Books, books, books...

[Scipio]

I've started reading The Wind-up Bird Chronicle, really enjoying it. The questions about what is happening /going to happen are great at drawing me in, and it's got some really vivid descriptions of place.

I was trying to remember what it was reminding me of, considering I've not read a lot of Japanese novels, then I realised it was 'On the carpet of leaves illuminated by the moon' in If on a winters night a traveler - crazy how well Calvino recreated the style of translated Japanese fiction.

[Scrobbs]

I know one thing: The I Ching is Chinese, and not really part of the Japanese culture.

Besides that I found the book to be quite dull, and I eventually gave up. I should really give it another go.

Interesting trivia: Dick used the I Ching to decide what was going to happen next to each of the characters.

The I Ching integrated into Japanese culture around the time of the Samurai. I had to look this up, 'cos I remember seeing when over there when visiting temples etc. they talked a lot about cross-integration between Japanese and Chinese culture.

[ThunderPeel2001]

The I Ching integrated into Japanese culture around the time of the Samurai. I had to look this up, 'cos I remember seeing when over there when visiting temples etc. they talked a lot about cross-integration between Japanese and Chinese culture.

Got any links? The Japanese generally have disdain for that sort of thing, and all I can find is that the Book of Changes was introduced around that time, which is different than using it to divine events.

[Scrobbs]

Only wikipedia, and only then 1 line. But what prompted me to look was the stuff we saw written down on the little 'info tablets' they had at various culturally significant places.

[Ben X]

Finished Forever War and loved it. The sequel was a bit mental and 'late-Hitchhikers/-Red Dwarf novels'. I'm now reading the "companion novel" Forever Peace, and am quite enjoying it now I've been able to disassociate it in my mind from the first one.

Really enjoyed Forever Peace. He seems to have pulled a bit of a Kubrick and put in a load more sex (and violence) in his old age, but perhaps it's my imagination.

[ThunderPeel2001]

I should read that.

[Ben X]

Next on my list: the Dexter novels, maybe the Game Of Thrones novels and maybe some Elmore Leonard as Justified has recently joined the group of EL adaptations that I've really enjoyed.

[miffy495]

I'm currently reading Role Models by John Waters, after picking up a copy at his speaking tour last month. It's really conversational, mostly just stories about people he knows, but as this is John Waters those people are fucking fascinating. I just finished an incredible chapter about a woman who is now in her 60s who was a member of the Manson family and has spent the last 40-odd years coming to terms with the fact that she gleefully stabbed a woman 16 times in the back when she was 19. Her story of emergence from cult brainwashing and trying to actually become a person again while accepting and moving away from who she was is very powerful, and written with a sympathy and kindness towards both her and her victims that I never would have expected. Given that I just picked up the book on a whim so that I could have something signed by Waters, I'm really happy that I'm reading this book.

[Thyroid]

I read The Grifters by Jim Thompson over a four hour sitting yesterday. I was impressed with how alive the characters turned to be. It's a pretty funny, thoughtful book, and I recommend it. I don't think the full impact of it has hit me yet, and suspect it's going to end-up being one of my favourite novels.

maybe the Game Of Thrones novels

I can not overstate how much admiration I have for these books. I respect the TV series (it's mostly a good adaptation, the added, awful sex scenes aside), but it's simply texture to a very rich fruit. I think I read A Feast for Crows in two sittings. Yes, the prose can sometimes be clunky; yes, he takes his time fleshing-out certain characters, making them appear two-dimensional until the story allows him to show you more of them; and my goodness, yes, is it a daring, masterful work. The fact he never explains certain connections or themes to you until you re-read or read essays online is something I want to high-five him for.

[SuperHarman]

Just finished reading Freedom by Jonathan Franzen. Despite being what felt like a little bit of a political soap box at times it was an excellent read. I'd not read any of Franzen's work before so I was surprised at how quickly I caught onto his style allowing me to breeze through the novel without feeling like I wasn't giving it enough attention. I'll be interested to check out some of his other novels once I work my way further through my already too large stack.

I'm going to finally read From Hell which I started this morning then from there I'll read Candide, or Optimism by Voltaire followed by Snow by Orhan Pamuk unless I change my mind at some point during.

[juv3nal]

I'm going to finally read From Hell which I started this morning then from there I'll read Candide, or Optimism by Voltaire followed by Snow by Orhan Pamuk unless I change my mind at some point during.

