Books - What are you reading?

It's been sitting on my shelf for ages, scaring me with its encyclopedia like size.

It's good… just very, very long.

Ha!i asked to borrow that last night and was rebuffed, largely on the grounds I would take too long to read it. She was right though; I'm a very slow reader.

Any PG Wodehouse fans on here? Or Georges Simenon?

You can borrow mine, will. Though my books always have creased corners, broken spines, olive oil smears and hunners of wrinkles from where they've been dropped in the bath.

Wodehouse? Simenon? Anyone? Heloo? Allo?

I'll take you up on the offer J; I only read cycling magazines in the bath. Private Eye and the Guardian for the toilet.

Hemingway would have totalled that squirrel too, though, let's face it.

Further to this, I was still awake at 2.30 the night before last so decided to re-read the first couple of chapters of A Farewell to Arms, just to help me to sleep.

Finished it at about 5.30 and spent most of yesterday nodding off in traffic and forgetting sentences halfway through saying them.

I can confirm it's still amazing.

'Violence' by Slavoj Zizek
Really worth reading.

Further to this, I was still awake at 2.30 the night before last so decided to re-read the first couple of chapters of A Farewell to Arms, just to help me to sleep.

Finished it at about 5.30 and spent most of yesterday nodding off in traffic and forgetting sentences halfway through saying them.

I can confirm it's still amazing.

'Hemingway: still amazing' – they should put that on the cover.

'Violence' by Slavoj Zizek
Really worth reading.

He is a proper genius.

I finally gave in to the Rapha hype and bought Tim Krabbe's 'The Rider' for my holiday read. As much as I hate to admit it, it was a really good read, and summed up a lot of the reasons why cycling is so important to me.

For those that don't know, it's basically a rider's take on an amateur race, and is written in sections of kilometres during the race - interspersed with stories about professional riders of the time, and the writer's own cycling history.

Only problem was that I finished it in a day, so ended up reading my book of Kafka's short stories. 'Description of a Struggle' was really hard work, but I've enjoyed a lot of the other stories, like 'The Metamorphosis'.

I'm currently getting loads of books through on Buddhism. I learnt a lot about it while I was on holiday, and just feel compelled to learn more - it's just fascinating stuff.

I just started reading a book called Jihad! and it's all about the UK and US joint 'secret' war against the Soviets in afghanistan in the 1980's.

If I was Danny Dyer I'd describe it as pwoppa nortay

I just finished this after leaving it languishing on my bookshelf for a long time:

Scarlett Thomas - The End of Mr Y.

http://images.contentreserve.com/ImageType-100/1590-1/%7B4F60ED2C-8F16-497C-9B6C-BA342139D8B0%7DImg100.jpg

Highly recommended despite the fact just occasionally it reminded me a little too much of modules covered in my degree (author is an English Lit lecturer). Just moved on to this which I'm also really enjoying so far:

Steve Tolz - A Fraction of the Whole.

http://www.lostateminor.com/wp-content/uploads/2008/03/a-fraction-of-the-whole-1.jpg

Interesting fact #742-BX: Contrary to poular belief, 'Jihad' does not mean 'holy war'. It's a much more general word simply meaning 'struggle'.

Not all that interesting I suppose, but I'd just refuse to buy a book that sells itself on such a premise - especially using a big fat exclamation mark to emphasise the point.

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.

Do it, Seeds. Infinite Jest is a phenomenal book. Don Gately and Hal are two of the most original eccentrics in modern fiction. The book looks daunting at first, but once you get stuck in it becomes incredibly addictive - pertinent when you consider the object at the centre of the novel. Half set in a tennis academy, half set in a drug rehabilitation centre, with some epic cameos by a group of wheelchaired assassins, it is that rarest of beasts, a true novel.

And if its not your thing, don't sweat about it. Put it down and read some of the shorter stuff first.

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

Some of his stories are OK?

Jesus fucking Christ. You are talking about one of the finest writers of the 20th Century here. I don't normally get precious on the forum but this comment vexes me more than most.

Read Forever Overhead - it's not that long but it might make you feel something, that's if you are capable of any empathy whatsoever. Or just read the opening story in Girl With Curious Hair. It's 2 pages long and will blow your socks off - I challenge you to read it and come back here to just call it O-fucking-K.

And if his fiction isn't good enough for you then try his journalism. The essay he wrote for Harper's when sent him off on Carribean Cruise ship holidays (A Supposedly Fun Thing I'll Never Do Again) is one of the funniest pieces of non-fiction I have ever read. Or his essay on the work of David Lynch. Or the one about the Las Vegas Porn Star Awards. Or read about his own moral crisis when he visits the Maine Lobster Festival. They're all brilliant.

