I'm reading "Alfred the Great: Asser's Life of King Alfred and Other Contemporary Sources" for class.
PS: Could someone bump this in the morning for the office people? I'd do it but I haven't any internet.
I'm reading "Alfred the Great: Asser's Life of King Alfred and Other Contemporary Sources" for class.
PS: Could someone bump this in the morning for the office people? I'd do it but I haven't any internet.
of love and other demons
i <3 gabriel garcia marquez
the little book of chavs
atomised by michel houellebeq
Are you enjoying it?
I've read all his stuff, but I'd avoid his last book. I thought it was truly terrible.
is the last one the one about sex tourism?
i'm not far into this at all but i like it. he's an odd man
That's Platform.
That's also really good (though pretty politically incorrect).
The Possibility of an Island was the one I meant. It had weird sci-fi elements, but a lot of it seemed like a weak parody of his earlier stuff.
i heard about the end of platform
sounds like an insane thing to put in a book
Shrimp Paste Rebellion
Simon Candy
My favourite bit
is where he burns the cakes.
(i haven't read it)
war and peace still.
I'm starting that sorta soon.
How long have you been on it? I took 6 months for Anna Karenina so W+P will take an age.
Right now it's Great Expectations. Estella is pretty nasty.
about a week!
it is really absorbing though. i love the way it's been written.
and haha, my next book is dickens!
I recently had to read the entirety of ann karenina
out loud, including punctuation, for my work.
It took 8 long days.
Good book though, even if it could do without the stuff about farming.
your job is reading books out loud?
i would LOVE that job
Publishing!
most of the time I just read them to myself.
The downside - and it is a big one - is that they are paying be nothing at all. Hopefully this will change in the near future, though. It is cool reading all day, and I've read so much stuff I never would have done otherwise.
mark haddon
a spot of bother
I am about to read
a literary comedy of 'The Angry Young Men'. I obtained it from book swap a couple of weeks back, but have been saving it, and what better time to get stuck into a book than on a flight? So I shall start it tomorrow. The first chapter:
"All women are stupid beings".
This will be a good read.
I'm about to start God Is Dead by Ron Currie
God comes to earth to experience human life. He descends as a Sudanese woman and dies in Darfur. Should be a laugh...
that sounds
really interesting
Grapes of Wrath
It's taking me a fucking age to get though, just can't seem to find the time to sit down and get stuck in properly.
Armageddon in Retrospect by Kurt Vonnegut
I'm reading Eyeless in Gaza
by Aldous Huxley. I only have two pages left. I read the first 390 pages in a few days, however it has taken me a week to read the last ten pages. I liked the way that it was more of an open discussion through most of the book - it had philosophical content but you didn't know quite what conclusion to draw from it. And the actual narrative would have been a great read on it's own. The last bit has gone all preachy on me, though. Gah.
I have a couple of Graham Greene novels to read after that.
Fushigi Yugi v4
Great, but Yuu Watase central male characters have a habit of being incredibly interchangable. Before I'd read any of her work, I thought the leads from four of five different series was the same character. Toya isn't interchangable though. He's special.
And I don't like it as much as Ceres generally, but it's still better than most of these shojo types. I don't know why it took me so long to read given it's popularity though... I think I did Watase in the wrong order.
The Diving Bell and The Butterfly
I've just started it, I think it's going to be good.
It's good
Did you see the film?
It's lovely
It never becomes self-pitying, largely very funny and poignant. The Proust-esque sense memory sections, about oysters in particular, are brilliantly written.
The portait of dorian gray
I <3 oscar wilde.He rocked
I finshed mikhail bulgakov's
The heard of a dog last weekend, and i'm now nearly finished the master and margarita. After that i've got Aleksandr Isaevich Solzhenitsyn's cancer ward waiting.
I also picked up a sweet second hand book called 'The emperor of the united stated of america and other magnificent british eccentrics' by Catherine Caufield that was published back in the 70's. It has lovely little stories about hundreds of interesting people with loveley drawings <3
useful
I wondered if bulgakov had anything apart from TMATM. Now I know. Is it any good?
fucking strange
but such an awesome awesome AWESOME read. It lags a TINY bit in the second half, but the first had me guffawing around my room for ages. Dog + testicles and brain of a man = good times.
I love surreal russian writing
I just ordered it on amazon. Late night impulse buying ftw!
did you get the vintage classics version?
The book is lush <3
I was wondering about that.
