The 'Currently Reading' Thread.

[HarmonicGenerator]

2 hours ago, Keith Houchen said:

We both know that isn’t going to happen! I saw a quote about not getting new books because you have loads to read is like a wine enthusiast not buying any bottles of wine because they still have ones to drink. 
 

 

Ignacious is such a great literary creation. He’s an unemployable unlikable man who thinks he is morally and intellectually superior to everyone and holds them all in contempt for not acknowledging him as their better, but for some reason or other I really like him!

Oh, I know I’ve got no chance - but I have to try… Dunces has been on that list longer than any of the others so at the very least, I have to get that one read. Ignacious sounds like a fun kind of guy to read about!

2 hours ago, Carbomb said:

Well, I checked Wiki for a précis of the book, and it took me down a rabbit-hole, as Wiki does, because I had to know what a "picaresque" novel meant.

I found out numerous things, including that Don Quixote is considered a picaresque, and that there was a whole period of Spanish literature when the genre was particularly fashionable, of which Cervantes was only one notable author.

And now I also want to read The Golden Ass by Apulius, which is considered the original picaresque, and is apparently the one that almost all others take inspiration from - and, coincidentally, is also the only Latin-language Roman novel to survive in entirety.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Golden_Ass

Picaresques were quite popular in 18th century English literature as well. Henry Fielding definitely wrote one of the big ones but I can’t remember if it’s Tom Jones or Joseph Andrews. I’m sure our uni lecturer made the argument that Daniel Defoe wrote Moll Flanders to be picaresque as well.

A good modern example (even if it’s a film not a book) is the Coen Brothers’ Inside Llewyn Davis (although I guess Terry Gilliam did finally get his Quixote movie made recently too).

Edited January 18, 2023 by HarmonicGenerator
Got my media mixed up didn’t I

[Carbomb]

8 minutes ago, HarmonicGenerator said:

Oh, I know I’ve got no chance - but I have to try… Dunces has been on that list longer than any of the others so at the very least, I have to get that one read. Ignacious sounds like a fun kind of guy to read about!

Picaresques were quite popular in 18th century English literature as well. Henry Fielding definitely wrote one of the big ones but I can’t remember if it’s Tom Jones or Joseph Andrews. I’m sure our uni lecturer made the argument that Daniel Defoe wrote Moll Flanders to be picaresque as well.

A good modern example (even if it’s a book not a film) is the Coen Brothers’ Inside Llewyn Davis (although I guess Terry Gilliam did finally get his Quixote movie made recently too).

From what little I remember of the structure, I'd be willing to bet it was Tom Jones. He seems like a bit of a picaro.

...

A quick swatch of the Wiki article says it was both of them. Plus Thackeray's Vanity Fair as well, apparently.

Given those examples, I'd have thought Stendhal's The Red & The Black would be considered a picaresque, but there's no mention, so there's probably an element I've missed.

 

[Browser Brady]

Finished the book by Lias Saudi who is the singer of the band “Fat White Family”

 

i thought it was exceptional, best music autobiography i’ve read in years.

 

 

[hallicks]

2 hours ago, Just Some Guy said:

The sequel, A crown for the prayer shy is also wonderful. I also heartily recommend To be taught, if fortunate.

Thanks, was hoping to pick up the sequel soon. I'll give TBTIF a whirl as well. I haven't yet got the 4th Wayfarers book either so I've got quite a Becky Chambers-heavy month or two ahead. A closed and common orbit is one of my all time favourites, I've read it about 3 times. Just absolutely brilliant stuff.

[ReturnOfTheMack]

My wife just gave me the Rutger Hauer biography. I'm very excited ro read it; I maybhave a happy wee 

 

 

 

 

[Accident Prone]

Anyone know of any book analysis podcasts? Something where the hosts discuss the summary, themes, characters, tone, metaphors etc? I've just finished 'Do Androids Dream Of Electric Sheep', which was my first foray into fiction in a couple of decades.  I enjoyed it immensely but as I'm a mere plebeian I was taking everything at face value instead of latching on to the real meanings behind and between the words. What I'm after is a podcast that goes "The curtains are red and THIS is why...".

