Books - What are you reading?

i found it very funny

has anyone got opinions on the confederacy of dunces
heard a bit about it on radio 4 last night said it was a laugh out loud funny book with weird main character and almost as equally weird others
sounds interesting

A brilliant book, funny and highly original. It's in my top twenty.

Yep, genuinely hilarious, and I couldn't stop visualising the main character as Peter from Family Guy....

Just read in the David Walsh book how Paul Kimmage suffered on a rarely visited HC in the tour that I rode this summer.

has anyone got opinions on the confederacy of dunces

Funny you should ask that today, I finished Kennedy Toole’s other book, The Neon Bible, last night. Didn’t know he’d written another til I chanced on a copy in a second hand shop in Pisa.

Not in the same league as ACOD, but stunningly mature for a 16-yr old. I’ve bought ACOD as a gift for a number of people, everyone loves it.

Anyone reading the Mozzer autobiography? It's raising a wry smile from me so far, but not for the right reasons!

Going to start 'The Death and Life of Great American Cities' tonight, looking forward to it.

The Mirage by Matt Ruff puts a different fictional spin on 9/11 and is a very enjoyable read.

http://www.legaliser.nu/sites/default/files/files/Drugs%20Without%20the%20Hot%20Air%20David%20Nut.pdf

I just read half of 'The end of the affair' by Graham Greene and I found it so irritating I had to give up. I just found all the characters a bit weak and waffly. Funny when you hate a bit of classic fiction. Anyone else read it?

has anyone got opinions on the confederacy of dunces
heard a bit about it on radio 4 last night said it was a laugh out loud funny book with weird main character and almost as equally weird others
sounds interesting

Yes, a very good, unsettling and hilarious book. Recommended.

Ghost in the Machine, by Koestler. Worth a read?

Depends if you've read Descartes Discourse or not. I doubt it'll make much sense if you aren't familiar with it.

Just finished Asimov's Foundation trilogy. Well worth the rep it's been given.

Has anyone read the rest of the saga and can tell me if I should bother? The ending as it stands is really satisfying. I don't want anything to jeopardise that.

Next stop on the classic sci-fi discovery binge is Stapledon's First and Last Men.

Crash, J G Ballard. Not really up to snuff. Felt like the idea could've carried a short story, but it wasn't enough to sustain an entire novel. Fairly repetitive, occasionally silly, overall felt a bit dated. Moving on to a collection of short stories by Alois Hotschnig which was bought for me as a birthday present. Never heard of him before so not much idea of what to expect, but the blurb mentions Kafka and surely that can't be a bad thing?

I'm sure it'll be excellent. You know what they say about judging and books and covers.

The New Watch - Sergei Lukyanenko
It's really quite good.
The 5th book in the Watch series (Night, Day, Twilight, Last, New)
Russian wizards, vampires, witches, etc. Good bit of fantasy.

Have found it difficult to settle in to any of my recent book purchases.

Today I bought Eminent Hipsters by Donald Fagen. Hopefully might get me back on track.

Re Asimov. Yes, read them all. Include caves of steel, naked sun, robots of dawn, robots and empire, etc etc. Make sure you end on forward the foundation.

R. Daneel Olivaw for president.

Cheers Mashton. Didn't know they all tied together. Just gotta find the time now.

R. Daneel Olivaw for president.

+1 this. One of the best characters in sci-fi.

About 2/3s through Iain M Banks' Against a Dark Background and it is cracking...

Half way through One Day in the Life of Ivan Denisovich, it's really good in a kind of strange curiosity about just how bad Gulags were. Extraordinarily easy reading though, which is a nice change.

I'm not too familiar with the works of D.H. Lawrence, but this has motivated me to find out more:

http://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/b03kv8hg

I bought the Morrissey auto bio today. It is compelling but not at all what I expected.

Currently reading the Seven Deadly Sins.

David Walsh's 'pursuit' of he who shall not be named. about a 1/3rd in and I likes it.