Last Book You Read....

[Craig fae the Vale]

Just finished The Man Who Dies Twice, the second in the Thursday Murder Club series by Richard Osman. Wildly far fetched, but very enjoyable, easy read.

[velo army]

Loving the McIlvanney love in from @WhiteRoseKilie and @RH33. He's my favourite writer and I must have read Docherty, Laidlaw and The Kiln about 3 times each. 

I'm currently reading "home and away" which is a conversation via e-mail (referred to as "letters" in the book) between Karl Ove Knausgaard and his Swedish friend Frederik, an author living in Brazil. The start of the conversation coincides with the beginning of the 2014 world cup, and they discuss football, their footballing sensibilities and how they relate to their attitudes on art, morality and life in general. 

It's a beautifully tender and at times deeply philosophical conversation between two men who love football. The insights from Knausgaard are always thought provoking and the differing personalities of the two men are a perfect contrast. Knausgaard loves Argentina and games that finish 0-0. His admiration of Suarez is framed in a way I haven't heard before. Frederik loves Brazil, artistic football and games that finish 4-3. He's a  classic bon viveur while Knausgaard is, by his own admission, protestant to his bones and is very ascetic.

Highly recommend.

 

[Detournement]

It's been nearly two years since I finished the sixth Knausgaard book and I don't know if I will ever be able to handle a reread but I do miss reading him. The football book sounds good.

[Shandon Par]

Did a comparison between Laidlaw and Srange Loyalties for Higher English (A, obvz!). Can’t remember anything about them but I do remember William McIlvanney always being on tv as a kid. One of those old school, hairy, fiercely bright, magnetic characters.

[coprolite]

Dominion, by Tom Holland (not spiderman). A bit of a departure from his usual narrative history format and something more akin to an Adam Curtis style narration on a theme. Except with narrative history prose instead of clips of people doing the charlston to Aphex Twin. 

It's ambitious and mostly successful. An interesting read more than a must read though. 

It's an argument that what we in the west think of as universal values are actually culturally specific to Christianity and in particular that the concept of secularism derives from Christianity. Backed up with stories from 2,500 years from Darius the Great to Dawkins. 

I'm not fully convinced by all the arguments and the writing was overly baroque in parts but it's overall a good read. 

[Richey Edwards]

On 30/11/2021 at 22:25, Shandon Par said:

The Rules of Attraction 

Brett Easton Ellis

Another of his I couldn’t believe was written in the mid 1980s. On the surface it’s a dark, dark takedown of vacuous, spoiled students. Poor little rich kids. Dig deeper and it’s really just him wrestling with how he was brought up, the bad example set by 1970s parenting. All stuff that really resonated with me. 
 

He’s such a master of the unreliable narrator and the style goes perfectly with the subject of drink and drug fuelled parties and hazy recollections.

Early appearance of P&B regular meme Patrick Bateman too. 

Only book of his I've read is American Psycho. I fucking hated it.

 

On 22/11/2021 at 17:25, Saigon Raider said:

Shuggie Bain by Douglas Stuart.

Yes it’s unrelentingly grim but there were real moments of beauty there as well. I absolutely loved it and it’s a book that will stay with me for a long time.

I read that earlier in the year. A very depressing read, but one that stays with you.

[Mark Connolly]

2 hours ago, Richey Edwards said:

Only book of his I've read is American Psycho. I fucking hated it.

 

[Richey Edwards]

2 minutes ago, Mark Connolly said:

I have never seen the film.

The book is fucking terrible though. Genuinely one of the worst books I've read.

[RossBFaeDundee]

The Strange Last Voyage of Donald Crowhurst (1970)

by Nicholas Tomalin & Ron Hall

Been struggling to get back into regular reading after completing my English Lit degree in the summer. Ended up returning to an old favourite topic, been obsessed with the story of Donald Crowhurst ever since I watched the 2006 documentary Deep Water, and the idea of a regular punter in the late 1960s deciding to risk his whole life on a round-the-world sailing voyage fascinated me, as did the crazy route his decisions took him.

