What are you reading?--Final Quarter/2008 (post a review if you like)

They have this thread in other groups and I think it particularly attractive for this one.

Think of the annual reading list we could put together, a roster of pure snobbery!

I'll get things underway by saying I'm halfway through Jim Shepard's first short story collection, BATTING AGAINST CASTRO. No touchstone? For one of the finest writers in America? Jesus...

He and George Saunders are two of the best guys working in the short story format around. Remarkable range, clean and unadorned style. Saunders is more surreal, Shepard mining the real world for inspiration and almost always striking GOLD.

I'm currently reading Paul Scott's The Jewel in the Crown. Some really nice writing, but the story's a bit bloody leisurely. On the first page, it says the story is about a rape... and it's page 40 before it's even mentioned again.

Strange structure too. The first chapter is third-person in the PoV of Miss Crane. The second chapter is a chatty first-person recounted narrative by Lady Chatterjee.

I read something recently that compared JEWEL to Forster's PASSAGE TO INDIA--where was that? Was that you, Ian?

Not me. I've never read Forster.

...but you've seen the movies...

I remember seeing the TV adaptation of "The jewel in the crown", in the early eighties (and liking it a lot). Never read it, though, but recently I read Rushdie's criticism of it (both the books and the TV series). You might be interested in his perspective.

Pelevin a werewolf problem in central russia and other stories;
Park A Princess of Roumania;
Lakoff the political mind (which is a bit disappointing - but i did buy it so i'll try to finish).
I reread Shooting War ,Lappe, pretty much every other week, just because.

WAITING for the next good - no decent - movie..this year has pretty much sucked in re catching flix..We liked "Atonement," "Burn After Reading,"
"Iron Man." and...most especially "Victoria Christina Barcelona" and most especially Penelope Cruz' bravura performance. It's been a LONG time since i could enjoy a Woody Allen movie..or even wanted to. If he hadn't gotten Cruz and Bardem cast, i imagine we'd have passed. "Appaloosa" might show around here someday

Movies...movies...you had to bring up movies.

Today, because they had to be returned to the library, I watched two very different flicks, "Morgan" (starring David Warner; directed by Karel Reisz) and "Revolver" (Guy Ritchie).

Both very good, real mind-twisters.

just read Swanick's The dragons of babel this afternoon and enjoyed it a good deal. (Having a cold leads me to keep to one book and not jump around as it's too easy to lose track of where i am when i'm out of sorts). Very enjoyable setup of a host of fantasy and SF tropes..and i still found myself worrying about the characters. Makes me defn. want to see if our library also has the iron dragon's daughter which has the same setting, if not the same cast(?). The setting's an odd amalgamation of NYC, diskworld, faerie, many species of mythical being and several mythical locales. Royalty gone missing; a lost heir; political intrigue; impossible romance; a hero's journey (but done cleverly, and not at all heavy handed and all joseph campbelly).

Reminded me of Anansi Boys but .. tidier. (I'm a big fan of Gaiman's comix and illustrated novels; not as much a fan of his other stuff which is inconsistent. )..I wanted a word, "illustratable" to describe books like Neverwhere which are essentially graphic in conception (and started out as TV and has been done v. well as a comic).

I panned IRON DRAGON'S DAUGHTER in the N.Y. Review of Science Fiction--my last for that publication. Editor David Hartwell changed the review without my permission, switched a couple of paragraphs, mucked up the piece...proving just what a classy guy he is.

Never wrote for them again, wouldn't work with Hartwell as my editor if you offered me ten million bucks.

we need to go thru the 4 dvd set of Blade Runner i just got last week..

well..cliff..just on a wild guess, i'd suspect i'm far less...critical in my enjoyment of modern fantasy than you..nobigdeal. I'm perfectly willing to marshal arguments in favor of JRRT being both a major and a v. good writer (extensive balladic(?) asides, aside). The more i learn about pre-Chaucerian lit, the more impressed i am w/ how unobtrusively Tolkien brought incredible erudition into LoTR..But i doubt we'd convince each other despite agreement on many other topics.

Bob, I'm tempted by what you've been saying about backgrounding Tolkien to pick up "The Road to Middle-Earth: How J. R. R. Tolkien Created a New Mythology" by T. A. Shippey. Any thoughts on that?

Ah, but Bob, while the writing may lag in sections and some cutting would help, ol' J.R.R. is an author worthy of respect (as I've said) for his enormous influence. Unprecedented, in my view.

It's not his fault that he spawned a field full of pretenders and imitators, where bad writing predominates. It's that erudition you speak of that really does raise him above the pack.

I respect you and your views, in this case and elsewhere...

i'll look at the books we have..including Shippey's but my initial impression on glancing through the Shippey book was that it really didn't do all one might want in terms of Tolkien's use of sources. Just looking at this title, it might be more useful..
Perilous Realms: Celtic And Norse in Tolkien's Middle-Earth - but that's only looking @ Amazon and i don't have that one at hand. Though i bet UNC library has it, so i'll look there next time i go onto campus (about 1/month, as that's how long my books are checked out for..)

Somewhere - possibly on a neglected shelf in my mother's house - I have a book I bought years ago, called Master of Middle Earth. I'll try to find it.

I remember reading somebody - can't remember who - saying that part of the joy of LOTR is the depth of the background, due to JRR having invented Elvish and a whole history for it beforehand. I suppose that's why The Silmarillion is unreadable (to me it is, anyway) - it's like looking at stage scenery from really close up.

I suppose you've heard that story about the hobbits' names being Kentucky-inspired?

i haven't gotten far into the Silmarillon either; we have Master of Middle Earth and i'm pretty sure that's not what we're looking for...I WILL actually LOOK at our books and see if any are helpful..

Hi, I'm new here, and will add that I'm finally reading a book I should have read long ago, The Heart is a Lonesome Hunter, by Carson McCullers. I'm enjoying it.

Poor Carson--picked by Oprah for her book club (nobody deserves that "honor").

