The Book thread...

Polecat · Post by **Polecat** » Tue May 29, 2007 11:47 am

C.I.A. wrote:
taylem wrote:
C.I.A. wrote:

How. Fucking. Good.

Seriously, Tolstoy is incredible, and I Crime and Punishment.

I'm getting a quote from W&P inked on my arm.

BUs Russian literature
Mmmmm Russian literature, I'm a sucker too. Currently half way through Solzhenitsyn's - The First Circle (I've read One Day in the Life of Ivan Denisovich and The Cancer ward and LOVED them both). Lots of Tolstoy, Gogol, Dostoyevksy, and Chekov on my bookshelf.
I haven't read any Solzhenitsyn. Will have to check it out. Ace!!

Solzhenitsyn is on my bookshelf. I've read the last 2/3 on the list above I think and I also have Gulag Archipelago to read still.

I also like to read books on Russian history. I have read a great biography called SECRETS AND SPIES: The Harbin Files by Mara Moustafine.
http://www.smh.com.au/articles/2003/01/ ... 79651.html

Monica Attard's "Russia: Which Way Paradise?" is an excellent review of Russian history and her experience as a foreign correspondent there. She actually marries a Russian man while working and living there.

"Absurdistan" by Eric Campbell also covers his time as a Foreign correspondent in Russia, but also China, Afganistan, Iraq and more. Not Russian centric, but a good compliment to Attard's view of the place.

Russia is a fascinating place to read about. I think I got hooked with The Endless Steppe: Growing Up in Siberia by Esther Hautzig, when I read it at school.

Post by **system** » Tue May 29, 2007 11:54 am

others from this past month:

Irvine Welsh's "The Bedroom Secrets Of The Master Chefs" - finally got around to reading it. highly recommended and a change of pace from the traditional scots chav action.
Shane Maloney's "Sucked In" - time warp to kennett town, but still on form.

coda · Post by **coda** » Tue May 29, 2007 4:07 pm

Great Authors: Hunter S Thompson, Haruki Murakami, Tom Robbins, Bret Easton Ellis, Tom Wolfe, William S Burroughs, Charles Bukowski, Irvine Welsh, Chuck Palahniuk, Christopher Wilson, George Orwell, Jack Kerouac

Fear and Loathing: We had two bags of grass, seventy-five pellets of mescaline, five sheets of high-powered blotter acid, a saltshaker half-full of cocaine, a whole galaxy of multi-colored uppers, downers, screamers, laughers... Also, a quart of tequila, a quart of rum, a case of beer, a pint of raw ether, and two dozen amyls.

ghetto kitty · Post by **ghetto kitty** » Tue May 29, 2007 4:10 pm

coda wrote:Great Authors: Hunter S Thompson, Haruki Murakami, Tom Robbins, Bret Easton Ellis, Tom Wolfe, William S Burroughs, Charles Bukowski, Irvine Welsh, Chuck Palahniuk, Christopher Wilson, George Orwell, Jack Kerouac

nice list!

add to that
cormac mccarthy, toni morrison, milan kundera, alice walker, aldous huxley,
ben elton, tim winton
and youve pretty much summed up most of my bookshelf.

coda · Post by **coda** » Tue May 29, 2007 4:24 pm

ghetto kitty wrote:
coda wrote:Great Authors: Hunter S Thompson, Haruki Murakami, Tom Robbins, Bret Easton Ellis, Tom Wolfe, William S Burroughs, Charles Bukowski, Irvine Welsh, Chuck Palahniuk, Christopher Wilson, George Orwell, Jack Kerouac
nice list!

add to that
cormac mccarthy, toni morrison, milan kundera, alice walker, aldous huxley,
ben elton, tim winton
and youve pretty much summed up most of my bookshelf.

thanks for the props and the extra authors for me to check out. I've read Ben and Tim but the others not so sure about.
Currently reading "The Kandy-Kolored Tangerine Flake Streamline Baby" by Wolfe, well worth reading if ya interested in American "underground" , "teen" , "pop" culture during 60s. Andy Warhol, Phil Spector, Baby Jane Holzer.

ghetto kitty · Post by **ghetto kitty** » Tue May 29, 2007 4:30 pm

true story > from 'electric kool aid acid test" by wolfe >
me and my parents lived down the road in la honda in california from the keasey house with all the painted tyrees and shit.
my parents were hippies. they used to hang out there. no shit.

oh and a bit of paulo cohlelo,
the 'life of pi" im reading now, (author?)
anything by ben okri as well,
a bit of raymond chadler for the amercian influence,
and a lashing of neal stephenson (snow crash is one of my favorite books of all time)

oh and jeff noon, and a bit o phillip k dick for futuristic self fulfilling prophecies!

elysium · Post by **elysium** » Tue May 29, 2007 4:33 pm

Polecat wrote:I think I got hooked with The Endless Steppe: Growing Up in Siberia by Esther Hautzig, when I read it at school.