I love TMAM and I've got Heart of a Dog and The White Guard at work. They're both on my list.
Master and Margarita =
best book ever (after The Great Gatsby). Damn, I really want to re-read it now...but I just gave it to my sister to read while she sails around the world for six weeks.
STILL Lanark by Alasdair Gray
and i've started A history of western philosophy by Betrand Russell because i couldn't wait to finish Lanark.
Is "A History of Western Philosophy" that largeish oldish one?
I sort of started that one last year but got distracted by other books. I've still got it checked out from the library though.
Yeah
my step mum gave me her dad's original copy from 1936 or something crazy like that cos I'm starting my Phil degree soon. It's quite special.
The State of Africa
by Martin Meredith. Depressing, but really well written and interesting...now I finally get exactly how Zimbabwe has got to the fucked up state it's in today.
Also, One Day In The Life of Ivan Denisovich. So yeah, cheerful stuff just now...
I almost brought that last one
In a charity shop the other day, but decided it just looked that little bit too depressing. I fear I may have made the wrong decision though...
Lanark?
It's actually brilliant. Completely evocative and surreal and brilliantly described and intruiging and everything.
I completely fail at reading these boards...
it's not very long but it's taking me a while
so far not as depressing as I thought, though. even though it's describing miserable conditions there's some kind of hope in the writing.
Hyperspace
by Michio Kaku. parallel universes, time travel. A bit heavy but worth sticking with.
the DiS social thread.....
how would you rate it?
I've heard it's Richard and Judy's pick of the week for next week's book club.
True story.
I'm supposed to be starting the Runaway Jury
but I keep forgetting to take it to work, so I'm re-reading old warhammer novels. NEEEEERRRRDDDDDDDDDDDD
I think its called...
Energy Rush by Simon Reynolds, who wrote Rip it up and start again. Its his frist book aout rave culture.
Michael Palin : Sahara
it's awesome.
since we're on the subject
can anyone recommend any really good American literature? Maybe Fitzgerald-style or era, but not anything by him because I've read every word he ever committed to paper... I'm going on a book hunt tomorrow (inspired by this very thread, no less) and need some more great American lit.
i love
the crack-up. the ideas for stories never written are the best. there was a third of an issue of mcsweeneys devoted to authors writing stories based on fitzgerald's one-sentence ideas. i completely recommend it. it think it was issue 25...
I'm reading Valley of the Dolls
by Jacqueline Susann at the moment, written in the 60s about a group of young women working in various areas of showbusiness in the 1940s. It's excellent, compelling and with feminist undertones without being at all preachy. It was apparently quite controversial when it came out, featuring casual sapphism, apparently an anal sex scene (although I haven't gotten that far yet) and women both using men for their own ends, and expecting equality and genuine love, rather than fiscal-motivated arrangements. I'd imagine it was a massive influence on the original Sex and the City novel. Probably the best book I've read all year. And can I suggest we move into here:
http://www.facebook.com/group.php?gid=32709008664
really good fun is
Anita Loos 'Gentlemen Prefer Blondes', which I think has a similar feel to Fitzgerald's lighthearted, more comic moments.
It was also one of James Joyce's favourite books and is full on hilarious. About two gold-diggin' flappers misadventures across Europe. "Doctor Froyd said all I needed was to cultivate a few inhibitions".
Forbidden Archeology: The Hidden History of the Human Race
by Michael A. Cremo and Richard L. Thompson
The Raw Shark Texts
by Steven Hall. It has a conceptual shark in it.
this is amazing.
maybe a bit too populist though? kinda like it was written to be made as a film. but still awesome.
screen burn by charlier brooker.
everyone else seems to be reading intellectual things. its my summer holiday maaaaan.
not that i read intellectual things in term time by choice, ofcourse.
aaah Screen Burn is ace.
I recommend Dawn of the Dumb as well. :D
The Amazing Adventures of Kavalier and Clay
still. been on it for ages. I tend to read a lot in short bursts then stop for a while then have another burst and on and on and on.
It's a great book though (so far)
The Dice Man - Luke Rhinehart
I'm reading a book called Embracing Defeat
About Japan after WWII. And on a similar Japan related vein, a book called Saving The Sun, about the financial collapse in Japan during the 90s.
i just finished
the road by cormac mccarthy, which was possibly the most moving book i have read in a long long time. every couple of paragraphs it gave me goosebumps. i am now half way through borges' fictions.