Wonder who read the book aloud to her...

once again, you snobs have exceeded my knowledge. most of the time I have no idea what you are talking about or the names you mention. Well, i fall back on my six and a half decades of reading, and old dogs can but do not learn new tricks. often. i just finished peter straub's "ghost story," and found it wanting. straub has one of the protagonists going off the road DOWN INTO A DITCH AND ROLLING OVER one and a half times into the beach dune on the florida gulf near panama city. an example of not doing research: there are no ditches, valleys, deep drops, and one could not roll over even once without being caught in the sugar sand that permeates the gulf beaches. in short, the action he describes near the end of the book could not have or could not now happen. besides, the whole book lacks the suspension of disbelief necessary to admire it. i just turned the pages because he was good enough to bring me into his world.
i'm almost done (50 pages from the end) with mary mapes dodge's "hans brinker or the silver skates" a reprise from my childhood. i find it interesting it is more a travelogue for holland and a cultural introduction than a story about the silver skates. in fact, other than mentioning the upcoming race in the first few chapters, we haven't reached that point yet with just a score or so pages to go. so much for having a good memory. i only remembered the race for the silver skates from childhood.
next in line, located in my back bathroom, is a reprise of the short stories of ernest hemingway (1938), basically the nick adams stories and the young love stories. i finished big two-hearted river (both I and II) and "in another country," and closed my eyes and talked to Papa. "I shall never, ever, write as well as you, Papa," I said. "You truly are a great writer." There is a lovecraft paperback next to the bed to start when i finish the hans brinker tonight. coming up are various tomes by david livingstone -- his travels and explorations of south africa, 1848 -- and the first novel of the King "Dark Tower" series, "the gunslinger." That's my resolutioln for 2009 -- read and review the dark tower series and publish my everglades book and get new yawk in on my serial killer book (finally).

so i stay in the past 150 years and haven't acknowledged today's ovary-infested literary scene. as they say on the street:

"So?" (by the by, i started a group called 'the pervert's page' today. not all about sex, either).

I'm reading Alan Bennett's UNTOLD STORIES and loving it. It's a little of everything, journal entries, essays, introductions. There's a moving account of his battle with colon cancer and an unforgettable piece about being assaulted with his partner Rupert Thomas while on vacation in Italy.

Literate, intelligent and humane. Wonderful book and highly recommended...

Can one get colon cancer from buggery?

Gene...

Honestly, I could sit around reading Bennett all day. His journal entries make even the most mundane activity seem interesting and evocative. It's sad how many journal passages relate to the funerals he attends--he's around 70 so a good number of his contemporaries are turning up their toes and joining the choir invisible. Peter Cook, Alec Guinness, Alan Bates, John Gielgud.

I'm only in my mid-forties and the parade has started for me, though the last close friend I lost was some years ago.

One is reminded of the slaves who were dispatched to accompany returning Roman heroes as they made their grand promenade through the city, charged with the task of whispering "Remember, thou art mortal" to General/Senator/Consul so-and-so as he drank in the adulation of the masses.

I can think of a number of public figures today who could use that service...

I can think of more than a few who need "Remember, thou art moron" whispering in their ears...

Touche, Monsieur Ian.

#21...ummm don't think so..but there are a good number of venereal diseases available...

I've written a massive blog post about The Jewel in the Crown - see here.

Now I'm going to read me some trash sf....

to #21:it is my personal belief that cancer is caused by stimulating normal, healthy cells. Pipe smoking causes lip and throat cancer; cigs lung and throat cancer, bras breast cancer, et cetera. using that as a postulate, yes, i do believe you CAN get rectal (colon)cancer from buggery. Possibly the state of Florida can throw half a million dollars to a professor at one of the universities to study if pretty boys in our institutions of lower learning develop colon cancer over the years. Florida, in its infinite wisdom, some years ago threw three-quarters of a million to a graduate professor to do a study on why inmates want to get out of prison. This is how our state spends its income from the lottery "on education." The school kids get nothing directly, but the universities sure do. as does the DOT throiugh millions to develop sidewalks and roads AROUND the schools.

Terrific piece on JEWEL, Ian.

You mention you're gonna tackle some trashy SF--anything in mind?

Just a Colin Kapp novel. I quite like his stuff. The Cageworlds series is silly but fun sf. I'll be reading Patterns of Chaos.

Don't you find the majority of SF "silly but fun"? It's when people place a high degree of significance and importance on the field that I get annoyed. Comparing it to the best of literary fiction, etc. Looking to rationalize a genre of ideas and grant it some kind of special status or even predominance it does not deserve.

#27 - there IS a strong association among men, buggery and anal cancer due (most likely) to the transmission of the HPVirus so your point is taken. Esp. if you change "stimulate" to "irritated" and stratify the at risk population by genetic susceptibility (why some life long heavy smokers DON'T get lung cancer..although they are most likely at risk of a host of other cancers and other non-cancerous diseases). The risk is present, but much lower among women. The risk becomes much higher if the recipient is also a smoker.

also reading Tom Wolfe's satirical take on college life I am Charlotte Simmons ...He swears on a stack of ...remaindered copies of "Radical Chic" that Dupont isn't a stand in for Duke where a of his daughters was schooled..but it sure appears dookish.

#30 Cliff, it was too late at night when I saw this to think about it, but now it's the following morning, so...

Good books are written on many levels. For really good books, the first level is accessible. For most sf novels, that's the only level. There's nothing deep and meaningful, for example, in Neal Asher's Prador Moon. It's like a cardboard cut-out of a story. Some good books fail because the first level isn't accessible - M John Harrison sometimes fails in this regard (I'm thinking Nova Swing more than Light.)

A "silly but fun" novel has only the one level, but still doesn't insult your intelligence. So not a Kevin J Anderson one, then. There are also many sf novels which only have the one level but are redeemed by the quality and deployment of their ideas - anything by Al Reynolds, for example.

Ian: I think we are of like mind on this.

I believe the more widely read you are, the more highly evolved your critical thinking. Some people don't read anything but ____________ (name your genre) and therefore don't really have a far-seeing perspective as to the merits and shortcomings of the field they tend to gravitate toward.

Some may not even realize there's another level beyond the first (to continue your allusion)--as well, I've always contended the mind is a muscle and the harder you make it work (difficult, challenging reads, stuff that takes you out of your comfort zone) the stronger it gets.

I'm just taking my first dip in to Rilke - The Duino Elegies. So far, I'm overwhelmed.

And the same package from Amazon also brought The Whole Equation and "The Speed of Dark" by Ian Duhig (that touchstone doesn't work).

I have a nice edition of DUINO as well.

Isn't that the one that Rilke claimed was literally dictated to him? Gives me a tingle to think about something like that.

I'm just finishing Jack O'Connell's THE RESURRECTIONIST and, boys and girls, this is the kind of book that restores your faith in the notion that fine writing is still being produced amidst the proliferation of drek out there. I envy this man's talent and literary courage. Great story and great writing. O'Connell isn't prolific--only 5 novels in the past 25 years--and his care and craftsmanship are evident in every line. One of my favorite books of the past year or two. A combination of the best of Michael Chabon and Jonathan Carroll (if you can imagine such a thing). Don't miss this one...

