Read Any Good Books Lately?

[Lady Grendel 139]

I've just reread 'The White Spider' by Heinrich Harrer, fairly appropriate as he died last week. I'm currently reading 'The Second Summoning' by Tanya Huff.

[in eternum+ 22]

If you want something satirical and thought provoking about the modern US media,

 

You could try this book

 

I liked it anyways.

With no criticism intended towards yourself, this is one of the very very few books I started and couldn't/didn't finish. It's not that I thought it was bad per se... more that I just found it quite dull; I think I simply got bored and couldn't bring myself to continue on reading it. I have a feeling it's one of those books that requires the reader to be much cleverer than I am.

[Tempus Fugit 214]

If you want something satirical and thought provoking about the modern US media,

 

You could try this book

 

I liked it anyways.

With no criticism intended towards yourself, this is one of the very very few books I started and couldn't/didn't finish. It's not that I thought it was bad per se... more that I just found it quite dull; I think I simply got bored and couldn't bring myself to continue on reading it. I have a feeling it's one of those books that requires the reader to be much cleverer than I am.

It's a slow burn, you don't really see where it's heading until about a third into the book.

[in eternum+ 22]

If you want something satirical and thought provoking about the modern US media,

 

You could try this book

 

I liked it anyways.

With no criticism intended towards yourself, this is one of the very very few books I started and couldn't/didn't finish. It's not that I thought it was bad per se... more that I just found it quite dull; I think I simply got bored and couldn't bring myself to continue on reading it. I have a feeling it's one of those books that requires the reader to be much cleverer than I am.

It's a slow burn, you don't really see where it's heading until about a third into the book.

For me, it wasn't so much about being a slow narrative, which doesn't bother me at all. It's more the writing style. Case in point:

 

"I'm studying this whole tragedy routine, in back of my jellified brain. The Lechugas have to send themselves teddy bears, for instance. Know why? Because Max was an asshole. Saw-teeth of damnation I feel just thinking it, waiting for fiery hounds to unleash mastications and puke my fucken soul to hell. But at the same time, here's me with a cup of water in my eyes, for Max, for all my classmates. The truth is a corrosive thing. It's like everybody who used to cuss the dead is now lining up to say what perfect angles of God they were. What I'm learning is the world laughs through it's ass every day, then just lies double-time when S**t goes down. It's like we're on a Pritkin diet of fucken lies. I mean - what kind of fucken life is this?"

 

...zzzzzzzzzzz...

 

F*cking hell!

[Tempus Fugit 214]

I think that's great dialogue, but each to his or her own.

 

Now if you really want to see an example of difficult dialogue,

 

here's an excerpt from Iain M Banks's Sci-Fi novel "Feersum Endjinn".

 

"Mr Zoliparia lukes @ me diffrint than he has in thi past. Ive always liked him & Ive always luked up 2 him evir sins he woz 1 ov thi peepil they sent me 2 when they reelized I tolkd farely normil but I thot a bit funy, + I tend 2 do whot he sez- it waz him sed Perhaps u wood make a good tellir, & him whot sujjestid I keep a jurnil, witch this is whot u r readin"

 

Now that book really forced you to concentrate.

[Banshees Scream 110]

here's an excerpt from Iain M Banks's Sci-Fi novel "Feersum Endjinn".

 

"Mr Zoliparia lukes @ me diffrint than he has in thi past. Ive always liked him & Ive always luked up 2 him evir sins he woz 1 ov thi peepil they sent me 2 when they reelized I tolkd farely normil but I thot a bit funy, + I tend 2 do whot he sez- it waz him sed Perhaps u wood make a good tellir, & him whot sujjestid I keep a jurnil, witch this is whot u r readin"

It seems Tempus, that you have devoloped the dialog of the Gangsta"

[in eternum+ 22]

I think that's great dialogue, but each to his or her own.

 

Now if you really want to see an example of difficult dialogue,

 

here's an excerpt from Iain M Banks's Sci-Fi novel "Feersum Endjinn".

 

"Mr Zoliparia lukes @ me diffrint than he has in thi past. Ive always liked him & Ive always luked up 2 him evir sins he woz 1 ov thi peepil they sent me 2 when they reelized I tolkd farely normil but I thot a bit funy, + I tend 2 do whot he sez- it waz him sed Perhaps u wood make a good tellir, & him whot sujjestid I keep a jurnil, witch this is whot u r readin"

 

Now that book really forced you to concentrate.

Hm... I really don't know what I think about that.

 

On the one hand, I think that the pushing/stretching/testing of existing conventions and boundaries has led to some pretty fabulous literature and should occur. On the other hand, I believe that a lot of authors hide the fact that they're pretty crap behind this notion of "doing something new".

 

Ultimately, I guess I think that any narrative style is acceptable as long as it makes sense within the context of the story being told. With regard to the VGL example, I think it does. I just found it boring and tedious...

