read any good books lately?

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can anyone recommend a good book ???????? i am sick of going to the library and standing there staring at the shelves numbly.......like a lost-in-the-supermarket wally. fiction or non-fiction, as long as it isnt romance or western! lol.
preferrably something philosophical/thought-provoking.

― donna (donna), Sunday, 15 September 2002 19:09 (twenty-one years ago) link

oh my god:

Excerpt - Iain Crichton-Smith - Old Woman;

Your thorned back
heavily under the creel
you steadily stamped the rising daffodil.

Your set mouth
forgives no-one, not even God’s justice
perpetually drowning law with grace.

Your cold eyes
watched your drunken husband come
unsteadily from Sodom home.

Your grained hands
dandled full and sinful cradles.
You built for your children stone walls.

Your yellow hair
burned slowly in a scarf of grey
wildly falling like mountain spray.

Finally you’re alone
among the unforgiving brass,
the slow silences, the sinful glass.

Who never learned,
not even aging, to forgive
our poor journey and our common grave

while the free daffodils
wave in the valleys and on the hills
the deer look down with their instinctive skills,

and the huge sea
in which your brothers drowned sings slow
over the headland and the peevish crow.

Selected poems of Crichton-Smith.

― david h (david h), Sunday, 15 September 2002 19:10 (twenty-one years ago) link

The Dumb House by John Burnside - the prose is a bit clunky but I think that is the point. We are meant to try and reinvigorate the cliches of our language, see if we can actually see through the opacity of the words he's putting in front of us, bereft of any inner and outer, upper and further... An experiment on language is what the books about - is it innate or learnt? Lock people up from birth and deprive them of language and see what happens.

― ^david _h^(owie), Sunday, 15 September 2002 19:20 (twenty-one years ago) link

Not all that recently, in that I just finished Salman Rushdie's rock novel, The Ground Beneath Her Feet, which is rather toss. I read Mason & Dixon by Thomas Pynchon not long ago, which is tremendous, and reasonably thought-provoking - there's certainly no shortage of ideas.

― Martin Skidmore (Martin Skidmore), Sunday, 15 September 2002 19:22 (twenty-one years ago) link

The Diving Bell & The Butterfly by Jean-Dominique Bauby - man has a brain-stem crush of a stroke and develops locked-in syndrome, dictates his autobiography with his eyelid via a system of stenographer (?) saying the alphabet (a specialised commonest letters first alphabet) and he blinks when at the correct letter. About writing. I can't decide if it would be better if it was fiction, or not.

― ^david _h^(owie), Sunday, 15 September 2002 19:24 (twenty-one years ago) link

Sunset Song by Lewis Grassic Gibbon - can you tell I have had a quickfire litre of Cola? Seriously, this is an exceptional novel. Surely you've read it Martin?

― ^david _h^(owie), Sunday, 15 September 2002 19:27 (twenty-one years ago) link

Does anyone think about books in relation to season?
It is getting to be fall, and I always like to read over my favorite stories from Dubliners and Winesberg, Ohio.
The latter is seriously underrated. I never hear anyone talk about it. It is truly a beautiful book, and I always feel compelled to mention it at the expense of every other book I have ever read in my entire life!

― Aaron Grossman (aajjgg), Sunday, 15 September 2002 19:55 (twenty-one years ago) link

I'm reading some philip K.dick (sci-fi writer) at the moment. I'm reading Valis.

― Julio Desouza (jdesouza), Sunday, 15 September 2002 20:03 (twenty-one years ago) link

Sorry, David, no I've not read that. Whyever would you think I had? I have read the next three mentioned: Dubliners is one of the best collections of stories ever (Borges' Labyrinths is the only one I love more), Winesburg, Ohio is sort of pleasant, and I love Dick (yes, yes), and Valis is a wonderfully crazed work.

― Martin Skidmore (Martin Skidmore), Sunday, 15 September 2002 20:11 (twenty-one years ago) link

I'm nearly finished Amin Malouf's "The Rock Of Tanios" and am enjoying it greatly. It's a historical novel set in the mountains of Lebanon in the last century, and concerns how big politics impacts on the lives of small people. I'm thinking of reading more Amin Malouf novels when I've finished it.