#36 - "Isn't that the one that Rilke claimed was literally dictated to him?"

Apparently so. I didn't know that, so I had to go a-googling.

I've had similar experiences, especially in my "automatic writing" days (an approach made famous by Andre Breton and his surrealist posse). Don't do it so much any more but it's a helluva good way to break a writing block. Put pen to paper, no pre-planning or analyzing, just letting go...and watching the pen move across the page, seemingly of its own volition.

Very spooky--and humbling too.

Spooky indeed. Yeats did it as well, but - being Yeats - he got himself a rather spiffy Daimon to help him. (Not to mention his wife.)

In-teresting man, Yeats.

Believed in magical places, other realms, occult machinations. A Golden Dawn-er. Yup, would've been fun to raise a glass or two with him...

Just started The Road.

I shall watch for your review--let us know when you post it.

I see the movie version stars Viggo Mortenson and is directed by the chap who did "The Proposition". Not that I'll likely be going to see it. My track record vis a vis current films is not a good one...

Finished The Road and I've done gone reviewed it.

Now reading Al Reynold's House of Suns.

"THE ROAD is a very good novel indeed. But, despite its prizes, despite its acclaim, despite the film being made of it, THE ROAD is not an important novel."

THAT is a very smart observation, Ian. And I believe there IS a crucial distinction between McCarthy's last few novels and earlier offerings like BLOOD MERIDIAN, CHILD OF GOD and OUTER DARK which were, in my view, important works of liter--er, sorry--gourmet fiction. I found the ending of THE ROAD, in particular, didn't ring true, especially in light of some of the harrowing scenes that preceded it.

A good book but not essential reading. A place to begin your journey into McCarthy's oeuvre but there is much, much better work available from this fascinating author...

I might give some of his other novels a go...

And you should. And have a go at James Carlos Blake's IN THE ROGUE BLOOD too. McCarthy-esque without being out and out derivative...

I'll admit it was a real jolt reading House of Suns after the McCarthy. I had to read the first few paragraphs a couple of times because so much of it was unfamiliar. Funny how you forget to trust the author as much when you read away from sf for a bit...

Just finished i am charlotte simmons which i thought excellent. The search for self, the search for the life of the mind, the search for community by a very self aware and brilliant freshman girl from a very small town in rural western NCarolina, going to a duke like institution where bball is at least as important as school and making connections is the most important skill of all. Poignant, funny; i thought it very moving. Perhaps Wolfe was more emotionally involved than usual (as opposed to his typical wry, a/bemused detachment) as one of his daughters recently graduated from Duke

Haven't read Wolfe's fiction, just his "new journalism" stuff: ELECTRIC KOOL-AID ACID TEST and a few others.

He and John Irving have some kind of literary grudge match going, don't they? I've seen Irving, in particular, dissing Wolfe, dismissing his writing. Wonder what that's all about...

I've just got my first Iain M. Banks book from the library.

Which one, Dave? A number of us are BIG Banks fans on this site...

Lessee ... The State of the Art.

I'm into the third volume of Robertson Davies's Deptford Trilogy. World of Wonders is all about magic and sideshows and the like. Good stuff if you liked the HBO series Carnivale.

Finished Alastair Reynolds' House of Suns. Disappointing. Now started The Good Soldier by Ford Madox Ford. It was supposed to be my classic book for October, but I'm running a bit behind...

Read GOOD SOLDIER and it bored me. I'll say no more, no spoilers from this dude. Recommended to me by someone who's a big fan of Conrad's. Should've known better...

Ha. I gave up on Conrad's Nostromo. We'll see how The Good Soldier goes. I quite like narrative tricks, so perhaps it'll keep my interest.

Just started The Wasp Factory by Iain Banks. Forty pages in and I'm disturbed but I can't stop reading......

Ah, that's a lovely book. One of my fave debut novels, along with LAND OF LAUGHS...

I finished The Crow Road last month and loved it, so I purchased The Wasp Factory without hesitation.

Various Pelevin short stories (i checked out 4 books from UNC-CH library) - I've liked most of them, certainly weird enough for government work; I was half way through Park's a princess of roumania when i managed to make it disappear somewhere in a relatively small house. Finished and passed on to Patty An Incomplete Revenge which we both liked...a hard boiled cozy of a mystery set (w/ the rest) in post WW1 England. Started tokyo cancelled ..kind of a modern canterbury tales set amongst strangers @ an airport whose flight has...been canceled.

finished the Pelevin short story collection a werewolf problem in central russia which, if you appreciate absurdism mixed in with the fantastic, is quite awesome. I'm esp. appreciative of this paragraph this evening:
"Comrade Salami!" he announced. "the foundation of the wheel is the spoke; the foundation of order in the Empire is personnel; the reliability of the wheel depends upon the space between the spokes, and personnel decide everything. The Son of Bread knows of you as a noble and enlightened man and he wished to elevate you to high office."
As at work we're attempting to cope with directive-12...which basically requires any govt employee or contractor to provide any and all personal data whether or not s/he works w/ "classified" information of not. It's totally Orwellian...But even if you provide the information..you don't get an id..it's been 6 months since i've been able to set foot into the NIEHS building, despite applying for a renewal 6 months ago..for a job i've had for 20+ years.

I wasn't as thrilled w/ his novella the life of insects which seemed a bit heavy handed.

http://www.hspd12jpl.org/
http://blog.wired.com/wiredscience/2007/08/jpl-scientists-.html
http://www.govexec.com/story_page.cfm?filepath=/dailyfed/0408/042408j2.htm
http://moleprogressive.blogspot.com/2007/10/judge-denies-nasa-employees-civil.ht...

Finished The Good Soldier. I quite enjoyed it, but I don't think it's as good as its reputation suggests. Ford maintains voice impressively throughout, but there's still far too much telling rather than showing - yes, I know it was the style then - and his characters seem a bit flat.

Now about to start some book called Righteous Blood by somebody-or-other.

Just finished Walter Kirn's THE UNBINDING. Quite good--originally written in installments for Slate.com. Hung together well, intriguing concepts. Ending didn't work for me but a worthy effort.

Then I started Joe Hill's HEART-SHAPED BOX and so far find it quite derivative--a horror novel with little to recommend it...except Mr. Hill happens to be the son of another kinda famous horror scribbler. I'll give it a bit longer but up to this point am NOT impressed.

