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  • EADD Moderators: Pissed_and_messed | Shinji Ikari

What are you currently reading? v2

I'll take that and SHM's post as a good recommendation then!

And lol @ BHM
 
babylonboy said:
^Funny you should mention the KLF, I'm reading the Illuminatus! trilogy, and it's completely hilarious. It's dense, sure, but I can't remember having enjoyed a book so much. It also has a quotation of Timothy Leary declaring it "more important than Ulysses" in the paratext, which should probably be taken with a fistful of salt.
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Illuminatus! is a gift that keeps on giving, if you can pardon the expression.

I've reread it several times now and it never fails to deliver. The obvious parodies of Joyce and Ayn Rand are fucking hilarious, but a casual reader might not spot them, and may just wonder why the fuck the style keeps on changing. Well, they'll just be wondering 'what the fuck?' in general really.

Fucking genius. Unfortunately it gets put in the box marked 'science fiction' and so gets far less recognition than it deserves.

Don't know if you've read more Robert Anton Wilson (I'd assume / hope you have), but the man was a phenomenon, that's for sure.

If you haven't read any of his non fiction stuff, start with Cosmic Trigger.
 
babylonboy said:
^Is that KLF book good? It was actually next on my list (well, either that or Principia Discordia).
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The KLF book is principally about synchronicities. I mention this now because I was contacted yesterday by an old BL'er who was getting in touch to (amongst other things) tell me he'd read the book too and had just got off the phone to Bill Drummond's son. Nice to hear from you Mr Ex-BL'er (come back? - nah, probably not), keep the coincidences coming.

pinkpapaver said:
remind me to read this when I get round to it. should I demand they buy it for me at the library if they haven't got it?
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Yes.
 
Sammy G said:
Illuminatus! is a gift that keeps on giving, if you can pardon the expression.

I've reread it several times now and it never fails to deliver. The obvious parodies of Joyce and Ayn Rand are fucking hilarious, but a casual reader might not spot them, and may just wonder why the fuck the style keeps on changing. Well, they'll just be wondering 'what the fuck?' in general really.

Fucking genius. Unfortunately it gets put in the box marked 'science fiction' and so gets far less recognition than it deserves.

Don't know if you've read more Robert Anton Wilson (I'd assume / hope you have), but the man was a phenomenon, that's for sure.

If you haven't read any of his non fiction stuff, start with Cosmic Trigger.
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Illuminatus! sounds like my kinda thing. Gonna search the uni library or check out Amazon.
 
I'm currently bashing my through the 1868 revision of Confessions of an English Opium-Eater by Thomas De Quincey. It's pretty great so far, I'd definitely recommend it for anyone interested in the style of writing. He took a lot of influence from mid 18th century works.

For those who don't know, it's an account of his addiction to Opium and largely focuses on the influence on his Dreams and Writing that it lead to.
 
i listened to it on audiobook. It was definately worth a listen and had some very interesting passages. Was a bit too much like 'literature' for my tastes though, i prefer less 'flowery' and more down to earth prose in general.

spolier

NSFW:
on one occasion he gives some guy who had helped him a big lump of opium to thank the guy. Quincey expected the guy to use it over the course of several days as it was a large amount, but the guy just swallowed the whole big chunk right there and then. Quincey was very worried that the guy might OD on him and die. They couldnt communicate as neither could speak the others language.
 
StoneHappyMonday said:
The KLF book is principally about synchronicities. I mention this now because I was contacted yesterday by an old BL'er who was getting in touch to (amongst other things) tell me he'd read the book too and had just got off the phone to Bill Drummond's son. Nice to hear from you Mr Ex-BL'er (come back? - nah, probably not), keep the coincidences coming
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a favourite subject of mine, yet often poorly understood. many seem to use synchronicity as a synonym for coincidence, when the actual definition falls somewhere between a coincidence imbued with significant meaning or more commonly just an incredibly unlikely coincidence

having got to the stage in my criminal career where i was allowed to take a selection of reading material into custody with me, one of the books i travelled with into prison was a book on fantastic coincidences and synchronicities, and though immensely interesting and helpfully distracting at the time - the fine incurred from the library on my release was somewhat significant... five months overdue significant :|


still aint paid it mind
 
BlindHelperMonkey said:
a favourite subject of mine, yet often poorly understood. many seem to use synchronicity as a synonym for coincidence, when the actual definition falls somewhere between a coincidence imbued with significant meaning or more commonly just an incredibly unlikely coincidence
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Also one of my pet interests, as you can possibly infer from the Wilson fanboyism.

But who imbues the 'synchronicity' with 'significant meaning' in the first place?

The Law of Fives is never wrong. Ya dig?
 