I loved that book when I was a kid. Read it so many times I completely dog-eared it.

taylem · Post by **taylem** » Tue May 29, 2007 5:00 pm

bookshelf porn. Meet my precious babies

PahMaLa · Post by **PahMaLa** » Tue May 29, 2007 5:01 pm

ghetto kitty wrote: oh and a bit of paulo cohlelo,

Reading his latest one: The Witch Of Portobello
Love it.
Love Paulo Coelho!

C.I.A. · Post by **C.I.A.** » Tue May 29, 2007 5:06 pm

:drool:

I needs me a bookshelf. My books are still all packed away from my last move. And if you ever want to get rid of Optimus Prime...

And is that Boom box??

taylem · Post by **taylem** » Tue May 29, 2007 5:08 pm

hands offtimus!

taylem · Post by **taylem** » Tue May 29, 2007 5:10 pm

boom box? SOUNDWAVE thank you. He is a little worse for wear, his head has fallen off, no transforming tape dudes, no weapons. BUT he does have the most hip-hop street credibility of any of the transformers so that makes up for it...

C.I.A. · Post by **C.I.A.** » Tue May 29, 2007 5:10 pm

Frank Miller's Sin City, and Maus I and II. Mmmmm. Graphic novels.

C.I.A. · Post by **C.I.A.** » Tue May 29, 2007 5:11 pm

taylem wrote:boom box? SOUNDWAVE thank you. He is a little worse for wear, his head has fallen off, no transforming tape dudes, no weapons. BUT he does have the most hip-hop street credibility of any of the transformers so that makes up for it...

I stand corrected.

Post by **system** » Tue May 29, 2007 5:14 pm

taylem wrote:bookshelf porn. Meet my precious babies

always good to know. where do you keep the spare key again?

taylem wrote:

good to see our man K's styles rubbing off.

taylem · Post by **taylem** » Tue May 29, 2007 5:20 pm

yeah, because kamo totally invented the ikea bookshelf

*grumble*

I did kinda sorta borrow the idea from him I guess

Polecat · Post by **Polecat** » Tue May 29, 2007 5:21 pm

C.I.A. wrote:Frank Miller's Sin City, and Maus I and II. Mmmmm. Graphic novels.

The Maus series is amazing.

Post by **system** » Tue May 29, 2007 5:23 pm

taylem wrote:*grumble*

i caughts me a 6 footer! jimbob, hand me the net!

coda · Post by **coda** » Tue May 29, 2007 5:32 pm

ghetto kitty wrote:true story > from 'electric kool aid acid test" by wolfe >
me and my parents lived down the road in la honda in california from the keasey house with all the painted tyrees and shit.
my parents were hippies. they used to hang out there. no shit.

oh and a bit of paulo cohlelo,
the 'life of pi" im reading now, (author?)
anything by ben okri as well,
a bit of raymond chadler for the amercian influence,
and a lashing of neal stephenson (snow crash is one of my favorite books of all time)

oh and jeff noon, and a bit o phillip k dick for futuristic self fulfilling prophecies!

Loved "A Scanner Darkly" by Dick seriously a twisted piece of writing. They've made a animated movie haven't seen it yet but wanna.
I've added the other Authors to my list. Cheers!

mrj · Post by **mrj** » Tue May 29, 2007 5:34 pm

I'm currently reading "Getting started in Technical Analysis"!

You might think it sounds dry. And you'd be right. But I'm actually kind of enjoying it.

Post by **system** » Tue May 29, 2007 5:37 pm

wait until volume two, "Not Everyone Likes 120 Sheet Linked Excel Files".

mixtress · Post by **mixtress** » Tue May 29, 2007 5:39 pm

system wrote:wait until volume two, "Not Everyone Likes 120 Sheet Linked Excel Files".

I just lost my shit reading that

C.I.A. · Post by **C.I.A.** » Tue May 29, 2007 5:44 pm

system wrote:wait until volume two, "Not Everyone Likes 120 Sheet Linked Excel Files".

