what are you reading? - Page 254

!@#$%! · 05.14.2018, 09:32 AM

this morning i was rereading a joan didion essay that appeared in the new yorker in the 70s— “why i write”. good stuff. hence the reread.

h8kurdt · 05.14.2018, 11:56 AM

After having re-read All The Pretty Horses when I realised I remembered NOTHING about it, I've decided to do the full trilogy.

I dunno. I've loved all of Cormac McCarthy's works but this one isn't doing it for me. It started off great with the main character taking a wolf over to Mexico to set it free there. After that I'm just "meh" about anything that happens. I'll stick with it, mind.

Rob Instigator · 05.18.2018, 01:05 PM

Just finished The Swerve by Peter Greenblatt, about the rediscovery of Lucretius' On The Nature of Things, and how it helped shape our modern world.
http://rxttbooks.blogspot.com/2018/05/lucretius-and-man-who-saved-his-work.html

!@#$%! · 05.18.2018, 01:13 PM

cheeto yr link is brokded, edit to fix/ remove the syg part

http://rxttbooks.blogspot.com/2018/0...-his-work.html

dirty bunny · 05.19.2018, 03:07 AM

After I finished Neon Rain by James Lee Burke I tried to read Midnight's Children by Salman Rushdie, but it hasn't captivated me. I might go back to it, but meantime I'm reading The Great And Secret Show by Clive Barker.

demonrail666 · 05.19.2018, 03:49 AM

Martin Amis - Money

This is at least the third time I've tried to read it and I've given up on it again. The idea interests me, hence why I've kept giving it another try. I really want to like it but there's just something about Amis's style that makes him unreadable to me

evollove · 05.19.2018, 07:13 AM

Me too. Almost. I did finish MONEY and maybe a few others.

Can't get through LONDON FIELDS, PREGNANT WIDOW and a number of others which have been collecting dust on my shelves for years.

Sentence by sentence, I usually find him great. String those sentences together, and I have trouble paying full attention. Weird.

But if asked, I'd say I like him.

This week, I've been dipping into a book of essays by him now and then actually.

Quote:

Originally Posted by dirty bunny

I tried to read Midnight's Children by Salman Rushdie

He has stumped me entirely. Never got to page 100 in a single one of his books. Too dense: His prose style, my brain.

demonrail666 · 05.19.2018, 09:42 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by evollove

Me too. Almost. I did finish MONEY and maybe a few others.

Can't get through LONDON FIELDS, PREGNANT WIDOW and a number of others which have been collecting dust on my shelves for years.

Sentence by sentence, I usually find him great. String those sentences together, and I have trouble paying full attention. Weird.

But if asked, I'd say I like him.

This week, I've been dipping into a book of essays by him now and then actually.

I find his essays slightly more tolerable but Money and London Fields (which I've never finished either) both seem like the work of a stylist trying to make some kind of social point about a world he clearly has neither an eye or ear for. And I just find his weird (what I can only describe as) transatlantic 'voice' too contrived to endure for any length of time. I get the whole 'an excessive book about excess' thing but I never get the feeling Amis has any real insight into the worlds he tries to satirise.

evollove · 05.20.2018, 07:57 AM

Ouch. His essays and even interviews demonstrate that he's a thoughtful person. Not being able to translate that into fiction is another story.

Although I have to say, my estimation of Amis went down a bit when I read an interview regarding TIME'S ARROW. The point of the book, it seems, is that the Nazis were wrong. Um, thanks for wisdom bro.

!@#$%! · 05.20.2018, 09:04 AM

some ages ago i read flaubert’s parrot and the one about the... history of the world in... some number of chapters? wormwood and the raft of the medusa and the achille lauro was it?

i thought it was shit

demonrail666 · 05.20.2018, 12:26 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by evollove

Ouch. His essays and even interviews demonstrate that he's a thoughtful person. Not being able to translate that into fiction is another story.

Although I have to say, my estimation of Amis went down a bit when I read an interview regarding TIME'S ARROW. The point of the book, it seems, is that the Nazis were wrong. Um, thanks for wisdom bro.

I do read his essays and journalism but even there I find him essentially grating. It's all so self conscious, like he's trying a bit too hard. He always think he's a bit too much of a showman with everything he does.

evollove · 05.21.2018, 07:26 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by demonrail666

He always think he's a bit too much of a showman with everything he does.

He's popular enough in America, but I get the feeling he's super famous in England. I wonder how that messes with an author's head.

Quote:

Originally Posted by !@#$%!

some ages ago i read flaubert’s parrot and the one about the... history of the world in... some number of chapters? wormwood and the raft of the medusa and the achille lauro was it?

i thought it was shit

That's Julian Barnes. Easy to confuse them. Another great British stylist whose books I sometimes finish but more often don't.

!@#$%! · 05.21.2018, 07:35 AM

oh yes yes yes julian fucking barnes ha ha ha.

thank you. i had them blurred in my mind. apparently for good reason.

dirty bunny · 05.22.2018, 12:17 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by evollove

He has stumped me entirely. Never got to page 100 in a single one of his books. Too dense: His prose style, my brain.

I read a short story of his I really liked, but it feels like he's taking a long time weaving his story and nothing's really happened yet.

demonrail666 · 05.22.2018, 02:45 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by !@#$%!

oh yes yes yes julian fucking barnes ha ha ha.

thank you. i had them blurred in my mind. apparently for good reason.

I don't mind Julian Barnes. I liked History of the World. He's less of a stylist than Amis, far more readable, although less interesting in terms of general subject matter.

Meanwhile Ian McEwan reinvented himself with Atonement and now writes novels for retired primary school teachers who make their own jam.

!@#$%! · 05.22.2018, 07:55 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by demonrail666

Meanwhile Ian McEwan reinvented himself with Atonement and now writes novels for retired primary school teachers who make their own jam.

cant be a wildman in old age i suppose?

even bukowski switched from whiskey to wine

Rob Instigator · 05.22.2018, 08:33 AM

Hey Sev, Neil Gaiman talks about his 3 fave sci fi books, and Wolfe, Shadow of the Torturer is one of them. http://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/arti...fiction-novels

evollove · 05.22.2018, 08:48 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by demonrail666

Meanwhile Ian McEwan reinvented himself with Atonement and now writes novels for retired primary school teachers who make their own jam.

True story: an 80 year old woman gave me ON CHESIL BEACH. I swear.

Is there one McEwan you'd recommend?

!@#$%! · 05.22.2018, 09:12 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Rob Instigator

Hey Sev, Neil Gaiman talks about his 3 fave sci fi books, and Wolfe, Shadow of the Torturer is one of them. http://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/arti...fiction-novels

i know this wasn’t sent to me but after many years i’m starting to get back my appetite (thanks gradschool for ruining reading for me— ha!) and so this is a great reference for things i’ve missed

and keep up the good work @ the blog yo

Rob Instigator · 05.22.2018, 09:38 AM

Hard to believe over 27,000 people have read that Murakami review....

05.14.2018, 09:32 AM	#5061
!@#$%! invito al cielo Join Date: Mar 2006 Location: mars attacks Posts: 42,546	this morning i was rereading a joan didion essay that appeared in the new yorker in the 70s— “why i write”. good stuff. hence the reread.
	\|QUOTE AND REPLY\|

05.14.2018, 11:56 AM	#5062
h8kurdt invito al cielo Join Date: Mar 2006 Location: In Mulder's Basement room Posts: 5,459	After having re-read All The Pretty Horses when I realised I remembered NOTHING about it, I've decided to do the full trilogy. I dunno. I've loved all of Cormac McCarthy's works but this one isn't doing it for me. It started off great with the main character taking a wolf over to Mexico to set it free there. After that I'm just "meh" about anything that happens. I'll stick with it, mind. __________________ Down with this sort of thing.
	\|QUOTE AND REPLY\|

05.18.2018, 01:05 PM	#5063
Rob Instigator invito al cielo Join Date: Mar 2006 Location: In the land of the Instigator Posts: 27,959	Just finished The Swerve by Peter Greenblatt, about the rediscovery of Lucretius' On The Nature of Things, and how it helped shape our modern world. http://rxttbooks.blogspot.com/2018/05/lucretius-and-man-who-saved-his-work.html __________________ RXTT's Intellectual Journey - my new blog where I talk about all the books I read.
	\|QUOTE AND REPLY\|

05.18.2018, 01:13 PM	#5064
!@#$%! invito al cielo Join Date: Mar 2006 Location: mars attacks Posts: 42,546	cheeto yr link is brokded, edit to fix/ remove the syg part http://rxttbooks.blogspot.com/2018/0...-his-work.html
	\|QUOTE AND REPLY\|

05.19.2018, 03:07 AM	#5065
dirty bunny expwy. to yr skull Join Date: Mar 2006 Location: oh, why Texas actually Posts: 1,680	After I finished Neon Rain by James Lee Burke I tried to read Midnight's Children by Salman Rushdie, but it hasn't captivated me. I might go back to it, but meantime I'm reading The Great And Secret Show by Clive Barker. __________________ kiss me kiss me in the shadow of a doubt
	\|QUOTE AND REPLY\|

05.19.2018, 03:49 AM	#5066
demonrail666 invito al cielo Join Date: Feb 2007 Posts: 18,510	Martin Amis - Money This is at least the third time I've tried to read it and I've given up on it again. The idea interests me, hence why I've kept giving it another try. I really want to like it but there's just something about Amis's style that makes him unreadable to me
	\|QUOTE AND REPLY\|

05.20.2018, 07:57 AM	#5069
evollove invito al cielo Join Date: Aug 2006 Posts: 2,879	Ouch. His essays and even interviews demonstrate that he's a thoughtful person. Not being able to translate that into fiction is another story. Although I have to say, my estimation of Amis went down a bit when I read an interview regarding TIME'S ARROW. The point of the book, it seems, is that the Nazis were wrong. Um, thanks for wisdom bro.
	\|QUOTE AND REPLY\|

05.20.2018, 09:04 AM	#5070
!@#$%! invito al cielo Join Date: Mar 2006 Location: mars attacks Posts: 42,546	some ages ago i read flaubert’s parrot and the one about the... history of the world in... some number of chapters? wormwood and the raft of the medusa and the achille lauro was it? i thought it was shit
	\|QUOTE AND REPLY\|

05.21.2018, 07:35 AM	#5073
!@#$%! invito al cielo Join Date: Mar 2006 Location: mars attacks Posts: 42,546	oh yes yes yes julian fucking barnes ha ha ha. thank you. i had them blurred in my mind. apparently for good reason.
	\|QUOTE AND REPLY\|

05.22.2018, 08:33 AM	#5077
Rob Instigator invito al cielo Join Date: Mar 2006 Location: In the land of the Instigator Posts: 27,959	Hey Sev, Neil Gaiman talks about his 3 fave sci fi books, and Wolfe, Shadow of the Torturer is one of them. http://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/arti...fiction-novels __________________ RXTT's Intellectual Journey - my new blog where I talk about all the books I read.
	\|QUOTE AND REPLY\|

05.22.2018, 09:38 AM	#5080
Rob Instigator invito al cielo Join Date: Mar 2006 Location: In the land of the Instigator Posts: 27,959	Hard to believe over 27,000 people have read that Murakami review.... __________________ RXTT's Intellectual Journey - my new blog where I talk about all the books I read.
	\|QUOTE AND REPLY\|