The Road is excellent
Definitely his best.
The Road
is fucking brilliant.
a tale of two cities by charles dickens
Stasiland
by Anna Funder. its pretty good so far....
The Princess Bride
Death and the Penguin by Kurkov (I think that's spelt right)
Werewolves in their Youth by Michael Chabon
Naked Lunch by William Burroughs
Girlfriend in a Coma
SO overrated.
jpod is infinitely infinitely better.
Brighton Rock
It's good.
i read brighton rock
a couple of weeks ago. it was good, but not as good as everyone makes out.
i can't find Tender is the Night
to finish :(
so today i bought the Private memoirs and confesssions of a justified sinner by James Hogg. The guy in the shop smiled and said it was a good choice :D i'm trying to get a job in a bookshop.
Aw! you're so Scottish!
The Day Of The Triffids
love it
I read books like I play my many girlfriends, lots of them at once
One hundred years of Solitude
The very best of PG Wodehouse with introduction by Stephen Fry
The Forgotten Garden by Kate Morton
Maurice by EM Forster
The Go-Between
and a Long Long Way
for contractual reasons
and The Bell Jar for personal.
In the middle
of 4 books
Stephen King's IT
A piece of cake- Cupcake rown
Labyrinthe- Kate Mosse
Chronicles- Bob Dylan
No one bumped this for the office crew, eh?
Someone bump it for the office workers on Monday, please. Please please please more books please.
I can't sleep
I am currently reading 'choosing death: the improbable history of death metal and grindcore" by Albert mudrian.
Currently o nthe bit about crust in Birmingham.
9tail fox by jon courteny grimwood I will have to start that again..its been ages since i started it i forgot where i was.
Read tawacores for the third time this week too.
And I've orded 'Fight: Everything You Ever Wanted to Know About Ass-Kicking but Were Afraid You'd Get Your Ass Kicked for Asking' by eugene robinson
n0.3
by michael muhammad knight
The Virgin Suicides
by Jeffrey Eugenides, which I borrowed off a friend after watching the film.
Two on the go
The Cold War: A New History - John Lewis Gaddis
In the Path of Hizbullah - Nizar Hamzeh
I need to read some fiction after these two, I think.
.
Nick Cave's And The Ass Saw The Angel
'Tis amayzing
"The World According to Garp"
by John Irving.
It's not as good as A Prayer for Owen Meany.
non-fiction
by Chuck Palahniuk
i just finished post office by bukowski
a disappointing read, havign thoroughly enjoyed ham on rye.
now im reading heart of darkness by joseph conrad
the horror...
Heart of Darkness <33333333
Not even having studied it for GCSE could put me off. Amazing.
yeh its really cool
its a little dense but worth it. its def better than post office, which was largely turd
the virgin suicides
by jeffrey eugenides.
it's alright, i'm in the middle of it and it's not as good as the beginning.
The Good Doctor
by Damon Galgut
And on the academic front, Origins and Revolutions: Human Identity in Earliest Prehistory by Clive Gamble.
Just finished
Oranges Are Not The Only Fruit by Jeanette Winterson and moving onto either On The Road or The God of Small things, both of which have been sitting on my shelf waiting to be read for AGES now.
This will sound strange
but the 'what are you reading?' list never changes.
People are always reading:
The Post Office
On the Road
The Road
Something by Dickens (usually Great Expectations)
Something by Houellebecq
Something by Coupland
The Master and Margarita
Charlie Brooker
Graham Greene
Lanark
You forgot Murakami
that's the other one!
also, above I see One Hundred Years of Solitude, and Oranges are Not the Only Fruit...
...
So true. J-Pod especially, it perennial.
Except in this case:
Terror and Consent: Philip Bobbit
Deathnote: Tsugumi Ohba
Catch 22: Joseph Heller (which I read once a year without fail)
Gulag Archipelago Part 1: A. Solhenitzyn
maverick
actually, should really get around to reading Catch 22. Had one very scary big book by Solhenitzyn which intimidated me until I gave it to the second hand book shop. Should I have perservered?
yes
catch 22 is one of the finest works of literature ive ever had the pleasure to read
just finished
Star Wars: Republic Commando: True Colours
...back to Underworld now.
American Hardcore- A tribal history
its completely rubbish, but brilliant at the same time.
Nearly finished
The Adventures of Augie March by Saul Bellow which has been pretty cool.
Next up is either The Dharma Burns or A Confederacy Of Dunces.