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Underground > Books, Criticism & Writing >

What's on your bookshelf at the moment ?

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12:24 / 20.12.01

I’m being nosey : what are you reading at the moment, and what else have you got lined up?

I’m in the mood for bookshopping after work tonight, and so I’d be interested in anything anyone’d care to recommend – genre and the like usually not a problem, I’m easy. Or so the story goes.

Thanks -

DBC

12:37 / 20.12.01

Not really a Bookshelf thing but as I'm going to be down in London for Two Weeks I'm bringing a few books with me:

Currently Reading: Ken Hollings "Destroy All Monsters"

Dipping into :"The Giant Book of Strange But True:Mysterious and Bizarre People"

Lined up for later reading:

Ben Hatch "The Lawnmower Celebrity"

Patricia Anthony "Happy Policeman"

Also taking for re-reading:
Simon Armitage "Kid"
Robert Lowell "Selected Poems"

Of course I'll probably be buying/being given some more books over the next two weeks....

12:38 / 20.12.01

Still ploughing through Bass Culture, a non-fiction book on the rise of reggae;

Various stories from Ray Bradbury's An Illustrated Man, which I have to say I'm not impressed by so far...

Closing Time, the follow-up to Catch 22 by Joseph Heller; funny yet depressing;

and I've currently got a real thing for crime fiction. I'm reading three of these;

The Harlem Cycle by Chester Himes: two of the three stories in and damn, this guy can write. Doesn't waste a word in his books. Get them, they're recommended.

The Jack Hervey novels (by Ian Rankin under a pseudonym) - a lot of people don't have much time for Rankin, but I think he's eminently readable and one of the better writers in his genre. These are a collection of stories he put together before the Rebus books, and are fairly good as quick reads and pretty enjoyable;

and GK Chesterton's Father Brown stories, the collection in Penguin classics with the gun's shadow on the front...

Next up: Heroes by John Pilger, a collection of his writings on those 'outside the news'; and The Life and Death of My Lord Gilles de Rais, by Robert Nye, because it was a quid and looked interesting.

12:45 / 20.12.01

In progress:

Farewell My Lovely - Raymond Chandler
Neuromancer - William Gibson
T.A.Z. - Hakim Bey
Ghost in the Shell - whoever wrote/drew it

On the waiting list:

The English Assassin - Michael Moorcock
The Napoleon of Notting Hill - GK Chesterton
We Can Build You - Philip K. Dick
The Sparrow - Mary Doria Russel
The Pump house Gang - Tom Wolfe
The Nyarlatheotep Cycle - various
The Doomed Generation - Hunter S. Thompson

12:46 / 20.12.01

The best book I've read recently was Jim Crace's "Being Dead". Excellent fiction about a murdered middle aged couple. Unsentimental and nauseating at times (don't read if you are squeamish), but it manages to be truly life-affirming. I might be overselling this one again a bit, but it surely beats most contemporary fiction hands down.

Other books I've read/reading recently:

Greg Bottoms - Angelhead - A memoir about growing up with a heavy-metal listening, alleged child rapist/murderer diagnosed schizophrenic brother. Bottoms is an excellent writer and I hope to pick up some fiction by him some day. Surprising.

Michel Foucault - "Madness and Civilization", "The Order of Things" - (both in translation) -For the theory bitch in you. I enjoyed the first of these two for its historical, concrete detail and meticulous scholarship, things I soemtimes find lacking in theory. I'm about halfway through the second and I am digging this one too, though I think some of Foucault's claims about language and it's origings are specious (and I was surprised to read him quoting Adam Smith (!) about the origins of language. I've got to read that essay and more of Smith too). Something about Foucault's early "archaeologies" remind me of Husserl's phenomenology (and a ghastly, ghastly course I took on it) and I have to do some re-reading to figure out what the link I am seeing is.

Anyway - Books to Avoid:

Michel Houellbecq - "The Elementary Particles" ("Atomised" in the UK) (In translation) - This supposedly "scandalous" novel was nothing more than a churlish screed by someone who has an infantile grasp of philiosophy AND science. His split protagonist is trite, his "insights" are reactionary without being credible and his style from all indications is non-existent. Avoid like the plague.

