What are you reading tonight?

[Burnden Paddock]

She's more than welcome! Probably has it already though. Strikes me as the type.

By 'type', Mr Paddock, I assume you mean the 'type' of person to own and read such high brow, edifying literature as 'Rock Bottom' 'Hero and Villan' and 'How not to be a professional footballer'

Yes, I own and have read all 3 of Paul Merson's autobiographies. I lurve Paul Merson. He's in my top 3 favourite Arsenal players ever, I named one of my pet mice after him, actually (and I cried when he left for Middlesbrough... )

Of course. That's exactly what I meant! It's the latter of those that I have. It's pretty much the same thing all the way through.

[Prufrock]

Finished Wolf Hall at the weekend. I did enjoy it in the end, despite my occasional frustration. One gripe aside it is really well-written, particularly for that kind of plot-driven prose than often ends up with the cringe-worthy efforts of Dan Brown and George Ar Ar Ar Ar Martin. Nevertheless, having read The Testament of Mary directly before, I wouldn't have picked WH as the Booker prize winner. I know they were different years, and I haven't read the Luminaries yet, but I didn't really think Wolf Hall said a lot. Nicely written sure, but beyond that...

Catch-22 now. Two chapters in and it's nothing like I expected so far. Enjoying it though.

In Yossarian and Major Major Heller created two of the funniest/tragic characters in fiction. and this may still be the best anti-war satire ever. Enjoy!

Finished last night. Absolutely loved it. Nothing like what I expected. I was anticipating grim, bleak and biting, but instead got a brilliantly funny, poignant and selectively eviscerating book. I love that irreverent, paradoxical style anyway, but this was like Douglas Adams with a point. I expected him to have a pop at war, but everything gets it, religion, capitalism, authority...

Yossarian (how do you say that by the way? I was reminded of something Clive James wrote about one's reading overtaking one's surroundings meaning you don't know how to pronounce things. He'd been saying 'Degas'' wrong for ages, and then I realised I had too!) is a brilliant character, but the whole book is full of them. Milo I think was my favourite, summed up everything I've tried to say about the place of markets and capitalism, and the way society treats economic prosperity as a means in and of itself. Top stuff.

Next is Letters to a Young Contrarian by Hitch. Am excited for this.

[CAPSLOCK]

Whats the title? Got to beat the autobiography of paul fecking merson which kindle keeps trying to sell me.

http://www.amazon.co.uk/The-Boy-Brazil- ... 41-6208525" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

[Prufrock]

For people who care about fine writing, critical intelligence and books... catch up with the BBC4 doc on the New York Review of Books, broadcast last night.

It was brilliant. As is the mag. And its essential cousin the London Review of Books.

Just started watching this. Didn't realise it was Scorsese. Seems fitting given Wolf of Wall Street was being discussed in the other thread the other day!

[General Mannerheim]

finished Timur Vermes 'Look Who's Back' very good, pretty funny and involved lots of quick wiki visits for history lessons!

[General Mannerheim]

moving onto some more Salinger. Nine Stories. shouldnt take long - looks like a pamphlet...

[Prufrock]

moving onto some more Salinger. Nine Stories. shouldnt take long - looks like a pamphlet...

Let us know what you reckon dude.

[Prufrock]

Finished 'Letters to a Young Contrarian' by Christopher Hitchens. It was good, but more an intro book to someone who is interested in individualism and free-thinking and doesn't know much about Hitch. I've already read, or heard him say most of it. Couple of bits that struck a note. One I read the weekend after we had the debate on here about religion, about how it's important to have arguments even where you know you'll never convince the other person to your side because every time you engage your argument you tinker with it and drop certain bits and gain others. So it's not all pointless .

If you've read much Hitch before, I wouldn't bother, otherwise, defo recommend.

I finished that about a week ago; I'm not about 3/4s of the way through Bringing up the Bodies. This to me so far is far superior to Wolf Hall, and not just because she's dropped the damn confusing dangling 3rd person thing. Attempt hard things more, there's stuff about the meaning of 'truth' and about desire. I guess it's easier to do [SPOILER ALERT, although, to be fair, it did happen so, you know...you might know the end anyway] in this book which deals with the downfall of Anne- who we know know- than in the first book which deals with the coming-up of Anne (less material) and the downfall of Katherine, who we never really know.

[bobo the clown]

↑↑↑↑ the downfall of Anne !?!? Noooooo ....

[Dujon]

Well after a hiatus of over thirty years I, in a fit of largesse, bought four new books. Not that I haven't bought books in that period, just that they've all been second-hand. Nor are they 'new' in the sense of the years of their authorship.

The Cruel Sea - Nicholas Monsarrat
This is the Schoolroom - Nicholas Monsarrat
Rather Than All His Tribe - Nicholas Monsarrat
The Lonely Sea - Alistair MacLean

Monsarrat is probably best known for his naval stories (and rightfully so). Nevertheless he did write about other spheres of endeavour, which is why I selected the other two titles. I hope that I will not be disappointed. MacLean, thinking back, is probably more a derring-do type of author. This book is a collection of short stories - sixteen of them. Short is certainly correct as those yarns are presented in just 188 pages. At the moment this is reserved for the odd dip or two on miserable and wet Sunday afternoons when Mr Greymatter is in angel gear.

