Reader Chronicles 2011 -- trandism

After reading most of the new threads that already started for 2011, I've fought all doubts and decided to start my own with the aim to describe this year's reading experiences. I really don't know if i'll get to 75 since I haven't kept a count the previous year but as I learned from the other threads it doesn't matter.

So... everything I read apart from chess-playing related books - I will post though about chess history books - will be covered in this thread (from a single mention to a full-blown review)

Happy New Year!

1. State of the art by Iain M. Banks
2. L' Enigme by Rezvani
3. Bobby Charlton - My Life in Football
4. Gun Seller by Hugh Laurie
5. Use of Weapons by Iain M. Banks
6. The Feast of the Goat by Mario Vargas Llosa
7. Yiddish Policemen's Union by Michael Chabon
8. Accelerando by Charlie Stross
9. Galindez by Manuel Vazquez Montalban
10. The Life and Opinions of Tomcat Murr by E.T.A. Hoffmann
11. This Boy's Life by Tobias Wolff
12. Flood by Stephen Baxter
13. Surface Detail by Iain M. Banks
14. El Camino de la autodependencia by Jorge Bucay
15. The Barracks Thief by Tobias Wolff
16. Underground by Haruki Murakami
17. Regalo De La Casa by Juan Madrid
18. The Amazing Adventures of Kavalier and Clay by Michael Chabon
19. Chess is my life by Victor Korchnoi
20. Notes from a Small Island by Bill Bryson
21. World's Fair by E. L. Doctorow
22. Speak, Memory by Vladimir Nabokov
23. Omega Minor by Paul Verhaeghen
24. Consider Phlebas by Iain M. Banks
25. Thought Gang by Tibor Fischer
26. Amulet by Roberto Bolano
27. Une société à la dérive : Entretiens et débats (1974-1997) by Cornelius Castoriadis
28. Look to Winward by Iain M. Banks
29. 84 Charring Cross Road by Helene Hanff
30. A World Undone: The Story of the Great War: 1914-1918 by G.J.Meyer
31. Pale Fire by Vladimir Nabokov
32. The Mind's Eye by Hakan Nesser
33. Nazi Literature in the Americas by Roberto Bolano
34. 2666 by Roberto Bolano
35. Choke by Chuck Palahniuk
36. Raw Spirit by Iain Banks
37. Survivor by Chuck Palahniuk
38. Europe by Norman Davies
39. Made In America by Bill Bryson
40. Total Chaos by Jean-Claude Izzo
41. Chourmo by Jean-Claude Izzo
42. Solea by Jean-Claude Izzo
43. Julian Comstock by Robert Charles Wilson
44. Trilogia sucia de La Habana by Pedro Juan Gutierrez
45. The Island of Lost Maps by Miles Harvey
46. The Map Book by Peter Barber
47. Les Marins Perdus by Jean-Claude Izzo
48. American Gods by Neil Gaiman
49. Stories of your Life: and Others by Ted Chiang
50. The Quiet War by Paul McAuley
51. Shakespeare by Bill Bryson
52. Gardens of the sun by Paul McAuley
53. Mi fido di te by Francesco Abate and Massimo Carlotto
54. Correspondence Chess in Britain and Ireland 1824-1987 by Tim Harding
55. Die Ruhe des Stärkeren by Veit Heinichen
56. A People's History of the United States: 1492-Present by Howard Zinn
58. Center-Stage and behind the scenes by Yuri Averbakh
59. At Home by Bill Bryson
60. Under the frog by Tibor Fischer
61. Le Club des incorrigibles optimistes by Jean-Michel Guenassia
62. Il Sospetto by Laura Grimaldi
63. Les Naufragés by Hernàn Neira

Welcome to the group!

Thanks. I've spend many hours during the last two days lurking on people's threads and I kinda like the friendly atmosphere (and already added a couple of books to my wishlist).

There is an introductions thread if you want to head over there and meet everyone: http://www.librarything.com/topic/104688

Hi Nick,
Welcome to the group. The closest I came to playing chess this year was reading Stefan Zweig's The Chess Story.

Hi Nick, welcome. I am not a chess player but I love Greece!

10 years ago, a Scotch musician I met, was looking for a place to live for some months in Greece and I said OK, you can stay at my place. We had a great time and got ourselves drunk much too often. When this whole thing ended and he was moving out, he went and bought me a present, Complicity by Iain Banks, a book I liked a lot. I then read The Wasp Factory and bought most of his mainstream novels, unfortunately not The Bridge which according to most people (incl. Banks himself) is considered to be the best of his mainstream novels. A colleague from work, back in the days when my work enviroment was way too geekish, was obsessed with the scifi works of Iain Banks, so at some point I got Matter from e-bay and left it in my office's drawer, unread for years to come.

Now, three weeks ago and totally by accident I bumped into http://banksoniain.netfirms.com/ - a fanzine about Iain Banks. I used to collect printed fanzines for years and I always google the word 'fanzine' together with whatever crosses my mind at the given moment. I spent a whole weekend reading all issues of this fanzine (available through the aforementioned link and recommended to Banks' fans), bookmarking links with interesting articles that got mentioned in there. So that was the catalyst for me to go and read Matter at last. My first culture-novel. When I reached page 50, I went into amazon and ordered the whole lot. I've read The player of games and Excession so far and loved it. So the turning of the new year finds me reading the short story collection The state of the art with stories based on the Culture Universe and the only mention of Earth itself in the whole Culture corpus (correct me if I'm wrong on that point) and that will be the first book on my 75 book challenge.

Inevitably the remaining Culture novels will be read during the first months of the new year but don't let that bore you. I have put a rule that at least one book will be read between two consecutive Culture novels and I've managed to follow it so far.

When I reached page 50, I went into amazon and ordered the whole lot. Let me just announce right here and now that I have fallen completely in love with you for writing that sentence. And I have wishlisted the book. So I think I hate you as much as I love you.

Of course, I read The Wasp Factory, as what cultured person has not, but it's been a long time since I've dipped a toe into Banks's worlds. I appreciate your inspiration to return to it!

Cheers--Richard

Well I always do that. I can't stop myself from ordering everything an author has written if I like one of his/her books a lot. So if you are into space opera/scifi I wholeheartedly recommend the Culture novels.

You are the reader that every author dreams will fall for his/her works, then, and publishers look for ways to attract. Do you review books on Amazon? You could quite easily be invited into their Vine free-books program if you review enough of them. Assuming you aren't already a member, that is.

Well, I don't review books on Amazon or any other place and to tell you the truth I was never interested in any of these free-books arrangements. I guess I'm a little weird. I feel like these programs FORCE me to read something. No, I want to read Banks and Stross and that book about malaysian chess history now and not whatever any publisher will send me from free. I always thought that if I ever want to review books, I'll start a new blog.

Anyway, my TBR piles are huge. I also have access to my parents' library (1500-2000 books is my estimation. they might put it on LT next summer) and I'm also subscribing to a lot of magazines, so I always have hundreds of different things to choose from.

