night making quite persuasive noises about his "Let the Left be the Left again" theme.

― o. nate (onate), Wednesday, 21 July 2004 03:43 (twenty-one years ago)

Or should I say "Let the Democrats be Democrats again" theme. I suppose the Left has always been the Left.

― o. nate (onate), Wednesday, 21 July 2004 03:44 (twenty-one years ago)

I'm slowly reading Dario Fo's Morte accidentale di un anarchico as my first non-easy reader in Italian; reading Voltaire's L'Ingenu and wondering why the hell I never read it before, it's delish; and I'm rereading Asimov's I, Robot and Foundation in anticipation of the I, Robot movie. I wonder what on earth they're going to do with the Robbie the Robot character? That movie needs a thread when it comes out...

― Ann Sterzinger (Ann Sterzinger), Wednesday, 21 July 2004 04:16 (twenty-one years ago)

I wonder what Asimov would have made of Will Smith?

Finished Jonathan Coe's, What a Carve Up. I'd give it 9/10 on the Mikey G scale.

Now finishing Hiram Bingham's Peruvian journals and then onto The Travels of Marco Polo.

― Mikey G (Mikey G), Wednesday, 21 July 2004 07:42 (twenty-one years ago)

From the ads I've seen, the movie I, Robot seems to bear little resemblance to the Asimov stories.

― Martin Skidmore (Martin Skidmore), Wednesday, 21 July 2004 09:59 (twenty-one years ago)

That movie needs a thread when it comes out...

Didn't this movie open last weekend?

― o. nate (onate), Wednesday, 21 July 2004 17:52 (twenty-one years ago)

Oh man, I better read fast...

― Ann Sterzinger (Ann Sterzinger), Wednesday, 21 July 2004 19:36 (twenty-one years ago)

I went to the used book store this past weekend because I was out of things to read but I couldn't decide what to get so I ended up with "The Flamingo's Smile," an '85 collection of Stephen Jay Gould essays (which is fantastic and I can feel my brane growing) and "The Names" by Don DeLillo, which I probably read in high school but I can't remember for sure, and which I'll read next.

― St. Nicholas (Nick A.), Wednesday, 21 July 2004 20:23 (twenty-one years ago)

I read a short history of the Roman Empire last night / this morning. My knowledge of the chronology of Roman emporers was very shaky to say the least. Now it is just shaky.

― Mikey G (Mikey G), Thursday, 22 July 2004 07:20 (twenty-one years ago)

'mad pride', its a collection of essays on madness, etc.

― Julio Desouza (jdesouza), Thursday, 22 July 2004 10:00 (twenty-one years ago)

mad pride sounds interesting.

― Fred (Fred), Thursday, 22 July 2004 10:10 (twenty-one years ago)

My mom lent me Janet Evanovich # 10, which was highly entertaining as usual, then I read some more comics including something Spiderman and "It's a Bird," which is very good but overhyped. The art is absolutely beautiful, though. I'm about to begin The Fortress of Solitude. Mikey, you're ahead of me, as I must confess that most of my history of Rome comes from the Claudius books and TV series.

― jocelyn (Jocelyn), Thursday, 22 July 2004 12:45 (twenty-one years ago)

I am reading John D'Agata's 'Halls of Fame' - a luckybag of journalism, poetry, speculation and fiction - but it's not really cohering for me at the moment.

Just finished 'Preston Falls' by David Gates (sought out because Gates writes a v OTM intro to the new classics edition of DB's '60 Stories') and it wasn't what I expected at all - it's a very thorough, Richard Fordy study of a relationship falling apart - but I enjoyed it almost despite myself.

― Jerry the Nipper (Jerrynipper), Thursday, 22 July 2004 13:52 (twenty-one years ago)

I'm on Peter Hoeg's The Woman & The Ape now. Having read Smilla, I expect it to turn out to be an alien ape.

