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Underground > Books, Criticism & Writing >

2003: What are you currently reading?

  
  

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My Mom Thinks I'm Cool
06:01 / 26.09.03
I know it's a month too late, but catching up on this thread I have to say that I, too, hated Shadow Moon - the writing style more than anything although the plot was plenty dumb - and was wondering what happened to the people who mentioned wanting to read it for the sake of reading dumb.

Accidentally wandered into a nice used book store while waiting on car repairs and had to hastily retreat after five minutes when I realized I already had a stack of stuff...damn bookstores...

book of art by some guy called Beksinski I think, awesome.

Diary of a Young Girl by Anne Frank, and she's either the most precocious 14 year old I've ever read a book by or has an overenthusiastic translator, but still good.

history of the russian revolution by Trotsky, pretty sweet.

Valis by phillip k dick, but got too ill for a while to continue it and now I'm not sure where I left it.

and for some reason I wasted a whole day today finishing Temple of the Winds by Terry Goodkind, which is ridiculous because I hated it the first time. With every novel his writing style improves and his characters become more and more difficult for me to tolerate.
 
 
Ariadne
10:38 / 27.09.03
La Vie Sexuelle de Catherine M. See the other thread and talk to me please! I'm interested in what people think.
I've just bought the new Neal Stephenson so I'll be whizzing through Catherine (hell, everyone else has) to get to Neal.
 
 
Rage
12:36 / 28.09.03
Did anyone mention Blood Electric by Kenji Siratori? This book is fuckin genius: it's cyber-mutant ee cummings meets Burroughs. Wonderful to read paragraphs outloud, and superior to read when you're tripping.

Am also reading:

The Autobiography of Malcom X
Simulations by Jean Baudrillard
The Man in the High Castle by PKD
Bigot Hall by Steve Aylett (total trash but lots of fun)
Lost Tribe : Jewish Fiction from the Edge
Idoru by Gibson
Millenium by Hakim Bey
Friendly Fire by Bob Black
SCUM Manifesto by Valerie Solanas
 
 
STOATIE LIEKS CHOCOLATE MILK
22:10 / 28.09.03
Damn... I'm gonna have to get another copy of "The Bear..."... woke up this evening to find my dog had been sick on it. Oh well, at least now I know who it's by so replacing it shouldn't be too tricky.

Currently reading (simultaneously- short attention span, y'see) John Shirley's "Demons" (quite good in a "fuck, I wish I was PKD in his metaphysical stage" way) and JG Ballard's "Millennium People" (very good in a "fuck, it's the new Ballard. Of COURSE it's ace" way).
 
 
Trijhaos
04:06 / 29.09.03
Neal Stephenson's Quicksilver . I picked it up Tuesday and if I continue to read it at my current pace, I may just be able to finish it by the time the second book comes out.

I think I may have a faulty copy though since one paragraph while Daniel is on the Minerva kind of just ends abruptly. Here we have Daniel contemplating his gravy and suddenly the next chapter starts. I'm fairly certain the chapter isn't supposed to end like "and all of a sudden it's". There has to be more.
 
 
Rage
08:02 / 29.09.03
Did you know Neal Stephenson wrote Quicksilver entirely by hand? Fucking impressive. Met him at Seattle reading...
 
 
Kit-Cat Club
11:43 / 30.09.03
The Bat Tattoo by Russell Hoban. I love Russell Hoban - be interesting to see how this one measures up. Probably a thread to follow.

I have bought Quicksilver but am not reading it yet as it is too big to take on the bus... saving it for the weekend.
 
 
The Return Of Rothkoid
13:14 / 30.09.03
Only 250 pages of Dostoyevsky to go. But I haven't been giving it my full attention. I'm on holiday in two days, so I should really get my arse into gear.

Stoatie: if my suspicions are correct, the second-hand bookshop on your side of the street, further down, should still have a copy of The Bear...

And I'd like to say that everyone should read it. EVERYONE.
 
 
Persephone
23:15 / 30.09.03
Finally, All The Tea In China. It was hard to find...

...ahhhh.
 
 
Forced into this conversation
10:06 / 01.10.03
Just finished The Glass Bead Game by Hermann Hesse. What a great piece of work! Escpecially liked the poems and stories at the end.

Und jedem Anfang wohnt ein Zauber inne,
Der uns beschützt und der uns hilft, zu leben.

Might check out this Stephenson guy next, everyone else seems to.
 
