| Author | Message | ||
     Allen Belz Member Username: Abpositive Post Number: 327 Registered: 09-2006 |
Wish me luck, Rob - the new Pynchon finally arrived at the library and I'm about to dive in. As it came as a surprize, I haven't even been in training...I've been reading mostly comfort food lately (darn good comfort food, though: two John D. MacDonald novels about Travis McGee). | ||
| Rob Brookman Member Username: Rob_b Post Number: 477 Registered: 08-2006 |
Oh, man, Allen. Should we send supplies? If we don't hear from you in two weeks we're calling the authorities. | ||
| Little Keith Member Username: Manosludge Post Number: 1740 Registered: 03-2006 |
Didjoo read it, Rob? Curious...I have to live vicariously, cuz I'll never tackle that sumbitch... I've temporarily given up on Heyday, though it's just terrific, and have been indulging in lighter fare. I've been reading "Eat Pray Love", by Elizabeth Gilbert, kind of a girly book, but it has the virtue of being about food and cooking, too, which always interests me... I agree heartily about the John D McDonald, Allen. Great great stuff. | ||
| Allen Belz Member Username: Abpositive Post Number: 330 Registered: 09-2006 |
Aww heck, no worries, Rob...we're living in the 21st century now! I have a little computer chip installed in the back of my neck that tracks my position and lets me send out periodic reports, plus a little scanner in the back of my left hand that lets me buy things anywhere in the world. (can you tell that the book is already affecting me?) But seriously, I'm 125 pages in and am enjoying the hell out of it. Much like his others but slightly more readable, just meaning it flows easier. Not a touch more normal, though, bless his heart: there are a number of earthbound characters whose concerns are something close to ours, but my favorites so far are the wonderfully named Chums of Chance, simultaneously a parody of bad adventure fiction for boys and likable fellows in their own right. They fly around in a little hot-airship, and (for instance) when they're near the south Indian Ocean and recieve orders from the rather mysterious heads of their national organization (via a Tesla coil transmitter) to head toward the North Pole they naturally take the route from Antarctica up through the center of the Earth (It's hollow, you know). That was the moment when I literally burst out laughing and surrendered completely...I'll follow this thing anywhere. | ||
| Allen Belz Member Username: Abpositive Post Number: 332 Registered: 09-2006 |
Yeah, LK, I used to be an avid MacDonald reader, but haven't gone back to them for years, and was very pleasantly surprized. Very much of their time and place, meaning they're slightly dated in spots, but they still hold up well, and the writing is even better than I remembered. What a great central idea, perfect for vicariously living readers: a guy living on a nicely equipped little houseboat who only works when he needs to, and then it becomes an adventure... | ||
| Jeff Whiteaker Member Username: Jeff_whiteaker Post Number: 522 Registered: 10-2004 |
Anyone like George Saunders? He's one of my current favs, and I recently read his latest, "In Persuasion Nation." He does short stories, and this is his third collection. His other two, "Pastoralia" and "Civilwar Land in Bad Decline" are brilliant too. The guy is genius: He has a very distinctive "voice," and the stories are all told from the inner dialog of one particular character in the story. Many of his stories take place in these dystopian environments, and he has a thing for 3rd rate theme parks, all told from the perspective of some disgruntled, over-worked employee. The humor that runs through many of his stories is brilliant and serves to balance the darker themes that he deals with. I'm just blathering here, not really doing much justice to the man's work. But if you haven't checked this guy's work out, do it now. "Pastoralia" is a good starting point. | ||
| Allen Belz Member Username: Abpositive Post Number: 349 Registered: 09-2006 |
Progress report from deep within "Against the Day"...still chugging along, averaging 75 to 100 pages a day, which I've discovered is the perfect amount - much more than that and the brain gets overloaded. Still having fun... | ||
| Pádraig Collins Member Username: Pádraig_collins Post Number: 1355 Registered: 05-2005 |
This rather lovely article by Mike Scott of The Waterboys 2040025%2C00.html,http://arts.guardian.c o.uk/filmandmusic/story/0,,2040025,00.ht ml He's a gifted writer as well as songwriter. | ||
| Pádraig Collins Member Username: Pádraig_collins Post Number: 1356 Registered: 05-2005 |
Cut and paster this link instead but without the space between the 0 and , after the last slash (I can't make it go away here for some reason!). Don't put www before it. arts.guardian.co.uk/filmandmusic/story/0 ,,2040025,00.html | ||
| Rob Brookman Member Username: Rob_b Post Number: 485 Registered: 08-2006 |
Allen: I'm impressed with you progress. 75-100 pages of Pynchon a sitting is like a Saturn year versus an Earth year. Quite an achievement. Padraig: Why does that always seem to happen when you try pasting a Guardian link here? I remember it happening to Randy a while back. Me: I'm reading an excellent and very funny book called "Then We Came to the End" by Joshua Ferris. It's a novel about a workplace, specifically a failing Chicago ad agency, so it has special resonance for me, a Chicago agency refugee. But it's depiction of workplace follies is pretty universal, clear-eyed – and hysterical. The term the characters used for getting laid off is "Walking Spanish Down the Hall," as in, "The day before Tom got walked Spanish," or "Jane showed unusual dignity when it was her turn to walk Spanish." Nice. | ||
| Little Keith Member Username: Manosludge Post Number: 1758 Registered: 03-2006 |
Rob, that sounds like a funny book - think I read a review... The "walking Spanish" reference has to be a nod to that great song by Tom Waits, called, umm, "Walking Spanish", eh? In it, "even Jesus wanted just a little more time when he was walking Spanish down the hall". | ||
| Rob Brookman Member Username: Rob_b Post Number: 486 Registered: 08-2006 |
It is, LK. He mentions the Waits song in the book. I'm only about 100 pages into the thing, but I think you'd really enjoy it. A lot of it is written in the first person plural, which adds an additional layer of chuckles. Things like "we were known for being terrible gossips" and "we could never resists free candy." It's really well done, at least thus far. | ||
