Now Reading

Aw man, I want a poster-sized version of that JG Ballard cover.

Reading a bunch of stuff about the folklore and mythology of the British Isles atm, a rich trove of madness

Pre-ordered Jerusalem by Alan Moore. The hardcover is 1200 pages.

*orders wrist braces*

  On 7/21/2016 at 9:16 PM, Leon Sumbitches said:

Aw man, I want a poster-sized version of that JG Ballard cover.

 

Reading a bunch of stuff about the folklore and mythology of the British Isles atm, a rich trove of madness

What you reading? Just finished The Land of the Green Man by Caroline Larrington, not a bad choice for an introduction to it all.

That Ballard cover is so dank. I want it as a blanket.

Middlesex was great, very moreish.

Now this thing I bought by chance years ago, think it's scifi.

Will definitely check that out Tec, sounds ace.

Haha Cwmbran, I actually read The Idea Of Order after seeing you mention it (in this very thread iirc), really enlightening read. Will also rinse the Aldhouse-Green stuff for sure, love me some Celtic history.

Currently reading Mythology Of The British Isles by Geoffrey Ashe, general overview of mythology from pre-Roman times onwards. Devotes a lot of space to Arthurian stuff which doesn't really do it for me as much as bizarre old pagan stuff. Wouldn't really recommend it except as an introduction. Also reading The Fairy Faith In Celtic Countries by Walter Evans-Wentz. Published in 1911, it's a collection of rural beliefs in 'fair folk' throughout the British Isles, collected by a super-credulous Edwardian dude. Some of it's pretty standard, some of it's an insight into a rural Ireland/Britain that's obviously now completely vanished, and can be a bit mind-blowing.

J.C. Atkinson's 40 Years In A Moorland Parish has, as I recall, some great accounts of English folklore in the 19th Century.

Im not a reader. At ALL. Like I have a pathetic history of amount of books I've "read" -- probably only truly finished several books in my life, no joke. I have this terrible case of ADD when it comes to reading and Ive tried all different types of books and none really hold my interest for longer than a day or two. I also have this fidgity issue where I feel like after an hour or so of reading, i feel like im wasting time (i know that total bs), but it just feels that way. Whats funny though is i have this longing to find and read some mysterious book that's never been read before, or only by a very small amount of people.

^tl;dr

lol

  On 7/27/2016 at 5:26 AM, Lane Visitor said:

I have this longing to find and read some mysterious book that's never been read before, or only by a very small amount of people.

  On 7/27/2016 at 5:58 AM, roasty said:

^tl;dr

lol

i should get banned from this thread for my comment ... is that even possible to ban someone from just a particular thread? lol

I don't always read an hour at a time, maybe try and shorten the periods you're using to read. Split it up a bit.

Favorite book I've read in the past couple years was Dhalgren, and I'm kinda itching to give it second read. There's so much to unravel in there.

  On 7/27/2016 at 7:03 PM, spratters said:

I don't always read an hour at a time, maybe try and shorten the periods you're using to read. Split it up a bit.

That's actually not a bad idea at all.. thanks for the tip.

  On 7/27/2016 at 8:54 PM, Boxus said:

Favorite book I've read in the past couple years was Dhalgren, and I'm kinda itching to give it second read. There's so much to unravel in there.

Just wikipedia'd this.. sounds really amazing. Sounds like a lot of mystery and weirdness?

dhalgren is basically impenetrable. if you aren't already reading a lot of experimental fiction it's going to be a difficult slog.

Good reminder! I've had dhalgren sitting in the bottom of my work locker for about a year. Spotted it in a charity shop and had been on the lookout for more Delaney after reading The Star Pit (highly recommended).

But yeah, there's a quote on the back that pretty much calls it "scifi's Ulysses" so I haven't quite gotten around to it yet.

Speaking of near impenetrable books, bunch of people in chatmm have by chance all started reading Gravity's Rainbow at the same time so I've decided to read it again.

CHATMM BOOK CLUB.