 
The Return Of Rothkoid
10:38 / 01.10.03
Persephone: again, told you!

Dang that Kyril! It's so nasty, but so good.
 
 
Persephone
15:54 / 01.10.03
You're so right, Rothkoid. It's the voice, which is everything:

You will learn nothing of importance from this story except, perhaps, how to die; but then, you were born knowing that and in any case it only has to be done once. It is easy: ask anyone who has done it.

Or:

It is strange that only the English and the Dutch can tell stories which are both dirty and funny; the Germans and the Americans can only tell dirty stories, the French only funny ones, the Italians only pitifully bad ones. I have never heard a good story from an Italian. The Irish, the Scotch, and the Jews are in a different category: they can only tell Irish, Scotch and Jewish stories.

I'm so sad that there are only four of these... is there another, perhaps, that you know about?
 
 
The Return Of Rothkoid
06:00 / 02.10.03
There's The Great Mortdecai Moustache Mystery which was posthumously completed by a Craig Brown, I think. I read it recently, and it's not bad, but not as good as the first three Charlie things. Or, indeed, the historico one. But it's worth digging out.

For my part, I left Dostoyevsky at home this morning, before I set out on my holiday. It was 4:30am, and I wasn't going to lug the fucker all the way to Melbourne just to read 100 pages. It can wait until I get back. Today, I've reread about half of Flann O'Brien's At Swim-Two-Birds which is essentially like every pissed pub conversation you've ever had is like. Replete with rhyme, hedges and Irish cowpunchers. It's great. And perfect holiday reading!
 
 
Lyra
23:16 / 02.10.03
I'm trying to fill in time before I can borrow a copy of Battle Royale from a friend of mine. In the pub last week I was able to sneak a look at one of the pages halfway through and had to force myself to give it back. I loved the film and the book looks as if it might fill in all of the gaps and back story that the film, good as it was, had to miss out on. It's very rare that I need to read something so badly and yet know that it's going to be fantastic. The anticipation is killing me.

So I'm doing one of the Elric books by Michael Moorcock. Never fails to amaze me how much of a comfortable read the entire thing is, like slippers and a mug of hot chocolate. You know what you're getting, an albino with a sword. The story is kind of irrelevent but, to quote Bonnie Tyler "I'm holding on for a hero" so it fills a gap.
 
 
The Return Of Rothkoid
23:15 / 07.10.03
Back home, so almost finished The Devils. Have begun Eric Schlosser's Fast Food Nation at long last, though...
 
 
YNH
01:48 / 08.10.03
Finishing Mists of Avalon. Starting Globalization and its Discontents on Nick's recommendation.
 
 
rakehell
02:45 / 14.10.03
Just finished "Kitchen Confidential: Adventures in the Culinary Underbelly" by Anthony Bourdain which was excellent if a little try-hard in places. It did go a long way to explain why most of the chefs I've met have been arseholes. Despite all of its posturing, it's really clear that Bourdai loves food and cooking and this makes the book a lot more bearable. The dining/cooking tips are great too.

Just now started "Seek!" a collection of selected non-fiction by Rudy Rucker. Like his fiction and non-fiction and he talks a lot about why he writes both. Very smart guy and very interesting reading. He seems to be the most "honest" of the original cyberpunks - which he calls William Gibson, Bruce Sterling, John Shirley and himself - but that may be becasue I haven't read much/any non-fiction by the others.
 
 
Hattie's Kitchen
10:03 / 14.10.03
Just finished "Vive La Revolution" by Mark Steel...if only all history books were written this way. Typical Steel, incisive, informative and fucking funny.

Just started "Sputnik Sweetheart" by Murikami - have heard so many good things about him but have never read anything of his before, hopefully I won't be disappointed.

Also recently re-read "Pure Heart, Enlightened Mind" by Maura O'Halloran - has no-one else read this? The journey to enlightenment of the youngest non-Japanese female zen Buddhist monk, who died at the age of 27. Heartbreaking.
 
 
pachinko droog
18:11 / 15.10.03
Milorad Pavic's "Dictionary of the Khazars". Just started it the other night, looks promising in a roundabout sort of way. (Am reading the "female" edition, only one I could find.) I like the Borgesian metafictional overtones and the fact that its meant to be read in any order one chooses (reminds me a little of Julio Cortazar's "Hopscotch" in that respect). Should be a fun read.
 
 
The Return Of Rothkoid
14:18 / 20.10.03
Re: Khazars - there only IS the female edition. Honestly.

