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The 'Currently Reading' Thread.


Guest Refuse Matt M

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Certain I posted here about House of Leaves when I read it a few years back, I think it's an incredible experience. Note, not necessarily best book ever but such a journey to read. Playing with the text and the layout to dramatic effect gets more and more interesting. You've a real treat ahead, it's one of those things where I wish I could forget what happened to re-read it clean.

 

I'm with Sickwoy, the Navidson stuff is more interesting first time round, and the Truant stuff makes more sense thereafter. Other quirks: I believe the first edition had a cover 3/4" shorter than the pages in the book (or whatever the discrepancy is in the house).

 

Absurd, but utterly gripping.

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I've seen the shorter cover! It wasn't the version I read though. The book was huge, and when I was reading it on the bus, variously flipping the book to different angles, people were looking at me like I was insane.

 

I found the Truant stuff to be more engaging overall, which surprised me, as I expected to be drawn in by the haunted house angle, but I found that rather cold and not half as unsettling as I expected. It was still gripping though, but I found Truant's sections to be compelling, with some of the sentences reading like beautiful but morbid poetry. I also found the letters from his mother especially affecting.

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I finally finished The Dark Tower series by Stephen King this weekend after about 6 months of solid reading. The ending wasn't perfect but overall I loved it. King created a truly amazing and epic world. There were more than a few moments in the final book that had me in tears and the final moments were incredible. Roland Deschain is one of the most fascinating characters I have ever seen. I recommend it to everyone.

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I'm currently thumping through Angels & Demons, as a mate gave me his spare copy (he bought it twice by accident). It's actually a better book than The Da Vince Code. His style may be bordering on bloody awful a lot of the time, but he has a knack for writing like a series of Alias, one cliffhanger after another, which keeps you interested.

 

It also has the potential to make a better film than DVC, which made for a really boring 2 hours.

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I'm going on holiday on the 19th so I've picked up 'Flat Earth News' by Nick Davies and 'Bad Science' by Ben Goldacre. Anyone got any other suggestions in the same kind of ilk? I pretty much enjoy anything that disects the worlds of Media, Politics, etc in a slightly amusing and informative manner.

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Certain I posted here about House of Leaves when I read it a few years back, I think it's an incredible experience. Note, not necessarily best book ever but such a journey to read. Playing with the text and the layout to dramatic effect gets more and more interesting. You've a real treat ahead, it's one of those things where I wish I could forget what happened to re-read it clean.

 

I'm with Sickwoy, the Navidson stuff is more interesting first time round, and the Truant stuff makes more sense thereafter. Other quirks: I believe the first edition had a cover 3/4" shorter than the pages in the book (or whatever the discrepancy is in the house).

 

Absurd, but utterly gripping.

 

Yeah a mate of mine showed me a copy of it with the shorter cover. It's normally the kind of thing that I'd disregard as pretentious right away but this particular mate gushed about it, really tried hard to convince me it's worth the effort, and I take his opinions seriously. I've had the name of it saved in my phone with the intention of tracking down a copy for ages, I was under the impression it was quite obscure and little-heard-of but perhaps not.

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Been to HMV recently Steveo? That's where I picked that up for 3 quid (and Dawn Of The Dumb). Really good shithouse reads they are, you can get through one article per dump usually.

 

I was bought The Guardian Book Of Football which is write ups from the paper about football matches and events from the last 50 years. Some great stuff in there.

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A big +1 to all those comments. I bought both books at HMV, they live in the toilet, and I much prefer reading his articles to listening to him speak... I like how dawn of the dumb has his non TV related writings interspersed, too.

 

I need a new book to read! I think I may start re-reading American Psycho if I don't stumble across something that looks fun sometime soon. I have been waiting for the library to get me a copy of Notes from the Underground for fucking ages.. Their order in service is terribly unreliable.

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I need a new book to read! I think I may start re-reading American Psycho if I don't stumble across something that looks fun sometime soon. I have been waiting for the library to get me a copy of Notes from the Underground for fucking ages.. Their order in service is terribly unreliable.

 

Could've lent you my copy.

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