[LeverEnd]

Just read Cormac McCarthy's first novel The Orchard Keeper while on holiday. Not as good as his brilliant later novels but well worth a read. Some grim stuff in there and some of it is a bit too much like hard work, but some of the description of nature and death and brutal and brilliant. Absolutely no sentiment, that's for sure.

Now 100 pages into Glen David Gold's Sunnyside, a work of fiction about Charlie Chaplin and America during the First World War. Loved his debut novel Carter Beats The Devil and this looks like being as good. Great storytelling with vivid and interesting characters and very well-written.

[Prufrock]

Last week I re-read, or re-started and then finished for the first time, 'The Sun Also Rises'. It's funny how sometimes you can begin a book that does absolutely nothing for you, and then start it another time and it grips you instantly. The first attempt I got about half-way through, enjoyed a couple of the descriptions of Paris, and then just sort of stopped. This time I flew through it.

Hemingway was a bit of an obsession for me for a while, and I love reading this through the eyes of his younger self. Bits of it are a little unsure, there's one almost fourth-wall breaking bit that's affected and tentative and really 'un-Hemingway'. Even then though, there's the unflinching dialogue that can make you cringe. The round-the-table conversations between Mike and Robert Cohn are curl-up awful, like a literary version of the Office. I wondered for a bit whether descriptions like the 'nigger drummer' who is 'all teeth and lips' was Hemingway or Jake, the narrator speaking. I think it's Jake, I hope it is. His main characters, even though you generally like them, all have truly hateful characteristics.

After that I blasted through Hitch-22, the memoir of my current obsession, Christopher Hitchens. For that hypothetical dinner-party game, he'd be my number 1 choice.

Now about to start 'S' the JJ Abrams project book thing. It's going to have to be good to make up for Lost. And I'll be pissed off if it's all a dream.

[thebish]

I am struggling my way through Ayn Rand's "Atlas Srugged" - cos i thought I ought to read it...

I hate to stop reading a book when I have started it - and I have battled my way to about 60-odd percent (yes - I know - it's on the kindle - I can't count pages!)

but - I am seriously tempted to chuck it in the lake... was there ever a book written that labours the same fecking point over and over and over and over and over again more than this one does - putting the same 20-kindle-page monologue into the mouths of SO MANY characters one after the other?

YES - we got the point you were making after the first chapter!! give it a fecking rest and just tell the story!!

arrrghhhhhhh!!!!!!!!!!!!!

[Beefheart]

I am struggling my way through Ayn Rand's "Atlas Srugged" - cos i thought I ought to read it...

I hate to stop reading a book when I have started it - and I have battled my way to about 60-odd percent (yes - I know - it's on the kindle - I can't count pages!)

but - I am seriously tempted to chuck it in the lake... was there ever a book written that labours the same fecking point over and over and over and over and over again more than this one does - putting the same 20-kindle-page monologue into the mouths of SO MANY characters one after the other?

YES - we got the point you were making after the first chapter!! give it a fecking rest and just tell the story!!

arrrghhhhhhh!!!!!!!!!!!!!

It came up in an episode of Mad Men but I didn't know what the book is about. The summary on the wikipedia page suggests that it's trying to say 'capitalism is awesome' which I guess might have made it popular during the cold war.

[TANGODANCER]

Just back from the library. One or two decent looking fiction novels amongst which I got The Chamber by Howard Gordon (Homeland and 24). Has a commendation by Kiefer Sutherland, for what that's worth.

[LeverEnd]

I am struggling my way through Ayn Rand's "Atlas Srugged" - cos i thought I ought to read it...

I hate to stop reading a book when I have started it - and I have battled my way to about 60-odd percent (yes - I know - it's on the kindle - I can't count pages!)

but - I am seriously tempted to chuck it in the lake... was there ever a book written that labours the same fecking point over and over and over and over and over again more than this one does - putting the same 20-kindle-page monologue into the mouths of SO MANY characters one after the other?

YES - we got the point you were making after the first chapter!! give it a fecking rest and just tell the story!!

arrrghhhhhhh!!!!!!!!!!!!!

I have had that book on my shelf for years but keep putting off starting it. You're not helping!
I've read and enjoyed The Fountainhead and We The Living, saw an old interview with her. She came across as a hateful old crone. We The Living gives you some insight into her hatred of the USSR and communism and why she moved so far to the right. The Fountainhead is really good, Howard Roark the principle character is fascinating.
I've come across people who hate her and her work and I can see why, but if you're aware of her political bias before you read it then it's very enjoyable and doesn't grate as it might otherwise.

[thebish]

but if you're aware of her political bias before you read it then it's very enjoyable and doesn't grate as it might otherwise.

my issue is not necessarily the politics - i can still enjoy writing by people with vastly divergent views from my own - it's the clumsy and sledgehammerly heavy-handed way she goes about it!

she writes exactly the same 20-page monologue (yes - looooooooong ranty monologues) dozens of times from the mouths of her various "hero" characters - and every other character who is not designated as a hero is a ludicrous straw-man of a character.. it's as if she doesn't dare include a decent opposing voice for fear her huge and repetitively-built house of cards will fall over!!

[LeverEnd]

I might use it for kindling.

[thebish]

I might use it for kindling.

no - go ahead and read it - you might think it's ace!!

[General Mannerheim]

made a start on Americanah by Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie today...