read any good books lately?

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Mike (Ro)bott seems to be some sort of soulmate of mine: Dhalgren is my favourite novel, and his email address refers to my favourite comic book - indeed one of my addresses is lonewolf.cub@btinternet.com, based on the same comic! I should read some Mallarme, except I probably won't.

― Martin Skidmore (Martin Skidmore), Monday, 16 September 2002 17:05 (twenty-one years ago) link

Goodgye Tsugumi - Banana Yoshimoto...it's great, really shimmering and yearning. I think it's about the core of existence, the light that never goes out and all that.

― jel -- (jel), Monday, 16 September 2002 18:31 (twenty-one years ago) link

Ha! She was the only writer I ever read purely on the basis of her irresistibly great name. I picked up kitchen, which turned out to be great.

― Martin Skidmore (Martin Skidmore), Monday, 16 September 2002 19:22 (twenty-one years ago) link

ok im gonna get that one

― donna (donna), Monday, 16 September 2002 19:26 (twenty-one years ago) link

david macey's biography of foucault is coming along nicely, even if it does periodically make me feel like I haven't accomplished anything with my life

― Josh (Josh), Tuesday, 17 September 2002 02:55 (twenty-one years ago) link

actually i don't know if i'll make it thru this carson mccullers, the "negro dialect" is so fucking painful.

― unknown or illegal user (doorag), Tuesday, 17 September 2002 03:07 (twenty-one years ago) link

I was reading William Gaddis's JR on the plane from NY to SF and back again and was laughing aloud for much of the time... Book looks deceptively boring on the outside but it filled with hidden gems...

― Mary (Mary), Tuesday, 17 September 2002 03:23 (twenty-one years ago) link

josh, the better foucault bio is by james miller.

avoid halperlin's writing on him like the plague.

― mike (ro)bott, Tuesday, 17 September 2002 04:26 (twenty-one years ago) link

ha, all the blurbs on the macey say it's better. but it's fine and I don't think I'll be in a hurry to read another one soon. thanks though.

― Josh (Josh), Tuesday, 17 September 2002 04:51 (twenty-one years ago) link

I love Carson McCullers => you should persist, Duane! And yes, JR is hilarious, though hard work (if he would ever tell you when he changes scenes or who is talking it would be easier).

― Martin Skidmore (Martin Skidmore), Tuesday, 17 September 2002 11:48 (twenty-one years ago) link

Because I'm off to the US later in the year I have decided (if possible) to read only novels set in New York or Boston between now and when I go.

Any recommendations much appreciated.

― Tim (Tim), Tuesday, 17 September 2002 11:54 (twenty-one years ago) link

i guess you've read austers new york trilogy?

― gareth (gareth), Tuesday, 17 September 2002 12:31 (twenty-one years ago) link

Uh no I haven't but it's in the (still rather small) pile of to-reads. Any others?

― Tim (Tim), Tuesday, 17 September 2002 12:34 (twenty-one years ago) link

I definitely 2nd the New York Trilogy as an essential New York read (put it on the top of your pile, Tim!). "Here is New York," essays by E.B. White, is also a classic. "The Waterworks" (or "Ragtime") by Doctorow, if you're looking for a more historical New York setting. For nonfiction, "Republic of Dreams, Greenwich Village" is good (though somewhat long and daunting), all about the art world/bohemia in the Village between 1915-1950.

That's all I can think of right now, but I'll scan my bookshelves when I get home...

― nory (nory), Tuesday, 17 September 2002 14:21 (twenty-one years ago) link

there's some funny bits in Manhattan in Mason&Dixon

― Alan (Alan), Tuesday, 17 September 2002 14:30 (twenty-one years ago) link

Thank heaven for today's B3TA business or no doubt you'd be posting a picture of some "funny bits" Alan.

― Tim (Tim), Tuesday, 17 September 2002 14:38 (twenty-one years ago) link

DeLillo = seriously over-rated.

