Struggling a bit for recommendations, anyone got anything along the same lines as the following authors?
Christopher Brookmyre
Brett Easton Ellis
Chuck Palahniuk
Jay McInerney
John Niven
Not really sure what genre this would fall under which is half the problem I'm having...
Michael Chabon or Donna Tartt, both went to school with Bret Easton Ellis I think. The Secret History is a fantastic book.
I'm really struggling with the first book. Just too much going on.
So where was I?
Night by Elie Weasal
The sequence is too familiar by now - pogroms, ghettos, deportation, concentration camps, selections, gas chambers, death marches. But this was one of the first widely read accounts of the holocaust, from the perspective of a Hungarian Jew, recounting the events as they happened in particular to himself and his father. It is, as I say, well-known by now, but the details still don't fail to shock. I'm thinking of the authors anger at his father for drawing the anger of the SS as he is beaten to death. The hanging of a child. Words of encouragement from SS guards who also shoot dead stragglers.
It's short and simply written, with Weasal also recounting the effect of these horrors on his Jewish faith. It appears that despite declaring the God of Israel to be dead here, that he did nevertheless retain his belief afterwards. I'm at a loss to know how.
As I Lay Dying by William Faulkner
A short novel with a reputation for both merit and difficulty. The story is about a family of rural Missispians travelling across the country in an effort to bury their dead mother. Each chapter is narrated by a different person, with little in the way of context. It's at first a disorienting and opaque approach, with some effort and thought required to figure out what is going on, much less to draw any conclusions from events. But it does begin to pay off, with the story in turn humorous and profound. By the end you begin to understand the characters complexities with earlier events put into some context. And then it ends.
Now this leads me to believe that a second (or even third) read-through would be much more rewarding. And I understand that that gives Faulkners work some value as a literary artifact, much in the sense that Joyce's more difficult output has. And I might return to it at some stage, but as a casual reader with limited spare time, I'm not sure that I can necessarily justify studying the likes of this to the extent that is required to fully appreciate it.
For Whom the Bell Tolls by Ernest Hemingway
This is Hemingway's novel set during the Spanish Civil War, again based on his own experiences. It's the story of an American fighting for the International brigades, sent behind enemy lines to destroy a bridge in an effort to assist with an offensive that is planned by the Republican side. It's not overtly political, more concerned with the war than the politics behind it. I'd say it's the best I've read by him to date - beautiful and tragic and alive. Certain sequences are harrowing to read, the characters are fascinating and multifaceted - capable of the most extreme cruelty, bravery and cowardice, but kept relatable and sympathetic throughout.
Some of the linguistic choices are strange - the characters speak Spanish and he translates it literally throughout - with 'thou' and 'thee' and other oddities. He also censors the swearing - "I obscenity your mother". But they don't really detract.
Great stuff from a fascinating period of history.
The Strongman: Vladimir Putin and the Struggle for Russia by Angus Roxburgh
This is a history of Russia since the fall of communism, primarily focusing on the rise and rule of Vladimir Putin. It's an interesting overview, with some of the particular stories and insights being revealing in terms of the reasons why Russia has lurched back into authoritarianism - although the general picture of corruption and autocracy that it paints is hardly all that ground-breaking.
The author is a former PR consultant to the Putin government and while one suspects that this might align him with them in some sense, the reality is quite different. My main criticism in particular is that it's quite western-centric, limited in the extent that it portrays the Russian point of view, or the experience of the Russian people, and far too uncritical of the policies of the west.
The Disposessed by Ursula Le Guin
Nominally science fiction, this one is actually a political exploration. The main character Shevek belongs to a planet of peaceful anarchists, and travels to nearby moon where capitalism is the norm. Le Guin constructs a plausible working model of an anarchist society and examines its strengths and weaknesses, and those of its rival in a mature and balanced way. At its best this leads to some quite profound observations about human beings and human society. At its worst its slightly dated, some of the cold war era tropes and allegories no longer relevant.
