*What book are you reading ?

[chooch]

Christopher Hill- the world turned upside down and England's turning point.

 

[districtline]

paolo hewitt, mark baxter - the fashion of football.

bought it today, only read the first 40 pages so far but seems like a good read.

still got loads of half-read books to get through before my move in three weeks time.

 

[spartacus mills]

Christopher Hill- the world turned upside down and England's turning point.

I read 'The World Turned Upside Down' last year. Marvellous book.
Just started 'The Question of Zion' by Jacqueline Rose.

 

[Boogie Boy]

'An Introduction To The Hadith' John Burton (Edinburgh)

If only they had used a different font!

BB

 

[ck]

I couldn't bring myself to skim anything

one I start skimming , it's a sign to me that I won't finish the book.

Started "To Kill A Mockingbird" today. It features throughout "Capote" and Catherine Keener is great as Harper Lee. (This spurned me to pick up the copy I've had since day dot...)

 

[Strumpet]

Am about to dive into Emerson.....Ralph Waldo....never read him before, should be interesting.

 

[Pieface]

The Virgin Suicides.

I loved Middlesex - I think he's a writer with great ideas who manages to draw you into the humanity of every tale brilliantly. I honestly think he could invent a monster evil serial killer character and get you onside in a page.

Just like Milton

Well maybe not just like Milton but he rocks. The book is pretty different to how I remember the film - the male viewpoint is more defined and I feel like a lot more of Sofia Coppola went into the film than I previously thought, in terms of nostalgia (I think it would have been the same era as her childhood) and giving the viewer freedom to interpret the characters more. There's just too much internal life in the book to ever translate to screen coherently - she did a good job imo.

Could be wrong, mind - I need to watch it again.

But yeah - Jeffrey Eugenides - read him

 

[Rollem]

I got a belated birthday present at the weekend, 3 books set in china, I'm undecided which one to start with first.

they are ....

to the edge of the sky - anhua gao
the binding chair - kathryn harrison
falling leaves - adeline yen mah


if anyone's read any of them, which would you recommend?

i haven't read "to the edge of the sky" but the other two are great, impo

i preferred "falling leaves" out of the two though if that helps?

if you like them, i have other recommendations of smillar set books, you can raid my "library"


just started reading "ursula, under" by ingrid hill

 

[maya]

I loved Middlesex - I think he's a writer with great ideas who manages to draw you into the humanity of every tale brilliantly. I honestly think he could invent a monster evil serial killer character and get you onside in a page.

sorry, glad you liked it- but just adding my opinion:

i had really high expectations for that book, but didn't manage to like it-
mostly because i felt it (for me) was one of those books where the author tries too hard, so the characters didn't come alive enough to feel "believeable"-
if it had been a TV drama, i wouldn't mind- but with books i need to get sucked into the reading, rather than admire the writing and think: "yeah, this author is really clever (but i feel something's missing)"

 

[Pieface]

Shit - I found them very believable! That's why I think he's so good - he made quite extreme characters come alive rather than remain as cartoons.

But - having read more at lunchtime I'm talking rubbish about the nostalgia quota upping in the film - book's dripping with it.

 

[belboid]

one I start skimming , it's a sign to me that I won't finish the book.

Started "To Kill A Mockingbird" today. It features throughout "Capote" and Catherine Keener is great as Harper Lee. (This spurned me to pick up the copy I've had since day dot...)

must see Capote, does it cover the story that he actually wrote Mockingbird, while she did the vast majority of the work on In Cold Blood?

 

[maya]

Shit - I found them very believable! That's why I think he's so good - he made quite extreme characters come alive rather than remain as cartoons.

sorry, perhaps it's the language barrier for me?
i've always found English to be a very "flat", dry and "unemotional" language,
compared to my mothertongue-
imo a lot of words and phrases in English can sound so extremely clichéd, because of that "flatness" of the language
(and perhaps also because of bad pop lyrics, hollywood films, popcultural dominance/invasion, aswell?)

English is not a good language for expressing emotions/feelings i think,
whereas more detached/observational/intellectual ways of writing suits English very well and does not sound so good in translation into more "emotional" languages.

(for the same reason fantastic literature in my own language loses its greatness when translated into English- often it seems amateurish because the style doesn't "cross over" well.)

so i tend to often get annoyed by this tendency in (especially) some american writers who i find to be too "chatty" and clever and just without "depth"...
of course this is just a personal opinion and its great if other people disagree,
taste is a personal thing after all.

 

[Bomber]

Having neglected the written word for many months now I am about to begin a reading odyssey through a pile of books that I acquired but never read ...

First up ~ Accordion crimes ~ E. Annie Proulx to be followed by David Nowell's 'Too Darn Soulful', which is basically a look at the Northern Soul scene.