Blogging is indeed the fast track...as to the have-to issue, I know many who feel the same way about free books. I would want to read most of the books I get for free anyway, and reviewing books is therapy for me, so it's a good match.

Helluva parental library! You don't sound in desperate straits for reading, no sir.

I noticed that Borders is pushing new editions of Banks' works and was already thinking of rereading some. Sounds like I may be in good company!

BTW, I'd be interested in your chess reading. It's been a while since I did any studying of the game, but it would be nice to see what's out there these days.

Welcome!

Yup this thread is going to be Banks-infected during the first months of the year.

Regarding chess books, I think I can really help. What are your interests? Opening theory, middlegames, endings, tournament books, journals & magazines, chess history? I can recommend 2-3 works in each category, so don't hesitate to ask.

Let's start with opening theory.

By far the most important journal on mainstream opening theory is the New in Chess Yearbook, a side-publication of the Dutch-based, English-written New in Chess Magazine that gets published every 3 months approximately - the yearbook that is - and now on its 97th issue.

A very important journal on sidelines and 19th century openings is the Kaissiber, in german unfortunately by Stefan Bucker. The Russian publications are not so important as they used to be pre-1989.

A very important online resource is the chess publishing website - http://www.chesspub.com. Its subscription-based articles and also its free for all to lurk and post, bulletin board based forum.

Regarding books, the most important series in my opinion are the Grandmaster Repertoire series, especially Boris Avrukh's 2-volume masterpiece. 1.d4 v. 1 and 2 - 1.d4, the 13-volume (or is it 14 by now) Opening for White According to Anand and Mikail Marin's 3-volume set on The English Opening. (note. touchstones link to a single volume on each of these collection)

For Black things are not so clear as to what is considered top-notch at the moment. For my repertoire I use Moskalenko's Flexible French, Kindermann's Leningrad System and the slightly outdated Alekhine's Defence book by Bagirov combined with other sources. If you are interested in any specific black opening I can give more specific recommendations.

But of course many things depend on the level of the reader. For an 1800 player Avrukh might be overwhelming and the various 'starting-out' books might be a better choice. On the other hand for a super-GM the leningrad system and the alekhine are probably not important since these openings are practically unplayable at the elite level.

Hope I gave you some useful points of reference.

Geia sou, and welcome to the group!

Welcome to our friendly, well-read and kind group. I look forward to following your thread and learning your reading habits.

The State of the Art is a short-story collection taking place in the Culture Universe. After some appetizers, we reach the second half of the book which has the same-titled story, the "official" Culture report on planet Earth. An excellent narrative that expands on philosophical issues regarding the earth-human nature and compares the Earth's socioeconomic system with that of the Culture via a clever story taking place in 1977-1978 A.D. Earth-Christian calendar. A must-have for all Culture completists but not to be recommended to those who haven't read at least a couple of the full Culture novels. Thought-provoking for me and a great way to start my reading year.

I've started the mystery novel L' Enigme by the French author (born in Tehran in 1928) Serge Rezvani - http://fr.wikipedia.org/wiki/Serge_Rezvani

#21: Thought-provoking for me and a great way to start my reading year.

Sounds like it! Congratulations, Nick.

50-60 pages in L' Enigme and I can already say that the book has the touch of a genius. It is published in Greece by a very eclectic publisher who makes business with excellent translators, most notably a certain Achileas Kiriakidis who translates from French and Spanish and is considered one of the greatest experts on Borges worldwide. This book is translated from the French. I usually buy whatever this publisher puts out and I thing I've struck gold here.

Serge Revzani has written a lot of theatrical plays and this shows in this book. The whole plot is described to the reader through a dialogue between an Investigator, a Criminologist and a Scholar whose names remain unknown. While they discuss the case in hand - a family of writers which mysteriously die after falling from their yacht in the sea without a ladder to return to it - they refer to other works of literature such as Lotreamon, Poe's Narrative of Arthur Gordon Pym, Thomas Mann and countless others making the whole text a delight for any literature lover.

I'm not even halfway through the book, but I couldn't resist expressing my enthusiasm at even this early stage. More to follow when the book ends.

>24 trandism: Oh my goodness! Rezvani sounds like a very French treasure, I'll go look for some translations NOW. Thank you, Nick!

One of the presents I got for Christmas this year: http://www.librarything.com/work/book/68448745. Bobby Charlton is a ManUtd legend and, as an avid fan of Manchester United, this will be my first non-fiction book this year, admittedly on the light side of things but nevertheless a very pleasant read. Hardcover edition, excellent photographs.

Rezvani - Enigma (L' Enigme)

A Navy Investigator, a Poet Criminologist and a Scholar whose expertise is the history and works of the Knight family. The family yacht was found deserted in the middle of the sea, no souls on board, only their manuscripts shedding light on the personalities of their respective authors; presumed dead, drawned under mysterious circumstances. The three men, who remain anonymous throughout the text, initiate a series of dialogues between them, with the Scholar having the central stage as he gradually reads and deciphers the huge pile of manuscripts. The Poet Criminologist gets carried away and talks about literature, mostly classics, blinded by the brilliance and wide knowledge of the Scholar while the Navy Investigator tries in vain to restrain the other two men and stay on track with the investigation. Who killed the others and then committed suicide by lifting the ladder, condemning everyone including himself to a slow and torturous death in the cold waters around the luxury boat? And why?

Those who like fast mystery novels with complicated interwinned storylines and police investigating amongst suspects, members of the underground, should stay away from the book. The actual crime is used only as an excuse: references to (amongst others) Dostoyevsky, Poe, Dickinson, Thomas Mann, Joseph Conrad, Henry James, Da Vinci, the family situations of both the Criminologist and the Investigator whose lives get a new meaning by the Scholar's acquaintance and above all, the histories and works of the Knight family members, extraordinary characters all of them. Understanding them does not merely lead to the solution of the mystery, but rather to the better understanding of the human nature.

5/5 stars

http://www.librarything.com/work/1549785/reviews/68059403

Thumbs-upped your very interesting review, Nick.

Well, thank you Richard. That was my first book review and I think I'm starting to like it. I'm not fully aware of the workings of the review system here (thumbing-up and such) but I'm beginning to learn about it.

This whole 75 challenge thing certainly makes one want to read more. Reading other people's threads enriches ones wishlist - already added tens of books and we're still Jan 5! Great thing is that good books are plenty :)

English is not my native language, hope I didn't hurt your eyes.

It may not be your first language, but your command of it is superior. English and its lovers (myself included) salute you!

Thanks for your kind words.

And please oh please paste the link of your next thread (#3 for 2011 if I'm not mistaken) - when you start it - here because I worry that I might lose it in this thread-spaghetti that this group is :)

Thread spaghetti #3 awaits you.

Great, thanks! :)

Looking forward to reading your review/impressions there

I've started Gun Seller by Hugh Laurie (yup THE Hugh Laurie of Dr. House fame)

Was quite sceptical when I saw this one at the bookshop but friends who read it say it's great (and a good laugh).

