Finished Ubik last night. Philip K. Dick is a bucket of nuts. I was deeply unsettled the whole way through, because I just didn't know who or what to believe. He keeps pulling the rug out from under you.
Books The BOOK thread
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Dipping in and out of Ranulph Fiennes' Cold (about polar exploration and mountain climbing). As I was looking at the book's photos of pretty, snow-covered peaks, thinking 'climbing places like these can't be as bad or as difficult as all that...', the reality of the challenges these brave men and women face when climbing the likes of Mt Eiger and the like was brought home to me by an accompanying section of Cold: Fiennes mentions that a sudden icefall which fortunately missed him when climbing the North Face was later calculated to be the size of 'two Empire State buildings'. Phew...
I'm going to satirise, below, the hardships these people routinely face - mainly because I can't recall word-for-word quotes from the book - and the way the climbers and explorers often shrug off the incredible circumstances they find themselves in:
'My left leg dropped off due to frostbite when the temperature reached minus 80 but, luckily, my right arm soon followed so I had a restored bodily balance at least. Our tent and all our food fell off a slope, so we had to eat our shoes. After three heart attacks, I planted a flag on top of Mount Bloody Massive.'
Whether you consider explorers and climbers to be engaged in pointless activities, or even to be mildly insane, it's hard to question their courage.
I'm going to satirise, below, the hardships these people routinely face - mainly because I can't recall word-for-word quotes from the book - and the way the climbers and explorers often shrug off the incredible circumstances they find themselves in:
'My left leg dropped off due to frostbite when the temperature reached minus 80 but, luckily, my right arm soon followed so I had a restored bodily balance at least. Our tent and all our food fell off a slope, so we had to eat our shoes. After three heart attacks, I planted a flag on top of Mount Bloody Massive.'
Whether you consider explorers and climbers to be engaged in pointless activities, or even to be mildly insane, it's hard to question their courage.
Karl Marlantes: Matterhorn. A novel from the Vietnam war by a veteran. The stereotypical winners in battle but the losers of the war theme would normally consign this kind of book to the remainders. However the author, has woven together an impressive book of many parts. Life inside the U.S. Marines, the methods of the Vietnamese, the intensity of the tropical forest, fighting over difficult terrain, close combat, and the perpetual struggle with time whether saving wounded men or getting through the night. The author spent 30 years writing the book and it's certainly polished, the prose is very smooth.
Thanks, I bought that one a while back but hadn't read it yet. I used to read everything about that war I could get my hands on. When i was a kid I really liked Jim Webb's book "Fields of Fire". I was a ranger in DC years ago and served at the memorial wall. That book was well regarded at the time and considered one of the better offerings. At the time there weren't all that many other offerings.
Been reading The Cuckoo's calling by JK Rowling. I'm half way through this and it's such a snoozefest. I really like the main character, but nothing interesting has happened at all. Its just conversation after conversation after conversation with absolutely no clues at all so far. It started off great, but I'm finding it a bit of a chore to keep going so I think I'll give the second half a miss.
I finished Into Thin Air the other day. When I started I thought climbing Everest one day might be something I could do. Now I couldn't be more terrified of the idea.
Started Dune this morning. Within the first three pages someone was called a Kwisatz Haderach and I knew it wasn't for me. I've resumed my reading of The Count Of Monte Cristo. I'd reached halfway through on my kindle in December 2013 when it broke and I was in Thailand. Been fixed for ages since I got back but it's such a long complicated book that I couldn't muster the motivation to get back into it. Have had to read the spark notes for the chapters up to where I was but it all came back to me quite quickly.
Started Dune this morning. Within the first three pages someone was called a Kwisatz Haderach and I knew it wasn't for me. I've resumed my reading of The Count Of Monte Cristo. I'd reached halfway through on my kindle in December 2013 when it broke and I was in Thailand. Been fixed for ages since I got back but it's such a long complicated book that I couldn't muster the motivation to get back into it. Have had to read the spark notes for the chapters up to where I was but it all came back to me quite quickly.
Finished the collection of shorts from the Roald Dahl. It's a collection called "Switch Bitch" and has but four stories in it:
The Visitor
The Great Switcheroo
The Last Act
Bitch
Great stuff. Funny and dirty bugger he is and lots of fun (except for "The Last Act"). I'll definitely pick up some more of his when I run across it.
Unless one of you waves me off, I'll have a cosmology refresher next, "The State of the Universe".
