What you reading?

brazo de natillas · King of the divan

What you reading?

paichukka · ...Ding!

Right now? The Regulation on Credit Protection. Highly recommended. Probably the heaviest of the whole risk management opus. Also dipping into TimeOut Barcelona a lot, a gift from el brazo himself. In between, the Daedalus Book of Absinthe (no, it is actually a book). And the Spanish dictionary.

El Presidente · Disco Brad

I'm reading a website www.baggygreen.com that's telling me that Australia are presenting their ar**s on a big silver platter to the Kiwis as we speak. Not recommended to fans of Australian cricket. Apart from that the latest Q magazine and a book called "Alien Bodies" by (Mad Larry) Lawrence Miles - T'is absolutely brilliant but for some reason it's taken me a long time to finish.

Muppet · Je suis l'état et l'état c'est moi

Just finished Nick Hornby's A Long Way Down, and just started Graham Hurley's Blood and Honey. I enjoy Hornby for his wonderful characterisation, and Hurley because his stories are set in Portsmouth and Southsea, where I used to live.
Oh, and I'm also slowly ploughing through Il Nome della Rosa in the original Italian.

On the other point, I can't help but be intrigued by the Aussies' new double tactic of a) capitulating to whichever team they encounter, and b) losing half their key players to injury.
Scotland and Holland must be licking their lips as we speak.

We are all Kiwis on this fine morning.

joel · Findin' Fundin

brazo de natillas wrote:

With hideous inevitability, I can reveal that I've just finished Stanley Elkin- The Macguffin

What did you think in the end?

I'm reading the Collected Memoirs of Julian Maclaren-Ross. Writer, dandy, denizen of the Soho pubscene of the 40s and 50s. Very ripe, it's giving me a hangover just reading it. I'm trying to locate Ljubljana's Fitzrovia in a bid to recreate, but having trouble. Any ideas?

brazo de natillas · King of the divan

joel wrote:

What did you think in the end?

Liked it a lot, but thought it was overwritten in parts- one or two bits read like pastiche. The main character´s superbly drawn.

Angus · Veteran Member

Bill Bryson's The Life and Times of the Thunderbolt Kid. He's on top form.

I recently read an outstanding book about driving around eastern Europe with a pig after the collapse of the Berlin Wall. It's called Stalin's Nose, by Rory MacLean.

Did Yes Man by Danny Wallace get translated into Slovenian? F%*&ing funny. Join Me is even better. Them, by Jon Ronson, was my book of the year.

Been reading a lot of crap in the last 12 months. Very little patience for it now. Many publishers are forcing authors to churn out ****e just to keep sales up. I was horrified in the UK at Christmas when I saw all the supermarkets and bookshops were only selling ghost-written biogs on 'celebrities' who came 4th on Big Brother Series 7. People buy these books as presents, and no one ever reads them. Not even the supposed authors.

Beware, Slovenian book market. Don't let it happen to you, too.

El Presidente · Disco Brad

Angus wrote:

I recently read an outstanding book about driving around eastern Europe with a pig after the collapse of the Berlin Wall. It's called Stalin's Nose, by Rory MacLean.

Been reading a lot of crap in the last 12 months. Very little patience for it now. Many publishers are forcing authors to churn out ****e just to keep sales up.

I hear you man. I recently read some old ****e about a Scotsman driving around eastern Europe to play cricket in 17 countries or something. His publisher clearly forced him to churn that out just to keep sales up.

-- Edited by El Presidente at 09:15, 2007-02-17

Angus · Veteran Member

LOL. I knew that was coming.

El Presidente · Disco Brad

Angus wrote:
LOL. I knew that was coming.

Well you set it up so well

joel · Findin' Fundin

I finished Q by Luther Blissett, which I largely enjoyed but on reflection think some people have gone overboard by describing as a masterpiece, and The Perfect Hoax by Italo Svevo, which was great (nice Trieste connections if anyone's interested), and am now onto Eight German Novellas, a collection of 19th century tales of the uncanny and the supernatural. Fascinating stuff.

El Presidente · Disco Brad

joel wrote:
Eight German Novellas, a collection of 19th century tales of the uncanny and the supernatural. Fascinating stuff.

