Spring 2007: What?! Are You Reading?

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Hamilton is awesome. His villains are the WORST. I got so mad during The West Pier it took me a month to read it.

― franny glass, Friday, 30 March 2007 13:06 (seventeen years ago) link

I loved 'The West Pier' so much. A pity the Gorse books just petered out with the third one, and his career of villainy never hit full stride. The only Hamilton I've not read is his first, 'Monday Morning'. I can't find a copy ANYWHERE!

Am now reading Peter Ho Davies' 'The Welsh Girl', which is a wonderful, very quiet war book (set in Wales in 1944).

― James Morrison, Sunday, 1 April 2007 12:28 (seventeen years ago) link

Howl's Moving Castle by Diana Wynne Jones. Much better than the movie.

― Virginia Plain, Sunday, 1 April 2007 18:47 (seventeen years ago) link

i'm rereading don delillo's the names - it's still my favourite of his.
next i think i will read catherine bush's third novel, claire's head.

― derrrick, Sunday, 1 April 2007 21:38 (seventeen years ago) link

Hamilton fans who haven't seen it should try to get a hold of the BBC dramatisation of "20,000 Streets under the Sky" - very faithful to the novels, and captures their atmosphere better than I would have thought possible on what is obviously a tight budget. Zoe Tapper is a perfect Jenny Maple: the difficult thing to manage is making Bob's obsession with Jenny plausible without making the viewer completely lose sympathy with one or both characters, and I had absolutely no problem believing that Bob would have been besotted (ie I was a bit besotted with her myself). Sally Hawkins's Ella is also beautifully done.

― frankiemachine, Monday, 2 April 2007 09:51 (seventeen years ago) link

nope, instead i am reading a paperback on the chernobyl disaster and its impact on the nuclear industry written by a 'team of observer correspondents.' it's fun and scary.

― derrrick, Tuesday, 3 April 2007 07:03 (seventeen years ago) link

I finished Pursuit of Power about a week ago. It was a nice combination of erudition and insight, but much more of the former than the latter.

Then I took Beneath the Wheel by Hesse with me on an overnight hike and read about 2/3 of it in my tent while rain pattered a foot or two over my head. As soon as I returned to a world where this was not the only book within 5 miles of me, it became difficult to finish it. I finally did so last night. It was an early work and YACOAN (Yet Another Coming Of Age Novel), and so not his best stuff.

I haven't yet decided on my next book. Too many choices.

― Aimless, Tuesday, 3 April 2007 16:57 (seventeen years ago) link

I haven't been on a winning streak recently. I have read Louise Welsh's "The Bullet Trick", which didn't live up to the hype although entertaining enough in a modest way -- like the novelisation of an episode of Jonathan Creek by a slightly better writer than you imagine would take the job. Natsuo Kirino's "Out", I abandoned a couple of hundred pages in, especially disappointing since it was warmly recommended by people who generally like the same things I do: I can see that Kirino has a genuine freshness of perspective, but I found it psychologically implausible and gloomily unpleasant; also annoyingly manipulative in the twisty way thrillers can be. I re-read Vikram Seth's " An Equal Music", which I enjoyed very much when it was first published, but it didn't stand up to rereading. The bits
about the practicalities and politics of being in a string quartet were still fascinating and beautifully done, but the love story was sickly, and I had a strong impression that I was meant to like the adulterous lovers far more than their shallow selfishness would allow.

Much better than any of these was David Mitchell's "Black Swan Green". I seem to remember some indifferent reviews of this, and of course it was surprisingly left off a very dreary Booker shortlist. Quite unfairly so, in my opinion.

Also read recently Paul Griffith's "The String Quartet -- A History", solid criticism but a bit dry. I've also been re-reading Yeats's "Selected Poems". I started with a bit of trepidation, because I'm conscious of a few people who've lost their taste for Yeats despite being fans in their teens or 20s. I needn't have worried though, I like his work as much as I ever did.