| Little Keith Member Username: Manosludge Post Number: 1762 Registered: 03-2006 |
Huh, have to look for it...the "never resisting free candy" bit is a universal workplace truth, for some sad reason. I'm reading "Zodiac", by Robert Graysmith. Since I was so intrigued by the movie, I had to go to the source. Someday, I'll get back to "Heyday"... See? That's what happens when I tackle anything more substantial than the latest issue of "Highlights"... | ||
| Rob Brookman Member Username: Rob_b Post Number: 487 Registered: 08-2006 |
I actually picked up "Heyday" on your recommendation, LK. Looking forward to tackling that after my current read. "Highlights." Very funny. Probably Bush's favorite mag. | ||
| Allen Belz Member Username: Abpositive Post Number: 350 Registered: 09-2006 |
Yeah, they give him the Hidden Picture page in the mornings...keeps him occupied until dinner time and out of Cheney's hair... | ||
| Allen Belz Member Username: Abpositive Post Number: 358 Registered: 09-2006 |
Rob, it's not always 100 pages at one sitting...depends on what I'm doing during the day. Also, through some combination of spending a lot of time with his work in the past and the fact that this one really is just a touch or two more accessible, it's not a chore to read at all. He got a little poky in the 300-500 page range, but otherwise he's kept things moving. Two funny quotes from Pynchon interviews: "If you're a weirdo you're on my wavelength" (guilty as charged). And how can you top the honesty of: "I was so fucked up when I was writing "Gravity's Rainbow" that when I look back on it now there are parts where I have absolutely no idea what I meant." | ||
| Pádraig Collins Member Username: Pádraig_collins Post Number: 1360 Registered: 05-2005 |
A New York Times obituary of Irish writer Seán O'Casey. He died in 1964, but the NYT website is linking to his obit because he was born on this day in 1880. Here's a quote of his from the early 30s that I love: "The beauty, fire and poetry of drama have perished in a storm of fake realisms. Let real birds fly through the air; real animals roam through the jungle, real fish swim in the sea, but let us have art in the theatre. There is a deeper life than the life we see and hear with the open ear and the open eye and this is the life important and the life everlasting. So to hell with so-called realism, for it leads nowhere." | ||
| Allen Belz Member Username: Abpositive Post Number: 361 Registered: 09-2006 |
That is a great quote...that deeper life of the world seems to be showing itself more and more often these days. | ||
| Allen Belz Member Username: Abpositive Post Number: 366 Registered: 09-2006 |
Done...finito...I found myself going slower as the end came, wanting to savor it. The worst thing I can say is that it could lose about 100 pages, but in a book that runs 1,085 that's almost nothing. Sort of reminds me of a series of extreme dystopian novels by Pynchon disciple Jack Womack from the 90s, but much deeper...last line's a classic. | ||
| Rob Brookman Member Username: Rob_b Post Number: 500 Registered: 08-2006 |
Way to go, Allen. So you're giving it a thumbs up? God, if I decide to jump in, I'll need to take a week off work to finish it... | ||
| Allen Belz Member Username: Abpositive Post Number: 367 Registered: 09-2006 |
Yep, Rob...though with a small caveat: what I think I remember saying about INLAND EMPIRE holds true here as well...the more you liked TP's other stuff the more likely you are to go for this one. | ||
| Rob Brookman Member Username: Rob_b Post Number: 517 Registered: 08-2006 |
Hey, Allen: How you holding up post-Pynchon? Any mild depression? Temporary psychosis? Separation anxiety? After finishing a 1,000-plus page book, I'd think there'd be after-effects. | ||
| Little Keith Member Username: Manosludge Post Number: 1792 Registered: 03-2006 |
And, what are you tackling next, AB? War & Peace? The Encyclopedia Brittanica? I'm currently working on that book about the boy who was forced to become a soldier in Sierra Leone, "Long Way Gone". My sister in law gave me a copy when they were here recently. It's great so far, extremely moving but also very disquieting. | ||
| Allen Belz Member Username: Abpositive Post Number: 378 Registered: 09-2006 |
I was trying to coming up with a gag line in answer to your question (or maybe just nicking one from "Airplane!": "I'm doing a little light reading: this leaflet called 'Famous Jewish Sports Legends.") but I'm dry at the moment, so I thought I'd actually try and answer honestly...as I'm a firm believer that there's far, far more to this world than meets the eye and that down at the deepest level we and everything around us is made of the same stuff, so the main themes rang very true for me...for the last few days I've been noticing (consciously and unconsciously) far more connections between seemingly disparate objects, people and events...does that make sense? | ||
| Rob Brookman Member Username: Rob_b Post Number: 520 Registered: 08-2006 |
Sure it makes sense, Allen. I always think a good novel changes, or heightens, your perception. You spend all that time looking through someone else's world-lens, you know? It's logical that you come out looking at certain things afresh. | ||
| Allen Belz Member Username: Abpositive Post Number: 379 Registered: 09-2006 |
Actually, that part I thought was clear, I just wasn't 100% sure that I was describing what I was seeing through that lens with total accuracy. | ||
| Randy Adams Member Username: Randy_adams Post Number: 1123 Registered: 03-2005 |
Of course it doesn't make sense. Give us some examples. | ||
| Matthias Member Username: Matthias Post Number: 209 Registered: 05-2005 |
Malcolm Gladwell's Blink is a very interesting book about how are gut instinct changes our behaviour before our conscious mind can articulate it. You may like it too. | ||
| Little Keith Member Username: Manosludge Post Number: 1833 Registered: 03-2006 |
Vanity Fair, the "green issue". Lotsa great facts to debate your clueless, global warming denier friends, plus there's that great picture of Knut on the front. Omigosh, he's cute! | ||
| Pádraig Collins Member Username: Pádraig_collins Post Number: 1388 Registered: 05-2005 |
**** SHAMELESS SELF-PROMOTION **** Having a hell of a time updating www.myspace.com/padraigcollins with old record reviews, but it's done at last. | ||
| frank bascombe Member Username: Frankb Post Number: 43 Registered: 01-2007 |
Ian McEwan-Chesil Beach short beutiful insightful peace, he is such a good writes I can't believe until I read Sturday last year I'd not given him much time. I recommend to you all For you LK give John Harvey a read just finished flesh and blood A really good crime novel up there with Ian Rankin and JLB | ||
