Now Reading

Two books:

 

And the Birds Rained Down - Jocelyne Saucier

On the Black Hill - Bruce Chatwin

 

Both related somewhat since they both involve two elderly fellas living secluded lives in remote spots. Both are set in places that are rarely covered in fiction but also just happen to be areas I know very well, so I enjoy that aspect. Plots are almost inverse of eachother, one only starting in melancholy while the other descends into crushing bleakness. Not telling you which tho innit

Edited December 17, 2017 by Tricone RC

  On 12/16/2017 at 11:42 AM, QQQ said:

been on a bit of an Orwell kick recently

 

recently read:

 

Animal Farm - good

Down and Out in Paris and London - great

Success (Martin Amis) - not great

 

now reading:

 

Burmese Days

 

read a little of The Waves (Virginia Woolf) as well but the soliloquy style she uses in it isn't something i really enjoy

Keep the Aspidistra Flying bey. One more one more. Its the American teenage angst graphic novel of the 1930s even with the acceptance of being a grown up.

liber null & psychonaut - enjoyable when i'm in the mood for it, but like, idunnno...too often with this sort of literature i get the impression that it's 10% actual neat methods for expanding your personal reality & breaking free of limitations, 60% basic philosophy//meditation techniques//self-help stuff dressed up in a dracula cape, 30% the author treating their personal sense of morality for some kind of universal code. not too far into this one yet so maybe it will be different??

 

the prince - probably having this on my bedstand next to the black magic ritual guides didn't help when it came to trying to convince my roommates i wasn't a creepy manipulative weirdo with aspirations to become a cult leader, in the days leading up to my needing to leave the apartment

 

beyond the golden star - haven't started yet, no idea what it is, don't usually read fantasy, don't usually buy books on a whim but here we are! saving it for the rideshare to the maritimes later this week

gabriel garcia marquez online archive

Edited December 19, 2017 by Nebraska

Editorial notes for Milo Yiannopoulos' Dangerous have been put forward as evidence in Yiannopoulos' breach of contract lawsuit and they're pretty funny (if also depressing and horrifying). He sounds like a teenager ranting while he plays CSGO.

 

https://www.theguardian.com/books/2017/dec/28/unclear-unfunny-delete-editors-notes-on-milo-yiannopoulos-book-revealed

  On 12/16/2017 at 11:42 AM, QQQ said:

read a little of The Waves (Virginia Woolf) as well but the soliloquy style she uses in it isn't something i really enjoy

 

Bummer. Maybe try Monday or Tuesday (or Haunted House), collections of shorter pieces where the style really does embody & reflect the content & themes of each. Unless she's just not for you, of course; that's fair enough.

 

I was given a totally rad decipher of the Carollian Alice for Xmas, but I reckon I'll check out this L. Ron Hubbard paperback I found at a bus stop yesterday first as it looks like top notch stuff.

Edited December 29, 2017 by doorjamb

URGENT UPDATE --- BE ADVISED:

 

The Hubbard sucks & has consequently been returned to the world, secreted beneath the eaves of an opportune bus shelter. The Alice book is most toothsome.

 

 

Oh, & happy 2018, literate watmm-kin!

Edited January 2, 2018 by doorjamb

Vonnegut: The Complete Short Stories. Nearly 1,000 pages of all his short work, including a few unpublished bits. Lush hardcover.

  On 1/3/2018 at 1:34 AM, Nebraska said:

Hell yeah, I have this too.

 

Finished the Southern Reach trilogy, definitely the best thing I've read in awhile. Up next, the autobiography of Gary Numan.

300 pages into Godel Escher Bach, it seems the introduction is finally over and this dude's actually going to have a point sometime in the next 400 pages

  On 1/4/2018 at 2:52 PM, tec said:

 

  On 1/3/2018 at 1:34 AM, Nebraska said:

Hell yeah, I have this too.

 

Finished the Southern Reach trilogy, definitely the best thing I've read in awhile. Up next, the autobiography of Gary Numan.

 

 

Southern Reach was good, it kept me interested throughout but also I think begs a second reading. May do so soon if I can keep to my reading every day thing I'm trying this year. It was a little too much on the trying-to-be-weird tip maybe? I dunno, that may be my hindsight being confused.

Edited January 4, 2018 by auxien

I'm about 100 pages into Dhalgren after seeing a recommendation in this thread a while back. It's good! Some bits are a bit cringey but really enjoying the mystery of the whole thing.