Wow.. Made it to Hot Reviews!

Yay Nick! Good work, getting 7 thumbs-ups on your first review!

Nice review, Nick! I will have to look for that one.

sounds like an interesting read- time to add to my wishlist!

I've finished Gun Seller, a fast and clever espionage thriller. Offering 2-3 evevings of pleasant reading, it's a book though that you will simply forget about a couple of hours after finishing it.

Back to Iain M Banks and his Culture universe, with Use of Weapons.

Four days is long enough...have you absconded? Gone undercover for a narcoterror organization? Gotten married? Divorced? Been elected to public office?

Haha!

Worse than that actually. Job schedules went extremelly tight and I managed to read only 2/3 of Use of Weapons in 4 days. I open the book and fall asleep almost immediately :(

Tomorrow evening (GMT) will be the end of this nightmarish situation, so I hope I 'll catch up with everybody's threads and post some comments on Banks and my future reading plans.

Thanks for taking an interest ;)

Oh, that's gotta hurt. I hate when life gets in the way of my reading. As for catching up with threads...after four days, just go to a few and leave hello notes or you'll never, ever do anything but run around catching up again! Take it from an old campaigner.

Use of Weapons by Iain M. Banks

Cheradenine Zakalwe is a mercenary, an expert on soldiering and commanding armies who works occasionally for Special Circmustances - the Culture's equivalent of Secret Services - interfering incognito into the affairs of other lesser civilizations. His price stays the same throughout the years. Money, youth and the chance to meet his sister Livueta, a ghost from his past.

His latest mission involves finding and bringing out an old scholar who lives like a hermit in the University of an old City. He is the key figure in order to avoid a full scale war, ideological at its source, between those who believe machines have souls and those who don't. A war that threatens to drive a whole Cluster of stars and planets to chaos.

But Zakalwe's past is full of horrors that haunt his very existence. Missions from the past, the way he got Contacted by the Culture's agents and above all his family story and a war he fought himself - his first war -, not for the Culture, but for the existence and prosperity of his own people.

A superbly written story with an unexpected twist in the end. Space Opera at its finest!

4.5/5 stars

http://www.librarything.com/work/141/reviews/67798833

Next book for me is The Feast of the Goat by the 2010 Nobel Prize Winner, Mario Vargas Llosa

I thumbs-upped your review of Use of Weapons, Nick. Very nicely done!

Thanks Richard and I offer my condolences for your loss from here as well.

Thank you, Nick. Very thoughtful of you!

#44: I enjoyed The Feast of the Goat but my favorite MVL is still The War of the End of the World. Have you read that one yet, Nick?

No I haven't read The War of the End of the World but it's gonna be on my next order for sure. I'm halfway through The Feast of the Goat - the first Llosa novel for me and certainly not the last.

I look forward to your thoughts on both the MVL books then!

The Feast of the Goat by Mario Vargas Llosa

*** SPOILER ALERT ***

Until recently - namely until the earthquake that hit Haiti and brought the Hispaniola Island back in the limelight - whenever I heard of the Dominican Republic, my mind went to Felix Sanchez, nicknamed "The Dictator", a likeable US-born man with Dominican origins, a 400m Hurdles Champion and the first athlete to win an Olympic Gold Medal for that country. Alas, from now on, this country will be forever in my mind connected with its true dictator, Rafael Leonidas Trujillo Molina, whose authoritarian, autarchic and repulsive regime has lasted 31 years. Mario Vargas Llosa has put his last days into paper, telling the personal stories of the people around him - his collaborators as well as his assasins - in the process.

Amongst them we find Joaquin Balaguer, his puppet president, who during the days after the Chief's assasination gambled his whole life and won, survived the chaos by balancing the situation between Trujillo's brothers and the USA pressure, became an elected president of his country and died at the ripe old age of 96. We find the commander of the intelligence service, the dreadful Abbes Garcia, whose practises can make prominent Nazis seem like angels, and his totally deserved, tragic end. We read about Antonio Imbert Barrera, the driver of the main car that carried Trujillo's killers and only survivor - along with Luis Amiama Tio - of the group that put the plot into action, who after being hidden for 6 months by a couple of officers of the Italian Embassy and gaining 5 kilos eating pasta, found himself suddenly elected to hero status, his name being given to streets and plazas, together with those who suffered electrocution tortures, pissing and shitting themselves, naked for months in the prisons; together with a man that was brought meat to eat in prison after many months and died of a heart attack when a prison officer holding the decapitated head of the prisoner's son informed him that he had just shallowed the last piece of the missing headless body.

There is also a woman that returns to her country three decades later, the daughter of a prominent Trujillista. Her father had been stripped off of his powers, his bank accounts were frozen just months before the dictator was killed. Back then, still a 14-year old girl, she was offered as a present to the Chief - who liked to break a virgin's cherry once in a while - as a last attempt to regain his position in the regime. Trujillo, suffering from an enlarged prostate, couldn't have an erection and chose to "punish" the girl with his right hand. The girl hasn't left a man touch her ever since, her father lost his last chances and now is a breathing corpse. A couple of weeks later, Rafael Trujillo wants to erase that shameful night from his memories. He waits impatiently in his Chevrolet to reach the same place - a new girl waiting - and has decided that this time he must make her scream with pleasure. A car waits for him in the way. Tony Imbert is the driver!

5/5 stars

http://www.librarything.com/review/67964628

Nice review, Nick!

Well, I'm in Wijk Aan Zee mode - one of the most important chess tournaments of the year - so I'm not reading too much (spending 4-5 hours watching the games and commenting on my greek chess blog). Furthermore, I wanted to read something lighter and chess-related, so I followed the hype and started Yiddish Policemen's Union by Michael Chabon. 80 pages in, and it's fun.

Liked and thumbs-upped your review of Feast of the Goat, and hope you'll end up liking The Yiddish Policemen's Union. I want a Shnapish doll!

cheers

I enjoyed The Yiddish Policemen's Union when I read it; can't wait to hear what you think of it. Great review of The Feast of the Goat though the book sounds too confusing and strange for me!

Well I'm enjoying it. It gets better and better at every chapter I think. And its chess facts are correct (well apart from those that are part of the alternate history) - rare thing for a novel.

>54 richardderus: Richard I hope you're feeling better today

Still alive, thank you, Nick...though not so sure I'm happy about it.

Back to sleep now, read happily.

Another Chabon fan here - glad you're enjoying The Yiddish Policemen's Union!

Well, let's just say that it won't be the last Chabon book for me :) More on the review - hopefully tonight.

The Yiddish Policemen's Union by Michael Chabon

It is not often that someone can find a non-chess book - or movie - that has its chess facts right. Whenever chess is not the central element of a plot - unlike Nabokov's Luzhin Defense - chess is abused; its history, theory and practice butchered by many a good novelist. In that sense, Michael Chabon's novel was a pleasant surprise for my oversensitive, regarding chess, and always alert for misquoting and mislabeling, eyes. Openings are correctly identified, chess figures put in their correct timescale and characters read chess books that do actually exist. And Jan Timman is presented to the reader as the world champion of the game in the late 70s.. oh wait..

