*What book are you reading ?

[silentNate]

Beware: Maggot is sooooooooo wrong... 'Microserfs' is a great book, 'All families are psychotic' also very good...
'Girlfriend ina coma' was my favourite til he (Coupland) started slagging it off in interviews!!!!

 

[lyra_k]

About 100 pages into A Star Called Henry - Roddy Doyle.

Unrelenting grimness; pretty much what you'd expect from Mr Doyle, but a page-turner and has me bawling my eyes out.

Had it for ages and forgot to read it, found it when unpacking boxes of books - result!

 

[Fozzie Bear]

Just finished:

Richard Gombin - The Origins of Modern Leftism

(pretty good skinny Pelican job, on the situationists, council communists, socialism or barbarism etc. Translated from da french innit).

Stewart Home - Defiant Post

(one of his early pulp polymorphously-perverse-anarcho-skinhead "he fell backwards spitting out gouts of blood and the occasional tooth" jobs, which originally cost a packet cos it was a hardback but I got it for a fiver at the anarchist bookfair off Haven. Anyway - it does the trick if you like that sort of stuff (and I do!) but you wouldn't pay 12 quid for it).

Just starting:

Humanist Philosophers' Group - Religious Schools: the case against.

(pamphlet from the British Humanist Association. A bit polite and theoretical for my unrefined tastes).

A load of random stuff from the bookfair.

Still reading:

David Keenan - England's Hidden Reverse

(cos I borrowed it from Dubversion and don't want to drop it in a puddle)

 

[Dubversion]

Originally posted by Maggot
I recomend Miss Wyoming.

Shampoo Planet and Microserfs aren't as good IMHO.

mentalist.


miss wyoming was the beginning of the psychotic soap opera period (taken to its horrible conclusion with All Families...)

a period redeemed by the lovely Hey Nostradamus

 

[Dubversion]

SPOILER

Originally posted by Nina
Dubversion...can u explain to me what the end of that Chip Kidd book was all about?...I haven't a clue!

it's about him not having a clue how to write


he just seemed to run out of plot steam and bottle it, which is a shame cos up until p200 or so it was an enjoyable (if flimsy) read.

did he actually have gay feelings for Sorbeck, and did he do more than just take polaroids?
and what really happened to Hilly?
fuck knows, but i did finish it at5am so i was a bit confused anyway.

 

[rennie]

still ploughing thru war and peace... absolutely amazing vivid descriptions but boy is it heavy on the shoulder?!!

i get stares from all quarters everytime i pull it outta my bag on the tube or in the pub.

 

[Dubversion]

Originally posted by reNnIe
i get stares from all quarters everytime i pull it outta my bag on the tube or in the pub.

thats just cos you're right funny looking

 

[rennie]

... i was hoping it had somethin to do with the book rather than me oh so gorgeous self!

 

[mrkikiet]

Originally posted by silentNate
'Microserfs' is a great book,....'Girlfriend ina coma' was my favourite til he (Coupland) started slagging it off in interviews!!!!

Microserfs is a dreadful book. end of.

Why does what Coupland think of his books affect what your opinion of them is?

I started the Master and Margarita last night. I suspect it may end up joining my pile of partially read books destined never to be finished.

and yes, i agree, the ending of Chipp Kidd was dissapointing. also the Cheese Monkeys, hmmmm?

 

[Donna Ferentes]

Originally posted by geordietim

I started the Master and Margarita last night. I suspect it may end up joining my pile of partially read books destined never to be finished.

If it does, you will really, really miss out. Stick with it.

 

[Belushi]

Just about to start Adam Hoschild 'King Leopold's Ghost' about Belgian Congo atrocities in the Nineteenth Century and which has been very highly recomended to me.

 

[BEARBOT]

lets see....
this week im reading "surreal lives" concerning the surrealists 1917-1945
plus STILL reading "good soldier svejk" by jaroslav hasek
and "zig zag zen" a history of buddhism and psychedelics

these are manging to hold my interest and meet my exacting standards

 

[Orang Utan]

Originally posted by Belushi
Just about to start Adam Hoschild 'King Leopold's Ghost' about Belgian Congo atrocities in the Nineteenth Century and which has been very highly recomended to me.

Was that me? It is indeed a fantastic read but won't endear you to the Belgians (if anything would)

 

[Belushi]

Originally posted by Orang Utan
Was that me? It is indeed a fantastic read but won't endear you to the Belgians (if anything would)

It was indeed mate

 

[Nina]

I've decided with the Cheese Monkeys...he was just trying to be stylish and it just didn't work.

I'm halfway through Chuck Palahniuk's latest 'Diary'. It's supposed to be based on the Rosemary's Baby story but to be honest it reminds me of The Wicker Man.

So far it's typical him, a fast cynical and negative read.
Very good

 

[(empty)]

By now i'm reading Murphy (1938) from Samuel Beckett and also Premier Amour (1970) from Beckett too... Must be Beckett time for some reason in my head.

 

[WasGeri]

I've just started to read my Paul Robeson biography. Chapter two, and I am already angry about the way he was treated.

 

[jms]

Having rather overdone things on the Orwell front, I am now reading nothing

Gormenghast is sitting rather menacingly on my bedside table, saying "Reeead me" and Im thinking "nooo, its not worth bothering"

maybe some day..

I'll probably just read Lirael by Garth Nix next

or maybe that Jan Mark thing I've had stored up

oh the choice

I am rather looking forward to "Lyra's Oxford" though...

 

[chez]

domain- James Herbert, have n't read a cheesy horror novel for years but really enjoying this.

 

[Paxman]

Solar Lottery by Philip K Dick - fantastic book considering it was written in the 50`s

 

[Kernow bys vyke]

Just finished John McEnroes autobiography which was good but nowt special, certainly not as good as Frank Skinners autobiog which was one the funniest books I've read. Soon to start on The Wasp Factory which I hear is excellent.

 

[foo]

Asterix And The Big Fight & Asterix And The Great Divide.

Chuckling away as I read these childhood faves while I cook up a big pot of soup and dumplings.

Lovely stuff!

 

[white rabbit]

Yellow Dog, Martin Amis. Birthday pressie. Haven't got far enough in yet to make a judgement.

 

[fortytwo]

I just finished Light by M John Harrison. I knew it had been up for some awards earlier in the year, so I went looking for it. Reading the back cover, it seemed like my style -so I bought it. Of course the story bears no relation to what was on the back cover, and I was disappointed with the whole thing. It serves me right, all the critics from the literary press had orgasms over it (which was apt considering the contents) but I should have known better, I never seem to like their recommendations.

42

 

[Nina]

Just finished John Colapinto About the Author. God fast thrilling read about a writer with writer's block who discovers his dull flatmate has written a novel! The flatmate dies, so he steals the novel to publish as himself...with some nasty consequences...

Now halfway through Alice Sebold Lovely Bones

It's just beautiful.....give it a go. You need a box of tissues though if you're a bit on the sensitive side, like me.

 

[mrkikiet]

the bang bang club by greg marinovich. life as a photographer in Johannesburg during the state ponsored violence of the early 1990s, 'tis good.

 

[onemonkey]

finished Breakfast of Champions - fan-fkin-tastic!

started Death & the Penguin by Andrey Kurkov

A Kiev writer and his pet penguin gets tangled up with the ukranian mafia after the obituaries he has been hired to write about prominent local politicians finally start seeing their way into print. very black comedy with a twist of penguin.

 

[bluestreak]

just finishing the man who mistook his wife for a hat by oliver sacks.

very interesting indeed. lots of insight into the way brain injuries affect people and perceptions and whatnot. thoroughly recommended.

 

[Dubversion]

i have a big pile of great and new and unread and redeeming books to read.

but instead i'm reading His Dark Materials again

 

[DaveCinzano]

Originally posted by geordietim
the bang bang club by greg marinovich. life as a photographer in Johannesburg during the state ponsored violence of the early 1990s, 'tis good.

it's co-written with fellow snapper joao silva.

fucking excellent book about outsiders getting drawn into the hostel wars, when state-sponsored agents were stirring up 'black-on-black' violence in the townships between zulus and xhosa (roughly speaking), in an attempt to stymy the dismantling of apartheid and the transition to democracy.

also has powerful passages on the failed attempt by awb loons to invade the bophutswana (sp?) 'homeland' - you'll remember the gruesome pics of the time of a fat nazi in too-tight khaki shorts and gunshot wounds half-fallen out of his car. well, these are the guys who took those pictures.

also works well as a war correspondent's memoir, alongside tim page and michael herr.