 

I agree with you about it all being simply a matter of taste. When I was 14 - 17ish, Tom Robbins was my favourite author (influencing me, and therefore some of my friends, to smoke Camels for a while ). Now his stuff just seems like ramblings to me.

[Canadian Paul 97]

Anything by Sylvia Plath plus a packet of razor blades should be enough at this time of year.

 

A few lines from Lady Lazarus:

 

Dying

Is an art, like everything else.

I do it exceptionally well.

Ah yes. Sylvia Plath. One of the only poets that I can stand.

 

Her and T.S. Elliot.

 

Anyone read anything by Stanley Kunitz? We might need to be looking appropriate for something for his DL obituary.

[Twelvetrees 10]

Cricket suicides so common there are two books about them - Silence of the Heart and By His Own Hand - anyone read either of these?

I've read "By His Own Hand", not a spectacular read, but worth it if you can find a cheap copy.

 

As part of a book club, my last choice for the group was "The Collector", whose author, John Fowles, was collected shortly afterwards.

 

"The Loved One" by Evelyn Waugh is a humorous depiction of an old-style US cemetery, and I'd recommend Dostoevsky's "Crime and Punishment" to everyone.

[Godot 149]

Have got Crime and Punishment in my "waiting" pile. Is it an easy read?

[MizzJacktheCat 0]

Have got Crime and Punishment in my "waiting" pile. Is it an easy read?

It is a great book, Godot, and very easy to read. Quite modern in its outlook despite the setting.

[maryportfuncity 10,647]

"The Loved One" by Evelyn Waugh is a humorous depiction of an old-style US cemetery, and I'd recommend Dostoevsky's "Crime and Punishment" to everyone.

 

Good call Twelvetrees, read it years ago and liked its slow, grim humour a lot.

[Cup of Tea 3]

Porn

. . Theres always one to lower the tone isnt there?

[The Four Horsemen 26]

Would you be referring to this intellectual tome?

[Windsor 2,233]

I learned that Jacobites don't recognise Queen Elizabeth I of Englands reign because the Catholic Church didn't recognise the marriage of Henry and Anne as Legal. Instead they recognise Mary Queen of Scots as 'Mary II of England'.

 

Jacobites were a bunch of arseholes.

 

(I realise this has nothing to do with books, but I did read it somewhere).

[Paul Bearer 6,102]

Have got Crime and Punishment in my "waiting" pile. Is it an easy read?

I was going to read it, but someone stole it

[maryportfuncity 10,647]

Find them and punish them!

 

 

On a separate note, got a press release about this book today. Written by patients in a hospice. I mean, if it became an unpexted best-seller, and we had the inside track on the author's names, the result with Lou Rawles would look like nothing.

[maryportfuncity 10,647]

Just noticed Dave Thompson's Better to Burn Out: The Cult of Death in Rock n' Roll going second hand on Amazon with change from two quid.

 

Highly recommended and currently fuelling the odd comment on the dead rock stars thread hereabouts.

[Tempus Fugit 214]

This obscure book, has seen its sales rocket after Bin Laden endorsed it in his latest message.

 

It's a funny old world.

[Canadian Paul 97]

This obscure book, has seen its sales rocket after Bin Laden endorsed it in his latest message.

 

It's a funny old world.

That's the first news article that I've truly been interested in in a long time. I like Blum's views, at least from what they appear to be from this story. Sensible, where no side is good or evil, as many are apt to describe.

 

Perhaps he has another customer.

[Godot 149]

I see there's a new film about Truman Capote. I want to read one of his books ahead of it but which one? Capote, it seems, was a natural deathlister, befriending the two killers he wrote about in In Cold Blood but wishing they would die so he could end his book. Haven't read any of his books.

 

Also I notice he was a friend of Harper Lee who is a bit reclusive and getting older. Any good info on her health would be appreciated.

[Canadian Paul 97]

Also I notice he was a friend of Harper Lee who is a bit reclusive and getting older. Any good info on her health would be appreciated.

That's the problem with her. She, like J.D. Salinger, is reclusive to the point where no one knows anything about them or how they're doing.

 

I wouldn't be surprised if the next time we hear from either of them is in the obituaries.

[maryportfuncity 10,647]

Re Capote; In Cold Blood is a seriously good read. So good it changed non-fiction writing for good and heralded the rise of the 'non-fiction novel.'

[Guest Necrophile]

Sodomy, incest, murder, rape, conspiracies WOW!

 

The Bible is a great read and such good value.

 

I got mine free in a hotel I stayed in!

[Magere Hein 1,400]

Sodomy, incest, murder, rape, conspiracies WOW!

War crimes, genocide, mass murder...

The Bible is a great read and such good value.

Yup. I didn't mind Xtianity much, until I read the Bible.

I got mine free in a hotel I stayed in!

I stole one of mine from a church. I presume that'll be my ticket to Hell.

 

regards,

Hein