Books The BOOK thread

Jippy said:
I need to try audiobooks out. I know many people swear by them and I think atmospheric short stories could potentially work well, thanks. Shadow over Innsmouth is decent, although it's slightly hard to picture the transformation into the creatures without envisioning it being somewhat comical, rather than terrifying.
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i don‘t hear audiobooks usually. And when I try some I find them most of the times god awful - but the HPL ones from that society are perfect. Highly recommended.

I think Innsmouth extremely atmospheric, that‘s its strongest point. Imho it‘s a classic, there is a very nice (old) point n click of it available and I think there are at least four videogames made about it - not that it means much. Colour from outter Space and most certainly Call of the Cthulhu would be others but there are too many to mention almost.
 
Jippy said:
I need to try audiobooks out. I know many people swear by them and I think atmospheric short stories could potentially work well, thanks. Shadow over Innsmouth is decent, although it's slightly hard to picture the transformation into the creatures without envisioning it being somewhat comical, rather than terrifying.
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I love them but can only really listen to them while out walking or on a long road trip or on a plane. If I try them at home instead of reading I tune out too easily.
 
Has anyone read Station Eleven, I just finished watching the tv series which i enjoyed but can tell from the show the book would be far more detailed.
 
Vidyoyo said:
I really liked The Waves but it is a bit of fever dream. Reads like a series of uncontained musings - some very beautiful passages.
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I struggled with it, much as I like her writing.

Did you finish Savage Detectives and how would you rate it overall in the end?
 
Jippy said:
I struggled with it, much as I like her writing.

Did you finish Savage Detectives and how would you rate it overall in the end?
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Still reading it, about 400 pages in.

The first section is phenomenal. I absolutely love the way it describes the underground poetry scene of Chile which feels so innocent and romantic. Like painting a picture of adolescence.

The vignette sections that come afterwards provide an interesting balance; many being cynical or I guess realistic. It's hard to follow, almost like he threw them in the air and put them in any random order, but it paints an equally vivid picture, this time with more cruelty or at least disappointment. But that's life I guess.

I'm talking like you've read it. You've read it, right?
 
Vidyoyo said:
Still reading it, about 400 pages in.

The first section is phenomenal. I absolutely love the way it describes the underground poetry scene of Chile which feels so innocent and romantic. Like painting a picture of adolescence.

The vignette sections that come afterwards provide an interesting balance; many being cynical or I guess realistic. It's hard to follow, almost like he threw them in the air and put them in any random order, but it paints an equally vivid picture, this time with more cruelty or at least disappointment. But that's life I guess.

I'm talking like you've read it. You've read it, right?
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I bought it a year or so ago but haven't read it yet.
I didn't realise it went so abstract, I assumed it would be more conventional like 2666 or Third Reich - the only ones of his I've read.

I might read it later in the year if that's the case. I'm still working my through Gravity's Rainbow and the bit c130-80 pages from the end is also a series of fairly abstract vignettes, eg about Byron the sentient, immortal light bulb.
 
Jippy said:
I bought it a year or so ago but haven't read it yet.
I didn't realise it went so abstract, I assumed it would be more conventional like 2666 or Third Reich - the only ones of his I've read.

I might read it later in the year if that's the case. I'm still working my through Gravity's Rainbow and the bit c130-80 pages from the end is also a series of fairly abstract vignettes, eg about Byron the sentient, immortal light bulb.
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So did I but it's largely a whole bunch of short stories about people involved with two poets: Ulises Lima and Arturo Belano. Things cross-over but not in a conventional sense.

You've done well getting that far in Gravity's Rainbow. Many a weaker man has given up trying.
 
Vidyoyo said:
So did I but it's largely a whole bunch of short stories about people involved with two poets: Ulises Lima and Arturo Belano. Things cross-over but not in a conventional sense.

You've done well getting that far in Gravity's Rainbow. Many a weaker man has given up trying.
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It does kind of sound like 2666 then and his writing is so good he can make random things absorbing.

I'm definitely favouring something light and short after GR.
 
