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Underground > Books, Criticism & Writing >

2006: What are you currently reading?

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foolish fat finger

22:21 / 27.04.06

I am currently readin a book thread at barbelith...
and also the dictionary definition of 'facetious'...

lonely as a cloud...

09:06 / 28.04.06

Just finished Kavalier and Clay last night. I have to agree with Matt that the ending was disappointing, but overall I enjoyed it.

Not sure what I'm going to read next...I have a pile of about a dozen books waiting for me. Think I'll move on to some non-fiction next.

Bubblegum Death

02:07 / 02.05.06

I am currently reading Songs of the Doomed by Hunter S. Thompson. It's mostly excerpts from his other writings; decade by decade. The most interesting parts are when he's telling what was going on "behind the scenes", because it's one of the few times when he's not in character.

02:27 / 02.05.06

Just finished Eleanor Rigby by Douglas Coupland (who looks really old in person). It continues his recent string of "issue" novels, in this case, MS. Lonely girl puts son up from adoption, 20 years later she's still lonely and he shows up, a person with MS. The disease is not really... dealt with in the book. It's really how the son's limited time changes (sort of) the mother.

In the end, his death and funeral is made comical and she ends up with the long-lost but miraculously found father. The ending smacked of deus ex machina, well almost literally in terms of her ultimate fate.

Also, the second half of the novel feels almost exactly like the third part of A Widow For One Year and especially the ultimate fate of the protagonist.

Definitely a lesser work by Coupland. And finally, I read this book in record time: 3 hours.

Next up is Haunted by Palahniuk. Fun fact: I didn't know it, but the paperback cover glows in the dark. That was a fun surprise!

02:29 / 02.05.06

Also, I should add that like most Barbeloids, I finally read Anansi Boys and found it to be, in a word, pleasant. It was fun, it was disposable.

19:41 / 02.05.06

I have been reading...Discworld books. Don't hate me, I was at home with a nasty flu for a while and they made me feel like I was a pre-teen again.

I'm now enjoying Italo Calvino's The Castle of Crossed Destinies, a collection of short stories by Yukio Mishima, Death in Midsummer and The Virago Book of Witches.

They all complement each other nicely somehow...

20:33 / 02.05.06

From the last page: through the wonders of the interweb I have acquired the first three of the De Danaan Tales, more Irish fantasy from Michael Scott, also featuring one of my childhood icons, Paedur the Bard. I don’t know: these ones look a bit more stereotypical young teen fantasy, but thoughts soon no doubt. I just finished Dark Tower VI, and managed not to hate the strange retrospective meta-authorial presence “thing”, and so am just waiting for Book VII in paperback so I can get a nice set. And finish the story. Obviously.

23:46 / 02.05.06

The Space Vampires by Colin Wilson.

10:27 / 03.05.06

I just finished Jarhead which I was very impressed with; it's far better than the film, and diverges from the film as it goes on. It's important to note the subtitle, "a soldier's tale of the Iraq War and other battles"; a lot of the story navigates around the war, and Swofford's time in the military, and there's some very effective stuff that was just entirely cut from the movie.

It's also very well written - terse yet eloquent. I was frustrated by how uneloquent the film was, by comparison.

The Return Of Rothkoid

03:06 / 05.05.06

Currently reading Bulgakov's The Master And Margarita, which is a lot lighter than I'd previously expected it to be. Anything that has an evil bastard cat walking upright in it has to be pretty good. Curiously, I'd not been able to get into this book before, the times I'd tried. Now, it's slipping along rather nicely.

Though that could be because I've just finished reading a whole lot of Raymond Chandler - the two Picador collections of novels - so teh brane is gasping for something with a little more weight.

Recently, I also finished Hard Road, the biography of Stevie Wright, and Sex, Thugs And Rock 'N' Roll: A Year In Kings Cross which is Billy Thorpe's take on a year of his life when The Aztecs were just getting started. Not bad books, but they suffer a bit - the first, from a lack of rigour (it was written with Stevie's help by a guy who'd played guitar with him) and the second from a lot of "Hey! Aren't I cool?" moments that revolve around Thorpe's talking dick (I shit you not) and his randy girlfriend. Hrm.

