What are you reading now [Archive] - Page 2

CraftyToePoke

21/02/2020, 1:12 AM

Haruki Murakami � Men Without Women. Just brililant - witty, fantastical, acutely observed.

I'm midway through South Of The Border, West Of The Sun by him, read Norwegian Wood & Kafka On The Shore by him recently too. Enjoyed them all.

Read the Wool trilogy by Hugh Howey recently also, Wool / Shift / Dust. For any post apocalyptic dystopia fans, this series, particularly Wool, I'd highly recommend.

Put down The Sea by Banville recently, was 30/40% through it, it hadn't gone anywhere, aimless word noodling - yeah, sublime word noodling - but no hook. Anyone else find that ?

passinginterest

21/02/2020, 8:34 AM

I'm midway through South Of The Border, West Of The Sun by him, read Norwegian Wood & Kafka On The Shore by him recently too. Enjoyed them all.

Read the Wool trilogy by Hugh Howey recently also, Wool / Shift / Dust. For any post apocalyptic dystopia fans, this series, particularly Wool, I'd highly recommend.

Put down The Sea by Banville recently, was 30/40% through it, it hadn't gone anywhere, aimless word noodling - yeah, sublime word noodling - but no hook. Anyone else find that ?

I had to start The Sea a couple of times. I ended up enjoying it, but I think partly down to the fact it's set in Rosslare and it was a very familiar world to me. There's a nice sentimental story in there.

Eminence Grise

21/02/2020, 10:26 AM

I used to revere Banville. I discovered The Book of Evidence at 17, Birchwood is still the best, most blackly comic novel I’ve ever read. But The Sea… it didn’t hold me the way his writing used to. I don’t know how it got the Man Booker over Sebastian Barry’s A Long, Long Way. It felt like a novella stretched to novel length, and the thrumming energy you’d always find in his work just wasn’t there. For me, his writing began to change after Ghosts and Athena into a slower more introspective style (though The Untouchable is magnificent and The Infinities is almost as farcically impeccable as Michael Frayne). Haven’t read his last three, though – they seem like too much effort for less of the reward of his earlier stuff. (I've two books on the go now - I'll try Ancient Light next. this thread is definitely a motivator!)

If you liked the Wexford setting, PI, and you haven’t already read it, try his The Newton Letter, the comic counterpoint to his three science tragedies.

Just don’t get me started on the Benjamin Black rubbish!

CraftyToePoke

05/03/2020, 12:54 AM

I had to start The Sea a couple of times. I ended up enjoying it, but I think partly down to the fact it's set in Rosslare and it was a very familiar world to me. There's a nice sentimental story in there.

Don't think I'll pick it up again, but might go to some of the earlier ones EG mentioned.

Finally read Junky by William S Boroughs this week, think its been with me through half a dozen house moves, in the box of gonna read some day books. Should have picked it up sooner.

Started The Underground Railway by Colson Whitehead tonight, thirty pages in and hooked, could be one of those books where you're only away from it for as long as necessary while it lasts. Anyone read it ? (you probably all have, I'm usually way behind the curve on these matters, FFS I only just read Junky :) )

The Donie Forde

05/03/2020, 11:14 AM

"Reading in the Dark" by Seamus Deane.
Book's been in the house about twenty years, only settling into it now!!

Eminence Grise

04/04/2023, 11:01 PM

I used to revere Banville.... I'll try Ancient Light next.

And I did, some time last year. And it was fine. Evenly-paced and the usual tropes you'd expect from late Banville. But unremarkable for all that

I'm almost ashamed to say it, but I read my first Raymond Chandler last month, The Long Goodbye. Really, really good. For a book that's 70 years old (and allowing for some, eh, colourful depictions of a minority or two!) it held up very well in style, rattled along at a good pace and had a good twist at the end.

Got Ian Rankin's A Heart Full of Headstones as a Christmas present and it was the biggest disappointment ever. I've devoured pretty much everything he's written, even his early Jack Harvey alter ego, and this was the worst act of sabotage on the Rebus novels you could imagine.

And after it popped into the last film thread, I reread All Quiet on the Western Front. The film is a travesty: the novel is still a work of genious.

