Books - What are you reading?

Hubert Selby Jr's short stories of that period are pretty damn good.

Hemingway influenced Chatwin, our greatest and most eccentric travel writer. There's a bit in one of Chatwin's books (In Patagonia, I think) when he writes something like "Looking at his shelf, I saw he had all the best books".

I quite like the idea that "the best books" exist and that you can quickly scan someone's shelf to check that they've got them. I imagine that there's about nine of them. You probably have to have the right editions, too.

Ah, but, it's dangerous, that. I remember going to a party at this guy's house, and looking at his bookshelves, and he just had everything you're 'supposed to' – everything that's slightly cultish, or cool - Kerouac, Auster, Burroughs, Ballard, Murakami, etc etc. Nothing else. There were no mistakes, no eccentric choices, nothing to indicate that he actually gave a shit – people who like books make mistakes, hate some things, love some things they 'shouldn't'. It really put me off him.

I guess it's the equivalent of having an amazing bike but never riding it.

why

Ha! I thought I'd got away with a rapid post-deletion.

I happen to disagree with you, but I was getting all excitable and opinionated. Sorry about that.

I find Steinbeck a bit trite. While I could gripe about a lot of what Hemingway wrote too, it doesn't matter because he writes so fantastically.

what about the other epic story of man and fish? other than melville that is.

It's good but he wrote better. The reason it stands out is because it was the first good book he'd written for the best part of 20 years.

two excellent summer vacation books:

i just finished richard yates' revolutionary road, which i thought was a great book. a great read that slowly draws you in and conspires with you, then gives you a big slap in the face for being so presumptuous.

also i just reread the great gatsby which is fantastic. it's -- obviously, and deservedly -- a seminal book, and is really entertaining and beautiful to read.

I read For Esme, With Love and Squalor recently. It's such a shame that Salinger only seems to be remembered for Catcher in the Rye.

+1 to Great Gatsby of course

maybe you're confusing "important" with "boring, shallow and annoying".

Maybe. Or maybe you never actually read it.

It's good but he wrote better. The reason it stands out is because it was the first good book he'd written for the best part of 20 years.

I'd agree he wrote better, as for the timing i couldn't give a monkeys about its reception. It stood out to me as being pretty much pitch perfect. But then i quite like fables etc...

two excellent summer vacation books:

also i just reread the great gatsby which is fantastic. it's obviously a seminal book, and is really entertaining and beautiful to read.

I never really understood the fuss about gatsby to be honest, theough enjoyable it pales when compared to Tender is the Night, having said that D' Angelo's critism in the prison library in the Wire was a nice touch haha.

Hemingway influenced Chatwin, our greatest and most eccentric travel writer. There's a bit in one of Chatwin's books (In Patagonia, I think) when he writes something like "Looking at his shelf, I saw he had all the best books".

I quite like the idea that "the best books" exist and that you can quickly scan someone's shelf to check that they've got them. I imagine that there's about nine of them. You probably have to have the right editions, too.

hmmmm.....

1 - the davinci code - dan brown
2 - lord of the rings - professor a dumbledore
3 - freakonomics - thora herd
4 - being jordan - eddie jordan
5 - the joy of sex - noel edmonds
6 - chicken soup for the teenage soul - jeffrey dahmer
7 - close to the edge - jim davidson
8 - fly fishing - jr hartley
9 - it's not about the bike - brian harvey

close?

has anyone read the enormous David Foster Wallace book? I get the impression (from reading his essays) that I wouldn't enjoy it very much, but don't want to dismiss it out of hand.

two excellent summer vacation books:

i just finished richard yates' revolutionary road, which i thought was a great book. a great read that slowly draws you in and conspires with you, then gives you a big slap in the face for being so presumptuous.

also i just reread the great gatsby which is fantastic. it's -- obviously, and deservedly -- a seminal book, and is really entertaining and beautiful to read.

The Great Gatsby is amazing.

has anyone read the enormous David Foster Wallace book? I get the impression (from reading his essays) that I wouldn't enjoy it very much, but don't want to dismiss it out of hand.

Infinite Jest? I read about half of it. Not a fan. Some of his short stories are ok.

hmmmm.....