― Martin Skidmore (Martin Skidmore), Thursday, 22 July 2004 21:24 (twenty-one years ago)

The REM biography 'Fiction' by David Buckley. It reminded me that music is best listened to rather than written about. "Peter Buck dropped out of university, but he had an education in sound." Ha ha.

― Mikey G (Mikey G), Friday, 23 July 2004 07:34 (twenty-one years ago)

I'm reading 'true tales of american life' edited by Pauol Auster, and I'm really enjoying it. It's perfect tube reading, cos it's lots of little stories that are three pages max. There are sweet stories, amusing ones, well written ones, something for everyone.

― Vicky (Vicky), Friday, 23 July 2004 09:59 (twenty-one years ago)

"Dress Your Family in Corduroy and Denim" --David Sedaris

― pepektheassassin (pepektheassassin), Friday, 23 July 2004 15:34 (twenty-one years ago)

I'm reading A Game of Thrones by George R.R. Martin the first book in the Song of Ice and Fire series.
Also on the side I've been looking through this book "Social Culture" I found at a garage sale that was printed in 1902 about proper etiquette.

― Jaime-Lynn (nynaeve), Saturday, 24 July 2004 13:59 (twenty-one years ago)

the swimming pool library by allan hollinghurst + a lonely planet edtion on istanbul, the city i'll be visiting next week.

― erik, Sunday, 25 July 2004 18:18 (twenty-one years ago)

Skipping 708 messages at this point... Click here if you want to load them all.

I had best attempt that sentence once more:

Frantzen seems bent (and not merely in the section on the cook, but elsewhere, virtually throughout) on adding to his display of medical and engineering eruditions an unending catalogue of rare ingredients and mysterious cooking techniques.

(BTW, is the cook dimly inspired by Monica Geller on Friends?)

― the bellefox, Monday, 27 December 2004 17:00 (twenty years ago)

She didn't seem to have anything in common with her that I could see.

Yes, some of the satire was heavyhanded, and seemed out of tone with the rest, but I rarely mind that too much. And I have no interest in cookery, but I like understanding any craft, and didn't think there was too much of that anyway.

― Martin Skidmore (Martin Skidmore), Monday, 27 December 2004 23:52 (twenty years ago)

More descriptions of snow-covered towns in literature
One of most famous snowfalls in literature, in prose at least, is in James Joyce's "The Dead."
Personal favorite is in Alexander Pushkin's story called "Snowstorm," I think.

― Ken L (Ken L), Tuesday, 28 December 2004 01:50 (twenty years ago)

Genya Ravan Lollipop Lounge: Memoirs of a Rock and Roll Refugee
Laura Kipnis Against Love (A Polemic)
Judith Flanders Inside the Victorian Home
Kenneth Goldsmith I'll Be Your Mirror: the Selected Andy Warhol Interviews
Joel Lobenthal Tallulah! The Life and Times of a Leading Lady

rereading:
Cynthia Heimel Sex Tips for Girls & Advanced Sex Tips for Girls

― tokyo rosemary (rosemary), Tuesday, 28 December 2004 04:03 (twenty years ago)

I was suprised that I enjoyed Against Love so much.

― tokyo rosemary (rosemary), Tuesday, 28 December 2004 04:11 (twenty years ago)

Why do you need tips?

― the bellefox, Tuesday, 28 December 2004 10:32 (twenty years ago)

Prospect Magazine, December edition. I like the fact it is a bit out of date, like Shoot! magazine used to be.

― Puddin'Head Miller (PJ Miller), Tuesday, 28 December 2004 11:58 (twenty years ago)

Oh, rereading.

― the bellefox, Tuesday, 28 December 2004 12:05 (twenty years ago)

Still.

― the bellefox, Tuesday, 28 December 2004 12:06 (twenty years ago)

Anyway:

Chronicles: Volume One

which Accentmonkey considered

very poorly written and most unengaging.

Also, 20pp into The Line of Beauty. Maybe Jed and I have literary taste in common after all.

― the bobfox, Tuesday, 28 December 2004 12:09 (twenty years ago)

What I love about Dylan: his immersion in an old world, not the new one. I don't so much mean the venerable folk music that he says was permanent news to him, but his ready recollections of Ricky Nelson and Roy Orbison as men who matter.

― the bobfox, Tuesday, 28 December 2004 12:51 (twenty years ago)

I had a look at the Bob Dylan book to see if it was 'very poorly written and most unengaging' and became so engaged I forgot to check if it was poorly written. The bit I read stated that he had made an album based on Chekov short stories and people had assumed it was autobiographical. I suppose he means Blood on the Tracks. If not, which album? And more importantly, which Chekov stories? Lady with Lap Dancer?

I am going to exchange How to Get a Job You'll Love for that David Thompson film dictionary, because I liked the entry on J-Lo.

― Puddin'Head Miller (PJ Miller), Tuesday, 28 December 2004 19:47 (twenty years ago)

Ken, any particular Mathews recommendations? I've read the essays and "20 Lines A Day", both of which I quite liked, and "The Orchard" and some of his Oulipo writings, but I couldn't get into "The Sinking of the Or....dek Stadium" (can't remember the spelling) despite its obvious appeals. I'm thinking of renting "Solitary Pleasures" from the library, since it seems like a clear winner, but it seems so clear I don't know if I need to bother reading it.

― Casuistry (Chris P), Tuesday, 28 December 2004 22:14 (twenty years ago)

PJM: yes, I think that's what he means. (And I'm only on page 62 or something; Chekhov remains unmentioned. Balzac doesn't.)

― the bellefox, Tuesday, 28 December 2004 22:31 (twenty years ago)

xpost:
Cigarettes

― Ken L (Ken L), Thursday, 30 December 2004 05:28 (twenty years ago)

James Ellroy's 'Dudley Smith Trio' (The Big Nowhere, L.A. Confidential, White Jazz).

Harry Potter 3, someone bought me a copy for Chrimbo after my second hand copy turned out to have loads of pages missing.

Just finished Jesper FForde's 'Well Of Lost Plots' - a bit of a holding pattern in terms of the overall Thursday Next story but the ideas, the writing and the gags are some consolation for the lack of coherent plot.

― Onimo (GerryNemo), Thursday, 30 December 2004 12:10 (twenty years ago)

The Arden Shakespeare Complete Works, Revised Edition

― Puddin'Head Miller (PJ Miller), Saturday, 1 January 2005 11:28 (twenty years ago)

I'm reading Mediterranean: Portrait of the Sea by Ernle Bradford. It's hopelessly out of date now, written in 1961, but it is fascinating and wonderfully written.

― Kevan (Kevan), Saturday, 1 January 2005 13:39 (twenty years ago)

My Faith So Far by Patton Dodd

― Jessa (Jessa), Sunday, 2 January 2005 16:36 (twenty years ago)

if on a winter's night a traveler (hilarious and mysterious, the kind of thing that gives metafiction a good name)

and dipping randomlike into the Thomson film dictionary, great fun, smart writing, wrong about all sorts of things but arguing with him is part of the pleasure of reading him.

― gypsy mothra (gypsy mothra), Monday, 3 January 2005 09:24 (twenty years ago)

The Moon In Its Flight by Gilbert Sorrentino

― Ken L (Ken L), Monday, 3 January 2005 14:41 (twenty years ago)

Chris,
I'm not surprised you couldn't get into The Sinking of the Odradek Stadium. It's not his best book, not as much interesting writing as some of his other stuff, and an annoyingly jokey plot about secret lodges- when I read it, I thought I had another Masters of Atlantis on my hands, but it wasn't that bad. I liked The Journalist a lot, The Conversions too, but Cigarettes was my favorite. Each chapter is from the point of view of a different character, which gives Harry a chance to show his stuff. Be warned that it has a pretty complicated plot, maybe beyond Ross Macdonald complicated and onto Mission:Impossible complicated.

