2019 Autumn: What Are You Reading as the Light Drifts Southward?

"The Fall and the Rise and The Fall" Brix Smith Start
"My First Summer in the Sierras" John Muir
"The Great God Pan and Other Stories of Horror" Arthur Machen

I'll definitely try more Fitzgerald. I'll have a break and maybe give this another go. I've been reading lots about Kant and Coleridge so it's a good fit in terms of subject matter if nothing else.

The Great God Pan is fantastic.

there were certain parts that were particularly great but idk, not sold on him tbh. It was almost comical how deeply misogynistic the first two stories were, uptight British men quailing before the unutterable evil that is femininity wot wot. Just ridiculous.

I also don't find the Wicker Man scary... as a theme, "civilized" Brits recoiling at paganism more often strikes me as deeply silly than as horrific.

I assume Anglo-Paganism as a theme for horror is some sort of cultural working-out of the cultural loss from Christianity's ascendancy. Same with heavy metal.

Machen is certainly ridiculous and reprehensible in places but he does access something to do with the unrepresentable and the uncanny. And I'd agree that this particular brand of landscape horror isn't (only) about class but about loss.

I do like his Arabian Nights-nested narration structures and there are passages that are just fantastic so I'll probably finish it. It's a good follow-on from "Voyage to Arcturus" (which was admittedly even more phantasmagorical and insane)

I've been looking at a Machen volume that was presumably brought into the local 2nd hand/remainder bookshop for Halloween. Think it might be that one, have been meaning to pick an anthology up by him for a while. Think I have an illustrated thing by him somewhere that came out about 20 odd years ago.

Looks like it might be The White People and other stories.

I do enjoy this picture of turn of the century London that he paints, where it's just full of unemployed dandies bumping into each other and trading salacious gossip over endless bottles of chianti

The new Julian Barnes, 'The Man in the Red Coat', is a sort of biography but a very achronological and expansive and meandering one. Really beautifully done, actually: an elegant and witty wander through Belle Époque Paris. Barnes is the only one of those Best Young Writers of 1983 or whatever it was that I would still make strong claims for. And this includes a lot of writing about art and artists, which he's very strong on.

I just ordered that one on the basis of some great reviews I read. Looking forward to it.

It's impressive how Barnes has kept writing books - so many book, so regularly. He's never given up or run out of ideas. I'm glad if this new one is doing well.

It’s odd: he’s not one of my favourite authors, but he takes up a lot of shelf space.

Finished A KIND OF LOVING at last.

Very good: dense, down to earth, droll, thoughtful. Surely one of the best works of its particular genre / movement / era.

Just read Melissa Harrison's All Among The Barley. Wonderful. Written in a slightly clipped arcane 1930s vernacular without seeming forced, and dealing with contemporary issues of English identity in a slyly murderous way. FFO The Falling, Ben Wheatley and the gothic pastoral in general. May contain scenes of harvesting.

Half way through and loving it, the evocation of time and place and customs and atmosphere is just incredible.

Been dipping into the book on Cartoon Music which is various essays by different people on various aspects of teh subject from the beginning of film adaptation to the current day of when the book was published.
Pretty interesting.

Found a cheap copy of Viv Albertine's 2nd book To Return Unopened which I read about the 1st chapter of.
Really enjoyed her 1st book with the repetitive title which covered her punk etc years.

I finished the 650 pp. of Henry Adams' History of the First Madison Administration, 1809-1813, but for some reason I am now forging ahead with the next volume, his 700 pp. History of the Second Madison Administration, 1813-1817. I am determinedly ignoring whatever misgivings I may have about this decision and plowing ahead. For now.

Somebody’s got to

Virginia Woolf: ORLANDO.

I read A Kind of Loving as a teenager because my parents had it lying about the house. Fond memories of it and might be tempted to re-read to see how it stacks up now. I also remember a movie and televised drama, both decent.

I've recently read:
A few Maigrets, addictive.
An American Marriage, Tarayi Jones. I read this because my wife was reading it for a book group. Soapy, not particularly sophisticated, overpraised, but an enjoyable enough read.
Freedom by Jonathan Franzen. I picked this up because Amazon had it for less than a quid and I thought I had nothing to lose if I didn't stick with it. Oddly reminiscent of the Jones in some ways, both use characters to tell the story and then fail to give them plausible voices, both progressively bien pensant but pulling their punches the cause of fair mindedness, neither quite as well written as I'd hoped but both moderately entertaining reads.
The Fountain Overflows, Rebecca West. Not great, but a fascinating curio, a window into a certain strand of 20C intellectual fashion, popular fiction from the 50s weirdly mixing the values of the Sunday Post, watered down Nietzscheanism and hints of the supernatural.

