― Jaq (Jaq), Thursday, 5 October 2006 17:06 (seventeen years ago) link
― I'm Passing Open Windows (Ms Laura), Thursday, 5 October 2006 18:52 (seventeen years ago) link
Oddly enough the publisher classifies it as "Crime Fiction" (you know, that tag in the upper left corner of the back cover, to guide where bookstores shelve it), because that is what the author usually writes.
― Aimless (Aimless), Thursday, 5 October 2006 19:13 (seventeen years ago) link
― mj (robert blake), Thursday, 5 October 2006 19:58 (seventeen years ago) link
― andyjack (andyjack), Friday, 6 October 2006 09:28 (seventeen years ago) link
Bob Woodward- State of DenialConservatize Me- John MoeL.A. Rex- Will Beall
― ramon fernandez (ramon fernandez), Friday, 6 October 2006 11:25 (seventeen years ago) link
okay, i found something. I'm gonna read Amy Bloom's 2000 story collection *A Blind Man Can See How Much I Love You* and then read *What Maisie Knew* by James. My copy of What Maisie Knew is one of those nice old Anchor paperbacks with the Gorey covers. I love those things. Those two books should take me to january!
― scott seward (scott seward), Monday, 9 October 2006 13:24 (seventeen years ago) link
― Laurel (Laurel), Monday, 9 October 2006 14:22 (seventeen years ago) link
― Laurel (Laurel), Monday, 9 October 2006 14:28 (seventeen years ago) link
Now reading Utterly Monkey by Mr Zadie Smith er I mean Nick Laird. It's a bit boring. And something or other by Mavis Cheek, who I guess would be my favourite 'guilty pleasure' author if I had any guilty feelings about books.
― Archel (Archel), Monday, 9 October 2006 15:27 (seventeen years ago) link
i'm reading schopenhauer, montaigne, and a book about wcw and the art world.
― Josh (Josh), Monday, 9 October 2006 19:03 (seventeen years ago) link
― m coleman (lovebug starski), Tuesday, 10 October 2006 09:19 (seventeen years ago) link
― m coleman (lovebug starski), Tuesday, 10 October 2006 09:23 (seventeen years ago) link
― PJ Miller (PJ Miller 68), Tuesday, 10 October 2006 09:48 (seventeen years ago) link
― Øystein (Øystein), Tuesday, 10 October 2006 11:01 (seventeen years ago) link
― franny (frannyglass), Tuesday, 10 October 2006 11:09 (seventeen years ago) link
The Spy Who Came in from the Cold
Tinker Tailor Soldier Spy (great bbc miniseries btw)
A Perfect Spy
― Hugo Lovelace (Hugo Lovelace), Tuesday, 10 October 2006 15:39 (seventeen years ago) link
My non-school reading is "The Know-It-All by A.J. Jacobs, about how he read the entire Encyclopaedia Brittanica. It's set up as a series of alphabetical entries running parallel to where he is in the encyclopedia at the time. I am a total sucker for this kind of book.
― Casuistry (Chris P), Tuesday, 10 October 2006 16:14 (seventeen years ago) link
And now, "Gold - The Marvellous History of General John Augustus Sutter" by Blaise Cenrars. I wouldn't normally pick up a book with a title like that, but (a) a novel by my favourite of all the Swiss - Scottich poets! and (b) you have to love those Peter Owen Modern Classics, eh?
― Tim (Tim), Wednesday, 11 October 2006 14:35 (seventeen years ago) link
― PJ Miller (PJ Miller 68), Wednesday, 11 October 2006 14:57 (seventeen years ago) link
― Jerry the Nipper (Jerrynipper), Wednesday, 11 October 2006 15:20 (seventeen years ago) link
― askance johnson (sdownes), Wednesday, 11 October 2006 15:31 (seventeen years ago) link
The Manuscript Found in SaragossaFlow My Tears, the Policeman Said
Manuscript was one of the best works of fiction that I have read in some time. The Dick was disturbingly entertaining -- most of his books incite similar responses when I read them.
Now, I am beginning to commence reading Rabelais's Gargantua and Pantagruel and some scholarly book on the devil.