Bear v. Shark ( I forget the author) - amusing conceit about a mythical contest between a Bear and a Shark turns into a sub-leyner road trip "novel" with none of the style and direct quotes from living, young white male authors like David Foster Wallace. An "index" in the middle of the book attempts to be clever. Avoid, again, like the plague.

12:51 / 20.12.01

At the moment: Wainewright the Poisoner by Andrew Motion. His prose is better than his poetry (this is not hard). About jobbing critic/artist/fop Thomas Griffiths Wainewright & his criminal activities (as suggested by the title).

Off and on: Radical Enlightenment by Jonathan Israel - it's an intellectual history thing. Good if you like Spinoza. Not as approachable as Darnton.

Next: I probably won't start a new book until I go home for Christmas, & when I get there I will probably just end up reading the same books I read every time I go home(The Dark Is Rising Sequence). After that I shall make a start on the Iliad for the book club...

12:54 / 20.12.01

Upcoming books in my to-read pile:

"The Decadent Cookbook" by Durian Grey and Medlar Lucan - Recipes for dishes in "decadent" literary works. Chapter titles include: Blood, the Vital Ingredient; I Can Recommend the Poodle; The Marquis de Sade's Sweet Tooth. (In a similar vein, I'd reccommend Jim Crace's "The Devil's Larder". It is slight, and probably not worth hardcover prices, but enjoyable)

"Kabbalah" Gershom Scholem - supposedly the best scholarly intro on the subject. Recommended by Harold Bloom.

"The Protean Self" _ Robert Jay Lifton - About human adaptation when faced with tragedy. Also about the self in the "post-modern" condition.

Also recommended by Lifton -"Destroying the world in order to save it" about Aum Shinrikyo and other "apocalyptic terror" cults.

Haus about we all give each other a big lovely huggle?

13:00 / 20.12.01

At the moment, Pyrrhus by Marc Merlis. A queer retelling of the Neoptolemus myth in a quasi-modern Magna-Graeca-as-80s-America world. Quite odd, but very cool, and well written.

Coming up - the Iliad, which I may have a crack at in Ancient Greek if I have time over the holidays. And thus probably also my old Greek grammar and Liddell and Scott. Gender Trouble by Judith Butler, the remaining 6 Making Out books, alhough I will have to find them first, and probably whatever I get for Christmas. I always get books, for some reason.

13:04 / 20.12.01

(what does "Wolery" mean??)

13:08 / 20.12.01

Whoops: forgot one - Writing on Drugs Sadie Plant - Somewhat disorganized. I enjoyed it though, light reading. I was very intrigued by her Sherlock Holmes/Freud/Cocaine theorizing.

Haus about we all give each other a big lovely huggle?

13:18 / 20.12.01

quote:Originally posted by Todd is my Co-pilot:
(what does "Wolery" mean??)

It's where the Owl lives in the Winnie the Pooh stories. Until I killed it.

13:19 / 20.12.01

Lucifer Rising by Gavin Badderly

History of Satanism over the ages...Interesting stuff culminating in the slightly disturbing but also extreamly hilarious story of the Norwegian Black Metal Wars 10 years or so back...

The Three Imposters by Arthur Machen

I've become somewhat obssessed by this writer recently and this is the latest book i've read of his.A series of inter-connected tales that leave you with a definate sense of uneasyness.Similer to Lovecraft but much better written...

Secrets of Western Sex Magick by Frater UD

Despite the twee cover and the fact that it's published by Llewellen this isn't more sappy 'New Age' stuff but a very good book by a well known Chaos Magician.It's full of really good techniques and theory and even has sections on Beastiality and Necrophilia which are sure to offend any New Age couples looking for their 'inner-fucking-child'

Chaotopia by Dave Lee

One of the best books on Chaos Magick i've read. Pretty advanced stuff. Unfortunatly out of print...

14:14 / 20.12.01

Many thanks for such a varied and interesting batch of speedy replies. I’ll printing them all out and heading off to the bookshops now…

But that functional aspect of things doesn’t mean that I’m not still curious to hear from other folks, of course.

Thanks –

DBC

The Return Of Rothkoid

14:17 / 20.12.01

As of today, I'm reading Slow Chocolate Autopsy by Sinclair/McKean. I'll probably have a stab at the Iliad for the book club, but awaiting reading here, also, are The Good Soldier Svejkby Hasek, London: The Autobiography by Ackroyd, Downriver by Sinclair, and a couple of shelves worth of stuff. I'm also planning on re-reading my Lovecraft stuff when I get a chance - and when I cease to be embarrassed by the godawful covers they've put on the collections I've got...

