*What book are you reading? (part 2)

[ericjarvis]

Alistair Reynolds - Century Rain.

 

[May Kasahara]

I am about to start reading - "The Big Blowdown" by George P Pelecanos - a birthday present from work sounds good from the blurb....

I enjoyed that

 

[Orang Utan]

what's a good pelecanos to start with - i saw him speak last week and he was charming and funny and clever and well-dressed.

 

[Orang Utan]

Yeh I do.

did you ever weep in butcher's shops?

 

[DotCommunist]

!!!

I often reread Tolstoy in the summer.

I reread War & Peace again last summer. I think I might read Anna Karenina again. I need something I can really get into.

That fucking book. I've started it a dozen times.

I have this penguin paperback with microscopic text though, I think that's half the issue.

 

[Dillinger4]

did you ever weep in butcher's shops?

yeh man I am sobbing onto some bacon right now innit LOL.

 

[Dillinger4]

That fucking book. I've started it a dozen times.

I have this penguin paperback with microscopic text though, I think that's half the issue.

I think I have read it a dozen times.



I read it the first time on holiday when I was about 14. I have probably reread it most summers since.

I don't know. I think I just like having a story that takes me a few months to get through.

 

[llion]

An Anarchist's Story: The Life of Ethel Macdonald by Chris Dolan - Brilliant new biography of the Scottish anarchist who reported from Barceolna during the Spanish Civil War. Very illuminating about the context of the Spanish Civil War and the reaction to it in Britain.

 

[May Kasahara]

did you ever weep in butcher's shops?

yeh man I am sobbing onto some bacon right now innit LOL.

what's a good pelecanos to start with - i saw him speak last week and he was charming and funny and clever and well-dressed.

I've read The Turnaround, Drama City and The Big Blowdown - all pretty decent but The Big Blowdown is the one that stuck in my mind longest and grew on me most.

 

[Orang Utan]

ah, he mentioned drama city and the night gardener as two of the books he was most proud of (as well as the latest). i was very impressed with him - he sounds like he knows exactly what he's doing. he talked a lot about a book he wrote about young offenders, but i can't remember whether it was on of the aforementioned book, or another one entirely.
i need to read some more american crime fiction. i've only really read chandler, ellroy and one michael connolly. oh, and richard price's clockers, which is awesome, and so proto-Wire it's incredible.

 

[MysteryGuest]

i've read about dozen or so pelecanoss..es. from what i can remember, the ones i liked best and were the most excitingest were the ones with the greek protagonist (can't remember his name now, soz). very, very exciting indeed, but also very good on poverty and fucked up society in washington dc. strongly recommended - get in there!

 

[May Kasahara]

Clockers eh? Another one added to my post-MA reading list.

Joe sends hugs btw

 

[Orang Utan]

Clockers eh? Another one added to my post-MA reading list.

Joe sends hugs btw

i still haven't met him!
lambeth country show was stuffed full of friend's new babies - it was awesome - got some more on the way too (not mine of course). also unexpectedly bumped into my nephew, who was with his dad for the weekend. kids everywhere!

 

[May Kasahara]

i still haven't met him!
lambeth country show was stuffed full of friend's new babies - it was awesome - got some more on the way too (not mine of course). also unexpectedly bumped into my nephew, who was with his dad for the weekend. kids everywhere!

He's nearly 1 now! Into everything I must try and come down for a weekend sometime.

That must have been a bit weird, bumping into your nephew. I bet he went mental over you

 

[ChrisC]

Wrath of a Mad God by Raymond E. Feist.

 

[Fictionist]

Just finished 'Farenheit 451'. Mmmm. A little idea stretched too far methinks.

 

[May Kasahara]

The writing is beautiful though.

 

[Fictionist]

The writing is beautiful though.

Beautiful isn't a word that I would use, but it certainly has a spare and considered quality to it. I have not read enough Bradbury to know if this is a common feature of his writing May, is it typical of his work?

 

[ericjarvis]

Beautiful isn't a word that I would use, but it certainly has a spare and considered quality to it. I have not read enough Bradbury to know if this is a common feature of his writing May, is it typical of his work?

In my opinion, yes. Beautifully crafted prose with no attempt to show off is pretty much what I'd count as trademark Bradbury. Often mixed in with a sort of effortless "folkiness" that lets him treat quite abstract ideas very approachably. He's a better short story writer than a novelist though.

 

[idioteque]

Recently finished reading 'The Road' by Cormac McCarthy, and my word, it was brilliant. The best book I've read in a very long time.

I am now reading 'Ghostwritten' by David Mitchell.

 

[El Jefe]

Me, Cheeta - which is a lot of fun

 

[ChrisC]

Honoured Enemy by Raymond E. Feist and William Forstchen.

 

[Clint Iguana]

Gig by Simon Armitage.

I am on a bit of a mission at the moment reading loads of music related books. This book is a little bit frustrating because despite being called "Gig: the life and times of a rock star fantasist"... the music very much takes a back seat to his poetry and his travels.

However, it is very well written and has had me laughing out loud many times, so i will forgive him.

 

[May Kasahara]

In my opinion, yes. Beautifully crafted prose with no attempt to show off is pretty much what I'd count as trademark Bradbury. Often mixed in with a sort of effortless "folkiness" that lets him treat quite abstract ideas very approachably. He's a better short story writer than a novelist though.

eric has saved me a job here (thanks ) Quality varies, so the folkiness can sometimes become a bit overcooked and whimsical, but when it's right there's not many who can touch him. The best of his horror stories are genuinely utterly terrifying.

 

[Orang Utan]

He's nearly 1 now! Into everything I must try and come down for a weekend sometime.

That must have been a bit weird, bumping into your nephew. I bet he went mental over you

he was actually more interested in the giant inflatable slide behind me

 

[chooch]

Seem to be on a run of things that leave me unimpressed:

Norman Collins - London Belongs to Me. It ain't 'the capital's great vernacular novel'. It's passable, in the places where characters called Percy and Doris don't say things like 'Getcher there in a jiff'.

Jean Marie Gustave Le Clezio - The Flood - got 30 pages into this and abandoned it on the street. It appears to be made of adjectives and wallpaper paste.

A collection of Alvah Bessie's short fiction. Not looking for more.

Some earlyish Michael Chabon stories - A Model World were bearable, though there's many a metal-booted misstep.

It's been a poor few reading weeks, dpesite access to some great bookshops

 

[rennie]

I think I have read it a dozen times.



I read it the first time on holiday when I was about 14. I have probably reread it most summers since.

I don't know. I think I just like having a story that takes me a few months to get through.

To be fair, I have read War and Peace and once is enough. Tolstoy has a habit of sucking me in and then playing around with myemotions before spitting me out by the end. Like I said, once is enough.

 

[Fictionist]

Pride & Prejudice - Jane Austen

 

[Vintage Paw]

Fanon by John Edgar Wideman. Well, I got a page and a half through it earlier before my coffee date turned up at Cafe Nero.

 

[starfish]

No Beast So Fierce by Edward Bunker.