― Ken L (Ken L), Monday, 3 January 2005 15:11 (twenty years ago)

Don Quixote, Part One.

― Puddin'Head Miller (PJ Miller), Tuesday, 4 January 2005 10:17 (twenty years ago)

The Master and Margarita by Mikhail Bulgakov
Brick Lane by Monica Ali
The Blue Book by Owen Sheers
How to be Alone by Jonathan Franzen (haven't really started this yet)
rereading: Early Autumn by Robert B Parker (my favourite of his)

― Archel (Archel), Tuesday, 4 January 2005 10:45 (twenty years ago)

Enduring Cuba by Zoe Bran. I'm starting a travel writing course next week and she's the tutor. I am such a creep.

Plus Kate Atkinson - Case Histories and a biography of Raphael ('cos I went to the show at the National Gallery and it was the bestest).

― MikeyG (MikeyG), Tuesday, 4 January 2005 12:06 (twenty years ago)

En Malstrøm by Jonas Lie.

― SRH (Skrik), Tuesday, 4 January 2005 17:52 (twenty years ago)

The Blue Flower by Penelope Fitzgerald and a very entertaining bio of fashion legend Diana Vreeland.

― Gail S, Tuesday, 4 January 2005 19:18 (twenty years ago)

That Blue Flower sure was good.

― Ken L (Ken L), Tuesday, 4 January 2005 19:19 (twenty years ago)

i just started positively fourth street: the lives and times of bob dylan, joan baez, mimi baez farina, and richard farina. it's interesting to read about the baez sisters, but the author needed a much stronger editor. so far, too much editorializing (and some awful usage errors).

― lauren (laurenp), Wednesday, 5 January 2005 10:45 (twenty years ago)

Just finished Last bridge home by iris johansen. now re-reading dubliners. still on fight club.

― Fred (Fred), Wednesday, 5 January 2005 17:56 (twenty years ago)

I couldn't finish, or rather, couldn't really start 'The Blue Flower'.

― Michael White (Hereward), Wednesday, 5 January 2005 18:58 (twenty years ago)

Still, still making my way through RF Foster's Modern Ireland, also reading Phillipa Gregory's Virgin Earth, which has a little too much of her research embedded in people's conversations for my liking. "What, you mean the king will invade Scotland just because they won't use Laud's prayerbook?"
"That's not the only reason. He wants to bind everyone together under one faith," and so on.

Also dipping in and out of Tom Pocock's The Terror Before Trafalgar. I'm not sure how much I care about battles if they don't have Jack Aubrey in 'em.

― accentmonkey (accentmonkey), Wednesday, 5 January 2005 19:02 (twenty years ago)

I couldn't finish, or rather, couldn't really start 'The Blue Flower'.
There is something about Penelope F that is kind of boring or difficult to warm up to or three steps ahead of you - I am not sure how I overcame it except by dint of sheer willpower, I don't know where it came from.

― Ken L (Ken L), Wednesday, 5 January 2005 19:24 (twenty years ago)

Monkey, surprisingly, or maybe not, I have read most of that Foster book!

But maybe it was not really 'most', more like 'half' or something. But some bits I have read more than once. I think I read from The Ascendancy Mind on, if not earlier; and the first chapters, etc etc. Anyway - it's impressive, isn't it?

Memories: reading it, summer 2003, under the tree outside my house, with freshly made coffee, bagel, and the wee old Irish gardener passing by and calling, - ah, now what's that you're reading?

― the finefox, Thursday, 6 January 2005 11:46 (twenty years ago)

I finished Chronicles, on a Northbound train, with the likes of Berwick's harbour almost going unregarded. Generous, quirky, loose yet so often inspired: I could not help but chuckle in public through the queer Oh Mercy sessions.

Maybe the greatest pop book I have ever read!

― the bobfox, Thursday, 6 January 2005 11:48 (twenty years ago)

Now, 290pp into the 500pp of (In) The Line of Beauty. Gayest book I have ever read. Thinking about the (Jamesian) style, I come to the thought: it's about a careful manuipulation of carelessness.

