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*What book are you reading ?

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Dirty Martini said:
Finished Hotel California -- Singer-Songwriters & Cocaine Cowboys in the LA Canyons 1967-76 by Barney Hoskyns.

An entertaining cavalcade of bedenimed doughnuts and heroes, well written. Good guys: JD Souther, a few of the early A&R people, Gene Clark, Bernie Leadon, Randy Newman, Graham Nash. Bad guys: Crosby (insane and highly unpleasant, like Stephen Stills), Geffen, etc. etc. Neil Young is a major figure here, and a bit of a weird fella.

It's nice to see Gene Clark figure so prominently though.

The book is a very l o n g Mojo article, but a good laugh all in all.
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In a similar vein, I'm reading 'Shakey', Neil Young's biography at the mo'. It's ace. :)

Stephen Stills comes across as a total knob in that, too.
 
NVP said:
In a similar vein, I'm reading 'Shakey', Neil Young's biography at the mo'. It's ace. :)

Stephen Stills comes across as a total knob in that, too.
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Heh :D

So much booze and cocaine that he was convinced he'd served in Vietnam :(

I'll get round to that Neil Young bio some day ...
 
It's worth it - the Stills 'Vietnam bit' gets mentioned in this one, too. :D

It takes a bit to get going - the author's exhaustive trawl through Neil Young's childhood is a bit pointless but once he starts making music the book's pretty hard to put down. I'm enjoying it a lot. :)
 
finally reading 'my summer of love' by helen cross. what was a beautiful film turns out to also be a brilliant book.

"helen cross was educated at goldsmiths college" :) :) no wonder!
 
The Heimskringla, Norse history. I started it nearly a year ago and had to take a break after 100 pages, I'm going to do another hundred now. Someone's lending me a Margaret Atwood novel tomorrow.
 
Just started 'Moon Dust' by Andrew Smith. He interviews those Apollo astronauts who are still alive. Should be interesting. I've also got queued up:

'Collapse' by Jared Diamond
'As used on the famous Nelson Mandela' by Mark Thomas
'The Fabric of the Cosmos' by Brian Greene

That'll keep me occupied for a while. :)
 
Nikkormat said:
Someone's lending me a Margaret Atwood novel tomorrow.
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Which one?



I'm reading Ray Mears Bushcraft Survival :D He's not been ont telly for a while and I'm craving survival tips and handy hints (well, I was reading it, until a bloody power cut got in the way last night:mad: )
 
I'm reading The Book of Dave by Will Self and The Country of the Blind by Christopher Brookmyre. I love Christopher Brookmyre. I was getting so into it that when i switched on the news the other night I was expecting to see an update on the death toll.....:oops:
 
Just finished reading Yasin's song, an autobiography of Nabeel Yasin, the Iraqi poet who was blacklisted under Saddam. very moving and his poetry is quite good!
 
Finished the Brautigan - I really liked it.

Should finish James Baldwin's Go Tell it on the Mountain today, then I'm going to read The Brief and Frightening Reign of Phil by George Saunders. I bought it yesterday and read the first few pages on my dinner and it sounds funny.

After that, maybe another Brautigan, maybe Giovanni's Room by Baldwin, maybe The Fortress of Solitude by Lethem, or one of the other plethora of American lit books I've bought recently. Who knows, now I've finished uni for the summer the world is my literary oyster :cool:
 
Nikkormat said:
Not Margaret Atwood after all. It's The Shipping News by Annie Proulx. 150 pages so far; it's ok, nothing special.
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Hahahaha, sojourner will have your head for that!

(I threw The Shipping News down in disgust after about 100 pages, though, so I'm on your side.)
 
'Apples' By Richard Millwood - its a new book out by a new young author, whos like 22 or somethin. Its about a load of youngsters growing up and going to school and popping pills in Middlesborough, and has been tagged 'The dont look back in anger of the myspace generation.' tis great

next up is 'Joyce' by Richard Ellmann, sitting in Fulham post office which i have yet to collect.
 
Nikkormat said:
Not Margaret Atwood after all. It's The Shipping News by Annie Proulx. 150 pages so far; it's ok, nothing special.
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:eek:

I absolutely love Annie P - she can do no wrong in my eyes.


I'm re-reading Northern Lights and enjoying it immensely
 
May Kasahara said:
Hahahaha, sojourner will have your head for that!

(I threw The Shipping News down in disgust after about 100 pages, though, so I'm on your side.)
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Ha!

I replied to that post before I saw yours :D I am aghast that anyone can feel that way about her writing, cos it just blows me away SO much

Each to their own though and all that...I struggled badly with The MacGuffin and put it back on the shelf after only 30 pages :D
 
i just finished The Woman Who Walked Into Doors by Roddy Doyle - i'm sure now that i have read it before but i think i probably appreciated it more the second time 'round.

I' d really like to read the follow up 'Paula Spencer' but need to wait til its a bit cheaper.


might go and have a nosey in the charity shop this week for some more books as i dont know what to read next, even though i have a big stack of books to read i just ont fancy any of them at this point in time.
 
Dirty Martini said:
Now: White Bicycles -- Making Music in the 1960s by Joe Boyd. I've been saving this one up.
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It is indeed a great book -- always fascinating, very well written. One of the best books about 60s music I've read :)
 
Dirty Martini said:
A Social History of English Cricket by Derek Birley
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Also sounds great.
I'd like to read yer last three books in a large Andalucian pool, with occasional floating Brakspears, if that's possible.
Now reading The Plot Against America, again, in the absence of owt else.
Liked George Saunders In Persuasion Nation, especially I Can Speak tm and Bohemians. High points not quite as high as the first two collections though, I reckon. Seemed a bit familiar. :)
 
Vintage Paw said:
Should finish James Baldwin's Go Tell it on the Mountain today, then I'm going to read The Brief and Frightening Reign of Phil by George Saunders. I bought it yesterday and read the first few pages on my dinner and it sounds funny.l:
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Like those two, though the George Saunders is pretty slight. I've liked all the James Baldwin I've read, even where he gets all paintbrush behind ear.
 
chooch said:
Also sounds great.
I'd like to read yer last three books in a large Andalucian pool, with occasional floating Brakspears, if that's possible.
Now reading The Plot Against America, again, in the absence of owt else.
Liked George Saunders In Persuasion Nation, especially I Can Speak tm and Bohemians. High points not quite as high as the first two collections though, I reckon. Seemed a bit familiar. :)
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I think you're right about the Saunders ...

The cricket book is great. Deep research, good pace and length, opinionated in the right places, very well written. Some great stories and names so far: Notts batsman Richard Daft, Surrey stalwart Julius Caesar, and, of course, E.W. Bastard :cool:
 
have finally got round to reading "the likes of us" by michael collins

soon to be followed by alexei sayle's "weeping women hotel"
 
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