Well, the aforementioned "anomaly" is just one of the less important parts of an alternate world situation that Michael Chabon brilliantly developed in order to provide his story with a fitting historical context. The second World War ended with a nuclear attack on Berlin itself in 1946, Soviet Union never happened, Mantsuria is considered a world power and most importantly, the Arabs have triumphed in the war of 1948, therefore destroying the Zionist dream on his birthbed. And for good. United States of America intervene and offer a temporary home for the million of Jewish immigrants - terrified after the Holocaust and yet another war lost. A special arrangement offers to them a district in the state of Alaska. And it's there, surrounded by hostile native tribes and a suspicious US government, that Chabon's scenario takes place.

A crime and a main character that bring Raymond Chandler to mind, a great conspiracy underneath, lots of Yiddish slang and a love story resurfacing in the middle of the whole mess. All and all, it deserves the hype.

4/5 stars

http://www.librarything.com/review/68070133

Thumbs-upped your review, Nick! Nicely done.

Just adding another Yay for Chabon here - nice review!

Great reviews!

Thanks everybody for the kind words.

And Linda, I'll try to follow you - at least from your third thread on :)

Hi. Another big Chabon fan here, and I also liked your review. Which one will you read next?

I'm 70 pages into Accelerando. I've been following Charlie's blog lately - http://www.antipope.org/charlie/blog-static/ - and this is the first novel of his I have the pleasure to read. Already had some WTF moments and still too early to give it a full thumbs up. One thing's for sure. This should NOT be your first excursion in Science Fiction. It kind of presumes some knowledge of certain terminology.Being a full-blown geek also helps :)

What do you people recommend amongst the other Chabon books out there?

Book bazaar day today.. 70% discount on many titles..
bought these --> http://www.librarything.com/catalog/trandism&tag=%23trandism%23bought%4026-0...

The Asturias looks interesting...but the only one you bought today I know anything about from personal experience is World's Fair by Ed Doctorow. I liked that one when I read it.

One day I'll have to get to The Three Musketeers. So far it keeps slipping down the TBR, as it has since the 1970s. Thirty-nine years on the TBR...wonder if that's a record....

Oh yeah...Stross...I read and *adored* his series about The Family Trade. Alternative history, assuming there is a clan of mutant humans able to walk among the various strands of history in the multiverse.

Accelerando was also very exciting.

No clues to offer on Chabon, as I can't remember one single other title of his. No details, no titles, nothing has stuck with me, so either I haven't read anything else by him or else I wasn't wild about what I read. *shrug*

The Three Musketters.. I read an adaptation for children when I was in primary school. Today I found a good translation for 6 Euro, so I decided it's high time for a proper read :)

Clio by Charles Peguy is one book I keep stumbling upon in the bibliography sections of many books with essays on history.

Egan I've read in here about, Montalban's is a recipe book which you really have to search for Richard :), Miles Davis is one of my favourites, as for the others, they just seemed interesting and the prices were really low.

When I was a mere tot of *mumble*teen, a movie version came out starring Michael York as D'Artagnan, and somehow that did *not* lead me to want to read the book. Maybe it was the absurd miscasting of Charlton Heston as Richelieu and Raquel Welch as Constance that made me flinch; possible it was Faye Dunaway as Lady de Winter (my mother and sister have the name Winter from our family connection to some family "de Winter" that fetched up in Louisiana about two centuries ago) that gave me the fantods. Still, since that time in 1974, I say "oh nay nay nay, my sweet, perish forbid!" whenever the book comes at me.

I look forward to learning from your review if I was right or wrong all these years.

I've started Galindez by Montalban because, frankly, Accelerando is too outworldish to read at night hours, I wanted something smoother. I'll take Stross during the day and while commuting to and from work and go on with Galindez at nights

Another Michael Chabon book you might like is The Amazing Adventures of Kavalier and Clay, which is wide-ranging in scope, but the primary focus (fictional) is the development of the comic book industry in the early to mid 1900's. I liked it, but was not totally blown away by it. I've seen very enthusiastic reviews about it though.

Re novels involving chess games: Have you read Stalemate by Iccokas Meras. It's a Holocaust novel in which a chess game plays a major part. I haven't read it yet (it's on my shelf), and know almost nothing about chess, but was just wondering.

yeah, I read The Amazing Adventures of Kavalier and Clay back when it won the Pulitzer and was not blown away; I much preferred The Yiddish Policemen's Union. Perhaps I should give Kavalier and Clay another chance someday...

>73 arubabookwoman: Thanks for bringing Stalemate and Iccokas Meras to my attention :)
Will get the Chabon book too soon.

I have read several of Chabon's books and enjoyed them all. I am glad to see he has found another fan!

re: Chabon - Summerland is excellent. I highly recommend it.

Chabon also did a collection of essays, I think for a charity maybe, called Maps and Legends which I enjoyed, and another collection, Manhood for Amateurs, has had good reviews, although I haven't read it.

Hi There

I'm compiling a list of birthdays of our group members. If you haven't done so already, would you mind stopping by this thread and posting yours.

Thanks.

http://www.librarything.com/topic/105833

I've finished Galindez, a book filled with interesting historical facts about the kidnapping and murder of Jesus Galindez by the dictatorship of Rafael Trullijo. Somehow the plot that goes together with those facts did not convince me. I'm happy I read it but I strongly recommend The Feast of The Goat instead.

Charlie Stross is put on hold. In the meantime I've started a book that I learned about here, in librarything. The Life and Opinions of Tomcat Murr.

#80: I will be interested in seeing what you think of The Life and Opinions of Tomcat Murr when you are done with it, Nick.

It's been quite a while since I posted my news, so I'll try to sum up my reading experiences and move on. I've spent most of my reading hours on Tunissia, Egypt and co browsing all sorts of websites. Regarding books, I've put Accelerando on hold, while being half way through The Life and Opinions of Tomcat Murr which demands a certain state of mind to comprehend, a truly impressive book, specially if you take into mind when it was written.

I've started and finished quite quickly Tobias Wolff's autobiographical This Boy's Life for which a review is pending. Right before Christmas I read Old School by the same author and liked a lot but still I wasn't expecting to enjoy this one so much. Probably the best book for me so far this year. I've also started Flood by Stephen Baxter which I'm reading while going to and returning from work, a climate-change related thriller, scary and absorbing. I even lost my get-off bus stop a couple of times while reading it :)

Reviews coming the following days. In the meantime I'll go and see what everybody was up to during my absence from LT.

