Books - What are you reading?

"A house for Mr Biswas" VS Naipaul I am loving it

John Clare - 'Everyman's Poetry' - if only for 'I Am'...

I am - yet when I am none cares or knows,
My friends forsake me like a memory lost;
I am the self consumer of my woes,
They rise and vanish in oblivion host
Like shades in love and death's oblivion lost,
And yet I am - and live, with shadows tossed

Into the nothingness of scorn and noise,
Into the living sea of waking dreams,
Where there is neither sense of life nor joys,
But the vast shipwreck of my life's esteems;
And e'en the dearest, that I loved the best,
Are strange - nay, rather stranger than the rest.

I long for scenes where man has never trod,
A place where woman never smiled or wept,
There to abide with my creator, God,
And sleep as I in childhood sweetly slept,
Untroubling and untroubled where I lie;
The grass below - above the vaulted sky.

Quality book.

Funny :)

The Internet, yes all of it,

A to Z of London, Glasgow, Bolton and road atlas of Britain,

Instructions on a microwave "meat" curry,

three failed suicide notes,

an out of date daily mail newspaper

and finally, your future.

John Clare - 'Everyman's Poetry' - if only for 'I Am'...

I am - yet when I am none cares or knows,
My friends forsake me like a memory lost;
I am the self consumer of my woes,
They rise and vanish in oblivion host
Like shades in love and death's oblivion lost,
And yet I am - and live, with shadows tossed

Into the nothingness of scorn and noise,
Into the living sea of waking dreams,
Where there is neither sense of life nor joys,
But the vast shipwreck of my life's esteems;
And e'en the dearest, that I loved the best,
Are strange - nay, rather stranger than the rest.

I long for scenes where man has never trod,
A place where woman never smiled or wept,
There to abide with my creator, God,
And sleep as I in childhood sweetly slept,
Untroubling and untroubled where I lie;
The grass below - above the vaulted sky.

thought provoking..

have you read any Dante or Rumi?

The Savage Detectives by Roberto Bolano. Read 2666 as well, if you can get your fingers on a copy. He's a genius.

Also, favourite book ever plug - House of Leaves by Mark Z. Danielewski. Mooks, if you want an impact, this book honestly changed my perception of fear/literature/Johnny Truant as a band.

Just finished Stuart - a life backwards by Alexander Masters. It's about a homeless guy in Cambridge. Funny, compelling, shocking. If you ever think, "My life's shit," read this.

murakami, kerouac, chomsky, cs lewis.... can we stick with bicycles, please!

Keith Thomas, The Ends of Life. History as self-help...

The Enchantress of Florence, Salman Rushdie. Elegantly warped.

Just finished reading " Love in the time of Cholera" .." El amor en los tiempos del cólera"

anyone read this? or see the movie? .. I thought it was beautifully written...its a rather intoxicating story of a man who loved against all the odds.. ..."he loved her for over 50 yrs"... the story portrays his often sinister life of carnal affairs in a desperate attempt to heal his broken heart from her rejection... all the while continuing to fighting for her love... both morbid and powerful

Reading 'The Hitchhikers Guide to the Galaxay - (ATrilogy in Four Parts)' Again. I seem to be reading all the books i have ever read all over again. The last time i read something new was ages ago!

At the moment across different locations I have 4 books on the go:

On Intelligence - Jeff Hawkins
The Visual Display of Quantitative Information - Edward Tufte
The Great Game: On Secret Service in High Asia - Peter Hopkirk
Programming Pearls - Bentley

Jesus... how dumb do I feel having just put down Coles Funny Picture Book.

This means that I am now trying to read The Sun Also Rises - Hemmingway.

this is the best book ever i think.

hemingway is the best!

makes me want to drink loads too!

read his book about running at xmas, a very good read!

this is the best book ever i think.

hemingway is the best!

makes me want to drink loads too!

Ever had a 'Death In The Afternoon'? A regular tipple for Mr. H I'm told. 2 measures of absinthe over crushed ice, top with champagne. Delicious. Also excellent for removing paint.

Book of Dave and Unspeak at present

I just finished Andre Glide's "The Immoralist" I loved it, and strongly recommend it. An excellent depiction of evil and the nature of man.

The only problem is I have to get on a plane in two days and my to read pile is in NYC (i'm in Denver) so i need to go buy a book asap, any one got any recommendations?

i've got a week's worth of holiday reading lined up and ready to go:

i'm currently digging julian cope's japrocksampler. nearly done with that. here's what i'm taking with me:

• the wind up bird chronicle - murukami (only found out about murukami last year and binged on norwegian wood and kafk aon the shore back to back. i bought his new one about running for a friend yesterday too.)
  
• the hippopotamus - stephen fry (i've read all of his other stuff and only realised at the weekend there was one i'd missed. awesome!)
  
• the pickwick papers - dickens. part of an ongoing project to catch up on the vast pantheon of classics i've hitherto managed to avoid reading. just read moby dick and the complete sherlock holes as an opening gambit. bit of dickens next followed by... dunno. homer? nabakov? whatever catches the eye in that section of cheap penguin classics. awesomeness.
  

Last two I read, need something for holiday now, recommendations?

this was the last good book i read