| Stuart Wilson Member Username: Stuart Post Number: 43 Registered: 10-2006 |
Just finished Chesil Beach too - read it on Sunday afternoon, McEwan has the gift of making everything read like a thriller. (The first chapter of Enduring Love, I remember, I had to put down several times my pulse was racing so fast). Just one or two moments where it almost went into Woman's Own short story territory, but still enormously compelling. Now on to a real thriller, the third in Arnaldur Indridason's excellent Icelandic crime series, another Scandinavian winner to put alongside Mankell & Fossum. | ||
| frank bascombe Member Username: Frankb Post Number: 44 Registered: 01-2007 |
Stuart i have read on of those Indridason, really good but for me very depressing,Mankel for me is up there with the best but I've not tried Karim (is that her first name)Fossum | ||
| Stuart Wilson Member Username: Stuart Post Number: 44 Registered: 10-2006 |
Scandinavian 'tec writers are not hugely comic, no. Fossum is less traditional than her male peers, but equally unconsolatory: her inspector is however a healthier prospect - at least up till now. | ||
| Randy Adams Member Username: Randy_adams Post Number: 1145 Registered: 03-2005 |
Ok, I have a dark sense of humor. I admit it. Spence, Kevin, Padraig: you have some GREAT experiences in your future. http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/uk_news/magaz ine/6598883.stm And just think how much "better" things will be by the time your girls have reached their teen years. | ||
| Little Keith Member Username: Manosludge Post Number: 1861 Registered: 03-2006 |
Thanks, Frank, I'll check that out. Btw, have you read "Christine Falls"? Isn't that by Rankin, under a pseudonym? | ||
| Pádraig Collins Member Username: Pádraig_collins Post Number: 1407 Registered: 05-2005 |
Just reminds me of my teen party expeiences Randy. Like when Marion Hogan borrowed a whole load of my records for her party and then didn't invite me... | ||
| kevin Member Username: Kevin Post Number: 1541 Registered: 05-2005 |
Yep, I remember my sister had a party when my parents were away for the weekend about 20 years ago. Some "undesirables" turned up, I tried to get them to leave and got a black eye for my troubles. Still, wasnt as bad as this one that was in the news recently. http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/england/wear/ 6549267.stm The internet can be fantastic when used properly, but it does have more than its fair share of downsides. | ||
| Andrew Kerr Member Username: Andrew_k Post Number: 248 Registered: 04-2005 |
Lewis Grassic Gibbon's 'A Scots Quair', a trilogy of novels set from just before the first world war up to the 1930s. The first 'Sunset Song' represents an absolutely stunning achievement in lots of different ways and remains a peak in Scots literature. Comparisons perhaps with Thomas Hardy in the depiction of a world rapidly changing and moving away from that relationship with nature that had endured for centuries. The fact that a man could create such a powerful female central character must have also been quite a revelation. The book is written in an anglised form of the NE Scots tongue and can take a bit of getting used to. But like 'Trainspotting' for example there is a moment when it all clicks into place and you hear the speech inside your head. I first read the book as a 14 year old, forced to read it as a school text and resented having to stuggle with the language (why is this subject called English?) and it was only years later that I came back to it and realised its power, truth and beauty. It now is a book that I could imagine reading every few years and getting something new from. And we change as readers I suppose. | ||
| spence Member Username: Spence Post Number: 1448 Registered: 05-2005 |
I read this crappy little thick booklet on REM, you know the one's that are cheap and come with an interview CD. It was only about 99p, bought it years ago from a cheapo bookstore, however this weekend I found it again it opened up interest in REM's history for me and I wondered if anyone could point me in the dircetion of a proper good read on REM? | ||
| Andrew Kerr Member Username: Andrew_k Post Number: 250 Registered: 04-2005 |
Spence, I would like to say 'It Crawled from the South: An R.E.M. Companion' by Marcus Grey', but I seem to remember it as not being too good! But you can see other opinions at http://www.amazon.com/Crawled-South-R-E- M-Companion/dp/0306807513 | ||
| spence Member Username: Spence Post Number: 1450 Registered: 05-2005 |
Cheers Andrew, I'll take a peek. | ||
| Jerry Clark Member Username: Jerry Post Number: 621 Registered: 08-2004 |
Spence, REMarks by Tony Fletcher is an OK read. Currently reading Talking Heads biography Fa Fa Fa Fa Fa Fa by David Bowman. There's a lot of tension between Tina & David in this one, which I've never heard or read about elsewhere. | ||
| Pádraig Collins Member Username: Pádraig_collins Post Number: 1431 Registered: 05-2005 |
Love Is a Mix Tape: Life and Loss, One Song at a Time. Just got it today after seeing it in Borders yesterday (I waited a day because I knew I had a 25% off voucher for Borders! Thank goodness the impetuosity of youth is gone - mostly). Have any of you read it? I started it on the bus home and really like it so far. | ||
| Allen Belz Member Username: Abpositive Post Number: 417 Registered: 09-2006 |
Been curious to read it, Padraig...Sheffield has done some very good critical writing (though I'm not that fond of the parody-of-snarkiness-that-often-becomes- the-real-thing columns that he often does for Rolling Stone.) | ||
| Stuart Wilson Member Username: Stuart Post Number: 47 Registered: 10-2006 |
Watch your back - the latest in Donald Westlake's wonderful Dortmunder series, as reliable as your favourite pizza to make you think the world maybe isn't so bad after all - there should be a Nobel prize for Good Humour, perhaps, so the excellent Mr W could recieve his due for so many many years of top-notch entertainment... | ||
| Geoff Holmes Member Username: Geoff Post Number: 206 Registered: 05-2005 |
The God Delusion. Hilarious and sensible. Extra funny after the South Park episode where Dawkins becomes the new saviour. | ||
| Jerry Clark Member Username: Jerry Post Number: 627 Registered: 08-2004 |
Richard Dawkins is a subtle genius. It's a miracle of sorts he hasn't been assassinated. His Channel 4 documentary is excellent. It's like guerrilla fiim making, going into areas of accepted extremism: http://www.channel4.com/culture/microsit es/C/can_you_believe_it/debates/rootofev il.html You might be able to find a download of it somewhere. Also his first book was Jeff Skilling's personal Bible. | ||
| Andrew Kerr Member Username: Andrew_k Post Number: 256 Registered: 04-2005 |
Ian McEwan's 'novella' 'On Chesil Beach'. Another masterful, thoughtful and addictive story by McEwan. You really can read it in one evening. But am I the only person to start wondering if all his recent books seems to have the same pattern of "lives altered following one key event" ? | ||
| joe Member Username: Dogmansuede Post Number: 201 Registered: 07-2006 |
i'm reading atomised by michel houellebecq. a friend recommended it to me months ago but it's only recently i finally got my hands on a copy. it's a cold, relentless affair.....so i'm obviously lapping it up! | ||
| frank bascombe Member Username: Frankb Post Number: 90 Registered: 01-2007 |
I gave up on that Joe do your self a favour | ||
| joe Member Username: Dogmansuede Post Number: 203 Registered: 07-2006 |
heh....well i knocked off the first 100 pages last night and am well into it. will keep you posted frank. | ||
| Pádraig Collins Member Username: Pádraig_collins Post Number: 1474 Registered: 05-2005 |
Andrew Mueller's I Wouldn’t Start From Here. He's a former Melody Maker writer and is from Sydney. He's appearing at the Sydney Writer's Festival, including at a free talk on "The 15 fame-filled minutes of the fanzine writer" on Sunday. Details at http://www.swf.org.au/index.php?option=c om_events&task=view_detail&agid=284&year =2007&month=06&day=03&Itemid=141 | ||
| Rob Brookman Member Username: Rob_b Post Number: 690 Registered: 08-2006 |
Reading this: 2106992%2C00.html,http://www.guardian.co .uk/pope/story/0,,2106992,00.html Someone's not doing a very good job keeping the sacramental wine under lock and key. I'm serious: this is weird with a capital Q. The Vatican's kvetching over the rules of the road while half the world's trying to kill the other half in ways that have nothing to do with obeying the speed limit and using your turn signal. | ||
| XY765 Member Username: Judge Post Number: 275 Registered: 01-2006 |
The Vatican has also asked Catholics to stop donating money to Amnesty as they think Amnesty supports abortion, including women who have been raped and have become pregnant as a result. I think this organisation has blood on its hands while they continue to deny that condoms are the best mechanism in the fight against AIDS. | ||
| Little Keith Member Username: Manosludge Post Number: 2046 Registered: 03-2006 |
"The Closers" - Michael Connelly. More great LA noir. He is the James Lee Burke of So Cal. | ||
| Allen Belz Member Username: Abpositive Post Number: 512 Registered: 09-2006 |
"The Big Book of Tomorrow," a compilation of Tom Tomorrow comic strips. As always with his stuff, funny, anger-inducing and depressing in equal part. To pick a strong example at random, one which begins with a quote from some pundit that ""Being a smoker in America in 1995 is like being a Jew in Germany in 1938," with a pic of folks behind barbed wire saying "My heart just bleeds" captures it pretty well. It's followed by the simple fact that "It's an article of faith on talk radio that white American males - possibly the single most privileged set of individuals in history - are actually the victims of unprecedented oppression." that really gets the depress-ometer going, because things haven't changed one damn bit. | ||
| Allen Belz Member Username: Abpositive Post Number: 525 Registered: 09-2006 |
Starting in again on one of my favorite series ever, Martin Cruz Smith's Arkady Renko novels. Renko's a great character: well aware of the harsh complexities and disparities in the system he works within, but still idealistic and ethical because he has no choice - it's who he is. And also because it pisses off all the higher-ups who view him with contempt and continually underestimate him because of it. | ||
| Allen Belz Member Username: Abpositive Post Number: 543 Registered: 09-2006 |
Dunno if anybody out there's got kids of about the right age and/or they're just anticipating it for their ownselves, but I'll say I'm just a tad excited about the last Harry Potter book coming out this Friday. My now-16-year-old and I started in on them when he was still at the bedtime story age and it's been one bond between us ever since. If the hype turns you off I can understand, but this is one case where I'm willing to put up with it. | ||
| Little Keith Member Username: Manosludge Post Number: 2124 Registered: 03-2006 |
AB, because I'm, probably obviously, too into all the hardboiled, noir stuff to be too interested in fantasy kinds of things (maybe I think, somewhere in the back of my mind, that I'm picking up useful knowledge reading all my pulpy thrillers - I've never been in serious gunplay, but you never know what will happen), I can't pretend to any knowledge of Harry Potter, but I wanted to mention that they apparently have some kind of big HP do at Borders on Friday, if there's one handy for you. People dress up, apparently, cast spells, etc., or whatever Harry Potter peeps do! Maybe the teen would enjoy it... A good friend of mine has reserved the book there and is taking her daughter to it. Btw, you think they're gonna bump off the Harry? | ||
| frank bascombe Member Username: Frankb Post Number: 100 Registered: 01-2007 |
I'm with you on the HP, LK prefer hard boiled crime or fiction set in the hear and now world,but my wife loves HP and is getting excited aobut the new book coming out, sometimes I feel I might be missing something but can't break the habit. Did read Michael Tolliver lives whilst on hols the latest in the tales of the city series always enjoyable with lovely attention to the details of real life, though I didn't know that TEVA sandals were popular in the gay community. | ||
| Andrew Kerr Member Username: Andrew_k Post Number: 278 Registered: 04-2005 |
I just don't get the attraction of HP for adults. I have read all the books to date to my son and find them badly written and increasingly 'bloated'. Obviously it is not permissible to slag off Rowling as she single-handly seems to have brought back an attraction in literature to children, but as an adult I see absolutely no interest. I can read some other so-called childrens' authors and get something from them, but not HP. Michael Morpugo is a wonderful author and David Almond's 'Skellig' is an incredible lyrical book that functions on several levels. | ||