This Boy's Life by Tobias Wolff

Year is 1955. Toby runs away with his mother. Toby resents his name because he once met a girl having it. And what a nightmare it is to have a girly name. He changes it to Jack. They go luck hunting to Utah. Stepfather finds them and makes their life miserable. They flee. End up in Washington. But mother cannot escape abusive men. A middle-aged man, cautious at first, manages to convince her into marrying him. When they move to his house, to live with his 3 kids, hell brakes loose again. And Jack gets into trouble constantly. He's clever and courageous but fucks up way too often. His morale is low. School is hard. The town's society is medieval. Adults know only two ways to put loose kids on track. Religion and Abuse, moral and physical. This book is like Bukowski's Ham on Rye, 20 years down the road. Semi-autobiographical and on the same literaly level. Just like Henry Chinaski, Bukowski's childhood self, Toby (Jack) Wolff feels like a loser, acts like a loser and suffers like one. But somehow he makes it. An excellent sketch of rural America and a deep probe into a teenager's soul.

5/5 Stars

http://www.librarything.com/work/7351/reviews/67997688

#83: Nice review of This Boy's Life, Nick. I enjoyed it too.

What a great book indeed. And after a couple of days I still remember it. It's the kind of book that haunts you.

Flood by Stephen Baxter

I've been introduced to Stephen Baxter via Arthur Clarke's Time Odyssey, a series that Baxter co-authored with the great maestro and I have the suspicion that I'm not the only one. Quite a few people would disagree, but I always thought that what makes a science fiction writer worthy is - amongst other things - the capability of turning one simple idea into a full-blown story that describes a world totally different from the real and then trying to imagine how this world's society would function under the circumstances.Baxter does that well. His narrative might be mediocre and his characters a little shallow, but this book is a page-turner. It really is impossible to put it down as long as your eyes stay open. The idea is simple enough. At some point the waters start rising. Climate-change skeptics and global warming deniers relax. The waters rise fast and it's not because the ice caps are melting. On the contrary, the mainstream opinion about the phenomenon gets a good beating.

Big cities get drowned, refugees aplenty. All geopolitical facts from the past doesn't make any sense now. Baxter takes us through a total reevaluation of humanity's values. Owing land on the high grounds becomes the greatest asset. Independence from foreign trade routes is equally important. Poor countries become rich and vice versa. A group of scientists try to explain the new situation. They get sponsoring from certain individuals. Those individuals who get the data first, act first and end up becoming the most powerful men in the world just because they were the first to understand that bying land on high altitude is the wise thing to do. And the waters keep on rising. Baxter takes it to the extreme. Humans are forced to turn into aquatic creatures. Nepal and Tibet end up being the last superpowers of history. At the end, people live on rafts. There is a generation born that never knew how it is to live on land. All and all, an exciting thriller desperately in need of a sequel.

4/5 Stars

http://www.librarything.com/work/3276605/67932079

Oooh, that sounds like a good one - onto the wishlist it goes!

I really need the fun factor from the books I read these days. Things are getting really bad here (in Greece). Working conditions getting harsh. Social situation getting worse by the day. Trying to get my mind travel and forget all about it. I've started Surface Detail by Iain Banks, the latest Culture novel. With Banks, fun is a given.

Bookstore day today :)
Bought these --> http://www.librarything.com/catalog.php?view=trandism&tag=%23trandism%23boug...

Took a break from Surface Detail and in a couple of hours - and without putting it down - I've read El Camino De La Autodependencia by Jorge Bucay, a psychology book from a prominent follower of the gestalt school of psychotherapy. This book is the first of a series called Hojas de Ruta - Roadmaps - and its English title is The Road Of Self-Dependence

I will certainly continue with the other three books of the series because this one was very interesting, thought-provoking and its imperative very close to my political beliefs (liberal and antiauthoritarian). Will review it properly the following days.

I also read The Barracks Thief by Tobias Wolff, to be reviewed soon

The Barracks Thief by Tobias Wolff

This book is the one that brought Wolff the Pen/Faulkner award and I dare say that this is a typical case of the "wrong-book-got-the-award" scenario. I'm not saying the book is bad (actually it's a good two-hour casual read) but it's obvious to me that it doesn't reach the standards of "Old School" and most importantly the memoir "This Boy's Life" (one of the best books I've read so far this year and one to remember for a long time).

What we have here is a short novel (120 pages) with typical Wolff characters - dry, cynical and on the loser side of things - that have volunteered to the US Army at the beginning of the Vietnam War. The three of them are the noobs of one of the barracks' company and they suffer both from the harsh conditions of the military life and also from the contempt of the older soldiers. Their weaker status brings them together. At the same time a series of small crimes start happening in the barracks. Wallets stolen, someone gets punched in the face while getting a shower, everybody's suspicious. Who is responsible? Is he an outsider? Is he "one of us"?

3/5 Stars

http://www.librarything.com/review/70604630

I've started Underground by Haruki Murakami.

This one is a collection of interviews and reports about the sarin gas attack on the Tokyo Subway. 60 pages into it and it's fascinating

>92 trandism: They clearly decided he deserved the award, then waited until his next book came out and gave it to that one willy-nilly.

>93 trandism: Ew.

I finished Underground and also started and finished without putting it down for a second, Juan Madrid's noir Regalo De La Casa. The Murakami book is recommended to those who like "witness literature" and have a special interest in the Japanese way of living. The Spanish book - which I read from a greek translation - is a book that Raymond Chandler would be proud if he ever managed to write it. Both to be reviewed.

Tragic coincidence. I was planning to review Murakami's Underground today. Difficult day for Japan, let's hope that victims and damages stay at a minimum and that people there will find a way to overcome this disaster.

Hello, just found your thread, and reading your enthusiastic response to the Iain M Banks books, makes me resolve to get around to one of those soon. I've read nearly all of his books without the M, but none of the Culture ones. Where is the best place to start with those?

Sorry for taking so long to answer gennyt. I'm in a middle of a great mess re work. Culture Novels.. Well my favourites so far are: Excession, The Player of Games and the latest one, Surface Detail. I would avoid Matter for a first Culture Novel, otherwise everything is great to start. You don't have to read them at the chronological order they were published, they are pretty much standalone.

Nick, I hope your work situation calms down...so you can finally write those reviews!

The Amazing Adventures of Kavalier and Clay by Michael Chabon

I admit I wasn't aware of the existence of a Pulitzer Price for Fiction. I also admit that I am one of those stubborn people that refuse to read/listen to best sellers, just because you know: "This world sucks. This world likes this book. Therefore, this book might as well suck". And to be honest, this strategy of mine has protected my eyes and ears from various junk through the years. But sometimes...

I was attracted to Michael Chabon and more specifically The Yiddish Policemen's Union due to its chess theme and the nice reviews it got from members of librarything. Then, those same people - even in this forgotten thread of mine - gave the thumbs up for this magnus-opus of Chabon's, The Amazing Adventures of Kavalier and Clay .

Chabon weaves an amazing story which starts with an escape from the nazi-striken Prague of a talented jewish kid destined to become one of the most important artists of American's golden superhero comic age, takes us through the World War II and this youngster's vain attempts to take revenge for his lost family - a mother held in the concentration camps and a brother at the bottom of the Atlantic, his "boat of hope" torpedoed by one of Third Reich's submarines - and ends with this man's return to normal life and New York, a hermit unable to find the proper way to reapproach his son, his son's mother and his cousin and ex-partner who live under the same roof in the suburbs.