Heck, DFW was also a mathematical genius, so if that's your thing then check out Everything and More - his book on the concept of infinity. Wrap your brain around that one.

I could go on and on.

He was of the most talented and versatile writers to have lived in our time, and OK is the antithesis of DFW.

....and relaaaaax

Can I also recommend Simon Mayo's 5-live book panel to readers of this thread. Not quite as good as the Kermode film reviews but what is...

http://www.bbc.co.uk/fivelive/entertainment/mayosbookpanel/

Some of his stories are OK?

Jesus fucking Christ. You are talking about one of the finest writers of the 20th Century here. I don't normally get precious on the forum but this comment vexes me more than most.

Read Forever Overhead - it's not that long but it might make you feel something, that's if you are capable of any empathy whatsoever. Or just read the opening story in Girl With Curious Hair. It's 2 pages long and will blow your socks off - I challenge you to read it and come back here to just call it O-fucking-K.

And if his fiction isn't good enough for you then try his journalism. The essay he wrote for Harper's when sent him off on Carribean Cruise ship holidays (A Supposedly Fun Thing I'll Never Do Again) is one of the funniest pieces of non-fiction I have ever read. Or his essay on the work of David Lynch. Or the one about the Las Vegas Porn Star Awards. Or read about his own moral crisis when he visits the Maine Lobster Festival. They're all brilliant.

Heck, DFW was also a mathematical genius, so if that's your thing then check out Everything and More - his book on the concept of infinity. Wrap your brain around that one.

I could go on and on.

He was of the most talented and versatile writers to have lived in our time, and OK is the antithesis of DFW.

....and relaaaaax

Well, you know. I don't agree with you. I've read The Girl With the Curious Hair, and A Supposedly Fun Thing I'll Never Do Again.

Thanks for the tips all the same, though.

And this, which I particularly enjoyed: 'that's if you are capable of any empathy whatsoever'.

!

huge wodehouse fan here wiganwill. need to track down the rest of the psmith stories. i've only read psmith in the city and it's one of my all time favourites. definitely my favourite wodehouse.

Well, you know. I don't agree with you. I've read The Girl With the Curious Hair, and it was A Supposedly Fun Thing I'll Never Do Again.

Fixed. :)

This DFW bloke sounds intriguing. I'd never even heard of him, let alone read any of his stuff, before this thread, but his titles are serviceable for some forum mischief. ;)

Wow. English lecturer v Literary Agent. This should be good. Proper culture wars at last. settles back with tea and biccies and a copy of TV Quick.

huge wodehouse fan here wiganwill. need to track down the rest of the psmith stories. i've only read psmith in the city and it's one of my all time favourites. definitely my favourite wodehouse.

Ah, finally.
Now, Simenon anyone? Maigret? Come on, Maigret anyone?

Wow. English lecturer v Literary Agent. This should be good. Proper culture wars at last. settles back with tea and biccies and a copy of TV Quick.

I used to be a literary agent, too, funnily enough. Kind of.

It was in that job that I was given some free DFW paperbacks at a party once, without which this enlightening and informed exchange would never have taken place.

Sorry, will, to disappoint, but I'm not going to fight back. I don't like discussing books with people who are quite that rude.

goes back to rocking back and forth in darkened corner

almost finished

Tom's a nice guy; I'm sure he'll acknowledge that his comment was just passionate belief coming out wrong. Won't you Tom?

Jebus, I feel like Miriam Stoppard this week.

Wow. English lecturer v Literary Agent. This should be good. Proper culture wars at last. settles back with tea and biccies and a copy of TV Quick.

Won't someone publish my novel? It's 50,000 densely written pages with strategically artistic mis-spellings, unwarranted nastiness, obscure thought drift and riveting dialogue between virtual characters full of swear words.

Alright, alright, so it is just 50 threads ripped off the forum and compressed into a large ASCII file without spaces, but I thought anything goes these days? I mean, we need stuff that people can write PhD theses about, right?

Emmet Grogan's Ringolevio. Took it as a blueprint for life when I first read it at 15-years-old.
He turned out to be a bigger bullshitter than you know who...
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Emmett_Grogan

http://www.diggers.org/ringolevio.htm

Catch 22 by Joseph Heller. Found it in a secondhand bookstore. The only reason I picked that one was because i had an English teacher point that one out once to me in the school library. Fairly entertaining, probably more so if you work in certain organisations.

Before that it was something called the Egyptologist, which I managed half before giving up, mainly because I couldn't give it the concentration. It is written as if a collection of notes/letter from a variety of sources with a superficial invitation to the reader putting it together.