what are you reading now?
crackerjack
Well-known member
What's not to love there? Haven't read NCFOM (and for me it can't come close to the film), but thought the Road was tops. Perfect tube reading too - there's nothing like hanging from a strap while soome smelly git breathes on you and a stiletto ddigs into your toes for the death of humanity to suddenly seem appealing.
STN
sou'wester
I've been on a roll of good ones lately - Sukdhev Sandhu's 'Night Haunts', 'Daniel Deronda', Gordon Burn's 'Born Yesterday'.
Only blip has been 'Skin Lane' by Neil Bartlett - pretty good, but not great, certainly nowhere near as good as Armistead Maupin, Patrick McGrath and Will Self would have you believe on the back.
Speaking of The Road, I'd like to read some dystopian stuff soon - any rex?
Only blip has been 'Skin Lane' by Neil Bartlett - pretty good, but not great, certainly nowhere near as good as Armistead Maupin, Patrick McGrath and Will Self would have you believe on the back.
Speaking of The Road, I'd like to read some dystopian stuff soon - any rex?
Re: The Road (with some spoilers)
Not that I didn't like it , I just wouldn't put it in say the 'Books you would recommend'
as I would No Country.
Just saw No Country the movie the other night and enjoyed alot
but somehow did prefer the book, more deliberate and deeper impact.
Thinking about it now, having the father and son out there on the road ,
not really knowing where they were going or really where they came from was not as engaging as I had hoped.
Imo, it was best when there was something to focus on,
they find the stash of goods in the shelter, father swims out to the boat, their stuff is taken.
Otherwise the 'ash' was major character compared to the two leads -
'shoals of ash' , ' Wind in the east. The soft ash moving in the furrows', trails of ash on the road.
Wanted to know more of what happened . what got them to that state.
After other 'our world has ended' heart and brain breakers like Riddley Walker ,
the sadness of the ruined country in say, Mockingbird or even Oryx and Crake ,
this seemed like a bit of a gloss on close to same subjects.
Having said that , it is a surprising follow up to No Country in that for mainstream lit not very many would go this hopeless dark.
Our Dystopians partner said the other night he was wishing that instead of the ending we get,
he was wishing the boy would have up and ate his father (!)
- then head back out ...
Not that I didn't like it , I just wouldn't put it in say the 'Books you would recommend'
as I would No Country.
Just saw No Country the movie the other night and enjoyed alot
but somehow did prefer the book, more deliberate and deeper impact.
Thinking about it now, having the father and son out there on the road ,
not really knowing where they were going or really where they came from was not as engaging as I had hoped.
Imo, it was best when there was something to focus on,
they find the stash of goods in the shelter, father swims out to the boat, their stuff is taken.
Otherwise the 'ash' was major character compared to the two leads -
'shoals of ash' , ' Wind in the east. The soft ash moving in the furrows', trails of ash on the road.
Wanted to know more of what happened . what got them to that state.
After other 'our world has ended' heart and brain breakers like Riddley Walker ,
the sadness of the ruined country in say, Mockingbird or even Oryx and Crake ,
this seemed like a bit of a gloss on close to same subjects.
Having said that , it is a surprising follow up to No Country in that for mainstream lit not very many would go this hopeless dark.
Our Dystopians partner said the other night he was wishing that instead of the ending we get,
he was wishing the boy would have up and ate his father (!)
- then head back out ...
nomos
Administrator
It was good then? I got it for xmas but I haven't opened it yet because I've been very slowly making my way through Michael Moorcock's 'Mother London.' I'm loving it, but it's epic and I usually read at bedtime so I end up nodding off and having to re-read the same passages over again.
I think the concept for 'Night Haunts' might come partly from H.V. Morton's 1926 book 'The Nights of London.' It was pretty bad though.
All of Alan Garner, in no particular order.
Finished Badiou's The Concept of Model.
DeLanda's "Inorganic Life", via this Turkish site.
Finally made it out of chapter 3 of Goldblatt's book on Topoi (wishing I'd started with Lawvere's Conceptual Mathematics instead).
Dutifully read every last review in the latest issue of The Wire, cos it's got my piece on Striborg in it.
Finished Badiou's The Concept of Model.
DeLanda's "Inorganic Life", via this Turkish site.
Finally made it out of chapter 3 of Goldblatt's book on Topoi (wishing I'd started with Lawvere's Conceptual Mathematics instead).
Dutifully read every last review in the latest issue of The Wire, cos it's got my piece on Striborg in it.
