*What book are you reading ?

[Dubversion]

Simon Reynolds' latest, Bring The Noise


unlike the last couple, it's a mixed bag because it's a collection (albeit one with some hindsight).

it's a great read but also quite frustrating. Partly because you remember how much better the level of music writing was in years gone by, but also because Reynolds' style can be so overly analytical and po-faced (the two sound like contradictions but they're not). He's included 'directors cut' versions of some of the works - the originals submitted rather than the published pieces, and he's not above a bit of self-aggrandisement from time to time. But there's some fascinating stuff, especially an article called Roots & Future, about white attitudes to reggae (especially the privileging of the producer over the singer or player).

 

[elevendayempire]

Harry Potter.

Well, I thought I ought to catch up, since the last one's out this year.

SG

 

[sojourner]

I can't decide what to read next

Do I reread The Subtle Knife?

Or start one of about 10 books that have been waiting for me to pick them up for a while now?

Or just carry on meandering through Bushcraft til either the new Annie P arrives (any day now APPARENTLY) or the bookclub choices do?

I'm too hungry and stressed to decide right now. I need food, a daughter that isn't having a breakdown, a spliff...

 

[Orang Utan]

Start a new one - never reread!

 

[sojourner]

Start a new one - never reread!

I only reread Northern Lights cos the film is coming out and I wanted to have the story straight in my head, ready for a good drubbing at the cinema

Righty ho - no rereading tonight then. Something fresh. Ta la

 

[SubZeroCat]

American Psycho - Bret Easton Ellis

 

[jeff_leigh]

Start a new one - never reread!

rereading The Wasp Factory after which I may reread The Master and Margarita unless something else takes my fancy

 

[tastebud]

finished the time traveler's wife finally, which was much more enjoyable than i expected, so now i can go back to my summer of love.

 

[Strumpet]

Am reading about Dave Grohl's life at mo. Loving it.


soj - Subtle Knife!

 

[sojourner]

finished the time traveler's wife finally, which was much more enjoyable than i expected, so now i can go back to my summer of love.

I really loved that book - although slightly predictable, the writing was good enough to get you over that

 

[sojourner]

Am reading about Dave Grohl's life at mo. Loving it.


soj - Subtle Knife!

What book is the Dave Grohl one? Is it an authorised biog? Autobiog?


Noooo - OU was right, a fresh book! Trouble is, I ended up getting slightly sloshed with me daughter and not reading anything

 

[sojourner]

I finished Emerald Budgies by Lee Maxwell this morning. Full of graphic detail about bodily 'stuff', it left me wanting a shower. It was funny in places, dark and sick in others, and I enjoyed it, although found myself thinking 'if a bloke said that... '. Having said that, I thought it was excellent for a first novel - would be interested in seeing what else she's done


Am now reading Absent Kisses by Frances Gapper. With a title like that you may well think this is some kind of vacuous chicklit, but no - it's a wonderful collection of short stories, extremely cleverly written, lots of playing with perceptions and accepted truths...pretty much magical realism for the most part (so far). It's Jeanette Winterson-lite. I love it

 

[Pie 1]

The Road - Cormac McCarthy.
Incredible writing.
Probably one of the best he's written and a welcome return to form after the slightly dissapointing No Country For Old Men.

 

[Dubversion]

agree entirely with both points - No Country was really 'meh', i just didn't get what he was up to (although I'm looking forward to the movie).

But The Road was unbelievable. I read it in one late-night sitting and got no sleep.. left me really shaken

 

[5t3IIa]

I read Fred & Rose by Howard Sounes about The Wests and the Gloucester House of Horrors on Saturday...it was £1! :shame:

Now I am re-reading Mr Nice, then re-reading Skinny Dip by Carl Hiaasen then starting Age & Guile by PJ O'Rourke then I'm going to try The Wasp Factory.

I read the first line of The WF and thought 'Oh, what the fuck is this shit?'

 

[5t3IIa]

dp

 

[sojourner]

The Road - Cormac McCarthy.
Incredible writing.
Probably one of the best he's written and a welcome return to form after the slightly dissapointing No Country For Old Men.