1 - the davinci code - dan brown
2 - lord of the rings - professor a dumbledore
3 - freakonomics - thora herd
4 - being jordan - eddie jordan
5 - the joy of sex - noel edmonds
6 - chicken soup for the teenage soul - jeffrey dahmer
7 - close to the edge - jim davidson
8 - fly fishing - jr hartley
9 - it's not about the bike - brian harvey

close?

That was pretty much my guess, but you would've had to ask Brucey to be sure.

Maybe. Or maybe you never actually read it.

do you know, i struggled to get through that book for years. it literally took me about five or six years to read the whole thing. i'd pick it up for days or sometimes a few weeks at a time, get frustrated with it and put it back on the bookshelf. months -- sometimes years -- later i'd go back to it, determined to get to the end but fail. i eventually managed to finish it, but it felt like the last few miles of a marathon where you just have to keep telling yourself "the end is near, the end is near, persevere." i understand why it's an important book, but reading shouldn't be like that.

do you know, i struggled to get through that book for years. it literally took me about five or six years to read the whole thing. i'd pick it up for days or sometimes a few weeks at a time, get frustrated with it and put it back on the bookshelf. months -- sometimes years -- later i'd go back to it, determined to get to the end but fail. i eventually managed to finish it, but it felt like the last few miles of a marathon where you just have to keep telling yourself "the end is near, the end is near, persevere." i understand why it's an important book, but reading shouldn't be like that.

ouch. you sure it was the english vesrion?

do you know, i struggled to get through that book for years. it literally took me about five or six years to read the whole thing. i'd pick it up for days or sometimes a few weeks at a time, get frustrated with it and put it back on the bookshelf. months -- sometimes years -- later i'd go back to it, determined to get to the end but fail. i eventually managed to finish it, but it felt like the last few miles of a marathon where you just have to keep telling yourself "the end is near, the end is near, persevere." i understand why it's an important book, but reading shouldn't be like that.

But why would you if you thought it was 'boring, shallow' and the other one, I forget?

Life is short.

'simple' was the other one. which, admittedly, is harsh.

it was part of the reading list in my post-modern fiction course at uni. i couldn't get through it then and felt like i should. i dunno why i thought i had to do it, maybe that a) i like a challenge, b) i hate leaving things unfinished, c) i don't like to be defeated, c) i'm stubborn, and of course d) everyone says that its, OMG, THE MOST IMPORTANT BOOK EVER WRITTEN EVARRR!!!! so i just thought i owed it to the book to finish it. i kept hoping that everything gets wrapped up in the end and that all of the nonsequitors and asides and meandering would have a pay off...

'simple' was the other one. which, admittedly, is harsh.

it was part of the reading list in my post-modern fiction course at uni. i couldn't get through it then and felt like i should. i dunno why i thought i had to do it, maybe that a) i like a challenge, b) i hate leaving things unfinished, c) i don't like to be defeated, c) i'm stubborn, and of course d) everyone says that its, OMG, THE MOST IMPORTANT BOOK EVER WRITTEN EVARRR!!!! so i just thought i owed it to the book to finish it. i kept hoping that everything gets wrapped up in the end and that all of the nonsequitors and asides and meandering would have a pay off...

When, in fact, the end completely disintegrates… Ha.

I genuinely enjoyed it, as well as finding it scarily brilliant. He's one of the funniest writers ever, I think. Slothrop is hilarious. There are also moments of absolute perfection – like the bit with Roger and Jessica where he describes their love as like a 'wintering sparrow' –– it's an amazing piece of writing but I can't remember the rest of the quote.

Roger and Jessica

rabbit?

early plays of euripides

back to reading more of Dante Alighieri- La Divine Comedie L'Enfer

soothes my mind

Bit like that Ian McEwan novel, innit:

http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2009/jun/27/shooting-harry-morgan-st-johns

Currently reading: The Baghdad Blog- Salam Pax
Just read: Any Human Heart- William Boyd

           No Country For Old Men- Cormac McCarthy

Think I'll try Ackroyd's biography of London next, I've heard lots of good things about it..

Think I'll try Ackroyd's biography of London next, I've heard lots of good things about it..

It's good… just very, very long.

Think I'll try Ackroyd's biography of London next, I've heard lots of good things about it..

Ack! That one gave me the 'roids.