STN
sou'wester
Yeah, I thought it was good - there's a bit too much of an attempt to cobble a continuity between the groups and manufacture a kind of overall feeling but this is a trivial annoyance I think. 'The Nights of London' is kind of his travelling companion throughout the book.
History is made at night posted about it here (very well, I thought):
http://history-is-made-at-night.blogspot.com/
Re: Mother London, I thought it was kind of boring and over-sentimental in a lot of ways, maybe this was the point and if so I missed it. Some great dioramas but ultimately it left me cold. One of the characters sends for my hometown, so maybe I'm just biased.
jenks
thread death
I Kind of like Mother London more than some of his others. I think it is his most disciplined piece and fits really well into the Ackroyd model ( Has anyone read Maureen Duffy - she wote Capital, i think it was called, in the 70s and pretty much invented the polyphonic psychogeographic London Novel).
Also has anyone read Lichtenstein's Brick Lane book - oral history of the highest sort, if atouch over long. Certainly not sentimental about the street and going beyond a simplistic 'melting pot' view of the City and immigration.
Sandev hasthat lovely website that he did with artangel which i think is also called Night Haunts
Also has anyone read Lichtenstein's Brick Lane book - oral history of the highest sort, if atouch over long. Certainly not sentimental about the street and going beyond a simplistic 'melting pot' view of the City and immigration.
Sandev hasthat lovely website that he did with artangel which i think is also called Night Haunts
IdleRich
IdleRich
Do you mean post-apocalyptic especially or what? I'll have a think anyway.
Never read it but heard it's very good.
Where do you normally buy books? I work for a bookshop and get a discount but I normally find the second-hand things on amazon are often really cheap and they (obviously) have a huge variety but sometimes I feel guilty buying on the internet rather than supporting the little guy etc same as with records. This is another thread in itself I guess.
STN
sou'wester
There's two really good s/h shops in Stoke Newington (and two in Finsbury P) and an Oxfam shop near my work. If I can get down to the South Bank at the w/e I love browsing there. For first hand, I am strictly indie:
Daunt Books, Marleybone
Foyles
Crockatt and Powell, SE1
Stoke Newington Books
Murder One, Charing X Road
Prospero's Books, Crouch End
The Open Book, Richmond
London Review Bookshop, Bury Place, WC1
Sorry for long, London-centric list.
Which shop do you work for?
Daunt Books, Marleybone
Foyles
Crockatt and Powell, SE1
Stoke Newington Books
Murder One, Charing X Road
Prospero's Books, Crouch End
The Open Book, Richmond
London Review Bookshop, Bury Place, WC1
Sorry for long, London-centric list.
Which shop do you work for?
STN
sou'wester
Yes.
jenks
thread death
I love the LRB shop and it now has a cafe which is a major plus for me - nothing like homemade cake and leafing through you latest book purchases.
Found a lovely one on my travels last week down in Alfriston in E Sussex - Much Ado About Books - phenomenal selection and very friendly to the kids.
For second hand i tend to use abe books.com which allows you to access a huge quantity of second hand bookshop lists. I have never been let down - particularly good for obscure titles mentioned here - Rilke's early novel, Walter Benjamin, Fitzgerald's Trimalchio etc
Found a lovely one on my travels last week down in Alfriston in E Sussex - Much Ado About Books - phenomenal selection and very friendly to the kids.
For second hand i tend to use abe books.com which allows you to access a huge quantity of second hand bookshop lists. I have never been let down - particularly good for obscure titles mentioned here - Rilke's early novel, Walter Benjamin, Fitzgerald's Trimalchio etc
slim jenkins
El Hombre Invisible
Just started 'Hammett' by Joe Gores. Seems he's researched the period details and captured the snap'n'crackle of the harboiled style. Interesting idea, having a well-known author as your central character. Not knowing much of Hammett's life, though, I won't be able to judge the truth of the portrayal but it's a damn good read so far.
empty mirror
remember the jackalope
I am exactly halfway through Moby Dick and it is fantastic. Surprisingly weird, sometimes ramshackle, and as salty as one would expect. Also leafing through the Warhol diaries...
crackerjack
Well-known member
Hammett's real life was odd - his partner was communist playwright Lillian Hellman (of whom it was famously said "every word she writes is a lie, including 'and' and 'the'), but he spent years working for strike-busting Pinkertons, even though his sympathies were leftward. Post on it again if you get the time, i'd like to know what it's like.
Moby Dick is my favorite book! it is extremely weird. I am always surprised at its inclusion in mainstream canons because it's so out there. It possibly jumps modernity and goes right into postmodernity --the kind with soul though. it's also hilarious!