Now reading...

[alankin]

Morton N. Cohen - Lewis Carroll: A Biography

[ejp626]

Actually, there are some parallels between Metropole and Malcolm Bradbury's Rates of Exchange. I've skimmed a bit of the Bradbury; it was fairly droll. Perhaps I should take the opportunity to read it first. Hmmm...

So I had to take a break and skim a lot of books on South Africa, specifically Johannesburg, but I have some time for fiction again. I am in fact reading Bradbury's Rates of Exchange. Droll, but I'm enjoying it. Then I'll probably read Metropole and then maybe back to Mahfouz and Nabokov, though I haven't been enjoyed them as much as I thought.

I have a new gym book, and it's pretty good - Millhauser's Dangerous Laughter.

(Love the cover - like an old Astounding anthology cover.)

I am, however, starting to fret about the huge number of really good (unread or only lightly skimmed) non-fiction books on my shelves, and I may start to try to work them into the mix.

[BruceH]

Dang, I've got to get that Millhauser book! Although I'm a little scared; it looks...dangerous.

[cih]

I like biographies of old comedians - particularly British ones from the nineteen-fifties to seventies, particularly the ones with flawed personalities...

This recent Hancock book is intended as a corrective to the earlier 'When The Wind Changed' which concentrated on the scandalous side

Edited July 9, 2010 by cih

[AllenLowe]

Endless Love

Rimbaud

Gumshoe - Josiah Thompson

Kind of Blue - Richard Williams

The Great Black Way - R J Smith

The ELvis Reader

Infernal Machine - Cocteau

1959 Fred Kaplan

Let It Blurt - bio of Lester Bangs

Freelance Pallbearers - Ishmael Reed (tired of this one)

geez, gimme a break, there's nothing else to do here besides consort with barnyard animals.

Edited July 9, 2010 by AllenLowe

[Tom Cat]

werther-Goethe

[A Lark Ascending]

Love in a G.U.M. clinic! Well, not quite.

Strange, disquieting stories, all about musicians.

[BillF]

Love in a G.U.M. clinic! Well, not quite.

Strange, disquieting stories, all about musicians.

Very interesting book, the Ishiguro, for someone with our musical interests.

[Jazzmoose]

Reread a couple of Heinlein novels, favorites of my misspent youth. I've got to say, his stuff is not aging well.

[ejp626]

Reread a couple of Heinlein novels, favorites of my misspent youth. I've got to say, his stuff is not aging well.

Interesting observation, though of course many of his novels were written for juveniles. Not sure if any of the juveniles would hold the same appeal to me now, though of all of them, I would probably still enjoy Citizen of the Galaxy and The Rolling Stones. Tunnel in the Sky was an early favorite, but I know that one has largely lost its appeal (for me).

It has been a long time since I read any of his work. I would suspect that the short stories hold up best, perhaps followed by Moon is a Harsh Mistress and, for a real 60s time capsule, Stranger in a Strange Land. Of the later, kinkier stuff, I think Friday might hold up, but probably nothing else. I can't recall if I actually did read Cat That Walked through Walls or not. That might be an interesting experiment to read now, along with the expanded version of Stranger. However, I suspect the expanded Stranger would simply show how important editors were back in the day.

Zelazny also wrote a lot of stuff in the pulp/juvenile mold, though I feel that has aged better, maybe because he often consciously worked in mythic elements. I could envision myself working my way through Zelazny again in a way that I would be unlikely to do for Heinlein. Perhaps I will pick a year to mostly reread science fiction to recharge my batteries, but I have too many other "important" things to read first, not least of which is Proust.

Edited July 11, 2010 by ejp626

[Jazzmoose]

Personally, I think Friday holds up better than most of his stuff. The juveniles are okay, though I doubt any kids would be interested today; it's just too dated, and too simplistic. Most of the later unifying works like Cat, Number of the Beast, etc. were pretty much garbage when they came out IMO, so there's really nothing to hold up. The middle stuff (Double Star, Moon is a Harsh Mistress, etc.) is probably the best, but even there, it's more of a nostalgia thing than any great quality. Heinlein was a great influence on the field, but...

