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    Current Reading - Books best thread

    MsD wrote: My favourite non-fiction book (apart from the art books) in the last year has been the Arcades Project by Walter Benjamin, a wonderful book you can dip into at random as if browsing a website. Susan Buck-Morss's book on Benjamin, The Dialectics of Seeing, makes a good companion. I wish I'd found the Arcades years ago.
    I'm not so sure on Benjamin. I had a spell at Goldsmiths college where he was required reading. The guy teaching the course was in love with Benjamin, but even he conceded that he was a writher had the power to divide in terms of those who believed him to be THE greatest thinker ever and those who thought it was random, esoteric clap-trap (in a sense Benjamin is a bit like Mark E. Smith and the Fall)

    I remember being confronted by the Arcades Project in the college library and failing completely to see it's merit... or even to understand it. That said I'm a fan of Benjamin's quote about Klee's Angelus Novus - and having since worked in Local Government I can concur that his view of progress is incredibly spot-on

    I guess, that I'm a bit conflicted here and maybe one day I'll return to look at Benjamin - curious to know what other people's takes on him are though.

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      Current Reading - Books best thread

      Well over half way through Jan Morris' Hav (now onto the 'sequel' portion of the book, recounting the trip in 2005). Excellent stuff and highly recommended.

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        Current Reading - Books best thread

        I guess, that I'm a bit conflicted here and maybe one day I'll return to look at Benjamin - curious to know what other people's takes on him are though.

        I'm only really familiar with The Work of Art in the Age of Mechanical Reproduction, which is about as essential to modern aesthetics as — I dunno — The Communist Manifesto might be to political science.

        Susan Sontag's comment about his "freeze-frame baroque" style of writing and cogitation. That "His major essays seem to end just in time, before they self-destruct," seems right. But that's just fine. A philosopher has to hand off a notion on to his reader somehow, and with it the possibility of extending/possessing the idea herself. For me, intentional or not, that's one of Benjamin's strengths. You can take his thoughts for a walk, which is never a bad thing.

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          Current Reading - Books best thread

          I'm reading The Inheritance of Loss by Kiran Desai. I'm prob about a quarter of the way through and it's really good so far. I'm intrigued to see where the story goes; it's laying the foundations for some major drama in act 2.

          Before that I read Birdsong by Sebastian Faulks, which is mostly harrowing, esp the war sections. I guess it's good to be reminded of the horror of war occasionally, when my usual existence is so comfortable and removed from that kind of disaster.

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            Current Reading - Books best thread

            Finished Ring Road by Ian Sansom, a truly, truly brilliant book.

            Essentially it revolves around life in a small town. Outwardly it is about the banal, the everyday but without being sensational it is a place of intrigue, of overlapping lives, and is as much about memories as what is physically there.

            It's hard to do it justice, but the thing that really appealed to me was the way Sansom has created his characters. they are not just well-created, but are rendered with a sympathetic eye of someone who seems to possess a deeper understanding of life's struggles.

            A few years back I got into an online spat with a literary-type blogger over a rather acerbic pen-portrait of a colleague of theirs which they had posted. Their argument was that they were simply artfully depicting reality and had a perfect right to write as they saw. Perhaps so, but they could learn a huge lesson from Sansom.

            On another note I'm 90% through Robert Pires' autobiography 'Footballeur' which I found for 49p from a charity shop bargain bin. It's a translation from the original French version and was on Yellow Jersey Press which is what caught my eye.

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              Current Reading - Books best thread

              Now I'm halfway through The Cloudspotters Guide and really struggling with it too.

              I'm no fan of science - even pop-science - and it's proving to be a dull read. Despite once being told by an old librarian friend that life is too short to read a book you don't like I always keep on 'till the end, but this may be a rare occasion where I throw in the towel.

              - I've already started flirting with Charles Dickens Tale of Two Cities which is a much more enjoyable read.

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                Current Reading - Books best thread

                Just started "The Bang Bang Club". A memoir of sorts by Greg Marinovich & Joao Silva.
                Both members of a loosely assembled group of white South African photographers documenting the fall of Apartheid.
                Better than I expected to be honest.