| Pádraig Collins Member Username: Pádraig_collins Post Number: 1606 Registered: 05-2005 |
My latest shameless self promotion... Articles by me on Scott Walker and Chuck E. Weiss now posted at http://www.myspace.com/padraigcollins | ||
| frank bascombe Member Username: Frankb Post Number: 102 Registered: 01-2007 |
Philip Pullman his Dark Materials trilogy is excellent,despite it being fantastical, and I hate all that Sci-Fi Fantasy stuff,but he is great, it is very well written thought provoking about life, God etc | ||
| Allen Belz Member Username: Abpositive Post Number: 545 Registered: 09-2006 |
I've been wanting to read that new Maupin, frank. And I hear he has another Tales book following, where everybody comes back. There's a big (probably hopeless) part of me that's hoping he'll do some sort of rehabilitation on the Mary Ann character. To me, the only real misstep he ever made was to suddenly turn her into a self-absorbed, shallow ball of ambition when she'd been such a sweetheart for so long. He obviously felt it was the organically right thing to do, but even when I went back and read the books a second time that whole thread felt really off. | ||
| frank bascombe Member Username: Frankb Post Number: 104 Registered: 01-2007 |
I've not re read them, but in the new bokk she does come back towards the end and as you say she is moer self absorbed materialistic etc. I didn't know there was another one on the way but an interview I read with him kind of suggested he would be revisiting them. | ||
| Allen Belz Member Username: Abpositive Post Number: 546 Registered: 09-2006 |
Here's hoping it's good...he hasn't turned out a lame book yet, in my experience. LK, the kid and I don't do the party part of the HP thing anymore (the little bookstore near our house is doing one too) but we will be picking up the book at midnight, per usual. As far as whether Mr. Pottuh dies or not, I couldn't even begin to guess, but the fact that the question is up in the air, is, I think. one of the better aspects of what she's doing. Unlike many series (for adults as well as children) where main characters are put into peril often but rarely if ever die, Rowling's held fast to her idea that in a situation of war (which the characters have been in now for three books) absolutely anyone can die. | ||
| Rob Brookman Member Username: Rob_b Post Number: 783 Registered: 08-2006 |
There's a review of the new Potter book by Michiko Kakutani in the NY Times today. I guess she found some store selling it early and grabbed a copy and somehow read it and got a review up in a day. She doesn't give away the ending, natch, but she says something interesting about how, after reading the book (which she likes a lot), all the pre-publication speculation about the ending seemed "blinkered." Hmmm. For them's with NYT accounts, the link is here: http://www.nytimes.com/2007/07/19/books/ 19potter.html | ||
| Allen Belz Member Username: Abpositive Post Number: 551 Registered: 09-2006 |
Going by the article, I think the blinkeredness she's referring to is the sometimes tendency of readers or critics of a story (be it a series of books or a continuing TV drama or what have you) that's not finished yet to declare certain story turns that haven't been resolved yet or appear wrongheaded to be mistakes on the author's part, as if they've somehow lost their way. Utterly ludicrous when you think about it for even a second: if you don't know how the story's going to end, how in the world can you know if it's gone wrong or not? | ||
| Allen Belz Member Username: Abpositive Post Number: 561 Registered: 09-2006 |
"Innocent When You Dream: The Tom Waits Reader" Interviews, articles and reviews from every phase of his career...I'm just three pages in and already a memory I'd forgotten I had has been vividly called up. Waits made his television debut on a show I loved, "Fernwood 2-Night" (if you don't recall it, it was a semi-spin-off of "Mary Hartman, Mary Hartman," a mock talk show taking place in a small town and starring Martin Mull and Fred Willard.). He did "The Piano Has Been Drinking (Not Me)," and as the writer began to describe the scene, it all came back to me...my very first exposure to the man. | ||
| Allen Belz Member Username: Abpositive Post Number: 562 Registered: 09-2006 |
And something I never realized: on that same TV show Waits coined the line that inspired a million graffiti scrawls: "I'd rather have a bottle in front of me than a frontal lobotomy." Not his greatest artistic achievement certainly, especially since it didn't take long for it to become pretty much the exclusive property of frat-rats, dudeboys and trucker-hat-wearin' motherf-ers, but I never knew it started with him, and even though he might not be that proud of it now I think at the very least he should get some retroactive T-shirt sale money.  | ||
| Allen Belz Member Username: Abpositive Post Number: 579 Registered: 09-2006 |
I clean forgot to mention that I (and my little family) found the last Harry Potter to be a worthy finale indeed, and a darn good read besides. | ||
| frank bascombe Member Username: Frankb Post Number: 130 Registered: 01-2007 |
My finished it in no time despite work etc getting in the way.She's not told me the ending as I may someday read them. | ||
| Matthias Member Username: Matthias Post Number: 237 Registered: 05-2005 |
I also finished the book. It was a great read and a fitting conclusion. I enjoyed that there were several things that I had figured out and still others that surprized me. She has some great morals throughout the series. I do not want to go into any specifics for those who have not finished it but JK has a great imagination. I like how she details Dumbledore's past and shows the draw of the intelligent towards power. Very interesting lessons there. | ||
| Little Keith Member Username: Manosludge Post Number: 2149 Registered: 03-2006 |
