General Book Thread

[Coolness Bears]

McCarthy is...minimalist. His real skill is in using very little to express a lot of emotion and merely hinting at the full extent of what he's getting at. It really works for me but I can see why it would leave a lot of people cold.

 

No yeah actually its a good book, he creates a brilliant atmosphere I just dislike the ending.

[Jonnas]

I love books and literature, but for some reason I suck at actually sitting down and reading. I don't know if it's my attention span that's lacking or what it is, but it's really annoying. I have so many books I want to read, but I worry I might never get my arse in gear to get them read.

 

We really are similar, aren't we? If not for the metro and bus, I don't know when I would force myself to sit and read.

 

But I haven't been reading anything recent, only been reading a few classics. Recently finished 1984, and then I will move on to Terra Sonâmbula (or Sleepwalking Land, in English).

 

I have a cousin with this huge book collection, so I have plenty of literature to catch up on.

[Dannyboy-the-Dane]

We really are similar, aren't we? If not for the metro and bus, I don't know when I would force myself to sit and read.

 

But I haven't been reading anything recent, only been reading a few classics. Recently finished 1984, and then I will move on to Terra Sonâmbula (or Sleepwalking Land, in English).

 

I have a cousin with this huge book collection, so I have plenty of literature to catch up on.

 

It would seem so. Though my train rides are mostly reserved for listening to music ... no, make that enjoying music. I never enjoy music as much as I do when I ride the train (or the bus, but that doesn't happen as often).

 

I think my problem is that reading requires me to focus a lot more than usual, meaning I have to avoid all potential attention stealers like my TV or laptop. Noise and disturbances don't seem to be an issue since they wouldn't grab my attention anyway, but train rides make it difficult for me to read. I think it's the "intimate" atmosphere that keeps me somewhat on guard socially, meaning I have trouble focusing enough. But that's also what makes train rides to perfect for enjoying music since it requires me to not actively focus, but let myself be swept away by the music.

 

Perhaps I should try reading on less crowded, preferrably almost empty rides to see if that makes a difference ...

 

Regarding specific books, I am currently working my way through the complete Sherlock Holmes collection and enjoying it very much! After that I know I have other classics in the house that I want to read, like The Wave and 1984.

Edited April 6, 2011 by Dannyboy-the-Dane

[Jonnas]

Oh yes, empty environments > crowded environments. The presence of people is very distracting (not just because of the "social defensiveness"), though I think one can get used to it.

 

And you reminded me I have never read a Sherlock Holmes book before. I should take care of it some time in the future, after I finish the ones I borrowed (which are still a handful)

[jayseven]

Well I finished Shantaram, and it was an exhilerating read that topped up my moral compass. Highly recommended to anyone who has an interest in India, or spiritual journeys and whatnot.

 

The Corner has also been completed -- a very informative book, and I was shocked to read in the afterword that it was a piece of journalism - based on a year's worth of notes from talks to the 'characters' and actually witnessing many of the events. While, of course, it should be suggested to take the events with a pinch of salt, I'm fairly sure the pinch of salt ought to be so small that you could count the grains.

 

Started The Bourne Identity as I wanted something easy going - a best-seller spy thing where I know the story from the film was a good idea. Not really read any thriller stuff before so it's a nice change. Great stuff so far!

[Beast]

I have a plan for what I'm going to read.

 

The Sookie Stackhouse Novels by Charlaine Harris (10 books in total, could be 11 depending on if I get the latest)

-

An Idiot Abroad Diaries by Karl Pilkington

-

Robert Langdon Series by Dan Brown

-

The Twilight Saga by Stephenie Meyer (yeah, let's move on since we all know the score, lmao)

-

Every single book I have by Stephen King

-

Hannibal Lecter by Thomas Harris

=

 

The reason why I'm leaving Stephen King later is because I'd rather get all of the Dark Tower books before actually starting them. I have a weird system of reading all books by authors and then reading another author. Right now, I'm looking forward to finishing the Stackhouse Novels and starting An Idiot Abroad. I have three more books left.

[ReZourceman]

Claire just read An Idiot Abroad and absolutely loved it.

[Happenstance]

Ive got it sitting on my side table waiting to be read. Its a shame I didnt have the Kindle when it was bought for me as I find myself reading a lot more books on that now.

