*What book are you reading ?

[DotCommunist]

Plenty of genre fiction on here. More crime than SF though.

What's a 'worthy' book?

Don't mind me my anti-inullectual streak is showing agai *goes off to kick a picture of salaman rushdie*

 

[Geri]

I've just finished reading 'Ten Men Dead' by David Beresford about the Long Kesh hunger strikers. It's really interesting and very sad.

 

[Fictionist]

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

I was going to take your advice and then I picked up 'The Fountainhead' by Ayn Rand, which I have now started. Judging by the first two chapters it will cover the same ground as 'Atlas Shrugged', which should prove interesting.

 

[Fictionist]

Don't mind me my anti-inullectual streak is showing agai *goes off to kick a picture of salaman rushdie*

Prospect Magazine recently published a list of 100 individuals for consideration as being worthy of the label 'intellectual', accompanied by Christopher Hitchens' attempt at providing a working definition for the word. Rushdie was included in the list.

 

[Orang Utan]

I was going to take your advice and then I picked up 'The Fountainhead' by Ayn Rand, which I have now started. Judging by the first two chapters it will cover the same ground as 'Atlas Shrugged', which should prove interesting.

Isn't that a fascist book?

 

[DotCommunist]

Isn't that a fascist book?

Atlas Shrugged is widely accepted to be so. Having not read Atlas Shrugged, I cannot condemn.

 

[DotCommunist]

Prospect Magazine recently published a list of 100 individuals for consideration as being worthy of the label 'intellectual', accompanied by Christopher Hitchens' attempt at providing a working definition for the word. Rushdie was included in the list.

I read Ground Beneath Her Feet. His writing is lovely, but I found his story to be underwhelming.

 

[Fictionist]

Isn't that a fascist book?

I can't answer that regarding 'The Fountainhead', as I have just started it, but I'm not certain that 'Atlas Shrugged' could be labelled as such. There are elements of the book which (if taken to a logical conclusion) are nasty and unpleasant. It would no doubt depend on your understanding of what fascism means tbh.

 

[Fictionist]

I read Ground Beneath Her Feet. His writing is lovely, but I found his story to be underwhelming.

I wrote on this thread recently about a conversation I had with a work coleague concerning Rushdie, and he really does provoke a wide range of reactions from people. Your comment makes me think of Martin Amis in recent years, a triumph of style over intellectual substance.

 

[sojourner]

I can't answer that regarding 'The Fountainhead', as I have just started it, but I'm not certain that 'Atlas Shrugged' could be labelled as such. There are elements of the book which (if taken to a logical conclusion) are nasty and unpleasant. It would no doubt depend on your understanding of what fascism means tbh.

I suppose, then, it kinda follows nicely from M&M

 

[Fictionist]

I suppose, then, it kinda follows nicely from M&M

Perhaps. I'm still thinking about 'The Master & Margarita' and what the central theme of the book is. There is no doubt that there is an obvious relationship with 'Faust' but I'm not convinced that the book develops or extends them beyond what can be seen in that play (at least Part 1). I find the motifs of forgiveness, redemption and the use / misuse of power far more intriguing, and I think this is what I will ultimately take away from the book. The image of Pilate walking accompanied by his dog and 'the other' is really quite moving.




Have you read 'The Fountainhead' or 'Atlas Shrugged' Sojouner? I'd be interested in your thoughts on either one.

 

[sojourner]

Perhaps. I'm still thinking about 'The Master & Margarita' and what the central theme of the book is. There is no doubt that there is an obvious relationship with 'Faust' but I'm not convinced that the book develops or extends them beyond what can be seen in that play (at least Part 1). I find the motifs of forgiveness, redemption and the use / misuse of power far more intriguing, and I think this is what I will ultimately take away from the book. The image of Pilate walking accompanied by his dog and 'the other' is really quite moving.




