books, books, books

miss buenos aires · Post by **miss buenos aires** » Wed Mar 02, 2005 11:05 am

Funny how men who are so imaginative and creative when inventing fantasy worlds still cling to those signifiers.

Boy With A Problem · Post by **Boy With A Problem** » Fri Mar 11, 2005 5:38 pm

Just finished Under the Banner of Heaven by Jon Krakauer - partly the story of of two brothers that killed another of their brother's wife and daughter - but it's just as much the story of Mormondom and the violence and mysticism that's been with the religion since it's inception in the 1830's - the blurb on the cover from the SF Chronicle puts it in the realm of In Cold Blood and The Executioner's Song - and I couldn't agree more. I'm not big into the true crime genre - but like those other two books Banner of Heaven really goes beyond genre writing - and for fans of Krakauer's most famous book (Into Thin Air) - this one is just as hard to put down.

Poppet · Post by **Poppet** » Fri Mar 11, 2005 6:32 pm

i SO must read His Dark Materials again.

do those of you who are fans have Lyra's Oxford? it's available at the local independent bookstore remaindered, so you could probably get it somewhere cheaply. i of course got it when it first came out, silly me. very thin small book, red cloth cover, no dustjacket.

selfmademug · Post by **selfmademug** » Fri Mar 11, 2005 7:19 pm

I just read HIS DARK MATERIALS over the past few weeks. Loved it, the writing was beautiful the characters unforgettable. I loved the science fantasy of it-- he's using current ideas from to draw physics to evoke the cosmologies of Milton and Blake! Quite an acheivment!

Thank you guys for inspiring me to read these...

so lacklustre · Post by **so lacklustre** » Sat Mar 12, 2005 11:08 am

Just finished Ben Elton's High Society. Now onto Rum Punch by Elmore Leonard, the first time I have tried him.

Who Shot Sam? · Post by **Who Shot Sam?** » Sat Mar 12, 2005 11:16 am

Leonard is one of my favorite writers - a lot of laugh out loud moments. It's almost a guilty pleasure reading his books.

I've read "Out of Sight" (maybe my favorite), "Maximum Bob" "52 Pick Up" and a few others. I also liked "Cuba Libre", which is more of a historical piece, but very enjoyable too.

Great characters, and he does a really good job of getting you inside their heads.

mood swung · Post by **mood swung** » Sat Mar 12, 2005 11:22 am

I should be finishing the Hitchhiker's trilogy, but ...I got a copy of According to the Rolling Stones for $3 used off Amazon as mentioned elsewhere - I'm enjoying reading what Charlie has to say

selfmademug · Post by **selfmademug** » Tue Mar 15, 2005 8:37 pm

Are there any other James Kelman fans among us? He's probably my favorite living fiction writer. I've read most of his stuff, and picked up YOU HAVE TO BE CAREFUL IN THE LAND OF THE FREE while in London. I'm only about 50pp in but as usual I find his narrative just riveting... nobody captures the inner life like him. It's brilliant stuff.

SoLikeCandy · Post by **SoLikeCandy** » Tue Mar 15, 2005 10:54 pm

I am SO late to this discussion--His Dark Materials is one of the best trilogies ever written to expose the hypocracy of Christianity. I sent the series to my best friend, and while it took her a while to pick it up, she's now hooked. And they're planning on making a movie! I can't wait...

ice nine · Post by **ice nine** » Fri Mar 18, 2005 12:06 am

Just picked up Sylvia Plath's The Bell Jar.

lostdog · Post by **lostdog** » Mon Mar 21, 2005 7:44 am

selfmademug wrote:Are there any other James Kelman fans among us?

He's a genius. I love his short stories too - Not Not While The Giro and The Burn in particular - and A Disaffection is probably his most accessible work for those starting out. Mesmerising grasp of the interior life.

I met him a few years back at a literary festival and he was very gracious.

selfmademug · Post by **selfmademug** » Mon Mar 21, 2005 3:38 pm

I met him once as well and found him to be delightful as well. I agree about The Disaffection, and about his short stories. I gave Elvis a copy of BUSTED SCOTCH which was a US-only compilation of short stories from his other collections. I doubt he ever read any of it but I wanted him to know I thought they were kindred spirits in some ways...

Who Shot Sam? · Post by **Who Shot Sam?** » Mon Mar 21, 2005 3:54 pm

Finally finished Dylan's "Chronicles Vol. 1" this weekend. Definitely looking forward to the next volume(s). The book tells you so much about who Dylan is, yet it's all done in a very interesting and unexpected way. It's not a matter of revelations about his personal life or glimpses inside his relationships - if those get a mention at all it's only in passing. Instead, you get a sense of the man from how he perceives the world around him and the kinds of things that he is passionate about.

mood swung · Post by **mood swung** » Mon Mar 21, 2005 4:09 pm

SMM

gave Elvis a copy of BUSTED SCOTCH

you're my hero!