Not tackled Dhalgren yet but be sure to check out The Star Pit if you haven't already done so

  On 1/4/2018 at 9:08 PM, hello spiral said:

Not tackled Dhalgren yet but be sure to check out The Star Pit if you haven't already done so

 

Nice! Just added it to the list 

Jon McGregor's Reservoir 13 won the Costa Novel Prize, one that I think is highly deserved. If you have not read it, I recommend you do, as I thought it was one of my favourite novels I read last year.

 

If you want a story told in a different way but not so different you can't follow along, give it a try.

 

Excerpt:

 

  Quote

They gathered in the car park at the hour before dawn and waited to be told what to do. It was cold and there was little conversation. There were questions that weren’t being asked. The missing girl’s name was Rebecca Shaw. When last seen she’d been wearing a white hooded top. A mist hung low across the moor and the ground was frozen hard. They were given instructions and then they moved off, their boots crunching on the stiffened ground and their tracks fading behind them as the Heather sprang back into shape. She was five feet tall, with dark-blonde hair. She had been missing for hours. They kept their eyes down and they didn’t speak and they wondered what they might find. The only sounds were footsteps and dogs barking along the road and faintly a helicopter from the reservoirs.

 

3/4 of the way through Clive Barkers Books of Blood Vol 4-6, very good though not the mindblowing classic 1-3 was. Still time though....

 

Helter Skelter about the Manson Family by Vincent Bugliosi up next.

has anyone here read anything by sergei dovlatov? Got a book of his ("Craft") as a christmas gift. Never read any russian literature before

  On 1/4/2018 at 9:07 PM, misc said:

I'm about 100 pages into Dhalgren after seeing a recommendation in this thread a while back. It's good! Some bits are a bit cringey but really enjoying the mystery of the whole thing.

 

 

 

i highly recommend hogg. it's probably my favorite of delaney's books. 

i've had a few false starts recently. got about 20(?) pages into Neuromancer but dropped it (not in the mood for it). tried to push through The Rachel Papers (Martin Amis) but it's not doing much for me. stopped reading around 90 pages in. i loved Money but i haven't much enjoyed the other stuff i've read of his. starting to think his early work just isn't very good. i'll try another of his newer works next time.

 

i did make it through Amnesia Moon (Jonathan Lethem) which was pretty good but nothing mind blowing. it got more interesting as it went on. PKD worship.

 

i also finished The Road which was really good. not as good as anything else of McCarthy's i've read, but it had some really nice moments. i was expecting it to read a little more like a mainstream novel with more 'story' so it was a nice surprise. it could be summed up as 300 pages of 2 people being cold but he somehow makes it an interesting read despite the repetition. i watched the film after as well which was a pretty good and faithful adaptation.

 

also read a few Lovecraft short stories after buying a couple of cheap collections.

 

currently reading The Road to Wigan Pier for a change of pace because i don't read much non-fiction and i'm also about to begin Nip the Buds, Shoot the Kids by Kenzaburo Oe. it's something i've wanted to read for a long time so hopefully it holds up to expectation.

Edited January 17, 2018 by QQQ

Finished Don Quixote. Really enjoyable, especially once book 2 starts. Suprisingly meta.

 

Now to read Franzen's Farther Away essay collection. The tone of the first one makes me suspect I won't enjoy this one as much as How To Be Alone.

 

  On 1/17/2018 at 1:15 PM, QQQ said:

it could be summed up as 300 pages of 2 people being cold

 

lol

ubik

Just read The Interface Series by Mother Horse Eyes and this could be a great first draft for something grand if it will ever get properly published.

The Interface Series is btw a collection of random creepy comments by a single user on Reddit which form a narrative if read in chronological succession. The story is fucking crazy and very well done actually. LSD, CIA, WW2, alcoholism, occultism, gore, etc.

  On 1/21/2018 at 1:38 AM, Dpek said:

Just read The Interface Series by Mother Horse Eyes and this could be a great first draft for something grand if it will ever get properly published.

The Interface Series is btw a collection of random creepy comments by a single user on Reddit which form a narrative if read in chronological succession. The story is fucking crazy and very well done actually. LSD, CIA, WW2, alcoholism, occultism, gore, etc.

Yeah that was a fun read. I think without the gimmick it's just mediocre horror/sci-fi without any real structure or vision and the author was just making it up as he went along but it was decent for what it was. It had me captivated just for the sheer novelty and weirdness.

Been stalling on Sunny by Taiyo Matsumoto for some reason, even though I love his stuff. Time to buy what I can before it all rockets to sky high prices.