what are you reading now?

kid charlemagne said:

@version i finished lady in the lake and high window recently.... honestly might skip the next one and go to long goodbye because i found a cheap copy recently since i havent been as in love with chandler as i hoped.... farewell my lovely def my favorite... the other three ive read have their qualities, but they feel a bit telegraphed reading one after the other.... the prose is great, and being in the head of a central character that is able to singularly capture the mood of a city and time period is worthwhile, but the form feels a bit constrained after reading 4 of these books, its easy for me to say this because of how they vary from Ellroy, which contains a lot more scale and variety of worlds and characters which i prefer more.... havve read through enough chandler and thompson to know that Ellroy remains the king of crime....

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I prefer Hammett to Chandler. He's a bit rougher prose-wise, but Red Harvest really pulled me in in a way the two of Chandler's - Big Sleep, Farewell... - didn't. And yeah, Ellroy's better than both of them.

kid charlemagne said:

i heard about jean patrick manchette, he has many books put out by nyrb which have cool covers, i think im going to read some of his soon.....

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Nada's a great one of Manchette's. I'd recommend that. It's about a ragtag group of left-wingers getting in over their heads kidnapping an American ambassador.

kid charlemagne said:

but right now i am going to read Cosmopolis, i also picked up End Zone recently, i think youve read one of them.

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I've read both of them: loved Cosmopolis, was lukewarm on End Zone.

nada and this other one i saw at the store, the other had a raving quote from ellroy on the back which tempted me, i think i have a copy of red harvest, i'll have to start reading more of him too

kid charlemagne said:

nada and this other one i saw at the store, the other had a raving quote from ellroy on the back which tempted me, i think i have a copy of red harvest, i'll have to start reading more of him too

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The other Manchette I've read's Ivory Pearl, was into that one too but it was a bit clunkier and he died before he could finish it. It stops part way through like Rene Daumal's book, Mount Analogue.

I've been reading the International Booker shortlist, i've done three so far and they are all head and shoulders above so much of British literary fiction

• On the Calculation of Volume I by Solvej Balle (translated by Barbara J Haveland, published by Faber) - seemingly a groundhog day kind of thing - stuck in a time loop but rather than make it a sci-fi excursion it becomes a meditation on time and relationships which is quietly powerful - she claims it's going to run to seven volumes which would be both amazing and bewildering. I bought Vol 2 straightaway.
• Perfection by Vincenzo Latronico (translated by Sophie Hughes, published by Fitzcarraldo) an ironical take on modern international living - owes an awful lot to Perec's Les Choses but that's ok because they do such a thorough job on skewering the tropes and labels of Millennials
• A Leopard-Skin Hat by Anne Serre (translated by Mark Hutchinson, published by Lolli Editions) I have always liked her books - delicate miniatures with surreal twists like a Leonora Carrington painting. This is an elusive love letter to an unnamed narrator and a childhood friend who grows up with psychological disorders.

I'll read the other three over the coming weeks

During this current Greece trip I refound my ability to stay focused enough to actually read a book. Pretty big deal as I haven't read properly in years.

Just finished the autobiography of Harriet A. Jacobs - Incidents in the Life of a Slave Girl. Really heavy going as you would expect but she writes really well. Toward the end it became quite the page turner.

Now onto Lord Jim by Joseph Conrad. Gifted to me by @Clinamenic earlier this year.

gift me a break

I’ve just abandoned Of Strangers and Bees by Hamid Ismailov at page 164, realising that I was not sure which thread of the novel I was reading. Every intention of beginning again sometime in August, but a little frustrated.

Just read '69 Exhibition Road' by Dorothy 'Max' Prior. Didn't have high hopes for this one (Rema Rema were musically OK but ruined by the awful vocalist ((and I can barely hear Max's drums on the tracks anyway))...and let's be honest, all the aesthetic subversion and post-irony in the world can't save her 'I Confess' 7" on Industrial Records from being Seaside Special-style dogshit)...

...BUT, would recommend this book if you can get it cheap. Adam Ant doesn't come out of this too well, though she concedes some of his less pleasant starfucker moves may have simply been early warning signs of his bipolar disorder. She also details the hidden link between Jarman's Jubilee and Arnold Schwarzeggar, and drops a few more unlikely coincidences.

Think her descriptions of old London kept me absorbed more than the musical bits (with some nice colour pics of early '80s London flats), though there's plenty on the Pistols, the Ants, TG, etc. Very amusing sneered punchline from John Lydon too, when an enthusiastic German fan asks him, "Where do you get your clothes?"