anis - next up is The Loan Ranger And Tonto Fistfight In Heaven! He's got a very good web-site, by the way.....


Best,

Mike

Yes, I have that one on my wish list too! :-) I'd love to hear your impressions of it.

On the train home tonight I was 'reading' "Shopaholic and Sister" by Sophie Kinsella. It's shit. But to be fair, I don't think I'm in its target audience. I've stopped reading it now, because the train stopped and I got off. I picked it up from our work 'slush pile' of books - kind of a 'this may stop you thinking too hard about your shitty life on the way home and perhaps stop you throwing yourself on the track in front of the tube (subway) train' - although with "Shopaholic" it was touch and go. Now I'm home I've read 7/8ths of fuck-all. But the night is young.

Joe

<Added>

Try "7/8ths of fuck-all" by

Joe

<Added>

Try "7/8ths of fuck-all" by

Joe

<Added>

Sorry, this is getting ridiculous. What a waste of band-width.

Try 'I'm reading "7/8ths of fuck-all" '

Apologies, Joe

Currently reading Ernest Hemingway's 'Men Without Women'. I got it for free, years ago, and until the other day it had sat unread on a shelf. Before that it was Stephen King's Rose Madder, and before that A Clockwork Orange. At the weekend I picked up Lord of the Flies & Fear and Loathing In Las Vegas, so I'm looking forward to reading those at some point...

anis - will happily tell you about 'Tonto' once it's digested. Do read 'Indians'; the guy is a superb, subtle, funny, profound, unpreachy writer.
Apropos of digesting things, I had a peek at your profile, and see that you're a quasi-vegi; I was a 'cod-vegi' for years - eating fish - but have just gone total, as I simply can't bear the idea any more of eating something that used to be sentient. Hmm. Thoughts?


Mike


PS - Have you read any of Frank Waters' books? The Man Who Killed The Dear, Woman At Otowai Crossing..............etc.

I have nearly finsihed Dean Koontz From the Corner of His Eye which has been a very good read - well written, and with a depper theme that isn't often found in his other 'pulpy' books. It feels like he was trying something a bit different, and it works.

I've got a non-fiction book to read next Conversations About the End of Time with Umberto Eco amongst others. It looks fascinating - how science and the bible will reconcile their ideas of Armageddon etc. I've been reading tomes of Satanic lore and books on Cults too - all of which sometimes keep me awake at night.

For relief, I just picked up Frank Miller's 'The Dark Knight Strikes Again'. Can't beat a bit of Batman at bedtime!

JB

Mike,

My meat-eating is weird. The less it resembles itself, the easier it is to get down, but that does not stop the mind working, does it, and I'll have this thing in my mouth and I start to freak out that it's on my tongue and skin and teeth and that it was alive - it really freaks me out. For me successful meat eating is a measure of denial - and I'd rather not have to go through the process at all. I never prepare any meat in this house - I push veggies, and I am just so happy when I am eating veg. I would not be able to get any meat down today if it weren't for my parents - as I went veggie at a very tender age, I was at a very tender age when they set about trying to reverse my eating behaviour!

No, I have not even heard of Frank Waters. Tell more!

Very interesting the way this thread keeps shifting.

I’ve been veggie for about 35 years. I wouldn’t want to fuel a massive debate about the ethics of vegetarianism… (don’t set me off – I get very lippy!) I just wanted to tell you my personal benchmark… I don’t eat anything with a face…

Dee

If everyone I knew were veggie, then life would be a lot easier.....

The guy I am reading about was a vegetarian who sadly went mad. He actualy protected a horse from the whip of its rider and wept at its pain...strange when you consider how his philosophy was warped by the Nazis to their end, although admittedly, some of the ideas were there to be manipulated in the first place...

Nietzsche: A Philosophical Biography by Rudiger Safranski

Interesting collection of reading. Actually, the reason I brought it up is because the "Crippen" book breaks every "rule" the modern writer is supposed to follow, most notably, Boyne constantly shifts POV within a section, from Crippen to his wife Cora to Ethel LeNeve to Inspector Dew and so on. On the other hand, it does make fun, if not exactly literary, reading. I'm wondering what the rest of you think of the modern "rigid" POV rule. Do you think the modern reader demands it?

FX

I'm currently reading what should be a really easy book. It's original, it's funny, and yet I'm having the greatest difficulty getting through it to the extent I'm considering putting it to one side. It's Aberystwth Mon Amour by Malcolm Pryce. Wales in hard boiled style. I've never read anything like it, and yet... I find I can't feel anything for the characters, it's not even as if it's particularly long. Don't nomally get like this with genre fiction.

FX - I know what they say about POV. Frankly what I care about is knowing whose POV it is. If I get confused, well then I see that as a problem. I may get in trouble for saying it, but I think you should just write so that it feels right to you.

Ani

Cas, I am having a similar experience with Umberto Eco's Baudolino. I'm forcing my way through it, despite the fact that it;s light reading compared to his other work that I've read. That I found riveting, despite the effort; this is a slog, and like you, I can't bring myself to care about the characters. If it weren't for brilliant moments scattered unevenly throughout, I wouldn't even be able to force a slog. On to Lighthousekeeping after this one. I've already read the first chapter or two, was a delight, so I've got something to look forward to!

Ani - I agree with your remarks on POV. If it doesn't confuse the reader, where's the problem with switching if it makes the piece better? Who made this rule anyway? Pragmatism rules OK - what works, works.

Joe