― frankiemachine, Tuesday, 3 April 2007 17:24 (seventeen years ago) link

Since my last post, I have finished reading the selection of Van Gogh's letters, a biography about Paschal Beverly Randolph, and reread a play by Shakespeare for a class. So, these last few days have been fairly productive by my standards.

Right now, I am stuck in book lingo again, but a trip to the library tomorrow should fix said situation.

― mj, Thursday, 5 April 2007 04:07 (seventeen years ago) link

Book Lingo? Limbo? Lingo?

I finished the walk to Hungary, which was generally pleasant (the guy who learned English by reading Shakespeare was fantastic). Now school has started up again. I am not sure what I will read next. Perhaps I too am in Look Bingo.

― Casuistry, Thursday, 5 April 2007 05:18 (seventeen years ago) link

'American-Born Chinese' by Gene Luan Yang
'The Revolt of "Mother"' by Mary E Wilkins Freeman
'A Smile of Fortune' by Joseph Conrad
'The Progress of Love' by Alice Munro

― James Morrison, Thursday, 5 April 2007 06:44 (seventeen years ago) link

I often wonder how many books people (*real readers*) read per week or per month. I am happy if I can finish one in two weeks if it's a *serious* book. If it's pulp then I usually finish it in a week.

― nathalie, Thursday, 5 April 2007 10:44 (seventeen years ago) link

Jordan - what do you think of World War Z so far?

Well, I like all the implications and practicalities and politics that it addresses. And it's good to read before bed because it's basically a bunch of 3-4 page short stories.

I'd heard that the author uses pretty much the same voice for all of the characters and I don't mind that, but the voice kinda annoys me. I don't like it when an author's research is really transparent and shoehorned in, and it feels like that here sometimes (many of the military and political details esp...I know the whole thing is supposed to be a "report", but still). Also whenever he tries to get writerly with adjectives and stuff, man, people just do not all of a sudden talk like that.

― Jordan, Thursday, 5 April 2007 15:23 (seventeen years ago) link

When I am stuck on what to read, I read essays. Therefore I have been reading Destinations, a book of essays first printed in Rolling Stone magazine in the 70s, by Jan Morris. So far I really like them.

― Aimless, Thursday, 5 April 2007 17:04 (seventeen years ago) link

Un Lun Dun, China Mièville; There Is No Me Without You, Melissa Fay Greene; Baseball Prospectus 2007

― Dimension 5ive, Thursday, 5 April 2007 17:10 (seventeen years ago) link

Looks like I've read 20 books so far this year (many of them short books of poetry), but that doesn't include 500+ pages of academic pdfs (nor anything else online, in magazines, or whatevs).

― Casuistry, Thursday, 5 April 2007 18:07 (seventeen years ago) link

6 :(

― Jordan, Thursday, 5 April 2007 18:17 (seventeen years ago) link

Thanks for the assessment, Jordan - I received it as a Christmas gift and keep dithering about whether to move it into my "really going to read one of these books next" pile.

Dimension 5ive - How do you feel about Un Lun Dun?

I finished Curse of the Narrows and found it to be quite engrossing (okay, so I'm on a "old disasters" reading kick - about the Galveston hurricane, the Johnstown flood, the 1906 quake, the Triangle Shirtwaist Factory fire - you get the idea) - Curse of the Narrows was a "disaster" that I knew nothing about - educational, well-written, well-researched.

Now I'm about to start Fragrant Rice: My Continuing Love Affair with Bali by Janet De Neefe - kind of a food/travel/cultural immersion memoir, it looks like. (I was actually vascillating between The Steampunk Trilogy and The Gormenghast Trilogy and ended-up doing my usual thing of chosing a third book that bears no resemblance to the original two.)

― MsLaura, Friday, 6 April 2007 07:16 (seventeen years ago) link

So far I love Un Lun Dun because it is truly funky and strange as well as being appropriately environmental, both of which really appeal to kids, and me. I think it will go on to be hugely important and influential, but mostly it's just fun. My daughter is reading it during the day and I am reading it at night. Favorite character, among the many weirdo characters here: the sentient milk carton named Curdle.

