As 2012 learns to toddle: what are you reading?

yeah i gave up after only like one or two chapters. i am actually interested in the subject matter, so i think i'll dive back in after a break. i think maybe the sincerity was too much for me??

― rayuela, Thursday, March 22, 2012 10:01 AM Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

Well the beginning is about her childhood, but it pretty quickly gets past that and into hanging out with Robert Mapplethorpe, seedy NYC life, the Chelsea Hotel, trying to get into the in crowd at Max's Kansas City, etc., but all still told sweetly. Which is maybe somehow better than childhood told sweetly.

yeah i gave up after only like one or two chapters. i am actually interested in the subject matter, so i think i'll dive back in after a break. i think maybe the sincerity was too much for me??

― rayuela, Thursday, March 22, 2012 10:01 AM Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

Well the beginning is about her childhood, but it pretty quickly gets past that and into hanging out with Robert Mapplethorpe, seedy NYC life, the Chelsea Hotel, trying to get into the in crowd at Max's Kansas City, etc., but all still told sweetly. Which is maybe somehow better than childhood told sweetly.

The protagonist in the Patrick Melrose novels gives up on books a lot.

I'm on #3 (Some Hope). Really didn't like Bad News. It's actually quite ironic that, in becoming a junkie, Melrose becomes incredibly BORING, especially given all the talk about fear of being a bore in the first novel. Maybe that's the point. I still couldn't deal with the lengthy drug fiending descriptions.

The protagonist in the Patrick Melrose novels gives up on books a lot.

maybe i should try that one next...

reading yukio mishima's confessions of a mask & really enjoying it so far!

Its awesome, he's got such a vision that you'll always come back once you're hooked...been reading this interview from 1970, barmy and I love it, of course.

Reading "There Are Little Kingdoms", a short story collection by Kevin Barry who gets a lot of Flann O'Brien comparisons. Really good stuff, especially the dialogue which is where he's closest to Flann. That kind of imaginary Ireland where everyone's a storyteller. His novel, City of Bohane, got some good notices so i'm going to give that a go next.

Just picked up the Simon Reynolds book on Retro for €5 in town. been wanting to read that for a while. ALso the Barney Hoskins book on LA.

Justfinished the David Nobakht book on Suicide which was a great read. & makes me want to pick up the rest of their catlogue.

Also started the Greil Marcus book on the Doors. About 3 chapters in so far.

I am still reading the Lydia Davis translation of Madame Bovary. It is beautifully written (and translated) and very visual and flaneuresque -- you can come and go and pick it up when you please and sink and float again.

keep meaning to get that

greil marcus wrote a book on the doors? o dear

Intrigued by the bitsd I've seen online of Demolishing Nisard by Eric Chevillard, a seemingly pointless attack on a stody 19th Centiru French lit critic

He is the slime at the bottom of every fountain. Irretrievably, there has been Nisard. How can we love benches, knowing that Nisard often pressed them into service? Gently stroking a cat’s silken fur, my hand inevitably reproduces a gesture once made by Nisard . . . Did Nisard ever make one move that we might want to follow or imitate? Did he ever incarnate anything other than the tedium of being Désiré Nisard, definitively, forever and ever?

bits! stodgy! can't type!

finished updike's "rabbit run". its the second time ive read it. the last time was '98. would still stan for it but theres problems. his attitude towards women is a bit dodgy and the sex-as-religion stuff can be a bit laughable. ive just started toni morrison's 'song of solomon' now.

Song of Solomon is incredible.

the perfect antidote to Morrison imo

?

i think he meant its a good book as oppose to her other works.

i don't agree - it is a great work, might be even her best, but she had several other good novels as well.

I've only read that and Sula and thought both of those were v v goo, though Solomon was much more satisfying

v v good

Holy shit! Just came here to post that I'm finishing up Sula, getting ready to (re-)start Song Of Solomon. If I knew you you were readin', I'd a' started a book club.

Philip K. Dick - We can Remember it for you Wholesale (short story collection)

Ben Marcus- The Flame Alphabet

Loved this book so much.

Wonderful, bleak and absurd.

We're far enough past the equinox, I suppose it is time for another thread. I mean, ile or ilm can have their 5000 post threads if they like, but they're just unwieldy imo. So, here goes nothin'...

2012: The northern days advance, the southern recede: What are you reading?