The Amazing Colossal Apostle by Robert M Price.
Another book by the most prominent proponent of the Christ-myth theory, this one aims to determine what can be said, if anything about the historical Paul. The conclusion, unsurprisingly is that Paul is every bit a literary creation as Jesus is and that if there was a real historical figure at all we can only speculate broadly about him, the Christian Paul being entirely a fabrication.
Largely this is done by deconstructing the Pauline epistles and attempting to demonstrate that they could not have been written by Paul or any other individual. They are instead pseudo-biographical works which have been edited and redacted repeatedly by religious authorities possessing various motivations, starting with gnostics, then Marcionites and finally Catholics. Their current form was arrived at well into the 2nd century. While historians (as opposed to fundamentalists) now take some of this for granted with several of the epistles, Price demands that we see them all in this way.
The real Paul is hypotheticised to have been a gnostic leader, nothing to do with any Jesus movement and potentially having been deified to some extent himself. He survives in Christian tradition only as Simon Magus, an evil sorcerer, with the character of Saul/Paul being the version co-opted and domesticated by the emerging Catholic church in order to heal the divides between Jewish and Marcionite branches of Christianity.
The logic here is impressive, the depth and breadth of Price's learning remarkable. It's difficult not to be convinced by the thrust of his argument, even if there are details that one might quibble with and questions I still have. I'm probably not familiar enough with mainstream scholarship to come down firmly on one side or the other but this is serious stuff that ought to require a massive effort to refute.
Ursula Le Guin is someone I've been interested in checking out. Might have to get that book as it sounds interesting.
Thanks for that Henry, last book sounds very good.
I recently read Storm of Steel - a book based on World War I from a German soldier perspective. Not a book for someone who is looking at the historical context of the war but rather someone who is interested in what it was like to be thrown into pure destruction. It's quite incredible to read about some of the great battles (Somme for example) and makes you wonder how anyone could have survived with the shells, grenades, gun fire and mustard gas happening every time you were on the battlefield. It's interlaced with some lovely down times as well, where the serenity of sleepy French villages are resting spots for the soldiers and it makes you forget one of the bloodiest wars in human history is occurring a few miles away. It's a very interesting read.
Currently reading The Idiot and And the poor suffer what they must so will come back to this (if I remember).
Ooh I have that. Dan Carlin mentioned it in one of his podcasts and I got it on his recommendation. Looking forward to checking it out.Originally Posted by Kikó
Cool, will persevere although I've been reading it on and off since the start of the year.
Cheers for the recommendations @Spoonsky
Because I'm a sucker for alternative history type things and nobody shows that Castle show on TV here, I was recommended to pick up Making History by Stephen Fry (the same Stephen Fry I presume, I didn't know he wrote). Anyone read it and is it worth it?
Yeah, I've read that. I really enjoyed it.
Other Nazi-related alternative histories that are worth a look are 'Dominion' by CJ Sansom and Fatherland by Robert Harris.
I saw this one in the shop the other day too and thought it looked interesting. Might get it soon.
Is the TV show The Man in the High Castle? That was a book too. By Philip K. Dick.
Reading a few things at the mo.
The Keeper: Saving Goals and Achieving Them - Tim Howard's autobiography. Standard fare for a footballer's autobiography really. Decent thing to read between calls at work. Probably better than most, actually, but then I tend to the avoid the ones that are clearly shit.
The Bottom Billion - Only just started this but looks promising. I'll probably wait until after my holiday to crack at it properly. It's about how to turn the shit countries into slightly less shit countries, and how to develop the shit out of them or some shit.
Humanity: A Moral History of the Twentieth Century I'm only a chapter into this but it is fucking brilliant so far. Can't wait to give it a good go.
Yeah that's the show. Does any UK channel show it?
I've heard of Fatherland too and it was a toss-up between this and that one. I also have a copy of Bolloxology I want to read after the Fry one, so I'll grab the other one after.
I'm not sure but I think it's only on Amazon Prime. Can't you download it anywhere?
