Who's reading what?

[David]

I got a bit further than page 12, but not much further. Much better to read Ulysses again than to tackle the monster, I think. Or Beckett! (The absolute opposite of the Wake, probably.)

[bodkin]

Re: Stranger in a Strange Land

Too much of a good thing, surely?

Well, I don't want to shit on the book but, I read the standard version in my early teens and found it to be an incredible slog. It's not as bad this time around, but it's not like I'm tobogganing down a hill with glee either. Still, I rarely feel the poorer for having read any book.

Read this way way back, and thoroughly enjoyed it. That said, I think RAH was very of his time and I haven't felt the urge to re-read any of him (having read much, back in the century) in recent decades.

I will Fear no Evil is the RAH book that most stuck with me, I think that's the one, all parallel universes, people named after Edgar Rice Burroughs characters, and a talking car...

Ian

[Gbn]

Reading Hemingway, Tom Wolfe and hunter thompson for both pleasure, and to hopefully make the needed links for my fourth year dissertation, hunter thompson, from journo to gonzo...

[k-j]

January

The Landmark Thucydides

Following last year where the Landmark Herodotus was my first book. I enjoyed this much more than I'd expected, perhaps not quite as much as Herodotus whose chaotic digressions and exaggerations are my thing entirely, but still completely absorbing. What I love about Thucydides is (i) the speeches/rhetoric, where you find yourself, no matter how determinedly critical, agreeing with each opposed speaker in turn, and then waiting agog to see what the outcome is. This is the best example of rhetoric as an art that I've ever read, although I'm sure there are many equal to it in Greek and Roman literature. And (ii) the skill of Thucydides in controlling his narrative given the geopolitical complexity of events. He feeds you just enough of what's happening in this location before moving you across a sea or a landmass to catch up with events elsewhere, and when the time comes to make the connection you feel completely comfortable, indeed you feel as though you had seen it coming. Probably this owes as much to the brilliant maps and annotations of the Landmark edition as it does to Thucydides but still.

The Juniper Tree - Barbara Comyns

After being bowled over by the dark and quirky Who Was Changed and Who Was Dead in December I ordered this from the library, a late novel and quite different although equally dark and quirky in its way. It's a modern fairy tale set in 70's London about birth and motherhood (and otherhood) and reads sort of like a very, very restrained Angela Carter. I enjoyed it but had hoped for something a bit more dramatic.

Strange Days Indeed - Francis Wheen

Subtitled The 1970's - The Golden Age of Paranoia which really sums it up. Wheen's frantic headlong style is perfect for telling the scarcely believable tales of paranoia and perversity that characterised the 70's, from Nixon to Harold Wilson to Idi Amin. A brilliant merging of the personal and political, very funny throughout and never boring. I've got his book on the 80's waiting to be read, not sure how long I can hold out.

Christmas Pudding - Nancy Mitford

Amusing story of eccentric monied folk gathering for Christmas in the country. Quite caustic at times and very self-aware.

Ultramarine - Malcolm Lowry

Lowry's first book, written when he was 23 and just back from a year "finding himself" as we'd say now in the merchant marine. The style is brilliant, surprisingly similar to the Lowry of his later works, complex and daring. Not a long novel but unfortunately long sections are spent inside Lowry's head, as he agonises over being the posh outsider on a shipful of career seamen and whether he ought to be faithful to his sweetheart back home. But there is a thrilling, reeling night of drunken shore leave which stands comparison with Lowry's best drunk-writing (and therefore any drunk writing). And the dialogue of the sailors is rather good.

The Imago Sequence and Other Stories - Laird Barron

This wears its Lovecraft more heavily than I would have expected, but still an interesting and at times gripping collection of modern horror stories. There is fungal dread, gaping maws, disused barns... but the glimpses of the eldritch are few and far between. Mostly it is drink- and drug-raddled characters searching for things they can't quite identify in all the wrong places. My favourite was "Procession of the Black Sloth", set in a strange expat community in Hong Kong (or China, can't remember) where photos and TV reveal glimpses of another reality and a group of old women are up to something awful. I also liked the title story, about a hardboiled heavy drawn into a quest for three undefinably terrifying photographs. This is great writing and I'll be reading more Barron.

