I'm reading Dostoevsky again, this time Verbrechen und Strafe, a highly praised German Translation of a book that most of you know under the title Crime and Punishment.
What Are You Reading?
- Thread starter HenryChinaski
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PhillyDave
“The essential doesn't change.” Beckett
just finished George Simenon's Tropic Moon from a collection of 3 of his novels called "The African Trio". Not from his Inspector Margriet series but rather what he referred to as his psychological novels. Don't be off put by the phrase. i guess he means the story is about someone nuts or going nuts. Like all his books, not long and an easy read but very well written.
I've just finished reading Stephen King's Dark Tower series, finally. A saga of books that started out very promising. The first three books were very enjoyable, a strange mix of spaghetti western, sci fi, fantasy, post apocalypse, etc. etc. The last four books and the whole thing went pretty much to shit, especially the final book VII, a giant slab of insulting, condescending, lazy drivel I've just managed to slog through after weeks.
I think it's time to ditch King, I've enjoyed a few of his books, but this last book was one too many.
I think it's time to ditch King, I've enjoyed a few of his books, but this last book was one too many.
Johannes
Founding member
Am reading the Letters of Lord Byron right now.
I expected him to come across as a spoiled brat and an arrogant prick. But mostly he seems quite likable through his letters. Great animal lover. Always kept a kind of privat zoo around himself with multiple horses, dogs, birds, monkeys and, at one time while at college, a tame bear.
I expected him to come across as a spoiled brat and an arrogant prick. But mostly he seems quite likable through his letters. Great animal lover. Always kept a kind of privat zoo around himself with multiple horses, dogs, birds, monkeys and, at one time while at college, a tame bear.
Sir Chronic: sorry to relearn your medical issues. Hang in there and we miss your wit and knowledge.
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chronic
old and in the way
Thanks. I'm just saying that if I'm out, I'm doing something else and not reading and, if I'm home, I'm on the computer. Literally, the only time I end up reading lately is at the Doctor's office when I'm waiting to see her, which is usually at least an hour wait, sometimes twice that.
Black Swan
Abord the Yorikke!
Exile on Main Street
A season in hell with the Rolling Stones
by Robert Greenfield.
One dollar at a garage sale.
A season in hell with the Rolling Stones
by Robert Greenfield.
One dollar at a garage sale.
The books currently on the floor at my bedside (I'm so broke I can't even afford a bedside table!) are The Days Run Away Like Wild Horses Over The Hills by Hank, and The Stars My Destination by Alfred Bester. I'm yet to begin Stars, and have only been reading Days sparingly at night whilst in bed, half dozing, laying the book across my chest for a rest and then dipping back in until I'm just too tired to carry on. It's a bit of a crap way to read, so I'll remedy that by spending less time on the internet, and more time with my nose in books. I shouldn't neglect books. Reading is a wonderful gift that I'm extremely grateful for. Many people can't read or write so I count myself among the lucky ones, so it's my duty to feast upon as many books as time will allow. Anyway, I'm waffling, I don't get out much, or have a great deal of contact with people outside of my immediate family, So sometimes I have these outbursts of virtual communication, plus I kind of like typing, now if only I could combine typing with writing I might be onto a winner. Paid authors are such lucky bastards!
I've recently finished Look Who's Back.
The plot of this German bestseller has been described extensively, so I'll just focus on my impressions. My main reaction was introspection, because the more I read the more I liked the main character Adolf Hitler. I'm certainly no Nazi, and so I began to wonder why the hell I felt sympathy with this figure. An obvious and easy explanation could be, that this is just because of the way Timur Vermes, the author, wrote this book. One might also argue that present politics and politicians are in such a way ridiculous, disgusting and completely mad, that even a lunatic like Hitler comes off well. Anyway, the author uses a mass murderer of the past to reflect on social developments (or dislocations) of today. This turns out to be quite interesting and often funny. Funny (and well-considered) was also the price of the first hardcover edition in Germany: €19.33 (1933 was the year when Hitler came into power).
