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

[Jim Daniels]

Just finished "Eleven Kinds of Loneliness" by Richard Yates. Eleven short stories full of 1950's Americans living lonely lives. The final one "Builders" was particularly good. The first one, about a young kid, joining a new school/class, was also pretty impactful.

Still in middle of new Murakami - home reading only. Too hefty to bring on the bus.

 

[Nate Champion]

Just finished "Eleven Kinds of Loneliness" by Richard Yates. Eleven short stories full of 1950's Americans living lonely lives. The final one "Builders" was particularly good. The first one, about a young kid, joining a new school/class, was also pretty impactful.

Still in middle of new Murakami - home reading only. Too hefty to bring on the bus.

Fucking love those stories. So damn perfect. Far more consistency than Cheever.

Anyway I'm almost finished reading Hangover Square by Patrick Hamilton for college. Boozy, desperate, awkward. Odd juts of humour and a truly despicable femme fatale. Handles theme of madness originally within the comic energy of the novel.

Recently enough I finished Don DeLillo's Falling Man. Mediocre enough. Could almost be a DeLillo parody (that detached style - is he making some unnerving abstract point about existence or is he having a cod?) with brief moments of concise brilliance smattered here and there to suggest that master's touch.

Before that Nicholson Baker's U & I which is a desperate, contrived book Baker wrote about his not-quite-obsession with John Updike, pitched somewhere between part-time fandom and jealous lunacy. Desperate and desperately funny. A laugh on every page. Best book I've read in ages.

 

[rettucs]

Just finished "Eleven Kinds of Loneliness" by Richard Yates. Eleven short stories full of 1950's Americans living lonely lives. The final one "Builders" was particularly good. The first one, about a young kid, joining a new school/class, was also pretty impactful.

Still in middle of new Murakami - home reading only. Too hefty to bring on the bus.

I have that book at my desk in work. Never got around to reading it. I sincerely hope its better than Revolutionary Road which was one big long bore.

 

[Jim Daniels]

I have that book at my desk in work. Never got around to reading it. I sincerely hope its better than Revolutionary Road which was one big long bore.

Ah it's worth a shot. Short stories don't always do it for me, but these are pretty good. That said, if you couldn't handle Revolutionary Road, you may not find much joy here. The themes of his stories/ books are all very similar. Is it the stories/ characters that bore you or the writing?

 

[rettucs]

Ah it's worth a shot. Short stories don't always do it for me, but these are pretty good. That said, if you couldn't handle Revolutionary Road, you may not find much joy here. The themes of his stories/ books are all very similar. Is it the stories/ characters that bore you or the writing?

The beauty of a short story collection is that you can opt out after a couple if they're not your thing. I loved Liam O'Flaherty and Oscar Wilde short stories (the kiddies stuff that Wilde wrote was quite incredible) when I was younger and other than some David Mitchell and maybe Stephen King, I don't think I've read (m)any since.

I read Revolutionary Road on holiday once. It wasn't quite at the pace I needed my holiday reading to be and that probably made me think worse of it than I should have. It was the story that I found quite dull. I made myself watch the film around the same time and again, dull, dull, dull. But I'm happy to give this one a go - not too much to lose.

 

[rettucs]

oh, I picked this up at the weekend. Looking forward to getting into it in the next week or so

 

[Jim Daniels]

On Beauty by Zadie Smith

On page 88 and not sure if it's really doing it for me. Mildly annoying characters and dialogue. I won't give up on it just yet...

 

[IFF]

currently

the sisters brothers - patrick de witt

and rereading atomised by michel houellebecq

 

[Jim Daniels]

currently

the sisters brothers - patrick de witt

and rereading atomised by michel houellebecq

Sisters Brothers = deadly!

Never read Atmoised, but remember the cover vividly

 

[David Kronenbourg]

finished The Sun Also Rises which is pretty great.

Next up:

 

[Jill Hives]

Starting this today...

 

[Nate Champion]

Starting this today...

That's pretty good. It's quite sobering. Bummer classic.

I just finished The Men's Club by Leonard Michaels. The best American novel I've read lately. Nicely absurdist, giddily nihilistic, yet bitterly real. I don't think there was a bad sentence in it.
Before that I read Fight Club for college. Seems like he's got good ideas, but he's a shocking weak writer.

Now I'm on to The Van by Roddy Doyle for college. Ah, jaysus. No more personal reading now for six weeks possibly, although there's some James Salter winking at me on the bureau here.

 

[rettucs]

oh, I picked this up at the weekend. Looking forward to getting into it in the next week or so

I don't think I liked this. Its a strange book. It plods along, gets interesting for a bit, plods again, plods a bit more, more interesting stuff, more plodding, then it ends.

I finished it last night and I'm none the wiser as to what a lot of it was about. Some loose ends are just left dangling. Some story threads hit brick walls and just end without closure. All a bit frustrating but I'd say go and read it if you like Bolano. Don't if not. Or if you don't know Bolano go read something else by him before this.

 

[rettucs]

gonna get back to my English folk music book now for another bit.

 

[David Kronenbourg]

Just finished From Hell. Alan Moore's fascinating, brilliantly researched, fictional account of the Jack the Ripper murders. Going to watch the film tonight to remind myself what a complete haims they made of it.

 

[IFF]

I don't think I liked this. Its a strange book. It plods along, gets interesting for a bit, plods again, plods a bit more, more interesting stuff, more plodding, then it ends.

I finished it last night and I'm none the wiser as to what a lot of it was about. Some loose ends are just left dangling. Some story threads hit brick walls and just end without closure. All a bit frustrating but I'd say go and read it if you like Bolano. Don't if not. Or if you don't know Bolano go read something else by him before this.

last time in dublin, i was choosing between this and Amulet and went for Amulet.

 

[Denny Oubidoux]

To be sure, the humility of the wretched maid, trembling, ready to confess the crime that she has not committed, saying "I shall leave tonight if you wish," is a thing that nobody can resist

This guy is a complete prick!

 

[Jim Daniels]

This guy is a complete prick!

Same guy...

A woman one loves, rarely suffices for all our needs, so we deceive her with another whom we do not love.

 

[David Kronenbourg]

I'm reading Sabbath's Theater. It's fucking gas

 

[Jim Daniels]

Recently finished....

Haruki Murakami: IQ84: Books 1&2: Grand, but I think I'm done with Haruki. Mightn't bother with book 3: 6 stars

Zadie Smith: On Beauty: Glad I stuck with it. I gradually got used to the characters: 7 Stars

Just started some vintage Vonnegut - Breakfast of Champions. Three pages in and I have a sneaky feeling I've read it before.