What Book Did You Read Last Night??? (8 Viewers)

[rettucs]

I started Blood Meridian the other day. If it isn't deadly youse are all dead

 

[snakybus]

My post-Karamazov reviews. This lists my reading right up to December 31st. I read 33 books in 2024, which is not that many I guess but better than going on Facebook and shit.

The Raptures by Jan Carson
Well written Norn Iron story about a girl from an evangelical family who can see dead people and there’s a bit of a mystery around their respective shady deaths. I'm not sure if it's uncharitable to say that I had a hard time with this as I just generally find fantasy, or fantastical elements that are a strong feature of a narrative, to be a tough sell. It's weird, because there was lots about the earthy characters and story I did like. Maybe I’m fine with a ghost story but not when it’s grounded in a down-to-earth, somewhat humorous, kitchen sink setting. While the story of the living people worked well for me, the dead characters and the way they carried on in realistic, conversational ways made me think about whether they go to the toilet, what do they eat and stuff like that. Of course there’s no rule you have to conform to genre norms but I dunno, I like my ghosts screechy, non-corporeal and scaring the ballsack off me.

Young Skins by Colin Barrett
A collection of short stories that all take place in what seems to be the same time and place, featuring characters who are all similar – young wasters and drinkers making what immoderate use of their colourless existences as they can on the wet scraw that is County Mayo, engaging in depravities of various and diverting kinds. This works very well as a series of flashing vignettes and, although the stories don’t always resolve themselves, this is quite all right as the prose is brilliant and edifying from start to finish; the dialogue sharp as a tack. In short, I hate this josser; with his goddam talent to burn. What a delight it was to read, one of the best of the year.

The Dublin Review 91
Part of a series (of 91 -- so far -- as the title suggests) of collections of writings by Irish folk. This featured stuff by the likes of Eoin Butler, Patrick Freyne and other notable literary pricks-about-town. Pretty damn enjoyable, all in.

This Other Eden by Paul Harding
I thought I’d give a go at a couple of Booker Prize nominees for this year. This one looked like a manageable read and it was. Lots of beautiful language and some interesting experimentation didn’t quite make up for quite an uneventful story about a mixed-race colony that really dragged for me. I couldn’t shake the feeling that this book is held up for its worthiness as a comment on racism in America rather than its actual value. Plus it had something approaching a central character who started to do something and then just disappeared. Frustrating.

Independence Day by Richard Ford
Book two of the Frank Bascombe pentalogy. I loved The Sportswriter and this was more of the same, though I'm not sure if it hit the same emotional heights and I didn't find myself quite as blown away. This time Frank is a realtor, which for me is a bit of a boring job - though Ford made it fairly entertaining with his long, meandering sentences and fun word use and sometimes loathsome but always interesting characters. Anyway, look, it was superb and completely my sort of thing. It's deserving of the Pulitzer it got, if anything deserves a prize, though I reckon that was for both this and The Sportswriter, which had probably slipped under the prize radar at the time.

A New Name: Septology VI-VII by Jon Fosse
The final two books in Jon Fosse's Septology. Fosse won the Nobel Prize since I started this series, which I wasn't expecting but am not too surprised by, let's say, in that it makes me feel nice and smug/zeitgeisty. These last two installments continue in the vein of the previous five books, a word tapestry with no real start and finish, stream of consciousness prose with no sentences that sometimes turns into pure babble. Although this sounds confusing, the narrative is pretty concrete and the style allows the writer to dip into the past and come seamlessly back to the present, and also float into philosophical ruminations about art and god and whatever else tickles him as well as the aforementioned verbal babble that is actually more interesting than it sounds. Really good.

The Sarah Book by Scott McClanahan
I got this for Christmas and read it really fast. Hilarious and sad book set in Appalacia about a divorce, the main character (also called Scott McClanahan) being a real immature but intellectual Bukowski-esque asshole who provides most of the fun and humour. Well worth a read, and pretty much up my street. If you're into angry white southern men (or are one) like I dunno, The Mountain Goats or something, this'd be up yours, too.

A = - A by Dimitris Anastasiou
Really bizarre but engaging and beautifully drawn graphic novel about the writer's explorations of his dreams. Pretty out there and hard to follow but then it is about a guy's dream so if it wasn't wacky there'd be something awry.

 

[Kermit McDermott]

I started Miki Berenyi's autobiography, fingers crossed: how music saved me from success.
It's the first music book I've read in years.
I listened to a few interviews with her and it sounded interesting.

 

[GARYXKNIFEDX]

I started Miki Berenyi's autobiography, fingers crossed: how music saved me from success.
It's the first music book I've read in years.
I listened to a few interviews with her and it sounded interesting.

Miki Berenyi: Fingers Crossed: How Music Saved Me from Success - CQAF

Miki Berenyi is a singer, songwriter and guitarist, best known as a member of the indie band Lush and currently a […]

cqaf.com

 

[Unicron]

I started Miki Berenyi's autobiography, fingers crossed: how music saved me from success.
It's the first music book I've read in years.
I listened to a few interviews with her and it sounded interesting.

I listened to it. Enjoyed it.

 

[David Kronenbourg]

Recent reads.

The Wolves of Eternity - Karl Ove Knausgaard. Sequel/prequel to The Morning Star. Essentially two character studies set decades apart with with some weird supernatural shit going on. Excellent.

Eden - Jim Crace. Garden of Eden as a labour camp overseen by Angels who resemble giant birds. Good

The Fall of Hyperion - Dan Simmons. Second book in the Hyperion Cantos. A group of pilgrims visit a desert planet which is home to a mysterious being called The Shrike. Love it.