It comes to a gripping conclusion in the last book in the trilogy: "Macro-Programming for Fun".

ghetto kitty · Post by **ghetto kitty** » Tue May 29, 2007 5:44 pm

coda wrote: Loved "A Scanner Darkly" by Dick seriously a twisted piece of writing. They've made a animated movie haven't seen it yet but wanna.
I've added the other Authors to my list. Cheers!

the movie is DOPE! go see it! actually does justice to the book for once!

and D > i love paulo cohelo's stuff, i jsut read a book of his musings called
'like the flowing river' and it blew me away.....

taylem · Post by **taylem** » Tue May 29, 2007 5:57 pm

system wrote:
taylem wrote:*grumble*
i caughts me a 6 footer! jimbob, hand me the net!

I stand corrected

Post by **system** » Tue May 29, 2007 6:09 pm

^

gold!

coda · Post by **coda** » Tue May 29, 2007 6:16 pm

taylem wrote:bookshelf porn. Meet my precious babies

Glue by Irvine Welsh is a fantastic read! Probably my fav Irvine. Marabou Stork Nightmares was compelling though too.
I like the bookshelf, it's well stocked! Is that a speaker chord that's dangling down the back.... Where's the gaff?..

Post by **breaksRbest** » Tue May 29, 2007 6:36 pm

Marabou Stork Nightmares is my fave Irvine Welsh

cammo · Post by **cammo** » Thu May 31, 2007 10:13 pm

taylem wrote:
system wrote:
taylem wrote:*grumble*
i caughts me a 6 footer! jimbob, hand me the net!

I stand corrected

thats going straight to the pool room

PahMaLa · Post by **PahMaLa** » Fri Jun 01, 2007 2:53 pm

ghetto kitty wrote:
coda wrote: Loved "A Scanner Darkly" by Dick seriously a twisted piece of writing. They've made a animated movie haven't seen it yet but wanna.
I've added the other Authors to my list. Cheers!
the movie is DOPE! go see it! actually does justice to the book for once!

and D > i love paulo cohelo's stuff, i jsut read a book of his musings called
'like the flowing river' and it blew me away.....

Nice, think I'll hunt it down. His very first book I read was Vernika Decides to Die - title sounds very dark, but the story really moved me. The Alchemist and The Zahir I want all his books!

ADD_Boy · Post by **ADD_Boy** » Fri Jun 01, 2007 3:00 pm

Went to an interview/discussion with Will Hutton on Tuesday night.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Will_Hutton

He's the author of

He's also a columnist for the Observer as well..

Amazing guy. Really knows his stuff on China and the economy.

Got the boook and can't put it down.

Highly Recommended

Post by **huge** » Fri Jun 01, 2007 3:00 pm

reading this.

http://rawsharktexts.com/

fucking cool.

excerpt here http://rawsharktexts.com/fragmentpt1.pdf

about to start reading Three Sinogram Verses Using Radicals by Zhang Pengpeng.

Charlie73 · Post by **Charlie73** » Sat Jun 02, 2007 1:31 pm

breaksRbest wrote:Marabou Stork Nightmares is my fave Irvine Welsh

Top Frekin Book....

mixtress · Post by **mixtress** » Thu Jul 26, 2007 3:13 pm

Reading this at the moment...can't get enough of auto/biographies

Really enjoying it. At first I was all shirty cause I realised after I bought it that Zappa had actually written his own autobiography, but I reckon this one is far more subjective than his own would be. Apparently his own is rather a fairytale, lots of imagination thrown into the facts.

I'm surprised to find out what an asshole Zappa could be when it came to the people around him...it's weird when you hold someone up in your mind only to find out they weren't who you thought they were. Eye opening to say the least.

I've also read Pamela De Barr's autobiography I'm With The Band and their juxtaposing stories is fascinating.

Recommend both for a insight into 60's/70's rock history. Not quite as enthralling as Led's In Their Own Words but worthy reading.

Brain · Post by **Brain** » Thu Jul 26, 2007 4:40 pm

coda wrote:Great Authors: Hunter S Thompson, Haruki Murakami, Tom Robbins, Bret Easton Ellis, Tom Wolfe, William S Burroughs, Charles Bukowski, Irvine Welsh, Chuck Palahniuk, Christopher Wilson, George Orwell, Jack Kerouac

Get some Thomas Pynchon inta ya and your life will be complete.

