What Book Did You Read Last Night??? (4 Viewers)

[Denny Oubidoux]

just read "a long way gone" by Ishmael Beah, a former child soldier in sierra leone. it was one of the most harrowing things ive read, totally fucked up

 

[Kermit McDermott]

I don't care if he's 84, lock him up

 

[flashback]

Wonderful wonderful book.
I love this guy. Best book I have read this year without any doubt.

 

[timbot]

Tis great

 

[La La]

this is fucking brilliant. xiaolu guo is one of my new, no bullshit, favourite writers. you'd read it in a few hours. i love books like this that make me re-think about places like beijing - so different from my initial perceptions of it in some ways and dead on in others.

i also finally got around to reading

which was also fucking brilliant. so much so, i started reading it at midnight with a view to reading a chapter or two before kip and ended up ploughing through it until i finished up at 3am. moshin hamid is one hell of a gifted writer.

And also:

i had a press lunch with him about two years ago. he's hypnotic. you don't want to fancy him, but you kind of.....do. and he's a great narrator - i listen to his show more than i watch it - so i'm guessing his writing would be as good? been meaning to read his stuff.

 

[BC]

and he's a great narrator - i listen to his show more than i watch it - so i'm guessing his writing would be as good? been meaning to read his stuff.

"kitchen confidential" is a great read, highly entertaining and very enlightening for foodies : highly recommended. the chefs i have known who have read it have remarked that it's very accurate to the adrenaline-fuelled kitchen heat and mania. the passion for food is infectious.

read over the last while:

milton erickson : "the collected seminars, workshops and lectures : volumes 3 and 4 : mind-body communication in hypnosis + creative choice in hypnosis". more insights from this genius therapist and father of modern hypnotherapy. inspiring stuff.

maya deren : "divine horsemen". remarkable personal exploration into haitian voodoo, and the trance experience of possession that is at the heart of it.

joyce carol oates : "rape - a love story". gloriously devistating, a vicious masterpiece from the masterful JCO.

douglas rushkoff : "the ecstacy club". distinctly unconvincing and riddled with adolescent pretentions. nice idea, but the author would have done better to spend more time on character development than on displaying how much he knows about so-called "counter-culture" ideas.

donal ruane : "tales in a rear view mirror". entertaining and enjoyable first book in ruane's notably uncontrived conversational style.

donal ruane : "wltm". entertaining as ever, though it does lose focus towards the end. the veracity of it is as non-fiction is curiously doubtful, as the reference to "a million little pieces" would seem to suggest. anyhow, an enjoyable - if slightly lightweight - read.

peter sotos : "waitress". collection of unpublished writings, including "playground sex", sotos' tour-de-force; focusing on the media treatment of the jon-benet ramsey murder, heavily informed by andrea dworkin and cathrine mackinnon, newspaper headlines become coded into a highly personal form of pornography. also included are alternate versions of his books "predicate" and "comfort and critique", alongside interviews which themselves become further chapters in his reality-smearing fiction.

austin osman spare : "ethos". collection of his writings on magic and art. without parallel. transcends art.

flann o'brien : "myles away from dublin". further wonderful articles.

currently dipping into:

aleister crowley : "gems from the equinox". mammoth anthology of a variety of texts, from serious perscriptions on yoga practices to hilariously bitchy book reviews (crowley's parody of w. b. yeats is viciously accurate).

harold pinter : "plays 1". mind-bending genius.

 

[Kermit McDermott]

Started The Real Odessa: How Peron Brought the Nazi War Criminals to Argentina by Uki Goni. The Nazis were so entertaining.

 

[David Kronenbourg]

some recent picks

sooooo good. funny, frightening and informative

then

guy's a master. up there with mccarthy, pynchon, delillo et al

also

disturbing

 

[St. Fechin]

 

[ruttiger]

Pretty good- before that I read Watt by Beckett which was tough going to say the least but definitely interesting

Can anyone recommend anything else good by Paul Auster? I read the first book in the new york trilogy which was cool but after that I got bored

Going to start reading this tonight:

any use?

 

[BC]

Going to start reading this tonight:

any use?