I want to put this novel on everyone's radar. It comes out May 2nd and I personally have not read it yet but I have it on good authority (from someone whose taste I completely trust) that it's a great novel. I think will appeal to some of the regular readers here.

To Die Beautiful by Buzzy Jackson

"It’s 1940 and Hannie Schaft is a shy nineteen-year-old law student living in Nazi-occupied Holland with ambitious goals for her future. But dreams die in wartime, and Hannie’s closest friends are no longer safe as fascism insidiously rises in her country. Hiding them is not enough. Hannie may be young but she can’t stand aside as the menace of Nazi evil tightens its grip. Driven by love and moral outrage, Hannie soon becomes an armed member of the Dutch Resistance movement.

Hannie discovers her own untapped ferocity—wearing lipstick and heels to lure powerful Nazis close and assassinate them at point-blank range, and bombing munitions factories."
 
Nickosaur said:
Trying to read more female writers this year. Really enjoyed Fernanda Melchor and Olga Tokarczuk recently so will look at some of their more recent work.

Particuarly interested in more experimental/postmodernist literature if anyone has any recommendations. Heard good things about Ursula Le Guin - anyone read any of her work?
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Love Ursula Le Guin.
I’ve read Dispossessed, Left Hand of Darkness and Lathe of Heaven, enjoyed all of them. Dispossessed is probably her best.
 
Nickosaur said:
Trying to read more female writers this year. Really enjoyed Fernanda Melchor and Olga Tokarczuk recently so will look at some of their more recent work.

Particuarly interested in more experimental/postmodernist literature if anyone has any recommendations. Heard good things about Ursula Le Guin - anyone read any of her work?
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Jean Rhys is a good one, I think. I'd recommend three of her four semi-autobiographical novels (Quartet, After Leaving Mr. Mackenzie and Voyage in the Dark). They're short, dark reads, where you really get into the headspace of the character.
 
Suv666 said:
Love Ursula Le Guin.
I’ve read Dispossessed, Left Hand of Darkness and Lathe of Heaven, enjoyed all of them. Dispossessed is probably her best.
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Steffa Barnesa said:
Jean Rhys is a good one, I think. I'd recommend three of her four semi-autobiographical novels (Quartet, After Leaving Mr. Mackenzie and Voyage in the Dark). They're short, dark reads, where you really get into the headspace of the character.
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Thanks both!
 
So far this year I've read:

Leaf Storm and other stories by Garcia Marquez - the titular story was dull as dishwater; it's only when Marquez amps up the magical realism in the shorter stories that it picks up.
Marcovaldo by Italo Calvino - I love everything I've read by Calvino. This is a simple but oddly charming collection of a man and his family struggling to adapt to life in an Italian city.
Drive Your Plow Over the Bones of the Dead by Olga Tokarczuk - liked this a lot. Flights was excellent too. Will definitely be reading more from her this year.

Next, I'm finally moving onto McCarthy's newest books... can't fecking wait.
 
it’s already late.January but the best things I read in 2022 were (and not in order):

1. “Mrs Dalloway” by Virginia Woolf. She may have been a nasty piece of work but the flow of sentences and ideas is exquisite.
2. “Paradise Lost” by John Milton - to my mind, the finest work of imaginative, creative literature ever written down (or rather dictated) in the English language. It’s also readily comprehensible to a modern reader unlike a certain English playwright from 50: years earlier or an Irish writer 250 years later.
3. “The Making of the Atomic Bomb”: by Richard Rhodes - it’s not always easy reading but you can just about keep up with the physics and the final section on Hiroshima is horrific.
 
MoskvaRed said:
it’s already late.January but the best things I read in 2022 were (and not in order):

1. “Mrs Dalloway” by Virginia Woolf. She may have been a nasty piece of work but the flow of sentences and ideas is exquisite.
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This is on my list, I almost suggested it for the Caf book club! How long is it?
 
Stack said:
Has anyone read Station Eleven, I just finished watching the tv series which i enjoyed but can tell from the show the book would be far more detailed.
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The book is very good. HBO did a good job with the series, but as is usually the case the novel was more impactful.
 
