Do you read?

[mjmooney]

14 hours ago, leemond2008 said:

Finished this today, I have to say I wasn't thrilled by it, the characters all moulded into one and it was hard to care and at times even decipher one from another, the beginning of the book was much better than the middle/end, when the plague was slowly breaking out and they were deciding how to deal with it. I have head Cramus described as being Existential and I would say that is a pretty good **** way to describe him. He's also been compared to Kafka but I'd choose Kafka any day going off this book, it wasn't bad, it just wasn't my bag.

I'm going to re-read this tomorrow, I last read it when I was 13/14 at school and got a bollocking because he told us to read the first 3 chapters and I finished the book, rather than encourage me and maybe recommend some more of Steinbecks stuff teacher lost his shit with me and went ballistic at me, it actually put me off reading for ages after that happened.

 

Your teacher was a grade-A idiot, and should have been sacked. I used to do that all the time, and my teachers loved me for it. 

"In Cold Blood" is one of the best books I've ever read, BTW. 

[leemond2008]

55 minutes ago, mjmooney said:

Your teacher was a grade-A idiot, and should have been sacked. I used to do that all the time, and my teachers loved me for it. 

"In Cold Blood" is one of the best books I've ever read, BTW. 

Yeah he was an idiot, he was a full on piss head, used to always have bottle of whiskey in his drawers, kids were always stealing it from him.

I started of mice and men again this morning, I'm only on page 28 but I love it again already, such a nice easy read after some of the stuff I've been trudging through just lately

[sidcow]

Been reading a Bowie biography my Mrs bought me for my birthday. It is interesting and informative but by God it's a hard read. 

Written by an arty intellectual well beyond my IQ levels so it's chock full of words I don't understand and he keeps making cross references between what Bowie was doing or writing and weird highbrow scholarly things I have never heard of or have any interest in. 

So kind of enjoying it but can't wait for it to be over so keep skim reading when he goes off on a tangent. 

Edited February 7, 2017 by sidcow

[maqroll]

In what must be the final insult to bookstores everywhere, Amazon.com now has brick and mortar stores..

[Rodders]

 

**** amazon. 

[Rodders]

At the moment on the go:

evening / bed reading: 

Both enjoyable but also very long. Feels bloatd, Ive found myself skipping forward at times which probably isn't a great sign - there are simply some elements that are more interesting than others, but I don't get the sci-fi need to have a ream of unpronouncable names. I sense Banks is knowingly taking the piss a bit, but it's still making for heavy going at times. 

 

In work / during day:

Quote

How can we explain the origins of the great wave of paranoid hatreds that seem inescapable in our close-knit world - from American 'shooters' and ISIS to Trump, from a rise in vengeful nationalism across the world to racism and misogyny on social media? In Age of Anger, Pankaj Mishra answers our bewilderment by casting his gaze back to the eighteenth century, before leading us to the present.

He shows that as the world became modern those who were unable to fulfil its promises - freedom, stability and prosperity - were increasingly susceptible to demagogues. The many who came late to this new world or were left, or pushed, behind, reacted in horrifyingly similar ways: intense hatred of invented enemies, attempts to re-create an imaginary golden age, and self-empowerment through spectacular violence. It was from among the ranks of the disaffected that the militants of the 19th century arose - angry young men who became cultural nationalists in Germany, messianic revolutionaries in Russia, bellicose chauvinists in Italy, and anarchist terrorists internationally.

Today, just as then, the wider embrace of mass politics, technology, and the pursuit of wealth and individualism has cast many more millions adrift in a literally demoralized world, uprooted from tradition but still far from modernity - with the same terrible results

Making startling connections and comparisons, Age of Anger is a book of immense urgency and profound argument. It is a history of our present predicament unlike any other.

Read more at https://www.penguin.co.uk/books/297618/age-of-anger/#40qqCCdBdRffe5bG.99

It's ram packed with references that make me want to read further, though I generally tend to query books that have an absolutist starting point in history for events. Not that Mishra does that heavily here, but there is, perhaps for expedient reasons of space, a focus on the Enlightenment as the precursor that neglects similar waves of anger that would have gone on before that - but in spite of that, he does write well and makes some good points, relating to the individualist cult having its fair share of unforeseen consequences. Only a third of the way through at the moment, but it is interesting, nonetheless. Gives a fuller picture of some of those 18th century authors too and the complexity and contradictions in some of their thoughts.

and 

 

for something lighter. Last year I was having a spy spree, partly including The Night Manager period, with le carre etc, and enjoyed Ben Mcintyre's book on the subject ( A Spy Among Friends ) which was really fascinating, so I thought I'd have a look at it from Philby's own words. Enjoyably fascinating so far, and the foreward by Graham Greene has reminded me to read some of his own books too. 

 

 

[chappy]

Went to see Harry Potter and the Cursed Child at the theatre today. Absolutely sensational!

[mjmooney]

[Ginko]

I'm reading Infinite Jest by David Foster Wallace at the moment.

Im starting to get a bit more into it but it's not really my sort of thing. A shame really as he's a wonderful writer (I've read a couple of his essays) and clearly was a very clever bloke.

It's just a bit too unstructured and intellectual for me. My vocabulary is getting a tune up though, that's for sure. I get that this style of writing is meant to be a bit surreal but it's just not for me. I don't see myself finishing it.

[mjmooney]

6 minutes ago, Ginko said:

I'm reading Infinite Jest by David Foster Wallace at the moment.

Im starting to get a bit more into it but it's not really my sort of thing. A shame really as he's a wonderful writer (I've read a couple of his essays) and clearly was a very clever bloke.

