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Whatcha reading?

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  1. Kirsty
    Member

    Okay, so we're obviously all keen readers on here! ;)

    While i'm waiting for my copy of 'Click' to wing its way to me all the way from the USA, I am reading a really exciting book called 'Under The Skin' by Michel Faber. Btw, if you've read it, please don't tell me the end! I'm lucky enough to be extremely gullible and never see endings or plot twists coming, which does have the advantage of making books more exciting!

    Anyway, if you haven't read it, and you like slightly weird suspensey stuff, I think you might enjoy it.
    Posted 5 years ago #

  2. barcodeart
    Member

    taking notes. taking notes. always love getting suggestions for books from other like-minded individuals. since we're all gather'd at another sky press, i can only assume that we're all fairly like-minded in one way or another.

    we're all mad here. i'm mad. you're mad... or you wouldn't have come here.

    i tend to read 2 books at a time. 1 at home. 1 at work.

    at home: once by james herbert. nearly half way through. never read herbert before. very english (i assume). paints quite a picture. fairy tale so far, that i believe will very soon merge into a horror story. are the 2 really so far apart? so far, very good & odd (older) book. too much time, too much money in used book stores. wonderful habit.

    at work: electric jesus corpse by carlton mellick iii. whoa! really can't put a label on mellick. no category. no box. you have to read him to believe him. crazy. wonderful. if you think the title is wild... dang! like nothing you'll ever read. bizarre & marvelous --- bizarvelous!

    so that's what i'm reading. great topic! any other takers???

    barrels & barrels of smoked sausages & peace. -chris

    deadclownart.com
    Posted 5 years ago #

  3. kristopher
    Author

    Right now I'm reading The Greatest Show on Earth by Daniel Scott Buck - I'm not far enough in to know anything about it, really, other than it's well written. But so far I am definitely enjoying it immensely... so I'll report back.

    I'm also working on Journey to the End of the Night by Celine - which is just masterful. Slow reading though... but masterful.

    kristopher
    Posted 5 years ago #

  4. superk
    Member

    hum.. what am i reading... not much recently, although i'd love to get my hand on a carlton mellick book (anyone read some of his stuff? i'm tempted to buy the haunted vagina, just for the title! like i have a book from marguerite duras called "détruire" which literally means "destroy": never read it, but the title is so cool :)

    i felt like reading the illuminatus (http://www.rawilson.com/illuminatus.html) after one of my friend's described it as "Joyce, but readable" (then the discussion digressed to what about Proust but heck, the guy's a boring sucker).

    so what am i reading? nothing much... although i did move forward in my reading of Click! and i found my favorite passage:

    "i'm feeling particularly disconnected and abstract and i need to ground myself, remind myself that i'm real. so i'm writing the thoughts i have down. not all of them, i leave out the day to day. but the rambling thoughts, i try to keep track of those to remind myself that i am thinking, that i'm going on. and on and on. but i can't think the way i want to.

    "maybe by writing the broken thoughts down, i can kill them off for good. on paper they become fiction, no longer real." (p. 95-96)

    that's one of the nice "steps aside" from the character as he goes into autoanalysis to keep his sanity. i like to use that process as well, whether by talking to the reader or by simply making the narrator talk to himself.

    offscreen: i just published a new article on my site where i launched a contest! yes! a contest! (ok trying to act like a marketing clown :)
    http://lkm696.blogspot.com/2006/10/contest.html

    kristopher, if u could tell jesse about the contest i'd appreciate, i already linked to his site. maybe dead clown would like to give it a try: a dead clown next to a fib would look good :)

    K
    BS: i tried to read Journey to the End of the Night twice, and both times, i stopped at the same place, around page 200, where they're in an open field and the night just doesn't end... that was an eyelid closer. also had that problem with a novel by louis hamelin. the chapter was called "the longest night": i never finished it :)
    Posted 5 years ago #

  5. superk
    Member

    ok obviously i was in too much of a hurry to read dead clown's post fully! so cm3 looks cool :)
    Posted 5 years ago #