14:28 / 20.12.01

quote: I'm also planning on re-reading my Lovecraft stuff when I get a chance - and when I cease to be embarrassed by the godawful covers they've put on the collections I've got...

I imagine thats the 'big fat frog monster eating naked women like they were twiglets' cover...

Regrettable Juvenilia

14:49 / 20.12.01

Right now my fiction-reading cells seem to be burnt out - it's ever since I finished reading Philip Pullman's His Dark Materials trilogy. Which is my big recommendation for you, Dave: if you haven't read Northern Lights yet, do so...

At the moment I am mostly reading Rogue States: The Media Circus Reader, an anthology of crunchy political/activist/media essays and stuff from down under. That's not much use to you though, is it, as it's not really widely available... But is online here.

On the list: Virtual Light by William Gibson, The Amazing Adventures of Kavalier & Clay by Michael Chabon and The Master and Margarita by Mikhail Bulgakov... plus re-reading No Logo and finishing Lanark by Alistair Gray...

[ 20-12-2001: Message edited by: Flyboy ]

14:52 / 20.12.01

I am presently switching between The Three Musketeers and Bullfinch's Mythology. Next in line is Balzac's Old Goriot.

I also have this book called Wisdom of the Ages: 60 Days to Enlightenment, which I got as a good-bye present from my boss, along with a Precious Moments figurine.

And I am going to read the Iliad and the other book for the book club.

And the thousand other books recommended in the Classic Literature and Classic SF Literature threads.

[ 20-12-2001: Message edited by: Persephone ]

00:43 / 21.12.01

Flyboy...You really should've finished Lanark by now...and any one who thinks Ian Banks' The Bridge is a great book (which in my opinion it is) should get onto it as well!!!

Regrettable Juvenilia

07:49 / 21.12.01

quote:Originally posted by The Annotated Underachiever:
Flyboy...You really should've finished Lanark by now...

It's a very good book so far. Very good. However it is also deeply, deeply depressing and upsetting, so I'm reading it in small doses...

Haus about we all give each other a big lovely huggle?

08:06 / 21.12.01

quote:Originally posted by The Annotated Underachiever:

I imagine thats the 'big fat frog monster eating naked women like they were twiglets' cover...

Oh no! I'm not meant to eat twiglets.

Why not?

They make me violent.

08:06 / 21.12.01

I'm reading the print remix of 253.
Fun. Also reading:
Playback by Raymond Chandler
The Secret Agent by Joseph Conrad
Gravity's Rainbow by Thomas Pynchon.
Does anyone here read anything not terribly worthy and experimental? Like something by Jeffrey Archer, or Jilly Cooper?

08:06 / 21.12.01

I read Georgette Heyer, does that count?

10:31 / 21.12.01

i'm halfway through sybille bedford's biography of aldous huxley. 'the vampire in europe' by father montague summers, a fascinating study of vampire mythology, is also half read. will try to finish these, and be in a decent frame of mind, before i carry on with franz kafka's diaries. because they are quite bleak reading.

15:13 / 21.12.01

quote:Originally posted by Rejecting Virtual Therapy:

Does anyone here read anything not terribly worthy and experimental? Like something by Jeffrey Archer, or Jilly Cooper?

Raymond Chandler isn't terribly worthy or experimental..

15:42 / 21.12.01

Just finished "Fellowship of the Ring."
Halfway through "Hellboy: The Bones of Giants" - quite excellent.
Next?
Dunno. Maybe "The Two Towers", maybe I'll be re-reading anything by Robert Sawyer. I can't recommend this guy enough. Get "End of an Era" or "FlashForward" or "Golden Fleece" if you can. Brilliant sci-fi.

Zoom.

The Natural Way

14:35 / 22.12.01

I'm reading 'The Crying Of Lot 49'.

On the shelf:

Haruki Murakami's 'South Of The Border, East Of The Sun'

JG Ballard's 'Super Cannes'

Tom Wolfe's 'The Bonfire Of The Vanities'

Scott Fitzgerald's 'The Beautiful And The Damned'

Ken Kesey's 'Sometimes A Great Notion'

Virginia Wolfe's 'Orlando'

Jeff Noon's 'Needle In The Groove'

Orwell's 'Animal Farm'

And Phillip K Dick's 'Radio Free Albemuth'

15:06 / 22.12.01

Originally posted by UVT:

Does anyone here read anything not terribly worthy and experimental? Like something by Jeffrey Archer, or Jilly Cooper?

I refer you to my post at the beginning of the thread. About half my reading is genmre fiction, especially weird crime fiction.

I use it to unwind - and I've just bought myself a new Kinky Friedman book too, as a 'well done' for making it through the Christmas rush and sorting my family's presents out....

Kali, Queen of Kitteh

01:54 / 24.12.01

I just finished reading Kitchen Confidential: Adventures in the Culinary Underbelly by Anthony Bourdain.

Really good stuff. He tells all and has the filthiest mouth. I think it just came out in paperback. Definitely worth a look. Especially the essay "From Our Kitchen to Your Table." Makes you think about ordering food even in the nicest restaurants. And at some point he tells you what you should own in your kitchen to "make that fluffy little Emeril your bitch." Hee hee hee.

04:38 / 24.12.01

I've just finished The Trainer, a pansexual bdsm porn novel by Laura Antoniou. Most of the characters and large parts of the story are intensely annoying but it's still very compelling in a can't-put-it-down sort of way (not necessarily a good sign in a porn novel, which is pretty much supposed to compel you to put it down, but anyway...)

Still reading Germinal Life by Keith Ansell Pearson, which is v. interesting so far - a book about Gilles Deleuze as a 'biophilosopher', situating his work in relation to a weird sort of metaphysics/natural science nexus (including figures like Bergson, Spinoza, Darwin, Weisman, and Zola) and generally being fascinating. It is very readable in a dry, academic sort of way.

Collecting dust at the end of the bed are Paul Virilio's Popular Defence and Ecological Struggles and Out of Control by Kevin Kelly. Alongside that lot I'm working on reading all of Hannah Arendt's books before my library membership runs out in February. Currently: Men in Dark Times, next stop The Origins of Totalitarianism. Can't recommend Arendt's work highly enough.

Tuna Ghost: Pratt knot hero

12:08 / 25.12.01

A Practical Guide to Qabalistic Symbolism, by Gareth Knight. A few more books on occult matters...The Way of the Shaman...Liber Null and Phsyconaut...probably going to pick up Liber Kaos sometime soon, along with City Magic.

All of the J.D. Salinger books, some Alan Watts, a little Ann Rice from long ago...I dunno, it's a big bookshelf. I looking to get Gravity's Rainbow sometime soon, too. I haven't read it yet. But I've got an assload of cash, and two very large bookstores nearby, so I'm ready, dammit.

[ 25-12-2001: Message edited by: Johnny 4-D ]

18:07 / 26.12.01

Now reading Will Self's The Quantity Theory of Insanity. Next up, either Umberto Eco's Foucault's Pendulum or Sax Rohmer's The Fu Manchu Omnibus Volume 1.

[ 26-12-2001: Message edited by: E. Randy Dupre ]

18:41 / 26.12.01

quote:Originally posted by E. Randy Dupre:
Next up, either Umberto Eco's Foucault's Pendulum

<solemnly>

You're a better man than I, Gunga Din...

quote: or Sax Rohmer's The Fu Manchu Omnibus Volume 1.

Oooh, can I borrow that?

01:42 / 27.12.01

A Drink With Shane MacGowan.

From Xmas. As far as the whole thing well that is another matter entirely.

08:06 / 27.12.01

We're all so bloody predictable - I'm just finishing Foucault's Pendulum by Umberto Eco. One of those books I've always been 'just-meaning-to-get-around-to' reading. Surprisingly silly and easy to read. Can now look forward to The Name of the Rose with a merry laugh and a jaunty wave and a careless toss of the hair.

About to read Harry Potter for the first time. Wish me luck.

11:16 / 27.12.01

Currently reading:

Republic, Plato
Phaedo, Plato
Napoleon of Notting Hill, Chesterton
The Social Contract, Rousseau
Leviathan, Hobbes
The Symposium, Plato
On Liberty, JS Mill

Hope to start reading, soon:

Moby Dick, Melville
The Laws, Plato
Nicomanchean Ethics, Harry Stotle

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