What Book Did You Read Last Night??? (2 Viewers)

[Lili Marlene]

hmm, i posted this here weeks ago. @Lili Marlene wasn't pleased.

Ha, I was just worrying about adaptations.

People should be writing good scripts not wrecking good books.

 

[Denny Oubidoux]

Ha, I was just worrying about adaptations.

People should be writing good scripts not wrecking good books.

BBC News - Men 'giving up' on books to watch films or go online

Men prefer to watch film adaptations of books than read the original novel, according to a new study, which found the opposite is true for women.

 

[David Kronenbourg]

The Book of Samson by David Maine. Retelling of the Bible story of Samson & Delilah from Samson's point of view. He wrote a trio of these novels based on Bible stories – one about Noah and one about Cain & Abel.

This is excellent. The character of Samson is really funny – like a cross between Conan and a psychotic Alan Partridge. A terrifying, pompous buffoon who salughters countless people in the name of god.

From the man himself: "My life is full of frustration and pain plus a fair bit of sex and lots of killing and broken bones."

 

[pavlos]

Never read anything by this lad, so I thought I'd start with this one. Really enjoyed it.

 

[David Kronenbourg]

Never read anything by this lad, so I thought I'd start with this one. Really enjoyed it.

ahhhhhh, probably my favourite American writer. i've yet to read this though. try Jesus' Son, Angels, Fiskadoro, Tree of Smoke and Already Dead. beautiful stuff. Jesus' Son blew me away the first time i read it.

 

[pavlos]

ahhhhhh, probably my favourite American writer. i've yet to read this though. try Jesus' Son, Angels, Fiskadoro, Tree of Smoke and Already Dead. beautiful stuff. Jesus' Son blew me away the first time i read it.

Cheers! Good to have some recommendations.

 

[Lili Marlene]

Anyway started the Bros K by him the other day so i'll let you know how this goes.

I have been reading every other book possible to avoid reading this. I think it's going to need to wait a while.

 

[David Kronenbourg]

The Heart Broke In by James Meek. Meek weaves a spellbinding tale of blackmail, murder and revenge involving a pederast TV producer, a celebrity scientist, life extension science and revolutionary cancer treatments.

 

[David Kronenbourg]

The Heart Broke In by James Meek. Meek weaves a spellbinding tale of blackmail, murder and revenge involving a pederast TV producer, a celebrity scientist, life extension science and revolutionary cancer treatments.

Er, I made that sound like a thriller. It’s not really, even though it has some thriller elements. It’s pretty unclassifiable like all his books that I’ve read. It has elements of thriller, satire, love story and science-y bits just like his earlier book the People’s Act of Love was a historical fiction, romance and horror fiction hybrid. He's very good.

 

[David Kronenbourg]

Just finished Monster 1959, David Maine's homage to the B movies of yesteryear. Deftly written, clever and very, very funny. Maine's monster is a terrific creation. This guy is one of my favourite writers at the moment.

Started reading Annihilation, the first in the Southern Reach trilogy by Jeff VanderMeer. A team of all female researchers are sent to explore a uninhabited region called Area X which is the site of a mysterious, unexplained "event" years before. Bad things ensue. A terrifically creepy little page turner. Parts two and three are out this year. I'll be reading them all.

 

[тхеодоре кацзынски]

I have been reading every other book possible to avoid reading this. I think it's going to need to wait a while.

Tsk tsk. I almost bought it today but went with 'Anna Karenina' instead. 50 pages in, enjoyable so far. The biggest problem I find with the Russians is the names, the unfamiliarity with them makes it extremely hard to recall who's who, especially when patronymics are added and completely change how a character may be addressed.
Finished 'Devils' by Dostoyevsky last night, probably my favourite of the Russian classics so far, some excellent characters and some strangely prescient passages as to how Socialism would turn out.

 

[CinnamonBoy]

Anyone ever read Speed or Kentucky Ham by the ill-fated William Burroughs Jr.? Thinking of ordering them (they come in one volume).

 

[pete]

A Game Of Thrones. Entertaining, and full of stuff I'd either completely forgotten about or wasn't included in the first series.

 

[David Kronenbourg]

Started reading Annihilation, the first in the Southern Reach trilogy by Jeff VanderMeer. A team of all female researchers are sent to explore a uninhabited region called Area X which is the site of a mysterious, unexplained "event" years before. Bad things ensue. A terrifically creepy little page turner. Parts two and three are out this year. I'll be reading them all.

Finished Annihilation this morning. Wow! Blew me away. One of the best books I've read in a long time. Highly recommend it. Don't read any reviews prior though. Best to go in cold. Apparently the movie rights have been sold and I'm not surprised. It would make a terrific movie. Going to get the second volume asap.

 

[Lili Marlene]

US students request 'trigger warnings' on literature | Books | theguardian.com

hmmmm

 

[Cornu Ammonis]

US students request 'trigger warnings' on literature | Books | theguardian.com

hmmmm

So they want to include spoilers on the covers as standard? I don't read the blurbs on the back of books but it would be hard to avoid a short list of "triggers" which could potentially spoil the impact of a book. If you know that there is going to be a suicide in a book, it will colour how you read everything up until that point.

Equally, do they need to put trigger warnings in medical lectures? We were shown horrific stuff throughout our degree but that was part and parcel of studying diseases and disorders of the body. Warning: Those who may have been operated upon in the past may find these pictures of surgery disturbing.

Trigger warning:

Spoiler

 

[dunderhead]

recently read,

stoner by john williams
yep, the blurbs were right. who would have thought that a novel about a pretty ordinary dude would be so good

paul auster - sunset park
think this is the third one i've read by him. really liked

familiar - j robert lennon
hadn't heard anything about this until I saw it on a staff recommends table in waterstones in Cork. I literally judged a book by its cover. bad idea. didn't enjoy this at all. annoying woman thinks shes losing her mind and is not sure whats real anymore told through a shit story. nice cover though.

dr sleep - steven king
pretty shit. only the second steven king i've read after the shining but was curious to see what he'd do with this. too supernatural for my liking

strange shores - arnaldur indridason
the final (possibly) book in the murder in reykjavik series. best of the series I reckon

currently rereading cather in the rye. last and only time was about 15 years ago. don't remember enjoying it as much last time. thanks to my brutal memory its practically like reading a new book

 

[Scientician 0.8]

Life needs trigger warnings. Bad shit happens all the time.

 

[Lili Marlene]

The argument against is that "literature" should come with a trigger warning in general. If it's not making you think then it's not worth reading. However I can see the benefit. I think they should be presented in the form of stickers that can be easily peeled off so those of us who don't want them or see them as spoilers can easily ignore them.

Personally I haven't had to suffer massive trauma so it'd pretty rich of me to say they're not needed when clearly I haven't a clue.

 

[rettucs]

its pretty much a 500+ page ad for his Pono-player thing (named PureTone at the time of writing the book)