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David 
I dare you to try
Joined: 27 Jul 2003
Location: Andromeda
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I have to admit I haven't, but I'm rather curious about the film. Apparently it's a bit of a train-wreck, but an ambitious one!
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3.14159 
Joined: 12 Sep 2009
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reading "Gum" by Ashley Hay.
The story of eucalypts...and their champions.
And The Future Eaters, by Tim Flannery.
Last edited by 3.14159 on Wed Mar 20, 2013 8:29 pm; edited 1 time in total |
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Skids 
Quitting drinking will be one of the best choices you make in your life.
Joined: 11 Sep 2007
Location: Joined 3/6/02 . Member #175
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Just finished Lou Richards book. Read Bart Cummings one prior to that.
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Don't count the days, make the days count. |
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watt price tully 
Joined: 15 May 2007
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| David wrote: | As I just posted on Facebook, I've read a pitiful total of 8 novels in the last 6 and a half years (i.e. my adult life):
Frankenstein by Mary Shelley
Cat's Cradle by Kurt Vonnegut
High Fidelity by Nick Hornby
Lady Chatterley's Lover by D. H. Lawrence
How I Live Now by Meg Rosoff
Keep the Aspidistra Flying by George Orwell
A259 Multiplex Bomb "Outrage" by Simon Strong
Slaughterhouse 5 by Kurt Vonnegut
Something needs to be done about this. I need recommendations! |
I recommend two novels worth reading:
1. Ragtime by E L Doctorow (1975)
2. The Big Sleep by Raymond Chandler (1939)
Both in my view are brilliant novels that are enjoyable reads.
Currently, I'm re-reading some of Ian Rankin's Inspector Rebus novels. I love crime fiction when it's well written.
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“I even went as far as becoming a Southern Baptist until I realised they didn’t keep ‘em under long enough” Kinky Friedman |
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stui magpie 
Prepare for the worst, hope for the best.
Joined: 03 May 2005
Location: In flagrante delicto
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I bought the first 4 books in the Game of Thrones saga a while back, but struggled to get started.
While on holidays I've finished the first one and now half way through the second. Good read once you get the hang of it.
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Every dead body on Mt Everest was once a highly motivated person, so maybe just calm the **** down. |
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stui magpie
Prepare for the worst, hope for the best.
Joined: 03 May 2005
Location: In flagrante delicto
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Read the first 4 Game of Throes books in quick succession, very good read. Got book 5 on pre order from Amazon last week and only just started it, then I saw matthew Reilly's latest in Kmart today and grabbed it.
Game of Thrones can wait, only Reilly could make a book about a chess tournament in the 1600's interesting.
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Every dead body on Mt Everest was once a highly motivated person, so maybe just calm the **** down. |
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mandy 
Joined: 03 Jun 2001
Location: Glen Iris
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Right now reading "On Father's Day".
It's not an easy read. So sad.
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blackmissionary
Lurker King
Joined: 26 Jul 2002
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| David wrote: | | A259 Multiplex Bomb "Outrage" by Simon Strong |
What kind of novel is this? Hard to find much info on it online.
Also, in terms of recommendations, what kind of stuff are you normally into? Or are you looking to branch out a bit into different genres? |
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Wokko 
Come and take it.
Joined: 04 Oct 2005
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Reading Watchmen now, the graphic novel that the movie is based on. I love the term 'graphic novel' because it allows a 34 year old man to read comic books.  |
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David
I dare you to try
Joined: 27 Jul 2003
Location: Andromeda
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It's an underground absurdist novel from the early '90s by an English author and punk singer now residing in Melbourne. The premise, from what I can recall, is this: Jim Morrison of The Doors borrows his father's time machine in order to steal musical ideas from the '70s; a severed penis turns up in a box in Jayne Mansfield's car after her death; the protagonist has fevered dreams about stealing and defiling Mansfield's severed head; and various wacky things happen. In the middle is several pages lifted directly (untranslated) from the French surrealist novel Maldoror. It's pretty nuts.
Here's the editor's introduction to the book:
http://www.stewarthomesociety.org/sp/moffatt.htm
| Quote: | On the spur of a mad moment one does crazy things which, reviewed in the light of experience often seem to open the floodgates of self-destruction. The valiant soul tries to compensate by performing super-human feats to counteract foolishness. The run-of-the-mill types get uptight and fall apart. I have always considered myself resilient. Under the circumstances it is just as well that some mysterious power of self-preservation burns bright within my writing 'heart'.
When Colin Woodcock of Codex threw the idea of becoming his fiction editor at me I instantly accepted the invitation. In the cold light of after-the-fact reasoning this was really asking for trouble. Colin knew several of my close friends who nursed writing ambitions and it did not surprise me when I found their efforts in the pile of manuscripts that had been dumped on my desk. It didn't take long to sort through the submissions. First of all I threw out everything that was over sixty thousand words in length. Next, I went through the covering letters that accompanied the manuscripts. Seven would-be authors were rejected for making references to their 'art', twenty-four for mentioning writers I don't like and one for using the word 'caveat'. I was able to eliminate another two authors because of their posh double-barrelled surnames and a third for being called Rupert. After twenty minutes work I was left with just one possible candidate for publication, A259 Multiplex Bomb 'Outrage' by Simon Strong.