― the bellefox, Thursday, 6 January 2005 11:49 (twenty years ago)

Wee old Irish gardener, eh?

Surprisingly, although it's taking me a long time to read it, I'm quite enjoying the bits I understand. It does it take for granted that you already know the sequence of all major events, for instance, and tends to explain a lot of why and how instead of telling what, and I'm not sure I know enough about the history of my own country to be able to fully grasp a book like that.

[Hangs head in shame. Slinks away.]

― accentmonkey (accentmonkey), Thursday, 6 January 2005 13:25 (twenty years ago)

Finished Death and the Penguin and read Audrey Niffenegger's fantastic The Time Traveler's Wife over the holidays; now on to Fingersmith. Great after only 20 pages.

― zan, Thursday, 6 January 2005 16:18 (twenty years ago)

Third Girl by Agatha Christie

― Fred (Fred), Saturday, 8 January 2005 17:17 (twenty years ago)

"Down and Dirty Pictures: Miramax, Sundance and the Rise of Independent Film." By Peter Biskind More like an endless magazine article than a proper book w/ narrative arc and fully developled characters but I'm devouring it like salt peanuts, salt peanuts. (Nothing else seemed worth contemplating in the library this week.) One thought emerges from all the Harvey "Satan" Weinstein anecdotes: why do people working in entertainment and/or the media conflate being an assholic martinet and being an effective manager? The cult of the insane dickhead boss begins (ends?) here.

― lovebug starski (lovebug starski), Saturday, 8 January 2005 19:27 (twenty years ago)

amazon customer reviews

― Julio Desouza (jdesouza), Monday, 10 January 2005 13:26 (twenty years ago)

Just a thought, but might it not be an opportune time to start a new thread, along the lines of '2005: now what are you reading?'? Only this one's a little unwieldy to say the least...

― Mog, Monday, 10 January 2005 14:06 (twenty years ago)

Yes.

Monkey: you're quite right about the book. I feel that I must clarify that the gardener is not 'mine', in some Woolfian or Perloffian way, but works for the whole block of flats. He is, though, wee, and Irish, and we get on well talking about Cork and Joyce.

― the finefox, Monday, 10 January 2005 14:32 (twenty years ago)

I agree with Mog, it takes about 2 minutes to load up on my poor 56k modem.

You start the new thread Mog, and I'll back you up.

― Kevan (Kevan), Monday, 10 January 2005 14:58 (twenty years ago)

kevan-- go to the 'settings' - look at show messages and change it from 'all'...no pressure on yr modem.

― Julio Desouza (jdesouza), Monday, 10 January 2005 15:30 (twenty years ago)

I've made a new 2005 thread, but I have no idea how to link to it here. So you'll have to find it yourselves (unless someone more familiar with the dark arts can link it for me).

― Mog, Monday, 10 January 2005 15:35 (twenty years ago)

To link a thread, all you have to do is paste the address and it turns into this:
2005: so now what are you reading?

― W i l l (common_person), Monday, 10 January 2005 16:22 (twenty years ago)

The members of this forum have set the message limit to last 50 posts so I don't think the length of a thread matters.
I'm reading Harry Potter and the chamber of secrets.

― Fred (Fred), Monday, 10 January 2005 16:33 (twenty years ago)

Fred: That's actually your own setting -- you can go down to "settings" at the bottom of the page and change it if you'd like. There's still a tradition of not letting threads get too unwieldy -- somewhere around 1000 answers is considered sufficient.

― Casuistry (Chris P), Monday, 10 January 2005 22:44 (twenty years ago)

six months pass...

And what, I wonder, did you think of The line of beauty Pinefox? I've just finished it, and spent the entire novel fervently wishing to be able to step into it and start hitting people. It's beautifully written, though.

― Matt (Matt), Saturday, 23 July 2005 23:14 (twenty years ago)

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