Anyone reading a book?

I finished Never Let Me Go by Kazuo Ishiguro. I saw the movie a few years ago. The movie follows more or less the same story as in the book.

As I already knew the theme of the book, and the ending, what struck me was how the protagonists seemed to accept their situation, identify with others in the same situation instead of ordinary people, and so easily go along with it. The book presents the story in a mainly understated and matter of factly manner. It's wonderfully chilling and sad.

Anyone on the black pill spectrum after the pandemic will probably agree you can get people to do anything if it is for the science. For black-pillers this book is more a description of a realistic alternative society than pure science fiction. For others it's just a beautifully sad novel.
 
DD-7 said:
Just finished Peter Hook’s Hacienda book - how not to run a club.

Wasn’t as interesting as I hoped for but the pettiness of the non stop jibes at Bernard Sumner made it worthwhile.
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I preferred his other two to his first. I find his style of writing amusing.
Stephen Morris’ books a different style that I enjoyed. Seems the least biased of the band’s autobiography output.
Sumners’ wasn’t a great read. A little dour.
 
I've also finished reading The Crossing by Cormac McCarthy. It's a western set in the 1930s/1940s in the border area between US and Mexico. This book isn't a cheap, pulp fiction novel. It's far more advanced, and has been well received by critics.

For those of us with an Anglo/European cultural background, American books can easily be a hit or miss. I didn't have any problems with this novel, but probably missed a lot of the cultural references. Parts of this book were absolutely brilliant. In many sections the storyline was tight and clean. The tale of the two teenage brothers traveling around was compelling. But a lot of the dialogue was in Spanish. Since I don't speak Spanish I had to guess what was being said.

My main problem was all the philosophy. Particularly in the last part of the book the protagonist keeps meeting poor, uneducated people on this travels in Mexico who have an awful lot of philosophical reflections. The sentences are no longer short and tight, and the author uses words unknown to me. (There's no way these guys in the middle of nowhere in 1930s Mexico had such an advanced vocabulary). Anyway I don't want to use a dictionary every 3 minutes when reading a book on holiday, and spend another 3 minutes trying to figure the meaning of a sentence than stretches over 5 lines. In the end I treated these sections as background noise. This book could easily have been 50 pages shorter, with most of the philosophy cut out.

My copy was left behind at the bookshelf at Es Mitjorn. But be warned, the philosophy can be too much for a holiday read.
 
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I remember quite liking The Crossing. I still have the third one in that trilogy to read. Hopefully my Spanish will have come on a bit by the time I get round to it, so I don't have to Google translate all the Spanish bits. :lol: But, yeah, I think Cormac McCarthy can be hard work if you're not in the mood.
 
DD-7 said:
Just finished Peter Hook’s Hacienda book - how not to run a club.

Wasn’t as interesting as I hoped for but the pettiness of the non stop jibes at Bernard Sumner made it worthwhile.
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I gave up half way through
 
Laurent Garnier's Electrochoc autobiography is probably only 3% about The Haç and its still much more illuminating than How Not To Run A Club
 
I finished reading Fight Club yesterday.

I have no idea what it's really about, except that simply reading the book might get me into trouble. It's the kind of book people project whatever they want on. People are too sensitive these days.

There were some cool passages. Especially the bit about being totally relaxed in traffic, and not needing to break the speed limit, in the days after a fight. Suddenly the line "on a long enough time line, everyone's survival rate drops to zero" appears. It was brilliant. Now I want to get some cuts and bruises.

I was on a plane early this morning re-reading some of the chapters. I have so many bonus points with this airline they sometimes put me up front. Today one of the passengers up front was a senior cabinet minister, who is expected to become the next leader of the Labour party, and eventually prime minister. She's a lefty, feminist type, and an Utøya survivor. I decided to quietly put the book away.
 
Snowy said:
I finished reading Fight Club yesterday.

