books, books, books

pophead2k · Post by **pophead2k** » Fri Jun 02, 2006 9:01 pm

Hrabal is one of my all time favorite writers. And the film is brilliant. Check out his very short novel, "Too Loud a Solitude" - devestating and gorgeous.

invisible Pole · Post by **invisible Pole** » Thu Jun 08, 2006 1:54 pm

Just started this :

alexv · Post by **alexv** » Fri Jun 09, 2006 9:58 am

That's a terrific read, IP. He's big on the probability of natural disasters doing as all in, and maybe exaggerates a bit, but I found it a lot of fun.

Finished reading a very different book: "Heloise and Abelard" by James Burge. It tells the story of the medieval lovers, one of whom ended up in a nunnery (against her will) and the other castrated and a monk (very much against his will). A rollicking tale.

I also recommend "Reinventing Shakespeare, a Cultural History from the Restoration to the Present", by Gary Taylor. It was written in the late 80s, but it's a very good study of the way Shakespeare's reputation has changed over the centuries.

Post by **BlueChair** » Fri Jun 09, 2006 10:02 am

Laughable:

Rowling voted greatest living British author in poll
Jun. 7, 2006. 09:59 PM

LONDON (AP) â€” It's another magical result for J.K. Rowling.

The creator of boy wizard Harry Potter was voted Britain's greatest living writer in a survey released Thursday.

Readers of The Book Magazine ranked Rowling ahead of literary heavyweights including Ian McEwan, Salman Rushdie, Harold Pinter and A.S. Byatt.

Rowling, who is currently writing the seventh and final Potter book, received almost three times as many votes as the second-placed author, fantasy writer Terry Pratchett.

The magazine's online poll allowed readers to choose from a list of 50 authors, or to add their own suggestion. The top 10 consists of Rowling, Pratchett, McEwan, Rushdie, Kazuo Ishiguro, Philip Pullman, Pinter, Nick Hornby, Byatt and â€” in a 10th-place tie â€” Jonathan Coe and John Le Carre.

Doris Lessing, Alan Bennett, Iain Banks, Muriel Spark â€” who died in April â€” David Mitchell, Martin Amis, Ian Rankin, Pat Barker and Alasdair Gray round out the top 20.

miss buenos aires · Post by **miss buenos aires** » Fri Jun 09, 2006 2:50 pm

I just finished Haruki Murakami's "Kafka on the Shore." Very open-ended, that one. I fell asleep in the middle of reading it, and my dream was that I was reading it and it said, "It turns out that all three men were really the same person. The End."

johnfoyle · Post by **johnfoyle** » Sun Jun 11, 2006 5:05 pm

I'm reading and enjoying The Closed Circle by Jonathan Coe ; next I may check out this bio.-

http://enjoyment.independent.co.uk/book ... 752194.ece

Wild Mary: a life of Mary Wesley, by Patrick Marnham

( extract)

It is hardly surprising that Mary became wild and a frequent embarrassment and worry to her parents. On one occasion she explained away her unfortunate discovery in bed with one of Lord Baden-Powell's sons by saying they were "keeping warm"; but she soon outgrew boys and started scouting for men.

She was presented at court and embarked on the social round of country-house dances and grouse-shooting in Argyll. She was eventually bagged by a rich young peer called Carol Swinfen, but the marriage was not a great success. Unlike his wife, Swinfen was not much interested in sex, and he fondly accepted Mary's second son as his own even though he almost certainly knew that he was not the boy's father. In a book characterised by bad behaviour of one sort or another, Swinfen emerges rather well.

Mary's wartime experiences (during which she worked in intelligence and got through innumerable lovers) will seem familiar to readers of The Camomile Lawn. Marnham is very good at the sort of offhand remark that both sums up the mores and mirrors the attitudes of the period, as in his aside about one of Wesley's foreign suitors: "He had found it hard to take British society seriously since the day he found his first wife in bed with his mother".

