Ectier
01.30.24 | Im reading Watership Down atm. Its good so far but a bit tough due to the older writing style so have to read a bit slower to soak up every little bit |
VlacDrac
01.30.24 | Currently rereading 2666. |
Ectier
01.30.24 | Ooo i havent heard of that |
Ectier
01.30.24 | Sounds good but its a big book woah |
Manatea
01.30.24 | I’m reading the Rise and Fall of the Third Reich currently |
bludngorevidal
01.30.24 | 2666 is excellent. I just finished The Power Broker |
CugnoBrasso
01.30.24 | Lmaooo only 6 comments and somebody's already mentioning Bolano. Currently reading The Savage Detectives. |
heck
01.30.24 | been reading Blackshirts and Reds by Michael Parenti |
someone
01.30.24 | been mulling over Blood Meridian for months now. McCarthy sure does not make it easy to read him. not for any content reason, more just cause he writes like a crackhead on painkillers |
Hawks
01.30.24 | Currently reading The Hellfire Club by Peter Straub, sick shit. |
JohnnyoftheWell
01.30.24 | about 150 pages into the Satanic Verses and have picked up a chronic habit of cracking on with an additional 4-8 pages, musing "hurr brilliant *chuckle* can't wait for the plot to kick off" and putting the boi back down |
Ryus
01.30.24 | walt whitman as always, as well as an anthony braxton bio which is excellent |
porcupinetheater
01.30.24 | Really wish I spoke Spanish to read the full 2666, Bolaño's one of the best ever
Think I like By Night in Chile even more |
VlacDrac
01.30.24 | @Ectier it's Roberto Bolaño's magnum opus, definitely not for the faint of heart. The plot centers around femicides in Northern Mexico. However, the book is amazing. Give it a chance of you can. |
bellovddd
01.30.24 | Currently reading Insomnia by King.... no idea what its about but keen to get back into reading |
VlacDrac
01.30.24 | "Bolaño's one of the best ever"
He is one of the GOAT's for sure. |
VlacDrac
01.30.24 | I still have to check By Night in Chile, though. |
Ectier
01.30.24 | As a book nerd i think I will have to at some point |
porcupinetheater
01.30.24 | "I still have to check By Night in Chile, though."
Word, and I'm definitely predisposed to anything in the stream-of-consciousness style, but genuinely think it's incredibly how knife blade precise it is as an exploration of a personal guilt reflecting a national guilt. Read it alongside The Jakarta Method as well, which helped sketch out the global context and the social dynamic at play leading to the Pinochet regime |
Trebor.
01.30.24 | About to finish Tortilla Flat and Pet Semetary. Am like halfway through the second to last Witcher book |
CugnoBrasso
01.30.24 | Savage Detectives is my first Bolano, I was wondering whether to start with that or 2666 but I'll read them both eventually so... |
Egarran
01.30.24 | The Fuller Memorandum by Charles Stross.
Had to get this because it said Lovecraftian on the cover, but it also said spy novel. So yeah umm it's like if James Bond was a middle class IT specialist who also knew magic and the universe was infested by cosmic horrors. Pretty weird and very pulpy stuff. But it's prophetic in that it explains why Russia has to do all this crazy shit we see today. |
Ectier
01.30.24 | Ive also fallen in love with a very specific genre/style story atm |
Egarran
01.30.24 | I'm not entirely comfortable with you reading Watership Down. You're a fragile soul. |
Ectier
01.30.24 | I will be safe Eggy, its taking me a bit. Thank you for the concern though |
VlacDrac
01.30.24 | @CugnoBrasso The Savage Detectives is better in order to start with Bolaño's bibliography. 2666 is almost double in length and the subject matter of the novel can also shock some readers. |
InfernalDeity
01.30.24 | Fuck I got a couple hundred pages into 2666 and jumped ship. I need to finish it. |
VlacDrac
01.31.24 | You are in a hell of a ride. |
Butkuiss
01.31.24 | I’m currently reading Bob Carr’s memoirs (Australian centre-right politician and former foreign minister) and they’re fucking hilarious. He spends more time talking about the gym and his protein goals for the day (as a man in his mid 60s at time of writing) than he does foreign policy. |
VlacDrac
01.31.24 | Such is the life of every politician.
|
bellovddd
01.31.24 | BOB CARR lol |
Butkuiss
01.31.24 | Bob Hawke didn’t mention the gym OR protein once! |
CugnoBrasso
01.31.24 | @Vlac I'm not easly shockable usually, but yahhp its length definitely played a role.
