*What book are you reading ?
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Barking_Mad
Non sibi sed omnibus
300+ pages into The Brothers Karamzov and have just finished 'The Grand Inquisitor'. Not hard to see why that chapter has been re-printed as a small book in it's own right. What a truly amazing piece of literature.
jeff_leigh
What happened to Dubversion ?
Hostage - Robert Crais
maya
timewasting fool (in every universe)
Confusingly, they re-titled it "Buddhas's Little Finger" (IIRC) in the US.Barking_Mad said:
Or... perhaps not so confusing after all... Given the associations of that title: 'Bring down...' etc. Oh dear.
Anyway, his best book is the one where the main character is sent on a moon rocket mission only to discover his 'landing vessel' is just a badly disguised, ordinary bike and that his return was never a part of the official equation... Lots of satire on Soviet reality, etc. also (the book was written before the USSR disintegrated)
crustychick
doo-woop-de-doo
Just read Black Swan Green by David Mitchell and it was really really good 
SpookyFrank
A cheap source of teeth for aquarium gravel
Fahrenheit 451; which I have no excuse for not having read before 
Dirty Martini
gets what he cant want
Finished Roscoe by William Kennedy, which is a pretty entertaining novel about a Democratic Party fixer in Albany, NY from 1918 to 1946.
He's a sharp writer, Kennedy, and there's lots of great stuff in it -- quite similar to Doctorow in its noisiness and its insertion of fictional characters alongside major historical ones. It perhaps gets a bit repetitive, and drags some, but has some interesting things to say about political truth and falsehood.
Has anyone read any of his stuff? He's pretty much exclusively devoted himself to writing novels about Albany public life from the mid-19th to mid-20th centuries ('the Albany Cycle'). I'd like to read some more, but maybe not yet.
Now I'm back with Sciascia and The Wine-Dark Sea, a collection of stories. He is brilliant.
He's a sharp writer, Kennedy, and there's lots of great stuff in it -- quite similar to Doctorow in its noisiness and its insertion of fictional characters alongside major historical ones. It perhaps gets a bit repetitive, and drags some, but has some interesting things to say about political truth and falsehood.
Has anyone read any of his stuff? He's pretty much exclusively devoted himself to writing novels about Albany public life from the mid-19th to mid-20th centuries ('the Albany Cycle'). I'd like to read some more, but maybe not yet.
Now I'm back with Sciascia and The Wine-Dark Sea, a collection of stories. He is brilliant.
maya
timewasting fool (in every universe)
That's an ancient greek/Hellenic reference, isn't it?Dirty Martini said:
Apparently their descriptive imagination was very different from ours- the sea was never dark blue, but 'wine-dark'...
confused*(* = deep red? ...huh? blood? battles? death? ...or just colour blindness? the mind boggles.)
in between studying, i'm flying through Harry Crews' Feast Of Snakes. As ever, veers from laugh out loud funny to desperately sad, but always wonderful to read.
Orang Utan
Psychick Worrier Ov Geyoor
I didn;t have trouble with it in The Road, but it was well confusing in All The Pretty HorsesN_igma said:
I'm now reading The Crossing, which is much much better than ATPH, but not as good as The Road
Dirty Martini
gets what he cant want
maya said:That's an ancient greek/Hellenic reference, isn't it?
Apparently their descriptive imagination was very different from ours- the sea was never dark blue, but 'wine-dark'...
(* = deep red? ...huh? blood? battles? death? ...or just colour blindness? the mind boggles.)
It's yer man Homer, I think.
Greek wine, I guess, would have been dark dark, before being watered down. Getting colour and viscosity in in one metaphor, I like it
Have you read any Sciascia, maya? It's superior vintage.
ThierryEnnui
pedantic tit
Dirty Martini said:It's yer man Homer, I think.
Greek wine, I guess, would have been dark dark, before being watered down. Getting colour and viscosity in in one metaphor, I like it
Have you read any Sciascia, maya? It's superior vintage.
I'm reading The Odyssey at the moment, 3/4 of the way through and absolutely loving it. I've got The Iliad on order.
Who/what is Sciascia then?
I didn't have trouble with it either, but then I read a lot of stuff that doesn't follow conventional rules on anythingOrang Utan said:
Re The Crossing - I absolutely LOVED ATPH, thought that was the best one. Can't compare it to The Road - totally different in so many ways
maya
timewasting fool (in every universe)
Not yet, but the name alone sounds of supreme greatness...Dirty Martini said:
Like the name of a secretly guarded, deeply incensive ancient roman wine whose age-old, finely honed putrefaction has mutated into alchemical gold- seducing grey tastebuds with such indecent pleasures that the (un)lucky gentlemen of the italian wine club falls into orgasmical raptures just by tasting one single drop on their tongue before surrendering to the meaty sweet arms of flowery Mama...*
(* 'Rosa', she was called... a mole on her thigh... they said she was married... though no one had seen her Signori ever leaving the house... Poor Vittorio... 'Taverna of horrors', the locals had nick-named that old, tarnished house where even the shadows fled and the rats didn't stay... The wine-seals were broken, fresh barrels went sour... And the spectre of misery would chase every guest... al dente el FINE)
Dirty Martini
gets what he cant want
ThierryEnnui said:
Leonardo Sciascia (1921-1989) was a Sicilian writer who wrote brilliantly compressed short stories and novellas, a lot of them about the Mafia but just as often about the effect of crime, poverty, feudalism and religion on Sicily. He often uses the crime/thriller genre as a way into his themes, but twists it considerably. He did quite a bit of political commentary as well -- I haven't read his book on the Moro Affair, but it's meant to be brilliant. He was a maverick leftist MP as well. Packed a lot in. Well worth a look
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Leonardo_sciascia
ThierryEnnui
pedantic tit
Dirty Martini said:Leonardo Sciascia (1921-1989) was a Sicilian writer who wrote brilliantly compressed short stories and novellas, a lot of them about the Mafia but just as often about the effect of crime, poverty, feudalism and religion on Sicily. He often uses the crime/thriller genre as a way into his themes, but twists it considerably. He did quite a bit of political commentary as well -- I haven't read his book on the Moro Affair, but it's meant to be brilliant. He was a maverick leftist MP as well. Packed a lot in. Well worth a look
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Leonardo_sciascia
Nice one, I've added him to my never-ending list of books to read.
Dirty Martini
gets what he cant want
maya said:
I like 'Taverna of Horrors'. You're wasted on these boards
He does have the best name in world literature and, with The Day of the Owl, one of the best titles
Dirty Martini
gets what he cant want
ThierryEnnui said:
Aye, it is never-ending ...
D'wards
IT'S YOUR DECISION DANIEL
Dirty Martini said:
Yeah - i only average about 20-25 books a year (the national average is 3 a year
) and have about 100 books to read that i have purchased from charity shops - 4-5 years worth.I belive there are enough books i would want to read that i could read one a week for the rest of my life and never get them all done - depressing innit
Do you know that women read a lot more than men? **SNOB ALERT** but i feel that a lot of that is this worthless (not having read any though to be fair) "chick lit" - all pastel covers and relationship dramas
D'wards said:
what a totally fucking pathetic comment.
(oh, and who do you reckon reads all the Andy McNabb / Alistair McLean / Frederick Forsyth books? all gun-laden covers and cartoon violence).
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