Me, I'm reading The No. 1 Ladies' Detective Agency by Alexander McCall Smith, which is utterly delightful. That and Stupid White Men. Which isn't.
 
 
Olulabelle
10:21 / 21.10.03
I really, really don't understand how people can read more than one book at a time.

I'm currently reading Brick Lane by Monica Ali, which is so far turning out to be wonderful. When I've finished that I'm going to (slowly) work my way through the BBC's Big Read list, purely because there's a lot in there that I haven't read which I really ought to have done.
 
 
Mourne Kransky
13:03 / 21.10.03
Anyone else here got through Michael Faber's The Crimson Petal and the White? A fine and enthralling romp through Victorian London, particularly the fleshy nether parts of same, but with a curious and very intrusive authorial voice. Fourth wall is barely there at all.

I'm coping with it so far and enjoying it all a lot but it's a long, long book and I'm wondering if I won't want to slap the author by the time I get to the end if he keeps up this running commentary on the unfolding of the narrative.
 
 
Baz Auckland
15:33 / 21.10.03
I just finished Wrong Information is Being Given Out at Princeton by J.P. Donleavy... and it has to be one of the saddest things I have ever read. Great book though.

To continue with tragedy, I'm reading Under the Volcano by Malcom Lowry, and am enjoying it a lot more than the first time I read it. Every sentence just seems beautifully written... the adventures of the former British Consul in Cuernavaca, Mexico as he drinks himself to death.
 
 
Whisky Priestess
17:53 / 21.10.03
I found it far *too* beautifully written, to the extent that every page was an enormous effort to read. It's a similar experience to trying to read an entire poetry collection all at once: you get literary indigestion. I had to take it on holiday for a week to get through it, and I'm not sure it was worth the hard work just to say "I have read it".
 
 
No star here laces
09:07 / 23.10.03
Recently finished:

Arundhati Roy - "God of small things", Rohinton Mistry - "A fine balance", James Kelman - "Greyhound for breakfast", Michel Houellebecq - "Platform", Mick Foley - "Tietam brown"

Halfway through:

Sexual life of Catherine M, "Introducing Eastern Philosophy", "A short history of south-east asia", The Economist Pocket Asia, "The new rich in Asia", "Understanding Asian Consumer Behaviour"

Waiting to start:

Rabindranath Tagore - "Omnibus 1", "The Cambridge History of South-East Asia", Arundhati Roy - "The algebra of infinite justice", Vikram Seth - "An equal music", Jonathan Safran Foer - "Everything is illuminated"

Thoughts, in order of quality with the poo first.

"Platform" is really appallingly bad. Where "Atomised" was stunningly insightful and rich in thought-provoking detail, this old european white male petulance at its worst. Avoid.

"Sexual life of Catherine M". Am halfway through and don't really have any intention of finishing it. I just got bored of the sex, frankly. I mean most people's sex lives are repetitive, and I suppose it's an interesting exercise to confront the reader with it, but no. I'd have liked it more if she'd moved on after the first two chapters and gone a bit more meta, but as it stands it just can't hold interest...

"Greyhound for breakfast" is Kelman short stories. I love his writing in "how late it was, how late" but this isn't nearly of the same calibre. Some of the stories have that kind of piercingly human quality that he has when he's good, but some of them descend into horrible smugness. I think he's a much smarter man than me, and am not sure what he's getting at half the time, but the overall effect can be quite irritating.

Tietam Brown is cool. It's exactly what you'd expect Foley to write, and none the worse for it.

Rohinton Mistry is pretty fucking fantastic. I'd be raving about it more if I wasn't too busy being mad at myself for not reading Arundhati Roy earlier. It's basically a story about four people in Bombay in teh 70s, during the Emergency. But yeah, immensely powerful, stories that really suck you in and characters that you're biting your nails for. Biting your nails cos this guy is vicious. Everybody gets shat on, and badly. He teases you along until you really care about somebody and then the stuff that happens to them is far worse than you expect, even though you know it's going to be bad. Incredible book, but not one for anyone feeling depressed about the cold unfeeling state of the world, or for anyone teetering on the brink of poverty...

God of Small Things is easily one of the best books I've ever read. My god is this good. I'm sure you've all read it already, and there are millions of reviews around. But it is sooooo good. Writing with so much depth and personality that everything else I've read recently seems really flat and shallow in comparison.
 
