Currently reading?

Posted In: Poetry + Prose. Reading This Thread:

the doc

| 21,467 posts


3rd Sept 2010 at 5:11 pm

the doc - What's a little sin to see us through?

What's a little sin to see us through?

 
Would take absolutely ages to relay all the books I've read recently, but amongst other things there's been some really good social history, some sh*t social history, some Norman Mailer and volume 1 of Norman Davies' two-part history of Poland.

Have just finished reading Doctor Rat by William Kotzwinkle and it was grand. It's set in a vivisection lab and is narrated by a rat who's been driven mad in one of the mazes and thinks that he's running the place. Splice that with a subplot about an animal revolution and some rather sweet ideas about mass consciousness and a big dollop of opium and you've got an anarchic, romantic, hilarious and painfully sad Swiftian masterpiece. Swish!

Got your name on it, Alice, this one. It's out of print now but you can get it for a penny off Amazon. Give it a go, I think you'll like it.
Whiskey, painkillers and speed will carry me there.....

Maeby

| 22,369 posts


3rd Sept 2010 at 6:12 pm

Maeby - Marry me?

Marry me?

 
On it
Ping!

Wife of Amy, Sex Goddess

Puffalump

| 22,006 posts


11th Sept 2010 at 5:51 pm

Puffalump - Bunny love

Bunny love

 
Child 44 - Tom Rob Smith

Wife of the lovely Alice

the doc

| 21,467 posts


13th Sept 2010 at 8:01 pm

the doc - What's a little sin to see us through?

What's a little sin to see us through?

 
Just read Of A Fire On the Moon by Mailer and then The Case of Comrade Tulayev by Victor Serge.

The latter is highly recommended for anyone even remotely interested in Stalin, espically with reference to to purges and show trials of the 30s.
Whiskey, painkillers and speed will carry me there.....

the doc

| 21,467 posts


18th Sept 2010 at 9:53 am

the doc - What's a little sin to see us through?

What's a little sin to see us through?

 
We by Yevgeny Zamyatin

The original, Russian version of 1984. Been meaning to read this for years and it's not bad. Got a big collection of Isaac Babel short stories on the go as well.

Finished this and wasn't really having it by the end. It's probably regarded highly cos it was the first dystopian novel but I wasn't much into it. The idea is sound enough but it was developed in a much better way by Huxley and Orwell, I think. I don't like science-fiction as a rule and it needs to be really special for me to be into it (Vonnegut springs to mind) but this just wasn't in that class.




Edited by the doc Sept 2010
Whiskey, painkillers and speed will carry me there.....

curly_cow

| 1,647 posts


21st Sept 2010 at 1:05 pm

curly_cow - make luv not war!

make luv not war!

 

Mini Shopaholic - Sophie Kinsella
The world is quiet here.

wombat

| 8,153 posts


21st Sept 2010 at 1:18 pm

wombat - Technically sexy.

Technically sexy.

 
I'm reading 'House of Leaves' by Mark Z Danielwski at the moment.

I've heard great things about this book, and it's pretty good so far, but not as terrifying as I'm lead to believe it should be as yet.

Anyone read it?
Southern hemispherical rat boy

Silvan

| 3,776 posts


21st Sept 2010 at 1:45 pm

Silvan - Aurals Velupide!

Aurals Velupide!

 

I'm partway through The Adventures Of Sherlock Holmes.

As well as Why Don't Penguin's Feet Freeze? and the QI Book Of General Ignorance.
What can I say? I did it all for the Wookies.

the doc

| 21,467 posts


22nd Sept 2010 at 9:36 am

the doc - What's a little sin to see us through?

What's a little sin to see us through?

 
Quote: wombat, Sept 2010
I'm reading 'House of Leaves' by Mark Z Danielwski at the moment.

I've heard great things about this book, and it's pretty good so far, but not as terrifying as I'm lead to believe it should be as yet.

Anyone read it?


I thought it was a bag of sh*te, just a haunted house novel trying to be clever. Not much of a fan of all that post-modern, self-referencing stuff, personally.*

*Unless it happens to be by the late, great Robert Anton Wilson, of course.


Edited by the doc Sept 2010
Whiskey, painkillers and speed will carry me there.....