Entrepreneurship, mass-media, surrealism, a country which is about to transform from a Depression-stricken mess to world's number one superpower, the paradox of two military camps in Antarctica which on the verge of destruction by the cruel polar nature are obliged to exterminate one another, homosexuality and comics. While leafing through this 600-page-plus masterpiece world-changing events took place. A lethal earthquake that hit one of world's most advanced societies, the Arab World rising against its tormentors, the world's most frighting military machine bombing a country to "liberate" it from a dictator. One wonders if a Chabon of the future will ever be able to write a story about these events. A story with such a touch of genius.

5/5 Stars

http://www.librarything.com/review/70604607

I'm so glad that you liked Kavalier and Clay -such a great story. I'll restate my recommendation for his Summerland, another wonderful book.

Well, after this one, I'll just go and order everything he's written.

>102 trandism: That might have undesirable consequences, Nick....

If you take into account the fact that we are collectively bankrupt here in Greece, it will indeed have some undesirable financial consequences :)

That's the truth. This crisis is not going to be quick to solve...and Japan's economic woes will quite shortly make news, because there's no chance this natural disaster won't cause trouble; then add the man-made disaster, and Greece's woes will look like a Sunday picnic in the mountain air.

However, I *meant* consequences of a more personal nature. The Mysteries of Pittsburgh...oof. The Wonder Boys...ouch.

Put away the credit card, save the economy, and be safe from the existential pain of reading sub-ideal books. Just sayin'

Your opinion noted and will be taken into consideration :)

*whispers* But go ahead and read Summerland. Seriously. :)
Richard: Have you read that one?

#98 Thanks for the recommendations.

Notes from a Small Island by Bill Bryson

Bill Bryson, an American journalist, married and living in Britain for 20 years, writes "Travel Literature". I don't consider myself a fan of the genre, but I've read Chatwin and Theroux, so I am aware of what most people mean when they describe a travel book as a good one. And "Notes from a Small Island" is without any doubt, a very good representative of this genre. Bryson seems to have acquired a great sense of British Humour during his stay there, phlegmatic and witty, clever and sarcastic. In 1995 the author and his family were due to leave Great Britain and move to the States. Bill Bryson plans to spend a couple of months on the road, alone, travelling by public transport or by foot and aiming to see as much as possible without losing time to the cliche. From Brighton to the North of Scotland he gives us a fine view of British life and society at the turn of the century.

4/5 Stars

http://www.librarything.com/review/71649851

I have been gone for a while, Nick. Hopefully I can keep current with you for the rest of the year though.

I am glad to see you enjoyed Notes from a Small Island. That was the first Bill Bryson book I ever tried. I enjoy his writing very much.

Surface Detail by Iain M. Banks

Hell and Paradise certainly do not exist. However, humans have been trying with various degrees of success to create both of those on Earth. Prisons, more specifically, are playing the role of hell-on-earth, a place where "bad" guys go to be punished. The main theme of Banks' latest Culture Novel is virtual Hells. Some species do not see life as a series of consecutive parties like the Culture does, although their tech levels allow them to stop caring about resources. The Culture is of course dissapointed with that, but their self-induced non-interfering foreign policy does not let them take matters into hand and "convince" those decadants by force. Other species do not share these non-intervention ideals and soon a war between pro-Hell and anti-Hell camps is due. This war will not take place in the Real. Both sides of the conflict agree to fight a Virtual War in order to spare lives and resources.

Parallel to that, a girl tries to escape from her master and becomes the prey to his hunting fetish once more. The girl, victim of an ancient socioeconomic relic of her species had been her master's compensation for a family debt that could not be repaid properly. This time, the whole incident goes out of proportions and ends with her murder by her own master's hand. The fact that a Culture Ship has backed her up and provided a neural lace to her without anyone, including herself, knowing it, becomes the catalyst for a series of developments with far-reaching consequences. As a matter of fact, it goes so far that it turns out to be the start of the completion of the Hell War. At the end of it all, the prey becomes the hunter.

Good 'ol science fiction (Asimov et al) has often been accused of being low-quality literature in terms of language and character development and all that. I was always of the opinion that these things, important as they might be, cannot and should not eclipse the brilliancy of Asimov's fantastic worlds, but even I acknowledge the fact that most of the great totems of the genre were not the best writers of their times, their language wasn't on par with their creative imagination. Iain Banks does not fit this category. And I quote "...like many societies finding their hitherto unquestioned customs and ethical assumptions impacting squarely with the breath-takingly sophisticated summed morality of a meta-civilisation inestimably older, vaster and by implication wiser than themselves, the Sichultia became highly protective of their developmental foibles, and refused to mandate away what some of them at least claimed to regard as one of their defining social characteristics and a vital and vibrant part of their culture..."

Iain Banks is a phenomenon!

5/5 Stars

http://www.librarything.com/review/67798879

I have yet to read anything by Banks. I really must rectify that!

Well, I'm still behind in some reviews and will rectify that during the Easter holidays. I'm reading five books at the same time now, but most of the time I'm reading Nabokov's autobiography. One week from now I'll take a week off work due to the orthodox Easter and will try to liven up this thread :)

In the meantime, I wanted to draw your attention (yeah both of you who follow this) to a book by a Flemish author, Omega Minor by Paul Verhaeghen. I read some 25 pages of it yesterday night and it seems to me that it's going to be the revelation of the year for me.

Speak, Memory is one of the best works of fiction Nabokov wrote! Happy Easter, whenever that is.

Next weekend! :)

Ah. Well, it's not on my sacred calendar, so I excuse myself from celebrating something I don't believe in, but I think the American custom of making peanut-butter-filled chocolate eggs is fabulous, so Happy Easter everyone!

7 days off work is a reason to celebrate by itself.

A week off work?! I may have to rethink my violent opposition to monotheism.

Haha..
Well, my week off is not exactly normal. Official vacation due to "monotheism" is only 2 days. Being the head sysadmin on 160 linux servers gives you some power in a company structure. THAT accounts for the other 5 days. So I'd say it's 2 days monotheism, 5 days corporate capitalism.

Richard, have you ever tried the Cadbury eggs? I love the creme eggs but they have caramel filled ones, too. They set my teeth on edge but I can't resist having one each year.

>119 trandism: My two least favorite "ism"s seem to be doing you right, Nick, so I shall withhold malediction and opprobrium.
For now.

>120 mamzel: I have indeed...I felt my teeth rotting as I tried to lick the goo off them, and am morally certain that gingivitis attacked within seconds of swallowing the stuff. *shudder* Give me peanut butter, the goody of the gods, any day.

#120: Ick.