 
Quantum
11:55 / 24.10.03
Just read "The Lurker at the Threshold" ostensibly Lovecraft but actually Derleth, full of unspeakable horrors. Not as good as I thought, I was expecting HP, Derleth shows a bit more if you know what I mean, which makes it less scary. Now I'm going to read the other 7 Lovecraft books I was given and compare...
 
 
Our Lady of The Two Towers
13:14 / 25.10.03
Inspired by The Big Read (as opposed to The Big Raed who is the Godfather of Baghdad) I'm currently reading The Catcher in the Rye. I'm 70 pages in and it's boring as hell, I just hope something starts happening soon. I suppose part of the problem is that like most other people who've read it in the last 20 years I'm thinking of Mark Chapman as I'm doing it, even though it's probably just chance that he had it in his pocket at the time. But if he didn't, do you think people would have known of it enough for it to be nominated for The Big Read?
 
 
Mourne Kransky
02:18 / 26.10.03
Three quarters of the way through The Crimson Petal and the White and have to say I am loving every minute at the moment. The authorial voice / hyper-narrative voice has eased off a bit and I'm beginning to care very much about all the major characters.
 
 
rakehell
01:38 / 27.10.03
McSweeney's 11. Which looks completely gorgeous but I've only read one story so who knows.
 
 
Our Lady of The Two Towers
19:28 / 01.11.03
OK, now reading Diary by old Chucky. Almost halfway through and not really grabbed as yet and as for what's going on it's either that Chuck has started writing magical realism stories or it's the main female character who's in the coma, not her husband and it's all about her journey back to wellness, like Iain Banks' The Bridge.
 
 
STOATIE LIEKS CHOCOLATE MILK
09:57 / 02.11.03
Rothkoid- I actually own the male edition of "Khazars". There's only about a paragraph's difference, as far as I remember, though.

Currently reading Toby Litt's "Corpsing"- I'd heard many good things about him, and he's... well, he's fairly good. Not quite the amazing new voice of crime fiction (something I've recently been developing a taste for) I'd been expecting, though.

And Rupert Thompson's "Dreams of Leaving". If you've never read Thompson, do so. Now. (Especially "The Five Gates Of Hell" or "The Insult".) Seriously. The guy rocks like a motherfucker. Magic realism by way of David Lynch, with an absolutely beautiful way with words.
 
 
Disco is My Class War
03:29 / 04.11.03
I'm reading Gormenghast, slowly, and a chunky biography of Lacan (fast) plus assorted uni stuff, amongst them 'The Philosophy of the Limit' by Drucilla Cornell and 'Democracy and Political Theory' by Claude Lefort.

Gormenghast is like an acid trip. It's amazing. Although at times I have trouble preventing myself from skipping the long-winded architectural descriptions of absolutely everything. Thank god for the satirical interludes -- I wouldn't get through it, for example, Irma and Prunesquallor didn't feature.
 
 
unheimlich manoeuvre
10:44 / 04.11.03
Mister Disco if you liked Gormenghast, id recommend Perdido Street Station and The Scar by China Mieville.

Read and loved The Demolished Man by Alfred Bester. The premise is how to commit premeditated murder in a world full of telepaths.

Also finished Years of Rice and Salt by Kim Stanley Robinson. Interesting alternate history of the world. "What if?" the black plague had been particularly virulent among the population in Europe and had wiped it out.

Been trying to read Valis by P.K. Dick but it is not grabbing me, so ... i've started Cryptonomicon by Neal Stephenson, as recommended by others in this most excellent thread.
 
 
Yotsuba & Benjamin!
13:04 / 04.11.03
DARK! TOWER! V!!!!

Um, I've been waiting about five years to read this book. It is what I am reading currently. I am trememndously excited. That's it.
 
 
Brigade du jour
20:20 / 04.11.03
Plato's "Republic"

Quite easy to read so far, although I'm only one chapter in! For the benefit of those who don't know about it (which included me until a few days ago) it takes the form of a series of conversations between Plato and Socrates and a bunch of their mates, presumably in a taverna somewhere in the islands, and there's been a lovely undercurrent of hostility between the participants which gives every point they make a bit of extra bite.

Good stuff if you want to know what people mean by 'morality'.

Just finished Hunter S Thompson's "Rum Diary" as well. I do like to juxtapose incongruous books, so I'll probably Motley Crue's "The Dirt" next, if only to remind me what I'm missing out on by not taking drugs.
 
  

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