What are you reading now? vers. "So I don't end up being a fucking waffle waitress"

[Raz]

Hey vanth, if you liked Sandman, Vertigo has put out a couple of mini-series featuring Death of the Endless....I don't know if they've been put together as a trade paperback or anything, but Minotaur could find out. Also, Peter Milligan's Shade the Changing Man is fucking AWESOME. But again, I don't know if any of that stuff has actually been collected outside of the original comic print run.

I can't remember if I have posted this already, but I am currently about halfway through reading Mao, by Jung Chang and Jon Halliday. I read Jung Chang's Wild Swans years ago when it first came out and it is still one of my favourite books today. I have been meaning to get Mao for ages, but only recently gotten around to it.

It is a really dense read...over 700 pages long, and it covers the life of Mao Tse-Tsung from his humble origins to eventually ruling all of China. It's not particularly pleasant either because the man was a fucking evil self-serving bastard who had a fetish for destruction...there was a point last week when I had to actually put it away for a couple of minutes because it was a bit too overwhelming, but it's a fascinating read. It's really tragic to see how he systematically fucked over the lives of everybody he came into contact with, with not only complete disregard for human life, but actual disdain for it. He really comes across as a cartoon supervillain in places, it's hard to imagine a real person actually being that intent on destroying everyone beneath him and getting away with it without ever having to pay for what he did.

Very sad and makes me angry, but very very well written.

 

[DoctorShop]

I just finished reading I Have No Mouth And I Must Scream by Harlan Ellison. It's a short read, but very interesting. If you want some information here is the Wikipedia page about it. Do not read all the way to the end of the article though because it will spoil the ending! Just read the first couple of paragraphs in the Plot section.

It was also made into a PC game

If you like old sci-fi (this was written in 1967) this may be something you'd be interested in reading.

 

[vurtomatic]

Hey vanth, if you liked Sandman, Vertigo has put out a couple of mini-series featuring Death of the Endless....I don't know if they've been put together as a trade paperback or anything, but Minotaur could find out.

Yes they have been collected. They are the High Cost of Living and The Time of Her Lfe.

 

[-Thoth]

Vurt, you are still knocking around here? Holy shit! Warms the heart

I just finished Phillip Roth's "American Pastoral," it's basically about a family living out the bucolic American dream, before the upheaval of the 1960-70s completely fucks it all away. Their teenage daughter becomes some Marxist bomber with the Weather Underground, kills some innocent dudes and etc. etc. It's a depressing, verbose book that I don't recommend. Roth could use an editor. He likes to wax lyrical about a bunch of shit you can't really be bothered with, while leaving serious plot information hanging. Drove me nuts.

Right now I am crunching through Clive Jame's "Cultural Amnesia," a thick tome of his collected essays. This is good shit, despite the fact that he is one of those expats who still thinks he knows what is going on back here in "aussie" for the benefit of his UK audiences, while actually being pretty clueless... But forget all that, his prose coupled with such a prodigious knowledge and poetic sensibility is the literary equivalent of fine blue cheese and red wine, motherfuckers. Totally awesome read so far.

 

[lostpunk5545]

I just finished reading I Have No Mouth And I Must Scream by Harlan Ellison. It's a short read, but very interesting. If you want some information here is the Wikipedia page about it. Do not read all the way to the end of the article though because it will spoil the ending! Just read the first couple of paragraphs in the Plot section.

It was also made into a PC game

If you like old sci-fi (this was written in 1967) this may be something you'd be interested in reading.

I just started playing the game and it is really good (evolution bless you ScummVM). I'm definitely going to keep my eye out for the book now.

 

[vurtomatic]

Vurt, you are still knocking around here? Holy shit! Warms the heart

Yeah it's a good way to pass the time in the office now that I'm back in Australia Haven't seen you around for ages. And RBB. The only other BLer who hangs around intermittently is Nezo.

Just picked up Alfred Bester - The Stars My Destination, and the August issue of Esquire.

 

[DoctorShop]

I just started playing the game and it is really good (evolution bless you ScummVM). I'm definitely going to keep my eye out for the book now.

LP just click on the first link I posted. It links directly to the PDF file of the story. It's only ten pages long.

