This is the thread where you log the books that you saw while browsing and you thought - erm this looks interesting, it will be solid and all but you've read a bunch in your life (you know what's what) and its not going to do anything beyond make for a nice, diverting afternoon, when you should be aiming for better.
― xyzzzz__, Friday, 23 March 2018 16:57 (six years ago) link
At the local Oxfam:
Domenico Starnone - Lies. Clearly a Ferrante cash-in (allegedly its her husband). This will be good ~150 pages but you know his wife writes better.J.M.Coetzee - Waiting for the Barbarians. I like Disgrace. I also like cranky crit this guy churns out, and this is before his Nobel (not that authors ever write masterpieces after they win the Nobel I wouldn't know about that), but...you know...
Obv you don't need to put in an explanation its just to expand on the thread premise.
Please shout if these are masterpieces. I might re-consider.
― xyzzzz__, Friday, 23 March 2018 17:02 (six years ago) link
Thread title re anything more about WWII (just saw Churchill and Orwell: The Fight For Freedon in library ffs)
― dow, Tuesday, 27 March 2018 01:30 (six years ago) link
I approve of this thread as a psychological trick to make me think "hmm, if I DON'T buy this I can post about it on ILX later" rather than "if I do buy this I can post about it to ILX later".
― Daniel_Rf, Tuesday, 27 March 2018 09:09 (six years ago) link
The Finite Library
― Leslie “POLLS” Hartley (James Redd and the Blecchs), Tuesday, 27 March 2018 10:23 (six years ago) link
Shit! I'm too late for this thread. I'm a sucker for over-glossy, Vanity Fair style reporting on movies, so I just bought The Devil's Candy for a pound. And Interpreter of Maladies for 99p. Both were recommend on ILB/E at some point, I think.
― Chuck_Tatum, Tuesday, 27 March 2018 17:17 (six years ago) link
Next time I'll do better.
Please do :)
Leonardo Sciascia - Council of Egypt. A master of euro fiction but historical novels are not what he is known for. Don't believe he'll pull it off.
― xyzzzz__, Tuesday, 27 March 2018 21:23 (six years ago) link
You messed up - “The Council of Egypt” is amazing. (You can borrow my copy).
― Tim, Tuesday, 27 March 2018 22:47 (six years ago) link
J.M.Coetzee - Waiting for the Barbarians -- this is really good. But his most recent novels are well worth missing, they seem to be exercises in removing absolutely any elements that might give the reader pleasure.
― Mince Pramthwart (James Morrison), Wednesday, 28 March 2018 00:35 (six years ago) link
Tim, might do that :) I might try the Coetzee too if its still there.
― xyzzzz__, Thursday, 29 March 2018 07:45 (six years ago) link
The only Coetzee I've read that I could vaguely describe as pleasurable is Elizabeth Costello,
― DJ U OK Hun? (jed_), Thursday, 29 March 2018 08:43 (six years ago) link