Have you read other Pamuk? I preferred The White Castle (which incidentally might be an interesting counterpoint to A Sense of an Ending), My Name is Red and The Black Book over Snow.

[Chris]

Just finished reading Freedom by Jonathan Franzen. Despite being what felt like a little bit of a political soap box at times it was an excellent read. I'd not read any of Franzen's work before so I was surprised at how quickly I caught onto his style allowing me to breeze through the novel without feeling like I wasn't giving it enough attention. I'll be interested to check out some of his other novels once I work my way further through my already too large stack.

I'm going to finally read From Hell which I started this morning then from there I'll read Candide, or Optimism by Voltaire followed by Snow by Orhan Pamuk unless I change my mind at some point during.

I adored Freedom. I'd be interested to hear your thoughts about the book as a political soapbox. I actually thought the book was simultaneously generous and harsh in its portrayal of its characters regardless of their political viewpoints, showing hypocrisy in people of different political persuasions but also being pretty compassionate regardless.

[Thyroid]

Hey Remo, did you ever read The Corrections?

[Chris]

I just read Three Tales by Flaubert, my first by that author. I enjoyed it a great deal. It was surprising to me how incredibly infused with religion all three stories were, and it was one of my favorite qualities of the book. Flaubert seems to regard religion with a critical eye but not at all a dismissive one; faith was crucial throughout. That's a stance that I think is hard to come by in serious writing in 2012--simply by virtue of the global, multicultural society in which we live, a writer can't (and probably shouldn't) treat religion as simply a matter of course; more frequently they must pick sides, for or against, which I think is a really unfortunate side effect of what is in many other ways a positive development. It means I rarely read modern works of literature that treat religion with the nuanced and human perspective it demands, and I say that as a nonreligious person.

It's one reason I really loved David Mitchell's The Thousand Autumns of Jacob de Zoet, which I finished right before reading the Flaubert. Mitchell is just an incredible writer flat out, but on this topic I really enjoyed the wholeness with which he threw himself into writing a devout protagonist from the Netherlands living in 1799 in Japan, where not only is there a totally distinct strong spiritual tradition of its own, but his own spiritual traditional is punishable by death. It's certainly relevant to our modern world, in that we have plenty of religious conflict of our own, but treated much differently, in that because Mitchell set the story in 1799 he did not need to adopt the cynicism or distance or naivite (take your pick) that would almost certainly accompany a work of similar themes set in 2012.

(That was by no means the central theme of the work, or even close to it, but it's one that I thought was treated extremely well, and is a topic that's been on my mind recently. I would highly recommend the book outside of that context as well.)

[Chris]

Hey Remo, did you ever read The Corrections?

No; Freedom is the only work by Franzen I've read. I mean to correct that, given how much I loved Freedom and how much I enjoy Franzen's voice in interviews and editorials.

[makingmatter]

Hello, Thumbs; I'm new on this board, so please play nice. After introducing myself, I thought I'd drop in and say what I've been reading.

Recently finished The Gone Away World (by Nick Harkaway) and working my way through the author's second novel, Angelmaker. Though it does have some flaws, the sheer earnestness of his writing voice is funny, oddball, and full of tangential information that connects together brilliantly at the end, and that is why these two books have my highest recommendation. Oh, and he's also the prodigal son of John le Carre.

So there's that.

Now working on Never Let Me Go by Kazuo Ishiguro.

[SuperHarman]

I adored Freedom. I'd be interested to hear your thoughts about the book as a political soapbox. I actually thought the book was simultaneously generous and harsh in its portrayal of its characters regardless of their political viewpoints, showing hypocrisy in people of different political persuasions but also being pretty compassionate regardless.

I didn't necessiarly think it was a bad thing, I just felt the level of detail that Franzen went into regarding Walter's political views was quite high. This might just be the fact that I am aware of and largely agree with a number of the issues examined in detail.

Actually, this makes me think about perspective and how brilliant the book is in the ways it examines such issues when it shifts. When the perspective is with Patty you only get a vague sense of Walter's views which becomes much more detailed when we are with Walter. This being part of the reason the novel is so great as a detailed study of these characters.

[SuperHarman]

Have you read other Pamuk? I preferred The White Castle (which incidentally might be an interesting counterpoint to A Sense of an Ending), My Name is Red and The Black Book over Snow.

