I’ve only read Oliver Twist and I thought it was fecking brilliant.
Books The BOOK thread
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I’ve only read Oliver Twist and I thought it was fecking brilliant.
Dickens is an okay writer to whom the test of time has not been kind. He was really popular when alive and Great Expectations was written when he was at his peak. It was his 13th novel. I have to read it for a class.
I've begun reading Four Cheese Murder. The 7th book in the Papa Pacelli series.
Anyone read Zeroville by Steve Erickson? People are losing their minds because James Franco has adapted it and unsurprisingly butchered it. The blurb seems right up my aisle.
I finished Gore Vidal's Palimpsest. Delightful read. He's a bit of a prick and a complete name dropper but it's hilarious. His chapter about his high school fling was one of the better descriptions of love I've read. I bought Lincoln recently so will be interested to see what his fiction is like.
I finished Gore Vidal's Palimpsest. Delightful read. He's a bit of a prick and a complete name dropper but it's hilarious. His chapter about his high school fling was one of the better descriptions of love I've read. I bought Lincoln recently so will be interested to see what his fiction is like.
Started White Noise by Delillo. Only 40 pages in and I can see how its a masterpiece already. I think I'm going to sip on this one like MaCallan 25.
@Archie Leach I meant to buy that book about a year ago but I ordered the wrong one, I got Shadowbahm and I still haven't read that.
@Archie Leach I meant to buy that book about a year ago but I ordered the wrong one, I got Shadowbahm and I still haven't read that.
Read a book of early short stories by Truman Capote following on from In Cold Blood. You can see his writing style develop in these stories.
I've read 6 on that list I think and fecking Gilead is one of them and it was ok but is no way the 2nd best book I've read.....So the Guardian released this list of its "best" books of the 21st century. First putting fiction and non-fiction on the same list is lame.
It's massively biased towards British authors and Guardian favorites and IMO aesthetically offensive. Their top 10 is just silly and putting Harry Potter on the list instead of the books below is just
https://www.theguardian.com/books/2019/sep/21/best-books-of-the-21st-century
Missing from the list are some of the best books I've ever read let alone in the 21st century. These are all arguably better than their entire top 10 and its criminal they were not included:
2666 by Roberto Bolaño
The Overstory by Richard Powers
Against the Day & Inherent Vice by Thomas Pynchon
The Zero by Jess Walter
The Last Samurai by Helen Dewitt
Amazing Adventures of Kavalier and Klay by Michael Chabon
Train Dreams by Denis Johnson
Feast of the Goat by Mario Vargas Llosa
Girl with the Dragon Tattoo by Sieg Larrson
I read 9 of them and DNFed some of them like Nickel and Dimed or Gone Girl.
It's magnificent yeah, fecking hilarious but so well-written too.
Recently got around to reading Thomas Harris' Cari Mora; it was okay but ultimately disappointing. Really wanted just one more book as good as the others.
This stuff always makes me sad
"Roughly a quarter of U.S. adults (27%) say they haven’t read a book in whole or in part in the past year, whether in print, electronic or audio form, according to a Pew Research Center survey conducted Jan. 8 to Feb. 7. Who are these non-book readers?
Adults whose annual household income is $30,000 or less are more likely than those living in households earning $75,000 or more a year to be non-book readers (36% vs. 14%). Hispanic (40%) and black (33%) adults are more likely than whites (22%) to report not having read a book in the past 12 months. "
https://www.pewresearch.org/fact-tank/2019/09/26/who-doesnt-read-books-in-america/
"Roughly a quarter of U.S. adults (27%) say they haven’t read a book in whole or in part in the past year, whether in print, electronic or audio form, according to a Pew Research Center survey conducted Jan. 8 to Feb. 7. Who are these non-book readers?
Adults whose annual household income is $30,000 or less are more likely than those living in households earning $75,000 or more a year to be non-book readers (36% vs. 14%). Hispanic (40%) and black (33%) adults are more likely than whites (22%) to report not having read a book in the past 12 months. "
https://www.pewresearch.org/fact-tank/2019/09/26/who-doesnt-read-books-in-america/
Been going on (and getting worse) for a long time.