"On the Road - Jack Kerouac. Shockingly, and perhaps embarrassingly, I've never read it. Due, I'm thinking, to my longstanding aversion to anything remotely smacking of serious literature. I'd take Mickey Spillane over David Foster Wallace any day. Maybe it's part on an overall, lifelong, aversion to things that are "good for me". Why eat a stick of celery when you can eat a slab of ribs? (Incidentally, I weigh 350 lbs.) But anyway, I read someplace that On the Road is coming up on its 50th anniversary and due for the treatment royale - deluxe editions, movies, they're even publishing a facsimile edition of the original "scroll" he wrote it on (worried, apparently, that changing paper in the typewriter would interrupt the flow of inspiration, Kerouac constructed a long scroll of paper on which he indeed wrote the first draft in one three-week amphetamine-fueled spree), so that spurred me to pick up an old, heirloom copy of it I had stashed away. And, I knew anything with that kind of rep would be good, but I've been fairly astonished at HOW good. Beautiful, resonant, rich writing that really reads like poetry. It's almost psychedelic and I'm finding it's taking a lot of time to read because I keep pausing to savor the imagery. I just got back from a trip to New Mexico, which involved some serious road time driving to Carlsbad and Santa Fe, so seeing some of the vestiges of good old roadside America, which are still faintly there, makes me nostalgic (if you can be nostalgic for things you never really knew) for the days when you really could roam the country by rail or with your thumb out. High time I got around to this, since a lot of the artists I worship - Waits and Dylan, etc. - drank from this particular well, but my tardiness in no way hampers my enjoyment of what's really a masterpiece. Highly recommended. | ||
| Michael Bachman Member Username: Michael_bachman Post Number: 732 Registered: 01-2005 |
"Skydog" The Duane Allman story. | ||
| Allen Belz Member Username: Abpositive Post Number: 589 Registered: 09-2006 |
Happy reading, LK...wow, I haven't read that one in almost 30 years, back when I was - well, on the road, having graduated from high school not long before and spending nearly a year hitchhiking around the country. By pure chance I ran across a very old, beat-up copy of the book in a thrift shop and it was one of my prizest possessions as I went about my way. If you like that you might just check out some of his spoken-word-with-jazzy-backing albums...he's pretty compelling in that form, too. As for myself I'm revisiting another American institution I haven't read in too long a time, F. Scott Fitzgerald. | ||
| frank bascombe Member Username: Frankb Post Number: 138 Registered: 01-2007 |
I read "On the Road " on an overland trip from London to Turkey when I was 18, I loved it then but been fearful of going back and rereading it ( I rarely reread books-as there always seems something else to try) Re read the Grapes of Wrath a few years aog and that was worth it, probably my favourite of all time. Currently reading WIldwood by a british naturalist Roger Deakin who celebratees wood, with anecdotes about trees furniture basiaclly wood in all its forms, sound dull but is really great. He did a travelogue a few years ago about swimming and his adventures swimming in alot of different parts of the UK.Hope I'm not boring you but it makes a nice change from my regular fiction | ||
| Matthias Member Username: Matthias Post Number: 238 Registered: 05-2005 |
My cousin sent me this link http://www.goodreads.com It is a cool site where you can easily find and share your ratings and comments on books you've read. It seems like a cool tool to learn about new books. I'm looking for a good spy paperbook for an upcoming trip and found it easy to go through my cousin's friends' and their friends' lists to get some good ideas. I'm sure the books we mention here are just a drop in the ocean of what we've all read over time... Check it out. | ||
| John B. Member Username: John_b Post Number: 118 Registered: 10-2006 |
"Echolot" - compiled by German author Walter Kempowski. I don't think this 10-volume monster of more than 7,000 pages has been translated into English. On a day-by-day basis, it is basically diary items, official communiques and other snippets from around the world during four stages of World War Two - ranging from Winston Churchill to Julien Green and Andre Gide, from German and Russian houseewives to German and American soldiers, from Auschwitz inmates to POWs. It is one of the most fascinating and disturbing books I have ever read. | ||
| andreas Member Username: Andreas Post Number: 490 Registered: 04-2006 |
john b., i agree. a few weeks ago i bought the last one of the echolot serial: abgesang '45. this serial is great and mr. kempowski did a fascinating job. btw: there was a exhibition in berlin called 'kempowskis lebensläufe' which showed a lot of archive material. mr. kempowski was a collector of his own and his family and other peoples scripts, fotos, common everyday objects. similar like arno schmidt (another great german writer) he used slip boxes: thoughts, imaginations and memories, memories, memories. this enabled him to write a lot of books always based around his life telling his time in jail from 1948 till 1956 or his youth. and the mentioned echolot serial. but i should stop. it is more a german thing. cheers andreas | ||
| Kurt Stephan Member Username: Slothbert Post Number: 1491 Registered: 04-2005 |
"Last Exit to Brooklyn" - Like LK with "On the Road," I'm not sure why I took so long to get around to this. Powerful, grim stuff. Makes me want to see the documentary on Selby. | ||
| andreas Member Username: Andreas Post Number: 493 Registered: 04-2006 |
holiday time. travel time. thousands miles away from home i sweat and read. marggrave of the mashes. the german translation of the john peel book. and it dissapointed me a bit. i think depending on the kind of the spelling style which isn't the best. but neither john nor sheila are writers, so i should not be too harsh with them. | ||
| spence Member Username: Spence Post Number: 1717 Registered: 05-2005 |
The Bell Jar Sylvia Plath. | ||
| Pádraig Collins Member Username: Pádraig_collins Post Number: 1647 Registered: 05-2005 |
Kurt, the version of the Last Exit To Brooklyn DVD I got recently has an extra disc with the Selby documentary. I haven't watched it yet though. | ||
| John B. Member Username: John_b Post Number: 119 Registered: 10-2006 |
Andreas, unfortunately I missed the Kempowski exhibition. I read the John Peel book in English a year ago and quite liked it. Not outstanding, but interesting. Ah, Spence, The Bell Jar, thanks for reminding me. A book I wanted to read for many years. What's your impression? | ||
| Pádraig Collins Member Username: Pádraig_collins Post Number: 1651 Registered: 05-2005 |
Kurt, I gave you a bum steer there. I had a look at that DVD and it doesn't have the Selby documentary. It has some audio only interview with him. I haven't had a chance to play it yet. | ||
| Pádraig Collins Member Username: Pádraig_collins Post Number: 1652 Registered: 05-2005 |
A brilliant essay called The Sounds of Silence by one Rob Brookman of this parish. www.dancingaboutarc.com/essays/e092501.h tml | ||
