*What book are you reading ?

[DaveCinzano]

Rogue State - William Blum

Originally posted by onemonkey
Rogue State is a survey of America's crimes and misdemeanors over the last fifty years. Advancing the thesis that by judged by its own proclaimed standards.. America is terrorist state. A theme familiar to people here no doubt, but breath-taking quite how wideranging, blatant, avaricious and evil their bullying has been.

This book will come as an eye opener to anyone who thinks The Shrub is anything new in american foreign policy.. he's just continuing a path well trodden

if you dug rogue state (a great little pocket rocket of a book a agree) you might like the one i'm on at the moment. it's 'veil' by bob 'watergate' woodward, and it's about bill casey's tenure as cia director under reagen. woodward had highlevel sources, and whilst he comes over as a bit of a prick, his material is worth it.

basically casey is a consummate anti-communist and thinks nothing of bankrolling right-wing crazies so long as they're sticking it to commies and progressives. my edition is headline p/b, 1988.

if you liked that, try 'cia diary' by renegade cia agent philip agee. it's mindblowing what the us got up to in africa and south america in the 60s and 70s, stuff that isn't really discussed much. the section on ecuador is particularly eyebrow-raising in the context of what's going on in venzuela at the moment...

lastly, 'in god's name' by david yallop, one of my dad's conspiracy lit library - he's gone blind so i'm getting an early inheritance, cheers pa - which is about the financial shenanigans at the vatican bank, and the remarkable reign of the smiling pope john paul the first, who lasted just 33 days before dying mysteriously. also touches on the bologna railway bombing and fascist/state assets like stefano delle chiaie, the p2 masonic lodge, the strategy of tension in italy in the 70s, and roberto calvi, the banker who was found hanging from blackfriars bridge with bricks in his pockets... a suicide, obviously...

happy reading

 

[Mujahoudini]

Hocus Pocus by Kurt Vonnegut. Its dedicated to Eugene Debs.

 

[izz]

Return of the King.


hurrah !

 

[DaveCinzano]

Originally posted by Geri
I'm reading a really crap thriller my mum gave me called 'I'm coming to get you'. It's set in Bristol and it's like one long advert for the Bristol Tourist Board!

what's it like geri? i love crappy books that mention places i go every day... i'm a cheap date for bad authors, me. 'bovver' by chris brown was an above-average i-was-a-teenage-football-hooligan autobiog, written with wit and hindsight, with loads of good bristol ref points. apart from that not really come across any bristol books...

 

[Voley]

Originally posted by izz
Return of the King.


hurrah !

Me too.

Enjoying it the most of all three 'Lord Of The Rings' books, too.

 

[Spud Murphy III]

The Age of Extremes: A History of the Short Twentieth Century 1914-1991, by Eric Hobsbawm.

Am nearly at the end of this one and will be looking out for more books by Hobsbawm. He's generally a good historian, and also a very good writer.

Would like to read a novel for a change but just can't seem to get into them - can only handle short stories!

 

[Cassius Belli]

Originally posted by cynical_bastard
Just finished Clavdivs the God

Funnily enough I've just rewatched the I Claudius tv series,Brian Blessed as Augustus is great,his facial expressions can be downright scary or a cack.

Bookwise,I've been re-reading Fieldings Guide:World's Most Dangerous Places.(had to see what it said about Mr Bin Laden,it called him the Ross Perot of Afghanistan!)
Just starting Disaster At D-Day:How Germany Won The War by Peter Tsousas(I think the name is right)
Great Military Blunders(a companion book to the History Channel series)
Back At The Ranch - Kinky Freidman

 

[Mujahoudini]

Finished Vonnegut, reading The Tetherballs Of Bougainville by Mark Leyner, a very very funny book.

 

[Louloubelle]

Oooh!
I Claudius the TV series- I watched it as a teenager when it first came out and it left me with a toga fetish! Everyone looks so damn sexy in those fab outfits, the plunging cleavages, the strappy sandals etc. Sian Phillips was supa cool (my first crush on a woman). John Hurt as Calligula and Derek Jaccobi as Claudius were the bomb! Gripping stories, superbly acted and directed. Im looking forward to checking it out again sometime soon.
I saw an interview with the director of The Sopranos recently and he said that the show was hugely influenced by I Claudius.
IMHO forget Prada & Gucci - bring on the swords and sandals ...hmmmm

 

[durruti02]

Just finished Northern Lights / Dark Materials Trilogy... the best book/s i have read for MANY years....was so desperate to read second book nearly didnt go out nyeve and ended ransacking my sons room at 6 on ny's morn to find the second book!! ...which he didn't have anyway!! !!..the second book is a bit slower maybe deliberately cos the third is a barnstormer..great writing ideas and politics!
also rebellion by Joseph Roth (i think its Joseph..1925 about german soldier)
all coupland...and going to try vurt cos yes got bored of Pollenbest
and A Drink with Shane Mc !!loved it

 

[@^+]

yes, read 'Vurt' - it's brilliant.

I must read some vonnegut. i must read 'rogue state'.

I want to check out some michael moorcock. where should i start and what's his best work?

This week i am mostly reading 'Once more, with feeling', by Vicky Coren & Charlie Skelton, following 2 fish-out-of-water English people going to LA and then Amsterdam to make a hardcore porn film.
I'm reading it for, er, research purposes, and it's very very funny, entertaining and enlightening. The porn stars they interviewed were all surprisingly very intelligent, funny and friendly. Not what I was expecting.

 

[smakka]

Originally posted by danny la rouge
I have a bad habit of reading several books at once. And since two clearly isn't enough, I'm eyeing up my partner's old copy of The Well of Loneliness, which I've always abandoned before (anyone made it all the way through? Should I go for it?), and The Optimist's Daughter, by Eudora Welty, again an old copy belonging to my partner, which looks interesting, and which I've always meant to read...anyone got views?

The Well of Loneliness is worth reading, if only to set lesbianism in its historical context - but don't bother if you tend towards depression. Sarah Waters has written three fab novels which she describes as 'lesbo Victorian romps.'

Eudora Welty - what a great writer, and her stories are so far ahead of their time. Well constructed and paced, I'd recommend her to anyone interested in the craft of writing.

I'm re-reading Born Free by Laura Hird, a brilliant contemporary novel (pub. Canongate) about the breakdown of a family from Gorgie, Edinburgh. It's written as a series of monologues from the viewpoints of each member of the family, and although it's gritty realism at its grittiest, it's also engaging and will have you involved with them (although you wouldn't necessarily want to live next to them) and rooting for them to succeed.

Also read The Madolescents by Chrissie Glazebrook which again is a deceptively light read with deep themes about family relationships, mental illness, identity, absent father etc.

 

[Emilie]

Have just started reading a Vicar of Dibley book, which is highly entertaining.

 

[ck]

"Adventures Of A No Name Actor" by Marco Perella which is a forgettable insight into an extra's work...

Worth reading for this bit alone though :

"...everybody has been very careful not to mention anything concerning pigs around Ned." This , of course , is in deference to his most famous role as the love interest in Deliverance. They're not even serving pork at meals. That's why it comes as a considerable surprise when Ned himself brings up the subject.

...In my continuing dedication to toad-licking I bring up the subject of Network and what a fine performance Ned gave in that movie. Ned proceeds to tell me how he 'really had his man in that part' and how it's one of his favorite roles. Then I get real dumb. I ask him what his favorite role is.

'Oh , I guess the pig thing in Deliverance.'
I keep on smiling. Ned continues , 'You know , the squealing wasn't scripted. That was my idea. The original script just had us rolling around in the woods. I thought it needed something so I suggested the squealing.'
'Wow ! You thought it up yourself !'
'Yes. That's what made the scene memorable , I think.'
'Oh , you bet ! Memorable for sure !'
'My career really took off after that movie. Funny how just one scene can make such a difference. Because of that scene I bought a farm in Kentucky.'
(Don't say it. Resist...resist...) 'A pig farm ?'

 

[danny la rouge]

Originally posted by smakka
The Well of Loneliness is worth reading, if only to set lesbianism in its historical context - but don't bother if you tend towards depression. Sarah Waters has written three fab novels which she describes as 'lesbo Victorian romps.'

Eudora Welty - what a great writer, and her stories are so far ahead of their time. Well constructed and paced, I'd recommend her to anyone interested in the craft of writing.

Thanks! Somebody that reads other people's posts on this thread!

I always felt I should read Well of Loneliness, but never got very far with it.

btw: Canongate - respect to them for carrying on the trade of publishing new contemporary fiction, when many publishing houses are focussing on the big names only.

 

[J77]

Originally posted by danny la rouge Thanks! Somebody that reads other people's posts on this thread!

I don't think it's the case of not reading other people's posts, simply that the genres read by U75ers seem to be so diverse that it's hard to comment on the posts.

Personally, I like to 'have a nose' at what people are reading through curiousity.

(I'm still on Neuromancer by William Gibson.)

 

[Cassius Belli]

Originally posted by Louloubelle
Oooh!
I Claudius the TV series- I watched it as a teenager when it first came out and it left me with a toga fetish! Everyone looks so damn sexy in those fab outfits, the plunging cleavages, the strappy sandals etc. Sian Phillips was supa cool (my first crush on a woman). John Hurt as Calligula and Derek Jaccobi as Claudius were the bomb! Gripping stories, superbly acted and directed. Im looking forward to checking it out again sometime soon.
I saw an interview with the director of The Sopranos recently and he said that the show was hugely influenced by I Claudius.
IMHO forget Prada & Gucci - bring on the swords and sandals ...hmmmm

Yes,yes,yes.And a youngish Patrick Stewart as Sejanus,what a bastard.Coincidences everywhere lately,I watched that series on vid a fortnight ago,and just this week there has been 2 docos on the idiot box about the lost legions of Varus in the Tetuenburg(?) forest.quote Augustus(v angrily):WHERE ARE MY EAGLES!!!

 

[Radar]

Originally posted by J77


I don't think it's the case of not reading other people's posts, simply that the genres read by U75ers seem to be so diverse that it's hard to comment on the posts.

Personally, I like to 'have a nose' at what people are reading through curiousity.

(I'm still on Neuromancer by William Gibson.)

If you like Gibson, try Wetware by Rudy Rucker.

Another good read if you like the genre.

 

[Radar]

Originally posted by J77
(I'm still on Neuromancer by William Gibson.)

If you like Gibson, try Wetware by Rudy Rucker.

Another good read if you like the genre.

Buggering double post then you can't delete it

 

[benclarke]

Trusted mole, by Milos Stankovic.

What an awesome book. He was, er is, half serbian and a bit scottish (something like that) and a soldier in the british army, went over to the war in Bosnia with the UN. Then in 97 gets arrested for spying for the serbs. Can't tell you the outcome yet obviously, but some of his accounts of the war are incredible.

 

[Idris2002]

When I was an extremely anti-social teenager I went through a phase of trying to read literary novels - problem was I didn't have the life experience to understand them properly, and it's only now that I've started to do so.

In the past week I've read Joseph Conrad's The Secret Agent and Under Western Eyes - both very good indeed.

The Secret Agent is about Anarchists, agent provacateurs and the policemen who hunt them. It preaches a very pessimistic and tragic view of society and humanity. Though I enjoyed I think it's let down partially by this. The character Michaelis is portrayed as a sad case, imprisoned for 20 years for his part in a plot to spring a couple of people from gaol, a plot in which a guard was killed, and preaching a totally hopeless and vague humanitarianism.

Thing is, Michaelis is based on one of Conrad's friends - the Irish peasant agitator Michael Davitt. And Davitt was no sad case utopian. He founded the non-violent Land League, whose agitation successfully won land reform in Ireland at the end of the 19th century.

Under Western Eyes, meanwhile, is a much less pessimistic book - but it's also about Russians seen through the eyes of a Pole, so it's not optimistic either. Razumov, a student, is visited in his lodgings one night by a fellow student, Haldin, who has just helped assassinate a Tsarist secret police chief. Things go from bad to worse for Razumov, and even more so for Haldin. . .

Good books both - give them a look.

 

[foo]

Grey Area - Will Self

I was unsure when reading the first story but now I'm really enjoying reading this and have smiled often. A wry and clever man. The jacket - like my mum's battered old orange penguins. I especially liked the story Incubus, well it has got a 'rood' room in it.

I like to think of him gleefully storing up shedloads of words before finding stories to fit them.

an excerpt:

Prologue

The philosopher Freddie Ayer was once asked which single thing he found most evocative of Paris. The venerable logical positivist thought for a while, and then answered, ' A road sign with "Paris" written on it.'

 

[Blagsta]

Reading "Homage to Catalonia" by George Orwell. Enjoying it so far, especially the explanation of the politics of the time, something I had little knowlege of before.

 

[tOka]

re-reading Allen Carr's "Easyway to stop smoking"
Not really enjoying it, but hope it'll be worth it

 

[foo]

let us know how you get on t0ka - I was speaking to a friend last night who reckons the Carr book is the only way to go. she's gone without smoking for a month now and says it's all down to reading that book.

I remain sceptical....

 

[Arienette]

survivor - chuck paluhniuk. great so far.

 

[white rabbit]

Originally posted by foo
let us know how you get on t0ka - I was speaking to a friend last night who reckons the Carr book is the only way to go. she's gone without smoking for a month now and says it's all down to reading that book.

I remain sceptical....

I couple of friends gave up after reading that book over a year ago and they haven't gone back to smoking (cigarettes).


I'm reading The Athenian Murders by José Carlos Somoza. It is written in a pecular way I can't tell if it's being deliberately awkward. I'm only up to page 12 so there's room for it to develop. There are passages such as

"Though your house is nearby, you are a man and I am a woman. I have my position as a despoina a husbandless mistress of a house, and you yours as a man who discusses matters in the Agora and speaks at the Assembly ..."

Very clunky, I thought. Would anyone use a word in a sentence and then explain its meaning? It's not something that would have had to be said explicitly in any case. I don't know if I like it yet but I'll persevere.

 

[foo]

Originally posted by white rabbit
I couple of friends gave up after reading that book over a year ago and they haven't gone back to smoking (cigarettes).

I also know someone who read it and didn't give up so like I said, I'm sceptical. P'raps I should stop watching others and give it a go......?

 

[twinkle]

i'm reading The God of Small Things and it's the bestest book i've read for years. beautiful.

 

[Donna Ferentes]

The Managerial Revolution by James Burnham.