You should give Dominion a go too. It's probably the best of the three of those.
It's only 5 so I'll get it for after the other two.
Our ISP are threatening to cut people off with no warnings for downloading so I'm going to have to locate a PAYG broadband dongle before I can look for TV stuff.
Oh, shit. I'd be switching ISP pretty soon.
Can you still stream?
Does it touch on his Tourettes?
Yeah a fair bit. He has OCD too as they both often go together and he talks about a lot of all that. It's clearly written for the general American audience on the back of his heroics against Belgium in 2014 and explains a lot of things about the basic rules of football which wouldn't be there otherwise. It's a decent read though.
The Tudors: The Complete Story of England's Most Notorious Dynasty by G.J. Meyer.
English history is something I have only a partial understanding of, so I've set out to rectify that. This is a fairly heavy tome charting the history of the infamous Tudor Dynasty of the 16th century. After a brief section on Henry VII (who by most measures after an improbable rise to power ruled in a reasonably prudent way) most of the book is dedicated to the tumultuous reign of his son, his well-known marital intrigues, his tyranny and his destruction of the old church. It's then followed by short sections on Edward VII and Mary I (each who only ruled briefly) before finishing with a somewhat longer section on Elizabeth I.
It's interesting and entertaining throughout, pitched at a level that I found appropriate with some knowledge taken for granted, but with intermediate chapters explaining background topics (the reformation, the role of parliament, contemporary lifestyles and so forth). I would perhaps have liked some more attention paid to the underlying social trends - the new landowning class created by Henry's confiscation of church property and the new Protestant merchant class whose ideas were spread by the printing press are mentioned but they would have a huge role to play in future centuries that isn't really appreciable here.
I come away from it all with a profoundly negative view of Tudor England. The Catholic Church is portrayed as being nowhere nearly as decadent as one might have thought and Henry's actions are shown as entirely opportunistic and brutal. Living standards are shown to have declined throughout, the relatively prosperous medieval kingdom degenerating into a heavily-tiered society with a minority living in opulent wealth and a majority in grinding poverty. Even the international standing of England is depicted as suffering, with the Crown lurching from one financial crisis to another. This all holds even during the time of Elizabeth, who to my uninformed mind would have at least have had at least as many positives as negatives. But here she's just another despot, petty and cowardly, who just managed to live a little longer.
And yet it would, in a few short decades, lead to the beginnings of the modern parliamentarian system and thereafter to the industrial revolution. Omelettes and eggs maybe? Fascinating stuff.
I hadn't read any Stephen King at all up to this point in my life but I'm really into his Dark Tower series at the moment. Has anyone else read it? I'm close to finishing up the fourth instalment, Wizard and Glass, and it's potentially my favourite so far. It's between than and the previous one.
It feels little bit disjointed sometimes but generally it's ace. I really like the world and the mythology he's created.
Stephen King is god tier, even if he should have stopped writing books in 1995. I dont remember reading that series though
The Dark Tower is phenomenal. Dunno which I'd say is my favourite Song of Susannah feels like the one I remember least about.
Can't go into it without spoiling the ending for Alex but I like the way they're setting up the film.
What a load of shite.
Any book with a cover like that will be.
Have any of you got a Kindle Oasis? Is it worth the extra cash over a Paperwhite/Voyage?
I'm a twit
Yeah, I'm trying to involve anything regarding the film for fear of spoiling the story. I do think Idris Elba will be a good Roland though.
I think what I like most about Wizard and Glass is the that it's nearly all set in the past when Roland is still young, and you get more of a sense of what a Gunslinger's role in the world was, what they were meant to be and meant to do in the grand scheme of things, rather than this lone wanderer that he's turned into.
The world and, particularly, the dialogue is really immersive though. I really wish it was a real-life thing to be able to tell people that they've "forgotten the face of their father" when they make you angry.
I tried reading the Dark Tower and got as far as some bloke chasing after someone else through a desert and stopping at an old man's house.