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                  Current Reading - Books best thread

                  Finished my MA last week, so can finally begin reading for pleasure once again.

                  Started off with "The Anatomy of a Moment" by Javier Cercas - one of the most boring books I've attempted to read in a long time. I usually give a book 100 pages, but gave up on page 65. I was awful; such a pity as I loved "Soldiers of Salamis" and was looking forward to this.

                  Have moved onto "The Yacoubian Building" by Alaa Al Aswany, which is just superb and bringing back great memories of downtown Cairo and everything I loved about it. Halfway through reading it, don't want it to end.

                  Once that's finished, going to try and read the Eric Hobsbawn "Ages" trilogy.

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                    Current Reading - Books best thread

                    I’ve just finished Only Yesterday: An Informal History of the 1920’s by Frederick Lewis Allen. The title seems straightforward enough, but what it doesn’t tell you is that Allen wrote the book in 1931. It’s surely rare to produce work so close to its period, and have it read as completely relevant over eighty years later.

                    Lewis pulls it off by partly by including details about American life that would have little interest at the time, but fascinate today. Such as how to start a Model T, (laboriously) and what materials bathing costumes were made of in 1921 (uncomfortable ones.) Mainly though he concentrates on the big stories of the decade. Including Teapot Dome, prohibition, the Florida real estate boom (fascinating), and of course the Wall Street Crash. Most of us have heard of these events, and probably have some idea of their historical importance, but to have them recounted from the perspective of the time is especially compelling. I hadn’t realised, for instance, how much the birth of speakeasies had to do with women’s growing sense of independence. Nor, for how long the collapse of the stock market was being predicted — and the predictions ignored. In fact, according to Allen, obliviousness in the face of clear evidence seems to have been theme throughout the decade.

                    I wish there were more books like this, but they must be extremely difficult to write. The distancing required in the face of the immediate past is hard enough. But to be able to hold the attention of audience almost a century away too, well nigh impossible. If anyone knows of others I’d be grateful.

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                      Current Reading - Books best thread

                      I had that assigned in an undergrad history course on 20th Century America. I should probably go back and read that again, I wasn't really reading it all that closely.

                      I finished Those Feet: A Sensual History of English Football by David Winner. I really enjoyed his Brilliant Orange, but this didn't grab me as much. I found the chapter on Italy and England and each country's perceptions of the other very interesting, though.

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                        Current Reading - Books best thread

                        It's worth re-reading; it's an unusually good work of "contemporary history".

                        Speaking of which, I'm rather appalled that ursus minor's AP US History course has been told to cover events through 2000.

                        When I was doing my history degree in the early 80s, it was widely thought that "history" stopped at 1945, at which point "political science/government" took over. Call me old fashioned, but I honestly believe that there just isn't enough archival material available for anyone to produce a thorough history of the 90s.

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                          Current Reading - Books best thread

                          I assumed most people who'd gone through the American school system would have come across it.

                          It's a pity it hasn't traveled more widely, to a non-American, even one who's fairly familiar with the country and it's people, it's extraordinarily illuminating. I not sure there's any British equivalent, for example.

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                            Current Reading - Books best thread

                            I don't think it is widely known outside of the history geek community. It wasn't part of the official syllabus when I was in high school, and isn't part of minor's AP syllabus either (though I suggested he read our copy when he has time).

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                              Current Reading - Books best thread

                              I've recently started (and am a few books into) Armistead Maupin's Tales of the City series. And while it's contrived, a bit cheesy in places and very dated, good lord am I enjoying it. I've demolished the first three books and am well into the fourth.

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                                Current Reading - Books best thread

                                I finally read the first two, a year or so ago, and I absolutely agree with your assessment.

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                                  Current Reading - Books best thread

                                  Alright, I've finally discovered what others have known for 35 years: A Confederacy of Dunces is marvellous. Sure, there are probably as many people who couldn't stand it as there are who champion it, but I thought it was terrific. Loved every page.

