What Book Did You Read Last Night??? (10 Viewers)

[ICUH8N]

Robert Birnbaum did a long interview with him concerning this, and other topics at the morning news: caution may induce sleep. Good, if a little lengthy. You'd think birnbaum would just fucking get on with it, but no.

 

[Super Dexta]

Due to insomnia I read 'Lunar Park' by Bret Easton Ellis.

THIS JUST IN: Writer writes book about writing! With fictionalized version of self-same writer as main character/narrator! Revolutionary!

"Bret, with these hackneyed post-modernisms you are really spoiling us." (Or maybe that's the whole point. Hmmmm...that's a real toughie...)

Entertaining enough though (i.e. didn't serve intended purpose of getting me to sleep).

aaaaaaahahaha. have you ever read paul auster? i'd love to hear you laying into him.
i quite liked lunar park apart from the end when it went all steven kingy.

 

[Dromed]

Mumblin Deaf Ro are you on a bit of a french-themed reading buzz? That's the kind of stuff I tend to go for...read A Moveable Feast a month ago and liked that a lot but not sure if Ernest's worth investigating more... ? Madame Bovary is a bit of a depressing read

Just finished Balzac's 'The Wrong Side of Paris'..that's pretty good - some good twists and turns and started 'Justine' a Marquis de Sade book - it's already giving me the weirdest of dreams.... !!

 

[MDR]

I suppose the french thing has sort of crept up on me. Been listening to fauré and debussy too - quelle surprise!

I've been meaning to check out something by balzac so i might try 'The wrong side of paris' - cheers.

 

[frona]

I'm reading this ridiculous book called The Rice Mother at the moment. I took a loan of it from a friend to be polite as it looked like the most interesting of her offerings. God, it's annoying. It's like the Peig of Malasia or something. "And then I had my third child, and she had sad eyes as if she knew the awful fate that would befall her. And then I had my son, who was beautiful and clever. Who would have suspected that an awful fate would befall him!" Ugh! Still, I'm finding it strangely addictive. All the same - avoid!

 

[Dromed]

Have you read Wild Swans - Three Daughters of China? It's really good, if a bit long. Can get a bit depressing, but then communism isn't all hearts and chocolate boxes. Lesson learnt? Mao = Mentalist.

 

[Doctor Muscles]

Have you read Wild Swans - Three Daughters of China? It's really good, if a bit long. Can get a bit depressing, but then communism isn't all hearts and chocolate boxes. Lesson learnt? Mao = Mentalist.

Yeah it's pretty depressing alright, but imagine; if you didn't like your boss/neighbour etc. you could just denounce them as a capitalist roader and get a pack of red guards to knock the bollocks out of them.

 

[Dromed]

I got a secret thrill out of reading that the school kids had rounded up their teachers, locked them in classrooms and had taken over the schools, Lord of the Flies style...I'm 28...I thought I'd grown out of that school kid rebellion ha ha!

 

[Super Dexta]

at the moment my bedtime reading is louis theroux's 'call of the weird'. it is quite weird. but entertaining.

 

[Dromed]

http://www.bookcrossing.com/hunt/13/2031/travel_-Ireland-Co.-Dublin

Anyone else on this mailing list? It's a nice idea...They set books free!! Basically people leave books in a public place then notify the list, all those in your area are emailed (once you've signed up) and you are invited to go to said public place and the book is yours. You are supposed to then pass it on in a similar fashion once you've read it.

 

[St. Fechin]

aaaaaaahahaha. have you ever read paul auster? i'd love to hear you laying into him.
i quite liked lunar park apart from the end when it went all steven kingy.

He writes himself into his novels too, doesn't he? I think you told me about this before. They're all at it nowadays of course. Douglas Coupland does it in his new one apparently. Thing is, Vonnegut was parodying this lazy-ass device 30-odd years ago.

 

[muffin]

im in the middle of reading white teeth..tis good so far..

 

[Mormon Nailer]

A peoples history of the United States by Howard Zinn (interesting stuff)
I am Charlotte Simms by Tom Wolfe (causing me problems, the text is so smalli t's nearly illegible)
I was also reading French provincle cookery by Elizabeth David last night. (a classic and rightly so. A havin Julia Child write the forward is like having Thomas Pynchon write your liner notes)

 

[St. Fechin]

Robert Birnbaum did a long interview with him concerning this, and other topics at the morning news: caution may induce sleep. Good, if a little lengthy. You'd think birnbaum would just fucking get on with it, but no.

Thanks for the link. The interview is alright, not terribly informative (but interviews with writers seldom are). Veers into Smash Hits-type banality at times: "Do you have a dog?", "Do you have a girlfriend?" etc. Probably not all Birnbaum's fault though.

 

[Scientician 0.8]

im in the middle of reading white teeth..tis good so far..

White Teeth's pretty good but it goes a bit bocketty towards the end.

 

[MDR]

Gene wilder's autobiography is surprisingly good. He gets jizzed on quite early in it.

 

[MDR]

Just finished the gene wilder autobiography. It's mostly about cancer. About two paragraphs devoted to willy wonka.

Am starting to read that They May Face the Rising Sun by John McGahern who died shortly after i pulled it from the shelf, coincidentally.

 

[Super Dexta]

i was in books upstairs with my ma yesterday when it came on the radio that he had died. cue (a) my ma nearly crying and (b) a stream of people coming in buying his books.
i'm still reading the louis theroux book. it puts me to sleep quickly, which is a plus.

 

[cyclotron]

"The Way of all flesh" by Midas Dekkers. Dutch writer-biologist discusses decay and death as natural processes and makes you feel not-so-bad about your inevitable stinking decline. Oh and it's well funny.

 

[тхеодоре кацзынски]

the world is flat by thomas friedman.....very good at what he does.