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*What book are you reading ?

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Just finished Invisible Man by Ralph Ellison. American existentialism and racial politics, and a great portrait of New York. I'm not sure Ellison makes the narrator's shift from conventional Southern student to NY's leading black Marxist entirely convincing; he seems to be in a rush to get him to the city without fully exploring where he comes from or the subtle changes he undergoes in the South. But it's a firecracker, very atmospheric, with an absolutely contemporary evaluation of liberal guilt and gaucheness. I'm sure it'll stay with me for many years to come.

Next up is Of Love and Hunger by Julian Maclaren-Ross or The Bandini Quartet by John Fante, haven't decided which.
 
Just finished Roth's 'The Plot Against America'. It was enjoyable, but not up there with his best. I didn't think the two elements of the plot (memoirs of a Jewish child growing up in thirties Newark and the Nazi plot itself) were stitched together that well, and until the final fifty pages there wasn't that much development. Still, it was a Roth, and as such it was very, very good.

Struggling through Zola's 'Nana', but I suspect I've got a lousy translation. Will read Lanchester's 'Fragrant Harbour' as light relief.
 
chooch said:
Do you not find there to be elements of smugness and cuntery?
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:D :D

I'm rereading Tim Moore's very funny Spanish Steps, inspired by the post about it here the other day.

I'm going through a bit of a nothing-too-difficult stage. :oops:

Also, Jonathan Strange is still mouldering. I don't have the strength to lift it. :oops:
 
Everything is illuminated by Jonathan Safran Foer. Only just started it but it looks good, kind of quirky and fun but I think it will have deep stuff as we go on.
 
I'm reading Cocktail Time by P G Wodehouse. My dad brought it down and said I would enjoy it. It wouldn't be my choice but I try and read books if someone takes the trouble to think of me and lend me it.

I'm glad he did, I am enjoying it very much.
 
I'm reading The Promise of Happiness by Justin Cartwright. I wanted something exciting to read.only read the first 50 pages and it seems ok so far.
 
I've just pulled L.Sprague de Camp's "The Reluctant King" trilogy off the bookshelf, and am re-reading it for the third or fourth time.

A little gem of a fantasy trilogy: witty without being "funny", subtle, erudite without posturing, and with suitable heroism, bloodthirstyness and weird deities.
 
against method- paul feyerabend
evolution + revolution- intro to the life + thought of kropotkin- graham purchase
only A beginning- an anarchist anthology- ed. allan antliff
 
Orangesanlemons said:
Just finished Roth's 'The Plot Against America'. It was enjoyable, but not up there with his best. I didn't think the two elements of the plot (memoirs of a Jewish child growing up in thirties Newark and the Nazi plot itself) were stitched together that well, and until the final fifty pages there wasn't that much development. Still, it was a Roth, and as such it was very, very good.
Click to expand...

I recently read this and was let down too. I always have such high hopes for when his new books come out but recently I've been let down. 'The plot...' was no different. Disappointing.
 
Just finished Of Love and Hunger, Julian Maclaren-Ross.

Vacuum-cleaner salesmen, 1939, south coast resort, pubs, chancers and spivs, cakes with pink icing, doomed love affair, Larry Heliotrope, mush, buckshee and tosheroons. It's a brilliant novel, funny and moving, a great read and I recommend it.
 
Just bought the Jonathan Strange and Mr Norrell doorstep - I need a big read at the mo.
Also had a Murakami splurge - Borders were doing 3 for 2, so I got Kafka On The Shore, Dance Dance Dance and The Elephant Vanishes
 
nino_savatte said:
Wilhelm Reich - The Function of the Orgasm
Titter ye not! :D
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It's not a bad book, tho' he is a bit overblown.
I found a copy of his last one a year or two ago - "Death of Christ" or similar. Only managed 1/2 of it - it's still sitting reproachfully in the in-tray.

Anyway, having finished the de Camp, I'm having a go at Jack Vance's Lyonesse trilogy again: now there's an author who understands the footnote.
 
Just started to re-read, Land Of Lost Content, the story of the Luddite Revolt by Robert Reid.

The Luddites, now there was a cause.
 
Frank Ongley Darvell, Popular disturbances and public order in regency England - being an account of the Luddite and other disorders in England during 1811-1817 and the attitude and activity of the authorities (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 1934)
 
rich! said:
It's not a bad book, tho' he is a bit overblown.
I found a copy of his last one a year or two ago - "Death of Christ" or similar. Only managed 1/2 of it - it's still sitting reproachfully in the in-tray.

Anyway, having finished the de Camp, I'm having a go at Jack Vance's Lyonesse trilogy again: now there's an author who understands the footnote.
Click to expand...

I'm already 2 chapters in and some things I can accept and others are well, simply, barking.
 
Orang Utan said:
Just bought the Jonathan Strange and Mr Norrell doorstep - I need a big read at the mo.
Also had a Murakami splurge - Borders were doing 3 for 2, so I got Kafka On The Shore, Dance Dance Dance and The Elephant Vanishes
Click to expand...
I could have lent you all of those. :p

I STILL can't get back into Jonathan Strange. As they didn't used to say: "When I put it down, I couldn't pick it up again."
 
just read:

per hagman - att komma hem ska vara en schlager
brecht - die dreigroschenoper
hans fallada - kleiner mann was nun? (very good)

now reading:

george monbiot - the age of consent
dbc pierre - vernon god little
kafka - amerika
and some honecker biography.
 
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