That would do it alright!

Who Shot Sam? · Post by **Who Shot Sam?** » Tue Jul 11, 2006 10:20 am

Picked up Philip Roth's "The Plot Against America" (this was discussed on here a while ago, was it not?) and I am really liking it. I didn't expect to, to be honest, because I'd been so turned off by "Sabbath's Theater", the last one of his novels that I'd read.

Post by **BlueChair** » Tue Jul 11, 2006 10:27 am

Glad you're enjoying it, Sam...

I've turned to lighter fare lately:

mood swung · Post by **mood swung** » Tue Jul 11, 2006 12:08 pm

I bought that last summer and haven't turned a page in it yet. Shame on me and my piles of unread books.

Goody2 gave me this

Wow. I mean, wow! Sprawling and epic and intimate and focused. Such tender characterizations. Best thing I've read in years. I wanted to be Ruth May, I mean up until she died of course.

thanks, G2S!

Goody2Shoes · Post by **Goody2Shoes** » Wed Jul 12, 2006 7:14 am

My pleasure!

Now you must read her Prodigal Summer. Less sprawling, more sex.

Mechanical Grace · Post by **Mechanical Grace** » Wed Jul 12, 2006 12:34 pm

mood swung wrote: Shame on me and my piles of unread books.

No shame there, imo-- having piles of unread books is like having a fridge full of good food.

Except they never turn into smelly liquid even if you leave them there for a long time.

so lacklustre · Post by **so lacklustre** » Wed Jul 12, 2006 12:42 pm

I have piles too.

Currently reading The Accidental by Ali Smith

Very good read so far, although readers reviews on amazon suggest it goes wierd.

Mechanical Grace · Post by **Mechanical Grace** » Wed Jul 12, 2006 12:45 pm

so lacklustre wrote:I have piles too.

There's an ointment for that, I think.

Who Shot Sam? · Post by **Who Shot Sam?** » Wed Jul 12, 2006 4:37 pm

Who Shot Sam? wrote:Picked up Philip Roth's "The Plot Against America" (this was discussed on here a while ago, was it not?) and I am really liking it. I didn't expect to, to be honest, because I'd been so turned off by "Sabbath's Theater", the last one of his novels that I'd read.

Hmmm, finished this one today. The last few chapters seemed to be a bit of a mad rush. In the first half of the novel Roth created a giant sweeping story, which re-imagines the 1940 Presidential election as a victory for the anti-semetic, Nazi-sympathizing Charles Lindbergh over FDR and chronicles its effects on a working class Jewish family in New Jersey (told through the eyes of a nine-year old boy). It had me hooked then went off the rails a bit in the last few chapters. Definitely thought-provoking and very well written but maybe Roth bit off more than he could chew in 350 pages. Seemed to end very abruptly as well. At least I finished a book - it's been a while since I've done that!

Otis Westinghouse · Post by **Otis Westinghouse** » Wed Jul 12, 2006 6:36 pm

Piles of books bring me closer to my death. I think how many of them, and howw many other unread ones will come to haunt me at that moment. It's easier to get through CDs, isn't it?

King Hoarse · Post by **King Hoarse** » Thu Jul 13, 2006 4:04 am

Otis Westinghouse wrote:Piles of books bring me closer to my death. I think how many of them, and howw many other unread ones will come to haunt me at that moment. It's easier to get through CDs, isn't it?

Yeah, but not as sunfriendly.

(Btw reading The Mysterious Flame of Queen Loana by Umberto Eco. It's OK, but not as good as the cover and his previous books made me hope for, so I hope to finish it soon so I can get onto Owen Meany and Behan's complete plays, which are next in the pile.)

miss buenos aires · Post by **miss buenos aires** » Thu Jul 13, 2006 7:16 am

Mechanical Grace wrote:I mentioned this in another thread, but another book I read recently is Malcolm Gladwell's follow-up to The Tipping Point, Blink: The Power of Thinking Without Thinking. A fascinating and easy read about the neuroscience behind intuition and snap judgments.

