What is East Dulwich reading?

[Mick Mac]

I really must learn to read. I want to join this thread.

[karter]

You must have gone to Steiner skool then Mick. (joke, SS is good)

[wee quinnie]

Peckhamgatecrasher Wrote:

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> Know what you mean about the perv thing.

>

> Larsson was so lauded that I

> avoided him for ages and was pleasantly

> surprised.

>

>

I agree with you about recommendations and avoiding Larsson - but I gotta say I thought GWADT was Jeffrey Archer-esque.

I am really surprised that you liked it.

Currently i am reading The Moonstone by Wilkie Collins.

[Mick Mac]

Hey I read that. And the woman in white. This is a big coincidence as I have only read about twenty books.

[Jah Lush]

Ah! The Moonstone... excellent. I loved that and The Woman In White.

[RosieH]

Mockney, I'm glad you liked Blood Meridian. I too had to re-read the ending a couple of times and it stayed with me for a long long time. I felt traumatised for a while afterwards.

Speaking of trauma, the GWADT trilogy - Jah will probably tell me off for my pseudo-feminist bandwagon, but really, can we not have some heroines who are kick-ass without having to undergo graphically violent rape as the catalyst to their finding their inner strength? Please? Enough with the goddamn torture porn.

[Mick Mac]

Easy Rosie.

[Peckhamgatecrasher]

Can't fault "The Moonstone". Found "The Woman in White" a bit harder.

And I think her 'inner strength' was in place long before the rape.

WQ - try Geoffry Archer - much better.

[kpc]

I'm working my way through Cormac McCarthy, nearing the end of the Border Trilogy at present. And also have Brothers by Yu Hua on the go - really enjoying this one. Have just re-read Graham Greene's The Comedians - have a habit of reverting to his writings every so often.

[nashoi]

Don't bother learning to read Mick Mac, it's a waste of time. When I picked up the keys to my new transit I got a free CD of Ross Kemp reading Sun Tzu, the only 'book' you'll ever need.

For those that will insist on wasting their time reading, current political events reminded me of a book I was given a couple of years ago called Stolen Lives by Malika Oufkir. The author's father was a moroccan general and the king's closest aide. She was brought up within the King's family, as a kind of official companion to his daughter, until in 1972 her father was accused of plotting to overthrow the King, leading to his execution and the imprisonment of his family (including the author) for the next 20+ years in a desert gaol before finally escaping. A fascinating incite into how events can change lives so radically so quickly. Apparently, not that I've bothered reading it of course, waste of time.

[????]

About Kevin - harrowing

The Last Resort - hysterical (in both senses) and strangely uplifting

The Ascent of Money - should be compulsory for anyone who wants to opine on banks, hedgies etc

[mockney piers]

Rosie, I'm glad I'm not alone.

The judge, he's just us isn't he, an immortal expression of humanity.

There is no morality etc....

By the way have you read much HP lovecraft? If the road was Philip k dick, blood meridian was surely he.

Our McCormac is a closet sic fi fan!!!

[Jah Lush]

I'm surprised at you Rosie. Why would I think that? And Mockney I never had you down as a pseudo-feminist. Seriously though, it's never nice to read that sort of imagery. I've managed to steer well clear of the GWADT trilogy, far too many people reading it on the train for my liking. Call it literary snobbery if you will but it's that kind of mainstream popularity that seriously puts me off.

[Ridgley]

I must be quite boring as I read Mills & Boons been reading them since I was a teenager love Sidney Sheldon got to have a bit of Jackie Collins with a mix of Jilly Cooper.

[Jah Lush]

What! No Harold Robbins?

[Ridgley]

He is not bad Jah

[Jah Lush]

Ahem! I'll admit I've read The Carpetbaggers, 79 Park Avenue and Stiletto way way way back in the day.

[????]

Desmond Bagley Jah?

[louisiana]

Now We Are Sixty (doffing its cap to A.A. Milne)

"I wear a suit by Giorgio Armani

I like an after-shave called Frangipani,

I've got this bird who's Azerbaijani,

I feel like I'm twenty-three.

"I've got a CD of right-on hip hop,

I've got a Warhol print of a flip-flop,

I drive a Porsche-style Honda that's tip-top,

Who's coming clubbing with me?"

etc.

[Peckhamgatecrasher]

I'll hear nowt against Maestro Bagley, Quids. "High Citadel" one of my all time favourites.

[Brendan]

Is that anything like Hai Karate?

[Jah Lush]

???? Wrote:

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> Desmond Bagley Jah?

I wouldn't go that far Quids.

[Peckhamgatecrasher]

Yeah, that Virgil always smelled nice.

[Alec John Moore]

I read Cloud Atlas by David Mitchell recently. From reading the reviews of it on Amazon, it would seem to be a Marmite book - people either love it or hate. I loved it. I could see that it was a critique of slavery in a way but along the way it was a series of entertaining thrillers, expertly written in styles appropriate to the settings of the six, connected, stories. Apparently it was recommended by Richard and Judy but I didn't know that at the time and it wouldn't have mattered anyway. Read it and see.

[RosieH]

Haha Jah, you have accused me of such in the past, but I think it was in an entirely other, more flippant (ah yes, I remember now - footballing) context.

I too suffer from the kind of intellectual snobbery (or wanton contrariness) that prevented my reading Captain Corelli's Mandolin, Harry Potter, or any of the GWADT trilogy. But then a friend showed me passages in the book and I took against it for quite another reason. I think a good writer is capable of closing the door on acts of grotesque violence, while leaving you in no doubt of what's happening - recognising that your own imagination can conjure just how horrible a situation might be, without resorting to graphic titillation.

Actually, to come back to Mockney's point about the Judge and Blood Meridian, I think Cormac McCarthy's ending does exactly that. And it's brilliant and beautiful in its spare, lean prose. That ending's stayed with me for years. I had no idea he was a sci-fi fan: am not a reader of the sci-fi, but I'm experimenting this year, so will check it out Mockney.

I'm finally getting round to reading Jonathan Franzen's Freedom. The quality of the writing is exceptional, and makes me stop and pause every few pages at a particularly exquisite sentence. It makes me sad that I am a dullard with nary an original thought in my head, but fuck me it's glorious reading.