                                  What's baffling to me is how it went unpublished for so long (roughly 17 years, all-told). It really does make you wonder how many unpublished masterpieces are lying around under people's beds while middling stuff finds a receptive audience.

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                                    Current Reading - Books best thread

                                    I recently finished (far too slowly) Guns, Germs And Steel by Jared Diamond, as recommended by someone on here in either this thread or a different Books one. I found it very interesting.

                                    I am now demolishing South by Ernest Shackleton, the story of the Endurance expedition, its abandonment when the ship got trapped in the ice, and how the party escaped Antarctica via Elephant Island to get back to South Georgia and civilisation. That it's factual and authored by Shackleton rather gives away the ending even if one doesn't already know the story, granted, but it's no less fascinating for that.

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                                      Current Reading - Books best thread

                                      Sam wrote: I am now demolishing South by Ernest Shackleton, the story of the Endurance expedition, its abandonment when the ship got trapped in the ice, and how the party escaped Antarctica via Elephant Island to get back to South Georgia and civilisation. That it's factual and authored by Shackleton rather gives away the ending even if one doesn't already know the story, granted, but it's no less fascinating for that.
                                      The story is amazing. I find it hard to get over how ridiculously far the technological developments have gone in the slightly over 100 years since this expedition was undertaken.

                                      Your Antarctic expedition is in serious trouble, so what do you do? Nowadays: make a distress call on a satellite phone and await the cavalry. Back then: tough break, you're floating around on an ice floe - deal with it.

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                                        Current Reading - Books best thread

                                        Indeed. It's interesting reading between the lines, too. For example a few nights ago I looked up the stowaway on Wikipedia, and he was photographed with a cat called Mrs. Chippy. I noticed Mrs. Chippy had her own Wikipedia page, so clicked through - she was actually a he, but when he was named they thought he was a girl, and the name stuck. Mrs. Chippy was the carpenter's cat, and had to be shot along with some of the dogs when the ship was crushed by the ice; the carpenter never forgave Shackleton and even whilst working with him for the good of everyone, continued to resent him. After the expedition, on Shackleton's recommendation, the carpenter wasn't awarded a medal of some sort that practically everyone else got, even though they'd all have perished without his skills. It was only after reading the cat's Wiki that I realised Shackleton hasn't actually used the carpenter's name once so far in the book (and I'm now about a third of the way through it) - he's only referred to as 'the carpenter' throughout.

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                                          Current Reading - Books best thread

                                          I'm reading Three Bedrooms in Manhattan by Georges Simenon, which is a story of what people who aren't in a long-term, committed relationship with a five month old son get up to on the island.

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                                            Current Reading - Books best thread

                                            Has anyone read Days of Rage: America's Radical Underground? I need something to read, none of the other books I want are out until later this year, and this looked interesting. But it's a bit steep to take a chance on.

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                                              Current Reading - Books best thread

                                              The books I have read since Christmas:

                                              Watership Down
                                              Undeniably a thrilling and dramatic story, and the pastoral writing in particular is superb, but ultimately Adams’ misogynistic attitude becomes a little too preponderant. Still, the air of grittiness and encroaching desperation is rewarding, offset by the frequent digressions into imaginative fable.

                                              Rivers Of London
                                              The first of Ben Aaronovitch’s supernatural-meets-superintendent ‘Peter Grant, novice wizard’ novels. A big disappointment, very derivative of Neil Gaiman’s Neverwhere. Tonally all over the place, not graced with a wealth of brilliant ideas. And to think this is the guy who made such a good job of novelising Remembrance Of The Daleks.

                                              The Last Werewolf
                                              A novel by Glen Duncan about... yeah, that’s right. The world's single surviving lupine is hounded (aha ha) by a covert quasi-governmental organisation and pale-looking people who only get out at night. An agreeably sleazy take on the werewolves vs vampires vs humans trope, chock full of sex and eviscerations. Duncan can write acres of luridly evocative prose, but his plotting is abysmal. One or two big developments throw the whole story off course and practically every chapter (some of which are pretty short) seems to end with a huge SHOCK moment. Despite these shortcomings, and even though I haven't read very many horror novels, I suspect this is a cut above the pack.

