Now reading...

[A Lark Ascending]

Still reading "Brave New World". I've developed a bit of a taste for these "dystopian future" books. Over the past year I've read Burgess's "Clockwork Orange" and "1985", "1984" and a Martin Amis short story. Anyone got any other suggestions? Preferably not too sci-fi.

Here's a little list:

Ray Bradbury, Farenheit 451

Margaret Atwood, The Handmaid's Tale and Oryx and Crake

Kasuo Ishiguro, Never Let Me Go

Cormac McCarthy, The Road

The two highlighted immediately sprang to my mind. Both are in a world not that disimilar to ours but where rather unpleasant things have gone several stages too far.

I'm enjoying:

Suits my taste for books that question orthodox mythologies. Interesting to read how the anti-modernist bias of some of the early collectors helped shape at least one dominant interpretation of the music; and how similar it is to how many of the English collectors reacted in pursuit of 'authentic' folk music.

[BruceH]

Still reading "Brave New World". I've developed a bit of a taste for these "dystopian future" books. Over the past year I've read Burgess's "Clockwork Orange" and "1985", "1984" and a Martin Amis short story. Anyone got any other suggestions? Preferably not too sci-fi.

"334" by Thomas Disch. Hardly sf at all.

Also "The Space Merchants" by Pohl & Kornbluth. Might be too "sci-fi" for you though, as it presents a nightmare future in which corporations and manipulative advertising have taken over society, and we all know that couldn't happen, right?

Then there's that OTHER Edgar Pangborn post-apocolyptic novel, "Davy," which is so light and happy that it hardly qualifies as dystopian, despite the setting. It almost makes you wish you could be lucky enough to live in such a world.

[Van Basten II]

Currently reading this

Juliette by the Marquis de Sade

Finished the first part, one thing for sure won't watch the movie, compared to the scenes described in the book Antichrist is a Walt Disney story. The book is nontheless fascinating although it feels like a porn movie, dirty and explicite scenes followed by philosophical comments and so on. Will read the second part eventually but need to read something different, to woipe away the memory of blood and other body fluids.

Have startd reading this one.

What's going on I can't post pictures anymore ???

Anyway Common Ground by Anthony Lukas

If this is as fascinating as Big Trouble by the same author, I'll be for a treat.

[ejp626]

Still reading "Brave New World". I've developed a bit of a taste for these "dystopian future" books. Over the past year I've read Burgess's "Clockwork Orange" and "1985", "1984" and a Martin Amis short story. Anyone got any other suggestions? Preferably not too sci-fi.

Here's a little list:

Ray Bradbury, Farenheit 451

Margaret Atwood, The Handmaid's Tale and Oryx and Crake

Kasuo Ishiguro, Never Let Me Go

Cormac McCarthy, The Road

If you want the grand-daddy of dystopian future books, you might consider We by Yevgeny Zamyatin. It was written in 1921, though it saw publication in English and French long before it was published in Zamyantin's native Russia. There are some sci-fi themes but not too much (apparently they eat a petroleum-based diet that killed off the majority of the population when it was introduced!). Anyway, Orwell said it was definitely an influence on 1984, and he thought but couldn't confirm that Huxley was aware of it as well.

[GA Russell]

Tonight I finished The House Without a Key by Earl Derr Biggers (1925), the first Charlie Chan story. Light escapist fare, but a page-turner.

[BillF]

Still reading "Brave New World". I've developed a bit of a taste for these "dystopian future" books. Over the past year I've read Burgess's "Clockwork Orange" and "1985", "1984" and a Martin Amis short story. Anyone got any other suggestions? Preferably not too sci-fi.

Here's a little list:

Ray Bradbury, Farenheit 451

Margaret Atwood, The Handmaid's Tale and Oryx and Crake

Kasuo Ishiguro, Never Let Me Go

Cormac McCarthy, The Road

If you want the grand-daddy of dystopian future books, you might consider We by Yevgeny Zamyatin. It was written in 1921, though it saw publication in English and French long before it was published in Zamyantin's native Russia. There are some sci-fi themes but not too much (apparently they eat a petroleum-based diet that killed off the majority of the population when it was introduced!). Anyway, Orwell said it was definitely an influence on 1984, and he thought but couldn't confirm that Huxley was aware of it as well.

Yes, I've read We. Bit fragmentary, but fascinating as a source for Orwell and possibly Huxley, as you say.

[jazzbo]

Tonight I finished The House Without a Key by Earl Derr Biggers (1925), the first Charlie Chan story. Light escapist fare, but a page-turner.

This was written at the site of the hotel I stayed at in Oahu in 2005, the Halekulani. The most wonderful place I've ever stayed.

I'm now reading

Edited March 24, 2010 by jazzbo

[sal]

"Norwegian Wood" - Haruki Murakami

[Jazzmoose]

Tonight I finished The House Without a Key by Earl Derr Biggers (1925), the first Charlie Chan story. Light escapist fare, but a page-turner.

Interesting. I used to have several of these, but unfortunately they were disposed of before my move to Louisiana, before I'd ever got around to trying one.

[Son-of-a-Weizen]

The Boys' Crusade: The American Infantry In Northwestern Europe, 1944 - 1945 by Paul Fussell. Interesting take by Fussell, trying to convey the reality of the infantryman's life in Europe. Not too many pages, just 165, but an interesting read. I might try his memoirs next.

Hmm, hadn't seen this one. Where is it set? Pretty much a 'Battle of the Bulge' centric tale.. .....or some other locations like Hurtgen Forest? Colmar Pocket? Aachen? etc?