I love synchronicity. I have so much of it. when those planes were stopped coz of that volcano a day or 2 before I'd been flicking thru a book on volcanoes to read about planes being grounded. due to a volcano in 1982 a day or 2 later it happened. speak of the devil and all that. a lesson to only think of good times so good times manifest not bad times. I'm off to the library tomorrow. books end up as clutter and cost a lot. they've shut my most local library due to heating breakdown and spent a fortune on "the library of Birmingham" which they got malala "shot in the head for going to school " to open. I thought they could have got syd hooper or miss diane to open it.
 
well they do have the klf book but someone's got it out. I've reserved it online. I feel all fancy now. remember the microfiche and the record cards. I wanted to be a librarian once upon a time.

what should I get out tomorrow? I'm all excited about my trip it's just that the library is further from the bus stop now it's been rebuilt.
 
Just read the last passage of Ulysses as part of my seminar. That was...odd.
 
^Yeah right. No-one has ever finished it, not even Joyce, everyone knows that. Liar.
 
My copies of Ulysses and (is it) Potrait of a young man as a painter?(am I more fucked than I think? ) Have been sat unread,mocking me on bookshelf for 3 years...one day I will I shalllll (sell em on Ebay).
 
^ good stuff there

Heheheh Joyce.....the differences between "Portrait of the Artist as a Young Man" and "Ulysses" are tremendous Inflor....he really mixes up his style....and no, I haven't finished Ulysses, or Finnegans wake....BB is correct, nobody has...but "Dubliners" and "Portrait" are both class...

Let's see....I'm reading:

Sam Keans "The Violinists Thumb", a fantastic and hilarious exploration of the human genome....same author as "The Disappearing Spoon", the best book written about the cultural history of the periodic table of the elements, ever. Smart and witty young man that Sam Kean

"The Naked and the Dead"...Mailers first book. I've always ignored it..first book, written when he was 24, and it shows (way too many adjectives and effort) but it is better than I thought....good gripping writing..

"Deep Secrets", a book on the discovery and exploration of Lechuguilla Cave....amazing. I am a speleodork to an extreme, obsessive compulsive level, and Lechuguilla is the apex of speleo-dom....

"I'm Your Man".....the most recent Leonard Cohen biography.....great. Well written and researched, and sheds light on a guy I've long admired but didn't know much beyond the music...

I just finished "Infinite Jest" for the 2nd time. Best book of the late 20th century, by the greatest author of the late 20th century..pure genius. And I got more out of it the 2nd time

Slaughterhouse Five gets a big thumbs up from me!

Wait, aren't book titles supposed to be italicized rather than using quotation marks? I think I've already used up my February italics quota, so fuck it...
 
ha ha. Ulysees. there was this stuck up bitch in my class at school who thought she was the best. I remember we were sent to get books out asnd of course she got the biggest fattest book to show how clever she was. ah dear. think she swapped it for something else.

here's my day at the library (3 hours)

crime and skag boys by Irvine welsh
the iron man by ted hughes
tarot face to face- using your cards in everyday life
how many socks make a pair? surprisingly interesting everyday maths
we are the living ayn rand
who's in charge (how people and ideas make the world go round) with a foreward by Andrew marr
revise gcse English for 2002-2003

that was fun! very prohibitively priced café. 4 pounds for a sandwich there. lots of people hanging around.

my bro got me Dubliners. I still have to read it. I told him I hadn't read it yet and he told me not to worry since he wasn't going to test me on it.

my brother and sister sit on their arses all day reading and would wash a cup or put a thing away after themselves. they think they're above all that because they're oh so clever. what a pair of dafties!
 
amanitadine said:
Now reading "The Naked and the Dead" by Norman Mailer....it is certainly written by a 24 yr old (too many fugging adjectives!) but it is warming on me...
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I read that not so long ago and really fuggin liked it. Was a bit surprised really cos I don't tend to do war books but I really did enjoy that one.

Sammy G said:
Illuminatus! is a gift that keeps on giving, if you can pardon the expression.
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Started on that not so long back too but got distracted and suspect it'll be a bit of a nightmare to try to get back into so am probably gonna have to start again. Really enjoyed it as far as I got though. Although gets exhausting playing spot the reference - which hardly matters given the perpetual state of wtf you mention :D

I've listened to RAW talk on many subjects but only recently came across anything he wrote and Illuminatus is wot I found.

amanitadine said:
Finnegans wake....
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Got an audiobook of it that's an absolute peach. Haven't got the book but suspect it's a lot "easier" performed than on the page. Even if you don't get half the references (who would?) it just sounds gorgeous as pure wordplay <3

Terence McKenna does a great talk on it too: Terence McKenna - Surfing on Finnegan's Wake
 
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