― DV (dirtyvicar), Sunday, 15 September 2002 20:44 (twenty-one years ago) link

(haha I have a connection to the history of the Lebanon. I am related to one of its past presidents, Souleiman Franjieh: my mother's cousin's wife's sister married him! My mother's cousin's wife was always my favourite relative, and she used to have long stays in a colossal palace there. I used to play backgammon with her a lot, and she left me her beautiful mosaic set in her will - it was a present to her from King Fauisal of Saudi Arabia.)(Maybe I should start an 'unlikely relatives' thread!)

― Martin Skidmore (Martin Skidmore), Sunday, 15 September 2002 20:52 (twenty-one years ago) link

Martin - I thought you would have 'cos you seem to have read everything and it is a very 'obvious' book to have read. Saying that, now, probly no ilxers have read it. I would recommend it to you; you wouldn't like it, but its great.

― David H(owie) (David H(owie)), Sunday, 15 September 2002 21:01 (twenty-one years ago) link

The official biography of the Mission (plenty o' laughs, not all intentional), Peepholism, aka the holy grail for zer Smiths/Moz fanatic and a reread of Tom Shippey's The Road to Middle-Earth courtesy of Ess Kay = happy Ned. Also the ultimate rock trash paperback from 1971, Song of the Scorpions -- not about the German band, but about the ultimate Rolling Stones/Troggs/proto-glam fusion outrage group, fictionally speaking. Mark s: reading this is urgent and key (so too for Sean and Arthur -- the Brian Epstein equivalent and his various activities are to be boggled at, not to mention those of the Nubian named Omar).

― Ned Raggett (Ned), Sunday, 15 September 2002 21:11 (twenty-one years ago) link

Just finished One Market Under God by Thomas Frank. Really enjoyable read, lot to get your teeth into. Recommmended.

― Dave B (daveb), Sunday, 15 September 2002 21:57 (twenty-one years ago) link

i reccomend "dhalgren" by samuel delany and all of mallarme's poems.

― mike (ro)bott, Sunday, 15 September 2002 23:06 (twenty-one years ago) link

wow thanks all for the response.......i am off to my local library tomorrow armed with a list of what sounds like some seriously good reads!!! david maybe you ought to start a book review page after you guzzle cola lol....:-)
The Dumb House is top of my list of hopefully-availables. o hang on, maybe........nah, go the dumb house first i think.
THANKS everyone!!!!!!!!

― donna (donna), Sunday, 15 September 2002 23:13 (twenty-one years ago) link

Don DeLillo's "White Noise"

Ahem. So, I really enjoyed it, okay?

― OCP (OCP), Monday, 16 September 2002 01:45 (twenty-one years ago) link

hey ned i've got that scorpions book! i never finished it tho, it looks stupid.
the last books i read were "the scarecrow" by ronald hugh morrieson, "twelve" by nick mcdonell, the ubu plays by alfred jarry, & "the luck of the bodkins" by p.g. wodehouse. now i'm reading "the heart is a lonely hunter" by carson mccullers.

― duane (lucylurex), Monday, 16 September 2002 02:01 (twenty-one years ago) link

Working my way through Robert Caro's excellent three-part bio of LBJ. First volume is The Path to Power; second is Means of Ascent; and the third is Master of the Senate. The final volume will be about when LBJ gets to the White House, as Veep and then President.

Any of these are must reads for any political or history junkies here.

― Tad (llamasfur), Monday, 16 September 2002 06:33 (twenty-one years ago) link

Still need to finish Sex Revolts. It's FANTASTICK!

― nathalie (nathalie), Monday, 16 September 2002 07:37 (twenty-one years ago) link

I'm reading Gunsmith Cats "Bad Trip".

― jel -- (jel), Monday, 16 September 2002 08:07 (twenty-one years ago) link

DeLillo = seriously over-rated.

I have just been reading Michael McKeon's _Origins of the English Novel_: breath-taking criticism.

Also just finished Jean Rhys - _After Leaving Mr Mackenzie_ which is good, but everyone should read _Good Morning Midnight_ which is brilliant.

― alext (alext), Monday, 16 September 2002 08:15 (twenty-one years ago) link

DeLillo = seriously over-rated.
hahah ILX will NEVAH change. For every fan here, there's one to beat the glowing post down. De Lillo's Underworld was very VERY good. Great Jones Street's my favourite though.

― nathalie (nathalie), Monday, 16 September 2002 08:30 (twenty-one years ago) link

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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