[Tommy!]

Any recommendations for short story anthologies?

I'm reading golden apples of the sun and have 3 more from Bradbury in the post but am open to recommendations.

[Nexus]

Not sure if they count, but I enjoyed both the Monk & Robot duology and the Litenverse novellas as well - both very short novellas, rather than short stories though. 

[Carbomb]

You've probably already read it, but Iain M. Banks' The State Of The Art is excellent.

[Lorne Malvo]

@Tommy! 'The Best American...' is a decent anthology, released yearly.

https://www.johnjosephadams.com/series/best-american-science-fiction-fantasy/

Obviously with each anthology being made up of different authors, not everything will be a hit or to your tastes, but I find it to be a good jumping off point to find new authors.

[BomberPat]

14 hours ago, Tommy! said:

Any recommendations for short story anthologies?

I'm reading golden apples of the sun and have 3 more from Bradbury in the post but am open to recommendations.

It's been years since I read them, and your mileage may vary on him, but I liked both Smoke and Mirrors and Fragile Things by Neil Gaiman at the time. I tend to find his style suited to short fiction, often more than longer form stuff.

Murakami's The Elephant Vanishes is another good one.

As far as Bradbury goes, if you haven't already got The Martian Chronicles and The Illustrated Man on your list, I'd really strongly recommend them. 

The Real and The Unreal by Ursula Le Guin is fantastic, too.

[Wideload90]

I've just finished Bob Mortimer's 'The Satsuma Complex' and it is full of humour and character development; it features Mortimer's quirky style and it moves at a good pace. Definitely caught me by surprise as I thought it would be one of those shitty romantic pursuits.

4/5 would recommend.

Also recently read Elton John's autobiography. A complete diva but some great bitchy anecdotes. Who doesn't love reading Elton throwing shade on Rod Stewart? (Insert Kenneth Williams gif here).

[Gus Mears]

I'm finishing a two part biography of Charles de Gaulle translated from French. Great read. Taking away his politics etc he sounds like an absolute fucking nightmare to be around.

Also getting back into reading philosophy a bit. Half way through Critique of Pure Reason by Kant as a prelude to reading some Hegel which I've never done before. It's like making your bonce run a marathon, can only read about an hour at a time before it hurts.

[SuperBacon]

Killers Of The Flower Moon

Wanted to read this before the film came out and it is a massive recommend.

It's the story of how the Osage people were killed off for their oil/land/head rights in the 1920s and also goes into the birth of the FBI as well.

True crime is absolutely not my bag, so the fact that I loved this says a lot. Cannot wait for the film. 

Needed a novel after though so have started Tomorrow, and Tomorrow, and Tomorrow which I've heard great things about, alongside American Scream, the Bill Hicks biography, which I have read, albeit years ago.

[BomberPat]

I've mentioned on here before that I have a bit of a pet obsession with the Deborah Lipstadt/David Irving trial over Irving being (rightly) labelled a holocaust denier. I've read Lipstadt's book that lead to the case, her book about the case, and Richard Evans' about his work on the case.

Over the weekend I started reading Robert Jan van Pelt's book about it - he's an architectural historian, who was called as an expert witness to refute Irving's claims that there was no evidence of gas chambers at Auschwitz. It's a big book, and heavy going, but fascinating so far - I was expecting a very dry technical treatise that was more or less a reiteration of what he brought to the courtroom, but it begins with a surprisingly well-balanced history of where the phenomenon of Holocaust denial and negationism comes from, and how David Irving went from reasonably respected historian to fully embracing Holocaust denial. As a history of the movement, and the idea, it's arguably more useful than Lipstadt's Denying The Holocaust - though her work goes into far more detail about why people would do it, and about antisemitism in general, so is a more useful work in that respect.

The only downside is that the book is called The Case For Auschwitz, which isn't something I want to be seen reading on the train.