Is that Lone Wolf and Cub on the bottom left of the bookshelf? If so

taylem · Post by **taylem** » Thu Jul 26, 2007 5:40 pm

Brain wrote:
Is that Lone Wolf and Cub on the bottom left of the bookshelf? If so

well spotted... really need to complete that set

ghetto kitty · Post by **ghetto kitty** » Thu Jul 26, 2007 6:08 pm

i jsut finished 'lullabies for little criminals" i cant remeber the author.

full on story of child growing up with junky dad on the streets of montreal.
made me laugh out loud, cry, and wonder how i ended up with such an easy life in comparison.

bought it for the cover, loved from start to end.

Post by **system** » Thu Oct 18, 2007 1:03 pm

finished the new peter hoeg, "the quiet girl" last week.

good to see him back on form! up there with "smilla's sense for snow" again.

Lizkins · Post by **Lizkins** » Thu Oct 18, 2007 1:11 pm

i just finished

"Last night a DJ saved my life"

i totally struggled through it. Only the last few chapters had me gripped.

Peeps on here thought it was good though

Anyways off to get Marching Powder by Rusty Young today. Looks the bizness

Post by **system** » Thu Oct 18, 2007 1:15 pm

Lizkins wrote:i just finished

"Last night a DJ saved my life"

i totally struggled through it. Only the last few chapters had me gripped.

Peeps on here thought it was good though

bill brewster is a god. he was the only reason for me to read mixmag for years.

Post by **breaksRbest** » Thu Oct 18, 2007 1:16 pm

Marching Powder is an awesome book

Kamis got to go inside the jail, which they don't let many people do anymore

waiting for my 2 Irvine Welsh books to arrive from Amazon, c'moooon farken

ghetto kitty · Post by **ghetto kitty** » Thu Oct 18, 2007 1:18 pm

i just finished 'spook country' by william gibson.

he is one of my favorite authors, but i dunno, he almost tried too hard to be tricky with the different stories and they only came together in the last copule chapters.

i ended up feeling a bit lost, and a bit unsatisfied as i know there was a great grand plan in there, but he did lose me trying to get there.

system, what did you think of it?
any reccomendations?

Stray · Post by **Stray** » Thu Oct 18, 2007 1:24 pm

breaksRbest wrote:Marching Powder is an awesome book

Yeah it's ace. Apparently being made into a movie too.

Lizkins · Post by **Lizkins** » Thu Oct 18, 2007 1:43 pm

system wrote:
Lizkins wrote:i just finished

"Last night a DJ saved my life"

i totally struggled through it. Only the last few chapters had me gripped.

Peeps on here thought it was good though
bill brewster is a god. he was the only reason for me to read mixmag for years.

yeah he knows his stuff. but i felt like the first part of the book was written a bit too factually

and i even read A Brief History of Time by Stephen Hawkings. Factual yes, but a good story-teller within

Blaxter · Post by **Blaxter** » Thu Oct 18, 2007 1:52 pm

Peeps on here are a diverse bunch Liz. I wouldnt take recomendations as gospel unless you have good reason to trust their taste.

Post by **system** » Thu Oct 18, 2007 2:01 pm

ghetto kitty wrote:i just finished 'spook country' by william gibson.

he is one of my favorite authors, but i dunno, he almost tried too hard to be tricky with the different stories and they only came together in the last copule chapters.

i ended up feeling a bit lost, and a bit unsatisfied as i know there was a great grand plan in there, but he did lose me trying to get there.

system, what did you think of it?

i felt the same about the linking of the stories, but the characterisations were done very well. gibson seems to be unable to recapture the pre-internet glory (i.e. neuromancer, idoru, mona lisa overdrive).

ghetto kitty wrote:any reccomendations?

sex.com, mainly because it deals with the industry i work in.

otherwise, mcsweeney's #23 is out and is a good collection of stories.

Post by **huge** » Thu Oct 18, 2007 2:11 pm

system wrote:mcsweeney's #23 is out and is a good collection of stories.

yes good

C.I.A. · Post by **C.I.A.** » Thu Oct 18, 2007 2:15 pm

huge wrote:
system wrote:mcsweeney's #23 is out and is a good collection of stories.
yes good

Love McSweeny's.

witty_pseudonym · Post by **witty_pseudonym** » Thu Oct 18, 2007 3:06 pm

Reading Shalimar the Clown by Salman Rushdie. God he writes beautifully...so evocative. Excellent book. Highly recommended.

Lizkins · Post by **Lizkins** » Thu Oct 18, 2007 3:08 pm

black star wrote:Peeps on here are a diverse bunch Liz. I wouldnt take recomendations as gospel unless you have good reason to trust their taste.

tis true, but a few peeps said it was good, so i went with it

got Marching Powder, can't wait to read it. WOOT