what are you reading now?

[IdleRich]

Underworld is ok I guess but I'm not sure it's worth the effort. I didn't really like the first chapter - it's about baseball. The shot that was heard around the world - not in Uffington matey.
Looks as though my flatmate has loaned the next Brautigan to someone else so it's actually Ryu Murukami - In The Miso Soup next, not a promising title but the book looks interesting and comes higly recommended.

 

[bandshell]

I read 'Inferno' by Larry Niven and Jeremy Pournelle fairly recently.

It's basically Dante's 'Inferno' but Dante is a science fiction writer and Virgil is Benito Mussolini.

 

[Kate Mossad]

Inner Paths To Outer Space - Strassman, Wojtowicz, Luna, Frecska


Lucid, well written and informative despite the awful, awful cover.

 

[IdleRich]

"Ryu Murukami - In The Miso Soup next, not a promising title but the book looks interesting and comes higly recommended."

That's the last time I listen to DannyL. The book was trite, simplistic and heavy-handed with the voice of the author clearly visible (audible?) through the paper-thin main character.

 

[you]

if you dont mind me asking hows suite 101 working out rich?

 

[IdleRich]

"if you dont mind me asking hows suite 101 working out rich?"

Hmm, signed up ages ago and with the enthusiasm ol a new recruit wrote several articles. Since then I've kind of not bothered although I did start one... think I've earned about 30c from what I've written so far which I can't collect until I've made $10. Maybe you could make more if you wrote about less obscure things... I dunno.

 

[you]

Yeah, I started, didn't publish anything, found it hard putting effort into something I knew I couldn't use on my blogs for a year ( because of the exclusivity thing ). Also I found most of the articles are just utter trash..... suspicion it's just a con, a way of pooling a bunch of creatively formed key word pages for hits..... it dunno.

Also read miso soup a while ago, I had forgotten all about it until you mentioned it. My table doesn't wobble anymore............

 

[IdleRich]

"Yeah, I started, didn't publish anything, found it hard putting effort into something I knew I couldn't use on my blogs for a year ( because of the exclusivity thing ). Also I found most of the articles are just utter trash..... suspicion it's just a con, a way of pooling a bunch of creatively formed key word pages for hits..... it dunno."

Wouldn't disagree - didn't expect to get anything from it really but thought it might be decent pracdtice - although for what I'm not sure.

 

[bruno]

finished:
coloane, conquistadores de la antártida
jmg le clézio, l'africain

reading:
klaus kinski, i need love

i was not a fan of kinski (so i thought) but this ferocious book grabbed me by the neck and has not let go, it is gloriously intense. my only fear is that anything i read henceforth will seem flat.

 

[you]

Just read nabokovs introduction to lermontovs 'a hero of our time'. Really looking forward to it now, sounds well meta.

Has anyone read Joris-Karl Huysmans?
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Joris-Karl_Huysmans

Opinions?

 

[Mr. Tea]

Rich lent me Huysmans' La-bas a while back, which I really enjoyed. Incredibly dark, beautifully written, dripping with misanthropy and contempt for contemporary (i.e. late 19th century) society, but underpinned with a theme of spiritual redemption.

 

[Sick Boy]

Also read miso soup a while ago, I had forgotten all about it until you mentioned it. My table doesn't wobble anymore............

If enough people here do this, this could actually make a great thread: "Books that keep your table from wobbling." Currently my computer, so as not to get covered in dust from the floor, sits on a copy of Gish Jen - Mona In The Promised Land and Chuck Palahniuk - Snuff.

 

[IdleRich]

"Just read nabokovs introduction to lermontovs 'a hero of our time'. Really looking forward to it now, sounds well meta."

Weird, I was just about to start A Hero of Our Time as well - read the intro and then got distracted with a couple of other books but I will read it in the next week or so I expect. First it's gonna be Fooled By Randomness by Nassim Talleb, was staying at a friend's last night and borrowed it for the journey home so I may as well finish it. I believe it's just a load of the ideas he reheated in The Black Swan but seems so fun so far.

 

[bruno]

là bas is on the pile for me as well. the satanist theme turned me off initially (ten years ago) but there it is, about to be read.

 

[you]

Idle - post when you finish it, id like to hear your thoughts. You know he died young in a duel - rockstar.

Tea - will have to give it a go, hopefully the experience wont be as relentlessly raw as guyotat....

 

[slim jenkins]

If enough people here do this, this could actually make a great thread: "Books that keep your table from wobbling." Currently my computer, so as not to get covered in dust from the floor, sits on a copy of Gish Jen - Mona In The Promised Land and Chuck Palahniuk - Snuff.

Variation on this theme...my screen sits on The Oxford Companion to The Mind...so as to raise it up to eye level...best possible use for it...probably...reminds me of the Hancock sketch where he impresses a librarian by asking for several profound historical texts before standing on them to reach 'Lady Don't Fall Backwards'...

 

[jenks]

this week i got these for my birthday:

De Waal - The Hare with the Amber Eyes
Fignon's autobiography
Byrne's Cycle Diaries
Robb's Parisiens

Lermontov is great - Hero is up there along with Gogol, Fydor and Pushkin.

Huysmans turns up in De Waal - I have read La Bas - what else would people recommend?

 

[luka]

im readin heanys beowulf... thought it might be hard going but i just read more than half today with a few beers, its really good fun, specially read aloud. very fast paced.

 

[you]

On the subject of books that stop the table rocking I'm increasingly ambivalent towards bret easton ellis' Imperial Bedrooms, really hate to say it but could well be one of those books I forget very quickly.

 

[IdleRich]

"Huysmans turns up in De Waal - I have read La Bas - what else would people recommend?"

Against Nature is better than La Bas for my money.
Looking forward to the Lermontov now. Also was looking forward to the new BEE until now - although I don't think he'll ever write anything really vital again I've enjoyed his last few efforts.