John83

05/04/2023, 2:11 AM

I'm almost ashamed to say it, but I read my first Raymond Chandler last month, The Long Goodbye. Really, really good. For a book that's 70 years old (and allowing for some, eh, colourful depictions of a minority or two!) it held up very well in style, rattled along at a good pace and had a good twist at the end.
There's a movie of it from the 70s. Directed by Robert Altman (who directed the movie MASH; the TV show came afterwards), stars Elliot Gould, and has a brief and very early cameo from Arnold Schwartzenegger in a non-speaking role. I adore it. I must read the book.

dahamsta

05/04/2023, 11:40 AM

I'm, much to my shame and very slowly, reading The Thursday Murder Club by Richard Osman. Lowest common denominator stuff, but I'll do anything to get reading again. My last book was Bob Mortimer's autobio And Away. I mostly read it while my lads were swimming. I think it probably took 6 months to complete, but it was my first proper book in probably a decade. Or more.

The most annoying thing about not being a reader any more is that I read to my lads every night, and have created voracious readers in the process. I'm incredibly jealous of them. :)

SkStu

05/04/2023, 1:38 PM

I've been going through a lot of books recently - mostly non-fiction which is strange for me. I will go through my recently read books tonight and bring back a list and some recommendations but this is the one I am reading at the moment. It was given to me as a birthday present - a friend of mine here (originally from Bolton), his good friend from there wrote it so I was dubious but it was a great read. Extremely detailed analysis of the origin of Northern Ireland right through the GFA up to Brexit. Only criticism is in certain chapters the timeline jumps back and forth a little bit but minor quibble. He is definitely more of a nationalist sympathizer and is extremely critical of the unionist movement and leadership over the course of the century, as well as pointing out and analyzing the long list of mistakes made by the UK government at various points (whether through ignorance or wilfully). Really recommend this for anyone who is interested in the topic.

https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/57865459-what-a-bloody-awful-country

Eminence Grise

05/04/2023, 10:12 PM

Non-fiction is just too much like work - literally - Stu. I could count on one hand the number of non-fiction books I've read for enjoyment in the last decade. Even then, it's usually a case of dipping in and out rarely reading one from cover to cover. That looks interesting all the same.

@ Adam - what's Osman like as a writer? I've riffled through his stuff in book shops but never felt all that tempted. My lowest common denominator go to is historical crime fiction like Edward Marsden's various series (available now in all good, but especially mediocre, remaindered book stores) or cheap, falling apart westerns I read fanatically in my teens. Stuff like JT Edson, Louis Lamour, George G Gilman, and Piccadilly westerns. Some truly dreadful stuff, but undeniably a pleasure at the same time. BTW, if you're tyring to get back into reading but find time is an issue have you thought of novellas or short fiction/short stories?

John83

06/04/2023, 3:30 PM

I'm also curious about Osman.

A few highlights of recent years.

Termination shock - Neil Stephenson. Like many of his books, it has polarised readers, but I enjoyed it in spite of its flaws. Nearish future climate change eco-thriller; to say more is to spoil it.
Sinomania: Writing about China from the London Review of Books. This is a mixed bag of essays, but gives some real insight into China.
Erebus: The Story of a Ship - Michael Palin. His writing is like his presenting: warm and gently humourous. I knew the story - of the famous lost expedition for the northwest passage - from Dan Simmons book The Terror, named for the other ship in the expedition and now also a miniseries, but it doesn't really benefit from the fictionalisation. Palin's scope is wider, taking in an earlier extended antarctic voyage, but I felt I got to know the people involved better too. It's an easy read, and a fascinating story.
Murder in Samarkand: A British Ambassador's Controversial Defiance of Tyranny in the War on Terror - Craig Murray. Intermittantly horrifying, frequently funny story of a probably naive ambassador to Uzbekistan who is less interested in British realpolitik and more in calling the local dictatorship out on its bullshirt. I've been recommending it to everyone since I read it.
This is Going to Hurt: Secret Diaries of a Junior Doctor - Adam Kay. Blackly funny in that way only depressed medicos can be. Kay gave it all up and got into comedy writing instead.

pineapple stu

06/04/2023, 3:49 PM

Non-fiction is just too much like work - literally - Stu. I could count on one hand the number of non-fiction books I've read for enjoyment in the last decade. Even then, it's usually a case of dipping in and out rarely reading one from cover to cover.
Funny; I'd say 80% of what I read is non-fiction. Currently reading The Great Influenza by John M Barry, the story of the Spanish Flu. About one-third of the way through it and he's still setting the scene in terms of the impact of WW1 conditions and general medical knowledge. It's...thorough. Probably a bit too thorough is my thinking at the moment.