I'm reading a collection of Alice Walker's writings. I only knew she'd written The Color Purple, for which she became the first black woman to win the fiction Pulitzer. She writes both powerfully and engagingly on race, and was a civil rights activist.
I started googling a miscarriage of justice she wrote about, then ended up down a wormhole finding out more about her. It turns out she's become a David Icke fan in her old age though, picking one of his books on Desert Island Discs and has been accused of being antisemitic etc...It doesn't detract from her earlier writings -Living by the Word is from her stuff in the 70s and 80s- but it does somewhat tarnish your opinion of someone.
 
oneniltothearsenal said:
I have not yet but I own it and intend to get to it in 2023
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Ah nice, let me know how you find it. You put me on to Drive Your Plow and I've got Flights waiting for me in England when I visit in a couple of months.
Been on a mini stockpiling spree.
 
Jippy said:
Ah nice, let me know how you find it. You put me on to Drive Your Plow and I've got Flights waiting for me in England when I visit in a couple of months.
Been on a mini stockpiling spree.
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That's a great one, right? I've had to refrain from buying any more books for the next few months because I also have a pile of 12-15 that I need to get too.
 
Both Flights and Drive Your Plow are brilliant reads. Flights especially imo.

Books of Jacob is also on my list but unsure I'll get to it this year!
 
Der Schneemann by Jörg Fauser - the German amalgamation of Willeford and Borroughs

After that: Naked Lunch.
 
Vidyoyo said:
I thought BEE was a bit of a busted flush based on everything he's written since AmPsycho but I'm intrigued about this one looking at the description.
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I gave up after The Informers, which was so repetitive, with painfully dull and vapid characters in their Commes des Garcons jumpers that you couldn't care less about.
 
Just read my first Stephen King novel which I chose without any further ado or insight into the story. Almost 600 pages of very small text. When I first opened the book (in paperback form) I thought I'll never get through this. So wrong I was!
The pages just flew by!
Read this review by a King expert which I thought relevant and useful: "I send people back to the early ones, but this is a pretty good book with a lot of King feel to it that I think it would be a good one if people want to start out with one of his newer works."
Title: The Institute
It was perfect for me. Never read a book that captured me as much as this did.
 
simplyared said:
Just read my first Stephen King novel which I chose without any further ado or insight into the story. Almost 600 pages of very small text. When I first opened the book (in paperback form) I thought I'll never get through this. So wrong I was!
The pages just flew by!
Read this review by a King expert which I thought relevant and useful: "I send people back to the early ones, but this is a pretty good book with a lot of King feel to it that I think it would be a good one if people want to start out with one of his newer works."
Title: The Institute
It was perfect for me. Never read a book that captured me as much as this did.
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I’m a big Stephen King fan - you should read The Stand, one of my favourite books (btw - it’s 1100 pages long).
 
Disappointing to see the Book Depository is shutting down. It's not the cheapest, but it was useful sometimes and at least delivers where I live, which a few online book retailers don't.
 
Anyone read any Caimh McDonnell novels? I really enjoy them.
The Dublin Trilogy in particular are great but there are also a few spin-offs which are also good.
 
Just read Kazuo Ishiguro, When We Were Orphans.

It felt like there was something lacking from the story. Ishiguro's fairly detached, clinical writing style works better for the narration of Never Let Me Go.

The plot is engaging enough on one level, but veers into the wildly implausible in the latter stages. Are you supposed to believe his obsession with finding the truth (after doing feck all for years) is creating the near-like sequence behind enemy lines? That doesn't fit with the pther characters all behaving rationally, barring inexplicably seeing him as some returning savior and the planned big party is beyond bizarre.

Apparently Ishiguro didn't think it was one of his best and I see why, not that I'm a huge fan anyway.
 
Reading Trainspotting for the first time in about 20 years. I’ve remembered all the really sick bits (the shit that goes through Irvine Welsh’s mind…), but I’d forgotten how funny it is, or maybe now I’m older I just appreciate that aspect of it more.
 
Vitro said:
Has anyone read Stella Maris and The Passenger? How are they?
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The Passenger is excellent. I think it's his most complex work.
Stella Maris is very different as it's all dialogue. Still a powerful read.
 
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