I wouldn't mind downloading the game either. Second hand copies are around $140.

 

[anna!]

I've just this minute bought The Household Guide to Dying, which should be a suitably easy read for my unemployment.

Ugh, it was terrible! I love chick lit and will power through trashy novels like nobody's business, but it took me more than a week to get through this book. I'd pick it up, read 5 pages, spit on it and close it again, then repeat. Finally finished it. Vomited.

Anyway, so then I read My Family and Other Animals by Gerald Durrell, and that was just about the opposite. Absolutely brilliant. Thank God for $10 Penguin classics.

After that I read The Notebook, being that I am such a great fan of the movie, and it was okay. If I hadn't seen the movie, I would have struggled to appreciate how much Noah and Allie loved each other. It doesn't quite seem to come across in print.

Now I am reading Lady Chatterley's Lover, because I need some Depression era sex scenes.

 

[lostpunk5545]

LP just click on the first link I posted. It links directly to the PDF file of the story. It's only ten pages long.

I wouldn't mind downloading the game either. Second hand copies are around $140.

Haha I'm an idiot. Thanks man I'll read it tomorrow arvo.

As far as the game I found a torrent pretty easily

 

[vanth]

Ta vurt and preacha. Thanks Raz, I've read the extra ones with Death as well I am reading the Lucifer ones now, not bad.

 

[up all night]

I'm reading Voss by Patrick White. The copy I have is over 50 years old though, and was in great condition until I half ripped the cover off. I usually don't care about how I treat my books but there is a certain amount of guilt knowing a book has been kicking around for twice as long as I have been alive and yet I'm the first person to do serious damage to it.

Anyway, it's Voss. I usually find Patrick White fairly difficult to read. Not because the text is tricky, but just because the words feel so heavy and I can rarely enjoy them. That being said, he is a powerful writer and his ability to transport you into whatever community he's describing is undeniable. His asides (that occasionally seem ridiculously obvious and almost treat the reader as if they're be too stupid to pick up the subtext) are usually poignant and amusing. I can't say that I connect with, or feel for, any of the characters - most of whom are fairly indulged and vapid - however you do want to know what becomes of them.

A brief summary of the story is basically that a german explorer, Voss, has a dream of being the first to cross the Australian continent in the mid 19th century. The journey becomes important to a lot of people, not only because it had never been done before, but because it was going to prove the community's victory over what was essentially still an untamed country. Voss is a dark man, a loner, driven by desires that most people wouldn't understand, and his interactions with the Australian 'socialites' of the times exemplifies his isolation from them. It's not just a journey across a desert for him, it's something much more important. He falls in love, a kind of love, with another character, Laura. She is the niece of one of the people funding Voss' trip and is also emotionally separated from those around her. This is not a love story, but the bond between these two characters is really complex and interesting.

To me, this book is very Australian. It's slow moving and it's subtle. If you don't feel like making an effort when you pick up a book then I wouldn't recommend it, but for anyone who has some time to spare I would suggest you give it a go. A brilliant book from arguably Australia's greatest writer.

 

[lostpunk5545]

The copy of War and Peace I have is over 50 years old and it still has a bookmark that came with it outlining all the family structures in the book. I love that

I'm reading Unweaving The Rainbow by Richard Dawkins. It's pretty much a book long response to a gripe Keats had that by explaining the origin of colours in a rainbow, Newton had destroyed its poetry and mystery.

Basically in this book Dawkins is making the point that there is just as much inspiration for poetry in a materialistic view of the world as there is in a spiritual one. And in my mind he succeeds, though I guess as far as science is concerned, I'm the choir.

Why do poets and artists so often disparage science in their work? For that matter, why does so much scientific literature compare poorly with, say, the phone book? After struggling with questions like these for years, biologist Richard Dawkins has taken a wide-ranging view of the subjects of meaning and beauty in Unweaving the Rainbow, a deeply humanistic examination of science, mysticism, and human nature. Notably strong-willed in a profession of bet-hedgers and wait-and-seers, Dawkins carries the reader along on a romp through the natural and cultural worlds, determined that "science, at its best, should leave room for poetry."