Also read Who Stole Our Game last month, Daire Whelan's 2006 book on the fortunes of the LoI from the 50s to the 00s. Nothing hugely revelatory in it - certainly for foot.ie posters - and some of what were then contemporary comments haven't aged well (eg describing Shels 2006 as a strong club)

But some of the comments on the new CEO, a guy called John Delaney, are amazing. One or two contributors praise him, but others � behind anonymity � describe him as �the most Machevellian character I have ever met in my life [�] exactly what the FAI don�t need�, as a failed businessman (�His other interests in operations, such as a coffee-vending machine, furniture business and a bakery, have all shown accumulated losses over time - �200,000, �36,000 and �460,000 respectively�) and come very close to calling what we now know he was actually doing (�He won�t be able to hide behind in the shadows, which he was able to do as Treasurer. I believe his stewardship as Treasurer was appalling as well. [�] I have no doubt that rules were being breached. I am not saying that he has been feathering his own nest. [�] Delaney, you see, is not a detailed man. He is careless and he does leave trails behind him and I think he will get careless. But the problem is that means there will be another ****ing shaft and we are back to square one again. He shouldn�t be CEO [�] I don�t think he has a passion for football. I think he has a passion for power and this is the only way he will get power.�)

osarusan

06/04/2023, 3:52 PM

Blood Meridian by Cormac McCarthy.

Seeing as he's 89 and Nobel prizes are not awarded posthumously, he must be getting one soon.

ontheotherhand

06/04/2023, 5:58 PM

Funny; I'd say 80% of what I read is non-fiction. Currently reading The Great Influenza by John M Barry, the story of the Spanish Flu. About one-third of the way through it and he's still setting the scene in terms of the impact of WW1 conditions and general medical knowledge. It's...thorough. Probably a bit too thorough is my thinking at the moment.

Also read Who Stole Our Game last month, Daire Whelan's 2006 book on the fortunes of the LoI from the 50s to the 00s. Nothing hugely revelatory in it - certainly for foot.ie posters - and some of what were then contemporary comments haven't aged well (eg describing Shels 2006 as a strong club)

But some of the comments on the new CEO, a guy called John Delaney, are amazing. One or two contributors praise him, but others � behind anonymity � describe him as �the most Machevellian character I have ever met in my life [�] exactly what the FAI don�t need�, as a failed businessman (�His other interests in operations, such as a coffee-vending machine, furniture business and a bakery, have all shown accumulated losses over time - �200,000, �36,000 and �460,000 respectively�) and come very close to calling what we now know he was actually doing (�He won�t be able to hide behind in the shadows, which he was able to do as Treasurer. I believe his stewardship as Treasurer was appalling as well. [�] I have no doubt that rules were being breached. I am not saying that he has been feathering his own nest. [�] Delaney, you see, is not a detailed man. He is careless and he does leave trails behind him and I think he will get careless. But the problem is that means there will be another ****ing shaft and we are back to square one again. He shouldn�t be CEO [�] I don�t think he has a passion for football. I think he has a passion for power and this is the only way he will get power.�)

Have you read The Ghost Map (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Ghost_Map) stu? It wasn't very thorough on the epidemic itself but had great storytelling which focused around a few key characters. An easy read but I enjoyed it.

pineapple stu

06/04/2023, 6:32 PM

Nope, but have added it to my to-buy list and will check it out. Makes it book number 60 on my list, in addition to the 30 in my actual reading pile!

