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The Radio 3 Boards > Arts Other Than Music > Literature > This week, I have been mostly reading
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Author Topic: This week, I have been mostly reading  (Read 11300 times)
IgnorantRockFan
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« Reply #15 on: 22:12:04, 18-07-2007 »
On the journey to work -- the July issue of Analog Science Fiction.

At home -- finally got round to starting Frazer's The Golden Bough ... this one might take me a while to get through  Undecided
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Allegro, ma non tanto
richard barrett
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« Reply #16 on: 22:18:24, 18-07-2007 »
Quote from: George Garnett on 22:08:26, 18-07-2007
This particular week it's been Flann O'Brien's "The Third Policeman". I am sorry to say I can't now remember who it was that recommended it but, whoever you are, thank you very much. I've had a wonderful time with it. It's one of those books that once you've entered its world, it becomes a familiar landscape and part of your life.
Don't forget to follow it with The Dalkey Archive, which, though not on the same level of inspiration, does feature the mad scientist De Selby in a speaking role. And O'Brien's first novel At Swim-Two-Birds which to my mind is very nearly the equal of Policeman though in a very different way... and while you're at it the two collections of his regular columns for the Irish Times are worth a peruse too.

Looking forward to some SF recommendations - I like science fiction very much indeed, the only problem being most of it is so badly written. The last SF book I really enjoyed was Justina Robson's Natural History, though, sadly, her subsequent work seems to have been on a downhill trajectory from there...

Does anyone apart from me think Kazuo Ishiguro's The Unconsoled is a truly great novel (and by far his best)?

At the moment though I'm reading Chomsky's Failed States, which I think is also brilliant, but not in a way I find at all "enjoyable".
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martle
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« Reply #17 on: 22:20:11, 18-07-2007 »
Oh, why didn't we think of this before?? Wonderful idea, thanks hh.

The Great Gatsby, for about the third time. George talks about books that gnaw at your skull. This is one of them, for me. I just can't, quite, grasp it, then I think I can, then I realise it's about something else, or think I do, then... and if I'm feeling really sharp I realise that's Fitzgerald's whole point.  Smiley
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increpatio
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« Reply #18 on: 22:21:55, 18-07-2007 »
Quote from: richard barrett on 22:18:24, 18-07-2007
Don't forget to follow it with The Dalkey Archive, which, though not on the same level of inspiration, does feature the mad scientist De Selby in a speaking role. And O'Brien's first novel At Swim-Two-Birds which to my mind is very nearly the equal of Policeman though in a very different way... and while you're at it the two collections of his regular columns for the Irish Times are worth a peruse too.

I really liked At Swim Two Birds, much more than I did The Third Policeman (though I did also like that).  I've been meaning to get the recently published collection of his newspaper articles (mostly bilingual).  Haven't read the Dalkey Archive. Will have to give it a go. I don't think anyone does farce better than F O'B Cheesy
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harmonyharmony
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« Reply #19 on: 22:26:01, 18-07-2007 »
Quote from: IgnorantRockFan on 22:12:04, 18-07-2007
At home -- finally got round to starting Frazer's The Golden Bough ... this one might take me a while to get through  Undecided
That's been on my 'to read' pile since 1995...
Le Morte Darthur has just leapfrogged over it.
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aaron cassidy
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« Reply #20 on: 22:31:48, 18-07-2007 »
Currently alternating b/t loving and loathing Brian Greene's The Fabric of the Cosmos.  Some of his dumbed-down explanations are perfectly crafted to allow doofuses like me to understand the concepts; others are dumbed-down to the point of absurdity, and often the analogies (particularly the running references to the Simpsons, which are rarely helpful) grate on my nerves.
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George Garnett
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« Reply #21 on: 22:35:29, 18-07-2007 »
Thanks Richard, Martle and Increpatio. They're all now on the list!

Yikes! I knew this would happen. Looking at the list and comparing it with the time left before the grave it's going to be very tight but I'll do my best. (Maybe some of the more arcane gender-political-musicology stuff will have to wait until after the grave. I can see it might look more attractive if it turns out that there is an eternity to fill after all.)

One other book I've greatly enjoyed reading recently: Elizabeth Taylor (no, the other one): Mrs Palfrey at the Claremont. A beautiful, understated, gentle, humane book in which almost nothing happens. 
« Last Edit: 22:48:13, 18-07-2007 by George Garnett » Logged
A
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« Reply #22 on: 22:42:31, 18-07-2007 »
Does anyone else like Bernice Rubens? she has a whacky sense of the macabre and a lovely turn of phrase. I think I have read them all...I used to own them too but sadly no longer!

Titles include 'Yesterday in the Back lane' , 'I Drufus', 'Mr Wakefield's crusade'

A
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Ian Pace
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« Reply #23 on: 22:45:30, 18-07-2007 »
Envious of you all having lots of reading time for novels! Over this month my own reading matter has been utterly dominated by volumes of Brahms correspondence and various other German texts to do with the reception of his music and so on - fascinating stuff, but hard work; just checking for any directly or indirectly performance-related comments I might have previously missed. But as a break from that I've been having another read through Mark Steel's Reasons to be Cheerful, a very funny book that any good leftist will enjoy!
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'These acts of keeping politics out of music, however, do not prevent musicology from being a political act . . .they assure that every apolitical act assumes a greater political immediacy' - Philip Bohlman, 'Musicology as a Political Act'
increpatio
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« Reply #24 on: 22:46:43, 18-07-2007 »
Quote from: A on 22:42:31, 18-07-2007
Does anyone else like Bernice Rubens? she has a whacky sense of the macabre and a lovely turn of phrase. I think I have read them all...I used to own them too but sadly no longer!

Titles include 'Yesterday in the Back lane' , 'I Drufus', 'Mr Wakefield's crusade'

A



Whacky sense of the macabre eh?  Sounds like my sort of author; will add her to my mental list.
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Milly Jones
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« Reply #25 on: 22:49:08, 18-07-2007 »
Quote from: richard barrett on 21:58:14, 18-07-2007
Quote from: Milly Jones on 19:49:22, 18-07-2007
I'm reading "Life's Solution - Inevitable Humans in a Lonely Universe", by Simon Conway Morris.

This is a fascinating read for all of of us who struggle with the concept of evolution and our place in the universe.  It discusses whether the emergence of life will inevitably lead to intelligence - is evolution random, or is there a pattern?  I'm reading about research on the convergence and lability of brain structure and its correlations with function and ecology.

Well I'm enjoying it anyway. Smiley
I found that a very interesting book too, Milly, highly thoughtful and thought-provoking, though it edges a bit too close to religion for my liking...

That's why I like it Richard.  Paul Davies says it all for me in the pre-publication praise - "This is a truly inspiring book, and a welcome antidote to the bleak nihilism of the ultra-Darwinists".

Food for thought.
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autoharp
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« Reply #26 on: 22:49:48, 18-07-2007 »
Dividing time between The Lamberts (Paul Motion), and The Trachtenberg system of speed mathematics. Both will get sidelined by this week's Private Eye. The latter reveals that Mr Keith Burstein could experience future difficulties.
I encountered that Kit Lambert on a plane once . . .
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martle
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« Reply #27 on: 22:53:14, 18-07-2007 »
auto, that's ANDREW Motion, and a simply brilliant triple biog. Highly recommended to anyone who wants to study the incipient and fanciful hereditary effects of drugs and alcohol.  Shocked
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increpatio
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« Reply #28 on: 22:56:44, 18-07-2007 »
Quote from: Milly Jones on 22:49:08, 18-07-2007
That's why I like it Richard.  Paul Davies says it all for me in the pre-publication praise - "This is a truly inspiring book, and a welcome antidote to the bleak nihilism of the ultra-Darwinists".

I do not know if any of the people who might term themselves "ultra-darwinists" (there are few) would consider their outlook in any way bleak or nihilistic!
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autoharp
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« Reply #29 on: 22:57:16, 18-07-2007 »
Aaaaargh ! Thanks, Martle. I blame the vodka before the fish and chips.
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