Books

[Mooncat]

Started reading Last Exit to Brooklyn by Hubert Selby Jr. The press quote on the front talks about it being a vision of hell and holy fuck that is such an apt description. Written in an interesting style too, kind of like Trainspotting, and just as bleak. Only a few chapters in and it's already one of the grimiest, grubbiest, most graphic books I've read. The one violent scene early on had almost a Cormac McCarthy type feel to it.

Apparently it was super influential to the likes of the Beat poets, Velvet Underground etc as well.

[Blankety Blank]

Any fans of 'Revival' by King? I picked it up after years of ignoring his output and really enjoyed it. I'd recommend it to any fans of Lovecraftian horror.

Just finished "Fairy Tale" by Stephen King. There's even more Lovecraft in it. Not a bad read though it kind of changes up plots halfway through. I would have liked more exploring of the world.

Just started "The Long Earth" by Terry Pratchett and Stephen Baxter. So far, so good...

[open face surgery]

Started reading Last Exit to Brooklyn by Hubert Selby Jr. The press quote on the front talks about it being a vision of hell and holy fuck that is such an apt description. Written in an interesting style too, kind of like Trainspotting, and just as bleak. Only a few chapters in and it's already one of the grimiest, grubbiest, most graphic books I've read. The one violent scene early on had almost a Cormac McCarthy type feel to it.

Apparently it was super influential to the likes of the Beat poets, Velvet Underground etc as well.

It gets much, much worse. Enjoyed the style of it but ya, it's grim.

[Carnage]

I saw the firm at the time, I gather it's very tame in comparison.

Currently reading Sovereign by C.J. Sansom, the third Matthew Shardlake book. Wary of watching the series (based on the first book), these things rarely transfer to the screen well.

[Black Shepherd Carnage]

Onto The Chamber of Secrets with the little lad. Has to be said, even way back then, Rowling had a gratuitous nasty streak a mile wide, so much so that it seems to have been stronger than her concern for writing well. Compare Dahl, who was under fire again a couple of years ago for fatphobia, but at least still put creative thought, lots of it even, into his objectionable-to-some physical descriptions, plus the emphasis was usually more on greed, as far as I remember. Bruce Bogtrotter, of the chocolate cake fame in Matilda, is even made a hero of. Rowling, on the other hand, within two pages, just gives you (speaking of Harry's cousin Dudley) "his fat legs," "his fat bottom," "his fat face." So, unlike with Dahl where I read everything, I find myself dropping most instances of the word "fat" when reading Harry Potter aloud, because unless you read it with the tone of disgust the author clearly had in her mind when writing it, it has absolutely no literary value I can see at all.

[Eoin McLove]

Give me a fucking break 

[Black Shepherd Carnage]

About what? The difference between describing an overweight person creatively versus lazily? That's all I'm saying. Dahl is the former, Rowling the latter. I've only read one and a bit of her books now, but it's struck me several times that it's when her writing is weakest.

[Don Gately]

Started reading Last Exit to Brooklyn by Hubert Selby Jr. The press quote on the front talks about it being a vision of hell and holy fuck that is such an apt description. Written in an interesting style too, kind of like Trainspotting, and just as bleak. Only a few chapters in and it's already one of the grimiest, grubbiest, most graphic books I've read. The one violent scene early on had almost a Cormac McCarthy type feel to it.

Apparently it was super influential to the likes of the Beat poets, Velvet Underground etc as well.

Great book I've read it twice, and will read it again soon

[TheRuts]

One of the greatest books ever written and was hauled through the English courts on obscenity charges. It was also pivotal to Morrissey as a Smiths LP bears the name of one of the pivotal chapters. But really, anything Selby Jr wrote is excellent (Requiem For a Dream, The Room, The Willow Tree).

[TheRuts]

Author Dennis Cooper has listed some of his favourite books of the year so far.

https://denniscooperblog.com/mine-for-yours-my-favorite-fiction-poetry-non-fiction-music-film-art-and-internet-of-2024-so-far/

Might be of interest to some on here looking for inspiration on what to read. Oh, and he listed my own book (which was very nice of him).

[Eoin McLove]

I picked up two new books yesterday

This Spoke Zarathustra by Neitzsche which I've read, or mostly read before. I wanted to re-read it and finish it and it was going for $8. Couldn't pass it up.

Blueback by Tim Winton. I've read two of his other books- Cloudstreet and The Shepherd's Hut- both of which were brilliant reads that captured different sides of modern Australian life. Blueback it turns out is a book for kids and I read it all in one go yesterday in a couple of hours. A charming little tale that gives yet another perspective on the Aussie experience. Even though it is pared back, simply told and very short his skill as a story teller isn't diminished by those constraints.

[astfgyl]

I took into that Nietzsche one but I didn't really get it I think.

The Laibach album about it is brilliant though, to the extent that it makes me think the book might be worth another go.

Have the album on again now it really is quite something

[Eoin McLove]

I've never listened to Laibach.

[astfgyl]

They're unique if nothing else. They come off like a pisstake band at times but it's too good to not like.

Did get as far as taking the book off the shelf last night after it was brought up. I'll leave it on the shelf in the jacks now and hopefully it'll get past the being brought out of the jacks test and get finished

[ochoill]

Laibach are lethal.  Any Nietzsche I've read has taken a few goes but has been good (Antichrist and Zarathustra but nothing else).

Brought David Toop's "Ocean of Sound" abroad with me to finish.  A history of ambient music but not presented directly as, more collections of interviews and thoughts on it with people involved in parts of the genre for decades.  Jumps years and sections to keep it flowing well.  Interesting read so far.

Also have a scanlation of Shimeji Simulation for a re-read - gave it a go a few months ago and loved it, rose well up the list of favourite Manga, but there's only online scans of it translated, no official english release.  It deserves one.  Mind melting slice of life, existentialist yuri, two girls meet and become friends in a relatively normal situation that rapidly descends into reality folding in on itself but everyone mostly trying to live with it.  A "slow apocalypse" as someone described it online.