Wouldn't be surprised if it was higher than that to be honest, it's the sort of thing you may lie about in one direction (saying you have when you haven't), but not in the other (saying you haven't when you have).
Even for those who have read something, the books they have read are going to be suspect.
The general standards of the publishing industry have nose-dived in a nihilistic race towards lowest common denominatorism.
The general standards of the publishing industry have nose-dived in a nihilistic race towards lowest common denominatorism.
After finishing Verdigris deep by Frances Hardinge (it reminded me a lot of Diana Wynne Jones' books) and Anne of Ingleside by L.M. Montgomery (there are chapters I really like), I am currently reading the Wind-up Girl by Paolo Bagalupi (quite interesting)
I've read the cozy Ring for Murder and rated it 1 star. Now I'm reading M is for Malice.
I'm also taking my time to read Our Oriental Heritage, which has 1000 pages.
Just finished Sweet Thursday by Steinbeck. I preferred Cannery Row, but this was still a very enjoyable book. That's the 5th Steinbeck I've read this year, so I'll move on to something else for the coming books, but those 5 are surely among the best I've read this year.
Finished End Zone (again) last night. DeLillo's deadpan style in those early novels is hilarious. He'll put whole passages of text that make almost no sense and then one sentence will stand out and you're like wow, that's something. Seems to be where he first picked up the theme of violence. The main character's addiction to reading about nuclear warfare and other various atrocities suggests a desire to take control of uncontrollable, and frankly horrific, events. He followed through with that idea in a few of his later novels, including Mao II and White Noise.
Now to finish The Magic Mountain (finally).
Now to finish The Magic Mountain (finally).
Got given The Pearl and Grapes of Wrath for my birthday last week. Everyone raves about East of Eden but I far prefer his shorter works like Cannery Row and Tortilla Flat.
Haven't read Tortilla Flat yet, but I must say I really liked East of Eden. Travels With Charley is pretty good too, if you haven't read it - it's different from his others.
I need to read Heart of Darkness, for Saturday.
Enjoy. It's amazing
Nearly finished the series on The Sackett's by Louis L'Amour. First series I have read in a while. Each character are amazing in the own right in my opinion.
Thank you, you're a pal.
I finished Memory Man by David Baldacci. Moving onto Slaugherhouse V
What's he like please? His novel Absolute Power was made into a movie starring Clint Eastwood and Gene Hackman which I thought was really good.
I enjoyed the book and his writing style is very easy. He reminded me a lot of Lee Child and the character he created in this book was a lot like Jack Reacher but with a flawless memory which is explained in the book. I can see why his books are being adapted for TV and I will definitely read another of his.
Ahhh, Cannery Row. I can just smell the st
Ah Cannery Row, I can smell the stench so vividly. One of my favourites.
Finished one cosy. Gave Grilling the Subject 3 stars.
Baldacci's best work is the Camel club series. 5 books in total. Rated most of them a perfect 5.
Finished Wind-up Girl by Paolo Bagalupi (not an exciting one especially with characters more concerned by their self-interests but interesting). I have started a YA book The Ten Thousand Doors of January by Alix E. Harrow because it has quite good reviews so far on Goodreads and magical doors always sound nice.
Finished reading The Seven Deaths of Evelyn Hardcastle by Stuart Turton. I think it's a decent read from a first-time novelist that has a clever spin on the Agatha Christie murder mystery formula, and definitely an easy book to read over a long weekend if you're so inclined.
The Universal Baseball Association, Inc., J. Henry Waugh, Prop. by Robert Coover (1968)
This book is pretty amazing and really should be given more credit. It's basically a novel about a man obsessed with his creation of a fantasy sports management game in Dungeons and Dragons format years before either of those things existed. Quite a fun read that explores the mindset of what it means to be a gamer and how that obsession with power, creativity and control can dominate your real life. Its an exploration into a common human condition in 2019-2020 that was written in 1968.