I thought about handing him a copy of A Death in the Family when he was in k-ville, but chickened out.

VonOfterdingen · Post by **VonOfterdingen** » Tue Mar 22, 2005 8:19 am

I just gave up upon Gunther Grass' "Dog Years" after 200 pages, the last of his Danzig Trilogy. It's strange because I really liked "The Tin Drum" and I loved "Cat and Mouse" but "Dog Years" is totally different.

I hate giving up a book (it rarely happens) - have anyone else done that recently?

mood swung · Post by **mood swung** » Tue Mar 22, 2005 8:34 am

I hate giving up on a book, too, so I don't - but I will skim like hell!

(and no, I didn't skim Ulysses - I should have! - but I didn't).

invisible Pole · Post by **invisible Pole** » Tue Mar 22, 2005 1:31 pm

I almost gave up on Donna Tartt's "The Little Friend" about a year ago - sheer volume, I suppose, but mainly the dense, Faulkner-like atmosphere, which I wasn't quite in the mood for.
I finished it however, and I can't really recall any book which I stopped reading half-way.

selfmademug · Post by **selfmademug** » Tue Mar 22, 2005 1:43 pm

I'll often start a book and then put it away for a while. Sometimes I'm just not in the mood for that particular voice. Kelman is a good example-- it's exhausting reading him, because he manages to be breathless and dense at the same time, but it's sooo worth it if you've got the attention span to keep going.

There's lots of books I've given up on partway through, but usually they're non-fiction, and even those I always hope to get back to, but who'm I kiddin'?!?

VonOfterdingen · Post by **VonOfterdingen** » Wed Mar 23, 2005 4:10 am

Last time i almost gave up upon a book was Toni Morrisons 'Beloved' but my class had to read it so i got through. But 'Dog Years' is like a 500 pages poem...exhausting indeed

VonOfterdingen · Post by **VonOfterdingen** » Tue Apr 05, 2005 8:06 am

I read "Life of Pi" on holiday in Spain last week. I was a bit dissapointed. The events in the lifeboat are certainly exciting but the style is IMHO a mess. Sometimes too serious, sometimes too silly - the "island" may have a touch of the fantastic but it doesn't work well. Read the amazing "The 13 1/2 Lives of Captain Bluebear" instead.
Still it was a pageturner.

Who Shot Sam? · Post by **Who Shot Sam?** » Tue Apr 05, 2005 8:23 am

I'm starting on Orhan Pamuk's "Snow", a novel about a Turkish expat poet living in Germany who returns to Turkey for his mother's funeral. So far reminds me a bit of Kundera. Heard good things about it, so I picked it up at our little local bookstore, along with a few books for my son.

so lacklustre · Post by **so lacklustre** » Tue Apr 05, 2005 12:22 pm

I'm now onto Dylan's Chronicles.

pip_52 · Post by **pip_52** » Tue Apr 05, 2005 12:59 pm

I started reading Lolita. I saw Kubrick's version a few months ago and its been in my head ever since. Fantastic movie, started off my newfound love of Peter Sellers ...

So far the book is also excellent.

martinfoyle · Post by **martinfoyle** » Fri Apr 08, 2005 7:32 am

Just picked up George Pelecanos new one, Drama City, and will put off reading it as long as possible since it'll shorten the wait for the next one. I see he'll be listening to Elvis during his book tour, this is what he has to say about The Delivery Man

The Delivery Man was hailed as a return to form for Elvis Costello, with critics calling it his best since This Year's Model, as if he's done little of worth for the past twenty-five years. This is, in fact, another solid record in a career of them with several outstanding cuts laced in with the almost great and near misses. Every EC album (even Punch the Clock and Goodbye Cruel World) has something worth owning, and there are several such tracks on The Delivery Man, a country-soul hybrid recorded in Oxford, Mississippi. My pick is "Either Side of the Same Town," a classic Costello ballad, as rich and passionate as anything in his catalogue

.

PlaythingOrPet · Post by **PlaythingOrPet** » Tue Apr 12, 2005 9:51 am

Recently finished the fabulous - and filthy in every sense of the word - Crimson Petal And The White by Michael Faber (just today found from 2002 the six chapters from the first section of the book serialised in the Guardian). Be warned: it's a big one - my copy is currently being used as a door stop.

Now reading Chronicles and A Short History of Tractors in Ukrainian, and re-reading The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy in anticipation of the new film released at the end of the month.