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What are you reading?

Started by Talulah, really!, October 04, 2017, 10:07:22 PM

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Neville Chamberlain

Finally got round to reading Steve Hanley's The Big Midweek - Life Inside The Fall, and so far it's every bit the rollicking read I was promised! A bit less eager to read Brix's book as she sounds a bit "woo" what with all her crystals and homeopathy and what-not.

Serge

Yeah, Brix's book is let down by her general 'the universe has my back'-type bollocks, though if you can mentally edit that stuff out, it's still a pretty interesting read. Hanley's is still the best, though.

Neville Chamberlain

Quote from: Serge on January 19, 2018, 11:46:36 AM
Yeah, Brix's book is let down by her general 'the universe has my back'-type bollocks, though if you can mentally edit that stuff out, it's still a pretty interesting read. Hanley's is still the best, though.

This is completely irrelevant to the thread, but I was just five minutes ago researching the origins of the phrase "got/has my back", which I've only really noticed over the past couple of years - and then you only go and bloody use it, don't you!

Coincidence...? Or, er, something else?

Serge

Ha ha! There is a book in the Woo Section - sorry, Spirituality section at work called 'The Universe Has Your Back', which always annoys the fuck out of me whenever I have to file it. This has not seemed to be the case for myself or pretty much anybody I know. I bet Brix has read it.


Neville Chamberlain

If I worked in a bookshop, I think I'd refuse to file anything in the Spirituality section on ethical grounds!

Serge

To be fair, we wouldn't do very well if we just stocked books that fit in with the staffs tastes/prejudices. Especially mine.

It is worth noting, though, that the Spirituality and Self Help sections are, without fail, the ones that are left in the biggest mess by the people who use them. And by 'biggest mess', I mean even Richard Ramirez would look at them and think they were disordered. I don't want to say that the people who look at them are the stupidest fuckwits that come into the shop....actually, that's exactly what I want to say.



holyzombiejesus

Just started Leila Slimani's Lullaby.



I've seen loads of really good reviews and articles about this although the back cover blurb about 'the next Gone Girl' is a bit off putting. Anyway, it's a (translated) French novel about a possibly murderous nanny. Sounds a bit shlocky but the reviews have been outstanding.

Serge

I haven't even read the last Gone Girl yet.

Camp Tramp

I'm reading Browned off and Bloody Minded at the moment, which is all about the British serviceman during WW2. Enjoying it so far.

buttgammon

I was reading Winter by Ali Smith but for the first time in ages, I actually had to give up midway through, despite the fact that I liked Autumn. The first half was so bad that nothing in the second half could redeem it. What a load of boring, patronising, heavy-handedly topical hand-wringing bollocks. Serge, I assure you that your instincts based on the first page were spot on!

Before that, I read Han Kang's The White Book. Apparently, there has been a minor controversy about inaccuracies in the translations of her books into English but regardless, I thought this was an absolutely brilliant little book, and will definitely seek out her other stuff.

holyzombiejesus

Ha! I really liked Autumn and didn't mind/ liked the first page of Winter. I didn't get much further than that though. What was that stuff about the disembodied head (or something) floating above her bed?

buttgammon

I can't help you with the floating head thing, unfortunately. I didn't get far enough to get to the bottom of it, but it was one of the most irritating things about it. That and absolutely everything that involved the son.

Serge

If she's running on fumes by this point, Spring and Summer are going to be hard work.

MoonDust

Finished reading Ten Days That Shook the World by John Reed. Would recommend for anyone interested in that history.

Now I'm about to read a novel for the first time in months.

Picked up The Plague by Albert Camus at my local Oxfam yesterday. A friend of mine (who incidentally keeps saying he'll join this place but never does! If you're reading...) says it's brilliant.

Famous Mortimer

I just finished "In Plain Sight" by Dan Davies, the book about Jimmy Savile that was mentioned in the "best books of 2017" thread.

I have a very slight connection - my ex girlfriend worked as a social worker in Leeds General Infirmary, and once encountered Jimmy as she was using a lift that had apparently been earmarked for his use (the story is more than a decade old, I could be getting a slight detail wrong). He told her to get out of his lift, she told him to piss off, and he tried to get her into trouble with her bosses. I think that's the story, but ever after, whenever his name came up she'd call him a rotten bastard, even when he was alive - her co-workers similarly had nothing good to say about the man.

(Oh, and I remember using a "Jim Fixed It For Me" wallet given me as a present, until weeks after the allegations had started in full force. I put it on the counter of a shop and had a sudden moment of realisation)

Anyway, the book is brilliant, fascinating and well-researched, even if (as it admits) the man at the centre of it remains partly an enigma. Even now, I read it and go "surely he can't have been quite that busy with the sexual assaults?" but it appears he was.

buttgammon

Currently reading Chronic City by Jonathan Lethem, which I got solely because I liked the cover. It's good enough so far, and is very funny a lot of the time. One particularly funny chapter revolves around a few stoners making increasingly ridiculous bids on esoteric items on Ebay, pushing the prices up to a stupidly high level. He has a good feel for the madness of New York, and I like urban novels so that was always going to be a winner.

Ann Quin's posthumous collection The Unnamed Country came in the post today, having recently been released. She died in the 1970s and was more or less forgotten for a while, but she really deserves a reappraisal - Three is one of the great postwar British novels. Hopefully this will give her some much deserved attention.