Speak, Memory by 2097029387::Vladimir Nabokov

Chess was the reason I "discovered" Vladimir Nabokov many years ago. I know that it sounds funny, like "discovering" Montalban because of cooking, but in my case I managed both. I wonder how many amateur lepidopterists got attracted to Nabokov's work because of "Plebejus (Lysandra) cormion Nabokov", a small blue-grayish butterfly that the Russian author first discovered and described in an entomological journal in the early 40s. Not many I guess. With chess is different. Nabokov's chess compositions are known to only a selected few, chess composition being a rare pastime even amongst chess players, but his "Защита Лужина", Luzhin's Defence, is one of the most important pieces of chess fiction. Inspired by the life and death of Count Von Bardeleben Nabokov manages to describe certain aspects of the chess psyche and those who wander around amateur chess tournaments have met many a chessplayer with behavioural similarities to Luzhin, although we don't see such things on the top level anymore.

I have in my hands the Everyman's Library Edition of Speak, Memory, Vladimir Nabokov's autobiography and I mention it because I liked this edition a lot - its paper, its binding, its b/w photos. I also liked the introduction by Brian Boyd, an experienced "Nabokovist" (having written books on Ada and Pale Fire). Nabokov's work seem to raise a certain excitement amongst scholars and therefore many of them have written studies about his novels or extensive notes included in editions around the world. A good example is an excellent Greek translation of Lolita that has 250 pages of additional notes, following the steps of Alfred Appel Jr's efforts who died 2 years ago at 75 having extensively annotated that same novel. "Speak, Memory" consists of 16 chapters - written independently and in a different order than the one they appear in the book - spanning the "European" part of Nabokov's life, from pre-revolutionary Russia, his family's runaway trip to the south to save themselves from the Bolsheviks and their imminent departure to Europe after the Whites lost the Civil War, his life in exile as a Russian Emigre, up to his second runaway journey - this time to get away from the Wehrmacht - from France to New York.

Seventy years of communist propaganda tried to convince the rest of the world that Russia went from the Middle Ages straight to Lenin and it took more than two decades and Stalin's Great Terror for the Western Intelligentsia to start questioning those certainties and discover the fact that pre-Bolshevik Russia was a relatively liberal society, especially if someone compares it with the post-1917 Soviet State. Russian emigres like Nabokov were trying to inform people in the West about this, but most of them, blinded by Lenin's buzzwords about the working class attributed this hostility to bitterness about properties lost and fortunes expropriated. Nabokov himself had great contempt for those emigres who kept whining about their lost fortunes without having any sense on what was going on politically in their country either before or after the October putsch. Nabokov's father was a prominent liberal, one of the most well-known anti-tsarists of the period. One of his childhood memories consisted of watching his father write yet another flaming article to be published in a liberal newspaper. This image of someone being free to write what he wishes against the regime was something that Nabokov would not live to see again in Russia. One could say that the 1890-1917 years were much more liberal than today's post-perestroika Putinist Russia. Of course Nabokov doesn't care about the fact that most of his countrymen were striving for food and firewood in order to survive and couldn't appreciate the political climate of the 1900s. Better to be unequal and free than "equal" in a prison-state.

Nabokov also talks about Russia's countryside, climate and most of all butterflies and moths. He chronicles this great passion of his that entertained him all throughout his life, wherever destiny threw him from the Urals to America's West Coast. He talks about his school, his friends, his first love but most of all, about his governesses and tutors - scores of them! - English, French, Poles, Jews, who accompanied him during the summer months to whichever European resort was chosen that particular year, his drawing and music tutors becoming desperate with what they saw as a talentless young boy. His genealogy also takes an important place in his memoirs, a family tree that spans impressively three centuries full of celebrities and scandal. One can easily keep on listing subjects like this, but this falls short of describing the magic of the text. It's not what he writes about, but how he writes it. Clever, dense, sometimes peculiar and eccentric, these were easily the slowest 250 pages I ever read if we exclude the tortures of the school years. And no matter how spontaneous or thoughtful, political or literary a review like this might be, it cannot beat the last chapter of the book, "On Conclusive Evidence", a pseudo-review that the author applies to himself and his own work, one of the best literary reviews I ever read, a brilliant exercise of watching one's own work from the necessary distance.

5/5 Stars

A few words about some of the books I left uncommented.

8. Accelerando by Charles Stross

I didn't quite get it to be honest. I think it was technologically overcomplicated just for the sakes of it. Will read more Stross, but I am convinced that he is a much better blogger than novelist. Don't get me wrong, great bloggers are hard to find. 2/5 Stars

14. El Camino de la Autodependencia by Jorge Bucay

A new perspective for me regarding psychoterapy. Will follow it up with the rest of the series. 4/5 Stars

17. Regalo de la Casa by Juan Madrid

A Chandleresque noir. Pleasant. 3/5 Stars

21. World's Fair by E.L.Doctorow

A Jew boy book too many for me these months. Bad timing, will reread it in the future.

The Life and Opinions of Tomcat Murr and Omega Minor (which is a masterpiece) will be reviewed properly of course.

The Thought Gang by Tibor Fischer

Zeno, Zeami, Zapffe, Zalta, Zabarella, Zeller, Zermelo, Zhai, Zizek, Zaborowski, Zacuto, Zafarani, Zaremba...

English Philosophy Professor at Cambridge Eddie Coffin, an anti-hero that reminds one of the cop's cynicism in Irvine Welsh's Filth combined with the literacy of an Arsene Lupin, runs amok and flees to France, guilty of embezzlement of funds from various educational institutions, loses all his loot in an unlucky car accident and ends up broke in Montpellier. He's an uncured alcoholic and obsessed with the letter Z.

...Zhiyi, Znaniecki, Zongmi, Zubiri, Zarathustra, Zallinger, Zigliara, Zariski, Zelmanov, Zeuthen, Zimmermann...

A petty thief, a cripple raised in an orphanage who spends most of his time in prison becomes his partner in a series of spectacular and eccentric bank robberies that put the local police in a state of panic. The duo educates one another on philosophy and weaponry, on logic and escapism and become a highly effective criminal organization, nicknamed "The Thought Gang" quoting Diogenes Laertius while relieving a bank's treasury and discussing about Thales of Miletus while eyeing their next targets.

...Zizler, Zolotarev, Zuckermann, Zygalski, Zielinski, Zafra, Zaide, Zinn, Zitelmann, Zelazny, Zola, Zemlinsky

Tarantino meets Monty Pythons meets the Ionian School of Thought. Zuberb!

5/5 Stars

http://www.librarything.com/review/72769157

>125 trandism: Thumbs-upped your quite amusing review!

I'm delighted If I made you smile after what you've been through lately Richard. And if you haven't read Tibor Fischer, I think you should :)

You did indeed, and thanks. I've sure as shootin' wishlisted this one!

It took me two weeks to finish A World Undone: The Story of the Great War: 1914-1918 by G.J.Meyer, a book that I picked up after reading about it in the Salon group read threads. I have studied it while checking out what the wise people at the Salon had to offer as additional information and also using wikipedia on the side to check on certain people. It was certainly worthy.

I've made a new collection in my LT with the books the author selects from the extended biography - http://www.librarything.com/catalog.php?view=trandism&collection=143596&...

