datura
Full Member
I've started Requiem For A Dream, it's actually quite witty so far. Takes a while to get attuned to the writing style but a far easier read then I anticipated.
Never knew that it was a novel. Tell me if it's as good/better than the movie.I've started Requiem For A Dream, it's actually quite witty so far. Takes a while to get attuned to the writing style but a far easier read then I anticipated.
I read that a few years back and liked it. The setting though I don't think it takes place in real Austro-Hungaria, more in a altered universe. Kafka was very depresive though, not strange to understand why the book is so dark. Who knows, maybe he saw the real world like that.I'm about 1/3 done with Kafka's The Trial. I'm still trying to understand it. It's philosophical in a way like Metamorphosis was but I've got trouble getting into it's settings. I'm not really sure which parts of people's lives are dystopian and which were considered normal in Austria-Hungary or where ever this is supposedly supposed to take place.
I much preferred Requiem for a Dream as the novel. I've been meaning to pick up last exit to Brooklyn for a while now, must get round to it. Metamorphosis and the trial are both great, they're the only Kafka I've read though, any advice on where to go next with him?Never knew that it was a novel. Tell me if it's as good/better than the movie.
I read that a few years back and liked it. The setting though I don't think it takes place in real Austro-Hungaria, more in a altered universe. Kafka was very depresive though, not strange to understand why the book is so dark. Who knows, maybe he saw the real world like that.
Are there any Charles Bukowski fans on the caf? Read all his prose, and really enjoyed Barfly when I watched it as well. I would love to read similar stuff, I loved Ask the Dust by Fante which is a big influence on Bukowski I believe. Any suggestions there?
Apparently it wasn't even finished! Died before he could complete it. Most of his stuff is really funny, Women is definitely his weakest though. Ham on Rye might just be my favourite book, funny and sad in equal measure, very raw emotion. Try post office as well its hilarious in places, I always chuckle when I think of Mr. Stone.The only book written by him I have read is Pulp. Which is one of the best books I have ever read. I read it three times and everytime I read I loved and laughed reading it more than in previous time.
Crickley Hall by James Herbert was ok but not great. I enjoyed The Littlle Stranger but it is set just after WW2 I think.Can anyone recommend a good ghost story set in modern times? I've just finished one that is highly-rated but turned out to be dreadful. It seems to me that good contemporary ghost stories are rather thin on the ground...
No worries. I really like the Little Stranger because it's very subtle and makes you use your imagination much more than say a Salems Lot without you realising it.Thanks, mate. I've read both but they're still good suggestions (for anyone looking for a supernatural read) because they differ so much.
I like Bukowski but he's one of a kind (Jayne Anne Phillips Black Tickets springs to mind though she has no connexion with Bukowski except being a good writer of short fiction). Haven't seen Barfly but did catch Factotum, which was disappointing. There's a new film out next year. Bukowski 'The story of writer Charles Bukowski's formative years from childhood to high school and his struggles with an abusive father, disfiguring acne, alcohol abuse, and his initial attempts at writing'.Are there any Charles Bukowski fans on the caf? Read all his prose, and really enjoyed Barfly when I watched it as well. I would love to read similar stuff, I loved Ask the Dust by Fante which is a big influence on Bukowski I believe. Any suggestions there?
Absolutely bloody terrible. Surprising, since it's by one of only 270,000 authors who Stephen King describes as 'a rare and blazing talent'.When Abner Cray comes to Manhattan to make his name as a photographer, he has two strokes of luck. His friend Art, who is in Europe, gives Abner the use of his apartment, and then Art's beautiful friend Phyllis turns up at the apartment. But then Abner confesses to murder and worse is to follow.
I'll look forward to that, sounds like it will tackle much of Ham on Rye then. Yes Black Tickets does seem to have a few stylistic parallels with Bukowski - 'one page fictions, inner soliloquies, and family dramas', I'll check it out, thanks peteI like Bukowski but he's one of a kind (Jayne Anne Phillips Black Tickets springs to mind though she has no connexion with Bukowski except being a good writer of short fiction). Haven't seen Barfly but did catch Factotum, which was disappointing. There's a new film out next year. Bukowski 'The story of writer Charles Bukowski's formative years from childhood to high school and his struggles with an abusive father, disfiguring acne, alcohol abuse, and his initial attempts at writing'.
