Darkness at Noon, by Arthur Koestler, 1940.
Books The BOOK thread
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Religion isn't about myths and fantasies. The important stories in the New Testament are parables. I think religions are about giving purpose to life in a situation when people can't find purpose without it.
I don't believe in God. I take a skeptic stance. Curiously, I was a sort of believer with a very mystical interpretation of God for about a decade in my late teens to late '20s. Then I became a skeptic. I think a lot religious followers also have a mystical interpretation of God. So I, sort of, understand how they feel; having been there once myself.
Many hard skeptics, like me, are ex-believers in something. Once we see through our beliefs, to see they were founded on nothing at all, it's hard, to impossible, to bring back faith.
Almost finished Grapes of Wrath, and I’m thoroughly depressed that it’s on the verge of ending. One of the best books I’ve ever read. What’d you recommend next of Steinbeck’s?
Have you read Of Mice and Men? Short and sweet length wise compared to Grapes but worth a go all the same if you're loving his stuff.
I haven’t! My class read Lord of the Flies instead. I’ve seen the film starring John Malkovich which I also loved, so Of Mice and Men makes sense. Cheers Cheese.
Yeah it's a lot smaller in scope and scale than Grapes of Wrath but still classic Steinbeck and a lot more succinct: doesn't really go off on any tangents as such and has a very clear and somewhat straightforward but brilliant story. Easy to read in a day or so.
Of mice and men is obviously a great book, but if you're looking for a book of similar depth, try East of Eden. It's pretty popular and well known, but for good reason. I preferred it to Grapes, but both are very good.
Reading Amelia Earhart: The Truth at last by Mike Campbell.
Very good so far.
Very good so far.
What do you guys do when you've finished a book? I swear I mourn that it's over and feel actually sad about the whole thing. It feels really weird, am I just weird?
Just read the last book in The Sackett's series by Louis L'Amour. It is called Jubal Sackett. Very good read and I think it was a brilliant series in general, each character is brilliant in their own way and very tough. It is a series which may appeal to fans of Western novels.
When I finished the Lord of The Rings when I was younger it was like saying goodbye to an old mate. After I finished the last series I read there were 17 books in the series and it feels like saying goodbye to many friends. I enjoyed it so much that I feel sad that there were not more books.
RIP Harold Bloom, probably the most important literary critic ever from the English Language. He was a champion of the "old white male" canon and without his singular influence that canon will inevitably face changes. Some of his arguments do have merit. There are books that have been hailed as revolutionary or part of the new canon that will definitely be forgotten in another five years as just fads and garbage (like Claudia Rankine's kitschy and gimmicky tripe). Literature can and should be held to a standard of quality and there is nothing wrong with demanding the highest quality.
That said, Bloom could be an arrogant, condescending snob like many of his generation of entitled WASP males. Whenever I see claims like the below I just don't believe it. A human mind is not capable of reading AND absorbing a 400 page book in an hour irrespective of dubious claims about eidetic memory:
"Professor Bloom called himself “a monster” of reading; he said he could read, and absorb, a 400-page book in an hour. His friend Richard Bernstein, a professor of philosophy at the New School, told a reporter that watching Professor Bloom read was “scary.”
Armed with a photographic memory, Professor Bloom could recite acres of poetry by heart — by his account, the whole of Shakespeare, Milton’s “Paradise Lost,” all of William Blake, the Hebraic Bible and Edmund Spenser’s monumental “The Fairie Queen.” He relished epigraphs, gnomic remarks and unusual words: kenosis (emptying), tessera (completing), askesis (diminishing) and clinamen (swerving)
https://www.nytimes.com/2019/10/14/books/harold-bloom-dead.html
That said, Bloom could be an arrogant, condescending snob like many of his generation of entitled WASP males. Whenever I see claims like the below I just don't believe it. A human mind is not capable of reading AND absorbing a 400 page book in an hour irrespective of dubious claims about eidetic memory:
"Professor Bloom called himself “a monster” of reading; he said he could read, and absorb, a 400-page book in an hour. His friend Richard Bernstein, a professor of philosophy at the New School, told a reporter that watching Professor Bloom read was “scary.”
Armed with a photographic memory, Professor Bloom could recite acres of poetry by heart — by his account, the whole of Shakespeare, Milton’s “Paradise Lost,” all of William Blake, the Hebraic Bible and Edmund Spenser’s monumental “The Fairie Queen.” He relished epigraphs, gnomic remarks and unusual words: kenosis (emptying), tessera (completing), askesis (diminishing) and clinamen (swerving)
https://www.nytimes.com/2019/10/14/books/harold-bloom-dead.html
As you mentioned, Bloom's attitude, I felt, actually worked against his championing of the traditional canon & only infuriated his - and its - detractors.
For all the merits of his passions, there was a self-indulgence and intolerance that was off-putting for foes and admirers.
For all the merits of his passions, there was a self-indulgence and intolerance that was off-putting for foes and admirers.
Was a bit of a lecher too, wasn't he? I think Naomi Wolff accused him of being gropey.
Beyond Black. That's the fifth Hilary Mantel this year. I need more, more.