For sure, Look Who's Back is no must-read. And to be honest, when the book came out in 2012 I thought it was just trash and ignored it. But then, a few weeks ago, I passed a bookstore where some copies with a little scratch on the back were offered for €3.99 - I couldn't resist and bought one.
Well, the book is trash, but entertaining trash.
The plot of this German bestseller has been described extensively, so I'll just focus on my impressions. My main reaction was introspection, because the more I read the more I liked the main character Adolf Hitler. I'm certainly no Nazi, and so I began to wonder why the hell I felt sympathy with this figure. An obvious and easy explanation could be, that this is just because of the way Timur Vermes, the author, wrote this book. One might also argue that present politics and politicians are in such a way ridiculous, disgusting and completely mad, that even a lunatic like Hitler comes off well. Anyway, the author uses a mass murderer of the past to reflect on social developments (or dislocations) of today. This turns out to be quite interesting and often funny. Funny (and well-considered) was also the price of the first hardcover edition in Germany: €19.33 (1933 was the year when Hitler came into power).
For sure, Look Who's Back is no must-read. And to be honest, when the book came out in 2012 I thought it was just trash and ignored it. But then, a few weeks ago, I passed a bookstore where some copies with a little scratch on the back were offered for €3.99 - I couldn't resist and bought one.
Well, the book is trash, but entertaining trash.
PhillyDave
“The essential doesn't change.” Beckett
Just finished Craig Johnson's The Cold Dish: A Longmire Mystery. Yeah, it's a murder mystery set in Wyoming small town middle of nowhere. The local sherrif, his Native American friend, both Vietnam vets... Better than the usual murder mystery stuff. The first in the Longmire series and the basis for the A&E series Longmire.
Skygazer
And in the end...
Still reading Oppenheimer's biography at the moment, but fancied reading The Fall of the House of Usher - Edgar Allen Poe again, must be the season - .It's the only one of his I have read and I haven't read any H.P. Loveraft at all, but I will get round to it.This anthology looks interesting though, by (very reclusive writer- :)) Thomas Ligotti, whose work it seems, was a bit plagiarised by the t.v series True Detective.:
http://www.newyorker.com/books/page-turner/the-horror-of-the-unreal
http://www.newyorker.com/books/page-turner/the-horror-of-the-unreal
Johannes
Founding member
Am reading this one right now. Have never read anything by Joan Didion before and am somewhat disappointed. The big name, everything. Somehow her writing is pissing me off. Especially the title piece.
Slouching towards Bethlehem is about her time in San Francisco at the peak of the hippie-LSD-bloom in the 60's. Everybody crazy, dehumanized and lost in a world of meditation, gang-bangs, yoga and esoteric bullshit. A lot of terrible things are happening like people completely burned out from drugs, children on LSD and so on. No doubt many, if not all of the things described in this essay happened in San Francisco in the 60's.
But somehow the point of narration sucks. It's told from some ultra-cool detached I-am-a-hip-insider-and-just-telling-it-how-it-is! point of view that really reeks like a shocked whisper all the time: Look what these freaks are doing!
It smells fake to me, and like a pose. But maybe I don't get it.
Any Joan Didion fans around here?
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PhillyDave
“The essential doesn't change.” Beckett
I think Hosho is. I read her novel Play It As It Lays and really liked it.
I am currently reading and thoroughly enjoying The House That Trane Built: The Story of Impule Records by Ashley Kahn.
I am currently reading and thoroughly enjoying The House That Trane Built: The Story of Impule Records by Ashley Kahn.
Skygazer
And in the end...
Finally finished it, Incredibly detailed (obsessively so) mostly I was interested in the post war phase, the treatment he received in the McCarthy era. He was never a revolutionary, he was a reformer and most importantly very patriotic, but his brother Frank , his wife and many of his friends had been/were communists. Not good facing authority, both at the McCarthy hearing and the show trial of the AEC in 1954, where he's publicly humiliated by denying him security clearance. He knew he had been under physical and electronic surveillance by the F.B.I. for many years, which they, Hoover and that complete and utter shithead Lewis Strauss cobbled together to make a "case" to have him ejected. Happily Strauss gets his a few years later and by the same means he tried to destroy Oppenheimer.
