What are you reading?

[Catalogue of ills]

I'm currently reading Primeval by Olga Tokarczuk (bless you). It has a dreamy central European folk tale feel to it, is well written, but also reads like something by someone who has given up on life, and puts me half in mind to kill myself. So, less than ideal in some ways.

[buttgammon]

I'm currently reading Primeval by Olga Tokarczuk (bless you). It has a dreamy central European folk tale feel to it, is well written, but also reads like something by someone who has given up on life, and puts me half in mind to kill myself. So, less than ideal in some ways.

I've been in two minds about reading some more of her stuff for ages. I loved Flights but then went on to read Drive Your Plow Over the Bones of the Dead and strongly disliked it. I've been meaning to give her new one a go for ages but it's well over a thousand pages and I would struggle to commit to a book of that length, especially by a writer who has been a mixed bag for me.

[bgmnts]

The Boy Who Followed His Father Into Auschwitz by Jeremy Dronfield.

My mother was a childhood friend of the author's sister and knew him and so I received a signed copy and I must say it's a beautifully written and incredibly well researched book about this incredible story of Gustav and Fritz Kleinmann, a father and son who basically ran the gamut of human suffering during the Holocaust, but their relationship helped them get through it somehow.

Amazing stuff.

I also decided to read Rudolf Hoss' autobiography, which was an incredible read for the exact opposite reasons. To get an insight into the true banal, industrialised  mass extermination of millions of people is an experience.

[Catalogue of ills]

Finished Primeval. It's ok but it didn't move me. At one point, someone says something like "You can't make the world better or worse, it will always be how it is", which even though it may hold some truth, reflects very well the lack of agency in most of the characters. It feels like this fatalism is part of what she wanted to write about, and maybe if you are writing about people living in a village, in a country that has been overrun by all and sundry, which endured the Stalinists after the Nazis, then a degree of fatalism feels right, but fashioning that into a compelling read seems a tall order.

People are born, and they live and then eventually they die has been done a lot in European literature, but on this occasion I wasn't moved by that, it just happened.

[bgmnts]

Just finished the diary of Anne Frank.

One of the saddest reads ever. Not knowledgeable of writing at all and I dont know what's good and what's bad but I found her writing to be beautiful, especially for a young teenager. I can barely remember having complex, deep thoughts at that age.

Ended up basically in tears, which I suppose is a bit silly but it got to me.

[Famous Mortimer]

It's a reasonable response. When I visited the house I was in bits, too.

[bgmnts]

It's a reasonable response. When I visited the house I was in bits, too.

Is it worth a visit?

[Famous Mortimer]

Is it worth a visit?

I think so. Plus, Amsterdam is nice and flat so you won't get too knackered seeing the other sights.

[kalowski]

I think so. Plus, Amsterdam is nice and flat so you won't get too knackered seeing the other sights.

You can visit Anne Frank's house, watch Ajax, go for a doobie and finish the evening off with a prostitute. It caters for all.

[Ray Travez]

Jonathan Safran Foer - We Are The Weather (audiobook)

An impassioned plea for people to eat less meat in order to combat climate change. Foer makes a good argument, weaving in various strands that become motifs throughout the book, including drawing a parallel between those who deny climate change and an American official who was unable to accept the truth of the concentration camps.

Where it became most interesting to me is his exploration of his own hypocrisy. Foer's previous book, eating animals, (which I've not read), was an impassioned plea for people to eat less meat as the treatment of animals in factory farming is inhumane, and yet, he subsequently ate meat on a few occasions during book tours, as he says here, 'for comfort'. Obviously he finds this indefensible, and his justifications and embarrassment are fertile ground for an interesting discussion of morality.

[Inspector Norse]

You can visit Anne Frank's house, watch Ajax, go for a doobie and finish the evening off with a prostitute. It caters for all.

Not sure I remember those latter three activities from her diary but good to see the exhibition modernising.

[willbo]

books by Brad Warner, the punk rock Buddhist. He has a youtube channel which gives you a good idea of what his stuff is like. Basically Buddhist and Zen advice from a guy who worked in punk rock and b-movies.

[bgmnts]

Just finished Maus by Art Spiegelman.