CraftyToePoke

06/04/2023, 6:44 PM

But some of the comments on the new CEO, a guy called John Delaney, are amazing. One or two contributors praise him, but others � behind anonymity � describe him as �the most Machevellian character I have ever met in my life [�] exactly what the FAI don�t need�, as a failed businessman (�His other interests in operations, such as a coffee-vending machine, furniture business and a bakery, have all shown accumulated losses over time - �200,000, �36,000 and �460,000 respectively�) and come very close to calling what we now know he was actually doing (�He won�t be able to hide behind in the shadows, which he was able to do as Treasurer. I believe his stewardship as Treasurer was appalling as well. [�] I have no doubt that rules were being breached. I am not saying that he has been feathering his own nest. [�] Delaney, you see, is not a detailed man. He is careless and he does leave trails behind him and I think he will get careless. But the problem is that means there will be another ****ing shaft and we are back to square one again. He shouldn�t be CEO [�] I don�t think he has a passion for football. I think he has a passion for power and this is the only way he will get power.�)

Good gracious :) :)
Magnificent.

CraftyToePoke

06/04/2023, 6:46 PM

Blood Meridian by Cormac McCarthy.

Seeing as he's 89 and Nobel prizes are not awarded posthumously, he must be getting one soon.

An all time favourite of mine there, an absolute must read.
Read once its that unhinged they can't fathom how to make a movie out of it. No beginning, no middle, no end, no real plot & somehow the perfect read.

dahamsta

07/04/2023, 11:03 AM

Non-fiction is just too much like work

Agreed. Which is rich considering the amount of Wikipedia articles I read. I'm currently on serial killers having binged Mindhunter. :)

@ Adam - what's Osman like as a writer? I've riffled through his stuff in book shops but never felt all that tempted. My lowest common denominator go to is historical crime fiction like Edward Marsden's various series (available now in all good, but especially mediocre, remaindered book stores) or cheap, falling apart westerns I read fanatically in my teens. Stuff like JT Edson, Louis Lamour, George G Gilman, and Piccadilly westerns. Some truly dreadful stuff, but undeniably a pleasure at the same time. BTW, if you're tyring to get back into reading but find time is an issue have you thought of novellas or short fiction/short stories?

It's fairly basic stuff really, nothing groundbreaking, mildly humorous which you'd expect from Osman. I'm finding it a bit slow, but then I'm reading it slowly. Just have to see how the mystery aspect plays out. I'll comment on it here when I'm finished, in 2027.

I'd forgotten about the dodgy westerns, I used to read them myself when I was young, I think possibly pre-teen. One of the shops in Youghal I used to visit weekly in the summer had really thin ones, but I loved them. Then I discovered Tintin and Asterisk in Midleton Books! :)

I used to adore sci-fi short stories - Asimov, Bradbury, etc - but I think I read them all because when I tried that route to get back into reading, that didn't work either. I think I actually need a novel to keep drawing me back in. But I hope I can get back into shorts at some point, perhaps with new authors.

ontheotherhand

23/04/2023, 3:36 PM

Agreed. Which is rich considering the amount of Wikipedia articles I read. I'm currently on serial killers having binged Mindhunter. :)

It's fairly basic stuff really, nothing groundbreaking, mildly humorous which you'd expect from Osman. I'm finding it a bit slow, but then I'm reading it slowly. Just have to see how the mystery aspect plays out. I'll comment on it here when I'm finished, in 2027.

I'd forgotten about the dodgy westerns, I used to read them myself when I was young, I think possibly pre-teen. One of the shops in Youghal I used to visit weekly in the summer had really thin ones, but I loved them. Then I discovered Tintin and Asterisk in Midleton Books! :)

I used to adore sci-fi short stories - Asimov, Bradbury, etc - but I think I read them all because when I tried that route to get back into reading, that didn't work either. I think I actually need a novel to keep drawing me back in. But I hope I can get back into shorts at some point, perhaps with new authors.

Have you read Exhalation by Ted Chiang? Sci Fi short stories.

I found short stories to be a decent way of getting back in the rhythm of reading but the best way for me was to just pick an easy reading novel or series of novels. Read a few light crime fiction books by Peter May (The Lewis Trilogy) and was able to start enjoying the peace and quiet of sitting down with a book again. For about a month and then I lost it in favour of the tv.....

dahamsta

24/04/2023, 12:04 PM

Pretty sure it's on a shopping list somewhere, that or another book by that author, name rings a bell. I don't want to buy any more books though, I've bought so many over the last few years and not read them it's embarrassing at this point. And I've shelved and shelves full of them.