You get a very broad portrait of the man and all his faults, it's impossible not to fall in love with him a little. Days before he was due to have some of his reputation restored and ackowledged, by the President; JFK was asassinated, LBJ does it instead. Einstein with whom he was friends and who was also at Princeton says during all this (paraphrasing here) the trouble with Oppie is he is in love with a woman who doesn't love him back - the United States Government.Would recommend it, but only if that time interests you.
There's one bit that made me laugh, written so earnestly and devoid of irony, Frank his brother(also a physicist) at the McCarthy trial unlike Oppenheimer, refused to name names, he loses his job and has a terrible time, but the authors write, "things were so bad he had to sell one of his Van Goghs to live off" (paraphrasing again). Oh, to be a rich communist.
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Currently reading The Fellowship of the Ring. I should be enjoying it but it's failing to satisfy. I like the story of the Hobbits and the Ring, Middle Earth etc. but I'm struggling to maintain an interest in it. I should have had "Lord Of" under my belt by now as I have read the first two parts years ago. I was onto Return of the King but alas! it's former owner was a raging drug addict, and halfway through the book, I encountered a deep, wide cigarette burn, a veritable crack of doom, well ciggie burn of doom anyway. It was many pages deep and I didn't fancy playing guess the missing words.
Perhaps I shall read it in bed at night, and use the day to devour meatier fare. Maybe I'm just going through a restless phase.
I may read some Orwell. I seem to be in the mood.
Perhaps I shall read it in bed at night, and use the day to devour meatier fare. Maybe I'm just going through a restless phase.
I may read some Orwell. I seem to be in the mood.
number6horse
okyoutwopixiesoutyougo
Go to bed.
Just finished Celine's "journey to the end of the night." Super Fantastic. I did find a lot things that influenced some of Buk's ideas. I have a ton of them notated in the book but don't have the energy to copy them all down into a thread.
I can see why Buk liked this book so much. This book is obviously a classic. I'm glad I read it. That guy lived one hell of a life compared to your average American living in peace times. If you recall Buk read a lot of this book while in bed eating crackers. When he got up from bed to take a break he was very thirsty and he drank several glasses of water and his stomach swelled up something terrible and he had one of the worst stomach aches of his whole life.
I can see why Buk liked this book so much. This book is obviously a classic. I'm glad I read it. That guy lived one hell of a life compared to your average American living in peace times. If you recall Buk read a lot of this book while in bed eating crackers. When he got up from bed to take a break he was very thirsty and he drank several glasses of water and his stomach swelled up something terrible and he had one of the worst stomach aches of his whole life.
PhillyDave
“The essential doesn't change.” Beckett
Dennis Lehan's Moonlight Mile is a real good one. It's also Gone, Baby, Gone 12 years on. The cover says it's noir but really it's a mystery but again, not. It's just a good modern dark story that continues to unfold in interesting and realistic ways. And the characters are flawed yet likeable, at least a little bit. Was reminded of him when I recently finished The Wire. He, among many others like Richard Price and George Pelicanos, wrote a few episodes of that most excellent show.
PhillyDave
“The essential doesn't change.” Beckett
Just started a really cool book by this guy called David Barker. Anybody ever hear of him? Death at the Flea Circus or something? :wb:
PhillyDave
“The essential doesn't change.” Beckett
Take your time?
number6horse
okyoutwopixiesoutyougo
You know, summer 2011 was when I had a heart attack and heart surgery. Bill Roberts was kind enough to send me 2 copies of David Barker's DATFC and to this day I credit good literature and great narrative story-telling to my own cardio recovery and anybody else's too :) Detective Meets Diarist Meets Traveler Meets.....
I hope I don't leave behind any CANARY FEATHERS...
Last night I read justin.barret's 25 Best-Loved Poems of the Future." His poems are enjoyable, some of them pretty funny, especially the ones involving his wife. Also reread the Bandini Qaurtet, and Wait Until Spring, Bandini is by far the best one in my opinion. I can barely stand reading The Road to Los Angeles. Not sure what I'll get into tonight, probably some Vonnegut.