[Matthew]

The Boys' Crusade: The American Infantry In Northwestern Europe, 1944 - 1945 by Paul Fussell. Interesting take by Fussell, trying to convey the reality of the infantryman's life in Europe. Not too many pages, just 165, but an interesting read. I might try his memoirs next.

Hmm, hadn't seen this one. Where is it set? Pretty much a 'Battle of the Bulge' centric tale.. .....or some other locations like Hurtgen Forest? Colmar Pocket? Aachen? etc?

Fussell writes about various topics in the book, some of which are, Bluge, Cobra episode, Falasie, Hurtgen Forest, Medics, Skorzeny Affair, Infantry Morale, the Peiper Affair, among others. They are not in-depth chapters by any means, most eight to ten short pages, but interesting. More like, if the reader finds the chapters interesting, he/she will have to do some further reading to get a better understanding of what Fussell is talking about.

[jlhoots]

Kingsley Bray: Crazy Horse (A Lakota Life)

[ghost of miles]

Started both Jack Kerouac's BIG SUR and Henry Miller's THE AIR-CONDITIONED NIGHTMARE today. Good, upbeat vacation reading!

[BillF]

Nick Hornby, About a Boy

[ghost of miles]

Started both Jack Kerouac's BIG SUR and Henry Miller's THE AIR-CONDITIONED NIGHTMARE today. Good, upbeat vacation reading!

...and now throwing Nick Kent's THE DARK STUFF into the mix...very good profiles of rock artists who lost the plot in one way or another (with some regaining it, many not).

[A Lark Ascending]

...and now throwing Nick Kent's THE DARK STUFF into the mix...very good profiles of rock artists who lost the plot in one way or another (with some regaining it, many not).

I've never read the book. But I recall reading the Beach Boys essay when it appeared over two issues of the NME in the mid-70s. Certainly influenced me - turned them from a pop band, some of whose singles I secretly liked, into a band with 'coolness' credentials. Sadly, this was at exactly the moment they completely blew it with things like '15 Big Ones'.

**************

Just finished:

A fascinating, if chatty, account of how revival jazz, skiffle and rock'n roll hit Britain.

Some wonderful descriptions of completely bemused BBC and record industry types, failing totally to understand what was going on and desparately trying to put the genii back in the bottle (or at least keep it off the airwaves).

What fascinated me most was how differently the history looks followed chronologically. I was born in 1955 and so by the time I was listening to the radio this was all over. In fact it wasn't until 1970 that I became consciously interested, by which time the likes of Chris Barber, Ken Colyer, Wally Whyton, Billy Fury, Tommy Steele and Cliff Richard were part of the old fogey scene (to the mind of a 15 year old, anyway. Of the names in this book, only Alexis Korner had retained an image of cool by that time). Yet reading from front to back they all come across as having, for however brief a moment, taken what was trickling in from the States and conveyed it with something of the original spirit. I never thought I'd want to hear Cliff Richard doing 'Move It'!

[jazzbo]

A delight

[medjuck]

Just finished "City of Thieves" by DAvid Benioff. Novel about the siege of Leningrad. Highly recommend.

[paul secor]

Just finished reading Penelope Lively's The Photograph. One her best novels - incisive and moving (but not sentimental).

[medjuck]

Jade Visions: The Life and Music of Scott LaFaro. I've only read the"life" part. I'm not as interested in the analysis of the music. He seems to have been an amazing guy. The index is screwed up (surprisingly since it's from a university press) and the discography is a bit weird.

[jlhoots]

James Lee Burke: Rain Gods

[A Lark Ascending]

Easy going detective novel set in Perigord with one of those gentle, likeable cops. The descriptions of food are absolutely mouth-watering. Interesting plot set in the present but reaching back into Vichy and the German occupation.

A magical book about a young Irish girl starting life aknew in Brooklyn. 30 pages from the end and I just want it to go on.

[jeffcrom]

Keeping the Beat on the Street: The New Orleans Brass Band Renaissance by Mick Burns. I expected this to be informative, but I didn't expect it to be so moving - it was to me, anyway. The "modern" New Orleans brass band scene is explored through interviews (pre-Katrina) with all the important figures, starting with the guys who played in Danny Barker's Fairview Baptist Church band and the Hurricane Brass Band (which turned people on their ear before the Dirty Dozen). Musician after musician speaks with wonder about how lucky he was to grow up in New Orleans. And Jerome Smith, who runs a social club for the young people of Treme, has a powerful interview. His anger over the decimation of Treme by the construction of Armstrong Park and the I-10 expressway almost leaps off the page. Recommended to anyone interested in New Orleans music.

[ghost of miles]

David Remnick, THE BRIDGE: THE LIFE AND RISE OF BARACK OBAMA.

[Matthew]

Rereading The Seven Mountains of Thomas Merton by Michael Mott to get in my mind a good overall feel sense Merton's life. Heaven help me, but I'm 99% certain that I am going to blog a commentary on Merton's Journals.

While reading this book, I'm embarrassed that I forgot so much about Merton's life, and completely forgot about the unsettling "crucifixion incident" at Cambridge, where, according to Mott, Merton was Jesus in a mock crucifixion, and might even have carried a scare on the palm of his hand as a souvenir -- Yikes! Also amazed that the book kind of skips over his conversion to Catholicism also, a very cursory glance at that part of his life . Still, it's worth the read, I'm not even up to when Merton enters the Trappists yet.