[Beast]

Claire just read An Idiot Abroad and absolutely loved it.

 

Yeah, I've heard it's hilarious. My friend had it for Christmas along with the DVD and he thinks the book is funnier so I'm looking forward to reading it.

[Ashley]

Claire just read An Idiot Abroad and absolutely loved it.

 

Hasn't she experienced it first hand?

[ReZourceman]

I bought the book for her, if thats what you mean.

[ipaul]

Just finished reading this:

 

 

Which I bought from HMV for £4 a few days ago.

 

I really thought it was rather brilliant. I do love me a good dystopia

[dan-likes-trees]

Just finished reading this:

 

 

Which I bought from HMV for £4 a few days ago.

 

I really thought it was rather brilliant. I do love me a good dystopia

 

(I love how this thread potters along at about a post a month)

 

Yeah it's really good isn't it - big fan of HMV books too, I've picked up loads of old ones for like £2!

 

I'm thinking of reading The Island by him, like you I'm a big fan of Dystopias, figure a Utopia must be a really interesting (and probably more difficult) thing to do.

 

Also: Watched Gattaca the other day, very Brave New World inspired, very good watch. Plus is has Ethan Hawke, who's pretty great.

[jayseven]

Finished Bourne Identity and, for once, the film is definitely better. I grew tiresome of the Delta for Charlie, Charlie for Cain! stuff rather quickly. The conspiracy stuff was decent but ultimately it was too hammy and easy-reading for me.

 

Ghostwritten by David Mitchell was stonkingly great fun - a perfect novel of bitesize narrative skits to read on the train to work each day. It creates a nice ambience that tingles your mind's eye's olfactory gland. Which makes no sense, I know, but the book deserves some silly hyperbole. It's given me the hope taht Black Swan Green would actually be worth attempting again, even if Mitchell's works, while fantastically envisioned and simply beautifully sewn together narratively, tend to over emphasise his knowledge of jazz and eastern culture (or his grasp of mental-level physics) to the extent where it feels he is almost showing off. Fact is, he's great.

 

Also read Rant by Chuck Palahniuk - starts out reading a bit like Vernon God Little where we have a central character in a redneck town, but fairly quickly went all near-future on my ass and rather overstepped the whole "hey look this is actually our culture already!" didactical narrative. Palahniuk's got a good way of writing, however, and I do like how he seems to collect grown-up Paul Jennings-esque gritty short stories and weave them into a couple of characters. I never finished his Haunted because it felt too disjointed and forced, and again here he's trying his hand at a not-so-traditional form of story telling by providing all the information about the main character, Buster 'Rant' Casey, through the words and witness testimonies of others who knew or at least knew of him - on oratorial plight that intends to leave grey areas, but instead serves really to highlights Palahniuk's inability to truly construct varied voices.

 

Still quite entertaining and thought provoking, just ultimately unnecessary and light.

 

Now switched to The Alchemist by Iain M. Banks (it was either that or Matter, and I think I'd like to just see how Bank's SciFi is before delving into his Culture series - and even then, I'd like to do it from the start. I've already read Player of Games yeaars ago, but I can't remember it).

 

It's hugely imaginative and demands attention - I'm only on page 40 but already he's provided a haunting vision that will stick with me, much like that scene from The Wasp Factory (hint: flies). Essentially he's envisioned the most hellish and inhumane torture I've ever come across.

 

Luciferous, some mega powerful psycho with diamonds for teeth, captured a rebel leader and chopped his head off - but quickly attached it to a life-sustaining device - which he then had hanging from his study ceiling. Whenever he felt the desire, which was at least daily, he would bloody and pulpen the head with his fists - the head which still saw perfectly, but had the tongue removed as to avoid any noise. The head would heal slowly, ready for the inevitable beatings to come. For three years.

 

 

So yes! I've been reading lots recently. This one should keep me going for a couple of weeks.

[dan-likes-trees]

Ghostwritten by David Mitchell was stonkingly great fun - a perfect novel of bitesize narrative skits to read on the train to work each day. It creates a nice ambience that tingles your mind's eye's olfactory gland. Which makes no sense, I know, but the book deserves some silly hyperbole. It's given me the hope taht Black Swan Green would actually be worth attempting again, even if Mitchell's works, while fantastically envisioned and simply beautifully sewn together narratively, tend to over emphasise his knowledge of jazz and eastern culture (or his grasp of mental-level physics) to the extent where it feels he is almost showing off. Fact is, he's great.

 

Bitesized narrative killed it for me - or rather, I started reading it a few years ago, but then came to a very neat stopping point at the end of one of the stories and never started on the following one. I should probably get round to finishing it at some point because I really enjoyed them. The one with the lady on the mountain was my fave, if I recall.

 

Want to get on his sci fi too. Read The Wasp Factory, which was good and there are bits, like the one you mentioned, which i recall vividly. Found out my buddy (who I'd assumed never reads anything) has read all the matter books, which is awesome. They're so long looking though.

 

Been mainly stuck on course reading but for fun I've been on Jonathan Franzen's Freedom after every newspaper ever claimed it to be the book of last year. It really was. Just an incredibly well written, really fleshed out story, no narrative tricks, but a focus on drawing and developing characters really well. It's the kind of book that's hard to recommend to people as there's not much to summarize it - it's about an American family, it's about male friendship and it's inherent competitive, it's about relationships, and it just felt deeply interesting commentary on modern life. Massively long, but very much a page turner.

 

So then I bought The Corrections, the book he wrote before, which had similar acclaim when it was released, like, 10 / 15 years ago or whatever. But I can't get into it. About halfways through but it's not got me interested in the same way. Possibly I can't relate to the characters, or to the era it was written in. But I think it lacks something through being more of a 'snapshot' of family life rather than a story which spans half a century and develops.

 

Also read Skippy Dies which was about a boarding school in Ireland and has all sorts of weird elements, drugs, highschool romance, weird bits of sci-fi, which was pretty enjoyable though often the elements didn't tie together that well, and I grew tired of it toward the end (was about 650 pages). Enjoyable enough though.

 

And read All My Friends Are Superheroes by Andrew Kaufman a couple days ago. Short book, just over 100 pages. Just good fun, quirky, though probably not worth £8, which I rarely say about books.

[ipaul]

Been mainly stuck on course reading but for fun I've been on Jonathan Franzen's Freedom after every newspaper ever claimed it to be the book of last year. It really was. Just an incredibly well written, really fleshed out story, no narrative tricks, but a focus on drawing and developing characters really well. It's the kind of book that's hard to recommend to people as there's not much to summarize it - it's about an American family, it's about male friendship and it's inherent competitive, it's about relationships, and it just felt deeply interesting commentary on modern life. Massively long, but very much a page turner.

 

Good to know, I have had that waiting to be read since I got it for christmas. Don't know whether to start that or The Haindmaid's Tale. Decisions...

[Daft]

Been a bit steeped in university work but I recently read this,

 

 

I thought it was pretty puerile for the most part but it had its moments. It was also an nice breezy read. Finished it in a couple days which I cannot stress enough how nice that is when I've been reading a million and one theory articles.

 

I bought this ages ago but only just started it yesterday.

 

 

I love BEE. Obviously American Psycho, but Less Than Zero rocked my world. Which reminds me I need to pick up Imperial Bedrooms.

[dan-likes-trees]

Good to know, I have had that waiting to be read since I got it for christmas. Don't know whether to start that or The Haindmaid's Tale. Decisions...

 

From what I've heard Handmaid's Tale is pretty great so you're on to a winner with either.

 

Been a bit steeped in university work but I recently read this,

 

 

I thought it was pretty puerile for the most part but it had its moments. It was also an nice breezy read. Finished it in a couple days which I cannot stress enough how nice that is when I've been reading a million and one theory articles.

 

I bought this ages ago but only just started it yesterday.

 

 

I love BEE. Obviously American Psycho, but Less Than Zero rocked my world. Which reminds me I need to pick up Imperial Bedrooms.

 

I echo your thoughts on both. Emma Watson's playing the lass in the film of the former. I remember bombing through it a few years in a couple days and enjoying it, probably as I was roughly the character's age at the time.

 

Love for the Less Than Zero love. Been waiting for Imperial Bedrooms to come out in paperback (actual paperback, not hardback sized expensive paperback) for ages.

[Daft]

Yeah, bleeding hardback! Any idea when it's being released in paperback?

 

TPoBaW actually reminded me of Less Than Zero. Except the latter was so so much better. I can't help but think it's a bit of a generational thing. I swear, the internet has created a whole generation of ADHD laden meme gobblers.

[dan-likes-trees]

Yeah, bleeding hardback! Any idea when it's being released in paperback?

 

TPoBaW actually reminded me of Less Than Zero. Except the latter was so so much better. I can't help but think it's a bit of a generational thing. I swear, the internet has created a whole generation of ADHD laden meme gobblers.

 

Just looked on amazon and they've got the paperback for 4.50, apparently out since the beginning of April. Pretty sure I've been in stones and not seen it more recently, ah well, might order it!

 

And yeah. I think it's possibly partly just the main guy in Less Than Zero is just older, so the characters are a bit less irritating. More solitary than Perks from what I remember too, different general tone, Catcher in the Rye-ish.

 

Heard the Bloc Party song based on Less than Zero? Reading the lines in the book then realising why I recognized them, fun moment. Not a bad song either.

 

http://open.spotify.com/track/4Zoa9rFW3iO8OGUSaJErXv

[Daft]

Ordered. Along with Lunar Park and The Rules of Attraction.

 

Yeah, it's definitely more solemn than Perks but then I just felt Perks was really melodramatic. The number of times Charlie just starts crying! My God, too much. I guess they're maybe aimed at different audiences but Perks just feels like it was made for the gullible emo(tional) type. Don't get me wrong, I enjoyed it for the most part but it felt dumb. Basically, Less Than Zero was that step beyond simple introversion. Perks felt like it was indulging that whole teenage demographic.

 

Maybe I'm being too harsh but that's my personal conclusion.

 

I always liked that Bloc Party song but hadn't listened to it in a while and only read the book last year.

[Mundi]

Started reading A Clash Of Kings today (sequel to Game Of Thrones, you can guess why I decided to read this one now) and is so far pretty damn good, continues the plot from nicely and keeps the suspense up.

 

It's a bit of a beastly read, the paperback is nearly a 1000 pages, but is an easy read, I imagine I'm gonna blaze trough it seeing as I only put an hour and something today and am at over 100 pages.

 

After that I'm either going for Dune or American Psycho which have been collecting dust on my shelf for too long.

[dan-likes-trees]

Ordered. Along with Lunar Park and The Rules of Attraction.

 

Yeah, it's definitely more solemn than Perks but then I just felt Perks was really melodramatic. The number of times Charlie just starts crying! My God, too much. I guess they're maybe aimed at different audiences but Perks just feels like it was made for the gullible emo(tional) type. Don't get me wrong, I enjoyed it for the most part but it felt dumb. Basically, Less Than Zero was that step beyond simple introversion. Perks felt like it was indulging that whole teenage demographic.

 

Maybe I'm being too harsh but that's my personal conclusion.

 

I always liked that Bloc Party song but hadn't listened to it in a while and only read the book last year.

 

Don't you find out at the end that he's excessively emotional because he was molested by his aunt when he was a kid or something though? Which makes it a bit less simplistic. Was a bit (very) excessive at times though yeah.. and haha judging by the amount of people I know who read it at about 15 indulging the teenage demographic probably worked!

 

Rules of Attraction is the only other Easton Ellis I've read - should warn it's not as good as Less Than Zero. There's a bit you'll definitely like though, you'll know when you read it. Pretty amusing in any case.

[Beast]

I'm now on All Together Dead by Charlaine Harris, the seventh book in the Sookie Stackhouse novels, and it's not as good as the others. I think it may be the worst one so far. There are a few good moments but it's just very....meh. I only have three books (five when I get the two new ones soon) to go and then I've read them all.

[Daft]

Don't you find out at the end that he's excessively emotional because he was molested by his aunt when he was a kid or something though? Which makes it a bit less simplistic. Was a bit (very) excessive at times though yeah.. and haha judging by the amount of people I know who read it at about 15 indulging the teenage demographic probably worked!

 

Rules of Attraction is the only other Easton Ellis I've read - should warn it's not as good as Less Than Zero. There's a bit you'll definitely like though, you'll know when you read it. Pretty amusing in any case.

 

His aunt was molested and she was just like uber nice to him, is what I thought. Wikipedia tells me otherwise. I just didn't think that made any sense.

 

You should read American Psycho. It's probably absolute my favourite book.

Edited May 19, 2011 by Daft