Between the Acts - Woolf

I liked the first half a lot, as Woolf sets up the afternoon's entertainment with her trademark glimpses into peoples thoughts and misunderstandings. The pageant itself I thought went on too long. There is a very sharply drawn-out sense of imminent loss as the village/England stands on the threshold of WWII. Worth a read if you like Woolf.

Herma - MacDonald Harris

Herma, a precocious voice-artist/singer/mimic discovers she has the ability to extrude and retract male genitalia at will. When buying her first suit, and pressed by the tailor for a male name, she extemporises... Fred Hite. Geddit?!? Herma and Fred develop a dual lifestyle, communicating (generally to chastise each other in a friendly, sibling way) by way of notes on the bathroom mirror. Harris's impeccable sense of historical place is again on show throughout, from youth in small-town late c19 California, to San Francisco and the opera in time for the great quake, through to Paris before the war, where Herma/Fred become friends with Proust (who is exactly as I imagine him) and intervene inadvertently but critically in M's relationship with Albertine. Caruso and Puccini also appear in marvelous more-than-cameo roles. While Herma is taking the opera world by storm, Fred is developing a fascination with flying machines (surely there is symbolism here) which leads inexorably to the war. I'm half way through my chronological reading of Harris now, and I can't think of any other writer so consistently excellent, so inviting, clever and genial.

[Ros]

Stunned as always by the depth and... width? of your reading, Kieran. I read some Thucydides years ago, but I rather fancy the Herodotus. Will check out those editions - I see they do Arrian on Alexander the Great, too. That might be fun.

Ros

[k-j]

I see they do Arrian on Alexander the Great, too. That might be fun.

Especially now you've met him!

[Ros]

I see they do Arrian on Alexander the Great, too. That might be fun.

Especially now you've met him!

Yes!

[Ros]

That Thucydides is over 700 pages long...

[k-j]

A lot of it is maps, illustrations and notes though. And the notes are repeated for those just dipping in. There are also about 100pp of (very good) appendices giving background.

I would say it's the equivalent of a 350-400 pager.

[k-j]

Just did a word count on the Gutenberg edition (actually the same translation as in Landmark) and it's a little over 200,000 words. So the equivalent of two novels.

[Ros]

Ah, would only take you a couple of days, then! I got the impression these books were new translations, rather than ones on Gutenberg, which presumably are old?'

I'm reading a biography of Henry VIII by Scarisbrick which I've had for years but never actually read. Delighted to find it's pretty gripping, although the theological convolutions about whether Henry's marriage to Catherine was ever legally binding are pretty astonishing - affinity (being too close to someone to marry them, eg a first cousin) seems to come into play even when there's no blood relationship, and can occur even at betrothal. It's all very complicated. HVIII is all the rage at present in the UK due to the televising of Wolf Hall by Hilary Mantel, which is pretty good.

Ros

[k-j]

Ah, would only take you a couple of days, then! I got the impression these books were new translations, rather than ones on Gutenberg, which presumably are old?'

The Herodotus is a new translation but not the Thuc. According to the editor he couldn't see the Victorian Crawley tranlsation being improved upon and having read it I agree. Best thing about it is the way it captures the rhetoric. The Victorians studied this in school so they have the ear for it. Us moderns would struggle to do as good a job.

I'm reading a biography of Henry VIII by Scarisbrick which I've had for years but never actually read. Delighted to find it's pretty gripping, although the theological convolutions about whether Henry's marriage to Catherine was ever legally binding are pretty astonishing - affinity (being too close to someone to marry them, eg a first cousin) seems to come into play even when there's no blood relationship, and can occur even at betrothal. It's all very complicated. HVIII is all the rage at present in the UK due to the televising of Wolf Hall by Hilary Mantel, which is pretty good.

I've heard WH (the TV version) is good. I might actually watch that and then decide whether to read the book. I saw some super pics of Henry 8th (and a brilliant one of Cromwell) at the Nat. Portrait Gallery while I was there. He was an absolute beast of a bloke wasn't he, all coarse orange fur and gouty beef!

[Ros]

Wolf Hall is v good, the tv version - very moody and full of thoughtful pauses. I enjoyed the books v much too, though the style is odd - she refers to Cromwell as 'he' all the time, without properly assigning the pronoun. I think you'd enjoy them. Yes, we saw those portraits too - HVIII was very athletic and handsome when younger, of course.