I think Malcolm Gladwell was eavesdropping on a conversation of mine in the West Village yesterday. I tried to punch it up a little for him.

Mechanical Grace · Post by **Mechanical Grace** » Thu Jul 13, 2006 7:20 am

The thin-slicing bastard (that's a little Blink joke)!

I'm sure you kept him plenty entertained, you always do us...

ReadyToHearTheWorst · Post by **ReadyToHearTheWorst** » Wed Jul 19, 2006 7:53 pm

Annual holiday read-fest just concluded:

The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-Time - Mark Haddon
A broken home, through the eyes of an autistic child. Touching, believable, funny, daring piece of writing.

Atonement - Ian McEwan
Moves from 1930s country house shenanigans to the retreat from Dunkirk, with the truth finally revealed 50 years later. Maybe a touch sentimental at the end, but powerful stuff.

A Long Way - Sebastian Barry
Eloquent, heart breaking account of an Irish soldier in the King's army while Dublin was uprising. I almost cried.

Heart of Darkness & Other Tales - Joseph Conrad
He lived a life, didn't he?

A Short History of Nearly Everything - Bill Bryson
Manages to make very dry & difficult subjects entertaining, by introducing us to the, often eccentric, 'scientists' who worked it all out for us.

Ho hum, prolly won't finish another book for 12 months.

PlaythingOrPet · Post by **PlaythingOrPet** » Thu Jul 20, 2006 9:35 am

so lacklustre wrote:I have piles too.

Currently reading The Accidental by Ali Smith

Very good read so far, although readers reviews on amazon suggest it goes wierd.

My inner jury is still out on this, but it does have a brilliant and satisfying ending.

Recently picked up Gould's Book of Fish - Richard Flanagan, The Sea - John Banville and Sixty Lights - Gail Jones. My mouth is salivating, my fingers itching to get a hold of them all.

Otis Westinghouse · Post by **Otis Westinghouse** » Thu Jul 20, 2006 5:28 pm

Good reading matter. I've got another month before my summer hols, and hope I can get some good reading done then. Still on Saul Bellow. didn't know Sebastian Barry had written a novel, saw a very good play of his a couple of years ago, but forgotten the name. St something.

mood swung · Post by **mood swung** » Wed Aug 09, 2006 12:13 pm

In spite of the piles, I picked up a couple at the library (I could not refuse my children that, could I? even with the piles?). Hiaasen's Basket Case, which was good, but like candy, and I want dinner and I'm hoping that will be the Barbara Kingsolver, the name of which I cannot think of right now (I get one or the other, Mr. Westinghouse), but I'm hoping it's the one G2S said was less sprawling, but with more sex.

Post by **BlueChair** » Wed Aug 09, 2006 12:47 pm

About a third of the way into Assassination Vacation by Sarah Vowell. Who knew that a book focusing on the assassinations of Lincoln, Garfield and McKinley could be so entertaining? But it is!

so lacklustre · Post by **so lacklustre** » Wed Aug 09, 2006 2:27 pm

All presidential assassinations are fun, they should do more.

Finished the Accidental, quite enjoyable all the way through, a book that is a bit different.

Now reading A Short History of Tractors in Ukranian by Marina Lewycka. It has been selling well over here, and the blurb sounded good. About half way through and finding it enjoyable but little too smart for it's own good.

miss buenos aires · Post by **miss buenos aires** » Wed Aug 09, 2006 5:11 pm

BlueChair wrote:About a third of the way into Assassination Vacation by Sarah Vowell. Who knew that a book focusing on the assassinations of Lincoln, Garfield and McKinley could be so entertaining? But it is!

Did anybody else read the article in the Times about President Garfield's medical care after being shot? Apparently Charles Guiteau said, "I just shot him. The doctors killed him."