  6. barcodeart
    Member

    nuttin but squirrel love, superk. mellick is quite unlike. reading his book titles aloud requires an R rating in certain crowds. cube neighbor was openly offended by electric jesus corpse. never read a word inside, just the title. this title taken apart wouldn't raise half an eyebrow... but put 'em together, & be on the lookout for the other 3 horsemen. ouch!

    read a couple of your english fibs. interesting challenge. i'll try to find some time over the next couple. time has been against me lately. we're arm wrestling. i'm losing. need more fiber. energy drinks. ginseng. sleep. can't win 'em all, time. we'll arm wrestle again real soon.

    okay. sleep.

    chris

    deadclownart.com
    Posted 5 years ago #

  7. superk
    Member

    fair enough chris, fair enough, and i'll buy the haunted vagina just so we can compare readings :)
    Posted 5 years ago #

  8. kristopher
    Author

    Lots to reply to:
    1. Journey to the End of the Night - it's a slow read for me too. Very slow. I've read about 5 other books since I started it. But it's also... beautiful. As in, I need to finish it. And then I have to read it's companion novel, Death on the Installment Plan. I feel as if I've embarked on a multi-year mission.

    2. CM3 - I book traded with Carlton and recently finished The Menstruating Mall. It was definitely worth my time, and CM3 is definitely worth reading... but it's much 'lighter' reading than I expected. It also seemed a bit short (novella), especially with all of the drawings (which didn't do anything for me). I suppose part of it is that I just wanted more story - which is a compliment. But the characters in TMM were all intentional stereotypes which made their dialogue and actions stereotypical as well ("I will kill you all!" type stuff)... which made for very light reading. It was nothing like what I normally read.

    3. the Click quote - I like that one too. Which I suppose is obvious, since I included it... but you know what I mean.

    4. The Illuminatus Trilogy - Read it!!! Robert Anton Wilson is required reading, I think... and that's the one to read.

    5 . Contest - broken link?

    6. James Herbert... hmmm... I've only read Frank. The first few books of Dune are essential.

    -kristopher
    Posted 5 years ago #

  9. superk
    Member

    Thx for your replies, I've unbroken the broken link for the contest in the post above, here it is again: http://lkm696.blogspot.com/2006/10/contest.html

    As for CM3, hum... you didn't make me feel like reading it from your comment ;)

    And about The Illuminatus, seems to resemble Ubu Roi from what I gather: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ubu_Roi

    Some kind of satyre/trashy work combining conspiracy theories, parody and much much more!
    Posted 5 years ago #

  10. kristopher
    Author

    No! I didn't mean to dissuade you from reading CM3 - I think he's definitely worth checking out, and I'm planning on reading another by him. It's just nothing like I expected, and not my normal fare. Chris - which was your favorite book by him? And have you read The Menstruating Mall? Thoughts?

    And yes, that sounds quite a bit like Robert Anton Wilson.
    Posted 5 years ago #

  11. superk
    Member

    Ok then i'll give CM3 a try. And I'm planning on buying The Illuminatus for my friend who just turned 33: the magic number :)

    BTW I fell upon the "Club des Haschichins" yesterday night. Théophile Gauthier, Baudelaire and Nerval were part of that 19th Century group which aimed at discovering haschich's virtues, with the help of Jacques Joseph Moreau (http://fr.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jacques-Joseph_Moreau), a French psychiatrist who wrote an interesting study called "Of Haschisch and Mental Alienation" (http://www.psychanalyse-paris.com/-Du-Hachisch-et-de-l-alienation-.html).

    The whole version of Théophile Gautier's "Le Club des Haschichins" is online: http://www.psychanalyse-paris.com/Le-club-des-Haschischins.html.

    You can surely find a translation somewhere. Google translate it :)
    Posted 5 years ago #

  12. christine!
    Member

    I'm currently reading Tipping the Velvet by Sarah Waters

    and

    Perv by Jerry Stahl

    Not too enthralled by Perv, but what I've read so far of Tipping the Velvet is pretty good. I can't think of anything more interesting to say than that... all jet lagged and sick.
    Posted 5 years ago #

  13. barcodeart
    Member

    Chris - which was your favorite book by him? And have you read The Menstruating Mall? Thoughts?


    haven't finished electric jesus corpse, but i think it's the best of what i've read of mellick's work. borrowed baby jesus butt plug (another wonderfully wrong title), but gave it back before i finished. couldn't get into it for some reason. maybe the wrong time to read it? i don't know. i'll probably revisit. haven't read menstruating mall, but hear/read it's illustrated? did mellick illustrate it? might be worth checking out. so far everything i've read by mellick is at the very least worth checking out. odd books every one. don't know if what i've read of him changed me, but it's made me look at things differently. words especially. titles? um, yes.

    anybody else? soaking all of this up. jotting down authors & books. has everybody read mark haddon's the curious incident of the dog in the night-time? yes, everybody, not anybody. what an incredibly sad & triumphant book! main character that you absolutely don't want to let go of at the end. amazing!

    read. read. read. sleep. great big dumptrucks of dreams.

    chris
    deadclownart.com
    Posted 5 years ago #

  14. superk
    Member

    dead clown wrote:


    has everybody read mark haddon's the curious incident of the dog in the night-time? yes, everybody, not anybody. what an incredibly sad & triumphant book! main character that you absolutely don't want to let go of at the end. amazing!


    Nope, taking it down. The list of books to read just keeps on growing, it's alive!
    Posted 5 years ago #

  15. kristopher
    Author

    I'm currently reading The Beach by Alex Garland. It's fantastic; I wish I hadn't seen the film (which wasn't fantastic) because I wish I didn't know the basic plotline. Highly recommended, and I look forward to reading The Tesseract by him.

    Since you're all making lists... read Jose Saramago's Blindness. Stunning.

    Haven't read Mark Haddon; I'll add to my list. After The Beach, I'm on to Digging the Vein by Tony O'neill and then Gina Ranalli's Chemical Gardens (which I think is a punk rock revisioning of The Wizard of Oz).
    Posted 5 years ago #

  16. Craig
    Member

    I just finished reading "Live and Let Die" by Ian Fleming - I really enjoyed it.  Good build-up of tension, and lots o' odds against James Bond.  Before that, "Permanent Midnight" by Jerry Stahl - what a hilarious and disturbing drug-soaked ride that was... recommended.

    And now, I plan to give "Ulysses" a shot.  That's right, ladies and gentlemen and assorted hooligans - your fearless Another Sky Press editor is going to delve into his first work by James Joyce.  Wish me the best, and I hope to see you on the other side of the English language.
    Posted 5 years ago #

  17. kristopher
    Author

    I just finished Tony O'Neill's Digging the Vein and Craig Davidson's The Fighter. Digging the Vein is probably the best heroin novel I've ever read... I need to let it stew for awhile before I make my final decision, but it was beautifully written, unapologetic without romanticizing the drug, and just plain real. Highly recommended. The Fighter is probably the most brutal book I've ever read -- imagine what happened to Angel Face in Fight Club and amp it up, rinse and repeat. Well written, engaging, fun, and even surreal at times.

    Next up are -- The Tesseract and The Road.
    Posted 5 years ago #

  18. Kirsty
    Member

    How're you getting on with Joyce, Craig? :-

    I've been reading We Need To Talk About Kevin by Lionel Shriver - bit too much naval gazing in the first half of the book, but after that you'd better take sides and hold on tight! I thought the end was particularly strong (I won't say why in case I wreck it for you!) and although up to that point I was mainly on Kevin's side, it made me sympathise with the mother.

