What are you currently reading? v2

[COCOCARTER]

The Scarlet Letter (again)

 

[THECATINTHEHAT]

Bluelight duh!

 

[StoneHappyMonday]

Chavs - The demonization of the working class by Owen Jones.

Brilliant left wing polemic mapping the class war and hatred of the working class as practiced by Thatcher et al. Echoes of Orwell.

 

[maxalfie]

Chavs - The demonization of the working class by Owen Jones.

Brilliant left wing polemic mapping the class war and hatred of the working class as practiced by Thatcher et al. Echoes of Orwell.

Will have to check that book out SHM, sounds like the sort of subject i'd be interested to read about

 

[*dharmabum*]

Chavs - The demonization of the working class by Owen Jones.

Brilliant left wing polemic mapping the class war and hatred of the working class as practiced by Thatcher et al. Echoes of Orwell.

I've been meaning to get hold of a copy of that for ages. Thanks for the reminder!

 

[spudgun]

Chavs - The demonization of the working class by Owen Jones.

Brilliant left wing polemic mapping the class war and hatred of the working class as practiced by Thatcher et al. Echoes of Orwell.

Yeah good call - his guardian columns have been consistently bang on the money.

 

[Chatative]

I hope that book is a little more complex than the title suggests... I suspect it is & just has a terrible title.

Being working class is not synonymous with being a Chav. Chavs may predominantly be working class but it's more a cultural more than socio-economic thing.

As some of you may have noticed, I've been going through a Metallica 'phase'. It's not really a phase, I've been a fan of Metallica for over 11 years, it's more just I've started listening to their earlier stuff & live shows.

I've been reading - Metallica: Enter Night: The Biohgraphy - by Mick Wall

Absolutely fascinating read so far, well written too.

I'm sure even people who don't like Metallica would find segments of the book very interesting or amusing.

I found it very amusing reading about Lars Ulrichs upbringing & early adult life... once he literally packed his bag, flew to England & wrangled his way into staying with a band (Diamond Head) he'd talked to once or twice at gigs in the US & sent some letters to. He told them he was coming & they didn't take it seriously. He then went & talked his way into a music studio during the stay. God knows how some scrawny kid, with a funny accent & Diamond Head t-shirt managed that shit. :D

 

[Shambles]

How Lars Ulrich ever managed to do anything is a mystery to all I suspect.

I've not read many books recently. Lotsa magazines but they don't count even when they do have long articles. Do know I just got sent a book that I'm very fond of (person didn't realise I'd read it - no reason to do so cos ain't that well known) so will recommend it and the author in general cos he's class. The specific book is Only Forward and is probably my fave of Mr Smith's out of the three I've read. The other two are belters too though so there's not much in it.

Apologies for quoting the same linky I posted but was months back I read it so you'll probably get a better idea of the plot from this than from me trying to actually recall specifics...

A small boy is left on his own in a flat. The boy answers a knocking on the front door of his high rise flat to find a man with no head standing on the doorstep. The man cannot speak, but the boy knows he is asking him for help. The boy apologises and, explaining that he cannot help him, closes the door and returns to playing games. The protagonist, Stark, a troubleshooter living in the Colour Neighbourhood, accepts a job from his friend, a high-ranking member of The Action Centre, Zenda Renn, and sets out to find senior Actioneer Fell Alkland, who appears to have gone missing under peculiar circumstances. Stark contacts another friend, a psychotic ganglord in the Red Neighbourhood named Ji, to assist him in tracking Alkland down, but something other than kidnapping is to blame for the old man's disappearance. Something that ties into Alkland's past, into The City itself. Stark is forced to confront both his past and a present which has become a living death, in a story of love lost and friendship betrayed. It takes him to places where dreams live, where they can come true, for better or for worse. Where they can kill you. In a world where past and future, reality and nightmare meet up and have a fistfight, Stark is the only man who can make the difference.

His books are all what might loosely be called "comedy surrealist sci-fi" but that makes them sound a lot shitter than they actually are. His imagination is incredible. Some of the concepts are so leftfield it beggars belief. I read another of his recently... which apparently would take more than just asking wiki to find the name of so will keep it vague. The plot revolves around a murder mystery in a future world where people can buy or rent cheap "Golems" (can't recall the actual term he uses but they are supposedly made of some nanoclay so golems will do) which they control as avatars which - for obvious reasons - makes murdering folk and getting away with it easier than usual.

Spares is the one I first read and is about another future world where clones are grown to supply spare body parts for rich folk. Each and all are worth a read - one of the best British sci-fi (he's often classed as a cyberpunk author and there is a lot of similarities between his stuff and the better known cyberpunk folk but he includes a very British sense of humour and surrealism in there too which is quite unique) authors of recent years I'd say.

