dynamicbaddog
run for your life
zoooo said:
Any good? I'm thinking of buying it.
*What book are you reading ?
- Thread starter ck
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Any good? I'm thinking of buying it.
elevendayempire
Registered Loofah
Just finished Michael Cox's The Meaning of Night - a huge slab of slightly indigestible, but atmospheric Victoriana - and I'm now rattling through Mark Gatiss's The Devil in Amber (1920s-set romp with a bisexual James Bond/Sherlock Holmes/Oscar Wilde type fighting Devil-worshipping fascists) by way of a literary downer.
SG
SG
jeff_leigh
What happened to Dubversion ?
The Dark Tower the 7th a final book in the series
obanite
Kroketten
jeff - let me know how that turns out. I started reading the Dark Tower series pretty much when it came out, then read one of the more recent ones (#4 or #5 I think) but was skint and the next ones weren't in the library...
I'm reading Pattern Recognition by William Gibson at the moment.
Read both of Robin Hobb's latest books over Xmas, they were great, get them if you're into fantasy at all
I'm reading Pattern Recognition by William Gibson at the moment.
Read both of Robin Hobb's latest books over Xmas, they were great, get them if you're into fantasy at all
Real Images: Soviet Cinema and the Thaw by Josephine Woll.
An interesting read, placing into various contexts the oscillating breathing space that Soviet filmmakers grasped and then had to defend in regard to the "destalinization" of Soviet society after 1953, up until the late 1960's.
And...
Peasant Metropolis: Social Identities in Moscow, 1929-1941 by David Hoffman.
A fascinating little book covering the internal migration of workers to the capital during the years of rapid industrialisation. While not delving into the more well-covered topics of collectivsation for example, these major changes are seen as factors in the background, in regard to pushing the 20 million or so peasants who entered urban areas of the Soviet Union for over a decade. Bringing with them deep-rooted cultural differences that contradicted "proletarian" ideological constructs, and very real resistance to official leanings in regard to socialist construction of the Soviet people through politcal education as well as labour. The book shows conflict not only between officialdom, but between other urbanized workers who looked down on the new arrivals from rural areas, people who maintained links to their rural origins and used them to adapt to their new lives in the city.
An interesting read, placing into various contexts the oscillating breathing space that Soviet filmmakers grasped and then had to defend in regard to the "destalinization" of Soviet society after 1953, up until the late 1960's.
And...
Peasant Metropolis: Social Identities in Moscow, 1929-1941 by David Hoffman.
A fascinating little book covering the internal migration of workers to the capital during the years of rapid industrialisation. While not delving into the more well-covered topics of collectivsation for example, these major changes are seen as factors in the background, in regard to pushing the 20 million or so peasants who entered urban areas of the Soviet Union for over a decade. Bringing with them deep-rooted cultural differences that contradicted "proletarian" ideological constructs, and very real resistance to official leanings in regard to socialist construction of the Soviet people through politcal education as well as labour. The book shows conflict not only between officialdom, but between other urbanized workers who looked down on the new arrivals from rural areas, people who maintained links to their rural origins and used them to adapt to their new lives in the city.
madamv
Oi! With the poodle already
Just fnished Running with scissors - Augusten Burroughs. I really really enjoyed it, but having googled him, wonder if more than a little is fantasy. Looking forward to catching the movie.
Started Everything is Illuminated, after Dubs recommendation. Another cant put down if the first three pages are anything to go on.
Nothing lined up after that. I get a bit jittery if I havent at least two on the shelf awaiting my attention
Started Everything is Illuminated, after Dubs recommendation. Another cant put down if the first three pages are anything to go on.
Nothing lined up after that. I get a bit jittery if I havent at least two on the shelf awaiting my attention
Dirty Martini
gets what he cant want
Dirty Martini said:
This was great. Really fascinating social history. Viva Penguin.
Boogie Boy
Rockin' on the 1210s
Just finished re-reading Orwell's 'Homage to Catalonia', and I still find the whole narrative dull and uninspired. Also finished reading 'The Great Gatsby' by F Scott Fitzgerald which I quite enjoyed.
Not sure what I'm going to read next though.
BB
Not sure what I'm going to read next though.
BB
i thought i'd have an early night - back to work tomorrow - and went to bed to start reading Cormac McCarthy's The Road. That was about 11pm.
it's 2.15am, i've finished it and i'm in bits.
i've not read something that's made me feel quite like that in a long time.... the sense of desolation and loss and.. .. dunno. it needs thinking about and i think it will stay with me a long time
it's 2.15am, i've finished it and i'm in bits.
i've not read something that's made me feel quite like that in a long time.... the sense of desolation and loss and.. .. dunno. it needs thinking about and i think it will stay with me a long time
The Wind Up Bird Chronicles by Haruki Murakami
It's my mum's favourite of his lot
It's my mum's favourite of his lot
Dirty Martini
gets what he cant want
chooch said:
I love Nathaniel West. His books are out-of-print in the UK. Scandalous.
