Books - What are you reading?

The Bone Clocks - David Mitchell

Moves along nicely, the plot isn't too patronising, and the characterisation works well.

For a cup of tea I come over and consult you what to rid. If successful unable to help with schlepp to charity shop due to bad back.

Yes! The addictive nature of a book about addiction. It's too good. And the circular structure of the book - the end at the beginning loop of it - really invites infinte rereads.

I dunno what I'd recommend next, but I think you're right about giving your brain a break before you leap into GR. Something short, whatever it is!

Completely agree! Too good, too detailed, too enthralling - I've never encountered a novel like it, although I could see why some might be turned away by the maximalist prose and seemingly endless sentences. It did take me a while to adapt to DFW's style but once you're there, it's so rewarding.

I bought a stack of cheap Jorge Borges fictions not long ago, I think they'll make a good stopgap between IJ and Gravity's Rainbow.

Here are a couple of my favourite IJ links for geeking out to:

Infinite Atlas (http://infiniteatlas.com/)
Paper version here: (http://shop.beutlerink.com/products/infinite-map)
Brick Jest (http://www.brickjest.com/)

In other news, I've just had a bit of a books clear out, so any of the following are available. Thinking £2 each:

Paul Auster - Leviathan
Paul Auster - Mr Vertigo
Paul Bowles - The Sheltering Sky
Christopher Brookmyre - Bedlam (uncorrected proof)
Carlos Ruiz Zafon - Shadow of the Wind AND Prisoner of Heaven
Hisham Matar - Anatomy of a Disappearance
Steve Beard - Logic Bomb
Sion Scott Wilson - The Sleepwalker's Introduction to Flight
William Trevor Short Stories
Jonathan Smith - Night Windows
James Thurber - The Secret Life of Walter Mitty and other stories.

Check out the Paul Bowles short stories.

Read Inherent Vice! That way you get Pynchon and stop gap. I am so crap at reading since I started cycle commuting, I haven't finished Bleeding Edge, It was my one and only attempt to juggle reading it on an iPad at work and a Hardback at work. I failed.

I read Infinite Jest and Gravity's Rainbow and Underworld in the same summer. Would like to read both IJ and GR again. I think I was 22, I like to think I got the sweep of Underworld, perhaps not the other two. I dip into IJ now and then, it lends itself to that. I have also photocopied passages to give to people, like that passage where Jim's farther talks about Brando,

I liked Broom of the system a lot more than I expected to.

Underworld I failed around 400 miles in like the Bryan Chapman. But have finished complete de Lillo prose oeuvre.

How long would you have to ride for an unabridged Underworld reading you think?

Yes, Borges is great. Careful tho - his works seem slender and short, but there's whole universes in there. You might end up thinking of IJ and GR as stopgaps around the Borges.

I have a pile of books I need to finish, however I still ordered the complete collection of Sandman today. Been meaning to read it for years, can't wait.

Right, thats it! No more! No more buying books until I've finished all the others.

Lol! I've heard that one before. Often uttered by me. Shortly before buying a book.

Why not use a library?

All local libraries I've ever used sell books too. "50p per book", they say. "Oh god how am i even going to carry all this home", I wail.

Borges is great. Careful tho - his works seem slender and short, but there's whole universes in there.

I discovered this last night when it took over two hours to traverse 16 pages... I seem to end up googling something every other page, with the distraction ranging from looking up a succinct definition, to a sprawling in-depth review of some archaic reference.

I may go buy V. after work...

But then...what would go on the bookshelves?

tried to make it through Dylan Thomas' play Under Milk Wood, but failed so far.. (!)

If you're not reading along to the sound of Richard Burton et al, then you're doing it wrong.

This!

I reread Under Milk Wood a little while ago and though it was so much better than I'd remembered- but then I hadn't read it since we did it as a school play when I was 15. I was shocked at how rude it is- not suitable for secondary school kids I think!

Finished The Count of Monte Cristo this morning.

Fuck. Proper book hangover now, I feel almost empty now that this epic journey is finished. Isn't it funny how a good book can do that to you?

What an awesome story. I can hardly find any fault in it. Well crafted, beautifully written.

Just finished The Spy who came in from the cold. Bloody awesome.

At first I wasn't too sure where it was going, the finale unravelled into something brilliant.

Started this last night: