Yo caf, recommend me some great non-fiction books.
Books The BOOK thread
- Thread starter Livvie
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Any topic?
History, philosophy and whatnot.
How I Escaped My Certain Fate by Stewart Lee - a breakdown of his stand-up shows with some memoir thrown in.
We Were Eight Years in Power by Ta-Nehisi Coates - an essay from each year of Obama's eight in power, with forewords for context. Between the World and Me is excellent too.
My Struggle by Karl Ove Knausgaard - books one and two are the ones I'd recommend. Being Swedish, you may have read these.
Home and Away by Knausgaard and Fredrik Eklund - they exchanged letters during the 2014 World Cup. Good mix of light philosophy and football.
Fear and Loathing on the Campaign Trail '72 by Hunter S. Thompson - my favourite Thompson and actually maybe the only one I actually like.
Just Kids by Patti Smith - she's full of shit but it's cool to read about life in 60s New York with Robert Mapplethorpe.
Down and Dirty Pictures by Peter Biskind - chronicles the rise of American Indie cinema through the Weinsteins and Miramax. I'd like to re-read this given what we know now about ol' Harvey.
Junky by William Burroughs - the only tolerable Burroughs.
I Know Why The Caged Bird Sings by Maya Angelou - devastating memoir from a great writer.
What I Talk About When I Talk About Running by Haruki Murakami - actually makes marathon running seem like a reasonable pursuit.
Consider the Lobster by David Foster Wallace - my favourite essay collection and far more readable than his overwrought fiction.
Why I'm No Longer Talking to White People About Race by Reni Eddo-Lodge - a flawed by interesting discussion of race in the UK.
The Autobiography of Malcolm X - rank misogyny aside, this is a great memoir.
Stalin: The Court of the Red Tsar by Simon Montefiore
The Passion of Michel Foucault by James Miller
What-knotting for Beginners by Ima Twit
The Passion of Michel Foucault by James Miller
What-knotting for Beginners by Ima Twit
I thought that said by James Milner, and thought 'ooh he is versatile'.
Boring read though. 
Thanks, chaps
I'm a bit curious about 'The Origins of Totalitarianism' after watching Margarethe von Trotta's biopic about Arendt.
I'm a bit curious about 'The Origins of Totalitarianism' after watching Margarethe von Trotta's biopic about Arendt.
I like travel writing, here’s a list I posted in this thread a while back - https://www.redcafe.net/threads/the-book-thread.155497/page-74#post-17282291
To which I’d add Bruce Chatwin’s In Patagonia.
As for history, assuming you’re not looking for anything too dry and academic:
Bruce Clark, Twice a Stranger - about the Greek-Turkish war and population exchange that followed the First World War.
Alastair Horne, A Savage War of Peace - about the horrific Algerian war of independence.
Roy Mottahedeh, The Mantle of the Prophet - an account of the life of an Iranian cleric in the years preceding the Islamic Revolution.
Kamal Salibi, A House of Many Mansions - an analysis of the conflicting national identities of Lebanon.
Max Rodenbeck, Cairo: The City Victorious - a really great biography of Cairo, really nice book.
Gilles Kepel, The Prophet and the Pharaoh - an account of Islamic extremism in Egypt in the 60s, 70s and 80s before Al Qaeda came along and hipsterized the field.
I’d also recommend two of David Simon’s books, Homocide and The Corner.
Cheers!
Finished this last week - as I say it's a weird, unique book in many respects but I thought it was fecking brilliant and probably stands as one of my favourites. Mann's approach to our perception of time etc is fascinating even if it's often presented in a way that seems obvious once you've read it but remains insightful all the same. There's a lot of overwrought philosophical discussions at times but then you're often unsure if it's supposed to be a genuine dialogue or Mann taking the piss out of these intellectuals who've essentially disconnected themselves from a world around them that's gradually falling apart. I'd recommend reading it when you know you've got some time to spare, because it's probably best read in longer stretches where you can allow yourself to become lost in the setting.