Stumbled straight from McCarthy's The Road to his previous book No Country For Old Men, which is what I believe they call a 'cracking read' - almost airport novel in subject matter (cross-border drug deals gone wrong, that sort of thing) but with his usual amazing language,.
May Kasahara
take me to the feeling
I'm reading 'Rebecca' by Daphne du Maurier, and enjoying it a lot. She is excellent at creating one unbearable setpiece of social embarrassment after another; after a while even the narrator's happiest days are tinged with dread for the reader, as you know another semi-self-inflicted failure is just lurking nearby ready to spring out and piss in her slippers.
I doubt I'm going to read my bookclub book, 'Rebecca's Tale', in time for next Tuesday though.
I doubt I'm going to read my bookclub book, 'Rebecca's Tale', in time for next Tuesday though.
Orang Utan
They cannot crucify you if your hand is in a fist
Rebecca is a fantastic book - great for book group as it's ripe with ambiguity and has lots to talk about in its pages
May Kasahara
take me to the feeling
I know, I'm loving it - it's a shame that it's not actually the bookgroup choice! Apparently you don't have to have read it to enjoy 'Rebecca's Tale', which IS the official choice, but I've been meaning to get round to it for ages and didn't want to ruin it for myself by reading the sequel first.
Oh well, it won't be the first bookgroup meeting where I haven't read the book (but still manage to bang on about it for ages anyway )
Oh well, it won't be the first bookgroup meeting where I haven't read the book (but still manage to bang on about it for ages anyway
)
Orang Utan
They cannot crucify you if your hand is in a fist
Yeah me too - supposed to be reading some feminist sci-fi for my next one and still haven't bought the bookMay Kasahara said:Oh well, it won't be the first bookgroup meeting where I haven't read the book (but still manage to bang on about it for ages anyway
May Kasahara
take me to the feeling
Is that that Marge Piercy one 'A Woman Through Time' or something? I would let you have my mum's copy, if I hadn't purged it in some long-ago bookmoving rage. It sat on my shelf for years, unread, while my English teacher and loads of my schoolfriends went on about how great it was.
It probably is great though, don't want to put you off.
It probably is great though, don't want to put you off.
Orang Utan
They cannot crucify you if your hand is in a fist
That's the one - the title put me off bigtime and I had a load of other books to read and then it was Xmas/NY. Excuses, excuses...
Dirty Martini
gets what he cant want
Finished 'The Vesuvius Club' by Mark Gatiss, which was good camp fun.
Now I'm reading 'We Need To Talk About Kevin' (which I keep thinking is called 'There's Something About Kevin'). Her determination to write beautiful prose keeps getting in the way of the writing.
Now I'm reading 'We Need To Talk About Kevin' (which I keep thinking is called 'There's Something About Kevin'). Her determination to write beautiful prose keeps getting in the way of the writing.
Dubversion said:
Oh dear.
Finished this at stupid o'clock this morning and it's a real disappointment. It switches between a pretty OTT 'drug deal gone wrong, innocent man takes money and is on the run' thriller plot and the folksy ruminations of a county sheriff wondering about the state of the world. And then (vague spoiler alert) the plot comes to an abrupt end some way from the book's end, and the rest of the book is the sheriff reflecting further, deciding to retire, visiting with his family and saying stuff like
In terms of publication, it took McCarthy 7 years to put this one out after the end of the Border Trilogy, then a year before The Road. I can only hope he spent most of this time writing the Road and stuck out No Country For Old Men to keep himself in shotgun cartridges in the mean time or something..
very odd.. pretty conservative, still some amazing description and note-perfect dialogue but ultimately a bit of a waste of time..
It's so disappointing that isn't it, when you've read something utterly brilliant by someone, and the next one you read is a pile of crap?
Which is why it's been an absolute DELIGHT working my way through all of Annie Proulx's books. From the first to the last (today), I have been in heaven. One after another, all different, but all with the same brilliant perception, dialogue, landscape descriptions, cruelty and humour - it's safe to say I've been completely blown away by her. I feel...fulfilled
Which is why it's been an absolute DELIGHT working my way through all of Annie Proulx's books. From the first to the last (today), I have been in heaven. One after another, all different, but all with the same brilliant perception, dialogue, landscape descriptions, cruelty and humour - it's safe to say I've been completely blown away by her. I feel...fulfilled
Orang Utan
They cannot crucify you if your hand is in a fist
with someone like that, do you want to read all their books ASAP or ration them out carefully? I am of the latter campsojourner said:It's so disappointing that isn't it, when you've read something utterly brilliant by someone, and the next one you read is a pile of crap?
Which is why it's been an absolute DELIGHT working my way through all of Annie Proulx's books. From the first to the last (today), I have been in heaven. One after another, all different, but all with the same brilliant perception, dialogue, landscape descriptions, cruelty and humour - it's safe to say I've been completely blown away by her. I feel...fulfilled
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