What Book Did You Read Last Night??? (11 Viewers)

[Jill Hives]

I'm friends with the people and dog this book is dedicated, so I was given a copy to read. I really should have picked it up sooner because so far it's great.

Jake Whyte is the sole resident of an old farmhouse on an unnamed British island, a place of ceaseless rains and battering winds. It’s just her, her untamed companion, Dog, and a flock of sheep. Which is how she wanted it to be. But something is coming for the sheep – every few nights it picks one off, leaves it in rags.

It could be anything. There are foxes in the woods, a strange boy and a strange man, rumours of an obscure, formidable beast. And there is Jake’s unknown past, perhaps breaking into the present, a story hidden thousands of miles away and years ago, in a landscape of different colour and sound, a story held in the scars that stripe her back.

All the Birds, Singing tells the life of an outsider. With extreme artistry and empathy, it reveals an existence of diurnal beauty, incremental horrors, stubborn hope and tentative redemption. The result is a novel of indelible emotional force.

 

[David Kronenbourg]

Next up - Night Film which basically has the same plot as the film I'm currently reading although I don't expect it to be half as good.
Night Film, by Marisha Pessl, review - Telegraph

 

[тхеодоре кацзынски]

The titular story is wonderful, the only drawback being that its rather short and seems to end just as its about to take off, given the detail in the story it seems rather abrupt to end as it does but that aside, a remarkable story.
The other stories are a lot shorter so don't give enough time to get very invested in the characters, still worthy of reading though, I'll be getting more Chekhov.

Another short story, this starts at the end, then skips to the beginning and works again to the end. While not as moving as 'The Steppe' it's still a solid work that could equally be set today and lose nothing. One passage on the life of some civil servants strikes a particularly resonant note.

Dreadful. Got it from the library yesterday morning and returned it three hours later. The Brothers Grimm tales were good but after that.... awful, unimaginative stories that tend to be far too florid. I intend to try Goethe soon, if its not a marked improvement I think it'll be safe to dismiss all German literature.

 

[nooleen]

I'm re-reading The Secret History at the moment. Even though I knew I'd loved it previously, I had forgotten most of the detail.

i'm reading it now

"And as we leave Donne and Walton on the shores of Metahemeralism, we wave a fond farewell to those famous chums of yore."

 

[Lili Marlene]

Dreadful. Got it from the library yesterday morning and returned it three hours later. The Brothers Grimm tales were good but after that.... awful, unimaginative stories that tend to be far too florid. I intend to try Goethe soon, if its not a marked improvement I think it'll be safe to dismiss all German literature.

Don't forget Von Kleist

Heinrich von Kleist - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

or at least read this by him:
On the Marionette Theatre by Heinrich von Kleist

 

[тхеодоре кацзынски]

Don't forget Von Kleist

Heinrich von Kleist - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

or at least read this by him:
On the Marionette Theatre by Heinrich von Kleist

Will do. Have you read any Goethe? 'The sorrows of young Werther' is the book I have in mind.

 

[Lili Marlene]

Will do. Have you read any Goethe? 'The sorrows of young Werther' is the book I have in mind.

I have not i'm afraid. Lemme know how he goes

 

[тхеодоре кацзынски]

Will do.

 

[Jerry Twig]

I'm reading Morrissey's autobiography. He's an eejit.

 

[Jim Daniels]

I'm reading Morrissey's autobiography. He's an eejit.

Is he even an eloquent eejit?

The book has been staring at me from the shelf since Christmas, but I just can't bring myself to read it.
Wish it was shorter, less barbed and had recieved great reviews.

 

[Jerry Twig]

He's occasionally elegant and very funny, but he's obviously such a total egomaniac that he wouldn't let anyone edit it and it BADLY needs editing. He waffles on about the court case for at least 50 pages and it's awful turgid shite.

 

[Jim Daniels]

Yeah I've been warned to skip that entire section.

He can be amusing alright and gives a good interview....

"I thought four of their songs were magnificient".... referring to the Beatles

Read more at Morrissey: "I don't know a single person who wants a Smiths reunion" - Uncut.co.uk

Morrissey has claimed he doesn't know anyone who wants a Smiths reunion in a new interview with Billboard.

