what are you reading now?

T

tom duck

~
I've just finished "Nine suitcases" by Bela Zsolt & recommend it; afterwards I tried reading Austerlitz but that suffered so badly in comparison that I still can't see myself finishing a book by Sebald - without knowing exactly why.

Right now I'm trying to read 'Soldados de Salamina' by Javier Cercas, but right now it seems to be pissing away a great premise
 
jenks

jenks

thread death
tom duck said:
I've just finished "Nine suitcases" by Bela Zsolt & recommend it; afterwards I tried reading Austerlitz but that suffered so badly in comparison that I still can't see myself finishing a book by Sebald - without knowing exactly why.

Right now I'm trying to read 'Soldados de Salamina' by Javier Cercas, but right now it seems to be pissing away a great premise
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i urge you to go back to sebald - really not much better in the last ten years or so, maybe go for rings of saturn first.
 
M

Melmoth

Bruxist
Tanazaki's The Makioka Sisters is great too, though very different from his other stuff, much more, erm, restrained.
 
M

mms

sometimes
Melmoth said:
Tanazaki's The Makioka Sisters is great too, though very different from his other stuff, much more, erm, restrained.
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will check that - i bought a load of japanese books from a guy outside fins park station after reading kokoro - 50 p each they were -really very enjoyable .
other thing i'm reading is maya derens book the divine horsemen which is also really interesting.
 
L

labrat

hot on the heels of love
Douglas Barthelme

what the FUCK is he on about??
(mind you the production of meaning is overrated)
 
Townley

Townley

Member
luka said:
ezra pound is one of those people i don't get but i don't want to be dismissive of as i suspect i'm missing something, or i'm too stupid to understand him. a lot of stuff i'll just say RUBBISH in an unapologetic way, but he makes me nervous.z
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I really like The Cantos and I think it's best approached by just reading it really quickly and letting it all wash over you. Don't sit there and look up all the quotes and references the first time you read it. It's not a code for what he really wants to say; it's just a crazy collage of stuff that interests him.

Even if you decide he's not for you, you should read a biography about him (I can recommend the one by Humphrey Carpenter called A Serious Character, but I think there was a new one published more recently). He had a really incredible life!
 
D

dubversion

Guest
after being thoroughly depressed by Cormac McCarthy's The Road, totally disappointed / confused by No Country for Old Men, i'm leaving the rest of my McCarthy pile to one side for a bit and reading Herrera's biography of Frida Kahlo, which is wonderful so far.
 
jenks

jenks

thread death
dubversion said:
after being thoroughly depressed by Cormac McCarthy's The Road, totally disappointed / confused by No Country for Old Men, i'm leaving the rest of my McCarthy pile to one side for a bit and reading Herrera's biography of Frida Kahlo, which is wonderful so far.
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Am just in the middle of Blood Meridian after reading No Country over Christmas and being reminded just how much I love Cormac. I like the way he combines this incredible toughness with a poetic grace - like a Hemingaway touched with Carver. Alan Warner wrote the kind of review every writer must crave for in The Guardian when he reviewed The Road:

http://books.guardian.co.uk/review/story/0,,1938709,00.html

be interested if it is depressing but brilliant or just plain depressing...

(I am also reading Hughes' biog of Goya and Gary Imlach's book on his father My Father and Other Working Class Heroes. All good.)
 
IdleRich

IdleRich

IdleRich
Reading V by Pynchon which I'm really enjoying but as always with Pynchon I feel that I'm probably missing about half of what's going on (at a conservative estimate).

"after being thoroughly depressed by Cormac McCarthy's The Road"
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Is this the new one? I'm quite keen to read this having only read Blood Meridian which was ace although again I don't think I fully understood it.
Watched the Shooting the other day (mentioned it in the film thread) and that kind of reminded me of Blood Meridian in a weird sort of way although it's obviously far less overblown (that may not be quite the right word but you know what I mean).
 
D

dubversion

Guest
jenks said:
Am just in the middle of Blood Meridian after reading No Country over Christmas and being reminded just how much I love Cormac.
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he is fantastic, but No Country didn't sit well with me.. turns from an admittedly well written airport thriller to a bunch of homespun homilies and never really grabbed me. The writing was as good as ever, but it seemed a bit pointless..

jenks said:
be interested if it is depressing but brilliant or just plain depressing...
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depressing and brilliant. absolutely brilliant. read it in about 4 hours late one night, then sobbed like a bloody child afterwards
 
STN

STN

sou'wester
I have got to read some Cormac MacCarthy. I think 'All the Pretty Horses' is festering on a shelf somewhere in my flat.
 
D

dubversion

Guest
STN said:
I have got to read some Cormac MacCarthy. I think 'All the Pretty Horses' is festering on a shelf somewhere in my flat.
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you have, and that's probably the best place to start. Avoid the film like the plague though
 
jenks

jenks

thread death
agree wholeheartedly with Dub - Cormac sits there in a genre of one. At first it seems as if the language is too simple and then the rhythm of the prose takes over. My only problem (and it is mine and not his) is the fact that i don't speak Spanish and so the exchanges with Mexicans can be lost on me , but then they often are on the young Americans who find themselves South of the border.

Pretty Horses is a must read - then get the other two in the trilogy.

I never saw the film because i just couldn't imagine a film of it - not being book snobbish, there's plenty of excellent films from books - i just couldn't see how the story could be unpicked from its prose.

Looks like i'm going to have to get the latest Cormac then.
 
N

nomadologist

Guest
Badiou's "Deleuze: The Clamor of Being." It's amazing if you like either of them and you always suspected Deleuze to be more Heideggerian than he might first seem. There's even reference to bitchfighting within their department and a lot of reality-TV level social drama between D & B.
 
P

petergunn

plywood violin
i am currently working my way thru Mordecai Richler's catalog... just finshed "Barney's Version", which i could not recommend highly enough...
 
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