Now Reading

I certainly can’t read Slovenian but congrats on completing and publishing it!

Just finished Johnny Marr's autobiography, despite the cringe there's a reason why Morrissey will always get more attention. Dull.

October is horror month so I will finally be reading me some Clive Barker. Beginning with The Book of Blood. 

Alan Moore's Jerusalem. 100 pages in, this will not take me long to read at all. Come and step into Northampton with a guided tour by the man with a magic stick.

Far From the Madding Crowd.

Wanted to hit some classics and this was recommended. I didn't read the blurb, jumped straight in like a mad man. Bit of a slow burner, think the period English is a bit of a curve ball but I'm trudging through. Big G needs to dip his Oak in the Bath already heheh.

I've spent the better part of 10 years trying to read House of Leaves. this is the furthest I've gotten (100 pages). yes it's very clever and experimental etc etc but I fear it simply does not make for a good read at bottom. I'm not even sure what the artistic value is really of bunging a load of dry pseudo-academic analysis in there. it's so facken tedious. I really want to like this book.

other than that, I re-read Trainspotting, finished One Bullet Away by former Marine officer Nate Fick (a basis for Generation Kill), and am working through Bertrand Russell's History of Western Philosophy bit by bit.

I really really hate pretentious drivel as well as long drawn out bullshit but made it through House of Leaves relatively easy. It definitely picks up around where you are or a little past it, can't remember right now, but the middle and after was all really good, but it sort of drug on at the end and in some passages elsewhere. I guess if you're not getting into in the first 100 pages and have tried this before maybe it's just not for you? No harm in giving up really. I would say it does make for a good read despite the 'extra' layers, but imo those extra layers are integral to the core story and how it's told to/discovered by the reader. In that sense, not a conventional 'good read' as in it's just a basic horror story with extra crap on top....it's all necessary to the story. I dunno. I thought it was very good but definitely not for everyone. Obviously. I wasted my time and yours, sorry. 

"good read" does not imply convention, it just has to be enjoyable in any sense. I'm not finding that with this. the Truant story is so lame with its hackneyed portrayal of the "seedy underbelly" of city life and the pointless/ridiculous sexual interludes, and it interrupts the Navidson story (which is the only bit I find engaging) constantly.

I will finish it but I think it won't be worth it.

reading the third reich by bolano. not his best.

  On 10/4/2017 at 6:08 AM, usagi said:

"good read" does not imply convention, it just has to be enjoyable in any sense. I'm not finding that with this. the Truant story is so lame with its hackneyed portrayal of the "seedy underbelly" of city life and the pointless/ridiculous sexual interludes, and it interrupts the Navidson story (which is the only bit I find engaging) constantly.

 

I will finish it but I think it won't be worth it.

Yeah, i like the interludes/interruptions/cheesy shit in Truant's part, it all makes sense in the context of it, it worked that way for me at least. It does get a bit tedious on occasion, but I felt that was purposeful, you're not supposed to like Truant or even like when he's the focus, basically. Him and his part of the story is supposed to annoy and distract and then you just feel sorry for him and that perspective in regards to Navidson and all the rest, it worked for me. Navidson's part of the story becomes more the focus eventually though.

It may not be worth it for you....if you get half or 2/3 of the way through though and still don't like it, feel free to give up then I'd say.

i liked all the navidson stuff but house of leaves is one of those books you have to read when you're fifteen and then never touch again.

I thought the letters from his mother were the best part but as that's at the end you may not wish to go that far.

^ they're referenced in the first 100 pages so I've been reading them. not all the way through them yet.

  On 10/4/2017 at 7:18 AM, zaphod said:

i liked all the navidson stuff but house of leaves is one of those books you have to read when you're fifteen and then never touch again.

I actually kind of agree with this, partly because this is exactly what I did. I like the idea of House of Leaves more than I actually ended up liking House of Leaves itself.

I loved house of leaves when I read it but I can’t imagine reading it again. I feel this way about dfw as well. tedious stuff to work through when you’re an adult who has read a lot but when you’re young it seems exciting.

Have you guys heard about Danielewski's new 27-part novel called The Familiar? Each book will be 800 pages, and is made to resembled a TV series in structure (each book has an intro, advert breaks, credit sequence, etc). I like the idea of it, but bugger if I'm reading all that.

Sometimes, the idea is more interesting than executing it.

  On 10/3/2017 at 9:29 PM, Echolalia said:

Alan Moore's Jerusalem. 100 pages in, this will not take me long to read at all. Come and step into Northampton with a guided tour by the man with a magic stick.

Have fun! I spent two months last year reading it, and loved it (even the Lydia Joyce chapter). Book 2 is my favourite, and I was sad when it ended.

edit: also lol:

  Quote

Since the release of The Familiar, Volume 1, Danielewski has been doing small tours for the release of each volume^[16] and releasing merchandise related to House of Leaves and The Familiar on his website.^[18] He has also not been seen publicly without donning a cat shirt since at least 2010

Yeah the familiar sounds incredibly tedious. Make a tv show then. The strengths of a novel are different.

  On 10/4/2017 at 8:33 PM, Bechuga said:

 

Have you guys heard about Danielewski's new 27-part novel called The Familiar? Each book will be 800 pages, and is made to resembled a TV series in structure (each book has an intro, advert breaks, credit sequence, etc). I like the idea of it, but bugger if I'm reading all that.

 

Sometimes, the idea is more interesting than executing it.

 

  On 10/3/2017 at 9:29 PM, Echolalia said:

Alan Moore's Jerusalem. 100 pages in, this will not take me long to read at all. Come and step into Northampton with a guided tour by the man with a magic stick.

 

Have fun! I spent two months last year reading it, and loved it (even the Lydia Joyce chapter). Book 2 is my favourite, and I was sad when it ended.

 

edit: also lol:

 

 

  Quote

Since the release of The Familiar, Volume 1, Danielewski has been doing small tours for the release of each volume^[16] and releasing merchandise related to House of Leaves and The Familiar on his website.^[18] He has also not been seen publicly without donning a cat shirt since at least 2010

 

I found the first volume in a charity shop for cheap, I'm fairly sure that like Only Revolutions it will sit on my shelf gathering dust. 

Re-reading Mason & Dixon, and a bunch of Richard Wright stuff for work.

  On 10/4/2017 at 7:18 AM, zaphod said:

i liked all the navidson stuff but house of leaves is one of those books you have to read when you're fifteen and then never touch again.

Exactly this. You need to be 15-18, wearing a Mogwai shirt, listening to F#A#∞ and the first ASMZ album and it needs to be 2002 

  On 10/5/2017 at 12:14 AM, hello spiral said:

 

  On 10/4/2017 at 7:18 AM, zaphod said:

i liked all the navidson stuff but house of leaves is one of those books you have to read when you're fifteen and then never touch again.

 

Exactly this. You need to be 15-18, wearing a Mogwai shirt, listening to F#A#∞ and the first ASMZ album and it needs to be 2002 

 

Flol, hit the nail on the head

lol, does seem to be the case.

Life 3.0 by Max Tegmark. Essential AI brainstorm. Exhilarating and scary all at once. Book was over my head in the last third, or I was distracted. But what was absorbed is so mind expanding.

Reality is Broken. Video games are good. Got it.

Will finish The Girl Who Takes an Eye for an Eye tonight. Easy reading and I’m a sucker for this series.

The Coming of Conan the Cimmerian. Includes my two favorite Conan stories, “Tower of the Elephant” & “Queen of the Black Coast.” Some really great Lovecraftian bits in these, too:

“Conan felt his soul shrivel and begin to be drawn out of his body, to drown in the yellow wells of cosmic horror which glimmered spectrally in the formless chaos that was growing about him and engulfing all life and sanity. Those eyes grew and became gigantic, and in them the Cimmerian glimpsed the reality of all the abysmal and blasphemous horrors that lurk in the outer darkness of formless voids and nighted gulfs. He opened his bloody lips to shriek his hate and loathing, but only a dry rattle burst from his throat.” Fucking metal.

Next up for me is a long overdue revisit of the Gormenghast trilogy, which is bloody magnificent.

Gormenghast is wicked but I didn't like the third book (have only read the trilogy once though, maybe need to give it more time)

Finished Underworld by Delillo. Spent most of the book thinking he'd forgotten to edit but the ending section brought it all into focus nicely enough. Still too long though. No wonder every book after that is 120 pages.

For the first time in a few years, I don't really have anything to read, nor do I feel like it. Started The Bone Clocks by David Mitchell but the first thirty pages are so cliché ridden I have lost all interest in it (even though I suspect the clichés might be intentional...or I'm giving him too much credit).

A copy of Don Quixote is staring at me though...