*What book are you reading ?
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Dirty Martini
gets what he cant want
chooch said:
I read about half of Budding Prospects a few years ago. I'm about two thirds of the way through this one. It's a page turner and he's got a nice turn of phrase and all those critics' cliches, but a good deal of it is, imo, typing rather than writing. I should finish it first though
Dirty Martini
gets what he cant want
Finished The Inner Circle.
I dunno, I liked it on the whole, it rattles along and doesn't bore. He writes with great ease, but there's a complacency about the writing that frequently pissed me off. Did he begin to lose interest in the subject? I think I was expecting more given Boyle's rep, but I'd be interested in reading another one, maybe Drop City or The Tortilla Curtain.
I've just started Music For Torching by A M Homes. Anyone read any of her stuff?
I dunno, I liked it on the whole, it rattles along and doesn't bore. He writes with great ease, but there's a complacency about the writing that frequently pissed me off. Did he begin to lose interest in the subject? I think I was expecting more given Boyle's rep, but I'd be interested in reading another one, maybe Drop City or The Tortilla Curtain.
I've just started Music For Torching by A M Homes. Anyone read any of her stuff?
Dirty Martini said:
go for Drop City or Riven Rock, IMO...
Dirty Martini said:
I have it - don't know where it came from, bizarrely - and read 30 pages or so once when i was bored. It seemed very good - very dark and acerbic. Will definitely go back to it.
Dirty Martini
gets what he cant want
Dubversion said:
Ta. Hadn't heard of Riven Rock but it looks interesting.
Dubversion said:
I'm about that much into it. Beautifully twisted style, very vicious
Wide Eyed Angel
Forgeddaboudit!
Just on the very last bit of A Confederacy of Dunces by John Kennedy Toole which my Dad lent me, and very glad he did too, I normally take an age to read anything but I've got through this one very quick because it's just so damn good, I'll be disappointed when it ends and I have no more of that terrible manboy Ignatius!
it's fantastic isn't it?
god knows what happened to the movie - it was all set to go then nothing
god knows what happened to the movie - it was all set to go then nothing
Just finished Portrait of a Marriage by Nigel Nicolson, which was rather interesting, and am now on Heart Songs by my now-beloved Annie Proulx. Problem is, this is the last book of hers that I haven't devoured, and I don't want to finish it cos that'll be it, unless/until she puts another one out.
Orang Utan
They cannot crucify you if your hand is in a fist
Yes, although The End Of Alice is the one everyone talks about, it's Jack that affected me the most. A very accurate portrayal of teen angst.Dirty Martini said:
Just started the recent Sebastian Faulks one, Human Traces. However, then put it down and started reacing 'Yes Man' again, which is one of the funniest books I've ever read...
Dirty Martini
gets what he cant want
Dirty Martini said:
Liking this a LOT
) & enjoying it thougherly.Dirty Martini
gets what he cant want
Finished Music For Torching.
A great, great book. She manages to find new twists on that old US theme: the corruption and downright weirdness of suburbia. It nods at DeLillo, Abish, Pynchon -- that very male tradition of slick angular wisecracking comedy -- pays its respects, then rips the piss out of it. It's a brilliant performance. I want to read everything she's written.
to add: and it's very very funny
A great, great book. She manages to find new twists on that old US theme: the corruption and downright weirdness of suburbia. It nods at DeLillo, Abish, Pynchon -- that very male tradition of slick angular wisecracking comedy -- pays its respects, then rips the piss out of it. It's a brilliant performance. I want to read everything she's written.
to add: and it's very very funny
Dirty Martini
gets what he cant want
The Brooklyn Follies -- Paul Auster
Dirty Martini
gets what he cant want
Auster writes
... mildly diverting, cliched, self-conscious, middlebrow pap.
I read Moon Palace years ago and remember enjoying it, but this is essentially the same book, the same tropes, the same light learning worn like he's some genius professor of difficult subjects. Metafiction my arse.
The book has too much shit like this in it.
Now for some AM Homes stories, Things You Should Know, which I'm looking forward to.
... mildly diverting, cliched, self-conscious, middlebrow pap.
I read Moon Palace years ago and remember enjoying it, but this is essentially the same book, the same tropes, the same light learning worn like he's some genius professor of difficult subjects. Metafiction my arse.
Paul Auster said:
The book has too much shit like this in it.
Now for some AM Homes stories, Things You Should Know, which I'm looking forward to.
I've not long finished Sebastian Faulks' 'Birdsong'. An excellent book IMO but strangely not the utterly amazing read I was expecting.
I'm now on Kazuo Ishiguro's 'Never Let Me Go'. It got panned on Newsnight Review when it came out - that's usually enough to recommend something!
I'm now on Kazuo Ishiguro's 'Never Let Me Go'. It got panned on Newsnight Review when it came out - that's usually enough to recommend something!
'Opening Skinner's Box: Great Psychological Experiments of the 20th Century' by Lauren Slater.
Very pleased with this, an entertaining, well-written and informed read; her style (writing in part-novella style, locating her own experiences within the narrative) works very well to bring the analysis of human behaviours alive.
She also asks the questions that need to be asked.
Very pleased with this, an entertaining, well-written and informed read; her style (writing in part-novella style, locating her own experiences within the narrative) works very well to bring the analysis of human behaviours alive.
She also asks the questions that need to be asked.
I loved this when I read it about 2 or 3 years ago. Loved his writing style. Then I got Charlotte Gray and was bitterly disappointed. But Birdsong stands on its own merit, you don't have to like everything by one writer, and usually you (I) don't. It's just a great bonus if you doPhilbc03 said:
Philbc03 said:
It's very good - one of my most memorable reads so far this year.
Now reading James Elroy's The Black Dehlia.
Started it 10 years ago but never got into it (i know this as a cash machine receipt bookmark dated 14/05/96 fell out at the place I 'd stopped!)
Really enjoying it this time having read 2/3rds of it in 2 days.
Dirty Martini
gets what he cant want
Pie 1 said:
I loved it. The next one, The Big Nowhere, is even better imo.
Dirty Martini
gets what he cant want
Finished Things You Should Know, stories by AM Homes.
Themes recurring, worked to a point, shuffled round, reworked. A few of these stories are so-so, a couple of them are interesting and no more, four of them are extremely good and one, 'The Former First Lady and the Football Hero', about Ronald and Nancy Reagan, is brilliant.
Homes is my discovery of the year. Better late than never.
Themes recurring, worked to a point, shuffled round, reworked. A few of these stories are so-so, a couple of them are interesting and no more, four of them are extremely good and one, 'The Former First Lady and the Football Hero', about Ronald and Nancy Reagan, is brilliant.
Homes is my discovery of the year. Better late than never.
Dr. Furface
One small step for me
The Damned Utd by David Peace. Brilliantly imagines the inner thoughts of Brian Clough during his ill-fated 44 days as manager of Leeds United, contrasting that time with his earlier triumphs as manager at Hartlepool and, particularly, Derby County. You have to keep reminding yourself that it's a work of fiction, it's so believeable. A great portrait of a troubled and flawed genius fighting with his own demons, and with everyone else.
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