Had seen many film adaptations of the story, but had never read the authentic account of the journey written just after it happened, with one of the writers having been an organiser of the race in which Crowhurst took part. The detail and way they lay out the changing mindset of an increasingly desperate man in an impossible situation was great, and I'd highly recommend to anyone interested in true tales that are more dramatic than fiction.

[BillyAnchor]

Utopia Avenue. A novel about the music scene in London in the 60s.

[BillyAnchor]

15 hours ago, Richey Edwards said:

Only book of his I've read is American Psycho. I fucking hated it.

 

I read that earlier in the year. A very depressing read, but one that stays with you.

I actually loved American Psycho though it takes a while to actually do much.

[Paul Kersey]

3 hours ago, BillyAnchor said:

I actually loved American Psycho though it takes a while to actually do much.

Agreed, I enjoyed it too. I couldn't get into Less Than Zero though.

[DiegoDiego]

I thought American Psycho was alright but didn't find it particularly enjoyable, it was a poor quality pirate copy though so that may have had something to do with it.

[Mark Connolly]

5 minutes ago, DiegoDiego said:

I thought American Psycho was alright but didn't find it particularly enjoyable, it was a poor quality pirate copy though so that may have had something to do with it.

Was it handwritten?

[BillyAnchor]

Interesting note about the film version of American Psycho. There was a full frontal male scene, no erection just a frontal nudie, and this scene had to be edited out of the American release. Cutting up women with a chainsaw was deemed acceptable.

[DiegoDiego]

Was it handwritten?

Photocopied and poorly bound.

[DiegoDiego]

I just finished reading the last book in Miklós Bánffy's The Writing on the Wall trilogy. I honestly don't think I'll read a better book in all my life.

Set at the start of the twentieth century it follows a Hungarian aristocrat who tries to find happiness and meaning in his life while his countrymen sleepwalk into war and chance conspires to thwart his desires.

The blurb likened it to Tolstoy but I assumed that was lazy marketing/journalism. I genuinely think it's better than Tolstoy and I am a massive Tolstoy fan.

One thing I will say is that the last hundred or so pages are incredibly sad. Probably not helped by the fact I read the final pages in Cluj-Napoca where much of it is set. It's also ironic that the book finishes as the men are off to (the first world) war and Bánffy finished the manuscript in May 1940.

Bánffy himself was an a bit of a polymath and negotiated Hungary's entry to the League of Nations.

An incredible work of art.

[LongTimeLurker]

...Black Beauty and I don't care who knows that.[/Jim McLean]

Actually, A Dance with Dragons and if Winds of Winter doesn't get published soon I am not going to be impressed.

[Craig fae the Vale]

The Promise by Damon Galgut. Just won the Booker and I can see why it won. I enjoyed it.

[Genuine Hibs Fan]

On 12/12/2021 at 14:43, DiegoDiego said:

I just finished reading the last book in Miklós Bánffy's The Writing on the Wall trilogy. I honestly don't think I'll read a better book in all my life.

Set at the start of the twentieth century it follows a Hungarian aristocrat who tries to find happiness and meaning in his life while his countrymen sleepwalk into war and chance conspires to thwart his desires.

The blurb likened it to Tolstoy but I assumed that was lazy marketing/journalism. I genuinely think it's better than Tolstoy and I am a massive Tolstoy fan.

One thing I will say is that the last hundred or so pages are incredibly sad. Probably not helped by the fact I read the final pages in Cluj-Napoca where much of it is set. It's also ironic that the book finishes as the men are off to (the first world) war and Bánffy finished the manuscript in May 1940.

Bánffy himself was an a bit of a polymath and negotiated Hungary's entry to the League of Nations.

An incredible work of art.

Will give this a read sounds terrific, cheers mate.

-----------------------------

I am just finishing Dune, having listened to the audiobook and seen the film earlier this year. I love Dune, I am now a Dune-head. I have the Mars Trilogy ready to go and will go as far as the weird sex stuff in the Dune sequels allows, but don't really know my science fiction very well at all. What are some other series/books people would recommend?