what are you reading now?

IdleRich

IdleRich

IdleRich
I picked up this book called Drop City in a chazza in Wantage and I just opened it now. Seems to be a sort of cynical pisstake of the hippie dream gone lame. I feel that I've heard of it and maybe it's famous but I don't really know if hthat's true or not. Anyway, so far so good, suits my mood. Someone (Shaka?) was talking about a similar thing the other day I think but that was a real memoir whereas I'm guessing this is just more of a made-up mean-spirited attack on a load of defenceless wankers which is cool with me.
 
shakahislop

shakahislop

Well-known member
IdleRich said:
I picked up this book called Drop City in a chazza in Wantage and I just opened it now. Seems to be a sort of cynical pisstake of the hippie dream gone lame. I feel that I've heard of it and maybe it's famous but I don't really know if hthat's true or not. Anyway, so far so good, suits my mood. Someone (Shaka?) was talking about a similar thing the other day I think but that was a real memoir whereas I'm guessing this is just more of a made-up mean-spirited attack on a load of defenceless wankers which is cool with me.
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yeah that was me. the cookie someone book.
 
jenks

jenks

thread death
wild greens said:
Death of a Salesman. Poor old willy. Fucking brilliant this you know
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I saw the Wendell Pierce production of this at the Young Vic before it moved to the West End and then Broadway. It is one the very best things I’ve ever seen staged. I reckon we’ll over half the audience was crying by the end, the final half hour something seemed to happen in there, like a communal out of body experience
 
W

wild greens

Well-known member
I wish I'd saw it; I've never read it before but it's been so good. Saw the malkovich/hoffman film a while back and was bang average

Bunk makes a lot of sense, it's a shame i missed it
 
woops

woops

is not like other people
woops said:
Harry Mathews Cigarettes just finished the kinky bit
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good book that. good plotting, good characters, good ending. bit basic in style but i think that's deliberate. however none of you lot will like it cos it's about upper class Americans in the 60s.
 
entertainment

entertainment

Well-known member
I'm reading The Selected Writings of Paul Valery. I like the ones on poetry, there is something good about having a frenchman tell you things like "a poem must be a holiday of mind." You feel at ease.
 
woops

woops

is not like other people
Star Maker Olaf Stapledon

which has a claim to be the best sci fi book ever wrote but i haven't read hg wells. mad tour of the cosmos and all life forms and civilisations found there

according to his bio on the book "Stapledon had never heard of science fiction and was surprised to find himself so popular with sf writers.

the edition I've got carries a pull quote from borges of all people
 
Mellsman

Mellsman

Well-known member
IdleRich said:
I picked up this book called Drop City in a chazza in Wantage and I just opened it now. Seems to be a sort of cynical pisstake of the hippie dream gone lame. I feel that I've heard of it and maybe it's famous but I don't really know if hthat's true or not. Anyway, so far so good, suits my mood. Someone (Shaka?) was talking about a similar thing the other day I think but that was a real memoir whereas I'm guessing this is just more of a made-up mean-spirited attack on a load of defenceless wankers which is cool with me.
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I’ve read that. Good / horrible bit with a horse IIRC.

TC Boyle
 
IdleRich

IdleRich

IdleRich
Mellsman said:
I’ve read that. Good / horrible bit with a horse IIRC.

TC Boyle
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Oh aye. Someone saw me reading that and said she had read it - and also another book giving another view of the whole thing which she said she will lend to me.

This book is clearly not meant to totally factual as it locates Drop City in Cali rather than Colorado, but apparently it pissed somebody off to the extent that they felt they had to set the record straight.
 
version

version

Well-known member
Territory of Light (Yūko Tsushima)

"I felt as though I had before me an invisible, rickety, misshapen mass that not only kept its precarious balance but was actually sending out roots and even tentative new shoots that only my eyes could see."

It's a bit plain, possibly due to the translation, but I'm enjoying it. The descriptions of light and trees and buildings are nice and there are some great moments where things take on a slightly surreal quality, her and her daughter discovering a 'sea' on the roof of their building after the water tower leaks, for one.
 
woops

woops

is not like other people
woops said:
Star Maker Olaf Stapledon

which has a claim to be the best sci fi book ever wrote but i haven't read hg wells. mad tour of the cosmos and all life forms and civilisations found there

according to his bio on the book "Stapledon had never heard of science fiction and was surprised to find himself so popular with sf writers.

the edition I've got carries a pull quote from borges of all people
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finished this now and not read enough like it, much more far out than the average sci fi book
 
Corpsey

Corpsey

bandz ahoy
Corpsey said:
Reading Sabbath's Theatre by Roth. I reached a point quite early on where I was bored with all the fucking and cunts etc. But I pushed past it and I'm glad I did now.

He's evoking a sex obsessed mindset which means being boring and monomaniacal at times. But there's obviously something more painful going on that the satyromaniac is trying to fuck and wank away. (And YES, I identify with this, this mastering-me masturbation.)

Not sure what a woman would make of it, mind you. My mum is a huge Roth fan but this is the one she couldn't read, presumably because of the horrific obscenity of it all.
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Corpsey

Corpsey

bandz ahoy
Actually I've read more by him than by most: Everyman, Patrimony, American Pastoral, Portnoy's Complaint, The Human Stain and Sabbath's Theatre.
 
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