Howj Begg

Modern Greece a short History by C.M. Woodhouse, principally so I can approach Angelopoulos' films with more understanding. Hasn't really helped with that, cos the author is thoroughly unsympathetic and derisive of the communist fraternity that Angelopulos saw as heroes. Still, it reminded me how bloody insane the Byzantine Empire was.

The Tain translated by Thomas Kinsella
Descartes' Error by Antonio Damasio

Serge

Quote from: buttgammon on January 23, 2018, 10:52:49 PM
Chronic City by Jonathan Lethem

I really have to read more Lethem, I've only read Fortress Of Solitude, which was bloody fantastic. I think his most recent (The Blot) is due out in paperback soon, might pick that one up. And also look into Chronic City.

I think this year is when I finally get around to reading more Jonathan Coe as well. I read What A Carve Up! years ago and loved it, but somehow never got around to anything else. I bought a copy of The Rotter's Club cheap in Fopp a couple of days ago, so that's on my 'to read' list now.

Judge Foozle

The Third Policeman byFlann O'Brien

Not only the unopposed choice of "if you only read one book in your life..." but also a book that should be compulsory for everyone to read. Life-changing, mind-blowing, tension-building and baffling, plus an insight into the three-speed gear and drop handlebars. A hilarious Irish romp in parallel with a murder investigation, the importance of omnium in the atomic theory and the wisdom of carrying a puncture repair kit. Also the only book that takes the piss out of the readers. Absolutely essential.

tookish

Quote from: Serge on January 02, 2018, 04:43:36 PM
I can imagine that page above being read out in a monotonous voice by a spotty herbert at a poetry night.

I just read it in my special slow I Am A Slam Poet voice for E's amusement, and we both agree. Needs some more line breaks though.

In terms of what I'm reading, I just finished Attachments by Rainbow Rowell, and I'm starting Eleanor Oliphant Is Completely Fine.

zomgmouse

Making my way through Diary of a Chambermaid, but in French, and am stopping every few words to look up translations. Very tough going. But I think it's good.

Glebe

Movie Geek, from the Den of Geek guys, a present from my very kind Sister... bit amateurishly written at times, and a number of familiar anecdotes/facts recounted, but it's a very enjoyable read nonetheless.

Porter Dimi

A rather dull recovery period means a productive week of reading! Finished Elif Batuman's The Idiot, which started well enough but was a real chore during the second half. Also finally read Renata Adler's two most acclaimed works, Speedboat and Pitch Dark. The former is an exhilarating read, the latter is much more mysterious. You'll find yourself wanting to re-read both.

Moving onto some short story collections this week. First, Pond by Claire-Louise Bennett, and then Her Body and Other Parties by Carmen Maria Machado.

Hobo With A Shit Pun

Quote from: Judge Foozle on January 24, 2018, 12:26:06 PM
The Third Policeman byFlann O'Brien

Not only the unopposed choice of "if you only read one book in your life..." but also a book that should be compulsory for everyone to read.

And the gift that keeps on giving: I just read Ian Sansom's light hearted crime romp "Mr Dixon Disappears" the other day, and guffawed to myself when an old man cycling down a country road boasted of his bike "It's a deSelby."

Neville Chamberlain

I'm 100 pages or so into Margaret Atwood's The Blind Assassin. I haven't the foggiest what's going on, but it's a compelling read nonetheless.

Famous Mortimer

Going to have my third bash at Q by Luther Blissett. I got about 100 pages in, last year sometime, and abandoned it for reasons unknown.

Judge Foozle

Quote from: Hobo With A Shit Pun on January 31, 2018, 10:50:52 AM
And the gift that keeps on giving: I just read Ian Sansom's light hearted crime romp "Mr Dixon Disappears" the other day, and guffawed to myself when an old man cycling down a country road boasted of his bike "It's a deSelby."

That's amazing! Didn't know that. Wonder what % he's up to?

shh

Having read most of John Gray's post-2000 work, I thought I'd delve into his academic 'back catalogue', with Enlightenment's Wake, particularly after having just read some Nietzsche. Anti-enlightenment iconoclasm is really moreish. Can anyone recommend that 'Men are from Venus' one?

Twit 2

I love John Gray, me. I think The Soul of the Marionette is my favourite.

buttgammon

I'm still trying to fill in the handful of Delillo gaps I have, and started reading Great Jones Street earlier. It's not a book I really heard mentioned at all until I went to a Delillo conference last year and a couple of people said they regarded it as one of his best works. I generally divide his work into three periods: the early stuff where he was finding his feet, the middle, accomplished period, and the later stuff that is a mixed bag. This should fit into the first period, but there is something so confident and distinctive about even this very early novel of his. Admittedly, the only other early one I had read before was Americana (which I swear was an influence on Mad Men) but this is miles better than that.

The premise is that a rock star quits his band mid-tour and goes to live a more reclusive life in a rundown part of Manhattan. Unfortunately for him, it all catches up with him and he just can't escape his fame; if anything, his disappearance only gives him the sort of notoriety that makes him fascinating for the media and public alike. What can't really be conveyed in a basic synopsis is just how funny this book this. I'm also impressed at how weirdly contemporary some of it is, and I am also enjoying the fact that Bucky (the protagonist) has a real proto-punk vibe at times.