ontheotherhand

08/06/2023, 3:15 PM

SkStu

08/06/2023, 4:04 PM

I just finished Uncommon People: The Rise and Fall of the Rock Stars by David Hepworth (a British music journalist and industry guru - was instrumental with NME, Smash Hits, Q and others). The book is a great read, charts the journey of rock music through each year from the mid 50's to mid 90's (each year is a chapter and focuses on one rock star in the chapter; each chapter ends with a bit of a song list/album list for the year). Really engaging book. Loved it.

https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/30965762-uncommon-people

Just started reading Madhouse at the End of the Earth: The Belgica's Journey into the Dark Antarctic Night by Julian Sancton about the disastrous Belgian-led Antarctic expedition from the very late 1800's that saw the crew get lodged in ice and stranded for about a year without sufficient supplies and food. Complete sh*t show. Only about 40 pages in but it has already got me a bit hooked. As an aside, it was one of Roald Amundsen's first expeditions and it appears he was the one who ultimately ensured they got out of there alive.

https://www.goodreads.com/en/book/show/54900051

Disclaimer: i tend to love almost every book i read

SkStu

08/06/2023, 4:14 PM

Quick question for the readers in here...

do you tend to read from a device (iPad, Kindle, etc) or the old fashioned paper and ink?

I exclusively read printed books.

pineapple stu

08/06/2023, 5:15 PM

Printed books exclusively. Kindle just isn't the same. You can't flick back to a point easily, you can't have a proper reading pile, and it just doesn't feel right.

Prisoners of Geography is very good alright. Currently halfway through Putin's People, about the rise of Putin to power in Russia, and his rule to publication (in 2020). Interesting read. What jumps out most at the moment is Putin's tendency to panicked inaction in the face of crisis - Beslan or the Kursk disasters for example. There's a point made that he was closer the start of his reign then and not as attuned to crisis response at the time - but you can imagine a similar response now given Ukraine hasn't rolled over in a week or two as expected.

Also interesting to hear some of the people who put him in power in the first place say that they thought they could control him as he had a low profile and little political experience, but they'd effectively underestimated what a psycho he is

CraftyToePoke

08/06/2023, 9:15 PM

Quick question for the readers in here...

do you tend to read from a device (iPad, Kindle, etc) or the old fashioned paper and ink?

I exclusively read printed books.

Paper, always and only.

Having a prolonged bout of attention span struggles though, anyone had that ? & any advice on cracking it ?
I'd have always had a book on the go but the last couple of years it has slipped away & I'd like it back. Read it was smartphone use related maybe in one article but fcuk knows.

SkStu

08/06/2023, 9:28 PM

ontheotherhand

08/06/2023, 9:47 PM

ontheotherhand

08/06/2023, 9:49 PM

Paper, always and only.

Having a prolonged bout of attention span struggles though, anyone had that ? & any advice on cracking it ?
I'd have always had a book on the go but the last couple of years it has slipped away & I'd like it back. Read it was smartphone use related maybe in one article but fcuk knows.

I'd blame the smartphone as well. Awful yokes.

My trick is to pick a book or series of books I've already read and enjoyed and have the nostalgia drag me along until I'm back in a rhythm.....although it must not work that well because I haven't read anything start to finish in months........

John83

09/06/2023, 2:41 AM

Reading Prisoners of Geography by Tim Marshall.

He gives a very high level overview of ten major world maps/regions including why they formed and a sort of SWOT analysis to show their position in the world and the tension it creates internally and externally.

Enjoying it so far. It puts everything into very simple terms and gives a nice perspective on why various powers are in conflict or alliance.
I thought he had a pretty good analysis of China and Russia, and after that it declined pretty badly. It felt like he had two good chapters and then had to flesh out a book somehow.

John83

09/06/2023, 2:44 AM

Quick question for the readers in here...

do you tend to read from a device (iPad, Kindle, etc) or the old fashioned paper and ink?

I exclusively read printed books.
I spend months per year abroad for work. I prefer paper books even now, but the Kindle's ability to fit a library into a pocket-sized form is invabluable to me. I also like being able to look up an unfamiliar term simply by long pressing it, and highlighting an interesting or funny passage saves it automatically to a clips file that's nice to review once in a while.

osarusan

09/06/2023, 7:14 AM

Klara and the Sun by Kazuo Ishiguro.

About 100 pages in and already know I'm going to enjoy it, enjoy Ishiguro's twisted sense of story-telling.