Finished The Wasp Factory yesterday; might be one of the more disturbing but compelling things I've ever read. Moving on to The Ghost in Love by Jonathan Carroll.

Gave up on HEART-SHAPED BOX after 120 pages. Just...nothing new there. Formulaic and unsurprising and contrived.

On to other things...

Incidentally Cliff, Hillsborough Park is at the end of my street. But I suspect it's not the same one as in 'Living with the Foleys'...

Ya never know...

I have also got from the library (because it's not safe to spend money on modern fiction), and am also reading, On Chesil Beach and Extremely Loud and Incredibly Close.

I went off McEwan after Saturday. All those words and no plot. And like I really care about some affluent tosser getting beaten up. It was like "Cloverfield" - I was cheering the monster.

I've found McEwan cold and rather dull in his last few. BLACK DOGS is wonderful and I like his earlier, macabre work (CEMENT GARDEN, etc.)

CHESIL BEACH's premise interested me--that's one I'll watch for at the library.

Review of The Good Soldier* on my blog here.

* haha. I mistyped the title as "The God Soldier", and the touchstone brought up... "The Devil Soldier".

So far, "On Chesil Beach" seems very good. I've only previously read "Atonement", which I thought was excellent.

Well-stated review of GOOD SOLDIER.

Ta. And I mostly agree with the comment you left. I got the book for nothing on bookmooch.com, and now I've read it I'll be sticking it back up there.

Which just shows how unsuccessful my idea to read a classic novel each month this year has been. I still have two books to read - Kerouac's On The Road and Rand's The Fountainhead - but I don't expect to be blown away by either. And of the ten I've read, I'd like to read more of Powell's A Dance to the Music of Time, but I definitely plan to read more Paul Scott.

Next year, I'm going to read a sf "classic" each month - stuff like Ringworld, Rendezvous with Rama, Second Stage Lensman... Should be interesting...

we both have Atonement ready to read..But i have to go the the library, return my Pelevin (most of whose stories are well worth the ... bemusement, and check of Triffids ASAP. There are 3 copies at the Uni so i'm hoping one is still on the shelves by Sunday.

I've always contended that you have to be under-20 to read and enjoy ON THE ROAD. After that, you start noticing the (myriad of) deficiencies in Kerouac's writing. Students of literature will shudder at the utter lack of discipline and discrimination he shows, the silly word choices, the immaturity of his "style".

But don't take my word for it.

As for Rand, I have no interest. Too many books to read, too little time. I admire your discipline when it comes to your reading selections. Lately I've been reading too little, except for research, and that makes Cliff a dull boy. Of course, after Joe Hill's HEART-SHAPED BOX, perhaps my temporary aversion to fiction is understandable...

I dreamed I saw Joe Hill last night
Alive as you or me . . .

Oops, wrong Joe Hill.

DEFINITELY not the same dude...

my TO BE READ list has surpassed 100 yards, and Heart-shaped box, Ayn Rand, and ON THE ROAD are all in my library, as is DDHarma Bums, but as one way said, too little time and too many books. I've finally delved into the Harry Potter series and am at the end of #2 and eager for #3. Rowling deserves all the acclamations, awards, and monies she has received. Her "style," as it were, is Hemingway feminine -- simple, plain-worded, in structure, yet although sparse, full of action and quite pertinent description. By the latter, I mean she only has to use one adjective to set the scene, peronality where i would use a paragraph. the year 2009 will be the year, finally, of my dark towers series by king. meanwhile, besides harry and his friends, i have short stories by lovecraft, a couple of edgar rice burroughs, and a "serious" book by Alexandrel Solsyhnietsyn -- the Gulag Archepaglio (sp). Widely read doesn't mean having to struggle through writers simply because they have endured to this day, as some of these writers are now falling by the wayside. Those who are or will be rarely mentioned this present century are Moliere, Tom Hardy, salinger, and, mostly because of the political correctness thingie, papa hemingway and the other sots who combine their prose with violence are sliding down the horizon of perspective faster than my two manual typewriters are rusting in the garage.

I hate to see Thomas Hardy on this list of those sliding by the wayside. I guess there are only a few of us who appreciate him for his brief excursions into the darkness of the heart of the English countryside, far from the madding crowd, as it were.

Finished Righteous Blood. Much as I love PS Publishing, their typesetting can be bloody dodgy at times. Then I read The Saved by Joe Hill and it was terrible - some of the prose was really clumsy, and the story didn't actually do anything. And they think he's as good as his father? Now reading Terry Bisson's Fire on the Mountain.

On the subject of "What are you not reading now", I have given up on Extremely Loud and Incredibly Close, fifty pages in. Too cute.

I liked the first half of EVERYTHING IS ILLUMINATED by Jonathan Safran Foer but the second half totally changed tone and direction.

Joe Hill should aim his sights higher than just being better than his dad. He'll need all the help he can get.

Like Terry Bisson--his TALKING MAN book, some of the short fiction I've read. I'd like to see more from the guy. Doesn't he work in editing (for Tor or someone like that)?

Yes, some of Bisson's short fiction is excellent. I also enjoyed his Voyage to the Red Planet. I don't think he works for Tor, though - according to Wikipedia, he lives in California.

"Bisson teaches writing at Clarion and at the New School for Social Research in New York, and works as an editorial and copy consultant with HarperPrism, the SF line of HarperCollins. He is from Owensboro, Kentucky; he was born in 1942."

From an InfinityPlus profile. I knew he was in publishing in some capacity. Wish he'd stop sleeping with Satan and write more. The man has talent...

I think that might be out of date. His web site also says he now lives in California.

Hopefully not "exquisitely bored", to quote the Townshend tune from "All the Best Cowboys Have Chinese Eyes" (terrific solo effort).

Bisson is a guy who should be writing full-time and leave Clarion, editing and giving aid and comfort to the Enemy (corporate publishing) to other, less talented scribblers...

This message deleted because it made no sense.

I mean, less than usual...

Among the various books i checked out from UNC's library today (was/were? ) the collected letters of Graham Greene to various newspapers..Appears very entertaining.

was one containing the collected letters...
were the collected letters
damn those collective nouns.

Orwell's letters are good too.

Nowadays we have, what, collected e-mails? Bor-ing!

Yup, had to happen...

Finished Fire on the Mountain. Vaguely interested. Bit slim on plot too. Now trying a bit of light reading - That Angel Look by Mike Ripley. I read a load of Ripley's novels years ago when I was in the Gulf. They're the sort of books you polish off while you're having a dump. Um, perhaps I should rephrase that...

