What books did you get for Christmas?

[Magnum Valentino]

Elements of Eloquence by Mark Forsyth, bout how to write good.

Never Grow Up - Jackie Chan's second autobiography, covering the Rush Hour years and beyond.

The Ministry for the Future by Kim Stanley Robinson which I think is about some kind of futuristic Doom Watch type department which goes a bit Extinction Rebellion. Barack Obama liked it, for whatever that's worth.

Belong: Find Your People, Create Community, and Live a More Connected Life by Radha Agrawal. Can't remember what prompted me to add this to my wishlist, but my mum bought it for me anyway and it looks nice enough.

Nature and the Human Soul: Cultivating Wholeness in a Fragmented World by Bill Plotkin. I think when I added this to my list I thought this was gonna be something about how the human brain evolved in a world of hunter-gatherers, and how there might be simple, practical ways to tap into the basic pleasures of that existence to combat the ennui of the modern urbanised world, but after flicking through it seems to be a bunch of vague spiritual bollocks by someone who sounds a bit like a cult leader.

I didn't know Jackie Chan had books out. Have you read the first, any cop?

[notjosh]

I didn't know Jackie Chan had books out. Have you read the first, any cop?

Yes, it's fascinating if you're a fan. Loads of interesting stuff about his mad childhood in a Peking opera school, the changes in Hong Kong action cinema during the 1970s*, and then the golden years of his own film-making career.

_{*I liked the anecdote about him, Sammo Hung et al using their acrobatic skills to sneak into a sold-out showing of The Big Boss, ready to slag off this 'overseas Chinese guy' Bruce Lee as being unfit to make Hong Kong action, then coming out realising that the entire industry was about to change.}

[Ferris]

If We Burn By Vincent Bevins
Cyclonopedia by Reza Negarestani

That was it.

Interested to hear your thoughts on this, a few people have mentioned it on here (?) and it looks interesting but 30 quid for me to order

[Pink Gregory]

Terrortome and Incarcerat by Garth Marenghi
Temple of the Golden Pavillion by Yukio Mishima
The Heat's On by Chester Himes
New Cunts

You a Himes fan?  I went through a huge phase when five of his got reprinted in Penguin Modern Classics (I was temping at Waterstones at the time), and happened to find If He Hollers...later on

[dontpaintyourteeth]

Isn't Cyclonopedia notoriously unreadable

[Oosp]

I got the new Blindboy book and Thurston Moore's autobiography. Finishing A Thread of Violence by Mark O'Connell (brilliant, as ever), then I'll dip into Blindboy

[Magnum Valentino]

Blindboy's is far and away the best of his three. No high-concept weirdness this time, just very honest and revealing writing. I shed at least one tear.

[Mr Banlon]

You a Himes fan?  I went through a huge phase when five of his got reprinted in Penguin Modern Classics (I was temping at Waterstones at the time), and happened to find If He Hollers...later on

I watched Come Back, Charleston Blue a while back so I thought I'd give the book a go.

[Pink Gregory]

I watched Come Back, Charleston Blue a while back so I thought I'd give the book a go.

Do you know of the other film(s)?

[iamcoop]

I got CUDDY by forum bête noire Ben Myers and so far it's great.

[Inspector Norse]

Thurston Moore's autobiography.

Any cop? Was looking at it because even though I only like a bit of Sonic Youth stuff and can sometimes think Moore is a bit of a posey twat, he's probably had an action-packed life on the scene and has a lot of interesting stuff to say anyway.

Speaking of biographies, I didn't get any books because the adults in my family don't really do presents any more, but I had a bit of Christmas spending money saved so I got a wee haul while I was over in England:

Will Hermes' biography of Lou Reed, The King of New York
Jonathan Lethem's new one Brooklyn Crime Novel, which I just finished yesterday and thought it was great
Geoff Dyer - See/Saw his new one about photography (his previous one about photography was very good)
Steve Brusatte - The Rise and Reign of the Mammals (read one he wrote about dinosaurs which was enjoyable, good grown-up take on my 8-year-old self's nerdy prehistoric passion)
Mary Beard - Emperor of Rome (actually I didn't buy this, I borrowed it off my mum. Good so far. Lots of fun little details and apocrypha. Lame claim to fame: my cousin worked as one of Beard's research dogsbodies for a while. Said she was a GBOL)
Photobooks by Cuny Janssen and Guy Tillim

[wrec]

I got the new Blindboy book and Thurston Moore's autobiography. Finishing A Thread of Violence by Mark O'Connell (brilliant, as ever), then I'll dip into Blindboy

A Thread of Violence is superb and a really thoughtful and careful handling of sensitive material. Besides the whole GUBU circus it's deeply unsettling because the violence remains ultimately inexplicable and pointless from any perspective. I thought O'Connell's previous books each had a couple of really fascinating essays alongside comparative filler, but this was on a different level.

Any cop? Was looking at it because even though I only like a bit of Sonic Youth stuff and can sometimes think Moore is a bit of a posey twat, he's probably had an action-packed life on the scene and has a lot of interesting stuff to say anyway.

For me Thurston is the exact opposite of a poser, partly because he's one of the few people with some level of fame who maintains a genuine passionate engagement with underground music and lit. The book is excellent on the punk / no wave years, could have more detail about later SY though.

[xxxx xxx x xxx]

The book is excellent on the punk / no wave years, could have more detail about later SY though.

That's what I was thinking - I'm past the middle of it now and it's still only up to Bad Moon Rising.  He says in the intro that it's only a quarter of what he originally wrote, I hope the chopped out bits are published later.

[wrec]

That's what I was thinking - I'm past the middle of it now and it's still only up to Bad Moon Rising.  He says in the intro that it's only a quarter of what he originally wrote, I hope the chopped out bits are published later.

Yeah, a more episodic follow-up might work. He mentioned in an interview that he referred to Ranaldo's diaries to check dates, venues and the like, but didn't want to exploit them for material, so maybe Lee has a memoir in him.

[Inspector Norse]

For me Thurston is the exact opposite of a poser, partly because he's one of the few people with some level of fame who maintains a genuine passionate engagement with underground music and lit. The book is excellent on the punk / no wave years, could have more detail about later SY though.

Might check it out then, it's the punk/no wave stuff I'm interested in rather than SY!

(NB: the bloke certainly knows his onions, the posey stuff is more to do with the general "I'm cool" attitude I've felt in his music, particularly his voice and lyrics, and image, and for me the problem is that the music has so often underwhelmed me when on paper it sounds amazing)

[wrec]

Might check it out then, it's the punk/no wave stuff I'm interested in rather than SY!

(NB: the bloke certainly knows his onions, the posey stuff is more to do with the general "I'm cool" attitude I've felt in his music, particularly his voice and lyrics, and image, and for me the problem is that the music has so often underwhelmed me when on paper it sounds amazing)

Ah right. I was mildly irritated by him and SY in the 90s/00s but belatedly appreciate him and the band more. You might be pleased that in the early years he's painfully awkward and shy, regularly starstruck, bullied by neighbours, and occasionally mortifyingly immature!