    I also read Chuck Palahniuk's Haunted recently. I thought the short stories within it were outstanding but the overall story knitting it together bored me. I really couldn't get on with his sentence structures either (or as he would write: His sentence structures, I couldn't get on with them.)
    Posted 5 years ago #

  19. superk
    Member

    Recently I read:
    Posted 5 years ago #

  20. Craig
    Member

    Kirsty wrote:


    How're you getting on with Joyce, Craig? :-


    Truth be told, I haven't had much time to read lately. Between work and editing and other Craig-related capers, there's been precious little time. But what I've read so far has piqued my interest. I think I'll be up for the challenge.

    I also read Chuck Palahniuk's Haunted recently. I thought the short stories within it were outstanding but the overall story knitting it together bored me. I really couldn't get on with his sentence structures either (or as he would write: His sentence structures, I couldn't get on with them.)


    Chuck has his own voice - that's inarguable - and he uses it recurrently in each novel. I like it because it's unique and carries a, hmm, "contemporary appeal." As if it's some sort of post-modern slang or method of speaking. BUT, what happens is, he can tend to overuse that voice. I still have to read "Haunted." It's in my "to get to by 2010" pile with several other books. "Invisible Monsters" remains my favorite, though all of his other books were enjoyable.
    Posted 5 years ago #

  21. StephenA
    Member

    I don't read as much as I used to, but we're hopefully three weeks away from becoming New Zealanders, so I've been reading to unwind a bit. :)

    I enjoyed The Doors of His Face, The Lamps of His Mouth, which is a collection of short stories by Roger Zelazny. It's a bit variable, but he had a great imagination, and it was fun watching him break the rules. I've also just finished Flowers for Algernon, which is amazing. A book hasn't had that kind of emotional impact on me for a while.

    Stephen.
    Posted 4 years ago #

  22. Craig
    Member

    Hey Stephen-

    I've had no time to read a damn thing. With the anthology near completion, I hope to rectify that...

    -Craig.
    Posted 4 years ago #

  23. kristopher
    Author

    StephenA wrote:


    I don't read as much as I used to, but we're hopefully three weeks away from becoming New Zealanders, so I've been reading to unwind a bit. :)

    I enjoyed The Doors of His Face, The Lamps of His Mouth, which is a collection of short stories by Roger Zelazny. It's a bit variable, but he had a great imagination, and it was fun watching him break the rules. I've also just finished Flowers for Algernon, which is amazing. A book hasn't had that kind of emotional impact on me for a while.

    Stephen.


    You're moving to New Zealand?!!? Wow. Lucky you. You have no idea how much I want to get there...

    Reading wise, I've mostly been buried in manuscripts (some very, very good ones!) and copy-editing short stories (ditto!). I look forward to getting back to my to-read list sometime, though.

    Flowers for Algernon is beautiful. I was actually thinking about it recently while working on my own novel. It has nothing to do with Flowers for Algernon, but one little bit I was writing evoked memories of it. I remember scrawling in the margin of the paper that I'd need to find it and re-read it sometime soon. Which I will.

    -kristopher
    Posted 4 years ago #

  24. StephenA
    Member

    Craig wrote:


    Hey Stephen-

    I've had no time to read a damn thing. With the anthology near completion, I hope to rectify that...

    -Craig.


    :( And that's partially my fault, too... I know I've said this before, but I can't say how much I appreciate the effort everyone at Another Sky is putting in.


    Stephen.
    Posted 4 years ago #

  25. Caleb
    Member

    Craig wrote:


    Chuck has his own voice - that's inarguable - and he uses it recurrently in each novel. I like it because it's unique and carries a, hmm, "contemporary appeal." As if it's some sort of post-modern slang or method of speaking. BUT, what happens is, he can tend to overuse that voice.

    I recently finished Chuck's newest, Rant (review at Dogmatika: http://dogmatika.com/dm/books_more.php?id=2616_0_3_0_M) and came to this exact same conclusion, though I suppose a few books later than you did, Craig. Chuck seems to be exploiting his own voice after so many novels. Can't say I blame him, it seems to be working for him. And it gets people reading.
    Posted 4 years ago #

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