read any good books lately...

Anybody here regularly reads Jonathan Coe's books?

For those not aware, Coe is a brilliant novelist describing the last 70 years' weird British society and its strange societal traits who create a bunch of odd effects on its population.

A good deal of us probably have read The Rotter's Club (01) , which mentions Hatfield & The North and Crimson (a little bit), but has anyone read The Closed Circle ('04)? This is the sequel (most of the characters in TRC are mentionned in TCC) happening in the early 00's, but doesn't make any reference to prog music.


Another diptyque would be What A Carve Up (from 94) and his very latest book called Number 11 , which has some links with some of the surviving protagonist of the former book finding their end on the present one. For for the first time, Coe has brought some fantasy or surreal creature, which is disturbing me: more because it's out of character (he had remained realistic until now)

I've also read Accidental Woman (87, I think), currently reading House Of Sleep and up next will be his second-lasr novel Expo 58 (happening in Brussels)

I tried Pricacy of Maxwell Sim , but couldn't, partly because of the fact that I'd seen the French movie vased on the novel before reading... after a few pages and reading ahead, I could see that the movie followed the book from close, so I returned to book to the library

Meltdowner wrote: I finally finished reading Oscar Wildes' "The Picture of Dorian Gray". Not my kind of book to start with but I decided to read it. The story was good and I enjoyed reading when there was actually one. It's the parties, Dorian's obsessions and Lord Henry's endless ramblings that make it so boring.

I'm reading Popol Vuh but it just seems like a Bible ripoff.

MillsLayne wrote: All of these PKD books over the summer: Dr. Bloodmoney Eye In The Sky Time Out Of Joint Confessions Of A Crap Artist Martian Time-Slip Now Wait For Last Year Clans Of The Alphane Moon The Three Stigmata Of Palmer Eldritch A Maze Of Death The World Jones Made The Penultimate Truth (currently reading)

Edited by dr wu23 - October 06 2016 at 21:01

mechanicalflattery wrote: Meltdowner wrote: I finally finished reading Oscar Wildes' "The Picture of Dorian Gray". Not my kind of book to start with but I decided to read it. The story was good and I enjoyed reading when there was actually one. It's the parties, Dorian's obsessions and Lord Henry's endless ramblings that make it so boring. I could probably read a 1000 page novel that was nothing but Lord Henry's ramblings, so I disagree with you there, but at least you gave it a shot.  Currently I'm rereading Le Chants De Maldoror, the great french surrealist novel. Pointless, transgressive, utterly offensive, incoherent and meandering... I love it.

a great but really disturbing book; sometimes it is extremely violent like the chapter starting with "here comes the madwoman". in my opinion one of the most horrific scenes ever described in a book, but written in an exquisite language.

I wouldn't call the book a "novel" though. actually I have no idea what to call it at all.

the book was almost lost, but artist Ré Soupault and her husband Philippe discovered it by chance, were fascinated by it and gave it to André Breton, who was equally enthusiastic about it. the surrealists loved the book, and the author Lautreamont became one of the saints of the surrealist movement (along with Baudelaire and de Sade). the book is all the more astounding because it was first published between 1868 and 1869.

today the book is part of the French canon of literature


Edited by BaldJean - October 07 2016 at 11:43

Meltdowner wrote: mechanicalflattery wrote: I could probably read a 1000 page novel that was nothing but Lord Henry's ramblings, so I disagree with you there, but at least you gave it a shot.  It's still the less annoying of the three, I admit. I found them interesting at first but I didn't have much patience for it at some point. It was good to read something different then usual though. MillsLayne wrote: All of these PKD books over the summer: I read "Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep?" last year and I really enjoyed it. I'll have to read more from him, I already had "Ubik" in mind.

"Ubik" is one of his very best. I also highly recommend "The Three Stigmata of Palmer Eldritch", "A Scanner Darkly" and the "Valis" trilogy ("Valis", "The Divine Invasion" and "The Transmigration of Timothy Archer")

Just finnished Kurt Vonnegut's Breakfast of Champions, the sixth book I've read by him since September. This one was amazing, definitely up there with Cat's Cradle (I have not read Slaughterhouse-Five yet, though). The twisted, yet static plot, numerous build-ups, amazing sense of humor, odd analogies, and the author revealing himself as the Creator of the Universe at one point really make for an amazing book. His illustrations are really neat touches. God, I love Vonnegut.