Well, that's it for me.

Let's hear it for the Brits and their scatological preoccupations...

Finished The Ship That Died of Shame and Other Stories by Nicholas Monsarrat. Fun, if dated. And not exactly politically correct in some places. Now for November's entry in my 2008 reading challenge, Kerouac's On the Road, which will finally bring me up to date.

I've read a lot of trash this year (over 60 pulp novels), which reminded me why I prefer decent writing.

I'd recommend Underworld, A Man In Full, The Kite Runner and Sacred Games as easily the best books I've read this year in terms of scope, style and sheer emotion. I've run out of books to read so it'll be back to ancient Greek poetry for a while, plus some Joyce.

I haven't got around to picking the best books I've read this year - well, for a start, the year's not over. But the list is likely to include The Jewel in the Crown, The French Lieutenant's Woman, The Yiddish Policemen's Union... Um, no novels by a genre writer.

Read Arturo Pérez-Reverte' latest the king's gold last night and enjoyed it alot; quite a relief after the unrelenting, gloomy battles of the 3rd Alatriste series. Excellent swashbuckling, our narrator grows up, albeit still besotted on sight by his manipulative muse, while Alatriste grows..psychically old. 17th C Spain - high and low, sacred and the profane (though all are conjoined - as Spain is ONLY kept together by the riches plundered from the New World which serve to finance her endless and costly foreign adventures. Good bit more humor than in the 3rd volume too.

Started the elephant vanishes - Murakami managed to turn the first, quite short, story into the longish (excellent) novel The windup bird chronicle!

Murakami's an odd one.

Just finished LA BRAVA by Elmore Leonard and found it an utter bore. Leonard's usually a dependable read but this one...yeesh!

I think I've only read a couple by Leonard. Get Shorty was amusing, but the sequel, Be Cool, was rubbish.

I'm currently reading The Universe Maker by van Vogt. Got bored with On the Road, although I'll go back to it. The Universe Maker is completely bonkers. Van Vogt's 800-word skeleton is in plain view, and you can even see where he's padded out scenes to make that limit - lots of repetition and useless speculating on the plot. Not one of his better ones, although the central premise is, as ever, pretty cool.

I've just a few chapters to go in Vanity Fair. I think it will be a while before I pick up another book about young girls trying to clamber up the social ladder. No more Austen, Tolstoy, Bronte, Wharton, Fielding, or Dickens for now. Well, maybe Dickens...

Currently reading David Copperfield for pleasure.

The Trial for the Group Reads - Literature group. So far it's just downright weird. A lot of discussion trying to figure it out. I'm not sure there's any figuring out to be done. It comes across as an exercise in the absurd.

Just finished The Day of the Triffids for the SF group read. What a wonderful book. Lots to ponder in such a well presented, tight story. I really liked Wyndham's understated style with a real sense of terror built in. It flowed well and sucked me right along. It was a real, intelligent, page-turner. Makes me want to check out The Midwich Cuckoos. This was an excellent book.

Just started both The Steep Approach to Garbadale by Iain Banks and The Land of Laughs by Jonathan Carroll.

Hey, Biblio, those should be dandies. Haven't read the Banks but you know I speak highly of that Carroll novel. He never came close to topping that one (his debut).

I'm about 2/3 of the way through THE WHITE TIGER, this year's Booker winner. It's a fine read but winner of best best English language novel in ye Commonwealth? I dunno about that...

Just started both The Lies of Locke Lamora and The Triple Helix, one for amusment and one for improvement. Those are actually the only two motivations for any of my reading choices...

Cliff, do you think prizes are used as much for political reasons as recognition of excellent work?

"recognition of excellent work". Ha.

The Nobel isn't awarded to the best writer - it's more for their achievements with their writing than for the excellence of their prose. The Booker... is the opinion of six jurists, and that's as much a matter of compromise as anything else...

Yup. Except I would say "excellence" often has very little to do with it.

Many prize winner are actually compromise choices because the judges couldn't agree unanimously on one candidate.

Awards interest me not at all. I note them in passing but make no great effort to seek out winners or honorable mentions. THE WHITE TIGER happened to be in the house and I picked it up out of vacant interest. I immediately liked the voice of the narrator and after two clunkers in a row (HEART-SHAPED BOX and LA BRAVA), I needed something literary to whet my appetite for reading again...

Sorry, Ian, we posted simultaneously and I ended up reiterating much of what you'd already said.

You're just a faster typist, that's all...

I'm listening to a discussion of The White Tiger on the radio as I type this. Sounds interesting, but not necessarily my cup of tea.

I know little of Indian society, the caste system, the tenets of Hinduism so the book (THE WHITE TIGER) does compel with its vivid depictions of working class life on the sub-continent. Fans of LIFE OF PI might want to give this one a go...

Finished The Steep Approach to Garbadale this evening; now I'm splitting my attention between The Land of Laughs and The Story of Edgar Sawtelle. The Banks was good; not his absolute best, but interesting and well written.

i need to link current reads back and forth from group to group...but..

read the graveyard book last night. Very nicely done w/ illustrations by McKean; appropriate for ...10/11+ thru adult. The living, dead and the inbetween can all be good, bad, or indifferent. The opening (and subsequent plot) follows the murder of the young protagonist's family - not gruesomely described, but I would have been scared ~ 10..but other's kids might be less wimpy than i was. Tightly told, w/ tension and humor throughout.

Also Lappe's True Lies.. US media complicity w/ the bush admins corruption of "the news."

Glad ya liked it, Bob.

Giving GRAVEYARD BOOK to my sons for Christmas. They're in their early-mid teens. Lots of books get exchanged in THIS house, come Christmas time...

Finally got my review of On The Road up on my blog - see here.

Just finished Jim Harrison's latest, THE ENGLISH MAJOR.

Harrison is always a pleasure to read but this one wasn't as powerful and engaging as some of his best efforts. Still a good read and certainly worth spending a few hours with but not Jimbo at the top of his game.

Interesting notion, sort of a "coming of age" story for a guy who's just turned 60 and finds himself dumped by his wife of 30+ years and his efforts to adjust to the new, radical direction his life has taken...

Finished both The Land of Laughs by Jonathan Carroll and The Story of Edgar Sawtelle today; both were excellent. Moving on to Little,Big by John Crowley.

or wait for what promises (and promises and promises and . . . ) to be a lovely edn of Crowley from Incunabula. and while waiting, enjoy Crowley's live journal at

http://crowleycrow.livejournal.com/

The anniversary edition of Little, Big?

