Books/Reading Thread

[Amir]

Will is 20 years too late for underground.

Biographies anyone?

anyting life changin.

Read a couple of inspiring biographies lately: Arnie's Total Recall and Duff's It's So Easy. Both highly recommended. Currently reading the latest biography on Leonard Cohen, I'm Your Man, great stuff so far.

Picture of Dorian Gray...again.

One of my favourites.

[wasted]

Stop saying wonderful makes me wan to op myself. I want read it tho. We get the language we use from los angeles london is dead im too much in love.

Ive read duff but no arnie. Bukowski called arnie a piece of shit. I laff. I read beautiful losers oncw.

[Amir]

Arnie is a Great Man. I defer to Bill Burr on this:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aY05HQHYvvA

My dad's a big fan of Bukowski. Read Post Office a few years back, good book. Also got The Last Night of the Earth poems. Not a big poetry guy but I like leafing through it every now and then.

[DieselDaisy]

My current book is The Long Read To Freedom by Nelson Mandela.

I read that as a kid, all of it and the benefit of having done so is….absolutely nothing When i was a kid i thought it made you intelligent if you actively sought out and read huge books, as well as all the classics, so i did, a consequence of which was that I've read a load of books that i might as well not've read, for all i remember or understood of them. I suppose at 12 years old when so much is being referred to that you don't even really understand you're just reading the words off the page, like literally none of it sunk in, i could tell you exactly fuck all about Nelson Mandela really. The Satanic Verses is another one.

Yeah... I live next door to a library so attempted to read some Dickens, just because. He called it 'Hard Times' for a reason. I'd love to be well-read and sweat intelligence but I get on best with non-fiction, which teaches you stuff but isn't the kind of thing you can refer to in witty literary comments at parties, which people will laugh at and think highly of you.

Dickens is not like that though. He is not a high-brow writer who people discuss at literary parties - well if he is, he shouldn’t be (and Dickens himself would be appalled). Dickens is often very low-brow. First and foremost, Dickens is a comedic genius and satirist of the first order. He is also a keen observer of mankind (he understands, Englishmen, 'Englishness' - he knows our odd traits). Additionally his novels are full of romance, mystery and (in his last two works) Poe-esque gothic horror. He also touched upon the historical genre (Barnaby Rudge and Tale of Two Cities). Hard Times however is a different work and probably not the first port of call for a novice as it is a ‘condition of England’ novel (i.e. one part novel/one part social rant aimed at the government). I would recommend Great Expectations, Tale of Two Cities or David Copperfield.

[Guest Len B'stard]

What i love about Dickens is that we was about like, inner city London a lot of the time, it was sort of that eras equivalent of urban stuff and like any urban deprived area it's always rich with these characters that bear the mark of their particular social expierience, the characters just leap right off the page.

[DieselDaisy]

London is always an extra character in his books, its streets, its characters, its secrets. Dickens used to walk the street amongst the down-and-outs, pickpockets and prostitutes, for inspiration. This is why he had a writers' bloc when he was writing Dombey and Son in Switzerland: he needed to get back to London.

[Guest Len B'stard]

Whats your favorite Dies'?

[DieselDaisy]

Probably, A Tale of Two Cities. The thing is, there are two periods of Dickens. You have the early books which do not really have much of a storyline and consist merely of a bunch of satirical vignettes. My favourite of early Dickens is the first one, Pickwick Papers. It has no storyline whatsoever. It is just a bunch of drunk middle-aged guys going from one situation to another (you have to remember, Dickens was serialised when first published). But it is a masterpiece: Dickens was never more funny than in Pickwick. Of his greater literary works, his proper novels with a cleverly constructed plotline, I would say Tale of Two Cities followed closely by David Copperfield although I am due another read of Great Expectations - I have not read it in about ten years.

I love all his books. Even the novels which were seen as failures like Martin Chuzzlewit and Barnaby Rudge. The only book of his I am not that keen on is his last completed work, Our Mutual Friend. It is good but I get a sense that he is recycling himself. Let's not forget his non-fiction work including American Notes in which he completely slags off the yanks. I think it caused the biggest rupture in Anglo-American relations since the Boston Tea Party.

[Guest Len B'stard]

This is one thing I'm glad you've bought up because no one else does, they make em out to be these dark despairing tales but there is just so much humour to Dickens. I read Pickwick Papers tons as a kid and it almost put me off Dickens because I thought there was something i was too young or too thick to understand (the fact that it didn't feel like a proper story) and it was exactly the humour that keeps you in it, you're damn right.

[DieselDaisy]

This is a good example of Dickens' wit:

Most public characters have their failings; and the truth is that Mr Snevellicci was a little addicted to drinking; or, if the whole truth must be told, that he was scarely ever sober. He knew in his cups three distinct stages of intoxication, - the dignified - the quarrelsome - the amorous. When professionally engaged he never got beyond the dignified; in private circles he went through all three, passing from one to another with a rapidity of transition often rather perplexing to those who had not the honour of his acquaintance.

