Do you read?

[CarewsEyebrowDesigner]

No paragraphs, All capital letters,

 

[leemond2008]

^{Just bought this to because I'll be finishing my other book at some point tonight or tomorrow}

 

 

 

 

 

 

Haunted is a novel made up of stories: twenty-three of the most horrifying, hilarious, mind-blowing, stomach-churning tales you'll ever encounter. They are told by the people who have all answered an ad headlined 'Artists Retreat: Abandon your life for three months'. They are led to believe that here they will leave behind all the distractions of 'real life' that are keeping them from creating the masterpiece that is in them. But 'here' turns out to be a cavernous and ornate old theatre where they are utterly isolated from the outside world - and where heat and power and, most importantly, food are in increasingly short supply. And the more desperate the circumstances become, the more desperate the stories they tell - and the more devious their machinations to make themselves the hero of the inevitable play/movie/non-fiction blockbuster that will certainly be made from their plight. 

 

 

 

this is one of the reviews off amazon

 

 

 

Haunted is a collection of 24 fictional short stories devised by the crazed and perverted mind of Chuck Palahniuk (Paula-Nick). Each story is special in many ways and ranging from touching to downright disgusting. Anyone easily offended or suffer from a weak stomach should definetly avoid this book. For example, the story simply titled "Guts" opens the book and has been making people faint and vomit around the world simply by reading it or having it read to them.
The darkest story however is "Exodus" and I won't even try and explain what it is about or I may not be able to have this review shown.
In some of Palahniuks previous books towards the end he seems to be out of steam and slowly glides towards the story's climax. Now in Haunted Chuck has 24 short stories so he can end it when he likes in order for the story to have its full effect.
Overall a very entertaining book and with the ability to make us stop and examine our own lives (read the story Slumming).

 

[coda]

^{Just bought this to because I'll be finishing my other book at some point tonight or tomorrow}

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Haunted is a novel made up of stories: twenty-three of the most horrifying, hilarious, mind-blowing, stomach-churning tales you'll ever encounter. They are told by the people who have all answered an ad headlined 'Artists Retreat: Abandon your life for three months'. They are led to believe that here they will leave behind all the distractions of 'real life' that are keeping them from creating the masterpiece that is in them. But 'here' turns out to be a cavernous and ornate old theatre where they are utterly isolated from the outside world - and where heat and power and, most importantly, food are in increasingly short supply. And the more desperate the circumstances become, the more desperate the stories they tell - and the more devious their machinations to make themselves the hero of the inevitable play/movie/non-fiction blockbuster that will certainly be made from their plight. 

 

 

 

this is one of the reviews off amazon

 

 

 

Haunted is a collection of 24 fictional short stories devised by the crazed and perverted mind of Chuck Palahniuk (Paula-Nick). Each story is special in many ways and ranging from touching to downright disgusting. Anyone easily offended or suffer from a weak stomach should definetly avoid this book. For example, the story simply titled "Guts" opens the book and has been making people faint and vomit around the world simply by reading it or having it read to them.

The darkest story however is "Exodus" and I won't even try and explain what it is about or I may not be able to have this review shown.

In some of Palahniuks previous books towards the end he seems to be out of steam and slowly glides towards the story's climax. Now in Haunted Chuck has 24 short stories so he can end it when he likes in order for the story to have its full effect.

Overall a very entertaining book and with the ability to make us stop and examine our own lives (read the story Slumming).

 

 

 

The Guardian published 'Guts' years ago. People were writing in for weeks afterwards saying they still didn't feel right having read it. I didn't read it.

[mjmooney]

I had trouble getting past the first page of 'Guts'.    

[leemond2008]

I like stuff like that though, kind of makes me feel sub human by reading it

[coda]

Ugh, my curiosity just got the better of me and I read the summary. 

[hogso]

I thought Guts was properly amusing, personally.

[CarewsEyebrowDesigner]

Just read 'Guts'. Meh.