CraftyToePoke

12/06/2023, 3:46 PM

I've gone through a bit of that at times over the last ten years or so - on and off - but on a great stretch now over the last couple of years. I would put my house on it being device related ADD... (on another note, I am completely off of all social media for the last 2 months - facebook. instagram, twitter and reddit - wasnt on any others - and feel brilliant for it)

What has worked for me with reading has been a few things - my advice... to get back on the wagon, pick a book you know you will be really interested in based on the subject matter. Secondly commit to building the habit with 10-15 pages a day and stick to it. Have the next book selected and beside you before you finish the current one. Building the habit is the key for me - that and not taking a break between books. I'm a bedtime reader so I just went to bed 30 minutes early intentionally so i wouldn't be too tired to read.

I'd blame the smartphone as well. Awful yokes.

My trick is to pick a book or series of books I've already read and enjoyed and have the nostalgia drag me along until I'm back in a rhythm.....although it must not work that well because I haven't read anything start to finish in months........

Definitely agree on the device / smart phone side, it does coincide with that and surely linked.
Read a Guardian article on it about attention spans being stolen and it made perfect sense. Friend of mine, an avid reader gone the same way. I don't have any SMedia installed on the thing but they are still accessible & I'm a news & forum hound with 50+ bookmarked. The camera is the reason it stays, you do catch some lovely stuff you'd otherwise miss & in my job that has become very useful.

Stu, a break after a series I loved was key the moment, other books couldn't follow the one I finished so I put a few down unimpressed and lost the knack ( with help from my phone ).

Have a few days off this week so I'll try again, I have never read a book twice, wouldn't be my way at all but maybe you are right OTOH, maybe that is whats needed here.

pineapple stu

12/06/2023, 4:12 PM

A site like Goodreads may help encourage you along (or not of course) - you can set a reading target for the year and log books you read. It's technically social media - you can connect with friends and so on - but way quieter in terms of notifications, etc.

It has a bar indicating how you are against your target as you go along, which can be useful as a prompter or motivation. Though I have heard others say it's annoying to always told you're behind on target - so like I say, maybe not for everyone. But said I'd throw it out there.

John83

13/06/2023, 3:36 AM

I like the reading challenge too, but you have to set a realistic target to get any use out of it. I used to set it to 24, but after falling short a few times, I dropped that to 20, which I hit more often than not.

If you're struggling with it, it's worth remembering that the median number of books people read per year is 2, I think. Most people barely read or don't read at all.

Eminence Grise

13/06/2023, 10:56 AM

I�m very lucky that I�ve never lost the yen for reading, but it has definitely slowed down in the last decade. About five years ago, I started making an annual list of every book I read, and I set a target of three a month � not sweating it if I only manage two some months once it evens out. I make it a rule to read every night, if only for a few minutes, and it has helped keep the habit going. I usually have three or four books on the go at the same time (a good novel, a trashy novel and a collection of short stories or poetry � the fourth might be one I haven�t admitted to giving up on! I used to reread a lot, though since I�ve bought far too many book in recent years (seriously, I've probably close to 150 to read) I�m only rereading when I need a book as a comfort blanket � often children�s books like Michelle Magorian�s Goodnight Mr Tom, Robert Westall�s The Machine Gunners, Ian Serraillier�s The Silver Sword or Anne Holm�s I Am David (bit of a theme there!) � or it�s an absolute classic like John Banville�s Birchwood.

I consider read proper books as my proper reading, but I use my phone as a back-up � if I�ve finished my news apps on the way to work, or I�ve a quiet lunch to myself the phone is handy, and I tend to read or reread a lot of classics on it. You can�t beat a book, though � the smell, the feel, the weird bookmarks people leave in them when they send them to second-hand book shops� And it�s too damn expensive to swat every fly with a Kindle!

Right now, I�m reading for fun. Up to the start of last month I was reading up on phenomenographic pedagogy for a journal article, intertwined with stuff on critical media literacy (which is why I said a few pages back that factual reading is too much like work� it really is my work). Since then, I�ve reread Conan Doyle�s A Study in Scarlet (on my phone); Claire Keegan�s Small Things Like These (she can write in the blank spaces on the page as only the really gifted can: it�s one of those instant classics); and Robert Harris� Act of Oblivion (top notch historical fiction, though, unusually for him, a main character you couldn�t really root for).

