Surely the king of modern-day ghost stories. 11/10.
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Surely the king of modern-day ghost stories. 11/10.
An excellent overview of the critical tradition regarding Heart of Darkness, full of insights and novel readings of the book. One particular critic's opinion stands out though: acclaimed Nigerian author Chinua Achebe's An Image of Africa: Racism in Conrad's Heart of Darkness ~
Defences of the novel, and of Conrad, can be made (I have a few myself, for what it's worth) but nevertheless I feel that Achebe is right. In fact, I'm tempted to think that Kurtz's experiences in Africa didn't 'ruin his mind', as the culture of Western civilisation had already done that...
The entire lecture is here ~
The Lecture Heard Around The World:
http://kirbyk.net/hod/image.of.africa.html
Am reading Nostromo at the moment -- think it might be even better than Heart of Darkness.
Im really enjoying it as I have everything of his Ive read.
Just finished 'The Beautiful and the Dead' by Fitzgerald. Liked it. Not particularly sympathetic characters and quite similar themes to The Great Gatsby but it got better and better as it progressed. Good stuff.
Not long finished The Program by David Walsh, the story of him trying to unmask Lance Armstrong as a cheat.
I've got no interest at all in cycling, but really enjoyed this.
I've got no interest at all in cycling, but really enjoyed this.
I finished The Girl on the Train by Paula Hawkins (I think that's her name). It was a very good read. Some questionable motives of actions by the protagonist, but very good nonetheless. 8/10
I finished Firefight by Brandon Sanderson. I was surprised I enjoyed it this much since I am not a fan of super-hero and didn't really like the first book.
I finished The Empress Game by Rhonda Mason (mostly a fun book, interesting beginning, middle was ok, interesting twists then it mostly ruined it with its melodramatic ending), The Rook (great fun book though there was a case that sounds more like a silly joke), All the Light We Cannot See by Anthony Doerr (I didn't really get into the book, maybe because the period is so dramatic, it felt a little manipulative. Well, I thought that towards the end it was completely manipulative.)
I read too Archivist Wasp, I didn't enjoy the book, it was hard to accept a humane can keep a ghost item and use it like it was just a normal one.
I am reading The Children's Book by A S Byatt. Seems more like a sweet comfort reading though a long one. The 3rd chapter was also like "so she introduced me dozens of characters and I am supposed to remember all of them when just at chapter 2 she already gave me 8 other new ones after the 5 of chapter 1?".
I finished The Empress Game by Rhonda Mason (mostly a fun book, interesting beginning, middle was ok, interesting twists then it mostly ruined it with its melodramatic ending), The Rook (great fun book though there was a case that sounds more like a silly joke), All the Light We Cannot See by Anthony Doerr (I didn't really get into the book, maybe because the period is so dramatic, it felt a little manipulative. Well, I thought that towards the end it was completely manipulative.)
I read too Archivist Wasp, I didn't enjoy the book, it was hard to accept a humane can keep a ghost item and use it like it was just a normal one.
I am reading The Children's Book by A S Byatt. Seems more like a sweet comfort reading though a long one. The 3rd chapter was also like "so she introduced me dozens of characters and I am supposed to remember all of them when just at chapter 2 she already gave me 8 other new ones after the 5 of chapter 1?".
I just finished this. I actually knew nothing about Dick before I bought and read it (picked up a few randomly in the airport having forgotten to buy some at home) and didn't really get the ending to be honest. I did enjoy it a lot though and now that I'm more familiar with Dick's way of thinking it makes the whole story a lot more interesting. May re-read it at some stage too.
The ending is fascinating. Considering the premise of the book, it was a completely different read to what I was expecting. I enjoyed it, although it's not his best work. Be sure to check out Ubik and Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep?
Yeah I must do, the ending really is great knowing what I know now. Only realised after reading a bit about him that the Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep inspired Blade Runner.
2666 by Roberto Bolano, done. Overwhelming.
Just finished Undermajordomo Minor by Patrick deWitt.