Really liking it so far! |
VlacDrac
01.31.24 | @CugnoBrasso Glad to know. Enjoy. One of my favorite books. |
Ectier
01.31.24 | Bob Hawke would be too busy at the pub |
Ectier
02.02.24 | JESUS FUCKING CHRIST MY HEARTS BREAKING this fucking book. |
dedex
02.02.24 | slowly reading Capital and Ideology, quite digestible honestly (if you accept that it's gonna take you at least one year to read it) |
MiloRuggles
02.02.24 | RIP the old books thread, I'll miss brainstorming my comment during the lengthy scroll required to access ye olde boxe
Recently finished Poor Things by Alasdair Gray (great!), The Outsider by Albert Camus (very good!), and I'm about 120 pages into The Sot-Weed Factor by John Barth (very quickly shaping up to be a top 10 for me!). Go books!
Bought a copy of The Overstory by Richard Powers today because I heard somewhere that it goes hard on science - has anyone here read it and what's your no-spoiler take? |
MiloRuggles
02.02.24 | Oh, and apologies to whoever outed me on being ignorant of Cormac McCarthy's Border Trilogy in the last thread — you're probably right, I haven't read it. I have the first two books in the trilogy and I'm waiting to get my hands on the third before I start it. Although my accursed (and lovely) compatriot Jas sprinkled the last thread with equinian spoilers on the trio and I'm more than a lil devastated |
Ectier
02.02.24 | Its not often i have to stop reading due to content of a book |
Egarran
02.02.24 | I fucking warned you. |
Ectier
02.02.24 | You did, the books amazing but holy fuck that section was dark as all hell |
Ectier
02.02.24 | Im keen to finish it still |
Egarran
02.02.24 | Today you have become a man. |
Lichtbringer
02.02.24 | i'm like 3/4 of the way through in don quixote. but i've put the book down for a while and started reading the first dune in the meantime. no idea what i'm doing tbh |
Ectier
02.05.24 | Dune is a tough read or it was for me. Every little detail is important and combine that with the older writing style if not familiar or used or to it, can be a tough read |
Winesburgohio
02.05.24 | about to crack into Ratner's Star, which is apparently DeLillo at his most Pynchon-influenced so i'm bloody frothing |
Lichtbringer
02.05.24 | "Dune is a tough read or it was for me. Every little detail is important and combine that with the older writing style if not familiar or used or to it, can be a tough read"
i'm enjoying it a fair bit and not finding it tough. i've had problems with a bunch of books in the past that i had to put down because the style was too dense or whatever, but this isn't one of them. but i guess i'll see down the line all the things i've failed to pick up on, lol
|
porcupinetheater
02.05.24 | Just started reading Kate Briggs' The Long Form, one of the cleverest ways I've seen yet of weaving essay into fiction alongside a really compelling stream of consciousness approach to a woman trying to get her newborn baby to sleep
Brilliant so far and v excited to see where it burrows |
Ryus
02.05.24 | that sounds cool porc ill add it to my list
nyrb stays winning |
theBoneyKing
02.05.24 | Yeah tbh I don't think the first Dune is that hard by the standards of most modern sci fi/fantasy. |
Ectier
02.05.24 | It may just be me and my inexperience in scifi stuff as well |
Lichtbringer
02.05.24 | when i read "a fire upon the deep" i remember finding it frustrating to the point of thinking the author took the whole "reader has to figure things out for himself"-approach way too far...
boney, do you have some sci fi recs? |
Winesburgohio
02.05.24 | @porc that sounds phenomenal omg |
Ectier
02.06.24 | I finished Water ship down and it was fantastic. Im going to read something a bit lighter and junk foody next |
porcupinetheater
02.06.24 | “nyrb stays winning”
Hell yeah it do
This one’s technically a Dorothea publication but nyrb is distributing their stuff now, Dorothea didn’t have the space available to handle their own distribution anymore iirc
Fucking incredible boutique label, though, they’ve got some really cool, weird short story collections, the 4 Ravicka books exploring a quasi-quantumly delocating city and the people who live there from different angles for each book and they’re all these odd experimental gems, Who Was Changed and Who Was Dead which does sn incredible job balancing whimsical almost fairy tale like impulses and a detached tone with some really harrowing descriptions of a suicide plague and familial abuse
God such an amazing label
They also put out The Wallcreeper which sucks but can’t win ‘em all |
kalkwiese
02.07.24 | Didn't know there was a new one
Subscribed
Doing Midnight's Children right now, by Salman Rushdie. That man can craft some tasty sentences |
Mort.
