Books

[Pentagrimes]

Slowly,  painfully trudging my way through Milkman by Anna Burns. It's fucking tedious shite.  This won the Man Booker Prize in 2018... It's a snorefest.

Part of the reason I read so little last year was that I gave up on the whole "I've started so I'll finish" method of reading. Anything that sucked got tossed before the halfway mark. Life's too short.

[Black Shepherd Carnage]

Has anyone read The White Goddess by Robert Graves? It's sitting on the shelf whispering "read me".

I haven't, but I'm pretty sure it's referenced in the notes to From Hell, so that's a recommendation of sorts in itself!

Her kind self got me the first tome of Proust's A la recherche du temps perdu for Christmas so this year I'm going to try and get through the whole thing. Read most of this tome before and loved it.

[Eoin McLove]

Slowly,  painfully trudging my way through Milkman by Anna Burns. It's fucking tedious shite.  This won the Man Booker Prize in 2018... It's a snorefest.

Part of the reason I read so little last year was that I gave up on the whole "I've started so I'll finish" method of reading. Anything that sucked got tossed before the halfway mark. Life's too short.

I picked up Christos Tsiolkas's new one,  Damascus, today so poor oul Anna Burns has been sidelined for now 

[Scáthach]

Has anyone read The White Goddess by Robert Graves? It's sitting on the shelf whispering "read me".

I haven't, but I'm pretty sure it's referenced in the notes to From Hell, so that's a recommendation of sorts in itself!

Her kind self got me the first tome of Proust's A la recherche du temps perdu for Christmas so this year I'm going to try and get through the whole thing. Read most of this tome before and loved it.

It is indeed, I feel I've been circling it for a while. I've yet to break into Proust but herself read the first four and absolutely loved them.
"Proust in his first book wrote about, wrote about..", although apparently they couldn't decide on a winner for the All - England summarizing Proust competition

[SirHughMaharggs]

Just started The Butchering Art by Lindsey Fitzharris, about Joseph Lister and the transition from surgeries with no anesthetic being carried out in hospital theatres which were never cleaned, to the discovery of ether and Lister's discovery of the importance of sanitation and sterility. Off to a promising start talking about the madness that was going on in the years leading up to Lister. Amputations carried out in 30 seconds, eyewatering descriptions of rods up the  flute to remove kidney stones, and a brief mention of the horror of an eye extraction on a fully awake and aware patient.

[Carnage]

Brings to mind that scene in Deadwood. Fuck that.

[Trev]

Just finishing Dune Messiah, certainly not as expansive in scope but I figured that given it's only half the size, but a great follow up

Hoping to give Jodorowsky's Dune a watch tomorrow

[Pedrito]

Nice one, I thought Dune Messiah was excellent myself. A perfect follow on.

[Pentagrimes]

Just started The Butchering Art by Lindsey Fitzharris, about Joseph Lister and the transition from surgeries with no anesthetic being carried out in hospital theatres which were never cleaned, to the discovery of ether and Lister's discovery of the importance of sanitation and sterility. Off to a promising start talking about the madness that was going on in the years leading up to Lister. Amputations carried out in 30 seconds, eyewatering descriptions of rods up the  flute to remove kidney stones, and a brief mention of the horror of an eye extraction on a fully awake and aware patient.

Yeah, got this as a birthday present a few years ago and its' an insane read.

[Don Gately]

I enjoyed Milkman and loved Swann's Way

[kiehozero]

Just flew through Serhii Plokhy's book on the Chernobyl disaster. Astonishing that so many scientists and technicians were constantly overruled by people whose only qualification was being a bureaucrat or party member.

[Eoin McLove]

Just finished Damascus. A good read and an interesting insight (even though it is fictional rather than historical) insight into those early Christian apostles and saints. It maybe lacked the edge of his other purely fictional writing,  though.

Just opened Climbing Mount Improbable by Richard Dawkins.  I've never read anything by him and the first few pages bode well.  Big ideas made easy. Looking forward to delving in further.

[Born of Fire]

Just opened Climbing Mount Improbable by Richard Dawkins.  I've never read anything by him and the first few pages bode well.  Big ideas made easy. Looking forward to delving in further.

I tried to read The God Delusion a few years back and gave up, just couldn't get into his writing style at all.

[Carnage]

Just opened Climbing Mount Improbable by Richard Dawkins.  I've never read anything by him and the first few pages bode well.  Big ideas made easy. Looking forward to delving in further.

I tried to read The God Delusion a few years back and gave up, just couldn't get into his writing style at all.

I got about halfway through then gave up, I was sick of his endlessly repeating the same argument in slightly different phrasing. To be fair, he was preaching to the choir anyway, I'd be curious how it went down with a believer.

[Eoin McLove]

This one his his take on Darwinism so hopefully it won't become too preachy.