Oohh. I'm always looking for good "scary" stories for Advanced and Proficiency classes at my work. Let me know if there's anything you'd recommend in thsi collection.

joel · Findin' Fundin

El Presidente wrote:

joel wrote:
Eight German Novellas, a collection of 19th century tales of the uncanny and the supernatural. Fascinating stuff.

Oohh. I'm always looking for good "scary" stories for Advanced and Proficiency classes at my work. Let me know if there's anything you'd recommend in thsi collection.

Sure thing. Most of them are quite long, but the first one, Blond Eckbert, is 15 pp or so. Nice clear translations.

Have you ever done The Signalman by Charles Dickens with any of your classes? That's a fantastic story, nice and eerie

brazo de natillas · King of the divan

joel wrote:

Have you ever done The Signalman by Charles Dickens with any of your classes? That's a fantastic story, nice and eerie

I'll give that a go. It's online somewhere too.

Now halfway through Patrick Hamilton Craven House (with thanks to Joel), with some Borges on the side. Need some non-fiction, but that's difficult here.

Golcar CC · Bezalgo

Myths and Memories by Gilbert Adair. Excellent reading, also Hollywood by Bukowski, I always think he's pretty funny, and just trying to decide whether to borrow something by Julian Barnes, or London fields by M. Amis...

brazo de natillas · King of the divan

Golcar CC wrote:

something by Julian Barnes, or London fields by M. Amis...

Smug or smugger.

If you want British, how about this? I mostly liked it. Available by post in the Greater Seville and Ljubljana area, if required.

joel · Findin' Fundin

brazo de natillas wrote:

If you want British, how about this? I mostly liked it. Available by post in the Greater Seville and Ljubljana area, if required.

Is that any good? I was thinking of reading his Under The Skin, saw it in a shop here ...

brazo de natillas · King of the divan

joel wrote:

Is that any good? I was thinking of reading his Under The Skin, saw it in a shop here ...

I liked it. Some clunkiness, but some very good writing here and there.

brazo de natillas · King of the divan

Now reading Joan Didion, Slouching towards Bethlehem. Essays and journalism from the late sixties.
Again thanks to Joel. Corking so far.
And having another go at the Master and Margarita on the side.
And Huckleberry Finn, because I saw it in the bookshop and haven't read it for a while.

-- Edited by brazo de natillas at 01:08, 2007-03-18

joel · Findin' Fundin

brazo de natillas wrote:

Now reading Joan Didion, Slouching towards Bethlehem. Essays and journalism from the late sixties.
Again thanks to Joel. Corking so far.
And having another go at the Master and Margarita on the side.
And Huckleberry Finn, because I saw it in the bookshop and haven't read it for a while.

-- Edited by brazo de natillas at 01:08, 2007-03-18

That Didion's great innit. I should read more of her stuff.

How did you get on with Craven House?

brazo de natillas · King of the divan

joel wrote:

How did you get on with Craven House?

Liked it a lot. Obviously written when he was young and not yet entirely twisted, and slightly less pleasurable for that, but the more grotesque characters are great and there are a couple of great set-pieces.

'That Mrs Spicer adds that if Mr Spicer was half a man he would go out and shoot himself with a gun.

That Mr Spicer, after a thoughtful silence in which he seems to be contemplating the suggestion, nullifies that impression by asking if a man isn't going to be allowed any bed-clothes.

That Mrs Spicer intimates that possibly Miss Catherine Tillotson will give him some bed clothes...'

-- Edited by brazo de natillas at 12:55, 2007-03-19

joel · Findin' Fundin

brazo de natillas wrote:

joel wrote:

How did you get on with Craven House?

Liked it a lot. Obviously written when he was young and not yet entirely twisted, and slightly less pleasurable for that, but the more grotesque characters are great and there are a couple of great set-pieces.
'That Mrs Spicer adds that if Mr Spicer was half a man he would go out and shoot himself with a gun.
That Mr Spicer, after a thoughtful silence in which he seems to be contemplating the suggestion, nullifies that impression by asking if a man isn't going to be allowed any bed-clothes.
That Mrs Spicer intimates that possibly Miss Catherine Tillotson will give him some bed clothes...'

-- Edited by brazo de natillas at 12:55, 2007-03-19

Spicer's great, as is Mrs H-O-A-R-E.

brazo de natillas · King of the divan

joel wrote:

That Didion's great innit. I should read more of her stuff.

Magnificent so it is.