bruno

est malade
i found the bilitis soundtrack this weekeend
this was slightly embarassing as the cover is a photo of two nude women in erotic embrace and the man who sold it to me asked if i had seen the film! i said of course not, i'm here for francis lai.
 

bruno

est malade
also recent..

giacomo casanova, adventures in venice
an extract of the memoirs (which are huge) with casanova growing up, having his first escapades, giving his first sermon and later ending up in jail from where he escapes, very amusing and well-written.

voltaire, candide
little novel/satire about mr candide who goes from living in the best of worlds (in ignorance, in love) to the world falling apart around him with ensuing hard lessons on the way to acceptance, among other places through el dorado where he is lavished with sheep and diamonds (the diamonds tucked inside the wool!) which he loses on the way back to europe.

kim philby, my silent war
the book that gave le carré all his good ideas, you can almost hear philby's genial
voice and stammer, very good if a little telegraphic and essential to anyone with an interest in espionage and the cold war.
 

bruno

est malade
I am enjoying the paranoid book about Licio Gelli and the Pope

god's banker? judging by the cover i want to read this.

Ra8m9pP.jpg
 

craner

Beast of Burden
No, not that one, a book called In the Name of God which Luke leant me. It's gripping. Licio Gelli has to be one of the most fascinating and sinister men still alive.

I actually quite enjoyed Bilitis (the film), but it's not exactly, uh, sexy; it's oddly cold and frigid, the women fuck like statues. There's a curious Gallic intellectual reserve to the whole thing, with a tall, skinny, big-nosed man with a large jaw being treated like the final word in male beauty, which I obviously appreciated.
 

bruno

est malade
sounds great.

re: bilitis, i have a prominent nose so i may have to see it to boost my self-image. the older woman is hamilton's wife, i can't say i would complain..

Klaus Theweleit 'Male Fantasies'

i think i would present a worrying image judging by the women i fancy. (not yet degrading, thankfully).
 

bruno

est malade
No, not that one, a book called In the Name of God which Luke leant me. It's gripping. Licio Gelli has to be one of the most fascinating and sinister men still alive.
interestingly he went into hiding in chile in the mid 80s (why am i not surprised?) and was nominated to the nobel prize in literature by mother theresa and naguib mahfuz (!). now i really have to find this book.
 

luka

Well-known member
i read a book called the magical universe of willaim s burroughs but it was very amateurish i dont think the lad had even bothered reading it over before getting it printed. on the other hand it did mention a few essays and films i didnt know about. i dont think the lad understood much about burroughs or magical universes
 

bruno

est malade
I got it off the internet for thrupence

i forgot to mention i am so disconnected from electronic finance that i have no means of buying though the internet, which is ridiculous. i will probably get a card this year but for now i depend on bookstores/record shops, which is fine as it adds a human element to buying books/music and i like supporting these efforts (it makes the city more interesting).
 
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luka

Well-known member
yesterday i read white mans justice black mans grief by donald goines. it was published in 1973 and contains the phrase 'trap money' today i might read nightwood.i just foundit for a pound.
 

luka

Well-known member
I got James ellroys new one today. Hopefully it's better than bloods a rover. What I need him to do is a book on Reagan era america
Cocaine '80s. Iran contra
Miami vice. Tony Montana. That would be the best book he could write. He's going too far back in time
 

CrowleyHead

Well-known member
Read the Nik Cohn thing, "Awapbabaloobop", and it was nice. I just got Marc Eliot's Walt Disney biography "Hollywood's Dark Prince", and I might crack that one open soon.

I am also now either approaching or at the point where Beckett has supplanted Bukowski as my most-read author who isn't whoever wrote the Animorph books. Now everyone will just assume I'm a turtlenecked existentialist pseudo-intellectual prick instead of a misogynist prick.
 

bruno

est malade
giorgio bassiani, the garden of the finzi-continis
a double bill with the de sica film which i found flat (including the beautiful dominique sanda) and makes a sentimental mess of the far more discreet ending of the book (which actually occurs at the beginning).

jp montal, maurice ronet, les vies du feu follet
ronet was eternal second to alain delon (la piscine, mort d'un pourri) but convincing in the role of elegant/complex characters until his untimely death. being on the right of politics he was forgotten and is resurrected in this interesting portrait.

henning mankell, the troubled man
my second mankell after the unconvincing dogs of riga, this in contrast is very good with well-fleshed-out characters and a riveting cold war-tinged plot. i now understand my mum's wallander addiction and will have to borrow her books.
 

Corpsey

bandz ahoy
Trying to read a lot more this year. I've read "1974' by David Peace so far. Its a piece of often well-written, always over-written pulp which is almost absurdly and tediously grim and violent. Mind you, with all the revelations re: 70s light entertainers and politicians of late it makes you wonder if its all that exaggerated.
 
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