What Book Did You Read Last Night??? (1 Viewer)

[dunderhead]

It's definitely hard to invest as much time in a book as long as the Goldfinch as you do and still come out going 'that was rubbish'. I can maybe see a certain perverse pleasure from doing it but really there's a limit to these things. Right??

was looking forward to GF for years. once i realised i really liked it initially, got through it reasonably quick, for me. generally been trying to keep reads to max 350 pages these days. finished John Kelly's From Out Of The City (which i thought was brilliant) but have The Luminaries sitting on the shelf since christmas. 800 pager. worth investing my time into? have plenty of it at the moment.

 

[Lili Marlene]

was looking forward to GF for years. once i realised i really liked it initially, got through it reasonably quick, for me. generally been trying to keep reads to max 350 pages these days. finished John Kelly's From Out Of The City (which i thought was brilliant) but have The Luminaries sitting on the shelf since christmas. 800 pager. worth investing my time into? have plenty of it at the moment.

Oh i haven't read it yet, haven't even got a copy yet, @IFF reviewed a few pages back though

I read it and I thought it was ok, but somewhat overrated. the first part of it is 361 pages and if you don't get into it early, it can prove a difficult read. on the book forum i post at, there were many negative views on it.

anyway I read the Bunker Diary cos it won the Carnegie:

It's bleak bleak bleak and unrelenting. Apparently it took a decade to get published and I think it shows cos the concept feels quite dated; I would guess it started as a take on the Big Brother TV show, which has obviously been done to death, but ended up more like Room. The writing is good though, un-patronizing and unsentimental and there's a lot to ponder afterwards. It felt a little underdeveloped overall, but I'd rather be left wanting more than be sick to death of it.

 

[Jill Hives]

was looking forward to GF for years. once i realised i really liked it initially, got through it reasonably quick, for me. generally been trying to keep reads to max 350 pages these days. finished John Kelly's From Out Of The City (which i thought was brilliant) but have The Luminaries sitting on the shelf since christmas. 800 pager. worth investing my time into? have plenty of it at the moment.

I have a copy of it too but haven't touched it.

 

[jonah]

Finished this in the park yesterday. So flipping amazing. it reads amazingly when you read it out loud, I love when books have that kind of flow. Her language is just beautiful and so vivid. When I googled all the places and murals/paintings mentioned they looked just like I imagined.

 

[Lili Marlene]

Finished this in the park yesterday. So flipping amazing. it reads amazingly when you read it out loud, I love when books have that kind of flow. Her language is just beautiful and so vivid. When I googled all the places and murals/paintings mentioned they looked just like I imagined.

The Lacuna isn't nearly as interesting a title as THE POISONWOOD BIBLE

 

[Jim Daniels]

I have a copy of it too but haven't touched it.

That makes three of us

 

[Jill Hives]

I like your bookshelf.

 

[pete]

Read the three books in The Strain trilogy last week. Good fun.

Read The Leftovers last night / this morning. A pretty good read, but infuriating in many ways.

anyway only posting about them because both featured houses with something called a mudroom, which was something I'd never heard of before. So there you go.

Next up: Glenn Greenwald's No Place To Hide. Not expecting much mudroom action in this one.

 

[David Kronenbourg]

Ballard's Cocaine Nights for me next. Really liked Super-Cannes.

 

[nooleen]

finished this last night

great stuff, i love peter carey
dark, humorous, socially aware, australian sagas are his general oeuvre

 

[Denny Oubidoux]

I love Carey too but I didn't like that one

 

[7 - No tomorrow]

I read this back when

Theft: A Love Story - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Can't say that I loved it

 

[David Kronenbourg]

I started Oscar and Lucinda and didn't know who was who or what the fuck was going on

 

[washingcattle]

Currently closing out the last 40 pages of The Names by Don De Lillo.


Stick the the fucking point for fuck sake man.


At times it reads like he went off his meds. I'm all for complex narratives but some times it is what it is in this case it's just messy. Such a strangely malformed novel. There's a cult, a murder plot, a family drama and a slice of life in which our narrator works as a risk assessor in the early eighties middle east. All interesting stuff but he can't focus on any one of these strands for more than a few paragraphs. If he ties this all together in the end it'll have to be a masterpiece of a final part.

 

[Denny Oubidoux]

Currently closing out the last 40 pages of The Names by Don De Lillo.


Stick the the fucking point for fuck sake man.


At times it reads like he went off his meds. I'm all for complex narratives but some times it is what it is in this case it's just messy. Such a strangely malformed novel. There's a cult, a murder plot, a family drama and a slice of life in which our narrator works as a risk assessor in the early eighties middle east. All interesting stuff but he can't focus on any one of these strands for more than a few paragraphs. If he ties this all together in the end it'll have to be a masterpiece of a final part.

Is that the one where some guy is faffing about in greece?

I didn't like that one.

 

[Jim Daniels]

The Wolf in Winter by John Connolly

Halfway through and really enjoying it. Will probably read more in the Charlie Parker series now.

I'm afraid to get into the crime/ thiller genre 'cause I've heard it becomes addictive, and there's way too much out there.

 

[rettucs]

I'm afraid to get into the crime/ thiller genre 'cause I've heard it becomes addictive, and there's way too much out there.

just read something by Lee Child. Hes so bad you won't want to read anything else.

 

[washingcattle]

Is that the one where some guy is faffing about in greece?

I didn't like that one.

Yup. Tough going. It's like a blueprint for White Noise. Everything is there, the work life, the family life, the broad world view of politics and society and the high concept plot device (in this case the cult in White Noise the inhaled death and...... I don't want to spoiler the latter half of that novel) But here he hasn't pulled it all together quite right and it's not as funny or charming as White Noise. It does have it's moments but it's too serious with a big S.

 

[hydromancer]

That makes three of us

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Might try "something wicked this way comes" or some other Ray Bradbury maybe i will read "The Illustrated Man first".

 

[Jim Daniels]

Might try "something wicked this way comes" or some other Ray Bradbury maybe i will read "The Illustrated Man first".

Ray Bradbury is great. Dandeline Wine is my favourite - a lovely book. But "Something Wicked'" or The Illustrated Man is probably more typical of his work. His short stories are supposed to be great too.