I have no idea what it's really about, except that simply reading the book might get me into trouble. It's the kind of book people project whatever they want on. People are too sensitive these days.

There were some cool passages. Especially the bit about being totally relaxed in traffic, and not needing to break the speed limit, in the days after a fight. Suddenly the line "on a long enough time line, everyone's survival rate drops to zero" appears. It was brilliant. Now I want to get some cuts and bruises.

I was on a plane early this morning re-reading some of the chapters. I have so many bonus points with this airline they sometimes put me up front. Today one of the passengers up front was a senior cabinet minister, who is expected to become the next leader of the Labour party, and eventually prime minister. She's a lefty, feminist type, and an Utøya survivor. I decided to quietly put the book away.
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I think 'lefty feminist types' also like Chuck Palahniuk.. Well I do anyway.
 
My latest holiiday reads weren't very high brow:

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All great for holiday reading.

Bob Mortimer is a charming writer - cosy little story not disimilar in tone to Richard Osman's Thursday Murder Club series.

Keown's autobiography is probably strictly for Arsenal fans. My Dad and I particular as it's signed and written out to 'The Buckleys, lifelong Arsenal Fans'.

The James Patterson is like all the other American crime/detective/CIA/FBI books you get from the shelf in the hotel when you've read what you brought with you, perfect chewing gum for the brain.

If you followed Oasis a bit in their heyday, read the articles in NME and Melody Maker, you could make a decent fist of writing the interviews in the book yourself. Lots of Liam saying he wasn't being a twat for the sake of it, but it was his job to be rock n roll star. Not sure that I knew that it was crystal meth that collapsed the Amercian tour that went tits up, so that was news.
 
Ibizajames1980 said:
Working my way through the 3 Robert Hellier Books. Back to Mine. Back to Yours and Tanits Revenge

I’ve read the first 2, the first I finished in Ibiza a few weeks back.

They have been a brilliant read. The 3rd is mainly about the Friends time in Ibiza in the early 90s.
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Oooh, just checked these out...on my holiday read list now. Cheers.
 
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Had a lot of beardy fun last night on a Spanish panel discussing Simon Reynolds, arguably the greatest writer on dance culture that ever lived. He published Futuromania last year, the long-awaited sequel to Retromania (2011), where he theorised about whether dance music is still evolving or in a constant retro loop, and obviously covers all the scary tech stuff, AI, Spotify, and the slow, agonising death of house music as we once knew it.

www.dazeddigital.com

Simon Reynolds on the ‘very human’ future of dance music

One of music’s OG critics shares his thoughts about the future of electronic music, what he thinks about AI, and the Gen Z appeal of Drain Gang
www.dazeddigital.com www.dazeddigital.com
 
Buckley said:
My latest holiiday reads weren't very high brow:

View attachment 19338View attachment 19339View attachment 19340View attachment 19341

All great for holiday reading.

Bob Mortimer is a charming writer - cosy little story not disimilar in tone to Richard Osman's Thursday Murder Club series.

Keown's autobiography is probably strictly for Arsenal fans. My Dad and I particular as it's signed and written out to 'The Buckleys, lifelong Arsenal Fans'.

The James Patterson is like all the other American crime/detective/CIA/FBI books you get from the shelf in the hotel when you've read what you brought with you, perfect chewing gum for the brain.

If you followed Oasis a bit in their heyday, read the articles in NME and Melody Maker, you could make a decent fist of writing the interviews in the book yourself. Lots of Liam saying he wasn't being a twat for the sake of it, but it was his job to be rock n roll star. Not sure that I knew that it was crystal meth that collapsed the Amercian tour that went tits up, so that was news.
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I’ve Read the Oasis Book and Keowns

Last Game I did at Highbury with My Dad was Martins Testimonial. It was a Brilliant Day and the memory is even more Special now that’s he’s gone
 
Books... 📖 my particular highlights of this year...

