*What book are you reading ?
- Thread starter ck
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cyberfairy
http://unicycle-emptiness.co.uk/
Pilcrow by Adam Mars Jones-really loving it-about a disabled boy moving from home to hospital then a special school in fifties England-about three quarters of the way through it-wonderfully written-completely non mawkish or sentimental and damn funny too
Dirty Martini
gets what he cant want
Finished A Season in Verona by Tim Parks.
This is the Verona-based author's account of a year following Hellas Verona in Serie A, home and away. Ostensibly it is a football book, but also serves as a 'state of the nation' essay on contemporary Italy. Ostensibly, Tim Parks is a big football fan, but I don't believe him.
It's confused, arrogant, self-indulgent and politically dishonest. It's 440 pages long, dio bon. It's a midlife crisis book and Parks himself comes across as a soulless, try-hard bell-end.
This is the Verona-based author's account of a year following Hellas Verona in Serie A, home and away. Ostensibly it is a football book, but also serves as a 'state of the nation' essay on contemporary Italy. Ostensibly, Tim Parks is a big football fan, but I don't believe him.
It's confused, arrogant, self-indulgent and politically dishonest. It's 440 pages long, dio bon. It's a midlife crisis book and Parks himself comes across as a soulless, try-hard bell-end.
I quite enjoyed Dark Heart of Italy, but didn't bother with this cos I'm not interested in football
Dirty Martini
gets what he cant want
I'd like to read that. Interestingly, Parks got some prize or other from the city of Verona for 'upholding its honour' by refusing to write a hatchet-job in The Daily Mail. Tobias Jones wrote it instead
I lived in Verona a few years ago and met some of the soundest, most thoughtful people I've ever met. But it's no good Parks trying to rescue its reputation for racism and Fascism by laying into 'political correctness'. It's a politically nasty town, although the rest of the country seems to be doing its best to catch up.
Orang Utan
Psychick Worrier Ov Geyoor
I'm also reading a big fat coffee table book published by Phaidon by the designer Alan Fletcher called The Art Of Looking Sideways - not sure if I'm supposed to read it cover to cover, but that's what seems to be happening. It's interesting but a bit new age.
He does seem to be something of a cock. I've enjoyed a couple of his essays, but only where he's not bringing his endless self-wankery (or his fucking kids, his italian best mates or the church of fucking england) in. I suspect he'd be an unbearable bearded 'uncle' around a christening. By the end of the one I read, I was willing him real pain.
Liked that, though it runs out of steam, like all his. Shame, because he can turn a paragraph so.
I know what you mean, he's a great writer who's plots don't always pan out. Although I do think Riven Rock is a proper classic
Johnny Canuck3
Well-Known Member
Still reading that book about the Cathar heresy. Can't recall the name. It's kind of tough sledding, but interesting.
nothing right now, still havent started the mystery book i found!!... but i will, also ive just ordered a LOAD of books off amazon, i overindulged a little 
Dirty Martini
gets what he cant want
If This Is A Man by Primo Levi.
quimcunx
imprimeo, lamino, distribuo
Love a bit of Primo Levi.
Dirty Martini
gets what he cant want
It's taken me a shockingly long time to get round to reading him. I read The Periodic Table a little while back and thought it was brilliant.
Dirty Martini
gets what he cant want
You're basically saying he's a slightly less square Peter Mayle.
Yeah, some, though with fewer touching typical incidents and more in a sense, we're all.... More straightforwardly a prig.
This, on the other hand, is corking. Honest, above all.
DotCommunist
So many particulars. So many questions.
My word if you don't all read such worthy books.
Guess us poor lovers of honest genre fiction are missing out eh?
Guess us poor lovers of honest genre fiction are missing out eh?
Nah. Honest genre fiction's the shit when done well.
Fictionist
Serving Eargasms....
I have finished 'The Master & Margarita', with a slight diversion to allow the reading of 'Faust'. Sojouner was certainly right in saying that it was a strange book, it really is. I'm not sure what to make of it! Whilst there were parts that I quite enjoyed and would have wanted to have seen expanded (the Pilate episodes) there are other parts that I found incredibly dull (that damned cat!!).
Going to have to think about this one for a bit.
Going to have to think about this one for a bit.
I'm still thinking about it 10 years on I've often thought about re-reading it, but it's like my acid years...do I REALLY want to do all that again?
Fictionist
Serving Eargasms....
I can understand that feeling, do I really want to commit to going through the thing again!! I'm not sure what to read next to be honest, usually one book will naturally suggest another.
I can understand that feeling, do I really want to commit to going through the thing again!! I'm not sure what to read next to be honest, usually one book will naturally suggest another.
hehe - I also had that feeling!! I'd suggest something really pappy, even just a few mags for a while...nothing will compare to it, and I think it's one worth savouring for a while anyway
Barking_Mad
Non sibi sed omnibus
Fictionist
Serving Eargasms....
Oh no, I would have strangled the bloody thing (if that had been possible) or placed it in a large vat of vodka.
Dirty Martini
gets what he cant want
Plenty of genre fiction on here. More crime than SF though.
What's a 'worthy' book?
Tom Holland "Rubicon". Very good so far. He writes almost as if it is a fiction book. One remark though on his reference to "Animal Farm" to underscore an argument of comparison. Such things should not be done when writing on history. Not everyone is familiar with that movie (I had to think twice about what the hell he referred to with that) and secondly in a few years time nobody will ever have heard of it. Does not give credit to the outstanding scholarship he exposes.
salaam.
salaam.
DotCommunist
So many particulars. So many questions.
The Wolf of the Plains by Conn Iggulden. I read his 'Emperor' series and it was fantastic! This one looks to be working out the same
The Genghis Khan ones are awesome.
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