This should be required reading for every teenager who plays video games or fantasy sports.
This book is pretty amazing and really should be given more credit. It's basically a novel about a man obsessed with his creation of a fantasy sports management game in Dungeons and Dragons format years before either of those things existed. Quite a fun read that explores the mindset of what it means to be a gamer and how that obsession with power, creativity and control can dominate your real life. Its an exploration into a common human condition in 2019-2020 that was written in 1968.
This should be required reading for every teenager who plays video games or fantasy sports.
Some fun speculation on the 2019 Nobel Prize in Lit. Interesting because they are giving 2 prizes this year after last years scandal and cancellation. Related to below personally I hate they gave it to Bob Dylan. I believe Pynchon and Delillo were more worthy Americans for a literature award of that generation.
https://newrepublic.com/article/155316/will-win-2019-or-2018-nobel-prize-literature
on who won't win
"One day, Murakami is going to win and people will tweet pictures of me saying that Murakami is not going to win the Nobel Prize in Literature. I will deserve it when that happens. But I will keep saying it, just like Haruki Murakami will keep making entries in his running diary while listening to an Art Blakely record on a $60,000 stereo. Marias fits the bill for the Swedish Academy (full of people who think they’re too good for John Le Carre and drink scotch that was made during the Carter administration), but I just don’t think this is his year. My hunch is that Krasznahorkai and Nadas would split both the Hungarian vote and the lit bro vote. Kundera, meanwhile, made his career on novels that anatomized kitsch and subsequently became kitsch, thanks to a generation of earnest high schoolers."
"Bob Dylan, it seems, will be the only American writer of his generation to win a Nobel Prize in Literature, which is quite a distinction given that he also wrote the worst American book of the last hundred years. DeLillo would make a fine Nobel Laureate, given the strength of his work and its resonance with our fecked-up times. Pynchon should be given a Nobel Prize for the same reasons, but also to see if he would even show up to claim it. "
https://newrepublic.com/article/155316/will-win-2019-or-2018-nobel-prize-literature
on who won't win
"One day, Murakami is going to win and people will tweet pictures of me saying that Murakami is not going to win the Nobel Prize in Literature. I will deserve it when that happens. But I will keep saying it, just like Haruki Murakami will keep making entries in his running diary while listening to an Art Blakely record on a $60,000 stereo. Marias fits the bill for the Swedish Academy (full of people who think they’re too good for John Le Carre and drink scotch that was made during the Carter administration), but I just don’t think this is his year. My hunch is that Krasznahorkai and Nadas would split both the Hungarian vote and the lit bro vote. Kundera, meanwhile, made his career on novels that anatomized kitsch and subsequently became kitsch, thanks to a generation of earnest high schoolers."
"Bob Dylan, it seems, will be the only American writer of his generation to win a Nobel Prize in Literature, which is quite a distinction given that he also wrote the worst American book of the last hundred years. DeLillo would make a fine Nobel Laureate, given the strength of his work and its resonance with our fecked-up times. Pynchon should be given a Nobel Prize for the same reasons, but also to see if he would even show up to claim it. "
Great post and very useful links.
Finished a lot of short books. Too lazy to list.
https://www.theguardian.com/books/2...erature-olga-tokarczuk-peter-handke-2019-2018
So Olga Tokarczuk and Peter Handke won. I recently got given Flights by Tokarczuk. Heard good things. Wasn't really familiar with Handke but he seems a controversial choice to say the least...
So Olga Tokarczuk and Peter Handke won. I recently got given Flights by Tokarczuk. Heard good things. Wasn't really familiar with Handke but he seems a controversial choice to say the least...
Murakami absolutely does not deserve the nobel prize. He's great but his books aren't that good.
I still can't believe Dylan got a Nobel prize. It's as if the panel, looked at Paul McCartney, with his knighthood and his oscar, and said : we must troll Paul.