What are you reading right now?

OccultHawk · 02-11-2020, 08:00 PM

The Wu-Tang Manual by RZA

This is a great book. Much better than I expected. Lots of cool facts and philosophy

OccultHawk · 03-02-2020, 06:37 AM

Lost Light by Michael Connelly

A pretty solid whodunnit if you’re in the mood for one.

GreyZone · 03-04-2020, 10:01 AM

Recently finished reading a semi-autobiographical novel called Cherry by Nico Walker. It's about a soldier who becomes a drug addict after he comes home from the war in Iraq and eventually becomes a criminal to support his habit.

innerspaceboy · 03-10-2020, 06:00 PM

My latest literary treasures have arrived!

Published 30 years ago, these two volumes remain the largest and most exhaustive collections of Asimov's science fiction ever printed. Comprising 86 of his best short stories, AsimovReviews calls them the definitive collection.

Delighted to have these join my Jules Verne and Ray Bradbury omnibus hardcovers. I'm going to need a larger coffee table.

Lisnaholic · 03-11-2020, 09:26 AM

Not a recommendation, but an achievement: just finished reading Foucault's Pendulum for the second time.

^ Bought this edition in 1990, because the book was much talked about on its release, but now, 30 years later, I have a much less charitable opinion of this over-long, over-indulgent and over-rated novel.

It's my theory that some novels survived because in the bad old pre-internet days people didn't have access to the instant entertainment that's available today. They had to "make do" with what they could find - rather like the way Victorians used to listen to each other playing the piano at home of an evening or, going furthur back, enjoying four-hours of eye-watering embroidery work while they waited for bedtime to come round. If so, I'd put this book in that category: imo it doesn't deliver much reward given the effort needed to work through its 650-odd pages.

Neapolitan · 03-11-2020, 02:19 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Lisnaholic

Not a recommendation, but an achievement: just finished reading Foucault's Pendulum for the second time.

^ Bought this edition in 1990, because the book was much talked about on its release, but now, 30 years later, I have a much less charitable opinion of this over-long, over-indulgent and over-rated novel.

It's my theory that some novels survived because in the bad old pre-internet days people didn't have access to the instant entertainment that's available today. They had to "make do" with what they could find - rather like the way Victorians used to listen to each other playing the piano at home of an evening or, going furthur back, enjoying four-hours of eye-watering embroidery work while they waited for bedtime to come round. If so, I'd put this book in that category: imo it doesn't deliver much reward given the effort needed to work through its 650-odd pages.

Talk about long (winded) novels. Have you ever read Sarum? (aka Sarum: The Novel of England by Edward Rutherford) I was wondering if you did then what were your thoughts on it. Perhaps it's in the same category as Foucault's Pendulum. It's a book my friend brings up from time to time, and I was curious how good/bad it is.

DwnWthVwls · 03-12-2020, 04:01 PM

TFW you get paid by the word.

Lisnaholic · 03-13-2020, 06:51 AM

^ LOL. Yeah, that often seems to be an author's main motivation.

Quote:

Originally Posted by Neapolitan

Talk about long (winded) novels. Have you ever read Sarum? (aka Sarum: The Novel of England by Edward Rutherford) I was wondering if you did then what were your thoughts on it. Perhaps it's in the same category as Foucault's Pendulum. It's a book my friend brings up from time to time, and I was curious how good/bad it is.

Sorry, Neapolitan, I've never heard of this book, but based solely on the comment on the cover, I would probably leave it on the shelf if I saw it in a bookshop.

Novels about the old days are almost impossible to get right, imo. I'd much sooner read a genuine researched history or biography to help me imagine, or to give me an insight into, a period of the past.

Novels almost always have chunks of conversation in them, and in historical novels, this is the Achilles heel that shows what a stretch the whole historical re-creation is. Writers usually betray themselves by commiting one of two errors:-

i) they forget about the vocabulary of the period. For example Isabel Allende, who wrote a book set in the Victorian era. To her credit, she didn't have her characters saying, "Wow, that's cool", but she transplanted plenty of modern diction into her book.
ii) conversely, writers try so heard to sound "old-timey" that all their characters speak in a similar mock-biblical tone. Watch out, for instance , for the pregnant woman, who, in a historical novel, will announce, "I am with child." In a modern novel, there are so many ways to say this, which can reflect humour, despair, class, education, etc, but the novelist who has made the mistake of writing a historical novel just has the one clunky expression to work with.

Bottom Line : don't read historical novels. Make the effort and read something less artificial.