I think that's quiet early in the first book? The first one is bit weird really, it's not very representative of the rest of it. It just lays some basic groundwork. The second one is where it really picks up.
It's pretty much the first thing that happens - I only read about 50 pages I think. I've got the audiobooks though so might give them a crack at some point.
I've just finished the fourth Long Earth book. I'm committed now and have to read the fifth but Christ, I wish I'd given up after the second. Every single fucking time it sets up a bunch of stuff, makes you think something lasting might happen and then ends on a wet fart of a finale.
This one has a major event in terms of the series happen and the death of a character who's been in all four and I still couldn't bring myself to give a shit.
Wuthering Heights by Emily Bronte
The three Bronte sisters are famed 19th century writers with a whole list of classics to their names. This one is the only novel by Emily Bronte, who had a short life and poor health but it's reputed by many to be the best of them all. Set in rural northern England, it tells of the doomed romance of Heathcliff and Catherine, and its effects on their families and associates.
I was taken aback at how dark it is - at turns violent, ugly, misanthropic, stark and cruel. The characters lead miserable lives and go out of their way to inflict misery upon others. Heathcliff in particular is vindictive and obsessed with revenge, not only against his enemies but against their families. He destroys his own and their lives pursuing it. A very long way from what one expects from genteel 19th century society.
One imagines that some of it might be drawn from the authors own experiences, her ill health and frustrations. There's just a hint of the supernatural (verging on horror at times). Perhaps an unreliable narrator. Certainly hints of a proto-feminism and class politics. All very far ahead of its time.
I'm on a terrorist thriller thing called First Response by Stephen Leather about an ISIS terror chap coerces a load of non-ISISists into a suicide bomb threat to release ISIS inmates from Belmarsh. I've not got to whatever the twist is going to be yet but while I'm enjoying it it's annoying how much he's forcing across points that only a moron or a cunt would need to be told anyway.
You're telling me not all Muslims want to kill all the white people? Well shiver my timbers, Leather, you so crazy!
After this I need to get back to some series. I've got one more Long Earth book (ugh), the next First Law book, the next Malazan and some more Discworld to be cracking on with.
So I've read the first two, but couldn't bring myself to keep going. Reckon I should just give it a miss? I found the second one a bit uninspiring.
Uninspiring is exactly the word. I would advise you not to bother. I'm going to finish it because I've got this far but it's just a series of teases to things that never happen, appearances of interesting species that don't matter and a load of characters who aren't unpleasant, for the most part, but nor do you actually care about. Too much of it feels like a "What if?" that spends too long talking about the raw facts of the setting they've created and not nearly enough actual story.
I love Discworld so much I'm basically just going to blame Stephen Baxter for it being such a waste of an idea.
That's kind of how I found it. It's not that I didn't like it. It's that I really didn't care about the characters after the first book. It's a nice piece of world-building, but the stories were certainly more Baxter than Pratchett.
Pratchett signed my copy of Thief of Time, which is something I will always value.
In terms of fun book series that don't demand too much of you, I really like the Dresden File series.
The story's all gotten a bit heavy in the last bunch of books, but the premise is fun and it never takes itself too seriously.
I think the world-building and that they're very easy reading are what's kept sucking me back in. And probably the same hope that kept me going with the Walking Dead as long as it did, that it'd turn into something as good as it could be. I've only one Long Earth book to go now though and I don't see it changing.
Reading The Autobiography of Martin Luther King at the mo. It's a laborious in terms of very specific things he does and people he visits at specific times, but that's more do with the book being selections of his writings at different times being thrown together. It's strange for him to be talking about high-end philosophical ideas and then chat for 30 pages about the precise order in which he went to visit different people about a particular issue. The erratic pace would be fine in a normal book but in the Kindle edition there's not much indication beforehand of what you're going to get in the next chapter. It's a cracking read though, and really fascinating to see how his faith influenced him throughout and pushed him towards trying to make a difference. The stuff about his faith and his opinions on the role of the church are the most interesting parts so far for me, actually.