Oh, and Jaws by Peter Benchley, which was better than I'd suspected, but not as good as the movie.

As you can tell, I've been in holiday reading mode.

12:48 / 05.05.06

Rothkoid, did you finish Jaws? Did you read the bizarre affair subplot between Richard Dreyfuss and Schneider's wife? When I read that, I was all like, "WTF?"

ORA ORA ORA ORAAAA!!

04:16 / 07.05.06

I just finished 101 Reykjavik, which... I don't know why I read it, really. I found it in a bargain bin, picked it up because the name rang faint bells in my mind, but basically it was a waste of time. Parts of it were clever, some of it was amusing, but I've spent all the time since I started reading it becoming more and more misanthropic and isolated and dramatic-interior-monolog-ing, which I don't appreciate. Also I hate Hamlet, so the ties to that were not great.

That said, I'd be very interested for someone to do the same thing to Rosencrantz and Guildernstern are Dead, as 101 Reykjavik does to Hamlet. That'd be great.

I've also been reading the Dark Tower series, which is the first King I've ever read, and I'm finding it strangely compelling. I still don't have any interest in his typical horror fare, though.

Next on my list: I've picked up China Mieville's Iron Council, and read the first few pages. I was not gripped (in fact, I found it pretty tedious), but I'll get around to reading it eventually.

I'm also somewhere in the middle of The Third Policeman, which I'm looking forward to getting back to, after being somewhat distracted by other material recently. I'm just at the part where the narrator arrives at the police station. Something about the combination of absurd philosophical/historical footnotes about De Selby and the narrator's innocent-lamb wanderings, and also the thought I have (whether justified or not) that Flann O'Brien was really pushing the envelope for his time, makes this book great(so far). De Selby himself is a fantastic device.

12:11 / 07.05.06

The Space Vampires by Colin Wilson.

I´ve read that. A fun novel!
If you like it, read The Mind Parasites next. A wonderful mix of Lovecraft, SF and suspense.

***

Right now, I read Never let me go by Kazuo Ishiguro. I still don´t know, what to think of it. It reads very fluently and lighthearted, but the subject matter is anything but. I try to figure out, if the children are too brainwashed to try to escape their destiny, or if they truly accept it, because they´re different, or something else entirely. It´s as if a big damokles sword hangs over me as I read it.

12:41 / 07.05.06

ah cool thanks for the recommend!

22:42 / 07.05.06

I found Never Let Me Go impenetrably dull, almost unfinishable*, if Ishiguro's aim was to beget unto the reader that terrible sense of waiting/abeyance and not-yet-lifeness in which the character seem to exist, I suppose he succeeded but I don't think it made for that wonderful a reading experience, necessarily.** Terribly depressing really. The earlier parts reminded me very much of this film.
There was a thread on it (somewhere) Mist, although, I really can't find it to link (sorry).

*To be perfectly honest I haven't finished it yet but I will (someday).
**In actuality I do want to read on, however, I usually prefer the author to cajole this "want-to-read-on" feeling into existence in a manner that is (I don't know) healthier?

The Return Of Rothkoid

01:43 / 08.05.06

RFR: I totally agree with you about 101 R. It seemed good at the start, but by the end I was reading it to get it over and done with.

Rothkoid, did you finish Jaws? Did you read the bizarre affair subplot between Richard Dreyfuss and Schneider's wife? When I read that, I was all like, "WTF?"
Yeah, I thought that was very strange. I mean, it makes sense, as it's about her perceived falling-off in life (and sets up some of the tension between Brody and him which was passed over more to Quint in the movie) but it didn't seem to do much for the story, I felt.

Odd book, though. Felt slightly amateur in places.

Our Lady Has Left the Building

18:16 / 09.05.06

Hmm, I haven't filled in this for a while.