Thought it was quite good. It was different to what I expected it to be, and I actually found the author's relationship with his father and his reflections as the son of a Holocaust survivor more interesting than the father's story.

Absolutely no idea why this would have been banned reading in schools, it would be a perfect piece of work to show to children what happened.

[Artie Fufkin]

Just finished Maus by Art Spiegelman.

Thought it was quite good. It was different to what I expected it to be, and I actually found the author's relationship with his father and his reflections as the son of a Holocaust survivor more interesting than the father's story.

Absolutely no idea why this would have been banned reading in schools, it would be a perfect piece of work to show to children what happened.

Amazing book. Was this the whole lot, or vol 1? It's all great. I've been meaning to re read it for ages.

I'm now reading Skunk Ape Semester by Mike Robinson.
Intriguing little book about an amateur 'Big Foot Hunter'. It's a bit road trip / X-Files, I guess. I'm about a third in, and it's just starting to really grab me. Yeah. I like it.

[bgmnts]

Amazing book. Was this the whole lot, or vol 1? It's all great. I've been meaning to re read it for ages.

The whole lot. It was indeed very good. Unsure if depicting the French as frogs is dodgy or not though!

[Artie Fufkin]

The whole lot. It was indeed very good. Unsure if depicting the French as frogs is dodgy or not though!

Fair point, dat.
Lolz.

[Zero Gravitas]

I picked up The Evidence by Christopher Priest I wasn't at all aware of him although he wrote 'The Prestige' of the film's fame, not was I aware 'slipstream' as a style but I found the slightly off nature of it more engrossing than a lot of more explicitly sf novels that I read, quite a kafkaesque opening with a genuine relief as it opens back out into the mundane life of a novelist and then back into tangles.

On the back of that I was happily going through 'The Glamour' also by Priest, a very relaxed saunter around the French Riviera and a less relaxing romance with two flawed lovers, the titular twist I found genuinely unnerving after the slow lead in and it plucking a few of the elements from earlier in the novel in a paranoia inducing way.

If anyone is familiar with his work I'd love recommendations on what to go for next, 'The Islanders' was my plan as that's seemingly partially the same setting as 'The Evidence'.

[Dayraven]

Priest's Dream Archipelago is a very loose shared setting. The Affirmation is the first novel he set there, and The Islanders is a mock travel guide that weaves in recurring story threads. Both good. Outside that setting, the original novel for The Prestige is a strong one, as is The Separation, and Inverted World is a more directly science-fictional one than most with some striking concepts.

He works a lot with that sense of offness you've noted, particularly making use of pieces that don't quite fit (The Adjacent is probably the most explicit statement of that).

[Zero Gravitas]

Thank you! I'll go for The Islanders in that case as the framing sounds fun, I was tempted by the Prestige - even after having seen the film and knowing that one of the magicians is secretly wolverine - as someone in another old thread I found here mentioned the film is only from the middle section of the novel.

[bgmnts]

Currently getting through From Hell. It's bloody good to be fair.

I've never really been into Jack the Ripper but I remember it being taught to us in school and going on the Whitechapel tour in sixth form and all that. And looking back it gives me a feeling of sadness really. The idea that we still still pretty much value certain kinds of people the same way we did in the 19th century is shit. I mean fuck me we are only just getting to a point where we are seeing sex workers as human beings worthy of respect whose rights are not to be violated.

Somwtimes, the language used towards these women, even as victims, in the book - which i'm sure isnt a total fabrication - is so dehumanising and grim I sometimes find myself in shock.

[Martin Van Buren Stan]

Maybe check out The Five by Halle Rubenhold next

[Famous Mortimer]

I've been in two minds about reading some more of her stuff for ages. I loved Flights but then went on to read Drive Your Plow Over the Bones of the Dead and strongly disliked it. I've been meaning to give her new one a go for ages but it's well over a thousand pages and I would struggle to commit to a book of that length, especially by a writer who has been a mixed bag for me.

I'm reading Drive Your Plow Over the Bones of the Dead at the moment (I'd put a library hold on something else but it wasn't there so I picked this up instead) and I'm enjoying it quite a lot. Also, compared to "Foucault's Pendulum", which I just finished, it reads like a breeze so I'll be done in no time.

