i used to do this then i decided most punctuation was bourgeois.
what are you reading now?
i used to do this then i decided most punctuation was bourgeois.
luka
Well-known member
im reading othello but the most fun i had reading recently was the wild body by wyndham lewis
earlier this week. that is a really great book and you see where iain sinclair got a lot of his tricks from
i'll find a few bits to copy out and hopefully nudge some of you lot into reading it. (it's very short)
earlier this week. that is a really great book and you see where iain sinclair got a lot of his tricks from
i'll find a few bits to copy out and hopefully nudge some of you lot into reading it. (it's very short)
jenks
thread death
The Years by Annie Ernaux (Translated by Alison L. Strayer) - an account of one woman's life since the end of the second world war but really a kind of history of the second half of the twentieth century - it's another book that is heavily influenced by Perec and his 'I remember..' methodology
Their Brilliant Careers by Ryan O'Neill - ostensibly a series of biographical sketches of twentieth century Australian writers but in fact a huge po-mo joke. all the writers are fictional and each of the lives intersect creating a grand narrative of duplicity and venality. Even the index is part of the joke.
The Fountain in the Forest - Tony White. A detective story that turns into something far more peculiar as it traces its way back to 84/85, The Battle of the Beanfield, anarchists in the south of France and the revolutionary calendar of the original communards. Like a cross between Perec and David Peace
Their Brilliant Careers by Ryan O'Neill - ostensibly a series of biographical sketches of twentieth century Australian writers but in fact a huge po-mo joke. all the writers are fictional and each of the lives intersect creating a grand narrative of duplicity and venality. Even the index is part of the joke.
The Fountain in the Forest - Tony White. A detective story that turns into something far more peculiar as it traces its way back to 84/85, The Battle of the Beanfield, anarchists in the south of France and the revolutionary calendar of the original communards. Like a cross between Perec and David Peace
Corpsey
bandz ahoy
In a moment of weakness I bought John Carey's memoir 'The Unexpected Professor' to read on the journey to and from Bristol. I certainly wouldn't recommend buying it - the only really interesting bits are the scraps of literary criticism that are dotted throughout. Gave me my usual pangs about not having gone to Oxford, while simultaneously making me relieved that I didn't. I suppose you wonder, as an egghead that didn't go to Oxbridge, whether you could have had your intellect stretched by going there. Where I went to uni it was rare to find somebody on my course that actually admitted to caring about books.
Corpsey
bandz ahoy
Finished 'Pride and Prejucide' - a great book, reminded me - to my surprise - of Flaubert, much more cynical and even misanthropic than you'd expect from the chocolate box Austen image
Currently reading 'Gomorrah' by Roberto Saviano - an indictment not only of the mafia but of global capitalism
Just read this mini interview with Will Self in the gruniad and thought this was quite an interesting quote - agree/disagree?
The book I couldn’t finish
... now I read scores – perhaps hundreds – of books at once, I’m released from the compulsion to complete any given volume. In the digital realm, texts merge into and swim out of each other – this is the great palimpsest of pixels that is steadily replacing the physical (and intellectual) canon.
https://www.theguardian.com/books/2018/aug/17/will-self-i-read-as-many-as-50-books-at-once
Currently reading 'Gomorrah' by Roberto Saviano - an indictment not only of the mafia but of global capitalism
Just read this mini interview with Will Self in the gruniad and thought this was quite an interesting quote - agree/disagree?
The book I couldn’t finish
... now I read scores – perhaps hundreds – of books at once, I’m released from the compulsion to complete any given volume. In the digital realm, texts merge into and swim out of each other – this is the great palimpsest of pixels that is steadily replacing the physical (and intellectual) canon.
https://www.theguardian.com/books/2018/aug/17/will-self-i-read-as-many-as-50-books-at-once
luka
Well-known member
yeah thats the way i read now. i try and look for things i dont understand or there is no point in them.
if you can find the thing that's currently a level above you it can help you pull yourself up by the bootstraps.
the old things can help you remember the things you already know though for the time you need reminding.
if you can find the thing that's currently a level above you it can help you pull yourself up by the bootstraps.
the old things can help you remember the things you already know though for the time you need reminding.
john eden
male pale and stale
13 Midnight Notes Collective - Midnight Oil: Work, Energy, War, 1973-1992
14 Hackney Workers' Educational Association - The Threepenny Doctor: Doctor Jelley of Hackney
15 Franz Kafka - The Castle
16 Dan Hancox - Inner City Pressure: The Story of Grime
17 Aaron Cometbus - Cometbus #56
18 Aaron Cometbus - Cometbus #57
19 Steve Wright - Storming Heaven: Class Composition and Struggle in Italian Autonomist Marxism
20 Aaron Cometbus - Cometbus #52
21 Moishe Postone - Anti-Semitism and National Socialism
Currently reading Nikolai Gogol - Dead Souls.
