*What book are you reading ?

[bluestreak]

i've just finished reading 100 years of solitude. stunning, absolutely stunning.

just started on an iain sinclair but stil am not sure what is going on even though the actual writing stuns me with his magnificence. have been distracted though, re-reading the sandman books.... those are good too....

 

[Salo]

Summer Lightening by PG Wodehouse. It's always sunny at Blandings Castle.
Just finished Pimp by Iceberg Slim. grittiest book I ever did read.

 

[jms]

Im not scared by Niccolo Ammaniti

bloody good it is too

 

[DaveCinzano]

still ploughing through misha glenny's 'the balkans', courtesy of flypanam.

also chugging along: 'the long war' by james dunkerley on the el salvador death squads etc.

the pythons' autobiography is a good read, but fucking awkward to read in bed as it's about six miles tall.

schott's miscellany is a fascinating collection of otherwise useless information.

buried under all these i still have phillip agee's 'cia diary', though i've stalled in quito for a long time.

currently on my in pile: book on guatemala and the dirty war, 'the story of pi', some john le carre, mark twain and charles dickens, books on northern ireland (martin dillon's 'political murders', tony geraghty's 'the irish war', kevin toolis's 'rebel hearts'), and i have dibs on some ripperology (stephen knight, colin wilson, dan farson etc) when i stay at my folks'.

should be a long xmas...

 

[wiskey]

in my absense from urban i have read the tales of the city books by Amistead Maupin

Tales of the city
More tales of the city
Further tales of the city
Babycakes
Significant Others
Sure of you

half way through the last one now and i think they have exhausted themselves somewhat.

not sure what to read next but i'm being (gently) pressured to try and read a comic book . . . so i might give that a go

wiskers

 

[Good Intentions]

Portrait of the Artist as a Young Man - James Joyce

I picked this up for buggerall at a second-hand bookstore, decided to give Joyce a go. So far its very interesting, definitely unconventional. I think I'll grow to like it.

Of course, I just got 'No Logo' for my birthday, so that might interrupt...

 

[bass]

Originally posted by Lord Ersatz
Portrait of the Artist as a Young Man - James Joyce

Wait til you get to the 50 page sermon on Hell.

I'm reading the Life and Opinions of Tristram Shandy - bloody mad - the "plot" never gets anywhere because the narrator goes on these wild diversions that lead him nowhere. I'm 200 pages in and the hero hasn't been born yet and he's just decided to write a preface. These kind of games would be fairly normal in a novel today, but this was written in the 18th century.

Also reading 'Chasing the Monsoon' by Alexander Frater where he, erm, chases the monsoon around India.

Bass

 

[mrkikiet]

i started and finished The Secret History by Donna Tartt yesterdy. i literally could not put it down i like it when that happens.

 

[Ciara]

The Lovely Bones by Alice Sebold (Ithink!) It's amazing - really, really gripping and quite an unusual take on the normal run-of-the-mill murder/crime book

 

[Fenian]

complex system theory and development practice, by samir rihani. sees history not in linear terms and advances view that life in developing world (and indeed developed world) should be complex adaptive system.

 

[Roadkill]

Originally posted by Lord Ersatz
Of course, I just got 'No Logo' for my birthday, so that might interrupt...

I found No logo in a charity shop this summer. I think I'd expected to be a bit disappointed by it after all the publicity it got, but I thought it was very good indeed.

 

[Elpenor]

Currently getting into Evelyn Waugh's Brideshead Revisited, which I'm finding intriguing so far. Having to get the dictionary out for a lot of the descriptive passages, as I don't seem to know much about the interior design of the English country house Still, it's enjoyable, and different to other stuff I've read by Waugh. Might have to track down the TV series down at a later point.

Also have The Secret History by Donna Tartt out of the library, another recommendation from my thread of the year

 

[sarcastic food]

Spooky Fish I don't know how you get the time.

 

[Nina]

Just finished Graham Greene's End of the Affair.

Another bloody lovely book by that man.

Not sure what to start now. I need something small to carry on the bus. Thinking of starting Phillip Pullman but by the sounds of the thread, it may take a while to get into.

 

[mrkikiet]

i'm reading the picture of dorian gray. it's small and would fit in your pocket.

 

[mentalchik]

Im re-reading The Scar by China Mieville,




its brill

 

[calvin]

I'm just starting kitchen by Banana Yoshimoto-i know i should have read it before now and i'm also reading how it ended by jay mcinery!

very bret easton ellis i must say

 

[Dubversion]

Crackpot - The Obsessions Of John Waters

includes such classic chapters as 'The Pia Zadora Story', 'Why I Love The National Enquirer' and 'Why I Love Christmas'

excellent

 

[PearlySpencer]

Okay lowering the tone as usual I've just got a biography of Sean Penn by Nick Johnstone out from the library. Anyone read it, what's it like? Penn interests me cos he seems to have his head screwed on despite his job and the media shite that comes with it.

 

[Dubversion]

nick johnstone is a great biographer/writer IMO, so if there's a good story in Penn, this book should tell it.

 

[moon]

Just starting 'The Wind-Up Bird Chronicle' by Haruki Marakami, though I'm not sure its really my kind of thing.

I keep getting distracted by 'Ripe for picking' by Annie Hawes too, having just finished her excellent 'Extra Virgin' BTW I thought I would mention that these are travel books set in Italy...I know what some of your minds are like!!

 

[Dubversion]

Originally posted by HHJ Wonderland
Just starting 'The Wind-Up Bird Chronicle' by Haruki Marakami, though I'm not sure its really my kind of thing.

i read about half of it, and sort of enjoyed it while being thoroughly baffled for the most part. then i put it down and never quite got round to it again.

not sure what that says about me or the book - love to know what you think

 

[mains]

I'm reading 'The Rider' by Tim Krabbe (bloke who wrote 'The Vanishing'). Justin mentioned it on another thread and I'm quite impressed so far. Mixture of cycle racing autobiography, anecdotes and a fictional bike race over a fictional area of France. Very bleak humour at times.

 

[Roadkill]

HMS Ulysses by Alistair MacLean.

Alistair MacLean wrote any amount of crap, but a few absolutely brilliant novels, and HMS Ulysses is one of them. He was on the Murmansk covoys during the war I think, so he knew what he was talking about: that's maybe why HMS Ulysses is so vivid and startling. I've read it many times before, but every time I come back to it, it seems to get better.

 

[Nina]

60 pages into Pullman's Northern Lights.
I thought it was supposed to be a kid's book

I'm 27 and finding it a bit scary

 

[Maggot]

Originally posted by mains
I'm reading 'The Rider' by Tim Krabbe (bloke who wrote 'The Vanishing'). Justin mentioned it on another thread and I'm quite impressed so far. Mixture of cycle racing autobiography, anecdotes and a fictional bike race over a fictional area of France.

Yeah, but you'd be interested in any book about cycle racing though .

 

[Roadkill]

I'm just finishing The Victorian Underworld by Donald ... er ... someoneorother. It's very interesting.

Apparently, some clever fuckers managed to steal nearly half a ton of gold bullion off a mail train from London to Folkestone in the 1850s - and they did it so cleverly that no-one was any the wiser until the bullion chests were opened when they got to their destination in France. The thieves weren't caught until years later, when one of them was done for another crime and the secret got out via his former mistress. Fascinating stuff. I'm sad like that.

 

[Celt]

Had started reading the ragged trousered philanthropist, was enjoying it, put it 'in a very safe place' while I was decorating.

Can anyone tell me where that safe place was

 

[flimsier]

The Ragged Trousered Philanthropists is a great novel.

I just got Dude, Where's my country for Xmas. Looking forward to one or two laughs and some anger (with the system and the author)... but will enjoy it!

 

[ViolentPanda]

Currently smiling my way through "That Old Ace in the Hole" by Annie Proulx.