What Book Did You Read Last Night??? (5 Viewers)

[Lili Marlene]

Can you sum it up in a sentence?

As above really.

Or another way: you know that idea that light is the best disinfectant? This kind of argues that the technological world we are living in is claiming that while putting us through sustained white room torture.

The "dark age" idea is that we are already living in it, there's so much algorithimic information being used all the time in all sorts of ways we can't understand (we literally cannot understand, it goes into a fair bit of detail on that) that we effectively are in the dark on how the world works.

 

[David Kronenbourg]

As above really.

Or another way: you know that idea that light is the best disinfectant? This kind of argues that the technological world we are living in is claiming that while putting us through sustained white room torture.

My gf is reading it the moment. I'm gonna nick it after.

 

[jonah]

For the first time in forever, I've finished my Goodreads reading challenge for the year (50 books)

 

[Lili Marlene]

My gf is reading it the moment. I'm gonna nick it after.

It's very well written, which is a rarity. Like, it's not beautiful writing or anything but it's thought out and clear but also grappling with complicated ideas. Like a less obscure Mark Fisher maybe?

 

[pavlos]

It's very well written, which is a rarity. Like, it's not beautiful writing or anything but it's thought out and clear but also grappling with complicated ideas. Like a less obscure Mark Fisher maybe?

Speaking of whom, this is definitely on my Christmas list:

k-punk: The Collected and Unpublished Writings of Mark Fisher (2004-2016) | Repeater Books | Repeater Books

 

[Lili Marlene]

Speaking of whom, this is definitely on my Christmas list:

k-punk: The Collected and Unpublished Writings of Mark Fisher (2004-2016) | Repeater Books | Repeater Books

Tell you what though, I really hate Simon Reynolds.


Purely because he never misses a moment to make a snide remark about the Clash and I'M NOT HAVING IT.

 

[pavlos]

Tell you what though, I really hate Simon Reynolds.


Purely because he never misses a moment to make a snide remark about the Clash and I'M NOT HAVING IT.

I've no time for that lad at all. I read his post-punk book and cringed through 90% of it.

 

[hugh]

I have a lot of time for Mark Fisher but it can be a bit hard going sometimes all right if you are not up on all the reference points. That dark age technology book looks good.

 

[jonah]

Recommendations for a couple more 2018 publications to shove in to the last month of the year? People's book of the year maybe?

 

[travispickle]

I'm now reading Convenience Store Woman, having read The Guest Cat, My Year of Meats, The Ocean at the end of the Lane and another one I can't remember in recent weeks.

@jonah folks have been raving over Sally Rooney's Normal People, Rachel Cusk's Kudos, Lincoln in the Bardo; I'm sure there's tons more and you've probably read all those ones.

 

[jonah]

I'm now reading Convenience Store Woman, having read The Guest Cat, My Year of Meats, The Ocean at the end of the Lane and another one I can't remember in recent weeks.

@jonah folks have been raving over Sally Rooney's Normal People, Rachel Cusk's Kudos, Lincoln in the Bardo; I'm sure there's tons more and you've probably read all those ones.

I've not read Kudos. But Conveinence Store Woman is actually on my list, I might read that next, thank you

 

[ann post]

This yoke

Prolly the best non fiction book i've read in recent times. Would recommend to one and all.

It sounds like i'd like it but i haven't located the pdf to bootleg it yet.

 

[IFF]

]

I'm now reading Convenience Store Woman, having read The Guest Cat, My Year of Meats, The Ocean at the end of the Lane and another one I can't remember in recent weeks.

both year of meats and convenience store woman are on my tbr shelf

i recently read Pretend I'm Dead by jen begin and liked it

 

[travispickle]

]


both year of meats and convenience store woman are on my tbr shelf

i recently read Pretend I'm Dead by jen begin and liked it

I just finished Convenience Store Woman today! I enjoyed it, now to find something new!

 

[Denny Oubidoux]

A Dreambook For Our Time by Tadeusz Konwicki

This was excellent and grim. A bunch of random misfits and strays in a small polish village about to be sunk by a dam in the early 1960s. They're all struggling with various degrees of trauma and damage resulting from their various roles and positions in WW2. I kinda ruined it by stopping in the middle of a climatic bit and not picking it up again for a couple of weeks. It doesn't really work to go back to the middle of those kinda bits.

 

[ann post]

Its closer to a book than an article (for me). I'm halfway through

Losing Earth: The Decade We Almost Stopped Climate Change

 

[hermie]

Recommendations for a couple more 2018 publications to shove in to the last month of the year? People's book of the year maybe?

I liked Danny Denton's book The Earlie King and the Kid in Yellow. I might have mentioned it here, can't remember and not arsed checking.

 

[_Katie_]

A Dreambook For Our Time by Tadeusz Konwicki

This was excellent and grim. A bunch of random misfits and strays in a small polish village about to be sunk by a dam in the early 1960s. They're all struggling with various degrees of trauma and damage resulting from their various roles and positions in WW2. I kinda ruined it by stopping in the middle of a climatic bit and not picking it up again for a couple of weeks. It doesn't really work to go back to the middle of those kinda bits.

This looks really excellent.

 

[David Kronenbourg]

I gave up on The Vorrh after a bit. Nonsense.

Reading A Station on the Path to Somewhere Better by Benjamin Wood. Set in the early 90s – but not a pointless nostalgia fest. A young lad goes on a road trip with his incredibly dodgy father to visit the set of a sci-fi tv show the dad works on. The atmosphere suggests it’s going to go to some very dark places. The setting – northern England in the 90s - and characters are brilliantly written and it features a great example of a book within a book, and a tv show adaptation of a book within a book.

 

[Denny Oubidoux]

Malak Jan Nemati: Life Isn't Short But Time Is Limited by Leili Anvar

Malak Jan Nemati, affectionately called "Saint Jani," devoted her life to the service of others and to the stages of the process of spiritual perfection, which she considered as the essential purpose of every human being. The wisdom and resilience of this remarkable woman, who became the guardian of her brother Ostad Elahi's spiritual thought, are as instructive in today's modern world as they were in her remote village in Iranian Kurdistan so many years ago.

Some lad on goodreads convinced me to buy this hagiography when I asked him if he could point me in the direction of more info about Ostad Elahi and and the Ahl-e Haqq religion but as far as all that goes it only raises more questions than it answers. It's not great, a bit like something a 10 year old would have bought for a religious aunty on a school tour to Knock in 1979. I'm sure she was cool and all but we don't really find out about that in this book.

"She was concurrently provided with a musical education as well, learning how to play the tanboor, the traditional instrument of the sacred melodies of Kurdistan, and the setar, a string instrument used in classical Persian music. The extreme delicacy of these two instruments was a perfect match for her personality.... Malak Jan thus lived a happy childhood, one divided between her studies, her games and her spiritual activities while being nourished by Kurdish chants and protected by watchful and loving parents" .