I'm reading The Master and Margarita. I'll have to read a few snobby reviews as well, because I'm sure I'm missing a few things.

YAAAAAAAAAAAAYYYYYYYYYY Little, Big! This is the only book containing qualities that entice both me and Harold Bloom. That's a mighty book, that is. I tend to read it how it's structured: in fragments, with as many dreams and nighttime ponderings as I can stand. So, so good. Damn, now I need to read it again.

I'm finishing the rest is noise, which is a towering pile of awesome, and Nausicaa of the Valley of the Wind, which is also incredibly dense.

Great to have that Crowley page--he's a good 'un.

And I see from a post by Scott Edelman that Forrest J. Ackerman of FAMOUS MONSTERS OF FILMLAND fame has passed away. I toured his house close to 20 years ago, took in his collection of sf/fantasy goodies and it was amazing.

Just finished up, in the past few weeks, The Historian, The Yiddish Policeman's Union and American Gods.

Still dawdling pleasurably over Speak, Memory and just jumped into The Spy Who Came In from the Cold. Why did no one ever insist I read this book before? Great sparse prose, use of subtext. I don't know what comes after that. I'm away from home and far from my TBR pile. I have access to some South American writing (Octavio Paz, Jorge Amado, Allende and the like), any recommendations?

I've just finished On Chesil Beach. It's only about 160 pages, but I've taken my time over it. I've been sipping it - you don't chug a single malt.

It's a small thing (not slight), but practically perfect.

#125 I would have to agree with you. I read it when it first came out and I still think about it.

Watching for it at the library...

We bought our oldest son a copy of Geraldine McCaughrean's THE WHITE DARKNESS. Ordered it from England and when he opened the book to start reading it the other day, Liam discovered he had a signed copy.

Very cool...

well..our library's copy wasn't signed..but i thought the white darkness a pretty amazing book...bleak and genuinely scary in parts, but very good.

After a little consideration, I've decided to put Little, Big down until after the first of the year (I'm trying to meet a specific reading goal and I don't want to rush what is turning out to be a very complex read).

I've switched over to Bones of the Moon by Jonathan Carroll, A Song of Stone by Iain Banks and The Resurrectionist by Jack O'Connell.

Bob: Looking forward to what Liam thinks of THE WHITE DARKNESS. I'm fascinated with polar/Antarctic exploration, have been since I was a kid. Amundsen was one of my heroes.

Biblio: Don't give up on Crowley forever. Just maybe not the right time.

I can vouch for BONES OF THE MOON and RESURRECTIONIST--both fine reads. Haven't read the Banks you allude to. Another one on my &%#@ing list...

Cliff,

Not giving up on the Crowley at all. Just want to take my time and since I'm 17 books away from my goal of 200 in 2008, taking my time just isn't in the cards right now.

November by Flaubert

It's a short read. The plot is pretty basic -- young man falls in love with prostitute with a heart of gold -- but since it's Flaubert writing, it's quite good.

Since it's short, Beckett's Trilogy: Molloy, Malone Dies, the Unnamable is up next on the docket. Read Molloy as an undergrad, I want to give it a careful read this time around.

Ooooooo, that trilogy is a TOUGH read.

UNNAMABLE is something...

Bless my conformist little heart, but I've just started what is apparently the most-owned book here - Earthly Powers. Great first chapter - he's already name-dropped (intimately) James, Rilke and Keynes.

I think it's going to be a fun ride, but I'll be astonished if the whole jalopy doesn't fall to pieces before the end.

#135 -- You'll be surprised. Kingsley Amis gives a great review of Earthly Powers in The War Against Cliche. To paraphrase, "even though it is a thick book, it feels like there isn't enough in it." It's a witty, intellectual, page-turner. I've read it and was amazed. It's simply awesome. Maybe there's a reason a lot of people own it.

Extraordinary book. One of my all-time top five. One of those novels that will live forever.

That opening sentence...and, yes, it holds together right to the last sentence.

Good reading, Dave!

Just finished the new John Le Carre, A MOST WANTED MAN. For some reason, I always read Le Carre in late fall or winter. There's a melancholy about his work that makes it appropriate for colder, darker seasons.

The book is quite good, surprisingly vigorous considering its author is now 77 years old.

The plot involves human smuggling, the war on terror, Chechnya, the Russian mafia and, as always with Le Carre, divided loyalties and betrayal.

Much better than CONSTANT GARDENER which, frankly, I found a bit of a bore. Might be another case where the movie is better than the book, especially since the film version was directed by the guy who brought us the magnificent "City of God"...

Finished The Resurrectionist last week (liked it a lot, but felt like there were some rushed moments; still very good) and Extremely Loud and Incredibly Close by Jonathan Safran Foer this morning (I enjoyed it, but was also happy to just be DONE. Not the easiest read ever).

Still working on A Song of Stone by Iain Banks and Bones of the Moon by Jonathan Carroll. Been distracted from both by M. John Harrison's Light.

I'm reading The Fountainhead and it's the silliest book I've read for a long time. Mind you, a lot of Heinlein is starting to make a peculiar kind of sense...

"Mind you, a lot of Heinlein is starting to make a peculiar kind of sense..."

Watch this kind of talk, Ian.

That's an awfully slippery slope, mate...

(It's -31 Celsius here this morning, a real cold snap that will last, they say, the rest of the week. Christmas shoppers advised to dress in their survival gear, bundled up like Sherpas...)

Finished A Song of Stone at lunch today. Not very good. Banks went too dark and indulged in a lot of internal character dialogue that made the narrative really difficult to follow. I'd say skip it.

You know, Ian, the US economic system that is currently in meltdown was created by a bunch of Ayn Rand devotees, most especially the ex-chairman of the Federal Reserve Bank, a position something like the Chancellor of the Exchequer, I think, Allan Greenspan. It's too bad they couldn't see the silliness in her ideas. Her one great idea was that of Gulliver in the Land of Lilliput. The GREAT are dragged down by the hoi polloi. The world would be better off if all us ordinary folk just rolled over for the CAPTAINS of INDUSTRY. After reading The Fountainhead you should read her great financial tome, the crowning achievement of her philosophy, Atlas Shrugged. You'd be surprised, maybe, at how much of the drivel in that book guides the politics of the Republican party in this country.

Do you think I'm mad? After wading through the juvenile philosophy, overwrought prose and "scintillating" paragons of The Fountainhead, I'm not going anywhere near another Rand novel. I might even sell my copy of Rush's "2112" album...

