*What book are you reading? (part 2)

[sojourner]

It's great sojourner , definitely recommended, as is the later comic rural novel Cold Comfort Farm by Stella Gibbons.

I enjoyed American Gods, but there were a few gods I'd never heard of so that made it tricky. Not as tricky as anyone trying to watch the TV version who hadn't read the book, becasue they didn't explain any of it.

Cheers, I'll see if the library's got it then.

Yeh, I spotted them real early on, but didn't realise at that point that it was meant to be a god. Just thought 'ooo, Wednesday, I know where that name comes from...and ooo Low Key, I wonder if he means.....' etc I hadn't quite 'got' the central concept I think. And it does meander a bit.

 

[ringo]

Yeh, I spotted them real early on, but didn't realise at that point that it was meant to be a god. Just thought 'ooo, Wednesday, I know where that name comes from...and ooo Low Key, I wonder if he means.....' etc I hadn't quite 'got' the central concept I think. And it does meander a bit.

It was one of those books which reminded me that most great novels manage to come in at about 220 pages

 

[sojourner]

It was one of those books which reminded me that most great novels manage to come in at about 220 pages

Heheh yehhh, and he even says in the preface that he'd chopped it down loads already! Fucking hell Neil - in dager of doing a King with it

 

[hash tag]

Have just bought Protest. Stories of resistance. Have read the intro already. It's looking like a great read

Protest: Stories of Resistance | Socialist Review

 

[sojourner]

Have just bought Protest. Stories of resistance. Have read the intro already. It's looking like a great read

Protest: Stories of Resistance | Socialist Review

Tis good that - I read it a few months ago

 

[DotCommunist]

Part three in Ransom & herbets Voidship trilogy

little place opened in town called the Bookcave, does SF, fantasy and horror second hand. Open 3 days a week, bonus. Got the above from there, three pahnds

 

[flypanam]

Franz Werfel's The forty days of Musa Dagh.

Story of an Armenian village that fought back against the Ottoman empire at the time of the genocide. Weighs in at 800+ pages.

 

[danny la rouge]

Fault Lines by sojourner. Because she's threatened violence on me if I don't read all of it!

 

[krtek a houby]

 

[not-bono-ever]

Ongoing - angel of grozny
Ongoing - Ascent of man by Grayson Perry innit

Just finished - The French Intifada: The Long War Between France and its Arabs - very good of you have not touched on French North African colonial history before. still good as a refresher if you have
Just finished - The $ 12 Million Stuffed Shark - why the art market is utterly corrupt and you are a twat for falling for it basically

 

[sojourner]

Fault Lines by sojourner. Because she's threatened violence on me if I don't read all of it!

 

[PursuedByBears]

Just starting Birdsong by Sebastian Faulks. I've read a few WWI books this year in the anniversary of the armistice but this has been recommended by several people. Looking forward to it, chapter one is intriguing!

 

[sojourner]

Just starting Birdsong by Sebastian Faulks. I've read a few WWI books this year in the anniversary of the armistice but this has been recommended by several people. Looking forward to it, chapter one is intriguing!

I liked it, but hated everything else I read by him

 

[ringo]

The Secret DJ - Anonymous
In the mould of a modern Fear & Loathing In Las Vegas rather than the inside story of the realities of being a pro DJ, but no doubt much more fun for being so. No great surprises, if you've read Brandon Block's autobiography or any similar its the same story of legendary caners getting up to no good to the point of self destruction.

Never really been into mainstream house and never had any interest in going to Ibiza, but it's a fun bit of summer holiday reading. My proper DJ mates told me who it is, but I had to Google him as I'd never heard of him . If you're into the music and the whole Ibiza thing then its probably worth a look.

 

[Wilf]

Part three in Ransom & herbets Voidship trilogy

little place opened in town called the Bookcave, does SF, fantasy and horror second hand. Open 3 days a week, bonus. Got the above from there, three pahnds

Any good? I read the jesus incident about 30 years ago and can't remember a think about it.

 

[DotCommunist]

Any good? I read the jesus incident about 30 years ago and can't remember a think about it.

The second one, Lazarus effect, is the strongest. ascen factor is still good but ransom wrote most of it as Herbert died iirc. It has his fingerprints all over it still

 

[Wilf]

The second one, Lazarus effect, is the strongest. ascen factor is still good but ransom wrote most of it as Herbert died iirc. It has his fingerprints all over it still

Cheers. Sounds better than the ones Herbert's idiot son did with Kevin Anderson.

 

[sojourner]

I'm giving up on American Gods, it's pissing me off.

 

[Wilf]

I'm giving up on American Gods, it's pissing me off.

I stuck with it, despite the authors rather full of himself introduction. The very end is a bit shit, but I remember it being pretty good all the way through.

I realise, to be honest, as a review that was neither informative nor helpful.

 

[sojourner]

I stuck with it, despite the authors rather full of himself introduction. The very end is a bit shit, but I remember it being pretty good all the way through.

I realise, to be honest, as a review that was neither informative nor helpful.