| Rob Brookman Member Username: Rob_b Post Number: 838 Registered: 08-2006 |
Jeez, Padraig, I'm flattered. Really. How'd you find that old artyfact? I'm actually surprised Danicing About Architecture is still up - we haven't paid the company that's hosting it since, like, 2002. But there it stands, unloved and untouched, like an old statue of someone no can remember, choked by weeds and vines in an empty field. And I still get a ton of e-mail from it, mainly from bands looking for reviews. Apparently no one notices the home page essay - the most recent issue - is a sum-up of best of 2001. | ||
| Pádraig Collins Member Username: Pádraig_collins Post Number: 1653 Registered: 05-2005 |
My friend google Rob! As soon as I saw the Flipper reference I thought "that's our Rob alright!" | ||
| Rob Brookman Member Username: Rob_b Post Number: 841 Registered: 08-2006 |
Oh, man, I'm getting predictable! Very funny, Padraig. I actually re-read that essay after you brought it up, and I thought, what kind of psycho pulls out Flipper after 9/11? Was there anyone else in the world playing that back then? I'm surprised I didn't get sales calls from therapists... | ||
| Pádraig Collins Member Username: Pádraig_collins Post Number: 1656 Registered: 05-2005 |
I can't remember what I played after 9/11 Rob, but my daughter was born four days later and for various reasons I didn't play any music for days. When I finally did I picked up my CD walkman (how old they seem now!) and just pressed play. I knew there was a disc in there but I didn't know what it was. The song that came on was Big Star's September Gurls. I was so happy. One of my favourite ever songs and I was on the way to the hospital to see my september girls. The sun was shining and everything was alright with my world. | ||
| Rob Brookman Member Username: Rob_b Post Number: 842 Registered: 08-2006 |
That's pretty cool, Padraig. I like those little music-related coincidences. Especially when they're poignant, like your example. Very nice. | ||
| Rob Brookman Member Username: Rob_b Post Number: 846 Registered: 08-2006 |
Article in the NY Times about the continued relevance of "On the Road" 50 years on. http://www.nytimes.com/2007/08/15/books/ 15kero.html?_r=1&oref=slogin | ||
| Allen Belz Member Username: Abpositive Post Number: 619 Registered: 09-2006 |
"The Family: the Story of Charles Manson's Dune Buggy Attack Battalion," by Ed Sanders (of the Fugs). The first and still best of the books about that whole mess... Sanders is a meticulous documenter and matches it with a very readable style filled with equal parts humanism and bleak humor (a deadpan line from page one that still cracks me up: "The psychiatric report prepared after Manson's arrest [for car theft] stated that he was 'a poor risk for probation" but, on the other hand, it was felt that married life plus incipient fatherhood, which calms down juvenile deliquents everywhere, might put him on the direct path of the American Way.") | ||
| Little Keith Member Username: Manosludge Post Number: 2198 Registered: 03-2006 |
The Tin Roof Blowdown - James Lee Burke. Another kick ass, wonderful, hardboiled novel from the master, featuring that stand up guy, everbody's favorite coon ass detective, Dave Robicheaux. This one, to make it even more delicioso, takes place during the awful aftermath of Katrina in N.O. | ||
| Catherine Vaughan Member Username: Catherine Post Number: 181 Registered: 05-2005 |
Joy Division and the Making of Unknown Pleasures by Jake Kennedy. Only about 1/3 into it yet. Some interesting background into the band, and the whole Manchester scene at the time. There's a good piece about Anthony Wilson/Factory. It does get a bit techie in parts - It gets right into the intricacies of the production, equipment etc - going a bit over my head, as I only know how I like it to sound, I don't have a clue how to make it sound that way! | ||
| frank bascombe Member Username: Frankb Post Number: 155 Registered: 01-2007 |
Having a bit of a Rebus ( Ian Rankin )blitz, just finished Naming of the Dead (his best in years ) and just started Exit Music, his final Rebus novel. LK you like the hard boiled crime novel get started with these,especially if you love JLB. Rebus is a Stones fan with some of the books named after Stones LPs ( Beggars Banquet, Let it Bleed) | ||
| Rob Brookman Member Username: Rob_b Post Number: 877 Registered: 08-2006 |
"God Is Not Great: How Religion Poisons Everything" - Mssr. Hitchens Two caveats: Although I'm not a believer, I'm not anti-religion. And although I'm enjoying this book mightily, I'm not a big Hitch fan. But I am sick of every policy discussion here in the states getting injected with God-talk, and if one more politician claims that America is a "Christian" nation. I don't know if it's quite as bad in Europe, but, especially under Bush, it's hell here. So I'm quite liking Hitch's snarky little polemic, mainly because I think more people need to stand up in the public arena and admit that theology doesn't inform their every move. I mean, we've got a former cokehead as president, and that's cool, but not one candidate for president will admit to a lack of faith? There is a large but largely silent group of people in this country who find it deeply offensive when someone's private religious beliefs influence the way we're allowed to live as a country - whether it involves prohibiting vital stem cell research or causing tall, populated buildings to crash to the ground. It's time someone stood up and said that the fundamentalists don't have the upper hand when it comes to morals, and that bradishing a Bible like a sword shouldn't automatically give your views precedence over all others. What was it Max von Sydow said in "Hannah and Her Sisters"? If Jesus came back and saw what was being done in his name, he'd never stop throwing up? Well, there are a lot of people in this country who aren't feeling so good about it, either. For me, Hitch's book is at least a bit of a bromide. | ||
| Allen Belz Member Username: Abpositive Post Number: 673 Registered: 09-2006 |
Hear hear, Rob. For me it's "I'll Sleep When I'm Dead: The Dirty Life and Times of Warren Zevon." Forget "Hammer of the Gods" or all the other pretenders...this is the rock excess bio to reckon with, and containing a quite fascinating protagonist to boot. WIthin the first 30 pages we've got visits to Igor Stravinsky's house, a dad who's connected to the mob in some unspecificied way and Warren, who does things like treating his best friend like dirt in front of acquaintances, agonizing over doing so, but then finding himself unable to stop. The next 30 pages have enough bad behavior for an entire bio, and his first proper album hasn't even been released yet...never mind the drugs, the alcohol consumption alone would kill a couple good-sized whales... | ||