No, I'll take that under consideration. I have a friend who has read a number of his novels, I'll see what she thinks.

[Scipio]

I just read Three Tales by Flaubert, my first by that author. I enjoyed it a great deal. It was surprising to me how incredibly infused with religion all three stories were, and it was one of my favorite qualities of the book. Flaubert seems to regard religion with a critical eye but not at all a dismissive one; faith was crucial throughout. That's a stance that I think is hard to come by in serious writing in 2012-

It's interesting that you caught Flaubert here, in one of his most romantic texts, I think if you go forward or back with his work, the focus and tone would be fairly notably different. I'm pretty sure there's a piece by Foucault talking about his previous book, The Temptation of Saint Anthony, being one of the first pieces of lit so interested in texts themselves - essentially one of the first modernist texts, a point in time I'd kind of say that type of writing you talk about here, infused with religion, or belief, or whatever, changes. Obviously work on or about religion has not ended, but that very romantic style, in which whatever they wrote about was so steeped in that mode of thought about belief is uncommon in western contemporary lit.

Also, I'm still reading The Wind-Up Bird Chronicle, I've had no time to properly get through it recently, and I can't wait for when I do. It's odd, but I find Toru Okada such an wonderfully pleasant person to be around, I could fucking read about this guy doing pretty much anything.

[juv3nal]

No, I'll take that under consideration. I have a friend who has read a number of his novels, I'll see what she thinks.

for what it's worth, my preference is for The Black Book, My Name is Red, and The White Castle in that order. I've also read The New Life (or something, don't remember exactly what it's called, but I found it pretty forgettable and preferred Snow). The Black Book is one of my favourite novels.

[Chris]

It's interesting that you caught Flaubert here, in one of his most romantic texts, I think if you go forward or back with his work, the focus and tone would be fairly notably different. I'm pretty sure there's a piece by Foucault talking about his previous book, The Temptation of Saint Anthony, being one of the first pieces of lit so interested in texts themselves - essentially one of the first modernist texts, a point in time I'd kind of say that type of writing you talk about here, infused with religion, or belief, or whatever, changes. Obviously work on or about religion has not ended, but that very romantic style, in which whatever they wrote about was so steeped in that mode of thought about belief is uncommon in western contemporary lit.

I'm not surprised to hear that--in fact the Flaubert ended up not being what I expected, since I've so often seen him referred to as the father of the modern novel, or what have you. Thanks for the insight there. Indeed, the split you describe is very much what I was getting at.

[Thyroid]

I read an entire Agatha Christie novel in one sitting yesterday and it was fun. It's nice to be able to just relax like that after a month of constant exams.

I mean to correct that

Hah.

I think you'd like The Corrections; there's some interesting insight into human nature, coupled with generally strong writing. Franzen's How to Be Alone has some interesting essays as well, including one that tries to explain why people bother reading in the first place. I got flashbacks of that one while reading the "Adults should read adult literature" thread, so I thought I'd recommend.

[SuperHarman]

I think you'd like The Corrections; there's some interesting insight into human nature, coupled with generally strong writing. Franzen's How to Be Alone has some interesting essays as well, including one that tries to explain why people bother reading in the first place. I got flashbacks of that one while reading the "Adults should read adult literature" thread, so I thought I'd recommend.

Have you read The Twenty Seventh City? I read the blurb the other day and it also sounded quite good.

[Thyroid]

I haven't. His essay "Why Bother?" seemed almost to dismiss it - or at least describe it in a way I found unappealing - and I avoided it, though I read the first chapter on his website ages back and I liked it. I may read it eventually. Strong Motion was always the one that really interested me.

It'll be a while, though. There are more immediate books to turn my attention to.

[Roderick]

While grinding Diablo 3, I thought to listen to an audiobook to see if I'd like it, and found a free version of Joseph Conrad's Heart of Darkness. The resulting experience was a weird one. Because my attention would sometimes lapse or drift back into the game, I didn't catch all the details of the book, or the intricacies of the characters and events. What I ended up with was a cloud of images and themes that strangely coalesced into a wonderful sense of the brooding jungle atmosphere. Very strange. Probably not ideal, but interesting nonetheless.

I've also just started Malthus' essay on the principles of population. It's another book of the sort I tend to read often, classic non-fiction (late 18th century), so it's very much in my comfort zone.