Urban75 Home About Offline BrixtonBuzz Contact

*What book are you reading? (part 2)

belboid said:
Just about finished Red or Dead.

Took a bit of getting into, the massively repetitive style is effective, but kind of annoying too. As a seventies Liverpool fan, I thought I knew the Shankly story, but soon realised I only knew it pretty vaguely, so wasn't sure about when they actually first won promotion or the title under him. Which made each game quite exciting. And the times when one of the names of the truly great seventies team (the greatest team ever) cropped up there was a real frisson of excitement. Quite how any one who wasn't a seventies Liverpool fan would enjoy it, I dont know.
Click to expand...
Just did a quick thread search and saw this, can answer your final question after these couple of years as I'm a third of the way into this and loving it - I think he's really capturing something about working class culture and way of being a good man that becomes almost epic. Plus there's the story of bootblacking Ian St John's bollocks for the disciplinary board.
 
belboid said:
Cameron McCabe – The Face On the Cutting Room Floor

An odd little book from 1937 (getting reissued tomorrow, coincidentally), about a murder in a film studio. The story of the book, and its author, is almost as interesting as the book itself.

A medium success when originally released, it got reprinted in the sixties, but the publishers had to hold the royalties in trust, as they had no idea of who ‘Cameron McCabe’ actually was. Eventually they found out he was a Jewish German émigré, a communist who had studied under Willhelm Reich, and who had fled here in 1933, only then started learning English. He wrote The Face six months later, filled with spot on local idiom’s and sharp Chandleresque dialogue. He never wrote another novel, but had become a highly respected jazz critic and player, and then went on to become one of Europe’s leading sexologists (shortly after Kinsey had made the field vaguely respectable).

The book itself – starring one ‘Cameron McCabe’ is an early example of postmodernist fiction, that shocked and surprised many contemporary reviewers, but enthralled enough of them for it to be a success. It’s (so far) sharp and sassy, witty and well paced, albeit with some language distinctly of its era. Apparently it gets very weird/post-modern at the end, and becomes a meta novel about detective novels. So that sounds fun.
Click to expand...
Finally finished this on holiday, and how very well worth reading it was. The detective novel (if such it is) to end all detective novels. Quite brilliant, especially for 1937. ringo marty21 I think you'd both really like it

After that, I tried to catch up with the Booker's - all three of which that i have done so far are very good. Deborah Levy's Hot Milk is probably the one with the most literary writing in it, and it's a very entertaining read. Not sure if it is as meaningful as it thinks it is, tho, and the (slight? secondary?) subtexts about Greece and austerity don't really say that much, I dont think.

It's certainly not as good as Elizabeth Strout's My Name is Lucy Barton. I was bit dubious about it as it seemed to be another middle class woman in New York finds stuff out about her family at first. But it's way better than that, turns out the woman in question is actually working class (made good?) and is so well put together, facts and memories drifting in and really building up the story neatly. It didn't actually make the shortlist, probably because (imo) they'd already got one book with a working class female american protagonist, so they didn't need another one.

That book would be Otessa Moshfegh's Eileen - which is the best of the three quite easily, I think. The writing is much less neat than the Levy, but it is much truer for that. Eileen's a fascinating character, from a poor, broken, family, who gives away much more about herself than she realises in her writing. It's not quite 'gritty' but it's definitely not polished either, and it's definitely gripping as we find out just how and why this is her last week as 'Eileen.' Very well worth a read.

Paul Beatty's The Sellout is up next, looks interesting, probably the last of the six that I'll bother with (unless one of the other two wins). I think His Bloody Project is still the best of them so far though, and it'll have to go some to beat that.
 
JimW said:
Just did a quick thread search and saw this, can answer your final question after these couple of years as I'm a third of the way into this and loving it - I think he's really capturing something about working class culture and way of being a good man that becomes almost epic. Plus there's the story of bootblacking Ian St John's bollocks for the disciplinary board.
Click to expand...
Nice one - let me know if you start skipping those long, repetitious, lists by the end of it!
 
Mation said:
This is just beautiful science fiction. Glad it seems to be the first of a series but wish I could have done my usual trick of discovering stuff way way waaay after everyone else, such that she'd written the next one or several by now! :)
Click to expand...
Turns out the sequel is coming out this month, so I've pre-ordered it :cool:
 
Mation said:
Turns out the sequel is coming out this month, so I've pre-ordered it :cool:
Click to expand...
made a start on this (angry planet). Bit unsure about the crew interactions so far, but I want to know whats going on so will stick with it. was a bit put off by the Neelix-ish scene at the start in the canteen but its intriguing enough to let that slide for now.
 
