Books The BOOK thread

Robert Harris - Dictator

The last book in a trilogy about Cicero. I really enjoyed it, and I think everyone who likes historical novels will too. Never read a bad novel by Harris. Pretty easy to read, without feeling too simple.
 
Cheesy said:
Probably one of the best prose writers of the past century. Man knew how to write a memorable phrase.
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I've read Goodbye, Columbus and Portnoy's Complaint and, to be quite honest, was underwhelmed by both. The latter is his most famous work, but many will argue that his more mature work far surpasses it in quality. Again, though, I wouldn't know for sure myself.

In any case, may he rest in peace.
 
Could you recommend books with a post-apocalyptic theme? Now I am reading two quite good. Metro 2033 and Wool (about life in a bunker), by Hugh Howey
 
Chekhov said:
I've read Goodbye, Columbus and Portnoy's Complaint and, to be quite honest, was underwhelmed by both. The latter is his most famous work, but many will argue that his more mature work far surpasses it in quality. Again, though, I wouldn't know for sure myself.

In any case, may he rest in peace.
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I like Portnoy's Complaint, but I'd argue a lot of its reputation stems from its infamy more than anything else. It was a lot more controversial in the 1960s than it is now in that it was basically a diatribe on wanking.

I'd suggest American Pastoral for Roth. It's got a lot of the similar themes he tends to explore over and over again and the narrator is again basically an author insert for himself, but it's also beautifully written at certain points and suggests some interesting ideas regarding American life. It could've probably been chopped down by a third by a decent editor...but still, part of the fun of Roth is the long lyrical phrases and the self-indulgence.
 
Cheesy said:
I like Portnoy's Complaint, but I'd argue a lot of its reputation stems from its infamy more than anything else. It was a lot more controversial in the 1960s than it is now in that it was basically a diatribe on wanking.

I'd suggest American Pastoral for Roth. It's got a lot of the similar themes he tends to explore over and over again and the narrator is again basically an author insert for himself, but it's also beautifully written at certain points and suggests some interesting ideas regarding American life. It could've probably been chopped down by a third by a decent editor...but still, part of the fun of Roth is the long lyrical phrases and the self-indulgence.
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Totally agree with that. Apparently he wrote his later works in his garden (in front of a lectern) and you can see that in those long, slightly hectoring, angry passages in American Pastoral, which is definitely one of his best works.

The Ghost Writer was brilliant. Really smart conceit and very well executed. He was one of my favourite writers.
 
carvajal said:
Could you recommend books with a post-apocalyptic theme? Now I am reading two quite good. Metro 2033 and Wool (about life in a bunker), by Hugh Howey
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There Will Come Soft Rains is rather odd, but beautifully melancholic, IMO. Only a short story, so you can finish it in a hurry. :)

Really like this Uzbekfilm animated adaptation called Budet laskovyy dozhd, too:



For more traditional themes, maybe try Kalki or Earth Abides or A Canticle for Leibowitz — all pretty standard fare fr the genre.
 
Cheesy said:
I like Portnoy's Complaint, but I'd argue a lot of its reputation stems from its infamy more than anything else. It was a lot more controversial in the 1960s than it is now in that it was basically a diatribe on wanking.

I'd suggest American Pastoral for Roth. It's got a lot of the similar themes he tends to explore over and over again and the narrator is again basically an author insert for himself, but it's also beautifully written at certain points and suggests some interesting ideas regarding American life. It could've probably been chopped down by a third by a decent editor...but still, part of the fun of Roth is the long lyrical phrases and the self-indulgence.
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Yes, I certainly have to give his later work a chance. Either American Pastoral or The Plot Against America would be good, although the latter would likely hit far too close to home at the moment.
 
carvajal said:
Could you recommend books with a post-apocalyptic theme? Now I am reading two quite good. Metro 2033 and Wool (about life in a bunker), by Hugh Howey
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Cormac McCarthy's The Road, if you want to be depressed for a year afterwards.