[BruceH]

Personally, I think Friday holds up better than most of his stuff. The juveniles are okay, though I doubt any kids would be interested today; it's just too dated, and too simplistic. Most of the later unifying works like Cat, Number of the Beast, etc. were pretty much garbage when they came out IMO, so there's really nothing to hold up. The middle stuff (Double Star, Moon is a Harsh Mistress, etc.) is probably the best, but even there, it's more of a nostalgia thing than any great quality. Heinlein was a great influence on the field, but...

Yeah, I really can't stomach late-period Heinlein at all. He really kind of went off the rails. I'd agree with your opinion that most of the later books were garbage when they came out. Even Moon Is A Harsh Mistress is half-and-half for me, as the story is interlarded with a lot of lecturing from the author, of the know-it-all, hectoring, obnoxious-libertarian-asshole mode already familiar from Starship Troopers. Still, I have a sentimental attachment to many of his juveniles, and even managed to get my older son into some of them.

[BillF]

Just finished this - Ian McEwan's latest - and it was pretty good. McEwan's novels can be pretty slight, sometimes offering not much more that a good short story (his last, On Chesil Beach, was like this), but this one is far more substantial. Despite my misgivings about McEwan, I always find him readable and never miss one, so that this is the 13th I've read!

[ejp626]

... though I doubt any kids would be interested today; it's just too dated, and too simplistic.

Simplistic in the sense that having a slide rule and knowing how to use it makes you a morally superior human being, unlike the simplistic Twilight message of if you have sex you will die, die, die! I'm spending more time in the children's section of the library (to get books for my son, really) and certainly most of the juvenile literature of today seems pretty simplistic, not that there aren't honorable exceptions...

[jlhoots]

Justin Cronin: The Passage

[tranemonk]

The Bridge - The Life and Rise of Barack Obama - David Remnick

[Shawn]

[Swinger]

Excellent book! Much better than its 3 movie versions.

[Matthew]

The Damnation of Theron Ware by Harold Frederic. A naive Methodist minister is led astray by "Free Thinking," German biblical criticism, a Catholic priest, and a woman, in the late 19th century. An interesting read, especially to see how Frederic presents so many different currents that were floating around the intellectual world at the time.

[paul secor]

Some light reading on a mini-vacation:

John Dunning: Booked To Die - one of books from the Cliff Janeway, cop turned rare book seller, series

[Van Basten II]

Read about 100 pages so far. Not sure if we are supposed to take the main character at face value but griping and fascinating story nonetheless.

[BillF]

[A Lark Ascending]

Read about 100 pages so far. Not sure if we are supposed to take the main character at face value but griping and fascinating story nonetheless.

I really enjoyed those when I read them 15 or so years back. I think there's been at least one more since. You might enjoy this small series by David Downing - http://www.oldstreetpublishing.co.uk/AUTHORPAGES/david_downing.htm . Very evocative of the pre-war and early war era in Germany.

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

I've just started:

I grew up on RAF bases and the sight of a Spitfire can still make me well up. Read loads of heroic pilot accounts as a kid. It's the 70th Anniversary so there's lots appearing in the media at present.

I'm very impressed with this so far. Well written, engaging, seems very thoroughly researched. Very aware of how much of 1940 is shrouded in our national mythology, yet anxious not to embark on a debunking exercise (there have already been a few sour comments about some revisionist accounts).

[Matthew]

The Birth of Bebop: A Social and Musical History by Scott DeVeaux. Interesting read, even throws in some Marxist perspectives on the economics of the music business.

[carnivore]

Just finished this - Ian McEwan's latest - and it was pretty good. McEwan's novels can be pretty slight, sometimes offering not much more that a good short story (his last, On Chesil Beach, was like this), but this one is far more substantial. Despite my misgivings about McEwan, I always find him readable and never miss one, so that this is the 13th I've read!

I enjoyed this tremendously....the first time, I think, that McEwan has written (intentionally) a genuinely funny novel. Some of the set pieces (the frozen 'object') - the packet of crisps incident - are as funny as anything in Kingsley Amis - and I mean that as a compliment. McEwan actually seems to be channeling a latterday Amis père in this book in his central character's world view, however there is, I perceive a serious substance to the story too. The characters are all well drawn - the serially randy Beard is particularly well done.

McEwan's observance of the New Mexico scene - with which I am well acquainted is spot-on as is the portrait of contemporary London.

Curiously, two intelligent women that I know, hated the book - but as I heard this second-hand I wasn't able to find out the reasons. Must have been Beard's behaviour.....