what are you reading now?

Bangpuss

Bangpuss

Well-known member
Union Atlantic by Adam Haslett.

There are Jonathan Franzen-style didactics at work, but it's pretty well handled mainly due to Haslett's terrific ear for dialogue. I'd wholeheartedly recommend his collection of short stories, You Are Not A Stranger Here, which is a series of bleakly illuminating narratives about people with mental illness. He's an F.S. Fitz kind of writer, and just how much he's tried to write that 'Great American Novel', especially at his first attempt, is kind of annoying, but mainly because he doesn't fall that short.

Agree, House of Leaves is terrific. Thanks for the recommendation (in the summer, I think).
 
V

viktorvaughn

Well-known member
droid said:
The earthsea cartoon is pretty underwhelming. Little or nothing to do with the books. The live action version is incredibly bad as well.
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wikipedia said that all the spin offs were pretty terrible, bit of a shame but no unexpected.

i have just finished the original trilogy and thought they were pretty great, the end of the third one is amazing, all this metaphysical type stuff and very anti-swashbuckling..cool.
 
empty mirror

empty mirror

remember the jackalope
bandshell said:
was toying with the idea of reading GR again as soon as I'd finished it but decided I needed a rest. thoroughly enjoyed it despite it being a bit of a chore at times. will definitely be re-reading at some point. no doubt it's one of those novels that reveals something each time you read it.
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you will no doubt get more out of GR on a second reading
it is a lot more fun the second time around

i am reading Solaris
it is very absorbing
Fall of the House of Usher atmosphere
outer space Henry James
 
B

baboon2004

Darned cockwombles.
Siddhartha by Hermann Hesse - just brilliant

And Turn of the Screw too. Hugely recommended, tho i figure everyone but me has prob read it already....
 
luka

luka

Well-known member
his essays were good for me to read as a teenager. says the right things, like talking about being a good reader. reading well. thats important. also talks about how writing a crap poem for yourself is more fun than reading even the very best poems by other people.
 
Mr. Tea

Mr. Tea

Let's Talk About Ceps
I'm about three chapters into The Atrocity Exhibition. To be entirely honest I'm having a bit of a hard time seeing what all the fuss is about...maybe it'll get more interesting, I dunno.
 
luka

luka

Well-known member
it wont. thats ballard for poseurs. read high rise, concrete island, drowned world,anything but that really
 
Mr. Tea

Mr. Tea

Let's Talk About Ceps
luka said:
it wont. thats ballard for poseurs. read high rise, concrete island, drowned world,anything but that really
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Ah, thanks for the tip. I think my girlfriend has a copy of Super Cannes, maybe I'll tackle that at some point. TAE seems mainly to just be a bunch of pretentious crap about giant photos of Marilyn Monroe and how sexy car crashes are. Meh.
 
Slothrop

Slothrop

Tight but Polite
I couldn't stand Super Cannes, actually, it felt really clunky and predictable (in a bad way). I think it's mainly the way that all the transgressive stuff felt like it was done as a box-ticking exercise. Cocaine Nights is better in the same vein, and High Rise is better still.

I've just read Merlin Coverley's Psychogeography which was pretty good although it was so synoptic it almost functions more as a reading list than as an exposition. Now on to Militant Modernism by way of a partial antidote.
 
hucks

hucks

Your Message Here
Slothrop said:
I've just read Merlin Coverley's Psychogeography which was pretty good although it was so synoptic it almost functions more as a reading list than as an exposition. Now on to Militant Modernism by way of a partial antidote.
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Is that Owen Hatherly? I'm reading A Guide to the New Ruins of Great Britain, which is excellent. He's funny as fuck when dismissing people, talking about a "mediocre architect at the top of his game" etc
 
HMGovt’s Glorious Return!

HMGovt’s Glorious Return!

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slowtrain said:
ballard is possibly the worst 'writer' (in terms of style) ever. but i think he knows/knew that.
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I really cannot get on with Ballard, reading his prose is like leafing through car and property magazines in the sunlit beige of a solicitor's waiting room in 1981. His memoir was better than the other books of his I've read.

Philip K Dick is similar but his stories bristle with visionary originality, like sitting in that same room waiting to see a robot that is tasked with telling you your clone has more rights to your life than you do.
 
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