 

[Vurtual]

Michael Marshall Smith and stuff....

i love M M Smith - i've 'lent' out my second copy of only forward, and will buy a third cos i want to read it again. Those early 3 or 4 books (3 and a short story collection?) are among my most favouritist books (especially only forward) - for the sci fi, but also for the cheeky first person narrative devices and the plot twists. Did you know the film island with ewan mcgregor is based on spares, but they ripped him off for it - they optioned the screenplay years before, then slyly changed the plot and said they made it up themselves without giving him anything - the film wasn't a patch on the book anyway (now only forward would be a wicked film done right.

His later books as michael marshall don't really match up to the first M M smith ones, but they're all readable. The Straw Men trilogy is the best, but more serial killer/thriller than sci/fi - worth reading, but a bit tamer in style than his sci fi; still an engaging first person narrative in part. i wish he'd go back to the sci fi though - think he's trying to make it as a 'proper' writer in uhmericka).

If you like only forward, i heartily recommend Light by M. John Harrison if you haven't. Not really similar at all, except it's another of my favouritist books (sci fi or otherwise) - it's excellent sci fi but in a much more down to earth style he has; amazing ideas, also a bit of magick and madness (shades of crowley), and a serial killer - takes a bit of getting you're head around, but i love it; a real piece of art i think (then everyone's different).

http://www.amazon.co.uk/gp/product/0575074035?*Version*=1&*entries*=0

 

[Chatative]

How Lars Ulrich ever managed to do anything is a mystery to all I suspect.

True. He could hardly play the drums when he formed the band. Having said that... if he wasn't who he is, Metallica wouldn't have turned out the way it did... hell, it wouldn't have existed.


I got a gift subscription of the National Geographic for my birthday... I believe you get it at almost 25% of the Newstand price for 12 issues when you first subscribe... bloody bargain. I also typically get it 2 weeks before it comes out in the stores.

These are the issues I've got since November:
...

There are always a few really interesting articles. To be honest, I read it cover to cover every month anyway... well worth the cost. (although I don't actually pay for it )

 

[Shambles]

True. He could hardly play the drums when he formed the band. Having said that... if he wasn't who he is, Metallica wouldn't have turned out the way it did... hell, it wouldn't have existed.

You say that like it's something he did right

I never really liked NatGeo all that much. Dunno why but always found it kinda bland whenever I flicked through a copy in a waiting room. There's a few magazines I read semi-regularly - mostly sciencey ones and another... dunno what you'd call it cos it's a bit of a mishmash but has some decent conspiracy stuff in there which I'm a complete sucker for at any time.

Bloody expensive are magazines these days. For the first time ever I'm actually considering subscribing to one or two that I really do like simply cos the cover price is outrageous now.

 

[Chatative]

I suppose the thing about Nat Geo is it's just factual. Also, it's like the coffee table book of magazines - just something to look at casually & spark your interest. Is that perhaps what it is? I just love soaking up all the information... it's like when you are a kid & you read about dinosaurs or something.

It's just what satisfies my 'intellectual' curiosity & urge to know how everything works. I'd much rather read a broad range of informed but short articles than a long, complex article in Physics Weekly. (made that one up, you know what I mean )

Oh & don't forget that photography is one of my hobbies - it has lots of great photography & getting a photo in Nat Geo would be like a dream come true...

 

[Vurtual]

If we're talking magazines, i love me a bit of Fortean Times - (that's not what you mean is it shambles?) all about paranormal type stuff, but mostly really erudite academic-y articles rather than woo woo. I think my favourite bit is actually the book reviews - i've come across really interesting books in there (and they're good reviews); plus all the weird photos and stories on the paranormal, but largely treated so much more maturely than other magazines might (despite what the cover looks like).

When i want the non-rigorous version, i sometimes grab a copy of Nexus - similar subjects (more conspiracies), but mostly totally batty - i still enjoy the conspiracies as a genre even when i mostly think it's flaky (while i'm reading it suppose i can suspend belief, just like any story) - but i have read some 'truth' in there too (not much when scutinised...)

I also love Interzone - subscription only science fiction short story magazine; so many famous sf authours start with stories in interzone (and carry on).