― Dimension 5ive, Friday, 6 April 2007 14:18 (seventeen years ago) link

I just got through a few Faulkners: Absalom, Absalom!, Light in August, some of his short stories; and Pamuk's The White Castle. I wasn't all that impressed with Pamuk. The book was interesting, but I couldn't stop thinking that I was inside a chapter of Calvino's Invisible Cities. I wonder if his other books are better, or at least more distinctive.
I just started J.M. Ledgard's Giraffe. The first couple chapters are first person from the point of view of one of the giraffes. I'm intrigued.

― wmlynch, Sunday, 8 April 2007 00:43 (seventeen years ago) link

bird by bird – anne lamott
lies, inc. – pkd
dr. bloodmoney – pkd
querelle – genet
in evil hour – garcia marquez

― remy bean, Monday, 9 April 2007 06:42 (seventeen years ago) link

Teenage - Jon Savage
With Chatwin - Susannah Clapp
The Levanter - Eric Ambler
Rum Punch - Elmore Leonard*
Blood Work - Michael Connelly

searching for a copy of Black and White - Shiva Naipaul

*snappy dialogue or no I've decided EL is way way over-rated

― m coleman, Monday, 9 April 2007 09:56 (seventeen years ago) link

In honor of Easter I re-read my copy of Alan Watts's The Wisdom of Insecurity. He wrote it in 1951. It was his first big statement of what became his perpetual subject matter, and it was a little less beholden to Zen literature than many of his subsequent books.

Since I can never seem to summon the discipline of regular meditation, reading (and rereading) this sort of book is the closest I ever come to manifesting the lessons of mysticism. Regular meditation would be much, much better, though.

― Aimless, Monday, 9 April 2007 17:02 (seventeen years ago) link

*snappy dialogue or no I've decided EL is way way over-rated
And yet you like Pelicanos, lovebug.

― James Redd and the Blecchs, Monday, 9 April 2007 18:03 (seventeen years ago) link

Sorry, Pelecanos.

― James Redd and the Blecchs, Monday, 9 April 2007 18:08 (seventeen years ago) link

that answers my question about whether you liked Soul Circus or not.

― m coleman, Monday, 9 April 2007 18:37 (seventeen years ago) link

or was it another one? anyway you probably got the gist. with guys like Pelecanos and Leonard either their individual twist on the hardboiled formula gets under your skin or it gets on your nerves after awhile.

― m coleman, Monday, 9 April 2007 18:42 (seventeen years ago) link

I have been reading some classic narratives of old gothic fiction lately in order to fill the reading void -- interesting to read pre-cinematic fantastical fiction to see just how differently it was conceived and thought of.

That being said, I give my hearty recommendation to James Hogg's wonderful Private Memoirs and Confessions of a Justified Sinner. I've not finished reading In A Glass Darkly yet, but it is very worthwhile as well.

Conversely, I was not able to read more than fifty pages of Radcliffe's The Italian before stopping. What a silly little book. Most of the early English stuff is though, so it is not that surprising.

― mj, Tuesday, 10 April 2007 01:16 (seventeen years ago) link

Private Memoirs and Confessions of a Justified Sinner: I was amazed how modern this felt - really great stuff (not because it felt modern, that was just part of it, but simply because it's a unique and wonderfully written novel).

Just finished the new Ian McEwan, which was very sad indeed, but also excellent.

― James Morrison, Tuesday, 10 April 2007 06:11 (seventeen years ago) link

Missed off my last post, " Interpretation of Murder", reasonably entertaining but not entirely successful -- preposterously convoluted denoument among other failings.

Just re-read "The Old Devils" by Kingsley Amis: I didn't get this at all the first time I read it, many years ago, but I thought it was much, much better this time. There are some fairly serious imperfections -- the large number of characters is not successfully managed, and even on re-reading I got confused about who was who, and who was married to whom, and had to keep checking back. The dialogue was often in a style that seemed too close to the authorial voice, although this may be explained by a semi-autobiographical element (it's obviously based on a social clique that included Amis, and it may be that everyone talked similarly, and that this is reflected his own style). Stylistically it was interesting: it moves away from Amis's early, very clear style into something much more convoluted, which works most of the time but can occasionally seem self-indulgent, or otiose or old fartish. There is definitely a suspicion that old-age and too much booze have taken their toll on Amis as a craftsman.