This was basically a Wes Anderson movie in book form. I love the way deWitt writes, his prose is so visual and light and his chapters short and sweet but this one is my least favourite of his 3 novels so far. Still worth a read though. Just don't expect anything more than an entertaining fable.
This was basically a Wes Anderson movie in book form. I love the way deWitt writes, his prose is so visual and light and his chapters short and sweet but this one is my least favourite of his 3 novels so far. Still worth a read though. Just don't expect anything more than an entertaining fable.
The Sisters Brothers was a great read.
Yeah it was. Apparently John C Reilly bought the film rights.
His first novel Ablutions was excellent too.
Just finished reading The Great Gatsby. I really enjoyed it. The characters, while eccentric, were entertaining and the storytelling was captivating. A nice 8.5/10 for me.
I thought it was a bit meh - I read it about a month ago.
Since then I read Purity which I thought was excellent.
Currently I am reading Blood Meridian, on the basis of what people said in here. I am enjoying it to some extent, it is very original and quite brutal, which is what attracted me to it. But the arcane language makes it quite hard work at times.
I think it's easy to disregard The Great Gatsby, as a lot of the characters are fundamentally shallow, self absorbed dickheads. The fact that it is so compelling despite this makes it shows how good Fitzgerald was. Must have been such a strange time to be alive, the Jazz age.
Looking for a new book to read on my commute. I finished To Kill a Mockingbird a few weeks ago. Really enjoyed it. Looking for a new one to read. My only conditions are that it's not a fantasy, sci-fi, sports, or biography.
Happy to try any other types of book. I get bored quickly so preferably not a slow starting book.
Happy to try any other types of book. I get bored quickly so preferably not a slow starting book.
If you've not read it, then Crime and Punishment.
Alternatively, Stranger in a Strange Land*. Both fairly dissimilar, so good range.
*yeah, is science fiction.
The Pickwick Papers by Dickens is excellent.
I'm now reading Career of Evil by Robert Galbraith. I'd highly recommend it, very enjoyable so far.
Murder on the Orient Express. My fav Christie book, and it gets into it right off the bat.
Whatever you read after To Kill a Mockingbird will probably be a let down, though.
Thanks for the suggestions. Will have a browse of the Kindle store later.
@Mciahel Goodman I'll keep my expectations low then!
@Mciahel Goodman I'll keep my expectations low then!
Simultaneously re-reading The Big Short and Boomerang by Michael Lewis.
He's got an excellent way of condensing and simplifying financial and technical concepts so they're understandable at the same time as being impenetrable; probably why so many of his books have been made into films. He's also got a superb eye for characters, and must be really gifted as an interviewer to be able to put his books together so well.
He's got an excellent way of condensing and simplifying financial and technical concepts so they're understandable at the same time as being impenetrable; probably why so many of his books have been made into films. He's also got a superb eye for characters, and must be really gifted as an interviewer to be able to put his books together so well.
Murder on the Links - Agatha Christie
One of the early Poirot books, and the first with Capt Hastings, if I'm not mistaken. Christie waves a tale with twists and turns on every page. A classic whodunnit. Brilliant writing, and I admit to being in the dark till Poirot shared his thoughts. The old style vocab and more innocent feel of the book makes it quite endearing. There are a couple of moments where Christie takes some liberties in the story (ie the back story), but overall after the initial 20-30 pages, I couldn't put it down. Mais, oui!
One of the early Poirot books, and the first with Capt Hastings, if I'm not mistaken. Christie waves a tale with twists and turns on every page. A classic whodunnit. Brilliant writing, and I admit to being in the dark till Poirot shared his thoughts. The old style vocab and more innocent feel of the book makes it quite endearing. There are a couple of moments where Christie takes some liberties in the story (ie the back story), but overall after the initial 20-30 pages, I couldn't put it down. Mais, oui!
A Garth Marenghi-levels of dreadful ghost story. At one point, the hero thinks to himself 'things will get better'; a message instantly appears on his computer screen: 'OH NO THEY WON'T!' I wish I was joking...
