Books - What are you reading?

I've found that books I read suddenly get adapted to film after I read them.

I read mysterious case of benj button and revolutionary road last year which were both adapted almost immediately, and I finished disgrace by Coetzee this summer, which has just been released as a film with john malkovic.

That happens with me too.

cf: Finding Nemo; Die Hard and Rambo...

Yes, it's blank verse and the translation is 18thC.

I bought it from a hobo in Bristol for £1.

I'm reading 'In Cold Blood' by Truman Capote. Highly recommend it. A proper slow burn of a book, and the careful construction of the main characters is brilliantly done.

By the way, Platini - First Blood by David Morrell is one of the best books I've ever read - I cannot enthuse enough about it! Honestly, give it a go. It's so ace. It's not great literature, but it's not far off.

I'm also reading the first proof of my own first novel. Writing is good fun, if a bit difficult at times. Editing takes Herculean efforts of concentration. I'm no Hercules. I'm really struggling.

I've been reading the original classic James Bond books, starting at the beginning with Casino Royale and working through them all gradually. Classic 50's style and references all the way though - spiffing good fun!

I've read all the Bond novels too, over and over again. Good choice!

Anyone read any Richard Stark? I'm a big fan - Stark is a pseudonym of Donald E Westlake, a fantastic mystery, thriller and comedy writer. As Westlake he's a bit like Elmore Leonard, but as Stark he is brutal...

just started crime and punishment

and the second installation of the michael palin diaries.

That sounds amazing. As an ex-classicist (ex-classicenger, in the forum argot?) I need to know which one this is.

God I wish I could remember. I was so disgusted by it that I threw the thing away. And I NEVER throw books away. It really was cringeworthy. The introduction alone was particularly patriarchal and horrible - positively reeked of 'the masses have no taste so I'm putting all this sugar in your medicine'. Vile.

I need to finish The Road before the film comes out.

I've been reading the original classic James Bond books, starting at the beginning with Casino Royale and working through them all gradually. Classic 50's style and references all the way though - spiffing good fun!

Loved You Only Lived Twice, but couldn't get into From Russia With Love.

I've read all the Bond novels too, over and over again. Good choice!

+1

I'm currently reading Let The Right One In by John Ajvide Lindqvist.

I need to finish The Road before the film comes out.

As in Kerouac's On the Road?
If so, try the orignal scroll version, well worth it.

Nah, The Road by Cormac McCarthy, it's about a father and a son who want to build a road through Royston Vasey in postapocalyptic Yorkshire.

Nah, The Road by Cormac McCarthy, it's about a father and a son who want to build a road through Royston Vasey in postapocalyptic Yorkshire.

I'm buying that, right now. Never heard of it - but I need it.

Just looked it up. You cheeky monkey, Crispin Glover!

As in Kerouac's On the Road?
If so, try the orignal scroll version, well worth it.

Scroll version?

Well type 2 diabetes in a year
Finished reading a book about bravo 2 zero mission, the truth.

Looking for something to entertain me, so have been re reading Jasper Ffyord and Terry prachett.

Oh and avoiding the new hitcherhikers guide book.

Hehehehehe.

Black Hawk Down is an interesting tale of military buffoonery, if you like that sort of thing, lynx.

Kerouac wrote On the Road as a scroll, because he worried that turning pages as he wrote would interfere with his flow and continuity. I didn't really enjoy the book so much when I read it, but so many images from it have stayed with me for years - probably the sign of a great book.

I've been reading Raymond Carver stories and loving them. I also just read a short collection of stories by Bertrand Russell called *Satan in the Suburbs, *which I picked up because I'd had no idea that Russell ever wrote any fiction. Not life-changing tales, but certainly readable.

I just taught a course on Carver. He is amazing. The new collection Beginners is worth getting if you haven't already; some of the versions of the stories in earlier collections have been edited beyond recognition, which becomes apparent when you compare them. Beginners restores them to the versions that Carver originally wanted published.

Try The Dharma Bums for some good Jack.

Dharma Bums is a good read indeed, got a copy of And the Hippos Were Boiled in Their Tanks and started reading it yesterday. It was one of the earlier works from both Kerouac and Burroughs. Not sure what to make if just yet.

I just taught a course on Carver. He is amazing. The new collection Beginners is worth getting if you haven't already; some of the versions of the stories in earlier collections have been edited beyond recognition, which becomes apparent when you compare them. Beginners restores them to the versions that Carver originally wanted published.

Hey, thanks for the tip. I'm reading Where I'm Calling From so I'd love to get hold of the 'meatier' *Beginners, *but no joy yet finding a copy here in Amsterdam. Although there's something to be said for these earlier, edited versions. Of course I don't have the orginals to compare them to, but Carver's (Lish's?) brutal efficiency with language is a lesson that so many writers could learn from.

I did find a great little five-part documentary on YouTube last night, (1st part YouTube- Raymond Carver (1 of 5)
) which includes interviews with Carver and Tess Gallagher as well as short-film adaptations of 'Nobody Said Anything' and 'Why Don't You Dance?' among others. I've re-read these two stories again this morning, whilst drinking coffee, smoking, watching the snow. I should get drunk now.

Thanks, I'll watch that later. I do kind of agree – the enforced minimalism of the edits defined him to an extent, and some of the individual strokes are quite brilliant. Lish hated sentiment, basically. The earlier versions are just more 'Cathedral'esque – a bit fuller, with a bit more concentration on the moments of heightened emotion/significance. Why Don't You Dance? Is so wonderful. I might read it again now.

Hehehehehe.

Black Hawk Down is an interesting tale of military buffoonery, if you like that sort of thing, lynx.

I'm not really just like to read the truth about bedouins. The book I'v just read gives a truer picture than Mcnab or Ryan.

Chickenhawk by Robert Mason is a brilliant read about the Vietnam war. Best Nam book going, in my opinion.
Devil's Guard by George Robert Elford is also brilliant, but copies are as rare as rocking horse shit. Grab one if you see one.