Just finished Dry Store Number 1 - Richard Fortey very good, potted history of the Natural History museum and a brief sketch of its role and the importance of its work.


Picked up The Immortal Life of Henrietta Lacks - Rebecca Skloot from a charity shop yesterday and started that this morning.
 
Just started Peter Hook's new book: Substance - Inside New Order.

Four lines in and he's already called Bernard Sumner: 'a twat'.:D

Once I've read the whole thing, I may go through the book again, create a spread sheet and calculate how many times and how he abuses him over the 700 and odd pages.
 
Marx and Keynes: The Limits of the Mixed Economy by Paul Mattick
A really good book this, and just the kind of thing I was after - an excellent, clearly written Marxist analysis of post war Keynesianism.
 
Hellfire - Mia Gallagher. Really odd book set in Dublin about this girl and her family. The blurb mentions Harry Potter and Irivine Welsh but I can't see the connections yet...
 
Just starting Middlesex by Jeffrey Eugenides

Only about 60 pages in but loving it so far - the account of being a refugee in 1922 in Greece as the Turkish army attacked is enthralling
 
Just finished The Hammer of God, Arthur C. Clarke - enjoyed it

The back of which lists his other works, which are multiple :)
 
belboid said:

Paul Beatty's The Sellout is up next, looks interesting, probably the last of the six that I'll bother with (unless one of the other two wins). I think His Bloody Project is still the best of them so far though, and it'll have to go some to beat that.
Click to expand...

I just started this, enjoy so far, made me laugh out loud a few times and some memorable lines.
Or maybe in comparison to Do not say we have nothing, another booker shortlist which I gave up on after 100 pages, anything is good!
 
It's not what I'm reading but I've just pulled a selection of books off my shelf for my boy (14yr old) to read. It was good fun actually. I've left a little post it note on each one to try and sell them to him a little. I'm going to leave them in the sofa as that's the first place he heads when he gets home
 
That's ace ShiftyBagLady.

I've just started 'Skagboys' by Irvine Welsh. Prequel to Trainspotting and very good so far. It's funny reading Renton being all drug snobby about heroin in the first few chapters when you know how it ends up. Good descriptions of Orgreave and a Northern Soul allnighter too. He's cracking when he's on form, Irvine Welsh.
 
What did you do during the War- Richard Griffiths . Study of fascists in England during WW2.although the author avoids the easy subjects like Mosley, a lot of the case studies are members of the landed gentry or aristocracy whereas I would have liked some examples of rank and file fascists. However what does strike you in reading this is the relatively large amount of support for the UK far right and Hitler amongst the upper classes.
 
Voley said:
That's ace ShiftyBagLady.

I've just started 'Skagboys' by Irvine Welsh. Prequel to Trainspotting and very good so far. It's funny reading Renton being all drug snobby about heroin in the first few chapters when you know how it ends up. Good descriptions of Orgreave and a Northern Soul allnighter too. He's cracking when he's on form, Irvine Welsh.
Click to expand...
Orgreave made me roll my eyes, total renton as mary-sue again. Still it is very funny, overall certainly the best thing irvine welsh has done in ages
 
I'm off to Torquay for a week tomorrow and I've just treated myself to Annie Proulx's Barkskins for my holiday read.
I've even broken my 'never pay the hardback price for a digital d/l' rule and paid £9.99 for it.
 
Christ, finding it is bedtime with no book to hand - insomnia and tedium - have had to nick some tripe from one of the offspring - Cory Doctorow (can't recall title) - I am sure I tried one of these before and gave up in disgust...but it is either that or some Tory drivel from some old gardening buffer ( Hugh Johnson) who writes (rubbish) for the Telegraph or such. I know I bore on endlessly about gardening but honestly, some discrimination please - it was a birthday pressie from next door neighbour who clearly spent 0.09 seconds in nearest charity shop.

eta - might have to rifle first aid box for some ancient vallium I keep for emergencies.
 
Just finished: Time's Eye, Arthur C. Clarke & Stephen Baxter

Which is a part of a 3 book series, the other two I find I have already read.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.

Similar threads

tommers
What (comics) are you reading right now?
2 3
Replies
60
Views
1K
nagapie
N
Pickman's model
  • Poll
Dedication's what you need: the 2025 reading challenge thread
2 3 4
Replies
101
Views
2K
Me76
Me76
ska invita
Comfortable chairs you can read books in
2
Replies
35
Views
794
Hollis
Hollis
danny la rouge
Wolf Hall 1&2
2
Replies
49
Views
936
redsquirrel
R
Eivets Rednow
What gives you writing inspiration/energy?
Replies
4
Views
145
Eivets Rednow
Eivets Rednow
Back
Top Bottom