Leave Rush out of this. Fine lads...

even more terrifying than Rand novels is prospect of making horror films based on The Fountainhead et al. Marx got a lot wrong..but, given the context of his time, he got an awful lot right (er..correct). If i'm gonna choose literary sides i'll take a brilliant social historian/sociologist (before they became boring) over a tedious twitette. (this has NOTHING to do w/ stalin/mao...just a forced choice twixt rand and marx).

The Fountainhead impressed me in high school. Then again, so did the prospect of seeing Sharon Stone naked. I think Rand exists for Young Republicans as something that makes them look "literary," like reading Playboy for the articles.

Capital, on the other hand, is genius, although I've only read little bits of it. Just as shrill and strident as Rand, except that Marx can write and think.

Rand is a sub-par philistine. "Show, don't tell, honey."

Here's my review of The Fountainhead.

But why give it back to BookMooch?

Surely the fireplace is in need of kindling and...

Rand would have been much better suited writing Socialist Realism Westerns for Joe Stalin, another philosopher not too worried about subtlety. Then again, does Rand even know what irony is?

The Fountainhead shouldn't be burned, but should be used as a blunt weapon. How else are people going to smack sense into free market fundamentalists and neoconservatives? There's only a limited amount of shoes to throw.

Saying The Fountainhead is well-written is like saying The Iraq War went just as planned (assuming there was a plan to begin with).

Ayn Rand makes Juliette look tightly plotted and concise.

> 144 I might even sell my copy of Rush's "2112" album...

Hahahaha! Ian, is it possible we arrived at Ayn Rand by the same school of literature? I read one Rand - can't even remember which one - and I still credit it with being one of the worst books I've ever read. Steinbeck and Dos Passos were much safer bets.

Oh yes, I'm reading The Savage Detectives, which so far is not living up to the hype - though I still have 150 pages to go. The writing is good - not great - the story is long and rambling. I seem to be missing the magic, the genius that others have been raving about. Although I won't have a firm verdict until I finish the thing, it's bad sign that in a moment of despair last night I began to read Oblomov - which, 50 pages in, is more entertaining.

Almost picked up THE SAVAGE DETECTIVES myself, the last time I was in "the big city". But, jeez, $20.00 (Canadian) for a trade paperback and I didn't know the author and a flip through it didn't encourage...so back on the shelf it went.

Don't worry, Ian will never sell his Rush albums. It was merely a moment of frustration and not to be taken seriously...

Bolaño has really made headlines in the USA in the last couple of years as his major novels get translated. He's even been touted as "the new García Márquez". I think if I had just stumbled across him myself, on the basis of what I have read so far, I would think that he was an unusual author and probably recommend him to my friends. In that sense I don't think the hype has helped him with readers like me, as I rarely tend to like those books that suddenly become popular. Isn't that the mark of a true literary snob though?

Having said that, The Savage Detectives is exciting, imaginative, very different to your typical Booker nominee, much better than the average modern novel and a real antidote to (say) much of contemporary British fiction. Bolaño is definitely an accomplished writer - and he lets you know just how widely read he is - and I'll probably explore more of his books. Is that $20.00 (Canadian) worth...?

Savage Detectives didn't really impress me-- but I don't much like Kerouac-y wanderings into the desert anyway. From what I've heard 2666 is more or less the same kind of meandering. Shame, because I actually did like some passages.

2666 interests me. "The Part About the Crimes" sounds fascinating, especially the relentless clinical style and its bleakness. Beckett anyone? I also want to check out Nazi Literature in the Americas, especially how Bush nearly turned the USA into a South American banana republic.

Not sure if reading him during this "hype wave" is advised. I still have to attend to my unread copy of Against The Day.

#151 Rand would have been better-suited writing advertising copy.

The Fountainhead shouldn't be burned, but should be used as a blunt weapon. How else are people going to smack sense into free market fundamentalists and neoconservatives? There's only a limited amount of shoes to throw.

We could do the old one-two with The Fountainhead and Mein Kampf. And finish up with blow to the crown with The Wealth of NationsThat should get the message across...

#152 Ian, is it possible we arrived at Ayn Rand by the same school of literature?

I think "2112" is the first place I came across mention of her. Can't say I'm a huge Rush fan - I have that album; and a couple of cassettes of later albums somewhere.

glad to see some others w/ the same reaction to the Savage Detectives that i had..i really liked the first 100 pages or so and then the book became way too self absorbed and repetive...i've checked out a shorter Bolano book since he DOES write well, and hope i like this one better! nazi literature in the americas.
#157 - my sense over the last 8 yrs was that the US was being turned into the world's most dangerous 3rd world country, what w/ the forced bifurcated redistribution of wealth and the vast supply of arms.

I had a few friends in hs/college (60s-70s) who were randites (although happily going to public college in Williamsburg) who were bright but getting them started on "politics" was a assured dead waste of a couple of hours. Really her approach boils down to a simple minded utopianism that wasn't all that different from the 19thC social experiments i'm sure she abhored.

>152 chrisharpe: "it's bad sign that in a moment of despair last night I began to read Oblomov - which, 50 pages in, is more entertaining."

Has anyone ever read anything by the Russians that didn't kick ass?

Probably a Brezhnev biography written by the USSR Communist Party. Clive James gives a hilarious review of it on his website. Given the fact it was Communists writing about their Great Leader, it is technically fiction, like A Charge to Keep by Dubya.

Just finished Jasper Fforde's THE EYRE AFFAIR.

Fforde's clearly a bibliophile--the book's fun. Smart, with a tough side that belies this title's (perhaps) lite reputation.

I'm reading Death in Venice and a few other Mann short stories.

Yesterday i read the dreams from my father - the very well written and very moving story of Barack Obama's search for self. Written just after he finished law school (but well after round 1 of community organizing..) he comes across as both self-effacing and self-confident. Amazing...a (modern) US president who didn't require a ghost writer to create a book of worth. And who mentions in passing that he messed around w/ blow and pot but was too chicken to try shooting up.

(US Grant's memoirs are good too).

A friend had loaned it to me a couple of years ago and i'd mis-shelved it..and found it in our "outbuilding" yesterday (an old general store next to our house that we fixed up over time)

Finished Martin Gilbert's ISRAEL: A HISTORY yesterday.

