Finally got around to reading City of Falling Angels.

John Berendit is incredibly, I absolutely loved Garden of Good and Evil, so I really should have picked this up much earlier.

So far it's great, he knows how to command the reader's attention like none other and I'm excited to really get into the book.

Heheh, I love the Woodman. When I first read "Without Feathers," it had me near frantic with laughter for probably the most sustained length of time of anything I'd ever read or have ever read since. I could barely stay in my chair. "Getting Even" was great too, but "Without Feathers" was even better.

I especially loved "If the Impressionists Were Dentists," the Nostradamus-type prophecies, and his short story that was a take-off on Emma Bovary. And that story's last line about being chased by the irregular verb "tener," and how that was described, was just gorgeous.

I wish Woody were a more active writer. I'd read anything he put out.

I enjoy the fake memoir type things, like about Hitler's barber who near the end of Hitler's reign considered loosening the towel around Hitler's neck to let some tiny hairs slip down into his shirt. At the last minute, he lost his nerve.

I also find particularly brilliant some of his choice of phrasing. For example, somebody is not feeling well because earlier in the day he had been walking in a meadow and "fell down on some pears". He uses the word "some" rather than something more eloquent in several spots like that, and I can't explain why I think it's hilarious, but I do.

You know a new collection came out in 2008 right? "Mere Anarchy".

Wow really? Heck no I didn't know that! Here I go to Amazon to check that out. Thanks for the heads up!

I really love Woody. Not all of his movies by a very long shot. But you know when you bump into someone with greatness in him, and Woody is one of those guys. How much better is it that his greatness (at least my definition of his greatness) is actually funny?

By the way, I guess I had forgotten about the Hitler's barber bit. Which book was that in?

One of my idle fantasies involves scanning in all my most beloved books so I will have them forever with me everywhere I go. Without Feathers would absolutely have to be in there, probably as the perfect example of its kind.

Uh oh, super sketchy reviews on Amazon. This looks fantastic:

... but in the same editorial review that brings it up, attention is drawn to some painful clunky attempts.

Finally started the fourth book in the Hitchhikers's "trilogy," So Long, and Thanks For All the Fish, and I'm about 3/4 through. Adams must have been clinically insane but he also makes for a incredible read.

Sorry for the mandatory book report. I admit it was a great read for insomnia.

I don't think we could live without hierchy and competition. Nature doesn't have any room for the weak.

I recently tried to read this again, and I decided I wouldl like to keep the story of Arthur Dent in my good memories.


I finished Stiff by Mary Roach. This is easily the best book I have read in quite some time. Ms Roach is able to take a morbid topic (death) and turn it into something interesting. She wisely does not let you mull on the topic she is writing about, many times going into long tangents, tossing in many interesting stories and asides that made me laugh out loud: something I can't remember experiencing while reading a book.

Startins "We are the Mavulkys (?) by Joyce Carrol Oates. I always wanted to read something by her, so well see if this award-winning book is worth anything.

Shake Hands With The Devil--Romeo Dallaire

This book will make you mad, assuming you're not a replicant. If you don't know, this is the book written by the head of the Rwandan UN peacekeeping force in 93-94.

It could just as easily have been called "Shouting Into The Wind."

Samantha Power's book on genocide has a long section on Dallaire, which details his role as head of the peacekeeping force and subsequent breakdown as the result of the experience. I recently saw a TV interview with Dallaire who seems to be doing much better.

I have not, but N.G. got it from the library when we went there last week. She read the first couple of short stories, and the last thing I remember her saying about it is that she didn't like it that much and wasn't going to finish it.

I finished The Last Templar over the weekend. Now I knew this book was going to be a terrible, action-packed romp which is why I got it. I just wanted to read something light and lolbad. It did not deliver in the lolbad category, at all. Edit to add: There are some spoilers, don't worry, kill yourself before reading this book. Despite having all precautions in place to be able to solve the 'case' within the first 150 pages, due to sheer incompetence the FBI ****s it all up. Then an eyewitness, who just so happens to be a drop dead gorgeous archaelogist, also happens to possess all the knowledge requisite to solving the case. She joins on, falling in love with the lead investigator, who she then continually ****s over by stealing evidence and running off with the bad guy to find the true mysterious secret of the Templars (OMG Jesus was just a guy, and they have his written testimony to prove it). Then all the bad people die (including a ninja Catholic priest, well not really a ninja, but kind of) and they decide to spare the World the truth that religion is a myth because it will probably be too hard on them and they met some nice Christians along the way. Raymond Khoury, stop writing. Seriously, somewhere right now you have a pen in your hand and think because your first book was made into a direct-to-TV movie that you are hot. You aren't. You're book had holes that I could fly a ****ing jumbo jet through.