Dhalgren - Samuel R Delany. Man gets stuck in a city which seems to be in an alternative universe. Struggling with this.

Castle in the Forest - Norman Mailer. Hitler's childhood as told by an SS officer who is a demon. Very grim.

The Shadow of the Torturer by Gene Wolfe. Science fantasy set in a far future earth about a torturer's apprentice forced to go on the run after interferring with the death of one of his clients. Amazing.

Soldier of the Mist by Gene Wolfe. Greek soldier gets a wallop on the head and loses his memory but gains the ability to speak to the gods. Amazing.

Red Mars by Kim Stanley Robinson. Incredible book about terraforming Mars.

The Three Body Problem. Great sci fi. Cant wait for the tv show.

 

[chris d]

The Fall of Hyperion - Dan Simmons. Second book in the Hyperion Cantos. A group of pilgrims visit a desert planet which is home to a mysterious being called The Shrike. Love it.

I just got the first one of these out of the library.

Have finished The Master and Margarita. I read this when I was about 21. I'm sure there were layers and subtext I didn't get then, but I enjoyed the chaos of it. Reading it at 41, I am sure there were layers and subtext I didn't get, but I enjoyed the chaos of it.

I did find it difficult remembering all the characters with the Russian names.

 

[David Kronenbourg]

I just got the first one of these out of the library.

It's a banger. Hope you like it.

 

[David Kronenbourg]

The Skinner by Neal Asher - sci fi set on a hostile water planet called Spatterjay. Not as good or violent as I'd been led to believe.

Pompeii by Robert Harris - Set in the days before the Mt Vesuvius eruptions. Zippy read.

Rendeszvous with Rama by Arthur C Clarke. Big fuck off spaceship. Really good.

Revelation Space by Alastair Reynolds. Dense sci fi. Also set on a big fuck off spaceship. No idea whats going on but can't put it down.

Vurt by Jeff Noon. Lowlifes trip out on freaky drugs in an alternative Manchester. Great.

 

[the_jen]

Revelation Space by Alastair Reynolds. Dense sci fi. Also set on a big fuck off spaceship. No idea whats going on but can't put it down.

I love the Revenger books too. (Altho they might be for kids.)

 

[chris d]

It's a banger. Hope you like it.

Enjoying this. Finished the chapter last night about the girl that started aging backwards. Really bummed me out that.

Then I had a dream that one of the young ones in work (attractive) died, and I had to do all the stuff for the funeral. Although she either wasn't dead or didn't realise she was dead so I had to keep the details from her.

 

[David Kronenbourg]

Enjoying this. Finished the chapter last night about the girl that started aging backwards. Really bummed me out that.

Then I had a dream that one of the young ones in work (attractive) died, and I had to do all the stuff for the funeral. Although she either wasn't dead or didn't realise she was dead so I had to keep the details from her.

I'm struggling my way through the second book. it's pretty dense

 

[rettucs]

I started Blood Meridian the other day. If it isn't deadly youse are all dead

I didn't like this.

 

[Unicron]

Currently listening to Chigozie Obioma's The Fishermen. About mid way through.

Been trying to "decolonise" my habits a bit so I've made a deliberate choice to read/listen to more originally not in English novels, more women etc. Aside from a couple of Camus novels I've never read anything by an African author I don't think. It's good, the main characters were all teenagers in the 90's when it's set as I was and some of it, despite Nigeria being so far away from here rings true of my memories of being that old. Captures the generally being excited state of adolescence really well.

 

[Cornu Ammonis]

I didn't like this.

;_;

 

[nuke terrorist]

Recent reads.

The Wolves of Eternity - Karl Ove Knausgaard. Sequel/prequel to The Morning Star. Essentially two character studies set decades apart with with some weird supernatural shit going on. Excellent.

Eden - Jim Crace. Garden of Eden as a labour camp overseen by Angels who resemble giant birds. Good

The Fall of Hyperion - Dan Simmons. Second book in the Hyperion Cantos. A group of pilgrims visit a desert planet which is home to a mysterious being called The Shrike. Love it.

Dhalgren - Samuel R Delany. Man gets stuck in a city which seems to be in an alternative universe. Struggling with this.

Castle in the Forest - Norman Mailer. Hitler's childhood as told by an SS officer who is a demon. Very grim.

The Shadow of the Torturer by Gene Wolfe. Science fantasy set in a far future earth about a torturer's apprentice forced to go on the run after interferring with the death of one of his clients. Amazing.

Soldier of the Mist by Gene Wolfe. Greek soldier gets a wallop on the head and loses his memory but gains the ability to speak to the gods. Amazing.

Red Mars by Kim Stanley Robinson. Incredible book about terraforming Mars.

The Three Body Problem. Great sci fi. Cant wait for the tv show.

I love this kitchen sink drama stuff.

 

[rettucs]

;_;

I get the appeal. Its great at times but I lost interest too many times and by the end I was just plain lost.

 

[Cornu Ammonis]

I get the appeal. It’s great at times but I lost interest too many times and by the end I was just plain lost.

That’s fair, I hadn’t a breeze what was going on when I read it first. I just wanted you to love it.

 

[David Kronenbourg]

I love this kitchen sink drama stuff.

Is that referring to a particular book I listed?

 

[nuke terrorist]

Is that referring to a particular book I listed?

Yer books are mostly 180 degrees away from mundane drudgery.
I haven't finished reading a fiction book for decades. Sci Fi / non linear stuff is probably great but I don't have motivation to stick with any fiction unfortunately.
That reminds me - I recorded a doc on Vonnegut a while back, must watch that.

EDIT:
Fixed typo. The fact I can't even proof read my own posts is probably a good indicator of hard going I find reading books.