I loved John Dies at the End. A fun read. Weird only barely begins to describe it.Recently finished John Dies At The End. What a weird fecking book. I've just started 11/12/66, hopefully I can finish it before I go away on November 4th as don't really want to lug a book that size with me.
I got a Kindle for my trip. Have downloaded a few books on there that were cheap but I've heard good things about. Got Hitchhikers Guide as I've never read it, The Count Of Monte Cristo, The Caves Of Steel and Slaughterhouse Five.
Very good book (now updated to include thoughts on the recent DNA-testing* etc), and one which asks serious questions about the official story of the event.The world was told that the last Tsar of Russia and his family were butchered in the 'cellar massacre' at Ekaterinburg in 1918. Yet diplomats and reporters did not believe it. And the longest court case of the century failed to explode Anna Anderson's claim to be the Tsar's youngest daughter, Grand Duchess Anastasia. Anthony Summers and Tom Mangold spent five years tracking down witnesses and long-lost documents. The search led to Moscow, Tokyo and Washington and their persistence finally paid off when they found a suppressed official dossier - the File on the Tsar. It shows that the public was fed a lie. The Romanovs did not all die at Ekaterinburg, but became pawns in an international power game, involving Lenin, the Kaiser, the British Royal Family and British Intelligence. And in London, over 80 years later, the cover-up goes on.
http://www.theguardian.com/music/2013/oct/17/morrissey-autobiography-triumph-mired-moaning-reviewFor its first 150 pages, Autobiography comes close to being a triumph. "Naturally my birth almost kills my mother, for my head is too big," he writes, and off we go – into the Irish diaspora in the inner-city Manchester of the 1960s, where packs of boys playfully stone rats to death, and "no one we know is on the electoral roll". In some of the writing, you can almost taste his environment
I am so in love with the Cemetery of Forgotten Books universe that I couldn't hate it. Even inspired me to go to Barcelona last week. But you're right it is a bit thin and I think he could've fit it in The shadow of the wind. I liked reading of Fermin's background and love him even more now.I have finished the prisoner of heaven by Zafon. What a pointless, boring, souless book. I would have been happier to get a page of what is to be known from this book, so I can read the next book (if the next book is good). Absolutely hated the two plot cliches. At least it was quite short, even if if i can't say there was a conflict but it made a good job of me disliking Daniel and finding stupid Isabella. I wonder too if having read the two novels that were spoken about made me enjoy less the story since it was more like "see this novel, going to use one known scene of it next"... and I'm more like "oh, I am totally unimpressed if you're telling me what you will write next."
What's it about?I would recommend Nineteen Eighty-Four. What a magnificent read.
A teen book with vampires and other stuff.What's it about?
Aren't all the letters in book available on his website? If not I think I'll get the book sometimeJust read "I am Pilgrim" by Terry Hayes.
A cracking read.
Now reading...
"Letter of Note" by Shaun Usher, which is a collection of 125 letters from famous and not so famous people throughout the ages
It is based on the website of the same name.
Brilliantly put together.
BTW, does anyone use www.unbound.co.uk ?
I believe there are some he held back from putting on the site.Aren't all the letters in book available on his website? If not I think I'll get the book sometime
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Well, firstly, the book was written in 1948. It's an excellent portrayal of totalitarianism with a Friedrich Nietzsche philosophy. The book explains George Orwell dystopia, and how it is ruled by a despotic Big Brother... Big Brother (TV programme) took its name from the pages of '1984', I believe. The irony of us watching the contestants would not be lost on Orwell. '1984' explains how the higher up in society you progress, the more cruel you become compared to the rest of 'em (see Government, David Cameron, Obama, etc.) Orwell's book is no less relevant today... The talk of government controlling the masses through the media is an example of this.What's it about?
It's a novel set in a utopian future in which every house has a Xbone.What's it about?