Now Reading

  loganfive said:

i have now read four harry potter books in an attempt to understand the furore, and i finally understand.

4!! it took you 4!

i'll stick with the movies

and yes i was too a child of dahl whilst my brother had all the narnia books

i'm into g.i. gurdjieff at the moment (anyone familiar with?). I began with Meetings with remarkable men. It is a pseudo auto-biographic book in which he describes his early and later life, but focusing on important people he met. Vaguely describes the parts of Russia, Iran, Greece, Turkey, etc. A nice piece. Beelzebub's tales to his granson is the next book and comes in three parts. Epic stuff, quite all in its own world, with nice language, smoothly and pictoresquely articulated (lol @ my english).

I would like to tell you more about the author, who appears to be wise and beyond. An interesting person, whose teachings were passed on, translated and published. But I smoked too much. I'm sitting in my kitchen with legs on the table, listening to draxler's jazz record on radio, while my roommate feels olympic for the puking discipline. Octave One played yesterday, afterparty lasted until 1pm and that makes everything quite obvious.

recently finished reading

The Satanic Verses by Salman Rushdie

currently reading

Midnight's Children by Salman Rushdie

I've only read some Rushdie essays, but I've heard his novels are pretty good from a friend of mine.

  WhoNeedsElectricity said:

I've only read some Rushdie essays, but I've heard his novels are pretty good from a friend of mine.

guy is a genious , he came to my university as a part of the 100 year anniversery and to promote his new book which i hear got average reviews but he sure can weave beautiful words. From what i have read , he is one of those author where you either really like him , or absolutely hate him

His book Satanic Verses was apparently so controversial that the ayyotollah khomeni of Iran issued a fatwa on him (basically offereed a bounty on him) which has now been lifted

Guns, Germs and Steel - Jared Diamond

I'm reading Jude the Obscure by Thomas Hardy. It's just as depressing as I was led to believe.

Star Beast - Robert Heinlein

Pagan and Christian Rome - Rodolfo Amedeo Lanciani

St. Augustine's The Confessions.

internet

can't talk, it's exciting, must continue reading....

yeah nobody's said that I bet come on derp

Gormenghast.

  edge said:

Gormenghast.

Great series!

Fuck yes!! Everyone's completely bonkers - it's fantastic!

been reading jan potocki's the manuscript found in saragossa lately which is really fantastic polish adventure narrative written in the late eighteenth century. has a nifty nested story approach much like a thousand and one nights plus an entertaining amalgam of storytelling modes - pastoral, gothic, the picaresque; has a very dry satire, almost seems as if it may of lost a little edge in translation.

also reading bruno schulz's the street of crocodiles and other stories released through penguin. i've only been meditating on the street of crocodiles itself which is really the only way i've found myself able to focus on the telling - trying to meet his heavily descriptive prose in an almost purely visual sense, reading snippets all the words losing direction, focus. it's all texture.

I just read Amnesia Moon and it kinda sucked.

Slaughterhouse 5 at the mo - next up some Chabon; currently tossing up Kavalier & Klay or Yiddish Policemen's Union.

moominland midwinter

inversions by iain m. banks

it's pretty good so far. up to the standard banks quality.

Isaac Asimon - The caves of steel

  Benedict Cumberbatch said:

  awkward said:

reading all the pretty horses (then the other two border triology books by cormac mccarthy)

 

all the pretty horses was good but i knew the crossign was goign to be better from the first few pages. it drew me straight in. it made me so sad at the end of part one when

 

» Click to show Spoiler - click again to hide... «

he shot the wolf

 

part 2 kinda feels tacked on so far. should have been a short story of the freidnship between a wolf and a boy. but he probably couldnt end it on such a bad note.

the final book in the triology 'cities of the plain' was by far the worst of the 3. the premise is great. the two main characters from the first two novels working the same ranch but the book is dull and pointless. really disappointing. struggled to finish and his relationship with the whore didnt affect me as much as the wolf relationship.

i'm now reading 'Epilectic' by David B. (an epic comic) and 'unchained america' by dave gorman which is an easy piece of travel writing which i'm flying through.

then i'm gonna reread mark e smith's renegade as I just read simon ford's 'Hip Priest' so now the history and now i'm hoping renegade makes more sense.

as well as hip priest i read 'the FALLen' by dave simpson which was a good read but a pretty bad author. too much trying to make it about himself and used the phrase 'the wonderful and frightening world' too much. and i paid 19quid for it. fool!

then i'm thinking some more mccarthy or.... maybe i'll finally read that chabon book

tis good so far. quite a baffling figure

Richard Dawkins - The Selfish Gene

it's the third book in the trilogy

china mieville is the greatest author ever, i'm really enjoying this so far