*What book are you reading ?

[haggy]

the wind-up bird chronicle, again. more darker than his other fiction, I think, like it could be filmed by David Lynch.

has anyone read any of murukami's non-fiction? is it any good?

 

[Nina]

I think I must have missed something with Murukami...recently everyone seems to be raving. I'll try one again soon and just see if I was having a brainfreeze at that time.

just started Prozac nation...Elizabeth Wurtzel.

Is making me realise i am not depressed...just having a bit of a hard time and that I really had no idea what having depression was like

 

[Orang Utan]

Papillon - Henri Charriére - real Boys' Own adventure stuff.

A great antidote to the grim horrors of A Fine Balance.

 

[mrmule]

The Templar Revelation: Secret Guardians of the True Identity of Christ

dunno what it's like yet.... anyone else read it?

 

[chegrimandi]

Disgrace- J.M. coetzee

douglas coupland, girlfirend in a coma....

both pretty good (just finished disgrace and caning through coupland)

 

[Rollem]

Originally posted by Ms T
Stick with Atonement

nope, too much like hard work. have put it to one side and am reading "reefer madness" by eric schlosser......which is about right for my brain capacity in this heat

 

[bubblehead]

just read The Pianist which was incredible and deeply moving and now switched dramatically to John Harris' 'The Last Party - Britpop, Blair And The Demise Of English Rock'. Top read so far and so many memories

 

[Pie 1]

Geoff Dyer's 'Yoga for people who can't be bothered'
Excellent collection of short travalogues/ musings from one of my favourite writers.

 

[rubbershoes]

I’ve finally dived into The Corrections. From the first few pages it ahs gripped me. OK so Jonathan Frantzen is a bit of a clever clogs with his array of show-off literary techniques but at the moment I’m lying back and enjoying the ride

 

[onenameshelley]

Just started Dorian by will self so far so good. The cover is raising eyebrows on the train too.

 

[Ciara]

Have to read 'Birdsong' for school and although I wasn't that enthralled at the beginning it's a really good book.

 

[proud american]

"Who stole my toothbrush" by Ima Brit. A scintillating read that I had a hard time putting down. It takes a crooked bite out of your subconscious fears.

 

[Roadkill]

Just started Fanny Hill, or Memoirs of a Woman of Pleasure. The publisher got locked up for it in 1750-something.

It's funny as fuck. I've never seen so many euphemisms for the penis before.

 

[zora]

Dirk Gently's Holistic Detective Agency, by Douglas Adams. Found a copy of The Long Dark Tea-Time Of The Soul in a charity shop the other day, and it proved to be (and I say it in the words of onemonkey) Completely Excellent. And Dirk Gently...is, too.

 

[zora]

edited due to double posting (funny ongoings with the back button).
sorry.

 

[chez]

Rebuilding community, experiences and experiments in Europe.
edited by Vithal Rajan

 

[Nina]

Just started Angela Carter The Bloody Chamber
Very atmospheric...great writing.

 

[Fledgling]

Wel, I finished East ofEden. I like it, apart from the fact that it dragged a bit towards the end.

So today I read The Pearl (I appear to be having a bit of a Steinbeck burst). This wasn't as good.

What do I read now?
1. On the Road
2. Travels With Charley
3. Burning Bright
4.Don Quixote
5.Ulysses

 

[Elpenor]

Don't read Travels With Charley, it's pretty crap.

Not read the others.

I finished Dave Eggers' A heartbreaking work of staggering genius and it totally blew me away, I thought it was absolutely fantastic.

Now reading Reefer Madness by Eric Schlosser which is pretty good, it's certainly more easy to read than Fast Food Nation, and (so far) less polemic. Still on the drugs section though.

 

[fubert]

I am currenty reading "Wicked : The Life and Times of the Wicked Witch of the West" by Gregory Macquire.

 

[Nina]

Originally posted by rubbershoes
I’ve finally dived into The Corrections. From the first few pages it ahs gripped me. OK so Jonathan Frantzen is a bit of a clever clogs with his array of show-off literary techniques but at the moment I’m lying back and enjoying the ride

It's very good.....highly recommend to anyone else thinking of going with this. Don't be put off with the 600and odd pages or the 100 page long chapters..it's an amazingly gripping read.

 

[sojourner]

okay - well i started charlotte gray by sebastian faulks, with high hopes after having been blown away by birdsong...someone on here (OrangUtan??) said it wasn't as good...and do u know? it wasn't - it was fuckin shite...banal, vapid, storytelling talent gone reet down the drain....was a real shock to think that sf could have written both of these books....

read 'a child called it' and 'the lost boy' by dave pelzer last week - at a time when i was v low, and poss the best stuff to read when ur felling like that, cos it just makes u think 'so i think IV got problems'...

started 'tipping the velvet' by sarah waters but struggling through its awfulness, so decided to bin it and start julian copes 'repossessed' - 'head on' was pretty fuckin marvellous so am looking forward to this

 

[Dubversion]

Don't Read This Book If You're Stupid by Tibor Fischer - a novella and some short stories.

dark, biiter and funny - and very amusing descriptions of brixton

 

[cornflake]

i've got this annoying habit of reading shit loads of books at the same time and never quite managing to finish any of them:

69 things to do with a dead princess - stewart home - on p. 45

cancer ward - aleksander solzhenitsyn - p. 227

and the ass saw the angel - nick cave - p. 119

the plague - camus - got to p. 16 and abandoned it

kill me again - punk biography thingy - p. 43 - fantastic! oral history of new york/uk punk movement, real page turner.

 

[oddjob]

Originally posted by cornflake
69 things to do with a dead princess

not reading anything just now.

ian rankin signing his new book 'hide and seek' monday, and on the shelves thursday.

so by then it shall be read

 

[Klaatu]

latest reading

Not sure this qualifies as a "book," but during recent Great Blackout of 2003,
I read most of the latest (#82) Granta: "Life's Like That."
Like to read short stuff, and Granta in my mailbox every quarter sends me into paroxysms. Highlights in this issue:

"The Smoking Diaries" by Simon Gray
"An Education" by Lynn Barber
"The Tutor" by Nell Freudenberger
"Passover in Baghdad" by Tim Judah

Also reading "The Man Who Stole Portugal" by Murray Teigh Bloom. True story of a massive currency counterfeiting scandal
in the 20s. Found it remaindered several years ago at a Border's.

Oh yes, for next blackout, I'm buying a "camp light" (propane).
Flashlights, candles, and those little clip-on "reading lights" just don't cut it for hours of reading in the absence of electricity.

 

[Klaatu]

Originally posted by Roadkill
Just started Fanny Hill, or Memoirs of a Woman of Pleasure. The publisher got locked up for it in 1750-something.

It's funny as fuck. I've never seen so many euphemisms for the penis before.

You're absolutely right. Author was John Cleland, IIRC.

This brings back memories. Fanny Hill was the forbidden book to read
when I was in ninth grade (1963)! I remember my history teacher
finding it in a fellow student's book bag and thundering:
"Do your parents know you're reading this?"

Kid's reply: "Yes, but I promised to give it back when I was finished."

 

[Klaatu]

Originally posted by cornflake
the plague - camus - got to p. 16 and abandoned it

Same here. I think we both did the right thing.

 

[jms]

Titus Groan - Mervyn Peake

and

Twenty One Stories - Graham Greene

and soon

Attack of the Deranged Mutant Killer SNOW GOONS - Bill Watterson

 

[Power]

Originally posted by Klaatu
Same here. I think we both did the right thing.

oh my god....

you've just dis'd camus....