[StephenDedalus]

Just finished reading Ulysses

[k-j]

Just finished reading Ulysses

Marks out of ten?

[StephenDedalus]

Just finished reading Ulysses

Marks out of ten?

9! Difficult to say anything that hasn't been said about it already, but I thought it was incredible and Joyce is a genius (Which I already knew, Dubliners and Portrait are two of my favourite books, hence my username). It was truly amazing, almost intimidating at points. I would give it 10, but there were some parts that were very difficult, and seemed to drag.

[Travis]

Watched Salinger last night (3.5/5). Thinking of dusting off Catcher.

[Travis]

David, KJ, thanks.

Ian, the "very much of his time" criticism regarding Heinlein seems widespread. And most of that seems silly, like feminism-gone-wrong assessments of misogyny, etc. How do you mean it?

[k-j]

Just finished reading Ulysses

Marks out of ten?

9! Difficult to say anything that hasn't been said about it already, but I thought it was incredible and Joyce is a genius (Which I already knew, Dubliners and Portrait are two of my favourite books, hence my username). It was truly amazing, almost intimidating at points. I would give it 10, but there were some parts that were very difficult, and seemed to drag.

I struggle with Aeolus and Sirens, and actually am not crazy about the whole "Telemachiad", the first three sections centred on Stephen. Oxen of the Sun is also tough, but that gets more rewarding the more English lit I read! But in a book like Ulysses I think I'd feel almost cheated if there weren't some sticky patches. If every episode was as much of a delight as, say, Hades or Wandering Rocks or Ithaca, I don't think it would feel complete, if that makes sense. It's like a friend, you want them to have a few objectionable traits.

[k-j]

Watched Salinger last night (3.5/5). Thinking of dusting off Catcher.

Have you read his other stuff?

[Travis]

Not yet. The Nine Stories collection is high on my short fiction list though.

Thoughts?

[k-j]

Not yet. The Nine Stories collection is high on my short fiction list though.

Thoughts?

You won't regret it, Nine Stories is as good as any short story collection I've read. A masterpiece, better than Catcher in my opinion (and I love Catcher). I read Franny and Zooey too, but wasn't so impressed with that. But read it and see what you think.

[bodkin]

David, KJ, thanks.

Ian, the "very much of his time" criticism regarding Heinlein seems widespread. And most of that seems silly, like feminism-gone-wrong assessments of misogyny, etc. How do you mean it?

It depends how you look at it I suppose. I would never say "this is a bad book because it wasn't written with modern sensibilities" but I would say "underlying assumptions have changed so that this book is now harder to enjoy..."

SF can date surprisingly fast. "Nothing dates as quickly as the future..." which is basically because any view of the future is extrapolated from the present and "trend analysis is always wrong" (to quote one of my own poems.)

Some SF weathers the storm well, usually because it is about something more eternal than the moment it was written in. Other hangs on for a long time and then falls to its failing assumptions. Some does both, transitioning from "highly contemporary" to "exquisite period piece" -- with or without an intervening time in the wilderness. And some always was of the moment and blinks out, never to be seen again, like a transporter malfunction.

RAH is well out of the phase where he's immediately relevant, but not safely arrived at the status of "timeless classics" -- none of which means he isn't a revered master...

...OK, now I have to re-read a few. Got a big pile of books-on-the-go already, however, ask again in a couple of weeks.

Ian

[k-j]

February's reading:

The Red Badge of Courage - Stephen Crane

Not terribly impressed with this. I can certainly see why it's on so many school syllabuses though. You can read it very much in two ways, as a tale of heroic redemption or of insanity and war is dehumanising hell. But the prose didn't do much for me, there's no characterisation and it's just too parable-like for me to really enjoy it.

Pigeon Pie - Nancy Mitford

Came in a double-edition with Christmas Pudding which I read in January. This one, published during WWII, is a silly but still quite funny spy caper which sees our upper class twit heroine getting involved with comedy Kraut undercover agents and aging popular crooner the "King of Song" or the Lieder König as the Germans call him when they abduct him and force him into radio propaganda work. Not as good as Christmas Pudding.

