Now reading...

[Jazzmoose]

Still reading "Brave New World". I've developed a bit of a taste for these "dystopian future" books. Over the past year I've read Burgess's "Clockwork Orange" and "1985", "1984" and a Martin Amis short story. Anyone got any other suggestions? Preferably not too sci-fi.

I don't know how dystopian you want to go, but you might try Brian Aldiss' Greybeard, though be warned, the premise that launches the story is definitely sf. I hope.

[rdavenport]

Thanks Jazzbo/Jazzmoose, I'll look into those.

[BillF]

Still reading "Brave New World". I've developed a bit of a taste for these "dystopian future" books. Over the past year I've read Burgess's "Clockwork Orange" and "1985", "1984" and a Martin Amis short story. Anyone got any other suggestions? Preferably not too sci-fi.

Here's a little list:

Ray Bradbury, Farenheit 451

Margaret Atwood, The Handmaid's Tale and Oryx and Crake

Kasuo Ishiguro, Never Let Me Go

Cormac McCarthy, The Road

[rdavenport]

Still reading "Brave New World". I've developed a bit of a taste for these "dystopian future" books. Over the past year I've read Burgess's "Clockwork Orange" and "1985", "1984" and a Martin Amis short story. Anyone got any other suggestions? Preferably not too sci-fi.

Here's a little list:

Ray Bradbury, Farenheit 451

Margaret Atwood, The Handmaid's Tale and Oryx and Crake

Kasuo Ishiguro, Never Let Me Go

Cormac McCarthy, The Road

Ta Bill. Funnily enough, a couple of days ago a colleague of my wife was telling her that he found "The Road" an almost life-changing experience.

[A Lark Ascending]

Still reading "Brave New World". I've developed a bit of a taste for these "dystopian future" books. Over the past year I've read Burgess's "Clockwork Orange" and "1985", "1984" and a Martin Amis short story. Anyone got any other suggestions? Preferably not too sci-fi.

Here's a little list:

Ray Bradbury, Farenheit 451

Margaret Atwood, The Handmaid's Tale and Oryx and Crake

Kasuo Ishiguro, Never Let Me Go

Cormac McCarthy, The Road

The two highlighted immediately sprang to my mind. Both are in a world not that disimilar to ours but where rather unpleasant things have gone several stages too far.

I'm enjoying:

Suits my taste for books that question orthodox mythologies. Interesting to read how the anti-modernist bias of some of the early collectors helped shape at least one dominant interpretation of the music; and how similar it is to how many of the English collectors reacted in pursuit of 'authentic' folk music.

[BruceH]

Still reading "Brave New World". I've developed a bit of a taste for these "dystopian future" books. Over the past year I've read Burgess's "Clockwork Orange" and "1985", "1984" and a Martin Amis short story. Anyone got any other suggestions? Preferably not too sci-fi.

"334" by Thomas Disch. Hardly sf at all.

Also "The Space Merchants" by Pohl & Kornbluth. Might be too "sci-fi" for you though, as it presents a nightmare future in which corporations and manipulative advertising have taken over society, and we all know that couldn't happen, right?

Then there's that OTHER Edgar Pangborn post-apocolyptic novel, "Davy," which is so light and happy that it hardly qualifies as dystopian, despite the setting. It almost makes you wish you could be lucky enough to live in such a world.

[Van Basten II]

Currently reading this

Juliette by the Marquis de Sade

Finished the first part, one thing for sure won't watch the movie, compared to the scenes described in the book Antichrist is a Walt Disney story. The book is nontheless fascinating although it feels like a porn movie, dirty and explicite scenes followed by philosophical comments and so on. Will read the second part eventually but need to read something different, to woipe away the memory of blood and other body fluids.

Have startd reading this one.

What's going on I can't post pictures anymore ???

Anyway Common Ground by Anthony Lukas

If this is as fascinating as Big Trouble by the same author, I'll be for a treat.

[ejp626]

Still reading "Brave New World". I've developed a bit of a taste for these "dystopian future" books. Over the past year I've read Burgess's "Clockwork Orange" and "1985", "1984" and a Martin Amis short story. Anyone got any other suggestions? Preferably not too sci-fi.

Here's a little list:

Ray Bradbury, Farenheit 451

Margaret Atwood, The Handmaid's Tale and Oryx and Crake

Kasuo Ishiguro, Never Let Me Go

Cormac McCarthy, The Road

If you want the grand-daddy of dystopian future books, you might consider We by Yevgeny Zamyatin. It was written in 1921, though it saw publication in English and French long before it was published in Zamyantin's native Russia. There are some sci-fi themes but not too much (apparently they eat a petroleum-based diet that killed off the majority of the population when it was introduced!). Anyway, Orwell said it was definitely an influence on 1984, and he thought but couldn't confirm that Huxley was aware of it as well.

[GA Russell]

Tonight I finished The House Without a Key by Earl Derr Biggers (1925), the first Charlie Chan story. Light escapist fare, but a page-turner.

[BillF]

Still reading "Brave New World". I've developed a bit of a taste for these "dystopian future" books. Over the past year I've read Burgess's "Clockwork Orange" and "1985", "1984" and a Martin Amis short story. Anyone got any other suggestions? Preferably not too sci-fi.