First up I read Fleshmarket Close by Ian Rankin for the reading group I'm involved with. I was dubious on seeing the size whether it was necessary for a detective story and, though it took a while to get going, I did enjoy it. This was the first Rebus book I've read and I will be going back for more at some point in the future.

After that it was Misogynies by Joan Smith. A collection of essays some two decades old it does seem dated in places, though it does invite us to consider whether things are much better. We don't get stories of high-court judges blaming rape victims for their ordeals any more, but the long essay on the police mishandling of the search for the Yorkshire Ripper is very interesting, especially when Smith makes the case that he's actually bad, not mad.

I've just finished Freakonomics by Levitt and Dubner. The adverts on the London underground really mis-sell this but I suppose copy-writers have to make a living too. It's a interesting little book about statistics, how figures can be mis-read and mis-interpreted even when you're not consciously out to rig a survey to tell the story you want. So we have lots of very American examples, apparently people in the States all think that drug dealers are very rich when in fact most of those involved with the trade are so poor they haven't left home. There's a chapter on the factors that ensure a child does well or poorly at school, and how Sumo Wrestlers may cheat. The authors have a real knack for explaining themselves without you getting lost in the maths of it all but it's really a book to read rather than a book to buy.

And now I'm on to Air by Geoff Ryman, the book which has just won the Arthur C. Clarke Award. Looks like fun.

03:03 / 10.05.06

It's a bit like an addiction to Kestrel Super, and in many ways I'd like to hurt the guy badly (hurt him deep inside) and well all right not really.

I'm reading the Inspector Rebus novels by Ian Rankin. They represent pretty much everything that I am against, but they are quite compelling.

Our Lady Has Left the Building

07:18 / 10.05.06

Why are they 'everything you are against'?

15:50 / 10.05.06

the long essay on the police mishandling of the search for the Yorkshire Ripper is very interesting

I was just thinking about that the other day! Thanks for reminding me where it is. That's the essay which talks about how links failed to be made between various of Sutcliffe's victims because the evidence was all being read in the light of a theory that he was targeting prostitutes, yes?

18:00 / 10.05.06

I am reading and can't put down Shantaram written by Gregory David Roberts. I am about half way through, and I guess I have been slack this year on my reading habits, well not slack, just too bloody busy to read. So Shantaram, I am enjoying this at the moment because it's written by an Australian and it is set in Mumbai, I am an Aussie and right now I am posting this from Mumbai, so it is something I can identify with after spending 6 months here myself. It strikes a chord within me when the author describes his 'culture shock' and the major differences between the Australian culture and Indian culture. This is a novel based on true story and although it seems to be a bit semi-embellished, I am getting into it. The plot is kind of rambling, but then again everything here in Mumbai is, so I can go along with that. I am getting a kick out of his writing style, very descriptive and flowery, he tries to pack as much ethos into every sentence as possible which can get a little errr... long, only sometimes... It's a tale of love and redemtion, human frailty and blunt wisdom. No time for a plot synopsis but a few friends tell me to stop at page 600 and put it down(?) page 420 now... Anyways after this book, it will be onto "The Chomsky Reader" edited by james Peck as I am a bit of a hypocritical anachist at heart. I have read The Washington Connection and Third World Fascism a couple of years ago. I have been wanting to get into him a bit more. After this I have "Saucer" by Stephen Coonts because I am a UFO nutter too... Beam me up my etherical friend.

20:44 / 10.05.06

If that's your bag, I'd recommend another Australian-written India-set novel - Inez Baranay's Neem Dreams - it didn't make much of a splash in Australia but it was very successful in India, and she's an amazing writer.

The Return Of Rothkoid

05:39 / 11.05.06

Shantaram is a pretty good read, but I found I had to take my bullshit meter off the roof and give it a couple of whacks with a sledgehammer before I could really enjoy it.

