What Book Did You Read Last Night??? (6 Viewers)

[hugh]

The One From The Other by Philip Kerr. I love this guys stuff. It's basically Chandler-esque detective fiction set in pre and post WWII Germany. Protagonist is an ex-cop, private investigator and sometime reluctant SS officer. Like all good detective fiction protagonists he is always getting into scrapes with bad guys on both sides of the law. Here though it's not the LAPD and mob but the Gestapo, the Russian occupation forces, ex-Nazi war criminals and so on. This is number 4 in a series of 7 or 8. I've just made it sound a bit crap but they are actually great.

 

[Jim Daniels]

Finished Flamethrowers by Rachel Kushner. Slightly disjointed at times, but I really liked it.

Have finally started Stoner by John Williams... along it seems, with everyone I follow on Twitter.
Its grand so far. Waiting for something a bit more something though.

 

[washingcattle]

First book I'll have read by him. Its a short book but an enjoyable (if somewhat bleak) read.

I reckon I'll check out more of his work based on this.

Naked Lunch will destroy you. Try to get through it quickly or you start dreaming about utterly terrifying madness.

 

[rettucs]

Naked Lunch will destroy you. Try to get through it quickly or you start dreaming about utterly terrifying madness.

will do, cheers. Definitely want to read more by him

 

[Lili Marlene]

Naked Lunch will destroy you. Try to get through it quickly or you start dreaming about utterly terrifying madness.

I second this emotion.

It's great though

 

[hermie]

Naked Lunch is amazing alright. Although not as revolutionary as is sometimes claimed. Read the 'Circe' chapter in Ulysses and notice the similarities. I know you've just read it but if you can get your hands on the audiobook of Junky it's twice as good as simply reading it, what a voice that guy had. Lastly, just picked up his diaries there a while ago, also a great read.

 

[Lili Marlene]

Finished

Have finally started Stoner by John Williams... along it seems, with everyone I follow on Twitter.
Its grand so far. Waiting for something a bit more something though.

hahaha i know right? everyone read this book in the past year and I have no idea why. Even Bret Easton Ellis was getting in on the action. It's super though, just a really well written, sad novel.

It's a very 18th and 19th century kind of story really, someone's entire life with no special literary effects. It kind of stands out among other (well known) books from the 1960's in that way. Which makes sense as the guy who wrote it was a literature lecturer right? Also there's some dodgy female characters in there who only exist to prop up or hold back the main character that make it nicely traditional in tone

 

[CinnamonBoy]

I read two books last week.

The Sisters Brothers by Patrick DeWitt - amazing and, after discussing with a pal who had also read it and had agreed upon John C. Reilly to be the lead protagonist in a movie adaptation, was tickled to see that Reilly's production company have indeed bought the rights to it in order that he may play the said part.

Also read A Farewell to Arms by Ernest Hemingway. I loved this, though I'm not sure why. I also wanted to unashamedly drink a lot after it.

 

[Lili Marlene]

Also read A Farewell to Arms by Ernest Hemingway. I loved this, though I'm not sure why. I also wanted to unashamedly drink a lot after it.

I picked up a Hemingway book. I read it. It was a good book. I put it down and poured myself a drink. I swallowed some of the liquid. It was cool and tasted good. I enjoyed the drink. etc.

 

[CinnamonBoy]

I picked up a Hemingway book. I read it. It was a good book. I put it down and poured myself a drink. I swallowed some of the liquid. It was cool and tasted good. I enjoyed the drink. etc.

It was August and I was in Portugal, and the cool wind came in off the Atlantic Ocean and I bought some cheap rum in the local store, which I drank, mixed with cola so as not to be so harsh, and I felt most cheerful and read this book. Soon afterwards it began to get dark and I ate some fish, charcoaled and pulled from the sea just that afternoon.


(I have no idea why his writing is good but I love it)

 

[hermie]

class

 

[IFF]

The Sisters Brothers by Patrick DeWitt - amazing and, after discussing with a pal who had also read it and had agreed upon John C. Reilly to be the lead protagonist in a movie adaptation, was tickled to see that Reilly's production company have indeed bought the rights to it in order that he may play the said part.

it was a good book

i finished transatlantic by colum mccann. good book but i don't think it was as good as some of his previous ones.

