*What book are you reading? (part 2)

[xenon]

Good stuff.

Perhaps the post modern label is applied in a clumsy attempt to see the book in the context of wider artistic development. Was written 68 IIRC?

Hazarding a guess at your question, not being a big one for detective fiction. With the long running series type, I guess you do have to read in order. The central characters develop, age and earlier incidents are recollected. Which could become niggling if you read many from the same canon, out of cronological order.

 

[Looby]

I've just started reading The Corrections again because Jefe and PieFace told me ages ago to give it another try and I'm enjoying it so far.

 

[big eejit]

Just finished The Testament of Gideon Mack by James Robertson. Most enjoybale read for ages. Great stuff.

 

[extra dry]

'who runs britain' very interesting if you are into high finance and wondering just how and who is causing the uk to be losing out on millions of pounds to a very select few.

 

[Dillinger4]

'who runs britain' very interesting if you are into high finance and wondering just how and who is causing the uk to be losing out on millions of pounds to a very select few.

other peoples money and how the bankers use it by Louis Brandeis is pretty good. It was actually published in 1914, and is about the financial panics of 1895 and 1907, and the robber barons, such as JP Morgan, and their continuing gathering influence.

I have found today's financial panic far more similar to 1895/1907 than 1929. I think that what Brandeis says is still very relevant. And the years before 1914 are very very interesting and so often ignored.

 

[Fictionist]

which version? The Tolkien edited one?

The 2nd edition (Norman Davis) - based on the earlier edition by Tolkein and E.V Gordon (Oxford). There is a far more accessible Manchester University Press edition (edited by W R J Barton) which I find useful too.

 

[fractionMan]

The book of dave - will self

funnay

 

[Orang Utan]

Crying Of Lot 49 is an incredible book - it's so short, yet there so much plot and incident in it - it should be unreadably dense but it isn't, it just flows beautifully.

 

[Dillinger4]

Crying Of Lot 49 is an incredible book - it's so short, yet there so much plot and incident in it - it should be unreadably dense but it isn't, it just flows beautifully.

I think what amazed me is how many different levels it works on. There is just so much going on in there.

 

[ViolentPanda]

"Urban Spacemen & Wayfaring Strangers" by Richie Unterberger, and I'm re-reading "Europe's Inner Demons" by Norman Cohn.

 

[ChrisC]

The Terror by Dan Simmons.

 

[vauxhallmum]

Jonathan Strange and Mr Norrel.

It's not going well

 

[audiodragon]

Essex Boys

 

[sojourner]

I read Hunting Unicorns on Saturday. It should have had a fucking identifiable 'chick-lit' cover on it, cos that's what it was. Shite.


Started Lolita again yesterday - much easier to handle this time around, now that my daughter's not 12 anymore! Am able to just enjoy the text, and even laugh at some of it, although still at some of it too.

Excellent - really enjoying it

 

[sojourner]

The Prophet - Kahlil Gibran

I love that

 

[sojourner]

Re Crying of Lot 49 - I read that at Uni, for one of the postmodern lectures, and they somehow tied it up to the idea of entropy. Completely fucked with my head at the time so never really got into it. Will try it again at some point in the future though I reckon

 

[mattie]

As for me, I am determined to finish Gravity's Rainbow before the new year.

I have about 400 pages to go.

Best of British.

I've made at least half-a-dozen false starts with that one.

 

[Dillinger4]

Re Crying of Lot 49 - I read that at Uni, for one of the postmodern lectures, and they somehow tied it up to the idea of entropy. Completely fucked with my head at the time so never really got into it. Will try it again at some point in the future though I reckon

Entropy is definitely one of the themes. I can give you something pretty good to read about that (although you probably wont want to, after your course!).

If you do read it again, tell me, and I will read it again at the same time, and we can discuss it. I need more Pynchon readers!

 

[Dillinger4]

Best of British.

I've made at least half-a-dozen false starts with that one.

It is pretty difficult to get into, I think. In fact, it is a difficult book all the way through. There is no easy way to read it. I don't know if I could even say that it is worth it. I don't know.

But it is definitely a great book, and a very important one.

 

[foamy]

Urban Grimshaw and the shed crew - first book i've started in a long time.

 

[sojourner]

Entropy is definitely one of the themes. I can give you something pretty good to read about that (although you probably wont want to, after your course!).

If you do read it again, tell me, and I will read it again at the same time, and we can discuss it. I need more Pynchon readers!

Well, it's been about 9 years now mate, so I might give it another 9, just to be on the safe side

My little mate with the bald head might be able to give good debate about it though

 

[elevendayempire]

The Séance, by John Harwood. I'm in full-on Victorian Ghost Story mode this Christmas.

 

[cyberfairy]

The Séance, by John Harwood. I'm in full-on Victorian Ghost Story mode this Christmas.

Me too Recommend The Meaning of Night and The Glass Of Time by Micheal Cox if you want more victorian style sinister rompings around crumbling manor houses

 

[May Kasahara]

On Writing, by Stephen King. It's brilliant. He remains one of my favourite writers, despite having gone off the boil with his fiction in recent years; he's still got that style I love.

 

[mattie]

It is pretty difficult to get into, I think. In fact, it is a difficult book all the way through. There is no easy way to read it. I don't know if I could even say that it is worth it. I don't know.

But it is definitely a great book, and a very important one.

I can't put my finger on what it is that stops me finishing it - it's not boring, it's not particularly byzantine, it's just - as you say - such hard work.

And it's quite a meaty beast, which is a bit intimidating when you're struggling to finish the first chapter.

 

[Dillinger4]

I can't put my finger on what it is that stops me finishing it - it's not boring, it's not particularly byzantine, it's just - as you say - such hard work.

And it's quite a meaty beast, which is a bit intimidating when you're struggling to finish the first chapter.

Indeed. I am at the last chapter, and I still feel nowhere near the end. I hold the pages of the last chapter between my pictures, and on its own it is the size of a book.



I want to read Against the Day at some point, and that is even longer.



It is definitely his writing style. It is like nothing else I have ever read, particularly in Gravity's Rainbow.

Like I said to Sojourner ages ago, reading Pynchon is like learning to read, all over again. It is a proper experience.

 

[madamv]

Brideshead Revisited - Evelyn Waugh.

Wonderfully foppish indulgence...

 

[sojourner]

Brideshead Revisited - Evelyn Waugh.

Wonderfully foppish indulgence...

I really liked that

 

[Dillinger4]

I really liked that

So did I. Loved it, in fact. Waugh is a beautiful writer.

 

[sojourner]

So did I. Loved it, in fact. Waugh is a beautiful writer.

we're dangerously close to being a tag team you know

i'm trying to cultivate some fresh arguments for the 27th