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Nick Hornby
and unambitious North-London-centric literature in general makes me sick. "Oh we humans are so frail, so complex" etc etc etc. Somebody gave me his latest novel for a birthday present and I am looking to get rid of it as fast as possible. I will give it to somebody in exchange for a decent CD mixtape.
I expect no takers.
...
Do what I do when someone gives me a book I arbitrarily decide I'm not going to read - symbollically leave it at their house.
These people have to learn!
It was my mother
She thought a fitting present for her son's 21st would be the first book she could find at Waitrose. I'm aware that I'm an ungrateful twat, but I wouldn't take it so badly if I didnt batter her earholes with all the things I enjoy reading...
...
Gutted.
Console yourself that for my 21st I got a phonecall informing me that I should expect to get shit all.
And also with a short list of gifts I've received from my aunt:
1) An Eminem t-shirt
2) Part 3 of a series of books I'd never read or indeed heard of before.
3) A biography of John Barnes. Bear in mind that on the 5 days a year I give a shit about football, I support Arsenal.
4) Tomb Raider for a console I don't own, 6 years after the game originally came out.
5) A pair of socks. With no irony. My mum had told her I needed socks.
^potm
i will do you a cd for that book.
i happen to like nick hornby.
brace yourself..
i dislike Nick Hornby
and his 40 something brigade of black Levi'd slaphead mawkish (but still laddish fear not!) brand of low demand commuter fodder - its best left out by the bins.
my one regret about living in North London is that I see him at least once a week fannying around Upper Street. Erm, hang on.....
I like Nick Hornby
And I like the latest book of his as well.
Oh well.
see this is why we don't like each other
you should be reading Keep The Aspidistra Flying or Twenty THousand Streets Under the Sky. I can't get over the 30s can i?
I've no idea, again, what that post means
they are two books written in the 30s
what I meant to say was I've got my truck ticket yay but that wouldn't have made sense as its not a true statement.
High Fidelity is a work of perfection
the others aren't great literature, but they're good to read. The new one's pretty funny.
Good to read
Yup. I care less about whether literature is challenging and pushing boundaries. I don't want boundaries pushed in the half an hour before I go to sleep. I want to be relaxed and happy.
otherwise I have nightmares and wake the neighbours by screaming and sleep-weeing.
its not about trying to read something as impenetrable
as Dante's 'Divine Comedy' at bedtime - its just ugly writing with a totally 'me' agenda that would be good if he and his ilk had anything remotely intresting to say or even a lovely turn of phrase. Did you understand that?
I read sherlock holmes and bedtime reading - not really challenging but written to perfection.
I'll like what I like
You like what you like.
And we'll leave it there.
Its just a debate that's all
and a bit of fun wordplay. I think I prefer dead authors as they write abotu I time I can never experience. People like Hornby exist in a timezone and culture that I also exist in, therefore I feel no need to read him (and what I have read bored me somewhat as discussed). To me its like listening in detail to every disagreeable conversation you've overheard on a train for 20 years, in book form.
Somebody said to me at college
"Read this Andrew, I just know you'll really like it, its just totally 'you'", which funnily enough led me to ignoring that person as I threw away their copy in disgust. Such a joyless exercise in self obsession and fan boy peevishness - after reading it I wanted to never collect records again or wear black jeans. And as for the mysogeny in there....A disgusting joyless book.
yus
agreed. a bore.
I was enjoying this debate
let's get it going again!
Thing is though
I don't have the ability to debate about literature, I know very little about it. I haven't read many of the books mentioned on here, and I am more than happy living in my world of books that I find quite pleasant to read.
This may be the literary equivalent of listening to Kaiser Chiefs, or something else you find musically abhorrent and unchallenging, but I don't really care.
Sometimes, I will read 'classics'. Sometimes I will read 'modern fiction'. But, as someone who tends not to like a huge amount of fiction, some of Hornby's books are perfect. I can relate, somewhat, to the subjects, and it's easy to read and get involved.
I am a simple man, and as such, I like to read simple books. Sorry. I'm going to go now. I have nothing more I can add.
well so am I
I don't sit round reading Voltaire every night whilst translating Turgenev with my freehand, silly - i just like old paperbacks that are probably the equivalent of today's more popular books - reading for reading's sake is just pointless. My 'beef' was with modern literature and not 'simple literature'
I've read Fever Pitch &
How to be Good. Enjoyed both. But then I'm not a literary expert.
well neither am I
its just ugly passionless prose.
the male
equivalent of the 'shopaholic' books.
yes tiotally
and Im still steaming about his utter arrogance that let him assume we'd be interested in his favourite '34 Songs' - he makes music utterly repellent doesn't he?
books that are so littered with references
seem to instantly repel me. when i read nick hornby i get the feeling he's trying to impress me :oS
very true
it also makes their work incredibly rooted to a time and therefore cuts dramatically any chance of 'timelessness' they think worthy of their work. Actually this is a good thing. Referencing references that no one will get but might do in years to come is the only excusable types.
YOu also know that he didn't have anyhting near the amount of 'indie' sex that he had in High Fidelity. Just thinking of him makes my skin crawl.
if you're not interested
don't read, surely?
it's arrogant of all writers to assume we want to know anything about what they think, but they still do.
'me' literature repulses me
unless they know how to actually write and have something to say. I've read similar books thinking they were going to be good. But oh no - they inspired me like putting my hand in cat shit would inspire me. As I said before - its train journey fodder for people too busy to experience anything outside of work that might mean a bit more investment in other than consuming for the sake of it.
exactly
its 'me' literature, but it doesnt ask for anything from the reader, or even the writer. its a book in which the author surrounds himself with all the trappings of modern society, spouts some half-baked half-philosophy on life that you can fit in around your music collection, job, kids, wife, etc. It doesnt ask for even a modicum of self-examination.
what a superior attitude you're taking there
i've read said book, and it was literally just a man talking about the music he lived and how it tied into his life at key moments which - hey - i'm pretty sure we all on here talk about quite often.
if you like him or not - that's entirely up to you, but what you're coming out with there is basically elitist bullshit.
me or Bigman?
Its not so much the subject matter, its the prose, the phrases the references, and also the seemingly god given right that we're vaguely interested in such profitable bloggery - I'd rather this sort of thing was done by someone who was acutally interesting and not someone workign out how to make money out of selling books for the sake of it - and also, you don't think the 'tie-in' album of said '34 Songs' didn't make you want to sick up your entire digestiv system?
i didn't realise there was
a soundtrack CD, but it's not really any worse than tie in CDs that get released for films or TV series, is it?
well if its something we all do
its not something I'd hold up as an example of great English literature.
Yes I mean really
does anyone REALLY want to know that I played Pet Sounds on the morning of my graduation and that when I met Rachel we used to listen to 'Barrett' - hang on...(answers 'phone) Its Virgin Books....you want me to do my own version of 31 Songs?* So Long as I include Fuck Forever? And feature Kathy Burke with headphones on the cover? And you'll pay me £4.32?
*31 Songs, not 34
Let's keep this debate going!
Its the same problem
I have with writers like Douglas Coupland (God, dont get me started on him). I'm being kicked off, but I'll bump this back up later..
oh god yes
let's not get started on him, Mr 'must have a 'me' generation song in the title so people can 'identify' - jesus out of 10 for originality
"me generation song"
so that would be one, out of.. er.. 7 or 8 books he's written, and it was revelent to the content of the book.
move along, move along.