Books

[StoutAndAle]

Finished Duff McKagan's "It's So Easy (And Other Lies)" - it was alright.

No doubt Duff used his time after GN'R wisely and got himself back on track both physically and mentally plus he made some wise investments but some chapters made me think that this book should have been called Duff McKagan - Bouncing Back - "needless to say, I had the last laugh".

Nearly finished "Nothing Is Real - The Beatles Were Underrated" by David Hepworth, a writer whose work I always enjoy reading. 

[SansaSun]

Finally started reading of GOT books! Better late than never?

and also few blogs https://www.deviantart.com/bryanclifford

[Scáthach]

Finally started reading of GOT books! Better late than never?

They are excellent reading, very addictive. Just be prepared for the frustration of possibly never getting the full story in print. Martin has been dragging his heels over The Winds of Winter for a long time. A Dream of Spring is due to follow. Looking at the age and health of the author makes me think he will probably die before finishing them. Sorry, rant over, I have a complex relationship with those books 

[Pedrito]

They're amazing books..I lost a year of my life reading until 3 or 4 in the morning, they were unputdownable.

[Eoin McLove]

Reading Faust at home and Oliver Twist in work on my break.  Faust rambles a bit and seems padded out at times but there's much to enjoy. I'm only 50 pages into Oliver Twist and I'm enjoying it.

[Ollie]

Reading "Louder Than Hell"
It's basically a history of metal from the start with anecdotes from all the major players. Its quite American centric but its very good. Some of the stories are brilliant
https://www.amazon.com/Louder-Than-Hell-Definitive-History/dp/0061958298

[Blizzard Beast]

Just purchased Blood Fire Death - The swedish metal story.Hope its as good as Lords of chaos.

[Eoin McLove]

I imagine that would be a different read to Lords of Chaos. There was no similar drama happening in Sweden,  was there?

Recently blasted through Dead Man's Trousers,  the recent one by Irvine Welsh. Rip roaring chaos as only he can do.  I love his books and this was no exception to that rule.

I finished Oliver Twist yesterday which I enjoyed a lot.  As with any Dickens, it rambles a lot,  but that is just his style.  It's gas when you read these old classics whose story you're semi-familiar with and you find that there is so much more going on in them than you thought. 

Still slowly working through Faust as my bedtime read.  Dunno.  Some of it is really excellent and some of it (all the Helen of Troy stuff) is pointless,  boring fluff to me.  Thankfully I've finally passed out of that section and I'm back to the meaty stuff. 

Just started into A Portrait of the Artist as a Young Man but it's too early to comment.  The two forwards were interesting 

[Black Shepherd Carnage]

I finished Oliver Twist yesterday which I enjoyed a lot.  As with any Dickens, it rambles a lot,  but that is just his style. 

As with many other authors of the time (including greats such as Dostoevsky), rather than being only a question of style, it was also a question of format; the serialized novel. Chapters were printed and sold weekly or monthly and authors were very often paid by the word or page, making it in their interest to strike a balance between quantity and quality (in other words, shove in as much quantity as possible for the money without bringing down the quality so much that people stop following). This publishing style would also, of course, have completely changed the reading experience too though, which again makes it difficult to judge from a contemporary perspective. Perhaps, if you were to force yourself to, for example, read Crime and Punishment across a year in twelve installments, the parts which seem to drag a little (cue Father Ted references) might not seem to drag quite so much. Who knows! I ain't up for the experiment.

[Eoin McLove]

True that,  and a good point.  I don't think it takes away from the overall experience when the writing is of a high standard and the story keeps moving.  It's interesting, though, to find that rather than trying to untangle unwieldy sentences as you proceed,  if you allow the words to flow over or through you, and keep flying onward to the end of the sentence or paragraph,  the meaning manages to seep into your brain of its own volition.  That's my experience, at least.

[Eoin McLove]

Finished Faust. A bit up and down but some really cool parts in there.

Finished Oliver Twist.  Deadly.

Finished Enlightenment Now.  Pinker has an outlook that works for me.

Started into A Portrait of the Artist as a Young Man.  Only halfway throughout but it's beginning to get interesting.  Let's see.

I picked up the new Salman Rushdie book today.  Quichotte, based on Don Quixote. I hope it's more interesting to me than DQ was but I loved his last one,  The Golden House,  so high hopes.

[Eoin McLove]

Change of plan.  I began the first page of Quichotte and it is such a pastiche of Don Quixote that I put it down,  rooted out Don Quixote and have decided to attempt it again before going back to Quichotte. Third time lucky with this bad boy! If the prospect of getting even more out of a Salman Rushdie novel than I normally would cannot entice me to the end of Don Quixote,  then can give up knowing that l gave it my bravest shot.

[Pedrito]

I was reading Quixote and gave up aswell even though you'd warned me

[Eoin McLove]

I'm hoping that with a good reason to read it I'll be motivated to go the distance 

[Eoin McLove]

I threw in the towel on Don Quixote for a third time.  Pile of shite.  Started in on Quichotte which is a bit slow to start but seems to be gathering a bit of momentum now. 

I finished A Portrait of the Artist as a Young Man this morning.  Some brilliant parts,  some sluggish parts and riddled with so many external references from religion to politics to Latin to literature that entire sections are almost impenetrable for a dim wit like me, but there are parts that are truly inspiring and timeless.

Going to have a look at How the Mind Works by Steven Pinker now.  I really like this guy's outlook and his ability to translate complicated ideas into a language I can comprehend so l expect this will be a good read.