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Underground > Books, Criticism & Writing >

Fiction Fast

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08:11 / 21.11.04

The late Dr. Rabbi Rudolph "Rudy" Brasch wrote a lot of very readable books on the origins of sayings, legends, trivia, urban myths and such, and a memoir.

20:15 / 21.11.04

Incidentally lekvar, what non-fiction have you read and enjoyed this year? Since I can imagine that by the autumn you'd be getting pretty bored, but presumably there were good things before that.

Also, if you've not already got to this one, Machiavelli's The Prince is a good read.

22:41 / 21.11.04

A couple off the top of my head:

Full Spectrum Disorder by Stan Goff. Timely and chilling.

Future Evolution by Whatshisname, with illustrations by Alexis Rockman. Fun and scary science speculation.

22:43 / 21.11.04

Whathisname=Peter Ward.

Memo to self: Next time google before posting

04:38 / 24.11.04

The Prince is one I tried to read, but I found it terribly dull. It was so... reasonable. I was expecting something a little more draconian. I think if I had a better grasp of the politics of the day I would enjoy it more.

To be perfectly honest I haven't had the time to do any reading. I have been taking notes on all these most-excellent suggestions and as soon as I have two spare seconds to rub together I will be making my way down the list.

08:06 / 24.11.04

Yes, that would help make sense of it all -however, since you're busy I imagine researching the Medici family isn't your top priority! The Prince is also interesting in terms of the politics which came before that -after reading earlier political texts, the fact that it's 'reasonable' is quite refreshing ; Machiavelli talks about what probably will happen as opposed to what should ideally happen. If you're looking for draconian, you could try some Hobbes, although he is a lot less fun than Machiavelli...

11:04 / 24.11.04

This is a great thread! It's inspired me to read some non-fiction which is perfectly timed as I've been a bit bored with fiction lately. I'm trying to track down some of the books mentioned - I got the blackjack one off ebay last week and it was a fun read.

Have now started on Boswell's Life of Johnson which has been sitting on my shelf for a while waiting for my next non-fiction kick. Will report back ...

13:46 / 24.11.04

Just picked up a book called Hiding the Elephant by Jim Steinmeyer.

All about the golden age of magic and stage performers like Houdini and co.

Looks great, and as I'm reading Adventures of Kevlier and Clay, I'm in the right mood for some of that, so.

02:57 / 25.11.04

Lierary Outlaw-Burroughs on Burroughs for the most part
Painful but Fabulous-Genesis P Orridge art and life
Pablo Picasso written by this 2nd or 3rd wife?-Excellent story. Interesting confortations with Breton and Dada movement leaders.
No One Here Gets Out Alive-Danny Sugerman? Jim Morrison's biography written by the kid who used to hang out and get high with him.

A fall of geckos

13:17 / 25.11.04

I'm currently reading This is Serbia Calling by Matthew Collin, which is about the Belgrade radio station B92.

They started as a fairly radical radio station - mostly staffed by students and music enthusiasts - in the relatively free period in the early 90s, and then carried on into the Slobodan Milosevic period. They went from a station that was pushing for democratic reform in the post soviet period, to a lone set of voices waging a campaign for freedom of speech. They were accused of being spies and traitors and were raided and censored but managed to keep broadcasting.

I haven't finished the book yet so I can't recommend it unreservedly, but so far it's been fascinating. It highlights the role of alternative media in political dissent, and the need for this kind of outlet to simply survive in a society that was becoming horrifically nationalistic.

19:16 / 26.11.04

Please Kill Me: Oral History of Punk
78 Degrees of Wisdom-Rachel Pollack

23:35 / 30.11.04

That Peter Hessler book is awesome (Fuling is the town my daughter's from -- I've seen some of the stuff he writes about.)

I also have a personal affinity for My Traitor's Heart by Rian Malan. It's probably the best book about apartheid South Africa I've ever read -- a memoir by a white exile (and direct descendant of one of the system's founders).

15:27 / 02.12.04

Ahh, the joys of non fiction (generally so much more disturbing). Would highly recommend Chickenhawk by Robert Mason, his account of being a US helicopter pilot during Vietnam war. If this gets you on a war kick, can't beat Andy McNab's Bravo Two Zero, or any of the competing BTZ accounts from the likes of Chris Ryan etc. (though could argue they're more fiction than not). I avoided anything in the war-macho-guns department for years, being a bit of a feminist/pacifist and all that, but have recently been fascinated by these accounts of conflict, disaster etc. Following a tangent Joe Simpson's Touching the Void is an excellent read, even if you've already seen the film and staying with the 'struggling against the odds' theme, the best account of drug/alcohol recovery I've read is A Million Little Pieces by James Frey - its a very raw, uncomfortable read, bordering on emotional pornography at times, but if you can get through it you'll have plenty to think about......

02:13 / 17.05.05

How's this working out? I'm sort of inspired to pull a similar move, actually. Is it doable? Will magazines fill the void for those light reading monets? Do rock magazines count as fiction?

I'd like to reccomend two books on Economics - New Ideas From Dead Economists by Todd Buchholz, and The End of Poverty by Jeffrey Sachs.

22:32 / 17.05.05

Rock star biogs are unchallenging, and absurd to the point of fiction...may I recommend Julian Cope's "Head on/Repossessed", and Mark ( Zodiac Mindwarp)anning's semi-porno "Crucify me again"..

22:43 / 17.05.05

Wonder and the Order of Nature: 1150-1750 by Lorraine Daston and Katherine Park.

It's about natural philosophers and burgeoning scientists and the changing status of wonders (e.g. monsters, meteors, the northern lights). A fascinating account of the shifting epistemology of Europe and its move towards the Enlightenment, when wonders and the marvelous became the generally denigrated subjects they are today (at least from many scientific perspectives).

broken gentleman.

17:52 / 19.05.05

the rebel sell, by joseph heath, and andrew potter, is essentially a look at why rebellion isn't truly all that rebellious, most of the time. the rebel sell is the canadian version, and from what i've seen the american one isn't as good, or at least is more roundly despised by the hipster crowd.

outing myself as canadian even further, might i suggest marshall mcluhan's understanding media? it comes across as a little obvious to people who are in their 20's(ish) now, but still very interesting, in depth view of how media affects people, and how people affect media. far ahead of it's time.

23:23 / 19.05.05

nearly anything by nietzsche - especially beyond good and evil - translated by walter kauffman.

if you can't read fiction, read beautiful and powerful writing!

other philosphy, especially some of plato's dialogues, make entertaining reading.

of course, you could really punsih yourself and devour kant's 'critique of pure reason'...

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