(all in my own opinion of course) flann o'brien's weakest work by far. it struck as a reworking of "the third policeman" but with all the magic left out. it does spiral to an excellent conclusion, but is certainly not representative of him anywhere near his best.

 

[ruttiger]

dang! I'll give it a go anyways

 

[David Kronenbourg]

Can anyone recommend anything else good by Paul Auster? I read the first book in the new york trilogy which was cool but after that I got bored

First of his I ever read. Still my favourite. Brilliantly strange little tale. I liked Moon Palace a lot as well.

 

[sweetoblivion]

Mr Vertigo is brilliant - very different to his others. Also loved Leviathan and the Brooklyn Follies is good too (it's one of his most recent ones). Oracle Night was *really, really* disappointing, and I got half way through his latest one, Travels in the Scriptorium, before I had to put it down because it was wrecking my head a little. It's a strange book, not typical Auster at all - perhaps that's what threw me.
My favourite is Book of Illusions, it's fantastic
I bought The New York Trilogy in hardback which was a mistake as it's HUGE so I lent it to my granny (who introduced me to Auster - she's 83 and she rocks!!) but I bought a paperback recently so must get started on that.

Currently reading Mark Oliver Everett's autobiog, What the Grandchildren Should Know.

 

[BonsaiSuperstar]

i am reading Slash's book. i know see guns n' roses in a totally new light!
slash is totally cool! and taking copious amounts of drugs and booze seems like great fun!
seriously i am really enjoying the book.

 

[sweetoblivion]

ha ha ha ha!
'slash is totally cool!' your new idol, wha?
From what I read, it's a really bizarre book....how did he take that amount of drugs and still be able to live?! He was injectin oxycontin at one stage!! :O

 

[Denny Oubidoux]

i am reading Slash's book. i know see guns n' roses in a totally new light!
slash is totally cool! and taking copious amounts of drugs and booze seems like great fun!
seriously i am really enjoying the book.

i read that recently too, i want to read lemmys next if i can find a cheap copy. slash seems sound enough although a bit too righteous maybe. reading the book a few weeks ago prompted me to listen to guns n roses again - they werent up to much at all really, and slash isnt much of a guitarist. still though, enjoyable book.

im reading hawksmoor by peter ackroyd at the moment, ive just started it so no spoilers please

 

[BonsaiSuperstar]

i have the Nikki Sixx Heroin Diaries reading to go as well.

if there is one autobiography i want to read its stefan effenburgs one. not sure if it is available in english and it is ridiculously expensive on amazon.de!
mind you id say its in easy enough german to understand.

Bits and Pieces on his book:
http://app1.chinadaily.com.cn/star/2003/0515/sp29-1.html


His Personal Life:
In the late 1990s Effenberg was rarely out of the tabloids when he left his wife Martina and revealed an affair with Claudia Strunz, who at that time was the wife of former team mate Thomas Strunz. Later Effenberg published a controversial autobiography, notorious for its blatant contents and the poor language it was written in. Claudia Strunz and Effenberg were married in 2004.

 

[wageslave]

I'm reading 'that they may face the rising sun'. About 100 pages in, dunno if its up to much yet. Anyone here really like it? Why?

 

[Denny Oubidoux]

i have the Nikki Sixx Heroin Diaries reading to go as well.

if there is one autobiography i want to read its stefan effenburgs one. not sure if it is available in english and it is ridiculously expensive on amazon.de!
mind you id say its in easy enough german to understand.

Bits and Pieces on his book:
http://app1.chinadaily.com.cn/star/2003/0515/sp29-1.html


His Personal Life:
In the late 1990s Effenberg was rarely out of the tabloids when he left his wife Martina and revealed an affair with Claudia Strunz, who at that time was the wife of former team mate Thomas Strunz. Later Effenberg published a controversial autobiography, notorious for its blatant contents and the poor language it was written in. Claudia Strunz and Effenberg were married in 2004.

that doesnt sound great at all. if you're into drug hell stories Straight Life by Art Pepper is a great, but grim, read. it also has lashings of jazz, petty crime, rape, san quentin prison, some violence and bad language too