― 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
― Jordan (Jordan), Monday, 23 October 2006 03:00 (seventeen years ago) link
i really liked this until the end, which i found really awful. it was all build up but the payoff didn't work for me.
i'm reading a 70s sci-fi short story collection, "Where Do We Go From Here?" it was collected for high schools by isaac asimov, and as such has leading questions for discussion after each story to engage the class/serve as homework for lazy teachers. i've got about 6 or 7 of this sort of short story collection, with various themes. they're always really enjoyable.
next i want to read ray bradbury's something wicked this way comes, because it fits the weather nicely.
― derrick (derrick), Monday, 23 October 2006 05:19 (seventeen years ago) link
I haven't decided on my next book, but I did pick up The Perennial Philosophy by Aldous Huxley and started in on it last night. It may be a bit too introductory to hold me for long.
― Aimless (Aimless), Monday, 23 October 2006 15:38 (seventeen years ago) link
― PJ Miller (PJ Miller 68), Monday, 23 October 2006 16:05 (seventeen years ago) link
― Ray (Ray), Tuesday, 24 October 2006 06:46 (seventeen years ago) link
70 pp of Titus Groan to go.
― PJ Miller (PJ Miller 68), Tuesday, 24 October 2006 07:10 (seventeen years ago) link
Please do not come back here trying to get us to buy Noel Edmonds' book. If you do, I will assume you are being paid by a viral marketing company.
I am still wading my way through The Scramble for Africa. Too many wars and not enough exploration for my liking, at this point. However, I took a break from it at the weekend and read Affinity by Sarah Waters. I'm not sure I'd describe her books as pastiche Victoriana really. Although Fingersmith certainly does have a great deal of lesbianism in it. Affinity is slighter, shorter, and very gothic.
― accentmonkey (accentmonkey), Tuesday, 24 October 2006 07:25 (seventeen years ago) link
Just started Paul Theroux's The Old Patagonian Express and so far it's giving me aching wanderlust (not much use when you're 5 months pregnant).
― Meg Busset (Mog), Tuesday, 24 October 2006 08:00 (seventeen years ago) link
― PJ Miller (PJ Miller 68), Tuesday, 24 October 2006 09:08 (seventeen years ago) link
Now: "The Goodbye Kiss" by Massimo Carlotto, which is brutal Italian hard-boiled crime fiction. I'm about halfway through and it's all too macho for me, I think. It looks like I'm the sort of person to enjoy the more bleeding heart liberal Scando version.
― Tim (Tim), Tuesday, 24 October 2006 09:26 (seventeen years ago) link
That being said, "Portrait of a Lady" was a fairly smashing book, and I feel wonderfully happy being lost in the jungle that is "The Golden Bowl." Strange, too, because I had always heard that Henry James was a tedious read -- I guess I'm just a sucker for florid prose.
Rabelais has been put on hold until I can find a better version.
― mj (robert blake), Wednesday, 25 October 2006 01:50 (seventeen years ago) link
― accentmonkey (accentmonkey), Wednesday, 25 October 2006 06:00 (seventeen years ago) link
But, to reward myself for actually finishing them, I've just started Suite Francaise which is achingly beautiful ... at least the first couple of chapters. But it's going to be getting grim really soon, I fear. And, knowing what happened to the author and all, I have this overall feeling of bleakness.
― I'm Passing Open Windows (Ms Laura), Wednesday, 25 October 2006 07:23 (seventeen years ago) link
― PJ Miller (PJ Miller 68), Wednesday, 25 October 2006 07:28 (seventeen years ago) link
glad to hear you say this to know that i'm not just mad. it was so wonderfully delightful until the very, very end, and the anticipation makes the lousy payoff seem all the worse. i felt cheated :(
this week, i am cracking into turkey: a modern history and terrorists or freedom fighters: reflections on the liberation of animals.
― derrick (derrick), Wednesday, 25 October 2006 07:54 (seventeen years ago) link
So now I'm reading "Portnoy's Complaint", which is much more up my proverbial alley. NO I DON'T MEAN BY WAY OF IDENTIFICATION WITH THE LEAD CHARACTER, cheeky.
*I have met more first year undergraduates who take this self-congrtulatory and fruitless line than I have any other broad group, please don't take this as some kind of blanket condemnation of undergraduates!
― Tim (Tim), Wednesday, 25 October 2006 13:46 (seventeen years ago) link
Have you read anything by him before? The early work is actually written in a fairly straightforward manner -- it just isn't as interesting as the later stuff (to me, anyway). The ornate style only really confuses in the final works.
Could I recommend one of his novellas to you? "Daisy Miller," perhaps? "The Aspern Papers"? Those probably wouldn't require a whole lot of time if they interested you.
― mj (robert blake), Thursday, 26 October 2006 01:56 (seventeen years ago) link
― Aimless (Aimless), Thursday, 26 October 2006 02:11 (seventeen years ago) link
I like them, but I definitely wouldn't start with The Bostonians or What Maisie Knew.
― horseshoe (horseshoe), Thursday, 26 October 2006 04:09 (seventeen years ago) link
― horseshoe (horseshoe), Thursday, 26 October 2006 04:11 (seventeen years ago) link
― Mädchen (Madchen), Thursday, 26 October 2006 08:58 (seventeen years ago) link