 

Seen worse on t'internet!

[3_Penny_Opera]

Your lot read David Mitchell?  I looked in previous pages in this thread not to beat on about something in the past, but, I think if I were born and rasied in the UK (especially born in the 70's) I'd love "Black Swan Green" even more than I loved it (wasn't born and raised in UK).

Thousand Autumns of Jacob De Zoet was good, too.

Now that I've read 2 books I liked from Mitchell, I'm about to pick up "Cloud Atlas."

[leemond2008]

 

 

 

^{I'm more than half way through this now, its a bit of a strange one, I dont think the 1 big story holding all of the short stories really works and I think it actually detracts from some of the short stories.}

^{Its difficult to picture them happening in the real world (even the ones that are semi feasible, I cant help but read them as if it is some crazy bleak cartoon reality where its always raining. Each of the stories are pretty **** bleak and there has been one or two that have been pretty good but all in all its just a bit...meh}

^{I like the morbidly depressing angle that each story has though that is what is keeping me turning the pages at the moment}

^{so far I would give it a 2.5 out of 5}

[coda]

Your lot read David Mitchell?  I looked in previous pages in this thread not to beat on about something in the past, but, I think if I were born and rasied in the UK (especially born in the 70's) I'd love "Black Swan Green" even more than I loved it (wasn't born and raised in UK).

Thousand Autumns of Jacob De Zoet was good, too.

Now that I've read 2 books I liked from Mitchell, I'm about to pick up "Cloud Atlas."

 

I'm reading Ghostwritten at the moment. A great book, very similar in style to Cloud Atlas and more consistent overall but for me it doesn't hit that book's highs. I'll probably read all of his at some point. 

[mjmooney]

Your lot read David Mitchell?  I looked in previous pages in this thread not to beat on about something in the past, but, I think if I were born and rasied in the UK (especially born in the 70's) I'd love "Black Swan Green" even more than I loved it (wasn't born and raised in UK).

Thousand Autumns of Jacob De Zoet was good, too.

Now that I've read 2 books I liked from Mitchell, I'm about to pick up "Cloud Atlas."

 

BSG and TAoJdZ are both fairly conventional compared with his earlier work like Ghostwritten, Number Nine Dream and (especially) Cloud Atlas, which are all pretty experimental. 

 

If you like him you'd probably also like Haruki Murakami. 

[CarewsEyebrowDesigner]

I wasn't totally sold on Cloud Atlas. It was great in patches, tedious in others.

 

But I'd rather read an ambitious book that ultimately fails than some middling, forgettable waffle served up by Nicholas Sparks and the like.

[maqroll]

R.I.P. Chinua Achebe, the Nigerian author. If you haven't read his classic "Things Fall Apart", go get it.

[mjmooney]

Finished Under the Volcano, and it's a masterpiece - straight into my top ten novels of all time. 

 

Just starting: 

 

 

...all 1200 pages of it. 

[Designer1]

 

Picked this up last week. Fascinated by this fella, so looking forward to starting.

 

 

Just started this, interesting read so far.

[CarewsEyebrowDesigner]

Ulysses was grand, and although it is tough going in a number of places (one episode especially where Joyce writes through the history of prose styles - maddening but admirable) but I enjoyed it. I'll do a closer reading again in the future with all the guides, but I don't think it is essential first time round, besides you'd need to set aside a few months to go through it like that.

 

Now I've got 'The Handmaid's Tale' by Margaret Atwood.

[coda]

Ellroy's The Cold Six Thousand (Hardback) £1.25

Ballard's Millennium People 75p

 

Charity shops FTW.

[CarewsEyebrowDesigner]

I did my own second hand spree the other day. I'm now reading Pale Fire by Nabokov, which is totes amazeballs so far.

 

Then I've got Love in the Time of Cholera, Tristam Shandy, and The Reluctant Fundamentalist to follow.

 

All for under a tenner.

 

Balls to High Street 

[Xela]

Watership Down