It's a wonder how she can skewer human foible so adroitly, how she can wring such joyous black humour from such grisly subject matter, how she brings empathy to such wretchedness, how she is able to prove SteveJ right for once in his miserableness.
It's a wonder how she can skewer human foible so adroitly, how she can wring such joyous black humour from such grisly subject matter, how she brings empathy to such wretchedness, how she is able to prove SteveJ right for once in his miserableness.
Typical me, I gave up on that novel as I found it increasingly disturbing (though very good, undoubtedly).
Ah shame. It certainly goes bleak but it develops into a great ghost story with real daring and originality.
Lifespan by David Sinclair
Permanent Record by Edward Snowden
Glass House by Brian Alexander - chronicles the destruction of an American 'Small Town' by corporate leeches who latch onto a locally produced brand, mismanage it, milk it dry
Permanent Record by Edward Snowden
Glass House by Brian Alexander - chronicles the destruction of an American 'Small Town' by corporate leeches who latch onto a locally produced brand, mismanage it, milk it dry
How did you like that? Its on my list to read at some point
High-rise - endlessly dark and pretty darn funny. A fairly on point satire of the professional classes. It's sort of viewed as prescient but I'm not so sure about that, as the structure he's describing hasn't really developed. I rewatched Ben Wheatley's adaptation recently, a stylish but empty film.
She Said - Jodi Kantor and Meghan Twohey recount their unravelling of Harvey Weinstein and his abuse, whilst also covering the Christine Blasey Ford/Brett Kavanaugh episode. Weinstein's malevolent wheelings and dealings and constant obfuscation I enjoyed, the Ford/Kavanaugh stuff didn't provide much extra insight. It's a short book and I finished it in about a day. Good follow up to Down and Dirty Pictures for anyone who is a fan of Peter Biskind.
She Said - Jodi Kantor and Meghan Twohey recount their unravelling of Harvey Weinstein and his abuse, whilst also covering the Christine Blasey Ford/Brett Kavanaugh episode. Weinstein's malevolent wheelings and dealings and constant obfuscation I enjoyed, the Ford/Kavanaugh stuff didn't provide much extra insight. It's a short book and I finished it in about a day. Good follow up to Down and Dirty Pictures for anyone who is a fan of Peter Biskind.
I just ordered The Melancholy of Resistance by Krasznahorkai. I am excited to start that one next week.
Finished The Brothers Karamazov. Holy feck what a book. Better than Crime and Punishment.
10/10
Thinking of starting The Master and Margarita by Bulgakov. Is it any good?
10/10
Thinking of starting The Master and Margarita by Bulgakov. Is it any good?
I haven't read it but I have a friend who finished it a few months ago and he said it was great but a real trip. I have it on my list to order once I make it through another 6-7 books on my stack.
Only halfway through, but it's good: well-researched and very sad. It's part autopsy, part crime-scene investigation pieced/stitched together via both the author's retelling of personal accounts and his research into how these predatory ventures operate. (One particular highlight is a section of a chapter that explains how PE ventures - like the Glazers/Woodward - work.)
I've flipped ahead and the back half of the book seems to be the aftermath (economic collapse/exodus/drug epidemic).
Which version of the translation did you read? I apologise if I asked this question before in this thread as I have done it numerous times to different people but I never found one where the English translation felt natural enough to read.
Constance Garnett. I cannot compare with others as her's is only one I've read.
I think it’s the best book I’ll ever read. I go back to The Grand Inquisitor section all the time, I interpret it a bit different each time and still don’t know quite what to make of it but it’s so hauntingly evocative.
The Grand Inquisitor and the Father Zossima chapters alone are enough for me to consider it one of the best books ever written.
I'm reading The Atrocity Exhibition atm. Bit of a hard read but I'll keep at it.
That sounds like one of his more challenging novels. I might have a go at Crash next.
Was that what Cronenberg's movie was based on?
Anyone recommend any books that translate well to audiobooks? Have started to have one going on the side for my commuter (I commute by bike so I can't 'read'). Am currently listening to 11.22.63 which I'm enjoying a lot, however I can imagine some books don't translate so well to being read out to you, even some books that I've really enjoyed reading.
Only book I’ve listened to in full was Bill Bryson’s Short History of Nearly Everything. I’d say it’s a perfect type of book for audio, but I’ve nothing to compare against.
Audiobooks tend to work best when the book is plot/conversation driven. It's best to avoid anything with dense description.
I don't know if I'd recommend them but Never Let Me Go and Childhood's End worked really well. (Edit: and Dune, the audible version is amazingly good).
On the flip side, I listened to The Pale King and Zero K and remember nearly nothing about them.
I don't know if I'd recommend them but Never Let Me Go and Childhood's End worked really well. (Edit: and Dune, the audible version is amazingly good).
On the flip side, I listened to The Pale King and Zero K and remember nearly nothing about them.
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Have already read that, but thanks. I can see how it'd be good as an audiobook.
Thanks, have already read Never Let Me Go, but will have a look out for Childhood's End.
Short film starring Ballard himself and Gabrielle Drake (Nick's sister):
Have read a few books. Most of them 5 stars, but I'm already forgetting their plots.
Any recommendations. Need some inspiration, don't care what genre etc.