Perhaps, but White Noise is a killer.

― OCP (OCP), Tuesday, 17 September 2002 14:56 (twenty-one years ago) link

NY books: Well, Gaddis's JR is based in NY if that's any incentive, and Delillo's Great Jones Street about a musician hiding out in the East Village is a wonderful book... Of course you could go all 80s bratpack and read Jay McInerney's Bright Lights, Big City, or Tama Janowitz's Slaves of New York. Then there is Henry James, Washington Square for turn of the century NYC... A lot of the Corrections by Jonathan Franzen takes place in NY... These may be obvious but Great Gadsby or Catcher in the Rye, also Salinger's other books and short stories... Melville, Poe... John Cheever for the people who live in the suburbs outside of NY... Oh! Martin Amis's Money...

― Mary (Mary), Tuesday, 17 September 2002 15:35 (twenty-one years ago) link

TIM HOPKINS IS ADDICTED - TO THE 21ST CENTURY

― the pinefox (the pinefox), Tuesday, 17 September 2002 16:57 (twenty-one years ago) link

white noise is one of the overrated ones!

― Josh (Josh), Tuesday, 17 September 2002 17:27 (twenty-one years ago) link

Do start with Auster, Tim - that's a really great book. I think American Psycho is really excellent too, but many hate it. Woody Allen's collected prose is available cheap in some remainder shops currently. Much of James Baldwin is in New York, and it's all gold. The best detective stories about New York are Ed McBain's, even though he claims it's not NY. Ooh, or Chester Himes's great Gravedigger and Coffin Ed books, set in Harlem mostly. Or Andrew Vachss' wild ones.

From memory, isn't Breakfast At Tiffany's New York? That's terrific (Truman Capote, obv). Malamud, Potok and Singer for Jewish New York. The present tense stuff in Leone Ross's Orange Laughter are in New York (my brief involvement with the author is not the point: it really is terrific). Damon Runyon for the old days. (Lots of books here that I can lend you if you like, Tim.)

― Martin Skidmore (Martin Skidmore), Tuesday, 17 September 2002 18:32 (twenty-one years ago) link

yes i have read american psycho, i actually liked it, not that 'liked' is really the right word, probably more found it awfully fascinating.
has anyone read The First Circle by solzenitzen ( sp? ) i had it years ago and loved it but lost my copy somewhere along the line. dont loan books out they never come back especially if they are good ones!

― donna (donna), Tuesday, 17 September 2002 18:53 (twenty-one years ago) link

I second Martin's Breakfast at Tiffany's and Baldwin. Oh, and how could I forget: William Burroughs, Junky.

Oh oh oh--and canonical--Tom Wolfe's Bonfire of the Vanities...

Susan Minot's book of short stories, Lust is also a good read...

― Mary (Mary), Wednesday, 18 September 2002 00:57 (twenty-one years ago) link

white noise is one of the overrated ones!

See, the thing is that you're wrong on that one! White Noise deserves all of the praise heaped upon it. I can see, however, that DeLillo himself, as an author, could be perceived as overrated, you know, as a literary figure. But whatever, I really enjoyed the book, I don't give a fuck.

― OCP (OCP), Wednesday, 18 September 2002 02:00 (twenty-one years ago) link

Judith Krantz - I'll Take Manhattan (ha ha)

E.L. Konigsberg - From the Mixed-Up Files of Mrs. Basil E. Frankweiler

― rosemary (rosemary), Wednesday, 18 September 2002 03:12 (twenty-one years ago) link

david macey's biography of foucault is coming along nicely, even if it does periodically make me feel like I haven't accomplished anything with my life
WELL IF YOU FINISHED THE BOOK THAT IS ALREADY ONE ACCOMPLISHMENT! ;-)

Mythologies by Barthes is as expected GREAT!

Banana Yoshimoto is great - however most of my Japanese friends don't rate her that high ("She's not Japanese..." or even better "She should write children's books." ?!?)

