What are you reading?

ashen · Post by **ashen** » Tue Mar 04, 2008 3:34 pm

A collection of HP Lovecraft stuff.....all I can say is, I'm glad Im not him...

frebentos · Post by **frebentos** » Tue Mar 04, 2008 4:16 pm

Baron_von_Carlton wrote:
I rate Complicity as well. Though it is an incredibly disturbing book.

Yea complicity is good as well, so is WHIT..I enjoy all Banks' stuff...

frebentos · Post by **frebentos** » Wed Mar 05, 2008 9:08 am

currently reading

Herzog on Herzog edited by Paul Cronin.

ch3 · Post by **ch3** » Wed Mar 05, 2008 10:31 am

Just finished Identity by Kundera and starting Norwegian Wood by Murakami.

thief · Post by **thief** » Wed Mar 05, 2008 11:05 am

ch3 wrote: Norwegian Wood by Murakami.

Great book!

deamonds · Post by **deamonds** » Wed Mar 05, 2008 12:37 pm

The Art Of War

ragazza bassa · Post by **ragazza bassa** » Thu Mar 06, 2008 4:20 pm

"Portable Nietzsche" and "A Heartbreaking Work of Staggering Genius"

tempest · Post by **tempest** » Fri Mar 07, 2008 3:22 am

American Psycho "Bret Easton Ellis"

Fucking great read so far, hillarious/disturbing..

frebentos · Post by **frebentos** » Fri Mar 07, 2008 11:47 am

tempest wrote:American Psycho "Bret Easton Ellis"

Fucking great read so far, hillarious/disturbing..

one of my top 3 novels...passages at the end I actually had to stop for a second due to feeling physically sick...

ch3 · Post by **ch3** » Fri Mar 07, 2008 11:56 am

frebentos wrote:
tempest wrote:American Psycho "Bret Easton Ellis"

Fucking great read so far, hillarious/disturbing..
one of my top 3 novels...passages at the end I actually had to stop for a second due to feeling physically sick...

I don't get why people like it so much. I thought it was boring. And had to skip whole parts on Whitney and Phil Collins, couldn't force myself to read them through...

frebentos · Post by **frebentos** » Fri Mar 07, 2008 12:05 pm

ch3 wrote:
frebentos wrote:
tempest wrote:American Psycho "Bret Easton Ellis"

Fucking great read so far, hillarious/disturbing..
one of my top 3 novels...passages at the end I actually had to stop for a second due to feeling physically sick...
I don't get why people like it so much. I thought it was boring. And had to skip whole parts on Whitney and Phil Collins, couldn't force myself to read them through...

yea man, the passages where he talks about music do get a bit much, but they add to whoel persona that IS Patrick Bateman. Apart form being a disgustingly ill story, it looks at the foolishness of yuppy culture, specifically in new York, in the late 80's.

I also enojyed the way Bateman becomes gradually more and more unhinged...I wont say anymore, I don twant to ruin it for anyone, but the whole atmosphere of the book I found haunting and unsettling, it appeals to my tastes...

I've spoken to quite a few people about books on a similiar vain who found them boring, but when Im reading things like this, as long as the narrative is interesting, the use of language original and the premise of the novel dark and eerie Im gona enjoy it regardless of how fast or slow the plot moves...

corpsey · Post by **corpsey** » Fri Mar 07, 2008 12:14 pm

I thought it was overlong but also very well written and funny- I think the part about Phil Collins is actually very entertaining when you're aware of the fact that Bateman is a psychopath. It makes all his bland praise seem ironically and amusingly damning.

I love the way that nobody knows each others names because they're all so lacking in individuality in behavioural terms and because they're all so self-obsessed. And the obsession everyone has with business cards and suits... As with many books that insist so unerringly upon the replication of a voice/thought process, it's hard work for the reader but rewarding also I think.

The torture/murder sequences are hard to read and difficult to explain/justify, but within the context of the book I don't think they're necessarily gratuitous.

frebentos · Post by **frebentos** » Fri Mar 07, 2008 12:17 pm

Corpsey wrote: The torture/murder sequences are hard to read

Hard in the sense of their content?

corpsey · Post by **corpsey** » Fri Mar 07, 2008 12:38 pm

I don't mean they're written in a confusing way, I mean that it isn't exactly palatable to read about someone melting a woman's eyeball with a lighter, slicing her eyelids off etc.

I suppose on one level its to do with getting across the unblinking, unfeeling emotionally neutered on coke-and-consumerism perspective of Bateman, but its also about confronting the reader with violence that can't be easily enjoyed.

Would write more but am at work

ch3 · Post by **ch3** » Fri Mar 07, 2008 1:57 pm

Might give it another try. After all I've read it like 10 years ago...

frebentos wrote:as long as the narrative is interesting, the use of language original and the premise of the novel dark and eerie Im gona enjoy it

You should try In the Miso Soup by Ryu Murakami.

frebentos · Post by **frebentos** » Fri Mar 07, 2008 2:13 pm

ch3 wrote: You should try In the Miso Soup by Ryu Murakami.

I will...

datura · Post by **datura** » Fri Mar 07, 2008 2:19 pm

ch3 wrote:Might give it another try. After all I've read it like 10 years ago...

frebentos wrote:as long as the narrative is interesting, the use of language original and the premise of the novel dark and eerie Im gona enjoy it
You should try In the Miso Soup by Ryu Murakami.

Anything by Ryu Murakami is pretty dark! Coin Locker Babies is also worth a read (where i first heard of datura).

crystal_darkness · Post by **crystal_darkness** » Sun Mar 09, 2008 11:41 pm

Wei Hui - Shanghai Baby.
A tale of love, sex and self-discovery...

paolo · Post by **paolo** » Mon Mar 10, 2008 5:10 pm

'Poppy Shakespeare' by Clare Allan. It's a bit like 'One Flew Over The Cuckoo's Nest' mixed with 'Catch 22' mixed with 'The Trial', but set in London and written by a woman. A good read if you appreciate the humorous aspects of mental illness[/url]

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