Books - What are you reading?

Finished Permanent Record the other day. Really enjoyed it, he writes well and managed not to be overly egotistical. Much of the technical stuff wasn't news to me as I'd followed it all when it first came out, but the backstory and other details were very interesting.

I enjoyed Ubik but will probably try and get him started on the more well known stuff. He loves sci fi but has never read any PKD. Mind boggling.

Speaking of sci fi, I'm currently listening to the audiobook of Perdido Street Station by China Miéville. Proper nerd stuff. I've enjoyed the first 3 of the 31 hours though.

Going to give Waterlog by Roger Deakin a go before I catch up on my book club backlog. Ordered it ages ago and can resist it no longer. Hopefully it'll inspire me to get my swimming mojo back.

Hah! @Fox got his swimming mojo a few years after he recommended to me.

Can anyone think of good examples of films that are as good/ better than the book?

For me American Psycho would fit that category. The book and film are sufficiently different to make a good pairing, emphasising different things.

Rereading Q by Luther Blisset. One of my favourite books. Some similarities with The Name of the Rose. Eco's book was Sherlock Homes transported to the early Middle Ages, with some history of the Catholic church sprinkled over it. This book is Tinker Tailor Soldier Spy transplanted to the time of the Herman Peasants Revolt. Cracking story hiding some serious messages in one of the most brutal episodes in European history.

I’d say start with High Castle

Can't speak highly enough of Waterlog. Beautifully written book. If you enjoy it give Robert Macfarlane a look too. They were good friends till Deakins unfortunate death.

Between them they have greatly changed how I look at our country, countryside and urban areas.

Can anyone think of good examples of films that are as good/ better than the book?

Loads. Badly written books often make good films ot TV shows; I think the director feels less constrained by the original, since they aren't desecrating a classic. Agatha Christie and Colin Dexter mostly wrote drivel, while Conan Doyle and Thomas Harris are hugely overrated, but decent films and/or shows have been made from their work. I would say all the Hannibal Lecter films are significantly better than the books. Silence of the Lambs is a trashy airport novel.

Some films are built not on shit books but small short stories, greatly expanding their scope. 2001 was based on a short story "The Sentinel". Total Recall is an interesting case; most Dick film treatments haven't done so well and failed to capture the author's tone and intent. Paradoxically, Total Recall is based on one of the shortest stories Dick ever wrote, a relatively weak shaggy dog joke, and yet the film (and I mean the original) was one of the most true-to-the-author adaptations ever done. The idea that the hero is a fake and decides to be a fake, combined with the suggestion that the whole thing really is just a shop-bought fantasy, is very Dick.

I thought it was excellent, a beautifully written book.

master & margherita. it’s so good

I've not read Total Recall! Will put it on the list.
On a related topic, so saw Doctor Sleep last night. Absolutely awful, reports that The Shining was vastly improved by Steven King's limited involvement check out.

Incredible isn't it? I read it a few months ago.

https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/We_Can_Remember_It_for_You_Wholesale

Just ordered a copy, cheers!

Thank you for the reminder to pick it up again. I totally forgot that I'd started but never finished it. Can't remember why though ¯\(ツ)/¯

Its such a rich novel itll be hard to keep it all in your head via audiobook. Or at least I would struggle to. I loved it. I hope you enjoy it as much as I did, the other Bas Lag books are good too.

Anyone read Normal People? Im half way through, and it reads very easily but I find the whole tone and the characters very unsettling.

Next on the list is The Corrections - Frantzen, Ive heard good things but never read any of his long form stuff before only really dipping into the short stories and essay work.

Just finished 'Hard Rain' by Don Carpenter. Kind of rough and unpolished. I guess that explains why the writer never really won any wide acclaim. But it's a good read nonetheless. Recommended.

Currently reading 'Homeland' by Ferando Aramburu. Perhaps quite a lot was lost in translation but I really don't rate the writing. An attempt to write in a direct, unconventional style ends up feeling stilted and awkward. I am surprised that it has become so hyped, perhaps the hype comes from the quasi intellectual crowd that insists a good piece of art has to be about something. In this case the book is about the conflict in the Basque Country. But where the blurb and reviews promised me a look at the conflict from both sides I can't help but finding it pretty one sided.

With audiobooks I find I have to dig trough quite a lot of dirt to find any gems worth my while. However, both Audible's 'Buddenbrooks' by Thomas Mann and 'Brideshead Revisited' by Evelyn Waughn are really enjoyable. The latter is read by Jeremy Irons and worth checking out for that reason alone.

The Corrections - Frantzen

I quite enjoyed The Corrections.
But you can give Freedom a miss.

I'm about Half way through Cities of the Plain by Cormac McCarthy and its so so beautiful. The lack of punctuation has made the conversations between characters much more life-like with conversation centred around horses and campfires and the dramatic changes in the west. Maybe its gripped me because the west is a place of constant reinvention and yet these Vaqueros struggle to manage the change, or maybe its the old biblical themes lingering throughout the story.

I'd well recommend it to anyone though!

I liked Hard Rain, would read more by him (if there are)

Just got to this bit in Waterlog:-

"
Swimming without a roof over your head is now a mildly subversive activity, like having an allotment, insisting on your right to walk a footpath, or riding a bicycle.
"

No plans for an allotment, yet.

Ha - I was moaning to a friend the other day about the term ‘wild swimming’. It’s just swimming! We’ve been wild swimming a hell of a lot longer than we’ve been pool swimming ffs.