My heart sunk, I'd never yet read a decent line of fiction by an unpublished author who was also a personal acquaintance. Codex had to publish something and Simon's manuscript was the only thing to survive my rigorous selection process. I settled down to read the text and in the first tense ticking-off seconds I knew my reputation hung in the balance. Fortunately, A259 Multiplex Bomb 'Outrage' was the best novel I'd read by a British author in years! What I am doing in seeing this book through to publication is not nepotism. For too long the paperback author has resided in a wilderness remote from 'literary' acclaim. The writers who 'slave' to bring the reading public entertainment at a reasonable price are the backbone of an industry geared to honour those for whom the 'bell should not always toll'. Far too many critics devote lengthy passages to books ghosted for this, or that, personality. 'Ghosted' by the real pro, I may add. Others are subjected to adulation when, in fact, their efforts are the result of editorial revision which turns a moderate manuscript into a work of genius.
Simon Strong isn't going to win the Booker Prize, I wouldn't want to be involved with anything likely to win 'accolades' of that type! Instead, A259 Multiplex Bomb 'Outrage' gives fiction back the bad name it needs in these days of literary respectability and the hype surrounding the inflated advances given to authors who have singularly failed to sink their teeth into the task of re-inventing world culture in its entirety. What does the reading public really want, the effete twitterings of the Oxbridge 'elite' or the no-holds barred pulp-spatter of Simon Strong? History will vindicate my judgement... |
I think you can get it at Polyester in Fitzroy. 
Personally, I don't read nearly as many books as I would like. I'm most interested in literary novels, whatever that meansthose with unusual structures and interesting ideas. My favourite author is probably Kurt Vonnegut, if that helps.
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All watched over by machines of loving grace
Last edited by David on Tue Nov 19, 2013 4:47 pm; edited 1 time in total |
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Wokko
Come and take it.
Joined: 04 Oct 2005
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| You're a different cat David. |
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David
I dare you to try
Joined: 27 Jul 2003
Location: Andromeda
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Haha, that may be something of an understatement. 
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All watched over by machines of loving grace |
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blackmissionary
Lurker King
Joined: 26 Jul 2002
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| David wrote: | | Personally, I don't read nearly as many books as I would like. I'm most interested in literary novels, whatever that meansthose with unusual structures and interesting ideas. My favourite author is probably Kurt Vonnegut, if that helps. |
Sounds pretty crazy, I have pretty diverse taste, might make the trip out there to nab a copy some day. You might want to check out Life Kills by Miles Vertigan, which is pretty insane. Perhaps also Confederacy of Dunces by John Kennedy Toole, which while perhaps not being the comic masterpiece a lot of people make it out to be, is certainly very influential. DBC Pierre probably wouldn't have a career otherwise.
http://www.milesvertigan.com/?q=life-kills
Kurt Vonnegut, eh? I've read Slaughterhouse 5, and the posthumous collection Armageddon in Retrospect, with which it shares a few thematic similarities. 'So it goes.' is certainly now part of my lexicon.
Because I'm involved in teaching it (as well looking at stuff for my PhD), I've been reading a lot of Australian literature the last few years compared to other things. Read Tsiolkas' Barracuda last week, not his best, but still interesting as usual. |
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David
I dare you to try
Joined: 27 Jul 2003
Location: Andromeda
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I love Slaughterhouse 5, but I think Cat's Cradle might be Vonnegut's masterpiece. I'm not feeling sufficiently articulate to synopsise or explain why, but do check it out if you get a chance.
I'd love to read some Tsiolkas. I've read very little Australian literature, I'm sorry to say, but I suspect I'd like his stuff. Thanks for the recommendations!
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All watched over by machines of loving grace |
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Tannin 
Can't remember
Joined: 06 Aug 2006
Location: Huon Valley Tasmania
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I have never understood all the love for Slaughterhouse 5. I've probably read Cat's Cradle, but if so I can't remember it. In fact, I think the only Vonnegut I remember reading out of the (probably) dozen or more I once read is Slaughterhouse 5, which I re-read a couple of times, mostly 'coz I thought there was supposed to be something special about it and thought it might become apparent if I read it again. It never did.
I daresay I have it lying around somewhere, I'll dig it out one day and have another look. I may have Cat's Cradle too - who knows what is on the old science fiction shelves? Hundreds and hundreds of books from my misspent youth but I've stacked stuff in front of them 'coz I need the room and I seldom bother moving the stacked stuff to get at the old books unless I want something in particular. Over the years, I've pulled out almost all the interesting or worthwhile volumes (leaving scattered gaps on the once beautifully-sorted shelves, and also teetering piles of un-sorted books on any spare flat surface in the other rooms), so there is even less reason to investigate the shelf-dwellers than there was. There might be quite a lot of Vonnegut there.
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�Let's eat Grandma.� Commas save lives! |
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