I am delighted to have finally received by post the whole bunch of books I ordered during the Easter holidays - http://www.librarything.com/catalog.php?view=trandism&tag=%23trandism%23east...

#123: I loved Speak, Memory when I read it, virtually the first Nabokov I ever tried. He is such a master wordsmith!

#125: I have got to give that one a try! Thanks for the recommendation, Nick!

#130: Congrats!

Ten days...ten whole days...surely you've read SOMEthing, or even just feel a little lonely for us...

Richard, yes I'm reading various things, most importantly Pale Fire, but I have to admit I feel a little estranged from LT these days. Things in Greece have finally taken a revolutionary route with thousands of people gathering in squares every night and I'm kind of obsessed in following and participating to that. I'd say that the Arab Spring is starting to cross the Mediterranean and noone knows what will happen, but at least SOMETHING will happen at last.

Do you know, Nick, I expect a very similar thing to happen here before too long. The Chinese, who own trillions of dollars' worth of US Government debt, are going to decide one day soon they'd like some more of it back than mere interest payments. How that will play out, I fear, will be highly militarized and cause serious problems to surface among the American populace.

This should be fun.

Enjoy Pale Fire! Don't go get shot. I'd miss you.

Nazi Literature in the Americas by Roberto Bolano

Seriously now - why would someone write something like this? What is the drive, what is the motive, what is the inspiration? While reading this book, my inner voice kept asking those questions and tried to remind me that all I'm reading is fictious. All those poets and novelists with their crazy lives and questionable morals, their abused lovers, their periodicals and publication houses, their football gangs - all products of Roberto Bolano's imagination. But at some point you stop asking and start dwelling into this alternate universe. And although you find it hard to resist checking all these names on wikipedia, you finally settle down and enjoy the experience. Because no matter how hard it is to explain why Bolano created this cornucopia of information, you cannot stop admiring the magnificent end result.

5/5 Stars

http://www.librarything.com/review/72615074

I will have to give Nazi Literature in the Americas a try. I did not care for Bolano's The Savage Detectives but really liked 2666.

Finished the first part - "About the Critics" - of 2666

Have you been jailed? Forced out of house and home by protests or fires or general lawlessness? Cowering under a rock on Mount Athos until sanity returns to the Greek world? Two weeks is a long silence....

Not jailed, not bankrupt (yet), still employed, watching the country turning to a failed state.

It's a painful, painful sight.

I can't imagine how it feels to live it.

Mixed feelings... It's shocking to see people suffer like that, their living standards deteriorating sharply. And having friends reaching dead-end and not knowing what to do in order to survive.

On the other hand, watching the mainstream go in the ditch like that has its joys.

Well, I know I've left many books without comments and I just update my 2nd post but I'll make an exception and strongly recommend "Made In America" by Bill Bryson, a linguistic history of American English which is immensely entertaining and a good candidate for the best non-fiction of the year so far

#142: Thanks for the recommendation! I have read several of Bryson's books but not that one.

Back in downtown Athens, back to work, back to the heart of a soon-to-be third world country whose only chance to turn for the better is an Arab-spring-like social shock. Considering the circumastances - or maybe because of those circumstances - I had a great reading summer as you can see if you scroll up to post #2.

Roberto Bolano's Amulet was another great experience for me and so I also bought The Savage Detectives and Distant Star sitting now on my TBR pile for the forthcoming winter. I'm in the middle of 2666 and slowly taking it down. It requires a certain state of mind to enjoy and not just read it. On the whole Bolano was a revelation to me - as it was to many people. Especially the Nazi Literature in the Americas . Meta-meta-literature anyone?

The Mind's Eye by Hakan Nesser is a book one can read in a single evening and forget about it after a nice dinner. At least that's what happened to me. Chief Inspector Van Veeteren is a frozen character - like Sweden in the winter.

I've read Lullaby during the winter and my summer intake of Chuck Palahniuk consisted of Survivor and Choke. Choke is the most interesting and deep of the lot with a central character whose personality is mutli-layered, flirting with lunacy and at the same time having a clear view of the human species and its traits.

Jean-Claude Izzo kept me company during the 5 days I've spent in Andros - a greek island in the Aegean. You have to read him while being close to the sea really. Total Chaos, Chourmo, Solea and Les Marins Perdus all take place in Marseilles. Love, crime, police brutality, immigrants, fischermen and above all great food and whiskey are the ingredients - Noir at its best.

Pedro Juan Gutierrez is the Cuban Bukowski. If you consider this a compliment, go read him immediately. If not... Love-or-hate variety. I loved him.

The Island of Lost Maps by Miles Harvey tells us a story about a map thief. Using that as a starting point for his plot, the author takes us through the map trade intricacies - auctions and all - and the history of cartography. I've made a choice from its bibliography at http://www.librarything.com/catalog.php?view=trandism&collection=156414&... for future reference. Peter Barber's The Map Book is a nice but expensive demonstration of the cartography art.

Julian Comstock is an alternate history nonel that brings us into a 22nd century America. Techonology has dropped back to early 20th century levels and war is conducted using first-world-war-trenches. The Comstock dynasty rules with a heavy hand keeping the West ex-states in Medieval feudarchical status and the east cities in a somewhat better status. But the newest Comstock - the natural inheritor of power - is a different kind of species. A revolutionary beginning its rise to power from a small village in the west that brings him into power for a short but eventful reign. Fun!

American Gods is a fantasy book. For a Gaiman virgin like myself it was maybe too much. Still I enjoyed it but at certain points I felt overwhelmed by the metaphysics of it.

Norman Davies' history of Europe is an admirable piece of work. A highly ambitious effort that succeeds in giving the reader a sense of the European Identity and some basic knowledge of its history. Geophysics, Ancient Greece, Romans, the era of the great immigration, Byzantium up to the modern times (ends in 1992). A dense 1400-pages tome - a great starting point for specialists, a good general reference for the hobbyist.

For the end, I've left Bill Bryson and Ted Chiang. Bryson is one of the most naturally-gifted writers I ever had the pleasure to discover. How can someone write travelogues, humourous stories, a linguistics history of America and one of the best books on Shakespeare and be excellent at all of them is beyond my definition of talent. The guy is immense and should have a much higher status in the world of literature than he currently enjoys.

Ted Chiang's Stories of your life and others is a collection of short stories that the late Arthur Clarke would be proud if he had written. Enough said! Must-read for lovers of science fiction.

I hope Richard and Stasia and any other who might be reading this thread are healthy and having great reading years. I haven't had the time to check on your threads guys. Hope life's treating you good. Cheers!

We had a hurricane here that ended yesterday, Nick, and me and mine survived it nicely. GLAD you're okay! Greece, well, I don't think it's gonna be okay for a veeery long time barring the revolution. (Similar thing needs to happen here, too.)

Good reading! Sending hugs and "avoid Neil Gaimna like he's got cooties cause he does" vibes your way!

Hey, Nick! Glad to see you checking in.

mistletoe smooches!