[bgmnts]

Finally finished From Hell. Quite powerful, I just love how and what Moore writes about, how he treats subject matter and how he writes characters, his dialogue in this just seemed so real. The premise and the plot were pretty engrossing and I found myself not wanting to put it down, even if it was a 5 page diatribe about the fourth dimension and a tour of the London East end and monologues on Masonic symbolism or whatever (incidentally, a lot of stuff that probably went over my head).

Also, the immenseness of the appendix is extraordinary and it shows the level of thought gone into this work.


My only sort of complaint was the artwork. This is probably a self criticism, as I do think the black and white sketchiness was appropriate, but I did sometimes genuinely struggle to make stuff out or follow what was going on and who was who at times.

[Artie Fufkin]

I'm now reading Skunk Ape Semester by Mike Robinson.
Intriguing little book about an amateur 'Big Foot Hunter'. It's a bit road trip / X-Files, I guess. I'm about a third in, and it's just starting to really grab me. Yeah. I like it.

Finished this last night. Hmmmm. Not sure it knew what it wanted to be. Disjointed, I thought. It was distinctly ok.

[Artie Fufkin]

Currently getting through From Hell. It's bloody good to be fair.

I've never really been into Jack the Ripper but I remember it being taught to us in school and going on the Whitechapel tour in sixth form and all that. And looking back it gives me a feeling of sadness really. The idea that we still still pretty much value certain kinds of people the same way we did in the 19th century is shit. I mean fuck me we are only just getting to a point where we are seeing sex workers as human beings worthy of respect whose rights are not to be violated.

Somwtimes, the language used towards these women, even as victims, in the book - which i'm sure isnt a total fabrication - is so dehumanising and grim I sometimes find myself in shock.

Amazing book, this. Such detail. I have the 're-mastered' edition to read at some point. Will be great to read it again.
It got me really interested in that particular era. I went on to read London Labour & The London Poor by Henry Mayhew which was fascinating.

[kalowski]

Civilisations by Laurent Binet. I loved HHhH and enjoyed The 7th Function of Language, even if it was a bit pretentious, so I am hopeful. It's started in a fairly conventional way and will be interesting to see where it goes.

[sevendaughters]

Just finished The Possibility of an Island by Michel Houellebecq, which was entertaining and well-written and a little troubling. I know the author is a twat but I tried to distance it which helped. A lot of sci-fi is written by the horrible.

Currently on The Rings of Saturn by WG Sebald and whilst it is obviously intelligent I am not getting on with it.

[Famous Mortimer]

I got a few chapters into "The Books of Jacob" by Olga Tokarczuk, put it down for a week and then realised I wasn't going back to it because I didn't really give a shit. Good on it for winning the Nobel prize, though.

[Small Man Big Horse]

Finally finished From Hell. Quite powerful, I just love how and what Moore writes about, how he treats subject matter and how he writes characters, his dialogue in this just seemed so real. The premise and the plot were pretty engrossing and I found myself not wanting to put it down, even if it was a 5 page diatribe about the fourth dimension and a tour of the London East end and monologues on Masonic symbolism or whatever (incidentally, a lot of stuff that probably went over my head).

Also, the immenseness of the appendix is extraordinary and it shows the level of thought gone into this work.


My only sort of complaint was the artwork. This is probably a self criticism, as I do think the black and white sketchiness was appropriate, but I did sometimes genuinely struggle to make stuff out or follow what was going on and who was who at times.

I'm a huge fan of Alan Moore's but From Hell is the only major work of his that I've not finished as I really don't get on with the artwork, I know some people love it but I'm the opposite. I might try out the 2018 colourised version as I've heard it's an improvement, but I'm not that optimistic.

[bgmnts]

I'm a huge fan of Alan Moore's but From Hell is the only major work of his that I've not finished as I really don't get on with the artwork, I know some people love it but I'm the opposite. I might try out the 2018 colourised version as I've heard it's an improvement, but I'm not that optimistic.

Yeah I will admit I legit struggled to follow at times to be honest.