RancidPunx Posted October 9, 2016 Share Posted October 9, 2016 Anybody reading anything decent ? Â Any good autobiographies out at the moment ? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Awards Moderator Onyx2 Posted October 9, 2016 Awards Moderator Share Posted October 9, 2016 I'm having a great time with Michael Palin's diaries. At the moment. There's sadness as Pythons bicker, and he accidentally creates a history of the politics of the world. Very enjoyable. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Paid Members Carbomb Posted October 14, 2016 Paid Members Share Posted October 14, 2016 I enjoyed Catcher In The Rye and On The Road. Â Ginsberg's alright, but I'd strongly recommend Frank O'Hara for Beat Generation poetry. I don't mind Eastern mystic stuff, but if it's not up your alley, O'Hara's a good bet - he tends towards continental Europe for his references and imagery. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Tamura Posted October 14, 2016 Share Posted October 14, 2016 Just finished "Milk Sulphate and Alby Starvation" by Martin Millar, highly recommend picking up a second hand copy from Amazon or the like (out of print in the UK, but in print in the USA if you're obsessive about wanting a new copy). The New York Times are bang on the money with their review:  The sometime narrator, Alby Starvation, is a down-on-his-luck amphetamine runner whose main triumphs in life thus far have been to amass a large collection of comics and to cure himself of the ailments brought on by a serious milk allergy. As word of his cure spreads and others also quit drinking milk, it’s easy to see how the Milk Marketing Board would decide to send a Brazilian-Âtrained hit woman to kill him.That’s just the main part. There are also dueling Chinese video gamers, a grocery manager trying to catch shoplifters so he can afford a pool a person can swim in without actually going anywhere, the lost crown of Ethelred the Unready, various doctors, a psychic nurse, murder victims, a hamster and more, all of whom fit in seamlessly. Surreal and insane without being totally confusing, like Illuminatus! Trilogy for example. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Paid Members Carbomb Posted October 14, 2016 Paid Members Share Posted October 14, 2016 I love the Illuminatus! trilogy. Bloody hilarious, and incredibly bizarre. Basically the original and vastly superior version of the Da Vinci Code. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
The Gaffer Posted October 17, 2016 Share Posted October 17, 2016 Having a ball with Anger Is An Energy, John Lydon's bio at the moment. I'm a sucker for an easy to read bio, and the whole 77-84 musical landscape and everything that went along with it is my thang, so it's good stuff. He's full of genuine empathy in it, too. Above all his opinions he's just a massive, massive fan of playing his records. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Paid Members Gus Mears Posted October 18, 2016 Paid Members Share Posted October 18, 2016 After two weeks of debauchery in Boston, I'm taking a week off the booze, going out and spending money, because I'll have to sell myself to remain solvent otherwise. I'm replacing this with reading a shit-ton again and it's fun.  Read a biography of Michael Bakunin, the father of anarchism and a contemporary of Marx on the way back on the plane. Enjoyable and I have a real interest in C19th Russian revolutionary stuff like that. Herzen, Nechaev etc. get my balls throbbing.  Currently going through Simon 'wanker' Sharma's book on the French Revolution, which is so good that it's causing me to forget that I think he's a total cunt. In addition, picked up a sociological study of a German town between 1930-1936, so the last three years of the Weimar Republic and first 3 years of the Nazi's, it's fascinating and I always love in depth studies like this, you just get all this amazing detail you can't find in an aggregate study. Both of these from the £1 book barn near Brizzle, which is my favourite shop in the country.  Managed to get up to some of the second hand book shops nears Harvard while away, some absolutely bobby dazzlers, I tell thee. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Mr.E Posted November 4, 2016 Share Posted November 4, 2016 I'm onto Béte by Adam Roberts.  It's a story about giving animals AI chips, so they become intelligent, but that raises various question about the ethics of killing animals and so on. so far its very good. Its a dark comedy and has had some real laugh out loud moments for me so far. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Paid Members Scott Malbranque Posted November 4, 2016 Paid Members Share Posted November 4, 2016 Have you ever read any of Michael Marshall Smiths stuff, Riddles? Look into Only Forward, Spares and his short story collection 'What You Make It'.I adore the man...and I think you will too. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Mr.E Posted November 4, 2016 Share Posted November 4, 2016 Have you ever read any of Michael Marshall Smiths stuff, Riddles? Look into Only Forward, Spares and his short story collection 'What You Make It'. I adore the man...and I think you will too. Â I have not, but I will add that onto my ever expanding list of things to read hah Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Keith Houchen Posted November 4, 2016 Share Posted November 4, 2016 (edited) Gus, sorry for the patronising but are you sure Sharma is the wanker? You aren't thinking of David Starkey? Edited November 4, 2016 by Keith Houchen Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Paid Members Gus Mears Posted November 4, 2016 Paid Members Share Posted November 4, 2016 I hate both of them Keith. Whenever I hear Sharma's simpering voice I want to hurt things. Plus one of my least favourite things in history writing is tying historical events to art and banging on about how relevant it is, which he does with impunity. The Citizens book was fantastic though. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Keith Houchen Posted November 4, 2016 Share Posted November 4, 2016 Fair point, that. I think Sharma get away with it because he isn't Starkey. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Paid Members Sergio Mendacious Posted November 4, 2016 Paid Members Share Posted November 4, 2016 Ugh, Starkey — don't remember what I was watching him narrate earlier this week, but his fucking voice. The way he says "issues" set my teeth right on edge. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
SuperBacon Posted November 4, 2016 Share Posted November 4, 2016 For what it's worth, I really rate Schama, anyone who can make a subject accessible for all is alright in my opinion and I have enjoyed most of his books and series...and he retweeted me once so... Â Currently finishing off Down and Dirty Pictures by Peter Biskind, highly recommended if you're into your 90s independent cinema, and just finished Purity by Jonathan Franzen, which I loved. Not as much as The Corrections obviously but still the best fiction writer around. Â And, as I always do in times of crisis, got High Fidelity on the go, for what must be the 40th time. It makes me hopeful, which is why I read it when I'm feeling shit. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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