I love ghost stories, for all their clichés, but this is like the worst of James Herbert and Hammer combined. Reads like a cash-in written from a template of terrible. Comes complete with frightened local characters who, at first, won't tell the hero anything about cursed Cold Hill House; then, of course, they tell him absolutely everything about it, complete with the back-stories of every person who's lived and died there. Inevitably, these locals develop the bad habit of being killed in rubbish ways by the ghost before they have the chance to help the annoying hero and his cardboard cut-out family of people you don't care about. Spoiler: it's crap. Minus-10 out of 10.
An Amazon customer's review:
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Goodbye Harper Lee. Whether you're a Mockingbird fan or not, few books have had as a big an impact on 20th century literature and pop culture. A giant.
Absolutely love Orient Express. I also loved Murder of Roger Ackroyd and The ABC murder. The last one's ending might be a little underwhelming, but it tied itself well imo.
Agreed.
And the Mountains Echoed - Khalid Hosseini
Spoilers below - only read if you've read the book.
Spoilers below - only read if you've read the book.
This is the first and only Hosseini book I've read, and I have to say I hated it. Let me explain why:
I hate it because of the way it made me feel, not because of the way it's written, or the story itself. But because it brings forth the various unpleasant and dark thoughts we have at the recesses of our mind into light...about ourselves, about our families, about the world. But before I get into that...
Hosseini weaves a beautiful tale primarily set in Afghanistan, but moving to Greece, France and the USA. Central to the book, and the theme that binds the book together is the relationship between a boy and his younger sister, who is sold by her villager farmer father to a rich city - socialite couple in Kabul. This sets off a chain of events lasting 50+ years. It is a non linear narrative, and each chapter is written from the viewpoint of a different character. It reads like an anthology. It is beautiful written, and painfully poetic. The fact that the sister cannot remember her life in Kabul at all until she's told as an elderly lady runs parallel with the story of how the older brother can't forget his sister for his whole life until he gets Alzheimer's, and his memories drip away. So we have one who can't forget until he's forced to. And one who can't remember until she's told. And they meet at this juncture.
The villagers often did sell their children for money or to save them from the winter. And the Afghan - Soviet wars did happen, there were foreign aid workers living in Afghanistan for 10-15 years plus, and Hosseini brilliantly highlights the background setting to reflect the ambience and machinations of the characters.
Now I felt uncomfortable reading it. There's moments where the characters are on the edge of salvation or penance and in the next moment it's taken away. For example, the story of Idris, really made me uneasy inside, but only because I can imagine myself doing the same thing (read the book to find out what I mean). And the other themes that come forth from the book really should resonate with us. The characters are driven by love, but when does that love become burdensome, as it often is for the recipient? And I'm not talking about romantic love, this is familial love, love of kinship, of shared blood and ancestry. We have stories of parents making huge sacrifices for their children, but when they age and become elderly, do the children reciprocate? In the case of Markos, he exiles himself to the other corner of the world leaving his mother with a childhood friend. The fear of abandonment is also quite strong in this book and each character is abandoned in one way or the other. There's a bittersweet ending to some of the character's but some you're just left feeling empty, and it's the empty ones that you end up dwelling on.
I've been rambling on for too long, but I can't emphasise enough how good this book is. I devoured it on my commute.
I hate it because of the way it made me feel, not because of the way it's written, or the story itself. But because it brings forth the various unpleasant and dark thoughts we have at the recesses of our mind into light...about ourselves, about our families, about the world. But before I get into that...
Hosseini weaves a beautiful tale primarily set in Afghanistan, but moving to Greece, France and the USA. Central to the book, and the theme that binds the book together is the relationship between a boy and his younger sister, who is sold by her villager farmer father to a rich city - socialite couple in Kabul. This sets off a chain of events lasting 50+ years. It is a non linear narrative, and each chapter is written from the viewpoint of a different character. It reads like an anthology. It is beautiful written, and painfully poetic. The fact that the sister cannot remember her life in Kabul at all until she's told as an elderly lady runs parallel with the story of how the older brother can't forget his sister for his whole life until he gets Alzheimer's, and his memories drip away. So we have one who can't forget until he's forced to. And one who can't remember until she's told. And they meet at this juncture.
