What Book Did You Read Last Night??? (7 Viewers)

[therealjohnny]

Update to "That They may Face the Rising Sun"

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They saved the hay, thanks be to god

 

[glen]

"What shall we do, Blue Kangaroo?" - a great read.

 

[Pauls_Ferrari]

Well, I'm a fan of John McGahern, but if you're not I don't think you would have much interest in his autobiography (which 'Memoir' is, in case you weren't sure). If you are a fan, Easons are selling a paper-back box-set for €24.99. Great value. Has 'The Dark', 'Amongst Women' (which I've already read, but hey), The Pornographer, The Barracks, and 'That They May Face the Rising Sun'.

On another tack, I just read 'My Magpie Eyes are Hungry for the Prize', which is a history of Creation records, and 'Chronicles Vol. 1' by his Bobness. Both cracking!

 

[Bellatrix]

Just finished Howard's End. Lovely story, beautifully written and superior to On Beauty in every way.

I think I'll watch the film later.

Wednesdays can be fun.

 

[ICUH8N]

Haven't read yet, but just bought in the TCD bookshop for 7c

Haruki Murakami: Sputnik Sweetheart
John Banville: Eclipse
Carson McCullers: The Heart is a Lonely Hunter

 

[MDR]

On holidays I read:

Kurt Vonnegut - Slaughterhouse 5 (a thumped recommendation, much enjoyed)

Paul Auster - Oracle Nights (tries to use clever storytelling devices but ends up just being a load of half ideas stitched together. I bought it because it had a picture of New York on the cover, but there was hardly anything about new york in it)

Raymond Chandler - The Big Sleep (Had never considered reading a detective book before but thoroughly enjoyed this)

Currently reading 'Other Voices, Other Rooms' by Truman Capote. So far it's a bit like an Annie Proulx book, whereas I was expecting something about a fey man in new York. There's a film about Capote coming out soon - it's all about him writing 'In Cold Blood' about solving a real-life multiple murder.

 

[Deleted member 3435]

Haven't read yet, but just bought in the TCD bookshop for 7c

Haruki Murakami: Sputnik Sweetheart
John Banville: Eclipse
Carson McCullers: The Heart is a Lonely Hunter

the heart is a lonely hunter is great.

i was reading the Opie's collected fairy tales (again) last night.

 

[Super Dexta]

Paul Auster - Oracle Nights (tries to use clever storytelling devices but ends up just being a load of half ideas stitched together. I bought it because it had a picture of New York on the cover, but there was hardly anything about new york in it)

you need to get reading new york trilogy ro. assuming you haven't already. i've just started timbuktu and i'm totally sucked in.
i'm also reading daniel deronda which is painful.

 

[Audiodelic]

Recently read Bret Easton Ellis's Lunar Park and really liked it. I didn't really like his other work but this is great.

Having a bit of break from books so dipping into The Best of Saki's short stories, which are really cool. Very out there, funny - and short!

 

[MDR]

you need to get reading new york trilogy ro. assuming you haven't already. i've just started timbuktu and i'm totally sucked in.
i'm also reading daniel deronda which is painful.

What are the names of the books in the trilogy? I'd give it a go as I'm very much in an I :heart: NY mood.

 

[Super Dexta]

What are the names of the books in the trilogy? I'd give it a go as I'm very much in an I :heart: NY mood.

they're 'city of glass', 'ghosts' and 'the locked room' but they're generally published as one volume cos they're pretty short.

 

[brianoak]

Just finished "Please Kill Me".
Kind of book you wish would never end.

 

[Richie]

Finished 'Microserfs' by Douglas Coupland the other night.. I enjoyed it a lot, definately the best of what I've read by him. I was expecting pretty much a satire of 90s computer geek culture based on the first few pages but it turns into something more interesting... Must say I found it ends a bit weakly (as with Girlfriend in a Coma) but it's worth it for the ride.