 

[Pieface]

Heh - and you posted all that without mentioning "Lost in Translation" once

I would never truely understand this unless I mastered another language well enough to compare - and judging from the way you write, you're well able to. It must be fascinating to be multi-lingual and be able to get this extra dimension from books - I can only go on English unfortunately

But I think this:

(and perhaps also because of bad pop lyrics, hollywood films, popcultural dominance/invasion, aswell?)

is a valid point - especially when these songs and films take emotions and situations that are supposed to be sublime/extreme and manage to make them prosaic through repetition and cliché. Perhaps the fall-out from this is the detached/observational/intellectual style of writing. But then bad lyrics are nothing new to this day and age - we've been writing badly about emotions for centuries I'm not sure I could stomach more - making me a true Brit I guess.....

Does your mother tongue have a much larger vocabulary with more nuances of meaning?

(I have no idea if this is a factor in the difference you see - it just interests me as cliché is borne of repetition and maybe lack of variety in our vocab is the problem. It could be a cultural difference.)

 

[maya]

especially when these songs and films take emotions and situations that are supposed to be sublime/extreme and manage to make them prosaic through repetition and cliché. Perhaps the fall-out from this is the detached/observational/intellectual style of writing.

yeah, i think so too-
even though it seems we are slowly moving away from extreme "generation x"-irony and into more subtle ways of writing (?)

Does your mother tongue have a much larger vocabulary with more nuances of meaning?

oddly, it's got a much smaller vocabulary, actually!
but it's got more words for emotional states and moods,
more synonyms and nuances for describing things in different ways imo...(?)

but in all writers and languages you will of course have laziness,
so i think that perhaps is the main factor of clichés- the lack of will/effort to experiment and take risks etc.- so you'll find bad writing everywhere, i reckon!!

 

[walktome]

Dispatches by Michael Herr. I'm reading it for my narrative class and so far I really, really like it. It's my favourite book for that class so far (Frankenstein was my old class favourite).

 

[Flashman]

Just finished that Dog in the Night-Time, I'm not one for contemporary novels ordinarily (there's so much to catch up on from the past) but I enjoyed this. Now on Porterhouse Blue, which is okay, Sharpe promises much but never really delivers for me. Blott was similarly okay, but, and I know this won't be popular, I've enjoyed the tv adaptions of both more than the books to be honest.

 

[Pieface]

yeah, i think so too-
even though it seems we are slowly moving away from extreme "generation x"-irony and into more subtle ways of writing (?)

I agree - which is why I don't think Brett Easton Ellis is going to have a career unless he changes his mantra a bit - although his last one got better reviews so perhaps he has. I really can't take any more jaded "is this it?" novels, which makes me either optimistic or naive

Or both

 

[Dubversion]

i have put my book about the occult to one side while i read of the fantastic book about José Posada that Pie Face bought me for Christmas.

 

[jodal]

Great book. Wasn't Herr a consultant on Platoon or some other great Vietnam War movie? I think you'll find that he was.

 

[walktome]

He was the coauthor of Apocalypse Now and Full Metal Jacket. I'm going to see Apocalypse Now soon.

 

[Louloubelle]

The Adolescent Psyche - Richard Frankel
good stuff on psychotherapy with adoclescents by a Jungian analyst - he's a lovely bloke I met him a few years back but this is the first time I've given myself time to read his book

When Illness Strikes the Leader The Dilemma of the Captive King - Robert Robins Jerrold Post
Very, very interesting book about what happens when kings, presidents and prime ministers become seriously / terminally ill, how they react to their illness (including denying it and taking risks they might otherwise not take in order to leave their mark on history) and how their advisors end up behaving in dysfunctional ways out of loyalty and anxiety, fascinating political psychology that can be applied to organisations. Very insightful

The Hidden Persuaders - Yance Packard
Re-reading this book to brush up on the psychology behind advertising, a classic and very interesting book

 

[foamy]

Dispatches by Michael Herr. I'm reading it for my narrative class and so far I really, really like it. It's my favourite book for that class so far (Frankenstein was my old class favourite).

i loved that book. but it gave me nightmares!

 

[Jo/Joe]

The Master and Margarita - Mikhail Bulgakov. Fantastic and magical.

 

[chooch]

The Master and Margarita - Mikhail Bulgakov. Fantastic and magical.

Bulgakov's on the list but oddly never seems to get to the top.

 

[Pickman's model]

john ashton, the devil in britain and america (london, 1896)

 

[Throbbing Angel]

Gwendoline Riley's "Sick Notes"

 

[tastebud]

The Master and Margarita - Mikhail Bulgakov. Fantastic and magical.

Ditto!

 

[onemonkey]

The Master and Margarita - Mikhail Bulgakov. Fantastic and magical.

i noticed the other day that i seem to have three copies of that.. if anyone wants one (or two) let me know

update:
both spoken for

 

[walktome]

i loved that book. but it gave me nightmares!

It hasn't given me any nightmares so far, I find it fascinating, in a horrifying way.