― mj (robert blake), Thursday, 12 October 2006 00:02 (seventeen years ago) link
mj, have you gotten to the toilet paper chapter yet? That's really all I remember from however little of that book I read. Also, I am hella overdue with sending you a package...
― Casuistry (Chris P), Thursday, 12 October 2006 00:47 (seventeen years ago) link
No rush on the package, really -- whenever you find the time works for me.
― mj (robert blake), Thursday, 12 October 2006 01:36 (seventeen years ago) link
More Yuri business: "Envy" by Yuri Olesha. I'm only a few pages in but it's started marvellously.
― Tim (Tim), Tuesday, 17 October 2006 08:44 (seventeen years ago) link
So far I think it is rubbish because
a) I don't think it is particulalrly clever to find out what brain surgeons do and then show off about it
and
b) I hate the "blues musician" son and his autographed beer mat from Ry Cooder.
― PJ Miller (PJ Miller 68), Tuesday, 17 October 2006 09:38 (seventeen years ago) link
― frankiemachine (frankiemachine), Tuesday, 17 October 2006 10:18 (seventeen years ago) link
― franny (frannyglass), Tuesday, 17 October 2006 10:44 (seventeen years ago) link
― wmlynch (wlynch), Tuesday, 17 October 2006 16:31 (seventeen years ago) link
― Navek Rednam (Navek Rednam), Tuesday, 17 October 2006 17:06 (seventeen years ago) link
http://www.editorandpublisher.com/eandp/departments/syndicates/article_display.jsp?vnu_content_id=1003255156
I am currently reading nothing but textbooks and the latest NYRB.
― askance johnson (sdownes), Tuesday, 17 October 2006 19:10 (seventeen years ago) link
― the pinefox (the pinefox), Tuesday, 17 October 2006 19:48 (seventeen years ago) link
― Casuistry (Chris P), Tuesday, 17 October 2006 22:23 (seventeen years ago) link
IMO, Kittredge sprinkles veiled implications all over his chapters as if they were some sort of magic fairy dust for making vaguely suggestive writing into 'creative' writing. He seems to have been marked by Hemingway like some big ole' inky thumbprint on his forehead. He's not quite my style, but good enough for all that.
― Aimless (Aimless), Tuesday, 17 October 2006 22:58 (seventeen years ago) link
― justine paul (justine), Wednesday, 18 October 2006 00:20 (seventeen years ago) link
I have reverted to Titus Groan, which is like Fattypuffs and Thinnifers for adults, and quite enjoyable, if not entirely gripping.
But this morning I read the adventures of Rooney, Mourinho et al in The Guardian, and then I closed my eyes.
― PJ Miller (PJ Miller 68), Wednesday, 18 October 2006 08:02 (seventeen years ago) link
We were talking about Fattypuffs and Thinnifers on Sunday - M was in a stage adaptation of it at school, which would so NEVER happen nowadays. 'Right, casting: all the fat kids line up over here, and all the skinny kids over here...'
― Archel (Archel), Wednesday, 18 October 2006 09:04 (seventeen years ago) link
― Jordan (Jordan), Wednesday, 18 October 2006 17:30 (seventeen years ago) link
― Mary (Mary), Thursday, 19 October 2006 17:36 (seventeen years ago) link
― Docpacey (docpacey), Thursday, 19 October 2006 19:43 (seventeen years ago) link
I recently finished Murakami's "Kafka on the Shore". It was enjoyable enough, Murakami's usual strengths and weaknesses, but I'm starting to find his amiability and imaginative zip insufficient compensation for his aimlessness and self-indulgence. I've read most of what he's written, but suspect I won't be reading any more.
― frankiemachine (frankiemachine), Thursday, 19 October 2006 20:50 (seventeen years ago) link
― wmlynch (wlynch), Thursday, 19 October 2006 23:15 (seventeen years ago) link
― Meg Busset (Mog), Friday, 20 October 2006 07:31 (seventeen years ago) link
Next up: The Naked Madonna by Jan Wiese. That doesn't look to me like the name of a Norwegian, but apparently it is. Jan is about to chew the arm of his specs on the back cover, I think that's a bad sign but I'll give him the benefit of the doubt, for now.