Have you read 'The Fountainhead' or 'Atlas Shrugged' Sojouner? I'd be interested in your thoughts on either one.

tbh, i only really focussed on the stalinist regime and how the book reflected that, so you've probably got more out of it than me

nah, not read them...but if/when i do, i'll be sure to post about it.

 

[DotCommunist]

I can't answer that regarding 'The Fountainhead', as I have just started it, but I'm not certain that 'Atlas Shrugged' could be labelled as such. There are elements of the book which (if taken to a logical conclusion) are nasty and unpleasant. It would no doubt depend on your understanding of what fascism means tbh.

Active trot and blindingly talented writer of 'weird fiction' China Meiville made me laugh with a three word review of Atlas Shrugged: Know your enemy

 

[Fictionist]

Active trot and blindingly talented writer of 'weird fiction' China Meiville made me laugh with a three word review of Atlas Shrugged: Know your enemy

But you said that you had not read the book?

 

[DotCommunist]

But you said that you had not read the book?

No I haven't. China Meiville is an active Trot (stood for some seat or other a while back iirc). He's also a suberb writer, and other books reviews of his are lengthly and well written. That he dismissed Atlas Shrugged in three words made me laugh, because it's clear in that offhand review that he sees the book as facist.

I tend to enjoy negative reviews cause they show how bitchy the lit world can be.

 

[Fictionist]

No I haven't. China Meiville is an active Trot (stood for some seat or other a while back iirc). He's also a suberb writer, and other books reviews of his are lengthly and well written. That he dismissed Atlas Shrugged in three words made me laugh, because it's clear in that offhand review that he sees the book as facist.

I tend to enjoy negative reviews cause they show how bitchy the lit world can be.

Either that or the reviewer hadn't actually read the book?

I don't know the reviewer so I've no idea what 'style' he/she adopts, but to use three words to dismiss a book sounds very very suspicious.

 

[Blagsta]

Michael Eaude - Barcelona: The city that re-invented itself

 

[Roadkill]

Sean O'Neill and Daniel McGrory - The Suicide Factory: Abu Hamza and the Finsbury park Mosque

 

[zog]

Dale Pendell - Pharmakopoeia

 

[sojourner]

Finished the Melv book. Christ - it was like a fucking Mills and Boon!!

Anyway, now reading Moral Disorder by Margaret Attwood, and veh good it is too

 

[Orang Utan]

Finished the Melv book. Christ - it was like a fucking Mills and Boon!!

That's the impression I got from browsing in bookshops - there was a tedious ITV drama adapted from one of his books a few years ago about a doomed May-December romance.

 

[sojourner]

That's the impression I got from browsing in bookshops - there was a tedious ITV drama adapted from one of his books a few years ago about a doomed May-December romance.

I'm shocked and disturbed, I really am! I kept having to remind myself this was Melvyn Bragg, and he's really quite a clever and inquisitive man. It was PAP!

 

[Orang Utan]

He's ITV clever though, not BBC clever

 

[sojourner]

He's ITV clever though, not BBC clever

lol - snob

 

[dilute micro]

War on the Middle Class

 

[Pip]

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.

What translation did you read? I tried with one ages ago and couldn't get on with it, then picked up another recently and enjoyed most of it (I think there is still a lot lost in translation though).

I'm reading The Secret Life Of Words by Henry Hitchings. It's bloody brilliant, I can't get enough of it.

 

[Geri]

Michael Eaude - Barcelona: The city that re-invented itself

Does it have any info on the exact whereabouts of Durutti's grave?

 

[Vintage Paw]

I'm reading Sex and the City in preparation for seeing the film.

Don't mock me. I need a good dose of trash.

 

[stargazer]

Am reading Paulo Coehlo's Eleven Minutes, know it's a bit old novel, but I adore the guy.

 

[Zeppo]

Two books Naked Lunch and Literary Outlaw William Burroughs by Ted Morgan. Bill was a crazy genius.