It's just a bit too unstructured and intellectual for me. My vocabulary is getting a tune up though, that's for sure. I get that this style of writing is meant to be a bit surreal but it's just not for me. I don't see myself finishing it.

A friend of mine has been reading that, on and off, for over ten years. 

I suspect it's Just My Sort Of Thing, and it's on my longlist. 

[Ginko]

Well, as I said, DFW really was a wonderful writer. He switches styles effortlessly between chapters and if it's your sort of thing I think you'll really like it.

For me though, I prefer more traditional storytelling with a clear narrative and subplots woven in. Infinite Jest jumps about from chapter to chapter not only in terms of characters and locations that are unrelated (at least not immediately but I'm not even halfway through it), but different places in time too.

Add to that the difficult vocabulary and the varied writing styles (some chapters have sentences that almost go on for three-quarters of a page) and it's just too unstructured and a wee bit artsy/pretentious for my liking.

Edited April 1, 2017 by Ginko

[coda]

On 01/04/2017 at 12:13, Ginko said:

I'm reading Infinite Jest by David Foster Wallace at the moment.

Im starting to get a bit more into it but it's not really my sort of thing. A shame really as he's a wonderful writer (I've read a couple of his essays) and clearly was a very clever bloke.

It's just a bit too unstructured and intellectual for me. My vocabulary is getting a tune up though, that's for sure. I get that this style of writing is meant to be a bit surreal but it's just not for me. I don't see myself finishing it.

It settles down after 200 pages. I was lost before that. I still found it demanding and frustrating throughout and his journalism is a lot more accessible.

[Ginko]

Glad I'm not the only one. I'll stick with it for the foreseeable, I just have little inclination to read it. I like getting totally absorbed by a book.

[Davkaus]

For the first time in years, I'm abandoning a book part way through.

I tried to read Birdsong, by Faulks, which seems to have almost universal acclaim. I'm so uncertain as to how this occurred that I initially suspected that there may be two books named Birdsong, and I bought the wrong one.

It's irredeemably dull.

[MakemineVanilla]

Lincoln In The Bardo by George Saunders

Much reviewed and highly acclaimed; it reminds me of Faulkner's As I Lay Dying, with its multiple narrators and theme of death.

Contains some beautiful writing and definitely falls into the category of 'modern'. 

[MakemineVanilla]

On 4/4/2017 at 13:23, Davkaus said:

For the first time in years, I'm abandoning a book part way through.

I tried to read Birdsong, by Faulks, which seems to have almost universal acclaim. I'm so uncertain as to how this occurred that I initially suspected that there may be two books named Birdsong, and I bought the wrong one.

It's irredeemably dull.

I liked the WW1 soldiering in the trenches part of the book but the parallel narrative of the wench was annoying.

It is not a bad book but I have always resented Faulks ever since because it was so overrated.

 

[mjmooney]

4 minutes ago, MakemineVanilla said:

I liked the WW1 soldiering in the trenches part of the book but the parallel narrative of the wench was annoying.

It is not a bad book but I have always resented Faulks ever since because it was so overrated.

 

Very much this. Didn't love it, didn't hate it. There's an entire sub-genre of WWI books like this - see also Pat Barker's trilogy, Adam Thorpe's '1921', Louis de Berniere's 'The Dust That Falls From Dreams', etc. All mid-table stuff, OK, but not in the league of (say) Ford Madox Ford's 'Parade's End'. 

[Davkaus]

I couldn't even make it to the start of the war. A hundred pages in and the tedium of the daily life of unengaging characters just really wasn't doing it for me. The ham-fisted sex scenes were enough to finish off any interest in continuing.

It didn't feel like the characters were really developing, and each page I read felt like a chore, but it's a shame I didn't make it through to the good part.

[MakemineVanilla]

1 hour ago, Davkaus said:

I couldn't even make it to the start of the war. A hundred pages in and the tedium of the daily life of unengaging characters just really wasn't doing it for me. The ham-fisted sex scenes were enough to finish off any interest in continuing.

It didn't feel like the characters were really developing, and each page I read felt like a chore, but it's a shame I didn't make it through to the good part.

As Mr Mooney points out there are far better WW1 books of literary aspiration than Birdsong.

I think it is enough to have an opinion on a book and you don't have to read the whole thing for that right - I am sure the critics don't.

I always find it's best to read the negative reviews on Amazon than the positive ones.

This one knocks it out of the park.

Quote

 The passages of trench warfare are eminently believable, sordid and catastrophic; and we are treated to writing so skilful that the reader is suspended in imagination of the action. It flows, it is real and it is awesome. True horror delivered in human terms, life and death tripping over a fine line.
Where Faulks trips up is in attempting to dress up Birdsong into a rounded behind the scenes historic family sweep. It does not work. The opening passages of our soon to be war hero, Stephen Wraysford in 1910 France, consist of clichéd French characters, upper class hearsay and the seduction of his mentor's wife with cringing pseudo - erotic sex scenes. None of which prepares or has any relation to the same character, or the verve of writing, we are treated to in the 1914 - 1918 war passages.
Then there are the intermittent 1970's tribulations of his granddaughter Elizabeth as she seeks to trace her family roots. It is plain poor melodrama and spills the trench tension carelessly from our grasp. What a shame.

 

Edited April 7, 2017 by MakemineVanilla

[villaglint]

I always used to have a must finish policy but now I'm split because on the one hand life is too short to spend time on reading something you hate. Especially if it means nursing it along for weeks/months when you could be enjoying something else. 

On the other hand I've forced myself to continue with books in the past and ended up really enjoying it. 

For me these days it's a judgement call sometimes I'll get lucky, sometimes I get burnt but sometimes I put it down and don't beat myself up over it.