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

[pete]

Yeah this is a problem all right. I'm not sure it matters that much though. It's more about the ideas than the characters or the (terrible) dialogue.

I'm at the newton / von neumann computer bit. It's all a bit strained.

 

[hugh]

I'm at the newton / von neumann computer bit. It's all a bit strained.

That's my favourite bit.

 

[Lili Marlene]

In a similar vein i'm about halfway through Careless Love,

It's considerably less fun than Last Train to Memphis. Poor auld Elvis, such a fucked up guy.

Finished this.

Poor Elvis. So sad, tragic and pathetic.

 

[pete]

That's my favourite bit.

I'm enjoying the book, but the dialogue is like something from a japanese video game.

 

[hugh]

Yes. Exactly. Some of it obviously is from a video game so that makes sense but the rest of it? I can't figure out whether it's deliberate or bad translation or just bad writing.

 

[dunderhead]

Uncle Silas by JS Le Fanu. had this on the shelf for a while, started it around Halloween to get in the mood. first 150 pages brilliant. Really great atmosphere created, middle 150 dragged like hell and the last 150 the story concluded pretty nicely. Those Victorians really knew how to flesh out a story, not always to the benefit of the story in this case

 

[pete]

Yes. Exactly. Some of it obviously is from a video game so that makes sense but the rest of it? I can't figure out whether it's deliberate or bad translation or just bad writing.

Finished the first one - pretty good story, but that dialogue..

The second part audiobook i'm listening to has a different translator, and a different narrator. It's like listening to a Speak and Spell reading a translation that was at least partially performed by someone with only a passing familiarity with conversational English. Or perhaps Google Translate. Still sticking with it though.

 

[Lili Marlene]

I read the novel of the season, Sally Rooney's Conversations with Friends.

There's a lot I could say about it, such as teh medias love it because it's basically the lives of self-consciously woke white women on twitter quoting James Baldwin at each other; or that there's nothing rich people like more than books about rich people even if it's a damning critique of them - the important thing is that they are being written about.

HOWEVER...

It is as good as all the reviews say it is. 10/10 would recommend to anyone, it's a really easy read that i flew through in two days. I recognize the characters in it (from twitter I guess) even if it's not describing a world I'm part of and it captures the self consciousness of the current (OMG MILLENNIAL) generation without being yet another writer completely trying so hard to be David Foster Wallace. One thing I really liked was that for all its sparse and spare Hemingway-ish short sentences it's also chock full of beautiful imagery. also she's only 26 ffs.

Uncle Silas by JS Le Fanu. had this on the shelf for a while, started it around Halloween to get in the mood. first 150 pages brilliant. Really great atmosphere created, middle 150 dragged like hell and the last 150 the story concluded pretty nicely. Those Victorians really knew how to flesh out a story, not always to the benefit of the story in this case

if nothing else, amazing cover on it there, look at that font!

 

[jonah]

Really loved it, 5/5.

 

[Lili Marlene]

Would say it is "luminous and powerful"?

 

[pete]

Finished the first one - pretty good story, but that dialogue..

The second part audiobook i'm listening to has a different translator, and a different narrator. It's like listening to a Speak and Spell reading a translation that was at least partially performed by someone with only a passing familiarity with conversational English. Or perhaps Google Translate. Still sticking with it though.

This is turning into a bit of a grind. There's too much exposition delivered via "perhaps now would be a good time to recap how we got to this point, said the newscaster" or "...said the secretary general of the UN".

I'm still having major problems keeping up with who's who. Passes the time in the car though.

 

[David Kronenbourg]

My Christmas reading

 

[Lili Marlene]

Do keep us informed, i'm probably gonna re-read Earthsea.

 

[pete]

Finished the first one - pretty good story, but that dialogue..

The second part audiobook i'm listening to has a different translator, and a different narrator. It's like listening to a Speak and Spell reading a translation that was at least partially performed by someone with only a passing familiarity with conversational English. Or perhaps Google Translate. Still sticking with it though.

WILL IT EVER END?

 

[David Kronenbourg]

Do keep us informed, i'm probably gonna re-read Earthsea.

Well, Borne is the best thing I’ve read in ages, but I’ve read about 3 books this year

 

[hugh]

Just finished the new Philip Pullman. It was okay but didn't really grab me like the others. I'm probably older and more cynical. I'm also finding his hardcore-atheism anti-religion stance a bit tiresome and obvious now. Reading this now. Exciting so far

Avertissement de redirection

 

[pete]

Finished the first one - pretty good story, but that dialogue..

The second part audiobook i'm listening to has a different translator, and a different narrator. It's like listening to a Speak and Spell reading a translation that was at least partially performed by someone with only a passing familiarity with conversational English. Or perhaps Google Translate. Still sticking with it though.

This is turning into a bit of a grind. There's too much exposition delivered via "perhaps now would be a good time to recap how we got to this point, said the newscaster" or "...said the secretary general of the UN".

I'm still having major problems keeping up with who's who. Passes the time in the car though.

WILL IT EVER END?

NOT YET

slogging through the third part now, which appears to be the longest of the three

if it wasn't an audiobook i probably would have packed it in by now

 

[Lili Marlene]

Just finished the new Philip Pullman. It was okay but didn't really grab me like the others. I'm probably older and more cynical. I'm also finding his hardcore-atheism anti-religion stance a bit tiresome and obvious now.

I've never found him hardcore atheist or anti-religion if you actually dig into his work beyond the headlines, and there's a whole pile of sympathetic religious characters in the new one. I do agree it doesn't grab you immediately like the others did though; it's a very slow, meandering read for quite a while, but that can be nice too. I'm kind of waiting to see how the whole trilogy works as a whole before passing any kind of judgement on it. There were certainly some bits in it that I was a bit iffy about

Spoiler

mostly, for a book that is obsessed with the practical side of things; making rafts, taking care of young babies etc., to suddenly jump into a chapter or two of a weird fairy-tale fantasy felt very jarring.

Reading this now. Exciting so far

Avertissement de redirection

let us know how that goes will you? People are always bigging him up but the only book by him I have read was a YA one called Un Lun Dun and it was embarrassingly bad.

 

[chris d]

Who got Fire and Fury? I wrapped up a Len Deighton novel yesterday and so bought it on kindle like a dick. Figured it would be a shared cultural experience if nothing else.

 

[David Kronenbourg]

The Butchers of Berlin by Chris Petit. A noir crime novel set in WW2 Berlin. Good atmosphere.