02.08.24 | so far this year ive read
On the beach by Nevil Shute
Good Omens by Terry Pratchett and Neil Gaiman
Iron Council by China Mieville
Concrete Island by JG Ballard
Mad Girl by Bryony Gordon |
Mort.
02.08.24 | currently reading
In the name of Rome by Adrian Goldsworthy
A Severed Head by Iris Murdoch
Robert Graves collected greek myths
Notes from the underground by dostoyevsky |
Ectier
02.21.24 | Ive been reading Rouge by Mona Awad and its been boring as shit and a bit of a let down honestly |
CugnoBrasso
02.21.24 | I probably liked Notes from the Underground more than Crime and Punishment. |
Anthracks
02.25.24 | hi new thread. i agree notes from underground is top 3 dostoevsky along with brothers karamazov and the double.
my reading in february so far was:
the mad ship by robin hobb
house of light by mary oliver
tar baby by toni morrison
go tell it on the mountain by james baldwin
currently reading planet of the apes by pierre boulle |
porcupinetheater
02.25.24 | Just finished The Long Form (great), that book spent enough time doing literary analysis on Tom Jones figured it's past due to read that one now
Excellent, prob my fave 18th Century novel I've read so far, the humor of it all holds up incredibly |
Anthracks
02.29.24 | blasted through
planet of the apes by pierre boulle
the years by annie ernaux
glory by vladimir nabokov
me talk pretty one day by david sedaris
king richard the second by william shakespeare
the cloven viscount by italo calvino
ernaux was the highlight. glory is probably the worst nabokov novel. now taking my time with ship of destiny by robin hobb (liveship book 3) |
CugnoBrasso
02.29.24 | Cloven Viscount is such a fun read |
Anthracks
03.01.24 | yes it was a good time. excited for the rest of the "trilogy" |
Egarran
03.02.24 | Paul Anderson - Tau Zero aka The Spaceship That Couldn't Slow Down.
Classic hard sci-fi from 1970 that still holds up. Good ideas, meh characters. |
Anthracks
03.03.24 | randomly found the most delicious illustrated hardcover edition of house of the dead by fyodor dostoevsky from the 80s at the book shop from The Holdovers. also finally found a decent edition of the confidence man by herman melville there (which came in a set with 4 other melville works). will be going back |
Ectier
03.19.24 | Im reading My Brilliant Friend by Elena Ferrante. Its been great |
Jash
03.19.24 | Just did My Year of Rest and Relaxation in one day, great stuff. Started Cutting for Stone now |
kalkwiese
03.19.24 | It's nice you're all enthusiastic about reading |
Ectier
03.19.24 | Books are wonderful |
kalkwiese
03.19.24 | Lol, 3/4 of my comment are missing
Yes, books are great!
I just finished A Dance With Dragons and I loved it, which means I am in the waiting camp now noooooo
I regret nothing though, this series was great and I guess I get what High Fantasy is all about much better now
Edit: Also doing The Metamorphosis by Kafka atm and it's surprisingly funny, while also depressing |
Anthracks
03.20.24 | read dune messiah by frank herbert and now reading the magic mountain by thomas mann |
Ryus
03.20.24 | just started middlemarch. loving it already |
artificialbox
03.20.24 | Reading Hyperion right now. I preemptively bought the whole series (including Endymion) and thankfully I’m really loving it. Hope the rest of the books are as good as this first one. |
Egarran
03.20.24 | Oh ho ho don't want to hype the sequel too much but it's yeah it's mm hmm really good. |
artificialbox
03.20.24 | fock yeah |
Lichtbringer
03.20.24 | i'm reading e's (eels frontman) autobiography "things the grandchildren should know about". dude's lived a pretty crazy life it appears |
Sharenge
03.20.24 | (re)watching True Detective season 3 atm and thinking about heading over to the emporium in the near future see if I can snag myself a copy of Hearts in Atlantis |
Anthracks
03.31.24 | finished the magic mountain by thomas mann (also interjected with the immortal thor volume 1, murakami manga stories volume 1, and mr. rabbit's symphony of nature and other tails by charles van sandwyck)
next up is the waves by virginia woolf |