                                              Very Naughty Boys
                                              An excellent account by Robert Sellers of Handmade Films, the movie production venture funded (more than he realised) by George Harrison. There’s lots of detailed information about all their most famous and notorious films, but essentially it’s a character assassination of Denis O’Brien, Harrison’s one-time accountant and co-founder of the enterprise. He was, by all accounts (and I do mean all accounts), an utter bastard. Hilarious, required reading.

                                              Once In A House On Fire
                                              I don’t normally do ‘anguished lives’ fiction, but I flicked through a few pages of this, Andrea Ashworth’s account of an impoverished upbringing in Manchester blighted by not one but two abusive step-fathers, and decided to give it a go. Turns out to be absolutely phenomenally well-written – not a trace of bleating or self-pity, just a numbingly matter-of-fact chronicle of a childhood lived seemingly perpetually in fear, and the little escapes that made it bearable. I won’t say it’s ‘heartrending’, because it never attempts to play on the reader’s emotions, but it makes a huge impact.

                                              Saints Of The Shadow Bible
                                              The latest Rebus novel. The only other one I’ve read was its predecessor, Standing In Another Man’s Grave, last year. Very readable genre fiction, undemanding stuff. Stocked with plenty of clichés and the odd bit of naff prose – I found myself laughing at all the wrong bits. Decent enough on a sun lounger.

                                              Regeneration
                                              Edinburgh again - Pat Barker’s story of Siegfried Sassoon’s convalescence at Craiglockhart War Hospital. Only a couple of chapters in but impressed so far. Haven’t looked at it since we got back from holiday, though, because it takes me back to long sunny days by the pool with a huge G and T. Too painful.

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                                                Current Reading - Books best thread

                                                I quite like the Rivers of London series, but you're right that they're all over the place. They don't get any better, but (like the Bryant & May series) as something for a flight or holiday they're not bad.

                                                I've read a lot of Glen Duncan's stuff and it's a fascinating mix. Death of an Ordinary Man: grim as. I, Lucifer: sleazy and compelling. The Bloodstone Papers: completely different, feels like an autobiographical treatise on race in places. I'm ambivalent on the werewolf series; always readable, always a cut above the writing you'd expect, but still somehow a little wanting. I'm hoping his next book isn't a fourth in that series. I think it's done.

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                                                  Current Reading - Books best thread

                                                  Sam wrote: Indeed. It's interesting reading between the lines, too. For example a few nights ago I looked up the stowaway on Wikipedia, and he was photographed with a cat called Mrs. Chippy. I noticed Mrs. Chippy had her own Wikipedia page, so clicked through - she was actually a he, but when he was named they thought he was a girl, and the name stuck. Mrs. Chippy was the carpenter's cat, and had to be shot along with some of the dogs when the ship was crushed by the ice; the carpenter never forgave Shackleton and even whilst working with him for the good of everyone, continued to resent him. After the expedition, on Shackleton's recommendation, the carpenter wasn't awarded a medal of some sort that practically everyone else got, even though they'd all have perished without his skills. It was only after reading the cat's Wiki that I realised Shackleton hasn't actually used the carpenter's name once so far in the book (and I'm now about a third of the way through it) - he's only referred to as 'the carpenter' throughout.
                                                  I owe Sir Ernest an apology - he does in fact name the carpenter fairly frequently, just never when he mentioned him in his capacity as carpenter.

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                                                    Current Reading - Books best thread

                                                    I have now finished South and embarked on Puro Fútbol by Roberto Fontanarrosa; a collection of short stories (some very short indeed) about football by one of Argentina's best-loved contemporary writers. It includes one story which is an internal monologue of an old veteran right winger about how he misses his playing days (or something; I've not read it yet) which the reader gradually realises is actually not a real footballer, but a sentient table football figurine. It formed the inspiration for the 2013 film Metegol, which Wiki informs me was released in the UK as The Unbeatables last year, and is released this year in the States as Underdogs.

                                                    Anyway, so far it's a good book.

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