Sapiens: A Brief History of Humankind by Yuval Noah Harari
The scope here is considerable - the entire history of our species. It starts well, and the first few chapters covering human evolution followed by the cognitive revolution and then the agricultural revolution are intriguing and offer an interesting perspective. Unfortunately as it moves on, the author appears to lose track of his task, and the narrative degenerates into a series of dubious opinion pieces about politics and philosophy. (Political philosophies are equated with religious creeds for example.) It's still reasonably well written with some thought-provoking ideas, but as it staggers towards its conclusion, it begins to dawn that perhaps Harari wished he had written a different book. His last chapter about cybernetics and AI anticipates the follow-up Homo Deus which is about the future of our species. That might be worth a follow-up some time if he can restrain himself a little better.
Lest Darkness Fall by L. Sprague de Camp
Alternative history this time - I found the premise intriguing, concerning a 20th century man who travels back to 6th century Rome and attempts to prevent the Dark Ages from happening. It's quite short and reads almost like a fable (or a thought experiment) rather than realistic history. The protagonist, Padway, displays an uncommon resourcefulness, having little trouble adjusting to the wildly different society and it's language and in short order inventing the printing press, telegraph and various other improvements. Still, it's an entertaining flight of fancy that lays proper credit at the feet of the engineers who built both the classical and modern worlds.
I'm onto Before They Are Hanged, Abercrombie's second in the First Law trilogy. He's so readable.
With him and Erikson to catch up on I'm genuinely a bit gutted I made so much effort to get up to speed on ASOIAF
Perv: The Sexual Deviant in all of us, by Jesse Berring. Very interesting book. He reckons that a large proportion of people have some kind of idiosyncratic, 'out of the norm' type of sexual inclination/fantasy that they keep under wraps due to the stigmas still existing in society about sexuality. He argues that whether or not is harmful is the indicator of whether or not you should judge someone, because people can't really decide on their sexual interests. All good stuff. He applies the argument to paedophiles one of the last chapters, where it gets a bit more dicey. Lots of studies apparently suggest that giving paedophiles access to child porn does often satisfy their sexual needs enough to prevent them from doing any harm to real children, so he weighs up whether or not you should just let them have it, or that maybe one day they could make CGI child porn. It's a bit weird but seems to make sense really. The prevailing theme though is that while people are more open about their sexuality than they've ever been, there's still a lot of stigma and there's a long way to go when it comes to accepting all the different variants of it. Especially considering how many people do have stuff hidden in their locker.
Gaia: A New Look at Life on Earth, by James Lovelock. I'm about half-way through this. A lot of the science is over my head but I'm learning a lot and I'm getting the gist of it, which is that the Earth itself has a self-righting mechanism in the same way the human body does (eg shivering/sweating etc), although with the Earth it can take centuries to kick in properly. A lot of the evidence he provides seems circumstantial to me but it's interesting all the same, and I'm learning a fair amount about science and shit even if I don't buy the idea that 'Gaia' is a conscious force, even if it might be homeostatic. I mean, a lot of the homeostatic elements of the human body aren't conscious and are just done automatically, so I don't see why he has to think that Gaia is conscious. It's a bit irritating that he chooses to personify the planet like he does, but it doesn't bother me enough to stop reading.
Lewis wrote a book? The fuck.
It's on the missus' Christmas Kindle.
I'm a twit
I'm pirating fuck outta that shit.
I'll be starting #5 soon. Have you read Joe Abercrombie's First Law trilogy? Same sort of stuff as ASOIAF and Malazan. I'm halfway through the second and loving it.
A war history related book, I presume?
It's on the missus' Christmas Kindle.
A Dummy's Guide To Mooching About Hull
I'm a twit
Ah, read it.
I still can't get through this first Malazan book. Getting to the stage now where I feel I need to go back and read it again from the start.
Oh yeah I forgot I meant to read those.
What's the trouble you're having, Adamski?
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