Books - What are you reading?

It's worth sticking with We. I found it really hard to get into but loved it in the end!

yeah and the next two go downhill and then it sort of just peters out

Just finished The Unbearable Lightness of Being by Milan Kundera. Best thing I've read in ages, so melancholic.

Tip for reading Catcher in the Rye: think of Holden Caufield as Donald Trump.
It all makes sense

Holden Caufield is a sensitive soul though whose whole cynical posture is armour, the classic wounded romantic. Trump on the other hand ...

Nah he’s a rich little twerp with a thing for hookers, NY hotels and his female family members. Read the book again in a trump voice it all adds up

Tried to read Catcher In The Rye twice before, it's the only book I've ever put down twice.

I might *might* get to it once I finish my current "to read" pile (which is a veritable mixed bag):-

(the bookmark in the John Cheever at the bottom was the end of The Swimmer which is the only short story I read from that book, but I would like to read the others.)

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I've never bothered with Catcher in The Rye. The consensus seems to be that if you're not a 16 year old boy (or Mark David Chapman) it's probably not for you.
You've probably picked a good time to read The Plague though! (Or maybe a really terrible time?)

Re-read Great Expectations which is amazing. Bleak house will be the next Dickens though not immediately.

Then read Jerry Stahl's Permanent Midnight -What a tale of success then downfall through addiction by this writer of famous TV (Moonlighting)

I figured that now would be a nice time to support local bookshops (including the secondhand ones) who are going to be struggling with the lockdown. Just got a little package today from the Kings Cross book barge ( https://wordonthewater.squarespace.com/ )

(Also I was a 16 year old girl and the Catcher in the Rye worked for me back then too, so you definitely don't need to be a boy to enjoy it, just a bit of a dickhead)

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Id be interested in what you think of invisible cities. I had to read it at uni, and found it a chore, however I have had it recommended to me several times for a re-read. Its sitting in my to read pile but keeps getting shunted down.

Talking of dickheads, I spent my last day of junior school finishing off The Kraken Wakes.

I'd also be interested. I've read a couple of bits by Italo Calvino and sort of like what I've read.

You may be joking, in which case I DON'T THINK THE JOKE IS FUNNY! :)

But seriously, the point of The Catcher in the Rye can be seen as that Holden Caulfield is pretty much the polar opposite of Donald Trump. There's a reason why it's so famous (and without question one of the greatest books of the 20th century). :)

I've never bothered with Catcher in The Rye. The consensus seems to be that if you're not a 16 year old boy (or Mark David Chapman) it's probably not for you.

Consensus among people who haven't understood any of it?

It's a great book. I can only suggest you give it a try.

It’s a much more nuanced portrayal of adolescence than you suggest. If you want to practise a Trump voice I can recommend American Psycho

Potentially! I might try and pick a copy up. Not really got a fat lot else on at the minute.

I gave a copy of Invisible Cities to a colleague who was leaving, as he's a bit of a flâneur type. I thought he might find it interesting, but I've never actually read it myself, so I'm about to find out if it was a terrible choice or not! I'm hoping it's good. Getting psychogeography/hauntology vibes from it, and that's a thing I've been enjoying lately, so we'll see.

By all means read the book, it’s a great piece of writing. I had the book thrust into my hands as a teenager “you’ll love this” I read it. It’s the totally unrelateble story of a young snob having a jolly. I remember thinking about the realms of fantasy as he at 15 can afford to book a hotel room. It’s pre-bonespur Trump all over.

If Vernon God Little had been written at that point or even The Wrong Boy, I would have been all over those.

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Lol. In defence of the Catcher in the Rye, it's absolutely true that Holden is a terrible person but lots of good books are about terrible people.

I don't think there's a single likeable person in The Great Gatsby, for instance. Holly Golightly in Breakfast at Tiffany's is intolerable. Imagine if Sherlock Holmes worked in your office and you had to deal with him every single day. Imagine if you had to share a flat with anyone from anything by Camus! Awful.

But horrible people have stories too, and Holden Caulfield is a horrible person around whom Salinger wrote a good story. I don't think that likeability in a protagonist is necessarily the most important thing in a book, you know? You can have a flawed, fairly unsympathetic protagonist and that's not always a bad thing.

By all means read the book, it’s a great piece of writing. I had the book thrust into my hands as a teenager “you’ll love this” I read it. It’s the totally unrelateble story of a young snob having a jolly.

Well, now I'm sure you're just trolling. :)

I remember thinking about the realms of fantasy as he at 15 can afford to book a hotel room.

Erm ... seriously, you might want to re-read it if that's your memory of it. It's rather different ...

Holden is not a terrible person at all--that's a very major part of the point ...

The other two are very mediocre books. Not nearly in the same league.

Finally reading Ken Kesey's Sometimes A Great Notion. About 15 years after it's been recommended by my old family GP.

Needed something long for the lockdown in Ireland

Is this going to be like that time you gave us your dissertation on the Lord of the Rings? That was pretty good, I enjoyed that.

I can't post my dissertation here, it would break the forum. Remember when hippy tried to write the longest post? Or tag gate? It would be like that but ten times worse.