Station Eleven by Emily St. John Mandel, if you want something a little more light and optimistic.
 
Nickosaur said:
Cormac McCarthy's The Road, if you want to be depressed for a year afterwards.

Station Eleven by Emily St. John Mandel, if you want something a little more light and optimistic.
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Adebesi said:
The Stand by Stephen King
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Invictus said:
There Will Come Soft Rains is rather odd, but beautifully melancholic, IMO. Only a short story, so you can finish it in a hurry. :)

Really like this Uzbekfilm animated adaptation called Budet laskovyy dozhd, too:



For more traditional themes, maybe try Kalki or Earth Abides or A Canticle for Leibowitz — all pretty standard fare fr the genre.
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Thank you very much.I will add them and let you know if I liked. If the road is so depressing like the movie then I will probably avoid it
 
Adebesi said:
I dont think I could face another Cormac McCarthy book after Blood Meridian.

I feel like I have read plenty of other post-apocalyptic books but I cant think of any.
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I would highly recommend the Border Trilogy (All The Pretty Horses at least) and Suttree. Not as incessantly bleak and violent as Blood Meridian or The Road. Suttree is hilarious at times.
 
Nickosaur said:
I would highly recommend the Border Trilogy (All The Pretty Horses at least) and Suttree. Not as incessantly bleak and violent as Blood Meridian or The Road. Suttree is hilarious at times.
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If was the bleakness and violence that made me read it in the first place. I just didn't like the style of the writing, I found it hard work to read. Glad I read it though, can certainly see why some people loved it.
 
I’m reading a book called The Butchery Art at the moment, it’s about Dr Joseph Lister and the start of asepsis and the advent of anaesthesia and how surgery was performed in the 19th century. It was a common saying that a soldier had more chance of survival on the Battlefild of Waterloo than a person going into a hospital. Where the man responsible for removing bed lice was paid more than the head surgeon. Absolutely fascinating and makes you realise how far we’ve come. Highly recommend if you like this kind of reading.
 
A rare interview with Cormac McCarthy from 1992, discussing his life, Blood Meridian and other works:
NYT said:
"There's no such thing as life without bloodshed," McCarthy says philosophically. "I think the notion that the species can be improved in some way, that everyone could live in harmony, is a really dangerous idea. Those who are afflicted with this notion are the first ones to give up their souls, their freedom. Your desire that it be that way will enslave you and make your life vacuous."
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https://archive.nytimes.com/www.nyt...specials/mccarthy-venom.html?_r=1&oref=slogin
 
I'm gonna need to read more McCarthy, only been through BM so far. Pretty sure I have The Road sitting on my Kindle so will give that a go soon.
 
Outer Dark is the only book of McCarthy's I haven't read yet, I'll be starting it this weekend.
 
SteveJ said:
A rare interview with Cormac McCarthy from 1992, discussing his life, Blood Meridian and other works:

https://archive.nytimes.com/www.nyt...specials/mccarthy-venom.html?_r=1&oref=slogin
"There's no such thing as life without bloodshed,"
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He expresses something similar in one of my favourite passages from All the Pretty Horses.
“He thought that in the beauty of the world were hid a secret. He thought that the world’s heart beat at some terrible cost and that the world’s pain and its beauty moved in a relationship of diverging equity and that in this headlong deficit the blood of multitudes might ultimately be exacted for the vision of a single flower.”
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Just read The Silver Swan which is a part of a detective series which I think is a BBC show called Quirke. I didnt find it great. I'm now reading heart of Darkness.
 
My first six months were a bit more reading shining new YA books like the Cruel Prince (like it very much), American Panda (it feels so sometimes so caricatural), Children of Blood and Bone (it is an ok reading but I don't understand why it is so hyped, there are so many convenient things happening, so many loopholes), Everless (the MC is so stupidly optimistic she does things her father said to not do because she obviously knows better), To Kill a Kingdom (I really like the POV of the killer siren), Ash Princess (I find hard to care about a character who choose to sacrifice her best friend who helped her so much and to manipulate the boy in love with her) or a bit less new : Stalking Jack the Ripper (we got the night when the female MC decided to go alone during a night in the streets after some murders... obviously a case of MC too stupid to live), When Dimple Met Rishi (the female MC is fun, she reminds me of Hermione, while the male one is so bland).