Motorman - David Ohle

One of the weirdest novels I've ever read. Reminded me a quite a lot of Ben Marcus (who wrote the introduction) with its consistently ungraspable mirror-world, a sort of psychic dystopia which is too consistent to be a dream - but this is a more convincing nightmare still. People have additional hearts (often animal hearts) which fail one by one. The hero, Mondenke, spends his time fleeing confusedly through an oozing, woozy world from the sinister Bunce and fumbling at romance with his lover, Cock Roberta. Zombie-like jellyheads shamble and frustrate; a backdrop of bizarre weather reports drift from invisible speakers. There's Philip K. Dick and Beckett and Burroughs and Terry Gilliam's Brazil here but those really are just the vaguest approximations. I can't say I really enjoyed reading Motorman but it's certainly a unique experience that I'd recommend to anyone who likes challenging fiction.

Vinegar Soup - Miles Gibson

Continuing to read through the complete works of Gibson that I bought online while drunk after finishing the excellent The Sandman. This, the fourth of seven, was the weakest yet. A rum old chef/owner of a London caf, his adopted son and their waitress run off to darkest Africa in search of an old friend who owns a hotel in the jungle. Old friend dies before they get there and it turns into a kind of pastiche Heart of Darkness that doesn't go anywhere in particular.

South Wind - Norman Douglas

My second reading of this, one of my favourite novels and a unique one. Very little happens, and it unhappens beautifully. This must be the finest example of the "country house novel", which takes a diverse group of people, usually educated, puts them in a remote location and leaves them to have amusing conversations and the occasional dalliance or set-to. Douglas, and his primary mouthpiece the eccentric Mr Keith, are sensualists and rationalists, and life seems delightfully simple on their microcosmic island of Nepenthe (modeled on Capri) with its jumble of expats, excitable natives and Russian cultists, its backdrop of strange myths and the all-pervasive titular sirocco. It's a warm book, contrary, even iconoclastic but in such a genial way, that I will read many more times.

The Odd Women - George Gissing

Orwell, who held Gissing in high regard, says in an essay that you can sum up his novels in three words: not enough money. This is true I suppose, but both this and New Grub Street use their main theme of poverty, or untimely wealth, to probe intelligently into human motivations, desires, weaknesses, character in general. All the characters are deeply believable, none of them entirely sympathetic. Where New Grub Street takes the literary world as its fulcrum, this one works off the contemporary debate over women's role in society and the surplus of women in Victorian Britain (the unmarriageable "odd women" of the title). Gissing explores the issue with subtlety and clearly held very progressive views, but he doesn't stoop to easy answers and makes it brilliantly clear how the failings of a society swell from the inherited perversities of its dominant members. You might even call this Dickens for grown-ups, if George Eliot hadn't already been assigned that label.

Poems - Herrick

Lots of fun. Wrote about it here: viewtopic.php?f=2&t=20115&start=50#p172820

Sonnets to Orpheus - Rilke

Read them all twice in English and German. Found the German really hard at times, but mostly staggeringly beautiful. Not sure I fully understand the message - immortality through art, primacy of the spiritual over the worldly, along those lines? and even less sure that I agree with it. But the technical genius of the poems makes that almost irrelevant. I especially love the long-lined ones where Rilke deploys classical metres. I think I might prefer Rilke's earlier work, from the little I've read of it.

[bodkin]

Can you be a sensualist and a rationalist? (Also I want to insert "naturalist" into that sequence, ignore me...)

You shamed me into writing up the book I have intended for some time. I read We are all made of glue by Marina Lewycka. I was intrigued by this because she has good titles, and also a connection to Sheffield (she taught at Sheffield Hallam University).

This is a strange and enjoyable book. There's an elderly Jewish lady living in a huge decrepit house. A social worker who wants her in a home so a dodgy estate agent can do a deal with the relatives and sell the house for development. A couple of "uselesses" who are trying to repair the house, and the elder of whom is a dispossessed Palestinian...

The main character has thrown out first her husband, and then all his prized possessions, apparently on the basis that he's boring.

It all rollicks along and is enjoyable. The subtext is about the aftermath of the WWII and there's probably a touch of "isn't it nicer if we all get along" in there too.

I enjoyed it. I might read another of hers one day, but no rush...

Ian