I started Carlos Ruiz Zafon�s The Labyrinth of the Spirits at the weekend � one of those books I�ve had on my shelves for yonks and kept being turned off by the length (805 pages), but it was easy to fall into it. It�s the last in his Cemetery of Forgotten Books cycle, where each novel (The Shadow of the Wind, The Angels Game, The Prisoner of Heaven) is freestanding, but shares the same major characters and overlapping storylines, and can be read in any order. Glorious, twisty-turny stuff in the early years of Franco�s regime.

After that, who knows? Sebastian Barry and George Saunders are fluttering their pages at me, but I�ve a hankering to reread SE Hinton�s The Outsiders for the first time in � must be � 30 years. Mind you, Osarusan has flagged Klara and the Sun and that's a real possibility too...

I�ll keep you posted.

passinginterest

13/06/2023, 4:39 PM

Ah The Silver Sword and I am David have stirred some happy memories for me. I am David is one of my favourites and one of few books that I've read multiple times. I've been going through a fairly dry spell reading wise. My mother in law bought me Mans Search for Meaning and Crime and Punishment for Christmas. I read the first half of Mans Search for Meaning didn't go back to it when it started into the more theoretical second half. Haven't really picked anything up since. I did get an Amazon Fire tablet last week and it prompted me to read the first few chapter of Treasure Island again. Not sure if that comes as standard with the Kindle app or if I downloaded it at some stage, but it's another old favourite and I might just finish it again.

Eminence Grise

13/06/2023, 4:58 PM

My mother in law bought me Mans Search for Meaning and Crime and Punishment for Christmas.

Um, does your mother-in-law not like you or something?;) That's seriously weighty stuff. Mine is more likely to give me a Bernard Cornwell, John Connolly or Robert Harris - probably knows it will keep me quiet and out of her way for a few days!

I did get an Amazon Fire tablet last week and it prompted me to read the first few chapter of Treasure Island again.

Arrh, PI lad, you can't go wrong with RLS. I've reread Treasure Island and The Black Arrow (young D1ck Shelton is the feeblest hero in literature, but still gets the girl - there's hope for us all!), and The Master of Ballantrae for the first time, in the last two years.

osarusan

13/06/2023, 9:40 PM

Blood Meridian by Cormac McCarthy.

Seeing as he's 89 and Nobel prizes are not awarded posthumously, he must be getting one soon.

Adios and RIP Cormac. It was not to be.

dahamsta

14/06/2023, 12:32 PM

On the news front, I found reducing the number of sources improved my QoL no end. I use a feed reader for news / blogs / updates / etc and found that just deleting one or two news sources, particularly the ones that are a bit spammy - I'm looking at you Guardian and BBC - mostly called a halt to the news doom scrolling.

And in the case of news it really is doom scrolling, news is so negative in general it tends to make me angry and disillusioned, so it improved both my time management and my mood, to a certain extent. These days when I Pavlov my way into the reader, there's only 10 or 20 items there so I'm gone again in a minute. In fact I don't even bother with most of it, I just scroll past the headlines. Because they're mostly pretty boring.

I'm still not back into books unfortunately, I went through The Satsuma Complex fairly quickly but The Thursday Murder Club just isn't taking me, ditto The Cuckoo's Calling, and for some odd reason I then segued into HG Wells' A Short History of the World, I think because the chapters are short and snappy. I've taken to reading that with my kids now, so I've moved on to Bram Stoker's Dracula and the Kindle free sample of Klara and the Sun on my mobile. And lots and lots of Wikipedia! :)

This discussion seems to be more about The Fall Of Reading than actual books. Are we on the cusp of an Age of Whatever-The-Opposite-Of-Enlightnement-Is? :)

John83

14/06/2023, 4:17 PM

This discussion seems to be more about The Fall Of Reading than actual books. Are we on the cusp of an Age of Whatever-The-Opposite-Of-Enlightnement-Is? :)
It's just a recent seque in the conversation. I think we're just all middle aged and suffering from crises of self-reflection and/or work/life balance.