 

[Psychotic no 2]

Just finished Howard's End. Lovely story, beautifully written and superior to On Beauty in every way.

I think I'll watch the film later.

Wednesdays can be fun.

The film's totally great too. The subtlety of Howards End makes Zadie Smith look like a bumbling elephant.

Ro, have you read any other Chandler? I highly recommend Farewell, My Lovely and The Long Goodbye. There's a line in one of these books (I think) that goes "She was a blonde, a blonde to make a bishop kick a hole in a stained glass window," which is just such a great line. I always find though when reading Chandler I can't help reading them in a Bogart voice: "She tried to sit in my lap and I was still standing up." Apologies if these quotes are bludgeoned, the memory's not so great these days.


Just came across this in my attempt to check the above...http://home.comcast.net/~mossrobert/html/chandlerisms/chandlerisms.htm

 

[MDR]

The film's totally great too. The subtlety of Howards End makes Zadie Smith look like a bumbling elephant.

Ro, have you read any other Chandler? I highly recommend Farewell, My Lovely and The Long Goodbye. There's a line in one of these books (I think) that goes "She was a blonde, a blonde to make a bishop kick a hole in a stained glass window," which is just such a great line. I always find though when reading Chandler I can't help reading them in a Bogart voice: "She tried to sit in my lap and I was still standing up." Apologies if these quotes are bludgeoned, the memory's not so great these days.


Just came across this in my attempt to check the above...http://home.comcast.net/~mossrobert/html/chandlerisms/chandlerisms.htm

I'm definitely going to check out more of his books - ditto on the Bogart thing by the way.

I have just finished the Truman Capote 'Other Voices, Other Rooms' - really well written, with a slightly warped Tom Sawyer feel to it.

Am reading 'Will you please be quiet please' which is Raymond Carver's first collection of stories. It's ok - a bit like Hemmingway, he sort of depicts a fairly ordinary vignette and then drops something cryptic into the final couple of lines that are supposed to blow your head off, but don't really. I'll carry on though, as it's readable enough.

 

[Franco]

just finished Atomised by Michel Houellebecq. bit fucked up but really enjoyed it. anyone know where he lives in ireland? heard it was somewhere in clare but someone said cork. want to go on the piss with him then go to an orgy.

 

[Audiodelic]

just finished Atomised by Michel Houellebecq. bit fucked up but really enjoyed it. anyone know where he lives in ireland? heard it was somewhere in clare but someone said cork. want to go on the piss with him then go to an orgy.

He used to live near the Beara peninsula in Cork, but he doesn't live in Ireland anymore.
I really liked Atomised but a lot of women find him overbearingly sexist. I'm about to start his latest book The Possibility of an Island.

He's being interviewed on Rattlebag on December 19th.

 

[Franco]

He used to live near the Beara peninsula in Cork, but he doesn't live in Ireland anymore.
I really liked Atomised but a lot of women find him overbearingly sexist. I'm about to start his latest book The Possibility of an Island.

He's being interviewed on Rattlebag on December 19th.

My girlfriend gave up on atomised half way thru, and passed it on to me. long article on him in the sunday times mag last sunday. not that insightful, but interesting. in 2000 he had sex with his then wife during an interview! i'd like to read more, but wouldn't want to read them back to back. one can have too much debauched, misognyist nihilism.

 

[MDR]

My girlfriend gave up on atomised half way thru

So did mine. It seemed pretty gruesome.

 

[ICUH8N]

Well hello there, leetle thread.
Fuck Houellebecq. Literary asparagus. Anyway.
I just finished "The Works: Anatomy of a city" (the city in question being NY) by Kate Ascher. It's a weighty A4 hardback, stuffed to the brim with infographics and illustrations beautiful enough to cause any raging Edward Tufte fanboy/girl to make a mess of their underthings. The description of the ill-fated pneumatic postal delivery system alone is worth the price. Nerd heaven.