 

[Jim Daniels]

I read two books last week.

The Sisters Brothers by Patrick DeWitt - amazing and, after discussing with a pal who had also read it and had agreed upon John C. Reilly to be the lead protagonist in a movie adaptation, was tickled to see that Reilly's production company have indeed bought the rights to it in order that he may play the said part.

Also read A Farewell to Arms by Ernest Hemingway. I loved this, though I'm not sure why. I also wanted to unashamedly drink a lot after it.

Loved the Sisters Brothers. I would consider it one of my all time favourites now.

It even has its own trailer (the book, not the movie) which is extra sweet.

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[Jim Daniels]

It was August and I was in Portugal, and the cool wind came in off the Atlantic Ocean and I bought some cheap rum in the local store, which I drank, mixed with cola so as not to be so harsh, and I felt most cheerful and read this book. Soon afterwards it began to get dark and I ate some fish, charcoaled and pulled from the sea just that afternoon.


(I have no idea why his writing is good but I love it)

Anytime someone mentions Hemingway, I think of this..

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[chris d]

i just got through the first 120 odd pages of zen and the art of motorcycle maintenance and put it back on the book shelf. maybe im too tired these nights, but i could not hack the amount of shite talk.

started reading I, Partridge again instead.

Hemingway sounds good.

 

[Denny Oubidoux]

i just got through the first 120 odd pages of zen and the art of motorcycle maintenance and put it back on the book shelf. maybe im too tired these nights, but i could not hack the amount of shite talk.

I read the whole thing, but I didn't really understand a word of it. I think I enjoyed it well enough all the same.

 

[Jim Daniels]

Finished Stoner. It was grand, but left me feeling a bit blank.

Now reading Iain Banks for old time's sake...

 

[Psycho Punk]

Doomsday Men, about the creation of the A Bomb & H bomb but goes back to the early days of the scientists involved. Also covers the relevant SF & Popular Science through the years. Meet the real Dr Strangelove. Pretty good.

Doomsday Men: The Real Dr Strangelove and the Dream of the Superweapon

Homo sapiens is the only species that knows it will die. The thought obsesses us. From the earliest marks made on cave walls to our most sublime works of art, the fear of death haunts our every creation. And in the middle of the twentieth century, human beings became the first species to reach that pinnacle of evolution – the point at which it could engineer its own extinction.

In February 1950, as the temperature of the cold war approached absolute zero, an atomic scientist conceived the ultimate nuclear weapon: a vast explosive device that would cast a deadly pall of fallout over the planet. Carried on the wind, the lethal radioactive dust would eventually reach all four corners of the world. It would mean the end of life on earth.

One of the founding fathers of the atomic age, Leo Szilard, stated that it would be very easy to rig an H-bomb to produce lethal radioactivity. All you had to do, said Szilard, was surround the bomb with a chemical element such as cobalt that absorbs radiation. When it exploded, the bomb would spew radioactive dust into the air like an artificial volcano. Slowly and silently, this invisible killer would fall to the surface. ‘Everyone would be killed,’ he said.

http://www.peterdsmith.com/doomsday-men-the-real-dr-strangelove-and-the-dream-of-the-superweapon/

 

[David Kronenbourg]

Just finished Creole Belle. The 19th installment in James Lee Burke's Dave Robocheaux series. Wonderful stuff as ever from the best American crime writer around today.

Started William Friedkin's memoirs. Entertaining so far. Looking forward to the chapters on The French Connection and Cruising.

 

[Cornu Ammonis]

Naked Lunch is amazing alright. Although not as revolutionary as is sometimes claimed. Read the 'Circe' chapter in Ulysses and notice the similarities. I know you've just read it but if you can get your hands on the audiobook of Junky it's twice as good as simply reading it, what a voice that guy had. Lastly, just picked up his diaries there a while ago, also a great read.

I came to Naked Lunch after Ulysses, Finnegans Wake and JG Ballard so I found it a bit underwhelming. I keep meaning to go back to it again.