*What book are you reading ?
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spanglechick
High Empress of Dressing Up
Currently Reading: Portnoy's Complaint - is a bit crap, to be honest - I loose patience with all this 60's New York stream of consciousness stuff - it's a bit "Dice Man" for my tastes.
Recently read: the latest Alexander Mc Call Smith (sneaking suspicion his books are just easy-readers for the self consciously literate, but mindlessly enjoyable, like a laura ashley sofa).
The latest Harry Potter - which I will defend to the hilt (best so far) - although probably not at book group, where I imagine it wouldn't be popular...
And the most amazing book about overeating / dieting etc, by William Leith, Called "The Hungry Years - Confessions of a Food Addict" - which I unhesitatingly reccommend to anyone food addict or not.
Recently read: the latest Alexander Mc Call Smith (sneaking suspicion his books are just easy-readers for the self consciously literate, but mindlessly enjoyable, like a laura ashley sofa).
The latest Harry Potter - which I will defend to the hilt (best so far) - although probably not at book group, where I imagine it wouldn't be popular...
And the most amazing book about overeating / dieting etc, by William Leith, Called "The Hungry Years - Confessions of a Food Addict" - which I unhesitatingly reccommend to anyone food addict or not.
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To continue reading on an Indian theme I've started Passage to India by EM Forster. I think I should have read this first then the Raj Quartet then Suitable Boy not the other way round.
Ho Hum
Ho Hum
Donna Ferentes
jubliado
You say so why? You are aware of who Basil D'Oliviera was and why his story is important?Ryazan said:
spanglechick said:
HERETIC!
re-read this for about the 3rd time recently, and i'm still in awe of how he manages to build and maintain that almost hysterical pitch throughout, as things get more and more fucked up..
and to compare it to The Dice Man? shudder.....
spanglechick
High Empress of Dressing Up
Dubversion said:HERETIC!
re-read this for about the 3rd time recently, and i'm still in awe of how he manages to build and maintain that almost hysterical pitch throughout, as things get more and more fucked up..
and to compare it to The Dice Man? shudder.....
But it's so dull!
I truly think most stream of consciousness writing (or writing that seems that way) is - well - masturbatory. Fittingly enough...
... but then, what do I know? I like Harry Potter...
Virtual Blue
ready
Jack Kerouac´s The Dharma Bums - great book apparently but another I can't get into.
Donna Ferentes said:
Cricket mate. Not that I understand the game anyway. I don't know about his life in detail, but being at the centre, or one centre at least of controversy surrounding the sporting boycott of Aparthied era South Africa, it might be quite interesting.
Donna Ferentes
jubliado
Well precisely.
exosculate
a stagger with a beat
Virtual Blue said:
Nice book, describing interesting things, but not a good writer in my view.
It sounds like he wrote it in one sitting, which he pretty much did.
Brainaddict
slight system overdrive
if i have read i married a communist and found it to be tedious and pointless, should i avoid portnoy's complaint?Dubversion said:HERETIC!
re-read this for about the 3rd time recently, and i'm still in awe of how he manages to build and maintain that almost hysterical pitch throughout, as things get more and more fucked up..
and to compare it to The Dice Man? shudder.....
Having watched 24hr news channels all day, I'm about to re-read Rudolph Wurlitzer's Quake.
Set amid the ruins of an American city following a natural disaster, it's about what happens to people's behaviour when normality breaks down...
Bleak, nihilistic stuff.
Set amid the ruins of an American city following a natural disaster, it's about what happens to people's behaviour when normality breaks down...
Bleak, nihilistic stuff.
onemonkey
winmonkey
i prefer money by martin Amis..Dubversion said:HERETIC!
re-read this for about the 3rd time recently, and i'm still in awe of how he manages to build and maintain that almost hysterical pitch throughout, as things get more and more fucked up..
and to compare it to The Dice Man? shudder.....
actually i am reading that it now.. it's not great and nothing like as subtle as portnoy's complaint but it has a lot more pace..
in a similar vein i've just finished Closing Time which is great.. catch 22 seems like an impossible book to write a sequel to but i can't see how Joseph Heller could have done anything better than this.
I'm reading Harry Potter's newest, isn't everybody?Brainaddict said:
not at all - i've found almost all Roth i've read since to be pretty dull, but Portnoy's (his first book? correct me if i'm wrong) is just stunning IMO
onemonkey said:
i don't see the connection, i love both books but can't see any link
onemonkey said:
i don't think i said it was a bad book, i quite enjoyed it at the time of my life when you're supposed to read books like that. and i agree that a lot of people missed the point. Anyway, connoisseurs realise that Adventures of Wim ("Brave men hide") was the better Reinhart book.
i just thought it was ridiculous to compare it to Portnoy's Complaint.
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Sunspots said:
I'd read Grapes of Wrath - about US citizens turned in refugees in their own country after disastrous drought - very apt I read it a few weeks ago and reviewed it here
http://urbanbookreview.blogspot.com/
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Valve said:
Very worth it - I used to read it every year on my holidays!! a fantastic book indeed.
onemonkey said:
I think that's a helluva leap, to be honest...
onemonkey
winmonkey
mart makes no secret of his worship of great american authors.. bellow, nabakov & (i think) roth.. and at various points he has aped their styles..Dubversion said:
it is a long time since i read PC but something about money reminded me about it.. maybe it's just the new york setting and the out of control narrator? i am qute superficial though i pretend not to be!
i just don't see Amis considering Rheinhart part of that particular pantheon.. it's 15 years or so since i read either, so i could be wrong
Finally finished Ragged Trousered Philanthropists. A hell of a slog. It's a good read, but twice as long as it needs to be and I found the ending a bit of a dissapointment.
Next on the reading list is Our Flag Stays Red by Phil Piratin and then probably Raskolniov's account of Kronstadt in 1917.
Next on the reading list is Our Flag Stays Red by Phil Piratin and then probably Raskolniov's account of Kronstadt in 1917.
fucthest8
Cool people die horrible, preventable deaths.
"Running with Scissors" by Augusten Burroughs
Fascinating, disturbing, yet humourous account of one mans' very weird upbringing.
“My mother began to go crazy. Not crazy in a let’s paint the kitchen bright red! sort of way. But crazy in a gas oven, toothpaste sandwich, I am God sort of way.”
Fascinating, disturbing, yet humourous account of one mans' very weird upbringing.
“My mother began to go crazy. Not crazy in a let’s paint the kitchen bright red! sort of way. But crazy in a gas oven, toothpaste sandwich, I am God sort of way.”
kyser_soze
Hawking's Angry Eyebrow
Non-fiction, Chuck Pahlahniuk. Never read his stuff before and Haunted got me into his style.
Book that prooves that real life is weirder, less consistent and has more tragedy, joy and unbeleiveable coincidences than ever appear in fiction.
Book that prooves that real life is weirder, less consistent and has more tragedy, joy and unbeleiveable coincidences than ever appear in fiction.
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