Books - What are you reading?

hey, don't blame me.....I didn't want to read it!!!

Anyone read any Milan Kundera? Someone recommended me The Unbearable Lightness of Being (possibly someone in here actually, I can't remember). I popped into Oxfam to see if they had a copy and they didn't. I picked these two up though, partly because I really liked the design of the covers.

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You may notice some subtle editing on the photo to make it SFW for anyone with a prudish boss.

I actually like the occasional bit of fantasy (nerd!), but Tolkien really isn’t the best.

Laughter and Forgetting is ace. So is Immortality. I don't have much love for the rest.

There was a copy of Immortality in there as well, I might go back and pick it up!

Devoured Kundera in my 20s. TULoB is definitely worth hunting down. It had a lasting impression on me.

I'll see how I get on with these and pick up a copy if I'm into it!

I don't know the book you're talking about, but there clearly is some kind of a market segment for shit that exists only so that its consumers can feel that they're being clever when engaging with it.
I would put about 70% of TED talks into that category, as well as anything by Yuval Harari, Ian McEwan and that muppet Alain de Boton. Stringing together just enough references from actual clever people to seem relevant, but ultimately adding nothing.

Black Dogs by Ian McEwan is one of my favorite books.

But then I'm probably bang in the middle of the target market segment.

I’d have given you mine but I’ve lost it!

I don't know the book you're talking about, but there clearly is some kind of a market segment for shit that exists only so that its consumers can feel that they're being clever when engaging with it.

Yeah, you've nailed it, that's exactly what this book is. I don't mean to suggest that the Blackmore book in particular is a stream of bigoted statements, because it's not - it's mostly just sophistry dressed up in the language of evolutionary science and genetics.

I felt much better after my tipsy rant in this thread and I might even feel brave enough to delete this awful little pamphlet from my kindle later, thanks to the encouragement of you all!

Since you mentioned Alain de Botton, I read his How to Think More About Sex a while back and it was quite the eye-opening experience. He was trying to build a philosophical theory about the nature of human love and desire, but instead he just splurted out all his own weird middle class fetishes and fantasies as illustrative of the human condition, bless him.

I mean, that said, I do like a bit of poseur-reading. Which is probably why I keep ending up reading these horrible fucking books all the time.

I've read 4 or 5 Kunderas and I found "the book of laughter and forgetting" one of his best.

Just finished "a very ordinary life" from Karel Capek and "death on credit" from Louis Ferdinand Céline. The latter one is one crazy book full of swearing and other explicit hilariousnes (but with real "depth" when you look further than that). I loved it.

That's made me think actually. Would anyone on here be interested in a book swap? Maybe a few people post books they're willing to trade/lend/ give away and then just arrange to meet up or organise postage. I try and give away most of my books when I'm done with them, unless I think I'm likely to reread them or have somebody in particular in mind who would enjoy them. It'd be nice to pass something I've enjoyed on to somebody on here and see what they think!

That's made me think actually. Would anyone on here be interested in a book swap? Maybe a few people post books they're willing to trade/lend/ give away and then just arrange to meet up or organise postage. I try and give away most of my books when I'm done with them, unless I think I'm likely to reread them or have somebody in particular in mind who would enjoy them. It'd be nice to pass something I've enjoyed on to somebody on here and see what they think!

Great idea! I’ll post a list when I get home.

Nice! I'll get a list together as well. Maybe in a list it'd be worth including information such as whether or not you want the book back at any point, where you are or anything you want to read that someone might have a copy of to lend/give away?

Love Elroy

The joke is my favourite

There was a time in the 80s when being a Czech author was probably the coolest thing in the world

Partially OT, but I ordered a copy of this today. Quite excited about getting stuck in to it - been a long time since I played an RPG.

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I don't know too many Czech authors but seem to like almost everything I've read by one. I just looked at my Goodreads and 6 of the 20 something books I've read so far this year have been by Czech authors which seems quite high!

I knocked up a list of books I'm willing to let go/swap. I'm Leeds based so would probably require some postage! Let me know if there's any of these you fancy reading and we'll work it out.

JG Ballard - The Drowned World
William S. Burroughs - The Finger
Octavia E. Butler - Parable of The Sower
Dave Eggers - The Parade
Herman Hesse - Steppenwolf
Maggie Nelson - The Argonauts
John Niven - Kill Your Friends
George Orwell - Burmese Days
Jean Paul Sartre - The Age of Reason
John Steinbeck - Sweet Thursday
John Steinbeck - East of Eden
John Steinbeck - The Long Valley
John Steinbeck - Tortilla Flat
Jeff Vandemeer - Authority
Kurt Vonnegut - Galapagos

Bugger. If you'd come up with this idea a week earlier I'd have been able to put up a big list of cycling books, but they've already gone to the charity shop. Good idea though! Will need to blow through my to-read pile at some point and add what I've got.

I've just finished Lucky Jim by Kingsley Amis - it was a good read, certainly kept my attention for a week, but, over nearly 300 pages not much happened. It was all scene setting and character building. Which isn't a bad thing.

I have also go back to Catch 22 by Joseph Heller, which is hailed as one of the best written comedy books ever. I have to say I found it book very dull and not that interesting. I'm only sticking with it because I hate giving up on a book.