*What book are you reading ?
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mad old bat
Originally posted by Nina
You've got to be kiddingThat is the shittest book I've read this year.
That boy needs to get a life before he picks up another pen.
That's just my opinion of course
IMHO, he has real storytelling skills; he doesn't need to get a life, but to live it - he's only 19, and is being true to himself and his generation, writing about things which have meaning, interest or relevance to him as a 19-year old student.
Maturity and life experience will no doubt inform any work yet to come.
I think he has potential, anyway.
Dimension Line
Displaced and displeased.
My mum just bought me a book called 'Being Dharma: The Essence of the Buddha's Teachings' by Ajahn Chah. It is really very interesting, although some of it I don't fully understand yet.
not settled on a new big book, so im flicking through The Ambient Century by Mark Prendergast, Bass Culture by Lloyd Bradley and England's Dreaming by Jon Savage.
again
again
onemonkey
winmonkey
taking a break from Goethe's outright fruity Faust II (someone German please tell me it is amazing in Deutsche cos i feel certain something has been lost in translation. 
)
so instead i've been reading Quarantine by Greg Egan, having had him recommended to me as a cognitive-science fiction writer. I was also told he takes an idea and pursues it relentlessly and beyond the lengths that he needs to. I sort of see it. It contains two neat ideas and it pushes them as far as they will go.
firstly, in 2034 suddenly there appears an impenetrable Bubble round the solar system, cutting us off from the rest of the universe.. no one knows why or what alien race put it there.. after some panic and bewilderment life continues much as it always did.. give or take a few theologies and cults.
secondly, the story is set 33 years later where neural modification is commonplace.. not merely seemlessly putting computing power inside your head but actually rewiring your neurons to make you believe different things, act in different ways.
the plot that draws these together- a detective is hire anonymously to trace a mentally retarded woman who has vanished from a secure mental institution.
it is, alas, not a gripping page-turner but it is exceptionally clever and well thought-out (ignoring minor plot holes)
)so instead i've been reading Quarantine by Greg Egan, having had him recommended to me as a cognitive-science fiction writer. I was also told he takes an idea and pursues it relentlessly and beyond the lengths that he needs to. I sort of see it. It contains two neat ideas and it pushes them as far as they will go.
firstly, in 2034 suddenly there appears an impenetrable Bubble round the solar system, cutting us off from the rest of the universe.. no one knows why or what alien race put it there.. after some panic and bewilderment life continues much as it always did.. give or take a few theologies and cults.
secondly, the story is set 33 years later where neural modification is commonplace.. not merely seemlessly putting computing power inside your head but actually rewiring your neurons to make you believe different things, act in different ways.
the plot that draws these together- a detective is hire anonymously to trace a mentally retarded woman who has vanished from a secure mental institution.
it is, alas, not a gripping page-turner but it is exceptionally clever and well thought-out (ignoring minor plot holes)
Orang Utan
They cannot crucify you if your hand is in a fist
I read this for the history but couldn't finish it cos it was so badly written - a pity cos it's the only comprehensive history of Jamaican music I have spotted.
gobsmacked!
i thought it was brilliantly written. not particularly tidy or succinct, i'll grant you.
but his love for the music and his enthusiasm and passion shine through, unlike, say, the David Katz Lee Perry book which was the dryest load of wank i've ever read.
Bradley knows and loves this stuff, and though he gives dancehall short shrift (as has been discussed here before), for the most part he just makes you want to run off and listen to it all.
surprised you didn't like it, Orang Utan.
Orang Utan
They cannot crucify you if your hand is in a fist
Originally posted by Dubversion
gobsmacked!
i thought it was brilliantly written. not particularly tidy or succinct, i'll grant you.
but his love for the music and his enthusiasm and passion shine through, unlike, say, the David Katz Lee Perry book which was the dryest load of wank i've ever read.
Bradley knows and loves this stuff, and though he gives dancehall short shrift (as has been discussed here before), for the most part he just makes you want to run off and listen to it all.
surprised you didn't like it, Orang Utan.
Maybe I should give it another chance, but I remember being really irked by Bradley's style and thinking he badly needed a good editor.
you've probably got a point, it can be a bit messy in places, but that felt to me like he was just getting carried away by his own enthusiasm, which makes a change from most music books which are either just hagiographies or so damned academic and dry..
small town girl
New Member
I have just finished Ian McEwan's "Atonement" and I must say it is absolutely mind-blowing.One of the most powerful,disturbing,even devastating novels I've ever read. I was crying my eyes out when I finished it. Can't recommend it highly enough.