Gravity's Painbow

410 pages into Against the Day, 660 to go...

Yeah I read V recently and Vineland a year or so ago. GR was the first Pynchon I read about 5 years ago and this reread is def going a lot smoother.

After this I may skip Vineland but continue chronologically. I've had Inherent Vice and Bleeding Edge on the shelf for ages but want to read Mason & Dixon and Against the Day first.

You'll have a good time! Mason & Dixon are a regular pair of knuckleheads.

I still think Vineland is super underrated. All the talk I hear of it is that it's bad but it's just as well made as anything else he's done.

Just finished The Vegetarian by Han Kang, weren't bad but was a bit weird and didn't really do much. It's won loads of prizes so typically I feel either they are wrong or I am too dumb to see its merits.

  On 7/29/2016 at 4:57 AM, hello spiral said:

Yeah I read V recently and Vineland a year or so ago. GR was the first Pynchon I read about 5 years ago and this reread is def going a lot smoother.

After this I may skip Vineland but continue chronologically. I've had Inherent Vice and Bleeding Edge on the shelf for ages but want to read Mason & Dixon and Against the Day first.

Ah yes! Pynchon is my absolute favourite. What did you think of Vineland? When I read people's opinions online, it seems the general consensus is that it's underwhelming compared to his others, but I loved it. I found it to be a really sentimental, beautiful read, with Pynchon's usual silky smooth writing but just with the quirkiness turned down a bit. A lot more rooted in reality (but still with Godzilla and a load of female ninjas).

Also interesting the similarities of the dynamic between Zoyd and Brock Vond in Vineland, and Doc Sportello and Bigfoot in Inherent Vice. I read Vineland after seeing the film of IV and a just couldn't help but picture Brock Vond as Josh Brolin.

Anyway I've still got Mason & Dixon, V, Bleeding Edge and Against the Day to go. I'm almost saving them because I don't wanna finish all his work. Think the man's an absolute genius.

Vineland to me is summed up thus: it's a three hundred page flashback with a sixty page conclusion. And the section where he compared the states of being alive and dead to that of binary codes, and 'what kind of programme was the government creating out of the ones and zeroes of all the dead' was a highlight for me. Definitely underrated and misunderstood.

Hope he publishes one more before he passes on!

Dunno whether to read something on the solar system or Dennis Nilsen, it's so easy to feel spoilt by books.

  On 7/31/2016 at 12:17 AM, Bechuga said:

Vineland to me is summed up thus: it's a three hundred page flashback with a sixty page conclusion. And the section where he compared the states of being alive and dead to that of binary codes, and 'what kind of programme was the government creating out of the ones and zeroes of all the dead' was a highlight for me. Definitely underrated and misunderstood.

 

Hope he publishes one more before he passes on!

Funny that you mention that passage as it's probably the first that comes in to my mind when i think of Vineland. 

'If patterns of ones and zeros were "like" patterns of human lives and deaths, if everything about an individual could be represented in a computer record by a long string of ones and zeros, then what kind of creature would be represented by a long string of lives and deaths?'

Goddamn. 

Broke 50% of Against the Day or, as I call it, Against the Pages. Also Darkmans is very...odd. Nicola Barker might end up my favourite English novelist.

  On 8/1/2016 at 8:10 PM, misc said:

 

  On 7/31/2016 at 12:17 AM, Bechuga said:

Vineland to me is summed up thus: it's a three hundred page flashback with a sixty page conclusion. And the section where he compared the states of being alive and dead to that of binary codes, and 'what kind of programme was the government creating out of the ones and zeroes of all the dead' was a highlight for me. Definitely underrated and misunderstood.

 

Hope he publishes one more before he passes on!

 

Funny that you mention that passage as it's probably the first that comes in to my mind when i think of Vineland. 

 

'If patterns of ones and zeros were "like" patterns of human lives and deaths, if everything about an individual could be represented in a computer record by a long string of ones and zeros, then what kind of creature would be represented by a long string of lives and deaths?'

 

Goddamn. 

 

Good shit.