Sound great, thanks!
Just be aware of the translation you get, mine had one of the novel's most important dialogues left entirely in French deliberately.
Just be aware of the translation you get, mine had one of the novel's most important dialogues left entirely in French deliberately.
I'm reading The Magic Mountain right now and it prolongs tension beautifully. I just can't see the suspense be alive for all or most of the book. There are two translations. The first one is unreadable. The modern one is better, much so.
How far in are you? I think the translator of the one I read had genuine thematic reasons for leaving it in French as opposed to it just being an oversight - obviously not too helpful when you're trying to understand what's being said and it's a massive climactic scene.
I've read 4 chapters. I can understand French, but also I can understand the frustration of those who can't.
Edit: BTW, I'm reading the John E. Woods translation of the book on the advice of my friends, most of whom consider it to be better than the Lowe-Porter translation.
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I enjoyed the The Silk Roads by Peter Frankopan. Very interesting read.
Hannibal Lecter creator Thomas Harris announces first book in 13 years
The unnamed 2019 novel will be Harris’s first book since 2006’s Hannibal Rising, but will also be his first in more than 40 years without his famous cannibal:
https://www.theguardian.com/books/2...homas-harris-announces-first-book-in-13-years
The unnamed 2019 novel will be Harris’s first book since 2006’s Hannibal Rising, but will also be his first in more than 40 years without his famous cannibal:
https://www.theguardian.com/books/2...homas-harris-announces-first-book-in-13-years
I'm reading The Subtle Art of Not Giving a feck and I really like it so far. I generally enjoy self-help books but this one is different, crude and brutally honest which I appreciate. The excessive use of the word feck also helps.
The Pearl by John Steinbeck
A beautiful Penguin clothbound edition I want them all
A beautiful Penguin clothbound edition
I want them allInto the Wild by Jon Krakauer.
1/2 way through this. Interesting so far, though why my kids have this on their reading list for school I’m not sure.
It’ll be interesting to hear their teacher’s take on it.
It’s a true story from the early 90s about a kid from a well to do family that goes solo traveling around the western US and eventually up into Alaska. The kid forsakes gives away or burns all his money to live off basically nothing.
1/2 way through this. Interesting so far, though why my kids have this on their reading list for school I’m not sure.
It’ll be interesting to hear their teacher’s take on it.
It’s a true story from the early 90s about a kid from a well to do family that goes solo traveling around the western US and eventually up into Alaska. The kid forsakes gives away or burns all his money to live off basically nothing.
Grace by Paul Lynch. Really good book but very tough read. It's about a young girl in Ireland living through the years 1845-48 in Ireland which included the great famine. A harrowing but beautiful book.
I'm currently finishing J is for judgement by the late Sue Grafton. Its rating is 4/5.
I read Remains of the Day a week or two ago and loved it. Really enjoyable and quite sad at the end.
Also read The Alchemist after seeing it recommended as a similar read to Siddhartha. Didn't enjoy it nearly as much as Siddhartha, which I loved.
Probably around 3/5. Will start on Steppenwolf now.
Also read The Alchemist after seeing it recommended as a similar read to Siddhartha. Didn't enjoy it nearly as much as Siddhartha, which I loved.
Probably around 3/5. Will start on Steppenwolf now.
Oh the Alchemist is dire. But you seem to like eclectic books, so who am I to judge?
Yeah even 3/5 is a bit generous I think. I kinda liked the part before him joining the caravan, but after that I found myself rolling my eyes everything so often.
Didn't realise I had eclectic taste but I'll take it as a compliment, whether you meant it like that or not.
Of course I meant it as a compliment. Now, pardon me while I go read my Harry Potter books.
What's so bad about The Alchemist anyway?
I assume you've read the book?
Working through a list of Penguin books I got recommended by e-mail. Tried to read Gravity's Rainbow, 100 pages in felt it was tumescent shit and gave up. Started Cloud Atlas now, much better.
Gravity's Rainbow is a very difficult read, which has deterred me from reading it. It has never ever been voted as a book to be read in any of the Goodreads groups I've been in. My favorite genres are mysteries worth their salt and easy looking non-fiction.
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Just finished Ellroy's American Tabloid which is some journey. Would seem too contrived and exaggerated in the hands of a lesser writer but he manages to make most of the story seem somewhat plausible even if it's a slight fabrication as well. His portrait of the books key historical figures is also fascinating:
JFK comes across as little more than a political lightweight who's in it for the women and fame. RFK by contrast is a lot more dogged and determined, but also comes across as being slightly in over his head as the novel's complex plot threads weave together. Hoover, meanwhile, lurks in the background imperiously, always pulling the strings, almost always one step ahead of everyone around him.
It's one I want to get round to at some point but I've heard some people who've read books like Infinite Jest despite Gravity's Rainbow as too much, which is hardly reassuring since IJ's a mindfeck in its own right even if I love it.
It's one I want to get round to at some point but I've heard some people who've read books like Infinite Jest despite Gravity's Rainbow as too much, which is hardly reassuring since IJ's a mindfeck in its own right even if I love it.
IJ seems to be the less doughty of the two, but my to be read pile is not composed of books like that. It's been a while since someone mentioned GR or IJ in a discussion. I will stick to the side my bread is buttered.
EDIT: But I'll say this: those who do like GR and IJ really love it to bits.
No, that's why I'm asking. It has a reputation as some kind of new age hippy bullshit but I don't know anything about it really.
Grav's Rainbow is a brilliant novel in the 'war is madness' stakes but I agree it's fundamentally difficult novel to 'enjoy'. tumescent is absolutely the right word.
Some guy tried to buy it when I worked at Waterstones and I implored him not to. He wasn't having any of it and left with a copy of V instead which I was sure he probably wouldn't enjoy either. My tester was to ask if he enjoyed postmodern literature. He was like, 'what's that mean bro?'. I was like, duuuuude.
If you're new to Pynchon then absolutely start with The Crying of Lot 49. If you don't like that then you won't like his other books (except maybe Inherent Vice).
Yeah when I researched gravity's rainbow I found people recommending starting with Inherent Vice if I wanted to read Pynchon. I'm borrowing from the public library so no harm done.
I wish I knew this reputation. All I knew was the Alchemist was a popular and inspiring book. I didn't know it was that kind of inspiring.
Or maybe I wasn't just ready for its message that was from my memories, "Follow your dream", not the conscious thing you want to do but the dream sent by the unconscious or maybe fate.
I think it is one of the rare books I read that made me feel like a book snob (and I read MG, YA, I really like The Little Prince).
I finished The Wicker King by K. Ancrum, a novel about two teenagers friends, one of then having some visions. I found the beginning too slow and boring then it becomes more interesting.
I finished Midnight in the Garden of Good and Evil by John Berendt, that is a non-fiction that nearly reads like a novel.
I finished The Consuming Fire by John Scalzi, fun and pleasant reading.
Or maybe I wasn't just ready for its message that was from my memories, "Follow your dream", not the conscious thing you want to do but the dream sent by the unconscious or maybe fate.
I think it is one of the rare books I read that made me feel like a book snob (and I read MG, YA, I really like The Little Prince).
I finished The Wicker King by K. Ancrum, a novel about two teenagers friends, one of then having some visions. I found the beginning too slow and boring then it becomes more interesting.
I finished Midnight in the Garden of Good and Evil by John Berendt, that is a non-fiction that nearly reads like a novel.
I finished The Consuming Fire by John Scalzi, fun and pleasant reading.
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See, I did like TCOL49, but I do suspect my patience would've started wearing thin if it wasn't for the fact it's incredibly short. An equivalent novel six or seven times the length would've been a struggle.
There are many better books out there. Maybe you'll like it. Who knows? It has a lot of lessons that sound like cliches, though.