― Tim (Tim), Friday, 20 October 2006 08:41 (seventeen years ago) link
― franny (frannyglass), Friday, 20 October 2006 12:17 (seventeen years ago) link
Although I would have to agree with the general position of the author that peak oil will touch off a great many chronic problems worldwide, I find the book is insufficiently researched and rather weakly argued. The author (whosis) tires quickly of supporting his opinions, so that often he just collects them and hands them to you with very little more than this sort of 'argument': "Is it likely this technology can continue without the platform of cheap oil to support it? I think not." End of story.
I'm disappointed, because this issue needs to be much more thoroughly presented. We are already fighting our second oil war in two decades and we are likely to be fighting more of them in the next several decades, unless the American public grasps the nettle and decides to change its way of life, rather than always being caught far behind the curve of events, manipulated, impoverished, and terminally stupid.
― Aimless (Aimless), Friday, 20 October 2006 16:11 (seventeen years ago) link
― Jaq (Jaq), Saturday, 21 October 2006 20:30 (seventeen years ago) link
― Broke Q. Pooreman (x Jeremy), Saturday, 21 October 2006 22:09 (seventeen years ago) link
― justine paul (justine), Sunday, 22 October 2006 00:53 (seventeen years ago) link
― ledge (ledge), Tuesday, 31 October 2006 00:37 (seventeen years ago) link
― Casuistry (Chris P), Tuesday, 31 October 2006 01:12 (seventeen years ago) link
― Nathalie (stevie nixed), Tuesday, 31 October 2006 09:32 (seventeen years ago) link
PL argument - I think it's just 'cause my sympathies lie in the opposite direction. While in general I buy his whole project of putting philosophy at the service of language instead of vice versa, in that particular instance I find the sceptical argument more compelling - irrefutable indeed; and the idea of being unable to follow a rule without a community just doesn't convince me.
― ledge (ledge), Tuesday, 31 October 2006 09:54 (seventeen years ago) link
― frankiemachine (frankiemachine), Tuesday, 31 October 2006 12:04 (seventeen years ago) link
― Ray (Ray), Tuesday, 31 October 2006 12:57 (seventeen years ago) link
it had a point! no tricks were necessary (although it does have an interlocking narrative from a previous book actually). i thought it was extremely moving which not something i could say about his other books, much as i liked them.
― jed_ (jed), Tuesday, 31 October 2006 13:17 (seventeen years ago) link
hey there's a link! apparently traci guest appeared on a manics track?
the bio's lame. the whole fucking book she says she hates talking about her porn daaazzze! i mean ffs 90 percent of the readers all buy the damn book to find out more about that period in her life, not so much about her experiences in the rave scene. she must know this.
― Nathalie (stevie nixed), Tuesday, 31 October 2006 13:22 (seventeen years ago) link
(I noticed the recurring character, but the narrative structure is still very simple. Not that there's anything wrong with that)
― Ray (Ray), Tuesday, 31 October 2006 13:32 (seventeen years ago) link
― Mädchen (Madchen), Tuesday, 31 October 2006 17:56 (seventeen years ago) link
Anyway, after finsihing that, everything else kinda pales in comparison (to coin a cliche) - I've picked-up and put down five books, at last count, and finally settled on The Coroner's Lunch, 'cause I figured that it was different enough I wouldn't keep comparing it to Suite. It's pretty entertaining, I must say.
― I'm Passing Open Windows (Ms Laura), Tuesday, 31 October 2006 23:17 (seventeen years ago) link
― Navek Rednam (Navek Rednam), Wednesday, 1 November 2006 22:44 (seventeen years ago) link
― Jaq (Jaq), Wednesday, 1 November 2006 23:02 (seventeen years ago) link
― Jaq (Jaq), Wednesday, 1 November 2006 23:07 (seventeen years ago) link
― Aimless (Aimless), Thursday, 2 November 2006 02:55 (seventeen years ago) link
― Josh (Josh), Thursday, 2 November 2006 03:09 (seventeen years ago) link
― Jaq (Jaq), Thursday, 2 November 2006 05:39 (seventeen years ago) link