Rayanne Graff

| 49,793 posts


22nd Sept 2010 at 10:05 am

Rayanne Graff - River Phoenix

River Phoenix

 
David-James, Darren and Tabby have also read it; i know because it says on page 80 and page 81.
*[http://www.vegetablerevolution.co.uk/uploads/549604.jpg]*

the doc

| 21,467 posts


22nd Sept 2010 at 10:35 am

the doc - What's a little sin to see us through?

What's a little sin to see us through?

 
I seem to remember Darren and Tabby raving about it a couple of years back. Can't remember DJ reading it but my memory probably ain't as good as yours, Straws.
Whiskey, painkillers and speed will carry me there.....

Little Blue Fox.

| 4,151 posts


24th Sept 2010 at 3:36 pm

Little Blue Fox. - Hope is important.

Hope is important.

 
Quote: the doc, Sept 2010
Quote: wombat, Sept 2010
I'm reading 'House of Leaves' by Mark Z Danielwski at the moment.

I've heard great things about this book, and it's pretty good so far, but not as terrifying as I'm lead to believe it should be as yet.

Anyone read it?


I thought it was a bag of sh*te, just a haunted house novel trying to be clever. Not much of a fan of all that post-modern, self-referencing stuff, personally.*

*Unless it happens to be by the late, great Robert Anton Wilson, of course.


It is really cool and different and interesting, I think.
It is not terrifying so much, I think. - It is pretty dark and creepy, and also it is really pretty and poetic too. It is really cool it is like three novels mixed together.
All the characters are pretty cynical and sceptical at the beginning, but they are really obsessive and paranoid at the end, but everything is really fake and psychological, still?
I think it is really different and creative.


It hurts too much not to try.
I will see you in another life when we are both cats.
Quod perditum est, in venietur.*Facebook.

Dr. Harold Shipman

| 10,547 posts


25th Sept 2010 at 12:15 am

Dr. Harold Shipman - Old people CLEARLY need more painkillers.

Old people CLEARLY need more painkillers.

 
Dexter By Design by Jeff Lindsay

It's already a damn sight better than the third one.

Puffalump

| 22,006 posts


30th Sept 2010 at 9:46 pm

Puffalump - Bunny love

Bunny love

 
Falling Man - Don DeLillo

Wife of the lovely Alice

Delirium Tremens

| 1,875 posts


30th Sept 2010 at 11:20 pm

Delirium Tremens -

 
I don't update here often, but I'm taking bloody ages to get through Peter Ackroyd's biography of London.


 
 
Steve-Dave: Better the devil you know, though. How many of the sensible people would ever vote for Romney?
Walt Flanagan: They're going to be non-votes, not votes for Barack.
Steve-Dave: I doubt it. I'd say that with some of the stuff Romney will come out, people could vote Barack just to prevent Romney getting in.
Walt Flanagan: Well, he's so clearly a terrible human being.
Walt Flanagan: He's going to gaff his way out of the White House, even as the President is hated from all the sides of the spectrum that aren't starry eyed.
Walt Flanagan: The GOP has gone too far towards the Stupid Bigot side of things, it may take years to get back.
Walt Flanagan: I just think people who say that Obama would have to f*ck a white woman on television to not get elected are missing the danger.
Steve-Dave: Oh I think Romney will still give Obama a run for his money. Romney flip-flops a lot. Could appeal to a wide enough base overall to run it close
oatibix: Something's happened here.
Steve-Dave: This is what happens when you leave Colin.
Steve-Dave: And I don't mean "This is what happens when you leave, Colin", I mean this is what happens when you leave Colin. I left Colin and became all sensible and sh*t
Steve-Dave: I'm an equivocating motherf*cker
Rayanne Graff: Yeah, you're sh*t. i'm not sure about sensible, though.
Jimmy: Holy sh*t everything's Barry.
Steve-Dave: Everything's better!
Puffalump: Barrier
Steve-Dave: The Barryest it's ever been
Jimmy: I can't wait for more "Important Barry and changes"
Steve-Dave: Well there will be some Barry and changes coming soon, because we need more donations. It no longer just takes £10 a year to help Barry survive
Steve-Dave: It takes like... £13

 

Page: