*What book are you reading ?

[souljacker]

Just finished Post Office by Charles Bukowski, which is pure fucking class!

Now reading Requiem For A Dream, Hubert Selby Jr.

 

[J77]

Bored of the Rings - it's boring...

 

[KeyboardJockey]

IBM and the Holocaust by Edwin Black

Reading the above at the moment. First class book detailing all the dealings between the Nazi's and IBM. What is really scary is that the movements of the Jews, and peoples racial / social charactaristics could not have been tracked as accurately without IBM equipment. Watson the head of IBM at the time was constantly sucking up to the Nazi's and had full knowledge of the Nazi's plans for the Jews.

Cracking book on an aspect of modern history that the capitalists would rather be brushed under the carpet.

 

[Ann Tigonie]

I often have a couple of books on the go at once...it depends on my mood which book I read....

At the moment I'm reading:

The lady in the Van......Alan Bennett
Medieval Women 450-1500......Henrietta Leyser
The Mythic Journey....Liz Greene & Juliet Sharman

 

[Dr Morose]

Hidden Agendas by John Pilger, slightly dated by WTC, Afghanistan and Iraq, but still very, very informative

got into an argument on the tube with a stockbroker on the tube who called me an armchair communist because of it

fool, when the revolution comes, all men will have leather reclining sofas!

 

[Roadkill]

Bump to rescue this thread from page 3 obscurity!

Last night my brain was mushed and I was in the mood for light, nostalgic entertainment. So I read about ten Thomas the Tank Engine books.

 

[Roadkill]

<double post>

 

[chegrimandi]

e.m forster......the longest journey

 

[Elpenor]

Just finished reading Ian Banks - Complicity, now starting on Graham Greene - The Honorary Consul.

 

[proud american]

I'm finishing up Chapter 23 on Dearborn/Passtrak Life and Health Insurance License Exam Manual. You all think you are entertained with your books you should spend weeks studying annuities! I can't wait to be done with this. Oh yeah, I just finished Catch-22 for the umpteenth time. I love it once again.

 

[white rabbit]

Just finished The Rules of Attraction by Brett Easton Ellis. I loved the film and like the way it subtly dovetails with American Psycho. "No one knows anybody". Very dark and cynical.

Now I'm reading High Art Lite by Julian Stallabrass. A critical evaluation of "Young British Artists" such as Emin and Hirst and their media entourage.

 

[tomsk]

Hunter S. Thompson - Hells Angels

 

[Lollybelle]

Gravity's Rainbow. I'm struggling. Quite excited that there's a new Margaret Atwood advertised though, just in time for my holiday... excellent!

 

[rubbershoes]

Originally posted by Lollybelle
Gravity's Rainbow. I'm struggling.

I didn’t manage to finish it either Lolly. At the moment I’m reading Guerrillas by VS Naipaul

 

[souljacker]

Originally posted by tomsk
Hunter S. Thompson - Hells Angels

Very good book! Just don't do what I did and read Fear and Loathing on the Campaign Trail afterwards, unless you have a sadistic desire to read, in length, about the way the US election system works.

 

[MoKa]

Currently reading 'David And Della' by Paul Zindel and have the Pigman books on order at Amazon to hit next.

I'm researching and my current topic is Teen fiction so I also have a Sweet Valley High and a couple of 'Buffy' books to read.

Woohooo

Maybe I'll find the meaning of life in a SVH book that I missed 20 years ago when I read them as a 14 year old!

 

[tomsk]

Originally posted by souljacker
Very good book! Just don't do what I did and read Fear and Loathing on the Campaign Trail afterwards, unless you have a sadistic desire to read, in length, about the way the US election system works.

Cheers for the advice!
Am enjoying the book very much - his writing is descriptive and real.Can almost smell those oily leathers...

Saw a documentary a while back on the time Thompson spent with Sonny Barger et al while writing the book - he had some hairy moments.One incident saw him fighting with one of the Angels.Had to admire him tho', despite being shit scared he still fought back.

Just adds and edge IMO...

 

[mrkikiet]

reading Tibor Fischer, Under the Frog, very funny so far.

If anybody is interested in South Africa and apartheid generally and hasn't read Rumours of Rain by Andre Brink, you have got to go out and get it. It is a brilliant piece of work, dealing with the collapse of certainties for White Afrikaans South Africans during the 1960s.

 

[ViolentPanda]

"Wherever Green is Worn" - Tim Pat Coogan.

Very interesting take on the historical diaspora of the Irish.

 

[Voley]

Finally finished 'Crime And Punishment' which wasn't quite as good as I'd been led to believe. Yes, I'm looking at you, foo. I thought it had said all it needed to by about halfway through. After that it just seemed to be running over the same ground. But I do have difficulty with 19th century novels as a rule: so many of them are just so long-winded. I constantly find myself going 'oh, just fucking get on with it'. Short attention span, MTV Gen-X'-er that I am, obviously.

Best book I've read by a mile recently is 'A Confederacy Of Dunces' by John Kennedy Toole. Really, genuinely, laugh-out-loud funny. The main character, Ignatius P. Reilly, is the most brilliantly pompous character I've ever come across. He's forever coming out with stuff like 'Fortuna alone knows what further monstrous effronteries will be visited upon my person' if his mum suggests that he ought to get a job. Ace book: Really, really highly recommended.

Read 'The Business' by Iain Banks, too. Reasonably entertaining but not his best. My problem with Iain Banks is that I always expect his books to be as good as 'The Wasp Factory' or 'Complicity'. And they're not, sadly.

Also read 'Purple Cane Road' by James Lee Burke. A cut above your average crime novel. Worth reading for his beautiful descriptions of America's Deep South as well as the intricate plot.

Some great stuff amongst all of that lot : I'm gonna exchange all of them when I get to Bangkok tomorrow.

 

[Voley]

Originally posted by souljacker
Very good book! Just don't do what I did and read Fear and Loathing on the Campaign Trail afterwards, unless you have a sadistic desire to read, in length, about the way the US election system works.

Definitely good advice. Although HST writes well about Nixon et al, it's very dated now. 'The Great Shark Hunt' anthology is well worth having, though. The 'Great Shark Hunt' story itself is a beaut - up ther with 'Fear And Loathing In Las Vegas' for me. 'The Kentucky Derby Is Decadent And Depraved' is another bit of his best writing from the same book. As is 'The Police Chief' and, oh, loads of others.

Glad you're enjoying 'Hells Angels', tomsk. I loved it, too. Somehow he manages to make a sociological study into a really great story.

I'm a bit of a fan of HST, as you might've gathered.

 

[mrkikiet]

Best book I've read by a mile recently is 'A Confederacy Of Dunces' by John Kennedy Toole. Really, genuinely, laugh-out-loud funny. The main character, Ignatius P. Reilly, is the most brilliantly pompous character I've ever come across. He's forever coming out with stuff like 'Fortuna alone knows what further monstrous effronteries will be visited upon my person' if his mum suggests that he ought to get a job. Ace book: Really, really highly recommended.

indeed, that is absolute class, just a shame that it wasn't published before O'Toole took his own life. The hotdog sellinig, pure genius.

 

[Fledgling]

Originally posted by tomsk
Hunter S. Thompson - Hells Angels

Have you read Fear and Loathing..... then, and if so is it any good?


I have just read Cider With Rosie by Laurie Lee, outstanding is all that springs to mind so I'm going to read A Moment of War by Lee now.

And I had time to read "Bright Lights, Big City" by Jay McInerney which was too short and rather overdramatised but still interestingly observational.

 

[souljacker]

Speaking of 'A confederacy of Dunces', this book is mentioned repeteadly in American Scream, the Bill Hicks biog. However, the author says it is written by Ignatius T Reilly. I went off to the library to see if they had it. They did, but not by Ignatious Reilly. So I walked off confused. I'll have to go back and get it now, duh!

Oh, and by the way, Fear and loathing in Las Vegas is IMHO, a top book.

 

[Voley]

Originally posted by Fledgling
Have you read Fear and Loathing..... then, and if so is it any good?

'Fear And Loathing In Las Vegas' is one of my favourite books ever. It's much more than just the hilariously excessive drug-crazed nightmare that a lot of people seem to think it is. HST has a lot to say on the death of 60's counterculture and the general state of American morality. While ripped off his tits on acid, naturally.

Souljacker - it's well worth that trip back to the library.

 

[punkyfish]

Atonement by Ian McEwan.
First book of his that I've read and its good

 

[Roadkill]

I've just finished The Last Journey of William Huskisson - about how Huskisson, the MP for Liverpool, was hit by The Rocket at the opening of the Liverpool and Manchester Railway, in 1830. It's kind of part-biography, part-history of the railway, and part-narrative of what happened that day. It was really interesting, actually. Very well written, too.

 

[Mad_Sk8er]

Just finished Kurt Vonnegut's Slaughterhouse 5, a fucking brilliant book (tho i think i just about still prefer Cats Cradle.) Vonneguts got an incredible writing style, really distinct.

In the middle of reading:

*Homage to Cattalonia, Orwell (ive got a bit bored of it to be honest, its quite repetetive and theres so much out there to read...)

*The Silent Takeover, Noreena Hertz. Global Capitalism from the point of view of a camberidge economics proffesor. Quie convincing, but not convinvg enough

*Yes Utopia! Ron Cook. Just started reading it, seems quite optimistic from the outset, but i havent got deep enough into it.

 

[Mad_Sk8er]

Originally posted by NVP
Read 'The Business' by Iain Banks, too. Reasonably entertaining but not his best. My problem with Iain Banks is that I always expect his books to be as good as 'The Wasp Factory' or 'Complicity'. And they're not, sadly.

The wasp factory?? its terrible!! i know its all one big love/hate thing, but how can anyone like the book? its not as gory as Ian likes to think, its not that horrible, its soo predictable, its not a good book!!

Ian M Banks rocks, Look to Windward is one of my favourite books ever

 

[Epona]

I am currently reading Tishomingo Blues by Elmore Leonard. I recall enjoying it, but alas got distracted by a fortnight of social engagements and catching up on missed sleep, and now I can't remember what was going on so I think I might have to start it again!