I've read some cool National Geographics (usually in a toilet), but sometimes find them a bit bland like you shambles; plus, don't trust much they say about political/social subjects - they've been known in the past to be used a lot by US government/intelligence to spread propaganda/disinformation (i think it was found to be part of Operation Mockingbird (look it up if you don't know it))

 

[Shambles]

I used to buy Fortean Time every month but is nigh-on impossible to find around here so not bought it in ages. It is a great read though and all things Fortean are just dandy by me

I've heard of Interzone - often see its reviews quoted on the back of books - but never actually seen it. If it's subscription only that probably explains it 8)

Nexus I've seen around once or twice and does look like I'd rather enjoy it but again you couldn't find such a thing for love nor money locally. It's incredible just how many magazine the local newsagents have and how utterly unreadable they all appear to be. Just how many magazines on fishing, motorbikes, cars, clothes, slebs, carvanning and "country pursuits" can anybody need?!? About 12 foot's worth of floor to ceiling shelves apparently 8)

 

[StoneHappyMonday]

If we're talking magazines, i love me a bit of Fortean Times )

I used to buy Fortean Time every month but is nigh-on impossible to find around here so not bought it in ages.

I'd have bet heavily against this.

Shambles, if you're serious, I'll get it for you. I have access shall we say. You can have it for a few penny chews or something. I thought it was shit paranormal bollocks? You both like this?

 

[Shambles]

I shit paranormal bollocks with a passion though and always have done. And it's actually not all shit paranormal bollocks... admittedly much of it is but Fortean phenomena is just anything odd or unusual. Yes ghosts and bigfoots and Loch Ness Monsters are amongst those things but so are all kindsa weird - but undeniably real - phenomena. They're quite big on conspiracies and alternate histories which is another one of my lil things. You don't have to believe every word of every story to find entertainment value in there and often genuine interest.

I read a couple of Charles Fort's books not long back. They are classics and are rather charming in the Olde World style (well, Victorian/Edwardian (probably the latter)) but was just a bit irritated cos so much of it is blatant drivel. At the time it must've been fascinating to wonder about all that weird shit he turned up but more or less all of it has been thoroughly explained or thoroughly debunked now. The magazine which continues the hallowed tradition does a good job of turning up modern day freakery though and I am a complete sucker for freakery of all kinds

I have a minor collection of old issues but they stopped selling it here years and years back - I guess nobody else bought it.

 

[Vurtual]

I'd have bet heavily against this.

Shambles, if you're serious, I'll get it for you. I have access shall we say. You can have it for a few penny chews or something. I thought it was shit paranormal bollocks? You both like this?

Have you read fortean times much? I've found that it deals with paranormal subjects pretty fairly (like mostly debunking in practice); or it comes from the angle of studying weird 'outsider' ideas and history as much as classic paranormal studies. i like it because it's nice to read (on the bog) some good academic(-ish) writing as much as the subjects. I haven't read too much in there which is really wacky (except what the subjects of the articles might say (or some oddball writers in the 'forum' section)) (nexus however...).

Like you shambles, I just like the subject of the paranormal really; partly cos it makes a good yarn (and presses some magical thinking buttons), but also because i still think there are kernels of truth and important unknowns dotted around that vast category of stuff, and it's fun to imagine which might lose the para and become normal (same reason i like science fiction i s'pose; a bit of wonder). i see this form of mystery and imaginitive fantasising as an important factor of knowledge overall (like science fiction often being the premonitory dreams of science/technology (or something else that makes it sound clever to buy magazines with three headed sharks in )).

I'm also aware that i've still got some in built magical thinking (who hasn't), but choose to leave some of it there for a more comfortable life, eg hippie-dippie stuff like 'we are one' - whether it's true in any sense or not, better for me to think it is... So this stuff probably skews what i think to some extent. in short i suppose i want the 'magic' to be real, but i won't believe it is without at least a semblance of science/logic (or loads of acid) - that semblance has got bigger over time, to the point of effectively being a sceptic most times - but the roots remain .


Shambles - i got a subscription and first 3 issues a £1 (and you can cancel then, but their cheaper after too - plus i got a mug (who's the mug eh SHM? )

 

[StoneHappyMonday]

Have you read fortean times much?

Never. Just made (obviously) outrageous assumptions. So guilty as charged y'honour.

And I never said anyone was a mug. It's obviously me.

Shambles, free FT (no not that one) offer still available.

PS I'm shit at betting. ("I'd have bet heavily blah blah")

 

[Vurtual]

No i just mentioned the mug and coulnd't resist the pun . It's a totally fair assumption if you look at the covers. But it probably comes across as more a 'sceptic' mag to people who might usually read nexus or sightings. And i'm not wriggling out of liking dodgy mags - i do like nexus too, but less as an info source (as much to laugh at some of the dodgy adverts).

Anyway, to balance it out (wriggle out of it), i also like a bit of new scientist and if we've expanded to print media, i likes me a Morning Star if i'm near a paper shop.

 

[StoneHappyMonday]

i likes me a Morning Star if i'm near a paper shop.

They sell Morning Star in K*******?

Actually they sell 2 in Ll*******.

True story.