A good introduction to the region but the veteran historian makes the classic mistake of becoming too enamored with his subject. Not a hagiography but there are little indications of Gilbert's (and his publisher's) bias. At one point census figures are provided, the number of Jews listed in the main text but the number of Palestinians provided in a footnote.

Use this one as a starting point and then find other source material for more balance. I've always admired Edward Said's writing on the Middle East/Israel. Any Bernard Lewis fans out there?

I've read Lewis' The Middle East. Thought it was very good. I have Chomsky's Fateful Triangle but I've not read it.

And you lived in the Middle East, didn't you? Or were you very young at the time?

I've heard good things about Lewis--except he was criticized for downplaying the scale of the Armenian massacre, wasn't he? I seem to recall something about that...

I grew up there, and then went back and worked there for 10 years as an adult. But that was the Gulf - Qatar, Oman and the UAE.

Re-reading Alan Weisman's THE WORLD WITHOUT US.

Originally picked it up as a library book but now I've got a copy of my own. What would the earth look like if humanity suddenly disappeared? How long before cities/civilization reverted back to nature?

Great website too:

http://www.worldwithoutus.com/about_author.html

Click on the "Multi-Media" page and enjoy the show.

By the way, it's -34 Celsius this morning here in Saskatchewan, with a wind chill of -45. Mild winter weather for us hardy prairie types...

I read They Die Strangers by Mohammad Abdul Wali, a collectionof short stories by a Yemeni writer who died in 1976. They weren't bad. Then I read A Clubbable Woman by Reginald Hill, the first Dalziel and Pascoe novel. It was okay. Now reading Scudder's Game by DG Compton. That will be followed by Pied Piper of Lovers by Lawrence Durrell, the new edition published this year (after 73 years!) by the University of Victoria.

I have had about a gazillion attempts at reading The Histories. I intend to finish it or get durn close, by the year's end.

Quick progress report on Earthly Powers, about 160 pages in - great fun, of course, a jolly romp through the 20th century, but I'm not getting why it's so many people's favourite novel. Seeing all the famous names wheeled on for a scene or two before being wheeled off again is quite diverting, a sort of planespotting for literary types, but the characterisation of the ones he's actually invented seems a bit thin.

I've just read somewhere that M. Toomey is actually a badly disguised Somerset Maugham. Is this true?

Enjoying it a lot, though. Nothing wrong with a romp now and then.

Keep going, EARTHLY POWERS gets better and better.

Finished re-reading an old Phil Dick novel, THREE STIGMATA OF PALMER ELDRITCH and anticipate tackling two more, UBIK and FLOW MY TEARS, THE POLICEMAN SAID before the beginning of the new year. Research-oriented reading, you might say. I've read 'em all before but I wanted to re-familiarize myself with them.

My friend Robin, who works in the alternative fuels industry, gave me an autographed copy of Robert Zubrin's brand spanking new HOW TO LIVE ON MARS (A Trusty Guidebook to Surviving and Thriving on the Red Planet). Hmmm, so new it doesn't have a touchstone, I see.

Ian, I think you'd like this one. It's inscribed: "To Cliff, See you on Mars!"

Don't I wish, Monsieur Zubrin...

"Keep going, EARTHLY POWERS gets better and better."

Thanks Cliff. I soitainly will.

I think Ubik is PKD's best book. Astonishing, I seem to remember.

UBIK is one of his five best, no doubt.

A tip to those of you who are always keeping your eye out for a good Young Adult novel. My son Liam received THE HUNGER GAMES (Suzanne Collins) for Christmas and finished it in about two sittings. He found it riveting and to keep a fifteen year old immersed for that long, it has to be pretty darn fine. So keep your eye out for it, folks...

Just finished the year's best fantasy & horror datlow, link and grant. Generally a very good collection.

About 1/3 through the alchemy of stone which is a very delicately written steampunkish combo of SF and fantasy about the nature of being human. A small book handling big issues by indirection. I'll look for her the secret history of Moscow next, i think.

After taking a break to read some lighter fiction (including The City of Dreaming Books and Love in the Time of Fridges), I'm currently in the middle of The Brief Wondrous Life of Oscar Wao by Junot Diaz.

Just finished "Dedalus Book of 19th cent. French Horror". Very entertaining. I'm 1/2 way
through "Little Jinx" by Tertz/Sinyavsky.

Snuck that one in under the wire, Tros! Last day of the year to finish something this quarter, folks, new installment for 2009 (Q1) starts tomorrow.

I have a couple of those Dedalus books and love 'em. What was 19th century French horror like? Fairly gothic? Was there a selection by Maupassant...or do I have my eras wrong?

And just finished the alchemy of stone. I don't know if older folks here remember a Brit band from the late 60s/early 70s "the String Driven Thing"? Perhaps the first band to use a violin as a ROCK instrument and not as a "pretty" lead line (that awful song, White Bird.i forget that groups name..It's a Beautiful Day). Anyway the SDT 2nd lp(iirc) was called "the machine that cried" - which was probably taken from a sf title. But the whole 2nd half of the book kept that album title in mind. The POV is a "emancipated" automaton in a city undergoing the middle stages of an alternative industrial revolution. Mattie comes to grips with both who she is and her testy relationship w/ her literal maker and tenuous relationship w/ the larger society around her. Very well written and very elegiac and moving, in a way SF or fantasy rarely displays. This book qualifies as both SF/steampunk and fantasy. Defn look for the secret history of Moscow.

Innerestin' critique, Robert, thanks...

"String Driven Thing"--sounds like a physics text.

So relieved I made it, I think....

"The Head of Hair" by Maupassant. Also "Mademoiselle Dafne" by Gautier, "The Penitent" by Catulle Mendes; Sue, Dumas, Borel, Sade, Huysmans, Nerval, etc. Actually more humor than I expected, but, maybe, it's just my gothic sense of humor?

Finished Old Goriot. The French are some strange folks.

Now on to We.

I seem to remember Le Horla by Maupassant is wonderfully creepy.

I'm in heaven with a couple of snobby books right now: Burger's Daughter by Nadine Gordimer. Has anyone else read anything by this brilliant woman?

And Midnight's Children by Salman Rushdie. I'm still in the early stages, but I already know I'm going to be blown away by the end.

Wonderfully snobby stuff, folks.

It's an honour to hang out in such august company...

Finished Malone Dies and I'm tackling The Unnamable.

Started "The Adams Cantos" from The Cantos by Ezra Pound.

Post your next update in the new 2009 thread.

After reading Beckett and Pound you're going to have to unwind with some "Dick & Jane" readers. Just to give your over-taxed brain a rest...