So I should probably do more catch-up now. I read The Good Daughter by Karin Slaughter, The Prestige by Priest , Frenchman's creek by Daphne du Maurier, The Seven Husbands of Evelyn Hugo, Everything I never told you by Celeste Ng and they all disappointed me.

The Thing Around Your Neck by Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie is an interesting reading though it is hard to say how much the part of real is in these stories. City of Blades was a surprising reading. Gullstruck Island by Frances Hardinge is so amazing and quite harsh.
 
I'm kind of embarrassed to write this, but I feel like I need to ask. Have you guys ever felt bad about characters' deaths after a series of books? I swear I feel like I'm in mourning here and it's really weird.
 
BlueMoonOutcast said:
I'm kind of embarrassed to write this, but I feel like I need to ask. Have you guys ever felt bad about characters' deaths after a series of books? I swear I feel like I'm in mourning here and it's really weird.
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Nothing embarrassing about that. I've been moved to tears by plenty of books and even though I read very few series I can imagine that the death of a long standing character could make you feel bereaved. Making you feel that deeply is one of the many joys of literature isn't it?
 
BlueMoonOutcast said:
I'm kind of embarrassed to write this, but I feel like I need to ask. Have you guys ever felt bad about characters' deaths after a series of books? I swear I feel like I'm in mourning here and it's really weird.
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Last time I remember having tears in my eyes reading a book was with Shantaram. Not the best read by any means but has one big emotional death in it which hit me hard.
 
I'm currently reading Zadie Smith's Feel Free. I was underwhelmed by White Teeth which was technically extravagant but lacked any discernible humanity. Her non-fiction is much better, especially when she writes about herself and her background. There's a couple of magazine puff pieces on Jay-Z and Key and Peele in which Smith's voice is completely absent, and really don't need to be in the collection.

I recently finished Karl Ove Knausgaard's Autumn, which is written for his unborn daughter, and is a series of musings on every day objects, like trees and gumboots. As always he makes the mundane deeply human. To paraphrase Zadie Smith, his books are like crack to me.
 
BlueMoonOutcast said:
I'm kind of embarrassed to write this, but I feel like I need to ask. Have you guys ever felt bad about characters' deaths after a series of books? I swear I feel like I'm in mourning here and it's really weird.
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Nah, nothing wrong with that. What literature's for at the end of the day. I tend to be personally affected more by things that happen onscreen in films or TV emotionally (even though I probably tend more towards books as a medium) but there have sometimes been passages or moments in books you really like which make you sit back for a moment and think.
 
Anyone here read any DeLillo? Just finished White House, astonishingly good, very funny as well. There's a certain incredulity to the characters in their dialogue, which mixes well with some of the absurd situations.

The stuff about the guy who plans to break the world record for sitting in a pit of snakes is hilarious.:lol:
 
V. S. Naipaul died. I enjoyed three of his books - A Bend in the River, Among the Believers and An Area of Darkness.
 
Anyone read Mann's Magic Mountain? About a third of the way through - strange book but some of the best prose I've read.
 
Cheesy said:
Anyone read Mann's Magic Mountain? About a third of the way through - strange book but some of the best prose I've read.
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That's a book on my shelf that I've opened and read the first few pages a few times but never carried on with it. Be interested to know if you end up enjoying it.
 
2cents said:
That's a book on my shelf that I've opened and read the first few pages a few times but never carried on with it. Be interested to know if you end up enjoying it.
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I think I sort of love it - but at the same time very little has happened. Sometimes find myself drifting a bit and then there'll be some magnificent passage which draws me right back in.
 
Finished off Rebecca there by Du Maurier. Enjoyed it but it was a slow burner for me.
 
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