Inspired by the frequently asked question, "Why do you bother getting up in the morning?" following publication of his book The Selfish Gene, Dawkins set out determined to show that understanding nature's mechanics need not sap one's zest for life. Alternately enlightening and maddening, Unweaving the Rainbow will appeal to all thoughtful readers, whether wild-eyed technophiles or grumpy, cabin-dwelling Luddites. Excoriations of newspaper astrology columns follow quotes from Blake and Shakespeare, which are sandwiched between sparkling, easy-to-follow discussions of probability, behavior, and evolution. In Dawkins's world (and, he hopes, in ours), science is poetry; he ends his journey by referring to his title's author and subject, maintaining that "A Keats and a Newton, listening to each other, might hear the galaxies sing.

 

[Klue]

I am reading a natural history book called Feral Future. The author, Tim Low is a Biologist and has done so much awesome research for this book.

Its about feral plants and animals in Australia. It has set up right back to when the first fleet came here and started farming here. Actually, even further because the dingo was here thousands of years ago...

I am up to chapter 7 at the moment where its talking about the disaster that was the Cane Toad. But one cool bit of the book so far was a story about the Governor of Victoria in about 1830. He wanted to introduce monkeys into Australia because...

"It is desirable to acclimatise the monkey tribe for the amusement of the wayfarer, whom their gambols would delight as he lay under some gum tree on a sultry day"

He also wanted to introduce Boa Constrictors into the wild...

"One of the most interesting drawing-room pets possible; I have often had them twining around my own body"

Its good- Relevant to my interests

 

[vurtomatic]

... and Magic for Beginners by Kelly Link, collection of sweet whimsical short stories, the first of which centers around a handbag that is large enough for a chicken, an egg, and a cooking pot; but carries a village and entire world in it. And a guard dog if you open the handbag the wrong way.

If anyone was curious when I mentioned this book, it's now free for download.

PDF
HTML
Plain text
RTF

Currently reading Alfred Bester's The Stars My Destination. Quite an economical and relentless sci-fi story about a simpleton seeking revenge. Good tight writing.

 

[preacha]

Warren Ellis - Doktor Sleepless - Book 2 - Issue 1 (009)

Doktor Sleepless is a monthly comic book series written by Warren Ellis, art by Ivan Rodriguez, and published by Avatar Press, launched in July 2007, with the subtitle "Future Science Jesus." This subtitle changes with each issue, featuring phrases such as "Tesla Boy Gangster," "Bastard of Tomorrow" and "Don't worry ma'am, we're from the internet."

According to series writer Warren Ellis, Doktor Sleepless may be a man named John Reinhardt, a trust-fund baby and boy genius who is shunned by the counter-culture he seeks to join. After disappearing from the city of Heavenside three years ago, he suddenly returns having undergone some changes during the interim. Upon his return, he's transformed himself from a relatively mundane man into what he describes as a "cartoon mad scientist," calling himself "Doktor Sleepless."

Best comic out at the moment? Yes, wholeheartedly yes (on par with The Boys and DMZ anyway).

 

[up all night]

Middlesex - Jeffrey Eugenides

Written by the same guy who wrote The Virgin Suicides, Middlesex has long been on my list of books to read. I wasn't disppointed.

It's about a hermaphrodite (although calling him that seems to miss the point entirely) who believed (as did his family) he was a normal girl, until puberty struck and things started going awry. It's an amazingly tender portrayal of someone struggling with the same issues everyone goes through in those horrible early teen years, and even though his exact issues aren't something most of us could relate to, the feelings and situations feel so familiar. The thing I liked the most about the book is that it's not really focused on how the narrator, Cal, comes to terms with his condition, as the book ends very soon after he finds out the truth about himself, but it delves into the lives of each generation in the family. As Cal points out, all the things that happened way before he existed, way before his parents existed, all contributed to the present. It's almost like a really long Life's a Rich Tapestry lesson, but by including not only the details of Cal's life, but that of his parents and grandparents, this wonderfully epic story is created.

The character of Cal is a masterful creation - funny, insightful, flawed, curious - everything you want in a narrator. The gender issue is just a platform for questioning all the social borders that were once so stringent and now waver, sometimes disappearing entirely. Books like this are why I love books.

