*What book are you reading? (part 2)

[pogo 10]

Glamour by louise bagshawe.I love reading in bed.

 

[Firky]

Just finished Under Milk Wood, Dylan Thomas, not really a book - a play - but great whichever way you get it, I love the way the characters come though.

One of the few audiobooks I can listen to (probably because of Richard Burton).

 

[inva]

I'm just finishing reading Foreign Parts by Janice Galloway - really enjoyed it.

 

[BoatieBird]

Currently reading Hilary Mantel's Wolf Hall.
It's a big beast so I'm pleased I'm reading it on the kindle

 

[8Sam0]

Currently reading Apocalypse Jukebox. Which examines our obsession with the end of the world (religious/nuclear) through American Popular music. So you get Chapters on everyone from Coltrane, Dylan, Cohen and REM to DEVO and Green Day. Sometimes loses it's a way and some claims feel like clutching at straws. But overall, very, very interesting.

 

[Manter]

Just finished 'the divine supermarket'- Malise Ruthven. It's quite old now- early 90s? Late 80s?- but he basically starts in New England where the Puritan fathers landed, follows the path the Mormons took out of New York, wanders round new Age-y California, goes to meet Christian fundamentalists in the Deep South for a bit etc trying to figure out why the Americans are so religious, and so attracted to odd/extreme/new religions. He's a professor of comparative religion, specialising in Islam, so he takes quite an academic view, but he's interesting, erudite, sometimes entertainingly sarcastic, but v insightful, IMO, particularly on the difference between a religion and a cult and when one becomes the other... Well worth a read.

 

[tufty79]

riddley walker (1982 edition)

 

[Favelado]

I'm reading "What money can't buy - the moral limits of markets" by Michael J. Sandel. It's a clear-headed case against the encroachment of the market into civic and public life and I'm enjoying it.

 

[Bajie]

Young Stalin, which is about.... Stalin when he was young (or at least up until 1917)

 

[Orang Utan]

http://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Harun_Yahya

 

[DotCommunist]

Young Stalin, which is about.... Stalin when he was young (or at least up until 1917)

excellent picture of Joe looking like Damien dressed in a seminary outfit in that

 

[QueenOfGoths]

James Oswald "Natural Causes". Not a bad police thriller, with supernatural overtones. Quite good characters and the plot holds your interest.

However one of those writers for whom heroines are generally willowy and 'natural' i.e wear little or no make up, and any woman called "Ms" are ball breakers. Which I find a little tedious

 

[colbhoy]

Just started Imperium by Robert Harris.

 

[Pants Man]

Confessions of an English Opium-Eater by Thomas De Quincey

 

[Orang Utan]

Charle Bukowski - Post Office
This is great, despite Chinaski/Bukoswki being a rapist and a misosgynist.
I'm not sure i get his attitude to women.
Is he really that horrible? I am finding it hard to distinguish between the character and the writer here.
BUT his description of what it's like working a shitty job is spot on and I wish I had his attitude when I worked them.

 

[Limerick Red]

Young Stalin, which is about.... Stalin when he was young (or at least up until 1917)

This book is fuckin bangin'. Young Stalin makes Jason borne look like mr. bean, and the book proper puts the boot into icepick head as well. Loved this.

 

[seventh bullet]

My best Christmas read of 2008.

He's a Tory cunt and crude anti-Communist but Sickbag does question and show up the class prejudice against him and the denigration of him based on that prejudice (it being inaccurate).

 

[Firky]

Revol68 features on the dust jacket of Young Stalin.

 

[bi0boy]

Decision Points by George W Bush.

I haven't got to the really interesting parts yet...

 

[weltweit]

Just finished Look To Windwards, Iain (M) Banks which was good, less war than I was expecting but interesting characters and plot. As recommended by DotCommunist.

Also just finished Wilt, Tom Sharpe a great farcical romp, good fun.

Now reading Matter, Iain (M) Banks only at the beginning atm but starts with some war..

 

[DotCommunist]

Just finished Look To Windwards, Iain (M) Banks which was good, less war than I was expecting but interesting characters and plot. As recommended by DotCommunist.

Also just finished Wilt, Tom Sharpe a great farcical romp, good fun.

Now reading Matter, Iain (M) Banks only at the beginning atm but starts with some war..

Be aware that thats probably the best ending from any Banks novel

 

[weltweit]

Be aware that thats probably the best ending from any Banks novel

Oh, which one Windward or Matter?

 

[DotCommunist]

Oh, which one Windward or Matter?

Windward fella. Don't get me wrong, all his books are 90% great journies but Windward is his most satisfying ending- you got the Consider Phlebas tie in to that poignant finish yes?

 

[weltweit]

Windward fella. Don't get me wrong, all his books are 90% great journies but Windward is his most satisfying ending- you got the Consider Phlebas tie in to that poignant finish yes?

Oh, actually I may be having a duh moment but I am not sure I did get the tie in, I don't want to write too much about the endings in case it spoils it for anyone else but .. no I don't think I got it

 

[RedDragon]

A K Stoneman - The Hive

 

[weltweit]

Windward fella. Don't get me wrong, all his books are 90% great journies but Windward is his most satisfying ending- you got the Consider Phlebas tie in to that poignant finish yes?

Oh actually, yes, what the Hub mind did in the past, was a key part of Phlebas. Yes !! ??

 

[DotCommunist]

Oh actually, yes, what the Hub mind did in the past, was a key part of Phlebas. Yes !! ??

precisely I was actually moved by that, and I pride myself on cyncism

 

[sojourner]

After being completely knocked out by the genius writing in Fahrenheit 451, I decided to get more Ray Bradbury. Am now reading 'Dandelion Wine' with increasing awe. I think he's one of the very best writers, ever. Each line gives me massive amounts of pleasure.

 

[marty21]

A New Kind of Bleak : Journeys Through Urban Britain. Owen Hatherley - not a light read tbf - struggling through the introduction atm - but have read a few of his other books and they are very interesting

 

[Cheesypoof]

Just finished 'Love him madly' by Judy Huddleston, one of Jim Morrison's groupies. Man i hated it, what a load of bollocks and completely unlike the witty 'I'm with the band' by supergroupie Pamela Des Barres, or the masterpiece 'Groupie' by Jenny Fabian and Johnny Byrne. I had high expectations of Huddleston's book, as she is supposed to be one of the ' intelligent' groupies and today teaches creative writing at California State University. Her short book was poetic in parts and quite well written i suppose, but her own stalkerish tendenices, bitching about Pamela Courson (the one woman Morrison really loved) and personal arrogance really put me off. Like, there is a picture of the author on the cover and she is quite attractive, but certainly not the apparent stunner she makes herself out to be, there's so much self-indulgence in this jaded account. Her own relationship with Jim seemed to be fairly authentic (ie, she did actually meet him, and sleep with him a few times...) and she admits being warned not to expect too much from him, by the caring manager Bill Siddons. Overall a bit tired. Keneally's book was better.