Actually, it is helpful. I was considering hanging on and ploughing through it just to see if the ending would be worth it, but from what you say, it isn't. It's wayyyy too fucking long. Proper self-indulgent amount of detail and words. Fuck it. Just ordered a couple of Muriel Spark books as a treat. She writes the most beautifully condensed prose I've ever read.

 

[Wilf]

Actually, it is helpful. I was considering hanging on and ploughing through it just to see if the ending would be worth it, but from what you say, it isn't. It's wayyyy too fucking long. Proper self-indulgent amount of detail and words. Fuck it. Just ordered a couple of Muriel Spark books as a treat. She writes the most beautifully condensed prose I've ever read.

Can't say what I'm referring to without being very spoileryish, but the shit bit was a minor theme in the story. To be honest, even though I only read it about 6 years ago, I can't remember how or how well the big story resolves.

 

[D'wards]

The Woman who Went to Bed for a Year by Sue Townsend.

It's ok, you always get something very readable with dear departed Sue.

 

[DotCommunist]

Charles Stross Dark State, the latest in his Merchant Princes stuff. Didn't know it was out yet, forgot it was due iyswim

 

[weltweit]

I recently read A Decent Ride by Irvine Welsh - I found it a bit crude but I did read all of it so it can't be all bad.

I am now reading The Colour of a Dog Running Away by Richard Gwyn. I am just over half way through it and I definitely recommend it, really nicely written and a story that engages in a very pleasant way. Set in Barcelona and Catalonia, if you have spent any time there you will find lots of local points of interest in the story. Recommended.

 

[seventh bullet]

On Stalin's Team: The Years of Living Dangerously in Soviet Politics - Sheila Fitzpatrick.

 

[Dragnet]

Just finished Sadie Plant's The Most Radical Gesture: The Situationist Intentional in a Postmodern Age (pdf here.

I thought it was decent; the first chapter or two, putting the ideas of the SI in clear language, and in historical context, was helpful for someone like me who finds some of their writing, and writing about them, to be a bit inaccessible. It managed to lose me a bit when it went on to relate these ideas to the post-structuralists; probably need to re-read a lot of that.

 

[DotCommunist]

For a few years now- 2007 onwards at least- I've been able to find out the influences people writing in sci fi/fantasy/etc mention as having impacted on their own work (google). Often see a lot of things I'd read from the past mentioned, sometimes new mentions. On here as well, where it might get a mention in say this thread (its got an odd tone) , I never did see Chronicles of an Age of Darkness mentioned. Finally decided to buy two of them from the internet, paperbacks for a penny but the postage is more, which troubles me. Seems off somehow.

it was always something that I had completely forgotten as a tale except now and then, discussing the subject of fantasy classics and good reads specifically (not often so). Its lurked at the back of my head for so long I had to buy. Walrus and the Warwolf, Women and the Warriors- they stuck in the back of my head as odd brilliant gems. So why not.

I got the Wishstone and the Wonderworkers plus the Wazir and the Witch. Both chronologically after the three I have already read.

its not a sequence of books either, in the normal way of fantasy. Weirdly rich and involved in a seemingly pulp structure.

they all have these old school cheese fantasy covers, and I am hoping for yellowed pages.

 

[PursuedByBears]

I read those years ago and all I remember is that I enjoyed them but all the details have gone now

 

[DotCommunist]

I read those years ago and all I remember is that I enjoyed them but all the details have gone now

its clearly taking the mick to a high degree and has some interesting literary conceits/framings novel to novel. I laughed a lot and theres genuine gold among the demented stuff. Picked up another three from the series at a small place called bookcave that specialises in 2nd hand fantasy and sf. Places like that are 10 a penny in big towns but this is the only one in kettering and I'm buying while its there. Better that than amazon get the money

 

[campanula]

Over two days I finished Liu Cixin's Three Body Problem trilogy. Last two books, The Dark Forest and Death's End.

In China its called 'Remembrance of Earth Past' but it makes more sense to market as Three Body Problem here, A the first book was a hit and B its a notably sci fi esque name. But I prefer the romance of the chinese version.

It don't get much better than this. Toward the end (1 am) I started to think , well where the fuck can you go now? you'd have to

Spoiler: ending

go to the ends of the very ends. Oh fair fucks liu my man, thats what ya did

Theres an odd bit about humankind in a garden of eden phase of high luxury where all the men become 'feminized' and thus weak towards a hostile force like the trisolarians, as if the waning of the 'male' and waxing of the 'female' principles in humanity led a turn to beauty and ultimately defencelessness. Not sure about that all that but yeah


Theres some brilliantly cynical asides that are so matter of fact its only looking back after a page or so you realise how drily its been done. Its interesting that his 'time travel' sleepers do a hundred or 40-60 year hops in hibernation and return to find everything so radically changed, theres an eye for his own history. yeah I'd recommend this trilogy hard

Mmmm, read the first one and wasn't engaged. Have dithered whether to bother with the remaining 2...convince me they are a radical change from the vaguely gaming conceit and who the fuck are the Trisolarians cos I have no solid conception of them to present any sort of possible threat or anything else.

I have forgotten to note the books I have been reading since about half way through 2017 which is a pain.
QUOTE]

Yep, I forgot to add anything after 2nd January