What Book Did You Read Last Night??? (8 Viewers)

[pete]

After i realised I only finished reading one book last year (The Best Democracy Money Can Buy) I decided to get more bukes into me this year.

So far this year:

The Plot Against America: Really, really good alternative history of a Jewish family in WWII America after FDR loses the election to an anti-semitic Charles Lindbergh.

Freakonomics: Read this one on the plane to New York. Very interesting / funny, but waaayyy too short.

See No Evil: Memoirs of an extremely bitter ex-CIA agent. Good stuff, but words / sentences / paragraphs are occasionally blacked out cos the CIA gets to censor everything their ex-employees write (the author chose to leave in the redacted material). The plot of the movie Syriana, which was also excellent, was apparently 'suggested' by this book.

 

[paul-]

reading cosmic trigger vol.1 at the moment by robert anton wilson.

 

[Bellatrix]

Am reading Everything is Illuminated by Jonathan Safran Foer.

Ukrainians are funny.

 

[love jones]

invisible man by ralph ellison. shit the bed!

 

[IFF]

last night, i finished "memories of my melancholy whores" by gabriel garcia marquez

i liked it

 

[muffin]

i picked up 'diary of a manhattan call girl' yesterday in waterstones for 5 blips...its just ok..better than that belle du jour one though..and less about pissing on people which is always good with me..

 

[pete]

After i realised I only finished reading one book last year (The Best Democracy Money Can Buy) I decided to get more bukes into me this year.

So far this year:

The Plot Against America: Really, really good alternative history of a Jewish family in WWII America after FDR loses the election to an anti-semitic Charles Lindbergh.

Freakonomics: Read this one on the plane to New York. Very interesting / funny, but waaayyy too short.

See No Evil: Memoirs of an extremely bitter ex-CIA agent. Good stuff, but words / sentences / paragraphs are occasionally blacked out cos the CIA gets to censor everything their ex-employees write (the author chose to leave in the redacted material). The plot of the movie Syriana, which was also excellent, was apparently 'suggested' by this book.

Just finished Romanitas this morning. Pretty good, but it's not the book I thought it was when I bought it. At all.

 

[shidheat]

the mystical masseur by v.s. naipaul which i am reading at a steady rate of about three pages a week. not a reflection on the book, more how much i'm reading in general at the moment. i'm stuck in a bit of a not-reading rut at the moment

 

[muffin]

got the belle and sebastian biography off my sister for my bertday..about half way through..its pretty good although a little twee..(i know its belle and sebastian..what should i expect?)..but ill deliver a final verdict when im done and dusted..

 

[BC]

i picked up 'diary of a manhattan call girl' yesterday in waterstones for 5 blips...its just ok..better than that belle du jour one though..and less about pissing on people which is always good with me..

there is quite a bit of talk suggesting that the writer behind that "belle du jour" thing is in fact neoist writer and piss-taker stewart home. the veracity of this is unknown to me however.

 

[MDR]

Am reading Tess of the D'Urbevilles by Thomas Hardy. A poetically sad book, beautifully written. The guy has a profound understanding of people and how to express what they feel.

 

[BC]

at the moment i am reading ruth ozeki's "all over creation", which is very pleasant so far. last book finished was chuck palahniuk's "choke" which was entertaining.

 

[nEiLo]

Cancer Ward - Solzhenitsyn.

 

[Super Dexta]

currently dipping into:
-impossible french theorists (guy debord, i hate you)
-ben singer - melodrama and modernity - an awesome book about the relationship between industrialisation and the development of early cinema
-john pilger - tell me no lies
-wilkie collins - the woman in white

 

[billygannon]

Louis Theroux's book about "Weird" America. That guy's a bit of a sap.

Cloud Atlas as well - not too gone on it. Decent enough short stories but really derivative.

And loads of poetry. Kamau Brathwaite and his Limbo stuff... Roger McGough... Moniza Alvi... Moniza Alvi... Moniza Alvi.

 

[sarah]

just finished The Book of Illusions by Paul Auster, which was v. v. good and highly recommended. about to start into Oracle Night. high hopes.

if you haven't already check out 'The Music of chance' by auster as well if you haven't already simple premise but really eery.

 

[sarah]

H'mm...I actually found the Gaelic stuff quite tiresome...I kinda had got the message by the fourth or fifth page of it like...finished The 3rd Policeman, actually had quite a good ending, but still, the nonsense made it hard to care about...oh and the writing was full of clichés..."chilled me to the bone", that sort of thing...how people can claim he woulda made Joyce envious is beyant me (before I be accussed of being pretentious, I'll admit I've only read one Joyce buke).

But Nabokov...now *there's* a man what can use the English language...:heart: :heart: :heart:

the only book I've ever read by joyce is the dubliners and what a yawn it was well written but nothing of note. The whole idea of Ulyssees bores me. I reckon half the reason he's so lauded is that most people are afraid to admit they never got to the end of it

 

[sarah]

Cancer Ward - Solzhenitsyn.

let us know when you finish if it's worth the effort started it a few times and then forgot to pick it up again.

 

[BC]

the only book I've ever read by joyce is the dubliners and what a yawn it was well written but nothing of note. The whole idea of Ulyssees bores me. I reckon half the reason he's so lauded is that most people are afraid to admit they never got to the end of it

i'd recommend "potrait of the artist" which is a great and manageable read

 

[sarah]

i'd recommend "potrait of the artist" which is a great and manageable read

hhhmm will keep that in mind, I never like to completely write people off an the basis of one book. thanks