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  • EADD Moderators: Pissed_and_messed | Shinji Ikari

What are you currently reading? v2

I don't get on with Will Self's fiction, but I like his columns (oo-er).

The only work I've read anything of on that Guardian list is Marx's Capital. I haven't finished it... but it's actually a lot easier going than I expected. Thing is, he refers to so many other works throughout the text (footnotes on every page) and sends you off looking at other people's writing, to properly engage with the text you have to read a fuckload of other stuff while you're at it.
 
I dont think ive got a poor vocabulary, but Self's books have me reaching for the dictionary about 3 times every sentence. When ive finally finished a sentence i wonder what was the meaning of it. Did it have any ? Or was it just a load of intellectual words strung together. A clear sign they're over my head i guess.

Had much more luck with his short story collections. For some reason they are far more 'accessable' and even a 'middle brow' reader such as myself can 'get them' and enjoy the thoroughly twisted brilliance of them.
 
Marmalade said:

The 10 most difficult books to finish (apparently) – in pictures
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I've tried to read Under the Volcano about three times and failed, so I'd agree with that. Gravity's Rainbow is pretty hard but I got through that one.

As for Will Self, I loved the Book of Dave, wasn't always sure what was going on though.

Currently reading: Osama by Lavie Tidhar (weird sort of parallel universes novel in which the protagonist (not in our world) is hired to find the author of a series of books in which Osama Bin-Laden is a vigilante fighting Islamic terrorism). It started well, but the middle bit is dragging. Also Hilldiggers by Neal Asher - space opera science fiction, interesting ideas but not amazingly written.
 
I've only read Gravity's Rainbow from that list, and it did take me about 10 attempts, first 9 attempts i never got past the first 60-100 pages, then one day it clicked, I spent a fortnight doing little else except read that book, just clicked and locked into it and it meant so much to me....

Vineland is a nice easy pynchon read, I've got Mason and Dixon which i managed about half of and then got bored, and Against the Day is next to me bed, barely touched....
 
I liked Vineland, MM. The Crying of Lot 49 is fantastic and quite easy to read. V is good as well. Never got through Against the Day, and I finished Mason-Dixon but didn't really enjoy it.
 
Crap Towns Of Great Britain 2. The intellectual subtext makes for very interesting reading.
Best of all my town is featured and not only that it made it on to the cover of the book.
Oh how great it is to live in a nationally recognised crap town.
Not everyone can boast how shit the town they live in is.
Makes my chest swell with pride.
 
I reading a book called 'Penpal' at the moment, I'm nearly finished it. Its a really good creepy book, well worth a read! The author Dathan Auerbach started writing scary short stories on Reddit & his stories became so popular that he wrote this book. Brilliant book, very well written! I would highly recommend it!

http://www.amazon.com/dp/098554550X

Before that I read 'Heart Shaped Box' By Joe Hill. Also a good scary book! I loved the main character in this book, he is the lead singer in a famous death metal band, great character! He gets haunted by a very nasty ghost. Great book although the story got a bit predictable near the end. The author Joe Hill is Stephen Kings Son, so i was at bit apprehensive about that, but he is a good author & I will read more of his books.

http://www.amazon.com/Heart-Shaped-...d=1352140314&sr=1-1&keywords=heart+shaped+box

I love scary books, although its hard to get a REALLY scary one! Has anyone any suggestions for a really REALLY scary book?
 
emotional-intelligence-daniel-goleman2.gif


Thoroughly recommend this. If you've not heard of it Daniel Goleman argues that a balance of emotional as well as rational intelligence is needed in order for the individual to reach their highest potential and for society to achieve some kind of peace.

His premise is that an individual may have a genius IQ but without emotional intelligence ( eg ability to discern and manage emotions) they hold themselves back.
 
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ructions said:
I love scary books, although its hard to get a REALLY scary one! Has anyone any suggestions for a really REALLY scary book?
Click to expand...

Not sure if it would be your type, but the only book I can remember being genuinely freaked out by is this one:

511K5ioX-fL._BO2,204,203,200_PIsitb-sticker-arrow-click,TopRight,35,-76_AA300_SH20_OU02_.jpg


It's by an ex-catholic priest, an exorcist in America...
My opinion would generally be that exorcism was another method of assault on the vulnerable by the church - that what really was happening was mental illness, but there's something freaky about this book.. like this review on Amazon says:

"I don't quite understand what Malachi Martin is trying to achieve, but this book seems to have an eerie feeling surrounding it. From beginning to end, it breaks down the defences of the mind, and ends all logical reason.
I have had a profound change since reading this book, mentally and socially. The book has a frightening grasp, and almost demands to be read after finishing the first few pages. Feelings of guilt and terror accompany any reading. I truely feel that this book does more harm than good for the reader".

Anyway, I slept with the lights on for a good while after reading it (though this was years ago now, when I was younger and less cynical, so I'm not sure if I'd feel the same way now)
 
That review of the book has certainly piqued my interest in it. I may just have to have a read and see what I think.
 
Well, I've recently read The Catcher In The Rye by J D Salinger. It's odd but interesting. Currently waiting for Skag Boys, Trainspotting, and Porno by Irvine Welsh to arrive from Amazon.

Anyone read any Darren Shan? I enjoyed the Demonata Series and the regular series when I was younger, but I tried his City Trilogy books recently and I'd recommend them to anyone who hasn't heard of them.
 
Just managed to grab a copy of 'The Twelve' - Justin Cronin. Its the second part of a trilogy (first part being 'The Passage') - going to get stuck into that but since I heard the third part has been put back until 2014 it has sort of put me off.


Clive Barker if your reading this - Abarat two would be nice (you've had 10 years!).
 
Jackeh said:
Well, I've recently read The Catcher In The Rye by J D Salinger. It's odd but interesting.
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I was pleasantly surprised by that one as well.....and so it goes

I just revisited Zen and the Art of Motorcycle Maintenance and Neuromancer I needed something to restore my faith after the disappointment of Stranger in a Strange Land which, I thought was tripe.
 
I'm reading Douglas Coupland's The Gum Thief (didn't finish it first time a few years ago, going back to the start, it's actually worth it)

200px-The_Gum_Thief_book_cover.png


It's set in a branch of Staples, the US office supplies store. Actually I think they're over here now.

The other Coupland book I've read is Microserfs, about folk working at Microsoft and the general Silicon Valley milieu. It's very good. He also wrote Generation X which I should get round to some time.
 
Both Microserfs and Generation X are great Knockando, I really enjoyed All Families are Psychotic, read it while on holiday a few years back, quite good.

My favourite Coupland's book is Hey Nostradamus though, very very good.
 
What's the sort-of-followup to Microserfs? I read that, thought it started brilliantly, loved it for ages and then just as it was lurching towards a satisfying climax Coupland goes and introduces himself as a character and drives it all off the rails with self-conscious postmodern dickery. Did my head in, hated it. I read another of his books which ambled along nicely until the last quarter during which some other tricksiness was introduced to similar book-ruining, reader-alienating effect.

Currently reading Nile Rodgers - Le Freak. Only 60 pages in so not properly off the ground yet but it holds much promise.
 
Ahhhhhhhh freak out. Tell us if it's any good when you're finished. Or just digest it into a few words Guardian style. Anything to save me money. There's a recession or something.

Freak out.
 
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