But emotionally I thought it was pitch perfect, and extremely moving in places. One thing I think it shows is that Amis was a lot more self-aware than his public persona suggests. The group's right-wing political prejudices (obviously similar to Amis's own) are not presented sympathetically, but rather as fragments that people made vulnerable by age and impending death have shored up against their ruin. Alun Weaver, the ruthless womaniser and literary celebrity who fears (quite rightly in his case) that he has prostituted whatever talent he may have had in pursuit of fame and a comfortable life, is obviously in some ways at least a version of Amis himself, and he is a monster.

I've just started reading "The Dream Life of Sukhanov” by Olga Grushin. Only read a couple of dozen pages, so early days, but it started quite brilliantly.

― frankiemachine, Tuesday, 10 April 2007 10:12 (seventeen years ago) link

An x-post based on James' comments on Sinner:

Aside from the cautionary stance that the author takes -- I would say, rightfully taken -- against religious fanaticism and political strife, it is written in an incredibly dense fashion with multiple layers of narration. I was surprised at how much depth Robert Wringhim had, in addition to wondering how true any of the narrative was, since it was written by, in theory, a damaged mind. It was also funny to read about the author inserting himself into the text as a goofy Scottish man who might have written a load of rubbish in his "letter" about the whole incident.

"Melmoth the Wanderer" impressed me in the same fashion, but it did not undercut the narrative in such a lighthearted way. There, the focus on the main character came from several people who were perhaps creating the whole thing in their minds. Most often, by people who were under extreme religious torture and in a state of despair. Then said reports were related second-hand in most cases by people who had heard of their stories. Remarkable stuff, to me.

Or, "Saragossa Manuscript", where the focus seemed to be on the art of storytelling itself -- although I do not know if that is really Gothic in the sense of the other two.

At any rate, some of these old fictions really do amaze me.

― mj, Tuesday, 10 April 2007 15:25 (seventeen years ago) link

I just started going through A Good Man is Hard to Find, which is my first time reading O'Connor, and while it's very good, I read so many (now very obvious) knock-offs of her style in high school that she is seeming very 6th-form-exam-y to me. Annoying, but I think I'll get over it.

― franny glass, Tuesday, 10 April 2007 15:51 (seventeen years ago) link

goodreads

Like lastFM but for books.

― Michael White, Tuesday, 10 April 2007 22:01 (seventeen years ago) link

Yes, it was Soul Circus, Mark. A long time ago I read A Firing Offense and didn't much like it- it made me feel like I had been transported back in time to the early 70s and trapped in the basement of the King Karol's in Main Street Flushing with no route of escape.

I did just enjoy a book that was blurbed by Pelecanos, The Big Boom, by Domenic Stansberry, which is the second in a series featuring a character nicknamed The Pelican, Pellicano being a family name for both the character and the author. Maybe both authors are related from way back when.

― James Redd and the Blecchs, Wednesday, 11 April 2007 01:10 (seventeen years ago) link

Ken, if you have any further interest in persuing Pelecanos you should try The Sweet Forever, it goes beyond the WACKY idiosyncracy of some of his other stuff and is actually kind of affecting.

― C0L1N B..., Wednesday, 11 April 2007 02:03 (seventeen years ago) link

I must try 'Melmoth' - I think I saw a copy at the shop last time I was there.

Read Rachel Cusk's "Arlington Park", which was bitterly witty and engrossing, even though nothing really happens, and for some light relief, Anita Loos' autobiographical "Kiss Goodbye to Hollywood", which alternates between lots of fun and mildly irritating.

― James Morrison, Wednesday, 11 April 2007 04:53 (seventeen years ago) link

I'm interested in Arlington Park - there was a different Rachel Cusk book that I wanted to read, can't remember the title. I think I mostly wanted to read it because I liked the cover art, and I like the surname 'Cusk'. Have you read anything else of hers, James?

― franny glass, Wednesday, 11 April 2007 13:50 (seventeen years ago) link

x-post to myself: Interesting interview with China Miéville about Un Lun Dun on "The Bat Segundo Show," fascinating stuff (but laden with spoilers after the 1/2way point).

― Dimension 5ive, Wednesday, 11 April 2007 15:17 (seventeen years ago) link

"The Sweet Forever" was the Pelecanos I enjoyed most, although that may have been more to do with timing than anything else. I read "Right As Rain" a couple of years ago and thought it entertaining enough, but it didn't make me think I needed to read more. At the start of this year, after reading a few fairly heavy books in a row, I picked up "The Sweet Forever" for light relief and found it was exactly what I was looking for. I quickly read the rest of that quartet, followed by "Shame the Devil", but the law of diminishing returns has started to kick in now. I've started "Drama City" but I'm finding it difficult to get up much enthusiasm. I've also bought "Soul Circus", but have no plans to start reading it any time very soon.

― frankiemachine, Wednesday, 11 April 2007 17:28 (seventeen years ago) link

Relations of the Things of the Yucatan by Fray Diego De Landa, in a fairly shitty Mexican edition (lots of typos and awkward translation) I bought in the airport in order to keep my mind in Mexico a little longer and block out the Boobi Americani coming back from Cancun.

― Hurting 2, Wednesday, 11 April 2007 22:28 (seventeen years ago) link

That and a bunch of fairly easy short stories in Spanish in a reader I bought to practice.

― Hurting 2, Wednesday, 11 April 2007 22:29 (seventeen years ago) link

I'm reading Konwicki's A Dreambook for Our Time and I love it so far. I'm not entirely sure what's going on, but his language is lovely and haunting and engrossing. Not quite as good as A Minor Apocalypse, but I can't think of many books I liked as much as that one.

― wmlynch, Wednesday, 11 April 2007 22:31 (seventeen years ago) link

Re Rachel Cusk: I've also read "The Lucky Ones", which claims to be a novel but is a collection of (connected, and excellent) short stories, plus "A Life's Work", her non-fiction book about becoming a mother. That was really interesting, but I kept wondering how such an obviouslt intelligent person could have been so surprised by some of the stuff she came up against. My wife's a huge Cusk fan, which is how I got into her books.

― James Morrison, Thursday, 12 April 2007 03:39 (seventeen years ago) link

Now reading Rachel Carson's "Silent Spring", which is very good, but also very depressing and angry-making. }sigh{

― James Morrison, Thursday, 12 April 2007 23:30 (seventeen years ago) link

Just finished The Time Traveler's Wife... not bad.

― sadie, Friday, 13 April 2007 11:34 (seventeen years ago) link

Lots and LOTS of cookbooks as I'm in a cooking mode.

― nathalie, Friday, 13 April 2007 12:55 (seventeen years ago) link

I took a break from the Le Fanu in order to read a thin primer about some of the impressionist artists. I've also got a book about Monet that I will probably start in the near future.

Right now, I'm back at the Le Fanu, and I will hopefully finish reading it in the next couple of days. Haven't gotten to "Carmilla" yet, so it is helping to push me along.

― mj, Saturday, 14 April 2007 23:38 (seventeen years ago) link

querelle

― 冷明, Sunday, 15 April 2007 06:38 (seventeen years ago) link

mj it's too bad that you couldn't finish The Italian. I revelled in the silliness.

I've read 19 books this year, a bit low for me because I've gotten into journals in a big, big way.

Currently reading Moravagine by Blaise Cendrars (so very very very different from what I'm used to) and The Wedding Jester by Steve Stern.

― Arethusa, Sunday, 15 April 2007 08:13 (seventeen years ago) link

Lately:

A survey of the Renaissance and Baroque-era music.
Beckett "Malone Dies"
B.S.Johnson "Christie Malry's Own Double Entry". Very funny. Need to read the rest of them.

Wondering whether to finish Patrick White's "Riders in the Chariot", got bored about 150 pgs in. Probably go onto some Faulkner instead.