 

[CHiLD-0F-THE-BEAT]

I was handed Scar Tissue by Anthony Kiedis earlier this week. I've powered through the first few meandering chapters on his birth and adolescence and I have to say he's led a pretty wild life, even within those first 12 years.

His writing style comes across as simple and honest but also tinged with a forgiveness and misguided appreciation for what he's been through and the way people have treated him. This might come from years of reflection within the calm after the many storms, but I can't help reading and gasping at his upbringing, almost shouting into the book 'That's no way to bring up a child!!' - as if it will somehow change the course of history and his early life.

 

[kryalkastleE]

Ive always wanted to read that book COTB!

Is it really worth buying? i always look in the biography/autobiography section but always go past that one for some reason...

 

[chopped_chimp]

I was handed Scar Tissue by Anthony Kiedis earlier this week. I've powered through the first few meandering chapters on his birth and adolescence and I have to say he's led a pretty wild life, even within those first 12 years.

His writing style comes across as simple and honest but also tinged with a forgiveness and misguided appreciation for what he's been through and the way people have treated him. This might come from years of reflection within the calm after the many storms, but I can't help reading and gasping at his upbringing, almost shouting into the book 'That's no way to bring up a child!!' - as if it will somehow change the course of history and his early life.

I read this book a few months ago and loved it! I think I said something about it on an earlier page too. He's had so many women he's fallen in love with! Plus he mentions NZ in it too. I remember when he was living there when I was younger.

I just read The Ice Man: Confessions of a Mafia Contract Killer. It's a biography on Richard Kuklinski who started his life being treated like shit by his family and everyone around him right through to when he begins killing people for money and eventually being caught by the police, decades later.

I don't know if it's the way that it's written but I really started to side with him at times and understand the things he was doing. In reality though he is a psycho with zero regard for human life and has countless ways of killing people. These include tying people up and feeding them to the rats (very efficient way of destroying the evidence... ) and spraying people with cyanide spray to make it look like a heart attack. A good read if your into pyscho stuff...

Then I read The Alchemist by Paulo Coelho. A much different book about following your heart and living your life so that you acheive the best that you can. It is about a boy that grows up in Spain as a Shepherd and then takes a journey to Egypt to find his lifes treasure. It is an inspiring book that reinforces the good things in life like following your heart and allowing yourself to love.

It's an easy read and worth reading....although at the end it has a study section for you to do. It turns out Paulo is quite religeous but it don't let this put you off as I'm not at all and found the book thoughtful and worthwhile.

 

[up all night]

I was handed Scar Tissue by Anthony Kiedis earlier this week. I've powered through the first few meandering chapters on his birth and adolescence and I have to say he's led a pretty wild life, even within those first 12 years.

His writing style comes across as simple and honest but also tinged with a forgiveness and misguided appreciation for what he's been through and the way people have treated him. This might come from years of reflection within the calm after the many storms, but I can't help reading and gasping at his upbringing, almost shouting into the book 'That's no way to bring up a child!!' - as if it will somehow change the course of history and his early life.

I didn't like it at all. As someone who generally loves self-obsessed wankers (exhibit a: ex-boyfriends, exhibit b: jim morrison) I found his feigned regret and self pity gag-worthy and frustrating. His childhood was really interesting, I just wish the story had been told as a biography rather than a supposed "autobiography." He shouldn't have been given free reign over his story because there is no doubt so much of it is just posturing and some of it outright bullshit. It is a semi-interesting read in that it's obvious he hasn't matured as a person much at all, perhaps partly due to his addictions, but mostly I think it's part and parcel of being in hyper-successful rock band. He didn't need to grow up. He doesn't need to think of anyone other than himself. He is the most important person he knows.

I think one thing that really got to me was how little time he spent thinking about the overdose of his best friend. If that was me, or any normal person, it would have warranted more than a couple of pages.

I had to really struggle to get through it but I can see why people would find the sex/ drugs/ rock n' roll and general craziness of his life entertaining. Hopefully he'll die soon, possibly an oxygen overdose, and then there'll be a whole bunch of biographies about him that might be less offensive.