*What book are you reading? (part 2)

[foo]

The Crossing is the middle of his border trilogy, so you definitely need to read the other two.

oh yes, i realised that a bit late. i did that with Pat Barker's trilogy too...and got confused i'll go backwards. cheers Jeff.

 

[El Jefe]

Doesn't matter if you read All The Pretty Horses after The Crossing, but you do need to have read them both before Cities Of The Plain.

 

[foo]

ok, gotcha. thanks. i bought Cities of the Plain, but i'll do as you suggest. god he's stunning.

 

[El Jefe]

There's a really good Geoff Dyer essay in Anglo-English Attitudes about McCarthy that was really really interesting

 

[sojourner]

ok cheers soj that'll be the next one then. he's a fuckin genius isn't he. i'm totally awed.

I do love how powerful he can make the story, using what appears to be quite sparse text

 

[Fictionist]

Count of Monte Cristo - Had this on my to read list for years

The journey begins.......

 

[sojourner]

The journey begins.......

so you gave up on the whale eh?

 

[Fictionist]

No, still struggling through with the occasional diversion to other texts ('King Lear' , 'Islam & The West' and 'Anthology of Classical Arabic Literature').

It is the most frustrating text that I have ever had to re-read.

What about you Soj?

 

[sojourner]

It is the most frustrating text that I have ever had to re-read.

What about you Soj?

well, as posted by dilly on the other thread,

"As Doris Lessing says:


Quote:
There is only one way to read, which is to browse in libraries and bookshops, picking up books that attract you, reading only those, dropping them when they bore you, skipping the parts that drag — and never, never reading anything because you feel you ought, or because it is part of a trend or a movement. Remember that the book which bores you when you are twenty or thirty will open doors for you when you are forty or fifty — and vice versa. Don’t read a book out of its right time for you.
Introduction (1971) "

I'm currently reading a JG Ballard book that i've tried to read twice before and got nowhere with

today, it started to be an interesting read

 

[Fictionist]

I don't think I've read any Ballard - what would you start with?

 

[sojourner]

I don't think I've read any Ballard - what would you start with?

i haven't read them all so couldn't recommend a starting point

all i can say is that i've read Crash - which blew my mind, and Cocaine Nights, which was ace

 

[sojourner]

John Peel, by Mick Wall

who only ever met him about 3 times, but hey, why let that stop you writing a biog?

meh - it's alright, easy reading of a night in bed

 

[DotCommunist]

Just finished a Huxely essay where he has the sheer gall to mock Swift (who is worth 10 of Alduos). Hot on the heels of his jew-bashing essay on motion pictures and Jazz. What an arse the man was.

 

[Orang Utan]

John Peel, by Mick Wall

who only ever met him about 3 times, but hey, why let that stop you writing a biog?

Yes, who doe that Peter Ackroyd think he writing an exhaustive biography of Dickens? He never even met him!

 

[Vintage Paw]

There's a really good Geoff Dyer essay in Anglo-English Attitudes about McCarthy that was really really interesting

I like Dyer. I've got 2 of his books, The Ongoing Moment, about photography, and But Beautiful about jazz music. Ashamed to say I've only read part of the first and none of the second, yet.

I'm reading Naive. Super. It's great. In a weird way. It's, well, naive. It's incredibly simple, too simple, perhaps, and yet it's refreshingly different. I've been PMing Dilly about it all afternoon coz I reckon he'd really like it. It's a good quick read too.

 

[Dillinger4]

I'm reading Naive. Super. It's great. In a weird way. It's, well, naive. It's incredibly simple, too simple, perhaps, and yet it's refreshingly different. I've been PMing Dilly about it all afternoon coz I reckon he'd really like it. It's a good quick read too.

It is the naivety that reminds you of me, isn't it?

 

[DotCommunist]

I hope you're right DC. There are a lot of annoying characters who've lasted while many of my favourites have been bumped off...

Spoiler: Plot

Please kill Cutter/Crokus. He's a complete fifth wheel since Apsalar left. Traveller/Dassem Ultor is plain boring. Karsa is much less fun now than in House of Chains. I got to admit I like Nimander and the other children of Rake. As for Hood choosing to die! Some Jaghut master plan.

Toll the Hounds really lacked a lot of the fire which the earlier books had in abundance. Maybe I'm asking too much.

Yes no doubt I'll get Return of the Crimson Guard.

Having done with memories of ice re-read,

Spoiler: plot

Hood didn't choose to die, he was cut down by Dragnipur, and the realm in the sword is not quite death. Memories of Ice states that the cart the souls are chained to is the heart of Kurald Galain, and also where the chief assault from the Realm of Chaos is coming from. Remember, in Memories of Ice the Fallen God is infecting Burn and is a manifestation of the attack coming from Chaos. Ganoes Paran formalises the gods place in the Deck of Dragons , in an attempt to control it. We then had the Chained Gods failed gambit with the Tiste Edur as seen in Midnight Tides and Reapers Gale.

The assault from the realm of Chaos in TTH seems to be a feint with the Keylk stuff, (seems like a trick from Poliel imo, and she has allied with the Chained God in Bonehunters).

The main assault seems to be an attack on the gate/wagon in Dragnipur. Hood is marching legions of the dead to war, personaly. Thats the reason the Trygalle Guild were denied accsess to hoods warren. They were massing for war.

 

[El Jefe]

Finished Summerlands by Chabon. Did enjoy it, but I'm not a good judge of whether books ostensibly written for kids are any cop or not. It was a bit of a mess, really, but it flew by, had a tremendous inventiveness and I'm glad I read it.

Nothing else in the flat - among the dozens of books that remain unread - appeals to me right now

 

[sojourner]

Yes, who doe that Peter Ackroyd think he writing an exhaustive biography of Dickens? He never even met him!

oh shut it, it's allowed with someone who's been bloody dead for over a hundred years, not with someone who's not been gone that long!

I'm only reading it cos it's about John Peel - can't stand biogs usually

 

[Fictionist]

Hi-Fidelity.

It is terrible! Terrible!!

 

[Dillinger4]

Hi-Fidelity.

It is terrible! Terrible!!

fail.

 

[Fictionist]

You liked it then?

 

[Dillinger4]

oh shut it, it's allowed with someone who's been bloody dead for over a hundred years, not with someone who's not been gone that long!

I'm only reading it cos it's about John Peel - can't stand biogs usually

I don't think I have ever read a biography of anybody.

*thinks*

 

[Vintage Paw]

It is the naivety that reminds you of me, isn't it?

No. The super.

 

[Dillinger4]

No. The super.

yay!

 

[Orang Utan]

Hi-Fidelity.

It is terrible! Terrible!!

I liked it - the rest of his stuff is dreadful though

 

[Fictionist]

Which of his other books would you advise me to read?

 

[Orang Utan]

Don't bother, if you don't like High Fidelity - I thought it was a very clever analysis of the male music fan's psyche.
The rest is trite crap.

 

[sojourner]

Hi-Fidelity.

It is terrible! Terrible!!

I read it years ago and really liked it tbh

 

[sojourner]

Don't bother, if you don't like High Fidelity - I thought it was a very clever analysis of the male music fan's psyche.
The rest is trite crap.

uh uh - female too. I spotted loads of stuff that I did myself, from sorting music in different ways to making compilations for people