It's airport fiction disguised as cultural sensitivity, to a certain extent. I dunno - I just found parts of it as irritating as they were enjoyable, though I couldn't quite put my finger on it. There's certainly a bit of bike-pumping of egos going on throughout.

18:20 / 11.05.06

Yeah Roth, I know what you mean, and my origional post should read "the author tries to fit as much pathos into every sentence..." dang kingfishers...

The Return Of Rothkoid

02:30 / 12.05.06

Heh. That said, I'm interested in the talk of it being turned into a Depp movie. And the fact that there's apparently a sequel in the works...

21:21 / 12.05.06

I finished Never let me go and although I liked it, I probably won´t read it again. It´s a very sad novel, and the main theme is our accepting or resigning to fate.

The protagonists know from early childhood on, what terrible destiny awaits them, still they go along with it, and never even once seriously think about escaping it. They only attempt to delay it or daydream about a different life.

I recognized myself, having had a horrible everyday life for years, and never really trying to change it. When I finally did escape from it, I was at a loss what to do with my newfound freedom.

Lenore of Babalon

05:22 / 13.05.06

I finished The Sheltering Sky a few nights ago. I'd had the book for years on my "books I *should* read" shelf, but had never gotten around to it. I was expecting a more straightforward narrative, but it was one of the most experiential things I'd read in a while - the narrative made me *feel* the story more than anything else. I was really moved by it. I love stories set in Islamic settings (I know, I know: Why do I hate America), and am thinking about re-reading Effinger's Budayeen series now unless someone can recommend something in a similar vein (hint, hint).

I also flew through Wild at Heart in a couple of nights. Haven't seen the movie, but the actors chosen seem like good choices for the characters in the novel. Being from one of the locations in it, I thought it really captured the culture well. I've noticed other books about southern cultural "weirdness" that either treat the characters as parody or attempt to manufacture some sort of "rustic nobility" in them, which was refreshingly missing in this one.

Just started Piece of Cake by Derek Robinson last night. It's about RAF pilots during WWII. So far, 40 pages in, it's quite the romp.

Also, regarding the Space Vampires / Mind Parasites post: make sure and read Wilson's The Philosopher's Stone as well. It's the third in that Lovecraft-esque series and really compliments the other two. Like the previous two it's not related, story-wise, but the themes cross all three.

12:58 / 16.05.06

I have gone back to The Night's Dawn Trilogy by Peter F. Hamilton in an effort to finish all the books that I have started. I'm near the end of The Reality Dysfunction: Book Two, so I still have four paperbacks to go after that. Boring sex, really. Hope it's a great fucking ending. Stoatie says they're great (not the shagging though; the plot)

Haunted by Palahniuk is predictable and it telegraphs its plot miles before. So here's my problem with Palahniuk: everybody talks in the same voice. Everybody. They always start out with some random fact, back it up with a little evidence, then speak in one-sentence paragraphs. Ugh, tedious. It becomes more annoying considering that this plot is supposed to be made up of different people's different short stories. What a shock, they're all the fucking same.

I've been doing this for years. I read Fight Club and Survivor and thought this guy was amazing. Every other book of his, I'm thinking, This will be awesome and different. But no. It's the same old ground rehashed over and over and over and over. Palahniuk is turning into the transgressive prose version of M Night Shyamalan.

20:12 / 16.05.06

Ha, I totally agree! Chuck's found a style and, um, stuck with it. For my money, Choke was his best, but he does seem to be a little formulaic.

So, I'm currently chewing down on shed loads of Pinter: One for the Road is a high point in the late 70s/early 80s stuff which I'm focussing on. Can't believe I haven't really come to him before.

Kiltartan Cross

22:26 / 16.05.06

The Reality Dysfunction: Boring sex.
Absolutely agreed. He'd've been better not even to try, really; his writing has all the erotic allure of a fourth-generation-copied VHS porno tape. Viewed on a tiny TV in broad and bright daylight whilst wearing heavily tinted sunglasses. By eunuchs.

On the other hand, the trilogy are ripping good adventure-yarn-space-opera, and that appealed to me. I seem to remember liking his Mindstar books, too, as disposable reads, but I've been trying and failing to read Pandora's Star for some time.

I'm also failing to proceed very far into Pynchon's Gravity's Rainbow. Perhaps it's something about the Dickensian* character names (oh! Mr. Spittwiddle! Ms. Crunley-Bogroll-de-Munnybags is here! ho-ho-ho!) or the sheer density and verbosity of the descriptive prose. Perhaps it's just not as interesting as Quicksilver, say. Perhaps I'm just jaded by slogging through the (superb but slow) Dhalgren, although I'm feeling like I'd rather read that again in toto than discover the further hilarious rocketry adventures of Buggrington-Pox or whatever the silly bastard is called.

*I can sort of forgive Dickens, a little, when I remember that he was once a dashing and daring young social revolutionary, rather than the bearded and lauded Old Establishment fuddy-duddy figure presented to us in our schooldays.

The Return Of Rothkoid

01:55 / 23.05.06

Reading The Republic Of Wine by Mo Yan. Rereading, rather. It's apparently (if you're versed in Chinese culture and politics) a great satire. If you're not, it's a fantastically silly book about writer-disciple dialogue, booze, government investigation, spookily magical beings and baby-eating.

Rockin' good fun.

The Return Of Rothkoid

23:09 / 24.05.06

Now, Luke Davies' Candy, essentially a tale of love, smack, scams and prostitution. It's not bad - it has that sort of junkie haze to it, which is unsurprising, as I believe it's somewhat autobiographical.

Reading it on the back of the (just opened) film, and the book's slightly better, though the film's Sofia Coppola-esque direction lifts the tone somewhat. It passes pretty quickly (the book - I started it yesterday evening on the train and have almost finished it this morning, and that's only using my commute) but doesn't really engage...

10:09 / 25.05.06

I'm reading Yann Martel's 'Life of Pi' at moment and it really is quite nice so far. I'm about a quarter of the way through and I've already learned some wonderful things about zoos, I won't post any spoilers though incase people are currently reading it too. I started reading 'We Need to Talk About Kevin' by Lionel Shriver but after about a quarter I finally gave up because it was too heavy (not literally). I wanted a book I could read in ten minute bursts before sleep, on the train and maybe on the toilet; 'Life of Pi' so far is brilliant for that purpose.

14:23 / 26.05.06

I'm having a crack at 'To The Lighthouse' by Virginia Woolf, and enjoying it, which I didn't expect at all. It's all about - well, it mostly consists of the jumbled thoughts and unspoken musings of a landlady, her husband and her tennants as they go about their daily business. It's like dropping in and out of someone's head and listening to their thoughts - you get philosophical struggles interrupted by "the greenhouse is going to cost 50 quid" etc.

Exactly the sort of thing I thought I would hate, but I'm enjoying the - oh dear, how can I explain it? "The intelligent but humane exploration of... er, people, and that." Oh God. "It's just packed full of golden nuggets". Uh. I'm rubbish at this sort of thing. Okay, there are loads of very satisfying metaphors, and descriptions of the kind of tiny, fleeting experiences we all experience but don't realise that we all experience; dozens of "Oh! So I'm not the only one to notice that! And what a brilliant way to describe it" on every page. That sort of thing.

I know - it's like Nicholson Baker, but with the subject being emotions, relationships, drives, failure, self-analysis etc, rather than shoelaces, ties, hot air driers etc.

It's a very slow read, mind, demanding vast amounts of concentration, since it consists of nothing *but* the kind of material I normally skim through.

16:36 / 26.05.06

I thought I would dislike Virginia Woolf, too, but I loved To The Lighthouse and especially Mrs. Dalloway. It's like an upper-class Faulkner. Or is that Faulkner is a lower-class Woolf? Whatever. Either way, both authors are doing extremely complicated things within the limited framework of a person's consciousness. It's lovely how her serpentine sentences stretch.

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