- Nicholas Nickleby

[Guest Len B'stard]

A lot of Dickens benefits from being read out loud because sometimes the humour is also in the cadence of the language in terms of how things sound when you say them out loud as well as whats actually being said.

[downzy]

It's funny how some people absolutely love Dickens while others, like myself, could never get into his works. I had an ex girlfriend who loved Dickens so much she would actually read passages of it to guests at dinner parties (yeah, that went over real well). I've always been a fan of writers with a more economic style: Hemingway, Steinbeck, Faulkner. For Whom the Bell Tolls and The Sound and the Fury are probably my two favourite books of all time.

Currently I'm reading The Everything Store: Jeff Bezos and the Age of Amazon. I'm half way through but I highly recommend it so far. It reads less like a linear and boring account of how Amazon came to be but an energetic and insightful look at how Amazon has revolutionized not only retail but supply-chain management.

Previously I read Bad Monkey by Carl Hiaasen, which was funny and a nice break from the usual non-fictional books I read.

I also highly recommend George Packer's book, "The Unwinding: An Inner History of the New America." If you want a fantastic portrait of where America stands right now in its history (though it's not really a history book), you have to read this book. Once I started reading I had a hard time stopping.

[Amir]

Currently I'm reading The Everything Store: Jeff Bezos and the Age of Amazon. I'm half way through but I highly recommend it so far. It reads less like a linear and boring account of how Amazon came to be but an energetic and insightful look at how Amazon has revolutionized not only retail but supply-chain management.

Been meaning to read that. As you're into non-fiction, I really recommend this:

Also, did you read Walter Isaacson's biography of Steve Jobs? Another amazing book (I actually downloaded that as an audiobook when I had a free trial to Audible, actor Dylan Baker did a pretty good job of reading it).

Edited December 6, 2013 by Amir

[ohlovelyrita]

I've been on a re-reading Bukowski binge lately, but other than that, I also picked up Journey to the End of the Night, which is just one of those books everyone should read at least once in their lifetime, even if they aren't massive Céline devotees. How I wish I knew French well enough to read it in its original form.

Agree! I started a thread here and used "Death on the Installment Plan"!!

To the OP: I am sure you'll enjoy Candide by Voltaire

and Demian by Herman Hesse. Check them out!

Oh never mind! I see this thread is from 2008.

Edited December 6, 2013 by ohlovelyrita

[bran]

been rereading, a feast for crows.

[downzy]

Been meaning to read that. As you're into non-fiction, I really recommend this:

The Master Switch

Also, did you read Walter Isaacson's biography of Steve Jobs? Another amazing book (I actually downloaded that as an audiobook when I had a free trial to Audible, actor Dylan Baker did a pretty good job of reading it).

Thanks for the recommendation, I'll put it on my list of books to read.

I haven't gotten around to reading the Jobs biography. I'm not a huge fan of biographies, I much prefer stories about processes, events, and themes. Still, I might give it a look. Did you enjoy it?

[Amir]

It was very good, well-balanced, not hagiographic, a lot of accounts of what an asshole the guy could be, but he lived a very interesting life, and even anecdotes about getting a hard drive ready for one of the first Apple computers can be unexpectedly hilarious. But if you're into processes, The Master Switch is a must-read. Talking about it just makes me want to re-read it, probably will once I finish this Leonard Cohen bio.

[DieselDaisy]

I cannot put Bill Bryson's One Summer: America 1927 down. It is a gigantic book but I am literally 2/3s through within only two days. It is simply an umbelievably romantic and exciting place, the 1920s. I honestly feel we have declined in so many ways, although it had its problems like prohibition, the mob etc.

[Haters Gonna Hate]

HGH is reading the Dexter books than Psycho.

[November_rain]

Since I´m jobless right now and I can´t afford buying any new books right now, I´m re-reading some of my old ones. I´ve recently read Shakespeare´s Romeo & Juliet and Hamlet in English since I can´t find any decent translations in Spanish; Another one I´ve read is Catcher in the rye ( in English too) and now I´m re-reading La Reina del Sur ( Queen of the South) by Spanish writer Arturo Pérez-Reverte. If you haven´t read anything by this author go check his work, he´s an amazing writer.

[Dan H.]

Gravity's Rainbow

[The Sandman]

Finished Mann's Unkindness of Raven's - so many more to read though...

[wasted]

The Wild Ride of a Hollywood Rebel - Dennis Hopper biography.

[Mr. Dude]

The Wild Ride of a Hollywood Rebel - Dennis Hopper biography.

how's that? He talk any about Neil Young? or acting in Neil's "The Human Highway" film?

[wasted]

Not yet. Its more about James dean and his early career as hollywood rebel. I just finiahed Easy Rider part. He was there for a lot counter culture hot stuff. He bought a warhol soup can everyone thought was crazy. He stole some random art he found in his house when he was broke to fund The Last Movie. Its a great read. I looking forward to his wilderness years and Apocalypse now section.