The villagers often did sell their children for money or to save them from the winter. And the Afghan - Soviet wars did happen, there were foreign aid workers living in Afghanistan for 10-15 years plus, and Hosseini brilliantly highlights the background setting to reflect the ambience and machinations of the characters.
Now I felt uncomfortable reading it. There's moments where the characters are on the edge of salvation or penance and in the next moment it's taken away. For example, the story of Idris, really made me uneasy inside, but only because I can imagine myself doing the same thing (read the book to find out what I mean). And the other themes that come forth from the book really should resonate with us. The characters are driven by love, but when does that love become burdensome, as it often is for the recipient? And I'm not talking about romantic love, this is familial love, love of kinship, of shared blood and ancestry. We have stories of parents making huge sacrifices for their children, but when they age and become elderly, do the children reciprocate? In the case of Markos, he exiles himself to the other corner of the world leaving his mother with a childhood friend. The fear of abandonment is also quite strong in this book and each character is abandoned in one way or the other. There's a bittersweet ending to some of the character's but some you're just left feeling empty, and it's the empty ones that you end up dwelling on.
I've been rambling on for too long, but I can't emphasise enough how good this book is. I devoured it on my commute.
Read A Scanner Darkly by Philip K Dick and Mother Night by Vonnegut over the last two weeks. Great stuff.
Im going back a few years quoting this post but I have got Post Office lined up and will read it when I have finished what I am currently reading, which is Mooch by Dan Fante. Only just got into Fante, having read Chump Change about a month ago, and found it very entertaining - very easy to read, very dark, sad and funny at the same time. I heard Fante was heavily influenced by Bukowski (rather than the other way around?) which is what led me to Post Office. But yeah, if you havent done so in the couple of years since you posted this I would recommend Chump Change, it is the first of three books about the same character, as I said I havent read Bukowski but I have read that they are cut from the same cloth.
Reading Dune by Frank Herbert right now. I always expected it to be one of them overrated affairs because it was first rather than best, and I think to an extent that is sort of the case, but it is actually better than I expected, even if i feel a lot of the waffling could have been cut, the word "presently" (which isn't even normally needed!) could be used much less and no one's ever checked the grammar (i have the 50th anniversary edition, and I struggle to believe a famous book has been out for 50 years an no one's fixed the missing punctuation all over the place). So basically poor editing seems to be it's main problem, and I guess I can get over that.
Christ you are going back a while! I rarely log in these days as well.
I was actually speaking about his dad, John Fante! I knew Dan became a writer but have never read him, I will have to follow you on Chump Change, will fire up the kindle now.
I picked up 'The Bandini Quartet' by John Fante a little after my original post if I recall correctly; it remains one of the favourite books I own. The edition I own has introductions by his son Dan and Bukowski. It's an anthology of 4 novels/novellas of his which I would highly recommend. In particular Wait Until Spring, Bandini and Ask the Dust are fantastic.
So John heavily influenced Bukowski ('Fante was my God' - Bukowski); and Bukowski heavily influenced John's son. Very nice in a quaint/wanky literary sort of way.
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Atlas shrugged - Ann Rand
Has anyone read this? Sounds intriguing.
Has anyone read this? Sounds intriguing.
Ah yes that makes more sense. I read Dan is actually more like Bukowski than his father, but I guess I'll be in a position to give my own opinion in a month or so. Will def add your recommendation to my list, cheers.
Read this alright. Wasn't for me. Book on why capitalism is fantastic from what I can remember. Didnt really ring through but I did read it in the middle of a recession. I'm not sure I like Ayn Rand's style.
I read a bit of The Fountainhead and loathed it but I thought Ayn Rand was a piece of shit before I read it. Some people thinks she's God.
Oh I took it as more of an anti capitalism book, I thought it was about a guy who crashes the world economy because it was broken.
A recommendation for those who love a thriller. It's a first for Stephen King, a detective thriller. The antagonist is fascinatingly morbid and the book is an absolute page turner.
There is also a follow up called finders keepers which isn't quite as good and also a final book due out this year.
How did you get on with Blood Meridian? I was banging on about it not so long ago so I really hope you like/d it!