Philosophers on Consciousness: Talking about the Mind (this will boggle your mind)

Underdogs: The Truth About Britain's White Working Class

The Coming Wave: AI, Power and Our Future (unreal and best thing I've read on AI will also make you panic about the future)

Inside The Cage - My Life in the World's Deadliest Fight Game (read in 24 hours it's that good)

How To Be Right: … in a world gone wrong (James O'Brien)

Minority Rule: Adventures in the Culture War (turned me full on left wing this)

Dorian Yates: From the Shadow (best book you'll read on body buidling)

The Picture of Dorian Gray: Oscar Wilde (weirdest thing I've ever read)
 
Stuff I've got through in book form or audio form so far this year;

The White Island by Stephen Armstrong
- obviously about Ibiza, found it really easy to read and pretty enjoyable way to take in some of thr islands history

Mayflies - Andrew o Hagan
About male friendship at its heart but it's a group of pals from Scotland going to a gif and the Hacidenda in their youth and that friendship when they're older. One for the sentimental among you

Clubland - Pete Brown
About the rise and fall of British working mens clubs. As a worming mens club kid I enjoyed it

Project Hail Mary - Andy Weir
I don't do much fiction but I absolutely loved this book and the audiobook is even better. It's coming out on film soon, but I'd recommend checking it out

I wish I was a quicker reader sometimes, always something I wish I was better at so I could enjoy more
 
The ones I’ve enjoyed so far this year

Finished a re read of David Downing’s Station series. An English journalist living in 30’s Berlin and all that comes with it. Fictional, would appeal to fans of the Bernie Gunther series.

The Friday Afternoon Club. Griffin Dunne’s memoir. Well written, amusing and sad in places.

Lady in Waiting. Anne Glenconner’s first memoir with plenty of titbits on the royals and other well known people.

The File. Timothy Garton Ash, a British journalist reads his Stasi file and interviews people who informed on him to find their reasons why.

Conclave by Robert Harris. Wanted to read it before I watched the film.

The Nightingales by Kristin Hannah. A novel set during the French Occupation. Told from the point of view of the women. Much better than I expected.

Madonna, A Rebel Life by Mary Gabriel. Decent biography.

Exit, Pursued by Death by Keira Willis. Second in a slightly daft series set in 80s Manchester. Police aided by the ghosts of the dead. Very surprised I enjoyed but a fun, light read.

Anna, The Biography by Amy Odell. Good look at Anna Wintour and her career but I’m not sure anyone will ever get the full ‘Anna’.

Jamaica Inn, Daphne du Maurier. Read before a Summer trip to Cornwall. Not the. vest ad 😹, dark.

Winter Work by Dan Fesperman. Spy thriller set just after the fall of the Berlin Wall

Is anyone else on Goodreads?


https://www.goodreads.com/user/show/1460563
 
Read this on holiday:
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Sympathy for childhood trauma and one incident that sounds like an assault get worn down by the rest of the book. If you're going to write a paean to yourself you'd surely want to do with some wit or wisdom. If you wanted to skip the 60% of it I'll summarise: caned loads of drugs, f**ked lots of people, played loads of gigs, worked in a shop, rehab then yoga.
 
Buckley said:
Read this on holiday:
View attachment 19585

Sympathy for childhood trauma and one incident that sounds like an assault get worn down by the rest of the book. If you're going to write a paean to yourself you'd surely want to do with some wit or wisdom. If you wanted to skip the 60% of it I'll summarise: caned loads of drugs, f**ked lots of people, played loads of gigs, worked in a shop, rehab then yoga.
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I read this while I was away too...easy enough to read on the beach and there were some really interesting bits around her time in Ibiza and how she got going with early gigs at Trade etc.

Ultimately she had a rough start in life sadly and that shaped her experiences, especially her relationships with men, for the years to come.

She was/is a fantastic dj...remember hearing a mix cd from early naughties and it was on regular rotation for years to come. Think it was a free magazine jobby.
 
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