― nathalie (nathalie), Monday, 23 September 2002 11:53 (twenty-one years ago) link

http://www.granta.com/shop/product-file/81/reas981/product.jpg
i bought this on saturday, but i don't know if its good yet, cuz i'm still reading iain sinclair

― gareth (gareth), Monday, 23 September 2002 12:01 (twenty-one years ago) link

Morbo, the history of Spanish football, it's a cracking read. full of very interesting little snippets of information.

― chris (chris), Monday, 23 September 2002 12:06 (twenty-one years ago) link

Was thinking of getting that myself, actually...

― Ned Raggett (Ned), Monday, 23 September 2002 12:12 (twenty-one years ago) link

sorry nath I have since started a number of other books. I'll finish it within a few months though!

― Josh (Josh), Monday, 23 September 2002 14:50 (twenty-one years ago) link

three weeks pass...

Here (in no order) is my list of NY / Boston books read so far as part of my ongoing NY / Boston book reading thing:

P. Auster: New York Trilogy
L. Tillman: No Lease On Life
S. Minott: Monkeys
G. Adair: Love and Death on Long Island
L. Block: The Devil Knows You're Dead
C. Carter: Rhode Island Red
W. C. Williams: White Mule
J. F. Bardin: The Deadly Percheron
J. F. Bardin: The Devil Take The Blue-Tailed Fly
E. McBain: Bread
S. Tesich: Karoo
N. Aldyne: Slate
F. Eberstadt: When The Sons Of Heaven Meet The Daughters of Earth
C. Carter: Drumsticks
Elsa Lewin: I, Anna
A. Isler: The Prince of West End Avenue

Faves: Williams, Bardin, Eberstadt. Each has had something to recommend it. Am somewhere between loving Auster and really not liking it at all. I've just started Lives of the Monster Dogs by Kirsten Bakis, which is shaping up very nicely.

― Tim (Tim), Friday, 18 October 2002 11:59 (twenty-one years ago) link

I haven't read much lately.

― jel -- (jel), Friday, 18 October 2002 12:03 (twenty-one years ago) link

"Lives of the Monster Dogs" is excellent indeed.

― Tim Finney (Tim Finney), Friday, 18 October 2002 12:15 (twenty-one years ago) link

Crucible of War by Fred Anderson, which so far is a really engaging and often quite revealing study of the Seven Years/French and Indian War, the more so because it consciously avoids the retrospective eschatology that considers it to be the inevitable prelude to an equally inevitable American Revolution.

― Ned Raggett (Ned), Friday, 18 October 2002 14:05 (twenty-one years ago) link

Here are the last few books I've read:

William Kennedy - "Legs" (***)
William Kennedy - "Billy Phelan's Greatest Game" (***)
William Kennedy - "Ironweed" (***)
Saul Bellow - "Ravelstein" (***)
Allan Bloom - "The Closing of the American Mind" (****)
Plato - "The Republic" (*****)

Currently reading:

Halldor Laxness - "The Fish Can Sing"

― o. nate (onate), Friday, 18 October 2002 14:14 (twenty-one years ago) link

I'm reading _Neuromancer_ for the third time. I should renew my library card.

― Dan Perry (Dan Perry), Friday, 18 October 2002 14:22 (twenty-one years ago) link

I should renew my library card.

QUITE RIGHT. Oh yeah, I also read Batavia's Graveyard recently. People are horrible creatures.

― Ned Raggett (Ned), Friday, 18 October 2002 14:27 (twenty-one years ago) link

I'm reading Steve Erickson's Tours Of The Black Clock at present, and loving it. He might be my favourite writer by now. I think I'll probably start a thread on him when I finish this.