OccultHawk · 03-13-2020, 07:28 AM

Quote:

Bottom Line : don't read historical novels. Make the effort and read something less artificial.

War and Peace

Black Rain (Ibuse)

Narcissus and Goldmund

The Confessions of Nat Turner

I mean damn we could rattle off books all day. The past is half of everything and it is everything that’s ever happened. Reading straight history is great but historical fiction can also open your mind up to what it may have been.

Also, all history is in the ether. As soon as the moment passes the mythologizing begins. Our understanding will always morph and be blurred by presentism. By reading the classics of historical fiction you’re lending your mind to the dream that is history as we understand it.

We’re talking about the experiences of every person that ever lived. I’m not saying it’s not crucially important to differentiate how we process writings about history but it’s all fiction to some degree. It’s our personal responsibility to be critical but also open because truthfully we don’t know what the **** happened.

Lisnaholic · 03-13-2020, 09:51 AM

^ There are plenty of good historical novels I'm sure, but I suppose I was focusing on some modern novels that reach back furthur than they are convincingly able to convey. The Sarum book has a pic of Stonehenge on the cover, so perhaps unfairly, I imagined that it might feature dialogue that is in this kind of style:"Woman, fetch me my sheepskin that I may worship at the Henge which is of stone."

One tip for aspiring authors is "Write about what you know", and in the case of Tolstoy, he might have considered that when starting War And Peace:-

Quote:

The novel is set 60 years before Tolstoy's day, but he had spoken with people who lived through the 1812 French invasion of Russia.

From our perspective, no-one is going to notice if Tolstoy's 1812 Russia is "blurred by presentism" of his 1865 Russia. TBH, I wouldn't have thought of it as a historical novel, though in the strict sense it is.

I'm not familiar with the other books you mention, but I take your point about "all history is in the ether" and is subject to mythologizing. Perhaps I should tone down he bottom line of my rant and say,
"Personally I've come across a lot of unconvincing historical novels and as a genre, now approach them with scepticism, expecting to be disappointed. None the less, there are many good ones* too."

* One that I really enjoyed about a year ago was Gore Vidal's Lincoln, for instance.

02-11-2020, 08:00 PM	#6771 (permalink)
OccultHawk one-balled nipple jockey Join Date: Dec 2010 Location: Dirty Souf Biatch Posts: 22,033	The Wu-Tang Manual by RZA This is a great book. Much better than I expected. Lots of cool facts and philosophy __________________ 2016 2017 2018 2019 2020 Member of the Year & Journal of the Year Champion Behold the Writing of THE LEGEND: https://www.musicbanter.com/members-...p-lighter.html

03-02-2020, 06:37 AM	#6772 (permalink)
OccultHawk one-balled nipple jockey Join Date: Dec 2010 Location: Dirty Souf Biatch Posts: 22,033	Lost Light by Michael Connelly A pretty solid whodunnit if you’re in the mood for one. __________________ 2016 2017 2018 2019 2020 Member of the Year & Journal of the Year Champion Behold the Writing of THE LEGEND: https://www.musicbanter.com/members-...p-lighter.html

03-11-2020, 09:26 AM	#6775 (permalink)
Lisnaholic ...here to hear... Join Date: Nov 2010 Location: He lives on Love Street Posts: 4,444	Not a recommendation, but an achievement: just finished reading Foucault's Pendulum for the second time. ^ Bought this edition in 1990, because the book was much talked about on its release, but now, 30 years later, I have a much less charitable opinion of this over-long, over-indulgent and over-rated novel. It's my theory that some novels survived because in the bad old pre-internet days people didn't have access to the instant entertainment that's available today. They had to "make do" with what they could find - rather like the way Victorians used to listen to each other playing the piano at home of an evening or, going furthur back, enjoying four-hours of eye-watering embroidery work while they waited for bedtime to come round. If so, I'd put this book in that category: imo it doesn't deliver much reward given the effort needed to work through its 650-odd pages. __________________ "Am I enjoying this moment? I know of it and perhaps that is enough." - Sybille Bedford, 1953 Last edited by Lisnaholic; 03-11-2020 at 09:36 AM.

03-04-2020, 10:01 AM	#6773 (permalink)
GreyZone Groupie Join Date: Dec 2019 Posts: 42	Recently finished reading a semi-autobiographical novel called Cherry by Nico Walker. It's about a soldier who becomes a drug addict after he comes home from the war in Iraq and eventually becomes a criminal to support his habit.