― xyzzzz__, Sunday, 15 April 2007 09:59 (seventeen years ago) link

Skipping 190 messages at this point... Click here if you want to load them all.

Yes, I agree - it's a strange pass that we've come to in literary history that in order to be taken seriously you have to be strenuously silly, but there we are.

― o. nate, Tuesday, 12 June 2007 18:44 (seventeen years ago) link

julio, could i get your email address? i'm t✧✧.w✧✧✧@gm✧✧✧.✧0m. if it's not an imposition i'd like to pick your brains about something related to the london free improv scene. cheers.

i don't seem to have read much lately. i read a louis sachar novel.

― thomp, Tuesday, 12 June 2007 20:19 (seventeen years ago) link

huh. that's obscured my email address a whole bunch more than i was expecting. why'd it do that?

― thomp, Tuesday, 12 June 2007 20:19 (seventeen years ago) link

Yeah, I was wondering how anyone was going to decode that.

I've recently read Herman Hesse's 'The Prodigy', which was OK in a sub-Goethe way, and Gertrude Atherton's 'THe Bell in the Fog'. a collection of her Edwardian/Victorian suspense stories. THe title one is interesting - the central character is patently based on Henry James and his writing 'The Turn of the Screw', and the Henry James analogue develops a frankly creepy obsession with a beuatiful 6yo girl. Good, but odd.

― James Morrison, Wednesday, 13 June 2007 01:26 (seventeen years ago) link

i'm reading the second book of the 'prince of nothing' trilogy by r scott bakker. it's very good, but i don't think it looks as good on a book cv as the other reads here. but then i don't read for self improvement.

― darraghmac, Thursday, 14 June 2007 03:04 (seventeen years ago) link

Experiencing pure enjoyment can be very self-improving.

― James Morrison, Thursday, 14 June 2007 06:07 (seventeen years ago) link

Tom just seen it - as I think I know your surname I've emailed you from an account of mine. Let me know if you get it.

Been having probs w/home internet access so will check back/reply to anything on saturday.

― xyzzzz__, Thursday, 14 June 2007 17:16 (seventeen years ago) link

The library has 2 of the Updike Rabbit books for me! In the week of not having anything from my hold list, I reread Steinbeck's Sweet Thursday.

― Jaq, Friday, 15 June 2007 16:03 (seventeen years ago) link

Soon we shall need a new 'What Are Your Reading' thread for Summer 2007. I am not dissatisfied with this fact.

I plan to the next week camping and hiking, not forgetting to bring many books with me - ratty paperback books that I can read with grubby hands. The Russian Revolution magnum opus I am (still) reading shall not go with me. It is unsuitable for such pastimes, being both nice and pig-enormous. When I return, I shall reveal all.

― Aimless, Friday, 15 June 2007 23:30 (seventeen years ago) link

speaking of the Rabbit books, I finally bought the Everyman's version w/ a gift card from xmas and am now mid-Redux and its been a great read so far...really enjoying, though I knew I would to be fair.

skimming through, someone mentioned Adam Rapp's Year of Endless Sorrows a while back. Read it maybe 3+ months ago, did like it quite a bit, can basically only remember hilarious workplace party scene w/ main character escorting bosses' daughter.

― johnny crunch, Friday, 15 June 2007 23:54 (seventeen years ago) link

Just finished The Road this morning. It was my first c. mccarthy and I was somewhat disappointed. It was somewhat enjoyable, and a rather quick read, but it all just seemed rather pointless. And I guess I just didn't take to his prose, it seemed a bit boring to me.

Before that was Black Swan Green, which I enjoyed immensely. I was sad when it was over. Most sympathetic narrator evah.

― askance johnson, Saturday, 16 June 2007 01:15 (seventeen years ago) link

Has anyone here read and enjoyed The Electric Michelangelo? I had to stop after 60 or so pages because it was all melodramatic, stylistically out-of-control pap. Not a moment could Hall let pass by without adding ornaments to make it profound. Why Hall? Why.

― Arethusa, Monday, 18 June 2007 02:14 (seventeen years ago) link

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