what are you reading now?
kid charlemagne
Well-known member
but they are self help, no?
version
Well-known member
They're philosophy books.
kid charlemagne
Well-known member
they can be both? the poster titled it like that
jenks
thread death
James by Percival Everett - a retelling of Huck Finn from the slave companion, Jim. Very good, very clever. Like a lot of his stuff he doesn’t give the reader an easy ride. I saw American Fiction, the film based upon his novel, Erasure. I would recommend (with reservations)
Noreen Masud’s memoir -A Flat Place - kind of trauma memoir mixed with psychogeography - very convincing voice. First heard of her via her contribution to a recent Backlisted episode. Bright, engaging, convincing voice.
Also re-read Pickwick and Mill on the Floss. Big fat VicLit teaming with long sentences, descriptive passages and a cast of hundreds. Pickwick is unusual in that it is a book about a good man. He’s convivial company. Mill is great but she does need to tell you, if something is important, she makes sure you see it. And whilst it’s about a brother and a sister, it is, like almost all VicLit, about money and financial precarity- being imprudent will always cost you dear.
Other stuff on the go but that’ll do
Noreen Masud’s memoir -A Flat Place - kind of trauma memoir mixed with psychogeography - very convincing voice. First heard of her via her contribution to a recent Backlisted episode. Bright, engaging, convincing voice.
Also re-read Pickwick and Mill on the Floss. Big fat VicLit teaming with long sentences, descriptive passages and a cast of hundreds. Pickwick is unusual in that it is a book about a good man. He’s convivial company. Mill is great but she does need to tell you, if something is important, she makes sure you see it. And whilst it’s about a brother and a sister, it is, like almost all VicLit, about money and financial precarity- being imprudent will always cost you dear.
Other stuff on the go but that’ll do
Murphy
cat malogen
Bardic word play, links between Iron Age motifs (probably indo-European Bronze Age) and early medieval Britain, paganism to Christianity, the Otherworld, hallucinogens, animals, forests and dark woods, cauldrons, rows - bard vs clergy, bard vs bard - perfect night shift diving
subvert47
I don't fight, I run away
Currently rereading The Dispossessed and have just reached one of my favourite passages...
"However, he never missed the one course he was attending, Gvarab's lecture-group on Frequency and Cycle. Gvarab was old enough that she often wandered and maundered. Attendance at her lectures was small and uneven. She soon picked out the thin boy with big ears as her one constant auditor. She began to lecture for him. The light, steady, intelligent eyes met hers, steadied her, woke her; she flashed to brilliance, regained the vision lost. She soared, and the other students in the room looked up, confused or startled, even scared if they had the wits to be scared. Gvarab saw a much larger universe than most people were capable of seeing, and it made them blink. The light-eyed boy watched her steadily. In his face she saw her joy. What she offered, what she had offered for a whole lifetime, what no one had ever shared with her, he took, he shared. He was her brother, across the gulf of fifty years , and her redemption."
Beautiful writing. Le Guin sums up a character's whole life in a single paragraph.
"However, he never missed the one course he was attending, Gvarab's lecture-group on Frequency and Cycle. Gvarab was old enough that she often wandered and maundered. Attendance at her lectures was small and uneven. She soon picked out the thin boy with big ears as her one constant auditor. She began to lecture for him. The light, steady, intelligent eyes met hers, steadied her, woke her; she flashed to brilliance, regained the vision lost. She soared, and the other students in the room looked up, confused or startled, even scared if they had the wits to be scared. Gvarab saw a much larger universe than most people were capable of seeing, and it made them blink. The light-eyed boy watched her steadily. In his face she saw her joy. What she offered, what she had offered for a whole lifetime, what no one had ever shared with her, he took, he shared. He was her brother, across the gulf of fifty years , and her redemption."
Beautiful writing. Le Guin sums up a character's whole life in a single paragraph.
Clinamenic
Binary & Tweed
Someone just gifted me this book, and I haven't read any Le Guin yet. Would you say this is a good one to start with?
subvert47
I don't fight, I run away
Murphy
cat malogen
Winterwood by Patrick McCabe
Ned Strange is too evil to seed as anything other than a basic antagonist. Gave up halfway. R Hatch is slightly annoying too, not noticing his downfall correlating with specific interactions etc. 2/3rds of a story, needs a significant edit
After Pogue Mahone anything would seem inferior so have to wait for Goldengrove landing
Ned Strange is too evil to seed as anything other than a basic antagonist. Gave up halfway. R Hatch is slightly annoying too, not noticing his downfall correlating with specific interactions etc. 2/3rds of a story, needs a significant edit
After Pogue Mahone anything would seem inferior so have to wait for Goldengrove landing
Precious bane by Mary Webb. Here's a bit I copied out to give you a flavour
"It's as different as if it was builded of stone fetched from another world... It's as different as if the timbers were falled in the forests of The Better Land."
I like that phrase, The forests of The Better Land
"It's as different as if it was builded of stone fetched from another world... It's as different as if the timbers were falled in the forests of The Better Land."
I like that phrase, The forests of The Better Land
Also reading a book about de sade, called "When the whip comes down" by Jeremy Reed.
"Later on he was to tell me that his clearest vision came through his penis, that blind eye which he had trained to see clearly in the darkest passages"
"When i came I was someone and somewhere else. I went through the roof of my skull
"Later on he was to tell me that his clearest vision came through his penis, that blind eye which he had trained to see clearly in the darkest passages"
"When i came I was someone and somewhere else. I went through the roof of my skull
jenks
thread death
Just been to recording of Backlisted podcast on Sir Gawain and the Green Knight with Martin Shaw, among others. Got to chat to him afterwards about myth for a bit
william_kent
Well-known member
fuck - THE PROFESSIONALS was my favourite TV series when I was a teen - my favourite episode, which I have been searching on the internet for years is the one where he answers the door to Lewis Collins / Bodie who asks 'what s that book you are reading?" and Doyle /Martin Shaw answers "It's the Game of Life by Timothy Leary" ( he might have mentioned that Bodie could learn something from reading it but ... )
anyone, please upload this sequence, or disprove my insanity. it really happened but the internet is not helping prove my point at the present time
william_kent
Well-known member
did you ask him any questions about THE PROFESSIONALS? specifically why did they choose "game of life" by Timmy Leary for Doyle's reading matter?
william_kent
Well-known member
do you know how painful it is into trawl through Professionals fan sites? You could just have asked him "Marty, what was with the Tim Leary book?"