14 Hackney Workers' Educational Association - The Threepenny Doctor: Doctor Jelley of Hackney
15 Franz Kafka - The Castle
16 Dan Hancox - Inner City Pressure: The Story of Grime
17 Aaron Cometbus - Cometbus #56
18 Aaron Cometbus - Cometbus #57
19 Steve Wright - Storming Heaven: Class Composition and Struggle in Italian Autonomist Marxism
20 Aaron Cometbus - Cometbus #52
21 Moishe Postone - Anti-Semitism and National Socialism
Currently reading Nikolai Gogol - Dead Souls.
jenks
thread death
DRIVE YOUR PLOW OVER THE BONES OF THE DEAD by Olga Tokarczuk. I've just booked tickets to see the film adaptation - SPOOR - where she will be talking afterwards.
The common months also see the next Enard published and the final Das Drndic released, along with the second volume of Bellow's biography. Enough to keep me happy.
The common months also see the next Enard published and the final Das Drndic released, along with the second volume of Bellow's biography. Enough to keep me happy.
padraig (u.s.)
a monkey that will go ape
good list (tho lol a bit @ 3 random issues of Cometbus). that Midnight Notes collection is one of the first serious political books I read, many years back.
the Wright looks hella interesting. I read the Katsiaficas book a while back but it was more of a general autonomen overview/primer.
Dan Hancox was a commenter here back when, no? when grime was a growing concern. that looks pretty awesome. good title too.
padraig (u.s.)
a monkey that will go ape
since we're here the last book I read was Tree of Smoke
pretty good
pretty good
Corpsey
bandz ahoy
Finished Antony and Cleopatra at the weekend. I was under the weather while reading it, so predictably enough I didn't enjoy it as much as might be expected. But I did enjoy it - that Shakespeare bloke was quite good at writing.
Oh, withered is the garland of the war.
The soldier’s pole is fall’n! Young boys and girls
Are level now with men. The odds is gone,
And there is nothing left remarkable
Beneath the visiting moon.
Started reading this absolute brick of a Samuel Beckett biography https://www.bloomsbury.com/uk/damned-to-fame-the-life-of-samuel-beckett-9781408857663/
As with all such biographies, you have to dutifully plough through a lot of information about Beckett's family, the layout of his childhood home, etc., to get to the good stuff, but I'm actually finding it quite riveting. And - since I've not actually read much Beckett - it's illuminating re: his prose style to have it juxtaposed with his biographers comparatively workaday prose.
Oh, withered is the garland of the war.
The soldier’s pole is fall’n! Young boys and girls
Are level now with men. The odds is gone,
And there is nothing left remarkable
Beneath the visiting moon.
Started reading this absolute brick of a Samuel Beckett biography https://www.bloomsbury.com/uk/damned-to-fame-the-life-of-samuel-beckett-9781408857663/
As with all such biographies, you have to dutifully plough through a lot of information about Beckett's family, the layout of his childhood home, etc., to get to the good stuff, but I'm actually finding it quite riveting. And - since I've not actually read much Beckett - it's illuminating re: his prose style to have it juxtaposed with his biographers comparatively workaday prose.
john eden
male pale and stale
Sorry forgot to reply to this. I'd not read Cometbus before - picked up a copy in City Lights on holiday and really liked it.
The Wright book is a quite technical but very good - a lot of stuff about different orgs and how they related/developed and the role of workers inquiry to them. I'm more interested in all the mad shit they got up to, to be honest. Midnight Notes is more readable.
The Hancox book is really good - explains grime in the context of changes in London, New Labour etc (but not in a boring way). Yes he was on here before and is a mate, so I am biased.
Dennis Johnson? I read that a few years ago, I thought it was good but I can't recall much. Have you seen his short little chapbook Jesus' Son? That's amazing. The brevity brings out a kind of space and economy in the writing. Tree of Smoke is kinda the exact opposite, now I think about it, wouldn't be surprised to hear that either were deliberate stylistic experiments.