Someone else has just recommended this to me...will have to put it on the list I reckon

 

[sojourner]

The Road - Cormac McCarthy.
Incredible writing.
Probably one of the best he's written and a welcome return to form after the slightly dissapointing No Country For Old Men.

dp due to treacle-like boards today

 

[Pie 1]

Someone else has just recommended this to me...will have to put it on the list I reckon

Do.
It's one of the most intense books I've ever read.
Moving, genuinely disturbing and very brilliant.

 

[sojourner]

Do.
It's one of the most intense books I've ever read.
Moving, genuinely disturbing and very brilliant.

So I've heard

Right, off to amazon I go then

I've finished the Frances Gapper one now...I have an Anais Nin that I can't remember the title of, but will start that tonight

 

[DRINK?]

Got 3 on the go at the moment.....Henning Mankel - the return of the dancing master...Marcus Aurelius meditations and something that was free in yesterdays Times that I started on the train. Think it is Stuart a life backwards or something

I read so quickly is becoming a problem since Friday have finished 5 books....I total skim read, could not tell you the names of characters etc could give you an initial of the main protagonists....and could tell you in depth of the story....am trying to slow down but is just the way I've always read...library must be sick of the sight of me

 

[foamy]

the life and times of Michael K - J.M.Coetzee. i really like it but finding it hard to read (mainly cos the yummy mummy on the train next to me wouldn't shut up! )

 

[sojourner]

Think it is Stuart a life backwards

Excellent book


I've just been to the local 2nd hand shop - someone round here has great taste, I'm always getting great books in there. Today's swagbag includes:

Carol Shields - The Stone Diaries

Umberto Eco - Foucault's Pendulum

Fannie Flagg - Welcome to the World Baby Girl

Erica Wagner - Gravity

Norman Mailer - The Naked and the Dead

 

[rollinder]

Geroge Orwell - Nineteen eighty four
read it in one go on Sunday - spent part of yesterday re-reading it.

1984 John Hurt film edition penguin paperback with proper creased yellow pages and old book smell only cost 99p - god bless oxfam

lThere's something gloriously fucked up about finding a 1984 edition of 1984 plugging the 1984 film of 1984 "the book of the year now the film of the year"

doubleplusgood / ungood for the intenseness total degree of bleakness and ultimate sense of no hope
"If you want a vision of the future, imagine a boot stamping on a human face - forever"

one of those books thats everything and so much more than you every thought it was

spoilers the long awaiting bullet in the brain / promised death turns out imo to be the death of self of finally loving Big Brother (end spoiler)

speant long hours yesterday browsing wiki & amazon and the discussions boards for different versions on IMBD
intense essays and theries on Orwell's views on Socahlism & Comunism, something about Chomsky and part of the book being an attack on Churchill & then present day Britain, whether (spoiler)
Julia's betrayal was the same as O'Brian's and the old shop keeper - that she was working for them all a long

and if the apendix explaining newspeak is from a fictional future where it's no longer used - so there is some hope of a uprising (by the proles?)

 

[sojourner]

Carol Shields - The Stone Diaries

Started this last night - a bit waffly, but overall very interesting. Life story of a fictional woman from Manitoba, with photos of family - I need to dig more to find out who the photos really are though, due to protagonist being fictional

 

[Orang Utan]

I'm trying to read The Book Of Dave by Will Self and am making slow progress with David Simon's Homicide: A Year On The Killing Streets. I'm going through one of those phases where I'm not in a reading mood most of the time. Does anyone else get that?

 

[sojourner]

Does anyone else get that?

Yes, it used to be more frequent than it is now, say 2 months frantic reading, month or so off. These days it's more like 1 year frantic reading, month or so off. Probably because I don't go out much

 

[Rollem]

Middlesex - Jeffrey Eugenides

 

[Dirty Martini]

I finished A Social History of English Cricket by Derek Birley. It's a brilliant book. Seriously researched, beautifully written, very funny, moving, very anti-old Buffer and MCC. All in all, fascinating.

 

[Dirty Martini]

I'm trying to read The Book Of Dave by Will Self and am making slow progress with David Simon's Homicide: A Year On The Killing Streets. I'm going through one of those phases where I'm not in a reading mood most of the time. Does anyone else get that?

I had that for years after university. I used to read a couple of books a week for about two months, the last one remaining unfinished, then nothing for six months apart from magazines. During those periods, I couldn't face books, it was almost a physical distaste

It's only in the last couple of years that I've been reading every week. General boredom plus this thread, which has some great recommendations.