Tell us if that Take Me To The River is worth buying. I thought the Stu Ungar book was good but not great.
I've still not read a book about poker that doesn't pale in comparison to The Biggest Game In Town. Here's hoping.
Book Talk
342johnnyshape wrote:Tell us if that Take Me To The River is worth buying. I thought the Stu Ungar book was good but not great.
It's more a library book than a run out and buy the hardcover book, I think. It suffers from the same thing as the McManus book does: the author as the story. "Look at me spend my wedding money on a poker tournament" type stuff.
The Stu Ungar book was about as good as it could have gotten, considering that Nolan (full disclosure: Nolan occasionally employs me) acted as Stuey's banker more often than not. Maybe it was his way of recouping some losses, I dunno.
Book Talk
343This week I completed 'Writing Home' by Alan Bennett. It's sort of half-arsed autobiography, and was in parts pretty heavy going. I've avoided Bennett's stuff for ages, mainly because he is from round these parts and I feared to read about them. His fathers butcher shop was walking distance from my home, his school is (I think) at the end of the street in Armley where my friend has just bought a house.
It's a good read but only because Bennett is a very readable writer. The subject matter, though - it's very self centred. Such may be the stuff of autobiography but in the context of his wider work: yeah, this is all about Alan Bennett. I don't know, I can't engage with this stuff, even though it might be more about me than any other written works out there. I think it is because I am deeply resistant to the last twenty years of British history, I just do not want to read about these times. I'm living them, and I hate them. Give me all the twentieth century American writing you care to and I will eat it up with a runcible spoon; British writing from the same periods just leave me cold.
I have gone from Alan Bennett into the beginnings of 'Dangling Man' by Saul Bellow and immediately I feel much more at home. Perhaps there is something wrong with me.
It's a good read but only because Bennett is a very readable writer. The subject matter, though - it's very self centred. Such may be the stuff of autobiography but in the context of his wider work: yeah, this is all about Alan Bennett. I don't know, I can't engage with this stuff, even though it might be more about me than any other written works out there. I think it is because I am deeply resistant to the last twenty years of British history, I just do not want to read about these times. I'm living them, and I hate them. Give me all the twentieth century American writing you care to and I will eat it up with a runcible spoon; British writing from the same periods just leave me cold.
I have gone from Alan Bennett into the beginnings of 'Dangling Man' by Saul Bellow and immediately I feel much more at home. Perhaps there is something wrong with me.
Twenty-four hours a week, seven days a month
Book Talk
344I'm a big fan of John O'Hara, but it's next to impossible to find his books in this country (second hand, at least; and Amazon seem to struggle with 'O'Hara' as a search term. I've read all the short stories I can find, 'Appointment in Samarra' and 'Butterfield 8'. I recently made a decision to track down all the novels and read them in order, which I haven't done for any author before.
Next up was 'A Rage To Live' and it didn't disappoint at all. It's a demonstration of exemplary technique. O'Hara is one of few writers who keep me guessing; I like to think I can spot a 'sleeper' note when it is struck, and work out where a story is heading, but O'Hara has an incredible ability to hide his intentions (from me, at least) and so leave me stunned. By the closing pages I was absolutely emotionally involved with the story and I ignored invitations to go out on a Friday night so that I could finish it.
I then tried to read something by Max Beerbohm but by the end of the first page I felt let down as it was nothing like the 500 pages I'd just been buried in. With no other O'Hara in the house, I felt lost; so I went on the internet and order his complete works.
It occured to m that they would arrive together, despite being ordered (through abebooks.co.uk) from disparate bookshops; what that meant didn't actually strike me until I came home from work and found nine parcels on the doormat.
Sorry, Postie.
Next up was 'A Rage To Live' and it didn't disappoint at all. It's a demonstration of exemplary technique. O'Hara is one of few writers who keep me guessing; I like to think I can spot a 'sleeper' note when it is struck, and work out where a story is heading, but O'Hara has an incredible ability to hide his intentions (from me, at least) and so leave me stunned. By the closing pages I was absolutely emotionally involved with the story and I ignored invitations to go out on a Friday night so that I could finish it.