I am reading Book 4 of David Eddings The Malloreon called Sorceress of Darshiva
Id you like Science fantasy and have never read David Eddings then you must read these.
The Delgariad is the start to the story and I am on Book 1o of 12 and will be very sad when it is all over
Id you like Science fantasy and have never read David Eddings then you must read these.
The Delgariad is the start to the story and I am on Book 1o of 12 and will be very sad when it is all over
bluestreak
HomosexualityIsStalin’sAtomBombtoDestroyAmerica
just finished Carter Beats The Devil, by Alan David Holt (I think that's his name) which is a very readable fictional account of a stage magician's role in Warren Harding's death. Very good indeed. I've started to re-read Coupland's Girlfriend In A Coma and although I'm only a few chapters in I'm immediately taken at the quality of the writing. Wonderful.
i've found this with a couple of coupland's books - the stories are so compelling you get swept along and you're not always aware of how brilliant and evocative his writing is, takes a second go..
The Bonds That Make Us Free, Terry Warner
I am about a third of the way into this book and it is already having a profound effect on how I think about myself and my relationships with others.
The most important concept so far: Any time one is rationalizing (to themselves or to others) an action or behavior, then it is likely that the action or behavior was motivated by pride or selfishness or thoughtlessness.
I am about a third of the way into this book and it is already having a profound effect on how I think about myself and my relationships with others.
The most important concept so far: Any time one is rationalizing (to themselves or to others) an action or behavior, then it is likely that the action or behavior was motivated by pride or selfishness or thoughtlessness.
Nina
muftysludge
Just starting..
If Nobody Speaks of Remarkable Things
Jon McGregor I think the author is.
He is from my home town so it got a bit of fuss in the press here last year. Also a book with no speech in it. Interesting.
Hope it lives up to the ranks of Rohinton Mistry's Family Matters which I finished yesterday. Just beautiful.
If Nobody Speaks of Remarkable Things
Jon McGregor I think the author is.
He is from my home town so it got a bit of fuss in the press here last year. Also a book with no speech in it. Interesting.
Hope it lives up to the ranks of Rohinton Mistry's Family Matters which I finished yesterday. Just beautiful.
TremulousTetra
prismatic universe
Just read “Darwin” by Michael white and John gribbin. I found it are really excellent read, with a thematic rather than a strictly chronological examination of Darwin and his work. Having said I really enjoyed the book, there was a shock and disappointment on the last page.
Before that I read “the clash of fundamentalisms” Tariq Ali. I picked it up and didn’t like it, As he seemed to just be talking about his childhood instead of the analysis I expected. But once I picked it up again it was a brilliant read. Though it does analyze a little bit the U.S. administrations faults, It mainly concentrates on the way third world leaders have colluded in the U.S.’s exploitation of third world. Recommend.
“An English man in auschwitz” by Leo greenman. Not the most gripping ever read, but I got the end.
Mark Steel “viva la revolution”. A really funny and accessible account of the French revolution. I would read it again, and recommend it to anyone even if they don’t have much interest in politics history, As the story and humor carries it along.
Before that I read “the clash of fundamentalisms” Tariq Ali. I picked it up and didn’t like it, As he seemed to just be talking about his childhood instead of the analysis I expected. But once I picked it up again it was a brilliant read. Though it does analyze a little bit the U.S. administrations faults, It mainly concentrates on the way third world leaders have colluded in the U.S.’s exploitation of third world. Recommend.
“An English man in auschwitz” by Leo greenman. Not the most gripping ever read, but I got the end.
Mark Steel “viva la revolution”. A really funny and accessible account of the French revolution. I would read it again, and recommend it to anyone even if they don’t have much interest in politics history, As the story and humor carries it along.
ViolentPanda
Hardly getting over it.
Just finished "Nicholas van Hoogstraten: Killer Millionaire", which was interesting, and made a big point about the cowardice of officialdom which let him get away with so much for so long.
Currently read "The Protestant Ethic and the Spirit of Capitalism" by Max Weber and "Crime and Banishment: Nuisance & Exclusion in Social Housing" by Elizabeth Burney.
Currently read "The Protestant Ethic and the Spirit of Capitalism" by Max Weber and "Crime and Banishment: Nuisance & Exclusion in Social Housing" by Elizabeth Burney.
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