The Visitor
The Great Switcheroo
The Last Act
Bitch
Great stuff. Funny and dirty bugger he is and lots of fun (except for "The Last Act"). I'll definitely pick up some more of his when I run across it.
Unless one of you waves me off, I'll have a cosmology refresher next, "The State of the Universe".
There's a (very) short story by Kafka, A Common Experience I think it's called, which is brilliant, it's like the Trial in very distilled form.
A Common Confusion?
I'm reading Yevgeny Zamyatin's We. While Orwell's 1984, Huxley's Brave New World and Bradbury's Fahrenheit 451 might be more compelling dystopian reads, the fact that Zamyatin got there first and was writing all this during the rise of the Communist Party makes it more hard-hitting for me. He had to smuggle the book out to the west, leading to him being exiled - subsequently the book wasn't actually published in Russia until 1988.
Yes! That's the one.
Yeah really strange and interesting book. Between the mathematical-ish talk and a stilted translation though, it's not the easiest read as short as it is.
Yeah that was my experience too. Apparently Orwell had read it before he wrote 1984.
Currently reading Ira Levin's A Kiss Before Dying.
Finished the Buried Giant. Slow, slow and slow. But I wasn't that annoyed by all these dialogues where the people talked about things they are supposed to know because... I guess they like to talk and to explain themselves, and maybe it helps them not to forget. It is more a story where the readers have to guess than to be surprised by the twists. I don't think I will recommend it though. The remains of the day is clearly superior to this one.
Finished The Housekeeper and the Professor by Yoko Ogawa. Short, charming and simple book.
Only 200 pages left to Grace of Kings. I didn't expect to see what I would call more lazy writing with a difficult battle being won because of
and nothing else. True it wasn't at the end of the book, so I suppose it isn't that bad but I don't care much about the book. Even though it was the book I was waiting for during this first half of the year. And I am not really sure why I hype so much books of authors I haven't really read before.
Finished The Housekeeper and the Professor by Yoko Ogawa. Short, charming and simple book.
Only 200 pages left to Grace of Kings. I didn't expect to see what I would call more lazy writing with a difficult battle being won because of
bersekers
This sounds like the worst book since the last book I didn't like:
Scathing review of Hot Feminist (by Polly Vernon) ~
http://www.theguardian.com/books/20...ernon-reducing-revolution-to-sloppy-self-help
Scathing review of Hot Feminist (by Polly Vernon) ~
http://www.theguardian.com/books/20...ernon-reducing-revolution-to-sloppy-self-help
That kind of thing didn't bother me much in that book, because I didn't feel that the battles were the real focus - plus the lack of tactics from that particular character is one of his traits (which is, admittedly, over-emphasised at times). I was a bit disappointed with it too, particularly with Mata's character development as the book went on. I think I gave it four stars in the end, but I'll still pick up the sequels.
I would complain that this book isn't worth reviewing but I have the feeling a lot of people (mostly men) will adopt it as a Bible of what feminism should really be like. Aka pretty and subservient.
Yeah, mate.
Judging by the review, the book reads like a parody...though it isn't, of course.
Judging by the review, the book reads like a parody...though it isn't, of course.
Was very good..not read a bad Levin yet.
Just started Drive..James Sallis writes so well, not a word wasted.
@Nickosaur I've read a few Dick's books but not Ubik. Have you read Valis? I struggled to get through it and had to go back and re-read passages. He really is messing with you mind. Is Ubik an 'easier read'?
Not yet, Valis is on my to-read list.
Ubik is a difficult one. Easy to read but hard to follow..? I've had a few weeks to think about it now, and I'm still not certain what went on, but that's part of the appeal for me. It still stands up as a great read, but I prefer Do Androids... myself.
Sounds good, I'll definitely give it a go.
Have you read anything by Ted Chiang or Greg Egan?
Drive was as good as expected, will read the sequel after I finish Columbine, which seems very interesting so far.
His short stories are well worth reading, the Man in the High Castle v good too if you want him trying something different.
Can't say I have. Would you recommend anything by them? My to-read list is getting longer and longer but I'm always looking to try out new authors.
I ordered a tonne of books the other week and that was one of them. Heard good things, looking forward to reading it.
I've been massively reading books at a fair pace since I started going to work on the train...
I get into one character series, and go from start to finish...I've done the 19 Reacher books, 13 Mitch Rapp, 16 Nick Stone...
Started getting overloaded with spy/assassin/mercenary shit though, so checked out of reading the King and Maxwell books by David Baldacci until I read a few different genre books...
I've also read a few of the Simon Kernick ones, Siege, Ultimatum...and also I am Pilgrim...
Just read the Wayward Pines Trilogy, and now working my way through some other Blake Crouch ones, Run, Snowbound and Abandon...
All this in the last year or so...I reckon 55 books this year (last 12 months)
I get into one character series, and go from start to finish...I've done the 19 Reacher books, 13 Mitch Rapp, 16 Nick Stone...
Started getting overloaded with spy/assassin/mercenary shit though, so checked out of reading the King and Maxwell books by David Baldacci until I read a few different genre books...
I've also read a few of the Simon Kernick ones, Siege, Ultimatum...and also I am Pilgrim...
Just read the Wayward Pines Trilogy, and now working my way through some other Blake Crouch ones, Run, Snowbound and Abandon...
All this in the last year or so...I reckon 55 books this year (last 12 months)
I just finished Sputnik Sweetheart by Murakami in one sitting. So many questions, so few answers. It's also made me profoundly sad.
I have a bunch of his books but I haven't read any. Where would be a good place to start - at the beginning?
'Norwegian Wood' and 'South of the Border, West of the Sun' are my personal favourites. Less weird than his other work.
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Thanks. My very clever literary friend also recommended Norwegian Wood so that's the one. I imagine it's all about Liverpool. Has to be, really.
I'm halfway through South of the Border, West of the Sun right now. Not often I've finished two books in a sitting. Not ever actually.
Just finished the new Nelson Demille book, Radiant Angel (or A Quiet End as it's known in the UK).
I've never been as disappointed in a book as I was in this. He's just recycled a plot from the previous book in the same series, he's lost the humour that made his John Corey character memorable, he introduces a character from a previous series half way through that goes absolutely nowhere and seems to be just pure self indulgence and it has pacing issues, with no real chance to breath.
And he's possibly my favourite author who isn't Lee Childs.
I've never been as disappointed in a book as I was in this. He's just recycled a plot from the previous book in the same series, he's lost the humour that made his John Corey character memorable, he introduces a character from a previous series half way through that goes absolutely nowhere and seems to be just pure self indulgence and it has pacing issues, with no real chance to breath.
And he's possibly my favourite author who isn't Lee Childs.
So I went for easy readings with Crimson Bound by Rosamund Hodge (Nice imaginative fairy tale retelling even if I wasn't fond of the main romance) and the Islands of Chaldea, the last book of Diana Wynne Jones, finished by her sister (I was mostly disappointed, the story was too simple and I am quite sure the main romance wouldn't have been or at least wouldn't have been written this way, because it was really obvious and there's one thing I know with the 20+ books I have read of DWJ is that her romances aren't obvious).
Excellent and fascinating book.
I havent posted in a bit. Trying to sort out what I've read and enjoyed. I quite liked When The Eagle Hunts by Simon Scarrow about characters in the Roman legions. I also really enjoyed In A Dry Season by Peter Robinson which was about a cold case from around WWII. Currently reading Runaway by Lucy Irvine which I'm only halfway through but good read too.
Peter Pan - Better than I reckoned it would be, likely because it was stranger than I expected. I hadn't thought to take note of my ammorality as a kid, but the book does make a point of it.
Best parts were some of the sadder and more confused notions quoted from Peter or the lost boys. I guess I care for that sort of thing. These are the ones that come to mind.
Didn't realize "Second on the right and straight on until morning." was from this as well.
Best parts were some of the sadder and more confused notions quoted from Peter or the lost boys. I guess I care for that sort of thing. These are the ones that come to mind.
"They are the children that fall out of their perambulators when the nurse is looking the other way.."
"They may remember mention, a week after the event happened, that when they were in the wood they met their dead father and had a game with him."
"You see, I don't know any stories. None of the lost boys knows any stories. Do you know why swallows build in the eaves of houses? It is to listen to the stories."
Didn't realize "Second on the right and straight on until morning." was from this as well.
Finished The Sirens of Titan by Vonnegut last week. Went from a good, if a little scattered, sci-fi fare, to one of my favourite books of all time. The last act knocked me out.
Finished! What a brilliant book. Took me long enough but it's definitely worth it and up there with my favourites of all time.
@Mihajlovic @Nickosaur , do androids dream of electric sheep is probably One of of Philip k dick's easier reads.
Absolutely!
Just read As I Lay Dying. The language used by Faulkner, along with the constant change of tone for each character (and their various motives), made it quite difficult to get through at times. Still, I enjoyed it.