I then tried to read something by Max Beerbohm but by the end of the first page I felt let down as it was nothing like the 500 pages I'd just been buried in. With no other O'Hara in the house, I felt lost; so I went on the internet and order his complete works.
It occured to m that they would arrive together, despite being ordered (through abebooks.co.uk) from disparate bookshops; what that meant didn't actually strike me until I came home from work and found nine parcels on the doormat.
Sorry, Postie.
Twenty-four hours a week, seven days a month
Book Talk
346my new job is at a book store. a big corporate chain. the pay is pretty lousy, but the hours are steady and i get to spend all day eyeing up books i'd like to read someday, stuff by pushkin, paul auster, jane austen, goethe, will self, richard russo, goethe, etc. (it's actually a great job since i'm quite the bibliophile for a dude who never took english classes beyond 102. (i just like to read, for pleasure, and to gauge my supposed development as a human being.))
i started robert musil's the man without qualities a couple weeks ago. it's very good, but "life" has forced me to put it down for the time being. before that i read nearly all of the fire next time by james balwdin. a good read. before that, i read ubik by philip k. dick, which, to be honest, was pretty dman weak. i only finished reading it because i was sick.
after work i get to check out any hardcover i want to for free, as long as i return it, eventually, in the same condition. there's this amazing tiny hardcover book full of vintage porn pin-ups. it really gets my motor running once the coffee's worn off. but i try to stay away from the erotica section, chosing instead to pursue comic relief amongst the many romance novels and their hideous titles and cover art.
i started robert musil's the man without qualities a couple weeks ago. it's very good, but "life" has forced me to put it down for the time being. before that i read nearly all of the fire next time by james balwdin. a good read. before that, i read ubik by philip k. dick, which, to be honest, was pretty dman weak. i only finished reading it because i was sick.
after work i get to check out any hardcover i want to for free, as long as i return it, eventually, in the same condition. there's this amazing tiny hardcover book full of vintage porn pin-ups. it really gets my motor running once the coffee's worn off. but i try to stay away from the erotica section, chosing instead to pursue comic relief amongst the many romance novels and their hideous titles and cover art.
Book Talk
347Currently, Richard Meltzer's A Whore Just Like the Rest, an anthology of Meltzer's writings on rock music and such. I imagine most people are familiar with his stuff here. It's the first time I am reading anything by the guy, I ordered the book after I read an interview where he discussed how rock music seemed truly revolutionary for three weeks in 1968, and that he now listens only to old blues records, or something.
Pretty great and funny stuff, although the first articles (the review for Are You Experienced, the interview by Warhol) suffer from a little too much of everything, and (by his own admission) a little too much doobie-consumption on behalf of the writer person. He got a little more economical later on, and that's where it gets real good. His "obit", for example, for Lester Bangs is fantastic. There's a good deal of beatsy influence in there, although he scoffs at the beats on more than one ocassion.
Generally extremely well written stuff by a guy who obviously possesses a bullshit-o-meter that is second to none and a demand for the rock music to be one hundred percent intens and sincere, all the time. Very good.
Pretty great and funny stuff, although the first articles (the review for Are You Experienced, the interview by Warhol) suffer from a little too much of everything, and (by his own admission) a little too much doobie-consumption on behalf of the writer person. He got a little more economical later on, and that's where it gets real good. His "obit", for example, for Lester Bangs is fantastic. There's a good deal of beatsy influence in there, although he scoffs at the beats on more than one ocassion.
Generally extremely well written stuff by a guy who obviously possesses a bullshit-o-meter that is second to none and a demand for the rock music to be one hundred percent intens and sincere, all the time. Very good.
Book Talk
349Chapter Two wrote:rayj wrote:Anyone read 'Cryptonomicon'?
I tried to order The Necronomicon from the central library in Leeds when I lived there in 92. I thought it was a real book. My housemates enjoyed that fact very much when I told them later that day.
HA!
umm...it is a 'real' book. You used to be able to get it at B. Dalton Booksellers at the mall here in the ol' USA. I think it gives instruction on how to summon Humawa (whose face is a mass of writhing entrails) on an altar of silver...
wonder if anyone tried.
Cryptonomicon is a different animal indeed. Neal Stephenson is a decent writer, especially if you are a computer dork.