What Book Did You Read Last Night??? (15 Viewers)

[rettucs]

started this in an insomniacal haze in the middle of the night last night

I have no idea why. Its not the type of thing I'd normally go for (someone's account of climbing up mount Everest on an expedition that loads of people died on), but someone gave it to me at xmas and told me it was good. Its a light enough looking read so why not (its the 4th book I've started in the last 10 days - non-taxing lit is a great to get that book total up).

 

[Denny Oubidoux]

started this in an insomniacal haze in the middle of the night last night

I have no idea why. Its not the type of thing I'd normally go for (someone's account of climbing up mount Everest on an expedition that loads of people died on), but someone gave it to me at xmas and told me it was good. Its a light enough looking read so why not (its the 4th book I've started in the last 10 days - non-taxing lit is a great to get that book total up).

Into Thin Air is a great read. i only read because the selection was limited in the sahara desert where i was holidaying at the time however it turned out to be very engrossing.

 

[David Kronenbourg]

examines contemporary american crime writers such as james lee burke, walter mosley, george pelecanos, elmore leonard, james ellroy, netwon thornburg, daniel woodrell etc.

 

[IFF]

Into Thin Air is a great read. i only read because the selection was limited in the sahara desert where i was holidaying at the time however it turned out to be very engrossing.

yes, it a very good read i thought.

 

[rettucs]

Into Thin Air is a great read. i only read because the selection was limited in the sahara desert where i was holidaying at the time however it turned out to be very engrossing.

yeah, the story is pretty compelling and yer man is a decent writer.

but an asshole, among assholes. Mountaineers don't come out of this covered in glory at all. Apart from towards the end when a couple of lads from different expeditions climb up to assist rescue efforts. But the others are all a pack of assholes. And he tries to make it look like that english lad was the prime asshole, but the english lad didn't give others up for dead when they weren't. Assholes.

 

[Denny Oubidoux]

i forget that now. I thought the thing was that if you decide to go up you are consciously deciding at the same time, pretty much, that you can't be trying to save people and expect to survive yourself. a

 

[rettucs]

i forget that now. I thought the thing was that if you decide to go up you are consciously deciding at the same time, pretty much, that you can't be trying to save people and expect to survive yourself. a

well yeah he did say that, and fair enough if it was adhered to and everyone knew the rules. But after the disaster the Sherpa tried several times to climb back up and rescue your man Scott. The Russian climbed back up (and he was portrayed as a dick before that) and brought 3 back down on his own. And then there were the other 2 I mentioned from a different expedition that climbed up to help.

So on one hand you had him saying that it was every man for themselves and he told of how he walked past people who weren't dead, justifying it to himself by saying they'd be dead soon (which would have been all well and good too apart from the fact that one of them ended up making his own way down the next day, and the Japanese bird was also still found to be alive the next day), while on the other you had these solo bids to go back up and rescue the folks who were stranded.

The absolute worst were those Japanese though. The ones who approached from the north ridge and who wouldn't even share their water.

I don't know a whole lot about the etiqutte of mountaineering but it seems to be that when you reach a certain height your own safey is paramount and fuck everyone else.

 

[Denny Oubidoux]

well yeah he did say that, and fair enough if it was adhered to and everyone knew the rules. But after the disaster the Sherpa tried several times to climb back up and rescue your man Scott. The Russian climbed back up (and he was portrayed as a dick before that) and brought 3 back down on his own. And then there were the other 2 I mentioned from a different expedition that climbed up to help.

So on one hand you had him saying that it was every man for themselves and he told of how he walked past people who weren't dead, justifying it to himself by saying they'd be dead soon (which would have been all well and good too apart from the fact that one of them ended up making his own way down the next day, and the Japanese bird was also still found to be alive the next day), while on the other you had these solo bids to go back up and rescue the folks who were stranded.

The absolute worst were those Japanese though. The ones who approached from the north ridge and who wouldn't even share their water.

I don't know a whole lot about the etiqutte of mountaineering but it seems to be that when you reach a certain height your own safey is paramount and fuck everyone else.

it is a bit callous alright. i dont know that i'd behave any more admirably if i was up there and i thought i might die. i'd have no business up there anyway, like most of those people who went up.

 

[David Kronenbourg]

i've been buying loads of cheap books on amazon recently and they're all sitting in my room unread. really have to ge tback on the reading train. this came today

 

[Denny Oubidoux]

that looks a bit low-brow

 

[David Kronenbourg]

Well, la-di-da, Mr. Frenchman. i love me a good schlocky mystery novel

 

[SomethingManic]

Is there a place in Dubklin where you can swap books with people? Or a website or anything?

 

[тхеодоре кацзынски]

i found this ,seems legit.
i was out sorting all my books earlier,i should really have made a list.next time im out there (probably be a couple of weeks) ill make a list of what i don't want and stick it on here,anyone that wants them is welcome to them.

 

[rettucs]

Started this last night.

It reminds me of the previous Joyce I've read (Portrait of an Artist and some short stories) in that its enjoyable to read but the stories don't go anywhere (I read the first 2 last night). But I recall reading about Joyce's short stories that if you've read it and are wondering what the point of it was, then you've missed the point. So far I'm missing the point, spectacularly.

 

[St. Fechin]

Well, la-di-da, Mr. Frenchman. i love me a good schlocky mystery novel

Yeah? Well, 'round here we only read sophisticated literary fiction. Like Paul Auster, Jonathan Safran Foer, or whatever was nominated for the Booker Prize last year. Ya know, proper intellectual stuff.
!gloat

 

[IFF]

it is a bit callous alright. i dont know that i'd behave any more admirably if i was up there and i thought i might die. i'd have no business up there anyway, like most of those people who went up.

i think the russian guy did write a book in response to the john krakauer book

 

[coast to coast]

I am currently reading Herzog by Saul Bellow. Promising so far. I had tried to start The Adventures of Augie March before but failed spectacularly in the face of tiny typeface. This is much more direct.

I have just finished Herzog. Took me just under three years, including one lost book on a plane (subsequently found beside my bed), and at least two 6-months-plus stints away from it, and obviously reading other entire books in between. Not really the best way to read a book but I was determined not to give in! On to some more classic American fiction next. Humboldt's Gift or Seize The Day?

Also finished Hold On To Your Dreams by Tim Lawrence about Arthur Russell and downtown New York in the seventies, which is a really interesting and thorough biography on a musician who needs a biographer to piece together his haphazard career.

Also read parts of My Liverpool Home by Kenny Dalglish and despite my unending quasi-religious fervour for that man, I can't finish footballers autobiographies, which makes me wonder why on earth I start them.

 

[coast to coast]

Started this last night.

It reminds me of the previous Joyce I've read (Portrait of an Artist and some short stories) in that its enjoyable to read but the stories don't go anywhere (I read the first 2 last night). But I recall reading about Joyce's short stories that if you've read it and are wondering what the point of it was, then you've missed the point. So far I'm missing the point, spectacularly.

Wait til the end of it, you'll shit your pants. Hopefully, at least.

 

[Lili Marlene]

It's about how everyone in the world is a horrible, horrible person. It's great but youz would all hate it.

 

[Jill Hives]

It's about how everyone in the world is a horrible, horrible person. It's great but youz would all hate it.

Not sure, that sounds pretty good to me.