Now I've started Skeletons on the Zahara

one flew over the cuckoo's nest

Really? You enjoyed Stiff that much? I read it and thought it was ok, but certainly nothing special. I wonder if its because for me, the idea of cadavers and dead bodies isnt really all that titillating, since I've dissected several of them.

I'm about half way through Fooled by Randomness by Nasim Taleb, who also wrote The Black Swan.

This is a great book for poker players and primarily for anybody who invests. One of the most interesting things (so far) is his treatment of "asymetrical probabilities." And he describes in great detail the role of randomness in our lives.

The book sounds like it might be overly serious. And it is no joke, but it's really very engaging to read. I am enjoying it thoroughly!

bill c

"Look what I found!"



Hm.. I'm very interested in this book. Is this something where I should read the original text or what? On a related note, since I find myself on a weird-zombie fascination, are there any other books relating to zombies (lol, sounds funny to me) that I should read. I just finished World War Z by Max Brooks which was really, really interesting, I thought.

I'm debating if I should read the second of the Dark Tower series now or finish the Hitchhiker's series. Tough call.

Currently reading Glamorama by Bret Easton Ellis, just over halfway done, so far its not as good as American Psycho but probably equally good as Less Than Zero.

diddy, thanks for the words. I'll be starting it and probably reading as much of it as I can tonight. I've heard a mix of "bad" and "hilarious" so we'll see.

Is anyone else reading 2666? It's been getting a lot of good press. Finally got started on it, 50 pages in now.

Last night I finished reading, for the second time, William Boyd's "Armadillo."

Boyd's stuff can be hit or miss with me. I loved "Brazzaville Beach" and "The Blue Afternoon," but "Stars and Stripes" fell flat. "Armadillo," however, is probably the best of the bunch (that I've read).

In a nutshell, it's the story of an insurance adjuster trying to find security and stability, and how his life gets turned all around.

lol, the "dog" thing put me on mega tilt. I hated this book so much. I don't know how I finished the whole thing. It just felt like it was designed to be turned into a terrible movie the whole time

I read Fight Club and loved it, although I think the movie is an accurate enough representation that I wouldn't really urge anyone to read it if they've already seen the movie.

I don't remember what the other Palahniuk book I (tried) to read was called, because I couldn't take it anymore about halfway through. Something about a bus?

Only read "Restless" and "Any Human Heart". I liked them both a lot and will work my way through his back catalogue gradually.

I've been reading the Booker shortlist over the last few months. Three done so far:

The winner "White Tiger" by Aravind Adiga. While this is an impressive enough as a first novel, it is mystifying that it was chosen as the best novel in the Commonwealth in 2008. The story is told as a series of letters to the Chinese Prime Minister - an entirely unnecessary and unrealistic framing but one that doesn't matter to much. The writing is witty and the story (village boy gets job as driver to westernised businessman ends up as an businessman) is engaging. It's attacks on political corruption are well made and there are some good insights into Indian society and particularly Delhi but nothing that hasn't been done better by Rohiniton Mistry et al. The book suffers from a lack of internal consistency which annoyed the hell out of me. 6/10

"The Secret Scripture" by Sebastian Barry. The sad story of a 90something women in an Irish mental hospital about to close told by her and her doctor. An elegant book writtent with great sympathy and insight, better even than Barry's last novel "A Long Way". The treachery of memory is beautifully demonstrated and the reader is transported to the stulifying homogenity of de Vere Ireland via the terror of the civil war. 9/10

"The Northern Clemency" by Phillip Henshaw. I really liked this. The story of two neighbouring families in Sheffield over three decade, this is a kind of soap opera. Nothing very sensational happens and there's no underlying plot, just lively writing and interesting characters. I was particularly impressed by how Henshaw describes teh thought processes of various children. A long book at 700 odd pages, but very easy to read. 8/10

I watched fight club first and read the book a few years later. the book is much better and explains more imo. def, worth reading even if you've seen the movie. The ending is better too imo.

Interesting. Here's what an article from the BBC says about it:

Well, I guess that's the trouble with having to read 300 books in six months - you're not really paying enough attention.

If he can still face fiction after last year, Portillo should try some books whcih really show the dark side of India. Top of the list would be "A Fine Balance" by Rohiniton Mistry, one of the great books of the last 20 years.

http://www.amazon.co.uk/Fine-Balance...3768453&sr=1-1

michael clayton

Name of the Rose by Umberto Eco


There is something mesmeric in the endless picking through the dark age detritus around schism and heresy in the Catholic church as well as the talk of symbols, languages and suchlike


William of Baskerville is one hell of a character