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  • EADD Moderators: axe battler | Pissed_and_messed

What are you currently reading? v2

Pound shop magical realism.

I am rereading my Ballard short stories at the moment. Probably my most reread author.
 
The Bellwether Revivals by Benjamin Wood.

It's his first book and there's lots to throw stones at but I'm enamored and engaged in enjoyment with this read.

"Hope is a form of madness. A benevolent one, sure, but madness all the same." So says Herbert Crest, one of the central characters in Benjamin Wood's debut novel The Bellwether Revivals. In this multi-themed and far-reaching novel, the dichotomies of reason and superstition, sanity and madness, science and faith, are given close and sustained attention.

Highly recommend new talent for those who like this kinda thing :)
 
Ramez Naam - Apex. This is book three in a series i probably mentioned before (1. Nexus and 2. Crux). Brilliant near future tech-thriller/sci-fi - deals with technology that connects with your neurons allowing you to connect minds with other people among loads of other stuff (eg join minds in a big rave, mind control people, connect loads of people together with buddhist monks to create hive minds, trans/posthumanism). Quite page-turny but also explores the political issues fairly intelligently and with a slight buddhist slant. I recommend it if you like sf/thrillers (start with nexus).

I also read Stanislaw Lem's Futurological Congress (read after watching the film 'congress' (which i love), but it's quite different inevitably) - it's basically about a society that uses various types of hallucinogenic drugs to make people behave certain ways. I'm sometimes hesitant about reading 'old' sci fi - some of it dates so badly it's hard to read - this was pretty good though (being short helps) - amazingly ahead of his time in some concepts (pretty much got the internet/social media in there in '71). Quite funny in places - endless funny drug names (like opinionates, hedonidol, inebrium, halcyonal), and just about twisting language. Quite satirical. Not completely smooth reading but not a struggle at all (it's a translation from polish but it never showed)
 
Will Selfs 'Cock and bull' at the moment.I just got my bookcase setup with all my lovely books, going to reread half of em I tihink.

read the first chapter here http://will-self.com/category/books/cock-and-bull/

Synopsis:
This black comedy is divided into two parts. In the first a woman grows a penis and rapes her husband. In the second a man grows a vagina behind his knee and is then seduced by his doctor.

Cock And Bull was first published in 1992.
Click to expand...
 
Vurtual said:
Start with Nexus first, then Crux and Apex (maybe "suggest" all three)
Click to expand...

Cheers V - yep, I sussed that. The library has a generous sci-fi section so it hopefully it'll go down well. We're dead keen on our libraries here, but it's a case of use or loose..
 
I'm reading that sapient book someone else was reading. I've not touched it since I got to the bit about the creation of money.
 
I'm finally about to reach the end of Clive Barker's Cabal. It's only taken 18 months or so. 8(And it'll be about the 2nd complete novel ive read over the last couple of years woo hoo (my benzo habit has taken its toll in that regard) (excluding audio books).

I've become more open minded about the mythical/phantastical elements of his writing and enjoying it much more for being willing to just 'go with it' and suspend disbelief. I've always enjoyed his vivid and cynical world weary style of portraying the real every day realities of locations, reflections on peoples characters and their thought processes, and great action sequences.

I'd forgotten how triple x rated his stuff could be, eg living dead zombies ejaculating pearls of semen into the face of the hermaphrodite Baphomet upon its' merest touch. (Some googled images are far more pornographic than others so that was easy to see why).I'm gonna have to wiki all these satanic deities if im gonna get the most out of these books, otherwise they will be just meaningless names. At least knowing who they and having mental pictures of them obviously enhances the enjoyment and appreciation of the books. Ive got about 10 of his books already, i gave up on most of them, but i think I'll start over with the others and give them another shot.
 
Just finished Thomas Pynchon's Inherent Vice which I thourouly enjoyed so decided to move onto his Vineland, which I am finding very enjoyable too and a damm sight easier reader than his usually vuanted Gravitty's Rainbow which even after 300+ pages in I still had no idea what was going on!
 
Anyone a dacid foster wallace fan? I picked up the pale king it has some good writing im about 2/3rds through and the section im in now is mind numbingly boring
 
On my Kobo reader at the moment: The Gender Police: A Diary, by Ros Ball + James Millar. A collection of tweets from the parents of a newborn son, comparing the ways people treated him versus his three-year-old sister, and eventually boys and girls in general. I've always felt 45 out of 46 chromosomes is a lot in common anyway; but if there really are such hard-coded differences between the sexes, they get lost in the way boys and girls are treated differently from birth if not sooner.
 
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and with purchase of decent speed .... a voracious appetite for words n that returns.

reading about 5 different books and dipping in and out as it suits.

just finished a reread of Hardboiled Wonderland and the End of the World by Haruki Murakami
even better this time round. Helpful even.

Goes well with Living The Dream (a guide to working with your dreams) by Sally Gillespie.
Got this as a gift years ago. its Jungian based and gives a really good take on how best to remember
Your dreams to make them reveal more insightful information about how your subconscious is reacting to whats going on in your daily life.

Read the last quarter of Camus's The Plague last night. When life deals you lemons Camus will deal you gratefruits ... Eh, philosophically Camus really is about as pertinent as it gets. That something so horrific can be so fucking motivating (kinda) ... so fucking spot on. Sad as fuck but about as accurate a view on humanity and the nature of struggle that Ive ever come across.

Switching on and off between these next two because they go great together and both can be read ad hoc

The Kingdom of Infinite Space by Raymond Ellis and A Short Treatise on Great Virtues - Andre Comte-Sponville

oh how Ive missed the constant stream of thought from decent phet. .. welcome back rambling headshite, do stay a while pls
 
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another couple of great reads is The Twelve, The Passage by Justin Cronin and then Dust, Wool, Sand by Hugh Howley - not horror but both really enjoyable
 
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