― Martin Skidmore (Martin Skidmore), Friday, 18 October 2002 18:57 (twenty-one years ago) link

I haven't managed to finish a book in awhile but currently I'm reading:
Catch-22 by Joseph Heller (English class)
The Lady or the Tiger? by Raymond Smullyan
Godel, Escher, Bach: An Eternal Golden Braid by I-forget-who

and so far, they're all good. the third one counts as philosophical, i guess. the second is just logic puzzles (some of which i can't figure out, but they're cute and fun).

― Maria (Maria), Friday, 18 October 2002 19:42 (twenty-one years ago) link

william burroughs- 'naked lunch'
philip k dick- 'Valis'. also 'the man in the high castle'.

― Julio Desouza (jdesouza), Friday, 18 October 2002 22:15 (twenty-one years ago) link

Ooh, good stuff Julio. In fact The Man In The High Castle is what the Erickson I mention a few posts up reminds me of very strongly indeed - because in both there is the concept of two histories existing alongside one another, in the other of which the Axis won, and in the current one our hero feels something is wrong about that. That's a pretty strong similarity! Erickson may be supplanting Dick as my favourite writer.

― Martin Skidmore (Martin Skidmore), Friday, 18 October 2002 22:42 (twenty-one years ago) link

roky erickson is my favourite writer.

― unknown or illegal user (doorag), Friday, 18 October 2002 23:32 (twenty-one years ago) link

''Ooh, good stuff Julio. In fact The Man In The High Castle is what the Erickson I mention a few posts up reminds me of very strongly indeed - because in both there is the concept of two histories existing alongside one another, in the other of which the Axis won, and in the current one our hero feels something is wrong about that.''

yeah, that's def 'the man in the high castle'.

Martin- I'll chase that book once I'm through reading as much Phil and burroughs as the local library has.

doorag- indeed he a great singer. i had to revive the thread on ilm once i heard them.

― Julio Desouza (jdesouza), Saturday, 19 October 2002 10:24 (twenty-one years ago) link

Julio, you should take advantage of someone working at your uni who has, I think, all of Dick's books, quite a few Burroughs, and all the Steve Ericksons I've been able to find. Loans available!

― Martin Skidmore (Martin Skidmore), Saturday, 19 October 2002 10:27 (twenty-one years ago) link

Thanks martin: just remembered abt the citizen kane thread where you were going to give me a loan on the kael review comp too.

reading a scanner darkly, i started it yesterday and do androids dream is under the bed. i'll prob need ubik and dr bloodmoney after that so maybe that one.

― Julio Desouza (jdesouza), Saturday, 19 October 2002 10:34 (twenty-one years ago) link

Yep, I have both those. Remind me about these and the Kael (actually I have two collections of her criticism) when we're to meet next.

― Martin Skidmore (Martin Skidmore), Saturday, 19 October 2002 17:59 (twenty-one years ago) link

I am reading "Finn Family Moomintroll" by Tove Jansson.

― jel -- (jel), Saturday, 19 October 2002 18:03 (twenty-one years ago) link

cheers martin.

― Julio Desouza (jdesouza), Saturday, 19 October 2002 19:58 (twenty-one years ago) link

julio i just found that kael book i promised to send you down the back of my telephone table

― mark s (mark s), Saturday, 19 October 2002 23:29 (twenty-one years ago) link

kewl mark. if you want to send it to me then do so. if you want my home addy email me.

― Julio Desouza (jdesouza), Sunday, 20 October 2002 08:29 (twenty-one years ago) link

I'm really enjoying 'Ravelstein' by Saul Bellow - I'd give it more than three stars (but out of how many, o. nate?)

― Andrew L (Andrew L), Sunday, 20 October 2002 09:06 (twenty-one years ago) link

twelve years pass...

http://www.washingtonpost.com/posteverything/wp/2015/04/24/i-only-read-books-by-minority-authors-for-a-year-it-showed-me-just-how-white-our-reading-world-is/?hpid=z3

― curmudgeon, Sunday, 26 April 2015 16:02 (nine years ago) link

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