Now Reading

Mitchell does try and very obviously inhabit the genres he takes on, each section of the book is very different though, it's not all like that coming of age story at the start. I recently read his following book, Slade House, short little thing set in the same world as Bone Clocks. A series of spooky tales set in a mysterious stately home. Enjoyable read, but nothing amazing.

Yeah, I've read Cloud Atlas and know how well he copies the era / form of a period, and I think he did it perfectly fine in Atlas. But here, even if he's copying a certain style, it just reads so cliché, far too much to get across his point. Tempted to read the other sections and see if they cause a similar feeling. If they don't, maybe I'll read it. But even Cloud Atlas didn't really offer much other than six separate stories tangentially linked together (and not very well in some cases). Not feeling it.

  On 10/5/2017 at 12:25 AM, Leon Sumbitches said:

 

  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

 

I tested this last year (I was 36 at the time) and found it held up surprisingly well. *shrug*

only mitchell book i really liked was ghostwritten

I liked the Dutch japanese one well enough

it's taking me a long long time getting through the last book on 2666. I just don't think Bolaño has anything interesting to say at this point. I need a new york post article or something to explain this book to me. A lot of the characters are just Bolaño blatanly projecting himself... Either keep it all on a single character or try to hide it a little better... meh

to ease the pain ive been reading Borges short stories. He didn't write a single one that was over 20 pages, and each one is jam packed with ideas. Top 3 writer for me

  On 10/17/2017 at 12:16 AM, span said:

it's taking me a long long time getting through the last book on 2666. I just don't think Bolaño has anything interesting to say at this point. I need a new york post article or something to explain this book to me. A lot of the characters are just Bolaño blatanly projecting himself... Either keep it all on a single character or try to hide it a little better... meh

 

to ease the pain ive been reading Borges short stories. He didn't write a single one that was over 20 pages, and each one is jam packed with ideas. Top 3 writer for me

Archimboldi's leather jacket, can still smell it now. 

Read Szalay's All That Man Is and it was a jumbled mess of memory and imagination. Finished the book quickly though, as it was interesting to hike and hop through the lives of 9 males at different times of their lives. Reading The Handmaid's Tale and Lionel Shriver's So Much For That back to back alongside Jerusalem still. 

  On 10/17/2017 at 12:16 AM, span said:

it's taking me a long long time getting through the last book on 2666. I just don't think Bolaño has anything interesting to say at this point. I need a new york post article or something to explain this book to me. A lot of the characters are just Bolaño blatanly projecting himself... Either keep it all on a single character or try to hide it a little better... meh

 

to ease the pain ive been reading Borges short stories. He didn't write a single one that was over 20 pages, and each one is jam packed with ideas. Top 3 writer for me

This pretty much sums up how I felt about Savage Detectives.

Anyone read any Steve Erickson? I've had Rubicon Beach on my shelf for a few years but hven't cracked it open for some reason. 

I read shadowbahn because someone told me I’d like it. Couldn’t finish it, thought it was a pretentious mess.

Just finished A Scanner Darkly. I was hoping for another headfuck like Ubik or The three stigmata of palmer eldritch, but found this one to be a little bit of a slog at times. A little more on the melancholy side. The ending was quite nice, once I realized what was happening. 

Pale Fire is next on my list after that miraculous scene in Blade Runner 2049.

A Scanner Darkly is my favourite of his.

  On 10/24/2017 at 1:22 AM, usagi said:

A Scanner Darkly is my favourite of his.

same here. Only read Ubik and Man In The High Castle though

now concurrently reading Godel, Escher, Bach (2nd try) and Borges' short stories

I've read almost all of his major books and ASD is the one that realises the human aspect of his stories the best, something which he himself would probably admit he was not really good at doing. it was shaped directly by his own experiences and therefore came naturally, to an extent. I also found this book completely randomly, before I even knew of PKD or his stature, during a difficult time in my life when I was being crushed by both anxiety and responsibilities and I would just escape to the library for hours every day to read. I felt a lot like Arctor felt - beat, despondent, uncertain of things around him. so I identify with it quite a bit.

I kinda stalled just under 800 pages into Against The Day so I took a break and read a few lighter things.

When You Are Engulfed in Flames by David Sedaris. Amusing, anecdotal essays. Was very entertaining and funny. Never read him before but will check out more.

Got the DFW essay collection that has the piece about Lynch in it. I've just read that one so far as a come down from Lynch obsession post TP3.

I also chucked A Game of Thrones into the bathroom when the new season started and I've got a few hundred pages into rereading that just from sat-on-toilet reading.

  On 10/24/2017 at 1:37 AM, usagi said:

I've read almost all of his major books and ASD is the one that realises the human aspect of his stories the best, something which he himself would probably admit he was not really good at doing. it was shaped directly by his own experiences and therefore came naturally, to an extent.

I was gonna say exactly that, A Scanner Darkly feels way more heartfelt and human than those other 2 books I've mentioned. Ubik feels like it was written by an AI in comparison

A Scanner Darkly is my favourite PKD novel as well, glad to see it getting some love round here.

stumbled across a 2nd hand hardcover of jg ballad’s ‘kingdom come’ in the local op shop for $2,

& now halfway thru this pulpy page turner - a black humoured holiday read whose subject matter is a fascist suburban uprising centred around a shopping plaza.

culture jam / 10

Started John Crowley's Ka: Dar Oakley in the Ruin of Ymr and so far so good. I expect nothing but the best from Crowley, of course, he's always delivered with what of his I've read. Little bits of art scattered throughout are lovely and work well with the folky sort of premise suggested so far.

where does a total noob begin with Murakami?

  On 11/4/2017 at 10:47 AM, usagi said:

where does a total noob begin with Murakami?

I would say Sputnik Sweetheart

Love that Ballard cover. The way he describes the workers at the shopping centre and his writing of the commuter belt of the M25. 

Just finished the Pale King. When he describes the involuntary sweating and the pages where the characters project themselves into other places are so good. Through boredom you can achieve nirvana. Anyone who has been on a long bicycle journey, the monotony and daily routine of wild camping fits in with this. 

  On 11/4/2017 at 10:47 AM, usagi said:

where does a total noob begin with Murakami?

Wind Up Bird or Norwegian Wood I M O 

So I am halfway through Pale Fire by Nabokov. I've wanted to read it for years because of the glorious title. That quote in Blade Runner 2049 sent me running to the library as soon as I discovered the source. This is the second Nabokov work where I am mesmerized by the prose but totally irritated by the narrator? The poem is fantastic but the commentary is such a chore for me.

I may tackle some Beckett short stories next. 

i love pale fire, favourite nabokov i've read thus far