Here's a little list:

Ray Bradbury, Farenheit 451

Margaret Atwood, The Handmaid's Tale and Oryx and Crake

Kasuo Ishiguro, Never Let Me Go

Cormac McCarthy, The Road

If you want the grand-daddy of dystopian future books, you might consider We by Yevgeny Zamyatin. It was written in 1921, though it saw publication in English and French long before it was published in Zamyantin's native Russia. There are some sci-fi themes but not too much (apparently they eat a petroleum-based diet that killed off the majority of the population when it was introduced!). Anyway, Orwell said it was definitely an influence on 1984, and he thought but couldn't confirm that Huxley was aware of it as well.

Yes, I've read We. Bit fragmentary, but fascinating as a source for Orwell and possibly Huxley, as you say.

[jazzbo]

Tonight I finished The House Without a Key by Earl Derr Biggers (1925), the first Charlie Chan story. Light escapist fare, but a page-turner.

This was written at the site of the hotel I stayed at in Oahu in 2005, the Halekulani. The most wonderful place I've ever stayed.

I'm now reading

Edited March 24, 2010 by jazzbo

[sal]

"Norwegian Wood" - Haruki Murakami

[Jazzmoose]

Tonight I finished The House Without a Key by Earl Derr Biggers (1925), the first Charlie Chan story. Light escapist fare, but a page-turner.

Interesting. I used to have several of these, but unfortunately they were disposed of before my move to Louisiana, before I'd ever got around to trying one.

[Son-of-a-Weizen]

The Boys' Crusade: The American Infantry In Northwestern Europe, 1944 - 1945 by Paul Fussell. Interesting take by Fussell, trying to convey the reality of the infantryman's life in Europe. Not too many pages, just 165, but an interesting read. I might try his memoirs next.

Hmm, hadn't seen this one. Where is it set? Pretty much a 'Battle of the Bulge' centric tale.. .....or some other locations like Hurtgen Forest? Colmar Pocket? Aachen? etc?

[Matthew]

The Boys' Crusade: The American Infantry In Northwestern Europe, 1944 - 1945 by Paul Fussell. Interesting take by Fussell, trying to convey the reality of the infantryman's life in Europe. Not too many pages, just 165, but an interesting read. I might try his memoirs next.

Hmm, hadn't seen this one. Where is it set? Pretty much a 'Battle of the Bulge' centric tale.. .....or some other locations like Hurtgen Forest? Colmar Pocket? Aachen? etc?

Fussell writes about various topics in the book, some of which are, Bluge, Cobra episode, Falasie, Hurtgen Forest, Medics, Skorzeny Affair, Infantry Morale, the Peiper Affair, among others. They are not in-depth chapters by any means, most eight to ten short pages, but interesting. More like, if the reader finds the chapters interesting, he/she will have to do some further reading to get a better understanding of what Fussell is talking about.

[jlhoots]

Kingsley Bray: Crazy Horse (A Lakota Life)

[ghost of miles]

Started both Jack Kerouac's BIG SUR and Henry Miller's THE AIR-CONDITIONED NIGHTMARE today. Good, upbeat vacation reading!

[BillF]

Nick Hornby, About a Boy

[ghost of miles]

Started both Jack Kerouac's BIG SUR and Henry Miller's THE AIR-CONDITIONED NIGHTMARE today. Good, upbeat vacation reading!

...and now throwing Nick Kent's THE DARK STUFF into the mix...very good profiles of rock artists who lost the plot in one way or another (with some regaining it, many not).

[A Lark Ascending]

...and now throwing Nick Kent's THE DARK STUFF into the mix...very good profiles of rock artists who lost the plot in one way or another (with some regaining it, many not).

I've never read the book. But I recall reading the Beach Boys essay when it appeared over two issues of the NME in the mid-70s. Certainly influenced me - turned them from a pop band, some of whose singles I secretly liked, into a band with 'coolness' credentials. Sadly, this was at exactly the moment they completely blew it with things like '15 Big Ones'.

**************

Just finished:

A fascinating, if chatty, account of how revival jazz, skiffle and rock'n roll hit Britain.

Some wonderful descriptions of completely bemused BBC and record industry types, failing totally to understand what was going on and desparately trying to put the genii back in the bottle (or at least keep it off the airwaves).

What fascinated me most was how differently the history looks followed chronologically. I was born in 1955 and so by the time I was listening to the radio this was all over. In fact it wasn't until 1970 that I became consciously interested, by which time the likes of Chris Barber, Ken Colyer, Wally Whyton, Billy Fury, Tommy Steele and Cliff Richard were part of the old fogey scene (to the mind of a 15 year old, anyway. Of the names in this book, only Alexis Korner had retained an image of cool by that time). Yet reading from front to back they all come across as having, for however brief a moment, taken what was trickling in from the States and conveyed it with something of the original spirit. I never thought I'd want to hear Cliff Richard doing 'Move It'!

[jazzbo]

A delight

[medjuck]

Just finished "City of Thieves" by DAvid Benioff. Novel about the siege of Leningrad. Highly recommend.

[paul secor]

Just finished reading Penelope Lively's The Photograph. One her best novels - incisive and moving (but not sentimental).

[medjuck]

Jade Visions: The Life and Music of Scott LaFaro. I've only read the"life" part. I'm not as interested in the analysis of the music. He seems to have been an amazing guy. The index is screwed up (surprisingly since it's from a university press) and the discography is a bit weird.

[jlhoots]

James Lee Burke: Rain Gods