| Allen Belz Member Username: Abpositive Post Number: 696 Registered: 09-2006 |
"Michael Tolliver Lives"...agreed, Frank, a fine return to the fine old story. Found myself laughing out lound on the bus numerous times... I hope Maupin goes ahead with his plan to do another one (and it was certainly a little strange to hear his name in a different context when I watched "Zodiac" the other night - I had no idea that Maupin had based his story on semi-reality) | ||
| frank bascombe Member Username: Frankb Post Number: 160 Registered: 01-2007 |
Glad you liked it hope he follows it up Allen | ||
| Andrew Kerr Member Username: Andrew_k Post Number: 301 Registered: 04-2005 |
Biography of Montgomery Clift by Patricia Bosworth. Fascinating but tragic tale of the actor whom Marilyn Monroe described as "the only person I know in a worse state than me' (at the time of filming "The Misfits"). | ||
| Little Keith Member Username: Manosludge Post Number: 2353 Registered: 03-2006 |
He certainly had the right profile... | ||
| Little Keith Member Username: Manosludge Post Number: 2360 Registered: 03-2006 |
"I Am America (and So Can You!)" - Stephen Colbert | ||
| Catherine Vaughan Member Username: Catherine Post Number: 288 Registered: 05-2005 |
This is Your Brain on Music - Daniel Levitin. He's this guy who started out as a sound engineer/session player, but became a Neuroscientist and Psychologist. It’s like a non-scientific explanation of the effect music has on our brains, and why some people love music, and others don’t. It might sound like a boring as hell textbook, but it's far from it. I think it helps a lot that he’s into his music aswell. It’s already answered a few questions I’ve asked myself about why personally I’m so obsessed with music! It’s made me ask about a thousand more though… | ||
| Little Keith Member Username: Manosludge Post Number: 2372 Registered: 03-2006 |
Catherine, that one's on my list - sounds great. Is there anything in there about GBs fans having bigger brains, more neurons, etc.? | ||
| Pádraig Collins Member Username: Pádraig_collins Post Number: 1783 Registered: 05-2005 |
Was that under my influence Catherine? I was reading it in Brisbane at the gathering of the tribes for the Robert concerts. (Still haven't gotten much further mind...) | ||
| Catherine Vaughan Member Username: Catherine Post Number: 289 Registered: 05-2005 |
Quite a coincidence, Pádraig! I don't remember you mentioning it, or seeing you reading it, so unless you sent me subliminal messages, I made the purchase completely independently. I picked it up a few weeks ago, to try take my mind off phase two of an all-day job interview. Reading Chapter 1, helped get me through the day (that and a bucket of coffee!) LK, I've not read that far yet, but if memory serves me correctly, chapter 8 is called "Go-Betweens fans - Hyper-intelligent super-race??". Then again, my imagination might be having some fun.. | ||
| Little Keith Member Username: Manosludge Post Number: 2388 Registered: 03-2006 |
CV, how accessible is it? You know me, I'm scared off by "hard" books. Are there many pictures? | ||
| Rob Brookman Member Username: Rob_b Post Number: 983 Registered: 08-2006 |
It's a scratch-and-sniff, LK. | ||
| Little Keith Member Username: Manosludge Post Number: 2391 Registered: 03-2006 |
Music you can smell? Must be about Justin Timberlake... | ||
| Pádraig Collins Member Username: Pádraig_collins Post Number: 1790 Registered: 05-2005 |
LK, it's not as easy a read as I think the author imagines it to be. Science is not my forte though. | ||
| Catherine Vaughan Member Username: Catherine Post Number: 293 Registered: 05-2005 |
It is a bit heavy going, LK, but I was putting that down to the fact that I know very little about reading music, and nada about playing music - although I am mature enough not to snigger at the word "crotchet". I feel as if I should have a notebook beside me, to take notes as I’m reading, but I don’t think that’s a bad thing either. I like it because it’s a subject I’d like to know about, but not sure if yet if I want to learn about. | ||
| Michael Bachman Member Username: Michael_bachman Post Number: 857 Registered: 01-2005 |
Maltese Falcon. After that I'm going to read another Hammett, The Dain Curse. | ||
| Pádraig Collins Member Username: Pádraig_collins Post Number: 1832 Registered: 05-2005 |
The Best American Non-Required Reading 2007 just arrived today. I read a bit already and laughed out loud. It's a good series. (Well, the one previous book in the series I read was v good! Think it was the 2004 edition) | ||
| Allen Belz Member Username: Abpositive Post Number: 850 Registered: 09-2006 |
"Stalin's Ghost," the sixth and latest Martin Cruz Smith novel starring Arkady Renko. Only 100 pages in, and it's already another real cracker. | ||
| Stuart Wilson Member Username: Stuart Post Number: 116 Registered: 10-2006 |
If you're working through Hammet, Michael, don't miss The Glass Key - his best, I think. | ||
| Allen Belz Member Username: Abpositive Post Number: 854 Registered: 09-2006 |
Roz Chast's "Theories of Everything," a great big compilation of her cartoons. Because it's always a good time to be reminded of the three certainties of life: Death, Taxes, and Bobo. | ||
| Allen Belz Member Username: Abpositive Post Number: 898 Registered: 09-2006 |
Collections of two of the finest comic strips ever: "Julius Knipl, Real Estate Photographer" by Ben Katchor "The Complete Peanuts 1957-59" by Charles Schulz | ||
| Pádraig Collins Member Username: Pádraig_collins Post Number: 1911 Registered: 05-2005 |
Poll Dancing - The Story of the 2007 Australian election by Mungo MacCallum. It's a good diary of the year, it's good to be reminded of some of the stuff I worried about at the time but subsequently forgot. | ||
| frank bascombe Member Username: Frankb Post Number: 231 Registered: 01-2007 |
Bit of a Blur-Alex James good very readable even if you are not big on Blur ( which I quite like) | ||
| Jerry Clark Member Username: Jerry Post Number: 757 Registered: 08-2004 |
"Blessed are the cheesemakers" I quite like Alex James newspaper column. Joe Strummer biography: Redemption Song by Chris Salewicz | ||
| Michael Bachman Member Username: Michael_bachman Post Number: 956 Registered: 01-2005 |
Das Boot by Lothar-Günther Buchheim |