"I don't know a single person who wants a Smiths reunion!" he told the publication when discussing what bands he would like to see reform. "But, no, there aren't any bands I like to see again because your memory of them is how they were in their prime or at their best or at their most desperate, and you look to them to be someone that they no longer are."

He also spoke about the bout of illness he suffered in 2013, which included double pneumonia, a bleeding ulcer and a gastrointestinal disorder. "Well, I'm expected to see Easter," Morrissey said of the diagnosis. "It was a bad year. I was in hospitals so frequently that the doctors were sick to death of me, and there's nothing more ageing than lying in a hospital bed, trying to recover from hospital food."

He continued: "If your illness doesn't kill you then the hospital food sees you off. That's what it's there for. Anyway, it was my time to go to pieces. Much overdue."

Asked about the 50th anniversary of The Beatles' first trip to America, the singer revealed: "I thought four of their songs were magnificient, and if a band can give you four magnificient songs then that's good enough for me. But was I ever influenced by The Beatles? No."

Morrissey is due to be joined by Cliff Richard and Tom Jones on two dates on his US tour this summer. On the performers – who will join him at LA's Los Angeles Sports Arena on May 10 and Brooklyn's Barclays Center on June 21 – he said: "Tom and Cliff qualify greatly in the style department, and age has nothing to do with it. There are millions of obese 19-year-olds who only buy clothes that blend in with the couch."


Read more at Morrissey: "I don't know a single person who wants a Smiths reunion" - Uncut.co.uk

 

[rettucs]

View attachment 8366 Next in the series of first-time reading of arbitrarily selected Classic Novels. I've just started this -

how was that?

I'm reading Naked Lunch and its a mindfuck

 

[rettucs]

He's occasionally elegant and very funny, but he's obviously such a total egomaniac that he wouldn't let anyone edit it and it BADLY needs editing. He waffles on about the court case for at least 50 pages and it's awful turgid shite.

hes an egomaniac but in the way a 12-year old child might be. In that you end up thinking 'awwwwwwwwwww, bless', rather than hating him. I thought it was a great read.

 

[Lili Marlene]

Morrissey: "I don't know a single person who wants a Smiths reunion" - Uncut.co.uk

As is clear from his autobio the only person Morrissey knows and is interested in knowing is Morrissey so he's not wrong. Everyone else is just a beautiful rebellious man, an ugly authority figure or an ex bandmate. There are a few girls, they are mainly notable for wearing nice clothes.

oh and 'Irish' is an adjective that can be used to describe anything and everything.

I agree with Scutter that he comes out of it weirdly likeable due to his own comic ineptitude at existing.

 

[тхеодоре кацзынски]

More Chekhov, finished it this morning on the bus and, as with his other work, a lot of the stories are rather oppressive. Russian society here consists of the peasants who exist merely to aid the rich and the rich themselves whom live empty lives of eating, drinking and travelling. Ultimately, all realise the futility of their lives and most lead characters seem to be extremely melancholic. In spite of all that the stories are beautifully written and executed and there's an occasional work that borders on positive sentiment.

Returned to this after Chekhov, again, very oppressive but in a different way. While Chekhov grinds you down with humdrum existence, Dostoyevsky is more psychological. This one is the story of a man and his doppleganger who sets about stealing the main characters existence. Or maybe the main character is completely mad? Either way, its effective in raising the tension and keeping the suspense heightened.

 

[Lili Marlene]

Where are you finding the time to read all these books Theodore?

 

[тхеодоре кацзынски]

Where are you finding the time to read all these books Theodore?

Two/three hours a day on buses plus trying to do less internetting before going asleep. I'm a pretty fast reader too and most of what I've been reading has been short stories. I'll get to the epics soon.

 

[george mcfly]

Reading First Blood by David Morrell. The character of Rambo is much angrier in this book. In the film Teasle and the other cops push him til he snaps (in one of the best action scenes ever), in the book they only have to try and cut his hair before he's killed a couple of them and is off up the mountains in the nip on a stolen motorbike.

 

[Jerry Twig]

hes an egomaniac but in the way a 12-year old child might be. In that you end up thinking 'awwwwwwwwwww, bless', rather than hating him. I thought it was a great read.

Just finished it. I wouldn't have said I'd hate him, but he does come across as thoroughly unlikeable. I'd say there's a lot of Smiths devotees who'll be very disillusioned after reading it.