Started reading the Once and Future King this morning since I picked it up yesterday. Meant to get a copy for years, having seen the Disney film of Sword in the Stone as a kid. Can see how the book feeds into wanting to make a cartoon like that out of it. Book has a very conversational writing style that the fillm may pick up on.Need to rewatch the thing.
Had assumed beforehand that the book would be a lot more stuffy and classically written.

also started reading
The Walker's Guide to Outdoor Clues and Signs
which I picked up yesterday after finding out a local shop has a number of cheap copies of Gooley's books. This turned up being recommended by a speaker who came into do a weather reading talk in the Tulca festival a few weeks ago.

& read the first couple fo chapters of Walter Yetnikof's Howling at The Moon

The Three-Body Problem by Liu Cixin. i haven't read all that much genre fiction (bar some hard-boiled detective fiction), so it's not really correct for me to say that i'm not into sci-fi books, but i've just never really given it much of a go. really enjoying this so far, about 200 words in. will be reading the remaining books in the series

rest of 3BP is p different from the first 200 words

Fall by Stephenson, love that guy

Maybe some inspiration here :

https://www.nytimes.com/interactive/2019/books/notable-books.html

What I've read this year so far:
https://pbs.twimg.com/media/EKbQ8pBUEAE5YHq?format=jpg&name=4096x4096

I can’t even

This year?! It would take me less than half and hour to read all those... book covers, but only if they were in a much higher resolution.

How does one get through a book every day and a half? Do you not do movies or television or go out? Or are you a speed reader?

A Maigret Christmas & Other Stories

Started reading the Once and Future King this morning since I picked it up yesterday. Meant to get a copy for years, having seen the Disney film of Sword in the Stone as a kid. Can see how the book feeds into wanting to make a cartoon like that out of it. Book has a very conversational writing style that the fillm may pick up on.Need to rewatch the thing.

Loved this when I was an Arthurian mythos obsessed kid. Remember the second volume - relating to adult Arthur - being quite heartbreaking.

Djuna Barnes, NIGHTWOOD.

I read on the bus, at lunch at work, at night when I can't sleep, and don't watch much tv or film

Figured as much, especially the part about the bus and at lunch at work.

also for a break for fun reading: a bit of

Stefan Collini, ABSENT MINDS: INTELLECTUALS IN BRITAIN

I usually read about 35 books a year. In the past three months since my daughter was born, I read 3/4 of one Penelope Fitzgerald novel

They say it changes your whole life

I've read so many more books this year than I usually do. The trick for me has been to really dive into what's happening in young Danish literature, there's so much energy, so much passion, it's so direct. Feels much more like a joy to follow, instead of trying to read whatever's won the Pulitzer, Booker, International Booker, Swedish Genocide Denial Prize, etc.

Or, it might be that most up-and-coming Danish writers write 60 page poesy/essay hybrids. That might also be a reason why I've read more books. Dunno.

I know someone who reads 'around 80' books a year. He also says he barely remembers anything of the books he reads. I find this completely bizarre.

Anyway, I'm around 50 a year at the moment which I'm pretty happy with given my insane job and my insane children.

rest of 3BP is p different from the first 200 words

― flopson, Thursday, November 28, 2019 4:25 PM (yesterday) bookmarkflaglink

(´д｀)

I'm impressed James M. I'd like to read more long form work but i'm afraid the internet has broken my brain.

^truth bomb

i thought one of the jameses worked in a bookshop and slammed back multiple tomes per day

He made a tiny bookshop replica once but don’t think he works in it.

I did use to work in a bookshop, but not for a while. And having a 6yo daughter has actually slowed me down.

reading percival everett's 'erasure' which is v. good and also specifically shits on a bookshop (and possibly me) in which i worked at the time in question

I'm loving Robert Forster's "Grant & I" so far. Tender and funny.

Agreed.

Thirded, although I read it based on Alfred’s recommendation, so not sure if my vote will count.