Having rewatched all of the Bond movies during covid, I picked up the first couple of the books. They've dated as you'd expect, though it's still fun to see where the writers have borrowed and where they've patched. Casino Royale is mostly set in the no longer glamourous northern coast of France. Live and Let Die is oddly determined to use the word Negro as often as possible. I've read that some people prefer the term even now for capturing something uniquely African-American, but reading "The Negro walked onto the dock" where "The man walked on to the dock" would suffice seems a bit off to my eye. Anyway, I could rationalise that term, but then the term "n*****head" popped up for a buoy (or possibly an overwashed rock). I had to look that one up.

I'm currently reading another book because of a movie I watched: Ted Chiang's Stories of Your Life and Others. It's a collection of short SF stories, the titular one being the source material for Villeneuve's Arrival. It's some of the best SF I've read in years.

dahamsta

16/06/2023, 8:23 AM

I definitely think it's a result of the internet / social media / etc rather than just middle-age. My mid-life crisis is already being dealt with via cars and exercise / dieting. :)

There was an old copy of Dr. No in my parent's house, with this cover (https://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/164924753778) so probably not that long after it was written. It was awful, just terrible dross altogether, and not just because it was dated. But probably still not as bad as reading a Famous Five book now...

tetsujin1979

16/06/2023, 12:33 PM

Happy Bloomsday to all who celebrate. Mentioned it on a team call earlier. Had to explain what it was to the Americans. One asked me if it had anything to do with flowers.

Eminence Grise

02/07/2023, 10:26 PM

Ten years last month since Iain Banks died, and The Guardian (https://www.theguardian.com/books/2023/jun/29/where-to-start-with-iain-banks) did an article on where to start with his work, so I thought it was as good a time as any to start Dead Air, one of three of his novels I haven't read (The Steep Approach to Garbadale and Stonemouth the others). Very tempted to re-read The Crow Road, but something new stood out. Very typical Banks, witty, fast-paced and anchored at a point in time but also - considering his range of styles and themes - satisfyingly different at the same time.

Any one else a fan?

John83

03/07/2023, 3:27 AM

I've read all of his sci-fi, and maybe half of his other novels including the whiskey travelogue. I haven't found another author like him.

Eminence Grise

06/07/2023, 7:38 AM

I tried Banks' Feersum Endjinn years ago and just couldn't get into it, so I never went back to his Iain M Banks work. But I'm not much of a sci-fi fan truth be told. Apart from Doctor Who novels as a kid, and some Ray Bradbury short stories last year out of curiosity, I can't recall ever reading much sci-fi. Maybe I should give The Culture another go.

John83

06/07/2023, 7:48 AM

Feersum Endjinn is pretty hard to get into. A quarter of it is written phonetically, for a start. A lot of people suggest The Player of Games as the place to start. If you're not much for sci-fi, Inversions is only obliquely a Culture novel. I can't recall what gets revealed where, so I'm wary of spoiling something, but let's just say it takes place inside a late medieval civilisation that's being meddled with.

dahamsta

06/07/2023, 3:48 PM

Klara and the Sun by Kazuo Ishiguro.

I'm crawling through this but liking it. Also forgot I was reading Dracula until this morning. :)

passinginterest

07/01/2024, 2:23 PM

I got Kala by Colin Walsh as a Christmas present. I hadn�t heard anything about it really. The name of the author was familiar but that was about it.

It�s one of the few books I can remember, since I was a child really, that I didn�t want to put down from the first few pages to the very end. I thought it captured something about teenage emotion and friendship that I�ve rarely seen done so well. Added to that was the impact of trauma on their adult lives and having to eventually confront it.

The story absolutely rattles along. With three distinct voices and two timelines beautifully sown together. I suppose it�s a thriller in most ways, but there�s some beautiful prose that wouldn�t normally be associated with the genre.

It tackles some deep rooted Irish societal issues from an interesting angle. It�s visceral and confrontational. Maybe growing up in the arse of nowhere, rural Ireland, the secrets, the cover ups and the whispers rang very true. Fiona Sinnott disappeared from very close to home. People know exactly what happened but the ones that can produce the evidence will seemingly never tell. There�s echoes of that all throughout Irish history and I though Kala captured that cruel web especially well.

Anyway, I�d recommend it as gripping story. I rattled through it in a few days. I thought the ending was a little bit weak, after all that had come before, but it didn�t ruin the overall experience. I�ll definitely be picking up Colin Walsh�s next book.